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Friday, December 20, 2013

Bulgarian Sculpture No 3

The Monument to the Benefactors, by Georgi Chapkanov
The Monument to the Benefactors (2005) commemorates people from the area who donated money to the town's development.  

Bulgarian Sculpture No 2

Slaveikovi  - the father and the son, by Georgi Chapkanov
 Sofia has its Poets' Bench. You can see the Monument of Petko Slaveikov and Pencho Slaveikov (2001), a father and a son, both poets and writers. At the square there is a big book-market, a fountain, the city librarty, and ... McDonalds. The sculptures look so real as if they have just sat there for a while. You can also sit next to them and watch people going by.

Bulgarian Sculpture No 1

The mother, by Ivan Lazarov 
The sculpture of a mother is constantly waiting in the yard of a house. This is the sculpture of The Mother (1934) and the birthplace of a famous Bulgarian poet Dimcho Debelyanov (1887-1916), whose death in the First World War cut off his promising literary career.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Italian Sculpture n°2

Psyche revived by Cupid's kiss
by  Antonio Canova


This winged young man who has just landed on a rock where a girl lies unconscious, is the god Eros – Cupid in Latin – and can be recognized by his wings and his quiver filled with arrows. The girl’s name is Psyche. Cupid’s mother Venus, goddess of Beauty, demanded that Psyche bring back a flask from the Underworld, strictly forbidding her to open it.


But Psyche’s curiosity got the better of her; and no sooner had she had breathed in the terrible fumes than she fell into a deep, deathlike sleep. Seeing her lying motionless, Cupid rushed to her and touched her gently with the tip of his arrow, to make sure she was not dead. This is the moment caught by the sculptor: Cupid lifts his beloved Psyche in a tender embrace, his face close to hers. Psyche lets herself sink slowly backwards, languorously taking her lover’s head between her hands.


Canova took his inspiration from a legend recounted by Latin author Apuleius in the Metamorphoses At the close of the tale the gods decide in council to grant Cupid Psyche’s hand in marriage, according her immortality and making her the goddess of the Soul.


Antonio CANOVA (1757 – 1822)
Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss
Marble - H. 1.55 m; L. 1.68 m; D. 1.01 m
MR 1777
Paris, Musée du Louvre

FOR MORE INFORMATION 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyche_Revived_by_Cupid's_Kiss

http://www.arscentre.com/2012/11/antonio-canova-cupid-and-psyche.html

http://musee.louvre.fr/oal/psyche/psyche_acc_en.html  

Italian Sculpture n°1

The Three Graces
Antonio Canova’s statue ‘The Three Graces’ is a Neoclassical sculpture, in marble, of the mythological three charites, daughters of Zeus. The Three Graces illustrates Canova's outstanding ability to transform cold hard marble into soft lustrous skin. According to Greek mythology the three daughters of Zeus and Euryoneme were called Euphrosyne, Aglaia and Thalia. They were traditionally associated with Aphrodite, the goddess of love and  were said to represent beauty, charm and joy. Canova arranged the beautiful sisters in a loose semi-circle so that they complement one another in their poses and gazes, entwined arms and narrow swathes of drapery. The sculpture was commissioned by the 6th Duke of Bedford and installed on a pedestal (which could be rotated) in a specially built Temple at his country house, Woburn Abbey. The Graces presided over banquets and gatherings primarily to entertain and delight the guests of the Gods.
The piece itself is carved exactingly from a single slab of white marble. Canova's assistants roughly blocked out the marble, leaving Canova to finish the final carving and shape the stone to highlight the Graces’ soft flesh. This was a trademark of the artist, and the piece shows a strong allegiance to the Neo-Classical movement of which Canova is the prime exponent in the field of sculpture. The lines are exquisite, refined and elegant.
The three goddesses are shown nude, huddled close together in embrace, their heads almost touching in what many have referred to as an ‘erotically charged’ piece. They stand, leaning slightly inward – perhaps discussing a common issue, or simply enjoying being close to one another. Their hair-styles are all similar, with the hair braided and held on top of their heads in a knot.
The style is elegant and suggests refinement and class – there is a delicate beauty to them that is commonplace in Canova’s sculpture. Art historians have often commented on the peaceful balance that seems to exist between the Three Graces’ heads. Unlike compositions of the Graces, which were derived from antiquity (where the outer figures turn out towards the viewer and the central figure embraces her friends with her back to the viewer) - Canova's figures stand side by side, facing each other.
The three slender female figures become one in their embrace, united by not only their linked hands, but also by the scarf which links all of them together. The unity of the Graces is one of the piece's main themes.

