Victoria and Albert Museum

From the ‘Votes for Women’ campaigns of the early 20th century to the recent Occupy movements, political activists around the world have used posters to mobilise, educate and organise. Making or displaying a poster is in itself a means of taking political action, while for many social and political movements posters have represented an important form of cultural output. Themes of protest and political participation have gained a powerful contemporary resonance in the wake of the Arab Spring and the global financial crisis. This display looks at a century of posters agitating for political change drawn from the V&A collection, including new acquisitions gathered from recent outbursts of protest.

Suitable for

Admission

Wedding Dresses 1775-2014

• 3 May 2014 — 15 March 2015 *on now

This exhibition will trace the development of the fashionable white wedding dress and its treatment by key fashion designers such as Charles Frederick Worth, Norman Hartnell, Charles James, John Galliano, Christian Lacroix, Vivienne Westwood and Vera Wang offering a panorama of fashion over the last two centuries.

On display will be the most romantic, glamorous and extravagant wedding dresses from the V&A’s superb collection and will include some important new acquisitions as well as loans including the purple dress worn by Dita Von Teese for her marriage to Marilyn Manson and the outfits worn by Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale on their wedding day.

The exhibition will highlight the histories of the dresses, revealing fascinating details about the lives of the wearers and offering an intimate insight into their circumstances and fashion choices.

Suitable for

• Family friendly

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/wedding-dress-1775-2014/

Disobedient Objects

• 26 July 2014 — 1 February 2015 *on now

From Suffragette teapots to protest robots, this exhibition will be the first to examine the powerful role of objects in movements for social change. It will demonstrate how political activism drives a wealth of design ingenuity and collective creativity that defy standard definitions of art and design.

Disobedient Objects will focus on the period from 1980 to the present, a time that has brought new technologies and political challenges. On display will be arts of rebellion from around the world that illuminate the role of making in grassroots movements for social change: finely woven banners; defaced currency; changing designs for barricades and blockades; political video games; an inflatable general assembly to facilitate consensus decision-making; experimental activist-bicycles; and textiles bearing witness to political murders.

Suitable for

• Any age

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/disobedient-objects/disobedient-objects-about-the-exhibtion/

Horst: Photographer of Style

• 6 September 2014 — 4 January 2015

This autumn the V&A will present the definitive retrospective of the work of Horst P. Horst (1906-99), one of the 20th century’s master photographers. In a career that spanned six decades, Horst photographed the exquisite creations of couturiers such as Chanel, Schiaparelli and Vionnet in 1930s Paris, and helped to launch the careers of many models. In New York a decade later, he experimented with early colour techniques and his meticulously composed, artfully lit images leapt from the magazine page.

The exhibition will display Horst’s best known photographs alongside unpublished and rarely exhibited vintage prints, conveying the diversity of his output, from surreal still lifes to portraits of Hollywood stars, nudes and nature studies to documentary pictures of the Middle East. It will examine his creative process through the inclusion of original contact sheets, sketches and archive film footage.

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-horst-photographer-of-style/

Constable: The Making of a Master

• 20 September 2014 — 11 January 2015

This exhibition will reveal the hidden stories of how Constable created some of his most loved and well-known paintings. It will present Constable’s work for the first time alongside the old masters of classical landscape such as Ruisdael and Claude whose compositional ideas and formal values he revered and studied in great depth.

On display will be such famous works as The Haywain together with the oil sketches he painted outdoors direct from nature which are widely held to be unequalled at capturing transient effects of light and atmosphere. The exhibition will also examine Constable’s collection of over 5000 etchings, a vital resource for his own image making, as well as the mezzotints of his paintings made in the last decade of his life to secure his lasting legacy.

Suitable for

• Any age

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-constable-the-making-of-a-master/

This display features a variety of powerful graphic images from the 1960s to the present – prints, posters, books and ephemera – by notable artists as well as anonymous activists. Some works address social and political issues head on, others reflect their time and place more subtly, but they all confirm print as a vital medium for personal expression, protest, and cultural exchange.

