David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


30 April 2012

NGV : something to really scream about : AGAIN!

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We've had some inquiries about the first of the 2004 free pencil movement protests at the National Gallery of Victoria. Why did fpm members wear The Scream masks?



A few days before the protests, the National Gallery of Victoria published the newspaper advertisement below for their 2004 Winter Blockbuster Edvard Munch - The Frieze of Life.


click image to enlarge

See something in Melbourne to really scream about!!!!
Free pencil movement
were already screaming mad about the NGV bans on sketching and note-making so seeing this ad as a perverse encouragement they staged instead a silent protest, with masks of The Scream.


11 a.m. silent protest outside NGV International
click image to enlarge

For those interested in further information about the 2004

free pencil movement
protests and their results : click here

. . . .

In recent days The Scream has reappeared on the world media stage. Hopefully this an auspicious sign toward another reversal of misfortune at the National Gallery of Victoria.

The current interest is in a fourth version of Edvard Munch's famous painthing The Scream. Previously in a private collection, bought from the artist by a friend neighbour patron, it will be auctioned by Sotherby's New York on May 2.

Theatre of the Actors of Regard have brought to our attention some recent costume-and-pose tableaux that feature this twentieth century ikon.


First, the classic heraldic format : central shield/projection-space with motto/Label, defenders to either side, all crowned with CorpName.


Two views (to view) : holding and beholding


Human string(er)s : dependent arising at arms length


"Petter Olsen, owner of ‘The Scream’ (1895), looks at the picture during its public viewing at Sotheby’s in London."

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Sotheby's to sell Munch's "The Scream", eyes $80M
Mike Collett-White : REUTERS London, 22 Feb 2012

Selling 'The Scream'
Wall Street Journal : April 26, 2012

The Scream ad infinitum
endless desire meets endless projection


The Scream ad <span class=
FIAPCE (-1982-) : image courtesy Theatre of the Actors of Regard

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26 April 2012

MUSEUM BANS MUSES

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Still not a peep out of the NGV Law Makers.

We know that NGV personnel have been pouring over these free pencil movement posts in recent days.

We know also that individuals are now going to the Fred Williams exhibition to sketch and make notes as a protest against the NGV prohibitions around this show.

There's even word of a flash mob rehearsing their choreography for weekend performances of the fpm Rebel Yell. (Would love to be there for that.)

Many messages of support. This one comes from a group of young German pencilists. They've reworked an old Johann Faber blotter advertisement to our present purpose : to end (again) the NGV anti-photo anti-sketching anti note-making regulations.

2012.04_fpm_updated Johann Faber blotter from German fpm

Appropriately, the fpm standard-bearer pencil here is an "Apollo".

Apollo
, son of Zeus and Leto, twin to the chaste huntress Artemis:
...variously recognized as a god of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, poetry, and more.

As the patron of Delphi (Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle. Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague. Amongst the god's custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists, and as the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musegetes) and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry. Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became a common attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans.

-
Wikipedia


Apollo dancing with the Muses, Baldassarre Peruzzi, 1514-23

The nine muses are
Clio (history)
Thalia (comedy),
Erato (love poetry)
Euterpe (song and elegiac poetry)
Polyhymnia (hymns),
Calliope (epic poetry)
Terpsichore (dance)
Urania (astronomy)
Melpomene (tragedy).

Below is the muse Thalia, pictured recently outside the National Gallery of Victoria.

She is outside because the present keepers of this Museum would not let her in.

You can't bring that thing in here
, she was told.
No Sketching, No Writing of Poetry,
No Laughing Matter Allowed
.

Thalia_muse of comedy
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24 April 2012

free pencil movement : REBEL YELL


2012.04_fpm rebel yell_sRGB_400
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23 April 2012

AT LARGE : HOMO LOGOS/HA HA

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2012.04.22_TAR presents INFINITE HORIZONS_FLAT_sRGB_400

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21 April 2012

NGV RENEWS BANS

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Dear Gerard Vaughan

regarding Manifestations of Now
regarding The role of art in 21st century Australia
regarding Fred Williams : INFINITE HORIZONS
regarding NGV


At NGV Studio on Thursday evening I participated (with Hossein Valamanesh and Nikos Papastergiadis) in the well-attended public forum 'The role of art in 21st century Australia'. This was part of the Manifestations of Now program.

I stayed in Melbourne overnight, to visit your Fred Williams exhibition the following day.

You will recall our previous communications in 2004 when
free pencil movement
protested against your NGV regulation that banned all sketching and note-making.


fpm : the morning protest outside NGV Internationalclick image to enlarge

fpm gleeson cole
fpm: from the afternoon sketch-in at NGV International
& NGV Australia

For those interested in further information about the 2004 protests and their results : click here

Yesterday morning I arrived at NGV Ticket Sales and there encountered your banning notice of all photography, sketching and note making (or as you spin it note taking) by attendees of the Fred Williams exhibition. This in Fred's home town, no less. Grrrrr!



