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Following its domestic British premiere at the ICA in London last April, the University of Nicosia, in association with the Cyprus College of Art, is proud to present the international premiere of To Hell with Culture (Huw Wahl, UK, 2014), a film portrait of the life and work of the leading international art critic Herbert Read (1893 – 1968). This will be followed by a discussion with director Huw Wahl, Professor Benedict Read of the University of Leeds, and Dr Michael Paraskos, author of the book Herbert Read: Art and Idealism (London, 2014)
Herbert Read has been described as the ‘Pope of Modern Art’ and he was undoubtedly the most influential writer on modern art in the mid-twentieth century. A poet and self-confessed anarchist, he was close to T.S. Eliot, George Orwell, Peggy Guggenheim and Stephen Spender, and was co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, UNESCO and the British Council.
In his 1943 book, To Hell with Culture, Read set out his ideas for a civilisation based on cooperation in which art would not be seen as a commercial commodity, bought and sold by the wealthy, but as an integral part of everyday life for everyone. In this film, director Huw Wahl engages in conversations with artists, poets, curators, historians and Herbert Read’s own children, to ask how we can apply Read’s ideas and approaches to art and culture in our contemporary society. Including unseen archival material of Herbert Read, his poetry and the North Yorkshire landscape where he was born, the film is a sensitive portrayal of Read’s life and work by one of the leading art film makers working in Britain today.
This film was funded by the Arts Council of England.
