Review - John Ruskin: The Power of Seeing

My latest review for Church Times is of “John Ruskin: The Power of Seeing” at Two Temple Place:

'Ruskin was a man of many words, who believed that, through drawing, one had the power to say what could not otherwise be said. He built his reputation on the power of his words as an art critic, author, and lecturer, but his subject was the power of seeing, because, for him, the teaching of art was “the teaching of all things”. He believed that the “greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way”. “To see clearly”, he said, “is poetry, prophecy, and religion — all in one.”

Art, then, is an expression of “the love and the will of God” to which we gain access primarily by looking closely at the splendour of nature.'

In a review for ArtWay of Adrian Barlow's book Kempe: The Life, Art and Legacy of Charles Eamer Kempe I noted that:

'The legacy and reputation of many significant Victorians is complex and contradictory because their often great achievements were fashioned on the oppression of Empire and the superiority and arrogance which fuelled aggressive expansion presenting exploitation of others and their natural resources as being the introduction of civilisation.'

In addition to the Kempe review, my exhibition review for Church Times covering 'Edward Burne-Jones: Pre-Raphaelite Visionary,' at Tate Britain and 'Seen & Heard: Victorian Children in the Frame,' at Guildhall Art Gallery also explores the complex legacy left by the Victorians.

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Florence and the Machine - Big God.

Review: Edward Burne-Jones and Seen & Heard

My latest exhibition review for Church Times covers Edward Burne-Jones: Pre-Raphaelite Visionary, at Tate Britain and Seen & Heard: Victorian Children in the Frame, at Guildhall Art Gallery.

'Offering us a visual narrative for the huge cultural shift in how society viewed, and treated, children over the course of the “long 19th century”, “Seen and Heard: Victorian Children in the Frame” plunges us into the maelstrom of innovation and exploitation, compassion and sentimentality, which characterised Victorian society.'

'Tate Britain’s exhibition, by bringing together more than 150 works in different media, including painting, stained glass, and tapestry, presents Burne-Jones as the polymath that he would have appeared to be to his contemporary audience; to whom he was a designer and decorative and fine artist with an exceptionally wide range of literary reference.'

The review also considers the legacy of the Victorians, a legacy that I also examined in a review for ArtWay of Adrian Barlow's book Kempe: The Life, Art and Legacy of Charles Eamer Kempe:

'The legacy and reputation of many significant Victorians is complex and contradictory because their often great achievements were fashioned on the oppression of Empire and the superiority and arrogance which fuelled aggressive expansion presenting exploitation of others and their natural resources as being the introduction of civilisation.'

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Rush - The Garden.

Discover & explore: Original & peaceful

Here is a selection of the feedback we have received on the 'Discover & explore' service series at St Stephen Walbrook, which has been organised in partnership with St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Guildhall Art Gallery:

• Both the songs and the reflection were excellent;
• Beautiful music; the readings were long and meaty! The whole liturgy was good;
• Everything about the service;
• Many things – clear and relevant theme, lively pace & variety & beautiful music. Also friendly welcome; 
• Very inspiring message and hymns;
• It was like a little jewel with a number of facets drawing us in and lighting our path;
• I enjoyed the Taize. The music was beautiful. Everything was so carefully chosen for theme of today;
• Focus combined with brevity – effective and to the point;
• Thought provoking. Enjoyed the musical part of the service very much and the reflection;
• The theme and the length and the timing;
• Spiritual food in the middle of the day. Lovely choir;
• Beautiful music, as ever, and wonderful readings. I feel strengthened by it. Thank you;
• Good music and sermon; 
• Readings – especially enjoyed the first reading, and the involvement of the excellent readers. Music. Reflection. Opportunity to think/engage with the topic;
• It’s originality;
• Each part elided into the next, giving a warm whole;
• That it had a unifying theme. The choir – especially the Rutter piece. The thoughtprovoking sermon.
• · All the settings;
• The Choral Scholars and the music and singing;
• The music was wonderful. The service was also thoughtful; 
• All of it - peacefulness;
• The relevance and resonance of the intercessions.

Thanks to Sonia Solicari we also explored the themes through an excellent guided tour of the Guildhall Art Gallery's Victorian Collection.

