Two Girls and a Beehive (Paperback)

Graham Burchell

ISBN 10: 1909747599 / ISBN 13: 9781909747593

Published by Two Rivers Press, Reading, 2020

About this Item

Paperback. Two Girls and a Beehive offers a minutely observed exploration of the life and work of visionary artist Stanley Spencer and his first wife, Hilda Carline. Inspired by paintings, letters, personal and social history, these poems illuminate Spencer's creative legacy and engage the reader with the contradictory beatitudes of his art.Nothing less than a masterpiece of ekphrasis, this is a work of extraordinary unity, daring and emotional breadth These poems marvellously reconfigure Spencers tawny pigments, scenes of warfare and bohemian domesticity, couplings in low-ceilinged rooms, flowered prints, the strange militancy of his Christian faith and, above all, the annihilation of a woman artist on the altars of desire, betrayal and art. I am smitten from the first page to the last.ANNIE FREUD A marvellous act of dual authorship by two poets at the top of their game. Something magical happens in these pages. Works of visual power exchange speech with poems written in response to them. Biographical poems thoroughly inhabit and re-imagine the minds of Stanley and Hilda Spencer. The book is an act of what Dante called visible speaking (esto visible parlare): visual practice takes on a refreshed verbal life; the landscapes of paintings rise clear in the minds eye; and their subjects speak newly to the minds ear.DAVID MORLEYAn original and impressive collection, varied yet unified. ANTHONY THWAITE Two Girls and a Beehive offers a minutely observed exploration in poetry of the life and work of Stanley Spencer and his two wives, Hilda Carline and Patricia Preece, engaging readers with the particular unease that must trouble any follower of Spencer's paintings, with their human dramas and contradictory beatitudes. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781909747593

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Two Girls and a Beehive (Paperback)
• Publisher: Two Rivers Press, Reading
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1909747599
• ISBN 13: 9781909747593
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Two Girls and a Beehive offers a minutely observed exploration of the life and work of visionary artist Stanley Spencer and his first wife, Hilda Carline. Inspired by paintings, letters, personal and social history, these poems illuminate Spencer's creative legacy and engage the reader with the contradictory beatitudes of his art. Nothing less than a masterpiece of ekphrasis, this is a work of extraordinary unity, daring and emotional breadth These poems marvellously reconfigure Spencers tawny pigments, scenes of warfare and bohemian domesticity, couplings in low-ceilinged rooms, flowered prints, the strange militancy of his Christian faith and, above all, the annihilation of a woman artist on the altars of desire, betrayal and art. I am smitten from the first page to the last. ANNIE FREUD A marvellous act of dual authorship by two poets at the top of their game. Something magical happens in these pages. Works of visual power exchange speech with poems written in response to them. Biographical poems thoroughly inhabit and re-imagine the minds of Stanley and Hilda Spencer. The book is an act of what Dante called visible speaking (esto visible parlare): visual practice takes on a refreshed verbal life; the landscapes of paintings rise clear in the minds eye; and their subjects speak newly to the minds ear. DAVID MORLEY An original and impressive collection, varied yet unified. ANTHONY THWAITE