Modern British Artists

Writing 'The Inscriptions of Ralph Beyer' - by John Neilson

Posted on 11 January 2021

... I slowly became aware of Ralph Beyer’s carved lettering, and came to see that although his letterforms had little to do with conventional notions of correctness, there was a quality about his inscriptions which set them apart from simply mediocre work and made them extremely interesting. Writing this book has, in part at least, been an attempt to pin down – or at least discuss – what that quality might be.

Tags: Basil Spence, Coventry Cathedral, Edward Johnston, Eric Gill, Humphrey Stone, John Howard, John Neilson, Letter Carving, Ralph Beyer, Tablets of the Word, Tom Perkins,

Introducing: Building Bad by Jonathan Ochshorn

Posted on 08 January 2021

Building Bad by Jonathan Ochshorn is a lively and compelling discussion of how architects need to be made more aware of key technical, social and business issues, in order to understand the constraints they face in designing better buildings for society as a whole. The book examines whether regulation is effective in creating safe, secure and healthy buildings and whether the focus on 'fashionable' architecture detracts from creating buildings which fulfil their role sustainably, safely and for the good of the users.

Tags: Architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, Building Bad, Design, Design Blog,

Creative Legacies: Interview with Fred Noyes

Posted on 06 December 2020

Kathy Battista and Bryan Faller, editors of the recently published book, Creative Legacies, talk to Fred Noyes, Principal of Frederick Noyes Architects and son of the architect Eliot Noyes, about Noyes' New Canaan house and the challenges of preserving an architectural legacy.

Tags: Architecture, Artist Estates, Creative Legacies, Eliot Noyes, Estates and Legacies, Fred Noyes, In Conversation, Preservation,

Provenance Research Today - by Arthur Tompkins

Posted on 04 December 2020

Provenance Research Today: Principles, Practice, Problems, the new Lund Humphries book edited by Judge Arthur Tompkins and launched at the International Catalogue Raisonné Association's Annual Conference - 'Provenance and the Catalogue Raisonné', on 3rd December - brings together essays from a wide variety of contributors from many different disciplines - art and art history, law, archaeology, anthropology, criminology, forensic science, and others.

In this blog, Judge Arthur Tompkins reflects on the wide-ranging expertise brought together in this publication, and the true complexity of provenance research:

Architectural Tourism by Shelley Hornstein

Posted on 20 November 2020

Around the world, architecture is a magnetic draw for tourists of all stripes. Since the era of pre-industrial religious pilgrimages, architecture has beckoned travellers. Religious and historic sights, or contemporary buildings designed by ‘star’ architects demonstrate that architecture has always been undeniably tied to our cultural and architectural heritage, our collective identity and perhaps above all, to the tourist industry. Think about what we remember about a city and why. Landmark buildings such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris by Gustave Eiffel or the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain by Frank Gehry, mark their place and leave an indelible memory for tourists. When we think of a place we’ve travelled to see, we usually think of the buildings or sites that linger in our memory.

Tags: Architectural Photography, Architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, Commercial Architecture, Contemporary Architecture, Cultural Heritage, history of architecture, Site-Seeing, Starchitect, Theory of Architecture, Tourism, Travel,

Into the Light: The Art and Architecture of Lauretta Vinciarelli : In Conversation with Rebecca Siefert

Posted on 29 October 2020

Going back to the title of the book, it seems to me that Vinciarelli’s work is united by light, both literally and as a metaphor – from the courtyard typology and pergolas, to the luminous watercolours, it always comes back to bringing in light. Vinciarelli once made a connection between some of her watercolour paintings and the 'Annunciation' scene from the Bible, and how light penetrates the protected space of the Virgin, who is in an enclosed garden (the 'hortus conclusus'); the hortus conclusus, in turn, had influenced Vinciarelli’s designs of gardens. So as diverse and varied as her work might appear, it is all connected, and it always comes back to the light.

Tags: Architecture, Architecture and Drawing, Architecture Blog, architecture book, Columbia University, Donald Judd, history of architecture, Italian architecture, Lauretta Vinciarelli, Minimalist Architecture, Modern Architecture, Modernist architecture, Museum of Modern Art New York, New York, watercolour,

The Architectural Association in the Postwar Years - by Patrick Zamarian

Posted on 24 October 2020

The heightened reputation of the AA in the second half of the 1950s owed much to the fact that it provided a home for the vanguard of British architecture, notably Peter Smithson and John Killick, at just the moment when, through their activities in CIAM and the agency of Architectural Design, they were thrust into the international limelight.

