Insiders/Outsiders: Refugees from Nazi Europe and their Contribution to British Visual Culture 

Despite the traumatic nature of their dislocation and the obstacles they often encountered on arrival in the UK, those who fled here from Nazi-dominated Europe in the 1930s and 1940s made a deep, pervasive and long-lasting contribution to British culture. Focussing on the visual arts, this new lecture will examine the nature of this contribution, embracing not only familiar names such as Gombrich, Kokoschka, Moholy-Nagy, Schwitters and Heartfield, but also lesser-known figures such as Albert Reuss, Josef Herman and Marie-Louise von Motesiczky. Monica is the initiator and creative director of the insiders/Outsiders Festival (see www.insidersoutsidersfestival.org), so this topic and its relevance to the present day is much on her mind.

Monica Bohm-Duchen: 

London-based freelance lecturer, writer and exhibition organiser. Has lectured for Tate, the National Gallery, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Open University, Sotheby’s Institute of Art and the Courtauld Institute of Art. Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck College since 2005, and has led many tours. Publications include Understanding Modern Art (1991), Chagall (1998/2001), The Private Life of a Masterpiece (2001),The Art and Life of Josef Herman (2009) and Art and the Second World War (2013). She is the initiator and Creative Director of the nationwide Insiders/Outsiders arts festival (see https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/), and contributing editor of the companion volume, Insiders/Outsiders: Refugees from Nazi Europe and their Contribution to British Visual Culture (2019).

Guests are warmly welcomed at lectures, in person or online. Guest tickets are £10 and are available on the door, on the TASDAG website or at Midsteeple Box Office.