THE ARTIST

Antonio Canova     (Italian, 1757 - 1822)
Canova, who was based in Rome, was one of the most famous artists in eighteenth-century Europe . His sculpture was celebrated for its classical character and convincing lifelike qualities. Canova successfully emulated and, in the view of some contemporaries, even surpassed sculptors of Antiquity and more recent times, such as Michelangelo and Bernini. He was also inspired by painters, especially those from Venice, near his birthplace, Possagno. In 1801 he was knighted by the Pope and in 1814 honoured with the title of Perpetual President of the Academy of St Luke. His work attracted distinguished patrons from all over Europe, including Britain.


FOR MORE INFORMATION:


http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O70425/the-three-graces-group-canova-antonio/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-lancashire/plain/A853021

Italian Sculpture n°3




The Statue of Moses is a part of the tomb of Pope Julius II. It was originally intended to be for the upper portion of a massive three storey monument which was to hold more than 40 statues. The project was later scaled down step-by-step until it the plan had become a simple wall tomb with less than one third of the intended number of statues. This was a cause of much personal frustration to him, as an artist who was primarily a sculptor. He considered the Statue of Moses as his most important and most life-like of all his creations.
Moses shows a seated figure, not in any dynamic action, yet somehow managing to exude restless energy and  anger. This is at the point in the story where Moses returns from the Mount Sinai with the two tablets of testimony with the intent to deliver the Ten Commandments to his people but instead breaks them in his terrible anger when he sees them worshipping the Golden Calf. His left leg is pulled back, so the hips are turned towards the left, with the torso turned a little towards the right, the face is again turned towards the left and he pulls his beard to the right side. This creates an interesting and dynamic composition. The figure looks disproportionate, with a long torso, because the statue was meant to be on the upper storey and he had proportioned it to look right when viewed from below.
 




 1513-1515
Marble, height 235 cm
San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome

THE ARTIST
Michelangelo Buonarroti was arguably the most famous artist of the High to Late Italian Renaissance, and inarguably one of the greatest artists of all time -- along with fellow Renaissance men Leonardo DiVinci and Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio). He considered himself a sculptor, primarily, but is equally well known for the paintings he was induced (grudgingly) to create. He was also an architect and an amateur poet.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
 http://youtu.be/mglpxDh9dws




Wednesday, December 18, 2013

French Sculpture n°3

Bronze Waltz by Camille Claudel (1893)

Camille Claudel (8 December 1864 – 19 October 1943) was a French sculptor and graphic artist. She was the elder sister of the poet and diplomat Paul Claudel.

Fascinated with stone and soil as a child, as a young woman she studied at the Académie Colarossi with sculptor Alfred Boucher. (At the time, the École des Beaux-Arts barred women from enrolling to study.) In 1882, Claudel rented a workshop with other young women, mostly English, including Jessie Lipscomb. Alfred Boucher became her mentor and provided inspiration and encouragement to the next generation of sculptors such as Laure Coutan and Claudel. The latter was depicted in "Camille Claudel lisant" by Boucher and later she herself sculpted a bust of her mentor. Before moving to Florence and after having taught Claudel and others for over three years, Boucher asked Auguste Rodin to take over the instruction of his pupils. This is how Rodin and Claudel met and their tumultuous and passionate relationship started.

Around 1884, she started working in Rodin's workshop. Claudel became a source of inspiration, his model, his confidante and lover. She never lived with Rodin, who was reluctant to end his 20-year relationship with Rose Beuret. Knowledge of the affair agitated her family, especially her mother, who never completely agreed with Claudel's involvement in the arts.As a consequence, she left the family house. In 1892, after an unwanted abortion, Claudel ended the intimate aspect of her relationship with Rodin, although they saw each other regularly until 1898.

Beginning in 1903, she exhibited her works at the Salon des Artistes français or at the Salon d'Automne.
It would be a mistake to assume that Claudel's reputation has survived simply because of her once notorious association with Rodin. The novelist and art critic Octave Mirbeau described her as "A revolt against nature: a woman genius". Her early work is similar to Rodin's in spirit, but shows an imagination and lyricism quite her own, particularly in the famous Bronze Waltz (1893). The Mature Age (1900) whilst interpreted by her brother as a powerful allegory of her break with Rodin, with one figure The Implorer that was produced as an edition of its own, has also been interpreted in a less purely autobiographical mode as an even more powerful representation of change and purpose in the human condition.

