Talks Programme 2013

• Wednesday Photgraphy Focus Day
• Thursday Talks Programme
• Friday Talks Programme
• Saturday Talks Programme

12.00-1.00

Mirror to the Soul: Empathy Through Photography
PhotoVoice

Does photography have unique qualities that help us to see things from other people’s perspectives? Or feel an emotional connection with situations or people that other art forms cannot create?

This one hour discussion looked at approaches taken by different photographers and practitioners who use photography as a way to connect people across distances, convey sensitive or personal issues, and prompt a sense of involvement in situations that are alien to the audience.

Chaired by Matt Daw, Projects Manager, PhotoVoice.
Speakers included Spencer Rowell, Photographer and Founding Editor of Uncertain States Newspaper; Helen Cammock, Project Manager of 'Having Our Say Too' project with sexually exploited young people and former Director of the Brighton Fringe Festival; Del Loewenthal, Photographer and Professor of Counselling and Psychotherapy, University of Roehampton and Laura Pannack, Photographer

1.30-2.30

Is ‘Still Life’ Still Relevant in Contemporary Photography?

‘Still Life’ may have been rooted in classical painting and the whole genre of ‘nature mort’ but what we see in contemporary photography now is a radical outburst, as ‘Still Life’ evolves to encompass a third dimension, photographing installations and interpreting subjects for their sculptural qualities. How should we define this new work and is ‘Still Life’ the most appropriate term? 

This panel discussion was mediated by critic and curator Sue Steward and included Laura Letinsky, photographer and Professor in the Department of Visual Art, Chicago University, with Chris Littlewood, Director of Photography at Flowers and independent photographer, Darren Harvey-Regan.

3.00-4.00

‘A Cyclical Poem’

Nick Hackworth, Director of Paradise Row gallery, and curator of this year’s Photo50 exhibition entitled ‘A Cyclical Poem’, discussed the exhibition with some of the artists involved: Ian Beesley, Paul Hill, Dorothy Bohm and Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen.

4.30-5.30

Contemporary African Photography

This panel considered why the profile of contemporary African photography has increased in recent years, how galleries and institutions are securing new work and whether these artists are the authentic voice of a nation.  This session was chaired by Sheyi Bankale (Editor and Creative Director of at Next Level magazine) and the panel included critic and curator Sue Steward, Katrina Schwarz (Collections Development Adviser, British Council) and curator Renée Mussai (Autograph). 

In association with Next Level.

12.30-1.30

Modern British Art: Market Trends and Outlook
 

Anders Petterson, Founder & Managing Director of ArtTactic, gave an overview of the Modern British Art Market trends between 2005 and 2012. The analysis looked at the overall auction trends in the market and provide a number of case-studies of individual Modern British artists.

2.00-3.00

Keith Vaughan: The Unseen Photographs and their Influence on the Artist’s Work

Philip Vann and Gerard Hastings, authors of the new comprehensive monograph Keith Vaughan published by Lund Humphries, presented this fascinating illustrated lecture. They analysed the strong influence of photographs taken by the artists and only very recently discovered on paintings and gouaches made during the 1960s and 1970s.

3.30- 4.30

The Artist Edition with Iwona Blazwick, Director of Whitechapel Gallery in Association with Whitechapel Gallery

From Marcel Duchamp’s moustached Mona Lisa to Joseph Beuys’s wooden postcards to Bridget Riley’s Op Art silkscreens, great artists often make their work in editions. The print and the multiple give artists a way of democratising their ideas. They also give us an affordable way of collecting their work. Iwona Blazwick, director of the Whitechapel Gallery, gave a potted guide to the art edition, outlined how they support arts institutions and why they are the ideal way of starting a collection.

5.00-6.00

Behind Closed Doors: Critics and Dealers in 20th Century Art in Association with the Burlington Magazine

Art historian and Burlington Magazine Index Editor Barbara Pezzini illustrated the changing relationship between art critics and art dealers in the London art world.

Officially, critics judge and advise whereas dealers buy and sell. But are these two separate professional spheres or merely two sides of the same coin? This talk illuminated aspects of this sometimes uneasy relationship during a key moment of its development, the early 20th century.

