TASK: Write a short promotional text about the work. You can also copy messages directly from real ads you see every day. The ‘most radical sculpture of classic modernism’ has a tendency to keep turning up as endlessly even if it isn’t literally ‘endless’. Giovanni Solari, an engineer, says it is the only example of … More Pop Art Ads: An exercise from the Centre Pompidou ‘Pop Art’ course: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/pop-art/1/steps/894830

‘Perhaps street art is simply a more resonant form for a generation not so beguiled by Great Men: less burdened with classical allusions, less permanent, more dynamic, more democratic.’ [1] Reflecting on Alex von Tunzelmann (2021) Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History London, Headline Publishing Group Statues make history in the most active sense … More ‘Perhaps street art is simply a more resonant form for a generation not so beguiled by Great Men: less burdened with classical allusions, less permanent, more dynamic, more democratic.’ Reflecting on Alex von Tunzelmann (2021) ‘Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History’

‘It was then that Adrian [Ryan] told me of his regular, sexual trinity involving Johnny [Minton] and Lucian [Freud] in the latter’s St. John’s Wood “squalor” located in Abercorn Place, NW1.’ [1] Even if it ‘frightened the bejasus out of’ the two bisexual men,[2] Minton’s life and work momentarily triumphs over theirs in this exhibition … More ‘It was then that Adrian [Ryan] told me of his regular, sexual trinity involving Johnny [Minton] and Lucian [Freud] in the latter’s St. John’s Wood “squalor” located in Abercorn Place, NW1.’ A reflection on the Unholy Trinity: Freud, Minton, Ryan exhibition currently at Bath.

TASK for POP ART course run by Centre Pompidou in Paris with FutureLearn. Maybe it is unfair to represent cultural misogyny in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon? Or is it? It starts here.

What a wonderful opportunity. To study, if briefly and on the digital margins, with the Pompidou Centre via FutureLearn. By second lesson you access software (free) to create an Andy Warhol conversion of your own photo: from: To: This is going to be fun. Love Steve.

‘…, I must talk about my body as black, and my body as male, and my body as queer. I must talk about how our bodies can variously assume privilege or victimhood from their conflicting identities’.[1]  ‘It is 2004. Terrifying stories have been leaking out about the violent homophobia on the island. … In 2006 … More Edinburgh Book Festival reissue: ‘…, I must talk about my body as black, and my body as male, and my body as queer. I must talk about how our bodies can variously assume privilege or victimhood from their conflicting identities’.  What truths does my body withhold? Reflecting on Kei Miller’s (2021) ‘Things I Have Withheld: Essays’.

‘People don’t live like that anymore… and so the literary salon has been snuffed out, and become almost extinct like the maiden aunt and the man of letters’.[1] Should we mourn the Crichel Boys? Reflecting on Simon Fenwick’s (2021) The Crichel Boys: Scenes from England’s last literary salon, London, Constable (Little, Brown Book Group). Somehow, … More ‘People don’t live like that anymore… and so the literary salon has been snuffed out, and become almost extinct like the maiden aunt and the man of letters’. Should we mourn the Crichel Boys? Reflecting on Simon Fenwick’s (2021) ‘The Crichel Boys: Scenes from England’s last literary salon’.

‘Your hearts were joined, beating in unison, but then they fractured, blood pooling and spilling in the darkness, and then they broke and that was that really’. [1] From cliché to experience at times ‘when language fails us’ in Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water, London, Viking (Penguin Books). How transferable is the experience of oppression … More ‘Your hearts were joined, beating in unison, but then they fractured, blood pooling and spilling in the darkness, and then they broke and that was that really’. From cliché to experience at times ‘when language fails us’ in Caleb Azumah Nelson’s ‘Open Water’

‘ … “I sold myself,” he said in a low voice, looking at the table, “To men….// “That night, he went on, the man who had picked him up forced him to do things he didn’t want to do. The man was English. He drove an expensive car. A Lexus. It was black’. [1] The … More ‘ … “I sold myself,” he said in a low voice, looking at the table, “To men….// “That night, he went on, the man who had picked him up forced him to do things he didn’t want to do. The man was English. He drove an expensive car. A Lexus. It was black’. The art of making stories correspond quite queerly in the portmanteau novel: Rupert Thomson’s (2021) ‘Barcelona Dreaming’

‘Art and the art world have at times been intimidating, elitist, frustrating, overtly academic, impenetrable, frightening even’. : How aim to highlight the ‘flip side’ of art and the art world: ‘joyous, exhilarating, incredibly EXCITING, encouraging, poetic, and the best kind of challenging’. [1] Reflections on Russell Tovey & Robert Diament ( 2021) talk ART, … More ‘Art and the art world have at times been intimidating, elitist, frustrating, overtly academic, impenetrable, frightening even’. : How Russell and Robert aim to highlight the ‘flip side’ of art and the art world: ‘joyous, exhilarating, incredibly EXCITING, encouraging, poetic, and the best kind of challenging’. Reflections on Russell Tovey & Robert Diament ( 2021) ‘talk ART’

‘…, I should acknowledge my own experiences, professional and personal, although in my own case these merge, since I never learned to make a distinction between the ‘academic’ and ‘personal’ approaches’.[1] : Unpacking Mary Ann Caws’ ‘case’ with reflections on her 2019 book Creative Gatherings: Meeting Places of Modernism London, Reaktion Books. Mary Ann Caws … More ‘…, I should acknowledge my own experiences, professional and personal, although in my own case these merge, since I never learned to make a distinction between the ‘academic’ and ‘personal’ approaches’. : Unpacking Mary Ann Caws’ ‘case’ with reflections on her 2019 book ‘Creative Gatherings: Meeting Places of Modernism’.

‘We’ll tek our mighty stance again’: Looking at Alex Wheatle (2020) Cane Warriors London, Andersen Press Ltd. It’s possible that this novel will never be considered for major prizes in literary fiction, like the Booker, since it is written, as Jimi Famurewa says in his interview with the author for The Guardian as ‘a taut, … More ‘We’ll tek our mighty stance again’: Looking at Alex Wheatle (2020) Cane Warriors London, Andersen Press Ltd.