Discover artists who changed the world with Talking the arts

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Over several evenings, art and art-history lovers can attend presentations about artists who changed the world. Each week is dedicated to a different artist, including Van Gogh, Monet and Picasso, among others. We spoke with Corinne Estrada, from Talking the Arts, who is organising these evenings.

You may recall that we spoke to her last year when she organised the Da Vinci Talks conference in Sydney.

You’ve founded a society called Communicating the Arts and starting at the end of this month, at Four Frogs Crêperie in Randwick, Sydney, you are going to give weekly presentations by the name Talking the Arts about artists who changed the world.

We are going to bring 360 vision to these planetary icons by showing films, music and photos from their lives, their works and their era.

Where did the idea for these evenings come from?

In 2019, when the large retrospective about Leonard de Vinci opened at the Louvre, in Sydney we organised 3 evenings about the giants of the Renaissance, which were very well received. Australians are a cultivated and sophisticated audience who are interested in stories on the great European artists.

Are these evenings going to be held in English, French or both?

In English at the Four Frogs in Randwick –

From 2021, we will organise thematic weekends around French art history in wineries in the Hunter Valley.

How does an artist change the world?

Certain avant-garde artists like Van Gogh, Picasso or more recently Andy Warhol changed painting codes and the way of looking and understanding the world that surrounds us.

What is your background in the arts?

I worked for large art museums in Europe like Tate in London, the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Grand Palais in Paris over 20 years. These institutions taught me to look at art differently.

My collaboration with very engaged great contemporary artists like Anish Kapoor and Christian Boltanski was very personally enriching.

Are you an artist as well as an art historian?

My mother was a painter in Paris, my grand-mother worked in the Coco Chanel atelier and my grand-father was a Spanish anarchist who performed plays by JP Sartre. I was born in the middle of Montmartre: it leaves some traces …

Are there any Australian artists who have had an important mark on the world?

Indigenous Australian artists have acquired an international dimension. They are starting to be exhibited all over the world, particularly at the Quai Branly (in Paris), but there is still a long way to go to give them their legitimacy as artists and not as ethnological objects. The place of contemporary Aboriginal artists contributes in bringing a new look at this ancestral and major culture.

Indigenous Australian art at Quai Branly

We last spoke at the end of 2019 when you had organised the conference with Jacques Le Roux for The Da Vinci Talks . In response to the question “Since when and why are you interested in the arts? Do you have a particular art period that you prefer? If yes, which is your favourite painting?” you said:

Art brings beauty to life. I like artists because they have a strong sensitivity and they help us to look at the world with acuity. My favourite period of art is between the 2 world wars as it is very rich intellectually. It’s a period which gave birth to numerous artistic currents. It’s the explosion of genres. I really like Diego Rivera and his very engaged mural paintings . Would your response still be the same?

Yes.

At the time we last spoke, you had just moved to Australia, having lived in New York and Paris. How do you find Australia different to other countries in which you’ve lived?

Australia is a very new country and open to the cultures of Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East and Europe. I find that it’s a very welcoming country where it is easy to live.

How are Australian artists different to French artists?

Nature is part of the DNA of Australian artists. There are a lot of sculptors in Australia because the outdoors culture like Sculpture by the Sea has a more important place than in France.

The first Talking the Arts events are about Van Gogh, Monet and Picasso. Which other artists are going to be the subject of these evenings?