Tags: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, architect, Architectural Association, Architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, brutalist architect, brutalist architecture, Modern Architecture, Modernism, Modernist architecture, Post-War, RIBA, RIBA Journal, Second World War,

Reflections on 1 FINSBURY AVENUE - by Kenneth Powell

Posted on 16 October 2020

1 Finsbury Avenue, vacated by its long-term tenant, has been reborn as a building for a new-style City of London. AHMM’s refurbishment project, the outcome of a fruitful collaboration with English Heritage, has stripped the building back to its bare bones, with column encasements and ceiling panels stripped away to reveal the austere dignity of Foggo’s architecture – an aesthetic in tune with the tastes of a new breed of tenants. 1 Finsbury Avenue is a building that looks forward to a changing City of London, a place where creative industries work alongside bankers and restaurants and bars operate seven days a week.

Tags: 1 Finsbury Avenue, AHMM, architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, Arup, Broadgate, City of London, Contemporary Architecture, listed buildings, London, Office Architecture, redevelopment, The Architectural Review,

Behind the Scenes at the Museum with Dinah Casson

Posted on 15 October 2020

To mark the BBC's #MuseumPassion campaign and the recent announcement of the Art Fund's Museum of the Year winners, we go 'behind the scenes at the museum' with Dinah Casson as she reflects on the challenges faced by museums and the future of exhibitions, post-Covid-19...

Tags: #MuseumPassion, Behind the Scenes, Closed on Mondays, Dinah Casson, Exhibition Design, Exhibitions, Framing, Future of Museums, Museum Architecture, Museum Curation, Museum Design, Museum of the Year, Museum Week, Museums, Towner Eastbourne,

Provocations: The Work of David Connor

Posted on 10 October 2020

David Connor is a British interior and architectural designer, who in the early 1980s was one of a few pioneers who changed perceptions of what design could be. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Connor began his career as an interior designer before branching out into architecture. His clients and collaborators include Vivienne Westwood, Anish Kapoor, Malcolm McLaren, Adam Ant, Janet Street Porter, Marco Pirroni and Leyton House, amongst others.

Tags: Architecture, Architecture and Drawing, David Connor, Design, Designing Interiors, Drew Plunkett, interior design,

Building Brands : In Conversation with Grace Ong Yan

Posted on 09 October 2020

Good branding makes emotional and experiential connections with its audiences. In Building Brands, I build upon this truth of contemporary branding practice by expanding it to the three-dimensional discipline of architecture. We don’t often think of having emotions towards buildings and spaces, but just like hearing an old familiar song will bring back specific memories, certain places, buildings, and spaces elicit strong emotions from their inhabitants. My intention of bringing the architects’ and designers’ point of view to branding practice is to enrich branding as three-dimensional and spatial.

Tags: 1950s, 1960s, American Architecture, architect, Architectural Photography, Architecture, Architecture Blog, Brand Identity, Building Brands, Commercial Architecture, corporate design, Design, Design Blog, design classics, Frank Lloyd Wright, history of architecture, Modernist architecture, Pietro Belluschi, PSFS, Rohm & Haas,

Photography of Protest and Community : In Conversation with Noni Stacey

Posted on 05 October 2020

In the 1970s the work and photographs that came out of these collectives constituted a sustained political challenge. Today, there is much talk of social and cultural challenge – yet this is an anodyne and in many ways amorphous space. The collectives were immersed in the political events of the day – around equality in terms of gender, race, work and housing. The exhibitions and publications that came out of the collectives bristled with political data, sociological analysis and evoked and emulated the protests of the Civil Rights Movement, the protests on American involvement in the Vietnam War and the Women’s Liberation Movement.

Tags: Community, In Conversation, Noni Stacey, Photography, Photography Collectives, Political Photography, Protest, Social Engagement, Social Movements,

Quiet Architecture: In Conversation with Rabih Hage

Posted on 02 October 2020

My vision and advice to architects and designers today is to go back the schematic of social exchange of the high streets and the traditional village markets, creating new hubs, decentralising the city, and unmaking the shopping malls, refusing to create bedroom quarters for workers and shortening the commute between family, social life, work, and economic centres.

