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Nigel Ip

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Guest Writing

As a guest writer, I have contributed to numerous websites in the past. Among this is my existing work for Museum Bookstore as a book reviewer.

Below is a brief list of some of my contributions:

Two-Faced Fame – celebrity or commodity? – InQuire, 2 June 2013
Student Review: UNDEREXPOSED – A Tribute to Female Artists – Studio 3 Gallery, 5 June 2013
Pre-Raphaelites on Paper – The Courtauldian, 2 June 2016
Art Bloggers: A Blessing or a Curse? – Interscript Journal Online Magazine, 13 March 2017
Dürer or not? – Royal Museums Greenwich Blog, 20 December 2017

I am always open to the opportunity to write for other publications so let me know if you’d like me to write for you!

You can contact me HERE!

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#PreRaphSisters @nationalportraitgallery presents a nice opportunity to see works from the very beginning of some of these women's modelling 'careers' for their male counterparts. Chief among them must be Walter Howell Deverell's 'Twelfth Night, Act II Scene IV' (1850), featuring the newly-discovered Elizabeth Siddal as Viola disguised as the pageboy Cesario, now in a private collection, before eventually being introduced to members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Those familiar with the @tate collection will probably be aware of Annie Miller's debut in William Holman Hunt's 'The Awakening Conscience' (1853). Conceived alongside Holman Hunt's painting is Dante Gabriel Rossetti's unfinished 'Found' (1859) from @delartmuseum, which features Fanny Cornforth's first appearance, regrettably as a 'fallen woman'. A lovely early drawing of Fanny Eaton by Simeon Solomon from @fitzwilliam also makes an appearance, possibly from a life drawing class, dated 7 November 1859. It was used as a study for 'The Mother of Moses' (1860), also exhibited (from Delaware). Speaking of drawings, a study of Guinevere (@mcrartgallery) for Rossetti's 'Sir Launcelot in the Queen's Chamber' represents Jane Burden's first pose, made at the time when Rossetti and William Morris were painting the Oxford murals in 1857. Christina Rossetti was also familiar with modelling for Gabriel at a young age, with one drawing from as early as 16 years old (@vamuseum). Finally, there is also a stiff frontal portrait of the recently-married, 22-year-old Georgiana Burne-Jones (@birmingham_mag), one of Ned's earliest attempts at formal portraiture akin to Tudor-period portraits. #preraphaelite #PreRaphaeliteSisters #preraphaelitewomen #lizziesiddal #walterhowelldeverell #janemorris #anniemiller #fannycornforth #christinarossetti #georgianaburnejones #fannyeaton #dantegabrielrossetti #edwardburnejones #simeonsolomon

Let's reframe my discussion in the previous post, as I do believe the exhibition has its merits. If you haven't read it, make sure you do! The point of this exercise is to illustrate the complexity of interpreting this exhibition at a time when awareness for the recognition of women's achievements is at an all-time high, and therefore our expectations of it may have been different at another time. #PreRaphSisters @nationalportraitgallery could be seen as a decent survey of notable women associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. Featuring some rare examples of their creative ventures into painting, drawing, embroidery, metalwork, and poetry, there is a larger representation of their importance as models and muses to their male counterparts and to each other. Fanny Eaton posed for Joanna Boyce Wells and Rebecca Solomon, Jane Morris for Evelyn de Morgan, whose aesthetic was in turn inspired by Elizabeth Siddal's 'type'. Photographs also provide an objective contrast to their painterly stylisations. Some women were clearly more successful than others (Christina Rossetti, J B Wells, Marie Spartali Stillman, E de Morgan). Other ventures were clearly relegated to personal and domestic uses, with drawings often given as gifts to friends and family. Recognised for her 'exotic' appearance, the black Jamaican model Fanny Eaton is also given equal representation as an important figure in depicting works of a Biblical or Eastern nature. Speaking of models, the exhibition gathers a substantial number of works from their earliest modelling roles, notably Siddal in Walter Howell Deverell's 'Twelfth Night, Act II Scene IV' (priv.coll.) and Fanny Cornforth in Dante Gabriel Rossetti's unfinished 'Found' (@delartmuseum). Perhaps a little simplistic at times, the exhibition is an accessible who's-who's of women in Pre-Raphaelite art, with an unnecessary room introducing the male Pre-Raphaelite circle. More could certainly be done to illustrate Victorian attitudes to women, especially their access to education and the popularity of the 'fallen woman' genre, but perhaps that would require a larger space and break the consistency of its biographical arrangement. #preraphaelite @janmarsh25

