We are delighted to announce the return of Dido Powell’s London Art Gallery Tours, starting on Sunday 11 February. This year we are offering a series of four tours, focusing on ‘The Ugly and the Beautiful in Art’. If you have done the tour before you will know what a wonderful way this is to spend a Sunday morning. Dido Powell is an artist and teaches the history of art. Her tours are always well informed and insightful.

Each tour costs £12 or you can book the whole series for £45. You can book by contacting Wendy Earle: wendyearle@talktalk.net. To be sure of your place on the tours — detailed below — please book early.

FULL SERIES
Sunday 11 February:
Ugly Art (Tate Modern)
Sunday 17 March:
From Ugly to Ideal (National Gallery)
Sunday 28 April:
The Ideal Turns Sour (Tate Britain)
Sunday 19 May:
Artists’ Inspiration (British Museum)

Tour 4: Artists’ Inspiration

The British Museum reveals both the origins of the Western canon of artistic beauty and the power of non-Western traditions to offer alternative ways of creating beauty and emotion. In particular, we will look at how non-Western traditions inspired innovations in Western art, liberating artists from the weight of classical traditions. We will look at sculptures and works across the collection from the Elgin Marbles to the Benin Bronzes to discuss the ways in which the works have inspired individual artists, such as Jacob Epstein and Henry Moore as well as modern artistic movements.