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Impressionist, and proud
Underdogs have taken note and reclaimed terms that were once hurtful or derisory: ‘queer’ has become a positive label for the LGBT community, ‘nerd’ and ‘geek’ are no longer insults but badges of honour (thanks in part to the Gleeks), ‘slut walk’ participants have tried to de-stigmatise the word, and the Tea Party movement’s ‘tea-baggers’…well, that’s a bad example. But this ‘current’ propensity for linguistic reappropriation is not such a modern phenomenon… The Impressionists came to be known as such after a 10-year battle for recognition. In 19th-century France, artistic esteem could only be attained by recognition by the Academy of Fine Arts and the displaying of their artwork in…
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Ilya Repin: Stalin’s Golden Boy
Ukrainian-born Ilya Repin’s life spanned the turn of the 20th century, a particularly turbulent period in Russian history. A member of the Itinerants, he is one of the most celebrated social realist painters of all time, painting the lives of poor peasants and revolutionaries in exquisite detail, eschewing the burgeoning contemporary European impressionist movement. His paintings are a satirical commentary on the contemporary society of the Russian Empire, depicting scenes of peasantry (‘Barge Haulers on the Volga’), political and military scenes (‘Demonstration 17 October 1905’) and Cossack life (‘The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mahmoud IV’). Soon after his death in 1930, Repin had developed into a cult…
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Angels à la mode
Close your eyes and picture an angel. Now open them again so you can read the rest of this blog. What did you imagine? I’m guessing a woman wearing a long floaty white dress, effortlessly hovering in the sky (though mysteriously not beating her wings), with a halo atop her long blonde hair and maybe strumming a harp. Was I right? It is no coincidence that our imagined angels conform to the same stereotypes. In 2008, 55% of Americans, 67% of Canadians and 38% of Britons professed their belief in the existence of guardian angels, and for many they take the “classical” form (human appearance, exceedingly beautiful and blindingly…
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Sistine Madonna, one of the oldest, but still among the most beautiful, women in the world
Raphael, everybody’s favourite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.* His namesake, Italian Renaissance painter, Raphael is also a favourite of his period; he continues to be admired and sought after the world over. Among his (the painter, of course) most famous works, The Parnassus (1511) and The Miraculous Draught of Fishes (1515), is the Sistine Madonna (below). This work, both simple and beautiful, still raises a lot of questions. Why is Mary’s face already one of concern, much like her general disposition when standing next to Christ on the Crucifix? What’s the deal with the ghostly images in the background – are they souls or cherubs? To whom is Saint Sixtus referring with…
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Die Meister des Chaos
Afrika – bei dem Gedanken an diesen Kontinent packt mich die Reiselust. Ägypten, der Nil, die Sahara, Safaris, das bunte Leben Kapstadts, aber auch Elfenbein und Blutdiamanten fallen mir bei meinem spontanen Brainstorming ein. Aber was wissen wir in Europa wirklich über das Leben in Afrika, Traditionen, Rituale, Kunstwerke und deren Bedeutung? Persönlich verbinde ich mit diesem Kontinent immer auch etwas Mystisches, vor allem mit seinen Urvölkern, ihrer Lebensweise und ihren Medizinmännern. Würde ich mich freiwillig in die Hände eines Schamanen begeben und mich damit seinen mir unbekannten Ritualen hingeben? Wäre der Respekt vor dem Unbekannten, vielleicht auch Angsteinflößendem, nicht größer als die Neugierde? Mit Schamane meine ich hier einen…
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Masters of Disorder: the Shamans or the French?
MASTERS OF DISORDER, the forces at work in the world around us (especially my bedroom), unseen and unheard by all except those few who can divine their want and will. These are the ‘shamans’, or other spiritual leaders, who mediate between the real and spirit worlds, trying to make sense of the ‘disorder’ around us, mystically communicating with the ethereal and “negotiating with the forces of chaos”. The musée du quai Branly has put on an impressive multisensory display of these religious men from a number of tribes around the world that are still in existence today, with many anthropological ‘finds’ (or plunders) accompanied with work by current artists. It…
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…With one, we cannot have the other
Art of the Middle East is facing the same fate as the museums, works of art, and buildings that stood before World War II and, more recently, the Arab Spring. The Pearl Monument, formerly of Bahrain, was torn down by the Bahraini government last year because it was a point of interest for protestors. The Taliban has destroyed Buddhist art in Afghanistan, most specifically the Buddhas of Bamiyan in 2001. Already, works from Pakistan have been delayed in joining their counterparts in exhibitions, while important Egyptian pieces were left behind altogether amidst its revolution. When will it end? When will the selfish pursuits of some stop affecting cultural preservation and…
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War and art…
War, what is it good for? An age old question to which I can say: certainly not preserving art or cultural artefacts, nor fostering an atmosphere which might encourage visitors despite the destruction and neglect of surrounding areas caused by war. After developing an affinity for the images of mosques, madrasahs, and minarets of Central Asia, I find myself torn at the idea of crossing war paths to follow cultural trails. Consider, for example, the seventh-century crisis in which Constantinople (now Istanbul) already faced with natural disasters and civil wars, as it struggled with religious and political strife. The Ottoman’s further decimated the already under-populated and decimated city in the…
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Nur in der Landschaft existieren wir, und wir sind die Geschöpfe einer Landschaft (John Constable)
Seien es Fakten oder Klischees, für jedes Land kursieren im kollektiven Gedächtnis eine Reihe landestypischer Besonderheiten und Skurrilitäten. Was verbinden wir heute mit England? Was ist für uns typisch britisch? Der obligatorische schwarze Tee zur nachmittäglichen „Tea time“? Die Queen? Die aufwendigen Hüte und farbenfrohen Kostüme der High Society? Mr. Bean oder der schwarze Humor der Bevölkerung? Der Regen? Einen ganz anderen Blickwinkel auf ihr Heimatland pflegten die englischen Maler zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts, dem „Goldenen Zeitalter“ der Landschaftsmalerei. Als Sohn eines Friseurs machte sich Joseph Mallord William Turner wenig aus Adel und Königshaus, nicht die Menschen, sondern die Landschaft faszinierte ihn. Einen Großteil seiner Kindheit verbrachte er auf…
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Les Belles Heures du Duc de Berry
Parisians and their visitors are in for a treat: for the last time they will get to see the beautiful, individual leaves of the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry, before a valuable piece of their cultural heritage is whisked off once more to foreign climes. The Belles Heures is one of the most beautiful examples of an illustrated ‘book of hours’, a ‘devotional’ book for our devout, God-fearing medieval ancestors who felt like once a week just wasn’t devoting enough time to God, so they ordered manuals with instructions on how to pray better and more regularly at home. In today’s increasingly secular society, many of…
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