Category: art
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Swansea art now
Set alongside Cardiff, its ancient rival, Swansea wins no prizes. Or so it seems. Political and financial power has long been concentrated in the capital. Cardiff’s economic magnet increases its force year by year. As a shopping centre Swansea has steadily lost ground – even Carmarthen has more to offer these days. Jobs tend to…
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A Coxwold tomb
Philip Larkin’s poem ‘An Arundel tomb’ – the one that ends with the much-misinterpreted line ‘What will survive of us is love’ – starts with this stanza: Side by side, their faces blurred, The earl and countess lie in stone, Their proper habits vaguely shown As jointed armour, stiffened pleat, And that faint hint of…
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Romancing Wales
Forget MOMA New York. The place to be for the next three months is MOMA Machynlleth. There you’ll find a collection of paintings and other works, from the eighteenth century to the present, that will give you as much visual pleasure and intellectual provocation as any exhibition on at the moment. The title of the…
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Capel-y-ffin: tro ar fyd David Jones
Mae’n drueni mawr na fydd yr arddangosfa David Jones: vision and memory, sydd newydd ddod i ben yn Pallant House, Chichester, yn dod yma i Gymru, cartref ysbrydol ac ysbrydoliaeth yr artist ac awdur o Lundain. Fel cytunodd pob un o’i hadolygwyr, arddangosfa o’r safon uchaf fu hi, gyda nifer fawr o weithiau anghyfarwydd, yn…
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Two Americans in Porto
What comes to mind when you think of a contemporary art gallery? Probably, big empty spaces, clean geometric vistas, minimal signing, white walls. The Museo de Serralves in Porto, Portugal’s main centre for modern art, meets all those expectations, and many more. Its new building was opened in 1999. The designers not only had a…
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August Macke waters modern art
The current exhibition at the Royal Academy is all about gardens. The RA receives no state subsidy and relies on a regular series of blockbusters to bring in the crowds. This one, entitled Painting the modern garden, certainly fits the bill. When we went it was so crowded it was difficult to get near most of…
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Kyffin Williams the writer
The text of the 8th Kyffin Williams Annual Lecture, given at Highgate School, London on 1 February 2016. First, I’d like to thank David Smith and Highgate School for inviting me to give this year’s Kyffin Williams Lecture. It’s very fitting that Highgate remembers Kyffin so loyally, because he was always grateful to the school…
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Cofio am Osi Rhys Osmond
Y dydd o’r blaen rhoddodd ffrind lyfr ail-law imi, ychwanegiad i’m llyfrgell fach o lyfrau ar gelfyddyd cerdded. Doedd y gyfrol, I know another way: from Tintern to St Davids (Gomer, 2002) ddim yn gyfarwydd imi. Casgliad yw e o ysgrifau er cof am Robin Reeves, y newyddiadurwr, ymgyrchydd a golygydd New Welsh Review a…
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How to say goodbye: a picture by Gerard David
The National Gallery of Ireland contains many wonders. As in most big art galleries, though, you can walk past wall after wall of old masters without any of them leaving much of an impact on the eye or memory. Then suddenly one of them will look at you, and make you stop. And if you…
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The Eagle flies again
On our coastal walks C and I have discussed most things under the sun. One of them, on a Gower trip in early September, was the Eagle comic, which we both read as young lads. Now C has lent me his battered and beloved copy of the Eagle Annual Number One to read over Christmas…