Then how I wished that I could come back as a flower
As a flower.....
I wanted to share something that speaks to the soul and makes you feel at peace. I hope that this music has this power. Music unites people. Have a great week!
These are two photos by Annie Mole that I took from Flickr. Putting them side by side gives the illusion that we are looking at a train. Not only painters care about shoes as we can see at the shoes' label.
Hi! I have been away for a while and felt like starting again by Monet's nympheas series.
He did about 250 paintings and these 8 murals I had the joy of seeing. I cannot explain in words what I felt. I was there looking in all directions. One panel another and another and the whole. I could not fix my attention in any of them but what I felt was so intense and good that I still carry it with me. I looked at the others who were there and I noticed that a kind of bond united us all.
I hope you can have an idea of what is being at this place and feel the same.
""It took me time to understand my waterlilies. I had planted them for the pleasure of it; I grew them without ever thinking of painting them."
Claude Monet
I found this .gif animation at a very interesting site I came across. I have already posted about the Myth of Sisyphus here. Just a reminder. Click at the link below the image to read Camus's text.
Still Life with Old Shoe was painted during the Spanish civil war and was consider by Joan Miró himself as one of his most important works. His biographer Jacques Dupin called the painting "Mirós's Guernica" thou there is no influence whatsoever of Picasso's work that is also dated 1937. This is a good comparison of the two that I found at this site:
"The Spanish Civil War broke out in July, 1936, and by November of that year, Miro was in France, where he would live in exile with his family until 1940. Initially without a studio, he stopped planning large groups of paintings in advance, as though reluctant to pursue any projects requiring long-term stability. (However, he had left a large number of unfinished works behind in Barcelona.) In January, 1937, he decided to move in a completely new direction and began work on a painting, "Still Life with Old Shoe, " often called his " Guernica" (in reference to Pablo Picasso's famous painting protesting the bombing of that Basque town). Although "Still Life with Old Shoe" manifests Miro's new need to grapple with material reality--for the first time in years, he worked from a model, a still life set up on a table before him--it is far from the historical and political reality of Picasso's painting. Where Picasso was concerned with a specific time and place, Miro's "Still Life with Old Shoe," and indeed all of his work, is pointedly ahistorical. Through the psychedelic colors and ominous forms of this painting, Miro found the universal aspect of the particular, creating a haunting landscape of devastation from the humble components of a still-life arrangement." (emphasis mine)
I have been searching for soap bubbles today and found so many amazing things that it was difficult to decide what to post.
I just came across with this page that has a lot of amazing soap bubbles images and took these two photographies of Mila Zinkova that captures the reflections of the Golden Gate Bridge, right picture, and a cloud at the left one.
No photoshop!
I just came across with this silkscreen on metal by Shepard Faery at this site and it caught my attention because it is a reverse of George Orwell's "Big Brother is Watching you". Peace and Love are Watching Over You (Click the image to enlarge)
Update: May, 01, 1011 I was aware that Shepard was being accused of plagiarism but I didn't pay attention. I just found a great article here by Jason explaining everything. Not only plagiarism but appropriation of images that are part of the culture, those who are in public domain. I will write a post about it. But visit the Justtheseeds by Jason if you want to be informed now.
In 1983 the British Council exhibited "Transformations - New Sculpture from Britain" at the São Paulo Biennal showing the sculptures of six artists.
Bill Woodrow was chosen and "Long Distance Information, 1983" was one of his works.
He has a diverse oeuvre and you can search at this site his many periods even though the photographies online sometimes are not very good.
In the eighties he did several works by cutting the shape of an object from a metal structure and transforming the two-dimensional projection into three dimensional objects.
Long Distance Information was the title of a popular song by Chuck Berry which celebrated the possibility of talking to a child by telephone across a continent and Woodrow draw from an old car bonnet the shapes of a photographic camera, walkie-talkies and a bullet.
What these objects have in common are speed if you will - even the bullet which is faster than a knife for instance if you intend to kill.
It is very difficult and sometimes unfair to attribute meaning to the work of some artists.
But I cannot help thinking that Woodrow predicted cell phones. :) I am sorry Bill.
But what really strikes me the most in the work of this period is this ability to make the illusion that the object was taken from the metal shape. I think it is amazing.
