On casting an eye at the contents of our Autumn 2022 issue, we appear to have made a literary special. We open with an archival interview in memory of the dearly missed Mel Gooding, one of our finest art critics. Two of our art features – Paul Nash’s extraordinary illustrations for Thomas Browne’s beloved Urne Buriall and Kitaj’s collaboration with the American poet Robert Creeley – see artists engaging deeply with their respective texts. And Dr Jo Balmer has kindly reviewed our reissue of Vale Royal, poet Aidan Dun’s first major work, published by Goldmark nearly thirty years ago. Plus, there is news of an upcoming Gaudier-Brzeska epic of our own: a new catalogue raisonné, due for publication this winter. With Lisa Hammond and Lee Kang-hyo representing ceramics, there are vessels aplenty here too. Much to enjoy, as the days of Autumn draw in.

CONTRIBUTORS

Mel Gooding (1941-2021) was an art critic, writer, curator and lecturer on art and architecture. He published numerous monographs on modern artists, including Frank Bowling, Bruce McLean, Patrick Heron, Ceri Richards, John Hoyland and herman de vries, and was author of catalogue introductions and essays on many others, including Patrick Caulfield, Frank Auerbach, Joe Tilson, Terry Frost, Robert Motherwell, Kurt Schwitters and Pierre Soulages. He also contributed texts to a number of artists’ books, including ten publications with Knife Edge Press (a creative collaboration with the artist Bruce McLean), and worked as advisor, editor and writer for over twenty-five years with Redstone Press.

Isabella Smith is deputy editor of the Crafts Council-published magazine Crafts and is author of Lucie Rie (September 2022, Eiderdown Books). A former assistant editor for Ceramic Review, her MA at the Courtauld Institute focused on the use of clay in performance art. She now writes for publications including Apollo, Art Review, Ceramic Review, Frieze, The Guardian, The TLS and World of Interiors.

Josephine Balmer is a poet, classical translator, research scholar and literary critic. She studied Classics and Ancient History at University College, London, and completed a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Her published works include the acclaimed translation Sappho: Poems and Fragments, newly revised and enlarged in 2018, and Ghost Passage, her most recent poetry collection, published February 2022. She is presently a member of the Classics and Poetry Now Research Group (CAPN), chaired by Lorna Hardwick, and based at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Dr Mark Golder is a trustee of Black Swan Arts in Frome, Somerset. He and his partner Brian are collectors of modern and contemporary British prints. As patrons since 2001 of Pallant House in Chichester, West Sussex, they have donated 500 prints. Over 60% of the material in Pallant's recent exhibition 'Hockney to Himid: 60 Years of British Printmaking' was drawn from this gift. Mark and Brian have also been selectors for the November 2022 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair.