There will be three sessions making up this slightly shorter day course

1  In the first session we will study the life and work of Marsden Hartley (1877-1943). Hartley was an American Modernist, a painter, a poet and essayist. After studying in New York, he travelled to Europe where he was influenced by the Parisian Avant-Garde. Hartley later lived in Berlin, here he developed his personal style of creating paintings. His works contain symbolic images that reflect his personal emotions. He returned to the USA at the outbreak of WW1 and continued to create many works until his death in 1943

2  Robert Indiana (1928-2018) will be the subject of the second session. Indiana was associated with the Pop Art movement in New York.  His work was centred on the use of signs, symbols and words. These paintings hide their true meanings, Indiana produced works that are landscapes and portraits filled with personal story telling. His hard edged, brightly coloured paintings are made to be scrutinised and decoded.

3  The conversation through time. Indiana moved in 1978 to Vinalhaven, a town in Maine where Hartley had spent the final years of his career. He became deeply inspired by the work of Hartley and felt an affinity to the personal stories in Hartley’s work. Between 1989 to 1994 Indiana produced a series of paintings and prints inspired by the work Hartley had created in Berlin in 1913-14. We will conclude the study day by comparing these two artists and examine their conversation through their art.