Welcome to July Cassone

Associated media

Hello – welcome to Cassone. If you love art, this is the place to come. For a taste of what is inside, click on the our banner advert (‘For art lovers everywhere’) at the top of this page and see Jenny Kingsley’s article about  Strawberry Hill.  Subscribers can see the whole of this article, with more images, by going to Perspectives and looking under June in the ‘Articles by date’ list on the right. Not into gothick extravaganzas? Subscribe and read our reviews of the  RA summer exhibition,  the  Vorticists  at Tate Britain,  ‘Heracles to Alexander the Great’  at the Ashmolean Oxford, and  Conrad Shawcross at London’s Science Museum.  ‘Watercolour’  is still on at Tate Britain while Toulouse-Lautrec watches Jane Avril cavort at the Courtauld. Get some more ideas from Our News – this section is free to access, under ‘About us’ at the top right of your screen.

Travelling abroad this summer? How about the Turkish Aegean? Take a peek at its Classical past with Henry Matthews. You might prefer to avoid Gaza but read about Aser al Saqqa’s struggles to get Palestinian art out to Europe. Don’t travel to Naples without reading a new book on the past – and future – of Herculaneum, Pompeii’s lesser-known neighbour. If the kids are driving you mad, get them out to an art gallery near you – in New York and Washington, London and Edinburgh, and many other places, galleries are laying on fun for young families.

Unlike a print magazine, the  past content  of Cassone is always there for you to go back to, any time. You will never again have to think ‘what did I do with that magazine?’ or ‘where did I see that article?’ And if you have come here for ideas for more summer reading, we have plenty of suggestions. Discover the rambunctious 18th-century world of Thomas Rowlandson, see how artists have been inspired for centuries by the destructive power of Mount Vesuvius, and how  Matisse  was inspired by Spain’s Alhambra. In real life you might never be allowed inside any of Italy’s private gardens, but you can get peek in our review of Helena Atlee’s new book. John Willett’s book on Germany’s interwar  Weimar period  – one of the richest periods of art in the country’s history – was first published in 1984 but its popularity has not waned and it is out again this year.

If photography is your interest, take a look at how Marcus Adams captured Britain’s Royal Family, decades ago, or how modern Cambridge compares with the past in Vaughan Grylls’ new book. John Hedgecoe has photographed some of the most famous artists of the 20th century, as an exhibition at Norwich’s Sainsbury Centre reveals.

Elsewhere in Cassone you can discover the UK Government Art Collection and find out about this 113-year old collection and the 13,500 catalogued works. Enormous amounts of creativity go into advertising and packaging consumer products. Jenny Kingsley visited London’s Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising for Cassone this month. Its founder Robert Opie has collected over 500,000 items of consumer culture from the past 150 years, and 12,000 are them are displayed at the museum.

The days are gone when no fashionable woman would be seen without a fan. Was there really a ‘language of fans’? Find out in our report on London’s Fan Museum by a busy Jenny Kingsley.

Many people have been fascinated by the work of Friday Kahlo, and feminist artist Judy Chicago, most well-known for her work The Dinner Party,Tis no exception. In fact, she has written a book about this pioneering South American artist – read our interview with Judy Chicago to find out more. This is a long interview and we will be publishing the second half in August.

Our May and June reviews and articles are still online, of course. See our Archives listings for all the content put online since we launched in May. I hope you are enjoying Cassone as much as we are enjoying creating it for you.

Last but certainly not least, we are pleased to welcome Ann Bach on to the Cassone team. Ann will be looking after our Facebook page and very much hopes that you will ‘like’ us on Facebook. She will post advance news about the magazine there. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Twitter @CassoneArt and on our LinkedIn page.