forsv: potpourri of thoughts

Museums Set to Sell Art, and Some Experts Cringe

Museums Set to Sell Art, and Some Experts Cringe

By CAROL VOGEL
Published: October 26, 2005 in The New Work Times

Undaunted by the tempest over the New York Public Library's sale of a prized painting, arts institutions across the country are cleaning out their closets for auctions starting next week, stirring fresh unease among art historians and curators.

Artworks going on the block include paintings by Picasso, Modigliani and Chagall, and rare photographs by masters like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston. In December, the public library is moving ahead with the sale of two portraits of George Washington, by Gilbert Stuart, and 16 other paintings.

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JohnAugust.com

​​​​If you're writing a screenplay (and let's face it, who isn't?), get thee to this blog. Subtitled "a ton of useful information about screenwriting," the site shares, well, a ton of useful information about screenwriting. John August, whose credits include "Big Fish," "Go," and "Charlie's Angels," walks us through the trials and tribulations of wielding the pen in Hollywood. Along the way, he addresses such topics as...

• How he got his agent
• What format you should send your script in
• Moving to Hollywood
• Is film school necessary? (Answer: No)

Even if you don't indulge in fantasies of writing your own screenplay but just love movies (and let's face it, who doesn't?), you'll enjoy this glimpse into the inner workings of La-La Land.

Bathsheba Grossman: a geometric sculptor

Check out an artist exploring the region between art and mathematics.

Fakes, Frauds, and Fake Fakers

Some counterfeiters try to enter the “soul and mind of the artist.” Some delight in the chemistry of baking paint and creating wormholes. Some start with real pictures and then “restore” them until they look as if they’re by a different artist. From ancient vases to conceptual art—if someone made it, someone else has tried to bamboozle the world with a copy

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Brazilian doctors uncover 'Michelangelo code'

Move over Da Vinci Code.

Two Brazilian doctors and amateur art lovers believe they have uncovered a secret lesson on human anatomy hidden by Renaissance artist Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel's ceiling.

Completed nearly 500 years ago, the brightly colored frescoes painted on the
Vatican's famous sanctuary are considered some of the world's greatest works of art. They depict Biblical scenes such as the "Creation of Adam" in which God reaches out to touch Adam's finger.

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A new twist on an old myth

Watch and hear Sita singing the blues, by Nina Paley in Sitayana.

Photoshop 911

Photoshop 911 is the reader response division of Photoshop Tips & Tricks. These blog will answer all your questions and give you plenty of new tricks and hints.

Manish Rami - Haiku

A haiku is a short Japanese poem. It usually consists of three lines, often with 5, 7 and 5 syllables in each line (though I never follow the 5, 7, and 5 rule and write in free form.) A haiku is very attentive to time (of the year) and place. The time part is often depicted with a seasonal reference called “kigo” e.g. deep autumn, sudden summer shower, images of rice seedlings, plum blossoms, spring and summer migrant birds, their chirps and warbles etc. - often a haiku will violate this rule. There is also an implicit Buddhist reflection on nature. It demands accurate and original images - mostly from common life. The two most famous poets (in my opinion) are Matsuo Basho, and Kobayashi Issa.

Some seasonal haiku in North Dakota by Manish Rami

Snow settles.
On the boughs, on the bushes…
On my boots!

This first snow…
Sweet frosting
On a huge cake!

Frozen dewdrop ornaments
On Pine needles -
Merry Christmas

This Christmas -
I fought my cold
With Fudges, Chocolates, and Biscotti.

Horizontal snow
Framed in my window.
The heater shivers!

Sitting on the bough…
Some snow
Awaits a gust

Few snowflakes
With the aid of a gust
Seek flight again!

Spring snow on bough
Asks dried leaves…
“When do you fall!”

Oh how wide is this sidewalk!
The snow
Has all melted.

Gently falling leaves.
In my yard…
A pile in a flash

Blossoms gone, leaves too…
This tall thin denuded tree
Oh how beautiful!

Peek-a-boo!
Says a bud
To the Spring.

Raindrops on eaves…
Sliding and taking turns
To jump to earth.

Lapping lake waters…
Tranquility
Enhanced!

Drawn!