Basically, we architects and designers must work with politicians, towards a reversal of the rural exodus the industrial age created 150 years ago and decentralise the city.

Tags: adaptive reuse, Architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, Contemporary Architecture, Dominic Bradbury, interior design, Modern Architecture, Quiet Architecture, Rabih Hage,

Conran + Partners: A Way of Living – In Conversation with Tim Bowder-Ridger

Posted on 30 September 2020

Whilst “Conran” represents the ethos of the practice, the “partners” are the human manifestation of that ethos. Architecture and interior design are inherently collaborative disciplines, and the partners therefore spend much of their time meeting with their design teams, clients, and colleagues in the industry, generating discussion and mentoring or workshopping the complex creative and delivery processes involved in making spaces and buildings. Often this is done through sketch books, butter-paper rolls and 2B pencils, and involves fluidity of thought and communication… which is so vital in ensuring the central spirit of a project is not lost in the complexity of the details or different layers of the brief.

Tags: A Way of Living, Architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, Conran and Partners, Contemporary Architecture, Dominic Bradbury, London Architecture, Modern Architecture, Terence Conran,

Richard Seifert: British Brutalist Architect : In Conversation with Dominic Bradbury

Posted on 25 September 2020

Jonathan Meades called Seifert ‘the most wrongly reviled architect of the half century’ and I would agree with that. There was a lot of negative press around Seifert and his work even when he was at the height of his powers and success. It’s taken time, or history, to see a very gradual reassessment of the work, the architect and his practice. The key buildings are gradually being listed and many are finding a new lease of life. It’s really interesting that other architects tend to be the most positive about Seifert’s work, while other commentators get too caught up with who commissioned a particular building and how it was used.

Tags: Architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, brutalist architect, brutalist architecture, Centre Point Tower, Conran and Partners, Dominic Bradbury, King's Reach Tower, London Architecture, Richard Seifert, Seifert and Partners, South Bank, Space House,

Cullinan Studio: Reconnecting with Nature - by Roddy Langmuir

Posted on 24 September 2020

Now, at a time when there is a mass re-awakening towards the urgency of addressing climate change, it is as though we have been practicing for this moment. The need for a broader interpretation of sustainable design, and the need to reconnect people with the natural world through the buildings we design is in our blood – it’s our DNA. The last paradigm shift in architecture was brought to us through the soul-searching quests of the great modernists. Brilliant and flawed, it has led to our shared architectural language – and we all design within this frame of reference. Now we are entering another period of transformation, centered on how we all respond to the challenges of climate change.

Tags: Architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, Biodiversity, Building for the future, Climate Action, Climate Change, Contemporary Architecture, Cullinan Studio, Natural Materials, organic architecture,

Reflections on 'Underground Cities: New Frontiers in Urban Living' - by Pamela Johnston

Posted on 21 September 2020

... Constructed underground spaces used to be hermetically sealed, sterile environments. Now there is the possibility of setting up a connection with nature, incorporating the elements of living vegetation, light, water, air. Equally, they can revel in their own distinct ‘subterranean’ atmosphere, chiming with James Turrell’s assertion that ‘we’re made for the light of a cave, and for twilight … When we dim the light down, and the pupil opens, feeling comes out of the eye like touch’. Either way, these new kinds of underground space are not built around utility, but are people-centred, allowing for an expansion of the inhabitable realm of the city.

Tags: Architecture, Architecture Blog, Contemporary Architecture, Modern Architecture, Underground Architecture, Underground Cities,

Winifred Knights : The Deluge - by Sacha Llewellyn

Posted on 21 September 2020

2020 marks the centenary of Winifred Knights becoming the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome with her epic The Deluge (Tate). Winning the prize against three much older male artists was a transformative experience for the 21-year old Knights, who gained instant fame for the breathtaking originality of her style. ‘Girl Artist Remodels the Flood!’ blasted the front-page headline of the Daily Graphic, who described the painting ‘as an example of anarchy in art, original, tragic, and inspiring and something distinctly new and compelling in its treatment of a great theme’.

