Tony Rawlins
Speaker Topics
Entertainment & Comedy, Music, Art & Craft
Locations Covered
South East, London
Fees
£75 - £150
Availability
Short Notice
Profile Bio
Tony was educated at Highgate School, starting his career in advertising in 1965 as a mail boy in the J. Walter Thompson agency.
He graduated through the training system there to become an account director and subsequently worked in a number of agencies before setting up on his own in 1985.
He handled primarily Guinness advertising in Africa and the Caribbean, where he produced many commercials and print ads for them over a period of 15 years.
He remains active as a consultant in the industry, but more recently has concentrated on philanthropic projects, such as producing a film in the rural villages of Nigeria for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He also completed a sanitation project in Haiti after it was devastated by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
He is an accredited Lecturer to the Arts Society and lectures to Arts Societies all over the UK and in Europe.
He is an accredited and active lecturer for the Arts Society, based in Wittersham, Kent, who also gives talks to U3A groups. His talks are primarily about Fine Art, Classical and Popular Music, Michelangelo/Renaissance Florence, and Christmas Themes.
Talk Description
Mad Men and the Artists -how advertisers have exploited fine art
Fine art has provided advertisers and their agencies with a great deal of material to use in their creative campaigns.
Tony describes some of the processes by which these advertisements have been created and why the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo have been a particularly rich source.
From the Renaissance through to the present day, fine art continues to provide opportunities to enhance Brand imagery with admiration, humour, satire and irony.
In an entertaining and informative lecture Tony uses a wide range of visuals and video to show examples of the original works, the creative process and the (not always entirely successful) advertisements that are the end result.
Other Talks
Baroque on a Roll! Classical Music in the Modern Media
I talk about the increasing popularity of classical music, especially amongst young people.
I show examples of how classical music enhances the mood - the drama, the tension, the romance -of feature films.
I show examples of how it has made many TV commercials truly memorable.
I describe how a piece by an obscure 17th century German Composer has become our No.1 favourite at weddings and funerals
And to finish I show how classical melodies and chord sequences have been borrowed for a huge number of popular hit records. (I play guitar and sing for this part, but don’t let that put you off!)
Fine Art’s Hidden Secrets
Many famous artworks are full of hidden symbols and meanings. Throughout history, artists have embedded secret messages within their paintings. I describe and explain these surprising hidden elements, to help to understand the artist’s hidden intentions.
The Three Kings - The real story?
A light-hearted seasonal lecture for Christmas, describing what we actually know about the three kings – or rather what we don’t know! For a start we don’t know how many “kings” there were. Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t tell us. We assume they were 3 because they brought 3 gifts.
But why gold, frankincense and myrrh?
Also, there’s no reason to suppose they were kings of anywhere. We don’t even know their gender – some of them might have been women.
And since they gave away the time of the birth of the baby Jesus to Herod the alleged baby slayer, we can reasonably assume they weren’t too clever – let alone wise!
Wassail away!
A SHORT HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS AND CAROLS
(WITH A SINGALONG AUDIENCE)
Who wrote them—and when? Why should the Merry Gentlemen rest and not be dismayed? What has a 10th century Bohemian Duke got to do with Christmas? Were the Three Kings really present at the birth of Jesus? Could you really see Three Ships sailing into Bethlehem when the nearest body of water was the Dead Sea 20 miles away? I compare carols with some modern Christmas songs, like ‘I Saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus’ and worse, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” essentially a hymn to creepy coercion.
IL GIGANTE The Giant – Michelangelo’s David
The fascinating story of how, in 16th century Florence, a 26 year old Michelangelo took on the commission, against enormous odds, to carve a huge flawed and damaged hunk of marble.
He went on to produce David, arguably the greatest sculpture of a male figure the world has ever seen. I describe Michelangelo’s early life, his time as an apprentice, then studying classical sculpture in the palace gardens of Florentine ruler Lorenzo de' Medici.
How he obtained special permission from the Catholic Church to study cadavers and thus developed his unique insight into anatomy.
This formed the groundwork for what would become Michelangelo's distinctive style: a muscular precision and reality combined with an almost lyrical beauty.
