2019
Denenberg Fine Arts 417 N. San Vicente Blvd. West Hollywood 90048
4-6pm
This rare 15” bronze statuette of Ruskin was made by the American civic sculptor Gutzon Borglum (of Mount Rushmore Monument fame) after an 1897 visit to Ruskin at his Brantwood estate. Borglum called Ruskin “the most marvelous, magnificent, unappreciated genius the world has ever known.” The statue shows an aged Ruskin, seated, enfolded in a blanket, near the end of his life (Ruskin died in 1900). On his return to America in 1903, Borglum, who until that time had been principally known as a painter, modeled his statue of Ruskin for the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired a cast of the statue in 1906 and the Detroit Institute of Art added a cast to its collection in 1919. It appears that Borglum had six statuettes cast by Gorham in this first edition, most of which are now in private hands. There is some uncertainty about the number of casts, and there are later editions (e.g., Roman Bronze Works, also 1903).
The exhibition will include a lecture on the Borglum statue by Ruskin Art Club executive director, Gabriel Meyer. Mr. Meyer’s remarks will also include a brief survey of Ruskin’s impact on American art and social movements at the turn of the 20th century.
A reception will follow the lecture and discussion. The event is free and open to the public. To RSVP, email us at: info@ruskinartclub.com.
Ruskin Library Reading Room
4:15pm to 6:00pm
Speaker: Martin Danahay
How do the ideas of John Ruskin anticipate and intersect with Steampunk subcultures? Defined by Jeff Vandermeer as ‘a grafting of Victorian aesthetic and punk rock attitude onto various forms of science-fiction culture,’ Steampunk is more often associated with the literary legacies of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe. Yet this idiosyncratic contemporary mode of narrative, art, dress and music also has deep affinities with Ruskin’s critique of the ethics and aesthetics of consumer culture.
Ruskin’s alternative vision to industrial capitalism is one of liberating creativity. It is both utopian and rooted in the everyday and anticipates the rich complexity of Steampunk. This seminar series, organised with Prof Catherine Spooner and Dr Andrew Tate (Department of English Literature & Creative Writing, Lancaster University) will explore ways in which Ruskin and Steampunk share a radicalism that has been forgotten and, on occasion, made safe and easy to consume. In Ruskin, it seeks an inspiration for the radical ‘DIY’ practices of the artists and makers of contemporary Steampunk, and thus a critical voice that is still of vital relevance today. In Steampunk, it seeks an heir to a nineteenth-century intellectual tradition, but also a diverse range of critical voices that can speak back to and critique that tradition, opening it up to new directions.
Ruskin and Steampunk: Recovering Radicalism places its two subjects in conversation, allowing points of synergy and tension to emerge, illuminating both in the process. Addressing themes such as political commitment, embodiment and the environment, it draws on Ruskin’s spirit of social and imaginative transformation in order to envisage radical alternative futures.
The Big Draw
More information can be found https://www.ruskinprize.co.uk/
Brantwood, Blue Gallery
A display of pots from the Mingei (folk crafts) tradition and its Ruskin connections featuring work by Ogata Kenzan, Shoji Hamada, Bernard Leech, Tomoo Hamada, Edward Hughes and Miles Martin Moore.
Blue Gallery, Brantwood
Tomoo Hamada, potter and grandson will open the show with a talk about his grandfather, renowned potter Shoji Hamada. This will take place in the Severn Studio, Brantwood
Also on 15th May 2019 there will be a JapaneseTea Ceremony & Presentation. Celebrating the friendship of Japan and Great Britain through the inspirational legacy of John Ruskin, the Urasenke Foundation will present and demonstrate the ancient Japanese art of tea. This will take place at the Brantwood Coach House
Ruskin Library Reading Room
4:15pm-6pm
Speaker: Catherine Spooner and Andrew Tate
How do the ideas of John Ruskin anticipate and intersect with Steampunk subcultures? Defined by Jeff Vandermeer as ‘a grafting of Victorian aesthetic and punk rock attitude onto various forms of science-fiction culture,’ Steampunk is more often associated with the literary legacies of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe. Yet this idiosyncratic contemporary mode of narrative, art, dress and music also has deep affinities with Ruskin’s critique of the ethics and aesthetics of consumer culture.
