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 October 2014

Signs for Signs Of Every Description

   
L'Enseigne de Gersaint, or "The Shop Sign of Gersaint", (1720-21) is a painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau, which is considered to be his last masterpiece. It was painted as a shop sign for the marchand-mercier, or art dealer, Edme François Gersaint. 
- Wikipedia : here


        
In 1985, your correspondent stayed a long while in front of this picture at the Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin.
        

    
As the packers box away a sign of the passing régime, a fashionable [ fickle ) young couple enter the Gersaint image store. Madame pauses at the grave but Monsieur stretches out his hand to hurry her to the new, un nu.


  
Fashionable friends are already there, closely examining une scène de nombreuses nus commended to them by an assistant of Gersaint.

M & Mme Gersaint are themselves showing another couple another well-presented something. Perhaps un intime nu for their private chambers, or a splendid mirror, even.


   
Outside, as we depart, a street dog bites at a flea. 

.  .  .  .

What brought the L'Enseigne de Gersaint to mind again was the recent acquisition, by one of our hot metal setters, of this large abbreviated enamel meta-sign for Signs Of Every Description.


click image to enlarge
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA
   

      

27 October 2014

stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion > stop > motion >


digital mini-cine 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 digital mini-cine 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 digital mini-cine 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 digital mini-cine 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0

Dean Kittelty  almost  Seals The Deal  
Yes, we are fans : yet another great Cyclic Existance production from Kittelty's Auction Rooms, Ballarat.
      
    
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA
   

detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA
   

detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA
   

detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA
   

       

22 October 2014

History of Emotions Lecture 2014


Tonight at the University of Queensland University
    
History of Emotions Lecture 2014  
A Privileged Profession: Artists and Melancholia

Laurinda S. Dixon
Professor of Art History : Syracuse University, New York

            
Promotions for this lecture have featured a 1674 Double self-portrait by Carlo Dolci :
    

   
We were not aware of Carlo Dolci, but this
Double self-portrait  brought to mind the 1640 Salvatore Rosa self-portrait with text (Aut tace, Aut Loquere meliora silentio/ Do not speak unless your words are better than silence) in the National Gallery, London. A severe, favorite work.
         
A 1647 self-portrait by Rosa shows him (as Dolci will later picture himself, above) with pen in hand and another timely inscription :


After further research, we now believe this may be a later version of the 1647 painting. Possibly by Rosa or by one of his assistants. It may be better attributed as 'from the studio of Salvatore Rosa' or 'School of Salvatore Rosa'.
       
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA
   

      

21 October 2014

Gough


Being 21, in Australia in 1972...

Remembering still the zeitgeist thrill of hearing for the first time Gough Whitlam address the nation : not under the old imperial hierarchical ranking of "Your Majesty, Your Excellencies, Your Eminence, Your Honours, distinguished guests and so on down the ranks to ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls" but by that most simple egalitarian greeting : "Men and women of Australia". To which there was a mighty cheer.

Others will list the great vision and the many reforms of Whitlam and the Labor Party in that brief turbulent period. In coming days we will provide links to some of these.

Usually this blog focuses on aspects of the Arts, so we'll stick with that today. Gough's involvement in this area was as significant as it was in so many others. To his cost, he supported encouraged and actively advocated on behalf of James Mollison's proposal to purchase Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles for the collection of the (then) Australian National Gallery.

We still have our souvenir front page of the Melbourne Herald, the first they ever printed in colour, with the headline editorial addressed to each one us : Would you pay $1.3m. for this? 

 
The reactionary and yobbo media reckoned that Australians would think it stunk. Comedian Paul Hogan...
       

       
Our observation was that people were more open and interested than that.
     

FIAPCE 
Anyway, the public goading only encouraged Gough who responded with a Blues Poles Christmas Card for the comrades.
            
 
     
Being 22, in Australia in 1973...

