Category Archives: Take a Seat

Reading Women 8

In the final session of her course Britta offered an explanation of why there are so many images of women reading.  Her starting point was that the paintings are overwhelmingly by men. First, the easy availability within the family of … Continue reading

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Reading Women 6

Yesterday we looked at women during the ‘mania for reading’ engendered by the birth of the novel in the 18th Century.  They are shown in both portrait and genre paintings, when the act of reading ideally reflects learning and status.  … Continue reading

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Reading Women 5

Britta spoke this week on ‘the explosion of epistolary activity in the 17th Century’; and its appearance in Dutch painting as ‘a new and unique sub-genre’.   People, most often anonymous women, are depicted receiving, reading, writing and dispatching letters.  They … Continue reading

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Reading Women 4

Yesterday’s U3AC session looked at The Blessed Reader, images of the Virgin Mary, principally the Annunciation.  The pictures included: the Simone Martini altarpiece, 1333, in Byzantine style; the Fra Angelico fresco from San Marco, Florence, c. 1435; a Veneziano predella … Continue reading

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Reading Women 3

Women predominate in paintings of people reading.  This reflects reading as a gendered activity: women read more than men, though whether this has always been consistently the case is unclear. The choice of women as subjects historically is not surprising … Continue reading

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Women Reading 2

Maybe I should try to introduce my own pictures of women reading into the course as well as bringing up Kertesz’s book (see yesterday’s post). There are around 20 examples of women reading in my book Take a Seat – … Continue reading

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Walking 20

‘…the key problem at the heart of the urban experience: are we individuals, or are we part of the crowd?’ 

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Shutter Hub – Postcards from Europe

Shutter Hub is inviting submissions for a new exhibition. ‘Postcards from Europe is a call for response and collaboration, triggered by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and reflecting on Postcards from Great Britain, our most ambitious project to date, which … Continue reading

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The Shutter Hub OPEN 20/21

The Shutter Hub OPEN 20/21 is still on schedule to open in July and August 2021 at Gallery 5&33 and Art’otel Amsterdam.   The plan is to have 175 Newspaper Club prints filling the walls.  The exhibiting photographers will be announced … Continue reading

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Take a Seat – Take a Moment: Final

I’ve posted pictures and text from my Take a Seat project frequently since March 2019.  Enforced lockdown leisure has given me time to bring them together in a book.  An introduction outlines of what I was trying to achieve and … Continue reading

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Covid 19 Day 86 16th June 2020

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Take a Seat – Take a Moment 31

The draft of Take a Seat is complete and has gone to Blurb for printing. It is due back by the end of the month.

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Covid 19 Day 74 4th June 2020

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Take a Seat – Take a Moment 30

I spent Sunday afternoon working on my book Take a Seat – I probably should have been finishing off some decorating, or outside gardening, especially as the weather was so good.  But I’ve been feeling increasingly unhappy with the book … Continue reading

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Shutter Hub Open Exhibition 2020

Shutter Hub has called for entries to its 2020 Open Exhibition.  I’ve submitted six pictures from my ‘Take a Seat’ project with the following text. Being bipedal animals confers many advantages on us, but we still invite guests to ‘Take … Continue reading

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