School_Matters_Issue_35

22

ART HISTORIAN TAKES FLIGHT

After his memorable and moving talk on an ephemeral tree- based work by the English land artist Andy Goldsworthy as part of ARTiculation 2021, Cassius Ashcroft, LVI was selected as one of only six young speakers from this year’s competition to create a film for prestigious HENI Talks, an online platform specialising in ‘stories of art from the world’s leading experts’. ARTiculation is run by the Roche Court Educational Trust, based at the New Art Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park near Salisbury. Cassius travelled to this captivating, lush, art-studded location to meet his conversation partner for the film and see in person for the first time the work he had been commissioned to discuss: Tame Buzzard Line by Richard Long (2001). This line of stones stretched over 35.15m x 0.71m captures so much of the subtle signposting so typical of Long, an iconic British landscape artist who we were lucky enough to host at IPS as part of the Singer Sargent Society speakers’ programme in the Spring Term of 2019. Using only natural materials and always treading lightly in his landscape sculptures, Long ushers his audience into a greater awareness of their surroundings and a growing respect for the myriad daily miracles performed by the natural world. What had impressed the adjudicators during Cassius’s journey through the various ARTiculation heats was his ability to engage in an intellectual way with his chosen work but also his readiness to plug into a more personal response. No doubt his conversations and insights around the Buzzard Line will have been spurred by his intuitive and powerful connection to art, especially Land Art (which taps into his environmental interests). A trip planned for PVI–UVI Artists and Art Historians will allow them to experience fully the wonders of the Roche Court and celebrate Cassius's achievement. [See the next issue for a report on this visit – Ed.] Mrs Aleid Farnum-Ford, Head of History of Art

ART HISTORY/ART AND DESIGN IN HE ONLINE EVENT IPS pupils studying Art and the History of Art attended an online event organised by Art History in Schools 2021. After an eye-opening and mind-stimulating ‘Engage with an Image’ starter led by Alex Borthwick and Dr Stephen Whiteman of the Courtauld Institute of Art, there were video presentations on a host of excellent art and art history competitions (including ‘ARTiculation’ and ‘Write On Art’, at which many IPS pupils present and past have excelled). We were then treated to insightful vignette talks on a rich and diverse range of careers in the arts from a panel of excellent and youthful speakers, some of whom were beaming in from places as far-flung as New Zealand to share their experiences. Next up was a useful University Round Table chat featuring students currently studying History of Art at such institutions as Oxford, Leeds, Nottingham and Goldsmiths. Invaluable information was shared, from the practical to the elevated. The event was rounded off by Dr Frank Salmon of the University of Cambridge who furnished our delegates with expert advice on what he is looking for in a History of Art applicant. He was refreshingly honest and entirely motivating. It was a great day for our PVI, LVI and UVI Artists and Art Historians leaving lots to think about and lots to inspire.

A TATE TO TATE ADVENTURE The History of Art Department had a glorious day visiting the Tate galleries. The theme of the day was the ‘Representation of the Nude’. May Shin and Grace Breslin, UVI (pictured right) did a fantastic job leading one of the groups, articulating their knowledge and using sharp visual analysis skills to inspire. Highlights of the day included: interrogating the difference between ‘Nude’ and ‘Naked’; discussing and rethinking the representation of the female figure with Epstein’s ‘Female in Flenite’; a thundering pier-to-pier transit across the Thames and an uplifting hour at Tate Modern (with no crowds).