Talk – William Blake: Where the wild things are
Talk – William Blake: Where the wild things are
No one can agree about him. William Blake was England’s greatest Romantic artist. Or was he Irish, as W.B. Yeats insisted? Some thought he was a madman living in Bedlam. It took a long time for his genius to come through. The pre-Raphaelites, the surrealists, the modernists, the hippies, the punks, the new agers all laid claim to him. The fact is Blake is countercultural everything.
In his illuminated lecture, Philip Hoare draws on his new book, William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love (4th Estate) to discern the meaning of Blake’s monstrously beautiful imagining. How the natural and supernatural world combined in his art in protest against slavery tyranny and the abuse of animals, how he invented the fanzine, how he took issue with a patriarchal God, but walked the seashore with Jesus Christ, Mohammed, and John Milton. How his fantastical Tyger is in fact the fearsome spirit of revolution, how he was haunted by sea monsters, how his sensual pictures threatened to pervert Gerard Manley Hopkins and how Joyce’s Ulysses would have been nothing without Blake or his wife and co-artist, Catherine.
This is a portrait of the artist as a 269 year-old man, a Dr Who travelling in time and space, about to land in the National Gallery of Ireland in 2026.
Philip Hoare is the author of ten works of sort of non-fiction. His book, Leviathan, or The Whale, won the 2009 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize. He swims every day in the sea.
This lecture will take place in the Gallery Lecture Theatre. Please note this is a paid, ticketed event. Tickets from €8, available here: https://nationalgallery.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/873661800
Organised in collaboration with Tate.
This exhibition is supported by The William Blake Giving Circle.
The Gallery would like to thank the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport for their ongoing support.
Additional Details
Event Medium - In Person
Wheelchair Access - Yes
Contact Phone No. - 016633505
Contact Email - [email protected]
Event profile (Keys) - Training (personal and professional development. Learning from third level institution, Adult education centre, Private providers, etc)
Registration Required - Yes
Organiser
The National Gallery of Ireland is Ireland’s major national cultural institution devoted to the collection and care of fine art. Comprising more than 18,000 paintings, drawings, watercolours, miniatures, prints, sculpture and decorative arts, the institution’s extensive holdings include masterpieces by many of the most celebrated figures in the history of western European art. In addition, the Gallery houses the most representative collection of historic Irish art. Our mission is to care for, interpret, develop and showcase art in a way that makes the National Gallery of Ireland an exciting place to encounter art. We aim to provide an outstanding experience that inspires an interest in and an appreciation of art for all. We are dedicated to bringing people and their art together.
