Claude Monet - "Garden at Giverny"

There it goes another month and I have chosen Monet's "Garden at Giverny", 1900, to close it. Happy Halloween and have a great weekend.

Ana Torrent - "Cria Cuervos" by Carlos Saura

 I saw almost all of Carlos Saura's movies. Cria Cuervos, 1975, is a psychological drama and Ana Torrent is a eight years-old girl who is growing up in a confused home during Franco's dictatorship. What a great movie! Ana Torrent listening to this music is amazing and is on my mind. Only 1 minute. Listen to this:

Porque Te Vas 

Hoy en mi ventana brilla el sol 

Y el corazón se pone triste contemplando la ciudad 

Porque te vas 

Como cada noche desperté pensando en ti 

Y en mi reloj todas las horas vi passar 

Porque te vas 

Todas las promessas de mi amor se irán contigo 

Me olvidaras, me olvidaras 

Junto a la estación lloraré igual que un niño 

Porque te vas, porque te vas 

Bajo la penumbra de un farol se dormirán 

Todas las cosas que quedaron por decir se dormirán 

Junto a las manillas de un reloj despejarán 

Yodas las horas que quedaron por vivir esperarán.

At the end she says: "Que se muera. Que se muera."

James Ensor's "The Bath of Ostends" and Where is Waldo?

Is it me or The Baths of Ostend. 1890 by James Ensor looks like "Where is Waldo?" The scholar and serious critics of the post below will surely both haunt me tomorrow.

James Ensor and Halloween

Halloween in here and skulls, skeletons, death is everywhere. I remembered James Ensor today, The Belgium painter, the painter of masks, is considered as an expressionist. Like happens to many painters the label does not cover the huge range of interests of their work and covers some of their most important characteristics.

"But he made paintings, drawings and prints of a variety of sizes, styles and subjects, ranging from traditional to singular and fantastical. The scope of his innovation was equally broad, from his visionary rendition of light and expressive use of paint to his unique and often startling vocabulary of images."

"His innovative and allegorical use of light, his prominent use of satire, his deep interest in carnival and performance, and his own self-fashioning and use of masking, travesty, and role-playing present a complete picture of a daring, experimental body of work."*

I believe that this is the spirit of Halloween and a serious scholar or art's critics would hate to hear such a comparison. Please don't tell on me to them. They can come here tomorrow!

Boo!

Right: "Death and the Masks" 1897 James Ensor Left: The skeleton Painter. 1895, by James Ensor *Source: MOMA intereactive exhibition.(a must-see)

Natural Ice Sculpture - Alaska in pictures

Natural Ice Sculpture

Alaska Photo Path: Photos: Glacier Photos: There are some amazing photos at the site Alaska in Pictures. I just don't understand the reason to put "sculpture" in the title. Why not "Natural Beauty"?

Are we allowed NOT to be happy?

*The post below is for those who are seeking for justice. This one is for those who are not happy or in search of some inner peace, emotional balance... name it, or, in other words: living!
Lately it seems to be forbidden to be sad and even mentioning something that is not related to happiness is a sin or a crime.
From struggle and sadness it's possible to create amazing things and we have many artists that suffered and still were able to create beauty.
Beauty is a complex concept though we think we have a pattern for that. We don't and if so it would be impossible to live.
I felt like sharing this amazing song by Genesis although I know that someone taking a glimpse to one blog has no time or is in another mood to listen to this.
Soulful and ethereal are some of the words that comes to my mind whenever I hear it and this video is special because Phil Collins seems to be singing from the bottom of his soul:

The crawlers cover the floor in the red ocher corridor.
For my second sight of people, they've more lifeblood than before.
They're moving in time to a heavy wooden door,
Where the needles eye is winking, closing in on the poor.
The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out.


Theres only one direction in the faces that I see;
And Its upward to the ceiling, where the chambers said to be.
Like the forest fight for sunlight, that takes root in every tree.
They are pulled up by the magnet, believing they're free.
The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out.

Mild mannered supermen are held in kryptonite,
And the wise and foolish virgins giggle with their bodies glowing
Bright.
Through a door a harvest feast is lit by candlelight;
Its the bottom of a staircase that spirals out of sight.
The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out.

