About this Event
What gives an artwork the power to change how we see the world? Is it beauty, shock, technique, politics, or something more personal and harder to define? In this art-focused 5x15, five leading cultural figures will each deliver a fifteen-minute talk on an artwork that holds particular significance for them. Taking one artwork as a starting point, each speaker will open up a wider story about how art shapes the way we see the world, from private obsession to shared cultural meaning.
Geoff Dyer on a photograph that has had a lasting impact on his way of looking at the world.
Ekow Eshun on an artwork that has shaped his thinking about identity, beauty and power.
Andrew Graham Dixon on his favourite painting by Vermeer, re-seen through his radically new interpretation of the artist’s greatest works.
Katy Hessel on an artwork by a woman artist that transformed how she sees the story of art.
Sir Grayson Perry on an artwork that has influenced his creative life and ideas about art.
Geoff Dyer is an award-winning author of four novels and numerous non-fiction books, including The Last Days of Roger Federer and Homework: A Memoir. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science. His books have been translated into twenty-four languages. His 2012 book The Ongoing Moment: A Book About Photographs was described by the Sunday Telegraph as 'One of the most graceful ruminations on photography ever … Dyer's tour de force is as inspirational as it is accessible.' Photo Credit: Noah Loof.
Ekow Eshun OBE is a distinguished curator, writer, and broadcaster, described by Vogue as “the most inspired - and inspiring - curator in Britain." He has staged acclaimed exhibitions internationally, was awarded the Association for Art History’s Curatorial Prize 2023, and made history as the first Black head of a major UK arts institution, serving as the director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. As Chairman of the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, he leads one of the world’s most significant public art projects. He is the author of numerous books including, most recently, The Strangers, longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and the Jhalak Prize, and his writing is featured in outlets such as The New York Times, Financial Times, and Vogue.
Andrew Graham-Dixon is one of the UK’s leading art critics and arts television presenters. He has written several acclaimed books on art and artists, including a biography of Caravaggio. His latest book, Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found, sets out a groundbreaking new theory about the religious and intellectual world of Vermeer and reveals the long-hidden meaning of his most beloved paintings. Photo Credit: Aliona Adrianova.
Katy Hessel is an art historian and the author of The Story of Art without Men, the international bestseller and Waterstones Book of the Year 2022. She runs @thegreatwomenartists on Instagram, hosts The Great Women Artists Podcast, interviewing artists such as Tracey Emin and Marina Abramovic, and is a columnist for the Guardian. Hessel is a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University and a Trustee of Charleston. In 2024, she launched Museums Without Men, an audio series highlighting works by women artists in museum collections worldwide, such as The Met and Tate Britain. Her latest book is How To Live An Artful Life.
Sir Grayson Perry is a Turner Prize winning contemporary artist, member of the Royal Academy, former trustee of the British Museum, and winner of the Erasmus prize. He also performs live touring one-man stage shows. Perry delivered The Reith Lectures, BBC Radio 4’s annual flagship talk series, in 2013. He has made several Channel 4 television series including Grayson Perry’s Full English (2023), All In the Best Possible Taste (2013 BAFTA Winner), Who Are You? (2014 BAFTA Winner), All Man (2016), Divided Britain (2017), Rites of Passage (2018), Grayson Perry’s Big American Road Trip (2020) and Grayson’s Art Club (2020, 2021, 2022).
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London, United Kingdom
GBP 35.00 to GBP 60.00
