JEAN RENOUX'S LECTURES, SEMINARS, COURSES ON

ARCHITECTURE (A), ART HISTORY (ART), DECOR/FURNITURE (ID), HISTORY (H), EUROPEAN HISTORY (EH), BIOGRAPHIES (B) , TRAVELOG (T).

See also the classes approved by AIA for Architects and Interiors Designers' Continuing Education

 

ARCHITECTURE (A), DECOR/FURNITURE (ID)

 

A1- A. H. ART          GREEK ARCHITECTURE: The impact of an architecture that influence, Rome, modern Europe and the US architecture of a nascent country.

                3  to 5 hour lecture 

 

A2- A. H.                   OMAN ARCHITECTURE: The history of Roman architecture and art and its influence on the                 Renaissance architecture.

                3 to 5 hour lecture 

 

A3- A. H. ART          ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE

                3 to 5 hour lecture 

 

A4- A. H. ART          GOTHIC CATHEDRALS:  A style born in France: Notre Dame and the Sainte Chapelle of Paris,            Notre  Dame of Chartres, Laon, Reims, Beauvais, Sens, Amiens, Rouen, Bourges, Albi: the amazing                                      feast of architecture, the transcendental beauty of the stained glass windows, the political and                                              human impact of a construction  process that would sometimes take more than a century to see its                                      accomplishment. We will compare the changes, which occurred with the discovery of the flying                                            buttresses against the Romanesque type of  architecture.

                1hr:45mn  to 5 hour lecture

 

A5- A. H. ART. ID     THE RENAISSANCE: The transformation from medieval thinking to new more open-minded                philosophies that saw an incredible transformation in architecture, furniture and decor but also in                                          literature, philosophy, poetry, religion and music. From Italy the influence will penetrate all parts of                                      Europe and even far away countries.

                 3 to 30 hour lecture/course

 

A6- A. H. ART. ID    The CASTLES OF THE LOIRE VALLEY: From Angers to Chambord, through Azay, Usse, Villandry,        Chenonceau and lesser-known castles. A look at the birth of the French Renaissance, its architecture                                    and decor. We will  talk about the women who designed or owned some of the most beautiful                                              castles, Leonardo da Vinci's last years of his life in Clos Luce and the changes in architecture, decor.                                    It is also the human side of history, from  the time of feudal Lords in the year 1,000 to the first                                                absolute French king, Francis I, in the 16th Century.

                                 1hr:45mn  to 5 hour lecture/course

 

A7- A. H. ART. ID     PALLADIO: A wide review of his architecture and his influence on British and US architecture, as well  as an understanding of the period in which he lived and worked.

                3 to 6 hour lecture 

 

A8- A. H. ART. ID    BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY AND EUROPE:  born from the Mannerist style, in the late 16th    century it will survive the Rococo era in many parts of Europe until the beginning of the 19th                                                  Century.  It is a style full of movement, opposite to the Renaissance style. The Roman Catholic                                              Church, in trying to counter the Protestant Reformation, considered that the arts should                                                        communicate religious themes in an over played emotional form. Contrary to the Renaissance style                                      in art or architecture, the Baroque style is overly opulent. From St Peter Basilica to Versailles and the                                    grand castles (in Germany:  Ludwigsburg Palace, Perterhoff in Russia, and churches of Europe, we                                        will visit with some of the greatest architects and artists of the time. Gianlorenzo Bernini, Francesco                                      Borromini, Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Some of the architects, artists and buildings we will discuss: Michelangelo, Giacomo della Porta,                                        Carlo Maderno: St Peter's Basilica, the Vatican; Francesco Laparelli, Gerolamo Cassar: Urbanistic                                        complex of the city of Valletta, Malta; Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, Giacomo della Porta: Church of                                     he Gesu, Rome;  Carlo Maderno: Santa Susanna, Rome; Giovanni de Galliano Pieroni, Andrea                                              Spezza, Niccolo Sebregondi: Wallenstein Palace, Prague, Czech Republic; Jules Hardouin Mansart,                                      Louis Le Vau, André Le Nôtre, Château de Versailles, Versailles, France; Francesco Borromini: San                                        Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome, Italy;  Guarino Guarini: San Lorenzo (Turin), Turin, Italy;                                                    Christopher Wren: St Paul's Cathedral, London, England; Augustyn Wincenty Locci, Giovanni                                                Spazzio: Wilanów Palace,  Warsaw, Poland; Jules Hardouin Mansart: Les Invalides, Paris, France;                                           Jean Baptiste Mathey, Giovanni Domenico Orsi Troja Palace Prague, Czech Republic; Jakob                                                 Prandtauer: Stift Melk, Austria; Matteo Alberti: Schloss Bensberg, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany;                                          Christoph Dientzenhofer, Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer: Saint Nicholas Church (Malá Strana), Prague,                                        Czech Republic; Sir John Vanbrugh: Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England; Matthäus Daniel                                                Pöppelmann: ZwingerPalace, Dresden, Germany; João Frederico Ludovice: Mafra Palace, Mafra,                                          Portugal; Teodoro Ardemans, Filippo Juvarra: Palace of La Granja, Segovia, Spain;

