Object Type

Museum number

1958,0712.347

Description

Dunstanborough Castle, Northumberland; the castle on a mound seen from the sea, a boat in rough sea in the foreground, at right figures on the shore
Watercolour, touched with white

Producer name

Drawn by: James Duffield Harding

School/style

Production date

1797-1863

Materials

Technique

Dimensions

Height: Height: 220 millimetres

Width: Width: 323 millimetres

Curator's comments

Stainton 1985
Harding was chiefly important as a drawing master (the young Ruskin was one of his pupils) and as a lithographer, by which means he was able to popularise his method of landscape composition. He was also among the most frequent contributors to the 'Landscape Annual', one of the illustrated publications which sprang up as a result of thedevelopment in the 1820s of engraving on steel plates, a much harder material than copper, and one that enabled an economic number of impressions to be taken. These provided a new source of employment for water-colourists who specialised in topographical subjects.
'Dunstanborough Castle' reflects Harding's admiration for Turner's marine watercolours. He no doubt had in mind a series like 'The Ports of England', in particular the view of Dover from the sea of c.1825. Ruskin admired "the rich, lichenous, and changeful warmth, and delicate weathered greys of Harding s rock... the most fearless, firm, and unerring drawing, render his wild pieces of torrent shore the finest things, next to the work of Turner".

Museum number

1943,1113.102

Description

The Fall of Schaffhausen; a lake and waterfall viewed from a height
Brush drawing in brown ink

Producer name

Drawn by: James Duffield Harding

School/style

Production date

1798-1863

Materials

Technique

Dimensions

Height: Height: 91 millimetres

Width: Width: 175 millimetres

Bigger slump and bigger wars and a smaller recovery
Huger slump and greater wars and a shallower recovery

You see the recovery always comes 'round again
There's nothing to worry for things will look after themselves
It's alright recovery always comes 'round again
There's nothing to worry if things can only get better

There's only millions that lose their jobs and homes and sometimes accents
There's only millions that die in their bloody wars, it's alright

It's only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing
It's only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing

It's alright 'cause the historical pattern has shown
How the economical cycle tends to revolve
In a round of decades three stages stand out in a loop
A slump and war then peel back to square one and back for more

Bigger slump and bigger wars and a smaller recovery
Huger slump and greater wars and a shallower recovery

Don't worry be happy things will get better naturally
Don't worry shut up sit down go with it and be happy

Dumb, dumb, dumb, de dumb dumb, de duh de duh de dumb dumb dum... ah ah
Dumb, dumb, dumb, de dumb dumb, de duh de duh de dumb dumb dum... ah ah

w. Jo S-Jones 

Discussed my concerns regarding lack of work experience.  

Also asking Jo for advice and ideas around casting large objects!  

 

Jo had some really helpful suggestions for work experience – artist residency possibly approaching Compton Verney via Jane about this possibility and the possibility of asking other places of interest.  

To approach secondary schools again. 

To look for further advice re the PGCE and see if funding can be applied for – Talent Team. 

 

Casting ideas- hot rubber, which sounds good might not be easy to transport, clay will take a good impression but needs to be kept damp if I'm to cast plaster in it. I know latex will work but I will need to leave it to dry. It won't keep any shape as such so I will need to take several flat contours that can then be fixed back together after casting or backed up if necessary. Otherwise I should be able to achieve a good likeness of the rocks texture.  

 

Good Afternoon Miss Duffield-Harding

 

Thank you for your patience, Ms Buckenham has confirmed that she can meet you on Friday this week at 10.15.

Please confirm as soon as possible.

 

Kind regards

 

Front of House, Data and Attendance

In his monumental excavations, site-specific constructions, geometric paintings, and drawings, Michael Heizer explores the relationship between positive and negative space. Examining the profound effects of form and scale, his works evoke the simultaneous feelings of awe and dread that constitute the sublime.

When Heizer was twelve years old, his parents permitted him to take a year off school to accompany his father, a renowned field archeologist, on a dig in Mexico. As his father researched the rock sources of ancient monuments, Heizer made site drawings, an exercise that he has continued to expand upon throughout his career. In the mid-1960s he left his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute and headed to New York, where he supported himself by painting apartments, including the loft of Walter De Maria, with whom he developed a close, lasting friendship. During this time Heizer began to work on shaped canvases that he called “negative paintings.”

In the winter of 1967 Heizer made a trip to the Sierra Nevada mountains, where he dug two large pits in the woods, lining one with plywood and the other with sheet metal. He declared this work to be “ultra-modern art,” and it was a turning point in his practice. Heizer further manipulated the landscape in Double Negative (1969), a pair of cuts fifty feet deep in facing cliff edges of Mormon Mesa in Nevada, made by removing 240,000 tons of sandstone and rhyolite.

In 1969 the art dealer Virginia Dwan funded the purchase of the 60-acre site for Double Negative and in turn the artist transferred the property deeds to Dwan. In 1971 Heizer prevented the Dwan Gallery from selling the work. Dwan then donated Double Negative to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MoCA) in 1984, with Heizer’s blessing, to coincide with “In Context: Michael Heizer, Geometric Extraction”. Among the terms of the agreement with the museum is the fact that, according to the artist's wishes, MoCA will undertake no conservation of the piece as Heizer wants nature to eventually reclaim the land through weather and erosion.

For the solo exhibition "In Context: Michael Heizer, Geometric Extraction", MoCA was able to include a photographic panorama of Heizer’s work. For the large-scale, historical survey of land art “Ends of the Earth” at MoCA in 2012, Heizer did not want any representation of Double Negative to be included in the exhibition. A good aerial photograph appears in the informative catalog, but Heizer reportedly worried that documentation in a museum gallery misrepresents sculpture that can be known only through physical experience.
The work is currently owned by MoCA and is accessible by four-wheel drive vehicle or motorcycle.