Portrait of King George III when Prince of Wales by Allan Ramsay

May 16, 2024

In this episode, we’ll be visiting Portrait of King George III when Prince of Wales by Allan Ramsay at the Science Museum London. Welcome to Art, Culture & Books with me, Anthony King. This Portrait of the King was lent by the Governor and Company of the Bank of England to the Science Museum London. They tell us: “King George III is depicted here as Prince of Wales, a year or two before his coronation. He enjoyed a lifelong passion for natural philosophy, agriculture and astronomy. George’s reign is sometimes seen as being overshadowed by industrialisation, imperial failures and the debilitating illness that affected him in old age. However, this overlooks the influence he exerted on science and the arts in Britain, thanks to his

Bottle of Rum and Newspaper By Juan Gris at the Tate Modern London

May 15, 2024

In this episode, we’ll be visiting Bottle of Rum and Newspaper By Juan Gris at the Tate Modern London. Welcome to Art, Culture & Books with me, Anthony King. Juan Gris was born in Spain in 1887 and was a Cubist. I really like this Oil on Canvas. The gallery tell us: “Like many cubist works, Gris’s painting provides a revised experience of the everyday, whether in the studio or in a familiar café. Glimpsed letters confirm the positions of the two objects: UM for rum, JOUR (of ‘journal’) for the newspaper. A table is indicated by the false wood-graining, a house-painter’s skill much admired by the cubists because it is identifiably as an illusion. Gris interweaves these fragmentary images of the familiar into a

Linen 1913 by Natalia Goncharova at the Tate Modern in London

May 14, 2024

In this episode, we’ll be visiting Linen 1913 by Natalia Goncharova at the Tate Modern in London. Welcome to Art, Culture & Books with me, Anthony King. The gallery tell us that Natalia Goncharova was born 1881 in the Russian Empire, and worked in the Russian Empire and France “The two sides of the work are divided between men’s and women’s items of laundry-shirts, collars and cuffs on the left; lace, undergarments and an apron on the right. Each side bares Cyrillic initials; the iron the artist’s own monogram, the folded shirt a mysterious ‘AL’. PRACHE is part of the Russian word for ‘laundry’, BOT possibly part of the word meaning ‘work’. B.S. could be an abbreviation for ‘whitewash’. The painting conveys a dynamic impression

Ile de France 1935 by Jean Hélion at the Tate Modern London

May 13, 2024

In this episode, we’ll be visiting Ile de France 1935 by Jean Hélion at the Tate Modern London. Welcome to Art, Culture & Books with me, Anthony King. Jean Hélion, born on April 21, 1904 was a prominent French painter whose abstract creations during the 1930s positioned him as a significant figure in the realm of modernist art. With regards to this Oil paint on canvas the museum tell us: “Hélion was one of the most prominent abstract artists in Paris in the 1930s. He later returned to a more representational style. Ile de France is mostly composed of flattened planes of colour but the forms in the foreground appear solid and three- dimensional. At the time, Hélion reflected: ‘The more I advance the more

The Soviets in Space Poster 1963 at the Science Museum London

May 12, 2024

In this episode, we’ll be visiting The Soviets in Space Poster 1963 at the Science Museum London. Welcome to Art, Culture & Books with me, Anthony King. Soviet space posters often show a hopeful view of a better life through scientific progress. They depict new lands, planets, and societies, inspired by a movement called Russian Cosmism. The museum tell us: “Long live the world’s first female cosmonaut’: a Soviet poster (in Czech) celebrating Valentina Tereshkova, who orbited the Earth in Vostok 6 in June 1963. As with Sputnik in 1957, and with Yuri Gagarin, who had undertaken the first manned space flight in Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961, the flight of Tereshkova was an event deliberately loaded with symbolic meaning. It was to be

Cubist Head (Portrait of Fernande) by Pablo Picasso at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

May 11, 2024

In this episode, we’ll be visiting Cubist Head (Portrait of Fernande) by Pablo Picasso at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Welcome to Art, Culture & Books with me, Anthony King. Pablo Picasso Oil on canvas Cubist head (portrait of Fernande) was painted around 1909-10. The Museum tells us that; “The sitter of this painting was almost certainly Fernande Olivier, with whom Picasso began a relationship in 1904 and painted many times. Fernande (born Amélie Lang) had a turbulent childhood and she ran away from home as a teenager. She married but left her abusive husband before the age of nineteen, changing her name to Fernande Bellevallée and then to Olivier to avoid detection. Fernande modelled for artists in Montmartre and met Picasso at the famous artists’

Portrait of a Man in Red from the Royal Collection at Hampton Court Palace

May 11, 2024

In this episode, we’ll be visiting Portrait of a Man in Red from the Royal Collection at Hampton Court Palace in England. Welcome to Art, Culture & Books with me, Anthony King. Portrait of a Man in Red is a painting by an unknown painter in the style of Hans Holbein the Younger. It’s estimated to be dated around 1530 and 1550 and to depict Henry VIII of England. We do have the information submitted when this was acquired by the Royal Collection on the 20th August 1662; “object stated in reference as: Acquired by Charles II in 1660 from William Frizell at Breda (List I no 21) as Holbein of Henry VIII when young; recorded in the Queen’s Gallery at Hampton Court in 1666

The Flood By Claude Monet

May 11, 2024

In this episode, we’ll be taking a quick look at Claude Monet’s The Flood. Welcome to Art, Culture & Books with me, Anthony King.

Who’s Afraid of the New Technology By Alan Robb at The McManus Art Gallery & Museum in Dundee, Scotland

May 10, 2024

In this episode, we’ll be visiting Who’s Afraid of the New Technology By Alan Robb at The McManus Art Gallery & Museum in Dundee, Scotland. Welcome to Art, Culture & Books with me, Anthony King. Who’s Afraid of the New Technology, 1987 is an acrylic on canvas by Alan Robb who was born in Glasgow in 1946. The museum tell us; “In this major work, Robb explores the creation of pictorial space. He opens the composition out like a stage set, and includes recognisable motifs culled from windsurfing magazines and Mediterranean holiday brochures. Much of his work was inspired by cut paper collage. This work moves into the digital age inspired by Quantel Paintbox, which revolutionised 1980s advertising and post- production in video and film.