Two Windows, Lecture by Julian Bell

Fine art as we have come to know it in Europe from the Renaissance onwards, and the visual arts that have flourished in Islamic societies could hardly be more different in format and purpose. Nonetheless, there is a deep historical interconnection that Julian Bell sets out to explore. The relationship between the two, he argues, is not simply a matter of cultural ancestry, but opens up all kinds of issues about the nature and ethics of vision that remain alive in the contemporary world, affecting contemporary art whether in Britain or in the Middle East.