Art History in the Pub
A new, regular series of relaxed but informing and entertaining talks at The Monarch, Camden
As part of the AAH's commitment to bringing the best in cutting-edge art-historical research to a wider community, we are pleased to be able to announce a hopefully-regular "Art History in the Pub" series of talks, lectures and events.
Our talks present a selection of the wide vareity of topics, periods, methods and apporaches common in art historical study, and are aimed at a generalist audience.
AHitP London is held at:
The Monarch
40-42 Chalk Farm Road
Greater London NW1 8BG
Free to attend.
Our new AHitP Scotland Event launches this month in Edinburgh. Our first Art History in the Pub in Scotland takes place on the 28th February, featuring Dr. Matt Lodder on 'Tattooing as Artistic Practice' For full details see http://aah.org.uk/events/art-history-in-the-pub/scotland.
To subscribe to our events mailing list, click here
Next London Event
27th February 2012. 7:30pm Nina Edwards (Freelance Writer & Researcher): On the Button
The history of the common or garden button begins with what? A non-functioning decoration: a sewn on shell, a piece of twig, a nutshell, a fragment of bone that happened to please, perhaps.
Gradually the button comes to express conspicuous wealth and status. With the arrival of the buttonhole it serves to display the human form, providing comfort and an opportunity for use of all manner of material from ivory, precious stones, metals, amber, coral, lava, papier maché, and so on and etcetera to all the possibilities of plastics and rubber. Exploding in sumptuous display in the Macaroni popinjay, it eventually becomes a conduit for more subtle vicarious power, in the plainly, darkly-suited Victorian or Edwardian gentleman of means. He lavishes expensive, showy buttons on wife, child, servant or pet.
The button should be seen in the context of its pivotal position in European culture. It is man-made, developed for his dark purposes: love, sex, espionage, cute commercial success, murder, grief or to remind us of our mortality. It can symbolize fine distinctions between clerical roles and denominations, betray a cad or reveal a thoroughly good sort.
A button, you may think, is a particularly unimportant aspect of dress. Feminized, peripheral? It was not always so. There are alternative fastenings of longer pedigree, of greater, more shameless audacity – but the button, so often deemed ‘humble’ - is deceptive. Wars have been fought over the button, great artists have learnt to fine-tune their painting, craft, or potting techniques in its service. Others incorporate the button as their medium, each separate artefact a single pointillist daub or photographic pixel. Our language bursts with button metaphor, button my lip, unbutton yourself, or pop your buttons in a buttoned down corporate culture.
Modern technology has embraced the idea of the button to familiarize us with the world of ethereal information. We may feel strangely attached to a useless inherited button tin. Feel unable to throw out one of those small self-seal plastic bags, containing a single plastic button, God knows for what. But buttons have a way of creeping up on our affections. Multum in parvo - all the world in a button.
Speaker Biography:
Nina Edwards is a freelance writer and author of Offal, a global history (forthcoming). She is an actor and has taught at her old school and at a Japanese University, worked as a legal clerk and as a book-keeper for a Hatton Garden jewellers. She lives in London. Her latest book, On The Button: The Significance of an Ordinary Item is available now.
Past Speakers:
Monday 30th January 2012,Ben Zweig (Boston University), 'From Despair to Love: Picturing Suicide in Medieval Art'
Monday 19th December 2011. Dr Christina Bradstreet (Sotheby's Institute) 'Scented spectres and the smell of ghosts'
Monday 28th November 2011 Dr Petra Lange-Berndt (UCL) on 'Taxidermy and Colonial Practice'
Monday 24th October 2011 - Dr Sam Gathercole (Croydon College) on 'Signs of Post-War Housing'
Monday 26th September 2011 - Dr Hannah Williams (Oxford) on "The Violent Suicide of François Lemoyne: An 18th-Century Art History Mystery"
Monday 22nd August 2011: Dr Matt Lodder, "Not Just For Sailors Any More: Tattooing in the Media".
Monday 25th July 2011: Dr. Camilla Smith (University of Birmingham), "Tourism, Sexology and Homosexuality in Curt Moreck’s Guide to “Depraved” Berlin (1931)"
Directions & Details
The Monarch, Camden 40-42 Chalk Farm Road Camden NW1 8BG, http://www.monarchbar.com/events/
Telephone: 020 74822054
Email: info@monarchbar.com
Getting there
From Chalk Farm tube: Turn left out of the station and cross Chalk Farm Road at the lights. The pub is about five minutes walk down the road on the left.
From Camden Town: Take the Camden High Street exit and turn right. Head up the street past Camden Lock and under the rail bridge and proceed up Chalk Farm Road. The pub is a couple minutes walk from the bridge on the right.
By tube: Chalk Farm station (450m) – zone 2 / Camden Town station (530m) – zone 2
By train: Kentish Town West station (460m) / Camden Road station (550m)
By bus: 24 (24hrs), 27 (24hrs), 31, 168, N5, N28, N31 – click here for a local bus map.
