Knausgaard 'School of Night'

 The School of Night by Karl Ove Knausgaard.  2025

 

 

I really like Knausgaard’s writing - the simple way it flows, the inclusion of all sorts of cultural references, the surprises in the plots, the introspection and the convincing detail. Not the lack of chapters.

This one is all about a narcissistic man, who deceives himself and  behaves badly.
It’s hard to believe that in the undescribed gap of 20 years he has found a woman who agreed to marry him and have a child.
I believed that he feels close to his little boy and also that he simultaneously and dangerously wants some distance from him.
He lacks insight and foresight but has somehow found great success in life.

As the protagonist, Kristian, is a photography student there is a lot included about this medium and his progress with it.
Along the way  there are many references to Christopher Marlowe and to Faust and a sense of karma.
He meets a strange character called Hans who I expected to lure him into something evil but it’s more complicated  and inexplicable than that.

We do not find out why Kristian is the way he is, alienated from his family, unempathic  towards  the women he meets, old fashioned in his stereotyped views.
It’s unusual for an author  to try to inhabit such an unpleasant character but despite disliking  Kristian I still wanted to read on and find out what fate had in store for him.
It’s shocking to be alongside him, realising how little one knows what others are really thinking.

Like Mephistopheles the author gives and takes away and we the readers, having entrusted hours to the story, are held willynilly in its grasp until we emerge battered by fate.

Wild Thing - a life of Gauguin by Sue Prideaux

 ‘Wild Thing - a life of Paul Gauguin'  by Sue Prideaux, 2024

 

 

Another book on Gauguin, this time covering his whole life and evidently using extensive new research.
It’s also vividly written - a page turner of art history- and has a lot of illustrations.
Sue Prideaux is good at evoking the era and context in which Gauguin lived - whether the decadence of modernised Paris or the colonial impositions on Tahitian culture.

She brings her own insights, such as how Gauguin admired Manet’s ‘Olympe’ and shocked the art world in Paris with his South Seas versions of female nudes and black versions of Christian stories which the Pope had declared forbidden blasphemy.

I hadn’t realised that a stock market crash left stockbroker Gauguin needing to find and fail at other jobs, or that he long wanted to be reconciled with Mette his wife and their children and that he was faithful to her for a long time and unlike Van Gogh did not visit brothels.

It was also a long time before Gauguin became a success as a painter. However Theo Van Gogh, so strangely unable to sell Vincent’s pictures, sold one of Gauguin’s for 300 Francs 1988, which my googling tells me would be £3,000 in today’s money.

It seems his wife Mette was a prominent entertainer of avant garde friends in Denmark. Also Gauguin had a circle of cultural friends in Paris such as Strindberg, and at that time there was great interest in Norway and in symbolism.

The author emphasizes Gauguin’s support of women's rights and his lack of racism and  his practical helping of Polynesian folk against the inequities of colonial rule. He was very interested in the  culture of the islands, where French missionaries were in conflict with a very different attitude to sexual conduct. Gauguin was provided by his local neighbours with offers of their young daughters, with several of whom he formed relationships and had children. The age of consent was both in France and in her colonies only 13
It’s rather a confused picture Prideaux gives where native cannibalism and infanticide  is hinted at and for all the talk of freedom there was an expectation that young women would be sexually available to much older men they scarcely knew, whilst at the same time they were able to leave them and unmarried pregnancy and abortion were accepted.
Gauguin had a lot of health problems, some stemming from injuries during a fight in France, but was not syphylitic - three teeth found of his after he died having been extensively examined by scientists.

Prideaux writes carefully about Gauguin’s art, getting the reader to look again at long known paintings such as one of women on a bench which was in my classroom at my girls’ grammar school in the sixties but turns out to be of prostitutes.

 

Gauguin frequently clashed with the French authorities, wrote articles for a satirical political magazine  and was arrested at the end of his life for libelling an official. He was by now much wealthier and had had built a house he entitled ‘The house of pleasure.’ 

 Gauguin evolved from devoted family man and establishment member however rebellious  at heart to being the wild man in the tropical jungle with a string of pubescent lovers. A great story with the topical problem of predatory male figure in a society that allowed this, and with subject matter he made his own - of a sort of mythic shangrila in which he lived an all too difficult life living on tinned food and sending out his colourful visions of life in a distant place to sell in the western art market. 

