Blake's Time

"Albion Rose", 1793: a modern sensibility

WSJ on the William Blake exhibition at London's Tate Britain museum:

William Blake (1757-1827)....elaborated a complex mythology about a world full of angels and demons who battled for control of the human soul.

In my undergraduate years I often visited the university art museum, which had a renowned British collection. I did like Blake, but for the most part British art never evoked much of a response.

As with British food, William Blake's time may be now.

[His] muscle-bound, mutable heroes, such as Urizen and Orc, are shown undergoing mythological adventures of intricate complexity, which baffled readers at the end of the 18th century.

But they seem fit to be rediscovered now. “You think of how Blake’s imagery and universe anticipates graphic novels and superhero comics perhaps more directly than fine art practice,” [Curator Martin] Myrone said. “That, you might say, is one of the places where Blake’s legacy has ended up.”