20/02/08

A carved oak panel, most probably a cupboard door. No idea what the figure is meant to represent or the date of the piece.

05/02/08

A very bizarre but brilliant postcard with an embossed skull on it. Why you would produce a postcard with this I have no idea. The postcard is dated 1918 and the publisher is Miretti of Milan.

 

05/02/08

A postcard of the Esperanto language movement posted from Russia to London in 1913.  The artist is S Starsinov. Who is the sinister figure?

 

05/02/08

The Revolution (Eric Linklater, The White Owl Press, London, 1934) artist unknown

 

05/02/08

The Poets Eye (Anthology chosen by Geoffrey Grigson with lithographs by John Craxton, Frederick Muller Ltd., 1944)

John Craxton (1918/22-) is an English neo-romantic painter. There were several poetry anthologies illustrated by neo-romantic painters published at this time.

 

05/02/08

Poems 1937-1942 by David Gascoyne (Illustrations by Graham Sutherland, Nicholson & Watson, London, 1943)

Front and back of book shown. Sutherland also did 5 full page illustrations in the book, entitled, Miserere, Metaphysical, Elegiac, Personal and Time and Place.

 

    

05/02/08

Der Teufel und seine Grossmutter (Lou Andreas-Salome, Eugen Diederichs, Jena, 1922)  - Artist unknown

A book design in German expressionist design which unfortunately does not have a credited artist.

09/09/07

Monumental Images

Photo I took in Paris at the Pere-Lachaise cemetery of the Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen memorial.

At Pere-Lachaise there are other impressive memorials to the victims of Mauthausen, Buchenwald and Auschwitz (in image order).

Other memorials of note elsewhere: The French Resistance Movement at Mont Valerien, France and the Oskar Schindler/Jewish memorial in Poland.

09/09/07

Took these photos at the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh in 2005 and just found them again. Some protestors made this brilliant grotesque moveable.

07/01/07

Fantastic Art Book List

Selections from book list from online exhibition at : http://fantastic.library.cornell.edu/index.php

The useful subject divisions are:

Angels & Demons, Danse Macabre, Weird Science, Bestiary, the Marvellous, the Grotesque, Possession & Insanity, Fantastic Space and Freaks, Monsters & Prodigies.

 

Angels & Demons -

Dictionnaire Infernal (J.A.S. Collin de Plancy, illustrator: M. L. Breton, E Plon, 1863 edition with 69 illustrations)

 

Danse Macabre -

Freund heins Erscheinungen (F.R. Schellenberg, Heinrich Steiner und Comp., 1785)

Todten-Tanz (Sal. van Rusting, Peter Conrad Monath, 1736)

The English Dance of Death (Thomas Rowlandson, R. Ackermann, 1815)

Stultifera Navis (Sabastien Brant, illustrations reputed to be by Durer, 1497)

Bilder des Todes ober Todtentanz für alle Stände (C. Merkel, 1850)

 

Weird Science -

Histoire de la Magie (Éliphas Lévi, Germer Baillière, 1860)

Calendrier Magique (Austin De Croze, illustrated by Manuel Orazi, L’Art Nouveau, 1895)

 

The Grotesque -

Ein Bilder: ABC (Alfred Kubin, Maximilian-Gesellschaft, E.V., 1948)

 

Freaks, Monsters & Prodigies -

Physica Curiosa, Sive Mirabilia Naturæ et Artis Libris (P. Gasparis Schotti, J. A. Endeteri & Wolfgangi, 1667)

Biliotheca Acta et Scripta Magica (D. Eberhard David Hauber, Joh. Heinrich Mener, 1739)

04/10/06

Menagerie of the Future

I have this idea for a series of pictures, even an animation called 'Menagerie of the Future'. The concept comes from a cartoon in the French WW1 publication 'La Baionnette' and also from a Bolshevik cartoon of 1918.

