‘Look here, upon this picture, and on this.’ Velázquez, Picasso and Las MeninasIf you'd like to be included on our mailing list, please send an e-mail to l.martins@bbk.ac.uk
‘Look here, upon this picture, and on this.’ Velázquez, Picasso and Las MeninasIn 1936 Picasso was appointed Director of the Museo del Prado. He was living in Paris at the time, and in fact was never to return to Spain after his visit of 1934, because of his disgust with the Franco régime, though he retained his Spanish nationality throughout his life. But there is no doubt that, questions of politics aside, the paintings in the Prado, above all those of Velázquez, provided Picasso with an infinite body of inspiration during his entire career. In this seminar, Marjorie Trusted examines the relationship between two great Spanish artists, Velázquez and Picasso, focusing on the 20th-century master’s interaction with Las Meninas (1656). She will look at the nature of one painter being inspired by another, what this means in terms of notions of originality and painters’ practices, and the idea of the artist as outsider. Perhaps most complex of all, she shall try to discuss the concept of Spanishness, national identity, as seen through the art of both Velázquez and Picasso.
Dr Marjorie Trusted FSA is Senior Curator of Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where she has been based since 1979. She has published widely on sculpture, and on Spanish and Latin American art; her book, The Arts of Spain: Iberia and Latin America 1450-1700, appeared in 2007, and the study she co-wrote with Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci on Velazquez and Picasso's Las Meninas was published in 2010. She is currently completing a catalogue of the baroque and later ivories at the V&A, and is lead curator on the renovation of the V&A's Cast Courts.
A drinks reception will follow.
This event is organized in collaboration with ARTES.
Performing heritage, questioning identitiesQ&A sessions with award-winning filmmaker Sandra Kogut will follow the screening of Adieu Monde or Pierre and Claire’s Story (1998) and A Hungarian Passport (2001/2003). In Adieu Monde, a sarcastic reflection on the search for ‘authenticity’ in the Pyrenees, we listen to butchers, mechanics, farmers and hikers sharing their versions of the legend of the vanished young shepherd and the shepherdess who follows him into the forest. The film won 11 prizes, among others two at the ‘Oberhausen Filmtagen’ festival and the ‘Golden Dove’ award in Leipzig. In A Hungarian Passport, Kogut brings together Kafkaesque experiences with authorities, interviews with her relatives, and her own travel diary in order to address fundamental questions: What does nationality mean? What does a passport really stand for? What is it we do with our heritage? How do we construe our history and our own identity? Among other important prizes, the film received first prize at the Split Film Festival and the ‘Best Documentary Film’ award in Budapest.
Programme
6.00-6.10pm Welcome and introduction, Luciana Martins (Birkbeck)
6.10-6.40pm Screening of Adieu Monde or Pierre and Claire’s Story (Sandra Kogut, France 1998, colour, 27 min, French with English subtitles)
6.40-7.00pm Q&A with Sandra Kogut
7.00-8.15pm Screening of A Hungarian Passport (Sandra Kogut, Brazil/France/Belgium/Hungary, 2001, colour, 72 min, Portuguese, French, and Hungarian with English subtitles)
8.15-8.45pm Q&A with Sandra Kogut
The Film Director: Sandra Kogut
Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1965, Sandra grew up in Brazil, spent more than a decade in France and now lives in the United States. Since 1984 Sandra has performed, written, directed and produced theatre, documentary and musical television, advertisements, videos and films. In 1996 she participated in the creation of Brasil Legal (Globo Network), becoming its director. She created Parabolic People in 1991, which was produced by CICV Pierre Schaeffer (France) and filmed in Paris, New York, Moscow, Tokyo, Dakar and Rio de Janeiro.
Sandra taught at the École supérieure des arts décoratifs de Strasbourg (France), and at the American Universities of Princeton and UCSD (University of California San Diego). Her work was exhibited at the Moma / NY, Guggenheim Museum and Forum des Images / Paris, among others. Retrospectives of her work were held at several art institutions, including the Harvard Film Archives (US), the The Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (France), and the Zo Centro Culture Contemporanee in Catania, Sicily. Sandra is currently a guest of the DAAD's Artists-in-Berlin programme, writing the screenplay for her new feature film: the story of a family and how they cope with the ever-present violence in Rio de Janeiro. Here, instead of showing spectacular brutality, Sandra is far more interested in capturing what happens after the traumatic event.
This event is supported by the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities.
Booking is required. Please book at Arts Week Events
Organised as part of Open City Docs Fest event 'Picturing Place' in collaboration with the editors of The Art of Dissent and CILAVS.
Bringing together practitioners from very different fields, this panel discussion will explore the roles that visual languages have in the production of the built environment, and the interactive relationships between images and the city, in the context of the London 2012 Olympics.