Floor Talks for Radiance: The Neo-Impressionists

Fig. 4. Georges Seurat (French 1859–91), Study for The Bec du Hoc, Grandcamp 1885 (Étude pour Le Bec du Hoc. Grandcamp). Oil on wood panel, 15.6 x 24.5 cm. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased from proceeds of The Great Impressionists exhibition 1984 (84.1933).

The NGV is holding a series of 30 minute lunchtime floor talks on the art of the Neo-Impressionists and the cultural life of the period as part of its programs for the exhibition Radiance: The Neo-Impressionists.

Program

Thursday 6th December, 12.30pm: Music in the Age of Neo-Impressionism

Speaker John Weretka, musicologist and art historian

John Weretka holds qualifications in musicology, history, art history and theology, and is a PhD student in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. His PhD study investigates the Roman church facade between the death of Borromini and the construction of the facade of the Lateran in 1732. He has taught counterpoint and harmony and the history of music in the Renaissance for the University of Melbourne. Author of articles on the depiction of musical instruments in the paintings of Watteau, a study of the iconography of the lirone and a forthcoming study of architectural style in Rome in the eighteenth century, John has also taught an art and architectural history course onsite in Rome.

Thursday 20th December, 12.30pm: Pigments and prisms – Light and colour in Neoimpressionist portraits

Speaker Dr Vivien Gaston, Honorary Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne

Thursday 10th January, 12.30pm: Painting the Sea

Speaker Dr Elizabeth Cross, Senior Researcher, International Art, NGV

Thursday 24th January, 12.30pm: La Dolce Vita - Paradise in Provence

Speaker Dr Elizabeth Cross, Senior Researcher, International Art, NGV

Thursday 7 February, 12.30pm: French Fashion in the 19th century

Speaker Paola di Trocchio, Assistant Curator, International Fashion & Textiles, NGV

Thursday 21 February, 12.30pm: Paul Signac’s Gasometers at Clichy 1886: Scientific revelations of the early Neo-Impressionist methods

Speaker Michael Varcoe-Cocks, Conservator of Paintings 1850-1950, NGV

Thursday 7 March, 12.30pm: Anarchy, chaos, contrast & social order

Speaker Dr David Rathbone, philosopher, S.H.A.P.S, The University of Melbourne

Talks are free but you must pay for a ticket to the exhibition. More information http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/programs/public-programs/floor-talk-series-radiance