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Hallowe'en
Each year I mean to load up this picture on Hallowe'en and each year I fail. Sorry this is a day late, but I would like to share this charming whimsey from one of Holland's sketch books as my take on...
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Teaching in the Blitz
Soon after the heaving bombing of London, the Blitz, commenced I was offered the post of art master at a south east London grammar school. The very successful headmaster had been killed in a raid, and...
View ArticleMentioned in passing
I had to admit that the title for this post is probably in rather bad taste, however it is an apt description. I was made aware today of the passing of Dorrit Dekk - a female graphic designer at a...
View ArticleThe Royal College of Art in the Twenties
The following text is drawn from the as yet unpublished memoires started by James Holland during his life. It is part of a much longer chapter discussing the life changing experience of being a...
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Birmingham before it was regenerated
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Holland was Head of Faculty, Visual Communication at Birmingham College of Art (then Polytechnic from 1971). Of course all things change, and Birmingham Poly morphed...
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Inspiration from the Avignon Festival
The summer of 1977 Holland spent time at Mas Gouge with his family - I remember it not least as the news that Elvis had died had to be gleaned from the Midi Libre. Rather than drive all the way...
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The Penny Wet
This painting comes from Holland’s post-War period in the late forties and fifties, when he was still attracted by social realism, but had the opportunity to use larger canvases and more colour. The...
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Britain's seafaring heritage
In an earlier article, I mentioned the 1936 Three James's Desk Diary. Social realism was very much the thing in the Thirties for Holland, and his cartoon which goes with the diary page for the first...
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If you happen to be in London in early March...
There is an exhibition featuring the works of the artist James Boswell. As avid readers of this blog should be aware, James Holland and James Boswell were good friends, so it is interesting that as...
View ArticlePuffin Books and War on Land
This link cropped up on my Google Alerts feed for James Holland - if I can find a copy I will get some scans and update this blog, but in the meantime, please enjoy this article. You may also want to...
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