Giotto’s frescoes in the Arena Chapel stand at the beginning of any history of Renaissance art, and he is often called the ‘father’ of the western tradition of painting. But what happens if we look at the Chapel and its paintings from a different perspective? Who were the women who used this chapel, what did they see, and what did they think?
When History of Art becomes Her-story of Art, the results can be surprising.
Bergman’s mediation on life and death stages the human drama in a medieval setting. The apocalyptic themes of sin and sacrifice make this movie a classic of modern cinema and introduces the young Max von Sydow in the lead role of the knight.
Introduced by Dr Péter Bokody, Lecturer in Art History, Plymouth University.
Dr Ramirez, medievalist and TV historian, will introduce us to the wealth of illuminated manuscripts, jewellery and treasures of the Dark Ages. The symbols and designs help us to understand the beliefs and ideas that shaped Anglo-Saxon and Viking art.
Dr Ramirez is Director of the Certificate and Diploma in the History of Art at the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford
Dir: Philipp Stolzl Cast: Tom Payne, Ben Kingsley Running time: 135 mins Cert: 15
Based on the best-selling novel by Noah Gordon's, this film tells the story of nine-year-old Robert Cole who has a gift of understanding illness which leads him from the familiar life of 11th-century London to small villages throughout England and finally to the medical school at Ispahan.
Roberts’s interaction with the dazzling surgery of a Jewish physician, trained by the legendary Persian physician Avicenna, inspires him to accept his gift and to commit his life to healing by studying...
A unique musical experience inspired by Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, commissioned by infamous pianist Paul Wittgenstein after he lost his right arm during the First World War. Concerto is a deconstructed and re-orchestrated exploration of the legacy of war and the healing power of music to overcome tragedy.
Created by award-winning theatre maker Michael Pinchbeck, devised with emerging artists Ryan O’Shea and Katt Perry, and featuring world-renowned concert pianist Nicholas McCarthy. Commissioned by Lincoln Performing Arts...
In this overview of one of the most successful exhibitions of 2017, ‘Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932’, which took place at the Royal Academy of Arts in February-April 2017, curator Dr Natalia Murray will investigate how artists from Kazimir Malevich to Alexander Deineka made Russian art revolutionary in the first 15 years after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.
Triggering radical innovations in Russian art, artists including Kandinsky, Malevich, Tatlin, Rodchenko and Popova turned the storm of the Russian Revolution into a radical experiment in art and society. However, this was...
Dir: Sergei Eisenstein Running time: 66 mins Cert: PG
Eisenstein’s hugely influential masterpiece and one of the most famous silent films ever made will be accompanies by a new live score created and performed by The Imperfect Orchestra, an eclectic ensemble of musicians who mix classical and modern instruments.
Focusing on the naval mutiny of the failed 1905 Soviet Revolution, the ‘Odessa Steps’ sequence is still recognised as one of the most important, innovative and inflammatory scenes created in cinema and remains as shocking and provocative as when it was first...
Marcelo Gimenes: piano/keyboard Rich Hamer: guitar Mike Trevarthen: drums
Including audience participation, this improvisation performance includes both musicians and artificial performers in an open musical dialogue. A musical response to the We The People Are The Work exhibition, this performance steps into a world with no pre-determined boundaries or limitations – other than our own imagination – and explores the interaction between humans and technology.
Audience members are asked to participate via a smartphone app.
The 1947 partition of India devastated the region, engulfing it in violence and the largest, forced migration of the 20th century. The impact was felt immediately by the two new nation-states – Pakistan and India – but the longer-term legacies have been more significant.
70 years later, India and Pakistan appear to be as polarised as ever, and religious nationalism has revived. Focusing on Punjab, Dr Pippa Virdee, Senior Lecturer in Modern South Asian History at De Montfort University examines the ways in which the nation-states have re-imagined the region post-partition to create...
In the first screening of this film based on Plymouth’s notorious Union Street since the 1980s, Remembrance tells the tale of a group of Devonport-based Royal Navy personnel who go out on the town before they are due to set sail to America.
Featuring the distinctive Brian Eno soundtrack and significant, early performances from British actors Gary Oldman, Timothy Spall and John Altman who have gone on to establish significant careers, the film also features Plymouth residents who will reunite for the first time on this night...
