Between: italy

Showing posts with label italy. Show all posts

Wednesday, 2 July 2025

ArtWay: Painting the Life of Christ – an interview with Francis Hoyland

My latest interview for ArtWay is with Francis Hoyland, whose work was recently exhibited at Chappel Galleries.

'I had the experience of rethinking my whole language of painting as a result of a travelling scholarship to Italy. I had been trained in the Euston Road approach to painting, which I came to find limiting, and the Italian paintings I saw enabled me to find a way of painting from imagination. I realised, too, that it is not good to be absolutely cut and dried about technique.'

'I was teetering on the edge of faith when I went to Italy on a travelling scholarship – I had my 21st birthday in Assisi – and rethought my whole language of painting as a result of that trip.'

For more on Francis Hoyland see my Church Times review of his recent exhibition at Chappel Galleries here.

My other writing for ArtWay can be found at https://www.artway.eu/authors/jonathan-evens. This includes church reports, interviews, reviews and visual meditations.

ArtWay.eu has been hailed "a jewel in the crown of work in Christianity and the arts," and having come under the custodianship of the Kirby Laing Centre, the much-loved publication has entered an exciting new chapter in its story following the launch of a new website in September 2024.

Since its founding, ArtWay has published a rich library of materials and resources for scholars, artists, art enthusiasts and congregations concerned about linking art and faith. Founded by Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker in 2009, ArtWay's significance is reflected in its designation as UNESCO digital heritage material in the Netherlands.

In 2018, I interviewed ArtWay founder Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker for Artlyst on the legacy of ArtWay itself.

In the video above, the ArtWay team recounts the history of this much-loved resource and looks ahead to an exciting future for ArtWay.

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David Ackles - Family Band.

Tuesday, 3 December 2024

Artlyst: Michelangelo Leonardo Raphael At The Royal Academy Review

My latest exhibition review for Artlyst is on Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c.1504, at the Royal Academy of Arts:

'Ultimately, from the ‘Taddei Tondo’ through the Sala del Gran Consiglio commissions, this is an exhibition of unfinished yet hugely influential works. The exhibition includes an edition of Cicero’s letters annotated by Agostino Vespucci, a Florentine man of letters and scribe. Vespucci is struck by Cicero’s description of how the painter Apelles fully finished the head of Venus but left the rest of her body roughed out. In his margin note, he states that Leonardo did the same in all his paintings.

While works in this period can be left unfinished for a whole host of pragmatic reasons, from political upheavals to lack of time through competing commissions and to flaws in materials or the untimely death of the artist, there does also seem to be an appreciation of the aesthetic beauty of the un- or partly finished work. Given the amount of time required for the detailed realism of these artists, as shown by the sketches, preparatory drawings, and cartoons here, it is no surprise that, combined with the other factors noted, they left much unfinished. It is a true sign of their genius that their unfinished works could also be among their most influential.'

For more of my writing on the art of the Renaissance see here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Interviews -

Monthly diary articles -

Articles/Reviews -

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Peteris Vasks - Prayer (Lord, Open Our Eyes).

Saturday, 21 September 2019

Church Times: Victoria Crowe review

My latest review for Church Times is of the Victoria Crowe exhibition at City Art Centre, Edinburgh:

'As a teenager, Victoria Crowe discovered a book on Giotto in the library of an Ursuline convent and was irresistibly drawn to early painting, icons, and Italy. As a mother, she responded to the untimely death from cancer of her son, Ben, by determining that, in the face of such loss, “all that was good and eternal and true must somehow be held on to and celebrated for Ben’s sake.”.'

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here.

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James MacMillan - Stabat Mater.

Saturday, 22 April 2017

Rupert Loydell: Dear Mary

Rupert Loydell read from 'Dear Mary' when he read at St Stephen Walbrook during 'Crucifixions: Francis Bacon'.

In 'Dear Mary' poet and painter Rupert Loydell writes about art and life and how they intersect. Fascinated by both renaissance and contemporary painting, he reinvents moments of annunciation in today's world, and revels in the colours and sunshine of Italy. This is a world of wonder and surprise, where aliens abduct the Virgin Mary, 20th century rock singers find themselves collaged together and singing about her, infinite greys (and grays) blur together between other greys, Francis Bacon paints angels, and even the weather forecast predicts the future.

Above all else, this is a book which celebrates language and art, and explores how we navigate the world around us, seen and unseen; how we might wonder, explain, and begin to understand.

