'Adoration of the Magi' by Rubens in King's College Chapel, Cambridge

Yesterday I posted a short video on my Facebook Page of the fan vaulting on the ceiling and stained glass windows of King's College Chapel in Cambridge. It's the largest example of fan vaulting in stone in Europe (see below). The chapel also has some very fine stained glass windows which amazingly survived the Civil War.

The fan vaulting of King's College Chapel with the large wooden rood screen

King's College Chapel is considered to be one of the finest examples of late Perpendicular Gothic in English architecture. It was started in 1446, completed in 1536 and is in active use.

Celia Hart saw my video and told me this story

I hope you took time to admire the Rubens 'Adoration of the Magi'. My father made the wooden triptych picture frame, which was then carefully painted with gesso and one side carefully sanded to an eggshell finish. It was transported to London for an artist (I don't know her name) to create the grisaille harlequin design on the doors. When Dad went to collect the finished frame he found the design had been painted on the rough side! the artist said she preferred the texture to the super smooth finish.

Previous to the Rubens being installed the choir area had ornate dark oak carved panelling. My father (working at Rattee & Kett at the time) was instructed to remove it, and the panels were stored above his workshop. I used to go up in the store loft to see them while I waited for Dad to finish work. Years later and after the old workshops were sold I asked King's College if the panelling still existed, apparently it's now in another store somewhere in Cambridge.

I did indeed - and below you can see my photographs of "Adoration of the Magi" by Peter Paul Rubens.

I also found a link online to a page on the Kings College website about Installing 'Adoration of the Magi' by Rubens in 1967, which presumably related to the episode Celia relates above.

The view of the altar - with Adoration of the Magi in its frame - at the eastern end of the chapel

In 1961 'The Adoration of the Magi', painted by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in 1634 for the convent of the White Nuns at Louvain in Belgium was presented to the College by Maj. A.E. Allnatt with the idea that it should once again be an altar-piece in a great church. During the next seven years, work was undertaken to remove the panelling and lower the floor level so that the work of art was positioned below the beautiful stained glass of the East window. The altar before Rubens

Next is the entire painting above the altar.

Adoration of the Magi by Rubens
- in the frame made by Celia's father

and here's a close up of the main business of the painting

Close up of Adoration of the Magi by Rubens

The Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens painted Adoration of the Magi c.1616-17 during a period when he lived in Antwerp as the leading Flemish painter of that period.

Apparently the painting achieved a world-record price in 1959 when it was sold to the property millionaire Alfred Ernest Allnatt. Two years later he gifted it to Kings College Chapel with a view to it being used as an altarpiece.

More about King's College Cambridge

The College website has more information about:

• the History of the Chapel - the foundation stone was laid in 1446 and the fan vaulting was completed in 1515. 
• the History of the College - founded in 1441 by King Henry VI, college buildings developed over the centuries

I had never realised before that the entire construction was played out within the context of the Wars of the Roses

Review: BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2018

This post about the BP Portrait Award 2018 exhibition includes:

• my overall impression of the exhibition
• my commentary on my analysis of what I've noticed has changed in this year's exhibition - in terms of number of portraits, size and type, composition and colour and who are the subjects - with some number crunching for comparison with last year

The exhibition is at the National Portrait Gallery until 24 September 2017 - admission is free. It tours to Wolverhampton and Edinburgh later in the year (details below)

Posting about the BP Portrait Award Exhibition this year was interrupted by the fire at the Glasgow School of Art - which was a huge distraction - so apologies for the delay.

For the record, I think this might be my favourite portrait - because it's extremely well designed and painted, shows a complete person - with hands - tells a story and has context of which more later....

The Oolographer (in his study) © JJ (Jeremy) Delvine

Overall Impression

The main difference this year is that the exhibition is in a completely different gallery - The Porter Gallery - having been "bounced" by the exhibition about Michael Jackson which is located in its usual gallery.

In the video (below) I'm walking around a completely different space than in previous years. I'm not a fan of this gallery as I always find it claustrophobic. In effect it's a collection of small rooms and it's impossible to get any real distance from the portrait.

The overall effect for me was that it somehow doesn't feel like the BP Portrait Award exhibition.  I'm guessing quite a few other people, particularly the portrait artists who visit, have had the same sensation.

This exhibition has lots of walls which prevent a view of the whole exhibition

Certainly other BP Portrait Award fans who have been to see this exhibition have also been unimpressed with the different gallery.

My first thought about the exhibition though is that it's a shame it been moved to the (wrong name) Galleries (ground floor on the right) - it all feels a bit more disjointed than it normally does.

