Old and Modern Master Watercolours and Drawings from the Personal collection of Vincent Price Aldis Browne Fine Arts USA, 1988 When we hear the name Vincent Price, we immediately think 'master of horror', and recall his great performances in films such as The Fly, The Masque of the Red Death, Theatre of Blood, Dr Phibes, Witchfinder General and many others.
Fewer people know that he was something of a gourmand and was an accomplished cook and food writer. Fewer people still recognise that he was a noted art collector. Well, I didn't, until I recently chanced upon a small catalogue featuring works on paper from his collection. It's all fairly dull stuff I'm afraid, his tastes having been molded in the stuffy surroundings of Yale and the Courtauld Institute where he studied art history, but I thought I'd show a sample of what a 'man of culture' from his generation hung around his Californian (presumably) pseudo-Gothic mansion. Vincent was a generous chap and donated much of his collection to establish his own art museum. If you really want to see more, check it out here: http://vincentpriceartmuseum.org/ Personally, I'll stick to his films.
Odilon Redon, The Sacred Heart, c.1895
John Waterhouse, Studies of a Young Woman's Head.
Gustav Klimt, Study for the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, c.1903
Henri Matisse, Self-portrait, c.1905
Pablo Picasso, Harlequin and Nude with Mirror, 1917
Edie Nadelman, Dancer, c.1917
Amadeo Modigliani, Portrait of Schultz Solar.
Oskar Kokoschka, Studies of Trudi Wearing a Cap, 1931
The Graphic Century Hannah Vaughn (ed.) Whitechapel Gallery London, 2009.
I've been to a lot of shows at the Whitechapel over the years, many good, a few indifferent, none that I remember being poor. Perhaps any bad ones are best forgotten.
This book collects posters promoting their exhibitions, graphic designs trying to capture the artistic aesthetic or spirit of each show. Here is a selection mostly from my favourite period from the early 1950s to the late 70s.
The Hornsey Affair Students and Staff of Hornsey College of Art Penguin, Middx, 1969
Everyone knows about the soixante-huitards, the French student revolution of May '68, the birth of Situationism and the beach beneath the pavement, right? Worn as a badge of honour by Parisians of a certain age, they certainly made their mark on social history despite being flattened by the Gaullist authorities when total revolution seemed within their grasp.
Less well known are the events that occurred simultaneously on the other side of La Manche, in a leafy corner of North London. The students at Hornsey College of Art were browned off with the authorities and decided the answer was a 'sit-in' (it was the 60s) and three days of rambling debates between themselves and the college staff.
The film I posted the other day gives a more immediate impression of the events than this little paperback can muster, but the text gives a more complex flavour of the way both sides articulated their thoughts. Plus some nice student illustrations. The counter-culture may have been crushed but the ideals remain.
Tilson Pop to Present Royal Academy of Arts London, 2002 I've posted some of these before but this catalogue has better images and the work still looks mighty fine.
A Paradise Lost: The Neo-Romantic Imagination in Britain 1935-55 David Mellor Lund Humphries, 1987 This fascinating catalogue from an exhibition at the Barbican, London, was the first to re-examine the Neo-Romantic movement, which dominated British art in the post-war years. It's interesting to see which artists have sustained a recognised profile, and which have disappeared into the margins. Mellor draws together many interesting themes, not least an early connection between surrealism, science fiction and pagan myth in the work of Graham Sutherland.
It is also enlightening to see the work of Gerald Wilde, a decidedly non-conformist painter who saw himself in the novel The Horse's Mouthby Joyce Carey and took on the persona of the fictional artist Gully Jimson.
The film adaptation, starring Alec Guinness (to whom Wilde bore a strange resemblance), is second only to Hancock's The Rebel in the canon of essential British art films. Wilde is sadly almost forgotten now. The few works available online show an energy and vision that would suggest an exhibition of his paintings is long overdue.
