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Showing posts with label turley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label turley. Show all posts

Saturday, 26 October 2024

International Times: From Auschwitz to Africa

My latest book review to be published by International Times is entitled 'From Auschwitz to Africa' and is about 'Nolan's Africa' by Andrew Turley:

'Turley, by rejecting the easy shorthand with which many write about Nolan, has succeeded in bringing the African Journey images out of the shadows and into the light. Through his extensive research, Turley succeeds in shining new light on Nolan’s examination of nature, human nature and the nature of modern civilisation. He revives Nolan’s warning to society by urging his readers to consider the effect that the Holocaust, animal extinctions, colonial disenfranchisement and human conflict has had not just on the artist but also on society.'

For more of my writings on Sidney Nolan see my Artlyst interview with Andrew Turley and my review of Sidney Nolan: Colour of the Sky – Auschwitz Paintings.

My earlier pieces for IT are an interview with the poet Chris Emery, an interview with Jago Cooper, Director of the the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, plus reviews of: Mavis Staples in concert at Union Chapel; T Bone Burnett's 'The Other Side' and Peter Case live in Leytonstone; Helaine Blumenfeld's Together exhibition, What Is and Might Be and then Otherwise by David Miller; 'Giacometti in Paris' by Michael Peppiatt, the first Pissabed Prophet album - 'Zany in parts, moving in others, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more unusual, inspired & profound album this year. ‘Pissabed Prophet’ will thrill, intrigue, amuse & inspire' - and 'Religion and Contemporary Art: A Curious Accord', a book which derives from a 2017 symposium organised by the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art.

Several of my short stories have been published by IT including three about Nicola Ravenscroft's EarthAngel sculptures (then called mudcubs), which we exhibited at St Andrew's Wickford in 2022. The first story in the series is 'The Mudcubs and the O Zone holes'. The second is 'The Mudcubs and the Clean-Up King', and the third is 'The mudcubs and the Wall'. My other short stories to have been published by International Times are 'The Black Rain', a story about the impact of violence in our media, 'The New Dark Ages', a story about principles and understandings that are gradually fading away from our modern societies, and 'The curious glasses', a story based on the butterfly effect.

IT have also published a poem, The ABC of creativity, which covers attention, beginning and creation, and 'Broomfield', which is part of a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in Essex called 'Four Essex Trios'.

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The Alarm - Protect And Survive.

Wednesday, 2 October 2024

Artlyst: October Art Diary

My October Art Diary for Artlyst highlights artist monographs, which increasingly appearing on the market as we approach Christmas. So I begin the October Art Diary with several, which are also linked to launch exhibitions. I also feature several exhibitions in sacred spaces before ending with some interesting thematic shows. Among the works featured you will find Leonora Carrington, Ken Currie, Tracey Emin, Susie Hamilton, Ana Maria Pacheco, Michael Petry, and Lancelot Ribeiro, among others:

'Another fascinating monograph to be published shortly is ‘Nolan’s Africa’ by Andrew Turley. In this monograph, Turley takes readers on a journey with Sidney Nolan from the United Nations Headquarters in New York to a suspected assassination on the Congo border, from the crematoria of Auschwitz to the formation of the World Wildlife Fund and on to the plains of the Serengeti. He walks in Nolan’s footsteps across Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia, seeing the world through the artist’s eyes. Written over twelve years and across three continents, this is the first book based on the newly opened Sidney Nolan Archives at the National Library of Australia, containing never-before-seen diaries, photographs and personal notes.

The result is a rich narrative that weaves together art, adventure, philosophy, global politics and world history. Artistic influences and processes, breathtaking in their scope, are laid bare as the thoughtful balance of text and images urges readers to consider the effect that the Holocaust, animal extinctions, colonial disenfranchisement and human conflict had on the artist and society. ‘Nolan’s Africa’ is a compelling picture of one of the most complex and famous painters of the twentieth century, shining new light on his examination of nature, human nature and the nature of modern civilisation.'

For more of my writing on artists included in my October Art Diary see here: Susie Hamilton; Ken Currie; Marcus Lyon; Micah Purnell; Michael Petry; Sidney Nolan; Brian Whelan; Ana Maria Pacheco; and Michael Takeo Magruder.

Interviews -
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Ed Kowalczyk - Angels On A Razor.

Sunday, 3 October 2021

Sidney Nolan’s Africa: Interview With Andrew Turley

My latest interview for Artlyst is with Andrew Turley about his forthcoming book 'Nolan's Africa'. 

'Nolan’s Africa' will be the first book on Sidney Nolan written with access to the newly opened Sidney Nolan archives at the National Library of Australia, containing never-before-seen diaries, photographs and personal notes. These will be revealed by Andrew Turley – a former Army Captain and UN Peacekeeper deployed in Cambodia – who has walked in Nolan’s footsteps across Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Zanzibar. In Turley’s forthcoming book, influences and artistic process are laid bare – from the UN Headquarters in New York to the crematoria of Auschwitz and the plains of the Serengeti – a previously unrecorded history of Nolan’s art, themes, travels, experiences and relationships with thought leaders and politicians in a world at its most vulnerable.

'Nolan’s Africa' shines new light on Nolan and his examination of nature, human nature and the nature of mid-century Europe. For the first time, his responses are revealed to genocide, racial disenfranchisement, the decline of the West, the environment and our own existence threatened by nuclear war, changes in climate and the collapse of biodiversity.

'What did he make of those ideas? Art! His Italian crucifixes of 1955, crucifixions of 1957, then 1961 right through into the 1970s. The crucifixion motif was caustic in his Auschwitz paintings – graphic works of nailed figures, skeletons in wheelbarrows under smoking crosses and bodies laid out in neat rows. But these were works seen only by Nolan himself. In his African work, it became a spiritual image, but no one saw the whole picture. Did you know he had an ornate old wooden crucifix in his studio? It is still there on display.

Clark had written about the role religion played in a landscape of symbols and the art historical concept of paradise, the enclosed garden as a place to escape worldly fears and the Garden of Eden as a vision of hope. Sidney saw the enclosed ‘garden’ on the Serengeti Plains and Eden in Uganda. And there are few civilisations more connected to Christ and the crucifixion than Ethiopia, where he climbed barefoot and bloodied up rawhide ropes to explore a centuries-old monastery built into the cliff. He walked ancient churches whose walls were painted with scenes of the flight into Egypt and the Descent from the Cross; he took photos of rocky hillsides sown with old Coptic crosses and saw, high on a dusty hill, a man in a tattered robe silhouetted against the sky, standing still, arms horizontal along with staff across his shoulders. Sidney called him “A walking crucifixion."'

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
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Die Heuwels Fantasties ft. The Soweto Gospel Choir, HHP & JR - Our Heritage.