Artemisia Gentileschi on BBC4 and iPlayer

Yesterday, BBC4 broadcast a film about the story of 17th-century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi called Michael Palin's Quest for Artemisia.

I'm assuming Michael's name figures first in the title as he's beginning to get a bit of a reputation for doing programmes about leading artists.

• Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershoi
• Michael Palin in Wyeth's World

I'm highlighting this latest programme here as not everybody will have spotted it in the schedules plus I know that people seem to be able to watch the BBC from outside the UK - I don't ask how!) and/or get the BBC's art programmes at a later date.

Key points for me:

• Her story is very unusual and my jaw kept dropping at the nature of justice for women in 17th century Italy.  The nature of her background - and the rape and the rape trial and the torture - seems to have influenced the nature of her paintings. During the trial, she was painting a woman cutting a man’s head off. I don't find it at all surprising that she kept reprising paintings of a woman cutting off a man's head! Judith Slaying Holofernes is the painting she was working on during the trial
• one can well understand why she may have been taken up as a 'cause' by feminists promoting women artists - but it does make me wonder if one stereotype substitutes for another
• I was fascinated by how many times she seems to have painted herself - both metaphorically and in reality - and sometimes more than once in the same painting. I kept wondering how she'd managed to get a perspective on certain angles of her face.
• Her paintings have become very valuable - and hence there is an incentive to find works by her
• There is no complete record of her work - and developing one is made more complicated by the fact her style of painting changed over time. New works are being discovered and at the same time other works are being accredited to her which probably should not.

Reviews of the programme

• Michael Palin’s Quest for Artemisia review: rape, torture and sexism – all in a day’s work for a 17th-century artist | The Guardian
• Michael Palin's Quest for Artemisia, review: 'aimless and toothless' | The Telegraph
• Michael Palin’s Quest for Artemisia, BBC Four | The Arts Desk

Artemisia Gentileschi - Self-Portrait as a Lute Player

These are the websites of some of the people who appeared in the film

• Dr Jane Fortune is the Founder and Chair of Advancing Women Artists - an organisation I'd not heard of before.
• The British art and painting conservator in the programme is Nicola Ann MacGregor. She does not seem to have a website but is mentioned on various, notably:
• Exceptional Florentines - Annual awards ceremony of Advancing Women Artists Foundation | The Florentine
A “new” Artemisia: found, restored, on tour | ArtTrav - this describes the process of restoring the painting cited towards the end of the programme
• Artemisia on Art 4 Awareness

More information about Artemisa Gentileschi

Biography

• Artemisia Gentileschi Biography | Biography.com
• 10 Facts You May Not Know About Artemisia Gentileschi | Hyperallegic
• Meet Artemisia Gentileschi, The Feminist Contemporary Of Caravaggio | The Daily Beast

Compendium

• The Life and Art of Artemisia Gentileschi
• Artemisia Gentileschi | Brooklyn Museum - includes images of Judy Chicago's depiction of her Artemisia Gentileschi place setting

Paintings

• Web Gallery of Art - Artemisia Gentileschi
• Judith and Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi | Uffizi Gallery Guide
• Violence and Virtue: Artemisia Gentileschi’s “Judith Slaying Holofernes” | art Institute of Chicago

Movies

• Artemisia Gentileschi in the Movies

Norman Ackroyd on iPlayer

This week the first episode of "What do artists do all day?" was devoted to artist and printmaker Norman Ackroyd RA.  I was particularly keen to see this as he is one of my favourite contemporary printmakers and I always enjoy seeing his enormously atmospheric etchings of the coastline of the UK

iPlayer programme available until 1:00am on 29th March

It was a sheer utter delight to watch a hugely competent printmaker create an etching and talk intelligently and in depth about the process of how he makes art - in this instance a view of the cliffs of Muckle Flugga in the Shetland Islands

We follow the process all the way from the boat off the Scottish coastline all the way through his habitual processes and the specific ones required for this etching - all the way through to the creation of an artist's proof of in his old warehouse studio in Bermondsey in South London.

From delicate work on the copper plate, through preparation of the aquatint resin that brings shade and texture to the image and the application of the acid which etches the final picture from the copper, the film captures each stage of the process behind his craft.

At the same time he talks about how the son of a butcher in Leeds came to go to the Royal College of Art in the early 1960s.

If this is going to be the standard for the series, then I think this is going to be a MUST WATCH programme.

You can see the episode on iPlayer until 1.00am on Friday 29th March

You can see his fine art prints on his website

Overview of the career of Norman Ackroyd (as per his website)

• 1938: Born Leeds
• 1956-61: Leeds College of Art
• 1961-64: Royal College of Art, London
• 1988: Elected Royal Academician
• 1994: Appointed Professor of Etching, University of the Arts
• 2000: Elected Senior Fellow, Royal College of Art
• 2007: Awarded a C.B.E. for Services to Engraving and printing

He has produced work for many significant commissions and has work in prestigious collections all over the world.  It also sells pretty fast at the RA Summer Exhibition