Naomi Blake, Sculptor

NAOMI BLAKE, who was a sculptor, an Auschwitz survivor and a human rights campaigner died in 2020 aged 94. She had the most incredible life-story. In spite of her Holocaust experiences, Naomi believed “there is something positive in the human figure – there is a lot of good in people…with my past, if I were pessimistic, somehow, it wouldn’t have been worthwhile surviving”, thus proving her affirmation of hope and faith in humanity.

She was born as Naomi Dum in the former Czechoslovakia, the youngest of the ten children. Most of the family did not survive the war but she and her sister were put to work in a munitions factory where they learned to sabotage the bombs they were making. After their camp was liberated, they managed to escape from a death march while being fired upon by retreating German soldiers. She made her way to Palestine where she was imprisoned by the British and later helped to defend the new sate of Israel. She was wounded by shrapnel while a sub-lieutenant in the IDF. She met and married a German refugee, Asher Blake and they moved to Britain where she learned to sculpt. She is widely exhibited, with 50 of her works currently on public display all over Britain. They include Norwich, Bristol and Portsmouth Cathedrals, Great Ormond Street Hospital and Norris Lea, Kingsbury, Oxford and Leeds Synagogues. Her sculptures are also in The Hebrew and Tel Aviv Universities.

I'm listening to The Kinks singing Ray Davies's evergreen piece of social commentary, The Village Green Preservation Society. You can here it here.

Artist of the Month (1): Raoul Dufy

After publishing 100 Paintings of the Month, I am starting a slightly different series: Artist of the Month. 

Self-portrait 1899

The first artist is Raoul Dufy, (1877-1953). Born at Le Havre, France, he was noted for brightly coloured and highly decorative scenes of luxury and pleasure. He went to Paris in 1900 to attend the École des Beaux-Arts. He painted in an Impressionist style in his early work, but by 1905 he had begun to employ the broad brushstrokes and bright colours typical of the Fauve artists. They favoured painterly quality and strong colour over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. He started to design textiles and ceramics but in the early 1920s Dufy rededicated himself to painting and began to produce what are now his best-known works. His distinctive style is characterised by bright colours thinly spread over a white ground, with objects sketchily delineated by sensuously undulating lines. Dufy took as his subjects scenes of recreation and spectacle, including horse races, regattas, parades, and concerts.  Though very popular, his lively, carefree, elegant paintings have been criticised as occasionally bordering on the superficial. They fill me with joy!

Still Life 1928

Window Opening on Nice 1928

Anemones 1953

Venice 1937

Textile Design 1920

I'm listening to Smokey Blues Away by New Generation who later became The Sullivan Brothers. Do you recognise what piece of classical music the melody is taken from? Listen here.

 

The Eleanor Crosses

 

ELEANOR CROSSES were a series of twelve extravagantly decorated stone monuments topped with crosses and erected in a line down part of the east of England. They were built at the instigation of Edward I between 1291 and about 1295 in memory of his beloved late wife Eleanor of Castile. The King and Queen had been married for 36 years and she stayed by the King’s side through his many travels including on a Crusade when he was wounded at Acre. She had died in Harby, a village near Lincoln in 1290. The crosses, erected in her memory, marked the nightly resting-places along the route taken when her body was transported to Westminster Abbey in London.   The crosses stood at Lincoln, Grantham and Stamford, all in Lincolnshire; Geddington and Hardingstone in Northamptonshire; Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire; Woburn and Dunstable in Bedfordshire; St Albans and Waltham (now known as Waltham Cross) in Hertfordshire; Cheapside in London; and Charing (now Charing Cross) in Westminster.    Three of those medieval monuments – those at Geddington, Hardingstone and Waltham Cross – survive more or less intact; but the other nine, other than a few fragments, are lost. The largest and most ornate of the twelve was the Charing Cross. Several memorials and elaborated reproductions of the crosses have been erected including, the Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross at Charing Cross Station built in 1865.

I'm listening to Nina Simone's stunning, soulful version of He Ain't Coming No More.

Listen to it HERE

Cezanne at Tate Modern

Strangely, I have not posted anything since April and now I am posting on the same topic as then - Paul Cezanne. As it was our anniversary yesterday, Leah and I spent the day in the West End of London. After a lunch by the Thames we were off to the Cezanne exhibition at Tate Modern on the South Bank. The show is exceptionally popular and one can only gain entrance by pre-booking. It was absolutely packed but the paintings were wonderful and I had seen so few of them previously. All the big subjects were there, The Bathers, The Apple & Water Jug paintings and then there’s that incredible mountain. Cezanne painted Mont Sainte Victoire in Provence over and over, from endless angles and viewpoints. It’s hidden behind trees, peeking up over rocks, spied down a valley from miles away, stared at way up close. Its stunted bulk dominates and looms, its face shimmering pink and lilac in the sun, deep blue and hushed grey in the shade. It’s a whole world effervescing, disappearing and melting. While the Impressionists painted light, Cezanne painted ideas!

These were all from photographs that Leah took at the exhibition.
I'm listening to an amazing song by Brenda Lee recorded in February 1963 when she was only 18 years old. You can listen to Losing You HERE.

