Steve_Bamlett_blog

“I have a Ganymede brought from Florence that Mr. Hilliard, the painter, has much commended. It has a rare beauty. The boy is looking up at the eagle without a trace of fright; you would say he was some child, innocently watching a falcon”.[1] This blog looks at the theme of surrender to superior power, … More “I have a Ganymede brought from Florence that Mr. Hilliard, the painter, has much commended. It has a rare beauty. The boy is looking up at the eagle without a trace of fright; you would say he was some child, innocently watching a falcon”.[1] This blog looks at the theme of surrender to superior power, service, sexuality, play and gender in Bryher’s 1957 novel, ‘The Player’s Boy’.

Colm Tóibín’s latest collected essays suggest that, at least in some way (perhaps in the way we call ‘denial’) his writing is an example of how Irish art and discourse is always, in the end, about ‘being Irish and Catholic’. But if so, I would argue, it is an Irish and Catholic identity queered into … More Colm Tóibín’s latest collected essays suggest that, at least in some way (perhaps in the way we call ‘denial’) his writing is an example of how Irish art and discourse is always, in the end, about ‘being Irish and Catholic’. But if so, I would argue, it is an Irish and Catholic identity queered .  This is a blog on the essays of Colm Tóibín in his 2022 collection of them, mainly from The London Review of Books: that is, Colm Tóibín (2022) ‘A Guest at the Feast’.

In reporting her dream, Hilda Doolittle (known as H.D.) to her friend and lover Bryher, H.D.: ‘It appears I am that all-but extinct phenomena [sic.], the perfect bi’.[1] This blog is based on reading Susan McCabe’s ‘bi-biography’ H.D. & Bryher: An Untold Love Story of Modernism (2021) New York, Oxford University Press. My copy of … More In reporting her dream, Hilda Doolittle (known as H.D.) to her friend and lover Bryher, says: ‘It appears I am that all-but extinct phenomena [sic.], the perfect bi’.[1] This blog is based on reading Susan McCabe’s ‘bi-biography’ ‘H.D. & Bryher: An Untold Love Story of Modernism’ (2021).

‘The new nudes ask awkward questions and behave provocatively’.[1] This blog is an act of admiration for Frances Borzello’s The Naked Nude (2012, revised 2020) London, Thames & Hudson. Frances Borzello is an art historian and I am usually, quite frankly, antagonistic to the frameworks that define that term as an academic discipline, but sometimes … More ‘The new nudes ask awkward questions and behave provocatively’.[1] This blog is an act of admiration for Frances Borzello’s ‘The Naked Nude’ (2012, revised 2020)

What do Prince and Dickens have in common? A blog on why Nick Hornby is right to look for the answer to why we cling to the notion of individual genius in remarkable comparisons between different artists. A blog on Nick Hornby (2022) ‘Dickens & Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius’, Penguin Random House UK. … More What do Prince and Dickens have in common? A blog on why Nick Hornby is right to look for the answer to why we cling to the notion of individual genius in remarkable comparisons between different artists. A blog on Nick Hornby (2022) ‘Dickens & Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius’. A blog for Prince’s princely fan @JustinCurley4

True stories about strange lives: comparing views about truth-telling and ‘explanations for female genius’, from some of the film critics of Frances O’Connor’s Emily. I saw this film on Sunday 16th October of the Odeon in Durham. In The Sunday Times, Tom Shone takes a severe view of the duty of a film that looks … More True stories about strange lives: comparing views about truth-telling and ‘explanations for female genius’, from some of the film critics of Frances O’Connor’s ‘Emily’. I saw this film on Sunday 16th October of the Odeon in Durham.