When I was at college I learned from Tzvetan Todorov some important aspects of the fantastic reading his book: "The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre".
By that time two of my favorites writers, Julio Cortázar and Jorge Luis Borges, were classified as fantastic and Gabriel Garcia Marques was translated to many languages.
But it is not about his work as literary theorist that I want to share with you. It is about his work as a deeply concerned man that is writing books to try to make some sense in the way the world is being conducted. He has published "Fear of the Barbarians: beyond the clash of civilizations" that will be released in English next month. These are some of the subjects he approaches:
"But who are these barbarians? Tzvetan Todorov questions Claude Levi-Strauss’ definition of the barbarian as “the man who believes in barbarism” and suggests: “It is someone who believes that a population or an individual is not fully human and therefore merits treatment that he would resolutely refuse to apply to himself.” In his recent The Fear of Barbarians (10), Todorov develops an argument he presented in earlier works such as On Human Diversity (a thought-provoking book that deserves to be far more widely read). “The fear of barbarians,” he writes now, “is what is in danger of turning us into barbarians. And the evil that we do will far exceed what we initially fear.” Only the individual who fully recognizes the humanity of others can be called civilized." (emphasismine)
"These conceptual tools enable him to shed fresh light on the current struggle against terrorism and the tensions between communities within Western countries. He invites us to overcome our fears - for fear is a dangerous motive and risks producing an evil that is worse than the evil we initially feared. Richly illustrated with examples ranging from Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib to the murder of Theo Van Gogh and the Danish cartoons, this powerful plea for civilized values will be essential reading for anyone concerned with the key challenges facing the world today." (emphasis mine)
And this is a translation from a video at Youtube:
"... culturally a nation is never something perfectly homogeneous. It's made by women and men, young and old people, rich and poor, people of profiles totally differents. You and me during a day we change languages three or four times. We speak differently to our neighbors, to children's at schools, in front of our students, in the television... without any problem. We have to stop living in the illusion that culture have to be the same for everybody. (emphasis mine)
In reality there is no religious war. Wars have always political reasons. Combats for power, for wealth, demographic reasons, because of the country's resource, but religion is only the mask that we give to these combats because it mobilizes deep strengths of each and everybody."
I did the translation from French of these two excerpts. He speaks English and I don't understand why there is not a single video in English.
"It's through fear that the most unacceptable actions are carried out"
This is a French anti smoking prevention campaign by the "Rights of Non Smokers" (Les Droits des Non-Fumeurs).
The photographies are by Thomas Geffrier and the text "Fumer c’est etre l’esclave du tabac" translated in English means “Smoking is like being tobacco’s slave”.
I wonder where the rights of adolescents and even women's rights campaigners are.
It is quite shocking that such images are being used to indoctrinate people about the harms of smoking.
I also would like to have the scientific evidences of all the diseases they claim that smoking and passive smoking are responsible.
I received an e-mail from Herrad with these pictures. She sends amazing pictures by e-mail and I thought this collection deservesAskani to be seen.
These are photographies by Tanja Askani who takes pictures depicting tenderness among animals. You can see more photographs by her here.
Thank you Herrad!
Have a great and tender weekend!
This was the painting I was looking for when I came across with the work of the post below. I have a tiny copy at my desk among other tiny copies that are part of my... private collection!
Sleepers by Gustave Courbet is one of the themes that artists depicted that is stitl causing scandal nowadays.
I was searching for another of his paintings and came across with Kristine Milde's "Sleepers after Courbet" at this site dedicated to Barbie in many way. I also found at this site Courbet's painting with Christ's tags covering breasts and pubic parts.
I am a little bit astonished that someone can do such a thing with a painting especially using as tag using a medieval painting of the Christ.
It is quite ironic.
The "Two Friends" was part of the 19 century's iconography as you can see in the Klimt's and Lautrec's painting.
I think that it has to do with the eyes of the beholder.
I think it is very interesting recreating Courbet's work with Barbies.
