The La Trobe University Art History Alumni Chapter presents, with the National Gallery of Victoria, the twenty-first annual Rae Alexander Lecture. The lecture is named in honour of the founder of the Art History Chapter, Rae Alexander (1919 – 2009).

Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art

Presented by: Charles Nodrum
Charles Nodrum’s interest in history and logic has often meshed interestingly with his career as an art dealer, and his talk will explore some of these intersections. Aesthetics covers all the senses, while art tends to be restricted to those of sight and hearing. The visual arts, along with music and literature, have their respective histories and are subject to philosophical analysis in an attempt to explain not so much what happens as how it is possible.

Date: Thursday 18 October 2018
Time: Registration - 5:45pm, lecture - 6:00pm, networking - 7:30pm-8:30pm (drinks and canapés to be served)
Venue: Clemenger Auditorium, NGV International
RSVP: By Monday 15 October
Cost:  Standard: $35; Art History chapter members: $30; NGV members: $30; Concession: $30; Student: $20
To Book Tickets, and for more information, visit https://www.latrobe.edu.au/events/all/2018-rae-alexander-lecture-aesthetics-and-the-philosophy-of-art
Or contact Alumni and Advancement alumnievents@latrobe.edu.au

About the speaker 

Charles Nodrum is a collector, thinker, patron and dealer in mid-twentieth-century Australian art. Born in England to expatriate Australian parents, he counts his time at Barcelona University as being among the most influential periods in his life. After making the overland trip to Australia in 1969, Charles was hired by Joseph Brown to work in his gallery in Melbourne. In 1975-76 he became the Melbourne manager for Christies. 

Charles completed a Bachelor of Arts at La Trobe University in 1982, with an honours degree in Philosophy, and later assisted Alan McCulloch with his Encyclopaedia of Australian Art. He established the Charles Nodrum Gallery in 1984. Unusually among dealers, Charles formed close and benevolent bonds with his often radical artists. His life commitment to the most challenging aspects of Australian art represents an important contribution to Australian culture.

 Charles became involved with the La Trobe University Art Collection from the time John Waterhouse was director in the 1980s. His curatorial acumen was on display at the former La Trobe University Museum of Art in exhibitions such as Charles Nodrum Selects: selected works from the La Trobe University Art Collection in 2010.

 Charles has made many donations to the collection and he has also loaned generously and extensively for exhibitions such as My Country: Abstract Interpretations of the Australian Landscape in 2005, Two Way Traffic and This Way Up in 2008, and Unearthed: Fifty Years of Australian Landscape Art from the Charles Nodrum Collection in 2010.

 One of the most significant exhibitions he was involved in at La Trobe was Kite: Mike Brown and the Sydney Twelve, curated by Vince Alessi. This brought together images, many from Charles’s collection, including works by Mike Brown and the twelve Sydney artists criticised in Brown’s incendiary artwork, and toured to the McLelland Art Gallery and Macquarie University.