The French example was by Leonetto Cappiello, entitled 'La Kultur Au Jardin D'Acclimatation, En 1956'. The caption above the zoo cage reads in english 'Boche: Savage Mammal: Infested Europe at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century'. The cartoon appeared in La Baionnette, no. 4, 29th July 1915. The image shows a mother and a child visiting and viewing the cage which contains a grotesque beast (with a look of the Kaiser's son it has to be said!). The mother is holding the hand of the child and protecting her nose from what would appear to be the smell of the beast. Cappiello chose 1956 as his future date completely from random I assume - for he could not know of the true horrific events that would occur again with Germany in WW2. His date seems somewhat prescient then. The image is taken from the original publication.

The Russian example was by Mikhail Cheremnykh, entitled 'V zverintse budushchego' or 'The Menagerie of the Future' and appeared as a drawing for 'Kommunar', Petrograd, 1918. The cartoon shows the Tsar, a banker and a Whiteguardist in captivity, being looked upon by a curious father and son. (image and information from the book The Bolshevik Poster (Stephen White, Yale University, 1998))

In my Menagerie I would place all those bastards who have wiped the face of mankind in its own vomit. They would be placed there as detention but also to teach the future to never let these events happen again. In there would be Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, George Bush junior, Thatcher etc...

02/10/06

A List of Devices, Techniques, Media

From 'Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism (Museum of Modern Art, ed. Alfred H Barr Jr. & essays by Georges Hugnet, 1947)'.

1 - Simple Composite Image

2 - Double Image (monaxial, biaxial)

3 - Collaborative Composition

4 - Fantastic Perspective

5 - Animation of the Inanimate

6 - Metamorphoses

7 - Isolation of Anatomical Fragments

8 - Confrontation of Incongruities

9 - Miracles and Anomalies

10 - Organic Abstractions

11 - Fantastic Machinery

12 - Dream Pictures

13 - Creation of Evocative Chaos

14 - Automatic and Quasi-Automatic Drawing and Painting

15 - Composition by Artificial Accident

16 - Frottage

17 - Collage

18 - Combination of Real and Painted Objects

19 - Found Objects of Surrealist Character (Ready-Mades)

20 - Found Objects "assisted"

21 - Dada and Surrealist Objects

30/09/06

Whole Earth Catalogue

Picked this up in a bookshop and what a find. I never knew about this - and why not! It was a catalogue published twice a year from 1968 to 1972 and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The catalogue was the development of Stewart Brand and published by The Portola Institute. From the Catalogue;

FUNCTION

The Whole Earth Catalog functions as an evaluation and access device. With it, the user should know better what is worth getting and where and how to do the getting.

An item is listed in the Catalog if it is deemed:

Useful as a tool,

Relevant to independent education,

High Quality or low cost,

Easily available by mail.

Catalog listings are continually revised according to the experience and suggestions of Catalog users and staff.

 

PURPOSE

We are as Gods and might as well get good at it. So far, remotely done power and glory - via government, big business, formal education, church - has succeeded to the point where gross defects obscure actual gains. In response to this dilemma and to these gains a realm of intimate, personal power is developing - power to the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested. Tools that aid that process are sought and promoted in the Whole Earth Catalog.

 

CONTENTS

Whole Systems

Land Use

Shelter

Industry

Craft

Community

Nomadics

Communications

Learning

 

The efforts were an awareness of the importance of ecology to the future of mankind. The catalogue disseminated many of the ideas of the 1960s and 1970s counterculture including the environmental movement, commune living and green consumerism.

 

The Catalogue is relevant because the issues at stake then are still a truth. Conceptually the intellectual navigation is important. The world wide web is a mass of information, but a Catalogue like this allows a selective choice of what is available to those who want this kind of lifestyle. As well as the ability to get access to these tools (in the widest sense, words included) there is the aim of educating individuals and communities. Perhaps my website should develop into a virtual catalogue for individuals interested in art activism or even wider - protest?? There are elements of this pathway laid already in the Activist and Wunderkammern pages after all. What is missing is information on suppliers, reviews of products and most important of all - access.