The porcelain manikin with shattered skin fears attack.
And the eager pack lift up their pitchers - they carry all they lack.
The liquid has congealed, which has seeped out through the crack,
And the tickler takes his stickleback.
The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out.

This song is from the album ""The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway"

"The album tells the surreal story of a half-Puerto Rican juvenile delinquent named Rael living in New York City, who is swept underground to face bizarre creatures and nightmarish dangers in order to rescue his brother John. Several of the story's occurrences and places were derived from Peter Gabriel's dreams, and the protagonist's name is a play on his surname. In an interview Phil Collins remarked, "It's about a "split personality". In this context, Rael would believe he is looking for John but is actually looking for a missing part of himself. The individual songs also make satirical allusions to everything from mythology to the sexual revolution to advertising and consumerism."

*Update:
I just realized that the right title for this post is "Are we allowed to be sad?". I put the "not" in capital letters to be more clear.

Before the Law - Franz Kafka

Just read it: "BEFORE THE LAW stands a doorkeeper. To this doorkeeper there comes a man from the country and prays for admittance to the Law. But the doorkeeper says that he cannot grant admittance at the moment. The man thinks it over and then asks if he will be allowed in later. "-It is possible," says the doorkeeper, "but not at the moment." Since the gate stands open, as usual, and the doorkeeper steps to one side, the man stoops to peer through the gateway into the interior. Observing that, the doorkeeper laughs and says: "-If you are so drawn to it, just try to go in despite my veto. But take note: I am powerful. And I am only the least of the doorkeepers. From hall to hall there is one doorkeeper after another, each more powerful than the last. The third doorkeeper is already so terrible that even I cannot bear to look at him." These are difficulties the man from the country has not expected; the Law, he thinks, should surely be accessible at all times and to everyone, but as he now takes a closer look at the doorkeeper in his fur coat, with his big sharp nose and long, thin, black Tartar beard, he decides that it is better to wait until he gets permission to enter. The doorkeeper gives him a stool and lets him sit down at one side of the door. There he sits for days and years. He makes many at-tempts to be admitted, and wearies the doorkeeper by his importunity. The doorkeeper frequently has little interviews with him, asking him questions about his home and many other things, but the questions are put indifferently, as great lords put them, and always finish with the statement that he cannot be let in yet. The man, who has furnished himself with many things for his journey, sacrifices all he has, however valuable, to bribe the doorkeeper. The doorkeeper accepts everything, but always with the remark: "-I am only taking it to keep you from thinking you have omitted anything." During these many years the man fixes his attention almost continuously on the doorkeeper. He forgets the other doorkeepers, and this first one seems to him the sole obstacle preventing access to the Law. He curses his bad luck, in his early years boldly and loudly, later, as he grows old, he only grumbles to himself. He becomes childish, and since in his yearlong contemplation of the doorkeeper he has come to know even the fleas in his fur collar, he begs the fleas as well to help him and to change the doorkeeper's mind. At length his eyesight begins to fail, and he does not know whether the world is really darker or whether his eyes are only deceiving him. Yet in his darkness he is now aware t of a radiance that streams inextinguishable from the gateway of the Law. Now he has not very long to live. Before he dies, all his experiences in these long years gather themselves in his head to one point, a question he has not yet asked the doorkeeper. He waves him nearer, since he can no longer raise his stiffening body. The doorkeeper has to bend low towards him, for the difference in height between them has altered much to the man's disadvantage. "-What do you want to know now?" asks the doorkeeper; "you are insatiable." "-Everyone strives to reach the Law," says the man, "so how does it happen that for all these many years no one but myself has ever begged for admittance?" The doorkeeper recognizes that the man has reached his end, and to let his failing senses catch the words roars in his ear: "-No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made only for you. I am now going to shut it."" If you are seeking for justice I hope you can fight doorkeepers although I know it's hard, too damn hard. That is life, isn't it? Image: Kafka by Andy Warhol

René Magritte, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe"_This is not a pipe

"Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (This is not a pipe), René Magritte's 1928 piece is also translated as "The Treachery of Images". When once Magritte, a Belgium painter, was asked about this image he replied: "just try to fill it with tobacco". :)

Cité Internationale des Arts - residence of artists in Paris

This is where I lived during my stay in Paris and I recommend it for artists all over the world. Check their site for more informations. It is at the Marais district a very nice place to stay. Bonne chance!

