If you wanted to enjoy yourself back in 1968, and were so inclined, you might possibly think about going to Art College, perhaps in London, and spending your summer holidays wandering around the great galleries of Europe including the Louvre, the Prado and the Vatican, as well as visiting the Parthenon, the caves of Altamira and Pompeii.
This account of such indulgence, a mosaic of short episodes, is the platform for presenting the History of Art, Literature and especially Film as it was encountered, using hyperlinks for reference and illustration. A series of five books presents the whole rose tinted reminiscence beginning with the first book in Bournemouth-by-the-Sea, all that time ago, when Modern Art was, indeed, still relatively modern.
The many references to Literature and History, throughout the books, reflect what the Fine Arts once enjoyed. This was a happy synthesis between Art, History and Literature. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Fine Arts were deprived of this by other Art forms, which included Illustration, Photography, and particularly Film. The consequence of these developments was an ideology of what little remained. This was called Modern Art.
In Book Three Giles and his two student friends found themselves in Athens as dawn was breaking. Greece, at this time, had a military government and soldiers patrolled everywhere. The Parthenon and then over to Italy where they managed to see the Scrovegni Chapel, the Venice Biennale, Pompeii, the Vatican and Florence. Then Giles split for hitching back, over the Alps to England.
For the second year at Wimbledon, he was sharing a chaotic house with four others where he first experienced drugs, ending up talking to a train. As well as painting, Giles played with some sculptural ideas. Jack smith was a tutor. The year flew by and soon they were planning their next trip; Morocco and Spain this time and back through Paris.
