Trees in art and literature

 You will find something more in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters.  [St Bernard of Clairveau]

Trees have always caught the human imagination. In Norse mythology the first man and woman were created from an ash and an elm tree; in New Zealand large old trees are given personal names; even Christianity itself can be seen as a journey between trees - from the Garden of Eden to Golgotha. Not surprising, when you consider how, all over the world and throughout history, trees have been central to human life, enhancing our environment both physically and metaphysically; feeding our bodies and our minds.

Trees are remarkable, as individual entities (the only things that routinely grow larger and live longer than we do), and particularly when gathered together in forests, where reality and dream meet and mingle in strange and unexpected ways. Poets and artists have always known this: trees in all the varied stages of their life, growth and death have been and remain a constantly recurring theme of painting, sculpture and literature. Trees have inspired artists to explore new ideas and new ways of expressing themselves: the influence of trees on art extends right to the present-day, as integral to Modernism as to classic landscape, while tree literature ranges from poetry to science; science fiction to drama.

This study day offers an opportunity to explore some of the manifestations of this literally deep-rooted fascination, across time and in all sorts of places, some less obvious than others. 

PROGRAMME

Lecture 1 - ‘Growing in the human brain’: Trees in imagination and reality from the Bible to William Blake

Why trees fascinate us and why artists paint them; the earliest tree legends and images; trees as religious, patriotic and cultural metaphors; trees of life and death. 

Lecture 2 - ‘Light and shadow never stand still’: Painting trees from Constable to Sargent

The rise of naturalism - painting trees real; observation and artistic licence; trees beyond reality: mysterious and amazing. 

Lecture 3 - ‘Enchantment and terror’: Modern trees from Picasso to Hockney

Trees in abstract art and the art of war; the artist in nature and as nature; environmental issues and artworks; “the word for world is forest”. 

This Lecture is held at the Art Workers' Guild in Queen Square London.

TIMETABLE FOR THE DAY

10.30-11.00 Welcome refreshments

11:00-12:00 – Lecture 1

12:00- 12.30 Refreshments

12:30-13:30 – Lecture 2

13:30-14:30 – Lunch

14:30-15:30 Lecture 3