14.00 – 18.00, Friday 4 December 2015 (registration from 13.30)
09.30 – 17.30, Saturday 5 December 2015 (registration from 09.00)

Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN

When he delivered the A.W.Mellon lectures in Washington D.C. before publishing his Paths to the Absolute in 2000, John Golding described himself simply as ‘painter’. Internationally, he is remembered more widely as an art historian and exhibition maker, whose shows and writings took on major artists and movements of the 20th Century. He was a painter-writer whose painter’s “obsessions” (as he liked to call them) acted directly on his judgements as a critic-art-historian. This event is juxtaposed with a display of his pastels in The Courtauld Galleries, and will feature the screening of a documentary by award-winning film-maker Bruno Wollheim on Golding the painter.
Uniquely Golding taught both at The Courtauld and in the Painting School at the Royal College of Art.

The conference will have two major concerns: first, John Golding, the painter-writer, and the relationship between the practices of painting, art-writing and exhibition making in the 20th Century; second, new work in the fields about which Golding wrote. A major issue addressed will be the place of painting and of modernism in 20th Century art history. The first screening of Wollheim’s film on Friday, 4 December, will be followed by a discussion of Golding the painter, led by the sculptors Phillip King and Richard Deacon, and by two painters who were his students at the Royal College, James Mooney and Dillwyn Smith. The keynote talk by John Elderfield ranges across the history of modernism between the late 19th and the mid-20th Century, looking at three major painters, Cézanne, Matisse and de Kooning as writers. As well as the writing of 20th Century art history, exhibition curating will be a topic addressed on Saturday, 5 December, while three sessions devoted to the fields on which Golding wrote will bring together specialists with international reputations working on Cubism, Matisse, abstract painting (Mondrian, Malevich and the Abstract Expressionists), and on Duchamp, who Golding met in New York in the 1950s. Among the speakers, Dawn Ades, Elizabeth Cowling, John Elderfield, Christopher Green, John Milner and Sarah Wilson were all taught by Golding at The Courtauld.

Organised by Professor Chris Green (The Courtauld Institute of Art)

PROGRAMME

FRIDAY, 4 DECEMBER (DAY 1)

13.30 - 14.00
REGISTRATION

14.00 - 14.05
Welcome - Professor Deborah Swallow (Märit Rausing Director, The Courtauld Institute of Art)

14.05 - 14.10
Introduction by Professor Chris Green (The Courtauld Institute of Art)

14.10 - 15.00
'John Golding: A Path to the Absolute' (work in progress), a first screening of a film on the painter John Golding, produced and directed by Bruno Wollheim.

15.00 - 16.30
John Golding, the painter. A discussion led by Bruno Wollheim, Richard Deacon, Professor Phillip King, Professor James Mooney.and Dillwyn Smith.

16.30 - 17.00
TEA/COFFEE BREAK (provided - Seminar room 1)

17.00 - 18.00
Dr. John Elderfield (Princeton University), 'Studio Talk: Cézanne, Matisse, de Kooning'.

18.00
RECEPTION (Front Hall)

SATURDAY, 5 DECEMBER (DAY 2)

09.00 - 09.30
REGISTRATION

09.30 - 10.30
SESSION I - John Golding as curator and writer.

Professor Elizabeth Cowling (University of Edinburgh): 'John Golding : Curating Exhibitions'.

Professor Chris Green (The Courtauld Institute of Art): 'The Eyes Have It: John Golding, Painter/Writer'.

10.30 - 11.00
TEA/COFFEE BREAK (provided - Seminar room 1)

11.00 - 13.00
SESSION II - Cubism and Abstract Painting.

Dr. C.F.B. Miller (University of Manchester): 'Metaphors of Cubism'.

Trevor Stark (Harvard University): 'Cubism, Industrial Colour, and the Rhetoric of Painting'.

Professor Michael White (University of York): 'Parallel Lines: Mondrian the Painter/Writer'.

13.00 - 14.00
LUNCH (provided for the speakers only - Seminar room 1)

14.00 - 16.00
SESSION III - Abstract Painting and Matisse.

Professor John Milner (The Courtauld Institute of Art): 'Squaring Up: John Golding's Confrontation with Malevich'.

Dr. Gavin Parkinson (The Courtauld Institute of Art): 'Rise From the Ground like Feathered Mercury: Narrating Abstract Expressionism'.

Professor Sarah Wilson (Courtauld Institute): 'Matisse: Apocalypse, Circus, Jazz'.

16.00 - 16.30
TEA/COFFEE BREAK (provided - Seminar room 1)

16.30 -17.30
SESSION IV - America, Duchamp and Other Directions.

Dr. David Anfam: 'John Golding. American Art and a General View'.

Professor Neil Cox (University of Edinburgh) and Professor Dawn Ades (University of Essex) in conversation. 'Duchamp and other directions.'

Ticket/entry details: £26 (£16 students, Courtauld staff/students)
BOOK ONLINE: http://courtauld.ac.uk/event/the-painter-john-golding-and-20th-century-art-history Or send a cheque made payable to ‘The Courtauld Institute of Art’ to: Research Forum Events Coordinator, Sackler Research Forum, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, referencing ‘The Painter John Golding and 20th Century Art History’. For further information, email ResearchForumcourtauld.ac.uk