Tag: art

France and the restitution of cultural property 

On By europeancollectionsIn ebooks, French, New Acquisitions, The Department of Collections and Academic LiaisonLeave a comment

The question of restitution of spoliated cultural works currently engages most European countries, especially former colonizing nations. It came into the forelight in France when President Emmanuel Macron advocated for the “return of African heritage” during a visit to Burkina Fasso in 2017. This blog post will look at the headlines of France’s handling of the question of restitution with the details of related books inserted throughout.

Macron commissioned a study by two academics, Bénédicte Savoy (then History professor at the Collège de France in Paris, now at the Technical University of Berlin) and Felwine Sarr (a writer, then Economics professor at Gaston Berger University, Senegal, now in the Romance studies department at Duke University, US). Their report on The Restitution of African cultural heritage: Toward a New Relational Ethics was published in 2018: it examined the history and current state of publicly owned French collections of African artworks originating from illicit or disputed acquisitions, as well as claims and recommendations for preparing restitutions. From a wider perspective, they recommended international and inter-African cooperation, improved access to research, archives and documentation (including through digitisations), to fill the gap relating to the preservation, study and wider appreciation of African culture. This would imply training, circulation of temporary exhibitions, as well as educational initiatives to ensure transmission of African cultural heritage.

  • Objets du désir, désir d’objets : Leçon inaugurale prononcée le jeudi 30 mars 2017 / Bénédicte Savoy. Paris : Collège de France, 2017, ebook
  • Restituer le patrimoine africain / Felwine Sarr, Bénédicte Savoy. Paris : Philippe Rey, 2018. C207.d.5916
  • Afrikas Kampf um seine Kunst : Geschichte einer postkolonialen Niederlage / Bénédicte Savoy. München : C.H. Beck, 2021, EBSCO ; Africa’s struggle for its art : history of a postcolonial defeat ; transl. Susanne Meyer-Abich. Princeton University Press, 2022. C218.c.8787 and de Gruyter eBooks; Le long combat de l’Afrique pour son art : histoire d’une défaite post-coloniale. Éditions du Seuil, 2023. C219.c.6031    Continue reading “France and the restitution of cultural property “ →

“Liberté… J’écris ton nom”: Eluard’s poem and the Cambridge UL Liberation collection

On By europeancollectionsIn French, Historical collections, Special collectionsLeave a comment

The police killing of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk on 27 June in Nanterre (in the suburbs of Paris) and civil unrest that occurred subsequently in France show how challenging it is to uphold the values of equality and fraternity, both socially and institutionally. For Bastille Day this 14th of July, we focus on the famous poem ‘Liberté’, initially entitled ‘Une seule pensée’, composed by Charles Eluard under the German occupation of France in 1941. This love poem to Nusch was turned into a celebration of and aspiration to Freedom. It is marked by the leitmotiv “J’écris ton nom”, reminding us of the power of both speech and writing. While the collaborationist Vichy régime had replaced the French revolutionary motto from “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” to the conservative “Travail, Famille, Patrie”, the poem “Liberté” became emblematic of French resilience throughout the Second World War and beyond. This blogpost gives an overview of the early publications of the poem: many of which are available at Cambridge University Library, including special editions with the Eluard’s signature and dedications, within the Chadwyck-Healey Liberation collection.

Continue reading ““Liberté… J’écris ton nom”: Eluard’s poem and the Cambridge UL Liberation collection” →

Artists’ books from Cuba

On By europeancollectionsIn Latin American, Spanish, Special collectionsLeave a comment

The Latin American and Iberian Collections team has recently acquired a small but utterly compelling collection of books published by Ediciones Vigía. These are beautiful and hugely imaginative hand-made artist books created in Matanzas, Cuba. Although in nature very different to the Cartonera collection we have built over the years, Vigía books also help us ask questions about the possibilities of creating and disseminating art and literature in a context of material scarcity.  

Ediciones Vigía was founded by the poet Alfredo Zaldívar and the artist Rolando Estévez in 1985 but did not originally start as a publisher: it began as a cultural association organizing events for the local community to learn about Cuban and international authors. They would produce invitations for such events held in the then named Casa del Escritor (The Author’s House) in the Plaza de la Vigía square in Matanzas.  

Continue reading “Artists’ books from Cuba” →

Prinzhorn’s influential book, 100 years on

On By europeancollectionsIn German, Historical collectionsLeave a comment

The idea for this blog post came to me in 2021 when I read a review of an engaging new book, Charlie English’s The gallery of miracles and madness (e-Legal Deposit) in which I first learnt of Hans Prinzhorn’s Bildnerei der Geisteskranken (S400:05.b.9.337). This groundbreaking book analysed the artwork of disturbed psychiatric patients, with just over half of it devoted to detailed descriptions of ten artists, given pseudonyms to protect the reputation of their families. The book was first published 100 years ago in 1922; the University Library copy is a reprint from 1923, demonstrating the book’s popularity. In his The Discovery of the art of the insane (9000.b.1564) John MacGregor describes Prinzhorn’s work as “an unequaled contribution to the study of the art of the mentally ill.”

