In this lecture Simon Pierse sheds new light on the role that Sir Kenneth Clark (later Baron Clark of Saltwood) played in bringing Australian art to a new audience in Britain during the early 1950s. Pierse examines the crucial part that Joseph Burke, inaugural Herald Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne, had in directing Clark’s attention towards the work of Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd and attempts to discover what may have lain beneath Clark’s abiding passion for Australian art and life.

Simon Pierse is Senior Lecturer at Aberystwyth University and visiting fellow at the Australian Institute of Art History. His research focuses on British perceptions of Australian art, landscape and identity. His award winning book Australian Art and Artists in London, 1950-1965: an antipodean summer, was published by Ashgate in 2012.

Date: Thursday 25th September, 6:30pm

Venue: Theatre D, Old Arts Building, University of Melbourne

More ifnormation and registrations (attendance is free and open to all but registration is recommended): http://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/4459-kenneth-clark-and-australian-art