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The Man Behind The Masquerade - BBC4
Platinum Bob
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Great documentary on last night about Kit Williams, the artist behind the Masquerade puzzle book and what he's been doing in the last 30 years since its publication. I remember spending many hours as a teenager poring over every page of the book, trying to track down the clues to the buried golden hare.
As well as his talents as a superb craftsman, I was also rather envious of the fact that he's found the perfect life we'd all want - doing his hobby as a job, to his own rules and having a strong relationship with a partner.
As well as his talents as a superb craftsman, I was also rather envious of the fact that he's found the perfect life we'd all want - doing his hobby as a job, to his own rules and having a strong relationship with a partner.
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..and having loads of scantily clad young ladies running about the place;). Seriously though I've always admired Kit's work, it's a shame he's not thought of more highly in the art world. I spent a year or two as a teenager trying to find out where the golden hare was buried (I never came close). I wish I could afford one of his paintings now.
Yes, it was a great documentary. I'm glad I saw it.
It was Janet Ellis - ex-Blue Peter and Sophie Ellis-Bextor's mum.
On a crass commercial point I would have liked to know what sort of price his work sells for. With such a restricted pool of buyers (most local apparently) either they have extremely deep pockets for a bunch of accidentally, geographically nearby people or he’s not asking much for them (in which case, I’ll have two!).
High quality T&A work!
The Portal Gallery has some of his works listed between £25k and £30k. So bottomless pockets required, unfortunately!
I'm hoping the doc will spur Jonathan Cape into publishing a coffee-table book of his pictures - much more affordable!
Out of my range (although I do have one more kidney than I absolutely need!) but at a rate of 10 works a year (300 over the 30 years) I suppose @£300k per annum constitutes a living wage!
I've read about Kit's shell-shocked reaction to Masquerade many times but it doesn't ring wholly true. Because if the intense public intrusion had been so intolerable from the publication of Masquerade in 1979 , why then did he publish a second puzzle book, "Bees On The Comb", five years later in 1984 -- launched on Wogan? Beneath Williams' idiosyncratic manner, I suspect there is indeed a businessman. It's also easy to seem indifferent about cash when one is already rich and sells paintings to private buyers for tens of thousands of pounds without having to compromise in the slightest. A very lucky and talented man indeed and I wouldn't begrudge him one penny. The only regret I have is that the private nature of his sales has, to date, not allowed publication of printed collections of his work -- I'd love to own a high quality hardback of his paintings.
Anyone interested in Masquerade must read Bamber Gascoigne's Quest For The Golden Hare. It does an excellent job of describing the madness of those times and offers an amusing/disturbing insight into just how bizarre human psychology can be.
shame I missed the docu would have loved to have found out more about him
JFGI
;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_%28book%29
Glad to be of service!
I was disappointed by this programme. Too much about Kit's other work and not enough about the hare and other aspects of the Masquerade saga. It was interesting all the same.
At the begining of the show it was mentioned that with the anniversay of 'Masquerade' Kit had many production companies trying to make programes about it; but Kit went with this particular one as they were specificly interested in his work since masquerade.
I agree the masquerade story is very interesting, but can appreciate that, as an artist, Kit sees it as a very small part of his life.
I also expect he is somewhat embaressed that in the end he didn't check that the "winner" actually solved the clues at all;)
On flicking back through the programme I like that picture of the "head on the table". Sort of like Big Brother 5 when the team brought back the two evictees (I have forgotten their names now)
No, he has a divergent squint which he's had since childhood.
Another recommendation from me for "Quest for the Golden Hare", Bamber Gascoigne's extraordinary book which details Kit's life, the preparation of the puzzle and the mania it produced among Masqueraders the world over. I loved the tale of the loony who thought it was all part of a conspiracy involving the Queen, then when Bamber carefully explained to him how the puzzle worked, he drained his pint and said "Codswallop".
Great to see the man so contented thirty years on.
Oh many years ago I stood in W H Smiths looking at a copy of that. I was going to buy it but didn't. I wish I had now.
I think it costs a lot these days.