Sunday, September 04, 2016

Lovecraftian Thing a Day No.248: Influence of Anxiety


Another refrain from NecronomiCon 2015 - the postcard flyer for the Influence of Anxiety exhibition put on by Brown University at the John Hay Library, primarily covering the literary correspindence between Lovecraft and Bloch. Interestingly, the exhibit contained a number of original artworks by Bloch depicting various Mythos entities; unfortunately there was a rather odd copyright policy in force for the duration of the exhibit, which meant that it was permissible to photograph the Lovecraft items on display, but not those of Bloch. The image on the postcard flyer - shown at the exhibition - is entitled 'Iaa Shub Niggurath Y'a'. Interestingly, one of the Bloch artworks on display (entitled Kadath, although actually depicting something akin to a Mi-Go) - and which he sent to Lovecraft - was drawn on the reverse side of a poster promoting Jewish Day on July 3rd, 1933 at the Centre of Progress International Exposition in Milwaukee. It seems that Lovecraft managed not to explode into a paroxysm of bigoted rage when appraising Bloch's artwork on this occasion - although he appears to have been unsurprisingly critical of the exposition regarding its advocacy of modernist progess...

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