During COVID-19 lockdowns, Maureen Joyce and Maggie Currie devised a series of virtual gallery tours around the world when they were unable to take their U3A class to regional galleries due to lockdowns. These virtual tours introduce painters and art from a wide variety of places and eras.
The National Gallery of Scotland
The Scottish Colourists and the Glasgow Girls
We visit the National Gallery of Scotland and learn about The Scottish Colourists, a group of four men. This first video provides an introduction to these 4 painters: The Scottish Colourists (5:08 mins).
Insights into each of the four painters and their work is included in these short videos : (Just SKIP the ads when you can, to proceed to the video)
GL Hunter (3:42 mins) This short video “How the Colourists Shocked the British Art World” shows some of George Leslie Hunter’s work and introduces the other artists.
FCB Cadell (7:34 mins) Cadell – known as Bunty – is considered “the most Scottish” who spent much of his time in Iona.
JD Fergusson (7:57 mins) Includes background information on his partner, Margaret Morris and her career.
SJ Peploe (7:17 mins) https://youtu.be/OxOfQcCRaME Excellent still lifes, particularly with tulips.
To add some gender balance to this Scottish History, you might enjoy this short video on The Glasgow Girls (5:43 mins), women artists and designers working in Scotland around the same time as the Colourists (late 1800s to early 1900s).
The Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has wonderful resources and videos on their website. Here are two:
- Hugs Something special in these times.
- Female Leadership Something special in herstory.
For a longer visit to this museum enjoy this 4-part BBC Scotland video “A Night at the Rijksmuseum” celebrating the re-opening in 2013 of the Rijksmuseum (15 minutes each).
What else is Amsterdam famous for? Amsterdam has more canals than Venice; it’s liberal in matters of sex and drugs; it rains a lot; everyone cycles; and some residents live on boats. It also has more culture per capita than anywhere else and there is a floating feline sanctuary named the Cat Boat.
The Met, New York
Kent Monkman was selected to create two monumental paintings for The Met’s Great Hall. Monkman, born in Canada in 1965, is a Cree artist widely known for his provocative interventions into Western European and American art history. He explores themes of colonization, sexuality, loss, and resilience —the complexities of historic and contemporary Indigenous experiences — across a variety of mediums, including painting, film, performance, and installation.
This link is to Kent explaining his inspiration and the making of these pieces — Welcoming the Newcomers and Resurgence of the People.
Heyward Gallery, London
The first link provides an introduction to the exhibition Among the Trees presented by the Director of the Heyward Gallery in the Southbank Centre London (4.15min) In the second link we meet one of the artists, Eva Jospin explaining the philosophy behind her work (1:46 min).
Strohl Art Centre, Los Angeles
Judy Barie, Director of Galleries with the Chautauqua Institution takes us through an exhibition at the Strohl Art Centre, LA. “Wallpaper Diaries” pays homage to the US Pattern and Decoration Movement of the 1970s. The movement — also known as P&D— formed in opposition to the Modernist idea that art which used decoration and ornamentation was frivolous and superficial. The movement was inspired by work that many white male artists dismissed as domestic, applied arts: textiles, embroidery, wallpaper, mosaics and glassware.
Denver Art Museum
An Exhibition Tour with Nick Cave grabbed our attention – but not the Nick Cave you are thinking of. Another fascinating Nick Cave who is a sculptural artist who uses found objects, including porcelain dogs, textiles, buttons, beads, and anything else. If you are a bowerbird you might be inspired by his pieces and find some use for all your collections.
Tate Gallery, London
This video shares the fascinating journey of Yayoi Kusama from rural Japan to the New York art scene and contemporary Tokyo. Well-known for her repeating dot patterns, her art encompasses an astonishing variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, film, performance and immersive installation.
Lake County Art Gallery, British Colombia
You will enjoy this visit to a Canadian Art Gallery in BC exhibiting four contemporary artists. Ekphrastic Poem, features art by John Waite, Lois Huey-Heck, Michael Griffin and Liz Earl. Lake Country Art Gallery Curator, Wanda Lock, talks about art in the spring 2020 exhibition.