Happy New Year!

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2012 is going to be an important year for Britain. This country’s monarch is having her diamond jubilee, only the second in our history, and we are hosting the Olympic Games – another second as they were held in London once before, in 1948. This year the Olympics will be accompanied by an array of cultural events, so keep an eye on Cassone to see what is happening. If you are one of our many readers based outside the UK, maybe this will be the year to visit, even if you have no interest in either sport or the monarchy.

Also very important to us is the fact that Cassone, Britain’s first online art magazine, is going to be one year old in May and we have many features planned for this special year. If you have not yet purchased a subscription or given one as a gift, this is the year to do it. Where else can you find a treasure-trove of art writing that builds month by month for £10.00 a year (only £5.00 if you are a full-time or part-time student)? That’s about US$15.50/US$7.75  or €12 /€6.

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Before Christmas Ros Ormiston went to the Royal Academy launch of the Royal Mint’s one-kilogram gold coin designed by Sir Anthony Caro, RA and the one-kilogram silver coin designed by Tom Phillips, RA. Both have been created in honour of the Olympics and are in strong demand from collectors.

Jenny Kingsley visited the newly opened country retreat in Chiswick of the artist William Hogarth an artist who saw his world as it really was, warts and all. Perhaps we could learn some lessons from him in these economically challenging times? He certainly had no time for people who lived beyond their means!

Jenny has also visited St Paul’s Cathedral, rebuilt in its present form after the Great Fire of London (1666), a symbol of England’s resistance in the London Blitz in the 1940s, and now the scene of the camp of anti-capitalist protesters, who have pitched their tents by its hallowed walls. Inside, however, there is art created from the time it was built to the present day. Jenny talked to Canon Mark Oakley, the new keeper of works at St Paul’s, about the place of modern art in a venerable religious building. There are new interpretations of the spiritual in these powerful works. Don't miss the related video in Our News.

Millions of women must feel that their prayers have been answered when they find the right ‘LBD’. Rosalind Ormiston visited Tullie House in Carlisle to see an exhibition of the history of the Little Black Dress and, thinking of that part of England, she also reviewed A Tour of the English Lakes by John Murray.

Books on a great variety of artists and styles are reviewed in this issue from William Nicholson to Fred Wilson, Edward Burra and Barbara Hepworth. We also look at five of Pop art’s ‘founding fathers’ and 18th-century European elites as revealed by delicate portraits in pastels. Architecture and design are also part of the visual arts;  take a look  at the artefacts used in everyday life by 18th-century Parisian upper classes, and see how the book as we know it evolved in Renaissance times. How many publishers today would delay publication of a book until the planets were in the right conjunction?!

Alexandra Exter was a Russian Artist not that well known in Britain, or indeed her native Russia until recently. Patricia Railing helps remedy this situation, while Stephen Bury reviews the Maurizio Cattelan show at the Guggenheim in New York. Is he going to retire and how did he get that horse up there?!  Film maker, historian and restorer, Academy Honorary Award winner, Kevin Brownlow writes on the influence of the silent film on later cinema, and Ian Jones reviews a beautiful new book on the history of film, bringing the story right up to date.

This a good start to the New Year and I have not listed everything by a  long way. So explore, read… and enjoy! Any questions? Check out our FAQs or email us.