10th April 2015 - Maggie Giraud

 

Otter Vale Art Society was delighted to welcome art historian Maggie Giraud to their meeting at the Institute on the evening of Friday 10th April.  Maggie, who is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, was educated at Leeds School of Art, and London University. She was employed as Curator and Archivist to the Dartington Hall Trust, and was the founding curator of High Cross House. Her lecture entitled “The Shock of the Nude” took an intellectual look at the sometimes controversial discipline of life drawing and painting.

 

Neil Marshall, chairman of OVAS, remarked,

 “We all know that a work of art must achieve a balance where detail is seen in the context of the work as a whole. Rembrandt warned that close scrutiny of his pictures would give the examiner nothing but an oily nose. As with the relation between the whole of a painting and its component parts so is the relation of a single artwork to the whole of artistic creation.

Maggie’s lecture was a rewarding exercise of stepping back from the easel to enjoy the enthralling vision of a wider artistic panorama in time and space.

An authoritative and learned presentation was delivered in the modest style of the true scholar who seeks to share discoveries with other explorers to the benefit of both.

There was continuous interaction with the audience throughout the evening ending with an informal exchange of views and opinions that was totally engaging.

A truly masterful performance that OVAS will repeat at a future time. “