Art History

Martin Gayford

How Painting Happens (and Why it Matters)
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Sue Prideaux

Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Tue 1 Tuesday, 1 April 2025 See this event
Sjeng Scheijen

The Avant-Gardists: Artists in Revolt in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union 1917–1935
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Wed 2 Wednesday, 2 April 2025 See this event
T J Clark

Those Passions: On Art and Politics
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Fri 4 Friday, 4 April 2025 See this event
Nick Trend

What Art can tell us about Love
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Fri 4 Friday, 4 April 2025 See this event
Kelly Grovier

How Banksy Saved Art History
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Sat 5 Saturday, 5 April 2025 See this event
Louisa Treger Suzi Feay

The Paris Muse
Pusey House: Chapel 4:00pm Sat 5 Saturday, 5 April 2025 See this event

Festival information:

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

Often as an author, I only occasionally get to meet the public who buy and read my books. The Oxford Literary Festival was a special opportunity for me and certainly one of the highlights of my career – it was an honour I will never forget.

I came away buzzing and reassured that we still have in this century a wide ranging community fascinated not just by famous authors (I’ve rarely seen so many concentrated in one place) but by challenging ideas and questions.

I loved the whole atmosphere of the Oxford Literary Festival. From breakfast, alongside some of the attendees, who were talking books with each other a mile a minute, to the public event at The Sheldonian where everyone was lively and engaged – I felt I had arrived in a kind of literary heaven.

The Oxford Literary Festival has in my mind become the leading literary festival of the year. The organisation, the roster of speakers, the ambience and the sheer quality of it all is superb. May it now go from strength to strength each year stretching its ambition more and more. I believe it will.

The night in Oxford was the most beautiful event I have ever done. Not just the spectacular setting (of the Sheldonian), but an unforgettable evening.

It was a privilege for me to visit the festival to receive the Bodley Medal. As an incidental blessing I saw Oxford at its most mysterious and atmospheric. It was a day of piercing cold and as I walked through the twilight from the Sheldonian to Christ Church, the streets were empty and the whole city was shutting itself away. Christ Church was silent except for the footfall of unseen persons around corners and the sounds of evensong creeping from behind closed doors. For the first time I understood thoroughly the power of college ghost stories.

A stimulating and rewarding on-stage conversation; a lively informed and tolerant audience; privileged access to the great treasures of the Bodleian, and finally, wonderfully interesting dinner companions to help me conclude the best day I have enjoyed at any festival – anywhere.