Japanese printings - Itō Shinsui and Tori Kotondo

Right: Itō Shinsui, Hand Mirror, Woodblock Print,1925 (posthumous printing) Left: Tori Kotondo, Yukata, Woodblock Print, 1930 (phostumous printing) Tori Kotondo made only 21 known prints - all of them images of beautiful women. They belong to the finest works of art in the Shin Hanga movement.

YES - Yoko Ono's Yes Painting that attracted John Lennon

This is the Yoko work that Lennon visited and first met her: "Ceiling Painting (YES Painting), Yoko Ono, 1966." " "Climb up a ladder. Look at the painting on the ceiling with a magnifying glass, and find the word ‘YES’" Maybe men are not catch only by the stomach. Here is what Lennon said:

Q: How did you meet Yoko? John Lennon: There was a sort of underground clique in London; John Dunbar, who was married to Marianne Faithfull, had an art gallery in London called Indica, and I'd been going around to galleries a bit on me off days in between records, also to a few exhibitions in different galleries that showed sort of unknown artists or underground artists. I got the word that this amazing woman was putting on a show the next week, something about people in bags, in black bags, and it was going to be a bit of a happening and all that. So I went to a preview the night before it opened. I went in - she didn't know who I was or anything - and I was wandering around. There were a couple of artsy-type students who had been helping, lying around there in the gallery, and I was looking at it and was astounded. There was an apple on sale there for two hundred quid; I thought it was fantastic - I got the humor in her work immediately. I didn't have to have much knowledge about avant-garde or underground art, the humor got me straightaway. It was two hundred quid to watch the fresh apple decompose. But it was another piece that really decided me for or against the artist: a ladder that led to a painting, which was hung on the ceiling. It looked like a white canvas with a chain with a spyglass hanging on the end of it. I climbed the ladder, looked through the spyglass, and in tiny little letters it said, YES. So it was positive. I felt relieved. It's a great relief when you get up the ladder and you look through the spyglass and it doesn't say NO or FUCK YOU or something. I was very impressed. John Dunbar introduced us - neither of us knew who the hell each other was. She didn't know who I was; she'd only heard of Ringo; I think it means apple in Japanese. And Dunbar had sort of been hustling her, saying, "That's a good patron; you must go and talk to him or do something." Dunbar insisted she say hello to the millionaire - you know what I mean. And she came up and handed me a card that said BREATHE on it - one of her instructions - so I just went [pants]. This was our meeting. The second time I met her was at a gallery opening of Claes Oldenburg in London. We were very shy; we sort of nodded at each other - she was standing behind me. I sort of looked away because I'm very shy with people, especially chicks. We just sort of smiled and stood frozen together in this cocktail-party thing. The next thing was, she came to me to get some backing - like all the bastard underground do - for a show she was going. She gave me her Grapefruit book. I used to read it, and sometimes I'd get very annoyed by it; it would say thing like "paint until you drop dead" or "bleed." Then sometimes I'd be very enlightened by it. I went through all the changes that people go through with her work - sometimes I'd have it by the bed and I'd open it and it would say something nice and it would be all right, and then it would say something heavy and I wouldn't like it. So I gave her the money to back her show. For this whole thing, everything was in half: There was half a bed, half a room, half of everything, all beautifully cut in half and all painted white. And I said to her, "Why don't you sell the other half in bottles?" having caught on by then to what the game was. And she did that - this is still before we'd had any nuptials - and we still have the bottles from the show; it's my first. It was presented as "Yoko Plus Me" - that was our first public appearance. I didn't even go to see the show; I was too uptight. Q: When did you realize that you were in love with her? JL: It was beginning to happen; I would start looking at her book, but I wasn't quite aware what was happening to me. Then she did a thing called Dance Event, where different cards kept coming through the door every day saying BREATHE and DANCE and WATCH ALL THE LIGHTS UNTIL DAWN, and they upset me or made me happy, depending. I'd get very upset about it being intellectual or all fucking avant-garde, then I'd like it, and then I wouldn't. Then I went to India with the Maharoonie and we corresponded. The letters were still formal, but they just had a little side to them. I nearly took her to India, but I still wasn't sure for what reason; I was still sort of kidding myself, with sort of artistic reasons and all that. When we got back from India, we were talking to each other on the phone. I called her over; it was the middle of the night and Cynthia [Lennon's first wife] was away, and I thought, well, now's the time if I'm gonna get to know her any more. She came to the house and I didn't know what to do, so we went upstairs to my studio and I played her all the tapes that I'd made, all this far-out stuff, some comedy stuff, and some electronic music. She was suitably impressed, and then she said, "Well, let's make one ourselves." So we made Two Virgins. It was midnight when we started; it was dawn when we finished, and then we made love at dawn. It was very beautiful. From 'Lennon Remembers' (Jann Wenner editor of Rolling Stone magazine interviewing John Lennon in December 1970)

