Art History Course | Framing the Landscape: Surrealism, Neo-Romanticism and War

Join us for the second session in our art history course focussed on Surrealism, Neo-Romanticism and the Second World War.

The session will feature two engaging lectures with opportunities for questions, plus a coffee break (refreshments provided) in between.

In the opening lecture, Pallant House Gallery Director Simon Martin discusses the representation of the British landscape during the Second World War, exploring how artists such as Eric Ravilious, Paul Nash, John Craxton and Ceri Richards drew on the language of Surrealism and Neo-Romanticism at a time of uncertainty and conflict.

The second lecture, delivered by Miriam O’Connor Perks, Curator at Pallant House Gallery, will examine the life and work of Graham Sutherland (1903-1980). Transforming the landscape into something psychologically charged and often unsettling, Sutherland’s work reflects both the natural world and the tensions of wartime Britain.

Please bring anything you would like to make notes with and let us know when booking of any special dietary or access requirements.

£45 per session or book all three for the discounted price of £125.

Add all three sessions to your basket to receive the discounted price when you check out.

Other sessions in this course are:

Wednesday 23 September, 10.30am–1pm: Interwar printmaking

Wednesday 21 October, 10.30am–1pm: Postwar Abstraction

Photograph of a man leaning his elbows on the edge of a waist high wall. He wears a blue suit with white shirt and a red tie. In the background is a wall of many different coloured triangles.

Simon Martin

Simon Martin is an art historian and curator, and the Director of Pallant House Gallery. He received his BA from the University of Warwick and MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art. He has curated many exhibitions and written widely on Modern British and contemporary art.

Photograph of a woman wearing a ink jumper and blue jeans with long curly brown hair stood in front of an artwork hung on a white wall. It shows an abstract head made up of many different coloured shapes.

Miriam O’Connor Perks

Miriam O’Connor Perks is Curator at Pallant House Gallery. She completed her Masters in Art History and Museum Curating at the University of Sussex in 2018. She has contributed to the following publications: William Nicholson (2025), Seeing Each Other: Portraits of Artists (2025), The Shape of Things: Still Life in Britain (2024), and Sussex Landscape: Chalk, Wood and Water (2022).