High Buildings Low Morals by Bob Baker

 

High Buildings Low Morals by Bob Baker

Modernists and Mavericks by Martin Gayford on Tosh Talks

Martin Gayford, the author of "Modernists and Mavericks," is a terrific writer on the arts, and this book is the obvious and organic meeting of author and its subject - The London artists of the post-war years.   For one, Gayford knows David Hockney and Lucian Freud, and he also interviewed all the living artists that are in this book.  It's not a book of gossip, but a survey approach to artists who worked in London from the end of World War II to the early 1970s. 

I became familiar with some of these artists through the art collection of the late David Bowie.  When the family auction off his works, I did go see paintings by Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, and others of that world.  What's interesting is that these artists worked in London, a city that was on the surface, destroyed by the ravages of bombings and the war, yet, it became a visual playground for the great post-war painters.  Freud always worked with a model in front of him, in his studio, Auerbach worked in the same format using the same model painting after painting, and Bacon's world was basically Soho London and its citizens.  So, the world of the London painter was a small one, but a very intense series of moments, months, and years working on their art.  As well as having sex, drinking and socializing within their world. 

Gayford captures the London painters in a moment where they did talk about their fields of interest, which was painting, but also I didn't realize that there was a sizable female presence in the painting world as well, regarding Paula  Rego, Bridget Riley, and others.   Gayford brings up a lot of painters working in that era, who are not as famous as Hockney and company.   I have been pretty much drawn to the medium of paint, due to its placement within a frame, and the texture of various colors and brushes. I like the communication between the artist's hand and what appears on their canvas.   The importance is not that these artists all lived and worked in London, but their ability to transform their space, time, and presence in such a location that was limited at the time.   Across the pond was New York City, and beyond that, for Hockney Los Angeles, still the majority of the London Painters stayed at home and reflected on their world with high intensity and feeling.  "Modernists and Mavericks" is a very solid art history book, with some excellent paintings within its pages.  I enjoyed Gayford's book immensely.  

"High Buildings, Low Morals: Another Sideways Look At Twentieth-Century London" by Rob Baker (Amberley)

ISBN: 9781445666259

To quote Noël Coward, from the back cover of Rob Baker's book "I don't know what London's coming to - the higher the buildings, the lower the morals."  "High Buildings, Low Morals" is for me a classic book.   I first discovered Baker's obsession on 20th Century London through his blog "Another Nickel in the Machine."  Eventually using his blog as the source, he made two books. "Beautiful Idiots and Brilliant Lunatics" and this one "High Buildings, Low Morals."  Both are excellent as well as his blog, and in my studies, the two best books on contemporary (20th century) London culture.  Baker is amazing that his identity disappears and what comes up is the subject matter of his interest: the linage between London theater, social life, film and stage stars, and gangsters.   These two books remind me of Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon," but the big difference is that Baker is a through historian in his approach to match the dots in that urban landscape.  He has the genius to match individuals with a narrative that is much bigger than the figures because it's a web that holds the city together. 

Here we get narratives about Noël Coward, Lord Boothby & Ronnie Kray, Tallulah Bankhead, Graham Greene, and obscure and entirely forgotten British stars like Billie Carleton, the Duchess of Argyll (an old porn scandal) and even Mussolini, among many others.  Also reading this book, I get the full physical picture of London bombed during World War II, as well as the psychology of that cities population.  It's an epic presentation and Baker has the genius to edit it in (or out) various stories that tell even a bigger picture.  Historian on a brilliant level, I can't recommend his books too much.  For anyone who is, of course, interested in London, but also how an urban city lives and moves - it's a fascinating series of tales, that is almost unbelievable, but yet, true.