Penlee House, Penzance Jan21-April 16 'Through the Lens' and 'Face to Face'

 Penlee House   Harry Paul ‘Through the Lens.’ & ‘Face to Face: Portraits from Penlee’s Collection.’
Jan 21 -  April 16 2026

These two shows contrasting one man’s photography with portraits by many artists make me think of many questions about the two forms of art.
I started with the paintings - some of whose creators will have referred to photographs. Portraits take time and skill, often conversation takes place between artist and sitter. They may have informative backgrounds. Some are of named people whereas others have titles denying them even a name. One of the newest acquisitions, by Leonard Fuller, of a young woman, looking as fresh as if it was done yesterday rather than in 1930, is entitled ‘The Silver Jacket’.

 

 

 Another is called, ‘An old Jew’, by Opie, 1779, but thought to be of Rabbi Abraham Hart. Another is ‘Maroon and Gold’ by Ruth Simpson.
Walter Langley uses his picture of Grace Kelynack, an old lady,1883, to bring us a poetic title that makes us think, ‘Time moveth not, our being ‘tis that moves’ from a verse by Henry Kirke White.
Most controversial is Dod Proctor’s naked adolescent girl, displayed alarmingly as if for sale and labelled ‘little sister’, 1933. Presumably this was not objected to then in a different era, although even on grounds of being severely badly proportioned it might have been criticised. It’s rather an embarrassing shock within the show.

We can learn much about the social history of the times from both the paintings and the black and white photos of Harry Paul, 1914-1957. 

 Some of the equipment used is displayed. I overheard visitors exclaiming as they found  images of people they knew.
Here the spontaneity of quickly taken photos, which can catch a moment of interaction, maybe a smile, shows the new medium off well. 

 

Compare a stiffly posed painted  ‘’woman mending nets’ by Ralph Todd, probably 1920’s, with the 1950’s photograph of net mending -   Philip Paynter of St Ives. However Fred Millard not only paints a finely observed woman threading a needle, 1885, but combines this with the philosophical title, ‘The thread of life runs smooth as yet’. Maybe he used a camera to help him catch the detail, then probably needing to use his eye to record the colours.

So we see here that although no one asks if art is photography, photography is surely an art.

Emilija Skarnulyte at Tate St Ives December 6, 2025 - April 12 2026

 

Emilija Skarnulyte {pronounced Scorn you Lee two} is the new artist 

at Tate St Ives

 until April 12 2026.
She is from Lithuania but has been working from a Porthmeor studio in St Ives recently.

 

 

 

The first room of her show has a video on a large screen of her blind grandmother slowly feeling around the bases of some enormous Soviet era statues which are in a park near her home. The soundtrack is of soft sounds and the ceiling is hung with aromatic herbs from Lithuania.
I sat on the bench to watch it and found it rather beautiful and thought provoking. The poem about blind men feeling an elephant and each reporting it to be something different came to mind.
The woman’s blindness was probably caused by nuclear fallout from Chernobyl. On her radio she listens to an old fable about a fisherman and a princess.

The larger gallery has some glass objects and a two sided video made in Cornwall which features the ancient stone men- an- tol.
However, these are insignificant within the huge installation of four curved screens and the back wall, on which are showing enormous projections of all sorts of images from nature. The sound is often a low sort of overwhelming roaring and there is very little seating unless you fetch a chair from the side or bag one of a few provided upholstered loungers at one end. 

 

 

I felt concerned for the staff confined in semi darkness with this booming in their ears, but was assured by a very helpful and knowledgeable young woman that they only spend an hour at a time in there.

There are four curved screens but all show the same thing.

I found it all as domineering as the soviet statues.

It also struck me as a good idea for a discotech - reminding me of the 60’s when people were stoned and moving shapes from oil trapped inside slides were moving on the walls. 
I watched as visitors seemingly bemused gave it all a few minutes of their time.

Reeling from the immersion, I staggered out gladly into daylight and the marvellous rushing waves on Porthmeor beach just opposite the gallery.

So, the first part I understood, it felt thought out and meaningful.

The second part was an unpleasant experience and not entirely clear  - the uncontrollable forces of nature versus the insignificance of humanity?

 

 

I include the artist's statement and gallery note.

