The Art of William Blake

Abstract

William Blake as a poet and prophet has long attracted an enthusiastic coterie, but Blake as an artist has only recently received the same kind of scrupulous attention that has been accorded his writings. In America, it has in fact been professors of English literature who have written most incisively on his art, but in England two art historians—Martin Butlin and David Bindman—have made the greatest contributions. In recent years, there have been not only a number of landmark publications, such as Butlin's catalogue raisonne, but also several exhibitions that have introduced Blake to a wider audience. The most elaborate of these was held at the Tate Gallery in London in 1978, a show expertly compiled by Butlin that offered an incomparable view of the full extent of the artist's achievement. Fortunately for North American audiences, another ambitious exhibition, William Blake: His Art and Times, the work of David Bindman, has been organized by the Yale Center for British Art and the Art Gallery of Ontario.