Blake: Ther Rebel Artist

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David Whitfield reviews the Tate Gallery exhibition of prints and poetry by William Blake. Admission to exhibition is 50p.

'And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven The great French Revolution of 1789 convulsed and transformed the entire world. Revolutionary ideas had exploded in a language that nobody could fail to understand.

Throughout Europe, the radical bourgeoisie looked to France as an inspiration-and an example. Tyrannical monarchs trembled, and churchmen made their peace with god.

Shock The shock was no less severe in England, where the middle class had already staked its claim to power a century before.

Tories spluttered in gibbering rage, and the state unleashed packs of spies to infiltrate the secret revolutionary societies of artisans, workmen and petty bourgeois radicals.

Hired mobs and "agents provocateurs' did much to wreck the work of these groups.

But they were as helpless 'as King Canute to stay the spontaneous wave of enthusfiasm • that swept through the country.

New age The revolutionary songs and ballads were devoured along with the political writings of Tom Paine, and other radicals and atheists.

Artists did not hold aloof from the general ferment, and in their work many hailed French Revolution as the dawning of a new age of crowns upon his heads.

liberty.

For generations of English writers, it stood as the rallying point for all apostles of freedom and democracy.

Most were later to disown the ardour of their youth and, like Wordsworth, took on respectability with middle age by cashing in their political principles for financial security.

Disillusionment

A very few struggled like Shelley • to develop their political ideas when the progress and degeneration of the revolution brought disillusionment.

Fervent belief

But it is the work of William Blake which gave the clearest expression in English art of those forces which erupted in the Paris of 1789.

Born in 1757, Blake lived through the experience of both the American and the French revolutions. When he died in 1827, the Bourbon monarchy had long been re-established in France.

For all the political defeats and betrayals of this writing in 'Jerusalem' Blake's lifetime was not simply a period of great political upheaval.

Patronage

The major historical moments were themselves the product of deeper transformations, which were to have even more profound implications for artists.

This was the age of the Industrial Revolution, and its effects were not confined to those directly involved in the new factories and industrial towns.

As capitalism expanded, the market economy and production for exchange came to dominate in every sphere of economic activity. Art was no exception.

In the past, artists had gained their living trom the patronage of wealthy aristocrats.

By a lengthy and complex process, this system broke down into a situation where the artist was fundamentally dependent on being able to sell products in a free, competitive market.

This development had a traumatic effect in every sphere of artistic production. It was the real cause of many 'romantic' suicide and "tragic' early death.

Blake escaped either fate, but was constantly at the mercy of the same hostile circumstances.

'Eccentric'

To sell his art to a wide audience, he needed publicity. But the elite of patrons and their favourites was still sufficiently powerful to exclude and dismiss work so 'eccentric' as Blake's. His response to this situation was vehement:

"The Enquiry in England is not whether a Man has Talents and Genius, But whether he is Passive and Polite and a Virtuous Ass and obedient to Noblemen's Opinions in Art and Science. If he is, he is a Good Man. If Not, he must be Starved"

The major part of Blake's work took the form of etchings of his own texts with his own illustrations. These were subsequently coloured.

Almost all his writing was produced in this way-text and graphic layout were conceived together, and any attempt to separate them out severely weakens the impact of either.

In editions of his poetry "Times on times he divided and measur'd Space by space in his ninefold darkness, Unseen, unknown."

scenes and for the writing ather poets.

Intensity

It appears to have been laid out with the sole aim of cramming as much material as possible into the available space, and this causes minor frustrations at almost every But even caged in such conditions, some of these works still have the power to communicate a thrill of excitement.

That power conveys the intensity with which Blake experienced the social and political revolutions of his age.

(When he imagined his critics asking, 'When the Sun rises, do you not see a round dish of fire somewhat like a Guinea?' ', Blake's reply was: 'Oh no, no, I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying 'Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty'")

Enthusiasm The hatred of tyranny and energetic enthusiasm for liberty which were expressed in the storming of the Bastille can be found again in Blake's depictions of the monsters from the biblical Apocalypse, or his presentation of the revolt of America against British colonial oppression.

This is not simply question of their political content-it is produced by every aspect of their technical form and execution.

• In his drawing of the human body, Blake was able to regain the strength and vigour which characterised the masterpieces of the Renaissance.

His colouring is never gaudy or flashy, but has the brilliance and the delicacy of sunrise on a clear day.

Boundless energy

All this is bound up within forms and shapings that are powerfully compressed, giving an overwhelming sense of boundless energy about to burst forth from the confines of established order.

This exhibition is invaluable for gaining some understanding of the power of the bourgeoisie in its revolutionary youth.

But even simply as a collection of artistic products it is an experience that should not be missed by any of our readers who can afford 50p and an hour at the Tate.