Below follows an extract from Sacha Llewellyn's 'Winifred Knights (1899-1947)':

Tags: 20th Century Art, 20th Century Painting, British art, British painters, Celebrating Women Artists, figurative art, figurative painting, Prix de Rome, Religious Art, Sacha Llewellyn, Winifred Knights, Women Artists, Women Painters,

Creative Legacies : The Changing Landscape of Artists' Estates - by Kathy Battista and Bryan Faller

Posted on 17 September 2020

Creative Legacies is OUT TODAY!
Beyond simply offering advice for effective legacy management, the book seeks a nuanced investigation of specific topics relevant to artists' legacy... What is an artist’s legacy? Should artists' estates be maintained in perpetuity or permitted to sunset? How do younger artists engage with estate planning today? What are the new and emerging strategies for documenting and making artists' estates accessible?
Below is a teaser extract from the book's introduction to pique your curiosity further...

Tags: Artists' Estates, contemporary art, contemporary artists, Creative Legacies, Estate Management, modern art, Sotheby's,

Happy Birthday George Fullard! - by Michael Bird

Posted on 15 September 2020

George Fullard would have turned ninety-seven today. I don’t know what he’d be working on now – a monument to Boris Johnson, maybe, constructed from U-shaped sewage pipes. Because I imagine the humour and anger and inventiveness of the younger Fullard still burning bright. I know these qualities well, because for the best part of a year, between May 2015 and the spring of 2016, I lived with Fullard. At least, that was how it felt. Fullard himself wasn’t actually physically present – he’d died of a heart attack on Christmas Day 1973, aged fifty. But, if there was no body in the room, there was plenty of evidence.

Tags: 20th Century Sculpture, British Sculptors, British Sculptors and Sculpture, British Sculpture, George Fullard, Michael Bird, Modern British Sculpture, sculpture,

The Art of Richard Eurich : In Conversation with Philippa Bambach and Caroline Martin

Posted on 03 September 2020

To coincide with the much anticipated release of The Art of Richard Eurich by Andrew Lambirth, Philippa Bambach and Caroline Martin talk to Meris Ryan-Goff about their memories of their father Richard Eurich's life and art. [...]

My first memory of Dad’s studio was the “white hut” in the garden, a wooden shed with wide window on one side, and a steep step up into it. He worked here until the 50s, when...

Tags: Andrew Lambirth, figurative painting, landscape painting, Modern British Art, Modern British Artists, painting, Richard Eurich, The Art of Richard Eurich, War Artist,

Re-Issue Re-Imagine Re-Make : Bert Loeschner’s Re-interpretations of the Fibreglass Rocking Chair by Charles and Ray Eames - by Elisabeth Darby

Posted on 01 September 2020

Icons of twentieth century furniture occupy a prominent position in the contemporary interior and design landscape. Although often conceived decades ago, many have remained in production, while others are brought back into the marketplace on a regular basis. Several of these iconic works have also been the subject of re-interpretation by designers, artists and other creatives. These re-imaginings constitute a notable aspect of design practice in the new millennium, just as appropriation and remix are integral themes in contemporary art.

Tags: Bert Loeschner, Charles and Ray Eames, Charles Eames, Contemporary Design, Furniture Design, interior design, Lis Darby, Monobloc, Ray Eames, Re-Issue Re-Imagine Re-Make,

The Art Collector's Handbook : Considerations Before You Click: Buying Artwork Online - by Mary Rozell

Posted on 31 August 2020

When it comes to viewing art, the digital experience is no substitute for seeing a work in person. Buying art online nonetheless had become an appealing option for many collectors over the last several years due to the convenience it offers as well as the greater transparency and accessibility to the market. Millennial collectors have demonstrated a robust appetite for online art buying, and higher priced sales have increased as technology evolves and greater trust is established.

Tags: Acquiring Art, Art Business, Auctions, Collecting Art, Mary Rozell, The Art Collector's Handbook, UBS Art Collection,

CONTEMPORARY PAINTERS : Stanley Whitney

Posted on 26 August 2020

Matthew Jeffrey Abrams does something in this book that’s harder than it sounds: he talks about Stanley Whitney’s paintings in the only way they can be talked about – by way of attentive and prolonged looking.

