The Fortnightly Flag
Issue 6 February 2018

Nymphs and Shepherds Come Away

There was a bit of a kerfuffle in the Art World this week ('furious backlash' according to the Daily Mail) was a bit of an exaggeration when Manchester Art Gallery removed from display the charming painting 'Hylas and the Nymphs' by the English Pre-Raphaelite painter J. W. Warehouse.

To be sure the painting does depict several under-dressed young ladies but their nudity is by and large implied rather than explicit as they are underwater and screened by tastefully and strategically placed water lilies and foliage so only the most prudish person could find the image offensive and it is without doubt a technically accomplished and beautiful work. It was hanging in a gallery titled 'In pursuit of beauty' which seems about right.

Nevertheless it was deemed inappropriate. It was removed from display according to MCR "to encourage debate" about such images and how they should be displayed and visitors were invited to stick post-it notes on the wall where the painting has been to give their opinion.

The reactions were overwhelmingly negative. People like the painting. More interesting really would be to ask why they like it.

A number of objections pointed out that is difficult to debate the display of a painting that is not being displayed which is a fair point and there were many complaints regarding censorship (including condemnation from a number of feminists despite the implication that the image was borderline pornographic).

The smartest feminist response I thought was the suggestion that female artists should be given more funding and space to express their world views and ideas. It would certainly be interesting to put the work say of Louise Jopling, contemporary of Waterhouse, who created a popular genre depicting women and girls (her own children) in domestic situations, a rather different view of female beauty than Waterhouse's romantic nymphs and ladies, which extremely pretty and sexy though they are, are very much a male view.

However, in choosing this particular painting and artist the curators (both female) perhaps picked the wrong target. Several objections pointed out that 'Hylas and the Nymphs' illustrates a classical story from the myth-cycle Jason and the Argonauts in which the beautiful young man Hylas is lured away and abducted by the water nymphs.

The painting therefore explores the subject of female sexuality and the power of women over men. In this case it is the man who is vulnerable.

Indeed if we look at Waterhouse's work as a whole this is a constant theme. He loved painting beautiful young women, rarely nude it has to be said, he mostly hints at what is under the flowing drapery, but if we are to psycho-analyse his motives one would deduce he was rather afraid of women. In most of his paintings, with the exception of the odd portrait, none of these lovely ladies is looking directly at the painter. They are all looking away. One notable exception is The Lady of Shallott who, in Tennyson's poem, very popular at the time, was seeking to lure Sir Lancelot from his quest for the Holy Grail, by means of magic.

Waterhouse loved this subject and painted it several times. In the most famous image the lady is looking rather fiercely directly at the artist but she is physically restrained having been tangled up in her own web.


Does Waterhouse's obsession with the dangers of female sexuality for the susceptible male reflect just his own personal anxiety or a more general angst in the male population. The date is significant. The painting was completed in 1896. In the following year the Suffragette movement really got going. Although this appears to be a fantasy picture, the possibility that women might soon be in positions of power was a reality to the artist.

The image conveys a universal truth. This would perhaps explain the enduring popularity of Hylas and the Nymphs. It is not only achingly beautiful, it illustrates a universal principle. Sexuality, 
 whether male or female or in any other form, can be a dangerous impulse.

Truth and Beauty are the essence of all art forms and Waterhouse gives us both.

The painting's initial removal was filmed to be made into a new piece of video art for Sonia Boyce's exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery in March prompting claims it was a 'cheap publicity stunt' in which light it has been rather successful but after a week's absence I am happy to report the painting is back in it's usual place. Phew!

The Fortnightly Flag #15 Extra Oscar Nominations

The Fortnightly Flag
#15 Extra
23.01.2018

OSCAR NOMINATIONS

The 90th Oscar Nominations were announced today ready for the presentation of the Academy Awards on Sunday 4th March which will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

This year the Academy was allowed to nominate up to ten films and have nominated nine giving a much wider range of genres than in previous years.

