culture xy

Art market stucks

2009-09-09T10:54:00.004+02:00

Are you an artist searching the way to sell your artwork? Probably at first you hit the web, because it really looks like place of fulfilled dreams. Whole world is your playground there. But soon you keep only question in your mind: Why then the buyers hide? Where did they all go? Why art does not sell?

Many artist try the eBay as first place to break through and become art work power sellers. We all want very simple thing: to have all day free to work in our studio, painting paintings, drawing illustrations, creating awesome universe of our fantasy. We need just one bothering thing - regular income.

Illustration by Michal Splho
Many see the eBay as their ultimate vision for managing their regular income. But, surely, you are probably not the first person who noticed slowing tempo of art market. Particularly on eBay. Searching in it's different categories you may probably experience a shock. Look closer at category with cars and yachts. The prices are huge numbers, you cannot find that high prices in the art category. In spite of that, each second car or yacht has 10 to 30 bidders, the phenomenon you can hardly experience in the art category. That one seems to be death right now. One of 20 items gets hardly 1 bidder. The prices within 100 USD scope. Do you still see your future there?

As many eBay members remember it was not like that in 2003. That was a time when this was much less competitive market. In 2003 you didn't have 65 000 oils out there competing with one another. Many say that eBay just isn't as much fun anymore. There are items that just a year ago would have sold, maybe with multiple bids, that pass by not sold today. There is an opinion too that the loss of sellers and buyers drain on word of mouth advertising and enthusiasm for eBay on top of a slow economy is disaster for a lot of eBay sellers.

Well, the economy is actually so bad that people are just cutting down on the little luxuries they used to buy. In spite of that you should not give it up. Surely there is a way how to turn upside down the stucking art market, and not only on eBay. That's why I write that article. Read, act and have a fun. You can be the one who wins the market. Where to begin?

First, what you are recommended to do is probably NFAC competition and also a few ACEOs to get your name and work noticed.

Second, you should think about minimum time/money frame. Give yourself enough time - tell yourself OK I have X amount of months (at least 12) and X amount of dollars to give eBay - don't give up until you've put in what you have decided to be your investment. Your investment will be different from other artist's investment - it's a personal decision regarding how much you feel you want or can invest.

Third, many have noticed their sales improved when they self promote. One can't expect eBay to do that. A blog is a good start, but there is so much more that can be done for free.

One vintage clothing seller had noticed that he get more traffic & sales to his store by making sure his items are on Googlebase. To get on Google Base you have to have your item for sale at a set price, like a Buy It Now, or a set price as a store item. Google base doesn't pick up auctions.

The next place that brings you more traffic is Twitter. Twitter is easy & free, I highly suggest it. Then there is Myspace, another place to promote & bring traffic to your art for sale. Some sellers use Facebook. You can't list your store name as an account, but you can make a profile under your real name & promote your items for sale.

Both Myspace & Facebook have these things called "widgets" from eBay....they contain HTML code generated by eBay...so you put that code on your Myspace or Facebook profile & it will show your running auctions with photos, so a person can click on it & come to your items on eBay.

There are also many art oriented websites to promote on for free. Just Google one of your favorite successful artists & you will see where they are on the web, most likely they are using lot of free places to promote too & you can sign up as well.

Very few businesses are successful without promotion. Don't forget to include a business card in your package to your customer. If you have an eBay store, eBay allows you to send newsletters to your customers that will give them a sneak peek at your week's upcoming sales etc.

Another good way for anyone to self-promote is to think about branding, your logo, your own template. These things make you memorable on eBay & the web so buyers see you as set apart form all the many sellers here.

As you had noticed you are actually starting an on-line form of business, so I believe it is good to learn something about it. From my own experiences I can recommend you visit pages of Gyutae Park, where you can find lot of tips and tricks and download free ebook about internet selfpromoting strategies - it is excellent source of knowledge.

