September 2013

  • Hepworth’s “Winged Figure”: 50th anniversary

    Hepworth’s “Winged Figure”: 50th anniversary

    โ€œSculpture to me is primitive, religious, passionate and magicalโ€”always affirmative.โ€ So wrote Barbara Hepworth (1903โ€“75), perhaps the finest female sculptor the world has ever seen. There are certain areas in the arts where women feel naturally at home. Some where they take over and feminize. In fiction and on the…

  • Tying the Knot in Urfa

    Tying the Knot in Urfa

    Yes, but which one? The Spanish, the Persian or the Turkish? When it comes to carpets there is plenty of choice and although I spent a week at it, I am not too sure which one it was. Carpet making has a long tradition in Turkey. It harks back to…

  • Venice and the Politcs of Washing

    Venice and the Politcs of Washing

    W.D. Howells, Venetian Life, first published in 1866, and Polly Coles, The Politics of Washing: Real Life in Venice, Robert Hale, 2013. A recent review of Polly Colesโ€™ The Politics of Washing claimed that it was the most perceptive book on Venice since W.D. Howellsโ€™ Venetian Life. In a field…

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