Still Lives to Die For

March 12, 2013 by Hotel Alphabet - Marie-Anne Mancio

There is, quite rightly, a lot of fuss in London at the moment over the National Gallery’s show on Barocci touted as “the most important painter you‘ve never heard of.” Sadly this is still the case for so many female artists of the Renaissance and Baroque era who rarely make it into the history books despite being feted in their time. (There are depressingly few in London’s National Gallery: no Artemesia Gentileschi, no Lavinia Fontana, no Sofonisba Anguissola and so […]

Categories: Art Writing • Tags: Artemesia Gentileschi, Barocci, Baroque, Caravaggio, Fede Galizia, Lavinia Fontana, National Gallery, Portrait of Paolo Morigia, Sofonisba Anguissola, still life, women artists of the Renaissance

The Next Big Thing

February 9, 2013 by Hotel Alphabet - Marie-Anne Mancio

Kerry Dwyer (author of Ramblings in Ireland) has very generously tagged me here as one of her authors in The Next Big Thing. So here are the questions I was asked about my forthcoming novel: What is the working title of your next book? Bouche. It means ‘mouth’ in French and is part of the name Boucher so it encapsulates some of the novel’s subject and themes. Where did the idea come from for the book? I lecture on the […]

Categories: Fiction

Mary Seacole

January 1, 2013 by Hotel Alphabet - Marie-Anne Mancio

Think of Victorian nurses and Florence Nightingale comes to mind but London’s National Portrait Gallery holds a tiny portrait of another celebrated nurse who fought far harder for recognition: Jamaican born, Mary Jane Seacole. Seacole (nee Grant) (1805-1881) was mixed race (her mother was a Jamaican nurse; her father a Scottish soldier) and experienced discrimination in Victorian England. She accompanied relatives to London when she was young and later recalled: “Strangely enough, some of the most vivid of my recollections are […]

Categories: Art Writing • Tags: British Hotel, cholera, Crimean War, Florence Nightingale, Jamaican nurse, Mary Seacole, National Portrait Gallery, Victorian England

Courtly Love: fact or fiction?

December 29, 2012 by Hotel Alphabet - Marie-Anne Mancio

The term l’amour courtois was coined by Gaston Paris in 1883 in the journal Romania but the practice is believed to have developed around 1099 in France. Scholars disagree about its origins (and even its existence). Did it emerge as a humanist reaction to the puritannical Catholic Church of the early Middle Ages, an era dominated by prudishness, patriarchy and theocracy? As such, did it exalt the feminine as a force for good in contrast to the chauvinistic first and […]

Categories: Art Writing • Tags: Capellanus, courtly love, medieval art, The Art of Courtly Love

Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 (National Gallery)

July 21, 2012 by Hotel Alphabet - Marie-Anne Mancio

The National Gallery is exhibiting its three Titian Dianas together for the first time since the C18th: Diana and Callisto, 1556-9; Diana and Actaeon, 1556-9, and The Death of Actaeon, 1559-75 and has asked artists, choreographers, poets, and composers to respond to their themes of voyeurism, metamorphosis, violence, seduction, resulting in poems, three new ballets (Royal Ballet), and art works. A superb idea on the face of it (especially given that Titian thought of his paintings as poesie anyway) and […]

Categories: Art Writing • Tags: Conrad Shawcross, Mark Wallinger, Metamorphosis Titian, women artists

Grayson Perry The Vanity of Small Differences

June 9, 2012 by Hotel Alphabet - Marie-Anne Mancio

The Agony in the Car Park Newcomers to contemporary art often complain it’s daunting (one of my students recently applauded the value of “collective brainstorming”  to arrive at some kind of understanding) so it’s very satisfying to be able to recommend Grayson Perry’s The Vanity of Small Differences at Victoria Miro. Proof that contemporary art can be accessible and sophisticated. Perry’s 6 tapestries were partly inspired by Hogarth’s darkly comical The Rake’s Progress (1732-33). They tell the story of Tim (rather […]

Categories: Art Writing • Tags: Grayson Perry, Hogarth, In The Best Possible Taste, Marriage a la Mode, Paula Rego, The Rake's Progress, The Vanity of Small Differences, Victoria Miro