​​​​For those who enjoy spending time in just two dimensions, this one's a must. A collaborative blog "devoted to illustration, art, cartoooning, and drawing," Drawn! functions as a sort of Picks for visual artists. Each post describes one or more sites, and is archived in such categories as comics, film and TV, animation, and design. (Some days as many as five sites are listed. Click on post title to see the drawing.) Among this cornucopia of links you'll find Calvin & Hobbes, Spiderman,The Office's Ricky Gervais (as a teddy bear!), Norman Rockwell, Walt Disney's Oswald the Rabbit (the precursor to Mickey Mouse), and an isometric pixel art tutorial. But keep browsing; whether you're interested in the highbrow, lowbrow, or no brow, you're bound to find something you like.

Meddling with Media to Make Art

Guggenheim lecture on John Baldessari in his own words:
"People shaking hands, you know: congratulating each other, what have you in a standard shot. I really always found them objectionable and then I realized that these were people making decisions about my life while I was in my studio so there was a kind of uneasiness on my part and one day after carrying these photographs around I had some circular price stickers and I put them on their faces. And I really felt that leveled the playing field somehow."

Magic Feathers by James W. Reid

This lavishly illustrated large-format art book by James Reid - is the first major publication in the world devoted entirely to this magnificent ancient art form. It focuses on the aesthetic beauty of the feather textiles and three-dimensional objects, unparalleled in their artistry and sophistication, that were created for the elite of the ancient Andean world between approximately 500 BC and 1550 AD.

Son of a British Army Officer and UN diplomat, and of an American mother, James Reid was educated at England’s 600 year old Winchester College, at Princeton (BA), the Ecole de Sciences Politiques ( Paris), Stanford (MA), and with doctoral studies at the University of Buenos Aires.

The author, internationally recognised as one of the leading authors and scholars on the textile art of ancient America, focuses on:
- The characteristics and chronology of the major featherwork-producing cultures of ancient Peru, and the geographical features of the area.
- Technical facets of feather textile production, including: sources of the feathers; different types of feather objects; creation and construction; dating and cultural attribution.
- The religious, political, social, psychological, economic and communication roles of the feather textiles in ancient Peruvian life.
- Design concepts and the meaning and importance of the motifs and shapes employed.
- The parallels to be drawn between ancient Peruvian feather textiles and Modern Art.

He is the author of eleven major books, which contain introductions by HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, Mario Vargas Llosa and such internationally renowned archaeologists as Federico Kauffmann-Doig. He has presented his books personally, in official ceremonies, to the Presidents of Brazil and Peru.

In addition to numerous other publications( scholarly articles and museum catalogues, et al.,), he has been guest lecturer at US universities ( Princeton, Yale, Syracuse), and such institutions as the Americas’ Society, New York; the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem , and numerous South American institutions. He was recently invited by Germain Viatte, Directeur du Musee du quai Branly – French President Chirac’s huge new museum, ten years in construction( due to open in 2006) – to lecture in Paris, and to author a 100 page catalogue.

A linguist in seven languages, Colonel Reid is an elected member of New York’s prestigious Explorers Club as the result of his expeditions to, and accounts of remote areas of the world. An artist who studied in Paris, he has exhibited his paintings internationally – primarily in France, the US and South America.

An excellent Feather book though not so feather-weight (11 pounds)

Dancer's Journal, A

From your seat in the front row, you can enjoy a performance of "Appalachian Spring," choreographed by Martha Graham, the founder of modern dance. But this Flash site offers more than a front-row seat -- it gives you a backstage pass to the preparation required to mount a modern dance production. This interactive exhibit chronicles the pre-performance world of dancers in the Martha Graham Dance Company, the oldest modern dance company in the world. Open the locker of Jordy Kandinsky, the company's "newest member," and you've got access to her journals, filled with annotated programs, notes, memos, and background material. But most impressive of all, you can watch and listen as members of the company, including Martha Graham herself, perform. Take your seat; the orchestra is about to warm up.

Art In Cities

Never mind what's hanging on the walls of the Prado or Met. How about that sticker on a lamppost in Stockholm, wall mural in Cape Town, or luminescent graffiti in San Francisco? For a real dose of global artistic zeitgeist, the funky designs adorning public and private property on metropolitan streets could be as illuminating as a visit to the MOMA. At least, that's the theory behind the Galerie De Meerse's -- Hoofddorp's (Amsterdam) "Art in..." series, an annual project exploring subcultural artistic _expression. From Tehran to Jerusalem, Sao Paulo to Lima, New York City to Salt Lake City, attempts to keep artistic malcontents coloring within the lines loses out to the world-as-canvas ethic. So check it out; for some, art in Paris doesn't just mean the Louvre anymore.

