more here...
Monday, 22 June 2009
The development of Mondrian
Piet Mondrian is probably best known for his Neo-Plasticism paintings of primary coloured rectangles of Red, Blue and Yellow. However his early work has a stark contrast to this aesthetic.
Piet Mondrian. View of Winterswijk. / Gesicht op Winterswijk. 1898/99. Watercolor. 52 x 63.5 cm. Private collection
Summer Night / Somernacht. 1906/07. Oil on canvas. 71 x 110.5 cm. Gemeentemuseum, the Hague, Netherlands.
Landscape with Trees. / Landschap met bomen. 1911/12. Oil on canvas. 120 x 100 cm. Gemeentemuseum, the Hague, Netherlands.
Composition No.6. / Compositie nr.6. 1914. Oil on canvas. 88 x 61 cm. Gemeentemuseum, the Hague, Netherlands.
Composition with Blue, Red and Yellow / Compositie met blauw,rood en geel..1930. Oil on canvas. 28 1/2" x 21 1/4". Sidney Janis Collection, New York, NY, USA.
Victory Boogie-Woogie. 1943/44 (unfinished). Oil and paper on canvas, diagonal 177.5 cm. Gemeentemuseum, the Hague, Netherlands.
Piet Mondrian. View of Winterswijk. / Gesicht op Winterswijk. 1898/99. Watercolor. 52 x 63.5 cm. Private collection
Summer Night / Somernacht. 1906/07. Oil on canvas. 71 x 110.5 cm. Gemeentemuseum, the Hague, Netherlands.
Landscape with Trees. / Landschap met bomen. 1911/12. Oil on canvas. 120 x 100 cm. Gemeentemuseum, the Hague, Netherlands.
Composition No.6. / Compositie nr.6. 1914. Oil on canvas. 88 x 61 cm. Gemeentemuseum, the Hague, Netherlands.
Composition with Blue, Red and Yellow / Compositie met blauw,rood en geel..1930. Oil on canvas. 28 1/2" x 21 1/4". Sidney Janis Collection, New York, NY, USA.
Victory Boogie-Woogie. 1943/44 (unfinished). Oil and paper on canvas, diagonal 177.5 cm. Gemeentemuseum, the Hague, Netherlands.
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Paul Cézanne - Lac d’Annecy
It was, said Paul Cézanne, the type of landscape young lady travellers like to sketch in their albums. His holiday by the pretty Lac d'Annecy, in the foothills of the French Alps in 1896, was one of the few occasions when this most rebellious of 19th-century French artists played the conventional bourgeois, and in his letters you can feel him strain at the sweaty, starched collar. He was staying in a hotel with his wife, Hortense, and their 14-year-old son, also called Paul. This game of happy families was a charade: Cézanne and Hortense mostly lived apart. Perhaps it was this sense of hypocrisy that poisoned the landscape for him, making him see in it the dead hand of the picturesque: nature here was not wild as in his native Provence, "but a little like we've been taught to see it ... "
The view is framed by a tree whose broad trunk rises on the left, and whose branches cut across the upper part of the picture in two dark waving thrusts towards the bottom. The lake divides the canvas in half and its far shore appears as a straight line, which perfectly bisects the main body of the trunk. So the painting is structured like a "T" on its side, while across the crystalline lake floats a chateau whose tower is a dense cylinder.
The Lac d'Annecy is, in its very violence, a triumph of order. Cézanne unleashes wild forces above the lake in order to tame them. The forces are his own - and so is the resolution. The drama of this painting is the emotional drama of the painter sitting there at his easel, thinking terrible things, overcoming his terror and anger, finding in the landscape a multi-faceted mirror of his inner struggle.
Extracted from an article by Jonathan Jones of www.theguardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Monday, 15 June 2009
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Wow - He did It!
Beginning at 23:30 on Saturday May 16th and through 4:00 Monday May 18th, Gonzales will attempt to break the Guiness World Record for longest concert by a solo artist. The previous record is 26 hours and 12 minutes and was performed by Prasanna Gudi (India) at the Mallikarjun Mansoor Kala Bhavan public auditorium, Dharwad, Karnataka, India from 28 to 29 December 2008.
Gonzales explains his motivation: "I will do this to push my muscial and physical stamina. I believe music is part art, part athletics and this 27-hour concert will demonstrate both aspects."