Left: Photo from Flickr.

Call your super hero

Call 911 or your super hero/ine in case of emergence. (click the image to enlarge) Have a great week!

Yayoi Kusama - dots from hallucinations turned into Art

I just discovered Yayoi Kusama a Japanese 80 years-old artist that was forgotten by the western artistic world. "Fireflies on the Water", 2002, was the first of her works I saw and I'm still dazzled and searching for more of her art. She spent her youth at New York where she got in touch with Andy Warhol and other artists such as Claes Oldenburg, Georgia O’Keeffe and Jasper Johns and was recognized by her peers After experiencing hallucinations with flowers, dots and webs as a child, she suffered physical abuse from her mother, she was diagnosed obessesive compulsive disorder. The only reason this information is of value for me is that she said that they influenced her work:

"One day I was looking at the red flower patterns of the tablecloth on a table, and when I looked up I saw the same pattern covering the ceiling, the windows and the walls, and finally all over the room, my body and the universe. I felt as if I had begun to self-obliterate, to revolve in the infinity of endless time and the absoluteness of space, and be reduced to nothingness. As I realized it was actually happening and not just in my imagination, I was frightened. I knew I had to run away lest I should be deprived of my life by the spell of the red flowers. I ran desperately up the stairs. The steps below me began to fall apart and I fell down the stairs straining my ankle."

I will learn more about her. For the moment I want to wander how must have been experiencing this work and not just seeing the picture. I think I have joined a club. James Carless at The Splash Fantastic was also fascinated by her work and wrote a post here. Right photo by Peter Murphy. You can see the whole panorama here.

Robin Williams - Life Achievement Award

Hella Heaven's "Life Achievement Award" to Robin Williams. He is great

Changing the color of your favorite masterpiece to match your furnitures

The old Miro - Blue II .....................The New reworked Miro

Flaming June - The original .....A softer toned down Flaming June

You can order yours at this site.

"So you know what masterpiece you want in your home but there’s one thing stopping you, the colours. They just won’t go. Dan Stone had the same problem; he loved the composition of Miro’s Blue II but knew the dark blue in the painting would clash with the rest of his furniture. Owen also had the same dilemma. He wanted Lord Leighton’s Flaming June but the orange was just a tad too overpowering, ideally he wanted to change it to a peachy softer tone. No problem. If you have a painting in mind, or have always admired a particular masterpiece but just know it wouldn’t look right in your home, simply tell us, and we’ll change the tones and colours so they complement your rooms perfectly."

Wow! I would love to see Mondrian with more colours. Never understood why he doesn't use pink! I think that the "old" Miró is too blue and I do not understand why he did not use the right colour to please Don Stone. Now the paintings are so beautiful! "Oh! Comme c'est joli!"

Pablo Picasso - Guernica

Guernica, 1937, depicts civilians at the time the city was bombed during Spanish civil war. Click the right image to enlarge)

Renoir - The Bathers

I know, I know... the lasts posts are too boring. :) Behold Renoir!

Fountain, 1917 by Marcel Duchamp

As I promised here is the second clue to Barrio's work: Marcel Duchamp's "The Fountain". It's a urinal turned upside down and signed R. Mutt that Duchamp conceived for a show promoting avant-garde art. It was a shock and the piece was taken away from the exhibition. Only in the sixties the work was accepted as art but it still provokes controversy. Duchamp has also took other objects from daily life and by adding something or not he did what he named "ready-made".

"Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view - and created a new thought for that object."

