Harribobs takes us through into the new year …
Preamble: Wordplay in 45 clues leads to the answer plus an extra letter, not entered in the grid. In clue order, extra letters give two instructions. Eighteen artists (three using given names as well as surnames), are represented in the exhibition. Each artist’s piece is square or rectangular and marked in its top right corner by ‘*’ (or ‘A’ for a key piece). The solver must frame all pieces. The website WikiArt.org is recommended.
… with a large grid and lots of clues. I thought: This is going to take a while.
I started solving on Monday whilst we were driving to Wales; made it through all the across clues but without very much progress. A windy walk on NY Eve and went through down clues – some more progress – then a wet walk on NY day, and the grid seemed depressingly sparse. A drive home on Thursday, and things were looking up – just a bit.
By mid-afternoon on Friday I had 33/45 extra letters so could see the beginning and end of the instruction but a gap in the middle: UNJUMBLE EACH ARTIST … RECREATE KEY WORK. Bottom Right there were 2 clues unsolved, BL 3 to go, another 3 around the middle, and chunky gaps TL with only one of the first six down clues sorted out. This is no time to panic – after all, there was DALI top left, COURBET scrambled part way down the penultimate column, and a jumble of PISSARO in the top right corner, so only another 15 artists to discover!
{In this initial grid, the cells marked ‘*’ (or ‘A’) in the paper version are highlighted (or ).}
By late afternoon/early evening/late evening (I don’t remember which) I’d had a very productive few hours. PIET MONDRIAN showed up as the artist of the KEY WORK, with BOTTICELLI and TISSOT providing much needed letters in answers hitherto unsolved.
Saturday was a write-off as I was cooking the main course of dinner for 6 at a friend’s house, followed by a nightmare drive home through the snow – a normally 30 minute journey taking an hour and a half, arriving home at about 1 o’clock absolutely worn out.
{In this final grid, the names of the artists are italicised.}
Sunday gave me enough time before dinner to finalise the artists: DALI, CRANE (never heard of him before, neither Walter C., British, nor Bruce C., American), GERICAULT, PISSARRO, DELACROIX, DIX, HIERONYMUS BOSCH, CANALETTO, REMBRANDT, COURBET, BOTTICELLI, FRANCIS BACON, CONSTABLE, PIET MONDRIAN, SISLEY, PALMER, INGRES, TISSOT, which just left Monday to write this blog.
It was only when the colouring (and the framing of the ‘pieces’) was complete that I realised quite what a stupendous grid this was – a remarkable rendition of Compositon A, 1923. Too much stress owing to the circumstances to be hugely enjoyable for me, but nevertheless, thanks Harribobs, much appreciated, & Happy New Year.
| No. | Clue | Answer | X | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 1 | Local hiding under rocks (4) | DERN | U | [(U)NDER]* |
| 4 | See warning light in bend in the road (6) | CAMBER | C (see) AMBER (warning light) | |
| 8 | Spun out of control past Cape Horn (4) | CUSP | N | [SPU(N)]* after C(ape) |
| 11 | Cows etc put pressure on green government (6) | PECORA | J | P(ressure) ECO (on) RA(J) (government) |
| 12 | Vehicle Inspectorate runs over e.g. Mini Traveller (6) | VIATOR | U | VI (Vehicle Inspectorate) R(uns) around A(U)TO (e.g. Mini) |
| 13 | Left to look after Swedish singer (4) | LIND | M | L(eft) (M)IND (look after) |
| 14 | Fish former partner sent back, concerned with hospitality (6) | XENIAL | B | (B)LAIN (fish) EX (former partner) all< |
| 16 | Foreign land famed for art, books, and other things (6) | ITALIA | L | (L)IT (books) ALIA (other things) |
| 17 | Not a single royal son crying? (5) | TSARS | E | S(on) in T(E)ARS (in tears, crying) |
| 19 | Design short of college standard (4) | RATE | E | CR(E)ATE (design) ¬ C(college) |
| 20 | Island banning party drugs (5) | BARBS | A | BARB(A)DOS (island) ¬ DO (party) |
| 21 | Experts must accept working a long time (5) | AEONS | C | A(C)ES (experts) around ON (working) |
| 24 | North African lake bed (4) | COTT | H | C(H)OTT (North African lake) |
| 27 | Survey including most of city temples (6) | SCHULN | A | SC(A)N (survey) around HUL(l) (city) |
| 28 | People into drawing and painting e.g. catkins (6) | AMENTS | R | MEN (people) in A(R)TS (drawing and painting) |