Bartolomeo Rastrelli: Peterhof Palace, St Petersburg, Russia; Nicola Salvi: Trevi Fountain, Rome, I                                          Italy; Filippo Juvarra, Juan Bautista Sacchetti, Ventura Rodríguez: Royal Palace, Madrid, Spain, etc....                                                    3 to 24 hour lecture/course 

                                 

A9- A. H. ART. ID     VERSAILLES: The Sun King and the daily life at the court, the mistresses, the architects and the            artists who created the decor of one of the largest castles in the worlds. We will talk about the                                              political and economical reasons behind the construction of the castle. We will see the evolution of different architectural and decorative styles. We will look at Vaux le Vicomte, a marvelous castle built in 5 years by 18,000 workers and designed by the same architect, gardener and decorator who will later create Versailles.

                1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6 hour lecture

 

A10- A. H. ART. ID   The GARDENS OF VILLANDRY AND VERSAILLES: Villandry is probably the most perfect example of a Renaissance garden based on monastic Medieval decorated kitchen gardens. In this 32,000 sq. feet garden, the precise decor, the colors and the forms are created strictly with vegetables and fruit trees representing 120,000 plants a year. Villandry also has The Love Garden" a 13,000 sq. feet geometric garden "a la française" containing tall boxwood and yew trimmed into hedges surrounding carpets of flowers (25,000 plants) symbolic designs associated with love. Versailles is a huge park with several gardens each with its own style, its own story. From French to English gardens, it is a beautiful walk in the mist of hundreds of statues and some of the most beautiful fountains ever designed.

                1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6 hour lecture (with the addition of the Monet at Giverny)

 

11- A. H. ART. ID     ROCAILLE, LOUIS XV, ROCOCO ARCHITECTURE AND DECOR IN FRANCE AND EUROPE

Rocaille is one of the more prominent aspects of the Rococo style of architecture and decoration that developed in France during the reign of King Louis XV (1715–74). The Rocaille style was born from the Baroque in which it took it fluid and complex shapes and new interest in nature and natural sciences. In French, rocaille means “rubble,” or “pebbles,” or "landscape of rocks" and style rocaille is synonymous with Rococo. Solitude Palace in Stuttgart; Chinese Palace in Oranienbaum;  the Bavarian church in Wies;  Sanssouci in Potsdam; Augustusburg and Falkenlust Palaces in Brüh; Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin; Chinese House in Potsdam and some portion of the Château de Versailles are great examples of decor and architecture of the period.  Antoine Gaudreau, Charles Cressent, Jean-Pierre Latz, François Oeben, Bernard II van Risamburgh  Thomas Chippendale, Thomas Johnson François de Cuvilliés, Nicholas Pineau, Bartolomeo Rastrelli Juste-Aurèle Meissonier,  the marchands-merciers and their leader Simon-Philippe Poirier are some of the great cabinet makers/ decorators we will talk about.          

                3 to 10 hour lecture 

 

12- A. ART. ID          NEO-CLASSICISM IN ARCHITECTURE AND DECOR IN EUROPE

The movement was both a reaction against the complexity and opulence of the Rococo and the renewal of interest in classical architecture after the re-discovery of Pompeii. A non negligible influence was the architecture of Andrea Palladio which started to be more known around Europe. The style will give birth to many different styles like the Adam Style, Empire Style, Federal, American Empire, and even Nazi and             Stalinist architecture. Some of its elements can be found even in Art Deco architecture or furniture.       

                3 to 6 hour lecture 

 

13- A. H. ART. ID     The LOUVRE MUSEUM: 240 to 500 slides or so to tell of eight hundred years in the history of the Louvre from Philippe-Auguste small fortress to I. M. Pei's glass pyramid. More than ten architects designed all the buildings that created perhaps the largest palace in the world. Amazingly enough, there is a certain unity of style although the buildings still standing were designed starting in the early 1400s, and then saw many different epochs: Francis I, Henri II, Henri IV (French Renaissance), Louis XIII (The time of Mansart), Louis XIV (Baroque era, Le Vaux future architect of Versailles), Napoleon I, Napoleon III up to the Pyramid by I.M. Pei as well as some of his inside decorative and space planning work.

                 1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6 hour lecture

 

A14- A. ID                FRENCH COUNTRY FURNITURE: a grand panorama of the "country French" styles. The roots of more than 48 different styles coming from at least 12 different main regions.  

                3  hour, 6 hour, 10hr CEU HSW for Architects and Interior Designers OR several chapters for 30 hours                                    of lecture.

 

A15- A. ID                A SHORT HISTORY IN IMAGES OF FRENCH FURNITURE AND DECOR. It brings out the reasons why some pieces of furniture did appear and how people lived through the centuries getting to "modernize" their surroundings when foreign influences would bring new ideas.

                3 hour lecture  or 2 time 1hr:30mn

 

A16- A. ID                APPRECIATING FRENCH FURNITURE, DECOR AND ARCHITECTURE. From the medieval era to the modernist period of the late 1930, a wide survey of how people lived with furniture and the connection between history, architecture and decor.