Your correspondent gave two weeks notice at the old Abbotsford CUB brewery - where his job title was Beer Passer, true - on the day he received the news of a small grant in the first of Gough's new Australia Council Arts Grants. Enough to live for a while as an artist. Thanks Gough, for all you provided to so many. Vale.

On twitter from the National Gallery of Australia :
"Gough Whitlam will be remembered as a visionary of the arts in Australia", Allan Myers AO QC, Chairman, NGA Council
             


detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA
   

      

19 October 2014

L ] G_D ( S

       
You shall not make unto yourself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

- Exodus 20 : 4


Two stories around God.
and/or/_r
Tw_ st_ries ar_und G_d.
      
One : a retelling by educationist Sir Ken Robinson on the TED Hour, on ABC.RN last night :

I heard a great story recently, I love telling it, of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson, she was 6 and she was at the back, drawing, and the teacher said this little girl hardly paid attention, and in this drawing lesson she did. The teacher was fascinated and she went over to her and she said, “What are you drawing?” and the girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” And the teacher said, “But nobody knows what God looks like.” And the girl said, “They will in a minute.”

   
One : an ABC radio news report this morning, about the results of Pope Francis's Vatican 'Synod On The Family', said that the Pope had failed to get his reforms passed by the gathering of cardinals and bishops. A brief quote from Pope Francis was given and is highlighted in red below with a link to his full statement.
   
And since it is a journey of human beings, with the consolations there were also moments of desolation, of tensions and temptations, of which a few possibilities could be mentioned:
  
One, a temptation to hostile inflexibility, that is, wanting to close oneself within the written word, (the letter) and not allowing oneself to be surprised by God, by the God of surprises, (the spirit); within the law, within the certitude of what we know and not of what we still need to learn and to achieve. From the time of Christ, it is the temptation of the zealous, of the scrupulous, of the solicitous and of the so-called – today – “traditionalists” and also of the intellectuals...


- Pope Francis, speech at the conclusion of the Synod                
Above the Editorial desk at bLOGOS/HA HA 
- supposedly there to keep us bastards half-honest -
is a print of Noel Counihan's Laughing Christ :
         
    
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something ... 

 LOGOS/HA HA
   

      

17 October 2014

Post title

   
BRIAN FUATA, ALL TITLES:
POINT OF DEPARTURES 1-3


PERFORMANCE  / 11, 18 AND 25 OCTOBER
@ ACCA
               



Brian Fuata, TO LEE, MATTHEW AND TIME: A PERFORMANCE FOR THREE MEN, 2014. Courtesy the artist
         
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA
          
        
       

16 October 2014

Sufficient unto the Day is the Title thereof

      
Another nominee from our recent Subbies awards night :
    


 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something ... 

 LOGOS/HA HA
   

      

15 October 2014

Critic Looks At Bendigo Gallery

       
These keywords that rhyme - Corot and Bendigo - produced from Trove this 1949 Arnold Shore review of the Bendigo Art Gallery and its collection.

 
Critic Looks At Bendigo Gallery - Much Good Art

By ARNOLD SHORE

Only a few years ago the Bendigo Art Gallery was stagnant, and lifeless - as lifeless as the "lovely corpse" in the one-time pride of the Gallery, "Too Late." "Too little (art) and Too Late,' " epitomised Bendigo's art range and standard.

Not so today. What other Australian Gallery except that of Melbourne itself can boast a large selection of works by celebrated 19th century French painters of the Barbizon school and others?

Bendigo owes this distinction to the generosity and public spirit of the late Dr J. A. N.Scott and Mrs Scott; but the Gallery authorities did not have this collection thrust upon them. They knew its value, and were proud to receive it.

Other Bendigo citizens are equally public minded and generous. The gallery will yet be able to administer some munificent bequests.

When these bequests become actualities, the beginning of a fine collection already evident will be supplemented in kind.

The French pictures now owned include two by Corot - one a typical example of his late popular period, and an earlier, mellow-toned study of farm buildings, sober yet fascinating. Dupre, Daubigny, Harpignies, Theodore Rousseau, and Jacques, are severally and interestingly represented.

