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Isaac Levitan: Simple, Unpretentious landscapes through his eyes
At the end of the nineteenth century the landscape was one of the foremost genres in Russian painting. It was this influence that shaped Levitan’s art, an art fully and by right symbolic of the finest achievements of Russian landscape painting.
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Bitten by a dragonfly!
Émile Gallé was a leading artist of the Art noveau style and was able to put his love for insects, animals and flowers into vases, porcelain and furniture, to capture their beauty into usable objects, creating pieces of art at the same time. Starting from his childhood, Gallé developed an almost ecstatic love for mother nature. One of his favourite designs seemed to be the dragonfly, an insect so tiny and delicate, but it can also be a danger to your life…. Gallé, born 1846 in Nancy, started studying zoology, botanics and minerology, because he drew inspiration from observing nature while walking through the woods. Who could have anticipated, that…
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Hokusai et Hiroshige : une vague de paysages !
Katsushika Hokusaï (1760-1849) et Andô Hiroshige (1797-1858) se sont rendus célèbres grâce à leurs estampes qui ont conquis l’Orient et l’Occident. L’estampe – aussi appelée ukiyo-e et signifiant littéralement « images du monde flottant » – est une technique de gravure sur bois qui permet de produire des images bon marché et facilement diffusables. Si cette technique existe depuis le XIIIe siècle, c’est vers le milieu du XVIIe siècle que les premiers sujets profanes apparaissent. Que ça soit Hokusai ou Hiroshige, les deux artistes ont débuté en gravant des estampes sur les thèmes classiques de l’époque : geisha, acteurs, guerriers, sumo… Pourtant, nos deux maîtres vont très vite réinventer le genre de l’estampe en…
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Forest of Fontainebleau – Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, 1830
Click on the image to appreciate in High Resolution every stroke of the Master Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot!!
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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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Impressionism: a Disney movie without all of the singing
Nature? Good. Romance? I can dig it. Impressionism? Bite me. You know what Impressionism is? It’s a beautiful, made-up, dream-like view at an otherwise harsh, sometimes cruel reality. Impressionism is to art viewers what Disney movies are to the generation of 20-somethings that grew up expecting perfect hair, woodland friends, and Prince Charming – not to mention the desire to go around singing about everything all of the damn time.
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African Art
Manos, ¿para qué os quiero?
Exhibition: “Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist”
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Landscape Art, Depictions of a Nature That Might Cease to Exist
I’m supposed to talk about pretty landscapes and painters from the 17th century until now that have slowly incorporated said landscapes into their paintings more and more, until finally Landscape became its own genre. And fine: nature is nice; butterflies, yay. Instead, I’d like to note that BP is sponsoring this. BP! The company that is ruining similar landscapes to the ones we’re meant to enjoy in the exhibition. Did the corporation’s discussion for putting this on the agenda include a “yeah, we better show them now before the destruction and decimation of our planet is complete”? The extraction and ceaseless use of natural gasses and oil is doing palpable…
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Women of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement: Models, Muses, Lovers, Artists
When you think of “Pre-Raphaelite”, what comes to mind? For me, it is male painters, female subjects, a lot of nature, and vivid colours. And for 95% percent of paintings produced by this movement, this is the reality. The key members of the group (Hunt, Millais, the two Rossettis, Collinson, Stephens, and Woolner) were all men. Together, they created a secret group called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Like just about every other artistic movement, the Brotherhood wanted reform. They rejected the academic styles of Raphael and artists after him, finding them idealised and corrupted. The Brotherhood sought a return to the Pre-Raphael Italian style with its vivid colours and imitation of…
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Pas sur la bouche !
Turner, Monet, Twombly : quel(s) point(s) commun(s) ? Vous avez entendu parler des deux premiers comme étant des maîtres, et le 3ème vous est peut-être totalement inconnu, à moins que vous vous intéressiez à l’art contemporain… Le point commun, c’est le ressenti. Ces trois peintres se sont éloignés des codes réalistes attendus par la bourgeoisie de leur époque et ont peint ce qu’ils ressentaient devant le sujet… Que peint Turner dans les Baleines : les animaux ou le ciel et l’écume ? Que peint Monet dans San Giorgio Maggiore, les monuments ou l’impression de lumière bleutée ? Et que dire de Twombly, qui dans sa série Lepanto, interprète par des taches et des coulures…
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Turner, Monet, Twombly: An Unlikely Trio
1700s, 1800s, 1900s. British, French, American. Romanticism, Impressionism, Symbolism. Looking at these stats, one might wonder what J.M.W. Turner, Claude Monet, and Cy Twombly have in common. Frankly, I’m still trying to work it out for myself. Through the bulk of each of these artists’ careers, it is quite clear that their works have very little to absolutely nothing in common, causing one to wonder how on earth they’ve been grouped together in the first place. However, if you focus on the last twenty or so odd years of each other their lives, I suppose it is possible to see that Turner’s work slowly morphed into Impressionism, whether he intended…
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