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    Job Opportunities
    Job Opportunities
    Job Opportunities
    Ebook106 pages1 hour

    Job Opportunities

    By Kenneth Louis Shepherd

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    About this ebook

    Following on from the successful publication by Austin Macauley of his work streets ahead, the author decided to create a follow-up work which draws attention to works of art depicting individuals engaged in their professional employment, he was reared in a Calvinist society, where such activity was the norm. He is aware of the dignity when it results from this. As a socialist, he believes that this is the only dignity which the ruling class cannot take away from humankind. Therefore, they cannot be deprived of it.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAustin Macauley
    Release dateNov 30, 2018
    ISBN9780463107744
    Job Opportunities
    Author

    Kenneth Louis Shepherd

    Kenneth Louis Shepherd left school, aged 14 and went into full-time employment, as did most working class people in that era. He worked mostly in retail. When aged 75 in 2008, he obtained a BA degree in the humanities.

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      Book preview

      Job Opportunities - Kenneth Louis Shepherd

      Kenneth Louis Shepherd grew up in a Calvinistic society in which it was normal for people to be involved in a job of work. He was never unemployed at any time in his life. He worked as an apprentice hairdresser, as a bookstall assistant, farm labourer, clerical helper and in the catering trade. But most of his working life was spent as the manager of a West-London shoe shop. At no time was he involved in any profession which was connected with art or with writing.

      At the age of 70, he received via the OU a BA degree in the Humanities with a focus upon Art.

      He is the author of the book Streets Ahead, which deals with townscapes as seen in Art. This was the first book that he had had published. It was published in 2018 when the author was aged 84.

      This book deals with people who are seen in artworks in their professional capacity. The author searched for a book on this specialised subject but found none. And so, he wrote one. The same applied to his previous publication, which was streets ahead of any others.

      To Sylvia, wherever you are.

      Kenneth Louis Shepherd

      JOB Opportunities

      Copyright © Kenneth Louis Shepherd (2018)

      The right of Kenneth Louis Shepherd to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

      Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

      A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

      ISBN 9781788780940 (Paperback)

      ISBN 9781788780957 (Hardback)

      ISBN 9781788780964 (E-Book)

      www.austinmacauley.com

      First Published (2018)

      Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd

      25 Canada Square

      Canary Wharf

      London

      E14 5LQ

      Chapter One

      Jobs Undertaken

      When I was a child, I was, for good or bad, indoctrinated with the Calvinistic idea that the ethos of work was the norm. All of the men and some of the ladies in our circle went to work regardless; only Children and the aged were permitted to do otherwise. The same attitude of mind applied to children going to school. Those who did not work were frowned upon and ostracised. I saw gypsies who looked very down at heel and unlucky caressing a Hugh bunch of ‘Lucky Heather’, a sprig of which they attempted to sell us ‘to bring you good luck’. I was aware of the irony of this. People were disdainful of the one legged man who begged in the street and played music upon a wind up gramophone to attract our attention and hopefully obtain spare cash. I recall the man with a barrel organ who was less intimidating. A Naive artist Lon Gheorghe Grigorsechu saw one in Barbury and captures its atmosphere perfectly. In Lowry’s work ‘The Organ Grinder’, such a man can be seen in the distance. I hated the sound of the bagpipe player who performed locally regularly and collected money. The Italian POWs were frowned upon. They were engaged to perform demolition jobs on the war damaged properties but preferred to play football with us kids in the street. My parent would have hated the ‘Young Worker’ as portrayed by Amedeo Modigliani in 1920. He was of their era and in this piece of art was seen to be fast asleep.

      In spite of my health problems, I have seldom in my life not been engaged in some kind of professional activity. I have chosen to perform menial, boring, poorly paid tasks rather than be on the dole or in receipt of sickness benefit. For more than a year, I worked doing the ‘washing up’ in the staff restaurant of the bank of England. The lowest paid job that I ever had was as a railway station bookstall assistant for W.H Smith. The good side of this was that I got to read books and newspapers for free. I became an avid reader of the then ‘Manchester Guardian’, an addiction which I have never lost. Plus ‘Tribune’ and ‘The New Statesman’. Our branch only received one copy of the ‘Daily Worker’ and this was reserved for a man who collected it early so I seldom got to see its version of events.

      All of this has ensured that when viewing works of art, I have naturally taken an interest in seeing people portrayed when performing professional acts of work. Especially, when we see the place in which such tasks are undertaken, I will take less interest in pure portraits of famous professional people unless they are engaged in that professional activity; Florence Nightingale should be carrying her lamp in a hospital, David Beckham must be playing Football, Jamie Oliver should be cooking. The personality of the person can sometimes come across in such a work via their stance or facial expression. My personal interpretation of such a work is important to me; more important than what the so called expert, the artist, the sitter or the patron had in mind. This is especially true when the person shown is engaged in illegal or immoral activities. The look of Myra Hindley tells me all that I need to know.

      Of all of the many works produced by Monet only one specifically shows people at work. This is called ‘Men Unloading Coal’ and shows such an activity. The sacks of coal are being taken from river based boats on to the shore.

      Unlike my other book which is called ‘Streets Ahead’ and was published recently by the same publisher, this work presents no simple logical sequence in which to present the various aspects of the subject under consideration. I did consider placing them in alphabetical order. In this situation, less interesting subjects could all be placed together creating a boring reading. I dismissed this, preferring to space them out in an irrational random fashion to retain the readers’ interest. Interestingly, had I stuck to an alphabetical order, politicians would lie between philosophers and prostitutes. A coincidence?

      I will tend to focus upon the subject and its historical context of each work rather than its technical expertise. That is my approach for good or bad.

      Some works do not fit into any category as they are so diverse. To the title of Hieronymus Bosch Hugh triptych ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’, I would add the words ‘and Horrors’. It is a multi-complex hive of activity. So much is happening that some of it must be related to individuals who are performing in their professional capacity. A close inspection is now more readily available as a result of our having access to the internet. This is a shame as I feel that it intrudes upon our overview of this and other works. Man’s love of animals resultantly takes on a whole new meaning! Jacopo Bassano and his family take heed! Every young art student and some older ones asks why a man has a bunch of flowers stuck up his bottom; apparently much of what is seen in this work relates to Dutch folk law, some of this the experts claim to understand. Some of it is unfathomable even to them. Modern attempts at analysis are pointless as they bear no relation to the thought process of the Dutch people in that era.

      Initially, the ‘experts’ said that a certain work was by Giorgione but have now decided that it is by Titian. At first, it was called the ‘The Concert’, assuming that the

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