We're very grateful to Nick Harkness and our "Canberra Colour Club" for organizing a very special event for our November webinar, a presentation by well-known British-German art historian and writer Dr Alexandra Loske on November 26.
Metaphorically speaking, Alexandra fell into colour just over 15 years ago. The subject of her doctoral thesis was the use of colour in the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, where she is now curator. In the years since embarking on DPhil in Art History, Alexandra has published many books and articles on colour, and has developed specific research strands that have taken her onto an often-surprising journey through the realms of colour. In this talk, Alexandra will outline this journey – which you could call a colour career - to date. It included working on the colours of missing 18th century Chinoiserie dragons, searching for women previously not recognised for their role in colour history, writing and editing both very small and very large books on colour, and curating or contributing to exhibitions about colour. Each of Alexandra’s colour projects had different origins and aims, and many developed collaboratively. All are proof that colour is a timeless, interdisciplinary, and genre-spanning topic that continues to fascinate people.
Dr Alexandra Loske FSA is a British-German art historian, writer, and museum curator. She has a particular interest in the role of women in colour history. This research is supported by the University of Sussex, where Alexandra is a Research Associate. Alexandra has curated many temporary art exhibitions and permanent displays, among them Regency Colour and Beyond 1785 – 1845 (2014) at the Royal Pavilion. She has been involved with the exhibition Turner et la Couleur in Aix-en-Provence, France, and the Turner Contemporary in Margate (2016/17), and is currently preparing an immersive colour trail/exhibition through the Royal Pavilion for 2025.
Alexandra has lectured and been published widely on the history of colour. Most recently, she delivered the 2024 Mondrian Lecture at the Sikkens Prize award ceremony in Rotterdam, and in 2024 aslo published The Book of Colour Concepts (two volumes) with TASCHEN, the first stand-alone study on Mary Gartside (the first known women in Western culture to have published an illustrated book on colour and colour theory) Mary Gartside c.1755-1819: Abstract Visions of Colour (Paul Holberton/Thomas Heneage Art Books), the ODNB entry for Mary Gartside, and The Artist’s Palette (Thames & Hudson and Princeton University Press), which is being translated into several languages. She is currently working on a major book on the Royal Pavilion for Yale University Press (2025). You can follow Alexandra on Instagram to keep up with her news at @saschaloske.
REGISTRATION
This webinar is free to CSA members and nonmembers but registration is essential and limited to 100 participants worldwide, so early registration is advised. Registration opens for CSA members at the start of November and will open seven days later for nonmembers. Please note that our webinars are often booked out well before the event, so early registration is strongly recommended.
This presentation will be of interest to the general public as well as to anyone dealing professionally with pigments and dyes, painting and commercial printing. We ask our members and friends to please pass on news of this important presentation to their contacts using the following link: https://coloursociety.org.au/event-5881145