Tags: Barry Schwabsky, Colorist, Colourist, contemporary art, Contemporary painters, Contemporary Painters series, contemporary painting, Lisson Gallery New York, Matthew J Abrams, No To Prison Life, painting, Stanley Whitney,

Unconscious. Three Arts & Crafts Architects Who Broke The Rules - by Alec Hamilton

Posted on 22 August 2020

Because while trying to set out the rules is all very well, it is the churches that break them that are the most instructive. Let us consider the work of three architects who were not members of the AWG or the ACES, and who never subscribed to any of those ideas, or went to the meetings, or even mixed with the people. But who nonetheless designed churches which it is both meaningful and, more importantly, helpful, to see as Arts & Crafts churches.

Tags: Alec Hamilton, Architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, Arts and crafts, Arts and Crafts Churches, Charles Ponting, Church Architecture, Churches,

Frederick Walker and the Idyllists

Posted on 20 August 2020

Frederick Walker and the Idyllists by Donato Esposito, published by Lund Humphries in 2017, is the first book in over a century to explore the work of watercolour artist and illustrator Frederick...

Tags: Frederick Walker, Idyllists, Sir John Everett Millais, Victorian Art,

Space Framed : In Conversation with Hugh Campbell

Posted on 19 August 2020

...I think sometimes photographs can confirm something for you about a building or an architect’s work. I’m thinking of Phillipe Ruault’s photographing of Lacaton Vassal’s work, particularly the Palais de Tokyo. Those rich, populated pictures record the building, but also reveal the attitude of its makers, towards the fabric and the culture they were hoping to engender and sustain...

Tags: Abelardo Morell, Adreas Gursky, Alec Soth, Architectural Photography, Architecture, Camera Obscura, Helen Levitt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, John Szarkowski, New York, Paris, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Photography, Rinko Kawauchi, Space Framed, Thomas Struth, Walker Evans, Walter Niedermayr,

The Museum Curator’s Guide : The Value of Research in Museums - by Nicola Pickering

Posted on 14 August 2020

Curatorial research must be at the heart of the museum, not carried out in isolation, but integrated with the museum’s public outputs and its long-term development. Research should not be seen as a luxury addition to the activity of the museum, but instead part of its core work, informing (and being informed by) the plans and priorities of the museum for which it is conducted. A commitment to creating opportunities for research in a wide range of disciplines can only enhance the museum’s strength as a relevant and active institution. Managing an active research programme, supporting staff research plans, and providing staff with time and resources to continue their research activities and develop their expertise are vital to this.

Tags: Collections Research, curation, museology, Museum Curation, museums, Research in Museums, The Museum Curator's Guide,

Post-Pandemic Planning : Re-Claiming Space for Children

Posted on 10 August 2020

Andrea Cook, co-author of Children and Planning from our Concise Guides to Planning series, considers the post-pandemic situation for children in the built environment and how planners can ensure that...

Tags: Children and Planning, Concise Guides to Planning, Covid-19, Grenfell Tower, pandemic planning, Planning, Planning Theory, UN,

CONTEMPORARY PAINTERS Artist Interview : Jim Shaw

Posted on 05 August 2020

Every time I look through the amount of work I’ve produced, which in digitally accessible form is mostly since 2006, I realize what an insane person I’ve been. If I could afford to take a few years off, it might do me some good, but on some level, I must feel that I have to be productive and ‘perfect’ in order to be worthy. Sad.

Tags: Artist interview, artist monographs, artists monograph, contemporary art, Contemporary painters, Contemporary Painters series, contemporary painting, figurative art, figurative painting, In Conversation, Jim Shaw, Modern American art, painting, political art,

Travels in the Backlist : Lund Humphries and Wales - by Nigel Farrow

Posted on 01 August 2020

The thick impasto style of Kyffin Williams’ paintings could not be more different from the subtle transparencies of Jones’ watercolours: layers of paint applied with a palette knife to sculpt the mass of the great mountains of the Ogden Valley - Snowdon, Glyder Fach, Glyder Fawr and Tryfan. But perhaps the inspiration comes from the same Celtic origins. ‘It is in Wales that I can paint with the greatest freedom’ Williams said.

