editor’s choice
Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage © Howard Sooley Happy news! After a period of great uncertainty about its future, Prospect Cottage, Derek Jarman’s Dungeness home, has been saved, following the Art Fund’s £3.5 million-fundraising campaign. A former fisherman’s hut, Prospect Cottage was purchased by visionary Jarman in 1986, the same year in which he was … Continue readings
Tags : Art Fund, crowdfunding, Derek Jarman, Dungeness, Prospect Cottage saved, Prospect House
St Derek of Dungeness (1991). Image © Ed Sykes ‘Friends of Derek’, the latest exhibition at Norman Road’s Lucy Bell Gallery, is a joyous celebration of the filmmaker, artist and activist Derek Jarman, writes A. Vasudevan. Featuring predominantly unseen images by friends and fellow filmmakers, the show supports the Art Fund’s campaign to … Continue readings
Tags : Art Fund, British cultural icons, crowdfunding, Derek Jarman, Dungeness, Prospect Cottage, The Garden
Performance room, featuring Marcelle van Caillie’s work © Morokoth Fournier de Carots The arts are littered with beautiful works based on lost love letters. The House of Marcelle, Explore the Arch’s latest offering, joins them, drawing on the missives of Marcelle van Caillie and lover-later-husband Henry Sanford. A multi-sensory work, it brings the … Continue readings
Tags : domestic theatre space, Explore the Arch, Henry Sanford, intimate theatre, Marcelle van Caillie, Marcelle van Caillie art, Marcelle van Caillie letters, migrant experience, Strindberg, The House of Marcelle
‘I DON’T WANT TO PRODUCE WORK that is a pleasant distraction, then you move on to something else. I would actually like it to … stop their day. To make it an encounter,’ comments artist Marcus Harvey. And, without a doubt, that’s what his art has done since Myra (1995), his portrait of Myra … Continue readings
Tags : Allce in Wonderland, art, art symbolism, Brexit, Britishness, Churchill, contemporary art, exhibitions, Hastings, humour in art, Inselaffe, island monkey, Jerwood Gallery, Maggie Thatcher, Marcus Harvey, Margaret Thatcher, Monty Python, political art, RA, Sensations, social art, YBAs, Young British Artists
WE WERE REMINDED OF THE SPLENDOUR OF GEORGE STEVENS’ GIANT the other day when we were reviewing Brown-Eyed Girl, the fourth and final book in Lisa Kleypas’s ‘Travis family’ series. It perhaps may seem odd to link a contemporary romance, albeit a very good one, with an iconic 20th-century film by such a great … Continue readings
Francis Cugat’s striking cover illustration ‘Celestial Eyes’, commissioned for the 1925 edition of The Great Gatsby, is probably one of the most iconic images in literary design history. The haunting eyes, painted in gouache, peering out of a deep blue background, float ominously above bright red lips and a glowing cityscape. Each eye features … Continue readings
EDITOR’S CHOICE The phenomenon that is Dolly Parton, playing Glastonbury 2014. A sight, I’m sure, many people never thought they would see. Amazing woman. You just have to grin. And sing. See also: Dolly Parton, ‘The Not-so-invisible Woman’ … 100 great women in words’
Tags : country divas, country music, Dolly, Dolly Parton, Glastonbury, Jolene, musician, the not-so-invisible woman
GEORGETTE HEYER is one of my favourite writers. At the drop of a hat, I retreat back to the safety and comfort of her books, particularly Frederica, Venetia or These Old Shades. Like Sayers‘ and Ellison‘s books, Heyer’s have been republished and repackaged in many formats with many different covers, some great, some not. … Continue readings
Tags : Arthur Barbosa, Barbosa book covers, Frederica, Georgette Heyer, Georgette Heyer book jackets, Heyer, Regency titles
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is one of the most influential pieces of 20th-century literature, as well as being a masterpiece in its own right. Since its original publication, it has been reprinted, translated, repackaged and reformatted countless times in striking editions, with just as striking jackets. For me, though, the first Random House book, published … Continue readings
A rare bit of footage featuring an interview on Arlene Francis’s ‘Home’ with Charles Eames (with Ray in the background). In it, he discusses their various chairs and introduces the Eames Lounge Chair for Herman Miller. Ray is very much treated as ‘Mrs Eames’, Charles’s ‘helper’. Oh, you wouldn’t get away with that today. … Continue readings
EDITOR’S CHOICE As well as one of our favourite books ever, Harper Lee’s magnificent To Kill a Mockingbird was made into a film in 1962. Starring Gregory Peck as protagonist Atticus Finch, the film was critically acclaimed on its release and was a box office success. It ranks no 25 in the American Film … Continue readings