“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Thursday, September 28, 2023

The Return of Blake's 7

 "Blake's 7, that's how I remember it." The security guard was explaining to ten-year-old me how to find the William Blake in The Tate Britain. In those times he was exhibited in a gorgeous smoked glass room smack in the middle of what was then called the Tate Gallery. 

I was crestfallen to find ten years ago that Blake had been shoved upstairs like the madwoman in the attic of the Clore Gallery, where they house the Turners. 

So crestfallen, I penned this. The gallery seemed to have been invaded by BP, not just funded by it. I hated it. 

I was thus really happy today when my friend Cliff posted this on Facebook. In short, they've moved Blake to a much better position--and he's in a room 7 again...

Thank you Cliff! I wrote to the Tate at once. It's as if they listened. Or as if they got wind of Hell. I do talk about the Blake unpleasantness in that book, so I'll be happy to amend it when we copy edit (coming right up). 

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