And the last one - there are lot of other places to list your art, and most of them are free to list. Just search and try. A good tip is Main Street Mall Online or AARTi

Surely there are plenty of other tips and tricks how to build a solid foundation in the market, surely I will post some in the next posts here. Just keep coming and practice what you learn. Then come back and leave comments, how it worked for you...

To be continued >>

My listings on eBay can be viewed here

Still life - awesome universe of imagination

2009-09-02T14:58:00.002+02:00

There are painters who make yellow spot from the sun, but there are others who - thanks to their art and creativity - make the sun from the yellow spot.

P. Picasso

Art is not a copy of the real world. One of the damn things is enough.

From the Nelson Goodman's book Languages of art

Michal Splho - Still life, oil painting

I was discussing a lot that topic with friends and people drawn in art. What is art? What is good painting? What is good still life painting particularly? Is the main criterium for the "good still life painting" to reflect perfectly the reality? To be an exact copy of the real things used in the composition (as can be found in flemish historic and contemporary still life paintings)? Shall the painting surface be perfectly flat and the painting be "superreal"?

So many questions for the problem which seems to be so simple and easily answered. The answers can be many - and for different people the different statements - even contradictory - could be the solution. It is not easy with art at all. I have been facing these questions when intensively dealing with still life paintings. I painted a lot of still lives at that time, and actually I sold a lot of them too. People like them for many reasons.

I visited many shows featuring still lives too. The flemish painters seemed to me to put their focus on producing photographic paintings. That is one point of view, one approach to the problem. It can be accepted.

Of course, there is another realm of understanding art and painting the still life. I am not sure if I can define it better than the quotes at the beginning of that text. They talk for hundred words. That is what I believe in. That is my faith. Art as creating of the universe on it's own, independent from the reality and generating objects known to us - in other words the reality - from the red and blue and green spots of paint.

I believe Giorgio Morandi was one of the painters. Picasso and many others too - just search the web and see. Creating an universe on it's own is what I try to accomplish when holding a brush in my fingers.

I am listing here on the eBay auction one of the pieces - they sell well and not many left in my workshop. You can view it among my listings. It can be part of your collection. Feel free to comment and ask. It will be appreciated and answered.

There is no end to cubism

2009-08-25T16:20:00.006+02:00

Many people think the cubism was a domain of Pablo Picasso and his contemporaries. The time is proving opposite - in right hands and on right place the cubism can flourish even today.

Michal Splho - Jakob and his flock

That is my own experience. I have painted lot of cubistic paintings, I drew plenty of cubistic compositions. The market surprised me - buyers are open for cubism even today. Almost all my cubistic paintings were sold in short time. I even painted cubistic interpretations of old masters paintings.

One from Rembrandt was very successful and I liked it so much I decided not to sell it and keep it for myself. Funny enough, I met lot of people who were decided to buy it for any price. As I keep my decisions, I offered to paint a copy of the successful painting - and I had to do it twice.

Michal Splho - Jesus washing the feet of his disciples / interpretation of Rembrandt's ink drawing

Michal Splho - St. Peter in prison / interpretation of Rembrandt's oil painting

That is the story of cubism today. I made research in my archive of drawings and I have found a few made by ink and piece of wood stick which are very suitable for art lovers today. That style of drawing is exceptional and characteristic for my period 2002 - 2004 when I created dozens of drawings in this style.

Michal Splho - Figureheads

I offer that drawings on eBay and you can be the one who will put it on the wall in your gallery. Just check it out at My listings page.

Have any question? Feel free to comment, ask or send a private message. I will be glad to answer and pass more information about the drawings, style or topic.

Van Dyke Brown

2009-08-17T10:41:00.002+02:00

Eventhough that title bears the name of the famous Flemish master, actualy it describes an early photographic printing process. The process was so named due to the similarity of the print color to that of a brown oil paint named for painter Van Dyck.

Printing with Van Dyke Brown requires the use of a large format negative in the size of the desired print, a suitable substrate for coating and subsequent printing, and a UV light source, either sunlight or suitable bulbs. The substrate can be almost anything that the solution will adhere to. Watercolor paper is a good first choice, but trickier substrates such as metal, glass or tile can be first 'sized' with gelatin or arrowroot to facilitate coating. The substrate is coated with solution under tungsten light, air dried, and coated a second time if desired for a stronger image.

