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Brotherhood of Inspiration: Unraveling the Pre-Raphaelite Aesthetics
In Victorian England, with the country swept up in the Industrial Revolution, the Pre-Raphaelites, close to William Morris’ Arts and Crafts movement, yearned for a return to bygone values. Wishing to revive the pure and noble forms of the Italian Renaissance, the major painters of the circle favoured realism and biblical themes over the academicism of the time.
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Birds of the City
Putting aside the odd park and a dreaded pigeon swooping in to steal your sandwich from your hand or leave a messy present atop your head, nature can be hard to find in cities. Sure, you can visit a zoo or take a trip out to the countryside every once in a while, but if you live in the middle of a sprawling metropolis, the chances are that your interactions with the native flora and fauna are few and far between. It’s not all that unusual to find a city kid with no idea what the connection might be between cows and the white liquid they put on their cereal…
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Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me
As much as elders tell young children to dismiss name-calling or bad words, words possess a stronger meaning than most people care to admit. A photograph may be worth 1,000 words, but can a word not also invite 1,000 ideas or influence 1,000 images? Art is subjective to the viewer’s personal history, and language is supposed to be agreed upon by the general audience, with dictionaries giving precise definitions to every word. But neither Merriam nor Webster can anticipate the insurgence of connotative meaning that can ultimately redefine a word in a specific culture. The importance of language and its relationship to art is currently being examined at the Tate…
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All at Sea
Think of Turner, and you think of the sea. Beaches, ports, sunrises, sunsets, raging storms, crashing waves and heavy battles, conjured up in a swirling mist of colour and light. You might be surprised to learn, then, that the National Maritime Museum’s current exhibition is in fact the first major one dedicated to this theme. The sea has been a subject of fascination for many of the greatest artists, from Brueghel and Rembrandt to Signac and Monet. But it was Turner whom the subject gripped with the most fervour, pulling him in with its charms and relentless metamorphosis. Watch the sea from a cliff top for an hour or two…
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Going Dutch
“Going Dutch”: a phrase which is most commonly associated with splitting the bill when going out to dinner. Personally, I find that this is one of those phrases which we all use, and don’t really think about why we use it. I have merrily used these two simple words for many years – and yet it is only recently that it occurred to me to question where such a notion comes from. Before I started doing some research into this, I have to admit that I did spend more time than I probably should have trying to puzzle this scenario out. I did, however, cross out the possibility that it…
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Did You Know…?
Islam: What has it given us? Other than the obvious furious debates surrounding it and hatred in Western countries which has stemmed from some spectacular ignorance… But that’s another story. Today, I don’t want to kick-start a massive hoo-ha (in British English that word means trouble/ruckus, in case any Americans out there thought I meant something slightly off colour), but I do want to look at some of the lesser known facts and figures of the world’s second-largest religion. 1.) Islam has been around for around 1400 years. 2.) This has led to the medieval Islamic inventions or discoveries of: – Sulfuric Acid and Hydrochloric Acid. Chemists, you may say…
This is an interactive art blog in multi languages, you will find new articles on artists, art history, exhibitions, etc. Contributions welcome.
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