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Evolution of Holy Art
Exploring the evolution of art that is inspired by the oldest story of time, one that established many age-old Western traditions, does provide an interesting opportunity to see how interpretations of Christ have changed through time. Many a biblical scene has been depicted by artists through the ages, and is done in style that reflects the time and culture from which the interpretation is founded. The expanse of religious art produced in the 14th and 15th centuries, for example, indicates that depicting conventional Christian scenes was in vogue. This period we now recognise as the Renaissance, did yield some monumental images of Christ in art. Take da Vinci’s Last Supper…
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Kunst für zwischendurch
Man kennt das: man sitzt in einem Flugzeug, der Start verzögert sich und die Langeweile ist bereits mit Händen zu greifen. Man müsste eigentlich dringend zu einem Termin oder erwartet einfach nur sehnlichst den wohlverdienten Urlaub, doch der Pilot gibt nur eine Hinhaltenachricht nach der anderen durch. Hebt man dann endlich ab, wird es aber auch nicht besser. Die typischen Beschäftigungen während eines Fluges – nur halb die schon tausend mal gehörten Sicherheitsanweisungen verfolgen, einen kurzen Blick in die in den Vordersitz geklemmten Hefte werfen, die überteuerten Verkaufsangebote so gut es geht ignorieren und das kaum zu erschmeckende Essen genießen – werden so oft zu den spannendsten Momenten eines Langstreckenfluges.…
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Io ho un sogno
Io ho un sogno (tramite tanti). È quello di avere una grande biblioteca nella mia futura casa. Una stanza piena di libri, libri d’arte, libri più commerciali, libri di collezione, tutto. Certo, non come queste grandi biblioteche che vediamo nei film perché non me lo posso permettere magari se mai incontro un bello ricco ragazzo! Anche se viviamo in una epoca dove gli ebooks e il digitale si stanno sviluppando, e devo ammettere che sono pratichi, se vuoi leggere viaggiando non bisogna portare 30 kili di libri, una tablet è sufficiente, devo dire che, io amo i libri perché un libro è un’oggetto bellissimo che si deve conservare. Rappresenta una…
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Why the Soul of Surrealism is in India
If all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players, then where do the Surrealists sit? According to my imagined global map of where art movements should be located, the Impressionists are based in the South of France, the Blaue Reiter in Germany, the Nabis in Stockholm, Cubism in Iceland, the Old Masters (da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, etc.) in Italy, Aestheticism in Decorative Arts in Shanghai, Digital Art in Oslo, and Lyrical Abstraction in Tokyo. Of course, this is entirely subjective, but I think that certain countries, or cities, really do go hand in hand with the style or ideals that various art movements represent.
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Erase the line between Genius and Insanity!
Being labelled a genius puts one precariously close to being pigeonholed as insane. Where insanity is recognised as the repetition of the same action over and over, is genius not finally achieving some far-fetched goal, whether it is in science, maths, or art? History is littered with larger than life talents that we still learn about in our studies and discuss with our peers: Einstein, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, etc. Artists made sketches and drafts of the way the human body works, whether in physical labour or dancing, to better portray the human condition in their paintings. Michelangelo and Degas are not only famous for the Sistine Chapel and Impressionism respectively,…
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La verdad del poliedro
Matisse pasó la mayor parte de su vida intentando buscar la verdad. Para él la verdad estaba escondida tras la simplificación de las líneas y la combinación de colores. Por este motivo se dedicaba a estudiar sus propias obras y repetirlas con el objetivo de mejorar su técnica en cada nuevo cuadro que completaba. No son pocos los que han realizado series y copias de sus cuadros, pero es significativo que Matisse buscara no sólo comparar la luz o sus efectos sobre un determinado objeto, sino superarse individualmente con cada obra, alcanzar el cuadro verdadero, la perfección total.
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Musings… and Matisse
How does one gain immortality these days? No, this is actually a serious question! For the Ancient Egyptians, they took the important person’s corpse, removed the intestines and the other major decomposable parts (excepting the heart of course… every rookie embalmer knows that!), dried the body out with natron*, stuffed it with sawdust, wrapped it in linen, placed it in a couple of coffins, and then put it inside a large sarcophagus**. Easy. Then, they left the now-mummified body, erected a gigantic marking stone (obviously why the pyramids were built), and voila: today practically everybody and their grandmother knows the name of Tutankhamen. Not bad for a 5,000 year-old mummy!…
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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