                20hr CEU HSW for Architects and Interior Designers. This can be that also be presented in several                                        chapters totaling over 50 hours of lecture.

 

A17- A. ART. ID       ART NOUVEAU: From Brussels to Nancy to Paris, the birth of a movement using nature as its                                                inspiration.

                3 to 6 hr lecture

 

A18- A. ART. ID       THE BIRTH OF MODERN AND BEYOND: An Overview of Western Architecture, Painting and Sculpture from 1850 to 1980: This course will revive and enhance the professional's knowledge of Western 19th and 20th Century architecture, painting and sculpture.

Beginning with the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800's, and progressing past World War II to the 1980's, the course will cover prominent movements including the Barbizon School, Pre-­Raphealites, Impressionism, Nabism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, Bauhaus, International Style and continue on to Neo-Abstraction. We will also cover the influential artists, architects and works of each period. This course is supplemented by over 1000 slides and will discuss not only the art and architecture but the Political and socio-economic factors that influenced the key movements Industrial Revolution, The Russian Revolution, Socialism, World Wars l and Il.

                Two-time Ten Hour lecture 

 

A19- A. H. ART. ID  ART NOUVEAU IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE: ("New Art" in French) Based on precepts akin to William Morris' Arts and Crafts movement in England, the attempt was to eradicate the dividing line between art and audience. Everything could and should be art: Burne-Jones designed wallpaper, Hector Guimard designed metro stations, and Mucha designed champagne advertising and stage sets. Each country had its own name for the new approach and artists of incredible skill and vision flocked to the movement. It was a movement that had a very strong influence essentially in the middle of Europe. Some of the greatest example of architecture, decor and art can be found in Austria, the Czech Republic or Hungary.

                3 to 10 hour lecture 

 

A20- A. ART. ID       ANTONI GAUDI: Gaudí was an architect with an amazing sense for geometry and volumes, and one of the most imaginative of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He generally didn't draw but preferred to use scale models to convey his ideas to the builders. He was often improvising but   Gifted with a strong intuition and creative capacity, Gaudí conceived his buildings in a global manner, taking into account both structural and decorative functions.

                1hr:45mn or 3hr

 

A21- A. ART. ID       THE VIENNA SECESSION  The Vienna Secession (also known as the Union of Austrian Artists, or Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs) was founded on 3 April 1897 by a group of artists who had left the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. They were painters, sculptors, and architects. Their first president was Gustav Klimt. Some of the most important were Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil. Although Otto Wagner is recognized as part of the Vienna Secession he was not a founding member. The artists objected to the prevailing conservatism of the Vienna Künstlerhaus.

Because of differences of opinion, some artist left the movement and went on to create in 1903

 the Wiener Werkstätte (engl.: Vienna Workshop). Their aim was to create a movement of architects, artists and designers who would create art that would be accessible to everyone. One of their most famous is the Stoclet Palace in Brussels.

                1hr:45mn or 3hr

 

A22- A. ART. ID       OTTO WAGNER  Wagner, an Austrian architect born in 1841 started designing buildings in 1864,  following the ideas of a contemporary movement, Architectural Realism, that wanted to rely less on historical forms or elements. Then in early1890s, he designed several Jugendstil (Art Nouveau in Austria) buildings. He was very interested in urban planning  and designed a new city plan for Vienna. Although his plan was not developed, his urban rail network, the Stadtbahn, was built. In its evolution, his style incorporated the use of new materials and new forms as well as quasi-symbolic references to reflect the fact that society was changing. He wrote that "new human tasks and views called for a change or reconstitution of existing forms".  In 1897, he joined the Vienna Secession shortly after it was founded.  

                1hr:45mn or 3hr

 

A23- A. ART. ID       The ORSAY MUSEUM: How an obsolete train station was saved from demolition to become one of the most beautiful museums in the world. You will discover the art of the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th, which includes a great collection of Impressionists. We will also look at lesser know art like the "style nouille" (pasta style) and the "style pompier" (firemen style), some very unusual and beautiful furniture and a few of the major sculptors of the century.

                1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6 hour lecture

 

A24- A. ART. ID       MACKINTOSH Charles Rennie Mackintosh, born in 1868   was a Scottish architect, furniture designer, watercolorist and sculptor. He was part of the Arts and Crafts movement and also Art Nouveau. He talent was considerable and soon he had created his own style that no longer could incorporated in any other mainstream movements. His influence on European architecture was important.  

                3 to 5 hour lecture 

 

A25- A. ID                FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT: Frank Lloyd Wright, born 1867, was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator. He designed more than 1,000 projects.  More than 500 of them were completed works. Wright promoted organic architecture (Fallingwater), was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture (Robie House, Westcott House, Darwin D. Martin House), and developed the concept of the Usonian home (Rosenbaum House). His work included many different building types, (offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, and museums) but also included interior elements of many of the of his buildings original and innovative examples of Wright also often designed, such as the furniture and stained glass.                             

