Art History! From Impressionism to Pop Art – a history of art from c1850 – c1960.
Friday 27th February to Friday 27th March 2026, 10.30am to 12.30 pm
£70.00
A 5 week overview of the major art movements and key artists (and some lesser known names!) in Europe and America from around 1850 to around 1960.
Find out how the Impressionists got their name and how Van Goch and Gaugin reinvented art. Get an insight into the fractured surfaces of the Cubists and how the Dada group enraged audiences at their club, the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. Find out how dreams and the subconscious influenced the Surrealists and how modern warfare impacted on art and artists. Dip into the ‘pure painting’ of the new American rebels, the Abstract Expressionists and find out how Pollock created his huge canvases. Witness how British artists captured the vibrancy of popular post-war culture and how Warhol recreated the ‘American Dream’ with his silk screen prints and avant garde films.
Everyone is welcome! It doesn’t matter if you don’t know much about art history or if you have some knowledge already, this course is a chance to get a good overview of the period in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Discussion and interpretation of the art and artists featured is very much encouraged, but equally, if you are content to take it all in and learn more about what inspired the great artists of the modern era, then this course offers an informal and open approach to around 100 years of art history that changed the way we view art for ever!
• Week 1 The Impressionists : the story of how a group of rebels changed the art world with only 8 ground-breaking exhibitions.
• Week 2 The Post Impressionists: featuring Vincent Van Goch, Paul Gaugin and many more and how Japanese and non-European art influenced the Post Impressionists.
• Week 3 Modernism: The Fauves, Picasso and Braque and Cubism, the German Expressionists, The Futurists, Marcel Duchamp, Dada and Surrealism – how two catastrophic world wars influenced art and artists.
• Week 4 Abstract Expressionism in the USA: ‘Pure painting’ and how the centre of the art world changed to New York after World War 2- Pollock, Rothko and the women artists who pioneered abstract painting.
• Week 5 Pop Art in Britain and America: how consumerism and popular culture influenced art and artists in the 50’s and 60s – how Blake, Hamilton and Paolozzi captured the vibrancy of the postwar UK scene and how Warhol and Lichtenstein reinvented the ‘American Dream’ via silk-screen prints, avant garde film and the ‘benday dot’!
Price £70 for the 5 week course
Please note there is a booking fee per transaction. £1.00 online or by telephone, 50p at the box office.
Tutor: Steve Roberts – Biography
I graduated with a BA Hons in History of Art, Architecture and Design (2:1) in 1997, I have a PGCE (FE) with Keele University (1999), and gained a Masters Degree in Media and Cultural Studies with The Open University in 2009.
I taught History of Art and Contextual Studies between 2001 and 2004 at Leeds College of Art and Design and York College (including teaching undergraduate modules and dissertation supervision) and delivered an undergraduate Film Studies module at the University Gloucester University. I also taught Film, Media and Contextual Studies at Joseph Chamberlain and Birmingham Metropolitan Colleges in Birmingham between 2004 and 2013.
I now work as a Curriculum Coordinator for an adult education organisation in Devon, overseeing Creative Arts and Digital Skills provision for adults across the county. I also run courses for Adults in Art History and Film Studies locally.
I have a broad knowledge and understanding of art historical periods , movements, artists and theory and also in film and media history and theory. I like to mix these together and throw in some popular culture/music history/literature for good measure!
