| Group Leader: Robert Sedgley Email Address: talking.art@u3ajavea.com or rasart29@outlook.com Meeting Venue: Javea Players Studio, Carrer del Cronista Figueras Pacheco 6, Javea Meeting Day and Time: Fourth Tuesday of the month, 11am to 12pm Cost 2€ per person Accepts new members: Yes but contact Robert first before attending. |
- Next meeting: Die Brucke. Tuesday 25th. March
“We call all young people together, and as young people, who carry the future in us, we want to wrest freedom for our actions and our lives from the older, comfortably established forces.” – Kirchner
“They say [my] ‘Street Scene’ paintings and drawings originated in the years 1911-14, in one of the loneliest times of my life, during which an agonizing restlessness drove me out onto the streets day and night, which were filled with people and cars.”– Kirchner
“..we didn’t have the intention at all of founding a new style…. What we wanted, was a refusal of the outmoded, overly-cultivated art practices.” – Schmidt-Rottluff
“I know of no ‘new programme’…Only that art is forever manifesting itself in new forms, since there are forever new personalities – its essence can never alter, I believe.” – Schmidt-Rottluff
“What we [Brücke-artists] had to remove ourselves from [the German Bourgeois mores] was clear; where we were heading was certainly less clear.” – Heckel
“We [the artist of Die Brücke] were overjoyed to discover our complete unison in the urge for liberation, for an art surging forward, unrestricted by convention.”– Pechstein
Die Brücke (The Bridge) was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905. Founding members were Fritz Bleyel, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.
The seminal group had a major impact on the evolution of modern art in the 20th century and the creation of expressionism. The name “Brücke” was intended to “symbolize the link, or bridge, they would form with art of the future”. Influenced by Northern Renaissance artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Mattias Grünewald and Lucas Cranach, as well as contemporary international avant-garde movements, the aim was to depart from the prevalent traditional academic style and find a new mode of artistic expression. The group published a
Programme in 1906, where Kirchner wrote: “We call all young people together, and as young people, who carry the future in us, we want to wrest freedom for our actions and our lives from the older, comfortably established forces,” and “Everyone who reproduces, directly and without illusion, whatever he senses the urge to create, belongs to us”.
The group came to an end around 1913.
”Art has the power to help economies thrive, to educate and enrich societies, and to create greater cultural understanding. We are reminded now more than ever of the power of the arts….We believe in the restorative power of the arts….” – advertisement by the Bank of America.
Talking Art Meetings
The meeting takes the form of an illustrated talk of about fifty minutes or so with time afterwards for questions or discussion. We are concentrating on the Modern period, from the end of the nineteenth century; but any period, movement or particular artist may be focused on, pondered and discussed if a member requests.
In a recent Norwegian scientific paper, looking at of two groups of pensioners, it was discovered that those who looked regularly at artworks, and in particular modern ones with brighter colours, found a marked improvement in their health and general sense of well being. So there it is: ART IS GOOD FOR YOU.
Whether you are an experienced gallery goer or sporadic sightseer and would like to know a little more about art, about why a painting or sculpture is considered an important cultural icon, or wish to expand your present knowledge and look a little deeper into the background, the techniques and the lives of the artists, Talking Art is the space for the adventure. Come and join in the conversation or just listen and enjoy.
If you find Nigel Spivey’s subtitle – how humans made art and art made us human – to his Television Series (2005) How Art Made the World puzzling, and a challenge to your ideas, then the monthly meetings are for you.
Past Meetings
Below you will find links to documents which contain the detailed presentations given at past meetings. Remember to save these to your device if you want to keep a copy.
