Tag: travel

On the myth that visiting the Rijksmuseum is the primary way of knowing the culture of Holland and the Dutch spirit.

May 26, 2025

On the myth that visiting the Rijksmuseum is the primary way of knowing the culture of Holland and the Dutch spirit. In my introductory blog on our Amsterdam trip [at this link], I suggested there would be three more Amsterdam blogs to come.  There, in the first version (now updated to reflect the chosen final … More On the myth that visiting the Rijksmuseum is the primary way of knowing the culture of Holland and the Dutch spirit.

Maybe the performance of difference need not involve ‘camping’!

April 29, 2025

This WordPress prompt ought to have been a gift to me – with a long history in LGBTQI+ politics, the word ‘camp’ has always had a history to reclaim. But to say ‘word’ in description of the term ‘camp’ here is not enough. I got stopped in my tracks from answering this question as I … More Maybe the performance of difference need not involve ‘camping’!

The Art of the Pit Head Bath. Tom McGuinness: metamorphic artist

April 16, 2025

The Art of the Pit Head Bath. Joanna Drew (Arts Council of Great Britain – ACGB), Douglas Gray (art selector & essayist), Norman Siddall (British National Coal Board – NCB), Sir William Rees-Mogg (ACGB) & Dr John Kanefsky (essaysist) (1982: page 81) Coal: British Mining in Art 1680 -1980, London, The Arts Council of Great … More The Art of the Pit Head Bath. Tom McGuinness: metamorphic artist

Let’s be Dante!

March 29, 2025

I could be Dante because, as yet, I have read only extracts of what is considered by some the greatest poem of the modern world. Moreover, I have been preparing to read it for so long that the task of cataloguing these volumes is raising my cultural guilt to new and higher levels than ever. … More Let’s be Dante!

The art of not being looked at comfortably: Ron Mueck

March 27, 2025

I am still cataloguing books, clearing away rejects as I go and re-reading when I feel the curiosity. I placed the 2826th book for keeping on the catalogue I am making tonight (the rest boxed for various Fates) and then sat down to read that little book through again and reflect. It was a volume … More The art of not being looked at comfortably: Ron Mueck

A blog on the beautiful new novel by Adrian Duncan ‘The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth’ (2025)

February 7, 2025

‘…, and yet there is something in the form that does not make sense to me’.[1] The beautiful new novel by Adrian Duncan The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth (2025) imagines a project in which the ‘history from within’ is sought of ‘selected sculptures’.[2]  That history in a novel extends to the people who work  … More A blog on the beautiful new novel by Adrian Duncan ‘The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth’ (2025)

To have ‘flung a pot of paint in the public’s face’ is the dynamic of beauty in painting and proceeds when done properly as if it were done by the painting itself: the case of James McNeill Whistler’s ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’, 1875.

December 19, 2024

‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’, 1875, which earned Ruskin’s scorn. Oil on panel, by Whistler, James Abbott McNeill (1834-1903); 60.2×46.7 cm; Detroit Institute of Arts, USA; © Detroit Institute of Arts ; Gift of Dexter M. Ferry Jr.; American, out of copyright. Credit: Bridgeman Images One of the strangest aspects of my … More To have ‘flung a pot of paint in the public’s face’ is the dynamic of beauty in painting and proceeds when done properly as if it were done by the painting itself: the case of James McNeill Whistler’s ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’, 1875.

Reissue: ‘Castle Hill: A site from my childhood and its development as an idea about the nature of heritage’.

December 16, 2024

Castle Hill: A site from my childhood and its development as an idea about the nature of heritage. First submitted in another place: Sunday, 1 Apr 2018, 20:50 Castle Hill: A site from my childhood and its development as an idea about the nature of heritage. Submitted on April 1, 2018 Prompt Think about something … More Reissue: ‘Castle Hill: A site from my childhood and its development as an idea about the nature of heritage’.

Exhibiting the subject of ‘the local’ locally. What is local art? What do its images capture? A subject or a viewer?

December 15, 2024

Geoff and I are confined these days following Geoff’s serious illness, and we don’t  think we can visit the great art exhibitions, theatre, or even cinema in the cities we would take pains to go to: Edinburgh, London,  Manchester,  Liverpool, or even the nearest of the great cities, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Macbeth knowing that his agents have … More Exhibiting the subject of ‘the local’ locally. What is local art? What do its images capture? A subject or a viewer?

Reissue: A set Of Tall Building blogs from an old course.

December 13, 2024

A. Le Corbusier’s Tall Building Unité d’Habitation, Marseilles (1945-52) A844 Open Studio Set Exercise First issued in another place Friday, 12 Oct 2018, 10:00 Le Corbusier’s Tall Building Unité d’Habitation, Marseilles (1945-52) A844 Open Studio Set Exercise Photograph below: Roof level pool and children’s play areas at Unité d’Habitation, Marseilles (1945-52) from Jenkins, D. (1999) … More Reissue: A set Of Tall Building blogs from an old course.

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.

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.