...in terms of curation and display, this is the worst BP Exhibition I’ve seen in years. Such a diverse selection of paintings should not be crammed and hung so close to each other.

Hence it felt very weird while walking around taking videos of this year's exhibition.

To me it felt a much less imposing exhibition compared to normal.  It certainly lacked a "WOW" factor and colour for the most part - with the notable exception of Felicia Forte's painting!

Maybe unsurprisingly, this was also reflected in the reviews of the exhibition. I checked to see which newspapers and magazines had reviewed the exhibition and found much less than normal.

• The last reference to the BP Portrait Award  by the Daily Telegraph was in 2017
• The Evening Standard - London's evening paper - has been a regular reviewer but this year hasn't done one. This year it just highlighted the winner of the award and had a very short piece about how a BP Portrait Award artist gifts painting to her ballet dancer subject
• Apollo Magazine stopped reviewing in 2015

Other focused on the prizewinners only (i.e. read the press release and reviewed these portraits)

• BBC: BP Portrait Award: Mum drinking tea picture wins top prize 
• The Guardian | Surreal portrait of artist's mother wins 2018 BP portrait award
• Culture Whisper | BP Portrait Award 2018, National Portrait Gallery, London focuses on the winners and extracts from the press release

Those who did provide reviews  of the exhibition included some I'd not heard of before.

• The Upcoming - BP Portrait Award 2018 at the National Portrait Gallery - features images more than words and awarded the exhibition 3 stars "Overall, this show is worth a look for a few gems and some talented artistry, but it’s unlikely to set any sparks flying."

I found just one good review of the exhibition by somebody who had obviously not relied on the press release for the majority of their content, had obviously seen it and then thought about it for more than a minute or two. Worth a read.

• Medium | BP Portrait Award from an artist’s point of view

It left me wondering who all the people at the Press Review represented (other than foreign press) given the dire coverage of the exhibition online.

I guess my conclusion about the press reviews is that if you downgrade an exhibition in terms of the space used for its display, you shouldn't be too surprised if the press react accordingly.

However is the change in gallery the whole story?

Overall, while I liked some of the paintings a lot, I generally found it a less than inspiring exhibition. It lacks something. I can't work out whether this is because scanning the exhibition as a whole is much more difficult or whether the calibre of the work is somehow less.

Rather than blaming the actual portraiture, I keep coming back to how the discontinuity and "chunked" up nature of the exhibition just fails to create an exhibition which impresses. An impressive exhibition needs an exhibition space which measures up to it.

There again it might be because the NUMBER and TYPE of portraits this year are very different. Or the composition or colour

What's Different? An analysis of the Portraits

Every year I do an analysis of the portraits selected for the exhibition in terms of size and type - and you can see the results below. This year's exhibition prompted me to think about a wider-ranging analysis and to think about doing more analysis of the exhibits over time....

The factors I consider below are:

• number
• size and media
• type
• composition
• colour
• subject

The Art Postcard

Art Postcards in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Today I went to Cambridge to meet this afternoon with the Assistant Keeper, Paintings, Drawings and Prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum (and have a very enjoyable afternoon looking at botanical watercolours!)

However during lunch in the cafe I was staring over the shoulder of my other half at the display of art postcards (see above).

It very much reminded me of how my early forays into art history were very much stimulated by regular trips to the bookshops of Cambridge while a student there. My leisure time on Saturday afternoon involved spending ages picking my next art postcards for the progression of art which was slowly wending its way across the wall of my room in college.

Coming home along the M11, I wondered why more artists don't produce art postcards of their own to sell to those who like their art. After all from small acorns giant oak trees grow - and I guess there's more than a few collectors who started collecting art by collecting art postcards.

Next week I'll be spending 2.5 days at the RHS Botanical Art Show at the Horticultural Halls in Westminster and I can guarantee that:

• I'll be spending cash on the botanical art postcards I like the best
• the botanical artists with the most popular art cards will have sold out long before the end of the exhibition - and will tell me how they wish they'd made more as they could have sold their entire stock twice over.

I know we are overwhelmed by the availability of images online - but it's also really nice to see reminders of the art we like best on our walls - in postcard form. Plus it offers endless joy in rearranging the collection! ;)

I wonder how many artists

• think about those who would be more than happy to buy a postcard of their art?
• deliberately produce art at postcard size

Do you make postcards of your art to sell to your fans - who may one day become your future collectors?

Will Chrome 68 label your website as "NOT Secure"?

Starting in July 2018, Google's Chrome Browser (Chrome 68) will start labelling all websites which start with HTTP as "Not Secure". (see 

Below is an illustration by Google of what this means.