French Sculpture 2

The Quarantine by Marc Petit (Clay)

Marc Petit made ​​his first sculptures at the age of 14 in Cahors, where he spent his childhood.
Then he met two sculptors, students of the Fine Arts in Paris, who regularly corrected his work. René Fournier taught him the basics of modelling and transmitted him the teaching of Marcel Gimond. Jean Lorquin, Grand Prix de Rome in 1949, brought him his vision, his knowledge, but also a true reflection about sculpture.
He now lives in Haute-Vienne, near Limoges.

 "The ontology by Marc Petit is that of life itself, of every life, as anonymous as it can be. In modelling, he visits us in many ways, he shows the viewer endless possibilities: our shortcomings, our mistakes, our failures but also successesHis work is neither sad nor violent. It depicts life with that indefinable nostalgia that only the Portuguese know how to express with an untranslatable word 'saudade' which evokes sadness, nostalgia, regret and melancholy, the painful distance that we may establish with ourselves. "- Bernard-Marie Dupont

French Sculpture n°1

The Cry by Auguste Rodin 1886

François-Auguste-René Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917), known as Auguste Rodin, was a French sculptor. 
Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past. He was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art.

Sculpturally, Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay. Many of his most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. They clashed with the predominant figure sculpture tradition, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. Rodin's most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated individual character and physicality. Rodin was sensitive to the controversy surrounding his work, but refused to change his style. Successive works brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community.
From the unexpected realism of his first major figure – inspired by his 1875 trip to Italy – to the unconventional memorials whose commissions he later sought, Rodin's reputation grew, such that he became the preeminent French sculptor of his time. By 1900, he was a world-renowned artist. Wealthy private clients sought Rodin's work after his World's Fair exhibit, and he kept company with a variety of high-profile intellectuals and artists. He married his lifelong companion, Rose Beuret, in the last year of both their lives. His sculptures suffered a decline in popularity after his death in 1917, but within a few decades, his legacy solidified. Rodin remains one of the few sculptors widely known outside the visual arts community.

Friday, September 27, 2013

French Photo n°3

By Théo Gosselin

Deliberately cinematic, Gosselin's photography reveals friends in the act of escaping from their regular lives into newly enticing and perilous modes of existence, ever in search of the persistent though elusive idea of freedom."

Born near Le Havre in Normandy in 1990, Theo Gosselin grew up with the sea, the wind, the forest, and the sound of electric guitars, echoing in the deserted streets of this grey city from the north of France. Fond of drawing, music, and cinema, he graduated in 2012 as a graphic designer in Amiens. 


He started photography in 2007, and it became his reason to live. He loves capturing simple life, love, good and bad moments, his friends and his adventures. He is an eternal traveller trying to find peace on the roads of  Europe and the USA. He shares his way of life with people he loves. 
In August 2012, he made his first full-length film, "Goodbye Horses", a road movie in which he is an actor with four friends. They bought a van in NY city and they drove 20 000 km across the USA to LA.
 

Young, free and immortal.


Théo Gosselin on Facebook

French Photo n°2

By Henry Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004) was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped develop the street photography or life reportage style that was coined The Decisive Moment that has influenced generations of photographers who followed.

Henry Cartier-Bresson's Foundation

French Photo n°1

By JR

E JR, born February 22, 19831, is a French contemporary artist. He exhibits his photographs in the street, calling it "the biggest art gallery in the world." His work combines art and action and deals with commitment, freedom, identity and limits.

After finding a camera in the Paris metro in 2001, he started exploring the world of European urban art and followed those who express their message on walls. Then he began to work on the vertical limits, watching people and slices of life in forbidden basements and rooftops of the capital.


JR does not consider himself as a street artist nor a photographer. For his projects, he uses photos but also videos or canvas. 

"I want to bring art in unlikely places and create large projects that involves various communities and forces us to question the world."

