Free Thinking

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Free Thinking – Hieronymus Bosch anniversary Feb 16, 2016

Show notes

Tom Shakespeare, film director Peter Greenaway and art historian Matthijs Ilsink join Matthew Sweet in Holland for an exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of the death of artist Hieronymus Bosch. Matthew also talks to Plebaan Geertjan van Rossem, priest at St John's Cathedral in 's-Hertogenbosch, to get a religious perspective on Bosch's work.

Het Noordbrabants Museum in 's-Hertogenbosch, Holland, presents the Jheronimus Bosch – Visions of a Genius exhibition from February 13 to May 8, 2016. 20 paintings (panels and triptychs) and 19 drawings are on display.

You might also be interested listening to Saturday 13 February, 1302-1500: Saturday Classics: Ahead of his BBC4 series Renaissance Unchained, art critic Waldemar Januszczak conjures up the sound world of this epoch of huge passions and powerful religious emotions across all of Europe. The term 'Renaissance', or 'rinascita', was coined by Giorgio Vasari in 16th-century Florence, and his assertion that it had fixed origins in Italy has since influenced all of art history. But what of Flanders, Germany and the rest of Northern Europe? Waldemar presents music from the time of the Renaissance greats: Jan Van Eyck, Hans Memling, Albrecht Dürer, Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo and El Greco.

Producer: Laura Thomas

Free Thinking – Screaming Lord Sutch on Stage. Margaret McMillan. Artificial Neural Networks. Feb 11, 2016

Show notes

Playwright James Graham talks to Anne McElvoy about his new comedy which puts Screaming Lord Sutch on stage. Graham's previous plays include The Vote, The Angry Brigade, This House.

Historian Margaret MacMillan explores the question 'what difference do individuals make to history?' in her book History's People: Personalities and the Past. Figures include Bismarck, Babur and Roosevelt.

Steve Furber, Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Manchester, talks about his work on neural networks - constructing machines which work like parts of the human brain. He is joined by Tom Standage, digital editor at The Economist.

New Generation Thinker Sam Goodman previews the BBC spy drama series The Night Manager, adapted from John Le Carre's 1993 novel.

Monster Raving Loony is on at the Drum, Plymouth, from February 10th to 27th.

Producer: Torquil Macleod.

Free Thinking - Dadaism's 100th anniversary Feb 09, 2016

Show notes

Matthew Sweet looks at the founding of the Dada movement 100 years ago in Zurich, as the city celebrates the anniversary with a series of exhibitions and cabarets which run throughout the year.

New Generation Thinker Will Abberley visits an exhibition in Oxford that plays with our notion of time as Modern Art Oxford begins a year-long celebration of 50 years, Kaleidoscope, with a show called The Indivisible Present.

Janet Street Porter and Michael Grade debate when does a celebrity become a 'national treasure', and what exactly does the term mean?

Free Thinking - Dadaism's 100th anniversary Feb 09, 2016

Show notes

Matthew Sweet looks at the founding of the Dada movement 100 years ago in Zurich, as the city celebrates the anniversary with a series of exhibitions and cabarets which run throughout the year.

Janet Street Porter and Michael Grade debate when does a celebrity become a 'national treasure', and what exactly does the term mean?

Dadaism's 100th anniversary. Feb 09, 2016

Show notes

Long Matthew Sweet looks at the founding of the Dada movement 100 years ago in Zurich, as the city celebrates the anniversary with a series of exhibitions and cabarets which run throughout the year.

Janet Street Porter and Michael Grade debate when does a celebrity become a 'national treasure', and what exactly does the term mean?

Free Thinking -Joseph Crawhall; Madame Bovary by Peepolykus; Rona Munro's The James plays; and Matthew Parris on biography. Feb 04, 2016

Show notes

Anne McElvoy profiles the painter Joseph Crawhall (1861-1913). Born in Northumberland, he exhibited alongside Degas and Whistler and has been credited as the leader of the young radical Scottish painters The Glasgow Boys. His father was also an artist who published "A Beuk o' Newcassell Sangs Collected by Joseph Crawhall" in 1888 - a pictorial book illustrating the lyrics and music with woodcuts. Anne will be joined in her quest by the director of the Fleming Collection in London, James Knox, where a new Crawhall show has opened and by the art critic, Bill Feaver.

