Bernardo Bertolucci
The Conformist, 1970
This is an early effort by Bertolucci clearly under the influence of Fellini and others such as Godard, which has been lifted from Alberto Moravia's novel of the same name. Like all Bertolucci movies it deals with 'time' particularly at the beginning of the film where the recent and distant past in the protagonist's life are referenced in a melange of flashbacks around the active present and a subterfuge of sexual liaisons. I think that Bertolucci is really good with sex scenes particularly the more perverse forms and this film has a number of such scenes. His obsession inherited from Pasolini and Visconti can be found in every film he has made and I get swept up in the sense of allegiance.
Caslon
My all time favourite typeface because of its incredible practicality and elegance. William Caslon released his first typefaces in 1722, his types were based on 17th century Dutch old style designs which were then used extensively in England. Caslon's types became popular throughout Europe and the American colonies. Printer Benjamin Franklin hardly used any other typeface. The first printings of the American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were set in Caslon.
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Susan Norrie's Undertow
Art Gallery of New South Wales
I have never spent as long in an exhibition as this one - probably the length of an average movie. It is beautiful, evocative and truly cinematic. Susan is using cinema as a pictorial medium and it is this quality of cinematicism that best describes the kind of immersive experience that the most interesting new media art manages to achieve. [Editor's note: Susan Norrie's Undertow will be exhibited at The Gus Fisher Gallery in October 2004.]
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Susan Norrie
Undertow |
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
I think Goya is unusual in that his content is more important than his technique. He emits nearly two centuries after his death a whiff of scandal and of potent mystery. His cycle of etchings, Los Desastres de la Guerra continues to be for me an effectively shocking depiction of the horrors of war. I agree with Robert Hughes, after studying other reproductions in books he 'realised to (his) astonishment what extremity of the tragic sense the man could put onto little sheets of paper.' I have at least ten coffee-table sized books on this artist.
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Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
Los Desastres de la Guerra |
Experience
by Martin Amis
The cover picture showing an 8 year old Amis smoking a cigarette says it all. This is Amis as a memorist rather than a novelist, putting aside fiction for facts, coldbloodedly told.
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If in Auckland, catch some early works by Mary-Louise Browne included in Somersault: 8 artists, 116 years at the Anna Miles Gallery until 26th June 2004.
The Anna Miles Gallery is at Suite 4J, 47 High Street, Auckland.
If you are in Wellington, visit the Bartley Nees Gallery for If you told me - new work by Mary-Louise Browne from 25th May - 19th June. For more information on this important exhibition, see the Events section.
The Bartley Nees Gallery is at 147 Cuba Street, Wellington
Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday 11am - 5.30pm, Saturday 11am - 3pm
Phone: 04 801 9795 http://www.bartleyneesgallery.co.nz/