“Artist and writer Rupert Loydell brings his accomplished eye, ear, and voice to this book of subtly crafted poems and prose. His loaded brush and carefully chosen words engage with luminous artworks and radiant landscape, and are also wrapped around a deeper mystery that invites, but ultimately defies description.” — Steve Scott

“Dear Mary is a thrilling love letter to the way in which meaning inheres in the world and the word. Light-drenched Tuscany is suffused with mysteriously overlaid greys; for Rupert Loydell, it is a place where everything is ‘trying to imply ascension’. Moments of transcendence occur even when ‘We didn’t get to see the angel.’” — Neil Philip

These pieces are 'flakes of reverence' or gaps for the numinous, gestures towards the missing tones and colours of angels, as Loydell meditates on these Italian icons, seeking whatever is outside the picture frame or beyond the truncated gestures.” — Martin Caseley

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Tracey Chapman - Open Arms.

Friday, 12 February 2016

Reviews - Giacomo Manzù: Sculptor and Draughtsman

The review of Giacomo Manzù: Sculptor and Draughtsman in The Tablet suggests that: "Most visitors barely notice the bronze relief of St Thérèse of Lisieux in the south transept of Westminster Cathedral, and few who stop in front of it would know the name of the artist. The cloaked young woman looking quietly over her shoulder is the work of Giacomo Manzù (1908-1991), an Italian sculptor who in 1950 won a competition to design a new door for St Peter’s."

Westminister Cathedral considers itself fortunate to have one of Manzù's "most sensitive works." The story of how the Cathedral came to have this work by an artist who is "regarded as among Italy’s greatest modern sculptors" is told in Oremus: "In response to the invitation by the Westminster Cathedral Art and Architecture Committee to Giacomo Manzu that he should produce a low relief bronze wall panel showing St Thérèse of Lisieux for the Cathedral, Manzu submitted a sketch in 1956. This was immediately approved and the commission awarded. Manzu then proceeded to design and produce the bronze in Italy with casting taking place in Milan. The cost was £680, which was defrayed by Miss Janet Howard as a memorial to her sister, Alice Lawrason Howard."

The exhibition at the Estorick Collection is a great opportunity, therefore, to see work by a neglected modern master. In my review of the exhibition for the Church Times I argue that: "Perhaps more than any other modern artist, Manzù experienced both sides of the debate within the Church in relation to modern art — a debate that has revolved around the extent to which the best artists of the day should be commissioned regardless of faith commitment."

Commissioning Manzù was an example of the policy advocated in France by Marie-Alain Couturier and Pie-Raymond Régamey and in Austria by Otto Mauer of seeking to revive Christian art by appealing to the independent masters of the time. Curtis Bill Pepper's An Artist and the Pope documented Manzu's sacred commissions and is a fascinating expose of the difficulties encountered, even at the very heart of the Roman Catholic Church and despite the significant support of Pope John XXIII, Don Giuseppe de Luca and Monsignor Loris Capovilla, in pursuing this policy.

Manzù and Pope John 'both came from Bergamo in Italy but there the affinity seemed to halt, for one was the beloved Pope John XXIII and the other was a Communist bereft of his religious faith was the famous sculptor Giacomo Manzù. Yet Pope John, discerning the man beyond the atheist, commissioned Manzù to make his portrait bust, and despite all the artist's misgivings, there developed between them a warm and deeply significant friendship which drove Manzù to achieve the remarkable bronze Doors of Death for St. Peter's in Rome - the first new doors for the cathedral for 500 years.'

The door 'has large modelled panels that depict the deaths of Mary and Christ, as well as lesser panels that show the deaths of saints and ordinary people. Vatican officials were wary of Manzù’s communist politics and criticized his refusal to temper his unflinching depiction of death and human suffering with a more spiritual theme. Particularly shocking was his depiction of a cardinal looking at a man being crucified up side-down, a reference to the execution of fascists after WWII.'

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Graham Parker - Hey Lord Don't Ask Me Questions.

Monday, 16 March 2015

Maurizio Galia, illustrator and musician

During commission4mission's Arts in Worship event on Saturday I had the opportunity to meet Italian artist, illustrator and musician, Maurizio Galia.

Born in Moncalieri (Turin) Italy on the 28th May 1963, Maurizio Galia studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, from 1978 until 1986, under the direction of Francesco Tabusso, Enzo Sciavolino and Sergio Saroni. From 1982 he worked for various agencies and specialized as visual designer and illustrator for comics and books. During these years he also worked part-time as a musician in a Prog Rock group.

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Maury E I Pronomi - Oceano.