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.
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Recently, we blogged (here) about Piero Manzoni's renowned Merda d' artista aka Artist's Shit aka Künstlerscheisse aka Merde d'Artiste of May 1961.
In relation to the above, we further offer this 1898 sequence of four photos by the Parisian art gallery owner Maurice Joyant showing Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec voiding into being his very own merde à la mer.
These come from the website The Esoteric Curiosa (here) where there are also other photos of Toulouse-Lautec that may interest, as well as detailed information about the performance shown below.
click image to enlarge
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
