Faith and Doubt in Art
What is the connection between Western Christian art and modern art? Why was the pursuit of naturalism so key to painters across the centuries? And why did the Enlightenment lead to the darkest paintings the world had ever seen?
Julian Spalding makes the case for looking at art through the lens of religious belief. In a talk that is lively, spirited and full of personal conviction Spalding challenges us to question why painting styles changed over time. This is one man's invitation to look at pictures again with fresh eyes.
Julian Spalding
Curator and writer
Julian Spalding is a writer, cultural historian and former director of art galleries and museums for the cities of Sheffield, Manchester and Glasgow. He established the Ruskin Gallery, the St Mungo Museum of Religious Art and Life and Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art. In 2000, as Master of the John Ruskin's Guild of St George, he initiated the nationwide, now international Campaign for Drawing.
His books, aside from several catalogues, include The Poetic Museum -- Reviving Historic Collections (2002), The Eclipse of Art - Tackling the Crisis in Art Today(2003), The Art of Wonder (which won the Banister Fletcher Award for the best art book of 2006), The Best Art You've Never Seen (2010), Realisation -- from Seeing to Understanding (2015) and, with Raymond Tallis, Summers of Discontent -- The Purpose of the Arts Today (2016). He contributes to various journals and has appeared fairly frequently on radio and TV.
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