LAURA CUMMING AUTHOR TALK | Ashmolean Museum

The in-person event takes place in the Taylorian Institute

The online event will be via Zoom

With bestselling author and art critic Laura Cumming

Laura Cumming’s recent book, ‘Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death’, was longlisted for the ‘Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2024’ and is the Winner of the Writer’s Prize for Non Fiction 2024.

Thunderclap recounts the morning of 12 October 1654, when a gunpowder explosion devastated the Dutch city of Delft. Among the fatalities was the painter Carel Fabritius, dead at thirty-two, leaving behind his haunting masterpiece The Goldfinch… It takes the reader from 17th-century Delft to the 20th-century Scottish islands, from Rembrandt’s studio to wartime America and contemporary London. It tells the story of the writer’s love of Dutch art of the ‘Golden age’, and is interwoven with memories of her father. 

In this fascinating talk, Laura will explore the topics in Thunderclap and the links with the Dutch and Flemish artworks in the Ashmolean’s collection.

She will discuss the power of art and its ability to leave a mark on our memory; what pictures can mean to us and how they enter our lives and change thinking.

About Laura Cumming:

Laura Cumming has been chief art critic of the Observer since 1999. Her books include A Face to the World: On Self-Portraits (2009) and The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velázquez (2016) which won the James Tait Black Biography Prize. Her family memoir, On Chapel Sands: my Mother and other Missing Persons (2019) was a Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford, Costa and Rathbone’s Folio prizes. Her recent book Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death was published in 2023 to rave reviews and has been nominated for several prestigious awards.

This event is part of our Making a Mark season of events.

BOOKING

This past event has taken place.

If you have any questions, please email us at publicprogrammes@ashmus.ox.ac.uk