Music Matters

BBC Radio 3's Music Matters programme, broadcast Saturday 11th December 12.15pm, featured Tom Phillips reviewing Peter Vergo's book The Music of Painting with presenter Tom Service and conductor Richard Bernas. Listen again here.

A Humument becomes an App for the iPad

It is forty four years since Tom Phillips began work on A Humument, setting himself the task of finding a second hand book in a junk shop for threepence and using collage, painting and cut-up techniques, to alter every page and create an entirely new version. The first edition was published in 1973 since when there have been three revised editions. A Humument has become a seminal classic of postmodern art.

Tom Phillips has now developed A Humument as an app for the iPad, with special features to enhance your enjoyment. The original pages have been rescanned enabling the user to zoom in and view details at higher resolution. The find wheel spins through the book with thumbnail images so you can navigate quickly to your favourites. There are thirty nine new and previously unpublished pages to discover and an entirely novel interactive feature, the oracle. Using a date and a randomly generated number the oracle will cast two pages to be read in tandem. You can email your personal choices or oracle reading to friends, or post them to your Facebook, Tumblr or Twitter profile direct from the app.

The Humument app is available now here. Price £4.99 or $7.99

Visit the Humument website here or look at our Tumblr pages here.

Vintage People on Photo Postcards

To celebrate the acquisition of the Tom Phillips archive, the Bodleian Library has asked the artist to assemble and design a series of books drawing on his themed collection of over 50,000 photographic postcards. These encompass the first half of the twentieth century, a period in which, thanks to the ever cheaper medium of photography, 'ordinary' people could afford to own their portraits. The first two titles in the series will be available November 2010.

Readers, with a foreword by David Lodge, shows people reading, or pretending to read a wide range of material from The Bible to Film Fun, at home, while holidaying on the beach, or in the photographer's studio.

Women in Hats, with a foreword by Philip Treacy, explores the world of millinery from outrageous Edwardian creations to the inventive austerities of the Second World War.

Each book contains 200 images and the covers feature a thematically designed painting especially created for each title from Tom Phillips signature work, A Humument.

Richard Morphet, curator and postcard expert, writes "These books will fascinate anyone interested in humanity or in the contrivances of image-making. Retrieving notionally commonplace portrait photos c.1900-1950 and grouping them by reference to supposedly merely accessory motifs they contain, Phillips reveals the ordinary as almost wondrous, its posed citizens as participants in mysterious rituals or cults. Whether bizarre, absurd, pretentious, sad or hilarious, these lost sitters are, however, presented by Phillips with the warm sympathy and open-mindedness that, reaffirming human dignity, is a hallmark of his art as a whole."

Martin Parr, photographer and postcard collector writes "Tom Phillips has one of the greatest postcard collections in the world - the ultimate archive of British citizens from the turn of the century."

Order now on Amazon.

Tom Phillips at Flowers New York

All readers are invited to the opening reception of Tom Phillips exhibition at Flowers, 529 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011 on Thursday 7th October 6-8pm. The exhibition continues to 30th October 2010. For more information visit the Flowers site.

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2010

The Royal Academy 2010 Summer Exhibition opens today with four new works by Tom Phillips on display. Illustrated here is one of two new pages from A Humument. Also in the show, the Quantum Poetics print and a recently completed painting Rilke's Angels. The exhibition continues until 22nd August. For more information and to book tickets follow this link.

Heart of Darkness World Premiere

Heart of Darkness is a chamber opera in one act by Tarik O'Regan with libretto by Tom Phillips based on the novel by Joseph Conrad. After several years in development with American Opera Projects and Opera East Productions as well workshop development in OperaGenesis, the world premiere production of Heart of Darkness will be at the Royal Opera House Linbury Studio Theatre in November 2011. The opera will be directed by Edward Dick, conducted by Oliver Gooch and further information about dates and cast will be announced soon. Tickets go on sale in 2011. www.heartofdarknessopera.com

African Goldweights at Barbara Wien Galerie

Opening on Friday 29th January 2010 at Barbara Wien Galerie, Berlin, an exhibition and book launch for the special edition of Tom Phillips's new book, African Goldweights: Miniature Sculptures from Ghana 1400 -1900. All are welcome at the Private view from 6-9pm. The exhibition which includes a selection of original gold weights alongside the artists own books, drawings and prints, continues until 17th April, weekdays 1pm - 6pm Saturdays 12 - 6pm. For further information visit the gallery website.
Barbara Wien Galerie
Linienstrasse 158
D 10115 Berlin
T: 49 30 28 38 53 52