Poster Boy

I suppose we live in an age that distrusts anger. But we are in danger of forgetting its wonderful potential for a kind of creativity. Blake is often at his best when he is angry. His blistering annotations to Reynolds's Works provide more than ample evidence of this, most entertainingly so. (Bear in mind that Sir Joshua was at the very pinnacle of the art establishment of the period, whilst Blake, poor and obscure, was just about at rock bottom. In his own words, I am hid.)

It's difficult to pick a favourite from the annotations, but one that occasionally haunts me in my line of work is this: To generalize is to be an idiot. To particularize is the alone distinction of merit. General knowledges are those knowledges that idiots possess.

I sometimes wonder about the possibility of producing a series like those dreadful motivational posters that you see everywhere these days but one featuring some provocative stuff from Blake. It wouldn't sell, but the world would be a livelier, possibly more sane place, for it.