A new season approaches

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September, and autumn is on its way in the northern hemisphere. Artists have long appreciated the ‘mellow fruitfulness’ of this month; some examples are the realistic autumn fruits in Dutch Still Life paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries, Autumn Rhythms (number 30) by Jackson Pollock and Patrick Caulfield’s Still Life Autumn Fashion. Autumn also means that the academic year is about to start.

Cassone has some exciting news for all first year students of art, fine art, architecture, photography and the visual arts of film, video and television. As a ‘fresher’ you are entitled to a year’s free subscription. Your tutors should give you the details, but if they do not do so just contact us through the website. If you are not in your first year, a student subscription is only £5.00 (about $8) amazing value for an ever-growing reference library of over 400 articles and reviews.

As I write this the Paralympics are under way, another great success for the London Olympic committee. The UK capital has certainly been the place to visit this summer, and with all the cultural events of the associated London Festival taking place, the celebrations have not just been about sport. Now as the autumn exhibitions start to open, I hope the momentum of the last few amazing weeks will continue.

During our short summer break, we have not been idle. This issue is a full one with many articles, exhibition and book reviews.

Gilly Turney visits Buckingham Palace where 10,000 diamonds have gone on display to mark the Queen’s Jubilee, Mark White visits The British Library to see the exhibition ‘Writing Britain, Wastelands to Wonderlands’, while Veronica Davies travels to High House Gallery, Clanfield, Oxfordshire to see Dividing Line: An Exhibition of Contemporary Outdoor Sculpture.In Edinburgh, Patricia Andrew reports onthe first exhibition in the UK devoted to the great watercolourist Giovanni Battista Lusieri (1754–1821), at the Scottish National Gallery.

Rhys Davies, whose ‘commitment is to have sound recognized as an art form’, talks to Ros Ormiston in this month’s interview.

Jenny Kingsley explores the lives and work of Evelyn and William De Morgan at the De Morgan Centre in South London but also finds time to visit a gem of Georgian Bath, the Victoria Gallery.

Darrelyn Gunzburg writes on how the Ben Uri Museum in London raised the funds to acquire and purchase a work by Chaïm Soutine,  La Soubrette. This was quite an achievement for a small museum that consistently punches above its weight.

Lindsey Shaw Miller considers the artist Noel Myles, whom she says describeshis photographic prints as ‘still films’. He tries to ‘represent the memory of looking and thinking in a still photograph’. Noel Myers would appear to be trying to do with photography what the Cubists were doing in their painting.

Victoria Keller tells us that Mayor Bloomberg of New York has had traffic restricted on stretches of Broadway and now, within these pedestrian plazas, there is sculpture that includes nature. Entitled Broadway Green it has been created by environmental artists Patricia Leighton and Del Geist. Most of this article can be seen in Art News -   a free taster for those still deciding whether to subscribe!

Adrian Lewis reviews several books on Monet, probably the world’s favourite impressionist. Travelling abroad used to involve a visually splendid ocean liner: Patricia Andrew looks at the history of these splendid vessels in a new book on P&O. Margaret Mellis may be an unfamiliar name, but she knew all the most famous British artists of her day and her work may now become better known: Adrian Lewis reviews a new book on her art. The collection of old master drawings at the Metropolitan Museum in New York may not rival those in Europe for size, but as Larry Silver reports it is still very impressive.