This lecture will look at the enduring Western obsession with, and invention of, the so called ‘exotic’ or ‘noble savage’ starting with the first discovery of the Island of Tahiti in 1767. It charts the impact, through painted images of the island and their people, of the English and European influence in this part of the world through the eyes of Captain Cook, those who came before him, and the artists that accompanied these pioneering voyages, and into the 19th and early 20th century with the images of Gauguin.
THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER
Mr Leslie Primo
Art historian Leslie Primo is an author, broadcaster, and graduate of Birkbeck, University College, with an MA in Renaissance studies. He lectured at the National Gallery, London for 18 years, and has appeared on the BBC speaking on Michelangelo and presenting on JMW Turner. He contributed to the Oxford Companion Guide to Black British History, and has a forthcoming Thames & Hudson book called, The Foreigners that Invented British Art. He currently teaches art history at Imperial College, and lectures for the Royal Academy, London.
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