Above: Alexandra Harris talking at the London Literature Festival.
Last week I went to see Alexandra Harris talk about her new book Romantic Moderns, which has been praised everywhere. I have not read the book yet, but critical acclaim surrounding Romantic Moderns has been such that I wanted to see the author while I had the chance. She began with an illustrated talk, and then answered questions.
"Investigate feelings about home... John Piper is the hero of my book... used abstract art to portray ancient landscapes... Paul Nash wanted to paint England but to also wanted make it modern... he is seeing the modernity in something ancient... there was a trend to go out and discover England in the 1920s and 1930s and discover and understand the country... the futurist movement was fascinated by Stonehenge... Margaret Jourdain was tireless in recording forgotten traditions of art and design... Ralph Hancock designed an English garden for the roof of the Rockefeller Centre in New York... Edith Sitwell... Morton's In Search of England told us to see quaint authenticity and takes us in search of a particular kind of England... SVB Mayes and the folk history of England...the Shell Guides and Shell advertising was bright, bold, modern... there is a tradition of place names in English poetry... the wartime project Recording England commissioned 1,500 watercolours... Blundon said the English had gone on pilgrimage in their own land... TS Eliot felt he didn;t belong, so went on to invent a form of Britishness... I can't believe I have gone a whole hour without talking about Virginia Woolf..."
With Alexandra's talk in my mind I went to see Among The Sweet Green Fields at Cecil Sharpe House. This is a wonderful exhibition of new paintings illustrating the folklore and customs of a small corner of Oxfordshire. The combination of a modern style of painting illustrating ancient rituals and places seemed to be a perfect example of what Alexandra Harris was talking about.
Above: Sunrise on Midsummer Morning.
Above: The Earth Was Green, The Sky Was Blue.
Above: Midsummer Morning.
Above: Maypole.
Above: Glovemakers Cottages - I was interested in the way that folk customs were integrated into the daily lives of workers in the pre-industrial period.
Above: St Fridewide.
Above: different tribes of Morris lined the stairwell.
Above: Lamb Ale Kirtlington ("ales" were summer festivals, often linked to the patronal saints of particular churches).
Above: St Mary Magdalene Woodstock.
Above: The Hare.
Above: Harvest Moon.
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