Courbet - the French realist leader of the reaction from Classicism - is seen at a happy moment in "The Gorge" - a
rich study of green depths veiled in atmospheric charm.
      

         
LOUIS GABRIEL EUGENE ISABEY also deals with atmosphere and light, but he, with his picture of "Honfleur," shows that he prefers a polished academic technique which justifies for itself its own method.

In completely different mettier to Isabey is Alfred Sisley's French Impressionist" Canal Scene." Here is living, vibrant colour glorifying opaque paint quality. Art would be a sorry thing were there not room for both Isabey and Sisley.

A small work by Corot's contemporary Boudin, of whom Corot said "he is the prince of sky painters," must not be overlooked.


Turning to English art, it is pleasing to find three examples of Englishmen today - Graham Sutherland, Eric Ravilious, and Vivien Pitchforth - works presented to the gallery by the British War Artists' Advisory Council. These gifts, which the council have made so generously, and similar gifts to many Australian galleries, have been gratefully accepted. They should be equally gratefully followed up by some direct purchases of British artists' work. There are a few isolated specimens of the art of other overseas countries.



Fender Katsalidis Architects 

ART produced in Australia is in process of excellent representation. An historical section includes some very interesting pictures. Thomas Wright's "Sandhurst in 1862" worthily represents this artist, who was the first drawing master at Wesley College, Melbourne.

His picture is presented in tones of warm earth, pink buildings, and soft grey sky - all very harmonious and appealing.

Tom Humphrey, contemporary of Streeton and others, provides a bridge to understanding of the finer quality of these artists, as is evidenced by Streeton's "Manly Beach" sketch and Walter Withers' "Landscape and Cattle" - presented by the late Mr and Mrs J. T. Tweddle.

Portrait and genre Australian painting finds interesting expression with Hugh Ramsay's curiously suggestive of a monochromatic early Cezanne -"Portrait of a Man;" GeorgeCoates' accomplished portrait of "Jessica Strubble," and Mrs Muntz Adams' so sensitive "Portrait of a Lady."

The large picture of feminine graces and charms, by Rupert Bunny, plays a melody with varying reds set amongst lovely greens.

Coming nearer to the present age of experiment and daring in art, Dora Meeson's "LondonBridge" prepares the eye to appreciate both Douglas Watson's "Geraldton," rich in paint texture and low toned colour, and the completely antithetical "Careening Cove," brilliant alike in colour and technique, by Max Ragless.

     
A flower piece by A. M. E. Bale is surely one of her best. It is alive in colour and paint, while exhibiting full appreciation of the floral charm of mixed flowers.

Madge Freeman, too, is seen at her best in "Still Life." This is a fine composition, dignified, rich, and replete with meaning in its design other than that of a simple arrangement of so many recognisable objects.

   

Fender Katsalidis Architects 
    
VARIOUS other Australian painters - Charles Bush, Ernest Buckmaster, Amalle and Archibald Colquhoun, William Dargie, Harley Griffiths, Sali Herman, Harold Herbert, W. B. McInnes, Septimus Power, John Rowell, Francis Roy Thompson, and even myself, are represented, each in their own field of expression; and a watercolour section includes fine examples of the art of Daryl Lindsay, ARWS; Len Annois, Ralph Warner, Nornie Gude, and Enid Cambridge.

In this present-day revival of art interest, therefore, Bendigo is well to the fore.

Granted the mooted extension of the gallery itself, and the removal from the lawns of the two marble-frozen panders to salaciousness which, in their spurious pretence of female charm yet innocence, would have thoroughly annoyed D. H. Lawrence, the city will create a monument which will be a source of pilgrimage to future visitors to Australia and Bendigo.



Fender Katsalidis Architects 

The Argus (Melbourne, 1848 - 1957)
Saturday 17 December 1949



detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA