Have you ever wondered where the blue in medieval illuminated manuscripts came from, or how chemists of the nineteenth century invented synthetic blues?
The Ancient Britons tattooed their bodies in a blue dye, and, two thousand years later in a Parisian art gallery Yves Kline in a public performance painted his nude models blue and dragged them across his canvasses. Why does the Virgin Mary wear blue and what is significant about the blue used by Gainsborough in his portrait “The Blue Boy”? These are some of the questions that I will be addressing.
The story of blue takes us from the lapis lazuli mines in Afghanistan to the studios of Titian, Vermeer, Hokusai, Picasso and Matisse, to name but a few. The spirituality of Blue led Kandinsky and Franz Marc to name their art movement “The Blue Rider” in 1911.
Alexandra is an art historian and a professional artist who specialises in sculpture and painting. She has a First, BA (hons) Fine Art from Chelsea School of Art and an MFA from Cambridge School of Art. Since 2003 she has been an accredited lecturer for The Arts Society. This has enabled her to lecture throughout the UK and in Europe, Australia (three tours), and Malaysia.
Free.