Gonzales has been consulting with the Guiness Book of Record to ensure a smooth attempt and an Official Guinness Judge will adjudicate the event on site. Repertoire will touch on recognizable songs from all eras and styles of music, in new and surprising arrangements. There will be no repetition of material during the attempt. As Gonzales himself says "I will break the record without sounding like a broken record".
The record attempt takes place at the theatre of notable French film director Claude Lelouch and his daughter Salome, Theatre Ciné 13 at 1 avenue Junot in Paris. The attempt in its entirety will be streamed live on www.Arte.fr and look out for a documentary of the event in the future.
Gonzales explains his motivation: "I will do this to push my muscial and physical stamina. I believe music is part art, part athletics and this 27-hour concert will demonstrate both aspects."
Gonzales has been consulting with the Guiness Book of Record to ensure a smooth attempt and an Official Guinness Judge will adjudicate the event on site. Repertoire will touch on recognizable songs from all eras and styles of music, in new and surprising arrangements. There will be no repetition of material during the attempt. As Gonzales himself says "I will break the record without sounding like a broken record".
The record attempt takes place at the theatre of notable French film director Claude Lelouch and his daughter Salome, Theatre Ciné 13 at 1 avenue Junot in Paris. The attempt in its entirety will be streamed live on www.Arte.fr and look out for a documentary of the event in the future.
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Janek Schaefer - Tri-phonic Turntable
he Tri-phonic Turntable (1997), by Janek Schaefer, is inspired by the work of composer and choreographer Philip Jeck. In particular Vinyl Requiem, an installation/performance which utilised 180 Dansette record players from the '50s and '60s. Jeck mounted them on a vertical scaffold and set them all to play simultaneously.
The Tri-phonic Turntable, however, aims to do the opposite. Instead of using many record players to play different records Schaefer combined several record players in one portable device. The objective being to enable the artist to create accidents and discover new sounds locked inside old vinyl finds.
"It needed to be compact, so I decided that three arms was an optimum number," writes the sound artist. "I could use each tone arm for the left, the right and the centre channels of the stereo field. The revolution speed needed to be as flexible as possible so that any speed within its boundaries could be set. Micro-variable control. Very importantly a reverse mode was essential and just for good measure I designed it so that up to 3 records could be played at once. This was possible by putting a 7" or 10" on top of an LP on the platter and then by using a central spacer another disc can be placed above and played by the third arm which I fitted at a higher level. Practically speaking this covered all potential possibilities [except one arm playing upside down on the underside of the raised disc]. Finally I routed the stereo signal from each arm through an integrated mixer to make it truly self contained."
from here
Jean Siméon Chardin - Still life with bottle, glass and loaf
In today's fast world you can easily overlook the subtle beauty and balance of a Chardin. You need to slow yourself down to properly appreciate one of his paintings.
What Chardin strove for was an overall effect: a unity of tone, colour and form. His still lifes reveal themselves slowly, with his objects gradually emerging from their subtly toned background, summoned as the writer Marcel Proust puts it, “out of the everlasting darkness in which they have been interred.”
Chardin would prime his canvases with a brownish pigment, sometimes tinted with red or green. This would give him a neutral background to paint on. On this he would brush in the darkest tones, then the mid-tones, and finally the highlights. When he arrived at the correct tonal balance, he would add colour, being careful to maintain the overall harmony. He would finally complete the work by going over it again with the colours he had already used in order to create the reflections and highlights that tune and unify the composition. In the example above, the same white that is used for the cloves of garlic is echoed in the reflections from the glass on one side and in the burnished highlights of the copper coffee pot on the other. The range of browns across the picture are united by a subtle hint of the green of the garlic leaves.
taken from www.artyfactory.com
great guardian article
What Chardin strove for was an overall effect: a unity of tone, colour and form. His still lifes reveal themselves slowly, with his objects gradually emerging from their subtly toned background, summoned as the writer Marcel Proust puts it, “out of the everlasting darkness in which they have been interred.”
Chardin would prime his canvases with a brownish pigment, sometimes tinted with red or green. This would give him a neutral background to paint on. On this he would brush in the darkest tones, then the mid-tones, and finally the highlights. When he arrived at the correct tonal balance, he would add colour, being careful to maintain the overall harmony. He would finally complete the work by going over it again with the colours he had already used in order to create the reflections and highlights that tune and unify the composition. In the example above, the same white that is used for the cloves of garlic is echoed in the reflections from the glass on one side and in the burnished highlights of the copper coffee pot on the other. The range of browns across the picture are united by a subtle hint of the green of the garlic leaves.
taken from www.artyfactory.com
great guardian article
Monday, 8 June 2009
Dan Black Music Video - Homage to movie opening titles
Music video produced and directed by Chic & Artistic. It's an homage to cinema. Dan is going through many differents movies opening titles.Directors : Chic & Artistic
Production co: Chic & Artistic Unlimited (Paris)
Label: A&M / Polydor
D.O.P: Gilles Piquard
Special FX & animation: Sébastien Fillinger, Julien Baret, Anthony Menard, Haluk Torun for Chic & Artistic
Stylism: Steven Westgarth, Nicolas Savreux.