Suitable for

Admission

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

• 14 March — 19 July 2015

Celebrating the extraordinary creative talent of one of the most innovative designers of recent times, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty will be the first and largest retrospective of McQueen's work to be presented in Europe.

The V&A is delighted to announce that it will present Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty in London in spring 2015. The first and largest retrospective of the late designer’s work to be presented in Europe, the exhibition will showcase McQueen’s visionary body of work. Spanning his 1992 MA graduate collection to his unfinished A/W 2010 collection, McQueen’s designs will be presented with the dramatic staging and sense of spectacle synonymous with his runway shows.

The original version of Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 2011 was organised by the Costume Institute and became one of the Museum's top 10 most visited exhibitions.

Suitable for

• Family friendly

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-alexander-mcqueen-savage-beauty/visitor-and-ticket-information/

Arts of South and Southeast Asia and the Islamic Middle East

• 22 September 2014 — 6 July 2015

Discover the art and archaeology of Asia, from the Himalayas and the Indian Subcontinent to the island nations of Southeast Asia.

The origins of the ancient religions of Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism will be explored and their subsequent impact across the region. Temple architecture and sculpture, paintings and manuscripts give an insight to ritual practice and belief in different settings. Artistic innovations in ceramics, textiles, metalwork and lacquer display distinct regional characteristics as well as shared features transmitted through cultural exchange and commerce. The advent of Islam across the Middle East and later to the Mughal courts of India and Southeast Asia introduced a new set of artistic stimuli.

Islamic art will be examined in religious and secular contexts in a range of media up to the modern period. Finally, the impact of trade, diplomacy and colonialism will be explored, and the lasting artistic legacy of social and political developments which shaped the early modern era.

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3461/arts-of-south-and-southeast-asia-and-the-islamic-middle-east-1-4929/

NEW COURSE: Art and the City, Ancient to Modern

• 22 September 2014 — 13 July 2015

(3 terms) 11.00-15.30

Many celebrated artists have been closely associated with major European and American cities, often making the city itself a subject of their work. From ancient Athens and Rome to New York, via Renaissance Florence, late 19th century Paris and interwar Berlin, cities have long been centres for artistic communities and movements.

The course will examine case studies on ancient Athens and Rome, medieval visions of the city, Renaissance Florence, Rome and the Baroque, Paris and Impressionism, Berlin and the inter-war period, New York and the Abstract Expressionists, as well as considering the development of the art world and artistic communities in cities such as London and Barcelona. Major figures like Raphael, Titian, Manet, Picasso, Dali, Pollock and Warhol will be considered as well as critics, dealers, patrons and lesser-known artists, designers and architects.

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3453/art-and-the-city-ancient-to-modern-4921/

American Art and Design: 1850 - 2000

• 23 September — 18 November 2014

For much of the 20th century, American culture, images and products led the world. The skyscraper, the coca-cola bottle, Andy Warhol’s soup cans and numerous other iconic objects became globally recognised symbols of progress, prosperity and cultural and commercial power.

This course tells the story of American art and design from the early days of industrialisation to the glory years of the late 20th century. It explores the complex story of how design developed as a profession and as a leisure activity reflecting the national traditions of self-improvement and self-expression. And it investigates the growing confidence of artists and architects that ultimately led to the creation of International Modernism.

The course covers principal movements from the arts and crafts, including Shaker and Aesthetic styles, to postmodernism and the work of Frank Gehry and Robert Venturi. It also includes major styles such as Impressionism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism, and major trends including streamlining, Pop and Industrial Chic.

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3431/american-art-and-design-1850-2000-4888/

Scandinavian Art and Design: 1850 - 1950

• 23 September 2014 — 18 November 2015

Discover some of the highlights of a period during which painters, sculptors and designers in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland achieved a leading place in European art.

The late 19th-century saw an upsurge in artistic creativity across the Nordic region. With painters like Edvard Munch and Vilhelm Hammershøi winning international prominence and notoriety, Scandinavian artists and designers were also in the vanguard of a movement to revive the traditional crafts and raise their status as objects of aesthetic value.