30/06/06

Artist v Government

A fellow photomontage artist Michael Dickinson is having a brush with the authorities in his adopted home of Turkey. A collage he was exhibiting in Istanbul was seized by the authorities and he has been told he is to be persecuted for insulting the dignity of the Prime Minister of Turkey. The collage (shown below) is called 'Best In Show' and shows the Prime Minister as a dog being given a rosette by George Bush. It is unclear what will action come of the this but artistic freedom has been restrained and it is a disgraceful action by a nation which is trying to portray itself as a modern nation ready for accession into the European Union. On the other side though I am delighted that the art of photomontage still has the power to ruffle the feathers of the establishment. Long Live Agit-Prop!

22/05/06

Living through the lives of artists - F Kupka

For a non-believer and rationalist I seem to be often at the mercy of other forces. It is more than just accidents of chance - if I was a suspicious person I would say fate has a hand.......There are certain artists I discover and then they keep re-appearing in different guises over time. Frantisek Kupka being one: painter born in Bohemia in 1871 and died in 1957. After studying in Prague he moved to Paris (1895) to ply his trade and contributed to magazines such as L'Assiette au Beurre. This is where I first come across him when I saw his brilliant anarchist images ( I intend to make these digitally available in the 'Wunderkammern' pages which are still being constructed). He had always painted but later in life he moved into pioneering abstract art - far far removed from his magazine work. I saw some of his work in Prague and while there I found an exhibition catalogue, titled 'The Kupka-Waldes exhibition'. I find out that Jindrich Waldes, a Czech businessman, was Kupka's benefactor, buying many of his paintings and effectively supporting him throughout his life. Waldes & Company are quite well known and Kupka also designed some graphics for them. While looking through the catalogue though I cannot believe my eyes when I see that I own one of the boxes produced by the company. It is a box I have had for many years and I kept it because I liked the image of the girl with the fastener on her eye (shown below). Now it transpires that Kupka did the design! Fate perhaps has led me to this......

                                                                       Waldes & Kupka in 1930      The men again with the company logo

 

19/05/06

Picked this pamphlet up. It is called the 'Soldier's Guide To Rome' and was published in World War Town by the Allied Control Commission in Italy.

The brochure was written for allied troops by the Monument and Fine Arts Sub-Commission of the Allied Control Commission and designed and produced by the wonderfully sounding Psychological Warfare Branch, AFHQ, Italy. The pamphlet was to be used as a guide on all the major works of arts as well as on the history of the city. More than this though the Forward by the Commander in Chief (shown below) shows the real purpose of the pamphlet.

If only a similar one had been done for the American troops when they entered Baghdad and they might have then better respected the museums and historical treasures found in this area: the cradle of civilisation. Alas, they did not secure and protect the treasures, which not only belong to the Iraqi people but the whole world, but watched as the treasures were desecrated. As the pamphlet says though 'the eyes of all the world are upon our actions'.

19/05/06

The Penguin Private Eye

This book was bought because it has Scarfe and Steadman images in it, yet the front cover is excellent.

Cover photograph by Lewis Morley.

19/05/06

Nazis - A Warning From The History Of Artists

The Nazis were clear about the threat of artists and their dissenting voices. The lists of artists that were targeted by the Nazis acts as both an inspiration to artists as to the importance they can have as a voice in the political and social life of their world; and both as a warning against dictatorial governments who are determined to limit artistic expression.

The sustained cultural suppression resulted in a series of exhibitions of the art deemed 'degenerate' by the Nazi regime. The culmination of these efforts was the 1937 Munich exhibition titled 'Entartete Kunst' (Degenerate Art) which featured over 650 confiscated works by 112 artists. The exhibition featured artists who were left wing and critical of the Nazi regime and some who had Jewish origins. But more than this it was a concerted ideological attack on modern art: on artists who worked in abstract, cubism, expressionism, surrealism and any other modern art style. Set against this exhibition the Nazis had their own version of what was worthy in art, 'Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung' (the Great German Art Exhibition). In addition to the public exhibition, in 1937 some sixteen thousand examples of modern art was confiscated, some destroyed and many others sold at auction.