Hair & make-up: Shirin Ben Hassen.
(Click image for video)
Friday, 5 June 2009
Caspar David Friedrich - Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
German: Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer; also known as Wanderer Above the Mist)
Oil on canvas, 1818
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is true to the Romantic style and Friedrich's style in particular, being similar to other works such as Chalk Cliffs on Rügen and The Sea of Ice. Gorra's (2004) analysis was that the message conveyed by the painting is one of Kantian self-reflection, expressed through the wanderer's gazings into the murkiness of the sea of fog. Dembo (2001) sympathised, asserting that Wanderer presents a metaphor for the unknown future. Gaddis (2004) felt that the impression the wanderer's position atop the precipice and before the twisted outlook leaves "is contradictory, suggesting at once mastery over a landscape and the insignificance of the individual within it."
Some meaning of this work is lost in the translation of its title. In German, the title is "Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer." There are several things to note about this German title. Firstly, Wanderer exists as both the word for "wanderer" and for the word "hiker." The character can thus be seen as lost and trying to find purpose, or as a resolute journeyman. The second subtlety is that the word "Nebelmeer" in German translates directly into "Fogsea." The audience though has the discrimination to interpret it as "the sea which is composed of fog," or "the Fog Sea." The first of these leads to a more abstract and philosophical view that compliments the "wanderer" translation of the first word. The second is more concrete and challenging, complimenting the view of the determined hiker.
Oil on canvas, 1818
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is true to the Romantic style and Friedrich's style in particular, being similar to other works such as Chalk Cliffs on Rügen and The Sea of Ice. Gorra's (2004) analysis was that the message conveyed by the painting is one of Kantian self-reflection, expressed through the wanderer's gazings into the murkiness of the sea of fog. Dembo (2001) sympathised, asserting that Wanderer presents a metaphor for the unknown future. Gaddis (2004) felt that the impression the wanderer's position atop the precipice and before the twisted outlook leaves "is contradictory, suggesting at once mastery over a landscape and the insignificance of the individual within it."
Some meaning of this work is lost in the translation of its title. In German, the title is "Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer." There are several things to note about this German title. Firstly, Wanderer exists as both the word for "wanderer" and for the word "hiker." The character can thus be seen as lost and trying to find purpose, or as a resolute journeyman. The second subtlety is that the word "Nebelmeer" in German translates directly into "Fogsea." The audience though has the discrimination to interpret it as "the sea which is composed of fog," or "the Fog Sea." The first of these leads to a more abstract and philosophical view that compliments the "wanderer" translation of the first word. The second is more concrete and challenging, complimenting the view of the determined hiker.
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Heinz - Pea and Ham soup. mmmmm
It's new, it's exciting and it's the best pea and ham soup ever (better than covent garden, and that's good)
Edvard Munch - Sommernacht am Strand
Summer Night at the Beach
Oil on canvas, 103 x 120 cm
From early youth, Edvard Munch devoted himself to landscapes, especially during his stays in Kristiana and the environs of Oslo. It was only natural that traditional Norwegian landscape painting served as his first source of inspiration. The distinctiveness of these early works lies in the precision and clarity of the depiction, characteristics which were augmented presumably through the use of optical aids such as a camera obscura or camera lucida.
His well-known unorthodox application of colour was one of the essential parameters Munch used to express his new and highly personal understanding of art, which was so different from that of all his contemporaries: “It was during the period of Realism and Impressionism. I found a landscape I truly wished to paint either when in an extremely agitated state of mind or in some cheerful mood. I drew my easel, set it up, and painted the image as nature presented it”.
For Edvard Munch landscape thus came to be a space into which he projected his moods and emotions. In 1892, during the summer months in Åsgårdstrand (Oslo fjord), Munch painted his first symbolic landscapes, among them the painting Sommernacht am Strand. On the occasion of Munch exhibition in Kristiania on September 14th 1982, a critic from the Aftenposten newspaper described the painting as follows: “I see moons that are reflected onto the earth four times, one below the other so that they appear to form a chain of gold coins above curious stone formations the perceptive impressionist discovered.