Ruskin’s alternative vision to industrial capitalism is one of liberating creativity. It is both utopian and rooted in the everyday and anticipates the rich complexity of Steampunk. This seminar series, organised with Prof Catherine Spooner and Dr Andrew Tate (Department of English Literature & Creative Writing, Lancaster University) will explore ways in which Ruskin and Steampunk share a radicalism that has been forgotten and, on occasion, made safe and easy to consume. In Ruskin, it seeks an inspiration for the radical ‘DIY’ practices of the artists and makers of contemporary Steampunk, and thus a critical voice that is still of vital relevance today. In Steampunk, it seeks an heir to a nineteenth-century intellectual tradition, but also a diverse range of critical voices that can speak back to and critique that tradition, opening it up to new directions.
Ruskin and Steampunk: Recovering Radicalism places its two subjects in conversation, allowing points of synergy and tension to emerge, illuminating both in the process. Addressing themes such as political commitment, embodiment and the environment, it draws on Ruskin’s spirit of social and imaginative transformation in order to envisage radical alternative futures.
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/events/ruskin-seminar-ruskin-vs-steampunk-catherine-spooner-and-andrew-tate-lancaster-university
School of Art, Birmingham City University.
Ruskin’s engagement with the creative arts, including fine art, architecture and writing, has led him to become one of the most influential figures of the nineteenth century. His significance endures today, and to celebrate his work and continuing importance in creative work in the 21st century 200 years after his birth, MIVSS and Birmingham City University with the support of BAVS present a one-day interdisciplinary conference aimed at researchers including post-graduates in all disciplines.
The event will include keynote addresses from Dr Colin Trodd (Manchester) and Professor Sandra Kemp (Director, Ruskin Library Lancaster), a range of panels, a workshop on teaching Ruskin, an opportunity to examine early Birmingham School of Art work inspired by Ruskin, and a ‘re-reading group’, which will encourage discussion and close reading. An exhibition of student art work inspired by Ruskin will also be on display, and the event will close with a drinks reception and poetry reading in the exhibition space.
Richmond and Hillcroft Adult Community College Parkshot London TW9 2RE
7:30pm
The Portcullis Trust welcomes FT Andrew Hill to talk about Ruskinland – his latest book on the eminant Art Historian John Ruskin.
All proceeds go to supporting disadvantaged students at RHACC Ruskinland: How John Ruskin Shapes Our World, by Andrew Hill
When Andrew Hill discovered Ruskin’s social criticism in 2009, he immediately saw the parallels with the debate raging about the causes and consequences of the financial crisis and wrote in the Financial Times about the lessons found in Ruskin’s work.
In Ruskinland, he builds on Ruskin’s pin-sharp appreciation of art and architecture, his extraordinary draughtsmanship, and his insistence that to see and draw the world is the best way to understand it better. This vision has new relevance in the age of YouTube and Instagram, while Ruskin’s radical ideas have fresh relevance to how we run our lives, our governments, our museums, our galleries and our companies.
Andrew Hill is an Associate Editor and Management Editor of the Financial Times. He writes a weekly column on business, strategy and leadership, as well as contributing longer features, videos and podcasts and appearing regularly at conferences and on panels. He was named Business Commentator of the Year 2016 in the Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards. He is also the author of Leadership in the Headlines (2016).
Brantwood, Coniston
Cumbria Youth Dance Company
Cumbria YDC, in collaboration with Wired Aerial Theatre, will create a suite of unique site-specific, bungee-assisted and aerial performance works referencing Ruskin’s love of mountains. Dancers will work on the Cumbrian fells and in the studio to explore the transition between vertical & horizontal, producing 3 unique pieces of choreography for sharing in the grounds at Brantwood. The works will also feature at Lakes Alive festival in September 2019, on stage at The Lowry as part of U.Dance NW 2019 and on screen at Kendal Mountain Festival as part of their Special Film Screenings in November 2019.
Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, UK
The Art Workers’ Guild, 6 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AT
Afternoon event, timings to follow.
Prof. Stephen Wildman “‘Milestones on the road to one’s country’: Ruskin’s four score birthdays”
The 2018 Ruskin Society Book Prize will be presented, and the Society’s AGM held.