You can download the .pdf file of Matisse's "Notes of a Painter", 1908 here. I think that at this paragraph, the last one, he approaches some important issues that are still being discussed nowadays:
"Rules have no existence outside of individuals: otherwise a good professor would be as great a genius as Racine. Any one of us is capable of repeating fine maxims, but few can also penetrate their meaning. I am ready to admit that from a study of the works of Raphael or Titian a more complete set of rules can be drawn than from the works of Manet or Renoir, but the rules followed by Manet and Renoir were those which suited their temperaments and I prefer the most minor of the their paintings to all the work of those who are content to imitate the Venus of Urbino or the Madonna of the Goldfinch. These latter are of no value to anyone, for whether we want to or not, we belong to our time and we share in its opinions, its feelings, even its delusions. All artists bear the imprint of their time, but the great artists are those in whom this is most profoundly marked. Our epoch for instance is better represented by Courbet than by Flandrin, by Rodin better than by Frémiet. Whether we like it or not, however insistently we call ourselves exiles, between our period and ourselves an indissoluble bond is established, and M. Péladan himself cannot escape it. The aestheticians of the future may perhaps use his books as evidence if they get it in their heads to prove that no one of our time understood anything about the art of Leonardo da Vinci."
Unfortunately I can't find a translation for this Italian song that is simple and beautiful. It is a popular song and a little old and maybe not very interesting for Italians but it's very cute for those who know little of the Italian language. I will dedicate this post to an Italian blogger that I like Tommaso Evagelista at Emgrammi.
His blog has numerous amazing post about art. Hope he likes this song.
C'e' una casetta piccola cosi'
con tante finestrelle colorate
E una donnina piccola cosi'
Con due occhi grandi per guardare
E c'e' un omino piccolo cosi'
che torna sempre tardi da lavorare
E ha un cappello piccolo cosi'
con dentro un sogno da realizzare
E piu' ci pensa, piu' non sa aspettare
Amore mio non devi stare in pena
questa vita e' una catena
qualche volta fa un po' male
Guarda come son tranquilla io
anche se attraverso il bosco
con l'aiuto del buon Dio
stando sempre attenta al lupo,
attenti al lupo attenti al lupo...
living together living together...
Laggiu' c'e' un prato piccolo cosi'
con un gran rumore di cicale
e un profumo dolce e piccolo cosi'
Amore mio e' arrivata l'estate Amore mio e' arrivata l'estate
E noi due qui distesi a far l'amore
in mezzo a questo mare di cicale
questo amore piccolo cosi' ma tanto grande che mi sembra di volare
E piu' ci penso piu' non so aspettare
Amore mio non devi stare in pena
questa vita e' una catena
qualche volta fa un po' male
Guarda come son tranquilla io
anche se attraverso il bosco
con l'aiuto del buon Dio
stando sempre attenta al lupo
Attenti al lupo attenti al lupo
Living together... Living together...
Update:
A very nice person left a comment with a translation into English. Thank you very much!
The Luncheon on the Grass (left) is one of the most Manet's painting. When first exhibited it was a scandal just like Olympia.
Although it has references to old masters:
"The Lunch on the Grass is a painting with several overlaid themes:
- the reference to the old masters, Manet having taken his inspiration from Titian's Concert champêtre in the Musée du Louvre, and from The Judgement of Paris, an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi, after Raphael.
- the issue of the nude, "It seems I'll have to paint a nude. Very well then, I'll paint a nude for them", Manet had declared to Antonin Proust.
- the question of the subject, the reason for all the uproar surrounding it. "We cannot regard as chaste a work in which a woman, seated in the woods, surrounded by students in berets and coats, is clothed only in the shadows of the leaves" (Ernest Chesneau, quoted by Françoise Cachin in Manet, RMN, 1983).
- finally, the issue of the outdoor setting: the real open air, according to Emile Zola,
"In this painting, what one must see […] is the entire landscape, full of atmosphere, this corner of nature rendered with a simplicity so accurate…". "In this painting, what one must see […] is the entire landscape, full of atmosphere, this corner of nature rendered with a simplicity so accurate...""
The sight of these contemporary people, especially a naked woman, being exhibited next to nudes that was mythological thus very far from touch was outrageous.
Picasso repeated the scandal with his versions of Manet's painting. I truly believe that one of thousands art's functions is to change the way we see things and it is funny to see that these paintings today are considered part of cultural heritage and we can even think that Manet's nude woman is a little bit overweighted.
