About this Event
We are delighted to welcome back our friend James Payne, art historian, TV presenter and the creator of Great Art Explained, the hugely popular art history channel with over two million subscribers and more than sixty million views worldwide.
Art, Love and Experiment: Twombly, Johns, Rauschenberg, Cunningham and Cage
For Thanksgiving, James explores the intertwined lives of five extraordinary figures: artists Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, choreographer Merce Cunningham and composer John Cage. Their friendships, love affairs and creative collaborations helped transform American painting, dance and music.It is too simple to explain their artistic innovations through their sexuality. But it is equally misleading to leave sexuality out of their story. These were men whose relationships could not always be publicly acknowledged, working in a society that often demanded discretion or silence. Questions of identity, freedom and concealment offer a compelling way into their work, without providing easy answers to its mysteries.
Through their encounters, ideas crossed between disciplines. Rauschenberg worked with Cunningham and Cage, bringing painting into conversation with dance and experimental music. Personal relationships became part of a wider exchange that challenged what art could be.Behind some of the most influential American art of the twentieth century lies a story of friendship, intimacy, secrecy and desire, and of the possibilities that emerge when remarkable people enter one another’s lives.
After the talk, James will sign copies of his bestselling book, Great Art Explained.
Photograph of James Payne by Rankin.
Pair the talk with a £25 two course Sunday Roast deal.
Available before the talk from 1pm & after the talk from 4.30pm.
To book please visit or buy your combo ticket.
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Event venue & nearby stays
Hotel Indigo London Clerkenwell by IHG, 2 Clerkenwell Road, London, United Kingdom
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