Lecture series at the National Museum, Cardiff

Tim Davies, Drift, (video still, 2011) © Tim Davies

The National Museum Cardiff in partnership with the Art Fund is offering a series of three evening lectures with acclaimed international academics at the Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre.

 The first talk  called Wales at Venice  will be on Wednesday, 25 April 2012, 18:30–19:30
Speakers: David Alston, Merlin James, Laura Ford and Tim Davies

The Venice Biennale was established in 1895 and remains one of the most important and prestigious events in the international, contemporary art world. Since 2003 Wales has been independently represented as a devolved nation. For those artists who are chosen to exhibit it is a key international platform. This lecture explores Wales’s representation in Venice and also hears from three artists who have been selected to exhibit for Wales.
£4 with National Art Pass (full price £5)

Future lectures are John Piper (to accompany the current exhibition) on Wednesday, 9 May 2012, 18:30–20:30. The speaker will be  Professor Frances Spalding, CB. The third lecture will be The Influence of Josiah Wedgwood on Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 18:30–19:30 when the speaker will be Gaye Blake Roberts.

Fly on the Wall

Watch  workshop assistants creating a new Damien Hirst with a live feed ......Studio view one gives you a ground view and Studio view two camera is an aerial view. They are presently making a rather wonderful new piece of  variously sized stainless steel scalpel blades fixed onto a circular black canvas which today a young man is colouring in. Just one part of a very rich website that includes news, galleries of the most famous works, audio and video and a shop where you could buy a £5 spot keyring or splash out a bit more (£11,000) on a signed charm bracelet-the charms are casts of 35 pills. Damien Hirst is the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Modern, London running from 4th April-9th September.  Adrian Searle art critic of the Guardian  wrote that 'this exhibition charts a great descent in Hirst's art, one that mirrors the ascent of his bankability and the creation of ever more decadent and overblown artefacts.' The Sunday Times gave it four stars. Visit the exhibition to  find out for yourself . If you can't make it to London then let Noel Fielding take you on a private tour of the exhibition

       

Ideas about landscape

Andy Goldsworthy
Elder leaf patch

edge made by finding leaves the same size
tearing one in two
spitting underneath and pressing flat on to another
Helbeck, Cumbria
October 1983

If you are interested in Landscape from many viewpoints and not just from the aesthetic or Fine Art perspectives then you will enjoy following the thoughts on Landscapism a blog written by Eddie Proctor. His most recent blog is 'a Manifesto for a Working  Landscape' which covers all possible aspects of 'Landscape' and contains a plea to bring them all together and stop thinking and planning for them separately. Don't miss the links on the left of his blog page including one to the on-line Preview of the Andy Goldsworthy Digital Catalogue DVD Volume 1: 1976-1986 where you will find rare and early examples of Goldsworthy's work scanned in from his personal slide catalogue and there's also a link to  my favourite old rockers who used to work in the music industry and now celebrate nature, beer, music and art in equal measure on their wonderful blog 'Caught By the River'.