Cult of Beauty: the Victorian Avant Garde, 1860-1900 explores British Aestheticism – an artistic movement that sought to escape the ugliness and materialism of the Victorian era by creating a new kind of art and beauty.
Come hear a visual presentation with docent from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. This talk coincides with exhibit now at the Legion of Honor through June 17th, 2012.
The Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde 1860–1900 is the first major exhibition to explore the unconventional creativity of the British Aesthetic Movement, tracing the evolution of this movement from a small circle of progressive artists and poets, through the achievements of innovative painters and architects, to its broad impact on fashion and the middle-class home. The superb artworks on view encompass the manifold forms of Victorian material culture: the traditional high art of painting, fashionable trends in architecture and interior decoration, handmade and manufactured furnishings for the “artistic” home, art photography, and the new modes of dress.
The Cult of Beauty showcases the entirety of the Aesthetic Movement’s output, celebrating the startling beauty and variety of creations by masters as diverse as artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti, James McNeill Whistler, and Edward
Burne-Jones and designers E.W. Godwin, William Morris, and Christopher Dresser.
These talks are sponsored by the Friends of the San Anselmo Library, and the Library Parcel Tax.The Library Art Talks take place at the Town Hall Council Chambers adjacent to the Library.
