The film can viewed on YouTube -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9trd3Uevy2M&list=HL1336120732&feature=mh_lolz

In ‘The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman’, Turner Prize-winning artist Perry invited us on a pilgrimage: saluting the ‘travel’ experience generated by the museum, we were to call at the historical and cultural stations that have informed our imaginative world and material output.

Here’s a link to the full story -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17907008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/mar/25/grayson-perry-interesting-thing-damien-hirst?intcmp=122

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/26/jane-austen-portrait-world-book-day

The portrait is on display at Bodleian Library in Oxford on 1st March – World Book Day.

As reported in today’s Independent, the portrait will be going on display to the public at the Bodleian Library in Oxford on March 1st as part of the celebrations for World Book Day, before moving to Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton this April.

Here’s the full story:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/jane-austen-is-back-in-the-frame-6699551.html

You can watch a live stream of the event, organised by Run Riot, here -

http://www.run-riot.com/articles/notices/watch-1q2-debate-religion-alain-de-botton-online-live-24th-january

2011 ended on an upbeat note for us with the transmission of Jane Austen: the Unseen Portrait? on Boxing Day. It picked up some great notices in the press:

“Kearney joins biographer Dr Paula Byrne in an effort to determine the provenance of a modest portrait of Austen previously dismissed as inauthentic. Ink dating and facial recognition techniques are deployed, while Byrne’s zealousness is challenged by a rookery of haughty types in tweed. Don’t miss.” (The Guardian)

“An intriguing piece of detective work that throws light on Regency social mores, class and gender roles, as well as our own desire to read Austen as 19th C chicklit”. (Time Out)

You can follow the evolving story of investigations into the portrait on Dr Paula Byrne’s twitter feed – http://twitter.com/austenportrait

Here’s to a wonderful 2012!

It charts the attempt to authenticate a possible new portrait of Jane Austen and, since the story broke earlier this month, it has been reported around the world from the US to India.

The documentary has been picking up some great previews, including one published in yesterday’s Sunday Times:

“This is a remarkable documentary for a number of reasons. First, the premise itself, which asks if the Austen scholar Paula Byrne has found a picture of the author, who until now has only been reliably represented in the public imagination by a ‘rough little scribble’. Byrne’s quest for authentication is thrilling, but the film is unusual for its preponderence of fierce female academics, a species rarely seen on television.”

Will the picture stand up to forensic analysis and scrutiny by art historians and Austen experts? And if it does, how might it change our perception of one of Britain’s most revered writers? Jane Austen: The Unseen Portrait? (9pm, Mon 26 Dec, BBC Two) follows the investigation behind one of the literary world’s most exciting art works.

Janice Hadlow, Controller, BBC Two: “Jane Austen: The Unseen Portrait? will sit at the heart of our Christmas schedule and will be a fascinating chance for the BBC Two audience to delve deeper into the life of one of Britain’s best-loved authors.”

An interview with Dr Paula Byrne is featured in the Christmas edition of the Radio Times which goes on sale today. The news has been reported in The Times, Telegraph, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Guardian, BBC World News, New York Times and Toronto Star.  

Presented by: Martha Kearney

Camera: Nick Plowright; Sound: Tim Watts; Production Manager: Linda Stradling; Associate Producer: Lucy Evans; Editor: Philippa Daniel; Producer: Joe Evans; Executive Producer for the BBC: Adam Barker

Executive Producer: Liz Hartford

Produced and Directed by Neil Crombie

Grayson Perry on Taste takes Perry on a journey from the English country house to a girl’s night out in Sunderland. He will then use the experience as the inspiration for a major new work comprising a set of six tapestries that will tour nationwide.

“I spent thirty years building up and honing my North London middle class prejudices about other people’s bad taste,” says Perry. “Now I have taken those prejudices on safari with me to meet the various tribes that make up the British class system. “

Tabitha Jackson, Channel 4′s commissioning editor for arts, said: “I want our arts output to contain films with artists rather than about artists, to be about using artists as guides rather than simply offering guides to artists. This is the spine of our on-going mission – to try to reassert television as an artistically vibrant and experimental medium and use it to get the truth of what it is like to be us.”

This is what The Times said about the show: “Television at its best can take you to strange and fascinating places, and few places are stranger than inside the mind of Grayson Perry.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b016ycnn/Imagine_Winter_2011_Grayson_Perry_and_the_Tomb_of_the_Unknown_Craftsman/

“Television at its best can take you to strange and fascinating places, and few places are stranger than inside the mind of Grayson Perry.” (The Times)

“Chronicling the two-year gestation of Grayson Perry’s most ambitious work, this delightful documentary follows the sculptor’s collaboration with the British Museum.” (The Guardian)

“There’s always a danger that Grayson Perry’s appearances dressed as his outlandish altar ego Claire take the focus away from his work. But this profile redresses the balance. He’s a thougtful, knowing and charismatic interviewee…” (Radio Times - it also contains an in-depth interview with Grayson)

“Sometimes Imagine can seem thrown together, but not so here. We follow the genial Grayson a year in advance of his great big British Museum adventure…He also makes intelligent, interesting and occasionally hilarious asides… He devours the camera, much to the curtailment of Alan Yentob’s hour.” (Time Out ****)

“In a wonderfully daft move, Perry travels through Germany on a pink motorbike, with Alan (Measles, not Yentob) on the rear…an intriguing portrait.” (The Telegraph)

Presenter and Series Editor: Alan Yentob; Camera: Louis Caulfield and Nick Plowright; Sound: Adam Scourfield and Richard Meredith; Production Manager: Jo Sear; Editor: Clare Palmer; Executive Producer: Andrea Miller

Produced and Directed by Neil Crombie

Alan Yentob, the editor and presenter of Imagine, says: “So much in this season of Imagine sees artists in the process of creation, giving viewers a rare and fascinating insight into how great art is made.”

More information on the season can be found here -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2011/10_october/14/imagine.shtml

Here’s a link to the British Museum’s site -

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/grayson_perry.aspx

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/sep/17/grayson-perry-tomb-craftsman-museum

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/4thoughttv

Here’s a link to the interview -

http://realscreen.com/2011/06/01/for-next-week-seneca-looks-to-the-u-s/