Blake at the Tate Britain

Relevance is the key to great art. If painting is not relevant in its day then it is pointless. But when that relevance transgresses the ages it is even more valuable to us.  William Blake is one of those greats whose message is as relevant today as it was 250 years ago. The Tate Britain…

Munich – The Lenbachhaus

Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). I am never quite sure whether it is an art movement, a book, an exhibition or what. I do know that for a few short years before the First World War it represented a group of avant garde artists based in Bavaria, when Munich was the centre of the…

Florence and more Masaccios

Florence has so much renaissance art to offer the tourist. This morning we went to the Uffizi Gallery which must have more masterpieces per square metre than any other building I have ever been in… but more about that another time. The Santa Maria Del Carmine on the other side of the river was our…

Florence – Massacio’s Trinity

University staff have decided to go on strike so we have decided to skip Venice for a couple of days and see Florence. Have not been here for years because of all the low life but despite that you just have to stand in awe at the sites.  Santa Maria Novella is first port of…

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

“Water, water, every where,  And all the boards did shrink;  Water, water, every where,  Nor any drop to drink.” Immortal lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s great poem of 1834, which I enjoyed and still remember class reading at school. So with me flitting back and forth between Venice and North Gloucestershire floods, I thought an…