Cecil Collins (1908-1989) is arguably one of the greatest English visionary artists since Blake and Palmer. With emblematic figures such as the Fool, the Angel, the Pilgrim and the Sibyl in extraordinary landscapes, Collins portrayed an original and inspiring philosophy of life. He has been recognized as belonging to the Neo-Romantic movement of poetical art which flourished in the postwar period, but his dedication to depicting his mystic understanding made his work highly distinctive. His lyrical art is in some ways closer in spirit to the French Symbolists, especially Odilon Redon, and he has some affinities with Paul Klee and Georges Rouault.
Drawing upon the pioneering work of the British theologian David Brown who argues for a non-static, ‘moving text’ that reaches beyond the biblical canon, this volume brings together twelve interdisciplinary essays, as well as a response from Brown. With essays ranging from New Testament textual criticism to the fiction of David Foster Wallace, The Moving Text provides an introduction to Brown and the Bible that will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as specialists in a wide range of fields. Contributions include: Ian Boxall (The Catholic University of America) "From the Magi to Pilate's Wife: David Brown, Tradition and the Reception of Matthew's Text," Robert MacSwain (The University of the South) "David Brown and Eleonore Stump on Biblical Interpretation," Aaron Rosen (Rocky Mountain College) "Revisions of Sacrifice: Abraham in Art and Interfaith Dialogue," Dennis F. Kinlaw III (Houston Baptist University) "The Forms of Faith in Contemporary American Fiction".
Jonathan Stedall explores challenging questions about living and dying, looking and seeing, heaven and earth, and our human potential. He draws on forty years film-making experience, largely at the BBC, working with inspired artists, scientists and writers like John Betjeman, Laurens van der Post, Fritz Schumacher, Bernard Lovell, Malcolm Muggeridge, Alan Bennett, Fritjof Capra, Cecil Collins, Ben Okri and Mark Tully.
The book of Revelation has been a source of continual fascination for nearly two thousand years. Concepts such as The Lamb of God, the Four Horsemen, the Seventh Seal, the Beasts and Antichrist, the Whore of Babylon, Armageddon, the Millennium, the Last Judgement, the New Jerusalem, and the ubiquitous Angel of the Apocalypse have captured the popular imagination. One can hardly open a newspaper or click on a news web site without reading about impending financial or climate change Armageddon, while the concept of the Four Horsemen pervades popular music, gaming, and satire. Yet few people know much about either the basic meaning or original context of these concepts or the multiplicity of different ways in which they have been interpreted by visual artists in particular. The visual history of this most widely illustrated of all the biblical books deserves greater attention. This book fills these gaps in a striking and original way by means of ten concise thematic chapters which explain the origins of these concepts from the book of Revelation in an accessible way. These explanations are augmented and developed via a carefully selected sample of the ways in which the concepts have been treated by artists through the centuries. The 120 visual examples are drawn from a wide range of time periods and media including the ninth-century Trier Apocalypse, thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman Apocalypse Manuscripts such as the Lambeth and Trinity Apocalypses, the fourteenth-century Angers Apocalypse Tapestry, fifteenth-century Apocalypse altarpieces by Van Eyck and Memling, Dürer and Cranach's sixteenth-century Apocalypse woodcuts, and more recently a range of works by William Blake, J. M. W. Turner, Max Beckmann, as well as film posters and stills, cartoons, and children's book illustrations. The final chapter demonstrates the continuing resonance of all the themes in contemporary religious, political, and popular thinking, while throughout the book a contrast will be drawn between those readers of Revelation who have seen it in terms of earthly revolutions in the here and now, and those who have adopted a more spiritual, otherworldly approach.
Angel Dorothy is the inspiring biography of a formidable woman: wealthy American heiress Dorothy Elmhirst, who poured her considerable resources into founding Dartington Hall in 1925. What started as a progressive school rapidly transformed into a magnet for artists, architects, writers, philosophers and musicians, creating an exceptional centre for British cultural life. It was at Dartington in Devon that the Labour Party’s post-war manifesto was written and the Arts Council was conceived. Born in Washington, DC, into the influential Whitney family, Dorothy was a national darling: bells rang, flags flew and the American Navy’s new fast tugboat was named Dorothy. Orphaned at seventeen, she started giving away her inheritance at eighteen and buried herself in social and political work. She maintained her status as an unmarried woman until she fell in love with and married her first husband, Willard Straight, in 1911. Following Willard’s untimely death, Dorothy worked herself into a breakdown trying to fulfil his wishes. She recovered with the help of Leonard Elmhirst, an Englishman who shared her liberal beliefs; they married and moved to England in 1925 to start what would become Dartington Hall. In this vividly told biography, Jane Brown follows Dorothy from one side of the Atlantic to the other, a journey Dorothy made one hundred times to spread her political beliefs, her passion for education and her support of the arts for all. She traces the evolution of Dartington, from its restoration to its farming and forestry projects, and to its time as a home for the period’s greatest artists and intellectuals.
