Are you green with envy at James Lasdun’s long account of chasing and experiencing the Northern Lights in Norway and Finland in the 29 April 2019 New Yorker? I could certainly have done with the commission –thirty-five years ago. But I have to allow that it was purely by chance that I saw the Aurora Borealis on the 23rd or 24th of June 1984. I might even then have been a bit … [Read more...]
Archives for 2019
John Cornford, the tragedy of a faithful communist
Understand the Weapon, Understand the Wound: Collected Writings Edited by Jonathan Galassi Fyfield Books, Carcanet, 238pp., $14.99 The Spanish parliament voted in September 2018 to exhume the remains of Francisco Franco, and to remove the remains of the fascist dictator from the site of the giant mausoleum at the Valley of the Fallen, near Madrid, which also contains the bodies of tens of … [Read more...]
Close Cousins to Sculpture? Stephen Buckley’s Work Needs All Three Dimensions
A couple of the essays in the gorgeous book (published by Neuendorf) that accompanies Close Cousins, an exhibition of Stephen Buckley paintings at the smart Mayor Gallery (Cork Street, London, until 8 February), make the point that Buckley is not a household name. Well, he is in our household, where we have whole walls of works on paper by the painter, who now lives in St … [Read more...]