The focus of this discussion group: “Let’s talk: About art,” will be on art appreciation and criticism rather than art history per se.

The focus of this discussion group: “Let’s talk: About art,” will be on art appreciation and criticism rather than art history per se, looking towards ideas about “contemporary art” to enhance one’s visual literacy skills/knowledge. We will talk about exhibitions such as the current Margot Philips’ exhibition. 

General themes will include: 

NATURE & ecological issues; 

ART as representation: figuration, abstraction, symbolic motifs; 

DIGITAL media, photography & conceptual art;

ART NOW 

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL: WRITE – record your ideas by writing a short paragraph as a talking point (before or after each session). Date each entry as a creative journaling exercise that you might want to share, discuss, or keep as private / for yourself.

First session: 

DRAWING: “tree as motif” – briefly sketch schematically [simple diagram / line drawing / poem] of a tree of significant to you; a tree in art history. What is the tree, where is it, why you depicted it, in WORDS or/and IMAGE.

BIO: 

Deborah Cain has researched the French American artist Louise Bourgeois, specifically looking at art and subjectivity. Themes for writing have included: Walking backwards reading Lu Xun: Shanghai 2011, Reading Room (2012), and Mist/missed/taxi der mist: A certain darkness and a mist of words, in Comma dot dogma (2007), a catalogue essay on the NZ artist Tom Kreisler. Deborah is a cultural theory and art history researcher, and has lectured in various teaching positions in New Zealand, China (Shanghai), and Australia, and has published on a wide range of cultural topics, including in Third Text, Sites, Reading Room, and other journals and artists’ catalogues.