ARTS AND CRAFTS OF THE NORDIC LANDS

Special Interest or Study Days allow us to talk about, and study a subject in more depth. It consists of 3 1hr lectures with breaks for coffee and tea (and flapjacks!) and a buffet lunch with wine. The time of the event is 10.30 - 3pm and is held at Cerne Abbas Village Hall

In this study day we look at the Danish Impressionists, Norwegian Expressionism and Swedish and Finnish romantic nationalism from the early nineteenth century to today. Then we consider the delightful paintings of rural family life by Carl Larsson and the embroidery and furniture designed by Karin Larsson rejuvenating traditional Scandinavian craftwork, a comfortable, colourful aesthetic which inspired the ethos and products of IKEA. Architecture from Scandinavia and Finland is discussed in the afternoon session, Nordic architects creating a clean new look in the Modernist era, and today’s architects now in the forefront of developing ground-breaking sustainable buildings in a part of the world where climate change is becoming particularly problematic.

Morning sessions:

The Sun at Midnight: idealism and angst in Nordic painting

The Invention of Home: the art and craft of Carl and Karin Larsson

Afternoon session:

Nordic Light: modern architecture in Scandinavia and Finland

Born from a unique culture and a personal psyche responding to the presence and absence of light – almost total sunshine in summer and long dark days in winter – and to a geography which can be dramatic but also gently beautiful, art and architecture in Scandinavia and Finland have a distinctive style.

How to book this event:

Tickets £37 ( £42 for non-members) to include 3 lectures, coffee, lunch, wine and tea. 10.30am - 3pm

To Book via TicketSource click here

THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Mr Justin Reay

After officer service in the Royal Navy, Justin entered a long career in business, becoming CEO of a healthcare company, Director of European Cultural and Business Studies for a Japanese executive school at Oxford and Washington DC, and a consultant in management development. Retiring from business in 2001, he lectured and wrote on naval history and, as one of the historians working towards the bicentenary commemoration of the Battle of Trafalgar, Justin was given unprecedented access to the former Admiralty buildings in London. This encouraged him to study the History of Art and Architecture, for which he was awarded the University of Oxford’s Diploma with Distinction. He later completed a doctoral thesis on medieval naval weapons systems with the University of Exeter.

From 2002 he was senior lecturer in post-graduate marketing at Oxford FE College and is a qualified teacher. For six years from 2004 he also delivered courses in the Oxford / UCal Berkeley accredited residential schools. In 2011 he was appointed as tutor in the History of Art and Classical Civilization at leading tutorial colleges in Oxford, and also privately tutors undergraduate and post-graduate art history students.

Formerly a senior academic manager at the Bodleian Library, Justin is a published historian, and among his impending works are an edition of Samuel Pepys’s naval papers in the Bodleian’s collections, and a study of the Admiralty buildings in London. He is frequently engaged as an enrichment speaker on art history for a European cruise line. Justin is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society, a Governor of the RNLI, a Founder Member of the Grinling Gibbons Society, and a member of The Arts Society Cheltenham.