                6 hr course - 2 hr lecture - or 2 X 3 lectures

 

A26- A. ART. ID       ART DECO ARCHITECTURE, FURNITURE AND DECOR IN EUROPE: Although a style born in France around 1910 which lasted until the 1925 "Exposition des Arts Decoratifs" in Paris giving the style its name, recognized its culminating point and saw its demise, Art Deco influenced the European architecture landscape as can be seen in cities all over Europe from Vienna to Prague to Budapest, to Brussels to Amsterdam, Berlin and more.

                3 to 10 hour lecture 

 

A27- A. ART. ID       ART DECO FURNITURE AND DECOR IN FRANCE: An overview of a style born in France around 1910 which lasted until the 1925 "Exposition des Arts Decoratifs" in Paris giving the style its name, recognized its culminating point and saw its demise, all at the same time.

1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6 hour lecture

 

 

A28-  A. ART. ID      FALLINGWATER

                                A great sculpture, but a not so great house to live in. A story filled with interesting tidbits about the planning, the construction, and the slip between the architect and the client.

1hr:45mn

 

 

A29- A. ART. ID       LE CORBUSIER: The ideas and the work of the great Swiss/French architect, and the people who worked with him.

                 3 to 5 hour lecture 

 

A30- A. ART. ID       EILEEN GREY

                                  A very talented designer of furniture, light fixtures, and of a great modernist house on the French                                        Riviera

                3-to-5-hour lecture 

 

A31- A. ART. ID        THE BAUHAUS: Weimar, Dessau, Berlin

                 6 hour lecture

 

A32- A. ID                THE BAUHAUS IN THE US: The influence of this great German movement on our contemporary                                          architecture.

                2hr, 2 hr x 2   

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A34- A. H. ART. ID   COMMUNIST ARCHITECTURE: An overview of architecture in Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, East Germany) that can at times be considered as de-humanizing and at best rather simplistic and minimalist, with foray into the grandiose and over powering. We will also see how some architects were able to create rather original architecture despite the stringent rules and how politics and fears played an instrumental role in a seemingly boring style.

                3 to 5 hour lecture 

 

A35- A. ID                THE SARASOTA SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT

An architectural movement starting in 1942, which was not a school, but a grouping of talented architects with great practical and economical ideas.                     

                4 hour lecture

 

A36- A. ART. ID       MOSTLY MODERN: the major projects of the late 20th century in Paris: The Pompidou Center, the Pyramid and the Grand Louvre, the Arch of the Defense, the Museum of Orsay, the Center for the Arabic World, the Bastille Opera, the Museum of Science and Technique, The Park of la Villette, the National Conservatory of Music, the National Library, the American Center in Paris, amazing low income housings by Ricardo Bofill and Paolo Nunez and more. An interesting look at some of the boldest and most controversial architecture of today and a Paris that most tourist miss.

                1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6-hour   

 

A37- A. ART. ID       THE POMPIDOU CENTER

The chemical plant, the petrol refinery, with its guts in plain air, in the middle of Paris, certainly attracted the attention of many in 1977. Designed by an Italian architect, Renzo Piano and a British one, Richard Rogers, it is technically speaking an interesting and exceptional building. Each floor              

cover 75 347 sq ft, without any columns or walls, to accommodate any floor plan needed, that can be transformed and changed by removing moving partitions.

                1hr:45mn or 3 hour

 

A38- A. ART. ID       HUNDERTWASSER: was one of the most well know contemporary Austrian artist, but also a very interesting              and controversial architect with many "green" ideas ahead of his time.

                1hr:45mn

 

A39- A. ART. ID       IMRE MAKOVECZ: one of the greatest Hungarian architects (he died in 2012), and one of the greatest organic architects, he used hidden Magyar symbolism in his architecture, against the Communist government

                1hr:45mn

 

A40- A. ID                NEUTRA AND SCHINDLER Two Austrian architects who will have an enormous influence on modern architecture in the US. 

                                 3 hr

 

A41- A. ID                JEAN PROUVE: a metal worker, self-taught architect, engineer and designer who transferred manufacturing technologies from industry to architecture with style and aesthetic qualities. He was involved in architectural design, structural design, industrial design and furniture design.

                                 1hr:45mn

 

A42- A. ID                PAOLO SOLERI AND ARCOSANTI: An experiment that was ahead of its time? Where is the failure? What ideas could still be taken from Soleri's philosophy? Other architects' similar projects.

                                 2 hr 

 

A43- A. ID                BUILDING & DESIGNING THE HEALTHY HOME:

                                 1:45 or 2 x 1:30

 

A44- A. ID                THE ALMOST PERFECT BUILDING: a building safe from chemicals, naturally inslutade, cross ventilated and using modern technologies to minimize energie and optimize comfort.

                                 Two-time eight hour  

                  

 

A45- A                      AUTOCLAVE AERATED CONCRETE: an 80-year-old technology creating blocks or panels for commercial or residential construction. It is a superior material with a 4-hr fire rating, non toxic, non pollutant, with a high insulation rating, a high sound proofing rating, great strength, non conductive to mold proliferation, impervious to termite, 5 time lighter than normal concrete blocks, easy to work with hand tools.