Cover and title page of our 1923 edition (click on image to see enlarged): Prinzhorn demanded of his publisher that the cover be black with a runic font

Continue reading “Prinzhorn’s influential book, 100 years on” →

Art, art and more art: museums of Den Haag

On By europeancollectionsIn Dutch1 Comment

Portrait of Escher from the Nationaal Archief NL via Wikimedia Commons

Back in 2019 an exhibition catalogue of M.C. Escher works inspired me to write about the Alhambra in Granada. Escher is in my thoughts again as we approach the 50th anniversary of his death on 27 March, and I am reminded of a happy visit with my family ten years ago to the Escher museum in The Hague, Escher in Het Paleis. 2022 is a significant date for other museums in The Hague as well, and so this gives me the excuse to look in more detail at the wealth of art and museums in the Dutch capital, relating it to books in the UL.

The Escher museum is housed in the 18th century Lange Voorhout Palace which belonged to members of the Dutch Royal family for almost 150 years. It is now owned by the city and has been home to the Escher exhibition since 2002. Continue reading “Art, art and more art: museums of Den Haag” →

The art world and the 1918 flu pandemic 

On By europeancollectionsIn ebooksLeave a comment

The kiss of death (1912) by Bohumil Kubišta (1884-1918), Czech painter who died in the pandemic, via Wikimedia Commons

As the world continues to respond to the impact of COVID-19, commentators have inevitably looked back 100 years to the 1918 flu pandemic (commonly known as Spanish flu although it did not start in Spain) during which millions of people died – estimates range from 17 million to 50 million. Many articles have been written in recent months comparing the two pandemics. This blog post focuses on a few artists who died in or survived the 1918 pandemic, and gives us the opportunity to look at some works of art in a virtual gallery courtesy of our ebooks provision, without the need to book in advance or to wear a face mask. Continue reading “The art world and the 1918 flu pandemic “ →

Industry and art : the July 2020 Slavonic item of the month

On By europeancollectionsIn New Acquisitions, Russian, Special collections1 Comment

This lovely item is still waiting for me to complete its catalogue record in the UL, but happily I captured many of its contents in photographs on a memory card I brought home on our last day in the Library.

Ugol’, chugun, stal’ (Coal, cast iron, steel) was bought with the help of Special Collections now some time ago.  It is a loose-leaf album of 40 works by the artist Nikolaĭ Fedorovich Denisovskiĭ (often romanised as Denisovsky), 1901-1981, which was published in 1932.  The subject of his work is heavy industry, and each of the 40 monochrome illustrations held within the album depict workers and industrial structures in striking and quite beautiful images.  Below are 15 of the 40.

Images from the new acquisition.

Continue reading “Industry and art : the July 2020 Slavonic item of the month” →

The Prado Museum, a 200-year story

On By europeancollectionsIn New Acquisitions, SpanishLeave a comment

640px-Vista_general_Museo_del_Prado
General view of the Museo del Prado, by Outisnn (via Wikipedia)

Last November 19, the museum celebrated the 200 year anniversary of its opening. The University Library regularly receives Spanish art catalogues – including the ones issued by the Prado – but this time we have also acquired a selection of recent books (listed below) commemorating this occasion. Among them we can highlight Museo del Prado, 1819-2019: un lugar de memoria (C202.b.3782), catalogue of an exhibition focused on the museum’s history, organised by the institution. Continue reading “The Prado Museum, a 200-year story” →

Ohrid churches in print and in person : the October 2019 Slavonic items of the month

On By europeancollectionsIn English, Macedonian, SlavonicLeave a comment

In Collections and Academic Liaison, we work with many donations of books which add significantly to the University Library’s collections.  While they chiefly inspire research amongst readers, they sometimes also inspire holidays amongst librarians.  Thanks to Professor Nigel Morgan’s collection of books about North Macedonian churches, I spent an extraordinary week in Ohrid this autumn.

Sveti Jovan Kaneo, overlooking Lake Ohrid

Continue reading “Ohrid churches in print and in person : the October 2019 Slavonic items of the month” →

“Black models” in visual culture and modern arts

On By europeancollectionsIn English, French, Portuguese1 Comment

The Mémorial ACTe (Centre caribéen d’expressions et de mémoire de la Traite et de l’Esclavage) in Guadeloupe is hosting until December 2019 a jointly curated exhibition previously held at the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University in New York, Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today (October 2018 to February 2019, see C200.a.5469) and at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Le Modèle noir, de Géricault à Matisse (March to July 2019, see S950.b.201.5919). The Memorial to slavery, opened in 2015, which is also a cultural centre and museum, seems an appropriate venue for this exhibition, which focuses on “the representation of the black figure in the development of modern art”. Continue reading ““Black models” in visual culture and modern arts” →