Tags: An Organic Architecture, Arts and crafts, Arts and Crafts Churches, David Jones, Frank Lloyd Wright, John Piper, Johnston & Gill, Kyffin Williams, Nigel Farrow, Oil on canvas, Pastoral, Peter Prendergast, The Art of David Jones, The Art of Peter Prendergast, Travels in the Backlist, Virtual Travel, Wales, Watercolour, Welsh Art, Welsh Landscape,

Creating Henry Moore: The Story of the First Lund Humphries Artist Monograph - by Lucy Myers

Posted on 30 July 2020

In late 1944, while Britain was still at war and paper rationing was in force, Lund Humphries published a large-format, luxuriously produced, beautifully designed monograph on Henry Moore’s sculpture and drawings. In a review a few months later in the Burlington Magazine, Nikolaus Pevsner described it as ‘more ambitious and more complete than any brought out in England for a very long time on the work of one individual sculptor’ and ‘a great achievement of British publishing after five years of shortages and controls’. Patrick Heron in an interview many years later described it as the book which ‘created Henry Moore’.

Tags: An Organic Architecture, Art, Art Book Publishers, Art Book Publishing, artist monographs, artists monograph, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Bradford, British art, British Modernism, catalogue raisonne, Eric Humphries, Frank Lloyd Wright, Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore, Henry Moore Foundation, Kauffer, Lund Humphries, Modern British Art, Modern British Sculpture, Modernism, Peter Gregory, sculpture, Tschichold, Yorkshire,

Mad about the Boy : The Enduring Popularity of Eric Ravilious - by Alan Powers

Posted on 22 July 2020

At the Royal College of Art, Eric Ravilious’s friends nicknamed him ‘The Boy’. His death at 39 in 1942 meant that he never needed to grow old, and Enid Marx wrote that he had a sort of Papageno air to him – like the bird-catcher in The Magic Flute who is at once sympathetic and a little supernatural.

Tags: Alan Powers, artist monographs, Edward Ardizzone, Eric Ravilious, Eric Ravilious Artist and Designer; Sotheran's, graphic design, Lithography, Ravilious,

Design for the Corporate World : Claiming Room for Creativity - by Wim de Wit

Posted on 16 July 2020

...it was Bernard S. Benson, a British-American inventor and engineer working in the aviation industry, who refocused the debate on what was undoubtedly a core issue for the conferees when he observed, “The dilemma of the designer these days is ‘How can I have my cake and eat it?’ Though he may not want to admit it, he is really saying to himself ‘Do I want to be honest but broke, or do I want to prostitute myself and be loaded?’” With these stark sentences, he verbalized a dilemma that had been taking shape for years in the worlds of industrial and graphic design, but that had never been expressed so bluntly by speakers or participants at the IDCA – even if it was constantly on their minds.

Tags: Architecture, Architecture Blog, Charles and Ray Eames, corporate design, Design, Design Blog, Design for the Corporate World, Eero Saarinen, Eliot Noyes, IDCA, Lund Humphries, mid-century modern,

Arts & Crafts Churches : Madness in the Marches - by Alec Hamilton

Posted on 11 July 2020

Architectural historians tend to see Brockhampton as a work of original, cerebral genius. They admire its boldness and daring: ‘the architecture of adventure’ in Lethaby’s own phrase. Pevsner wrote about it wonderingly in ‘Lethaby’s Last’, Architectural Review 130, 1961, pp 354-7. But it is a rather strange church. Though fun-loving and welcoming externally, with its smorgasbord of fenestration, once one goes inside, it seems to express something which is not especially religious, let alone Christian. It is idiosyncratic to an almost excessive degree.

Tags: Alec Hamilton, Architectural Review, Arts and crafts, Arts and Crafts Churches, Brockhampton, Churches, Cotswolds, Gimson, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Hoarwithy, Kempley, Lethaby, Sedding, Shropshire, The Marches,

Writing ‘The Architecture of Peter Rich: Conversations with Africa’ - by Jonathan Noble

Posted on 08 July 2020

It was important to experience the architecture, taking time to wander, to observe, to sketch and jot down those sudden surges of imagination, and to look for the captivating moments that might illuminate the text. It was a remarkable five year long journey, in which I learnt and grew as an author, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share this book.