Bathtub Art Museum

You won't find bathtubs festooned with Mona Lisas or poker playing dogs on this site --just a tubful of pictures of the bathroom fixture, most printed on postcards. If cats in a clawfoot, a toad in a tub, a babe in the bath, and a shopper soaking aren't enough to wash away your cares, take a look at the dumb laws about bathtubs. (If you live in Arizona, don't let your donkey sleep in your tub. You could end up in the slammer.) This site is just bubbling over with helpful tub tidbits, handmade postcards, and personal reminiscences of bathtub races. And if you're wondering why tubs, Curator Carye Bye comes clean about her obsession with pictures of bathtubs.

American Garden Museum

Some of us just love the smell of fresh compost and the feel of soil beneath our nails. And some of us don't. Regardless of which side of the fence you're on, you'll be inspired by the American Garden Museum. Take a virtual stroll through some of the country's most beautiful gardens. Swing open the gate and follow the path to gardens large and small, public and private. And when you're ready to create your own bit of paradise, the guide to the botanicals offers descriptions of 100 common and heritage species from African daisies to woodland ferns. You're even welcome to submit pictures of your Eden for inclusion in the "growing" archives.

Penny Sculptures

Penny Sculptures. "All stacks of pennies were done without any glue. Only the weight of the pennies provides the support."

Ex libris

EXLIBRIS MUSEUM. We've done ex-libris bookplates before, but trust me, this site far surpasses anything you've ever seen. Just go to the Gallery and click on any of the names. Vereshchagin, for instance. Or Karol Felix. Or... hell, just dive in, you can't go wrong.

The Orchid Show

February 26 to March 27, 2005

Imagine this: You are a conservationist rushing down the Amazon River in a dugout canoe, surrounded by dense, almost impenetrable jungle. You paddle over to the muddy riverbank and begin making your way through the trees and vines. And suddenly you see it: the rare orchid you've been hunting for months, ready and waiting for you to uncover its secrets.

Want to continue the journey? Then visit The Orchid Show at The New York Botanical Garden. This year's show will transport you to exotic, orchid-packed places on two continents. You'll wander through the jungles and cloud forests of Asia and the Americas, where thousands of brilliant orchids—delicate, elegant, fascinating, bizarre—drip from the vines and nestle among the ferns. Visit the camp of a botanist who’s tracing the orchid family tree, and learn how one particular variety ends up in your ice cream. You’ll not only discover the sensual allure of orchids, you'll learn what's being done to protect these precious plants and their natural environments.

The Orchid Show experience includes tours, gardening demonstrations, lectures, family fun, and a vast array of orchids for sale at the Shop in the Garden.

Orchid Collection

Some are no bigger than your thumbnail, while others are the size of your hand. Some mimic bees and butterflies, while others resemble a lady's slipper. And some simply defy description. Throughout the year, you can see the seductive stars of the Garden's tropical plant collections—orchids from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Americas—in changing displays in the Conservatory and the Orchid Terrarium in the Library Building. Marvel at rare orchids growing as they would in nature in the Conservatory's rain forest galleries. In March, celebrate their spectacular beauty and diversity with the annual Orchid Show, where thousands of orchids, from miniatures named 'Pinhead' to giant violet vandas, fill a luxuriant tropical landscape.

Career Builder Super Bowl ad

Check out one of the famous Super Bowl Commercials from Career Builder.

Click here all 2005 Super Bowl Commercials

Bud Light Ads

Ads. are becoming intelligent and more funny. Though you may not drink but am sure you will enjoy all the Bud Light ads. My favorite is the Sky diver one.

Escher Web Sketch

Escher Web Sketch allows you to draw repeating patterns. You can select the symmetry of the patterns by clicking on one of the icons in the bar above the drawing area. The drawing tools are selected from the icon bar under the drawing area. You can also change the pattern size and placement with the Modify cell button. The right hand side of the drawing area is reserved for each drawing tool's usage. Typically it changes the pen size and color.

A Painting a Day

Some of us have a hard enough time just brushing our teeth and watering the plants each day, let alone undertaking anything as ambitious as creating an entire work of art. But that's just what Richmond, Virginia, artist Duane Keiser is attempting. Since early December, he's been a-paintin' and a-postin' postcard-sized oil sketches daily, and they're really quite lovely. Some are still lifes of food or common everyday objects. Others are scenes of nature or common things seen in a new light. Check out the December and January archives to survey his entire oeuvres. If we only had a nickel each time he posted...

Check Duane Keiser's homepage too.