 

Rambert Dance, Hall for Cornwall Oct 31st 2025

 Rambert Dancers performed ‘Bring your own’ in collaboration with (LA)HORDE at Hall for Cornwall, Truro October 31st 2025

 

 

 

Drawing I made during the first part of the show-in the dark. 

Rambert have been changing. They used to present very beautiful abstract works, lots of dancers in skintight colourful costumes, often performing in unison with impressive skill. 
The skill, commitment and unison moves are still there but the mood has changed.

In the first piece, ‘Hop(e)storm.’ Women threw themselves at men, who dragged them back to be left at a distance. This was repeated for about five minutes, followed by the couples instead dancing in wildly exaggerated Lindy hop inspired ways, to mostly strange electronic noises. Some of it was humerous, all of it energetic.

This was followed by ‘Weather is sweet’ . The relevance  of the title was unclear. Dancers interacted in ways suggesting sexual contact, although later in the question session we were told the bottom pushing down to the floor  movements were inspired by basket ball. It was very inventive and rather puzzling with circus elements, a savage playground of lots of yanking of bodies, jittery, masturbatory  gestures and no feeling - like an automated fury of sex. The sound was unpleasant electronic noises but mercifully not too loud.

Lastly after the interval we saw ‘Room with a view’. Not at all a reference to EM Forster or Noel Coward. In this a varied crowd of dancers moved with increasing frenzied  unpleasantness, running in circles, gesturing rudely at the audience, shouting and ending up looking like a group of medieval flagellants.
I found it a tedious overload of exhausting menace and despair. 

The audience were very appreciative of it all. The screamers and whoopers were in. I couldn’t see anyone else refraining from applause in protest at being trapped as the focus of abusive angry outpouring. Turning the house lights on briefly emphasized the assault. Maybe the applause was just admiration for the dancers‘ stamina or identification with alienated rage?.
To be sure it was very competently done.

The Q and a session was mildly interesting but no critical questions were asked  - my waving hand was not selected. It was admitted that the response at all venues  was not always so supportive. In Cornwall we don’t get much post modern dance to see and hear so maybe anything however agonised is welcome drama.

I wished the online reviews had been more informative of the ordeal offered. 
I will consider carefully if I want to attend next year - Rambert have removed themselves from the aesthetically pleasing with a vengeance with this programme.

Talking Posh

Talking Posh 

 

  

from bbc 'The Frost Report' 1966 sketch on class. 

 Recently I found out that two artists I came into contact with years ago were not as I thought from a different class from my own working class origins.

The first is Julian Spalding, who was on the same BA course as me at Nottingham University in the 60’s although he started  the year before.. He was an eloquent and passionate speaker who involved himself in our minor revolution on the fine art/ art history course when Hornsey students came to politicise us and we demanded to learn about art beyond Europe and America and to reinstate a student who was suspended. We succeeded in the latter but were told staff could not expand the scope of the art history as they  did not know about it themselves. The course was unusual and short lived as a collaboration between the University out on a campus and the Art School in town.
Julian went on to be the director of Glasgow Art Gallery and wrote several books, in which he shows an individual taste in art and distaste for establishment views on what is good and what is discarded from the canon of modern and post modern art.

Only recently I found out  his admission that he grew up on a council estate in London and made a conscious decision to change his accent to the classless ‘ Received Pronunciation’and thereby more classy bbc English that probably aided his success in life.

My father had the foresight to recommend this course of action to me and offered me elocution classes but I for political reasons of loyalty kept my Derby accent and took lessons in singing instead, leaving these when exhorted to use a long a and to sound operatic.

 The other man was Victor Burgin, who loitered looking pale and interesting with a wild head of dark curls in our life studio. I thought  he was a moody student but he turned out to be one of tutors, albeit avoiding interacting with us. He was a little older and already engaged in conceptual art although he never told us anything of it. I found out then that his art included taking a photo of a parquet floor and attaching it to the floor over the spot of which it was a photo.
 I don’t remember him speaking at all, only that he had a relationship with a young woman  student at the art school, something that was common for tutors to do at the time, and that she was featured in a national newspaper as an artist and also had an abortion. I don’t know if the relationship with Burgin was a factor in these two events.

Victoria Burgin went on to academic life in America and to carry on photographic work as a high status theoretical artist. You can see and hear him being learned and interesting on YouTube. Unlike Spalding, Burgin speaks in a very slow flat tone devoid of excitement. (Strangely he pronounces ‘semiotics’ and ‘Brechtian’’ in not the accepted ways.) He  is part of the post modern art world, successful although not very famous, making art with leftwing political and feminist awareness. His accent is again classless bbc, fooling me into thinking his origin very different from my. own. 
Now I find he grew up in the shadow of a steel foundry in Sheffield and had experience of manual labour. He mentions working at Nottingham but not the life class part.

Of course the  sixties was actually the era when working class people were able to get a university education with the aid of government grants because of the Labour Wilson government system of grants. Actors were suddenly able to use their regional accents.
The Beatles were clearly from Liverpool.  

 I find these two men used a clever strategy of hiding their working class origins - in the loose sense of working class to mean the bottom sector of a three rung society, not the Marxist sense of those that work for others, not owning the means of production.
I wonder if they can still talk not posh?

I must add both Julian and Victor are clearly very clever and accomplished and interesting .

I wonder how much these differences of accent still matter, how much advantage  ‘ bbc English’  gives, with its assumption of being well educated and well heeled?
 How much this sort of thing applies outside UK?

Liliane Lijn at Tate St Ives June 2025

 Liliane Lijn ‘Arise Alive’ Tate St Ives, 2025 May 23rd to November 2nd.

Liliane Lijn’s work fills the new gallery at Tate St.Ives, making a dramatic expression of her long life as an artist and she was there at the private view.
How great indeed to see a woman artist celebrated whilst still alive.

In the 60’s she began using technology to make kinetic work using acrylic and light and her  ‘Liquid Reflections’ which is viewed in a dark room is fascinating to watch as pairs of  spheres move about on circular platforms, occasionally bumping into each other or the rim with a soft sound and casting ever changing shadows and reflections.
This was made in 1968 and as a student I saw it in Nottingham. I even made my own circular platform with moving spheres afterwards. Mine was  plywood, mounted on bed springs so that it hovered if touched, and my many spheres were polystyrene coloured pink blue or a mixture of both. Mine was symbolic of people bumping into each other, a product of the excitement of being at college studying art and suddenly meeting lots of people. This makes me wonder if Lijn’s symbolises the meeting of two people.

Some ideas are in the air of an era. I find Yoko Ono exhibited one clear sphere on a plinth in 1964, with a conceptual label - ‘Pointedness 1964, first realised 1966. Crystal sphere, acrylic pedestal. Engraved: POINTEDNESS YOKO ONO 1964 / THIS SPHERE WILL BE A SHARP POINT WHEN IT GETS TO THE FAR CORNERS OF THE ROOM IN YOUR MIND”
Ono characteristically says a lot with a ‘less is more’ wit, contrasting with Lijn’s use of motors and technology.

Lijn also used prisms and I remember in 1971 being sent out to Tottenham Court Rd whilst studying to be an art teacher at London University ‘s institute of education to buy some, as many others must have done. 

Of course Tate as usual present an artist in a solo show with no context which is why I note that ideas are often widespread - but Lijn was able to seize the moment and made remarkable work with them.

Lijn comes from a wealthy family, met important people in the art world - surrealists in Paris, and she married Takis a wealthy successful Greek artist so  she was able to devote herself to art, even sending her son  away to be looked after by her separated parents in turn.
Her love life was rather turbulent until she met her current husband.

Alongside the cool quiet work there are paintings and sculptures that are linked to psychology, to archetypal figures of woman. 
Here Lijn uses colour and expressive marks to convey strong feelings. Her ‘ Good Mother, Bad Mother’  reminded me of Kokoschka in their swirling application of colour.
The two large sculptures, ‘Woman of War and Lady of the Wild Things’  that perform together on the hour using light, sound - sung by Lijn -  and spouts of steam - carry on the theme of woman as having strength, sometimes frightening, sometimes wild but welcoming.

The show is on until November and there is a lavishly illustrated book to accompany it plus Lijn’s memoir ‘Liquid Reflections’ which is an easily flowing candid account of her life.

Unfortunately Tate have discontinued the helpful booklets that used to inform and be a  memento of shows, but as photos are allowed you can make your own selection  of images and wall captions and also you may attend the talks that are given where your questions can be answered.

Lijn’s show is wonderfully varied and is likely to remain in the memory of visitors as a unique event as well as confirming her place in the canon of art history,