Tags: African Architecture, architect, Architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, Contemporary African Art, Conversations with Africa, Jonathan Noble, Peter Rich, South Africa, South African Architecture,

Travels in the Backlist : Lund Humphries and Scotland - by Nigel Farrow

Posted on 04 July 2020

For the world of the arts, the cancellation of this summer’s Edinburgh Festival is one of the many regrettable consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigel Farrow, chairman of Lund Humphries, seeks some consolation in recalling the arts and the artists that originated in Scotland and her beautiful capital city and have been published under the Lund Humphries imprint.

Tags: Alan Davie, Barbara Rae, Designing for Heritage, Edinburgh, Eduardo Paolozzi, Elizabeth Blackadder, Glasgow School of Art, Joan Eardley, Jock McFadyen, John Byrne, Lund Humphries, Margaret Mellis, Modern British Art, National Gallery of Scotland, Philip Reeves, Royal Scottish Academy, Scotland's Shrine, Scottish art, The Scottish National War Memorial, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham,

Reflections on the CONTEMPORARY PAINTERS SERIES - by Barry Schwabsky

Posted on 03 July 2020

It’s very rare for art critics to have the opportunity to stretch out and write at length about a single artist’s work. [....] No one else is asking you to dig into an oeuvre as deeply as you can—as you have to—when you write a text of 15,000 to 20,000 words like the ones we have in the Contemporary Painters Series, and this presents the writer with very different challenges and rewards.

Tags: Barry Schwabsky, contemporary, contemporary art, Contemporary Painters series, contemporary painting, Ding Yi, Gillian Carnegie, Katharina Grosse, Lois Dodd, series overview, Thomas Nozkowski,

CONTEMPORARY PAINTERS : Step Right Up: The Katharina Grosse Carnival - by Gregory Volk

Posted on 02 July 2020

I recall being interested in Katharina Grosse’s vibrant paintings (some of them near-monochromes) and entirely wowed by her. She radiated vigour and commitment, quest and integrity. She was humorous, joyful, very smart, and brimming with ideas, and it was easy to recognise that she was living, not just making, her work —thinking and feeling through colour and paint. We quickly became friends and have remained so.

Tags: Carnival, carnivalesque, contemporary art, Contemporary Painters series, contemporary painting, German Art, Installation Art, Katharina Grosse, large scale painting, modern art, multimedia, painting,

CONTEMPORARY PAINTERS Artist Interview : Gillian Carnegie

Posted on 21 June 2020

"In contemporary painting Gillian Carnegie's work stands apart, quietly, calmly and insistently uncanny, with an emotional tenor unlike anything else in art today."

Artist Gillian Carnegie takes a pause from work in the studio to talk to Meris Ryan-Goff about the process of preparing for, and creating the Contemporary Painters Series monograph on her paintings...

Tags: artist monographs, Barry Schwabsky, British painters, contemporary art, Contemporary British Art, Contemporary Painters series, contemporary painting, Gillian Carnegie, painter, painting,

CONTEMPORARY PAINTERS Author Interview : David Rhodes on Bernard Frize

Posted on 19 June 2020

I was very curious about how free these beautiful paintings were, even though they were clearly based in some kind of system of randomness. It appeared to be just this approach that allowed the paintings to remain open rather than to become constricted. His paintings were unapologetically paintings: there was no excising of colour that might have implied that they were a placebo, that they were only painting as a conceptual project (as was not so uncommon at the time).

Tags: Bernard Frize, contemporary art, Contemporary Painters series, contemporary painting, french art, painter, Pompidou Centre,

Rebel Modernists : In Conversation with Liane Lefaivre

Posted on 15 June 2020

In our latest ‘In Conversation’ piece, Liane Lefaivre, author of Rebel Modernists: Viennese Architecture Since Otto Wagner, talks to Meris Ryan-Goff about the architectural rebels who redefined Viennese architecture and shaped a city that...

Tags: Architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, Bau, Everything is Architecture, Hans Hollein, Jugendstil, Liane Lefaivre, Modernism, Modernist architecture, Otto Wagner, Rebel Modernists, Richard Neutra, Social Housing, Stadtbahn, Vienna, Viennese architecture, Wittgenstein,

Inside the National Museum of Qatar: Encountering Beauty

Posted on 11 June 2020

The National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ) opened on the 27^th March 2019 in Doha, Qatar. The now famous building designed by Jean Nouvel and inspired by the desert rose crystalline formation found in Qatar’s deserts belongs to the spectacular architecture trend led by architects such as Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid. This trend blossomed during the first two decades of the twenty-first century in particular in China and the Arabian Gulf, as discussed in my book, The Global Spectacular: Contemporary Museum Architecture in China and the Arabian Peninsula (Lund Humphries 2018).