• The top line shows what a URL currently looks like in the URL window.
• Below it is what this will change to when Chrome 68 is introduced 

In Chrome 68, the omnibox will display “Not secure” for all HTTP pages.

My expectation is that the "Not secure" will be really obvious - like this "Not secure"

Now a lot of people thought that this would all happen yesterday 1 July 2018 - because Google said it would happen in July.

They missed the bit that said

Beginning in July 2018 with the release of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as “not secure”.

(Chrome 68 has not yet been introduced in the UK - but may have happened elsewhere. I'm on Version 67.0.3396.99 )

Below I look at:

• what does being labelled as "not secure" mean?
• what you need to do re. Google's Blogger (I had a hiccup!)
• How do I make my website/blog/ secure?

What does being labelled "not secure" mean?

The reasons for making your website/blog secure are:

• it protects the integrity of your website
• it protects the privacy and security of your visitors and those shopping via your site
• it's where the web is going. Security is ever increasing and there is a cost to not keeping up with developments in this area.

There are also a number of implications of Google's ongoing drive for better security of all websites

• Your website may not rank well in response to Google search queries. Google is already downgrading all websites in search which are currently marked as "Your connection to this site is not secure" which is what comes up if you click the "i" icon prefacing the URL
• Your website or blog traffic may take a dive - as in "off a cliff". It all depends on whether you depend on your email list of Google for visitors to your website or blog.
• If you are selling art via your website you may notice sales drying up. 
• Obviously your website MUST also be super secure if you are taking any payment transactions via your website - even if you are routing them via a secure process. 
• You can't have an insecure website with PayPal or whatever and expect to get away with it!

So what about Google's Blogger?

This is where it gets interesting - then tortuous - then interesting again. Bear with me!

Michael Jackson: on the Wall at the NPG - Is it Exhibition of the Year?

Michael Jackson: On the Wall is the new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. It's a bit different - off the wall even - although I have to confess I've not seen it yet.

The exhibition is on display from 28th July to 21st October (and is the exhibition that bumped the BP Portrait Award out of its normal gallery). It's also going to be touring to

• The Grand Palais, Paris (November 2018 to February 2019), 
• The Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (March to July 2019) and 
• Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland (August to January 2020).

It's billed as Exhibition of the Year on the website.  I'm afraid I tend to find that sort of description a bit of a deterrent since it will mean lots of hot sweaty bodies in a gallery I know doesn't cope well with heat.

It's clearly something of a pet project of the Director - for all the sort of curatorial reasons which art historians like

His significance is widely acknowledged when it comes to music, music videos, dance, choreography and fashion, but his impact on contemporary art is an untold story. Bringing this story to light has been a long held ambition of mine. It is rare that there is something new to say about someone so famous, but here it is definitely the case

These two videos (made by Associated Press and London Guide) gives an idea of what the exhibition is like - minus the crowds.





Some of the comments made me think this might very well be an interesting exhibition in terms of pure portraiture as well as being 'about Michael Jackson'.

The exhibition takes an entirely new and quite radical approach by exploring the cultural impact of a unique figure through contemporary art, beginning with Andy Warhol – who, with his usual prescience, was the first artist to depict Jackson in the early 1980s – and continuing to the present day.

Key points about the exhibition for me include:

• the Michael Jackson story has been told many times - but never in relation to portraiture
• time for a historical perspective (he would have been 60 in August this year)
• how do you portray somebody who kept morphing his appearance?
• Is it an exhibition about how to portray 
• a celebrity with a strong sense of visual style
• a myth?
• or an individual who suffered from severe burns to his head (requiring the use of wigs) and chronic vitiligo?

Rogers noted in his autopsy report that Jackson's lips were tattooed pink, while his eyebrows were a dark tattoo. The front of his scalp was also tattooed black, apparently to blend his hairline in with the wigs he wore. The autopsy confirmed what Jackson told people who questioned why his skin tone became lighter in the 1980s. Jackson had "vitiligo, a skin pigmentation disease," Rogers said. "So, some areas of the skin appear light and others appear dark." (CNN report of the Michael Jackson autopsy)

• different generations have different ideas about what he looks like
• includes artwork by 48 artists 
• from different generations 
• from all parts of the world 
• using different media
• all with a different take on how he should be represented both literally and metaphorically
• Will it perpetuate the myth or reveal the real person?

One other reason for visiting is that it contains a very large portrait of Jackson as a king on a horse by Kehinde Wiley. It's not a new portrait - but it's the first time it's been seen in the UK. I shall be interested to see what his painting technique is like up close.