Photo3: Turkish Photographer Uygar TAYLAN

The piano by Uygar Taylan

Photo2: Turkish Photographer Uygar TAYLAN

The Ferry by Uygar Taylan

Photo1: Turkish Photographer Tuna AKCAY

Kids and Bread by Tuna Akcay.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Bulgarian Photographer: METODI IVANOV

The Perfect Couple

Bulgarian Photographer: EVGENI DINEV

Above the Sky

Bulgarian Photographer: ARTIN SHAHBAZYAN

Holiday

Italian Photographer: MATTEO SETZU


Matteo Setzu was born  on Jan 25,1977, in Cagliari. His love for photography dates back to his childhood, camera was his favourite toy. After his higher education he moved to Spain where he lived for 7 years. His interest in photography raised because every time he came back to Sardinia on holiday he wanted to capture the moments of tradition in his island to take them with him to Spain. He became famous thanks to the web where he began to publish his photos. He is well known as " the photographer of  the Carnivals". The subjects of his photos are mainly Sardinian traditions and local festivals.
He had an important experience in Portugal: a photo feature during the Holy Week  in Idanha-a-Nova district and at  "VI Festival de la Mascara Iberica" ( the 6st Festival of Iberian Mask). He also cooperates to some Sardinia websites.
Below this description you can find more information and you can either look at his photos

http://nonvogliolavorare.it/matteo-setzu-fotografo/

http://iosardegnaturismo.blogspot.it/2012/11/obiettivo-sardegna-con-matteo-setzu.html

 http://www.paradisola.it/foto-sardegna/fotografi/3118-matteo-setzu

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Matteo-Setzu-fotografo-per-passione/154295901266090


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Italian Photographer: PAOLO SIMONAZZI




Paolo Simonazzi was born in Reggio Emilia in 1961. He started his career as a photographer in 1990. He works on an  anthropological photograph projects after  an initial interest in travel photos. His first collection Attimi d'Africa was displayed in Italy and then in Paris, in 1996 ,  at the Mois bis de la photo. He captured the emotions in the pictures taken during the World Youth Day (JMJ)  and those photos were displayed in Rome in 2000. Exhibitions of his photos are at the “Musèe de la Photographie” in Charleroi (Belgium), at the “ Bibliotéque Nationale de France” in Paris and in several Italian Museums.

Italian Photographer: FERDINANDO SCIANNA



Ferdinando Scianna

Italian, born in  1943
Ferdinando Scianna started taking photographs in the 1960s while studying literature, philosophy and art history at the University of Palermo. It was then that he began to photograph the Sicilian people systematically. Feste Religiose in Sicilia (1965) included an essay by the Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia, and it was the first of many collaborations with famous writers.
Scianna moved to Milan in 1966. The following year he started working for the weekly magazine L'Europeo, first as a photographer, then from 1973 as a journalist. He also wrote on politics for Le Monde Diplomatique and on literature and photography for La Quinzaine Littéraire.
In 1977 he published Les Siciliens in France and La Villa Dei Mostri in Italy. During this period Scianna met Henri Cartier-Bresson, and in 1982 he joined Magnum Photos. He entered the field of fashion photography in the late 1980s. At the end of the decade he published a retrospective, Le Forme del Caos (1989).
Scianna returned to exploring the meaning of religious rituals with Viaggio a Lourdes (1995), then two years later he published a collection of images of sleepers - Dormire Forse Sognare (To Sleep, Perchance to Dream). His portraits of the Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges were published in 1999, and in the same year the exhibition Niños del Mundo displayed Scianna's images of children from around the world.
In 2002 Scianna completed Quelli di Bagheria, a book on his home town in Sicily, in which he tries to reconstruct the atmosphere of his youth through writings and photographs of Bagheria and the people who live there.

Awards
1966       Prix Nadar (for Feste Religiose in Sicilia), France

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Bulgarian Painting 3


Artist: Alexander Genov

Style: Modernism

Title: Monologue

Date: 2007

Technics: Oil on canvas

Size: 103 x 74

Bulgarian Painting 2

Artist: Pavel Mitkov

Style: Expressionism

Title: The Battle of Angels

Date: 2012

Technics: Oil on canvas
Size: 100 x 200

Bulgarian Painting 1

Artist: Zlatyo Boyadjiev
 
Style: Realism
 
Title: Winter in Plovdiv
 
Date: 1939
 
Technics: Oil on canvas
 
Collection: National Art Gallery in Sofia
 
Size: 885 x 720

Friday, February 1, 2013

Turkish Painting 3

Artist: Ümran Baradan
Style: Symbolism
Title: Vadideki Çocuklar (Children in the Valley)
Date:
Medium:
Collection: İzmir Konak Children Museum
Support:

Turkish Painting 2

Artist: Neşe ERDOK
Style: Modernism
Title: Adahan Oteli (Adahan Hotel)
Date: 2001
Medium: oil on canvas
Collection: Istanbul Evin Museum of Arts
Support: 180x200cm

Turkish Painting 1

    Artist: Osman Hamdi Bey
    Style: Orientalism
    Title: The Carpet Seller
    Date: 19th century
    Medium: oil on canvas
    Collection: Alte Nationale Galerie in Berlin
    Support:                                      

