Schwitters and the Potato-loft University

The Guardian reported on Tuesday (see the article here) that a barn in Ambleside used by Kurt Schwitters in the 1940s is the site of a proposed museum, an idea supported by Damian Hirst, Anish Kapoor and Anthony Gormley. I came across this initially when I was doing some research on the Royal College of Art, which was evacuated to Ambleside during the Second World War (the Potato-loft University). The students' proximity to this artist seems with hindsight a real missed opportunity, one student is quoted as saying,

We didn't know who the hell he was. We sometimes saw him collecting a pension or something from the Post Office, but he was never pointed out... There were an awful lot of old characters about, so he didn't stand out.

While Schwitters was working on his Merzbarn, envisioned as a 'walk-in collage', he made a living selling small realist paintings to tourists, giving locals who remembered him the impression that he was 'a penniless, eccentric foreigner'. I think this project to restore the barn and create a museological simularcrum of its interior is really one to watch. The development of the project can be seen at http://www.merzbarn.net/

English Heritage

Thanks Rebecca...the programme on English Heritage BBC2 was very interesting....(it's also been reviewed by Bryan Appleyard in the Sunday Times 'Culture' section 26/04/09...I'll let you all read it).....in relation to EH endorsing a particular manufacturer of repro chimneypieces, it seems quite appropriate that they are moving into the property business....it's a kind of strategic move that fits neatly with F Jameson's 'cultural logic of late Capitalism' don't you think? And we wouldn't want all those Country Houses to end up like Sutton Scarsdale would we?
(also an EH property....shown here..)
What's also interesting is the way that EH vigorously applies its own historical (and insitutionally informed) logic to 'recreate' the past....a potent example of how 'taste' is equally complicit in historical narratives don't you think?....
Anyway, I can't wait for next week's programme - it's the turn of the 1960s Sheffield concrete high rise to be 'saved'....do you remember the debacle about the Smithson's 'Robin Hood Gardens' (built 1972) that the great and the good tried to get Listed?.....
.........I agree that as a building it is kind of sublime, but as the residents suggested, it's also rather a pain in the butt as an experiment in social engineering.........what do you think....

Mark

English Heritage on your Idiotbox

There's a new four-part series called English Heritage on BBC2 at 9pm tonight. Particularly relevant for us Country House Collections people. Click here for an interesting article about English Heritage being very naughty with reproduction Adam fireplaces.

Dafter Taxidermy

The daft taxidermy award for this month goes to the Museo Municipal de Varadero, Cuba. Are dogs supposed to have eyebrows?

It also has an accidental vivarium.

 

Art School!

A recommendation for anyone in Manchester over the next few days - tired of conference schmoozing? Why not visit the MMU Special Collections! They have a really interesting exhibition called Art School! which features student work, photographs and other material from the School of Art Archive. Open 10am-4pm, 4th Floor of the Sir Kenneth Green Library.