LECTURES AT HOME - DR MATTHEW DENNEY

MATTHEW DENNEY 18 DECEMBER 2020, 1PM

Exhibition History: The history of Great Exhibitions, Expos and World’s Fairs, 1851 to Present, the British Contribution

From the very first Great Exhibition in London held in the magnificent Crystal Palace, to the awe-inspiring events in Paris, New York and across the world there have been many exhibitions that we would consider Great Exhibitions or World’s Fairs. We won't consider all of these events in this talk, but we will consider the most important exhibitions such as London 1851, Paris 1900 and 1925, Brussels 1958 and New York 1964.  

Tracing the development of Great Exhibitions from their birth in London in 1851 at the heart of a thriving Empire, to Europe, in particular Paris where many wonderful events were held, across the Atlantic to America and New York in the post-war period and further East to China, Japan and beyond in recent times. These events all tell of a city and people at a certain moment in history holding a huge and elaborate fair for the world to attend.

Matthew has worked with the fine and decorative arts all his life. He has worked as an auctioneer and valuer with a number of firms. He is currently a senior valuer and head of department at Lawrences in Crewkerne, one of the countries leading provincial auctioneers. Matthew has also worked in Higher Education as Course Leader and a Senior Lecturer on the no longer extant Fine Arts Valuation Degree at Southampton Solent University. He taught on a range of subjects including furniture, silver art and design history. He completed a PhD in the Arts and Crafts Movement and has written on design history for a number of publications. He has current research interests in ‘Great Exhibitions’, ‘Post War Design and Architecture’ and ‘The Crafts in Post War Britain’. 

Matthew loves to give talks to all sorts of different groups on the fine and decorative arts, his interests in the various Great Exhibitions since 1851 and Post War architecture and design are amongst his current favourite talks which have been well received by a number of groups over recent months.