Mural on an Indian Red Ground

Mural on an Indian Red Ground (1950),
Jackson Pollock, oil and enamel on board

The works of Jackson Pollock are a guilty pleasure of mine. I had something of an outburst of childlike excitement when I stumbled upon Summertime: 9A in the Tate Modern some years ago, in all its grandeur. Now, I have no idea how one would rate, or even describe, Pollock's work by artistic standards, but luckily a dilettante's approach to aestheticism requires none of these things to simply enjoy.

The painting above very nearly became the most expensive painting ever sold. That is by no means a credit in itself, however its near-sale formed the part of a very interesting MSNBC news clip which I found recently. Mural, like many other great works of Western art, is stored in the vaults of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art - part of perhaps the finest collection of art in Asia - a list of some of history's finest painters included therein is documented here. The borderline insanity which makes the Museum quite so peculiar is that none of these works are on public display - indeed, very few people in Iran even knew about them.

Acquired in rather happier times before the Revolution, chiefly under the direction of Queen Farah, the collection was originally moved from display for safekeeping. Now, however, it has become an ideological position - the Museum being used almost exclusively to display Iranian art alone. In 2005, however, a brief glimpse was allowed - with the exception of anything which could be considered, even in the most obscure of ways, somehow titillating or controversial. With an increasingly hardline political climate, the works are very much back in the vault for now.

Heart of the Nation

It's difficult to fault the Victorians when it comes to ambition and self confidence. The above is a plan for a grand-scale Imperial Memorial Halls in the very heart of Westminster, linked in with the Abbey. The High Gothic design depicted was proposed by John Pollard Seddon and Edward Lamb in 1904 to serve as a great monument to the British Empire at its height. A lot has been written about the plan, although from the very outset its sheer magnitude set it aside for failure.

Contrary to usual form, there is a reason - more than simply passing fancy - for dredging up this historical curio. In these images, and indeed as an integral part of Seddon and Lamb's plan, was the completion of a tower on the Crossing of Westminster Abbey - above the High Alter and under which the monarch is crowned. This has been unfinished work for centuries and inspired numerous proposals - but is now to be completed in time for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2013. Although no final plans have been agreed, the Dean of the Abbey has indicated that the current pyramid roof - built following bomb damage during the Second World War - will be replaced, very appropriately, with a corona, a Crown, generally predicted to be similar in design to that at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh or, closer to home, dear old King's College in Aberdeen.


Above is Sir Christopher Wren's uncharacteristically bland, but ambitiously scaled, solution to the problem, followed by Nicholas Hawksmoor's continental alternative. Regardless of design, the realisation of this project is a landmark in British architecture, a quite audacious plan by modern standards resurrecting the slightly barmy but distinctly charming ambitions of Seddon and Lamb.