Tags: Architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, Contemporary Museum Architecture, Curation, Encountering Beauty, Exhibitions, Jean Nouvel, Museum Architecture, Museums, National Museum of Qatar, The Global Spectacular,

Why Plan? Making Sense of Planning for a Post-pandemic Era

Posted on 05 June 2020

Authors Graham Haughton and Iain White consider the importance of planning in a post-pandemic world. They outline the failures and successes of recent planning decisions - as highlighted by Covid-19...

Tags: Concise Guides to Planning, Covid-19, Planning, Planning Theory, Why Plan?,

The Power of an Image - by John Pardey

Posted on 03 June 2020

The journey that led to my book began nearly five years ago on yet another trip to visit one of the most celebrated houses of the last one hundred years; this time it was ‘Fallingwater’, on PA Route 381 out of Pittsburgh in the States. Although I knew the house inside out and must have read nearly everything printed about it, as an architect I know that only actually experiencing a building allows you to really understand it – to feel it.

Tags: 20/20, Architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright, Great houses, Photography,

Dorothea Tanning : In Conversation with Victoria Carruthers

Posted on 31 May 2020

In our latest 'In Conversation' article, Victoria Carruthers - author of Dorothea Tanning: Transformations - talks to Meris Ryan-Goff about Tanning’s life and art, key works and ‘Transformations' in Tanning's career, and her...

Tags: Art, Dorothea Tanning, Lund Humphries, painting, Surrealism, Transformations, Victoria Carruthers,

Barbara Hepworth and the St Ives Story

Posted on 19 May 2020

On the occasion of the 45^th anniversary of Barbara Hepworth’s death, Lund Humphries Managing Director, Lucy Myers, reflects on the life and art of a pioneering artist and her unique connection to a location which was to shape the history of Modern British Art.

Tags: Art Book Publishing, Barbara Hepworth, Barbara Hepworth Carving and Drawings, Barbara Hepworth The Plasters, British art, history of Lund Humphries, Lund Humphries, Modern British Art, sculpture, St Ives,

Edward Burra's Dark Side : The Danse Macabre

Posted on 17 May 2020

As part of our focus on Surrealist artists this month, we are sharing an extract from Simon Martin's monograph on Edward Burra.

This important book represents the first full-scale monograph on Edward Burra, positioning the artist - who has been somewhat neglected by histories of modern art because his singular vision was often at odd with the mainstream art world - as a major figure in the history of 20th-century art.

Tags: Art Blog, artist monographs, Book Extract, British art, Edward Burra, Lund Humphries, Modern British Art, Pallant House, Simon Martin, Surrealism,

Museum Week 2020

Posted on 15 May 2020

Supporting Museums and Galleries is more important than ever during these difficult times... so for MUSEUM WEEK 2020 we have curated a collection of 10 of the best online museum exhibitions, resources and ‘events’ for you to enjoy from home!

Tags: british library, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Hepworth Wakefield, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, Museum Publications, Museum Week, Museum Week 2020, Pallant House Chichester, Recommendations, Schirn Kunsthalle, Stanford University, Top 10, UK Galleries, V&A, Watts Gallery,

Ruskin's Venice: The Stones Revisited... Under Quarantine

Posted on 13 May 2020

What might Ruskin have thought of Venice today? He held strong views about the kind of destructive restorations he had witnessed in the mid-nineteenth century, and his meeting in Venice in 1877 with the young Count Alvise Piero Zorzi led to their close collaboration on Zorzi’s planned publication: a damning account of the works undertaken on the north and south façades of the Basilica of San Marco, and a forceful protest against the plans scheduled for the west front. Ruskin took part with enthusiasm, writing a long preface to Zorzi’s pamphlet, and undertaking to pay the publication costs.

Tags: Architecture, Architecture Blog, architecture book, art history, Covid-19, John Ruskin, Restoration, Ruskin, Ruskin's Venice, Venice Biennale,

A blog dedicated to Modern British Art from Lund Humphries, the leading publisher of books on the subject.

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