Went to the Tate Britain for the first time yesterday, to see a very good exhibition called TheLure of the East: Britisl Orientalist Painting. Definitely recommended, but it’s closing tomorrow. Ah well. I came away wanting to know to find out more about several of the artists involved, particularly Richard Dadd. I found out about Dadd from a friend a couple of months ago, who told me the condensed version his extraordinary life story and showed me a copy of one of his most famous paintings, The Fairy-Feller’s Master Stroke. A quick search on the interweb yielded some very interesting results. Great paintings, big Shakespeare fan, inspired the likes of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Oh goody!
There’s an interesting article on Dadd written by Jennifer Higgie, another name I’d never heard of until yesterday, when I saw her novel Bedlam on sale at the Tate shop. It’s a novel based on Dadd’s life story, and it lookd very interesting from the few pages I flicked through. I resisted the urge to buy it though because I still have squillions of books to read, and because it’s £20. But I’ll buckle soon. I always do…
Speaking of strange and beautiful, I’ve finished Watchmen. Not for the first time, I imagine. I want more Alan Moore! I might as well go ahead and add everything else he’s done to my extensive wants list.
So many fascinating artists, so little time!