| 30 | Retired tradesman comes to court ageing widow (6) | RELICT | T | (T)ILER< (tradesman) CT (court) |
| 31 | Old townie bags mysterious antique necklace (8) | CARCANET | I | C(I)T (townsman, archaic sl) around ARCANE (mysterious) |
| 33 | The Hollies’ source of inspiration – stocks of words (6) | ILEXES | I(nspiration) LEXES (stocks of words) | |
| 37 | Scarf, put on back to front, for hire (5, 2 words) | TO LET | S | (S)TOLE (scarf) (fron)T |
| 39 | Healthy men deserted inlet (5) | FIORD | T | FI(T) (healthy) OR (men) D(eserted) |
| 41 | Director ignored in reckless decision to use Greek dialect (6) | IONISE | C | [DE(C)ISION]* ¬ D(irector) |
| 42 | Sit on something sharp in the village? (4) | BROD | O | BRO(O)D (sit on) |
| 43 | Fraud ultimately stays unfazed (4) | SCAM | L | (stay)S CA(L)M (unfazed) |
| 44 | Info about UK’s source of narcotics (6) | DATURA | O | DATA (info) around (O)UR |
| 45 | One targeted in alley, held up on the spot (6) | TENPIN | U | TEN (tenuto, abbr, held) (U)P IN (on the spot) |
| 46 | Regulars from Aintree reapply to Jockey Club (6) | ALPEEN | R | [A(i)N(t)(R)(e)E (r)E(a)P(p)L(y)]* |
| 47 | Italian in special clothes staggers round Dundee (6) | STOITS | G | IT(alian) in S(pecial) TO(G)S (clothes) |
| 48 | Last real supermarket reducing special offers (6) | STEALS | R | (la)ST (R)EAL S(upermarket) |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Ex-fighter had relations with twisting vamp in poem (6) | DALILA | I | ALI (ex-fighter) LA(I)D (had relations with) all< {ref.: Milton’s Samson Agonistes} |
| 2 | Doctor’s application to think about soft tissue (7) | EPITHEM | D | (D)EEM (think) around PITH (soft tissue) |
| 3 | Once had to give up over a year’s revenue (5) | RENAY | T | A Y(ear) after REN(T) (revenue) |
| 4 | Drugs pilot to subdue painful condition (6) | COXIBS | COX (pilot) IBS (painful condition) | |
| 5 | Fanatic Australian tucked into meal (6) | MANIAC | O | A(ustralian) in MANI(O)C (meal) |
| 6 | One of us touring unknown London area (7) | BRIXTON | BRITON (one of us) around X (unknown) | |
| 7 | Avoid turning up on comedy channel (5) | EVADE | R | (R)E (on) DAVE (comedy channel) all< |
| 8 | French town adopts dress with plaid in middle section (9) | CAESAREAN | E | CAEN (French town) around SARE(E) (dress) (pl)A(id) |
| 9 | Shun tedious activity in retirement home for giants (6) | UTGARD | C | (C)UT (shun) DRAG< (tedious activity) |
| 10 | Prim Presbyterians ruffled, but not badly beaten (6) | PRISSY | R | [PRESBYTE(R)IANS]* ¬ [BEATEN]* |
| 15 | Dusty strawberry tree region shortened by an inch (6) | ARBUTE | E | AR(E)(A) (region) BUTE (inch, island, Scot) |
| 18 | Unmarried South American couple get aroused (6) | INCITE | A | INC(A) (South American) ITEM (couple) ¬ M(arried) |
| 22 | Old Channel Port (4) | OSLO | T | O(ld) SLO(T) (channel) |
| 23 | Ruminant with way to escape, away from centre (7) | OUTLAND | E | (E)LAND after OUT (way to escape) |
| 25 | Weed takes over border of rockery (5) | TARES | K | TA(K)ES around R(ockery) |
| 26 | Writing about international objects (8) | PROTESTS | E | PROS(E) (writing) around TEST (international) |
| 29 | Reading about Dutch wall timbers (8) | STUDDING | Y | STUD(Y)ING (reading) around D(utch) |
| 31 | Rosalind’s cousin comforts disheartened intolerant Americans (7) | CELIACS | CELIA (Rosalind’s cousin, ref.: As You Like It) C(omfort)S | |
| 32 | Maybe ladies’ doctor gathers nuts (6) | BONCES | W | (W)C (maybe ladies’) in BONES (doctor) |
| 34 | Brief fight in Perth, with axes on terrace (6) | XYSTUS | O | ST(O)US(H) (fight, Aust) after XY (axes) |
| 35 | Mollusc left next to cold food store (6) | CORMEL | R | ORME(R) (mollusc) L(eft) after C(old) |
| 36 | Rupees rising in corresponding high numbers (6) | CRORES | CORRES(sponding) with R(upees) earlier | |
| 38 | Greenstone carving with gold in temple gateway (5) | TORII | K | TI(K)I (greenstone carving) around OR (gold) |
| 39 | Food served around Largs’ front? (5) | FARLE | FARE (food) around L(args), &lit | |
| 40 | New club adopts Victorian diet (4) | BANT | N(ew) in BAT (club) | |
Wow! What a Tour De Force. Clearly no accident that this was posed during the holidays, but I do wish that the initial gridfill had been a little bit easier. I was close to giving up a number of times and fear that others might have, thereby missing out on the glorious endgame.
