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The Tom Phillips Exhibitions & Events blog has moved, you can find it now on the main Tom Phillips website here www.tomphillips.co.uk/news

Seventy Fifth Birthday Celebrations

Announcing a number of events to mark the occasion of Tom Phillips's Seventy Fifth birthday, beginning, on 24th May 2012, the day itself, with the launch of a brand new version of the Tom Phillips website and the publication by Thames & Hudson of the new and updated 5th edition of A Humument.

On 25th May all readers of this blog are invited to the opening reception of an exhibition of graphics and original works titled South London Dreaming at GX Gallery, the exhibition continues until 13th June.

The Remains of the Day an exhibition of new work by Tom Phillips opens at Flowers East (82 Kingsland Road London E2) on the 27th May and runs until 7th June 2012.

Tom Phillips will be reading from the Humument 5th Edition on 30th May at Review bookshop.

Finally, five new prints and a sculpture are on show at the Royal Academy 2012 Summer Exhibition which runs from 4th June until 12th August 2012.

Shameless Christmas Marketing Plug

We can't absolutely guarantee to get it to you before Christmas but, here's a special offer valid until the end of the year. Choose two from the new selection of six humument fragments available now from 57talfourd.com and we will give you a third humument fragment print free of charge - if you buy before 31st December. Just fill in your third choice in the message field in Paypal. Go on, knock yourself out. Happy Christmas.

A TV DANTE now on DVD

In 1989 the first eight cantos of A TV DANTE co-directed by Tom Phillips and Peter Greenaway were screened on Channel 4. The programmes were seen as groundbreaking, a review in The Times said "Nothing quite like it has been seen on television before. The extraordinary multi-layered images on the screen as not so much state-of-the-art video but the state after that." In 1991 the directors were awarded the Prix Italia Special Prize for the Arts for Cantos 3 and 4.
A TV DANTE has just been re-issued on DVD by Digital Classics and is available from Amazon here.

British Heart Foundation Mending Broken Hearts Appeal

Tom Phillips is supporting the British Heart Foundation's Mending Broken Hearts Appeal with a limited edition silkscreen print as well as a range of stationary, badges and kitchenware, all available from the British Heart Foundation's online shop.

The Class of ...at Ipswich Art School

Tom Phillips is taking part in a group exhibition of past tutors and students work in the new gallery space at Ipswich Art School. As well as a work made whilst he was a tutor at Ipswich, he is exhibiting a portrait of his best student, Brian Eno. The exhibition is open now and runs until 12th June 2011.

A Humument App, now available for the iPhone.

By popular demand Tom Phillips has created a new version of the A Humument app. Retaining all the original features of the critically acclaimed iPad app, the new version has been formatted and optimised for the iPhone. Available from the iTunes app store alongside the original.

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.