5x15:
What Makes a Masterpiece? Lachlan Goudie & Simon Schama

What gives a painting its power? How did Giotto make the walls of the Arena Chapel sparkle with light and life, how was Rembrandt van Rijn able to sculpt the surface of his portraits using textured paint, or Artemisia Gentileschi able to charge the subjects of her canvases with so much visceral drama?

On Friday 10th July, artist and writer Lachlan Goudie comes to the 5×15 stage where he will be in conversation with historian Sir Simon Schama for an evening exploring how the world’s greatest paintings were made.

Behind every painting is a world of material and method. Pigment mixed with egg yolk, beeswax or oil. Colours drawn from crushed insects, minerals and rare dyes. Techniques refined and passed down through generations. Each new material changed not only how artists worked, but what they could imagine.

Drawing on the ideas in his new book The Secrets of Painting, Lachlan Goudie looks beneath the surface of art. From the cave walls of Chauvet to the studios of J. M. W. Turner and Jackson Pollock, he traces the materials, techniques and breakthroughs that have shaped painting, and with it, human creativity.

Together, Lachlan and Simon will explore how great paintings are made, and why they continue to move us, generation after generation.

5×15. Where great stories are told live.

Age Recommendation:

16+

Price:

*A £2 venue levy is applied to each ticket purchased. This levy helps to support us in covering the costs of keeping our grade II listed building running and our doors open.*

Premium £60   (+£2 venue levy)
This ticket guarantees seating within the first front rows.

Standard £35 • Concession £27   (+£2 venue levy)

Additional ticket options are available to include a discounted copy of Lachlan Goudie’s book, The Secrets of Painting: The Hidden Art of the Masterpiece from Prehistory to Today.

Access Information

This event is in the Main Hall, which is located on the ground floor.

All the ground-floor rooms are fully accessible by wheelchair. Main Hall (street access, step-free), Brockway Room (street access, step-free), Bertrand Russell Room (street access, shallow ramp), Cafe (street access, step-free). There is also an accessible toilet on the ground floor opposite the Brockway Room.