I informed the ticket seller that I intended to sketch in the exhibition! Who then sold me the ticket and told me no-sketching. Thank you. Thank you.

Once inside, it didn't take long for the first of your courteous enforcers to request CEASE AND DESIST. Thank you. I am aware of the prohibition but I intend to continue sketching. I am now also protesting at the return of this ridiculous limitation. I gave my name and asked that Gerard Vaughan be immediately informed that this someone is sketching! Walkie talkie to head the officer set off, and I continued to sketch to sketch to sketch

Over the next hour this was rehearsed several more times with other security personnel. After each exchange a bystander would approach with bemused astonishment. One said, But there's no other gallery in the world that prohibits sketching and writing!? Write to Director Gerard Vaughan, I suggested.

Eventually, two senior staff arrived. Hello hello. Hello. They said what they were obliged to say, including the PRIORITY of Terms of Agreements signed by one or more of the lenders to this National Galery of Australia Touring Exhibition OVER any-say-in-the-matter by the would-be-good-if-we-could NGV; and I put it that the whole farce was Kafka bullshit. They did allow that if one were to use an iPad instead of a pen and paper that would be acceptable. Grrrrr!

To progress things a bit, I made a FORMAL STATEMENT : stated NAME; acknowledged PRESENT PROHIBITED ACTION; acknowledged INTENTION TO CONTINUE PRESENT PROHIBITED ACTION; acknowledged INTENTION TO ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO CONSIDER SIMILAR ACTION; requested that GERARD VAUGHAN be immediately informed of PRESENT SITUATION, he being THE OFFICIAL who had previously AGREED to get rid of these UNENFORCEABLE BULLSHIT RULES that MAKE A MOCKERY of the NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA. They went off, and I continued to sketch to sketch to sketch

One later returned. Gerard knows of this situation, she told me, he was informed from the start. No message though, Gerard?
She said WE are are now in communication with the National Gallery of Australia. She informed me that someone would be keeping an eye on me. That the security staff had been instructed about the situation and as it seemed I had no intention to damage the artworks - I DO SO SWEAR NOT TO SO DO - the NGV would allow me, in the present circumstance, to continue to sketch. That this temporary toleration applied only to me and that everyone else would still be requested not to sketch, not to make notes. Smiles shared, hands shaken. She went off, and I continued to sketch to sketch to sketch

What a madness!

Gerard, you relayed no message and made no intervention when you might have, when I was within your building. When free pencil movement publicised and protested against your NGV no-sketching no-note-making rules in 2004 you convened an urgent meeting of the Trustees and rewrote those rules. Already I am hearing from individuals who propose to take their own sketch and note gear with them to this splendid Fred Williams home town exhibition. Perhaps it's time for another mass sketch-in?

PT
free pencil movement



P.S.

regarding regarding

Here are a few of the 24 sketches made yesterday :


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2012.04.20_#15_fpm drawthing at Fred Williams exhibition NGV_sRGB_400 
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2012.04.20_#19_fpm drawthing at Fred williams exhibition NGV_sRGB_400 

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2012.04.20_#20_fpm drawthing at Fred williams exhibition NGV_sRGB_400

"The rarest of artists are the ones who see familiar things as no one has previously seen them, and who, in setting down their vision, reshape our world for us."
James Gleeson on Fred Williams, 1966
      
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18 April 2012

Advancement Activity

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In today's paper, the following article :

Vaughan back to uni
Gina McColl / The Age
18 April 2012

THE outgoing director of the National Gallery of Victoria, Gerard Vaughan, will remain in Melbourne and return to academia when he leaves his post in July after 13 years at the gallery.

Yesterday, the University of Melbourne announced Vaughan had been appointed the Gerry Higgins professorial fellow in art history. The new three-year position is funded by a donation from Allan Myers, eminent lawyer, philanthropist and president of the NGV's Council of Trustees.

Vaughan, who studied and taught art history at the university before completing his doctorate at Oxford University, said he was looking forward to returning to teaching and research.

''In particular, I will be undertaking a major project to research and document the history of private art collecting, taste and patronage in Australia, and its dovetail with institutional collecting,'' he said.

He would also contribute to the university's new Australian Institute of Art History, institute head Jaynie Anderson said. This would include ''advancement activities'' - helping to raise funds, at which he has been notably successful during his gallery tenure.


NGVaughan : all stock must go

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04 April 2012

Campbell Newman's Book Club

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Last week Queensland's Labor government was thrown out by the voters.

Yesterday the new LNP Cabinet (pictured below) was sworn in.



Immediately, The Premier Campbell Newman announced he will end the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards.
HO HO HO IT'S BACK TO JOH


Writers angry after Newman axes literary awards
ABC NEWS

Petition To Reinstate Queensland Premier's Literary Awards
click here

2012.04.04_Campbell Newman's Book Club_QLD_400
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