 

Munich Exhibition Catalogue

 

As a riposte to the German exhibition there was an exhibition of the 'degenerates' entitled '20th Century German Art' at New Burlington Galleries in London in 1938. The exhibition was to run from 8-30th July but due to its popularity it's run was extended twice until the 27th August. The Chairman of the Organising Committee was art critic Herbert Read and any funds raised were to go to distressed exiles. There were 270 exhibits representing 40 years of German art.

The exhibition catalogue introduction says that an exhibition has been planned for many years. Yet, events in Germany and the 'Entartete Kunst' made an exhibition a totally different event once it was held. The aim of the exhibition would be to educate the British public about the worth of modern German art but by 1938 the exhibition became politicised and it was more about showing the programmes of cultural desecration practised by the Nazi regime and supporting the artists who had stood against Nazism for many years. Artists exhibited included Beckmann, Klee, Hofer, Kirchner, Kokoshka, Klobe, Marc, Barlach, Kollwitz and Mueller.

Images of the London Exhibition Catalogue and Pelican Special published to coincide with the exhibition. The author is described as a very well known art critic who for special reasons was using the pseudonym of Peter Thoene (I cannot find information on who it really was). The introductions for both the catalogue and Pelican book was critic Herbert Read.

So from all of this I have been compiling lists of;

• Artists (in the aspects of; graphic arts, film, architecture, theatre etc.) that fled Germany, the date they left and their destination.
• Artists who remained in Germany but were subject to banning orders

• Artists who tried to flee but never made it

• Artists who were deemed degenerate and exhibited in Munich

• Authors whose books were burned by the Nazis in 1933
• Artists that made it to the UK

The lists read like a who's who of the important figures in the modern art movement. Many were politically active and stood actively against the Nazi regime. Yet others were held to be complicit because their art was deemed out of line with Nazi sensibilities. The dates of emigration are not accidental as 1933 was the date of Hitler's accession of power.

• Artists (in the aspects of; graphic arts, film, architecture, theatre etc.) that fled Germany, the date they left and their destination. 

Jankel Adler, 1933, Paris, Poland, then UK

Herbert Bayer, 1938, USA

Max Beckmann, 1937, Netherlands & USA

Rudolf Belling, 1937, Turkey

Bertold Brecht, 1933, Denmark, then USA

Heinrich Campendock, 1933, Netherlands

Walter Gropius, 1934, UK, then USA

George Grosz, 1933, USA

Raoul Hausmann, 1933, later to France

John Heartfield, 1933, Czechoslovakia, UK, then USA

Wieland Herzfelde, 1933, later to USA

Richard Hulsenbeck, 1936, USA

Fritz Lang, 1933, then USA

Ludwig Meidner, 1939, UK

Erich Mendelsohn, 1933, Netherlands, then UK, then USA

Mies van de Rohe, 1937, USA

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, 1934, Netherlands, then UK, then USA

Willi Muenzenberg, 1933, Paris

Erwin Piscator, 1931 to USSR, 1936 to Paris and then to USA

Max Reinhardt, 1938, USA

Hans Richter, 1933, Switzerland, then USA

Kurt Schwitters, 1935, Norway, then UK

Bruno Taut, 1932, USSR, Japan and then Turkey

Thomas Theoder Heine, 1933, Sweden

Ernst Toller, 1933, UK, then USA

Jan Tschichold, 1933, Switzerland

Kurt Weill, 1933, France, then USA

• Artists who remained in Germany but were subject to banning orders - 

Ernst Barlach, banned from exhibiting in 1937

Willi Baumeister, dismissed from teaching at Frankfurt in 1933

Otto Dix, dismissed from Dresden Academy in 1933 and banned from exhibition in 1934.

