LIGHT, SPACE AND TIME: PHYSICS IN ART

Hilary Hope Guise, professor of art history, Florida State University, United States of America     

Monday 19–Wednesday 21 January 1.00 pm COURSE FEES R345; Staff and students R173   

The interpretation of light, space and time in art has been influenced by prevailing theological and philosophical ideas, and by the irresistible pull of the zeitgeist through social and political forces. As faith waned, for example, we discover that shadows appear and begin to lengthen and darkness crowds in, eventually leading to the complete annihilation of light in totally black canvases. A deep fear of invisible spiritual forces through the Middle Ages manifested as a fear of space itself. But space is rediscovered in step with the advance of intellectual freedom. As the modern industrial world speeds up, brushstrokes get faster and eventually disappear altogether, annihilating the human gesture in machine-made consumerist images. We find that boundaries blur and structures fracture. Can time be framed if it is constantly changing and nearly all art is static?

This course will demonstrate how artists through the ages have navigated the difficulties of conveying the enduring laws of physics: light, space and time.

Lecture titles

  1. Light
  2. Space
  3. Time

TO BOOK: https://www.webtickets.co.za/performance.aspx?itemid=1575233976

Hilary Guise

Hilary Hope Guise lectures for Florida State University on the London campus and has taught for other universities in USA, France and UK including Cambridge. She is also a  passionate Classicist. After a life-time of touring in the USA, Europe and Australasia and the all over the UK she now spends more time as a practising artist in her studio on London City Island on the Thames.  Her work can be seen on her website: www.hilaryguise.com  via which you can also send a message to follow up on lectures.