This is the story behind some of my drawings I sell - usually on eBay. Well, I wrote correctly "drawings" in spite of the fact that the process is about printing photography. The magic behind the pictures I listed in auction follows:

I use large format negative and i scratch the drawing into it with dry point needle - thats why I consider it to be a drawing. Then I use the process described above and print the drawing on paper. It has very special atmosphere and many customers found it very attractive.

I print limited editions - usually about 10 pieces from each drawing and each piece is marked and signed. You are welcomed to visit my auction listings and look at them. I will welcome all comments about how did you like them, whether you found the technique interesting, etc.

I can guarantee that you will not find other artists using this technique that way, as it came out of experimenting with my friend - photographer, who uses old photography printing processes and who experiments with them all the time - as an invention I found very interesting.

You can be sure that is something very new and original and you can be first in this century to own first pieces of that unusual invention. Just check it out on eBay - new pieces are coming. Bid, buy, look through, comment, be happy. Be present when a new phenomenon is rising.

Looking forward your comments, don't affraid to ask a question. I will be glad to pass more information to you.

Attractions for tourists

2008-12-19T00:40:00.011+01:00

Right timing is the secret of success. All magic you do in your life needs to be started at the right time. It is just the same for posting an article. I missed the right time for that post - I am about seven months late. Everything changed meanwhile. But, what I am sure about is the possibility, that in four months that post will be just as actual as it was at the beginning of that year. Because - to be clear - the theme is: how the streets of Bratislava get ready for tourists.

The pictures are best documentation to what I would like to say. Words are pointless here, but let me comment the disorder and untidiness in the streets of the city (I found out in the dictionary that the word "disorder" could be translated as well with the word fuck up - and I found out that 80 percent of the words in the post could be translated with that word too - and I really wonder how strange language the English is, isn't it?).

It is well known fact that just before the summer starts all the streets in the city-center of Bratislava have to be messed, excavated, interwoven with ditches and occupied with the ditchers. That is the main rule you have to learn after you move with intention to stay a few years here. Is that a reality of other cities too? Or is that only our way we show off in front of foreign tourists? Did you ever met that phenomenon somewhere in the world?

I can exclude an idea it is just a problem of the modern city dealing with modern demands. I am pretty sure we are not first generation facing it. During communist time we had a humoristic magazine called Prong-buck. Slovak cartoonists (and there was a really strong generation of cartoonists here) published their cartoons in the magazine. One of them, Viktor Kubal, published that cartoon (March 1977):

Text: I am just checking, which street we haven't excavated yet...

As you can see, it is not a problem of the city, but a long maintained tradition. That's main idea behind my pictures I made for you. To familiarize you with the tradition which you could easily think to be a conspiracy or sabotage. Hope you enjoy the show. Keep coming.

Jutta Müller - the coach and the legend

2008-12-14T22:50:00.005+01:00

Celebrities and famous people become the target of our interest mostly when they have their fifteen minutes of fame. Then all the world forgets about their existence, spotting new targets. But I am the type of person with questions coming: what happened with that person, what is he doing right now? Sometimes a notice appears on the web, reminding us of their existence. This one is of that sort of news.

It perfectly relates to the post I published recently about the former East German figure skater Katarina Witt. Her coach Jutta Müller became an honorary citizen of her home city of Chemnitz on Friday, one day before her 80th birthday.

Müller's skaters won 57 medals at Olympic Games, world and European championships.

Witt won two Olympic gold medals under Müller's guidance. Müller also coached Jan Hoffmann, her daughter Gaby Seyfert and Anett Poetzsch, who won gold at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.

Witt, who became an honorary citizen in 1988 when the city was known as Karl-Marx-Stadt during the Communist era, has congratulated Müller on her award.

