Art
Obituary: Alexander Joel Flux
Alexander Flux passed away suddenly on 3 November 2007, at the age of only twenty-three. Born on 18 June 1984 and brought up in Street, near Glastonbury, Alex packed an extraordinary number of achievements into his tragically short life: he studied art history at the University of East Anglia, where he showed a particular interest in Victorian art, and then started work as an events manager in Bristol, juggling a busy career and a vibrant social life. A true cosmopolitan, he spoke several languages and loved travel, living and studying in Uppsala for six months while at university. His favourite writers included Samuel Beckett, Salman Rushdie, and Will Self. He enjoyed cinema, particularly Powell and Pressburger, and playing guitar. Of course, he was also a prolific writer, not only for Albion but for other publications as well, producing journalism, short stories, and poetry.
Alex founded the Albion art page, and made his debut with a major feature on architecture for our Winter 2006 edition. He followed this with articles on English pastoral art and on the guerrilla artist Banksy, and numerous thoughtful film and book reviews which testified to his wide range of interests. Alex was an idealist, distressed by social injustice, and an article on poverty in England showed his great gift for empathy. For this winter edition, he was planning a feature on the Norwich school of painters and two book reviews. In total, he contributed twelve articles to Albion.
He was only twenty-one when he began writing for us, and I remember being amazed at his precocity and depth of knowledge. He had a genuine love of art and architecture and remarkable drive. Unfailingly positive and always bubbling over with ideas for articles, he took great pride in the magazine's development and showed a powerful commitment to it, giving unselfishly of his talents for a project he believed in.
Full of tremendous potential, Alex was a very talented young writer who was always an unalloyed delight to work with. The Albion staff send our heartfelt sympathy to his family and friends. --The Editor
Alex's Albion Contributions:
Winter 2006: British Bricks in England: Imperialism, Industrialisation and Victorian Architecture
Winter 2006: Review of Zadie Smith's On Beauty
Winter 2006: Review of Nick Love's The Business
Summer 2006: Renewal and Decline: English Art and the Countryside
Summer 2006: Review of Richard Weight's Patriots
Summer 2006: Review of Roger Scruton's England: An Elegy
Winter 2007: Poverty in England: Living it Down
Winter 2007: Banksy: Sneak Like a Revolutionary
Winter 2007: Review of The Geographies of Englishness: Landscape and the National Past
Summer 2007: Review of Black Victorians: Black People in British Art 1800-1900
Summer 2007: Review of Mark Hallett and Christine Riding's Hogarth
Summer 2007: Review of Margaret Garlake's The Sculpture of Reg Butler
Alex was the author of many poems. This one was read at his thanksgiving service:
Time is in Sandcastles
Picking up spadefuls of sand
And filling up pockets
To make castles with one day
Some use fists and sand's escapism
Trickles
And others pick pebbles one by one
On the English beaches only fit
For bracing walks in winter
And my grandmother's headscarf.
Remind me I can't take anything with me
And to make my sandcastles
Quickly. --Alexander Flux
Copyright © the Estate of Alexander Flux, 2008.
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