Happy New Year
A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall.
1 Love.
Celebrating Paul Joannides
It was a great pleasure, in the run-up to Christmas, to announce the publication of the latest issue of the art history anthology Artibus et Historiae, which is a special issue dedicated to Professor Paul Joannides, formerly of the University of Cambridge, now Emeritus.
I was one of the guest editors of this project, working with a group of Paul’s former students and friends to put together a publication that we thought he would enjoy, a Festschrift to mark his retirement a few years ago, but beyond that of course his significance as a scholar and teacher in his field. It was all kept a secret and took about two years. We’re proud of the publication and happy in this way to honour a great teacher, mentor and person.
The list of contributors includes many of Paul’s friends and colleagues, some who have known him for most of their lives and some who only got to know him in recent years, as his last students. The list of contents can be perused through the link above.
I managed to contribute an article myself. Here’s the abstract:
Merry Christmas from the National Gallery
This is the kind of thing that helps me cope. Apologies for any awkwardness!
What I’ve been up to
It seems increasingly meaningless these days, right? Yet, these are some of the things I’ve been up to over the last month or so.
ITEM at Apollo Magazine online a few weeks ago, I wrote an appreciation of the great Harewood Titian drawing (above), which is currently under temporary export bar and risks leaving the UK for an overseas home if a matching offer isn’t met before 20 December.
ITEM In the latest National Gallery Technical Bulletin (vol. 37), Chris Fischer, Rachel Billinge and I analyse new technical evidence concerning Fra Bartolommeo’s Virgin Adoring the Child with St Joseph in the National Gallery’s collection. Newly recorded infrared reflectograms reveal underdrawing that straddles the gap between his disciplined Florentine training and the flowering lyrical undercurrent in his work that was stimulated so decisively by his visit to Venice in 1508. We also publish a series of replicas/copies of the composition, including the one in Brescia and a previously unknown one in a private collection, both probably made in his San Marco workshop. The issue also contains articles on Dutch seventeenth-century flower painting, Daubigny and Van Gogh. Consult at your art library or wait till the content is made available online.
ITEM The latest volume of Studi Tizianeschi (no. IX) contains my review of Tom Nichols’ flawed but occasionally stimulating book Titian and the End of the Venetian Renaissance. But don’t get it for that — the issue contains Paul Joannides’ and Jane Turner’s long-awaited and magisterial examination of Titian’s and his workshop’s many versions of the quintessential Venus and Adonis composition, a material that would pose a heroic challenge to any Titian connoisseur. There are other interesting articles on Titian-related matters too, naturally. Again, check it out at your library or order here.
ITEM a couple of my comics reviews have been published in Information (in Danish). Firstly, it concerns the Danish omnibus-like edition of Simon Hanselman’s bleakly funny and deranged comics about Megg, Mogg and Owl (above). It predates last year’s Megg and Mogg in Amsterdam, but pretty much every strip he made prior to that is in it. Next up is Drømme i tynd luft (‘Dreams in Thin Air’), a comics documentary on the formation of the first Tibetan national football team told by the Danish idealist who helped it happen, Michael Magnus Nybrandt and illustrated by the talented Thomas Engelbrecht Mikkelsen. It’s a fascinating story, but the comic lacks dramatic and psychological interest, despite a few inspired passages. Anyway, even if you don’t read Danish, you may be able soon to see for yourself, as several international editions are in the works.
ITEM Oh, and I’m back writing story notes in the Fantagraphics Carl Barks series, which is of course fantastic fun. In the latest book, I wrote about the so-called ‘Donald Duck Rants about Ants’ — a true horror comedy steeped in 1950s paranoia as only Barks can do it. But, you know, get it — and the series — for the comics.
US Voters, please do us all a favor
Don’t let this jerk, or any Republican, take anything today. Our future depends on it.
VOTE.
Danske avantgarde-tegneserier i Information
Fra Allan Haverholms When the Last Story Is Told
Efter længere tids fravær er jeg i dag tilbage i Informations bogtillæg med en anmeldese af en række tegneserieudgivelser af den mere utvetydigt litterært/kunstnerisk orienterede art: Signe Parkins & Drawings, Michelangelo Setola og Edo Chieregatos Snuder på lastbiler, Rikke Villadsen og Bjørn Rasmussens første to bind i deres serie Ni piger, og Allan Haverholms When the Last Story Is Told. Læs den her, nu hvis du har abonnement, om nogle uger, hvis ikke. Eller køb avisen på papir!
Og lige en påmindelse: overskrift, underrubrik og billedtekster er stort set aldrig mine på disse artikler. Ikke at jeg nødvendigvis er utilfreds, men sådan fungerer det.
PAW 50!
Paw Mathiasen skoler rosset i boghåndværk, Angoulême 2007 (forstør for yderligere indsigt)
“Glæden ved tegneserier indgår i den store livscyklus. ‘Nuff said!” Sådan sagde Paw Mathiasen i et interview for ti år siden, på et tidspunkt hvor man kan sige at han var steget ind sin fase 3 — den hvor han virkelig begyndte at gøre sig gældende som fuldtidsforlægger med bredt udsyn og en ambition om arbejdet med tegneserier som levevej. De to tidligere faser i denne forsimpling af Paws fine, fornemme og facetterede karriere i dansk tegneserie er naturligvis Fanzine-perioden, hvor en ellers hensynende grund blev gødet med Fat Comic og anden aktivisme, og så Fahrenheit-perioden op gennem halvfemserne og et stykke ind i nullerne, hvor Paw nærmest ene mand sørgede for, at der stadig blev udgivet danske tegneserier hinsides den meget snævre mainstream og samtidig stille, roligt og også lidt rodet introducerede danske læsere for den store udvikling, der var ved at tage fart i udlandet.
Fahrenheit er ganske enkelt den væsentligste danske tegneserieantologi de sidste tre årtier. Det samme gælder forlaget Fahrenheit på dets område. Man kan muligvis til tider have savnet en redaktionel linje, men det er nok samtidig en af hemmelighederne bag forlagets sejlivethed og brede betydning. Det ganske enkelt svært at forestille sig den opblomstring af dansk tegneserie og dansk tegneseriekultur, vi ser i dag uden. Paw har holdt faklen højt i op mod fyrre år og står fortsat som en konstant, varm og progressiv kraft et sted i kulturens hjerte. Fra Godfather til gryende Grand Old Man, med familie i nuet og en fortid at kigge stolt tilbage på. Cyklens fase fire—fremtiden—venter.
Tak og tillykke Paw!
UPDATE: Der er en stor fødselsdagsgave til Paw fra venner og kolleger på Nummer9.
Back at Roskilde
I spent parts of the last few days at the Roskilde Festival covering its hip hop programme for the Danish hip hop website Rapspot. I unfortunately missed most of the two first days, but managed to catch some great music on Friday and Saturday. At this stage of post-Brexit chaos, it was particularly great to see some of London’s finest uniting us in mosh. Fantastic.
If you read Danish, my coverage is here, here, and here. Astrid Maria B. Rasmussen, who took the above photo of Stormzy, has posted several great photo galleries from the festival here, here, here, and here (graffiti).