All are welcome for the final service in the series which is on Monday (1.10pm - 1.50pm) and is on the theme of Beauty. Click here, here, here, here, here and here for reflections from previous services on the themes of faith, home, love, work, imagination and leisure.

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John Rutter - The Lord Bless You And Keep You.

Discover & explore: Home

In 1992 the World Council of Churches published a short but influential book by Raymond Fung called ‘The Isaiah Vision’. In this book Fung set out a simple but profound agenda for social action based on the vision in Isaiah 65 for God’s new heaven and earth. In this vision: infants survive into adulthood with good health; older people live in dignity; there is decent housing for everyone; work is there for all who want it; and different kinds of people live together in harmony.

The main features of this vision are good health and long productive lives, shelter, food, work that benefits the worker, and peace. In the Isaiah vision for the world no one would have power over another in such a way that the less powerful are deprived. It is a vision of a settled, creative and fulfilled community and, as such, one where people are released from struggle to focus better on their spiritual lives and their devotion to God.

Van Morrison conjures up a similar vision of home in his song ‘On Hyndford Street’ which recalls in idyllic form his childhood in Belfast. His song combines a sense of familiar locales, people and activities with a sense of the wider world both through trips outside the City and through the influences of radio and reading. All of this is encompassed by a sense of God’s presence, so that both his dreaming and his living is ‘in God’.

Such visions of Home began to be realised in some measure in the Victorian period, which documented in the re-hang of the Guildhall Art Gallery’s collection. The beginning of the nineteenth century saw the separation of work from the home. The Arts and Crafts Movement and the Aesthetic Movement created beautiful objects which enabled homes to change from utilitarian spaces to comfortable and tastefully decorated refuges for families.

While these Victorian movements often catered primarily for the cultured and wealthy, Fung’s understanding of the Isaiah Vision is that it is a “minimum social vision” which encompasses the whole of society and “around which people of all faiths and none can unite.” Fung says that, “If the Isaiah Agenda is a Christian Agenda it is no less a Jewish, Islamic and a secular Agenda… Christians rejoice over the fact of our non-monopoly.” Therefore he calls the church to partner with “everybody and every organization which has anything to do with the Isaiah Agenda.” The book therefore recommends partnering with other groups in the community who would share this same vision, working with them for the transformation of society and then inviting them to get to know God for themselves.

Fung notes that the church engages in the Isaiah Agenda, not just through activities in the congregation but in “the involvement of its members — from where they are: in their homes, in their village or neighbourhood, in the market place, in schools, community organizations, trade unions, cooperatives … in short through their whole life and all their activities … Once it is recognized that the witness of the congregation takes place outside the four walls of its buildings and is carried out mainly by the laity in their homes, their neighbourhood, and the market place, the role of the clergy and the elders becomes clear. Their role is to enable the laity to do a better job.”

“A central focus of modern mission theology is that all our mission is God’s mission, the missio Dei. God’s love overflows into the creation, sustaining and renewing our world, patiently remaking and restoring the mess we have made of our beautiful planet. God calls us to help with this act of love and not to hinder it by destroying God’s reconciling action. The missio Dei includes human beings in this act of love, calling us to help create a world in which God’s vision and purpose for human beings can be realised right now. For the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures the sinfulness and destructiveness of human behaviour means that world is exceptionally difficult to bring into being and to keep in being, but it also makes means that the prophetic vocation is to articulate what God’s future would be like.”

This is what Isaiah 65 and Raymond Fung have done. To what extent do we share this vision of new homes in a new heaven and new earth where: infants survive into adulthood with good health; older people live in dignity; there is decent housing for everyone; work is there for all who want it; and different kinds of people live together in harmony? If we do share this vision, to what extent are we prepared to work towards it here and now?

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Anton Bruckner - Locus Iste.

Discover & explore

Discover & explore: Music and liturgy with the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields and Revd Jonathan Evens.

A service series of musical discovery exploring themes of beauty, faith, home, imagination, leisure, love and work. Includes music by Thomas Tallis, Moses Hogan and James Whitbourn, and readings from the Bible, Brother Lawrence, Ernesto Cardenal, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, W.H. Davies, Magna Carta, among others.

