Venice, 1997 From my diary

In which money for bananas just keeps on appearing, a vision of Venice in Aqua Alta, thirty years ago.

open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

Views?

Whether or not you want to use the word (and why not?), you have to take into account that there is nothing in American nowadays that looks like the Nazi spectacle of power, or the sense of an entire society emptied of individual volition, subsumed into one totalising visual spectacle.

The Wikipedia page on Donald Trump and fascism is itself a monument to resistance, and yet there is not a single mention of the spectacle and visual element so important to the fascisms of the thirties.

'One Nation Underdog'

Nothing more dangerous than a little man wronged: 'One Nation Underdog'

Invisible Cities Overland from London to Venice.

Here's my answer to that! open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

Cloud Man Trees, clouds, stags and death.

Wrote on how to paint a cloud, and a hidden figure in a famous (ish) painting.

open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

That Faraway Look On a family portrait, and a historic survey of the Persian Gulf

For anyone who’s ever wondered what the connection is between Suffolk and the Straits of Hormuz, here from @johnpaulstonard.com is the answer:
open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

It's the train painting that Constable never made with those clouds.

Comment | Museums must be the leaders in a moral revolution Museums are “remarkably unwilling to acknowledge their own status as democratic institutions, the bedrock of civic society and our most important public spaces”

Today’s Editor’s Pick is 'Comment | Museums must be the leaders in a moral revolution' by @johnpaulstonard.com for @theartnewspaper.bsky.social. Examining how museums can lead a moral shift by confronting societal issues through art.

Dürer's Canonical Cannon And Constable's commendable copy.

Dürer's canonical cannon
& Constable's commendable copy.

open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

Dürer's Canonical Cannon And Constable's commendable copy.

Dürer's canonical cannon
& Constable's commendable copy.

open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

Sima (r) and the late Hamid (l) Habibi among their apple cultivars.

Oh! Watching Gardener's World last night (don't ask) I saw a lovely interview with Karim Habibi, an apple specialist from Kent. I was delighted - I'd interviewed his parents, Hamid (now sadly deceased) and Sima for the 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. I'm so happy he's carrying on their work.

I thought this so brilliant and clearly explained, would happily watch Karim for an hour on apples.

That Faraway Look On a family portrait, and a historic survey of the Persian Gulf

What connects this portrait with the Strait of Hormuz?

Latest article, 'That Faraway Look', on the On Art Substack.

jpstonard.substack.com

open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

Still furious about Radio 3 playing Brubeck Take Five on the morning show this morning. As if this is *really* what we want, the reward for listening to good-for-you classical music. When was the last time you heard Mozart or Scriabin on Radio 1?

The idea of the 'public sphere' and its transformations was one of the most shaping ideas of my student years. Jürgen Habermas.

Jürgen Habermas ist heute im Alter von 96 Jahren in Starnberg verstorben.

what is the largest animal you are confident you could expel, singlehandedly, from a medium-size bookshop?

RULES:
- you have no resources beyond what is available in the shop
- you must remain more or less uninjured
- bookshop has 2 floors; animal is on ground floor, you can choose where you begin

Dunghill Theory And the greatest painting in the world.

What is dunghill theory and why is everyone talking about it?

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A reminder that 'learning from your mistakes' means only learning to make the same ones again.

John-Paul Stonard (@jpstonard) A revised version of this post with the addition of the beguiling and slow moving video piece by Jane Watt, ‘Flora Spectrum Orford Ness’, 2024.

Poetry and painting in a changing landscape

substack.com/@jpstonard/n...

Thank you. Turner was at Aldeburgh, where Constable never seems to have made it there, despite his love of Crabbe. Will look out your book, which sounds excellent.

E.M. Forster, George Crabbe and 'Natural Painture' HERE IS E.M.

What links the horizontality and mud of Peter Grimes, and the first stirrings of a new vision of landscape in the painting of John Constable? And why is Benjamin Britten looking so perplexed?

open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

I think about this Tony Benn speech much more than I used to

'Not the harmless environmentalists they pretend to be' signals the end of something - Ed Milliband should be furious.

Word of the day: sectarian. Being used to mean 'divisive', in the sense of narrow-minded bigotry.

You only have to stop and think about it, don't you?

This is all very wrong.

Apologies to all of Hannah's customers!

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