I did get to Mondrian but admittedly missed the reference to Composition A specifically (I thought the choice of A was random – how could I be so ignorant?) so my colouring pattern did not follow that particular painting, but was very enjoyable nonetheless.
And thank you for clearing up INGRES in the bottom right, I had assumed it was SINGER but was wondering what happened to SARGENT.
Thanks Hollibobs and HG, I’m thinking of framing this one!
Very hard work, made harder by self-inflicted sabotage, since my inking in of the solutions obscured a few of the little black asterisks that indicated the top right corners of the “artists’ pieces”. I made out most of them with a magnifying glass, but crucially did not pick out the one in the second line, column 6, That led me to conclude, for the penultimate entry working upwards, that Crane was Sir Anthony CARO (probably a rather better known artist these days), and to then waste inordinate time imagining that I could detect an asterisk under the ink in different squares on the top row, obviously to no avail. I had given up, but by pure fluke the newsagent, when I bought this week’s paper, was himself doing the quick crossword from the previous week, and I was able to right myself, although the grid was by then looking like Jackson Pollock (I’d earlier detected SEURAT towards the bottom, before realising the error.). I would never have detected Composition A though; now I understand why we were directed to Wikiart, the significance of A, and that the bottom right entry has to be INGRES and cannot be Guido RENI. Congratulations to Harribobs on the puzzle, and thanks to HolyGhost for the blog.
I do wish it were borne in mind that however much we can admire ingenious grid design, the puzzle is meant to be enjoyable for the solver first and foremost. As usual with Harribobs, the grid design is worthy of admiration; the clueing, however, is not great here in my opinion. I didn’t bother with the endgame, mainly because I thought it ambiguous in terms of what order the letters were to be re-entered. Harribobs is an ingenious setter but he/she needs someone to edit his/her clueing a bit more robustly. Happy New Year all.
There is a line beyond which an enjoyable challenge becomes a chore and for me, this puzzle passed it. I managed to solve and parse just over a third of the clues,with a few more which I guessed (correctly) but could not parse. I pretty well guessed what the end game would be like and realised that this would take a lot of searching – my knowledge of art is not extensive. So I threw in the towel; to echo Sagittarius about a previous IQ, life is too short.
I think this is one where the task of successfully constructing such an amazing grid would give the setters a lot of pride and satisfaction. But too much for my ageing brain, I’m afraid,. Perhaps if the clues had been a bit less obscure,I might have persevered.
So, congratulations to the setter(s?) and many thanks to HG for his perseverence.
This is definitely an early contender for my votes at the end of the year. It took me far longer than most, both solving the clues and sorting out the endgame, but the satisfaction at the end was more than worth it. It’s extraordinary. I’ve been wondering how on earth Harribobs achieved it. I didn’t actually unscramble the artists in the grid though, I just worked them out to locate the “frames”. I did think about re-entering them but I agree with bingy that it’s not entirely clear what the finished entries were meant to be. I didn’t really care – the main point was the blocks of colour – but if there’d still been Prosecco at stake it would probably have annoyed me a bit.
I don’t know about the clues. I now realise there’s one I never parsed – tenpin, and it does seem like a complete bastard. But generally they seemed fair, just very tricky.
@5 – or olive oil….
While we were working through the puzzle, we really hoped that the endgame was worth the challenge. There was a bit too much ‘googling’ or searching through the list of artists at times.
As it was Harribobs we were not inclined to give up – in fact we don’t think we have ever ‘given up’ on an IQ.
Once we had the grid fill, Bert decided to colour in the grid – not an activity that we could share. You could tell when he had finished as he had a huge smile on his face – so, yes the endgame was worth it!
Thanks Harribobs and HolyGhost.
Having had a similar experience, searching for composers for the Guardian Christmas puzzle, I was probably a bit more ready for the challenge, although I did find the gridfill a bit on the tricky side. It helped spending New Year in Weimar with several trips to the Bauhaus museum.
Best puzzle I’ve tackled in some years.
Thank you, Harribobs.
Herb @5: If it’s any consolation, it took a two-day WhatsApp chat between me and a friend to finally nail the wordplay for 45a TENPIN.
And bingy @3 & others: I could understand why we were told to unjumble the letters had it been a prize puzzle – to make things easier for the checker – but it wasn’t. Maybe aesthetic reasons? Who knows.
HG@9: I thought the unjumbling instruction was there for the mundane reason that it told you the artists were jumbled in the first place. The solver needs to do a mental unjumbling in order to know what to frame, and there is nothing in the preamble to indicate that. Of course for the purposes of actually reconstructing the Mondrian, it makes no difference whether the artists are jumbled or not,so I don’t personally think it’s necessary to physically alter the entries.
The clues were too tough for me to get anywhere near first base so thanks for the blog HG
Mussorgsky would like it