                                 2-hr CEU  for architects or anyone interesting by new materials used to built any type of buildings.

 

A46- A.                     THE SKYSCRAPERS: an America invention? How it changed the configuration of the urban landscape. The advances in technology. Defying the impossible.

                3 to 6 hr course 

 

A47- A.                     URBAN SPRAWL: Why we dehumanize housing by creating sprawl, and what are the solutions, and can we continue to go at the rate we do for very long.

                                 3 to 5 hr course

 

A48- A. ART. ID       ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE: Organic architecture is not new. We can find examples of it from Celtic times to Art Nouveau, to Arts and Crafts, to the work of Anton Alberts, Laurie Baker, Claude Bragdon, Nari Gandhi, Antoni Gaudi, Bruce Goff, Neville Gruzman, Hugo Häring, Hundertwasser, Kendrick Bangs Kellogg, John Lautner, Le Corbusier, Imre Makovecz, Hans Scharoun,  Gustav Stickley. Louis Sullivan, Rudolf Steiner,Frank Lloyd Wright,  Bruno Zevi

Organic architecture is gentler to the environment, gentler on our sense of aesthetics because softer and in some ways with a sense of humor. It is based on natural or curvilinear forms rather than the straight-line concept of modernism.

                3 to 18 hour lecture 

 

 

ART HISTORY  (ART)

 

49- ART                    CAVE ART IN DORDOGNE AND THE PYRENEES: art 16,000 to 30,000 years old  still mystifying                                            experts as why.

                1:30 to 3-hour lecture

 

50- ART                    HISTORY OF FRENCH SCULPTURE: This course will be an overview of the history of French sculpture, including discussions of sculpture as a reflection of the historical era in which it is placed. Students will compare and consider examples of sculpture from earliest times to the present - prehistoric cave sculpture at Cap Blanc, Gothic cathedrals and their sculptures, works in the palaces and chateaux of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the works of Rodin and other 19th century sculptors, and abstract and contemporary works of this century.

                5 lectures of 2 hour each

 

51- ART. B                THE BIRTH OF IMPRESSIONISM: The 19th century was an amazing period of turmoil and creativity. Thanks to the invention of the paint tube the Beaux- Arts rules of landscape are changing. The school of Barbizon with Corot, Millet, Breton, Bonheur will revolutionize the genre painting. The Second Empire will try to dictate its taste to the public but a group of artists will change the way people paint and look at paintings.                              

                5 lectures of 2 hours each

 

52- ART. B                TOULOUSE- LAUTREC: The life and tribulations of an extraordinary artist, who suffered from a very rare genetic disease, pycnodysostosis, only really understood in the early sixties.

He was for many "the soul of Montmartre", describing in painting the life of cabarets, bars, performance halls, and brothels. He painted the people who worked there, and who were often his close friends. One cannot forget his remarkable portraits of unknown or famous people who frequented these places. He was also an extraordinary illustrator, creating posters to promote theaters or cabarets.

He wanted, one day, to physically defend his friend Vincent van Gogh, insulted by an artist, a demonstration of his courage, and also of his deep loyalty to his friends.

He was very fond of horse riding, giving it up because of his illness, but never forgetting it, through his paintings and drawings. He was passionate about the non-conformist side of the circus.

His life was brief, but full. He left 735 paintings, hundreds of drawings and lithographs, as well as several thousand drawings.               

                1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6-hour lecture

 

53- ART. B                VINCENT van GOGH: his life in the Netherlands, England, Belgium and Paris through his drawings and paintings. Some lesser-known paintings from his most prolific three years in Arles and St Remy. A very different approach to the life of this admirable person, his relationship with Gauguin, his problems with the closed society of Arles and the tragic end in Auvers. The story involves Theo, the ever-loving brother without whom there wouldn't be a Vincent.

                1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6-hour lecture

 

54- A. H. ART. ID. B ALPHONSE MUCHA: Born in 1860 in the Czech Republic, he became interested by the visual art by. age 16 and thanks to a rich patron, many years later at the ripe old age of 27, ended like ,many other artists in Paris. He taught young students, drew illustration for low paying magazines and tried to survive as the proverbial starving artist. He even shared briefly a studio with Gauguin then returning from his first trip in the South Seas. In 1895 he was lucky to be commissioned by the great actress Sarah Bernhardt, to create a poster for one of her plays. That will be the start of a collaboration lasting over seven years. Fame had reached him. In 1900 for the Paris's World's Fair, Mucha designed the Bosnia-Herzegovina Pavilion and partnered with goldsmith Georges Fouquet in the creation of jewelry based on his designs. Mucha considered his success a triumph for the Czech people as much as for himself. In 1909 he was commissioned to paint a series of murals for the Lord Mayor's Hall in Prague. He started to paint "The Slav Epic" - a series of great paintings chronicling major events in the Slav nation and hoped to complete the task in five or six years, but instead it took 18 year of his life. When the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia, he was still influential enough to be one of the first people they arrested. He returned home after a Gestapo questioning session and died shortly thereafter on July 14, 1939.