Best films: Call me by your name; Darkest Hour; Dunkirk; Get Out; Lady Bird; Phantom Thread; The Post; The Shape of Water; Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Director: Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk): Jordan Peele (Get Out); Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird); Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread); Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water)

Leading Actress: Sally Hawkins, Frances McDormand; Margot Robbie; Saoirse Ronan; Meryl Streep

Leading Actor: Timothee Chalamet; Daniel Day-Lewis; Daniel Kaluuya; Gary Oldman; Denzel Washington

Original Screenplay: The Big Sick(Emily V Gordon & Kumail Nanjani); Get Out (Jordan Peele); Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig); The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor - story by Guillermo del Toro); Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)

Adapted Screenplay: Call me by your name (James Ivory); The Disaster Artist (Scott Neustadter & Michael H Weber); Logan (Scott Frank, James Mangold and Michael Green - story by James Mangold); Molly's Game (Aaron Sorkin); Mudbound(Virgil Williams and Dee Rees)

Best animated feature: The Boss Baby; The Breadwinner; Coco; Ferdinand; Loving Vincent

Original Song: Mighty River; Mystery of Love; Remember me; Stand up for something; This is me

Best documentary feature: Abacus; Faces and Places; Icarus; Last men in Aleppo; Strong Island

Best documentary short: Edith-Eddie;Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405; Heroin(e); Knife Skills; Traffic Stop

Best foreign language film : A fantastic woman(Chile); The Insult (Lebanon); Loveless (Russia); On body and soul (Hungary); The Square (Sweden)

Best Supporting Actor: Willem Dafoe; Woody Harrelson; Richard Jenkins; Christopher Plummer; Sam Rockwell

Best Supporting Actress: Mary J Blige; Allison Janney; Lesley Manville; Laurie Metcalf; Octavia Spencer

Make-up and Hairstyling: Darkest Hour; Victoria and Abdul; Wonder

Film-Editing: Baby Driver; Dunkirk; I, Tonya; The Shape of Water; Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Visual Effect: Blade Runner 2049; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2; Kong: Skull Island; Star Wars: The Last Jedi; War for the Planet of the Apes

Original Score: Dunkirk ; Phantom Thread; The Shape of Water; Star wars: The Last Jedi; Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Live Action Short Film: Diklab Elementary; The 11 o'clock; My nephew Emmet; The Silent Child; WATU/WATE All of us

Best Animation Short Film: Dear Basketball; Garden Party; Lou; Negative Space; Revolting Rhymes

Sound Mixing: Blade Runner 2049; Baby Driver; Dunkirk; The Shape of Water; Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Sound Editing: Baby Driver; Blade Runner 2049; Dunkirk; The Shape of Water; Star Wars:The Last Jedi

Costume Design: Beauty and the Beast; Darkest Hour; Phantom Thread; The Shape of Water; Victoria and Abdul

Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049; Darkest Hour; Dunkirk; Mudbound; The Shape of Water

Production Design: Beauty and the Beast; Blade Runner 2049; Darkest Hour; Dunkirk; The Shape of Water

BAFTA 2018 Nominations

The Fortnightly Flag
Issue #15
23 January 2018

St Brides Church in Fleet Street during the Blitz

This is the backdrop to the film Darkest Hour because it's
that time of year again when the principal awards in literature, film and television are dished out. The BAFTA Film Awards have a new host in Joanna Lumley and will be held at London's Royal Albert Hall on 18 February.

The nominations and awards in January are seen as pointers to the Oscars so the results are hot gossip. Gary  Oldman is tipped to win for his performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour and he was voted best actor in the Screen Actors Guild awards last Sunday but it is by no means a one horse race.

The front runner is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri which has picked up eight BAFTA nominations for Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Director, Leading Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography and Editing. In the Screen Actors Guild Awards presented last Sunday, 21st, the film, a black comedy about a small town murder, picked up the prestigious award for Outstanding Cast in a Film as well as acting honours for Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell.

Hot on its heels comes Blade Runner 2049 also with eight nominations from BAFTA for Director, Original Music, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Make Up and Hair, Sound and Special Visual Effects.

They should win a slew of awards between them.

Get Out has three nominations. Daniel Kaluuya bagged two of them both as Leading Actor and EE Rising Star so must have a good chance of one of them and Jordan Peele, the writer, is up for Original Screenplay. (Writers are shamelessly under-mentioned).

Also with three nominations is the charming Paddington 2 as Outstanding British Film, Supporting Actor (Hugh Grant) and Adapted Screenplay.

Trailing with two nominations apiece come Star Wars: The Last Jedi for Special Visual Effects and Sound and Beauty and the Beast for its lovely costumes and production design.