Despite her age Jutta Müller still goes three times a week to ice stadium in Chemnitz to help young skaters learn to make their jumps.

Picks of the world's insane celebration

2008-07-12T17:48:00.003+02:00

The moment I am living right now is unique because of many reasons – without farther explanation. The speakers are exploding with Jimi Hendrix and his noise. The screen is filled with the selection of images and texts which are considered to be the top of the history.

Do you agree?

Why to bother with looking at things, which are not on the top? Who will waste a time listening to noise of the losers? Who lives without intention to experience the most unique life in the recorded reality?

Is this your story?

I offer to you my choice, the staff I selected and you can see it all around the world.

I. M. W. Turner is one of my favorites. I love most his watercolors, that is one of the wonders of the world to me. The first major retrospective of his work to be presented in the United States in more than 40 years will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning July 1, 2008. The exhibition J. M. W. Turner will represent the artist's extensive iconographic range, from seascapes and topographical views to historical subjects and scenes from his imagination.

Well, I cannot say Salvador Dali is on the level of god to me. Nevertheless I have to admit he had excellent imagination and could produce excellent works of art. It is worthy to look, it is worthy to contemplate. The Museum of Modern Art presents Dalí: Painting and Film, the first exhibition to focus on the profound relationship between the paintings and films of Salvador Dalí (Spanish, 1904–1989). The exhibition proposes that Dalí’s personal engagement with cinema—as a filmgoer, a screenwriter, a filmmaker, and an art director—was fundamental to his understanding of modernism and deeply affected his art. Comprising a gallery presentation of more than 130 paintings, drawings, scenarios, letters, and films. The exhibition is on view from June 29 to September 15, 2008, with the first film program beginning on June 20.

Vienna is overfilled with the trash like Kiss painted by Gustave Klimt. Anyway, if you are willing to search more, to go deeper and are patient enough, you will discover more interesting side of that painter. Tate Liverpool presents a full-scale reconstruction of The Beethoven Frieze (1901-2 / 1984) a monumental installation by Gustav Klimt. The Frieze is a major highlight of Gustav Klimt: Painting, Design and Modern Life in Vienna 1900, the first comprehensive exhibition of Klimt’s work ever staged in the UK and a key event in Liverpool’s programme for European Capital of Culture 2008. On view through through 31 August, 2008.

I suppose you will be glad to see one more Dali, something you cannot see everyday, something what is not presented so often. Continuing to explore Salvador Dalí’s work in new ways, the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg presents Women: Dalí’s View, an exhibition which examines Dali’s artistic obsession with the female form. On view until September 21, 2008, the paintings, drawings, watercolors, prints and objects assembled from the museum’s permanent collection – the largest outside of Dalí’s native Spain – represent a diverse range in the artist’s approach to the female form, and reveal how images of women dominate Dali’s work, much as they do the history of art.

I believe that once you visit my blog, you will never be people that like their todays and tomorrows to be the same. Keep coming again.

Zuzana is home alone

2008-05-16T23:02:00.011+02:00

Recently I posted a story about my experience in Cafe Stink here. Did you read it? This one is sequel to the story, and if you are curious about the main star casted – Zuzana – you are on the right place.

I did hundreds ink drawings of that person. My friends laugh at me that I am actually drawing a comics. You can look at a small selection in the mentioned post. But in this case ink drawing is not enough to express a vision of artist. Surely, these simple means have been used many times to create something great - just look at Rembrandt's ink drawings –thy stand for real masterpieces. I have created several studies by ink from the life drawings made in The Stink, obviously it is just a search for something in the air I could not entirely grasp, but I could feel, smell, dream of.

Anyway, now I feel I could do something more. The possibilities offered at extraordinary meeting of light and shapes in the personality of Zuzana didn't let me rest. Somewhere inside of my head I foresee large oil paintings, many large oil paintings.

My assets are lack of free time, large atelier, one extraordinary model able to withstand my interrogative gaze and a heap of ink drawings featuring the figure in all possible movements and positions.

