Something For the Weekend

Words by
Lee Cassanell

12th May 2022

Jack the Ripper's paintings and Nick Cave's Ode to Friendship. 

 

sickert portrait

Exhibitions

Walter Sickert

Tate Britain is holding a retrospective of Walter Sickert, the German-born British painter and print maker who some theorists suspect was the infamous serial-killer Jack the Ripper. Sickert took a radically modern approach to painting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, transforming how everyday life was captured on canvas. This major exhibition features over 150 of his works, from scenes of rowdy music halls to ground-breaking nudes and narrative subjects. Spanning Sickert’s six-decade career, it uncovers the people, places and subjects that inspired him and explores his legacy as one of Britain’s most distinctive, provocative, and influential artists.

The exhibition examines Sickert’s British and French music hall subjects together through over 30 atmospheric paintings and drawings of halls in London and Paris, including The Old Bedford 1894-5, Gaité Montparnasse 1907 and Théâtre de Montmartre c.1906 as well as depictions of famous performers such as Birmingham born singer and dancer Minnie Cunningham and Little Dot Hetherington. Sickert took inspiration from the café-concert subjects of French artists such as Edouard Manet and the ballet subjects of Edgar Degas, a close friend and major influence on Sickert after they met in Paris in the 1880s.

Sickert’s nudes were admired in France but disapproved of in Britain, where they were considered immoral. His Camden Town Murder series, which was completed 20 years after Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror, is said to be inspired by the artist’s obsession with the serial killer. Author Patricia Cornwell proposed that Sickert himself was the Ripper, though most experts believe he was in France when the crimes took place.

Conspiracy, murder, music halls and provocative paintings —- what more do you want from an art exhibition?

Walter Sickert is on at the Tate Britain until 18th September 2022: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/walter-sickert

 

 

Nick Cave Doc

Documentary

This Much I Know To Be True

It’s been another tragic week for Mr. Cave and his clan after his eldest son, Jethro, passed away at the age of 30. How the artist will creatively deal with another dark period is anyone’s guess, but if it’s anything like his recent output, we might be in for a tough and traumatic listening experience. 

His 2019 album, Ghosteen, dealt with the death of his son Arthur and is the subject, along with the 2021 Carnage, of Andrew Dominik’s documentary This Much I Know To Be True. 

Capturing Nick and his long-term collaborator, Warren Ellis, Dominik explores the creative relationship between the pair as the work on the aforementioned albums.

Filmed in spring 2021 ahead of their UK tour, we see the two, accompanied by singers and string quartet, as they nurture each song into existence and the deep friendship between Cave and Ellis, glimpsed in the 2014 film ‘20,000 Days on Earth’ is laid bare.

Cave is a titan, up there on the pantheon with song-writing heavyweights such such as Dylan, Waits, Mitchell, Cohen and Cash. His best work may very well be ahead of him, and whether his next album is a mournful cry or a primal scream, it’s going to be a thing of beauty. 

This Much I Know To Be True is showing at Cinemas Nationwide.

Gig

The Worldwide Awards


Gilles Peterson's mind-expanding musical showcase returns to celebrate the best forward-thinking music of the past year. The ceremony, featuring live performances and DJ sets will be held in Camden’s recently refurbished Koko. Look out for performances by Doom Cannon and Celeste, Gabriels, Brian Jackson, Kojey Radical and Emma-Jean Thackray.


https://dice.fm/