The issue raised at the John Golding conference yesterday was whether or not it was possible to be taken seriously as a writer and a painter with the presumption that if, like John, one was very successful as a writer, then one’s standing as a painter would suffer. Then I thought Lawrence Gowing was a brilliant writer. Maybe people didn’t rate him later as a painter. Ian McKeever is a very thoughtful writer. I think it has only enhanced an understanding of his painting. Tim Hyman is a significant historian of Sienese painting. Does it mean that people undervalue his painting ? Michael Craig-Martin has just published a volume of essays. Have we become more tolerant of painter’s writing ? Or is it that deep down Golding himself suffered anxieties about his painting, like Cartier Bresson devoting the second half of his life to drawing.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Denton Welch created a very touching body of painting and writing during his very short life. I hope he is still remembered.
William Blake was pretty good at both; Wyndham Lewis even better… Samuel Butler praps not up to either as painter…? Golding’s chum, R.B. Kitaj, still a greatly under-rated painter and author/intellectual. I didn’t feel like attending Brian Sewell’s memorial largely cos of his 1994 Kitaj-bashing and don’t spose I’ll be attending Anal Andy’s nor Dormant Dick’s for the same reason… (all credit for such nicknames, as also Dame Brian’s, to Kitaj’s unpublished diaries, as quoted in http://emajartjournal.com/2013/11/30/edward-chaney-r-b-kitaj-1932-2007-warburgian-artist/
Didn’t go back into history, but Reynolds wasn’t bad either. Charles
I should have said that Kitaj probably – actually, definitely – did suffer for being perceived as too-intellectual. And I think there is an anti-intellectual streak in English painting. Charles
Another reason why it’s so good to have a President with real hinterland ( poetry, ideas) in Christopher Le Brun. There have been too few PRAs with intellects.
I enjoy the writing of David Jones as much as his painting. At this point, I’d say his paintings, engravings, and watercolors are more valued than his poetry.
Yes, very good exhibition at Pallant House at the moment – and accompanying book by Paul Hills and Ariane Bankes. Charles
Hadn’t realised, until an exhibition in the King’s College London bit of Somerset House, that Beryl Bainbridge was an accomplished artist as well as a writer. And, of course, some of the best writing of the last few years has come from visual artist Marion Coutts in her memoir of her husband Tom Lubbock’s death.
Joan
Matthew Collings is another good example of a clever and effective stream-of-consciouness writer who is also a painter. Charles