Well, right now I decided to choose a few most attractive compositions and enlarge them as charcoal or pastel drawings. The important thing is to isolate the content from it's environment. One sheet in sketchbook looks a bit messy, you need a really strong impulse of inspiration to foresee a large paintings from these drawings:

But it is possible. If you are right man on right place in right time, you can do it. I did several little black ink paintings with isolated motives:

The satisfaction was adequate. The charcoal magic followed, and then dry pastel drawings. Not many colors yet. Probably the blue period seems to be most appropriate. The pink and violet is next choice.

That's the state of the project I decided to call: Zuzana is home alone. Soon I'm going to bring news about further development and results of that effort. And if you wish to know more, wait for a while. I'm going to interview the main role person in this story. Are you curious, who she is? Me too...

From the other side: Rasťo Čambál

2008-04-29T00:09:00.010+02:00

He began to respond to articles on my blog. Then we met for the first time. I was in the role of the translator. Then my lecture in his photo club FOPA followed. He said that I had to disclose the code of Hans Holbein to the club members. After that the meeting in my workshop took place. This way, step by step, I encountered a new person, that's a social network reality. He will reveal more by himself. Rasťo Čambál.

PF 2008

I heard you become photography addict from your youth with one 25 years long break. How did you encounter the photography as a teenager?

I think I encountered it in a very natural way. We had a Flexaret at home, my brother was using it and I tried it too. Simply as children copy activities of elders, I began to do what they did. Of course, if the activity would not amuse me, I would give it up. I took pictures of my family, friends, of my school environment and school trips. We had completely equipped dark room at home, so I did not have to search for the first experience far. I applied to photo club when I was in primary school. I do not remember how much I progressed in the club, probably not much. Surely I got basic craft skill there but not very high.

Why did your break last a quarter of a century? Don't you have a feeling, that you missed the most important time to your creative development?

Why so long break? You have to ask my cubhood :-) . Probably the most important impact on my life than had my interest in playing guitar. Of course, the reason behind it was a girl I fell in love with, and she played the guitar too. That was the beginning of my "musician period", and it lasted 18 years.

And did I really miss the period of creative development? Probably not, because I was involved in my own music, which demanded a lot of creativity, ideas and imagination. I don't want to say I was the only creative person in the group. We worked as a team. I learned there to exploit the alpha level – I exploit it when I create till today.

My landscapes

The comebacks aren't easy. Didn't you feel that challenges could be too big for you after so long break?

No, I don't think so. Because I did not do creative photography when I was young I was therefore on the start line. A few years after I finished my music activities I felt lack of creative activities. I had positive relationship to computers so I decided to buy my first digital camera. That was the comeback to my interest in photography. It was just the beginning, right now I do a classic photography. I use different cameras for different sizes.

A job, family, photography. Is it possible to combine them all?

Yes, it is possible, with certain limitations. You have to set up priorities and then you act accordingly. My priorities put photography in a high position, but I know a few very good photographers, who don't do it. I think it's a pity.

My landscapes 2

What motives attracted your lenses when you were young? Were they different from today's ones?

I used to take pictures of my schoolmates, but most pictures I took at home. My family. Sometimes I got some orders. Of course, nothing serious. It was all around my schoolmates and family.

Today you focus on man in your artwork. Do you think, that so unfathomable subject can be understood and expressed meaningfully?

I hope not :-). If I did it, what else could I do then? For me most important is searching connected to creating. As we say "The goal is not important, what is important is the way to the goal. There is a philosophy in it. Even if I search for something that has already been discovered. To me it is a process to know it myself.

There is a motto in your first picture publication called Identity: "A good looking photography doesn't have to be good, and a good photography doesn't have to be good looking at all." How do you percept and differentiate the beauty and quality in photography? Where are the limits of your criteria defining the basic categories?