15th June - 27th July 2015, 1.10-1.50pm St Stephen Walbrook: 15th June: Faith; 22nd June: Home;
29th June: Love; 6th July: Work; 13th July: Imagination; 20th July: Leisure; 27th July: Beauty.

The series is a partnership with Guildhall Art Gallery using themes from the recent rehang of their collection. Join us for a guided tour of the Guildhall Art Gallery collection, as part of the Discover & explore series, which will take place on 21 July at 1.10pm. Meet in the main entrance of the Guildhall Art Gallery.

To coincide with its 15th anniversary, Guildhall Art Gallery has undergone a complete rehang of its permanent collection. Many of the works now on display have not been shown before at the Gallery. The collection of the Victorian paintings demonstrates changing attitudes to fine art in the 19th century. Artists turned their attention to the reality of modern life as their main inspiration, With its focus on everyday subjects, such as home, work, leisure, love, beauty, faith, and imagination, the new Victorian re-hang offers surprising relevance to life in the 21st century and challenges pre-conceptions about Victorian art being ‘dated’.

The Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields have an essential musical role at this great church. Every year twelve scholars are appointed to sing regular services while also gaining concert experience, benefiting from an extensive training in all aspects of sacred and secular choral music. They are led by the Director of Music at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Andrew Earis.

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Moses Hogan - I Am His Child.

Paint, faith, and the everyday

In my latest exhibition review for the Church Times I explore common ground between Victorian and Pop Artists in exhibitions at the Guildhall Art Gallery and the Saatchi Gallery: 

'More than half a century of change separates the Victorian age from the beginnings of Pop Art in the 1950s. In the 1950s, after years of austerity, people were increasingly energised by mass communication in new forms, affluence, advertising, and consumerism. Yet, as two thematic exhibitions focusing on Victoriana and Pop Art respectively reveal, fundamental concerns were broadly similar in both eras.'

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Athlete - You Got The Style.

Guildhall Art Gallery: Dichotomies of spirituality and consumerism

To coincide with its 15th anniversary, Guildhall Art Gallery has undergone a radical rehang for the first time since the current building opened in 1999. The £600,000 renovation improves the visitor experience through illuminating the artworks with a new state-of-the-art lighting system, and creating more flexible themed display spaces.

Julia Dudkiewicz, Principal Curator, says ‘The rehang has been a labour of love and it has been a great privilege to work with such outstanding and internationally significant collections. The Guildhall Art Gallery is a real hidden gem in the heart of the City. It was one of the first public galleries in London, predating Tate Britain by 15 years, and today houses one of the largest and best collections of Victorian art in the world.’

The Gallery shows a changing display of about 250 artworks from its collection of paintings, drawings and sculpture, in addition to a programme of temporary exhibitions. A rich variety of Victorian paintings can be seen as you enter the Gallery, displayed in original nineteenth century style. The collections illustrate the key artistic movements and influences of the Victorian period, from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, to Orientalism, Classicism and narrative painting. Among the Victorian paintings on display include Rossetti's La Ghirlandata, Millais' My First Sermon and My Second Sermon and John Constable's large landscape, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows.

Dudkiewicz has explained that the Victorian room showcases dichotomies on each side of the room, Materiality (Home and Beauty) contrasts with Spirituality (Faith) and Imagined Realities (Love and Imagination) are contrasted with the Realities of Life (Work and Leisure). Further dichotomies can also be found in the Undercroft Gallery where London is explored in terms of 'the effect of the elements on the city (ice and fire), destruction and reconstruction, spirituality and consumerism, and public versus private space.'

The new collecting policy of the Gallery focuses 'on the often controversial themes of money, wealth, the economy, trade, commerce and capitalism.' This policy is currently represented by Mark Titchner's Plenty and Progress wall sculpture. However some of the Victoriana also relates as Dudkiewicz notes in relation to scenes of street children by Augustus Edwin Mulready: “Poverty has not gone away. Is the heart of the City a proper place to make people think a little of social and spiritual issues, that money and materialism are not everything in life? We are going to try.” In his commentary on City panorama entitled City of Holy Dreams Chris Orr states, 'a large number of churches in the City of London are now being choked and outgrown by the new temples of commerce and finance. Cities are maelstroms of competing ideas.' 

