I know people are bored in lockdown, but this is ridiculous: Thames safety warning after film-maker has to be rescued from river. RNLI highlights dangers of jumping into river after apparent online video stunt. I suppose this was in that brief hiatus period, but still. At least I suppose the Thames is no longer a seething stew of Orrible Disease ( Read more... )

Apples have a somewhat ominous reputation, no? not to be plucked, or Of Discord: is this quite such a cause for rejoicing? New variety of apple discovered by Wiltshire runner: Arbury said it was “a very interesting apple”. It is clearly not a planted tree, but a seedling that could be a cross between a cultivated apple and a wild Malus sylvestris, ( Read more... )

The history of art is full of female masters. It's time they were taken seriously. A large part of why Gentileschi captivates is because she triumphed against patriarchy. Despite the many barriers that existed for women artists in her time - the 17th century - she was hugely famous. There is also her reclamation by feminist art historians after ( Read more... )

(When I was looking for depictions of Clio, too often she looked like the ditzy grad student the male professor was hoping to seduce.)
I am devastated that, very likely, the Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition will be over before I venture forth from seclusion:
Artemisia Gentileschi: triumph of a trailblazer: Editorial
Forgotten by whom, Jonathan? ( ( Read more... )

Happy 117th birthday, Barbara Hepworth - the video to go with today's celebratory Google Doodle.
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I was initially cynical about an interview with a sexual psychophysiologist and neuroscientist but it's wonderfully It's All More Complicated about simplistic views about sexuality, sexual arousal, ideas of the gendered brain and patterns of arousal ( Read more... )

Interview with Vivien Gornick - I'd got the new book, didn't know about the reissues - one of which I've got already from that time I discovered Gornick and went wild acquiring her works.
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I keep forgetting to link to this blog post from the Harry Ransom Center on Frieda Kahlo, so I put it here at last.
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I vaguely assume everybody has ( Read more... )

I have been thinking, on and off, over the past months, that one of the things I was presumably missing, and that was, presumably, Not Happening Now, was the Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition at the National Gallery, sigh.
But no, apparently it was just deferred, and is opening in October and running until January next: Artemisia.
Which is all very ( Read more... )

I.e. we made it to the Bridget Riley Exhibition at the Hayward just before it ends.
I am not entirely sure that there should not be a health warning about some of these paintings - as my dr rdrz may know, Riley was famed in the 60s as a leader in Op Art and a fair number of her works, particularly of that period (but also some of the later works ( Read more... )

Partner and I excursed to Tate Modern today to visit the Olafur Eliasson In real life - we were somewhat less than whelmed by the exhibition itself - not as good as the one I visited in San Francisco some while since - but we were actually quite impressed by the associated lunch event, Studio Olafur Eliasson Kitchen at the Terrace Bar, rather ( Read more... )

I am very much 'you GO, girl' to Celia Paul: Much of the narrative in this book circles around her turbulent relationship with Lucian Freud. After his death, she noticed mentions of herself in his obituaries, as well as articles and books, and became determined to tell her own story. No longer wanting to remain simply a part of Freud’s story, she ( Read more... )