Jonathan Swift at 350. Black and White Art. History of British nature writing.
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2017
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What does Gulliver's Travels say to us now? Satirical cartoonist Martin Rowson and Daniel Cook from the University of Dundee assess the legacy of Swift's best-known work. And Monochrome exhibition co-curator Jennifer Sliwka and photographer Sarah Pickering discuss exhibits ranging from black and white art on glass, vellum, ceramic, silk, wood, and canvas from Leonardo da Vinci to Gerhard Richter to a room filled with yellow light by the artist Olafur Eliasson, who created the Sun installation at Tate Modern. And New Generation Thinker Will Abberley tells Anne about a new project to compile a comprehensive history of British nature writing.
Monochrome: Painting in Black and White runs at the National Gallery in London from October 30th until February 18th 2018.
Swift at 350: A Graphic Anthology is launched at Dundee on November 25th along with a series of events for families, Telling Tall Tales, Gulliver! A Fantastical Pantomime and an exhibition at the local library in Dundee. Find out more at www.beinghumanfestival.org.
Martin Rowson is taking part in a discussion about satire at the British Library on November 28th with Jonathan Coe, Rory Bremner, Judith Hawley, and Sathnam Sanghera.
Land Lines – Modern British Nature Writing 1789-2014 - Finding the UK's favourite nature book. Find out More at http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/favouritenaturebooks/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? |
| 0:23.3 | It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music |
| 0:27.0 | when it's out of ice cream. |
| 0:28.8 | Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:32.0 | Hello, I'm Anne McHawoy. |
| 0:34.1 | Thanks for downloading this Arts and Ideas podcast from the BBC's free-thinking team. |
| 0:39.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:43.7 | If this was a visual medium, then this edition of free thinking should really be coming to you in glorious black and white, |
| 0:51.1 | for reasons I hope will shortly become clear. |
| 1:01.1 | It has nothing to do with the fact that the 350th anniversary of Jonathan Swift's birth is nearly upon us, |
| 1:09.9 | and that consequently we'll be discussing the famous satirist with the editor of a forthcoming new edition of Gulliver's Travels and a notable cartoonist. |
| 1:15.5 | Neither is it connected with a project to compile a comprehensive history of British nature writing that one of our new generation thinkers has embarked on. |
| 1:20.2 | So why would we want to eschew all the primary colours and their composites? |
| 1:24.7 | The answer lies in an exhibition that's just opened at the National Gallery |
| 1:28.7 | in London. It's called monochrome, painting in black and white, and it features work from the 15th |
| 1:34.9 | century up to the present day. Joining me in the studio are the exhibitions co-curator, Jenica |
| 1:41.1 | and photographer Sarah Pickering. Jennifer, you're a specialist in Italian Renaissance art. |
| 1:47.4 | Where did the idea come from for an exhibition that turns its back on all that glorious |
| 1:52.3 | colour? |
| 1:53.4 | There's an artist I've been working on for many years called Domenico Becafumi, and I became |
| 1:58.9 | rather obsessed with him to the point of writing my PhD |
| 2:01.5 | on him many years ago. And he works almost strictly in back and white in the cathedral in Siena. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.