Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann
@benwwk.bsky.social
Lecturer in Art History; Doctor of London's murals & 'the Left', 1975-86; Socialist; Trade unionist; Free Palestine 🇵🇸
https://profiles.open.ac.uk/ben-wiedel-kaufmann
https://profiles.open.ac.uk/ben-wiedel-kaufmann
Relieved to see the Edward Burra at Tate Britain before it closed. Fascinating show packed full of great paintings, from 1920s Paris to 1970s Cornwall (via Harlem, Rye and 1930s Spain).
October 19, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Relieved to see the Edward Burra at Tate Britain before it closed. Fascinating show packed full of great paintings, from 1920s Paris to 1970s Cornwall (via Harlem, Rye and 1930s Spain).
Happy 40th Anniversary to the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural!
Great to be part of yesterday’s celebrations.
👏🏼🎉🕊️☮️🚩❤️
Great to be part of yesterday’s celebrations.
👏🏼🎉🕊️☮️🚩❤️
September 29, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Happy 40th Anniversary to the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural!
Great to be part of yesterday’s celebrations.
👏🏼🎉🕊️☮️🚩❤️
Great to be part of yesterday’s celebrations.
👏🏼🎉🕊️☮️🚩❤️
Lovely research day with murals old and imminent.
August 15, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Lovely research day with murals old and imminent.
The wonderful Hackney Peace Carnival Mural turns 40 this year. I’m very pleased to be speaking as part of the celebrations on 28th September. You can donate and follow the evolving schedule at:
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hackney-pe...
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hackney-pe...
August 4, 2025 at 10:09 AM
The wonderful Hackney Peace Carnival Mural turns 40 this year. I’m very pleased to be speaking as part of the celebrations on 28th September. You can donate and follow the evolving schedule at:
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hackney-pe...
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hackney-pe...
Remembering Jean Charles de Menezes - executed 20 years ago today with impunity by a racist, dishonest and unaccountable police force let loose by a racist, dishonest and unaccountable political executive. 20 years on, plus ca change: no justice, no peace morningstaronline.co.uk/article/twen...
July 22, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Remembering Jean Charles de Menezes - executed 20 years ago today with impunity by a racist, dishonest and unaccountable police force let loose by a racist, dishonest and unaccountable political executive. 20 years on, plus ca change: no justice, no peace morningstaronline.co.uk/article/twen...
Calling @ucu.org.uk colleagues:
👀Look out for the consultative ballot in your inbox
🚫✂️REJECT the UCEA offer (another real terms pay cut on top of the 20% cut between 2008 and 2021)
✅🪧Vote yes to industrial action
More info: www.ucu.org.uk/heconsultati...
👀Look out for the consultative ballot in your inbox
🚫✂️REJECT the UCEA offer (another real terms pay cut on top of the 20% cut between 2008 and 2021)
✅🪧Vote yes to industrial action
More info: www.ucu.org.uk/heconsultati...
July 21, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Calling @ucu.org.uk colleagues:
👀Look out for the consultative ballot in your inbox
🚫✂️REJECT the UCEA offer (another real terms pay cut on top of the 20% cut between 2008 and 2021)
✅🪧Vote yes to industrial action
More info: www.ucu.org.uk/heconsultati...
👀Look out for the consultative ballot in your inbox
🚫✂️REJECT the UCEA offer (another real terms pay cut on top of the 20% cut between 2008 and 2021)
✅🪧Vote yes to industrial action
More info: www.ucu.org.uk/heconsultati...
If ever you doubt the abject, craven self-interest of most parliamentary representatives look no further than last night. In effect all bar 22 MPs (inc tellers/ excl Lib Dems) voted to proscribe as terrorists a non-violent direct action group opposing a live-streamed genocide.
July 3, 2025 at 10:02 AM
If ever you doubt the abject, craven self-interest of most parliamentary representatives look no further than last night. In effect all bar 22 MPs (inc tellers/ excl Lib Dems) voted to proscribe as terrorists a non-violent direct action group opposing a live-streamed genocide.
Some highlights from the National Museum of Wales:
Thurston Hopkins, George Poole and Édouard Manet.
Thurston Hopkins, George Poole and Édouard Manet.
July 1, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Some highlights from the National Museum of Wales:
Thurston Hopkins, George Poole and Édouard Manet.
Thurston Hopkins, George Poole and Édouard Manet.