In the process they achieved international acclaim: from the silverware of Georg Jensen in Denmark to the furniture of Alvar Aalto in Finland, Scandinavia won a place at the vanguard of modern design, and moved from the periphery to the centre of the European art world.

Led by Dr. Kathy McLauchlan, V&A Course Director Rococo to Art Nouveau

8 weeks, Tuesdays, 23 September – 18 November (half term: 28 October)

10.30-13.00

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3428/scandinavian-art-and-design-1850-1950-4887/

Late Medieval to Early Renaissance 1250–1500

• 23 September 2014 — 7 July 2015

(over 3 terms), 11.10-15.30

Examine the visual arts in an era of profound cultural, intellectual and social change. Chart important stylistic developments from High Gothic to the renaissance revival of classical antiquity, the rise of realistic representation and the emergence of artistic personalities.

Consider patterns of patronage: the collective enterprise of the great gothic cathedrals, the magnificence of princes and popes, and the growing spending power of the middle classes. Discover how the arts were affected by devotional practices and by humanist scholarship, and investigate the materials and techniques involved in artistic production. Study the work of well-known painters, sculptors and
architects from Giotto to Leonardo da Vinci alongside the decorative arts, including tapestry, stained glass, goldsmiths’ work and maiolica, all superbly represented in the V&A’s acclaimed Medieval and Renaissance Galleries.

Course Director: Dr Paula Nuttall

Suitable for

• 18+

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3458/late-medieval-and-early-renaissance-1250-1500-1415-4926/

High Renaissance to Baroque: 1500 – 1720

• 24 September 2014 — 8 July 2015

(over 3 terms), 11.10-15.30

Explore the art, architecture and decorative arts of Europe from the High Renaissance to Baroque, focusing on Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands and England. It will include the work of some of Europe’s most celebrated artists and architects, such as Michelangelo, Bernini, Wren, Rembrandt and van Dyck. During this period the Renaissance filtered through from Italy, affecting all the arts.

The invention of printing meant that books and prints reached a new and wider audience, and quickly popularised new styles. At the same time the Reformation wrought havoc with the established order and a century of war and revolution followed. In some parts of Europe iconoclasm meant the destruction of religious art, and by the mid 17th century Europe was divided into Roman Catholic and Protestant states.

The course examines changes in patronage, with the rise of a prosperous middle class wanting portraits and genre paintings as well as consumer goods such as maiolica and textiles; it considers the effect of wars and economic policies on the production of art, metalwork and furniture, and the influence of trading voyages on imports of luxury goods from the East.

Course Director: Dr Kathy McLauchlan

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3459/high-renaissance-to-baroque-1500-1750-1415-4927/

From Rococo to Art Nouveau: 1720-1900

• 25 September 2014 — 9 July 2015

Gain a unique perspective on one of the most dynamic periods in the history of European art.

Consider the relationship between the visual arts and the wider political and cultural context of the period and explore themes such as taste, patronage and the art market. This course encompasses Rococo, Romanticism, Impressionism and Art Nouveau. It not only covers the fine arts, such as painting and sculpture, but also design, architecture and popular visual culture.

The programme of lectures, together with close examination of important objects in the V&A’s collections, demonstrate the complex changes taking place in various branches of the visual arts over a 200-year period.

Course Director: Dr Kathy McLauchlan

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3460/from-rococo-to-art-nouveau-1720-1900-1415-4928/

The Twentieth Century: Masters of Modern Architecture and Design

• 25 September 2014 — 26 March 2015

From Alvar Aalto to Frank Lloyd Wright, from Art Deco to Post-Modernism, this new, two-term course explores the major movements and practitioners associated with 20th-century design.

It examines architecture and design against the backdrop of the myriad manifestations of social, economic and technological change. Beginning with the origins of the Modern Movement in the years prior to WW1, it provides a chronological and contextual survey of the century's principal styles - including Art Deco, Surrealism, Bauhaus, Scandinavian Modern, Pop, Contemporary and Post-Modernism.