It is precisely this exceptional light effect that lends this painting an almost unreal atmosphere of mystical character, completely in keeping with Munch’s reflections: “The mystical will always be with us, emergent, the more it is discovered, the more inexplicable it will become.”
www.belvedere.a
Oil on canvas, 103 x 120 cm
From early youth, Edvard Munch devoted himself to landscapes, especially during his stays in Kristiana and the environs of Oslo. It was only natural that traditional Norwegian landscape painting served as his first source of inspiration. The distinctiveness of these early works lies in the precision and clarity of the depiction, characteristics which were augmented presumably through the use of optical aids such as a camera obscura or camera lucida.
His well-known unorthodox application of colour was one of the essential parameters Munch used to express his new and highly personal understanding of art, which was so different from that of all his contemporaries: “It was during the period of Realism and Impressionism. I found a landscape I truly wished to paint either when in an extremely agitated state of mind or in some cheerful mood. I drew my easel, set it up, and painted the image as nature presented it”.
For Edvard Munch landscape thus came to be a space into which he projected his moods and emotions. In 1892, during the summer months in Åsgårdstrand (Oslo fjord), Munch painted his first symbolic landscapes, among them the painting Sommernacht am Strand. On the occasion of Munch exhibition in Kristiania on September 14th 1982, a critic from the Aftenposten newspaper described the painting as follows: “I see moons that are reflected onto the earth four times, one below the other so that they appear to form a chain of gold coins above curious stone formations the perceptive impressionist discovered.
It is precisely this exceptional light effect that lends this painting an almost unreal atmosphere of mystical character, completely in keeping with Munch’s reflections: “The mystical will always be with us, emergent, the more it is discovered, the more inexplicable it will become.”
www.belvedere.a
Pyramid Farm: Vertical Agriculture for 2060
from www.inhabitat.com
The Pyramid Farm is an incredible concept for the future of agriculture envisioned by professors Eric Ellingsen and Dickson Despommier. The design is based on the growing belief (is it fact yet?) that vertical farming will soon become a necessary lifeline in cities throughout the world. The human population is growing exponentially and increasingly more urban while the global food supply shortening. Despommier speculates that if nothing is done to advance current farming techniques, 3 billion people could face starvation by 2060. The Pyramid Farm offers a solution in the form of a complete self-sufficient ecosystem that covers everything from food production to waste management.
158 Squadron - Strength in Unity
Last night went to my nana's for tea and she told me the new RAF Lissett memorial had been opened. It has always interested me from a boy when my grandad told me war time stories of the aerodrome being targeted by the Germans. One of his Cow's even got shot by the Luftwaffe!
On my way back I drove by and was amazed at how amazing it looked with the sunset beaming through the metal structure...
I only had my phone on me so the pictures aren't great quality.
Originally required as satellite airfield for RAF Catfoss the land was requistioned in 1940. Although constrained by three roads and the Gransmoor Drain the builders constructed a standard three-runway bomber airfield. It had two hangars and 36 dispersals and three concrete runways.
Lissett opened in February 1943 and No. 158 Squadron arrived from RAF Rufforth to be the resident squadron on the 28 February. 158 Sqn was a heavy bomber squadron equipped with the four-engined Handley Page Halifax. The squadron flew the first operational mission on the night of 11/12 March 1943 when ten aircraft were flown to Stuggart, one failed to return. The squadron carried out operations up to the end of the war from Lissett. At the end of war in May 1945 the squadron was transferred to Transport Command as it prepared to undertook a transport role and the squadron was re-equipped with the Short Stirling before it departed to RAF Stradishall in August 1945.
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
The Tolerant City
The municipality of Helsingborg, in Sweden, chose Schonherr and Adept Architects as winners of the planning competition with their proposal entitled the Tolerant City. Their contextual project will add value to its urban environment by creating a new identity and exploring the future possibilities for Helsingborg.
Inherent wishes for proximity to water, sustainable design, and meeting places to connect the diverse population of the province, were key elements in the early design stages of the project. The structure plan was created not only thinking about how the project could influence the site currently, but what its potential to the site will be when the city grows and is fully formed. In this way, although the framework has exact objectives, the plan offers developmental potential where the users can effect the transformation.
check it.
Monday, 1 June 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)