William Blake Tate Britain
Just managed to catch one of the last days of this exhibition. Cold wet Monday morning and nothing else much on show in London so not surprised that the event was very busy indeed. William Blake Tate Britain
Or could it be that William Blake is of more interest than I thought?
And that is what the exhibition revealed.
Blake’s work has inspired thinkers, artists, politicians and intellectuals with its spirituality and originality. It is revolutionary, it is comforting, it is terrifying. It’s an excellent mix of all emotions but I wouldn’t want any of it on my house walls.
Amazing art tale: William Blake wrote the poem that became the famous hymn ‘Jerusalem’ (1804-8) with music added by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916 (WW1 drive for patriotism).
Blake was inspired by the legend that Jesus Christ visited Albion where his companion Joseph of Arimathea (a merchant in tin – mined heavily in the West Country for millennia) planted his staff that became the thorn tree in Glastonbury Abbey (still there but…).
In the Book of Revelation, the English ‘New Jerusalem’ or ‘heaven on Earth’ foresaw the ‘2nd coming’ thus in place of ‘the dark Satanic Mills’ of the Industrial Revolution, which Blake like many of his Romanticist contemporaries abhorred.
“And did those feet in ancient time …”
William Blake Tate Britain