RICHARD MURGATROYD enjoys a readable account of the life and meditations of one of the few Roman emperors with a good reputation
Lynn Chadwick, Gallery Pangolin
Profound humanism shines through online retrospective of major sculptor's work
(Left to right) Two Winged Figures, 1976; Pair of Sitting Figures, 1973; Two Watchers, 1967
ALEX HALL asks whether intelligence, and stupidity, are the outcomes of poverty and wealth, and cultural norms
BRENT CUTLER is persuaded by a new account of the rise of Christianity, and the fall of the Roman empire
If non-human nature is devoid of value under the capitalist mode of production, this book presents the case for its reintegration, suggests HENRY BELL
The Bard takes issue with a BBC portrait of The Balkans, and sets the record straight
ANGUS REID urges you to visit Britain’s most remarkable - and mind-blowing - festival of contemporary music
MARIA DUARTE reviews Desperate Journey, Blue Moon, Pillion, and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
LONDONER Lynn Chadwick came into sculpture via architecture, a field he worked in as a draughtsman, and it was the influence of his employer Rodney Thomas that proved crucial.
Thomas was a dreamer and a visionary thinker — “a modest man who didn’t think modestly” — who’d been dissuaded by his uncle from becoming a painter. He was the ideal person to encourage Chadwick’s aspiration.
Chadwick’s lack of formal artistic training was a blessing in disguise, as it was his architectural drawing that “taught me how to compose things,” he once recalled. “I actually wanted to produce a sort of touchable object, a tangible object... I wanted to do it to have some reality in front of me.”
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