Overview

"Twenty years ago Roger Wagner and a group of fellow artists--The Metaphysical Painters--set out on the first of a series of annual pilgrimages to places associated with poets, painters, and writers who transfigured the landscapes in which they lived. Beginning in a bamboo forest in Japan and ending on a boat to Bardsey--""the isle of twenty thousand saints""--the book weaves together poetry, prose, and paintings that describe these journeys and responds to artists like Samuel Palmer, George Herbert, Thomas Traherne, and William Blake."

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9798385215225

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Reviews

"""Roger Wagner's paintings have the visionary power of Blake, carrying us up to the heavens; his poems have the clean and perfect calm of Herbert, able to find radiance even amidst the clutter and confusion of the world. Here, as always, he takes us up to where the angels live and deep into the quiet recesses of the heart and shows us that they're the same. Wherever we are is illuminated."" --Pico Iyer, author of The Half Known Life ""Roger Wagner's visual world is immediately recognizable--the subtle juxtaposition of familiar and unfamiliar, Syria and Oxfordshire, ancient and modern, so often within a landscape of overwhelming radiance, local and unearthly all at once. Here these images are woven around with reflective prose and with poetry that has the same unsettling radiance. A book of transfigurations."" --Rowan Williams, former archbishop of Canterbury ""Roger Wagner, in my mind, is one of the most important artists working today. His immense gift as a painter provides a glimpse into the realm of disciplined discourse that leads to these indelible images. His 'discourse' happens to be his own poetry, a peek into his adroit integrative power of communication that speaks powerfully into our souls."" --Makoto Fujimura, author of Art and Faith ""Although we rarely use 'truth' as a value of modern art, it is unavoidable in considering the poetry and painting of Roger Wagner. His vision is particularly his, through its clear-eyed clarity and strength, yet it is recognizable and resonant within a tradition of English painters and poets. This lineage is deep-rooted and as vital now as it ever was, but perhaps it is the note of quiet conviction that makes these poems, paintings and prints so compelling and unusual today."" --Christopher le Brun, former president, Royal Academy of Arts ""Roger Wagner is an artist who calls our attention to a world infused with the divine. His poems follow suit: intelligent, neatly metric but often catching us off guard. His poetry, like his images, frames the density of the unignorable mystery and the call of the transcendent to restless hearts. This is a beautiful and spiritually rich book to spend proper time with."" --Mark Oakley, author of The Splash of Words ""Coleridge said that poetry should 'awaken the mind's attention' and remove the 'film of familiarity' we have thrown over the world, and the same could also be said of good visual art. By a deft combination of both art forms, Roger Wagner's new work does just what Coleridge asks. Here are paintings and poems that help us to see in a new way and challenge our habits and assumptions."" --Malcolm Guite, author of Lifting the Veil ""Roger Wagner is an illuminator in the rich medieval sense of one who makes images and text sing together. I appreciated an imagination that breaks down barriers between East and West, past and present, darkness and light. Be prepared to be startled by his profound simplicity."" --Esther de Waal, author of The Celtic Way of Prayer"

Author Information

Roger Wagner read English at Oxford before studying at the Royal Academy of Art. A leading contemporary artist, he is widely exhibited. He is the co-author of The Penultimate Curiosity and the author of The Nearer You Stand and The Book of Praises.

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