Melaneia Warwick Nest

April 18, 2012 by Hotel Alphabet - Marie-Anne Mancio

Melaneia Warwick, Nest iv, (2011) 39 x 30 inches (framed) charcoal, chalk, household varnish on paper Drawing is a good way of thinking about Melaneia Warwick’s Nest works, not just because they are in themselves very skillfully drawn but because they also draw you in. The Nest series combines two unlikely elements – a redundant bird’s nest of pegs and hessian and a discarded, plastic doll – and immediately they create narratives. In Nest i the headless doll appears to […]

Categories: Art Writing • Tags: Melaneia Warwick, Nest

The Guest Room: Artist in Virtual Residence – Melaneia Warwick

April 14, 2012 by Hotel Alphabet - Marie-Anne Mancio

Melaneia Warwick, Nest i (2011) :  64 x 46 inches (framed) – varnish, ink, paper, charcoal, oil on arches velum Hotel Alphabet is delighted to have Melaneia Warwick in virtual residence! The idea of having an artist in virtual residence is to encourage debate between an artist and viewers. I will be posting my own thoughts on Melaneia’s Nest series later in the week but for the moment I’d like to invite you to look and respond. Let’s create a […]

Categories: Art Writing

Joan Mitchell The Last Paintings at Hauser and Wirth, Piccadilly, London

March 2, 2012 by Hotel Alphabet - Marie-Anne Mancio

Joan Mitchell Sunflowers 1990-1, o/c, Diptych 280 x 400.1 cm, courtesy Hauser and Wirth There seem to be a lot of “male” shows in London at the moment. From the ten men of the London School  (Bacon, Auerbach, Hockney, Kossoff, Freud, etc.) who feature in the Mystery of Appearance at Haunch of Venison to Freud at the National Portrait Gallery to Hockney at the Royal Academy to Picasso in Britain at Tate Britain, modernism feels like a very male affair. […]

Categories: Art Writing • Tags: Hauser and Wirth, Joan Mitchell

Museum of Non Visible Art

August 10, 2011 by Hotel Alphabet - Marie-Anne Mancio

See my conceptual sculpture at Praxis’ Museum of Non Visible Art http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/739922847/museum-of-non-visible-art-praxis-and-james-franco

Categories: Art Writing • Tags: Museum of Non Visible Art, Praxis

Nineteenth Century Slang

December 30, 2012 by Hotel Alphabet - Marie-Anne Mancio

  One of the most entertaining aspects of historical research is exploring slang. Incorporating it into dialogue is a skill – there’s a temptation to over-use all the wonderful words you’ve discovered and, before you know it, your text reads like an archaic secret code. Then there’s also the challenge of making sure the meaning is apparent to the contemporary reader. But it’s also very satisfying to find just how many expressions are still current. Here (courtesy of Marc McCutcheon’s […]

Categories: Whorticulture • Tags: antebellum, Marie-Anne Mancio, nineteenth century slang, Whorticulture

Choosing Names for your Characters

December 30, 2012 by Hotel Alphabet - Marie-Anne Mancio

A barista in my local Starbucks says when he asks for customers’ names they often create alter-egos like “Superwoman”. The whores in Whorticulture understand the power in choosing your own name. It’s one of the easiest ways to reinvent yourself. For the writer, choosing names for your characters is a fun but important part of the creative process. If you get the name right, if you find the perfect name for your character, the kind of name that makes it […]

Categories: Whorticulture • Tags: choosing character names, meaning of names, Whorticulture

What’s Wrong With Nancy?

December 30, 2012 by Hotel Alphabet - Marie-Anne Mancio

Nancy (Leanne Rowe) and Bill (Jamie Foreman) in “Oliver Twist” (2005) Our culture has a bizarre relationship with prostitution. Prostitutes modeled for painters (e.g. Fillide Melandroni for Caravaggio) when ‘respectable’ women couldn’t; they were the subject of avant-garde works (Manet’s Olympia, Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon) and operas (Verdi’s La Traviata). In literature, Maupassant’s short stories and Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s are among the more convincing depictions. But arguably the most enduring stereotype is Dickens’ poor, abused Nancy of Oliver Twist. […]

Categories: Whorticulture • Tags: C19th, Dickens, Nancy, Oliver Twist, prostitution, Urania Cottage, Whorticulture