The course also highlights the contribution and influence of key practitioners such as Victor Horta, J-E Ruhlman, Le Corbusier, and Eileen Gray, and considers the impact of new materials and technology on furniture, textiles, architecture and decoration. Additional themes include retail and advertising, international exhibitions, and fashion and identity.

Led by Christine Lalumia, Design Historian and CEO, Contemporary Applied Art.

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3434/the-twentieth-century-masters-of-modern-architecture-and-design-4889/

Early Medieval: 300 – 1250

• 26 September 2014 — 17 July 2015

Celebrate the Museum’s world-class early medieval collection. Spanning the period from the fourth to the mid 13th century, the course covers the rise of Christianity in the East and West, and demonstrates how patrons and artists of the early Middle Ages transformed Classical principles to meet the aspirations of the new world order.

Buildings and artefacts as diverse as Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Gloucester Candlestick, the Gospels of Henry the Lion and the Alfred Jewel, will be set within their historical context, and interpreted in terms of their patronage, materials and techniques, function and original setting.

Course Director: Dr Sally Dormer

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3457/early-medieval-300-1250-1415-4925/

Artistic Rivalries and Reputations: Renaissance to Modern

• 26 — 5 September 2014 11am-3:30pm

Rivalry has always been a spur to creativity as well as a means of forging an artist’s reputation. Only when art became a matter of wider prestige, and the names of artists were considered worthy of record, could they begin to enjoy a reputation beyond the local sphere, and only then could the serious business of competition with contemporaries and across generations begin.

Since then the history of art has been dominated by celebrated rival reputations – between Leonardo and Michaelangelo, Manet and Monet, Matisse and Picasso, Magritte and Dali, Hockney and Freud.

So what is reputation, and is rivalry necessary to maintain it? This course explores the stories behind some of the most famous artistic rivalries, and how they have helped build and demolish reputations from the Early Renaissance to Modernism.

It will explain why competition has been fostered by patrons and academies and why commentators on the arts have shaped our image of the artist as brand. It will show how fame, personal envy, the clash between the old and the new, even the Media-manufactured reputations of today have transformed art through conflict and emulation.

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3427/artistic-rivalries-and-reputations-renaissance-to-modern-4886/

British Theatre 2014: An Overview

• 5 — 30 October 2014

Join Matt Wolf to explore a selection of the most significant productions of the last 12 months from bold new writing to notable revivals.

Matt Wolf is a London theatre critic for the International New York Times and theatre editor at theartsdesk. It is an exciting moment for London’s vibrant theatre scene with a wealth of critically acclaimed and ‘must-see’ productions being created. Meet leading practitioners including directors, producers and actors as they join Matt in discussion about contemporary theatre, providing fascinating insight for any avid theatregoer. Previous guests have included Vicky Featherstone, Sonia Friedman, Hattie Morahan, and Michael Grandage.

11.00-13.00

8 weeks, Sundays, 5 October – 30 November 2014 (Half term: 2 November)

£295, £250 concessions

Course Leader: Matt Wolf, lecturer and leading theatre critic.

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3478/british-theatre-2014-an-overview-4961/

Italian Villas: Ancient Rome to The Renaissance

• 14 October 2014 — 3 March 2015

This two-term course will trace the development of villas and villeggiatura – the ruling classes’ ‘good life’ in the country from Ancient Rome to the end of the Renaissance.

The first term will lay out the historical and literary foundations of villa culture in Antiquity and will consider archaeological evidence, such as Nero’s Golden House and Hadrian’s villa in Tivoli. Then with the disintegration of the Roman Empire villa culture disappeared, only to re-emerge in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with the Medici in Florence leading the revival of villa building, garden design and country living in a Classical spirit.

