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.


26 September 2016

Menzies & the Art of Supreme Joy


ABC.TV : 
Howard On Menzies: Building Modern Australia 
    
Part two, last night, made no mention of Menzies aligning himself with Sir Lionel Lindsay's 1942 polemic "Addled Art", which had as its thesis that modern art was a Jewish conspiracy!
     


A letter of 1946 from Menzies to Lionel Lindsay is included in Modernism and Australia: Documents on Art, Design and Architecture 1917-1967

Menzies: “You may judge from the tone of this letter, and quite rightly, that I have recently re-read Addled Art with supreme joy.”
           

Theatre of the Actors of Regard 
AAA_Art Archive Australia 
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 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
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