Material Matters Pigment Symposium

About

Pigments are a key material for artists, designers, craft specialists and conservators. They have been used throughout millennia to image and ornament, from the most domestic object to the most ritually significant. With thousands of known pigments available across the world, their historic impact is profound and enduring.

The recent turn within arts and culture towards a re-investment in materials and the hand-made, has seen artists engaging in the production of pigments for themselves. Artists today are not only reviving ancient recipes, but inventing pigments from raw materials that range from the everyday to the outright abject. Advancements in technology are enabling new levels of forensic analysis of pigments’ sometimes surprising origins. And as we move ever-closer towards irreversible environmental change, pigment manufacturers are having to re-evaluate the true cost of pigment production. Far more than simply inert colour-making matter, pigments are active agents with complex histories that intersect and shape our cultures, histories, politics, languages, bodies, identities and ways of thinking.

Organised by City & Guilds of London Art School, Material Matters: Pigment is a one-day symposium that brings together leading artists, conservators, curators and researchers to explore and interrogate pigments today within the broader context of their production and rich and varied pasts. It is running as part of the Art School's programme of events for London Craft Week 2019.

Keynote speaker: Onya McCausland

Chaired by Tom Groves, Head of Art Histories at City & Guilds of London Art School

Confirmed speakers: Juan Bolivar, Mark Cann, Andrew Grassie, Bea Haines, Amikam Toren, Kirsty Walsh

Full schedule to be announced

Please visit material-matters.cityandguildsartschool.ac.uk for more details