Glory Days of Paris is a series of six lectures delivered over two years, 2019 and 2020, focusing on the Parisian literary and artistic world of the 1920s and ‘30s, with an introductory lecture to precede this period and a concluding lecture set in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The lectures will be held in iconic locations reflecting the topic of each lecture and, over and above, there will be ancillary events including themed walks, visits and exhibitions, in Paris and the UK.
The first lecture, The Artists of Montmartre, was given on 16th May at the Musée des Arts Forains. Booking is now open for the second lecture in the series, The philosophical framework, Dadaism and Surrealism, which will take place in Christie’s Paris auction rooms, where so much of the art to be covered in the talk goes under the hammer.
The modern world that burst upon Paris during the inter-war years was not just an artistic revolution that questioned and destroyed perceived convention, it was also the fruit of philosophy. First, the Dada movement founded in Zurich by artists such as Tristan Tzara and Hans Arp, and then Surrealism under the aegis of André Breton, drawing into its vortex artists and intellectuals including René Magritte, Man Ray, Max Ernst and Salvador Dali.
Speaker: Dr Alyce Mahon, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, reader in Modern and Contemporary Art History. Dr Mahon specialises in the dynamic between the body and the body politic in modern art, photography and film, from Dada to Surrealism and the sixties. Author of  Surrealism and the Politics of Eros, and curator of a major forthcoming exhibition at Tate Modern on Surrealist Dorothea Tanning.
Tickets are €25 per person. To apply for tickets please complete the booking section. By booking through this site, you can pay
- by cheque, to be sent to Tony Banton, Hon. Secretary, 39 rue de Bazeilles, 59200 Tourcoing
- by bank transfer to the Society’s Société Générale account IBAN: FR76 3000 3033 0200 0372 7572 052 BIC: SOGEFRPP. Please use the reference box to record “Glory Days 2 June 2019†with your surname
- or, NEW, by credit card directly on the site