tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1815203981220831859.post1051861311279362815..comments2024-02-15T23:43:42.179+11:00Comments on poetry & ideas: MODERN BRITAIN, 1900-1960collectedworkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10768731698615085925noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1815203981220831859.post-37892212075346453692008-04-24T13:32:00.000+10:002008-04-24T13:32:00.000+10:00correction : Clive would actually say, Bendigo mea...correction : Clive would actually say, Bendigo means "around the bend i go", and he'd laugh heartily! For me Bendigo is the wonderful second-hand bookshop (which used to be near the V/Line station and has moved downtown to that lovely nook opp the Chinese cultural complex at the bottom of the<BR/>gardens), the eating & drinking available, the excellent regional gallery which did such a great job during the NGV restoration some years ago (& hasnt looked back it seems to me)... Bendigo is also central to a number of painters, sculptors, ceramicists I've come to know over the years...collectedworkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10768731698615085925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1815203981220831859.post-76795375667692326402008-04-24T12:40:00.000+10:002008-04-24T12:40:00.000+10:00Dear Genevieve, Thankyou for your comment... Re- R...Dear Genevieve, Thankyou for your comment... Re- Robert Nelson's review : it was a formalist take hung on the notion of "heroic modernism" both of which I find partial &, ultimately, distracting... What a pity you missed the NGV show but at least you know the scores of paintings are all over Australia & New Zealand! What did you think of the Bendigo show (which I took to be apropos some of the issues in the air of the Modern Britain)? Re- "isn't Benders gorgeous" : yes, it is : I've been visiting foir about 20 years or so via Cathy O'Brien & her family...knew of it before hand as the domicile of the poet Clive Faust, who still lives there : his joke always amused me : "Bendigo means I go round the bend"...! Best wishes, Kriscollectedworkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10768731698615085925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1815203981220831859.post-89482143154579838102008-04-17T12:32:00.000+10:002008-04-17T12:32:00.000+10:00Kris, I've followed up from my conversation with y...Kris, I've followed up from my conversation with you in the shop the other day, where I was too ashamed to admit I did not see the Modern Brits, I had a horrible couple of weeks around the time I had planned to see it and it just didn't come off. <BR/><BR/>Saw the Bendigo exhibition, though - I was visiting Amanda Johnson and Dena Kahan's exhibition over the road from it. Isn't Benders gorgeous.<BR/><BR/>It sounds like Nelson has sacrificed a great deal for his review in going after these artists for being products of their time and place. Provincial is a very easy and lazy word to use, it leaves him open to arguing in support of a global style, which would also be impoverished in its inability to document and present small, distinctive details and moments.<BR/><BR/>I do like this:<BR/><BR/>'Hughes traces the origin of said mingyness to Roger Fry & Bloomsbury (Clive Bell et al)'s valorisation of everything French and the denigration of everything English. Thank God Provincial England & the Colonies saved me from most of that; even when New York was at its most attractive I hadnt realized that the assumed price of the new was the heads of the artists I'd grown up with!'<BR/><BR/>Victoria Glendinning suggested in her interview with Sophie C. at MWF last year that the Bloomsbury guys were awfully good at promoting each other's work, too, let alone simply denigrating the work of other Englishmen. Forget about Hughes' academic credentials, I'd say he might be onto something there.genevievehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02895689949182365454noreply@blogger.com