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Flaming June


March winds
April showers
Bring forth May flowers
In July the sun is hot
Is it shining? No it's not.

I notice that this little rhyme suspiciously omits June. I don't think there is anywhere in the UK that has not had rain in this last week and so I offer you “...And the Rain My Drink” [1539] by Han Suyin as a suitable thumbnail for this post. First published in 1956 (Penguin 1961), the novel is set in the Malayan Emergency. The cover drawing is by Charles Raymond and the title is taken from an old Chinese ballad

“I will go to the forest for justice
The wind for my garment I wear,
and the rain my drink.”

Turning to what's on. Most of the exhibitions that I alerted you to last time are still available to visit with a few more to add to the list.

Firstly, I would like, once again, to highlight the InsidersOutsiders Festival which has events all over the UK.

I was lucky enough to visit the Isle of Man a little while ago and took a trip to the wonderful Manx Museum in Douglas which has a very impressive exhibition entitled Art Behind the Wire. I was fascinated to read about the history of the Island during the two World Wars when it acted as a huge internment camp. A good background piece which the Manx National Heritage Library and Archive Service have prepared can be found here.

You can still catch the Poster Parade Display at the London Transport Museum (it finishes on 27 June) which features twenty posters from such as Hans Schleger, Hans Unger and László Moholy-Nagy.

The third item I want to highlight from the Insiders/Outsiders Festival is an event in September. Entitled Germano Facetti: A Nazi labour camp survivor who revolutionised British book design, it will be presented by Chiara Barbieri and open with a screening of “The Yellow Box: Short History of Hate”. This will be followed by a presentation by Rick Pynor and Phil Baines discussing Facetti's contribution to 'British design, publishing and visual culture with a focus on his work as Art Director at Penguin Books in the 1960s'. To attend, register on this linked page with Eventbrite.

Nicely linking together internment in the Isle of Man and Germano Facetti is this Richard Hollis Guardian article that I came across (as one does when wandering the internet) entitled The Party Line.

Moving on now to the latest from the Dulwich Picture Gallery which is looking at pioneering printmakers who encapsulated the spirit of 1930s Britain. A display of 120 prints, drawings and posters in a show of work from the Grosvenor School of Modern Art featuring Claude Flight and eight of his leading students. Entitled Cutting Edge, the exhibition explores themes of 'transport, speed and movement, industry, labour and sport and leisure, as well as showcasing the original tools, lino blocks and studies that revolutionised the printmaking process'.

I am intrigued by the Stanley Kubrick Exhibition which is on at the Design Museum in London until 17 September 2019. I have been following their instagram posts and it does look good. I was first alerted to it by this Guardian article.

The Isokon Gallery has some interesting talks coming up, as well as the exhibition on George Adams - Bauhausler in Britain that I mentioned previously.

Still on in New York is Jan Tschihold and the New Typography: graphic design between the World Wars - have any PCS members managed to get to it yet?

To finish up Flaming June, the Judge's copy of Lady C that was auctioned last year at Sothebys (see my post 30 October 2018) has received a certain amount of publicity in the last month. For those of you who have not been following this story I give you the Guardian and BBC links. Finally, I draw your attention to the English PEN website who are hosting campaign donations.




Posted on Thursday, 13th June 2019