I was also told by my friends that I often assume a lot of prior knowledge when talking about art.
So, I decided to challenge myself to write my blogs in an engaging but accessible way. For every article I try to find a link between art and current affairs, or popular culture, or just something universally human. With the level of exhibitions and artists shown in London, it is not usually a problem to do so, you just need to take a closer look. ■
f o r u m T
Blogability
TiesenNotes is a blog about exhibitions and art events in London, around the UK and further afield, written by writer, curator and editor Aliya de Tiesenhausen.
Iblog about London art exhibitions for people who may not be comfortable with art. My main aim is to make art as fascinating as possible, without it seeming haughty. I have a PhD in History of Art, but I realised that a lot of art writing is convoluted.
ALIYA DE TIESENHAUSEN is a freelance arts specialist, which involves writing articles, curating exhibitions and helping people find art works for their collections. She is also studying parttime for a degree in Mathematics at the Open University. www.tiesennotes.com o strip or not to strip? Nicola Coughlan delighted Bridgerton fans recently by agreeing to star in the series’ longest sex scene. Her nude appearances in the Regencyera drama were deemed ‘very brave’ by some.
Women’s bodies are, to borrow from Barbara Kruger, perpetual ‘battlegrounds’. What to show, what to hide, what is appropriate? Many females go through some sort of conversation like this daily.
But for the women in Tate Britain’s show ‘Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain, 1520–1920’, it was a career-defining question. Women appearing naked in museums has never been a problem – as Guerrilla Girls famously pointed out. However, women artists wanting to have their work exhibited faced a completely different hurdle. How about a woman artist painting a naked woman? Ah, that is where it gets interesting.
Until the very late 19th Century, women were not allowed to attend life-drawing classes, so could not train to depict nudes. It was deemed inappropriate. So when, in 1875, Louise Jopling painted her model changing clothes (still very much dressed by today’s standards) her naked shoulder caused a stir. Extract from ‘When women weren’t allowed to make art’, 24 June 2024 ❐
STOCK
/ ADOBE
INVALDS
GR
; KASPARS
BELL
VANESSA
OF
ESTATE
©
. TATE
14
, 19
IECE
MANTELP
AOF
CORNER
ON
IFE
LILL
, ST
BELL
: VANESSA
IMAGE
WRITING NEST If I was writing, sleeping, dancing, all in my room, I would never get out of there. Sitting at the dining table helps me write in fresh light, spend time with my family, and remember to eat – all while working. And I can log out when it’s dark outside. ANYA SHANKAR
p oll
Could you live without social media? ◗ Yes 77.3% ◗ No 22.7%
Bit of an ironic one here, asking the question itself on social media... but a surprising number of you felt that you’d be fine without social media – even if you did answer that question while scrolling on your phone! Here’s what you had to say about social media usage... I left Facebook several years ago when I realised that it was bringing more heat than light into my life. I had over 2,000 followers on X, but I’ve deactivated my account. Closed my account a year ago; every time I went on it made me miserable. I’ll be deleting my Twitter profile soon. The place has become far too toxic, and the disadvantages now outweigh the advantages. I’m on all the platforms; it’s good for my writing to be exposed to the wide,
BEAR NECESSITIES Tanya, my rescue dog is always behind me as I type in snatched minutes between classes. She’s a woman of mystery, manifesting in olive groves, and I weave stories around her past. She’s also my meditative stroke when I’m struggling with ideas. Like a prompt, but softer. JULIE KNIGHT
sometimes mind-bogglingly horrific, range of opinions and personalities. It’s good for character development in fiction; for my poetry it is good for new feelings, critical analysis, and the work-in-progress evolution of who I am and what I value. I highly recommend exiting the bin-fire as soon as possible and never looking back. I’m still on X/Twitter, as although I hate the thought of supporting Musk, I have built up an excellent curated feed on various topics such as climate change, Covid expertise, neurodivergence and more - because of this I don’t get the toxic experience that others seem to. Most of the accounts that I interact with are from the poetry or broader writing community and I find them very inspiring and supportive.
5 FORUM / Mslexia / Mar/Apr/May 2025
