Windows on the world (396)

Blackwell, 2015

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Olivier Messiaen - Éclairs sur l'au-delà...

Windows on the world (395)

Blackwell, 2015

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Van Morrison - Song Of A Child.

Windows on the world (368)

Windemere, 2015

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Jimi Hendrix - The Wind Cries Mary.

Stevens, de Waal, Stofer, Baldwin, Britton, Rena & Adams

Blackwell, the Arts & Crafts House, currently has two under-stated but wonderful exhibitions of ceramics. Ideas of Order takes a poem by Wallace Stevens’ poem as its starting point in order to juxtapose ‘ideas of order’ in ceramic works by Edmund de Waal and Hans Stofer, while Gordon Baldwin, Alison Britton and Nicholas Rena grapple with ideas of form and function in Traditions of Use:

"‘I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.’

American poet Wallace Stevens’ Anecdote of the Jar begins with an act of deliberate placement which creates new order. ‘Placed’ and out-of-place in the wilderness, the jar of the title domesticates wilderness into a surrounding. Taking Stevens’ poem as its starting point, this display juxtaposes ‘ideas of order’ in ceramic works by makers Edmund de Waal and Hans Stofer.

English novelist AS Byatt recognised affinities between Stevens and Edmund de Waal: ‘The pots give me the same joy Stevens gives me, of recognising the human making of Balzac’s “things”, what Stevens also calls a “blessed rage for order”’. De Waal’s delicate groups of vessels and the cultivated disorder of Stofer’s bowls evoke and question ideas of aesthetic, domestic and social order - and the hierarchies of value that underpin them. The conversation between pieces is shadowed by Blackwell’s history as a house where domestic order and routine labour were inextricable."

Traditions of Use "showcases the work of three leading British ceramic artists who all grapple with ideas of form and function within the wider debate of where contemporary craft stands in today’s art world.

Breaking with the tradition that in ceramics form is all that matters, Gordon Baldwin creates what he terms ‘vessels’ which challenge the concepts of ‘fine art’ and ‘craft.’ So too does renowned ceramicist, writer and critic, Alison Britton, who looks at the connections and disjunctions with ceramic history, painting and sculpture. Nicholas Rena’s sculptural ceramics engage with ideas of containment and emptiness while alluding ‘to traditions of use that are almost lost.’"

The Lakeland Arts Trust also shows work at Blackwell, including earthenware by sculptor and poet Anna Adams, wife of the painter Norman Adams. Lakeland Arts is one of the most significant arts and heritage organisations in the North of England with a national and international reputation for the quality of its historic buildings, museum and gallery collections and programming. It has a diverse portfolio of attractions: Blackwell, Abbot Hall Art Gallery and the Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry in Kendal and the new Windermere Jetty in Bowness.

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Wallace Stevens - The Idea Of Order.

The Lake District: Windemere

A short break in the Lake District began at Broadoaks Country House Hotel 'where the sound of rushing water from the nearby river on its way to Windermere' gives way to the 'secluded, warm and inviting' interior where there are 'ingle nook fireplaces and period furniture.' The hotel is traditionally constructed from Lake District stone and slate with a 'sweeping driveway' and 'seven acres of landscaped grounds' with views across to Windermere and the Langdale Pikes.

'Bowness-on-Windermere is a sprawling tourist town on the shore of Windermere, about halfway along the 12 mile length of the lake between Waterhead at the North end, and Lakeside at the South end. It developed after the opening of the railway line from Oxenholme and Kendal to Windermere in 1847. Bowness was the nearest accessible point on the lake. Now Cumbria’s most popular destination, the town is busy for much of the year. People come to enjoy the lake for sailing and watersports, or just to relax and enjoy the atmosphere of the area and the town’s delightful setting.'

'Situated in the very heart of Bowness on Windermere, the Royal Oak, a small family run Inn, is literally a stones throw from the Bowness bay piers, Lake Windermere and only a few minutes walk from the many traditional craft and gift shops.'

'When the architect MH Baillie Scott built a holiday home overlooking Windermere for his client Sir Edward Holt he created Blackwell, a masterpiece of twentieth-century design; a perfect example of the Arts & Crafts Movement.' Baillie Scott said, “On crossing this threshhold, we pass into a charmed territory where everything shall be in harmony.”

'Blackwell retains many of its original decorative features, including a rare hessian wall-hanging in the Dining Room, leaf-shaped door handles, curious window catches, spectacular plasterwork, stained glass and carved wooden panelling by Simpsons of Kendal. The rooms contain furniture and objects by many of the leading Arts & Crafts designers and studios - metalwork by WAS Benson, ceramics by Pilkingtons and Ruskin Pottery and furniture by Morris & Co., Stanley Webb Davies, Ernest Gimson and Baillie Scott himself.

Recent acquisitions of furniture by Baillie Scott are on display, including an oak and ebony inlaid barrel chair with slatted sides, sideboard and a set of dining chairs. Blackwell offers more than most historic houses with several rooms displaying historical exhibitions that explore different aspects of the Arts & Crafts Movement.'

Work by John Ruskin, Eric Gill and Paul Cezanne can also be seen.

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Christina Rossetti - When I Am Dead, My Dearest.

Grigor Narekatsi

The latest ArtWay meditation concerns a piece by Dutch artist Hanneke de Munck, who scraped out a piece of driftwood to make a primitive field shrine to which she tied the sculpture of a young desperate girl, cut from purple wood from South America. The poem by which the work was inspired is part of the Book of Lamentations written by Grigor Narekatsi, a 10th-century Armenian monk.

Saint Gregory of Narek (Grigor Narekatsi, c. 945-1005) was son of the learned bishop Khosrov Andzevatsi and most renowned pupil of the Narek School. The first great Armenian poet, Narekatsi skilfully united the finest achievements of his country's hymnography. Adopting a liberal approach to Armenian folk and bardic styles, Narekatsi ascended to the intellectual and artistic level of the foremost Byzantine, Persian and Arab literary movements of his day and with deep emotional intensity and fiery imagination, he added new aspects to Armenian poetry. He opened up new horizons for Armenian culture through his 'Book of Lamentations'. In the 'Book of Lamentations' Narekatsi is filled with a sorrow embracing the whole universe and conducts a heavenly discussion with the supreme Self. In his poems he has his feet firmly on the ground and directs his gaze towards the world around him, radiating wonder and ecstasy at the sight of the natural beauty of his native land, as in the hymn for the Transfiguration:

'The gem-rose bloomed with brilliance
From the radiance of the sun.
While high above that splendour
Floated the flower of the seas.'

As a musician Narekatsi gave a tremendous stimulus to medieval Armenian hymnography, imparting it with new life and soul. His words have since inspired at least one other musical masterpiece; Alfred Schnittke's Choir Concerto is a setting of words from 'The Book of Lamentations' written in 1984/5 and scored for very large choir. 

Here is another of Narekatsi's poems:

The Christ Child

The lips of the Christ-child are like two twin leaves;

They let roses fall when he smiles tenderly.

The tears of the Christ-child are pearls when he grieves;

The eyes of the Christ-child are deep as the sea.

Like pomegranate grains are the dimples he hath,

And clustering lilies spring up in his path.

Translated from the Armenian by Alice Stone Blackwell (1857-1950)

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Alfred Schnittke - Choir Concerto.