                1:30 TO 3-hour lecture

 

55- H. ART               19TH CENTURY JEWISH ARTISTS IN, PARIS:  At the end of the 19th century Paris was a thriving community for Jewish artist creating some of the most avant-garde art of the century.

                1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6-hour lectures

 

56- ART. H                MODERN JEWISH ARTISTS: The 20th Century Jewish artists Soutine, Chagall. Lipchitz,  Zadkine, and Modigliani and many others.

                 3-hour lecture. Follows the lecture "19th Century Jewish Artists in, Paris."

 

57- ART. H                LES BALLETS RUSSES:  The Ballets Russes was a ballet company established in 1909 by the Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev. The company settled in Paris in 1910. They were an "avant-garde" ballet company introducing to the public a "modern" choreography full of vitality away from the stiff French classical ballet, with musical composition from "modern" composers (Igor Stravinsky , Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, Richard Strauss, Maurice Ravel, Georges Auric, Eric Satie), all of them at the other end of the spectrum of a lesser grade music often composed for the French ballet; in decor using vibrant colors often created by upcoming artists like Picasso, Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova, Jean Cocteau, Andre Derain, Leon Bakst, Joan Miro, Salvador Dalí,  the Delaunays, Henri Matisse, Juan Gris, and Georges Braque.

                1hr:30mn X 2 = 3hr  

 

58- ART. ID               A HISTORY OF HIGH FASHION: from Frederick Worth, the "inventor" of high fashion in the mid 19th century, to the fashion of the late 1960's.

                1hr:45mn

 

59- ART. H. B           FRIDA KAHLO:  was a Mexican painter, married to the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and had an affair with Leon Trotsky. Because she contracted polio at age six and a terrible accident when a teenager, she suffered multiple ailments all her life. These issues are the central motif of her paintings, most of which are self-portraits, In Mexico her work is seen as inspired by national and indigenous tradition. The feminists have high regards for her work, because of its depiction of the female experience. Kahlo suggested, "I paint myself because I am so often alone, and because I am the subject I know best."

                1hr:45mn

 

60- ART. B                ROBERT DOISNEAU: The photos and the life of a great French photographer. In the 1930s he used a Leica on the streets of Paris. Him and Henri Cartier-Bresson were pioneers of photojournalism. He is known for his 1950 photo of a couple kissing in the busy streets of Paris  (Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville)

1:45 mn    

                              

61- ART. H. B            MESDAMES CHANEL, GRES AND VIONNET: Three great ladies of High Fashion.

1hr:45mn

 

62- ART. B                 SALVADOR DALI: from the beginning to 1930

                1hr:45mn

 

63- ART. B                 SALVADOR DALI: from 1930

                1hr:45mn

 

64- ART. B                PICASSO AND HIS WOMEN: How Picasso's personal life influenced his work. After each new "conquest," each separation, his style would change reflecting his mood and emotions. Madeleine, Fernande, Germaine, Olga, Marie Therese, Dora, Francoise, Jacqueline and countless others ladies were part of the long and complex life of the artist. His love life was prolific but so was his artist output: he left over 2,000 paintings and an estimated 45,000 pieces, from drawings to ceramics including engravings, lithographs, rugs and sculptures. Two hundred to 800 slides will try to tell a side of the story, without pretending to tell the whole happening, or trying to explain such a complex person. Picasso, although a Spaniard, spent seventy-one years of his creative years in France. At his death he left a mess of an estate, which was underestimated for tax purpose at $ 260 million. From that huge estate, the French Government was able to get as inheritance taxes, a collection of art works that became the foundation of the Picasso Museum in Paris, which is housed in a beautiful mansion built by a salt tax collector in the 17th C., in the Marais district.

                1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6-hour lecture

 

65-  ART. B                NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE AND JEAN TINGUELY: two great artists who collaborated to created moving sculptures. Niki de Saint Phalle was the creator of a series of women sculpture called "nanas" from a derogatory French word, to express her ideas about women's position in society.

                Jean Tinguely was a Swiss painter and sculptor. He is best known for his sculptural machines or kinetic art, in the Dada tradition; known officially as metamechanics. Tinguely's art satirized the mindless overproduction of material goods in advanced industrial society. In Basel, Switzerland there is a beautiful museum dedicated entirely to Tinguely designed by Mario Botta.

                1hr:45mn

 

66- ART. H.               FRENCH POETRY READING: (No projector) From Villon to Saint John Perse through Ronsard, Rimbaud, Prevert, Aragon and others. In French only.

                1hr:45mn

 

67- ART . B               MODIGLIANI

                1:45 or 2 x 1hr:30mn 

 

68- ART . B               CEZANNE, GAUGUIN, VAN GOGH AND THE NABIS: THE POST-IMPRESSIONISM               

                1:45 or 2 x 1:30 ​

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69- ART . B               RODIN  AND CAMILLE CLAUDEL: Claudel: the sad love story and cooperation between two of the best sculptors at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. There was jealousy on Rodin' side seeing that Camille was perhaps, better than he was. Jealousy on Camille' side because of Rodin's many affairs as well as his refusal to leave his common law wife, Rose.  

