The Bard: William Blake at Flat Time House

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Curated by Chris McCabe in partnership with Flat Time House and Magnus Rena of the Sir Denis Mahon Foundation

This exhibition gives a unique opportunity to view Blake’s work in the domestic environment of Latham’s home – the ‘living sculpture’ of Flat Time House and embodiment of Latham’s worldview. The show is also an opportunity to bring Blake back to Peckham, at a site close to the Rye where, as a young boy, he had his vision of "a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars.”

The two series of works by Blake, from a private collection, generously lent for this exhibition by The Sir Denis Mahon Foundation, are prints taken from poems Blake illustrated by Thomas Gray, The Bard and The Fatal Sisters.  They were commissioned in 1797 by Blake's friend, the sculptor John Flaxman and produced over the following year. Blake mounted Gray's poems to windows cut into large sheets of paper, then drawing and colouring his designs to surround the text. The full series is regarded amongst Blake's major achievements as an illustrator. Throughout the series Blake emphasises the importance of imagination at work in the world through inspired acts of reading, writing, and performing music.[1]

The Gray prints were pretty much unknown until 1919 and the twentieth century reprint was significant in playing an important part in the process of making the works more widely known. Alongside these works, poets, writers and artists using language, have been commissioned to reflect on the contemporary relevance of Blake and Latham’s work. Blake and Latham each created complex, esoteric and all-encompassing cosmologies, which examined the nature and structure of the universe from within the constraints of daily life. The poetic responses to their work will be presented at FTHo alongside the works by Blake and his and Latham’s writing.

An extensive events programme of recitals, guided walks and performances will feature contributions from poets, writers and artists including Keith Jarrett, Chris McCabe, Niall McDevitt, Robert Montgomery, Karen Sandhu, Iain Sinclair and Tamar Yoseloff. A full public programme of events accompanying The Bard will be available.

[1] The William Blake Archive. Illustrations to Gray's poems (Composed c. 1797-98). Retrieved from http://www.blakearchive.org/work/but335