Thursday, February 28, 2013

Paintings: All the Fun of the Fair

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Happy March, everyone!  I hope my March reading is substantially more than my February reading...

I enjoyed and valued your responses to my post On Not Knowing Art last week, and stored away your suggestions happily.  I also fell more and more in love with two of the paintings I'd chosen - the Francis Cadell, which many of you seemed to know, and Korhinta (1931) by Vilmos Aba-Novak, which none of you did - or, if you did, you kept quiet!  Here it is again...

(image source)


I can't stop looking at it. The colours, the energy, the clever presentation of figures... and the funfair.  I've realised that I am fascinated by the ways in which funfairs are depicted. I don't know exactly what it is about them that appeals - again, the colours, the energy, and the sense of the insane and unusual brought into close connection with the everyday - but I can't get enough.  So I thought I'd explore some more depictions of funfairs in art. The only ones I knew before were the Stanley Spencer, who is one of my favourite artists, and the Mark Gertler.  I would include literary examples, but I can't think of any (can you?) - only the odd circus or two. (Click on the links to take you to image sources.)


Helter Skelter (1937) by Stanley Spencer

The Fairground, Sydney (1944) by Herbert Badham

The Fairground (1930s) by L.S. Lowry

Nottingham Goose Fair (c.1910) by Noel Denholm Davis


photograph for sale on Etsy

Merry-Go-Round (1916) by Mark Gertler

Well, that'll do for now, on my hunt through Google Images... let me know if you think of any artistic or literary fairgrounds and funfairs!