Steve_Bamlett_blog

The narrator, of James Kelman’s 2022 novel, God’s Teeth and Other Phenomena, Jack Proctor, a writer who identifies as working class, says of his experience as a resident writer in ‘The House of Art and Aesthetics’ in the USA: ‘I had a glorified view not just of art departments but colleges and universities, as intellectual … More The narrator, of James Kelman’s 2022 novel, ‘God’s Teeth and Other Phenomena’, Jack Proctor, a writer who identifies as working class, says of his experience as a resident writer in ‘The House of Art and Aesthetics’ in the USA: ‘I had a glorified view not just of art departments but colleges and universities, as intellectual hotbeds. When I discovered the truth the disappointment of that stayed with me and it’s with me right now’.[1] A great author summarises his disappointment with the notion of elite culture and the pretence of knowing what art is without working hard to do it.

Joseph Ortiz makes a brilliant case in his new biography of Gordon Merrick for describing the artist’s achievement as the invention of the Great American Queer Novel. This blog ponders on whether Merrick was a better model for our own era of the potential of an open sexual diversity in Merrick’s own, despite the claims … More Joseph Ortiz makes a brilliant case in his new biography of Gordon Merrick for describing the artist’s achievement as the invention of the Great American Queer Novel.  The blog is based on reading the Charlie & Peter Trilogy and Joseph M. Ortiz (2022) biography ‘Gordon Merrick and the Great American Gay Novel’

Comparing the Incommensurable: Concerning the Art, Politics & Culture of the Incomplete in Golden Age ‘Spain’: This is a reflective blog on a wonderful book by Jeremy Robbins (2022), Incomparable Realms: Spain During The Golden Age, 1500-1700 London, Reaktion Books Ltd: ‘… incomparability enfolds much that we encounter: at the heart of this lies incommensurability, … More Comparing the Incommensurable: Concerning the Art, Politics & Culture of the Incomplete in Golden Age ‘Spain’: This is a reflective blog on a wonderful book by Jeremy Robbins (2022), ‘Incomparable Realms: Spain During The Golden Age, 1500-1700’.

A lecture on the why and how we need to address the issue of sexualities and sex/gender difference in social work. To be given at New College Durham on 13th December 2022. This lecture is intended for the second year of a degree in Social Work at New College Durham. It addresses sex/gender diversity, the … More A lecture on the why and how we need to address the issue of sexualities and sex/gender difference in social work. To be given at New College Durham on 13th December 2022.

This week I returned to teaching. My first assignment is to teach Safeguarding as part of a Law for Social Worker’s course. Since I come in without knowledge of the group, though I have met them once, this workshop / lecture is tro introduce basic issues in the interpretation of the law for application by … More A Lecture to Year 1 BA (Hons.) students at New College Durham on Adult Safeguarding.

On seeing the Tate Modern EY Cézanne exhibition  on the 29th November 2022 and the salutary effect of being much more puzzled about this artist by seeing their pictures as they were painted. An addendum to the blog done ‘prior to visiting the exhibition’. Link to original blog (from September 30th) just above opening paragraph … More On seeing the Tate Modern EY Cézanne exhibition  on the 29th November 2022 and the salutary effect of being much more puzzled about this artist by seeing their pictures as they were painted. An addendum to the blog done ‘prior to visiting the exhibition’. Link to original blog (from September 30th) just above opening paragraph of this new one.

On seeing the National Gallery Freud retrospective exhibition ‘in the flesh’ on the 30th November 2022. An addendum to the blog done ‘prior to visiting the exhibition’. Link to original blog (from October 5th) just above opening paragraph of this new one. The original blog is available at: https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2022/10/05/the-credit-suisse-exhibition-lucian-freud-new-perspectives-is-according-to-laura-cumming-the-artist-stripped-bare-freuds-portraits-can-speak-for-themselves-this-blog/ The Credit Suisse Exhibition 2022 on … More On seeing the National Gallery Freud retrospective exhibition ‘in the flesh’ on the 30th November 2022. An addendum to the blog done ‘prior to visiting the exhibition’. Link to original blog (from October 5th) just above opening paragraph of this new one.

‘Transgression and deviance are no longer universal but local, temporary and up for debate. / … / The bawdy human, indulging in an excess of all these biological functions, addresses the threshold between how things are and how they could be if only we could get over the hang ups and let downs of daily … More ‘Transgression and deviance are no longer universal but local, temporary and up for debate. / … / The bawdy human, indulging in an excess of all these biological functions, addresses the threshold between how things are and how they could be if only we could get over the hang ups and let downs of daily life’. This is a blog exploring, from my own point of view, the limits of using the biological or ‘animal’ functions, especially in relation to sex, as an argument for liberation of the oppressed and marginalised, however much fun that approach yields. It uses the book / catalogue of a Tate Britain exhibition in 2010: Tim, Batchelor, Cedar Lewisohn & Marin Myrone (eds) [2010] ‘Rude Britannia: British Comic Art’.

This is a blog about the art of Luigi Lucioni, which some whim persuaded me to entitle: ‘The Stilled Lives of the Closet as an approach to the art of Luigi Lucioni (1900 – 1988)’. It uses the book / catalogue of an exhibition: Katie Wood Kirchoff [Ed.] (2022) Luigi Lucioni: Modern Light for Shelburne … More This is a blog about the art of Luigi Lucioni, which some whim persuaded me to entitle: ‘The Stilled Lives of the Closet as an approach to the art of Luigi Lucioni (1900 – 1988)’. It uses the book / catalogue of an exhibition: Katie Wood Kirchoff [Ed.] (2022) ‘Luigi Lucioni: Modern Light’.

‘So, I’m here with my mum to ask a few questions about life’.[1] ‘… – yes, she will continue to fashion herself to help give her bodam * grace – the obstacle of items will slow down this impedance’s pace’. [2] This blog examines how and why we need stories wherein everyone, even the story, … More ‘So, I’m here with my mum to ask a few questions about life’. ‘… – yes, she will continue to fashion herself to help give her bodam * grace – the obstacle of items will slow down this impedance’s pace’. This blog examines how and why we need stories wherein everyone, even the story has ‘lost the plot’! It concerns Derek Owusu (2022) Losing The Plot London, Edinburgh, Canongate.

“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’.