‘I have never understood why the word feminine is considered to be a compliment to one’s sex if one is a woman, but has a derogatory meaning when applied to anything else. …/ There is a whole range of formal perception belonging to feminine experience. So many ideas spring from an inside response to form; … More ‘I have never understood why the word feminine is considered to be a compliment to one’s sex if one is a woman, but has a derogatory meaning when applied to anything else’. Sex and the genderqueer in Barbara Hepworth. Reflecting on the current Hepworth retrospective at The Hepworth Museum Wakefield  and a new biography by the Museum’s curator: Eleanor Clayton ‘Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life’

‘I tend not to like conclusions, and have a sense that it is best if the end is left rather open. …/…/ I am not sure this is quite the book I set out to write’. (p. 15) The limits of knowledge and expression as exploted in Martin Kemp’s (2021) ‘Visions of Heaven: Dante and … More ‘I tend not to like conclusions, and have a sense that it is best if the end is left rather open. …/…/ I am not sure this is quite the book I set out to write’. The limits of knowledge and expression as exploted in Martin Kemp’s (2021) ‘Visions of Heaven: Dante and the Art Of Divine Light’

‘… the ambiguous sensate body emerges as the primary subject of painting, …. It is intimately connected to that of the beholder, conjoined with our own in a wave or circuit of sensual response’ .[1] An invitation to ‘enjoy immediate access to his fleshy body’:[2] in a bold take on Giorgione’s erotic figures and dislocated … More ‘… the ambiguous sensate body emerges as the primary subject of painting, …. It is intimately connected to that of the beholder, conjoined with our own in a wave or circuit of sensual response’. An invitation to ‘enjoy immediate access to his fleshy body’: in a bold take on Giorgione’s erotic figures and dislocated landscapes in Tom Nichol’s (2020) ‘Giorgione’s Ambiguity (Renaissance Lives series)’.

‘For if we look on the nature of elemental and mixed things, we know they cannot suffer any change of one kind or quality into another without the struggle of contrarieties’ [1] Understanding the life of John Milton (up to 1642) through the lens of Nicholas McDowell’s (2021) Poet of Revolution Princeton, NJ & Oxford, Princeton University … More REVISED VERSION:‘For if we look on the nature of elemental and mixed things, we know they cannot suffer any change of one kind or quality into another without the struggle of contrarieties’. Understanding the life of John Milton (up to 1642) through the lens of Nicholas McDowell’s (2021) ‘Poet of Revolution’

‘It is a breath-turn, a caesura. / … / And I think you see the diaspora happening and want this staying still and this moment of the turn of the breath’.[1] ‘ “…. The collector ‘stills’ his fate. …” / writes Walter Benjamin’.[2] Stilling the noisy passage of dispersion. Reflecting on Edmund De Waal’s (2021) … More ‘It is a breath-turn, a caesura. / … / And I think you see the diaspora happening and want this staying still and this moment of the turn of the breath’. ‘ “…. The collector ‘stills’ his fate. …” / writes Walter Benjamin’. Stilling the noisy passage of dispersion. Reflecting on Edmund De Waal’s (2021) ‘Letters To Camondo’

‘Is that how you look at paintings? I asked. Do you take them purely on their own terms, or are you looking for signs of the hand that created them? It’s both and you know it, she said’.[1] The hand of the auteur in art and issues in the control of queered sexuality and life-choice. … More ‘Is that how you look at paintings? I asked. Do you take them purely on their own terms, or are you looking for signs of the hand that created them? It’s both and you know it, she said’. The hand of the auteur in art and issues in the control of queered sexuality and life-choice. Reflecting on Niven Govinden’s (2021) ‘Diary of a Film’

for Medicine and the Arts: University of Cape Town (on Futurelearn) Assignment topic: experiences of illness depicted in art There are two parts to this assignment. First, briefly describe some form of creative or artistic creation that helps to communicate experiences of illness. This week looked at episodes of mental illness as an example, but you … More Assignment topic: experiences of illness depicted in art

I say how good this course is on: https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2021/05/10/a-new-course-from-the-university-of-leeds-on-heroism-in-world-war-1-and-the-assessment-participation-methodology-used/ This is my brief review for our course. (WW1 Heroism: Through Film and Art – the exercise comes from https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/ww1-heroism-art-film/52/steps/1098890 ). I decided to go for a BBC program Considering The Poppy featuring Simon Armitage reading his own poetry. See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/simon-armitage for a description by the … More ‘WW1 Heroism: Through Film and Art’ exercise on ‘Considering The Poppy’ featuring Simon Armitage reading his own poetry.

Of course, when asked to go for an image from the art of World War 1 I go for one that is anti-war and undermines heroism, without being Wilfred Owen (who is well enough known). This is an image from Paul Nash illustrating a Richard Aldington poem. My comment from course board: Undermining the heroic … More A new course from the University of Leeds on heroism in World War 1 and the assessment/participation methodology used.

‘Faced with madness, we bury our heads and willingly pass off the problem to psychiatrists so we do not need to confront the challenge it poses.’[1] Do we as a society need, and can we dare, to acknowledge the needs of those already abandoned at the door of our collective ignorance of their causes and … More ‘Faced with madness, we bury our heads and willingly pass off the problem to psychiatrists so we do not need to confront the challenge it poses.’ Reflecting on Owen Whooley (2019) ‘On The Heels of Ignorance: Psychiatry and the Politics of Not Knowing’