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.


24 September 2016

A Dead Cow* : Mood for Modern


Sir Robert Menzies
Director of Australia from 1939 to 1941 and 
Director of Australia from 1949 to 1966
          

Sir Robert Menzies by Eric Westbrook, c.1960, when Director of the National Gallery of Victoria

J. S. Macdonald, 1936–41
Sir Ernest Daryl Lindsay, 1942–55
Eric Westbrook, 1956–73
Gordon Thomson, 1973–75
Melbourne artists in 1975 protested at the NGV about their relationship with the NGV. 


                                       click image to enlarge 
For some reason, it was not the NGV Director who addressed the protesters' grievances but Eric Westbrook, by then several years retired from that role and since installed at the new Victorian Ministry for the Arts. 

In this photo from that protest, Eric Westbrook is standing to the left; in the centre, representing the artists, is John Davis; to the right, arguing for other related matters is Terry Smith. (A detailed account around this event can be read in Jonathan Holmes' Going Solo: a report on survey exhibitions in Australian public museums in the 1970s.)


photo : FIAPCE 
Dr Eric Westbrook
Prime Minister of the NGV from 1956 to 1973
 

 above : self-sketch by Eric Westbrook, 1950.
collection National Portrait Gallery, Canberra  

 below : sketch-in protest at NGV, 2004.
collection AAA_Art Archive Australia  

click image to enlarge  
detail 
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something... 
         
LOGOS/HA HA
      
 * On 26 May 1975, Ivan Durrant dumped the carcass of a "freshly slaughtered cow" on the forecourt of the National Gallery of Victoria.[4][5][8][9] - Wikipedia