Blake’s works have been brought to life in new readings by our members, and we have been given access to historic recordings made by the Sydney Group in the 1960′s, thanks to the heroic rescue efforts of Alan Pert.

There are still a few works not represented, and space for alternative readings, so if you are interested in creating your own recording, contact voice[at]blakesociety.org for more information.

8 February 2013 – 23 June 2013

John Rylands Library, 150 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3EH

Manchester is now just a two hour train journey from London, so this intimate exhibition of Blake’s work is accessible to visitors and is also accessible to the eye, heart and mind.

On display are about 30 examples of his work as a commercial print maker – the bread and butter jobs that kept Blake in funds for most of his working life.  As works commissioned under the strictures of a commercial publisher, much of Blake’s natural obfuscation has been tempered by the commissioning process, leaving designs that can be more immediately appreciated.

The John Rylands Library is a wonder of late Victorian philanthropy.  The widow of a Manchester cotton trader, Enriqueta Rylands built and endowed the library in memory of her late husband.  The library opened to the public on 1 January 1900 and in today’s money, she spent over £50m on the building and its books.  In a late Gothic style, the architecture is somewhere between a medieval monastic library and a film set; the building itself has recently received a £17m restoration including the addition of modern glass extension containing a new entrance, shop and café.

‘Burning Bright’ is presented in the stacks of the library, 30 exhibits in glass cases, weaving in and out through the library’s shelves.  The exhibition resulted from a project stemming from the research of the art historian Dr Colin Trodd at the University of Manchester. A number of his students undertook a search through eighteenth and nineteenth-century books looking for prints by Blake that may have been overlooked or had not been individually catalogued. The students must have been amazed at what they discovered.  Besides identifying many individual prints by Blake within the pages of larger publications, the students also discovered an unknown copy of the Book of Job. Other highlights in the collection are two copies of Blair’s Grave and a copy of Young’s Night Thoughts – copy ‘O’ in the alphabetic numbering favoured by Blake scholars of the 26 copies that were hand coloured by Catherine and William.

The exhibition also explores the importance of Blake to later generations of artists by demonstrating a cascade of influence down through the generations.  Beginning with the small group of artists who gathered around Blake at the end of his life, The Ancients, it traces his influence through The Pre-Raphaelites, The Aesthetic Movement, The Arts and Crafts Movement, Art Nouveau, and ending with the Visionaries of the early twentieth-century.

In the dark atmosphere of the John Ryland’s Library, perhaps my favourite piece was Virgil’s Pastorals where Blake inverts day into night.  He achieved this visual effect through a complicated process that exasperated and almost alienated his client, the Revd Dr Robert Thornton. The good doctor was not happy with the proofs and went to a more conventional engraver to redo the work; however friends intervened and Thornton was persuaded to accept Blake’s recidivist tendency towards complexity.

The commission was Blake’s one adventure in wood engraving. The notes to the exhibition explained the process: Blake first drew a design onto a copper plated with a waxy liquid that could resist acid. Then he dissolved away the remaining surface using aqua fortis.  So far, so good – these are the standard, albeit technically demanding steps in relief etching, a process that Blake invented to create his illuminated books. However instead of printing the image onto paper, he printed the plate onto a block of wood to create a guide that he then used to engrave the final design into the wood, which was then used to produce the illustrations for the book.

One wonders if the notes to the exhibition can be correct here – the process seems so tortuous, if not incredible.  But then, this review was written in Sanskrit, edited in Aramaic before being finally translated into English.

TJH

March 2013

6.30 pm on Tuesday 15 January 2013 at the City of Westminster Archive Centre.

Immediately after the AGM there will be a talk by a rising young writer, and a winner of the 2011 Tithe Grant, Ryan Whatley who will interpret The Everlasting Gospel through the tongue of a poet.

For more information please see events

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Sunset at Stonehenge on 27 September 2012  ~ photograph by Carol Garrido

The Transfiguration is one of the great forgotten Feast days of the Christian Church but it is also one of the keys to understanding the life and work of William Blake. In a modern exegesis it is the issue of how we show our divinity to others. The event is recounted in the Bible in three of the Gospels (Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36).

Blake created a watercolour of The Transfiguration for his patron Thomas Butts around 1800 that is now in the V&A in London.  The Transfiguration also occurs as a detail in the Epitome of James Hervey’s ’Meditations among the Tombs’ c 1825 now in Tate Britain.

This year on the Feast day there will be a conversation into the role and significance of the Transfiguration, looking at the image and its purpose to Blake. And more personally, how a representation of the Transfiguration might appear to an artist today.

This event is one of our occasional series of impromptu conversations exploring a particular element in Blake. In the case of the Transfiguration it resonates with the contemporary mantra that change begins with a conversation you have never had in your life before …

Monday 6 August 2012 at 6.30 pm at The House of William Blake at 17 South Molton Street London W1K 5QT – a few minutes from Bond Street Tube

Booking is essential – places are limited to the number who appeared on the high mountain originally – please email   transfiguration@blakesociety.org

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Blake Society Chair Tim Heath’s introduction is available as PDF document here. Many thanks to Adriana Diaz-Enciso for coordinating video of the event.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.