This is what was published at "The Blind Man" in a defense of Duchamp's work. In 2004 some people was shocked again:

December,1, 2004 "Marcel Duchamp's Fountain came top of a poll of 500 art experts in the run-up to this year's Turner Prize which takes place on Monday. Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) was second, with Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych from 1962 coming third. Duchamp shocked the art establishment when he took the urinal, signed it and put it on display" (BBC article here)

It's amazing that it still provokes controversies although thare are many articles and books written about Duchamp's ready-mades. We will see others.

Roy Lichtenstein - "Monalisa" "Hopeless" and "Bauhaus Stairway"

I decided to start with Roy Lichtenstein as one of the clues to the Barrio's work. "Hopeless" is one of the many of Lichtenstein work, a pop-artist, that the comic-book format is used. That's one of Barrios dialog. He did these two works as comic-books.

I want you to notice that Lichtenstein also have his dialog with art. You can see at his "Monalisa"* and "Bauhaus Stairway". Monalisa is one of the most famous masterpieces and Bauhaus a German school that operated from 1919 to 1933 and influenced architecture, designs and art.

*This is not a real Roy Lichtenstein, look at "signature" at the bottom-left It's a the way he would have done it by Meowza Katz who also did versions of Mona Lisa at the series "If other artists drew the Mona Lisa" made with Aviary the free online editor.

One Lovely Blog Award

Sandee at Comedy Plus is always inspiring the blogosphere with her blog and the amazing comments she leaves at her blog friends. She has helped me when I started this blog and thought "Hmmm... I don't know if I'll make it, what exactly am I doing?". As she commented I kept going. She receives many awards and is generous enough to pass them to all her blog list that I have the honor to be included. This is her last of many awards and I decided to follow the rules and pass it to fifteen of the blogs I admire, only fifteen. So if you were not included I have an alibi this time. :) I cannot do as Sandee does because I don't use to leave comments to blogs I like, shame on me. I also like to pass for each person because it is a way to say to them: "Hey! I follow you and like you." in a close way. This is my list and the rules*:

• Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
• Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
• Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Amy Crehore at Little Hokum Rag Cheryl at Wishing and Discovering Clinically Clueless at Clinically Clueless Diseñador Doble A at El Espírito de los Cínicos Elise at Ballet News Oximoron at Oximoron Jorge Pontual at New York on Time Kimmie at Pretty Amazing Grace Lauren Weyland at Lauren Live Lotosgreen at Japonisme Pernille Bærendtse at Lowder than Swahlli Mab MacMoragh at MacMoragh Maryt/theteach at Work of the Poet SandyCalrson at Writing in Faith Stephany at Serendipity Dog Tomazzo Evangelista at Engrammi These are the sixteen I have chosen. This is not the Nobel or something official. It's just a way to share recognition between those who wants to make a difference and work hard at their blog and lives without any kind of incentive. Brave people! One day I'll create an award accredited by any famous institution or foundation and even deal with the consequences. *"Rules are supposed to be broken." I once heard.

Alvaro Barrios - Marcel Duchamp admirer dialogs with Kieth Haring

Left: "Untitled (The Wedding Present)", 2008 Right "Untitled, 2007 Although the Colombian artist Alvaro Barrios has a great admiration for Marcel Duchamp, expressed here at his left work, he also dialogs with other artists. Mr. Haring at the right is Keith Haring. Confused? Hmmm... if so I will give the clues at the next posts. Art is a also a dialog with the past and sometimes if we don't know the reference we don't understand. This is one of the reasons some people say "Is it Art?"

Self-Portrait- Marcel Duchamp and Degas

Right: Self-portrait by Lautrec Left: Self-portrait by Marcel Duchamp I have just found this post of some artiste's self-portrait and could not help noticing that Marcel Duchamp is the only one that is not staring at us or looking outside of the painting. In photographies taken by others this one catches one rare moment when he faces the camera. Lautrec seems to be staring at a mirror to paint himself and end up looking at the audience.

The Seven Dwarfs

Have a great Sunday!