To Kill a War Machine - well worth a watch
tokillawarmachine.com
tokillawarmachine.com
June 28, 2025 at 11:36 PM
To Kill a War Machine - well worth a watch
tokillawarmachine.com
tokillawarmachine.com
Saddened to learn of the death of Ernest Rodker. It was a joy to learn a bit of Rodker's life and politics through his influence on his friend & comrade Brian Barnes and some of their shared endeavours. Here he is clearing a park in front of Brian's first mural and in a quote from EP Thompson
May 20, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Saddened to learn of the death of Ernest Rodker. It was a joy to learn a bit of Rodker's life and politics through his influence on his friend & comrade Brian Barnes and some of their shared endeavours. Here he is clearing a park in front of Brian's first mural and in a quote from EP Thompson
‘Confronting the World’s 21st Century Colonial Genocide'
Tomorrow: Wednesday 30 April, 4 pm BST. Online
An OU Palestine Solidarity Group webinar, with Les Levidow, Andy Stirling,
Cian O’Donovan, Saurabh Arora & Tahrir Hamdi
All welcome. Register free:
events.teams.microsoft.com/event/4f4415...
Tomorrow: Wednesday 30 April, 4 pm BST. Online
An OU Palestine Solidarity Group webinar, with Les Levidow, Andy Stirling,
Cian O’Donovan, Saurabh Arora & Tahrir Hamdi
All welcome. Register free:
events.teams.microsoft.com/event/4f4415...
April 29, 2025 at 9:34 PM
‘Confronting the World’s 21st Century Colonial Genocide'
Tomorrow: Wednesday 30 April, 4 pm BST. Online
An OU Palestine Solidarity Group webinar, with Les Levidow, Andy Stirling,
Cian O’Donovan, Saurabh Arora & Tahrir Hamdi
All welcome. Register free:
events.teams.microsoft.com/event/4f4415...
Tomorrow: Wednesday 30 April, 4 pm BST. Online
An OU Palestine Solidarity Group webinar, with Les Levidow, Andy Stirling,
Cian O’Donovan, Saurabh Arora & Tahrir Hamdi
All welcome. Register free:
events.teams.microsoft.com/event/4f4415...
And here: the show stopping single plate linocut, and 3 from the 347 suite (‘Picasso, his work and his audience’, ‘Caricature of General de Gaulle, and two women’ 21-22 April 1968 and ‘Celestina, maja or Olympia naked, with Manet and Marcellin Desboutin’.
March 29, 2025 at 7:50 PM
And here: the show stopping single plate linocut, and 3 from the 347 suite (‘Picasso, his work and his audience’, ‘Caricature of General de Gaulle, and two women’ 21-22 April 1968 and ‘Celestina, maja or Olympia naked, with Manet and Marcellin Desboutin’.
Sad the British Museum Print room (consistently the best free exhibition space in London) have put an entrance fee on it - but the Picasso print show is (predictably) full of gems.
Here: Salome, a 1911 Braque, ‘Painter and the model knitting’ & woman watching minotaur sleeping…
Here: Salome, a 1911 Braque, ‘Painter and the model knitting’ & woman watching minotaur sleeping…
March 29, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Sad the British Museum Print room (consistently the best free exhibition space in London) have put an entrance fee on it - but the Picasso print show is (predictably) full of gems.
Here: Salome, a 1911 Braque, ‘Painter and the model knitting’ & woman watching minotaur sleeping…
Here: Salome, a 1911 Braque, ‘Painter and the model knitting’ & woman watching minotaur sleeping…
A handful of enjoyable things from the joyful and excellent show: ‘Lives Less Ordinary: Working Class Britain Re-seen’, curated by Samantha Manton at 2 Temple Place.
Here: Chris Killip, Kelly O’Brien, Ceri Richards and Shirley Cameron, Monica Ross & Evelyn Silver.
Here: Chris Killip, Kelly O’Brien, Ceri Richards and Shirley Cameron, Monica Ross & Evelyn Silver.
March 23, 2025 at 8:25 AM
A handful of enjoyable things from the joyful and excellent show: ‘Lives Less Ordinary: Working Class Britain Re-seen’, curated by Samantha Manton at 2 Temple Place.
Here: Chris Killip, Kelly O’Brien, Ceri Richards and Shirley Cameron, Monica Ross & Evelyn Silver.
Here: Chris Killip, Kelly O’Brien, Ceri Richards and Shirley Cameron, Monica Ross & Evelyn Silver.
Full details of journal can be found via link here. Institutional access required for most articles. DM with any access queries. Huge thanks to
the contributors, and @AndrewFDMurray Schuyler Black-Seitz, Jody Patterson, Mel Jordan & Isabella Castañeda
intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...
the contributors, and @AndrewFDMurray Schuyler Black-Seitz, Jody Patterson, Mel Jordan & Isabella Castañeda
intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...
March 14, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Full details of journal can be found via link here. Institutional access required for most articles. DM with any access queries. Huge thanks to
the contributors, and @AndrewFDMurray Schuyler Black-Seitz, Jody Patterson, Mel Jordan & Isabella Castañeda
intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...
the contributors, and @AndrewFDMurray Schuyler Black-Seitz, Jody Patterson, Mel Jordan & Isabella Castañeda
intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...
