Sarah Wilson and The Courtauld would like to invite you to enjoy a talk, fizz and treats as part of The Courtauld Frieze annual lecture series, now in its tenth year. This year's lecture will be given by influential Berlin-based art figure and writer Mark Gisbourne, who asks 'Why Berlin?'. His answer will provide a first-hand account of one of the most thriving arts capitals in the world.  

Timings:

Reception Begins: 9:30am 

Lecture: 10:30am - 11:30am (including Q&A) in The Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre 

Doors close: 12:00pm 

Speaker Profile: 

Courtauld alumnus Mark Gisbourne moved to Berlin in 2003 and is now one of the most influential art figures and art writer in the capital. He will talk about the contemporary Berlin art scene, which has given rise to publications such as Berlin Art Now (2006) and I am a Berliner (2011 international touring exhibition), Berlin Art Scene (2014). He has curated over forty exhibitions including the annual thematic Rohkunstbau exhibitions that take place in the different ‘Schloss’ (Wasserschloss Gross Leuthen, Schloss Sacrow, Villa Kellerman, Schloss Marquardt, and Schloss Roskow) from 2004-2015. In 2016 the summer exhibition Rohkunstbau XXII will be called ‘Between the Worlds’, where twelve international artists address The Convention on the Rights of the Child, and consider the perilous international status of children and adolescents in the world today. Gisbourne has curated modern as well as contemporary exhibitions such a Paul Klee: The Child in the Adult (CAAM, Las Palmas, 2007), and is planning a large German historical retrospective for Riga in 2016.

Born in Stratford-on-Avon, Mark came to the Courtauld after several previous lives as policeman, dashing antique dealer, adept of Mother Teresa in  Calcutta and Franciscan friar. He specialised in the Renaissance and 16^th century prior to a meeting with Sarah Wilson and introduction to ‘art brut’ or ‘psychopathological art’ as it was once known ­— he became a specialist and turned to contemporary art. After a distinguished lecturing and writing career in London he became President of the British Art Critics Association (AICA), and an International Vice-President who co-organised the World Congress of Art Critics, Tate Modern, at its opening in 2000. 

Please RSVP to alumni@courtauld.ac.uk by 13 October 

Note: Portrait of Mark Gisbourne shot by photographer, Thomas Florschuetz