And so the journey is finally over. Begun in the snowy December of 1933 by a young man not yet…
ASL
I know nothing about the technical side of film. On the (very) few occasions that I actually write about film…
Baudelaire’s Nightmare
In 1859, the Paris Salon allowed photographs into its exhibition. This brought a howl of outrage from Baudelaire, who claimed…
The Nature of the Beast
My slow, steady progress through Donald Sassoon’s monumental but unfailingly fascinating The Culture of the Europeans continues to throw up extraordinary…
Standing on the shoulders of giants
We like to think of ourselves as living in the digital age. It’s a title that makes us feel more…
17 C
I have always been fascinated by the 17th century. I suppose initially I was entranced by the glamour of the…
American Indian Portraits
This is something I wrote after visiting the exhibition of George Catlin’s American Indian Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery.
Do I want a part in my own movie?
Why did nobody introduce me to Frank O’Hara back then, when I was a poet, or thought I was, or…
Public Art / Abandoned Art
In the pedestrian precinct outside Debenhams there is a small white hat, the sort of thing that might be made…
Icons
I’m not a great cinema-goer, but in the last few weeks I’ve been twice. Both times I saw a film…