Series Two
Every Tuesday, enjoy an in-depth insight into the Barber’s stunning collection through our programme of fascinating mini podcasts: series two.
Explore the Barber’s collection through our weekly ten-minute talks – discussions include past and present displays, small groups of related works, an aspect of a University of Birmingham student or Barber member of staff’s own research, or single masterpieces and recent acquisitions.
The guitar music has been composed and performed by Jack Davies specifically for these mini podcasts.
These talks began as part of our initiative to bring the Barber’s collection into your home virtually, while the gallery’s doors were closed to visitors in line with government advice during the Covid-19 pandemic.
We hope you enjoy our second series.
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15 December: Cosimo Rosselli: the Nativity in Italian Renaissance Painting, with Jennifer Young, Volunteer Gallery Guide
- View ‘The Adoration of the Child Jesus’ by Rosselli while you listen
- Rosselli Transcript
8 December: A Venerable Mystery: Strozzi’s Head of an Old Woman, with Becca Randle, Learning and Engagement Coordinator
- View ‘Head of an Old Woman’ by Bernando Strozzi as you listen
- Strozzi transcript
1 December: ‘The Reader’: the Barber’s new acquisition by Marguerite Gérard, with Helen Cobby, Assistant Curator
- View ‘The Reader’ by Marguerite Gérard as you listen
- ‘The Reader’ transcript
24 November: Giovanni Antronio Pellegrini’s ‘Judith and her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes’, about 1710, with University of Birmingham Classical Literature and Civilisations student Evie Garret
- View ‘Judith and the Head of Holofernes‘ as you listen
- Read the talk transcript
17 November: The Barber Concert Series at 75: some thoughts and reminiscences… with Andrew Kirkman, Peyton and Barber Professor of Music
10 November: Rodin, with Helen Cobby, Assistant Curator
- View ‘The Age of Bronze’ as you listen
- Read the talk transcript
3 November: Ikegobo to the Iyoba, with Adwoa Owusu-Barnieh, University of Birmingham Classical Literature and Civilizations graduate
- View ‘Altar to the Hand’, by an unknown West African Artist, while you listen
- Read the talk transcript
27 October: ‘The Art of Devotion: Sacred Illuminations, Prints, and Drawings’, with April Armstrong-Bascombe, Collections Intern
- Visit our new display, ‘The Art of Devotion: Sacred Illuminations, Prints, and Drawings’ at the Barber until 21 February
- Read the talk transcript
20 October: ‘Changing Shapes’, with Helen Cobby, Assistant Curator
- Content warning: please be aware this talk includes discussion of sexual violence in relation to historic art and literature
- Visit our new display, ‘Changing Shapes: Metamorphosis in Art’ at the Barber until 31 January
- Read the talk transcript
13 October: Salomon van Ruysdael’s ‘A Cavalry Travelling through a Wooded Landscape’, 1658, with Robert Wenley, Deputy Director and Head of Collections
- View ‘A Cavalry Travelling through a Wooded Landscape’ as you listen
- Read the talk transcript
6 October: Now and Then, with Nicola Kalinsky, Director
- View ‘Primrose Hill – Winter’ by Frank Auerbach, ‘Pastoral Landscape’ by Claude Lorrain, ‘Landscape in Flanders’ by Peter Paul Rubens, ‘The River Dee near Eaton Hall’ by Richard Wilson.
- Read the talk transcript
29 September: ‘Self-Portrait in Profile: The Artist’s Process’, with Flora Kay, Learning and Engagement Manager
- View Kathe Kollwitz’s ‘Self Portrait in Profile’ while you listen
- Read the talk transcript
- You can see another of the artist’s prints, ‘Woman with Dead Child’, on display in ‘Maternal Bonds’ until 11 October
22 September: Student Lightning Talk: ‘Degas Dancers’, with Emily Langridge, University of Birmingham History of Art student
- View Edgar Degas’s ‘Grande Arabesque’, Third Time’ and ‘Dancer Ready to Dance, Right Foot Forward’
- Degas transcript
15 September: Student Lightning Talk: ‘Arm Reliquary’, with Nadia Sommella, University of Birmingham History of Art student
- View ‘Arm Reliquary’ in the gallery to the right, and in the transcript
- Read the talk transcript
8 September: Student Lightning Talk: ‘The Evening Meal’, with Maya Biddulph, University of Birmingham Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences student
- View ‘The Evening Meal’ by Pierre Bonnard as you listen
- Read the talk transcript
1 September: Student Lightning Talk: ‘Lovers in a Landscape’, with Susanna Davis, University of Birmingham History and History of Art graduate
- View ‘Lovers in a Landscape’ by Nicolas Lancret as you listen
- Read the talk transcript
