2 Audley Square
Mayfair, London W1K
UK
Founded in 1994, THE COURSE offers art history lectures, opera and literature courses, guided museum visits and London walks.
This course will examine the changing face of the portrait from the 6th century to the present. It will look at how and why its meaning and function have mutated and why artists are still drawn to this medium despite the advent of photography. It will also explore whether a portrait has to convey an accurate likeness and how artists went about trying to convey “character”.
INVENTION AND RE-INVENTION: Gauguin’s Portraits and the Myth of Paradise
Gauguin’s almost obsessive use of self-portraiture to control and manipulate his own identity was in effect to re-invent himself. We will look at these paintings to determine what message he was trying to convey especially during his time in Tahiti.