So, good luck to everybody and congratulations to those who have already won.

The Fortnightly Flag - Costa Book Awards

The Fortnightly Flag
9th January 2018

Happy New Year

COSTA BOOK AWARDS

The first big literary event in London in 2018 will be the Costa Book of the Year Award. Tuesday 30th January is earmarked for the evening on which the Book of the Year will be unveiled. This is one of the UK's biggest book prizes.

The category winners have already been announced and the Book of the Year winner will be one of these.

Poetry - Helen Dunmore  Inside the Wave (Bloodaxe Books) -
Helen passed away last year so this will be a posthumous award for her final poetry collection.

Novel - Jon McGregor. Reservoir 13 (Fourth Estate)

First Novel - Gail Honeyman. Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine

Now I have read this one and can thoroughly recommend it. Although I am not a fan of first person narratives in this case it is entirely justified as Eleanor gradually reveals not only her present loneliness but also her troubled past chapter by chapter. She is by turns vulnerable, difficult and infuriating while her observations on modern city life - Eleanor doesn't know how to be tactful - will make you laugh. At the same time, as we gradually learn why she is the way she is - the whole truth is not revealed until the very end - we admire her enormous strength of character and I defy anyone not to be rooting for her at the end. It's a remarkable book and I loved it.

I have also bought Helen Dunmore's book and Jon McGregor's but not had time to read them yet as I have to get on with a bit of writing of my own.

Biography - Rebecca Stott. In the days of Rain

Children's - Katherine Rundell. The Explorer.

Best of luck to all.

The Fortnightly Flag #13 New discovery St Albans

The Fortnightly Flag
19th December 2017

Santas at Bushey Station on their way to the Santa Race, South bank, London

2017 GOOD YEAR FOR BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY

There have been a number of exciting discoveries this year and the latest of them is right on my doorstep. 

Archaeologists of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust have just uncovered the relics of Abbot John of Wheathampstead, who died in 1465, at St Albans Abbey. The find is reported in The Herts Advertiser (Thursday 14 December 2017) by Matt.Adams@archant.co.uk.

Abbot John is of special interest here because he was 'of Wheathampstead' which is just north of St Albans so he was a local man. As an Abbot he was of national and international renown. His remains are identified by the discovery alongside him of a collection of seals, also known as papal bulls, issued by Pope Martin V (1417-1431). Early in his career Abbot John secured three special privileges for his monastery at an audience with Pope Martin and was remembered thereafter for his success in negotiating with the Papal Court, hence the bulls were buried with him. It is possible that his grave also marks the site of the chapel he had built.

Abbot John is a little late for my period of interest (5th - 10th century AD) but the discovery of his remains is an important find for the history of the late mediaeval Abbey.

'I must go down to the sea again

To the lonely sea and the sky'

John Masefield of course. We all learnt it at school. We Brits are an island race and so we love our seascapes. Apart from a couple of sketchy watercolours of Margate Sands and Hastings Pier (which subsequently burnt down - nothing to do with me Guv) I have not hitherto done any seascapes so my latest effort is my first proper go at this genre (not counting my last painting which gives only a glimpse of the sea).

Titled unimaginatively Fishermen at the lighthouse, Porthcawl  it depicts a cold and wintry sea. The picture is almost monochrome, unusually for me, my pictures are normally quite highly coloured, but I couldn't abandon colour altogether so there is just a faint tinge. I went down to the harbour last week and it looked just like this.

I am planning to do more seascapes over the next few months now I have a home near the sea to see what I can do with this genre

I have finished reading William Hardie's excellent book on Scottish Painting (Scottish Painting: 1837 to the Present in a handsome 3rd edition) which I highly recommend. This is not only a great introduction to Scottish painters, very well illustrated with colour plates throughout, it also serves as a very good run through different styles of painting from the mid-Victorians onwards.

I learned that the mid-Victorians were overly fond of brown because of the development of a new pigment called 

asphaltum brown which, influenced by Sir David Wilkie who favoured a brown tonality, they used a lot. Sadly this was a mistake because it cracks badly and has ruined many paintings of the period. I don't know if you can still buy it but if you can one word - don't.

I especially like the work of Scottish artist Stanley Cursiter, hitherto unknown to me because his best work is in private collections, but I think he's quite brilliant and deserves to be better known.