The second term will study villeggiatura in the sixteenth-century, focusing on the Veneto and on the Roman Campagna. Many of the huge agricultural estates of the former are dominated by the elegant mansions of star architect Andrea Palladio, while the papal summer retreats of the latter are characterised by stunning gardens, such as Villa d’Este at Tivoli or Villa Lante at Bagnaia.

Part I: 4 weeks, Tuesdays, 14 October – 4 November 14
Part II: 4 weeks, Tuesdays, 3 February – 3 March 15
(Half term: 17 February)
Course Leader: Dr Joachim Strupp, Art Historian

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3476/italian-villas-ancient-rome-to-the-renaissance-4959/

The Shadow of 1914: British Architecture and Design, 1900-25

• 22 November 2014 10:30am-5:30pm

CONFERENCE: For one hundred years, the architecture of Britain in the decades either side of 1914 has been neglected by scholars and largely viewed in negative terms.

Based on the fact that 1914 acts as the chronological division point between the coverage of the Victorian and Twentieth Century Societies, this one-day conference presented jointly by the two societies aims to set out the stylistic tendencies of the time, plus wider movements in design and urbanism. It will cast light into the shadows that have lain over the period for so long.

Suitable for

• 18+

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3386/the-shadow-of-1914-british-architecture-and-design-1900-192-4831/

Masters of British Landscape: Gainsborough, Constable, Turner, and the Pre-Raphaelites

• 25 November — 16 December 2014

11.00-15.30

FOUR WEEK COURSE: From Gainsborough and Stubbs, to Turner and Constable, Whistler and Nash, British art is renowned for the work of its great landscape painters. This course investigates the contribution of Britain’s greatest landscape artists and seeks to explain why landscape painting became the central expression of the British visual imagination.

Course Leader: Dr. Justine Hopkins, freelance lecturer and writer

Suitable for

• 18+

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3471/masters-of-british-landscape-gainsborough-constable-turner-a-4953/

The Shock of the New: The History of the Avant-Garde in Art and Design

• 13 January — 24 March 2015

Originally used to describe the vanguard of an advancing army, the term Avant-Garde now defines a group of artists or writers whose work is innovative and ahead of its time.

It is most often associated with figures such as Picasso, Duchamp and Dali, the pioneers of Cubism and Dada, who not only developed revolutionary approaches to art, but who were also strongly anti-establishment. Today, however, the term has become ubiquitous and virtually anyone, from pop-stars to hair-dressers can be described as avantgarde.

This course investigates the origins and history of the principal movements and individuals associated with the avant-garde. From Impressionism to Surrealism, Modernism to Abstract Expressionism and Futurism to Conceptual Art, it examines key works and ideas in art, design and architecture. It also includes the work of the Russian constructivists in theatre and film to coincide with the V&A’s major display Russian Avant-Garde Theatre: War Revolution and Design.

14.00-16.30

£365, £300 concessions

10 weeks, Tuesdays, 13 January – 24 March 2015
(Half term: 17 February)

Various tutors including Justine Hopkins, freelance lecturer and writer, and Sylvia Lahav, lecturer, Goldsmiths, University of London

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3464/the-shock-of-the-new-the-history-of-the-avant-garde-in-art-and-4941/

The Classical World and Classical Revivals

• 13 January — 24 March 2015

The civilisations of Ancient Greece and Rome have provided a seemingly inexhaustible source of inspiration for European art, design and architecture from the 15th-century right up to the present day. This course celebrates the opening of the V&A’s outstanding new galleries – Europe 1600-1800 – by exploring the key elements of Classicism, and their re-interpretation and revival in later times.

The first part of the course examines the cultural highlights of the Classical world, including Homeric myths and their representation in sculpture and vase-painting, the architecture of Athens and Rome, and the rich decoration and furnishings revealed at Herculaneum and Pompeii.

In the second half we investigate the ways in which classical themes, motifs, architecture and styles have been re-discovered - first in Italy in the 1500s, and later in France, Britain and Germany in the 18th and 19th-centuries - and have been re-worked in painting, decoration, architecture and design in Renaissance, Baroque and Neo-Classical styles.