There was a time I strived for good looking pictures. And the people enjoyed them. I won several competitions that way. I noticed however that people responded mostly to pictorial form, not to the content. The beauty was in first plane. The content was in the second one. And my desire was to revert it. Then I realised that the beauty is the neighbour of the kitsch. So I excluded beauty from my pictures and began to put it into the content. I noticed I cannot rely on the general view of irony, parody or wit anymore but that I have to be genuine and it has to be about me, my opinions, feelings, that I have to undress completely in public. For me a good picture is the one which doesn't loose its value even after long time. When the picture is timeless. I prefer decadent pictorial form to let the content stand out.

I have a feeling from your work of art, that you want to testify about certain features of human character. Features which are very obvious but we pretend they don't exist, and if they do, then only in the lives of the other people, not in ours. Do you think your pictures bring about feelings of trying to stop disclosing the dark spots in human nature?

People generally don't like to reveal their hidden feelings and emotions. We are different in public and different in private lives. But in spite of this I think my pictures don't cause that kind of response. I rather think people have no desire to understand it, they resist to being genuine to themselves. For example, if we do something wrong, how many reasons to excuse ourselves we find and how much are we willing to admit our own mistakes? Many people find my pictures depressive and I have a suspicion that the only reason of it is that pictures are black and white.

Where do you search and discover the "readers" of your art work?

I don't search for "readers" of my art work. I don't create for a target group. I create mostly from my inner necessity. I am pleased with the fact my work meets positive response, but I don't have illusions about it.

Identity

Symbolism is main content and means which you use to narrate austere stories. Do you think, that contemporary people who grewn up on the straightforward consumption of unassuming "culture" production can grasp the story you offer?

Probably not. We read symbols differently. Uneducated person can read it mostly based on his own life experience. And we all have our own. But I don't mind if a person finds his own story in the content of my photography. Most important is that he has a will to search for the story.

The contrast is another means of expression you use in your works. Do you follow any theory or rules of the game?

No, I do not follow any. I follow my intuition. Right now I am satisfied with wide range of gray scale. I don't use high contrast. I tend to leave out the white.

Atlas

You are president of photo club in Galanta, member of photo club FOPA in Bratislava and member of Alliance of artists of western Slovakia. Can you tell us something about how they function, about the atmosphere and people there?

Everything depends on good will of the members to join the club activities and educate themselves. Nevertheless the education is not the main priority of the club. If the members have a good feelings from being there and are enjoying meetings with others, the purpose is fulfilled. Unfortunately I have to admit that activities of the club lay upon heads of a few people. I heard that similar clubs abroad have similar experience. It is simply human character. Otherwise I have no reason to complain. There are many photo activities during the year, I have to select.

You had a few exibitions of your artwork in the country and abroad. What message could you send to the world and what message did you get? Do you have a feedback?

I could only say that I exist. The feedback is not my main priority. Of course I'm glad whenever I get a positive response, who wouldn't be, but it is not the main thing to me.

You can find Rasťo and his pictures on http://www.rastcam.com/com/

Anniversary of the Atomium

2008-04-19T21:35:00.006+02:00

Designed to represent Belgium at the Universal Exhibition in 1958 in Brussels, the Atomium was intended to last only for the six months of the Expo, from 17 April to 19 October 1958. Fifty years on, this architectural masterpiece remains one of the world's best-known and most visited buildings. Attached as they are to this symbolic edifice over 100 meters high, Belgians tend to forget just how daring, creative and modern engineer André Waterkeyn's design was.

The Atomium

Waterkeyn's intention was to represent an iron crystal – not a molecule or atom as is sometimes believed - 165 billion times its actual size, in the form of an assembly of 9 spheres connected by 20 tubes. Three years of design and construction work were required to develop and implement a project which was to shoot to international fame and contribute to the international visibility of the capital of Europe. The Architects were André and Jean Polak.

The Atomium, which had aged over the years, was entirely renovated between 2004 and 2006. Its exterior was fully re-clad, the exhibition and reception areas, shops and restaurant were reconstructed, an outdoor ticket pavilion was built and the square around the building was redesigned. This renovation work gave the Atomium a new lease of life and has met every expectation. Since reopening in February 2006, the Atomium has welcomed over 1.400.000 visitors and is once more arousing the curiosity and enthusiasm of both Belgians and foreign visitors.

