The long history of humour in art.
Artists have always used jokes to make serious statements - about themselves, the world, and the nature of art. This lecture looks at artists’ jokes from medieval monks’ marginalia to Banksy turning supermarket walls into social satire. When Van Gogh attacked formal art education and Salvador Dali got at Picasso, they did it in paint. Trompe l'oeil, parody, visual puns, the moustache on the Mona Lisa - all in fun, all deadly serious: artists' jokes that tell you a lot once you know.
THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER
Ms Susie Harries
A writer, editor and lecturer, specialising in 20th century culture and the arts. Has published eight books on subjects including official war art, opera and the composer Elisabeth Lutyens. The most recent is the biography of Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, published in August 2011. Lectured to a range of audiences, from the Imperial War Museum and British Museum to the Twentieth Century Society and the RSA, most recently at the Cheltenham and Bridport Literary Festivals and the Victorian Society.
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