12.30- 1.30

'Unfolding Landscape' Artist Jeremy Gardiner in conversation with Pallant House curator Simon Martin

Pallant House curator Simon Martin spoke with British artist Jeremy Gardiner (b. 1957) about his art, his fascination with coastal landscapes and geology, his innovative working methods and the new comprehensive book 'The Art of Jeremy Gardiner: Unfolding Landscape' published by Lund Humphries and launched at London Art Fair. Gardiner’s paintings and prints – depicting the coastal landscape of southern England – place him within a tradition in modern British art encompassing John Tunnard (1900–71), Paul Nash (1889–1946) and Ben Nicholson (1894–1982). But the construction of Gardiner’s paintings is experimental and his pioneering approach to his use of materials makes Gardiner one of Britain’s most original contemporary landscape artists.

2.00-3.00

'Conversations on Contemporary Art: Collecting New Media, Moving Image and Performance Art' with the Contemporary Art Society

Performance, new media and advances in new technologies have never been so influential on contemporary artists, shaping the ideas, forms and contexts of contemporary visual culture.  What does all of this mean for those interested in collecting contemporary art?  Contemporary Art Society director, Paul Hobson spoke to Elizabeth Neilson, Director, Zabludowicz Collection, and artists and curators Paul Purgas and Laura Eldret on interdisiplinarity in relation to collecting and the challenges and opportunities of collecting new media, moving image and performance art. 

3.30-4.30

CultureLabel, Own Art and leading British artist Stuart Semple explore the impact of buying art online, chaired by Peter Tullin, Co-founder CultureLabel

With more and more artists using the online space as an alternative to gallery representation, the online world is rapidly becoming the greatest art gallery in itself. Curated art and design website CultureLabel.com, together with Arts Council England and Creative Scotland's Own Art team and contemporary artist Stuart Semple, considered how to approach the rapidly expanding online art world & take full advantage of it as an aspiring art buyer or established collector.

Ezra Konvitz, Founder, ArtStack, also spoke about ArtStack as a tool for collecting art online and the panel was completed by Eugenio Re Rebaudengo, Founder of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.

5.00-6.00

LUXE IMMO Exploring New Frontiers in Contemporary Art

In this one hour panel talk, artists Adeline de Monseignat, Tom Leamon and Matt Golden discussed what is on the horizon for contemporary art and how their works fit into these new frontiers. Also discussed were the creative influences on these artists’ works and how their works, in turn, influence modern society.  Together with Sally Smith from Jack Inc.and chaired by Zoey Goto, this panel presented a stimulating conversation on the new Contemporary.

12.00-1.00

The Arts Desk: Art Crazy Prices

How do crazy auction prices change our experience of art? Are critics really the “courtier class” to taste-makers who know nothing of what they put on their walls, as American critic Dave Hickey claimed? What has happened to connoisseurship? And, if indeed it has, does it matter that art as commodity has taken over from art as art?

1.30-2.30

Foyles and Phaidon present ‘The Arts Quiz’

A special one-off arts quiz designed for aficionados and novices alike, presented by Phaidon's Editors Amanda Renshaw and Mat Smith.

3.00-4.00

The Centenary of the Omega Workshops
Apollo Magazine

2013 sees the centenary of the Omega Workshops, the hugely influential design enterprise founded by members of the Bloomsbury Group. Oscar Humphries, editor of Apollo Magazine, chairs this panel discussion looking at the visual legacy of Roger Fry, Duncan Grant, and Vanessa Bell. This anniversary gives us an opportunity to reappraise this important and sometimes overlooked movement in British art.
 

4.30-5.30

Foyles presents 'The Company of Artists' with Charles Saumarez Smith and Paul Huxley RA

‘The Company of Artists’ by Charles Saumarez Smith (Modern Art Press) tells the story of the enterprising artists who founded the Royal Academy of the Arts in 1768. In discussion at London Art Fair, Saumarez Smith, the present-day Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of the Arts, and painter and treasurer, Paul Huxley RA, examined the role of this independent, privately-funded, artist-led institution in today’s changing world of public art and patronage.