The Learned Pig

Art – Thinking – Nature – Writing

Tag: Modernism

  • A space, an ambiance, a home

    A space, an ambiance, a home

    A modest row of cottages is set apart from Cambridge’s Castle Street by a small green on one side and St Peter’s Church on the other, right next to Cambridge University’s ancient Magdalene College and the backs of St John’s. You’d be forgiven for barely noticing the terrace that makes up Kettle’s Yard. Entering the…

  • Do Not Touch the Artworks

    Do Not Touch the Artworks

    From 1938-9 and for a period of over fifteen months, a cleaner at The British Museum set to work on the Parthenon Marbles. Using cooper tools, the worker began to clean the marble figures and friezes, believing their bisque-like façade to be unwanted dirt. All manner of scandal, disciplinary action and juridical affairs ensued, with…

  • Editorial: Clean Unclean

    Editorial: Clean Unclean

    My side of the desk is scrupulously clean. The other half is a mess of dust and papers, temporarily abandoned books, a pair of tights, a lump of local granite. The line that separates the two is not as clear as I’d like. From the other side, my wife’s stately, slender Mac spaceship turns its…

  • Beauty and Revolution / A Token of Concrete Affection

    Beauty and Revolution / A Token of Concrete Affection

    Now is the time to visit Cambridge if you’re a fan of concrete poetry. At Kettle’s Yard is Beauty and Revolution, an exhibition of work by Ian Hamilton Finlay, while the Centre of Latin American Studies plays host to a group exhibition entitled A Token of Concrete Affection. Both are furnished from the private collection…

  • London Art Fair 2014

    London Art Fair 2014

    There’s something reassuring about London Art Fair. The last couple of years have been a particularly turbulent time for London’s galleries. As the big names continue to multiply (Pace, Victoria Miro, David Zwirner etc), some of London’s most consistently innovative spaces have shuddered to a halt. All the while London Art Fair continues, offering up…