2 Audley Square
Mayfair, London W1K
UK
Established in 1994, THE COURSE offers exciting and innovative lectures in Art History, Literature, Opera and Music.
This course will explore the rise of celebrity in the art world and how this change in status not only affected the output of artists but also their lives and in some cases the individuals depicted by them. It will show that the impact of these changes is still with us and continues to govern the way we appreciate and value art. We will start by looking at very early un-autographed works before moving on to look at iconic artists such as Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer and others. The themes will be the rise of the signature work, the rise of the individual and thus creation of the idea of the artist, fame, adulation, riches and the celebrity endorsement.
Fame, Celebrity and Caricature the 18th Cartoon in English High & Low Society
Now we see the beginnings of the backlash against celebrity. The weapon of choice that would lead this onslaught was the illustration or to give it its common name – the cartoon. We will look at the early proponents of this genre and also the much more well known illustrators, such as James Gillray, George Cruikshank, Thomas Rowlandson and William Hogarth. Of course, caricature of the rich and famous was not new and this lecture will look back to its origin, before going on to show how this varied genre could not exist without the oxygen of celebrity, especially celebrities behaving badly.