Most of the ‘art’ we hear about today is fashion driven by commerce. Money is just a means of exchange, a means of keeping a roof over your head and all that, but to pursue wealth for its own sake is decadent. I agree with Samuel Beckett that one has to teach oneself not to want things. One wants many things for no better reason than that advertisers train us to want them.

- John Calder being sane and heartening, from Textualities.

FUCKING UGLY BUILDINGS

I hate how noone ever talks about how bad British architecture really is. I hate the bastards who make these buildings. So here I am, taking the piss out of them.

Yes, mate! Read and see more here on The Ghost of (Ian) Nairn's blog Bad British Architecture.

COOL, CLEAR WATER

He found the closest thing to an abstract image in our world and a system of painting it as figuratively as possible.

Bryan Appleyard on David Hockney's swimming pools, from The Pleasures of Peace. Appleyard has his own cheerful, intelligent blog here. In this book of his, subtitled 'Art and the Imagination in Postwar Britain' he grabs the reins of the historical forces of the period and manages to get them to play together rather beautifully. It's a wonderful kick up the behind for someone whose own study of the period sometimes seems all-too-prone to whittle the really juicy stuff into dry bone.

Ransackers

In a time of inexorable daftness re: higher education policy, this is pretty marvellous.