Tag: art

The total absurdity of the phrase ‘less is more’! An example of ‘overthinking’ on that theme.

December 2, 2024

Mies Van Der Rohe thought the phrase ‘less is more’ a defence of the refusal of embellishments in architecture that are both non-functional and decorative rather than part of a basic form or formal concept expressed by a building, but the phrase is a kind of pleasing nonsense that the love of binaries makes possible. … More The total absurdity of the phrase ‘less is more’! An example of ‘overthinking’ on that theme.

We called it the Leonardo cartoon. We visited it every week.

December 1, 2024

Leonardo da Vinci (about 1499-1500) The Burlington House Cartoon.Charcoal (and wash?) heightened with white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas, 141.5 x 104.6 cm. Purchased with a special grant and contributions from the Art Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, and through a public appeal organised by the Art Fund, 1962. NG6337. Available at: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/NG6337 There were … More We called it the Leonardo cartoon. We visited it every week.

Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning No. 3: The Bacon portraits at the National Portrait Gallery as acts of love & beauty.

November 9, 2024

Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning No. 3: Bacon claimed that the role of art was not to create a ‘likeness’ of what meets the eye in looking at his sitter but to discover ‘a deeper sense of the reality of the image; by finding a way to ‘unlock the areas of feeling’ that lead to … More Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning No. 3: The Bacon portraits at the National Portrait Gallery as acts of love & beauty.

Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning No. 2 : This blog is based on thinking about the debt of influence of Francis Bacon to his painting hero, Vincent Van Gogh, as a portraitist.

November 5, 2024

Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning No. 2: This blog is yet again an attempt to understand my own process of  learning. It is based on thinking about the debt of influence of Francis Bacon to his painting hero, Vincent Van Gogh, as a portraitist. I start with the configuration of that debt by Rosie Broadley … More Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning No. 2 : This blog is based on thinking about the debt of influence of Francis Bacon to his painting hero, Vincent Van Gogh, as a portraitist.

Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning: This blog is an attempt to understand my own process of  learning. It is based on a highly situated reading of Émile Zola’s ‘The Sin of Abbé Mouret’, translated by Valerie Minogue

November 2, 2024

Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning: This blog is an attempt to understand my own process of  learning. It is based on a highly situated and contextualised reading of Émile Zola’s The Sin of Abbé Mouret (La faute de l’abbé Mouret) translated by Valerie Minogue (Oxford World Classics ed.) Oxford, Oxford University Press, an edition recommended … More Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning: This blog is an attempt to understand my own process of  learning. It is based on a highly situated reading of Émile Zola’s ‘The Sin of Abbé Mouret’, translated by Valerie Minogue

In lieu of a blog in a time of confusion: The Next blogs – the plan.

October 31, 2024

The Next blogs – the plan: I intend to keep up the blogs, lest the pin of my mental world is withdrawn in the present crisis in my husband’s health. For Geoff has become increasingly breathless over a week or so – the GP surgery thinking that at 83 all that was required was consultation … More In lieu of a blog in a time of confusion: The Next blogs – the plan.

‘On reflection the use of impasto is as good a place as any to start with Van Gogh’. Random thoughts about the current National Gallery exhibition.

October 30, 2024

In the second part of my blog on my birthday visit to London, I predicted what I might write about when I wrote a second blog on it  [the first is at this link] based on seeing the work ‘in the flesh’.  Saying it was ‘almost certainly the strongest art exhibition I have ever seen’ … More ‘On reflection the use of impasto is as good a place as any to start with Van Gogh’. Random thoughts about the current National Gallery exhibition.

This blog prepares me for the first exhibition of Bacon devoted solely to the concept of portraiture with the help of Rosie Broadley (ed.) [2024] ‘Francis Bacon: Human Presence’.

October 21, 2024

At the heart of Rosie Broadley’s beautiful National Portrait Gallery catalogue is a brief essay by James Hall about artist’s studios as self –expression called ‘Corners of Filth & Fantasy’. Hall tells us that Bacon saw his studio as a ‘dump’, and this appears no exaggeration, quoting Bacon as saying: ‘I feel at home here … More This blog prepares me for the first exhibition of Bacon devoted solely to the concept of portraiture with the help of Rosie Broadley (ed.) [2024] ‘Francis Bacon: Human Presence’.

“If you can get the balls in, you will”. This blog prepares to revisit Yorkshire Sculpture Park to re-see their Frink collection after reading Stephen Gardiner (1998) ‘Frink: The Official Biography of Elisabeth Frink’.

October 17, 2024

“If you can get the balls in, you will”. Elisabeth Frink quoted her mother as saying to her of sculptural work  to her official biographer, Stephen Gardiner. She used this to illustrate her love of symbolic and embodied passion, imagined as entirely male, that is quite ‘the opposite of passive … somebody who can be … More “If you can get the balls in, you will”. This blog prepares to revisit Yorkshire Sculpture Park to re-see their Frink collection after reading Stephen Gardiner (1998) ‘Frink: The Official Biography of Elisabeth Frink’.

The current Exhibition at The National Gallery promises to make you see Van Gogh differently. I see it on Thursday 25th October I read: Cornelia Homburg (ed.) (2024) ‘Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers’.

October 16, 2024

Cornelia Homburg cites  a letter of 1888 in which Van Gogh saw a coal-barge on the quays of the Rhone river that was ‘a grand subject’ and was ‘pure Hokusai’, but it was a subject that he needed to think about painting very differently because, he says: “I’m beginning to see more and more to … More The current Exhibition at The National Gallery promises to make you see Van Gogh differently. I see it on Thursday 25th October I read: Cornelia Homburg (ed.) (2024) ‘Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers’.

Agnes must have miscalculated’: The math that we get wrong in art, perhaps deliberately. This is a blog on Victoria Chang (2024) ‘With My Back To the World’

September 24, 2024

‘Agnes must have miscalculated’:[1]  The math that we get wrong in art, perhaps deliberately. This is a blog on Victoria Chang (2024) With My Back To the World London, Corsair Poetry. Ekphrasis is an exercise in written words, used in poetry since Ancient times, to describe visual art in a way that tests whether words … More Agnes must have miscalculated’: The math that we get wrong in art, perhaps deliberately. This is a blog on Victoria Chang (2024) ‘With My Back To the World’