#PreRaphSisters @nationalportraitgallery finds itself caught with a 21st-century problem: how to convey the grim reality of women's circumstances in Victorian England to a post-#MeToo public. The exhibition walked like Jan Marsh's short guide to the Pre-Raphaelite circle, taking us through the biography of each of the 12 women. Fulfilling one of its aims and gracing another, it seemed to focus more on how they looked and less about what they contributed. The overwhelming presence of male-created objects confirms this, and portraits by women were sometimes placed in other sections to illustrate the appearance of other women. In the first half, dedicated to Effie Gray, Christina Rossetti, Lizzie Siddal, Annie Miller, and Fanny Cornforth, it was evidently clear that these women were able to contribute very little other than as models and muses, with the exception of Christina. The second half is much more hopeful, with excellent sections on Joanna Boyce Wells, Marie Spartali Stillman, and ends on a high note with Evelyn de Morgan, featuring great examples of their paintings and drawings. I appreciated the section on Fanny Eaton, a black Jamaican model who definitely deserves more attention, but it still suffers the same problems that she was only seen as an 'exotic' model. As expected, Jane Morris had a big section. Georgiana Macdonald and Maria Zambaco featured interesting examples of their textiles and portrait medallions. No section on Alexa Wilding except a print of the first version of 'Lady Lilith' with Cornforth's features, before being replaced with Wilding's. This was an exhibition with a hopeful message, that women had diverse roles beyond Pre-Raphaelite models. There is truth to this. But very few were successfully recognised as worthy figures in their respective pursuits, often overshadowed or belittled by their male counterparts. Good loans from @delartmuseum and private collections. If framed differently and better timed (seriously), it could have been well received. #preraphaelite #preraphaelitewomen #npglondon #lizziesiddal #anniemiller #effiegrey #fannycornforth #fannyeaton #joannaboycewells #evelyndemorgan #mariazambaco #mariespartalistillman

Words can't quite describe the overwhelming gravitas of Dongdaemun Design Plaza, designed by the late Zaha Hadid. It was my first experience of Hadid's undulating buildings, like metallic fluids meandering against modernist accents on the outside, but encasing brightly-lit, futuristic interiors resembling something out of a luxury spaceship. (Can you tell I don't know how to describe architecture?)⁠ Wandering around the nooks and crannies of the entire site, I was impressed to find seamless transitions between the new buildings and the historic city walls ('Dongdaemun' means 'Great Gate of the East') and archaeological sites. After all, it was designed as a cultural hub to replace Dongdaemun Stadium, demolished on the present site in 2007.⁠ #DongdaemunDesignPlaza #DDP #ZahaHadid @zahahadidarchitects #seoul #southkorea #architecture #design #dongdaemun #latergram

No. This is not the Met in New York. But it sure looks similar to its corridor of antique sculptures, with its skylight letting natural light grace the polished surfaces of its walls and floors.⁠ This is actually the hallway of the @nationalmuseumofkorea, considered one of the largest museums in Asia (I spent about 3 hours there and just finished the first of three floors; then again, I'm a special kind of museum visitor). Wikipedia tells me it is the 6th largest museum in the world in terms of floor space.⁠ The present building was completed in 2005 by Junglim Architects. Prior to this, the collection of exclusively Korean objects moved around a lot between various palace and government buildings.⁠ The galleries on either side were equally as spacious as the hallway, as if one had entered a series of rooms in a temple complex. I probably spent more time appreciating their curatorial decisions and interiors than the objects themselves, such as their collections of National Treasures (the 14th-century ten-storey pagoda at the end of the hallway is No. 86).⁠ #NationalMuseumOfKorea #JunglimArchitects #architecture #southkorea #seoul #yongsangu #yongsandistrict #latergram

Haven't had a #MondayMusings in so long and, even though my Seoul trip happened last summer, I couldn't stop thinking about the Starfield Library there which is literally the centrepiece of the COEX Mall near the Gangnam area.⁠ This fully-functioning library designed by Cenoplan features four eye-watering stacks of book-filled shelves, vast skylight, and many desks and public spaces for people to just chill or sink their heads into some juicy literature. You can even read e-books (urgh) on iPads!⁠ #StarfieldLibrary #COEXmall #Cenoplan #gangnam #seoul #southkorea #library #bibliophile #bibliophilia #bookporn #libraryporn #architecture #design #latergram

Newer followers of this account probably don't know that I'm a big fan of John Cage's silent '4'33"' (1952), which is as absurd as it is amazingly revelatory. I love it so much that I bought a reproduction of the score at Frieze, framed it, and had it hanging in front of my desk for a while, front and centre. Therefore, it was only natural that I resonated with Nam June Paik's 'Zen for Film' (1964), also inspired by Cage's piece; Paik met Cage in 1958 in Germany. Similar to how Cage's silent piece forces you to contemplate the random sounds within a theatre, perhaps someone coughing, some murmuring too, 'Zen for Film' invites us to appreciate the dust and scratches of analogue film, which ran for 20 minutes in its original form. Paying homage to Paik's own stunt in a New York screening in 1965, I also stood in front of the projector to watch my own shadow. #NamJunePaik #ZenForFilm #JohnCage #433 #4minutes33seconds #fourminutesthirtythreeseconds @tate #tate #tatemodern #koreanart #videoart

The TV screen as distributor of art. The phone screen as distributor of art. I should probably put my phone down now. You should too. Just for a bit. Go on. Put it down. You know it's good for you. Put it down. #NamJunePaik #tate #tatemodern @tate #koreanart #artandtechnology

A 20-minute stroll through #NamJunePaik @tate. #tatemodern #koreanart #modernart #artandtechnology

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