‘The biggest task of the show is the actress playing Nora’s (sic.). … A more selfish actress would make the whole play about herself, but not Hannah [Ellis Ryan]. For her it’s very much an ensemble. Michael Meyer, the translator, always used to say that actors who want to grandstand, who aren’t willing to play … More ‘The biggest task of the show is the actress playing Nora’s (sic.). … A more selfish actress would make the whole play about herself, but not Hannah [Ellis Ryan]. For her it’s very much an ensemble. Michael Meyer, the translator, always used to say that actors who want to grandstand, who aren’t willing to play relationships, always fail with Ibsen, because what fascinated him was the complexity of relationships’. This blog discusses the production of Henrik Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ (Michael Meyer translation) by Elysium Theatre Company played on 14th October at Bishop Auckland Town Hall. References to text (not in all precise respects like the production adapted one) from Henrik Ibsen (translated Michael Meyer) [1990: 23 – 104] ‘Plays: Two’.

‘The time has come to be reflective’.[1] Do artists who have lived a very long and full life prefer to experience ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity’ (to which Wordsworth traced the origin of poems) now it can no longer be keenly experienced in action? It would be easy to attribute an actor and novelist’s turn to … More ‘The time has come to be reflective’. Do artists who have lived a very long and full life prefer to experience ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity’ (to which Wordsworth traced the origin of poems) now it can no longer be keenly experienced in action? These poems queer our conception of the development we call normative aging, developing that space in an old queer man’s body wherein we still feel ‘inclined to the wild unreason / that’s unbecoming in a man my age / and seeming dignity’. This blog, with personal reflections of my own, discusses the significance of the poems of Paul Bailey, mainly in ‘Joie de Vivre’ (2022).

‘Queer people have a particular stake in the question of paradise. …. not as a false paradise, or a paradise lost, but as an extant changing site, alive and livable, suspended in the present of a shared moment, and still ripe for rewriting’.[1] Do places have biographies as well as histories, inner lives and the … More ‘Queer people have a particular stake in the question of paradise’. Do places have biographies as well as histories, inner lives and the stuff of changes that occur in time tempered by reflection as well as circumstance? The case of Fire Island as see by Jack Parlett in ‘Fire Island: Love, Loss and Liberation in an American Paradise’.

The Credit Suisse Exhibition, Lucian Freud: New Perspectives is, according to Laura Cumming in The Observer the artist ‘stripped bare: …. No emphasis on the biography, behaviour or love life; no abasement before genius, just the revelation of the paintings as works of art to celebrate the centenary of Freud’s birth. …  Freud’s portraits can … More The Credit Suisse Exhibition ‘Lucian Freud: New Perspectives’ is, according to Laura Cumming ‘the artist ‘stripped bare: …. Freud’s portraits can speak for themselves’. This blog starts by musing upon the nature of mainstream media art reviews but is intended mainly to contain my thoughts prior to visiting the exhibition. It is done after reading the catalogue by Daniel F. Hermann (Ed.) named ‘Lucian Freud: New Perspectives’

According to Caitlin Haskell, writing in the catalogue for the Tate Modern EY Cézanne exhibition in 2022, the Refusés (artists such as Cézanne, Manet and Pissarro) ‘interrogated and laid open fundamental aspects of picture-making – colour, facture, finish, resolution, subject matter, cropping, compositional structure, … –  to a degree that painting itself became a critical … More According to Caitlin Haskell, the ‘Refusés’ (artists such as Cézanne, Manet and Pissarro) ‘interrogated and laid open fundamental aspects of picture-making – colour, facture, finish, resolution, subject matter, cropping, compositional structure, … –  to a degree that painting itself became a critical pursuit simultaneous with its creative and aesthetic ends’. This blog contains my thoughts prior to visiting the exhibition in London after perusing the catalogue by Achim Borchardt-Hume, Gloria Groom, Caitlin Haskell & Natalia Sidlina (Eds.) named ‘Cézanne’.

‘… how there’s still a kindae / fuckin serious / / as fuck / splendour / / tae every minute ay aw ay this? ’[1] This blog contains my personal views of Jenni Fagan’s (2022) The Bone Library Edinburgh, Polygon. Jenni Fagan’s single works reflect on each other. This is not because she writes on … More ‘… how there’s still a kindae / fuckin serious / / as fuck / splendour / / tae every minute ay aw ay this? ’This blog contains my personal views of Jenni Fagan’s (2022) The Bone Library Edinburgh, Polygon.