Beauty & The Survival of the Beautiful

Tutor:  The Rt Revd David Hawkins

Charles Darwin said in a fit of frustration, ‘The peacock’s tail makes me sick!’  In this course we shall travel together into the origins of beauty and the challenge it presented Darwin for his theory of evolution with its ‘Survival of the Fittest’.  We will explore the interplay between beauty, art and culture in the evolution of animals and humans. There will be engagement with some science, zoology, history, archaeology, aesthetics and art appreciation.

David is an environmental artist with a studio in Skipton in the Yorkshire Dales where he works in acrylics, watercolour, photography, collage and mixed media. It’s the essence of things which is his quest…the ‘tree-ness’ of things, as Paul Cezanne used to say. Playing with the juxtaposition of images, which have no apparent relation but can result in evocative association, provides endless fascination – like the Surrealists, Magritte, Dali and co. Recent work includes socio-political themes, as David believes art can be a more effective influence in society than rhetoric or campaigning. He’s the chair of Craven Arts and exhibits regularly in Yorkshire and London. David has been a Church of England minister all his adult life and has worked in Merseyside, Kenya, Nigeria, Oxford, Leeds and East London and Essex, where he was the Bishop of Barking for twelve years. Since his retirement he’s been an honorary, assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Leeds.