Anthologia V | Max Naylor

Anthologia V
Max Naylor × Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Max Naylor’s paintings share a strong affinity with the imaginative world-building of Coleridge’s poem, Kubla Khan. Both conjure realms that feel familiar yet dreamlike, shaped as much by inner vision as by the external world. Naylor’s instinctive process—drawing on memory, travel, and subconscious imagery—mirrors the poet’s evocation of a landscape formed through intuition and imagination, rather than literal observation.

His paintings function as mindscapes: glimpses into an evolving alternate universe. This parallels the poem’s sense of a visionary terrain that unfolds in fragments, offering a partial yet compelling glimpse into a larger imaginative world. Like Coleridge’s creation, Naylor’s work transforms personal experience into a vivid inner geography.

Together, the poem and the paintings inhabit a shared space where creativity generates new worlds, and where the boundaries between reality and imagination dissolve into a richer, more atmospheric whole.

This presentation marks the fifth volume in our year-long online series linking art and poetry, bringing together contemporary artists and enduring literary voices in shared conversation.

Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round;
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

Prices are for unframed works and are subject to an additional £15 postage fee within the UK (£25 ROW) All works are available for sale online throughout the exhibition.