Painting of the Month (100): Cezanne

This is the 100th time that I have posted a Painting of the Month, so I am really being self-indulgent today! I have long been intrigued by Cezanne's series of paintings of Mont Saint-Victoire; I have given talks on the topic, blogged about it and deeply researched it. This is one of my favourite paintings of all time!

Mont Saint-Victoire, Aix-en-Provence. Depicted more than 60 times by Cezanne.

I'm listening to the late Amy Winehouse singing Don't Go To Strangers with Paul Weller and Jools Holland. What an incredible talent we have lost! Listen here.

it may not always be so by e e cummings

Sometimes it seems that the only thing people know about e e cummings is that they think he never used capital letters – even in his name. His poems tend to be untitled so this one is known as ‘it may not always be so’:

it may not always be so; and i say
that your lips, which i have loved, should touch
another’s, and your dear strong fingers clutch
his heart, as mine in time not far away;
if on another’s face your sweet hair lay
in such a silence as i know, or such
great writhing words as, uttering overmuch,
stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;

if this should be, i say if this should be—
you of my heart, send me a little word;
that i may go unto him, and take his hands,
saying, Accept all happiness from me.
Then shall i turn my face, and hear one bird
sing terribly afar in the lost lands.

You may have noticed that there are two capital letters in this sonnet; one in the word Accept, which is quoted speech and one to begin the final sentence. It can be read in various places that he wanted his name only to be written in lower-case but it isn’t so. It was his publishers who wanted to do that (although he readily agreed). He also used capitals when signing his name. But enough of that – let’s discuss the poem! He is writing about losing the love of his life to another man and conjecturing what this would be like. “If this should be”…”send me a little word; that I may go unto him”.

He is virtually saying that he would give his blessing although he would be extremely sad – “Accept all happiness from me”. In other words, if you love someone let them go. If you really love someone, then their happiness is your primary desire – even if you are not included in that love. A very generous attitude don’t you think? Or maybe it’s paranoia...

I'm listening to The Perry-Gardner Orchestra playing a tune that will be very familiar to BBC listeners over a certain age. It is possibly the most relaxing music you will ever hear! Click here for Sailing By.

Painting of the Month (99) FEB 2022: Gene Brown

Brown describes his paintings as representational expressionism. “You can tell what the subject is, but I exaggerate shapes and colour. Because I love texture and bright colours, that to me is almost as important as the composition.” Brown’s work is uniquely his. There will be no head-scratching wondering who did these paintings. There is an obvious emphasis on strong design and colour. “Happy” and “joyful” are words that define the emotion of his paintings. “I have had many people tell me that my paintings are happy paintings,” Brown said. “They make people feel good. I know all about aerial perspective and lost and found edges, etc., but rules are made to be broken. I have fun with bright colors and I enjoy my niche. I had a gentleman, who bought one of my paintings, put it on his mantle at home so that when he came home, he could look at it and unwind from his hectic day at work. That’s all I need."

Acrylic on canvas. The artist is American, b. 1938

I'm listening to Betty Wright's Clean Up Woman. It's a great recording but is mightily enhanced by the fabulous guitar playing of Willie Hale. Listen here.

Ruth's Wedding

I haven't been around the Internet so much recently because, last weekend, we were celebrating the wedding of my daughter Ruth to Gary in London. Now they're Honeymooning in Tenerife.  Here she is just before setting off for the venue.

I'm listening to The Beatles singing Baby It's You. Listen here!

Painting of the Month (98) Jan 2022: David Hockney

 Mr and Mrs Clark & Percy

Mr and Mrs Clark & Percy, David Hockney, Acrylic on Canvas, 1971

This painting depicts the newly-married fashion designer Ossie Clark and his wife the textile designer Celia Birtwell in their flat in Notting Hill, London, with one of the couple's cats on Clark's knee. Actually, Percy was their other cat but Hockney thought that Percy made a better title; read on to find out why! It is a very large canvas so that the figures are nearly life-sized. They are both looking directly outward making the viewer a third person in the triangle. Typically, the cat disdains this and looks out of the window. The room is stark in a 1960s minimalist style.

Among the various sources that Hockney drew on was Jan van Eyck's The Arnolfini Marriage (see below). There is plenty of symbolism in both works. The Arnolfini dog, which represents fidelity, is replaced by the cat, a symbol of the penis, and representing lack of fidelity ('Percy' is a slang term for a penis).

Hockney's portrait, with the bride standing and the groom sitting, reverses the convention of traditional wedding portraiture, such as Mr and Mrs Andrews by Thomas Gainsborough (also shown below). Indeed Hockney shows the Clarks standing apart, a foreshadowing of their 1974 divorce because of his bi-sexual infidelity. And the reversal of roles hints that she is the dominant party.

The lilies next to Celia Birtwell, a symbol of female purity, are also associated with depictions of the Annunciation; at the time of the portrait she was pregnant.

Hockney worked and reworked the portraits many times until he was satisfied, repainting Clark's head perhaps twelve times. He achieves the difficult task of balancing the dark figures against the light flooding in through the window behind them.

I’m listening to La maison où j'ai grandi by French singer Françoise Hardy. The title means The House Where I Grew Up. In the sixties I was really taken with her. You’d have thought I’d have grown out of it by now! Listen here.