Taking memory and prefiguration as a framework, Bronfman’s article examines Fab Ciraolo’s narratives of rebellion during the October 2019 uprising in Chile and posits the potential of Chilean graffiti and muralism as a repertoire of political action. doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
March 14, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Taking memory and prefiguration as a framework, Bronfman’s article examines Fab Ciraolo’s narratives of rebellion during the October 2019 uprising in Chile and posits the potential of Chilean graffiti and muralism as a repertoire of political action. doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
Sarah Hwang looks at Barry McGee’s 1994 mural for the Clarion Alley Mural Project within the context of San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan’s controversial Matrix Programme claiming the CAMP mural as a transitional work in McGee’s move towards 'street art' doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
March 14, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Sarah Hwang looks at Barry McGee’s 1994 mural for the Clarion Alley Mural Project within the context of San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan’s controversial Matrix Programme claiming the CAMP mural as a transitional work in McGee’s move towards 'street art' doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
Bill Rolston began documenting the murals of his native West Belfast in the 1980s. Since he has documented murals across the world. We met to discuss the evolution of a ‘hobby that got out of hand’ and the contrasts of Belfast’s two mural traditions. doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
March 14, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Bill Rolston began documenting the murals of his native West Belfast in the 1980s. Since he has documented murals across the world. We met to discuss the evolution of a ‘hobby that got out of hand’ and the contrasts of Belfast’s two mural traditions. doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
Richard Gray explores the public murals of Malangatana in the context of Mozambican history and culture. Gray argues against dominant accounts framing of a unique individual or an ‘artist of the people’, instead stressing the artist’s enduring agency. doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
March 14, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Richard Gray explores the public murals of Malangatana in the context of Mozambican history and culture. Gray argues against dominant accounts framing of a unique individual or an ‘artist of the people’, instead stressing the artist’s enduring agency. doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
Robin Joyce explores abstract murals produced by Byron Browne and Stuart Davis for radio station WNYC as part of New York’s radio infrastructure mediating between office workers and the machine and participating in municipal radio’s disciplinary project. doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
March 14, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Robin Joyce explores abstract murals produced by Byron Browne and Stuart Davis for radio station WNYC as part of New York’s radio infrastructure mediating between office workers and the machine and participating in municipal radio’s disciplinary project. doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
Megan Flattley explores Diego Rivera’s Detroit murals as a site of contested meaning, from their 1933 creation to Detroit’s municipal bankruptcy in 2013, opening up critical questions about the social value of art and its relation to the working class doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
March 14, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Megan Flattley explores Diego Rivera’s Detroit murals as a site of contested meaning, from their 1933 creation to Detroit’s municipal bankruptcy in 2013, opening up critical questions about the social value of art and its relation to the working class doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
Our intro examines Mexican & US 1930s murals and those produced in London from 1978-83 arguing for a nuanced model of state patronage and politicized production that registers structure & agency, state & artist operating within contexts of class struggle. doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
March 14, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Our intro examines Mexican & US 1930s murals and those produced in London from 1978-83 arguing for a nuanced model of state patronage and politicized production that registers structure & agency, state & artist operating within contexts of class struggle. doi.org/10.1386/aps_...
Delighted the Special Issue of Art & the Public Sphere I’ve co-edited with Warren Carter is out. 100 years since Siqueiros' ‘Manifesto of the syndicate of technical workers, painters & sculptors’ the issue explores the interrelationship between mural painting & leftist politics🧵👇
March 14, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Delighted the Special Issue of Art & the Public Sphere I’ve co-edited with Warren Carter is out. 100 years since Siqueiros' ‘Manifesto of the syndicate of technical workers, painters & sculptors’ the issue explores the interrelationship between mural painting & leftist politics🧵👇
A great pleasure to share a Special Issue of Art & the Public Sphere co-edited with Warren Carter: 'Painting the Town Red? The Contemporary Legacies of One Hundred Years of Public Muralism and the Left'.
More details and Open Access Opening Essay:
intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...
More details and Open Access Opening Essay:
intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...
March 12, 2025 at 3:29 PM
A great pleasure to share a Special Issue of Art & the Public Sphere co-edited with Warren Carter: 'Painting the Town Red? The Contemporary Legacies of One Hundred Years of Public Muralism and the Left'.
More details and Open Access Opening Essay:
intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...
More details and Open Access Opening Essay:
intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...
.. to Belfast, Reclaim the Streets, Macho Bore, to…🥁🥁 (family pride🥰) Janine Wiedel at Greenham.
March 9, 2025 at 7:59 PM
.. to Belfast, Reclaim the Streets, Macho Bore, to…🥁🥁 (family pride🥰) Janine Wiedel at Greenham.