Camille destroyed many of her works and was soon diagnosed with schizophrenia. Her younger brother had her admitted into a psychiatric hospital. Her mother hated her, regretting that she was not a boy, and from Camille early age, resented her daughter for wanting to be a sculptor. Rodin was probably responsible for Camille state of mind. After seeing her sculpture,  The Mature Age, he realized how extraordinary a sculptor she was, and did everything to prevent her to receive commissions.

Many doctors wanted her to be released from the psychiatric wards, but her mother refused. She never visited her, and her brother saw her only 5 times in the thirty years she spent locked up.

                1:45 or 2 x 1:3o

 

BIOGRAPHIES (B)

 

70- ART. H.               FRENCH LOVERS: Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais - Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir -      

Georges Sand and Frederic Chopin - Diane of Poitiers and Henry II of France - Eloise and Abelard - Marie d'Agoult and Franz Liszt. 

                6 lectures each 1hr:45mn

 

71- ART. H                ALMA MAHLER: Alma Maria Mahler Gropius Werfel was a Viennese-born socialite well known in her youth for her beauty and vivacity. She became the wife, successively, of composer Gustav Mahler, architect Walter Gropius, and novelist Franz Werfel, as well as the consort of several other prominent men, Gustav Klimt,  theater director Max Burkhard, composer Alexander von Zemlinsky and artist Oskar Kokoschka. Musically active in her teens, she was the composer of at least seventeen songs. In later years her salon became an important feature of the artistic scene, first in Vienna, then in Los Angeles. In 1938, following the Anschluss, Alma and Werfel, who was Jewish, were forced to flee Austria for France. With the German invasion and occupation of France during World War II, the couple was no longer safe in France and frantically sought to secure their emigration to the United States. In Marseille they contacted Varian Fry, an American journalist and emissary of the Emergency Rescue Committee, a private American relief organization that came to the aid of many refugee intellectuals and artists at that time. Since exit visas could not be obtained, Fry arranged for the Werfels to journey on foot across the Pyrenees into Spain, in order to evade the Vichy French border officials. From Spain, Alma and Franz traveled on to Portugal and then boarded a ship for New York City.

                1hr:45mn

 

HISTORY (H)

 

72- H1-                     THE ALBIGEANSIANS CRUSADES: believers of a peaceful religion popular in the Southwest France in the 11th and 12Th Centuries,  this is the story of the Cathars and howow the French king under the guise of a crusade was able to conquer a territory that would give him access to the Mediterranean. The amazing resourcefulness and courage of the Cathars in front of a larger and more powerful enemy.,

                1hr:45mn or 2 lectures of 1:30hr each

 

73- H2-                     The "REAL" STORY OF THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK:Louis XIV's twin and older brother discovered when 22, spent the rest of his life in the most comfortable cells that were ever built for anyone, in three rather somber and secure fortresses. He died age 62 in the Bastille.

                1hr 45mn lecture

 

74- H3-                     THE TERROR OF THE PRE-FRENCH REVOLUTION: The French Revolution of 1789 started several years earlier when large bands of famished people terrorized the country in their quest for food.

                1hr 45mn lecture

 

75- H4-                     THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1789, 1830, 1871. The causes and consequences of the three main French revolutions and what influences they had on the next political system, on the French people at large and what is left of their legacies.

                1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6 hour lecture

 

76- H5-                     VICHY AND THE JEWS The horrors of the Holocaust especially as it pertains to France are numerous and multi-faceted. Students will learn through this course the complexities of perhaps the most appalling and fateful movements in world history. Some of the topics are the Dreyfus Affair, historic Franco-German relations, and tensions (including those provoked by World War I), and the German Occupation of France and the Armistice. The compliance with Germans, of the French Vichy regime in implementing anti-Semitic laws and eventual Aryanization will be examined.

                4 lectures of 1:30hr each. 

 

77- H6-                     THE DREYFUS AFFAIR: At the end of the 19th century, a French officer was falsely accused to spy for the German army and the  scandal that followed split the country in two, involving famous people on either side. Degas on the side that wanted to see Dreyfus executed, Emile Zola on the side that defended Dreyfus with his famous "J'accuse" pamphlet.

                2 hour lecture

 

78- H7- B                  LAFAYETTE AND ROCHAMBEAU: The French aide to the American Revolution and the importance of Lafayette's ideas during the French Revolution.

                1hr:45mn  or 3 hour lecture

 

79- H8-                     THE DOOMED KINGS OF FRANCE IN THE 14TH CENTURY: (A fantastic soap opera about the murders, the spying, the wars against the English and the fate of the Knights Templar) Ten generations of French kings having more than their share of problems, misfortune and accidents. It all started when Philippe Le Bel who got rid of the Knights Templar was cursed by their grand master before he died at the stake. A story more complex, more surprising in changes of plots then any soap operas on TV.