Hannah Hoch, banned in 1935

Kath Kollwitz, dismissed from Prussian Academy in 1933 and banned in 1936

Emil Nolde, banned from activity in art in 1936

Max Pechstein, banned from activity in art in 1936

Hans Poelzig, dismissed from Berlin Academy in 1933

Oscar Schlemmer, dismissed from teaching, 1933

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, banned from activity in art in 1941

• Artists who tried to flee but never made it -

Otto Freundlich, died in the Lublin-Maidanek concentration camp after being captured trying to escape occupied France

• Artists who were deemed degenerate and exhibited in Munich -

A - Jankel Adler

 

B - Ernst Barlach, Rudolf Bauer, Philipp Bauknecht, Otto Baum, Willi Baumeister, Herbert Bayer, Max Beckmann, Rudolf Belling, Paul Bindel, Theo Brun, Max Burchartz, Fritz Burger-Muhlfeld

 

C - Paul Camenisch, Heinrich Campendonk, Karl Caspar, Maria-Caspar-Filser, Pol Cassel, Marc Chagall, Lovis, Corinth

 

D - Heinrich Davringhausen, Walter Dexel, Johannes Diesner, Otto Dix, Hans Christoph Drexel, Johannes Driesch, Heinrich Eberhard, Max Ernst, hans Feibusch, Lyonel Feininger, Conrad Felixmuller, Otto Freundlich, Xaver Fuhr

 

G - Ludwig Gies, Werner Gilles, Otto Gleichmann, Rudolph Grossman, George Grosz. Hans Grundig

 

H - Richard Haizmann, Raoul Hausmann, Guido Herbert, Erich Heckel, Wilhelm Heckrott, Jacoba van Heemskerck, Hans Siebert von Heister, Oswald Herzog, Werner Heuser, Heinrich Hoerle, Karl Hofer, Eugen Hoffman

 

I - Johannes Itten

 

J - Alexej von Jawlensky, Eric Johanson

 

K - Hans Jurgen Kallmann, Wassily Kandinsky, Hans Katz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Cesar Klein, Paul Kleinschmidt, Oskar Kokoschka

 

L - Otto Lange, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, El Lissitzky, Oskar Luthy

 

M - Franz Marc, Gerhard Marcks, Ewald Matare, Ludwig Meidner, Jean Metzinger, Constantin von Mitschke-Collande, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Margarethe Moll, Oskar Moll, Johannes Molzahn, Piet Mondrian, Georg Muche, Otto Mueller

 

N - Erich Nagel, Heinrich Nauen, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Karel Niestrath, Emil Nolde

 

P - Otto Pankok, Max Pechstein, Max Peiffer Watenphul, Hans Purrmann

 

R - Max Rauh, Hans Richter, Emy Roder, Christian Rohlfs

 

S - Edwin Scharff, Oskar Schlemmer, Rudolf Schlichter, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Werner Scholz, Lothar Schreyer, Otto Schubert, Kurt Schwitters, Lasar Segall, Friedrich Skade, Friedrich Stuckenberg

 

T - Paul Thalheimer, Johannes Tietz, Arnold Topp

 

V - Karl Volker, Christoph Voll

 

W - William Wauer, Gert Wollheim

 

(List of those exhibited in 1937 is taken from book 'Degenerate Art, The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany')

• Authors whose books were burned by the Nazis in 1933 -

A - Alfred Adler, Max Adler, Viktor Adler, Peter Altenberg, Martin Andersen-Nexö, Frank Arnau, Schalom Asch, Raoul Auernheimer

 

B - Julius Bab, Bela Balazs, Theodor Balk, Henri Barbusse, Otto Bauer, Vicki Baum, Johannes Becher, Walter Benjamin, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Richard Arnold Bermann, Hugo Bettauer, Otto Julius Bierbaum, Franz Blei, Ernst Bloch, Josef Bornstein, Felix Braun, Julius Braunthal, Bertolt Brecht, Willi Bredel, Fritz Brügel, Ferdinand Bruckner, Hermann Broch, Max Brod, Martin Buber

C - Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, Franz Theodor Csokor

D - Carl Dallago, Alfred Döblin, John Dos Passos

E - Kasimir Edschmid, Albert Ehrenstein, Albert Einstein, Carl Einstein

F - Sandor Ferenczi, Lion Feuchtwanger, Ernst Fischer, Marieluise Fleisser, Hans Flesch-Brunningen, Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster, Oskar Maurus Fontana, Bruno Frank, Leonhard Frank, Anna Freud, Sigmund Freud, Alex Moritz Frey, Egon Friedell, Solomon Friedländer

G - Andre Gide, Jean Giraudoux, Claire Goll, Yvan Goll, Oskar Maria Graf, Stefan Grossmann, George Grosz, Karl Grünberg, Emil Julius Gumbel

H - Willy Haas, Hans Habe, Irene Harand, Maximilian Harden, Jakob Haringer, Jaroslav Hasek, Walter Hasenclever, Raul Hausmann, Julius Hay, John Heartfield, Werner Hegemann, Thomas Theodor Heine, Max Herrmann-Neisse, Wieland Herzfelde, Franz Hessel, Kurt Hiller, Magnus Hirschfeld, Odön Horvath, Richard Huelsenbeck

J - Hans Henny Jahnn, Oskar Jellinek, Franz Jung

K - Franz Kafka, Georg Kaiser, Mascha Kaleko, Alfred Kantorowicz, Erich Kästner, Gina Kaus, Karl Kautsky, Bernhard Kellermann, Hans Kelsen, Alfred Kerr, Hermann Kesten, Irmgard Keun, Egon Erwin Kisch, Klabund, Arthur Koestler, Oskar Kokoschka, Annette Kolb, Alma Johanna König, Paul Kornfeld, Siegfried Kracauer, Theodor Kramer, Karl Kraus, Max Krell, Alfred Kubin, Adam Kuckhoff, Anton Kuh

 

L - Else Lasker-Schüler, Otto Leichter, Rudolf Leonhard, Theodor Lessing, Sinclair Lewis, Mechtilde Lichnowsky, Ernst Lothar, Prinz Huburtus zu Löwenstein, Emil Ludwig, Josef Luitpold, Georg Lukacs, Rosa Luxemburg

M - Andre Malraux, Heinrich Mann, Klaus Mann, Thomas Mann, Hans Marchwitz, Ludwig Marcuse, Karl Marx, Franz Mehring, Walter Mehring, Julius Meier-Graefe, Peter de Mendelssohn, Gustav Meyrink, Karin Michaelis, Erich Mühsam, Robert Musil

N - Hans Natonek, Alfred Neumann, Robert Neumann, Otto Neurath

O - Balder Olden, Rudolf Olden, Max Osborn, Carl von Ossietzky, Karl Otten, Ernst Ottwalt

P - Hertha Pauli, Franz Pfemfert, Oskar Pfister, Kurt Pinthus, Erwin Piscator, Theodor Pleivier, Heinz Pol, Alfred Polgar, Adelheid Popp

R - Walther Rathenau, Fritz Reck-Malleczewen, Erik Reger, Gustav Regler, Wilhelm Reich, Theodor Reik, Erich Maria Remarque, Ludwig Renn, Karl Renner, Emil Alphons Rheinhardt, Joachim Ringelnatz, Roda Roda, Joseph Roth

S - Alexander Sacher-Masoch, Nelly Sachs, Hans Sahl, Felix Salten, Willi Schaber, Rene Schickele, Willi Schlamm, Arthur Schnitzler, Ernst Schönwiese, Kurt Schuschnigg, Anna Seghers, Walter Serner, Carlo Sforza, Ignazzio Silone, Hugo Sonnenschein, Jura Soyfer, Otto Soyka, Wilhelm Speyer, Hilde Spiel, Paul Stefan, Rudolf Steiner, Carl Sternheim, Bertha Suttner, Emil Szittya