The next blog will be on 9th January 2018 so it just remains for me to wish you all Nadolig Llawen (Welsh for Merry Christmas) and Happy New Year.

Covent Garden Market, London

The Fortnightly Flag #12 Impressionists in London The Lady in Grey

The Fortnightly Flag
5th December 2017
Still life - blue vases Carol Richards 2004

IMPRESSIONISTS IN LONDON

This month's recommended exhibition is Impressionists in London at Tate Britain. It's a bit pricey but well worth it. It's a large exhibition with a great many wonderful paintings on display.

The exhibition looks back to the period of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and the Paris Commune of 1871 when a number of French Impressionists headed for the safety and art market of London. Impressionism as a painting style suited them well as they needed to produce works quickly suited to the English market so their output initially was made up of small paintings depicting conventional subjects that might appeal to the middle-class residents of the semi-rural London suburbs they found refuge in.

Pisarro's initial works are quite traditional landscapes, nicely done but a far cry from the pointilliste style of his later pictures of Kew and Hampton Court. I lived for a while in Richmond and have painted a fair few paintings along the riverside. I never tried the full pointilliste style of Pisarro but did pick up one technique they all seem to have adopted, that of using small tick brush-strokes in different colours - blue, grey, green (the river is very green at Richmond) white and silver (gives the river a nice sheen). I don't know if this counts as impressionist but it works a treat giving the impression of light and movement on the surface of the water.

Lots of the paintings, most notably by Monet and Whistler, feature London fog. Oscar Wilde apparently declared Whistler invented it. Not so. I grew up with it. Before the Clean Air Act we still had the real pea-soupers where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Everything came to a standstill and the city was quiet and mysterious and the sunsets over Highgate and Islington Cemetery were breathtaking. What Wilde meant was that nobody has noticed the fog as an artistic effect before Whistler although that is to discount Turner of course.

Having said that, the exhibition has a whole roomful of Monet's paintings of the Houses of Parliament with and without sunsets which are simply miraculous.

There are a great many paintings by Tissot who has been one of my favourite artists since my mother gave me a print of  'The Captain's Lady' which hung on the wall in my flat for many years until the frame got broken in a move. I am in awe of Tissot's ability to paint straight lines not only in his maritime pictures (check out the rigging) but also in the large painting of visitors outside a London church - the steps and the fluted columns all dead straight.

Tissot is not strictly an impressionist. He painted finely detailed pictures beautifully finished in classical style. He might have been a bit aggrieved to find himself lumped with the Impressionists as he painted in a very different style although he moved in the same circle.

Another artist represented in the exhibition who is similarly not really an impressionist is the sculptor Dalou. Dalou was a Communard who came to London in 1871 when, after the collapse of the Paris Commune, he would not have found much work in Paris. He taught in London with Alphonse Legros and from the examples of their work on show I would say they had a marked influence on Mary Bromet whom I mentioned in my last blog. Dalou was rather annoyed that his customers preferred his more sentimental works but they do have an extraordinary sweetness.

THE LADY IN GREY

The artists who were 








.

The artists who were refugees in London did not reflect what was going on in their homeland except for a tinge of homesickness. That was left to the artists who stayed. Manet was conscripted into the National Guard and he produced two prints illustrating the trauma of war - a picture of a casual execution and a powerful image of a dead soldier. Tissot was trapped in Paris throughout the siege and only left after the Paris Commune of 1871 made being a bourgeois painter of high society a less than attractive prospect.

Manet's images and Tissot's 'The Wounded Soldier' would have made excellent illustrations for my novel 'The Lady in Grey'.

Originally published in 1988 under the title 'Disciple of Temptation' the novel tells the story of French novelist and short story writer Guy de Maupassant.   Like Manet he was conscripted aged 19 and so traumatised by the experience the subject dominated his life and work. The book entailed a lot of research into the Franco-Prussian war.

Why did it appeal to me? Apart from the fact that it is simply a wonderful story it came to me (via my uncle who gave me a copy of Sherard's biography of the writer) it followed a decade of IRA terrorism, miners' strikes and the Poll Tax riots, not quite on a par with the Franco-Prussian War but a fairly unsettled period. Added to which I was taken very ill in 1982 and suffered a long period of excruciating pain for 13 years which was akin to torture except I had no way of making it stop, no secrets to save me. All of which, looking back, must have coloured my choice of subject as up until then I had written mostly comedy.