Lucien Freud - "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping" sold for $US33.64 million

This is the record for a sale of a living artist. The woman who posed for the artists, Sue Tilley, has her life changed: "Is it not a little, well, exposing to have one's magnificently generous breasts and lolling stomach revealed to the world? Tilley laughs: she was nervous, she says, about first stripping off, but quickly got used to it. Though, she adds: "I know it sounds weird, but even though there'd be no one else there I'd get dressed or put something round me just to go to the loo. I didn't want to become a regular nudist." Of course it was a different thing for the paintings - four were produced during their four-year working relationship - to go out into the world, and to be gawped at by all and sundry. "The first painting he ever did of me [Evening in the Studio, 1993] was finished while there was a big show of his paintings on at the Whitechapel gallery," she says. "So they put it up for the last week of the exhibition. I went in there one day and there was a man giving a talk in front of the picture, saying, look at this revolting woman, she's so fat and disgusting, there's obviously something wrong with her skin. I just started laughing. The man stopped and asked if there was anything wrong. I said: 'That's me you're talking about,' and he just looked like he wanted to die. After that I didn't really mind what people said. "I'm not the 'ideal woman', I know I'm not. But who is? And he never made the skinny ones look any better. He picks out every single little detail."" (read more here) Have a voluptuous weekend!

David Teniers - Art Gallery of Leopold-Wilhelm

The Flemish painter David Teniers was a famous painter at his time and has a diverse work. His most known painting is "Art Gallery of Leopold-Wilhelm pictures", 1651, which precisely documented the famous works from the archduke’s collection. Teniers also made small-scale copies of 246 pictures from this collection, a “photographic” record, which helped to retrace the fate of some masterpieces.

Blog Action Day: Positive proof of global warming

I've just joined the amazing Oximoron's Blog and felt like sharing this wishful thinking research. A smiley to Oximoron.

Hokusai the Japanese painter and printmaker

"The Great Wave of Kanagawa" is the most famous of Hokusai prints and has been studied by many art critics and art lovers but what I want to stress is the left "Beauty with Umbrella beneath a Willow Tree" that was painted on silk. If you take a look at Van Gogh's Père Tanguy you will have a better understanding of what he is depicting in the background.

Van Gogh - The Church at Auvers

Right: The Church at Auvers, 1890, Van Gogh Left: Auvers's Church This is what Van Gogh wrote to his sister about this painting: "I have a larger picture of the village church — an effect in which the building appears to be violet-hued against a sky of simple deep blue colour, pure cobalt; the stained-glass windows appear as ultramarine blotches, the roof is violet and partly orange. In the foreground some green plants in bloom, and sand with the pink flow of sunshine in it. And once again it is nearly the same thing as the studies I did in Nuenen of the old tower and the cemetery, only it is probably that now the colour is more expressive, more sumptuous." It is always amazing to read Van Gogh letters and the way he talks about his work. There is always happiness and great excitement not only about his work but the work of many artists he liked. I always like to remind that Van Gogh said: "Painting is such a joy for me."

Pirats Art Network - promoting arts and creation

Pirats Art Network, or "Les Pirats", is an independent association created by Merlina Rokocoko and Newzab Zsigmond to promote art and creation. You can visit their site here. I have joined them at Second life and have been to some of their numerous exhibitions. Merlina* is at the left picture during a vernissage that displayed Layachi - two of his works are in the back - a great artist to whom I want to do a whole post. Now I am at another vernissage and just found out this work inspired by Van Gogh and remembered that when I was writing the post below I was thinking how his work influences artists today. It is from Van Caerndow and the title is "Van goes to Auvers" - I don't thik I have to explain the title but maybe I will publish Van Gogh's painting for those who are not remembering. This is the first of many posts I will write about Les Pirats. (Click at the pictures to enlarge) *Update: I've just realized that the man who is wearing black some steps behind Merlina is Newzab Zsigmond.

Van Gogh - Portrait of Père Tanguy

These are the two portraits of Julian Tanguy, known as Père (father) Tanguy, the owner of a shop that sold painter's materials and also displayed some artists at the back of his shop. Père Tanguy also sold Japanese printings one of Van Gogh's passion. You can see at the background some copies of Japanese printings Van Gogh bought at Antwerp. This is a way of depicting Père Tanguy showing a shared interest and creating a new kind of environment and space in the painting. I have already talked here about the Japanese influence at the 19 century. You can play finding the differences between the two versions and, please, do you see a pair of glasses at the left coat's pocket of the left painting or is it me?