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Too Brave to Dream: Encounters with Modern Art
By R. S. Thomas
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When R.S. Thomas died in 2000, two seminal studies of modern art were found on his bookshelves – Herbert Read's Art Now (1933/1948) and Surrealism (1936), edited by Read and containing essays by key figures in the Surrealist movement. Some three dozen previously unknown poems handwritten by Thomas were later discovered between the pages of the two books, poems written in response to a selection of the many reproductions of modern art in the Read volumes, including works by Henry Moore, Edvard Munch, George Grosz, Salvador Dalí, René; Magritte and Graham Sutherland – many of whom were Thomas's near contemporaries. These poems are published here for the first time – alongside the works of modern art that inspired them.
Thomas's readings of these often unsettling images demonstrate a willingness to confront, unencumbered by illusions, a world in which old certainties have been undermined. Personal identity has become a source of anguish, and relations between the sexes a source of disquiet and suspicion. Thomas’s vivid engagements with the works of art produce a series of dramatic encounters haunted by the recurring presence of conflict and by the struggle of the artist who, in a frequently menacing world, is 'too brave to dream'. At times we are offered an unflinching vision of 'a landscape God / looked at once and from which / later he withdrew his gaze'.
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Book preview
Too Brave to Dream - R. S. Thomas
R.S. THOMAS
TOO BRAVE TO DREAM
Encounters with Modern Arts
Edited by Tony Brown & Jason Walford Davies
When R.S. Thomas died in 2000, two seminal studies of modern art were found on his bookshelves – Herbert Read’s Art Now (1933/1948) and Surrealism (1936), edited by Read and containing essays by key figures in the Surrealist movement. Some three dozen previously unknown poems handwritten by Thomas were discovered between the pages of the two books, poems written in response to a selection of the many reproductions of modern art in the Read volumes, including works by Henry Moore, Edvard Munch, George Grosz, Salvador Dalí, René Magritte and Graham Sutherland – many of whom were Thomas’s near contemporaries. These poems are published here for the first time – alongside the works of modern art that inspired them.
Thomas’s readings of these often unsettling images demonstrate a willingness to confront, unencumbered by illusions, a world in which old certainties have been undermined. Personal identity has become a source of anguish, and relations between the sexes a source of disquiet and suspicion. Thomas’s vivid engagements with the works of art produce a series of dramatic encounters haunted by the recurring presence of conflict and by the struggle of the artist who, in a frequently menacing world, is ‘too brave to dream’. At times we are offered an unflinching vision of ‘a landscape God / looked at once and from which / later he withdrew his gaze’.
COVER PAINTING:
Gorse on a Sea Wall (1939) by Graham Sutherland
Collection National Museums Northern Ireland
by permission of the artist’s estate © DACS 2015
Manuscript of poem written in response to
Shelter Drawing by Henry Moore (see page 36)
R.S. THOMAS
TOO BRAVE TO DREAM
ENCOUNTERS WITH MODERN ART
EDITED BY TONY BROWN
& JASON WALFORD DAVIES
I Nancy, Sara ac Alys [TB]
ac er cof am Tilly Davies (1912–1984)
a Bertie Davies (1901–1986) [JWD]
CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
Tony Brown & Jason Walford Davies: Introduction
Editors’ Note
Poems to artworks in Herbert Read, Art Now: An Introduction to the Theory of Modern Painting and Sculpture
Henri Matisse: Odalisque with a Turkish Chair
She is the mistress…
André Derain: Portrait of the Artist
I No self-portrait…
II Capturing his astonishment…
Oskar Kokoschka: The Wind’s Bride
This wind had nowhere…
Henry Moore: Shelter Drawing
Hand clenched…
Edvard Munch: House in Aasgaardstrand
The emptiness…
George Grosz: Restaurant Scene
‘Really?’ ‘Garçon…
Édouard Pignon: La Catalane
Is that a tear?…
Jankel Adler: David
When the evil spirit…
Gabriel Robin: The Hearth
Have you seen a face…
William Roberts: The Dressmakers
I return to it…
Gaston-Louis Roux: Woman with Flowers
All round her flowers…
Graham Sutherland: Gorse on a Sea Wall
Gorse is gorse…
Floris Jespers: The Colombophil
Numerous and…
Eugène Berman: Evening in Venice
The gondolas have vanished…
Paul Berçot: Birth of the Siren
Existing so long…
Pavel Tchelitchew: The Bathers
We cannot compare…
René Magritte: La gravitation universelle
I He was mistaken…
II He is part…
Paul Delvaux: La prisonnière
It is the time of her moon…
Salvador Dalí: Naissance des désirs liquides
The man with sand in his ears…
Matta: Les vertiges d’Eros
Open to everything…
Roland Penrose: Les Musiciens Ambulants
The arrested son…
Poems to artworks in Surrealism, edited by Herbert Read
Salvador Dalí: Daybreak
The one has an upset…
Salvador Dalí: La profanation de l’hostie
It was because Caliban…
Salvador Dalí: Suburbs of the Paranoiac-critical Town
Holding the grapes out…
René Magritte: La reconnaissance infinie
It is the story…
Grace W. Pailthorpe: Ancestors II
According to this…
Pablo Picasso: Interior with Girl Drawing
I The moustached eye…
II Not cheeks any more…
Man Ray: Object
His genius…
Jindřich Štyrský: Man Fed on Ice
Representative man…
Yves Tanguy: Terre d’ombre
Yes, I suppose…
Yves Tanguy: The Flight of the Dukes
It is fitting that…
Yves Tanguy: The Extinction of the Species
Full of figures…
Toyen: Hlas lesa
Owl, you cry…
APPENDICES
Poem written in response to a greetings card inserted at the back of Art Now.
Henri Le Sidaner: Au Café
No people. Tables…
Uncropped artworks
Henry Moore: Shelter Drawing
Salvador Dalí: Suburbs of the Paranoiac-critical Town
Notes
Editors’ Notes on the Poems
Acknowledgements
Copyright
INTRODUCTION
When, several years after R.S. Thomas’s death in 2000, the home he had shared with his second wife, Betty, was sold, what was left of the poet’s personal library was acquired by the R.S.
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