I did an interview for Chiltern Radio when the book was published and the presenter chose to read a passage from the book. Rather to my surprise he did not pick a passage taken from Maupassant's own words but one where I realised that, although at the time I thought I was writing about Maupassant, I really was writing about myself.

I suppose I was asking the question if a writer has to go through terrible pain in order to create the work is it worth it? If Maupassant, who went through such terrors, had known that over a hundred years later his books would still be read and admired, would he have thought it worth the price he paid?

I'm sorry to say I think he would.

The Fortnightly Flag#11 St Columbanus Day Empress Irene I told you so

The Fortnightly Flag

21 November 2017


St Columbanus' Day

Columbanus died on Sunday, 23 November 615 AD so this week is his saint's day. The monasteries celebrated the death of a founder-saint rather than his/her date of birth as this was the date they were, in the words of the Salvation Army, "promoted to glory".

Been there Seen it Done it Got the T-shirt

Gender fluidity is much in the news although I think we need to be careful to distinguish between gender fluidity in a social context which is quite common and the biological state of being transgender which is very rare.

I have written about the subject in a social and political context in a stage play, a biography of sorts of another saint's life, that of the Byzantine Empress and Emperor Irene.

She was well-named. Eirene is Greek for 'peace'. She became Empress when she married Leo IV who, possibly as a result of a brain tumour, embarked on a regime of strict iconoclasm with predictably dire consequences for freedom of thought and worship. When he died of his illness Irene took over as Regent for their young son. When she took over the reins of power she did not relinquish them until shortly before her own death twenty years later.

The play was briefly titled 'The Empty Throne' because the Pope insisted that the imperial throne was vacant because it only had a woman sitting on it. In a manner of speaking he was right because women were ineligible for the position of Emperor. Irene had at this time been successfully ruling the empire for twenty years, the first woman to rule the Roman Empire, east or west, in her own right. Sadly what she thought of the Pope's comment is not recorded.

The title was used recently by Bernard Cornwell so I have reverted to my original title 'Irene Basileus' which is how Irene styled herself and demonstrates how gender fluidity works in politics. Basileus is the masculine form of the Greek word for emperor so she called herself Emperor Irene to indicate she was no longer the consort but held executive power.

I was not only interested in Irene's official change of sex but also that of her partner, Stauracius who also broke the mould of gender restrictions. Stauracius was a palace eunuch. Eunuchs were regarded as a 'third sex' and formed the equivalent of the civil service being held to exhibit less competitive traits than the testosterone-filled (and therefore more dangerous) elements in the army.

The palace eunuchs were not slaves necessarily. Many came from aristocratic families who saw a good career in the administration for their younger sons. Stauracius came from such a background. These androgynous  young men in their fine silk robes were the models for angels in many mediaeval paintings.

Crucially for Irene, although like her Stauracius was ineligible to be Emperor (because he was regarded as being disabled - any physical disability ruled you out), he was able to act as commander-in-chief and lead the army, the one thing as a woman she couldn't do. Stauracius was her general as well as her principal adviser.

In the end he rebelled against her because she was contemplating a marriage alliance with Charlemagne which would have reunited the eastern and western Roman empires. He died on the eve of battle but, despite this last disagreement, Irene had him buried in the church where all the emperors were laid to Rest acknowledging that he had effectively been her co-emperor so it is a love story of sorts although not a conventional one.

Also in the news is a warning from the Prime Minister to the Russian Government telling them to desist from cyber attacks on UK technology.

In 1983 I published a book called The Xanadu Program under the pseudonym Richard Carroll. This was before computer technology had become ubiquitous. There were no computers in the office, no laptops or mobile phones. When the hero needs to make a phone call he has to find a call box. He is a new kind of policeman, a cyber security expert.

This was one of the first detective stories to feature computer crime although the old-fashioned baddies are pretty clueless about the new technology. The hero explains to the equally clueless police officer: "Satellite communications make on-line computing possible on a global scale...All you need is a PhD in Pure Mathematics, a course in software design and a telephone. The Russians are already at it. The best mathematicians can work out how to penetrate a computer up to Cray-1 level and they don't even have to leave Vladivostok.'

Forgive me for saying it but I told you so.