T - Adrienne Thomas, Ernst Toller, Friedrich Torberg, B. Traven, Siegfried Trebitsch, Leo Trotzki, Karl Tschuppik, Kurt Tucholsky

U - Bobo Uhse, Fritz von Unruh

V - Berthold Viertel

W - Jakob Wassermann, Armin T. Wegner, Erich Weinert, Ernst Weiss, Guenther Weissenborn, Franz Carl Weiskopf, Franz Werfel, Fritz Wittels, Friedrich Wolf, Theodor Wolff, Karl Wolfskehl

Z - Paul Zech, Heinrich Zille, Otto Zoff, Carl Zuckmayer, Hermynia zur Mühlen, Arnold Zweig, Stefan Zweig

 

(List compiled by Sheryl Oring and taken from http://www.writers-block.org/authors.html)

• Artists that made it to the UK

Jankel Adler was released from the Polish army in 1941 and moved to Glasgow. There he joined the New Art Club and exhibited. In the fall of 1942 he moved to Kirkcudbright briefly joining an artists' colony. In early 1943 he moved to London dying there in 1949.

Walter Gropius fled to England in 1933 and remained there until 1937 when he emigrated to the USA.

John Heartfield fled from Prague in December 1938 and landed in England. He took up friend's lodgings in Hampstead where many other German refugees were located. In January-February 1939 he participated in the Living Art in England exhibition at the London Gallery. Also, his previous work was published in the magazines 'Lilliput' and 'Picture Post'. He participated in the Freier Deutscher Kulturbund (Free German League of Culture) where he did some graphic work. Yet, in the Autumn he was interned as an enemy and spent time at the Lutton, Huyton and York internment camps. In December he had an exhibition 'One Man's War against Hitler' at the Arcade Gallery in London. Between 1941 and 1950 he designed book jackets and illustrations for the London publisher Lindsay Drummond and later for Penguin Books. In the war years he was also an active member of the Artists International Association contributing to its exhibitions. For more see Bibliographical Notes on 'John Heartfield and The Free German League of Culture in Great Britain: the work of the German and Austrian Refugee Groups in Britain' from the Working Class Movement Library in Salford, England - http://www.wcml.org.uk/holdings/ww2biblio.htm#johnh

Josef Herman, fled from Poland in 1938 and via Belguim, ended up in Glasgow in 1940. He stayed here for 4 years renewing his friendship with Jankel Adler. In 1944 he moved to Wales, stayed for 11 years and then onto to England where he died in 2000.

Oskar Kokoschka fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 and settled in England. He was active in emigre associations including the Free German League of Culture where he was made President in 1943. In 1947 he became a British citizen but moved on again to Switzerland where he eventually died.

Ludwig Meidner, fled Germany for England in 1939 where he was interned on the Isle of Man until 1941. He was living in London after this struggling to make a living but moved back to Germany in 1952.

17/05/06

Russian Journals from 1905 Revolution

After reading the book 'Blood & Laughter, Caricatures from the 1905 Revolution (David King & Cathy Porter, Jonathan Cape, 1983)', I was amazed at the names of the many journals that appeared during these times. The authors estimated that there were some 380 plus journals registered with the censor, many more that did not register, other ephemeral 'one-dailies' and many others produced in the outer provinces. The art is some of the most grotesque satire I have seen, as good as L'Assiette Au Beurre and with even more skeletons and blood! The Russian names (in red) are very expressive and I think I will nick some for myself -

Payats - Clowns; Leshii - Woodgoblin: Voron - Raven; Maski - Masks; Bureval - Stromwind; Ovod - Gadfly; Zarnitsy - Summer Lightning; Adskaya Pochta - Hellpost; Krasny Smekh - Red Laughter; Zarevo - Dawn; K Svetu - Towards The Light; Sprut - Octopus; Burya - Storm; Burelom - Storm Wood; Kosa - Scythe; Zhurnal Zhurnalov - Journal of Journals; Gvold - Nail; Mefistofel - Mephistopheles; NA Rasputi - At The Crossroads; Nagaechka - Whip; Pchela - Bee; Pulemet - Machine Gun; Strely - Arrows; Satiricheskoe Obozrenie - Satirical Review; Signaly - Signals; Strana Mechty - Lands of Dreams; Devyata Val - The Ninth Wave; Volshebny Fonar - Magic Lantern; ZA Zhizn - For Life; Zhupel - Bugbear; Znamya - Flag

