Visiting Manchester – Highlights. Wednesday 8th to Saturday 11th December. It is enough to see a friend but to see him in a vibrant city full of light, however commercialised, good food and history was special. This blog won’t feature many pictures of Justin because he is notoriously camera-shy, but keen eyes might pick him … More Visiting Manchester

Can technology really ‘have you interacting with art in ways you never imagined’?[1] This blog reflects on the Van Gogh Alive Exhibition by Grande Exhibition seen at MediaCity, Manchester on Thursday 9th December 11 am, with reference to the Official Programme. Van Gogh has been used as appropriate material for exhibitions through reproductions, rather than … More Can technology really ‘have you interacting with art in ways you never imagined’? This blog reflects on the Van Gogh Alive Exhibition by Grande Exhibition seen at MediaCity, Manchester on Thursday 9th December 11 am, with reference to the Official Programme.

“If the paintings are palimpsests, the books are reliquaries, filled with asynchronous wonders. / … / … preferring to animate old revels by injecting them with a chaotic modern element”.[1]  How and why the art of Derek Jarman defies time as we think we know it to be and as we think we know it … More “If the paintings are palimpsests, the books are reliquaries, filled with asynchronous wonders … preferring to animate old revels by injecting them with a chaotic modern element”. How and why the art of Derek Jarman defies time as we think we know it to be and as we think we know it works. This blog reflects on Seán Kissane & Karim Rehmann-White (Eds.) ‘Derek Jarman: Protest’

This blog uses examples of artworks but is in fact really about how the confused mess of discourse surrounding how the meaning of pictures that focus their gaze upon men is named and/or interpreted. It refers also to the selection from the Nini-Treadwell photographic collection in that beautiful book of wanton over-naming and over-interpretation (which … More This blog is about how the confused mess of discourse surrounding HOW the meaning of pictures that focus their gaze upon men is named and/or interpreted. It refers to Paolo Maria Noseda, Hugh Nini & Neal Treadwell (2020) ‘Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s – 1950s’

“… every lapse from the imaginative into the idées reçues” of orthodoxy is disappointing”.[1]  Once upon a time there was a world where John Burnside’s statement about the nature of an artist’s writing set appropriate expectations for a reader. Has this time gone? This blog reflects on Burnside’s (2021) Aurochs and Auks: Essays on Mortality … More “… every lapse from the imaginative into the ‘idées reçues’ of orthodoxy is disappointing”. This blog reflects on Burnside’s (2021) ‘Aurochs and Auks: Essays on Mortality and Extinction’ Cornwall, Little Toller Books.

“… It’s a slow burn. Some people like things coming at them at a faster pace. That might be hard, but I felt it was probably necessary to get the full impact, the changes, and the way that the space rolls”.[1]  Space, time and the passing away of the masculine super-hero in Jane Campion’s 2021 … More “… It’s a slow burn. Some people like things coming at them at a faster pace. That might be hard, but I felt it was probably necessary to get the full impact, the changes, and the way that the space rolls”.  Space, time and the passing away of the masculine super-hero in Jane Campion’s 2021 Netflix adaptation of Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel, The Power of the Dog.

‘…/ We all profit from him, from / his so-called soteriological instincts.’ ‘Too bad if it leaves him / outsize and outside / the civilization he’s saving’.[1] This blog reflects on the social psychology of the hero as saviour in Anne Carson’s new version of Euripides’ Herakles (2021) ‘H OF H PLAYBOOK’ London, Jonathan Cape, … More ‘…/ We all profit from him, from / his so-called soteriological instincts.’ ‘Too bad if it leaves him / outsize and outside / the civilization he’s saving’. This blog reflects on the social psychology of the hero as saviour in Anne Carson’s new version of Euripides’ Herakles (2021) ‘H OF H PLAYBOOK’

‘“April,” he said, the name giving Phoebe a start, until she realised it was the month and not her missing friend he was speaking of, “An undependable time of year – you wouldn’t know what it was going to do,” and she understood her mistake.’.[1] Reflecting on John Banville’s (2021) ‘April in Spain’London, Faber. Of … More ‘“April,” he said, the name giving Phoebe a start, until she realised it was the month and not her missing friend he was speaking of, “An undependable time of year – you wouldn’t know what it was going to do,” and she understood her mistake.’.[1] Reflecting on John Banville’s (2021) ‘April in Spain’

This is a blog on portraying the artist amongst ‘the unsung heroines and heroes of British art from 1880 to 1980’. The Laing Gallery and Liss Llewellyn discuss paintings from this period in terms, amongst others of (i) the spaces they use; (ii) the self-image they prefer to show and; (iii) the meanings they attribute … More This is a blog on portraying the artist amongst ‘the unsung heroines and heroes of British art from 1880 to 1980’. The Laing Gallery and Liss Llewellyn discuss paintings from this period in terms, amongst others of (i) the spaces they use; (ii) the self-image they prefer to show and; (iii) the meanings they attribute to the process of creation. The blog uses both a visit to the Laing on 13th November 2021

Sutapa Biswas explains the intellectual and pedagogic engagement in her art with Griselda Pollock, the leading UK socialist feminist art historian of her day, as ‘saying to Pollock “Where am I in your narrative of Old Mistresses?”’[1] Francis Fukuyama sees such statements of exclusion from the grand narratives (here Western feminism) as part of the … More Sutapa Biswas explains the intellectual and pedagogic engagement in her art with Griselda Pollock, the leading UK socialist feminist art historian of her day, as ‘saying to Pollock “Where am I in your narrative of Old Mistresses?”’ This is a blog on Amy Tobin (editor) (2021) ‘Lumen: Sutapa Biswas’ London, Ridinghouse; with reference to Stuart Jeffries (2021) ‘Everything, All the Time, Everywhere: How We Became Postmodern’.

‘… if I concentrated enough, the intensity of the scrutiny alone would force life into the pictures’.[1] An attempt to find the ‘distilled essence of Lucian Freud’s art in a small sample from his early art wherein technique, style and meaning are a function of qualities the artist demands of his the interaction between the … More ‘… if I concentrated enough, the intensity of the scrutiny alone would force life into the pictures’. Finding the ‘distilled essence of Lucian Freud’s early art – where technique, style and meaning are a function of qualities the artist demands of his the interaction between the viewer’s gaze on his subjects and those subjects’ illusory ‘gaze’ on and into their viewers. A blog on David Scherf (ed.) (2021: 69) Lucian Freud: The Copper Paintings