The Artist’s Inner World – Expressionism & Surrealism: Art History Reframed: Autumn 2025 Lecture Series

Art Historian Dr. Matthew Whyte offers a new lecture series, which takes the audience on an art-filled journey through the often beautiful, sometimes scandalous, and always fascinating moments in the development of Western civilisation.

Week 4: The Artist’s Inner World – Expressionism & Surrealism

This week, we catch a glimpse inside the mind of the artist as we explore painters who sought to bring their inner world to life through their art. First, we encounter the new Expressionism which emerged through artists Vincent Van Gogh whose use of vivid colour and increasingly abstract lines famously paved the way for the wild new styles of Henri Matisse and the Fauvists. These artists, in particular Van Gogh, produced some of the most beloved and enduring images in the history of painting. With this impulse for artistic expression came the desire to use art as a vehicle for the exploring the innermost reaches of the mind – we encounter this through the response of Surrealists like Salvador Dalí to interest in the subconscious as a source of truth.

1. Tues 16 September
The Pre-Raphaelites & The Birth of Modernism

2. Tues 23 September
Impressionism & Modern Life

3. Tues 30 September
Post-Impressionism

4. Tues 7 October
The Artist’s Inner World – Expressionism & Surrealism

5. Tues 14 October
The New Industrial Era – Futurism to Pop Art

6. Tues 21 October
The World Transformed – Cubism to Abstract Art