Surprise! A mosaic in a hospital.

There's a mosaic in Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.  

Yes, in a hospital.  You can find art in a hospital.  In fact, there is lots of art Addenbrooke's, and I think it's such a lovely idea to enhance the environment for patients, visitors and workers.

Also, it's a really nice mosaic.

It's all about people reading.  And disporting themselves in nature.

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I do like the way shadows look in a mosaic.

How the tiles follow the shape of the objects:  a 'knit' shape for the socks; a 'stripey' shape for the towel; a 'columnar' shape for neck and arms.  And higgledy-piggledy colour riot for the meadow.

 I love the way the black-and-white geometry of the newspaper contrasts with the floral blue-and-white tiles of the other reader's frock.

 

Hello, watering can, with the not-grey shadow effects.

A sweet touch, this black-and-white "poster" in a 1950s skinny-line curlicue style.

The artist is Jim Anderson.  He's made a number of museums and has helpfully included his website on his signature tile.  I warn you, though: the site's really out-of-date.

Let that be a warning to all artists who think it might be a good idea to include online info within their work...

Read more about art at Addenbrooke's (it's a charitable trust).

Audubon's Birds of America in the Cambridge University Library

Twenty of us gathered round five tables pushed together at the University Library.  On the tables:  two volumes of John James Audubon's Birds of America, published between 1827 and 1838.

These books are extremely rare (only 200 or so copies exist), extremely fragile (ordinary readers cannot usually ask to see them), and extremely huge.  It takes two assistants to turn the pages, and each time they do so, the paper crackles.  The size is called 'double elephant folio' -- a very unusual and very expensive format.

Ed Potten, Head of Rare Books at the Cambridge University Library, gave a brilliant talk on the books.  Here's what I learned:

The Birds of America contains 435 plates in total.  Each plate is based on a watercolour painting by Audubon.  The watercolours were initially engraved onto copper plates by the renowned Edinborough firm of W.H. Lizars.  But most of the watercolours were transferred to print by the London printers R. Havell & Son who used the newly rediscovered aquatint process.  The 13-year-old John Mason painted 50 of the background scenes.

Ed Potton reads out information about Audubon.  The volume is opened to the turkey page:  the bird is life size!

At bottom right, it reads 'Engraved by W.H. Lizars Edin'

Each plate is hand-coloured with watercolour.  This means that all the copies differ slightly from each other.

Ed Potten opened an earlier book for us to show us how Audubon revolutionised wildlife illustration.  This Histoire naturelle des oiseaux (1771) shows static birds:

From the 1771 Histoire naturelle des oiseaux (Natural History of Birds)

By contrast, Audubon's illustrations are action-packed.  Here a rattlesnake attacks a mockingbirds' nest.  He has turned 'scientific' imagery into an exciting story.

Critics complained that such scenes were not realistic.  How would a rattlesnake manage to climb up so high?

But it's a bit like the dinosaur art at the Sedgwick Museum:  ultimately, we don't care that it's not realistic.  We want drama and beauty in our art.

It's odd that Audubon's plates are so dynamic -- considering that he did them from dead birds.  Audubon collected his specimens by going out and shooting them.  It wasn't unusual for him to come home with 50 dead birds in a day.

He then dissected and stuffed the birds.  His studio was crammed full of these stuffed birds.  One visitor noted that Audubon's house smelled of "dead meat".

Audubon's watercolours still exist:  the New York Historical Society owns them.  The copper plates, though, were destroyed in a fire.  The Birds of America was a publishing sensation, and the smaller version of it a bestseller.

What a privilege to have seen these lavish, rare (and completely insane) objects of material beauty.  Thank you, Cambridge Festival of Science!

More information:
The Birds of America page at Wikipedia
The Birds of America page at the National History Museum (London)


More at this blog:
Arty events at the Science Festival 


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Five beautiful books

On the look-out for a last-minute gift?  Or for something to buy, borrow or peruse?

Here are five books that link art, Cambridge and beautiful design.

1.  Yiting Lee, The Alley

The Alley, by Yiting Lee.  An unopenable pop-up book!  Watch a video of the book in action.

Yiting Lee is a graduate of the renowned MA in Children's Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art.  

When I met the artist at the Mill Road Winter Fair, she told me that her lecturers had at first been skeptical about this project.  They told her that this wasn't a proper book as you couldn't open it fully.   But that's just what makes this book so mysterious and marvellous.  (And there's a twist at the end.  Shh.)

Not available in shops but contact the artist if you wish to buy a copy.  Her website is here.  

2.  Kindersley inscriptions

Cutting across Cambridge:  Kindersley Inscriptions in the City and University, by Lida Lopes Cardozo Kindersley.  Published by Cambridge University Press.

This little book has photos of and information on all of the publicly-accessible Cambridge carvings made by the Kindersley Workshop.

I stumbled across David Kindersley's letter-cutting workshop back in September (I may post about this in future).  It's a national institution and the distinctive carved letters can be found throughout Cambridge and beyond.  

I found this inscription in the small church graveyard next to the Kindersley Workshop on Victoria Avenue. The cutting is beautiful.  

3.  Kazuno Kohara, Ghosts in the House!

Source:  Wikireadia

Kazuno Kohara is another graduate of the MA in Children's Book Illustration.  Her book Ghosts in the House! was the New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of 2008.  Published by Macmillan. 

I love these whimsical ghosts, the spare use of colour and the vintage look of the lino-cuts.

4.  Epic of the Persian Kings

Epic of the Persian Kings:  The Art of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, by Barbara Brend and Charles Melville.  Published by the Fitzwilliam Museum.

This gorgeous exhibition was at the Fitzwilliam Museum two years ago.  The catalogue is beautifully produced.

The catalogue reproduces the exquisite and lavish illustrations done over the centuries for the famous Book of Kings, the Persian epic written by the poet Firdausi in the late 10th / early 11th century.  Each full-page illustration is accompanied by a short explanation of the story. There are also some scholary texts at the beginning.

A book that's a joy to browse.

5.  Art in Oceania

Art in Oceania, by Nick Thomas (Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge) and Peter Brunt.  Published by Thames & Hudson.

A few weeks ago, I went to the book launch of Art in Oceania, held at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.  A small but eager crowd stood around with glasses of wine and leafed through copies of this wonderful tome.

Jonathan Lamb, Professor of Humanities at Vanderbilt University, introduced the book.  He said that we should not view the ocean between the different islands of the Pacific as a barrier that separated them but as a means of communication and trade that linked them.  I found that really interesting.  

He also pointed out how radical Art in Oceania is.  It contains chapters on prehistoric, pre-colonial and colonial art but also on tourist art, art on T-shirts, the art of tattooing and contemporary art.  I find it absolutely fascinating to dip into.

And you can see how lavish the production values are.  A very special gift (to yourself or to someone else).

Sixth bonus book:

Cambridge:  An Architectural Guide, by Helena Webster and Peter Howard (2000).  Out of print but look out for it at second-hand sites!  It's a pocket-sized gem of a book that can be your travel companion on physical walks or virtual armchair tours.


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