The image is an arrangement in black and white and red, and its basic design
is a nest of oblongs the black wardrobe, within the window wall, within the
whole picture. Empty hanger on
the wall, bulbless socket dangling from the ceiling, bare wardrobe, no
curtains on the lit sash windows: it’s some kind of under-furnished flat or
hotel room, a place of urban daytime assignations. The picture shows a
couple in a room, at some crisis point in their affair, and the room itself
looks familiar, and shows the sort of thing that’s going on. It’s full of possible befores and afters
and scenarios, but exactly what the story is you never can tell

A love story, though, presumably, a troubled valentine. There’s a picture like that by RB
Kitaj, Study for the World’s Body.

But there are also those that
offer narrative hints that can’t be properly translated The picture is all
clued up, but the script eludes you. Some illustrative pictures are fixed to a known text, and some make up their
own subjects, and let the viewer work it out. Illustration always involves some play or tension between the image
and its script and this can be deliberately cultivated. Any picture that wasn’t abstract might be open to the
charge, and even some abstract pictures, if they were suspected of depicting
a concept or an emotion. What this approach missed was the way a picture’s relationship to an external
subject can be a very fertile source of interest This relationship is never
firm. Illustration is one of the dirty words of modern art.

Call a picture “mere
illustration”, and you imply that it is not as a work of art should be –
properly autonomous and independent. It relies too much on some external,
offstage content, just as a book illustration draws its interest from the
text to which it is attached It does not speak for itself

The fear of story ran very deep in 20th-century art. Illustration, or
anecdote, or literariness (to add some more rude words) could be detected
almost anywhere. Scots have the lowest life expectancy but the highest rates of exercise; Wales has the biggest proportion of disabled people, while women in Northern Ireland have the most babies and England has the fewest NHS beds per head of the population.

The Office for National Statistics report shows the north-south divide still exists for many indicators. Living in Scotland takes almost three years off male life expectancy. A boy born in England today can expect to live to 76.6 years, while his peer in Scotland will only reach 73 years and eight months – the lowest in the UK.
But 42 per cent of Scottish men do 30 minutes of exercise at least five days a week, compared with a third of their southern counterparts. More than 10 per cent of people in England are in the top social class, compared with 6.7 per cent in Northern Ireland.. A snapshot of the health, wealth and social differences between the countries of the UK has been published for the first time.

Replacements: L Mears (Bath), J White (Leicester), S Shaw, L Dallaglio, M Dawson (all Wasps), A Goode (Leicester), J Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester).. Replacements: C Festuccia (Gran Parma), A Lo Cicero (L’Aquilla), M Castrogiovanni (Calvisano), C Del Fava, (Parma) S Orlando, S Picone (both Treviso), R Wakarua (Leonessa).ENGLAND: T Voyce (Wasps); M Cueto (Sale), J Noon (Newcastle), M Tindall (Gloucester), B Cohen (Northampton); C Hodgson (Sale), H Ellis (Leicester); A Sheridan (Sale), S Thompson (Northampton), M Stevens, S Borthwick, D Grewcock (all Bath), J Worsley (Wasps), L Moody (Leicester), M Corry (Leicester, capt). Replacements: S Bruno (Sale), S Marconnet (Stade Fran?s), L Nallet (Castres), R Martin (Stade Fran?s), D Yachvili (Biarritz), B Boyet (Bourgoin), L Valbon (Brive).Italy and England teams to play in Rome tomorrow:ITALY: C Stoica (Montpellier); P Canavosio (Calvisano), G Canale (Clermont), Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Fran?s), L Nitoglia; (Calvisano), R Pez (Perpignan), P Griffen; S Perugini (both Calvisano), F Ongaro (Treviso), C Nieto (Viadana), S Dellape (Agen), M Bortolami (Narbonne, capt), J Sole (Viadana), Mauro Bergamasco (Stade Fran?s), S Parisse (Treviso). It was a breakdown in communication between parties.”Henson is on the brink of completing his long ban for elbowing the Leicester prop Alex Moreno, “We don’t have an issue with Gavin – categorically not at all,” added Thomas. “When Gavin is available or if he plays well enough to get back into the squad he will be welcomed back It was an issue that we thought had been put to bed. And we weren’t best pleased that it had been brought up again.”Ireland’s Marcus Horan has been struck down with a stomach bug so the Leinster prop Reggie Corrigan has been called into the team to face France.Jonny Wilkinson will be on the Newcastle bench for Sunday’s Guinness Premiership match at London Irish.Six Nations line-upsFrance team to play Ireland in Paris tomorrow:FRANCE: C Dominici (Stade Fran?s); A Rougerie (Clermont), D Marty (Perpignan), F Fritz, C Heymans; F Michalak, J B Elissalde (all Toulouse); O Milloud (Bourgoin), R Iba?(Wasps), P de Villiers (Stade Fran?s), F Pelous (Toulouse, capt), J Thion (Biarritz), Y Nyanga (Toulouse), O Magne (London Irish), J Bonnaire (Bourgoin).