                5 lectures of 1:30hr each.

 

80- H8-  B                 ALIENOR OF AQUITAINE: Queen of France, Queen of England, mother of Richard the Lionheart This lecture is designed to tell about this remarkable historical character, who is perhaps the quintessential woman behind the man. As daughter, wife and mother of some of the heavyweights of French history (including Richard the Lionheart, Henry King of England, and Louis VII King of France), Alienor and her story are engaging, passionate and involved. More importantly, her story is revealing of the political system and atmosphere of the times as well as the unities and divisions of French provinces, Circa 1100.

                1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6 hour lecture

 

81- H9- B                  NAPOLEON: From the rise to the fall.

                1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6 hour lecture

 

82- H10-                   VARIAN FRY - LE CHAMBON-SUR-LIGNON: Varian Fry found his courage when called upon to act in a moment of extraordinary historical and personal challenge, saving thousands of lives during the Second World War. Banding together with Jewish and non-Jewish refugees from the Third Reich, as well as early French opponents to Vichy, this tiny group, with erratic assistance from colleagues in New York, may have helped to save as many as 2,000 people including Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Jacques Lipchitz, Heinrich Mann, Franz Werfel, Alma Mahler Werfel, André Breton, Victor Serge, André Masson, Lion Feuchtwanger, Konrad Heiden, Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Arendt, Max Ophuls, Walter Mehring, Jean Malaquais, Valeriu Marcu, Remedios Varo, Otto Meyerhof…  The list—Fry’s list—goes on and on.

                                - Primarily a Huguenot town, of not more than 5,000 people, it became a haven for Jews fleeing from the Nazis during World War II. It is estimated that the people of Chambon-sur-Lignon saved between 3,000-5,000 Jews from certain death.

                 2 hr lecture

 

83- H11- B                W.C. BULLITT: All the foreign ambassadors left Paris when the German troops were only a few miles from Paris.  Bullitt, the American Ambassador, not only did not leave, although the French Government was already on its way out, but made a deal with the Germans so Paris would not be bombed and destroyed as Rotterdam had been by the same regiment. Bullitt was a very brilliant foreign correspondent as well as a very opinionated ambassador with views all through his life about the Soviet Union, Germany, Japan, Vietnam that were found to be all true.  

                 2hr lecture

 

84- H12- B                MADAME DE POMPADOUR: Jeanne Poisson (the real name of Madame de Pompadour), was nine years old when a psychic told her mother that her daughter would become the Kings's official mistress, an impossibility since she was not part of the nobility. A well educated, talented and beautiful woman, she will in many ways manage the affairs of the kingdom for her very shy lover.

                                 1hr:45mn

 

85- H13-                    THE JEWS AND THE POPE IN AVIGNON

                                 1hr:45mn 

 

86-H14-                    MAHARAL OF PRAGUE: Rabbi Yehudah Leib (circa 1522-1609), known as the “Maharal of Prague,” was one of the world’s most famous rabbis. Revered during his lifetime and by many until this day, the Maharal wrote many scholastic works of great importance. He lived in a period known as the "Golden Age of Prague."

                                 1hr:45 or 2 x 1:30

 

87- H15-                   ROMAN HISTORY: The history of the Roman Empire from its early beginning to the fall of Rome and                                    its extension as the Byzantine Empire until taken over by the Turks in the 1400s.

                3 x 5 hour lectures

 

On a 20-day cruise from Dubai to Venice, jean gave 10 lectures on  differents subjects: 

88- Oman and UAE: its complicated, intricate and long history makes it interesting to visit the Arabian Peninsula.

89- Egypt: Pyramids and obelisks: mathematics, ingenuity, advance technology, creativity, and mystery.

Pharaohs, Gods and Cleopatra, a short history of Early Egypt. 

90-The Suez Canal, an amazing adventure and a feat of unfaltering faith and hope in a grandiose, never done before immense technical project.

91- The Nabataeans and Petra: one the most gifted people of the Ancient World.

92- Acre, an important place during the Crusades, an excuse to revisit that part of human history.

93- Masada and the Roman Empire: a story of courage and determination

94- Dubrovnik, a fascinating and complex history and a resurrection

95- Heraklion and Crete where Europe’s first advanced civilization would strive, and later be destroyed by a volcanic eruption

96- Venice, La Serenissima, 117 islands from Attila to the 21st Century, struggle, maritime power, center of the art and an extraordinary place to visit.

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TRAVELOGS

97-- H16                   DORDOGNE: A lesser-known area of France with outstanding vistas, incredible food, great wines,                                        over a thousand medieval castles and perhaps the largest collection in the world of cave paintings                                       dating back 18,000 years.

                                  1:30 to 3-hour lecture 

                              

OTHERS:                 Spain;  Germany; Venice; Budapest and the Tokaj region of Hungary; A view of the Czech Republic:                                     Prague, Ceske Budejovice, Český Krumlov, Brno; Switzerland; Provence; Rome; Tuscany; Naples and                                    the Amalfi Coast; Tunisia; Muscat; Petra in Jordan.