Schiele as Joy Division

One of the most insightful blog postings on Schiele and his enduring - but alternative - charm can be found here.

Some choice cuts from Take Art:

"Sexuality burns through his paintings like a fever whereas Klimt has more of a satisfied glow. Schiele is a confrontational painter — his subjects looking straight at the viewer in a way that seems, to me at least, to be markedly different from how the people in Klimt’s paintings watch you, make you complicit in whatever they are doing, or mutely acknowledge you as some kind of voyeur.

"The figures are more angular, seem less comfortable. Schiele’s work seems less rooted in a kind of bourgeois bohemia and as a result escapes the trap of history that some of his contemporaries are burdened with. His work is very modern and by that I mean that it still seems fresh and full of vitality, a leanness of stroke and effortless conversion of thought and movement into image.

You look at one of his paintings and you can hardly imagine him over-working a piece (I speculate here, he may have been as troubled in his process as everyone else; his life hardly seems to have been perfect). There is an immediacy to the work though, and whereas Klimt might fit nicely with some smooth cocktail jazz Schiele always made me think of Joy Division.

Read Porn. Eat Chocolate

This is the advice of Salena Godden, poet, writer and half of the feisty SaltPeter, a ska-drum-n-bass-breakbeat duo, which you can lap up here.

She is currently researching a piece on erotic film-makers, which involves some groin-numbing hours of DVD watching. Read her blog here.

To counterbalance the filth, she took up a copy of the Pornographer of Vienna and some organic chocolate.

Much more than Marquez

Columbia, the nation of Shakira, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alvaro Mutis and
Gregorio Vázquez Arce y Ceballos and so much more... so much more

Like the sound of it, but can't get enough because you're stuck in London?

Well, you're in luck. Click here for a taste of the modern post-Marquez Columbia. I promise no Shakira. My hips don't lie.

To support Columbiage 08, a festival for contemporary Columbian culture, keep an eye on this.

Liverpool: Klimt & Redmond

Antonia, a friend of mine, has been up to Liverpool which is currently one of Europe's 'Capitals of Culture' and is hosting a Gustav Klimt exhibition and the Tate Liverpool. I've heard from some that it is phenomenal, while others, notably Waldemar Januszczak in The Times, doesn't think so.

Anyway, I'm grateful to Antonia for doing a bit of PR work for the Pornographer of Vienna. It seems, however, she might not have needed to.

Read her posting 'Totally Starstruck' here and learn about Phil Redmond.

And if you are interested in what Phil Redmond thinks of Liverpool, look here.