10.30-13.00

10 weeks, Tuesdays, 13 January – 24 March 2015
(Half term: 17 February)

£365, £300 concessions

Course Leader: Dr. Kathy McLauchlan, V&A Year Course Director

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3463/the-classical-world-and-classical-revivals-4940/

Land of Hope and Glory: Culture, Conflict and the Edwardians

• 14 January — 11 March 2015

Following the success of last year’s course we are offering an extended and more detailed review of the Edwardian period, an era that witnessed wild extravagance alongside severe poverty, and radical changes in politics, culture and society.

Often perceived as a golden age of long summer afternoons and elegant entertainments and parties, the period was also strongly marked by modernity and the avant-garde. Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau dominated modern design and architecture, Post-Impressionism led the field in modern art, and aeroplanes, ships, and trains brought goods from all over the world.

The course explores the work of the main artists, designers and architects – including Charles Rennie Mackintosh, John Singer Sargent, Edwin Lutyens, Walter Sickert and the Bloomsbury Group - within this brief but brilliant age. And incorporates new topics including sessions on Empire, sculpture, department stores, music, eminent public figures and women, and the forces leading up to WW1.

10.30-13.00
8 weeks, Wednesdays, 14 January – 11 March 2015
(Half term: 18 February)

Course Leader: Dr Justine Hopkins, freelance lecturer and writer.

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3467/land-of-hope-and-glory-culture-conflict-and-the-edwardians-4949/

Iconic Houses: 1850-2000

• 14 January — 25 March 2015

Explore 20 of the most innovative houses of the 19th and 20th centuries.

From classic works by William Morris, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Antoni Gaudi and Frank Lloyd Wright, to modernist masterpieces by Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Charles Eames, to contemporary gems by Richard Rogers, Frank Gehry and Herzog & de Meuron, this course examines the interiors and exteriors of houses that have come to define modern architecture and design. Individual sessions will consider the history and progress of each project, the planning and materials, the relationship with the client, and the furniture and decorations.

They will also ask what makes each building so groundbreaking and radical for its time, and consider the case for preserving them, unchanged, for posterity. Speakers include historians, curators and architects.

14.00-16.30

10 weeks, Wednesdays, 14 January – 25 March 2015
(Half term: 18 February)

£365, £300 concessions

Course Leader: Dr Gregory Votolato, architect, curator, teacher and writer.

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3465/iconic-houses-1850-2000-4942/

Bedazzled: A History of Jewellery

• 15 April — 24 June 2015

Trace the history of Western jewellery over the past 800 years by studying the comprehensive collection of over 3,500 jewels presented in the V&A’s William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery.

Explore how fashions in dress determined what jewellery was worn, the influence of international styles and art movements on designs, and how jewels have reflected political or economic changes and major cultural events.

While adornment is a function of jewellery, it also conveys messages and marks special occasions - christening, marriage, childbirth and death. From the cradle to the grave, jewels may express hope, sorrow, devotion, and ambition. Explore the symbolism of jewels, the ingenuity of goldsmiths, and how the trade in precious metals and gemstones led to new designs and ideas.

10.30-13.00

10 weeks, Wednesdays, 15 April – 24 June 2015
(Half term: 27 May)

£365, £300 concessions

Course Leader: Dr. Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, Jewellery Historian

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3466/bedazzled-a-history-of-jewellery-4943/

The Dutch Golden Age: 17th Century Art and Design

• 16 April — 25 June 2015

This course explores Dutch art and society in the Golden Age – the time of Vermeer, Hals and Rembrandt.

This young Dutch Republic emerged as a global power during the Eighty Years War with Spain. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was founded in 1602, followed by the West India Company (WIC) in 1621. Global trade brought unprecedented riches to local merchants whose portraits show them in all their finery, often in lavish domestic settings. It also brought a wealth of exotic imports to the country, which we find back in interior genre scenes painted by De Hooch, Metsu and Steen. Imported porcelain inspired the development of local tin-glazed pottery known as Delftware, while the design of oriental ceramics was in turn influenced by European taste.

