Epsom Arts Society Special Interest Day

Art between the Wars - Val WoodgateThursday 23 October 2025

Please join us for three lectures presented by Val Woodgate.

Political and social upheavals in the 1920s and -30s had a profound effect on artists, and were to inspire some of the greatest works of modern art in the first half of the twentieth century.  Under the Nazis avant-garde art was condemned as 'degenerate' and in 1937 the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) Exhibition in Munich displayed artistic masterpieces confiscated and put on show to be mocked and vilified.  Meanwhile, the horrors of the Spanish Civil War inspired some of Picasso's and Dali's greatest works.  Other artists like Chagall responded in a deeply personal way to the political atmosphere of the time. 

Val is a lecturer at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, for the Art Fund, the National Trust,  U3A, City of London libraries at Barbican and Guildhall. She lectures on a wide variety of topics.

Registration in the foyer of the Big School, Epsom College.  10.00am

Lecture 1                                                                                10.15 - 11.15

'The Aftermath of the First World War and the Rise of Hitler'

Coffee and comfort break                                                     11.15 - 12.00

Lecture 2                                                                                 12.00 - 13.00

'The Great Depression and the Degenerate Art Exhibition,

Totalitarianism v the Avant-Garde'

Lunch                                                                                       13.00 - 14.30

Lecture 3                                                                                  14.30 - 15.30

'The Spanish Civil War and the Outbreak of the Second World War'

THIS IS AN OPEN MEETING - BRING YOUR FRIENDS!

Tickets cost £48 and include a hot lunch.

For more information and how to apply email specialinterestdays@gmail.com or check out

https://www.theartssocietyepsom.org.uk/Special/FutureSpecial.aspx