The Art Workers' Guild, 6 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AT
3.30pm
Kurume City Art Museum, Japan
Abbot Hall, Kendal, UK
The Holden Gallery
More information can be found www.ruskinprize.co.uk
Brantwood, Coniston, UK
Bromley Central Library
To celebrate John Ruskin’s bicentennial year, this exhibition looks at John Ruskin’s connections with the local area, based on his associations with three residents: George Allen, Sir John Lubbock and Charles Darwin. The central hub of these was Sunnyside, Tubbenden Lane, Orpington, the home and business address of George Allen.
Lecture Theatre, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
2pm
Speaker: Prof Stephen Wildman
Abeno Hanikas Art Musem, Osaka, Japan
Yale Centre for British Art, Lecture Hall, 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven
National Gallery, London
7 pm
A keynote address as part of the Art for the Nation, John Ruskin, Art Education and Social Change conference
National Gallery, London
10am – 5pm
Art for the Nation: John Ruskin, Art Education and Social Change’ is a two-day conference scheduled for 20-21 September 2019, hosted at the National Gallery, and organised by Susanna Avery-Quash (National Gallery) in partnership with Janet Barnes, a former Director of the Guild of St. George. The conference forms part of a collaboration with the Ruskin Foundation, whose annual lecture will be given by Prof Robert Hewison (Chair, Ruskin To-day), at the National Gallery on the Friday evening of the conference.
The conference will look specifically at Ruskin’s interactions with, influence on and legacy for the museum world and art education. The conference will look at the extent Ruskin was working alongside or outside the British art establishments well as the contribution
Ruskin made to the emerging discipline of art history, including canon formation, formal criticism and other genres such as exhibition guides. A further, crucial set of issues will address Ruskin’s ongoing legacy, including the reception of his writing about artists and curating, and art in relation to social, environmental and economic questions. We will ask what can his ideas teach future generations of museum goers, artists, curators and funding bodies?
The two day conference is directed towards academics (established and emerging), art professionals and the general public, especially those interested in Ruskin, Italian Renaissance art, British 19th-century art, art education, and the history of museums. The conference will be structured around the themes: Art Education and Museums, British Art and Photography, Language and Writings and Ruskin Today.
All enquiries to Susanna Avery-Quash, National Gallery: Susanna.Avery-Quash@ng-london.org.uk
St. Michael and All Angels Chapel, Marlborough College
This conference aims to celebrate the life and work of John Ruskin during his bicentenary. This two-day event will create a space for theologically engaged conversations about Ruskin, religion and the arts. We seek to focus on Ruskin’s religious and aesthetic writings informed by his relationship with Christianity, as well as examine his influence on those within the Victorian art world, specifically the Pre-Raphaelites.
With this in mind, we anticipate a wide and varied body of visual and theological conversations about sacred art with Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites at the core. Proposals might include, but are not limited to: Divine Designs; Responding to and Reshaping Religion; Curating Ruskin, Curating Religion; From the Sacred to the Secular; Media Hermeneutics; Institutional Theologies; Conversing with Italy.
Artists of interest may include: Stanhope, Rossetti, Millais, Burne-Jones, Beardsley
The Roycroft Campus, East Aurora, NY
Ca’ Foscari University, Venice
More details https://sites.google.com/a/unive.it/ruskin2019venezia/
Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, Victoria and Albert Museum
1.00 – 1.45pm
Speaker: Max Donnelly, Curator, Furniture, Textiles & Fashion
The first in a series of four lunchtime lectures at the V&A. Admission free
Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, Victoria and Albert Museum
1.00 – 1.45pm
Speaker: Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum
The second in a series of four lunchtime lectures at the V&A. Admission free.
Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, Victoria and Albert Museum
1.00 – 1.45pm
Speaker: Sarah Quill
The third in a series of four lunchtime lectures at the V&A. Admission free
Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, Victoria and Albert Museum
1.00 – 1.45pm
Speaker: Julius Bryant, Keeper of Word & Image Department
The last in a series of four lunchtime lectures at the V&A. Admission free.
The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
Jim Spates (Professor Emeritus, Hobart and William Smith Colleges) and Dr. Gabriel Meyer (Executive Director, Ruskin Art Club), Coordinators
Speakers include Clive Wilmer (Master of The Guild of St. George), Dr. Sara Atwood (The Guild of St. George and Portland Community College), Gabriel Meyer (President, Ruskin Art Club), Jim Spates (Professor Emeritus, Hobart and William Smith Colleges)