Conferences and Short Courses
An International Conference: The Art Deco World
Friday 25-Sunday 27 April, 10.30-17.20
Lecture Theatre. The conference will explore exhibition themes in greater depth and bring together distinguished speakers from around the world. Speakers include: Tim Benton, with Emmanuel Bréon, David Cottington, Ghislaine Wood, Mark Haworth-Booth, Alan Powers, Jeff Miekle, Raphael Cardoso Denis, Rahul Mehrotra, Jonathan Sweet, Edouard Sébline, Bevis Hillier, Dinah Casson and Denise Scott Brown.
Day 1. Art Deco: the style of the inter-war period
Day one focuses on the development of the style in Europe in relation to the themes of modernity, tradition, exoticism and nostalgia.
Day 2. Art Deco: the global style
Day two examines aspects of the global spread of Art Deco including the role of European émigrés in the dissemination of the style and the naturalisation of Art Deco in differing racial and cultural contexts.
Day 3. Collecting and recovery
Day three explores the post-1960 rediscovery of Art Deco, the influence of the style on later architecture and design, and the histories of its collection and conservation.
Advance booking required. Ticket price per day: full £47, Friends of the V&A and senior citizens £41, students £15, disabled people and ES40 holders £12.50. Ticket includes morning coffee, sandwich lunch, afternoon tea and admission to the exhibition.
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Short course: What is Art Deco?
Monday 7-Friday 11 July, 10.30 - 16.30
Lecture Theatre
This course provides an in-depth introduction to Art Deco and surveys its development from its origins in the European luxury goods trade to the point where it became a commercial style synonymous with mass-consumption worldwide.
Day 1 An exploration of the style, how it was perceived at the time, how it was expressed and criticised.
Day 2 Art Deco as 'the other' of Modernism, tracing not only the alternating fortunes of both tendencies from 1925 until the 1960s, but also contrasting the values to which designers and architects aspired.
Day 3 How the style was distributed through the mass media (notably posters, advertisements, film sets, magazines and shop window displays).
Day 4 Considers the global spread of a style which began as a form of elite cultural production in Europe, but ultimately developed into a look which could be recognised in popular goods throughout the world.
Day 5 Test what you have learned by looking at objects in the V&A collection and the Art Deco exhibition.
The course tutor will be Greg Votolato, author of 'American Design in the Twentieth Century' and lecturer at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College. Speakers include: Tim Benton, Gillian Naylor, Vivian Becker, Tag Gronberg, Treve Rosoman, Greer Crawley, Paul Springer, Ann Massey, Paul Atterbury, Geoffrey Opie, Anna Jackson and Dipti Bhagat.
Advance booking required. Ticket price: full £185, Friends of the V&A and senior citizens £170, students £58, disabled people and ES40 holders £33 Day tickets can be booked but are only available two weeks beforehand, subject to availability. Ticket price per day: full £40, Friends of the V&A and senior citizens £36, students £10, disabled people and ES40 holders £5. Ticket includes sandwich lunch on the first day and admission to the exhibition.
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