The Velvet Muse: Part Three

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) - A Vision of Fiammetta, 1878

The Velvet Muse: Part Two

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) - La Ghirlandata, 1873

The Velvet Muse: Part One

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) - Venus Verticordia, 1864

If You Haven't Failed, You're Not Trying Hard Enough

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) - Samuel Beckett, 1964


'Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail Better.'

Samuel Beckett

The Argument For Artifice

Inez Van Lamsweerde (b. 1963) and Vinoodh Matadin (?) - Kirsten, 1997


'Art is not a mirror held up to nature, but a hammer with which to shape it.'

Bertolt Brecht

One Man's Delinquent Is Another Man's Deity

Alberto Giacometti (1901-66) - Jean Genet (1910-86), 1955


'[At his trial in 1943] Genet faced life imprisonment as punishment for his recidivism, but Jean Cocteau, who had discovered Genet and arranged to publish his first novel, Our Lady of the Flowers, submitted a statement read in court: 'He is Rimbaud, one cannot condemn Rimbaud.' He suggested that the judge might go down in history as a philistine if he made the wrong decision. Not for a moment did Cocteau argue that Genet was innocent, simply that he was a genius. His testimony got Genet off scot-free.'

Edmund White

Leprosy Of The Soul

Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) - The Chasseur in the Forest, 1813


'Let us frankly admit it - for us, the landscape is a stranger and one is frightfully alone among the trees that bloom and the brooks that flow past us. Being alone with a dead person, one feels far and away not so abandoned as being alone with trees. For as mysterious as death may seem, even more mysterious is a life that is not our life, that does not participate in our life and, without giving any notice to us, celebrates its own festivities, which we observe with a certain embarrassment, like guests who have arrived by accident and speak another language.'

Rainer Maria Rilke

Primitive Piety: Part Seven

Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts - Parisian Book of Hours, 1405-10

Primitive Piety: Part Six

Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts - Vision of the Throne of the Lord (The Paris Apocalypse), c. 1400

Primitive Piety: Part Five

Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts - Legend of Saint Ladislas (from the Anjou Legendarium) - c. 1330s

Primitive Piety: Part Four

Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts - Libro del Biadaiolo, 1325-50

Primitive Piety: Part Three

Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts - Weingarten Missal, c. 1216

Primitive Piety: Part Two

Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts - Ingeborg Psalter, c. 1195

Primitive Piety: Part One

Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts - St. Albans Psalter, 1120s

A Body Of Truth: Part Four (Robert Mapplethorpe)

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) - Man in Polyester Suit, 1980

A Body Of Truth: Part Three (Egon Schiele)

Egon Schiele (1890-1918) - Seated Male Nude, 1910

A Body Of Truth: Part Two (Patty Chang)

Patty Chang (b. 1972) - Doll, 2001

A Body Of Truth: Part One (Vanessa Beecroft)

Vanessa Beecroft (b. 1969) - VB 45, 2001

The Dead Can't Dance

Andres Serrano (b. 1950) - The Morgue (Homicide Stabbing), 1992


'Hate is always a clash between our spirit and someone else's body.'

Cesare Pavese

Bruised, But Not Beaten

Nan Goldin (b. 1953) - Nan one month after being battered, 1984


"Purity is the power to contemplate defilement."

Simone Weil