The Ballerina Gallery

To the uninitiated, the world of ballet is a highbrow yawn-inspiring, tutu-laden spectacle of monumental insipidness. But Philistines of the world, unite with us in a newfound appreciation of this art form and the lithe women who practice it. From the legendary Anna Pavlova to dancers known only to balletomanes, these women display remarkable flexibility, athleticism, and grace. Then consider who could possibly fill Margot Fonteyn's well-worn size 4 shoes. In this enormous collection of photos, Jorgen Wilhelmsson has created a glorious homage to the ballerinas of yesterday and today. But as impressive as the collection is, it pales when compared to the talent and beauty of the women it celebrates.

Andy Goldsworthy

A new kind of poetry is created when Andy Goldsworthy works with stone, wood and water — our world never looks quite the same again.

Goldsworthy regards all his creations as temporary. He photographs each piece once right after he makes it. His goal is to understand nature by directly participating in nature as intimately as he can. He generally works with whatever he notices: twigs, leaves, stones, snow and ice, reeds and thorns.

I like all his work but one of my favorites is 'Wall'. Come walk alongside Andy Goldsworthy's extraordinary Storm King Wall. Created over a two-year period, the 2,278-foot-long site-specific sculpture was made using stones gathered from the Art Center property. The first part of the wall weaves in and out of trees, following and extending the path of an old stone wall that had existed previously on the site, meandering downhill to a nearby pond. The wall's second section emerges out from the other side of the pond, continuing its westward "walk" uphill. According to historical maps, another wall originally existed in this vicinity, but its remnants are gone. The wall's full extension physically links disparate areas of the property, from the trail overlooking Moodna creek to the south fields and the western border.

Rock On, Rock On: The Balancing Art of Bill Dan

To those of us who find it impossible to balance a teaspoon on a saucer, Bill Dan is a man of awe-inspiring skill. Somehow and for some reason, he balances rock upon rock upon rock in a gravity-defying display of virtuosity. Watch as he carefully places the tiniest point of one rock on the roundest surface of another. Bill works on the shores of San Francisco, where an occasional seagull threatens the equilibrium of his creations. But balancing rocks isn't restricted to the water's edge of northern California -- it's a worldwide phenomenon, with new practitioners joining the ranks every day. If you're inspired to try a little stone stacking yourself, Bill offers this helpful advice, "Try to place a bigger rock at the bottom."

Medieval Mystery

Medieval Mystery

This clever exhibit, sponsored by several museums in the U.S. and Europe, examines a group of eerily similar fifteenth-century paintings from the Netherlands. All of them feature a familiar pose: a beatific virgin gazing down at her lap-bound infant Messiah. In all four paintings, her head is tilted just so, her pinkie extends at just the right angle, even the folds of her dress are identical. Only the backgrounds are different. Sensibly enough, in 1926 a German art historian declared them the work of one artist, the "Master of Embroidered Foliage." But were they? Follow a detailed analysis of the four paintings, from pigment to pinkie, and see why today's curators have a different opinion.

National Parks

Picturing America's National Parks

Quang-Tuan Luong became the first person to photograph all 58 US national parks in 2002 and continues to do so, with over 3,600 photographs of them online. Last month, Scott Parker completed his two-year project of visiting all the national parks and documenting them in paint and pastel.

The Color Of Bhutan

Check out the third exhibition of Audrey Topping's photo artwork of "Bhutan, The Kingdom Of The Thunder Dragon" in New York, capturing her impressions of Bhutanese life, religion and culture in a series a dramatic photographs.

A prize-winning photojournalist and author of six books, Audrey has exhibited her photographs and lectured in numerous galleries and universities, notably: The Metropolitan Museum, Hallmark Gallery, Overseas Press Club, Explorers Club, Harvard University, Katonah Gallery of Art, Royal Ontario Museum and Westchester Community College. Her articles and photographs have been printed in major publications in The United States and abroad. Including two cover stories as photographer and writer for National Geographic Magazine. The New York Times Magazine published 17 of her articles, including 10 cover stories from China and Russia. Her China photos were featured on the covers of Life and Newsweek. Other work has appeared in such publications as Time, Readers Digest, Science Digest, Art in America, GEO, Foreign Affairs Magazine, Toronto Star, Le Temp Strategic. Audrey attended the University of Nanking, China, UBC in British Columbia and studied art in Berlin and London, where she exhibited her sculptures at the Royal Academy of Art. She received an honorary Doctor of Arts from Rider College N.J. In 2000 Audrey and her husband, Seymour Topping, were awarded the first annual Greenway-Winship Award for their significant contribution to a better understanding of world affairs. She is a member of The Council of Foreign Affairs, Asia Society and the Society of Woman Geographers. Toppings have 5 daughters and live in Scarsdale NY.

