Five years ago a hoard of William Blake's water colours were discovered in a bookshop (as opposed to ubiquitous attic) in Scotland. Fast forward to now, and in May these works are to be sold separately at Sotheby’s. This is no small thing. These little numbers include a group of illustrations which Blake created for Robert Blair’s poem ‘The Grave’. They’re all nicely grouped together and have been for some 200 years. Naturally the arts world is up in arms on this – and it’s hardly surprising. To break up a collection that’s presented as a set is rather ridiculous. Still, the house expects to rope in around $17 million for the works so, what’s a little controversy in the face of so much cash? There’s an overriding argument that several of the works have been lost, meaning that numbers are down and the collection is already shattered. In my mind, this is like taking a grade one building with a touch of damp and suggesting demolition. You know; ‘sorry about the subsidence, best call in the bulldozing squad,’ with a touch of, ‘guess what we could do, we could build a bunch of easy to retail Wimpy Homes instead.’
Meanwhile the Tate has been trying to raise the money to buy the works but, so far, has been unsuccessful. The gallery is prominent repository of Blake’s works; there are currently several of his pieces on show at their much publicized Gothic Nightmares exhibition. I'm thinking, maybe they could sell some of the Fuselis’? There must be someone who has a soft spot for ‘The Nightmare’? Someone that's willing to bring a little twisted sexuality (repressed even) into their exclusive home?
No comments:
Post a Comment