Comparing Art Through the Ages with Elizabeth Perrotte – 1

This lecture series offers a speculative art history grounded in close research into artists’ lives, techniques and cultural contexts. Four themed sessions examine works by five or six artists across 600 years, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Embodied

Imagined conversations between sculptors of the human figure — Bernini, Canova, Claudel, Brancusi, Hepworth and Benglis — spark debates over form and gender across five centuries, from Mannerism to contemporary art. Idealised classical bodies confront inspirations drawn from prehistoric, medieval and non-Western sources, as ideas of embodiment are continually reinvented and transgressed. Despite tensions, unexpected affinities emerge: Bernini, Claudel and Benglis share an interest in sculpture’s capacity to convey energy, eroticism and emotion, while Canova, Brancusi and Hepworth converge around the methods and values of abstraction.

In the series:
Apr. 14: Embodied **changed from March 24**
Apr. 21: Drawing out
Apr. 28: Radical Age