– Jeff Nuttall: ‘Bomb Culture’, 1970 (1968), p19 / V. E. Day 08.05.2020

 

Performance artist, poet, novelist, jazz musician, teacher, theorist, painter and sculptor, Jeff Nuttall is the only all-round genius most of us are likely to meet in our lifetime. And let the sceptic beware: this is no exaggeration. His talents usually control at the limits of human exuberance. His skills are both highly local and deeply embedded in European twentieth-century arts. In a culture exemplified by tepidly isolated skills, greed, pop repetitions and art trivia, Jeff Nuttall’s work is bracing and joyful, celebrating another world of values, ones that last.

– Eric Mottram: ‘Calderdale Landscapes’ exhibition, Angela Flowers Gallery, London, 1987

05.08.2019

ESCALATION | The aristocracy is always dying. The top of the social tree is always falling away in twigs and powders and leaf-skeins.

– Jeff Nuttall & Rodick Carmichael: ‘Common Factors/Vulgar Factions’, 1977

PDF: Common Factors/Vulgar Factions

01.09.2019

PDF: JN | IT Archive

PDF: FOOT NOTES 19.01.1968 01.02.1968

02.09.2019

(3) See sketchbook in the coll. Miss Joan Ivimy, or repro, in “The Samuel Palmer Valley of Vision” by Geoffrey Grigson, Phoenix, 1960.

(Image Service order FI-001120363, 01.09.2019)

Front inside cover of a sketch-book of 77 sketches bound originally in sheep, inscribed with the artist’s name and address. c.1824 | ©Trustees of the British Museum.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 3 

23.12.2019

(1) See “A RUSTIC SCENE” by Samuel Palmer, 1825. Coll. Ashmolean Museum.

(2) See “OAKS ON HAMPSTEAD HEATH” by Samuel Palmer.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 1 

(5) See “BEING BEAUTEOUS” by Peter Redgrove in “The Penguin Book of Sick Verse” ed. Geo. Mac-Beth.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 5 

(6) See “THE SPIDER” by Harry Fainlight in “Wholly Communion” Lorrimer Films Booklet 1965.

When tested on spiders, the drug tends to distort the symmetry of the webs they are spinning.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 6 

20.03.2020

(7) See cartoon strip by me in INTERNATIONAL TIMES Issues 1–8, also “THE CASE of ISABEL and the BLEEDING FOETUS by me, Turret 1967.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 7

21.03.2020

(8) See 6th stanza from Part One of “MALDOROR” by Lautreamont, New Directions 1965.

(9) See 13th stanza of Part Two from “MALDOROR.”

“One should let one’s fingernails grow for fifteen days.” – Lautreamont

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 8 & 9

24.03.2020

(10) “If I were tickled by the hatching hair . . The itch of man upon the baby’s thigh I would not fear the gallows nor the axe . . “ from p.12 “COLLECTED POEMS” by Dylan Thomas, Dent 1952.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_ONQvjeOho

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 10

(4) See Fuseli’s drawings of courtesans made between 1805 and 1808.

Henry FUSELI (1741-1825) Switzerland, England, Two Courtesans with Fantastic Hairstyles and Hats c1790-92, pen with brown, pink and grey wash, Auckland Art Gallery Tou o Tamaki, purchased 1965.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 4

26.03.2020

(11) See “THE SICK ROSE” by Wm. Blake.

(12) See drawing in the Tate Gallery Collection.

Plate number 39 ‘The Sick Rose’ from ‘The Songs of Innocence and of Experience’ composed sometime between 1789 and 1794. Hand-coloured print, issued c.1826.

After the Albert Hall event I wrote to Klaus Lea crying: “London is in flames. The spirit of William Blake walks on the water of the Thames, sigma has exploded into a giant rose. Come and drink the dew.”

– Jeff Nuttall: ‘Bomb Culture’, 1968

PDF: JN FOOT NOTES 11 & 12

(13) See plate in Gilchrist’s biography of Blake.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 13

(14) Compare “TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY” by each of these artists.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 14

20.04.2020

(15) See pages 8 10 and 12 in “POEMS I WANT TO FORGET” by me, Turret Press 1965.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 15

07.05.2020

(16) See “STANDING FORM” by Graham Sutherland, Arts Council Collection.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 16

(17) See interview with John Russell in the SUNDAY TIMES colour magazine and in CAMBRIDGE OPINION No. 37.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 17

08.05.2020

(18) Romanesque Church, heavily decorated, between Hereford and Abergavenny.

“My intended detachment was completely destroyed. The building refused to be seen as an arrangement in stone, as the key to a time and a tradition, or as a piece in the jig-saw puzzle of art history. It stood unavoidably as a work of art, the timeless expression of a vision experienced under that same sun which now winked at me through the deep yew tree.”

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 18

(19) See “THE NEW BOOK / A BOOK OF TORTURE” by Michael McGlure Grove Press.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 19

10.05.2020

(20) Patricidal manic paint. English early 19th C. Both pictures in Tate Gallery.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 20

(21) John Clare, “mad” English poet of the 19th C., spent much of his time in Northampton Lunatic Asylum. Drawing of him by a fellow patient is in the possession of Northampton Public Library.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 21

11.05.2020

(22) Louis Wain, popular Edwardian illustrator of children’s books whose drawings underwent a notable transformation during his periods of schizophrenia. Sequences of his drawings have been reproduced frequently recently in Observer colour magazine and IT amongst other places.

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 22

(23) Aleyse, one of the mental patients whose painting is reproduced and discussed in “THOUGH THIS BE MADNESS”: Thames and Hudson 1961. 

PDF: JN FOOT NOTE 23

15.05.2020

25.04.2021

(25) See “CENTURIES OF MEDITATIONS” by Thomas Traherne. 

Thomas Traherne, CCEL, 1960 – Devotional literature – 228 pages

Common terms and phrases:

able admire affections ages amiable Angels appear beauty become beloved benefit better blessed blessedness body cause Christ communion consider contemplate created creatures darkness delightful desire Divine doth endless enjoy enjoyment esteem Eternity everlasting excellent expressed eyes Father Felicity fountain give glorious glory God’s gold greater greatest happiness hast hath heart Heaven and Earth Holy honour Image infinite Jesus joys King Kingdom knowledge laws light Line live Lord manifest manner means mind miserable nature never object ourselves perfect person pleased pleasure possible praises precious prepared present principles prize Psalm reason receive rejoice riches righteous satisfiedSaviour seen sense serve shine soul space Spirit stars sufferings sweet Temple Thee things Thou thought Throne treasures true understanding unless unto virtue wants wherein whole world wholly wisdom wise wonder