22/04/06

Definitions of Outside Art

From the Raw Vision magazine site some definitions of Outsider Art, Neuve Invention, Art Brut, Folk Art, Marginal Art, Visionary Art, Naive Art and Visionary environments. http://www.rawvision.com/outsiderart/whatisoa.html

I think my images qualify with these definitions. No training, outside the fine art 'system' (even against it) and not in line with artistic developments. Well I can always hope anyway.....

22/04/06

'Lanark' storyboards

Check this out from the site of author/artist Alasdair Gray: http://www.alasdairgray.co.uk/Lanark/a.htm

These are parts of a screenplay and storyboards created for a proposed film of the book 'Lanark from 1983. The project was never realised but very interesting.

02/02/06

Muslim Cartoon Row

This has been all over the news. This is how the BBC is reporting it http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4673908.stm

In the name of free speech a Dutch MP has put all 12 cartoons on his site;

http://www.geertwilders.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=381&Itemid=74

This is the one causing most trouble apparently so in the name of free speech and solidarity with the European papers I present it to.

31/01/06

Little League Rebellion site launched

A comrade in 'The Regressive Collective' has launched his mini-site. If you weren't aware of the use of recorders, latin and middle english in music, you will after checking this out! Featuring regressive-rock rather than progressive-rock -

http://www.myspace.com/littleleaguerebellion

30/12/05

Sharmanka Exhibition

The Kinetic Theatre that is Sharmanka is exhibiting in Edinburgh and what a treat it is. This is the best exhibition (or should that be show?) I have seen in ages. I have seen the Millennium Clock before and bought a couple of pamphlets about the Gallery - and the expectations I had about the work were completely realised. The Gallery themselves say;

"Hundreds of carved figures and pieces of old scrap perform an incredible choreography to haunting music and synchronised light, telling the funny and tragic stories of the human spirit of the human spirit as it struggles against the relentless circles of life and death".

Sharmanka was founded by sculptor-mechanic Eduard Bersudsky and theatre director Tatyana Jakovskaya. They have been based in Glasgow since 1996 after leaving Russia. The exhibits show the hard life in Russia under Communist rule and all are tinged with sadness and a dark humour. Very eastern European in spirit.

Now showing at the National Museum of Scotland and then touring Scotland. Can also be seen at their home in King Street/Trongate, Glasgow. (Website link on my 'Activist' pages).

New Gerald Scarfe book out

Scarfe has a new book out 'Scarfe, Drawing Blood, forty-five years of Scarfe uncensored' and is his most comprehensive life work to date. Huge book and copious colour illustrations. (Website link to Scarfe site on my 'Activist' pages).

W.A.N.K. Awards, numbers 1 & 2

The We Are Not Kultur or 'WANK' awards are given to those who have shown there is no beginning to their talents.

(1) Tracey Emin. The darling of Britart and just as vacuous as it ever was. More self promotion than anything else and an ideal representation of our celebrity obsessed age, who judge somebody laying themselves bare better than actual talent. Now showing in the Independent newspaper every week.

(2) Timothy Clifford (The Danny Le Rue of the Scottish Arts World). His leaving exhibition – ‘CHOICE, 21 YEARS OF COLLECTING’ is now on. And what a breathtaking pile of choice shite. I like art with political/social commentary and this is more fire-guard than avant-garde. Lots of classical tarts to keep the establishment happy. And bought for the nation as well, well thanks a bunch, this is just what we need. Now showing at the National Galleries.

more to come....I may even do a top 10 at some point in the future.