‘“…, the way of seeing outside the limits of architecture is the one that reveals the real truth and … is what illuminates more”/ … “The art that presents us with more difficulties is the most agreeable and therefore the most intellectual”’.[1]  Faking it – An idea applied to the availability and originality of great … More  ‘“The art that presents us with more difficulties is the most agreeable and therefore the most intellectual”’.  This blog is about the El Greco paintings, ‘Christ on the Cross’ (c. 1610), ‘The Holy Family’ (ca. 1585), ‘The Baptism of Christ’ (a digitally processed facsimile) & ‘A Tabernacle of The Risen Christ’ (a digitally processed facsimile): The showcasing of original and facsimile Works by El Greco [Domenikó Theotokópoulos] (1541 – 1614) in the Spanish Gallery in Bishop Auckland: (No.2).

 ‘Ne quis praeter Apellem Pingeret / For his ingeniosidades are not inferior to those that antiquity celebrates from the palette of that artist’.[1]  A Young Boy Holding A Lance and Christ and the Woman of Samaria: Two paintings by Juan van der Hamen y León (1596 – 1631): Spanish Gallery in Bishop Auckland: Reflections and … More ‘Ne quis praeter Apellem Pingeret / For his ingeniosidades are not inferior to those that antiquity celebrates from the palette of that artist’.  ‘A Young Boy Holding A Lance’ and ‘Christ and the Woman of Samaria’: Two paintings by Juan van der Hamen y León (1596 – 1631): Spanish Gallery in Bishop Auckland: Reflections and Discussions in my free time on some of the Paintings, as part of a personal learning project related to the Golden Age of Spanish Painting. (No.1).

In the 1998 Afterword to his first novel, published in 1950 Donald Windham says: ‘my ideal was that the theme of a novel should never be stated in so many words, only by the novel as a whole’.[1]  Is there an advantage to queer novelists writing in an age that oppressed queer identities of writing … More In the ‘Afterword’ to his first novel, published in 1950 Donald Windham says: ‘my ideal was that the theme of a novel should never be stated in so many words, only by the novel as a whole’.  Is there an advantage to queer novelists writing in an age that oppressed queer identities of writing indirectly by never stating directly that the novel has a queer theme?  This blog is a reflection on reading the Donald Windham’s reprinted ‘The Dog Star’.

FINAL LONDON ART BLOG (5): ‘If I’m in a positive mood I’m interested in joining. If I’m in a negative mood I will cut things’. ‘… my mother … repaired broken things. I don’t do that. I destroy things. … I must destroy, rebuild, destroy again’. [1]  This blog is really a love song to … More FINAL LONDON ART BLOG (5): ‘If I’m in a positive mood I’m interested in joining. If I’m in a negative mood I will cut things’. This blog is really a love song to the art of Louise Bourgeois, so brilliantly curated for the current Hayward Gallery exhibition ‘Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child’ and the beautiful and brilliant accompanying book edited by Ralph Rugoff.

LONDON ART BLOG 4: Speaking of the way in which Jock McFayden uses paint to indicate his range of subjects, which (whether landscape, buildings or people) are all facing possible extinction, Rowan Moore (2019: 48) says of the paint once applied: ‘While it passionately wants to be something or make something, its grip on the … More LONDON ART BLOG 4: Speaking of the way in which Jock McFayden uses paint to indicate his range of subjects, Rowan Moore says of the paint once applied: ‘While it passionately wants to be something or make something, its grip on the surface of the canvas is provisional’.  This blog reviews an unexpected look at the short exhibition of Jock McFayden’s work, Tourist without a Guidebook currently at the Royal Academy. 

LONDON ART BLOG 3B: Speaking of the ‘Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear’ (1889) Louis van Tilborgh says that, in the book accompanying this exhibition: ‘although our attention is drawn to Van Gogh’s bandaged face, the style is so dominant and so radiant that the depiction of his features seems to recede into the background’.  Tilborgh goes … More LONDON ART BLOG 3B: Speaking of the ‘Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear’, Louis van Tilborgh says that: ‘the style is so dominant and so radiant that the depiction of his features seems to recede into the background’.  Tilborgh goes on to say that the artist thus achieved his goal that: ‘painting would become “more music and less sculpture”’. Self-portrayal and art focused on the exhibition accompanying Karen Serres (Ed.) ‘Van Gogh: Self-Portraits’. 

LONDON ART BLOG 3A: Art and me: how the Courtauld Institute and Gallery played a part in the silent development of a half-conscious love of the images and painting that make up a cultural tradition about which I remain ambivalent. This is the first part of a blog based on visiting the Courtauld Gallery on … More LONDON ART BLOG 3A: Art and me. This is the first part of a blog based on visiting the Courtauld Gallery on the 8th February 2022, ostensibly to see only the Van Gogh: Self-Portraits exhibition (see LONDON ART BLOG 3B on this). 

LONDON ART BLOG 2: In her brief summary contribution to the 2021 book accompanying  the Royal Academy’s delayed exhibition Francis Bacon: Man and Beast, Catherine Lampert says, as if in summary of Bacon’s attitude to the artistic image: ‘Watch me go into a territory that others do not dare represent’.[1] This blog is about the … More LONDON ART BLOG 2: Catherine Lampert says, as if in summary of Bacon’s attitude to the artistic image: ‘Watch me go into a territory that others do not dare represent’. This blog is about the meaning, effects and affects of the imagery of dualistic terror, agony and pain considered in the Royal Academy exhibition ‘Francis Bacon: Man and Beast’ based on a visit to it on the 8th February 2022.

LONDON ART BLOG 1: Susan Foister & Peter Van Brink say of the exhibition at the National Gallery, Dürer’s Journeys: Travels of a Renaissance Artist in the publication that covers that exhibition: ‘Many new discoveries have been made in the preparation of this exhibition and the accompanying publication’.[1] It is a small claim and Kathryn Murphy reviewing the … More LONDON ART BLOG 1: Kathryn Murphy reviewing The National Gallery, ‘Dürer’s Journeys: Travels of a Renaissance Artist’ exhibition for the magazine ‘Apollo’ says the: ‘exhibition with its rather perfunctory captions, would have benefitted from … glimpses of a stranger, more curious Dürer, restless, wandering, moving at speed’. This blog reflects on the possible pitfalls of art exhibitions in the great international art institutions based on single great ‘old masters’. It is based on a visit to it on the 9th February 2022 and the accompanying book. 

‘Can and should we queer the past? Or is history – with all its ambiguity, misleading familiarity and unknowable possibility – already queer’.[1]  So says Justin Bengry in a 2021 essay from a set examining the ‘theory’ of history. A consideration of the differences in telling ‘untold’ historical stories in two books: Paul Baker & … More ‘Can and should we queer the past? Or is history – with all its ambiguity, misleading familiarity and unknowable possibility – already queer’. So says Justin Bengry in a 2021 essay from a set examining the ‘theory’ of history. A consideration of the differences in telling ‘untold’ historical stories in two books: Paul Baker & Jo Stanley’s ‘Hello Sailor!: The Hidden History of Gay Life at Sea’, & Stephen Bourne ‘Fighting Proud: The Untold story of The Gay Men who served in Two World Wars’.