The exhibit in the Bhutanese Mission on first Avenue is worth a trip to see. Audrey Topping's photographic and photo-oneiric images, as brilliantly colorful as the Buddhist culture they represent, will utterly defeat the endless grey of December. They are full of motion and beauty and humor, and will tell you something about a happy and ancient culture that is worth knowing. All the two hundred images at the exhibit are for sale, and the proceeds go to aid in the Queen's efforts to help Bhutanese children.

The exhibit is at the Permanent Mission of The Kingdom of Bhutan to The United Nations 763 First Avenue United Nations Plaza between 43th and 44th st. NY 10017. Open until December 14th 2004, Monday to Friday from 11AM to 4PM.

(click on the links to view images)

BBC: Painting the Weather

​​​​Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it, right? Well, some people paint it instead of just complaining about the wind and rain. The British Museum collected over 100 of the best weather paintings from around the U.K. for this dramatic online collection. Need some sun? Check out Van Gogh's bright yellow Sunflowers or James Thomas Linnell's peaceful Springtime. Looking for rain? Here's a sudden shower at Ohashi Bridge. Choose a theme such as extreme weather to get a different forecast. The museum director is waiting to act as your weatherman with his tour of the exhibit. Kids and wanna-be painters might enjoy making their own weather with the ready-to-color versions of some pictures. These artistic visions of weather quickly turn clouds into sun.

Bata Shoe Museum

Next time you find yourself limping at the end of the day and cursing your Manolos or Jimmys, take a virtual step into the Bata Shoe Museum to see how much worse it could have been. The museum's online collections chronicle the evolution of sandals, slippers, clogs, and boots from around the world over the past 4500 years. Check out the predecessors of super-trendy Ugg boots in the Circumpolar group, Syrian kabkabs with mother-of-pearl inlay in the Ethnologial collection, or Elton John's silver and red platforms in the Walk of Fame. Think you know a thing or two about shoes through the ages? The fun facts quiz will help determine if you're a true Imelda-in-training.

How to Sell Nothing for Fun and Profit

I've recently been reading about the work of Felix Gonzales-Torres, an artist in the 1990's who made a big splash in the art world. Like many artists, he really loathed the art world and the system of galleries, museums and universities but he ultimatey realized you have to deal with the world of art professionals if you want an income or recognition for your work.

So how do you make art that will sell but at the same time says f*** you to the art world? The solution: create works of art that literally will disappear but sell the right to reproduce the work. Two of his more well known works: piles of posters that gallery visitors can take with them or chunks of candy the viewers are encouraged to eat. I always wondered how you can make money with such art, until I learned that his gallery sold a certificate giving the "owner" the right to reproduce the work anytime they want.

The work is ingenious - the materials themselves were aesthetically interesting (such as anti-violence posters) and at the same time undermined the idea that there is a single "piece of art" like a drawing or painting. It's also egalitarian - in remaking the work, the "owners" are supposed to give away the work for free. But here's the biggest irony: by selling these certificates, the artist has switched from one form of ownership to another. Gonzales-Torres stopped selling physical objects and developed intellectual property rights for his work. He passed away in the 1990s from AIDS, but I wonder if he would have taken a cue from Linux and Java to develop some kind of subversive open source art.

(via Marginal Revolution)

Big Price for a Small Painting

In its most expensive purchase ever, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has agreed to pay more than $45 million for a painting by the early Renaissance master Duccio di Buoninsegna no bigger than a sheet of typing paper.

The work, "Madonna and Child," merely 8 by 11 inches and painted in tempera and gold on a wood panel around 1300, is the first Duccio to enter the Met's collection, filling a gap in its Renaissance holdings that the museum had assumed it could not close, said Philippe de Montebello, director of the Met. The sale of the painting, the last work by Duccio known to be owned by a private collector, was negotiated through Christie's in London.

Works by Duccio, the pre-eminient painter of early Renaissance Siena, are extremely rare. Only a dozen or so are known to survive, including his famous "Maestà" altarpiece (1308-11) in the Museum dell'Opera del Duomo in Siena. Paintings by the artist owned by museums outside Italy are usually fragments of the "Maestà," which included nearly 60 individual narrative scenes.

The only Duccio in a New York museum, ''The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain'' at the Frick Collection, is a "Maestà" fragment.

(via New York Times)