The topography of cities has been Orr’s long-time preoccupation, frequently referencing historic panoramas whilst, at the same time, commenting on the fallible nature of human perception. He also loves narratives which are culturally ingrained in us, like Bible stories ... because they give a golden opportunity to the artist to directly open a dialogue with the viewer.'

His contemporary representations of the rapidly changing London skyline feature in an exhibition exploring Tower Bridge as an enduring source of artistic inspiration for painters, draughtsman, printmakers and photographers. The show (which is part of the 120th anniversary celebrations of the opening of Tower Bridge) brings together a diverse chronological selection of artworks exploring the different ways British and London-based artists have pictured the Bridge.

The earliest views by the Victorian maritime painter W. L. Wyllie are juxtaposed with the modernity of Frank Brangwyn‘s working river, through the dramatic wartime imagery of Charles Pears and the poetic conceptualism of Judith Evans and Arthur Watson's The Spirit of London. In addition, the London-based Ecuadorian New Expressionist Mentor Chico has been especially commissioned to create a vibrant, up-to-the-minute painting of the relationship between Tower Bridge and the City entitled Forever Imagical Tower Bridge 2014, conveying the vibrancy of the Bridge in relation to the City visitors, vessels and vehicles.

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Ralph McTell - Streets Of London.

The Age of the Do-Gooders

Most reviewers of Ian Hislop’s Age of the Do-Gooders (Mondays, BBC2, 9.00pm) accepted the line that Hislop pursues in the series; that it’s curious how ‘do-gooder’ has become such a pejorative term (a euphemism for interfering busybody) when doing good is what we should all aspire to.

The series celebrates Victorian social reformers who tend to be regarded as pious laughing stocks in this enlightened age; Hislop’s aim being to rescue them from ridicule and illustrate their importance in the evolution of British society. As the Metro notes: “He argues that the moral revolution of the 19th century invented the wide-ranging concept of a caring, just society, and that, far from being interfering busybodies, reformers were pioneering mavericks whose dynamism is to be admired.”

The dynamic 19th-century figures that Hislop highlights took it upon themselves to fix the Victorian equivalent of “broken Britain”. They overturned the ruling class’s callousness and unconcern for the poor and restored its social conscience. The big question was: What can I do? Hislop calls it “the moral revolution”: “They took a lot of flak at the time. That’s what interests me about it. I’m split between seeing why people took the p--- and thinking that, actually, they were rather good news.”

Reviewers generally thought the first episode was an eloquently argued slice of social history that aimed to reveal what a sorry state we’d all be in were it not for a bunch of remarkable 19th-century revolutionaries. What they seem to have missed was Hislop’s argument, highlighted particularly when interviewing members of the public, that our contemporary individualism militates against the 21st century (at least in its beginning) becoming an age of do-gooding. As Hislop stated in The Telegraph:

“We tend to see do-gooders as interfering busybodies … Few people believe they can personally make a difference. But the achievements of enlightened characters like Robert Owen [founder a model mill town in New Lanark], Thomas Wakley [scourge of cronyism among surgeons], Octavia Hill [pioneer of social housing] and George Dawson [the Birmingham social reformer] may just have something to teach us in the 21st century.

Amongst those reviews that I read only John Crace, in The Guardian, had a critique of this first episode. Crace argued that Hislop is turning into a rather good TV social historian but would benefit from providing rather more context to his story:

“Because while philanthropy emerged out of a sense that the better-off had a duty of care towards the less well-off, it also had its limitations. It is a start towards social justice but it is not an end or sufficient in itself. That's why the welfare state was introduced. To have followed this argument would not just have made these Victorians part of a historical narrative rather than liberal curiosities; it would have highlighted the obvious flaws in the coalition's belief that Do-Gooding can replace the state.”

Hislop’s series looks likely to be valuable in rehabilitating the idea of doing good to others for our strongly individualistic age but needs to be balanced by the perception that philanthropy alone is not enough. What may be most significant about those whom Hislop highlights, is that theirs was not simply individual philanthropy but instead a search for social and political solutions to the poverty of their age.

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 Willie Nelson & Emmylou Harris - The Maker.