In a period also noted for its sculpture, tapestries and carved tables, this course investigates the artists and practitioners associated with this great cultural flowering.

11.00-15.30

10 Weeks, Thursdays, 16 April – 25 June 2015
(Half term: 28 May)

£530, £450 concessions

Course Leader: Dr Sophie Oosterwijk, FSA

Suitable for

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3482/the-dutch-golden-age-17th-century-art-and-design-4948/

From Word to Image and Back Again: Iconography and Symbolism in Medieval Art

• 20 April — 22 June 2015

10.30-13.00

8 WEEK COURSE: Through the long period of the Middle Ages a repertory of images developed. Drawn from Christian and Romantic texts, they were formulated in response to the conceptual significance of each text.

In the process, for example, wise men became kings, Christ came to be crucified on a tree, and the serpent in Eden was endowed with the face of a woman. The process was continuous and protean, reflecting changing preoccupations in contemporary society, but always underpinned by key biblical, liturgical, devotional and hagiographic texts on the one hand and widely circulated tales from chivalric romance on the other. This course will explore these developments thematically.

We will work closely with key texts, and will consider the contexts which had a bearing on iconographic development. Although we can never fully understand the significance of medieval imagery, the course will attempt to move a little closer to the mindsets of the Middle Ages.

Course Leaders: Dr Cathy Oakes, Art Historian with Dr. Sally Dormer, V&A Year Course Director, Early Medieval

Suitable for

• 18+

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3470/from-word-to-image-and-back-again-iconographyand-symbolism-in-m-4952/

Travel in Style: Art Deco Ocean Liners, Grand Victorian Hotels and Edwardian Trains

• 29 April — 24 June 2015

14.00-16.30

Rapidly advancing technology has enabled us to reach ever more places across the planet at high speeds and in greater comfort and safety. Whether for work or pleasure the experience of getting from A to B is of more interest than ever.

Explore two centuries of travelling in its complexity and variety. The course is organised around three themes, water, land and air, with an additional session devoted to personal transportation. Study a wide range of vehicles, from the thrilling pomp of the Pullman car and the glamorous but formidable world of the ocean liner to the confining tubular space of the airliner fuselage. Chart the evolving design of these and other transportation types against the backdrop of international politics, economics and style.

Consider too the innovative hotels, terminals and other transport architecture that provided the infrastructure for great vehicles and vessels throughout our age of expanding mass travel, along the way examining such issues as changing tastes, new patterns of leisure, and evolving notions of comfort. Learn how pioneers and entrepreneurs employed science and art in buildings, vehicles, vessels, and even fashion to enhance and to rationalise the traveller’s experience.
Course Leader: Dr Gregory Votolato, architect, curator, teacher and writer

Suitable for

• 18+

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3468/travel-in-style-art-deco-ocean-liners-grand-victorian-hotels-a-4950/

From Coco Chanel to Alexander McQueen: Geniuses of Modern Fashion

• 12 May — 7 July 2015

10.30-13.00

8 WEEK COURSE: Explore the careers of the 20 greatest names in modern fashion whose amazing creativity has changed not only the way that people look and dress but also their entire attitude to clothes.

From the classic tailoring of Coco Chanel, whose easy to wear suits freed women from the constraints of corsets and tight skirts, to the magnificently eccentric Elsa Schiaparelli who made dresses covered with trompe l’oeil images and hats in the shape of shoes , this course examines the designs, lives and legacies of fashion’s most original talents. It includes sessions on masters of tailoring such as Balenciaga, Christian Dior, and Givenchy, as well as talks on contemporary visionaries like Vivienne Westwood, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Alexandra McQueen. Learn about the fascinating stories of the most iconic designers and their extraordinary impact on the fashion industry.

Speakers include V&A curators and fashion historians Judith Watt, Linda Watson and Charlotte Sinclair.

Suitable for

• 18+

Admission

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3469/from-coco-chanel-to-alexander-mcqueen-geniuses-of-modern-fashio-4951/