So, the whole story sounds preposterous, but, as @philiphoare.bsky.social puts it “wartime jingoism looked suspiciously on any work of art that might be regarded as modern, foreign or decadent”. In other words, Pemberton-Billing had the zeitgeist* on his side

it's my birthday

thanks so much!

we saw a tawny owl chick in a windy willow

my mum's birthday today, born 1921 she loved the sea

ruthlessly jumping on the birthday bandwagon to recall the fantastic reading from Moby-Dick that Sir David Attenborough did for us... www.mobydickbigread.com/chapter-105-...

John Waters and Nick Rossi, on a visit to SO THIS IS REAL LIFE, photographed by curator, Philip Hoare. We are entering the last week of the exhibition. Join @philiphoare.bsky.social for a final tour of SO THIS IS REAL LIFE on Sat. 9 May at 3pm to help close out the show >>> jhg.art/events/so-th...

John Waters and Nick Rossi on a visit to So This Is Real Life: punk-post-punk, 1975-1985 @johnhansardgallery.bsky.social honoured to have the godfather of punk call on the last week of the show

Derek Jarman's short film, 'Jordan's Dance', 1977, now showing at jhg.art/events/so-th... final week - closes Saturday 9 May

I'll be talking about William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love at Ulster University, Belfast @ulsteruni.bsky.social Tues 5 May at 7 pm, part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival @cqaf.bsky.social do call in if you're feeling feral or transcendent www.ulster.ac.uk/ulsterpresen...

one week left to catch my punk-post-punk show at jhg.art/events/so-th...

EVENT ALERT! 🚨 In Conversation: Punk-post-punk Friday 1 May, 6pm Join @philiphoare.bsky.social, co-curator of SO THIS IS REAL LIFE, discussing punk-post-punk w/ Michael Bracewell, renowned author & curator, who will be reading from his new novella, The Smiths. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1985722992...

my idea of home

Forty Foot this morning

graffiti at Sandycove, Dublin. 'Your phone makes the real world less satisfactory. It's designed to do that.'

me versus the Tyger @nationalgalleryirl.bsky.social not sure who won photo @seamusmoran.bsky.social

The Forty Foot this morning

a great big happy birthday to this charming man, and all eight decades of his filthy behaviour

strange how we have turned our conurbations into constellations, an artificial microcosm of our galaxy

I once looked out of my window on Cape Cod and saw this I thought I was imagining it

oh the sadness of the whale! and what it says about ourselves www.theguardian.com/environment/...

indie charts

William Blake - Where The Wild Things Are my talk @nationalgalleryirl.bsky.social Dublin, 23 April www.nationalgallery.ie/whats-on/tal...

imagine - his hair could be in that brush you might recreate him from his DNA a clone of Dorian Gray www.sothebys.com/en/buy/aucti...

the scariest nightmare of my childhood, such that I couldn't even touch the pages in which these pictures appeared for fear that in doing so, I too might be dragged down into the benthic abyss I was, as you can see, a child with an overactive imagination but who isn't? pic by Else Bostelmann 1934

there's nothing between me and the sea

Saw some very good art today, starting with Richard Porter at Amanda Wilkinson (where I also very happily bumped into my old friend @philiphoare.bsky.social). 2.10 (2022)

I'm proud to have co-authored Pet Shop Boys Volume, published this week great piece by @alexneedham.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...

THIS FRIDAY! 🚨 Artist Talk with Philip Hoare Join @philiphoare.bsky.social, co-curator of our current exhibition, SO THIS IS REAL LIFE, for a special evening event discussing the show's origins, contents, and connected conversations. FREE, book here >>> www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1985439269...

how ghostly and sad how far away we are

William Blake, 1793

In 1849 Herman Melville left England from here with a copy of Frankenstein in his pocket; the result was a queer book about a monster of his own making

was going to do that for you!

To see a world in a grain of sand And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour. William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

George Shaw's great Graham Sutherland show at Modern Art, Oxford - as reviewed by the brilliant Laura Cumming @lauracummingart.bsky.social @modernartoxford.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

you can see why whales might consider us inconsequential

Easter brings no good news for chickens, condemned to this kind of life www.theguardian.com/environment/...

john waters at a No Kings rally in Provincetown (not my pic, Peter Toto, x)

The more I learn, the older I get, the more I want to cry.

lovely extract from my book here, featuring William Blake's Romantic 'three-year slumber by the Ocean' (Bognor Regis, that is... ) @laphamsquarterly.bsky.social www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/w...

amazing interview - sort of like a waking dream... huge thank you to Donovan Hohn and @laphamsquarterly.bsky.social www.laphamsquarterly.org/content/phil...

the more we learn about these magical, beautiful non-human beings, the more I want to cry www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

giving this talk on punk-post-punk, Friday 10 April at 6 pm, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton jhg.art/events/artis...

my talk for fab new Blake exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, 23 April www.nationalgallery.ie/whats-on/tal... @nationalgalleryirl.bsky.social

happens every Friday night when they get tanked-up on squid

such a beautiful, tiny painting on glass, backed with silver paper from a cigarette packet Dora Carrington ‘The Barque Harmony in the Ice off the Labrador Coast’, 1929

Now showing: SO THIS IS REAL LIFE Until 9 May 2026 >>> www.jhg.art