Italian Painting 3

Artist Caravaggio
Title Narcissus
Style Italian Baroque
Date 1594-1596
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 110 × 92 cm (43.3 × 36.2 in)
Current location Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica - Rome
Narcissus, also known as Narkissos (Greek: Νάρκισσος), was a hunter from Greek mythology known for his great beauty. He fell in love with his reflection not realizing it was a reflection. The word narcissist is derived from his name.
The painting conveys an air of brooding melancholy: the figure of Narcissus is locked in a circle with his reflection, surrounded by darkness, so that the only reality is inside this self-regarding loop.
Caravaggio was born as Michelangelo Merisi in Italy around 1571. He was orphaned at age 11 and apprenticed with a painter in Milan. He moved to Rome, where his work became popular for the tenebrism technique he used, which used shadow to emphasize lighter areas. His career, however, was short-lived. Caravaggio killed a man during a brawl and fled Rome. He died not long after, on July 18, 1610.
Much of Caravaggio's early works featured chubby, pretty young boys done up as angels or lutenists or his favorite saint, John the Baptist. Many of the boys in the paintings are naked or loosely clothed.
Even though Caravaggio was shunned after his death, he eventually came to be recognized as one of the founding fathers of modern painting. His work greatly influenced so many future masters, from Diego Velazquez to Rembrandt.



Italian Painting 2

Artist Francesco Hayez
Title The kiss ( Il Bacio)
Style Italian Romanticism
Date 1859
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 110 × 88 cm (43.3 × 35 in)
Current location Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
The Kiss The painting represents a couple from the Middle Ages, embracing while they kiss each other. It is among the most passionate and intense representations of a kiss in the history of western art.This painting has been regarded as a symbol of Italian Romanticism. At a more superficial level, the painting is the representation of a passionate kiss, so putting itself in accordance with the principles of Romanticism, by emphasising deep feelings rather than rational thought, and presenting a reinterpretation and reevaluation of the Middle Ages in a patriotic and nostalgic key.On a deeper level, the painting aims to portray the spirit of the Risorgimento. The man wears red, white and green, representing the Italian patriots fighting for independence from the Austro-Hungarian empire. The girl's pale blue dress signifies France, which in 1859 (the year of the painting's creation) made an alliance with the Kingdom of Piedmont and Sardinia.
Francesco Hayez was an Italian painter, the leading artist of Romanticism in mid-19th-century Milan, renowned for his grand historical paintings, political allegories and exceptionally fine portraits.


Italian Painting 1

Artist Leonardo da Vinci
Title The Last Supper ( Il Cenacolo or L'Ultima Cena)
Style Florence Renaissance refectories tradition
Date 1495-1498
Medium Tempera on gesso, pitch and mastic
Dimensions 460 cm × 880 cm (180 in × 350 in)
Current location Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy

The Last Supper covers an end wall of the dining hall at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. The theme was a traditional one for refectories, The Last Supper specifically portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray him. All twelve apostles have different reactions to the news, with various degrees of anger and shock.

Leonardo da Vinci
Born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Italy, Leonardo da Vinci was the beloved child of a landowner and a peasant girl. Raised by his father, he began apprenticing at the age of 14 under the artist Verrocchio. Within six years, he was a master artist and began taking commissions from wealthy clients. His best-known works are two of the most famous paintings of all time, the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper." Da Vinci's scientific inquiries fill 13,000 pages, ranging from anatomy to war machines.Da Vinci has been called a genius and the archetypal Renaissance man. His talents in arguably extended far beyond his artistic works. Like many leaders of Renaissance humanism, he did not see a divide between science and art. His observations and inventions were recorded in 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, including designs for flying machines (some 400 years before the Wright’s brothers’ first success), plant studies, war machinery, anatomy and architecture. The famous artist died in Amboise, France, on May 2, 1519.
In an era when left-handedness was considered the devil's work and lefties were often forced to use their right hand, Leonardo was an unrepentant southpaw. It has been suggested that this "difference" was an element of his genius, since his detachment allowed him to see beyond the ordinary. He even wrote backwards, and his writings are easily deciphered only with a mirror.



French Painting 3




Artist: Paul Cézanne
Style: Post-Impressionism
Title: Les joueurs de cartes / The Card Players
Date: 1890-1892
Medium: oil on canvas
Collection: Museum of Orsay in Paris
Support:  450 x 470 mm