Anne will also be hearing from the director, Gemma Bodinetz who with the touring theatre company, Peepolykus, is staging a comic version of Madame Bovary at the Liverpool Everyman and from Laurie Sansom, who's directing a revival of Rona Munro's acclaimed trilogy of James plays. And in the week that sees the publication of a life of the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, Matthew Parris discusses the art of political biography.

Joseph Crawhall: Masterworks from The Burrell Collection which runs from 4 February – 12 March 2016 is on at the The Fleming Collection in London and it's the first time in 25 years that an exhibition of his his works is on show in London.

Rona Munro's James Plays are on at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre from February 3rd to 13th and then the UK and international tour stops in Glasgow, Inverness, Newcastle, Salford, Birmingham, Leicester and Plymouth

Madame Bovary performed by Peepolykus is touring. Liverpool Everyman 5th to 27th February and then on to the Nuffield Theatre Southampton, Bristol Old Vic, Royal & Derngate, Northampton.

Producer: Zahid Warley

Image Credit: The Flower Shop, by Joseph Crawhall c.1894-1900. The Burrell Collection © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection

Free Thinking – John Irving Feb 03, 2016

Show notes

Philip Dodd interviews John Irving - author of novels including The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany. His new book is called Avenue of Mysteries and imagines the life of a crippled street-child from Mexico, Juan Diego, and his sister Lupe, who can read minds. The action cuts between Diego's present as a globe trotting, best selling writer visiting the Philippines, and his memories of his childhood in Mexico and working at a circus.

The Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving is out now.

Producer: Robyn Read

Free Thinking - Dad's Army; States of Mind at the Wellcome Institute; Utopia in sci-fi Feb 02, 2016

Show notes

As Dad's Army inspires a new film, Matthew Sweet looks at the history of the fifth column with historians Juliet Gardiner and Steven Fielding. He also meets robot designer Lola Cañamero who, along with writer Laurence Scott, talks about modelling emotions and how interacting with AI affects us. New Generation Thinker Jonathan Healey explores utopia in sci-fi as a series of events mark the 500th anniversary of Thomas More's text Utopia.

Dad's Army is directed by Oliver Parker and includes performances from Catherine Zeta Jones, Michael Gambon, Tom Courtenay, Toby Jones, Bill Nighy, Mark Gatiss and Ian Lavender amongst others.

States of Mind: Tracing the edges of consciousness runs at Wellcome Collection in London from 4 February - 16 October 2016 A Friday Night Late Spectacular, Feeling Emotional, takes place on Friday 5 February 19:00-23:00 exploring the art and science of human emotions.

Utopias is the theme of this year's LSE Space For Thought Literary Festival. In a discussion on Friday 26 February 2016 Toby Litt, Patrick Parrinder, Samantha Shannon explore the history of the utopian genre in literature and its present state.

Radio 3's Free Thinking explores Utopia in politics past and present in a debate recorded at LSE on Wednesday February 17th at broadcast on Thursday February 18th.

Getting Real about Utopia Date: Wednesday 17 February 2016 6.30pm Location: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE Speakers: Professor Justin Champion, Dr John Guy, Kwasi Kwarteng, Gisela Stuart

Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Radio 3 broadcasts Lorraine Hansberry’s 'A Raisin in the Sun' this Sunday 31 Jan 2016 as the Sunday Drama. Jan 29, 2016

Show notes

As Radio 3 broadcasts Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun as the Sunday Drama hear theatre directors Kwame Kwei-Armah, Yael Farber and Dawn Walton and historians Kit Davis and Althea Legal Miller on her life, work and its resonances today.

Free Thinking - Anna Pavord: Gardens in Art. University funding. Jan 29, 2016

Show notes

Gardening writer Anna Pavord visits the Royal Academy exhibition Painting the Modern Garden and talks to Anne McElvoy about her new book Landskipping. New Generation Thinker Peter Mackay joins the conversation about landscapes and - as Radio 3 marks the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow with a focus on folk - he explores the way folk traditions have fed into Scottish poetry.

As arguments about whether the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College, Oxford should be allowed to remain in place continue to divide students and alumni, journalist Nick Cohen and former Rector of Exeter College, Oxford Dame Frances Cairncross discuss how present day funding of colleges and universities can also be a contentious issue.

New Generation Thinker Peter Mackay explores the contrasting folk traditions in Irish and Scottish poetry as Radio 3 begins a weekend exploring folk connections.

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