On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the Atomium management has drawn up a schedule of many activities on the theme of " Brussels Happiness " and of the links between technological progress and the promise of happiness. Almost 50 events (exhibitions, shows, outings, evenings, special publications, etc.) will be taking place between 17 April and 19 October 2008, i.e. during the exact period of the 1958 Universal Exhibition, only half a century later.

Situated on the northern outskirts of Brussels, between the royal estates of Laeken and Stuyvenbergh, and the chaussée romaine, the former Osseghem plateau consisted of meadows and fields during the nineteenth century.

From 1889 onwards, King Léopold II, whose wish it was to enhance the surroundings of the royal palace by the urbanisation of this plateau, undertook a vast program of land purchases, to the point that within twenty years, he had acquired a vast domain of 200 hectares, which he left to the Belgian state on his death in 1909.

While the Atomium remains the main attraction of what is known as the Heysel plateau, a number of other substantial activities have been developed there since 1936: exhibition halls, a congress centre, a leisure and tourist centre, a cinema complex, a planetarium, a stadium, sports grounds, green spaces and restaurants are all there for the greater enjoyment of visitors.

Universal Exhibiton 1958 - 50 years ago. c) SABAM (c) ASBL Atomium (c) Istratov Alexandre.

The Universal Exhibition, inaugurated on 27th April 1935, was certainly the starting point for this development. 20 million people visited the 150 hectares of gardens, ponds, buildings and pavilions sponsored by more than twenty different countries. At night, the area was lit up like an illuminated fairyland with the added enchantment of numerous firework displays.

Twenty years later, the International Exhibition of 1958 confirmed the hosting capacity of this site, enabling almost forty million visitors to view the technical and scientific progress of the modern world in an atmosphere of optimism and enjoyment. The general layout of the exhibition centred on the Atomium, an imposing structure, and comprised six separate sectors spread out over 200 hectares.

Zaha Hadid Wins Competition to Develop Design for Proposed Museum in Vilnius

2008-04-11T19:21:00.005+02:00

A jury of six members today announced that Zaha Hadid, London, has won the architectural competition to develop a design for a proposed museum in Vilnius. The architectural competition is part of a feasibility study undertaken by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and The State Hermitage Museum. The directors of both institutions participated in the jury selection process.

Zaha Hadid Architects.

In addition to Zaha Hadid Daniel Libeskind, New York, and Massimiliano Fuksas, Rome , submitted designs for the proposed project.

"The creation of the new center of contemporary and media art in Vilnius would be an important phenomenon in European cultural life,” said Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage Museum . “We are honored that The State Hermitage Museum is participating in such a significant undertaking. The project in Vilnius would be an excellent complement to the programme we have recently developed exhibiting contemporary art at the Hermitage."

Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas said, “ has set its sights on becoming a premier international center of art. We can think of no better institutions -- The State Hermitage and the Guggenheim Foundation -- to help guide us in this project. Their participation on our jury has led to selecting Zaha Hadid to design the new venue, which we believe will best enable our capital city of Vilnius to achieve this goal.”

An exhibition organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, entitled “Imagining the Future: Design Proposals for a New Museum in Vilnius” will open to the public on April 10th at the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center in Vilnius and will allow visitors to view the works of all three architects who competed for the project.

The Magic of Things: Still Life Painting 1500–1800

2008-04-10T18:10:00.005+02:00

The Stadel Museum in Frankfurt presents the exhibit The Magic of Things: Still Life Painting 1500–1800 through August 17. Dewdrops on dainty petals, light glancing off glass drinking goblets and precious silver dishes, candied sweetmeats in blue-and-white porcelain bowls from China, the delicate fluff of a peach, the pallor of a skull... To this day, still lifes captivate us with their close-up views of objects no longer living but far from lifeless, reproduced with painterly finesse and subtle colouration. However, still life painting was anything but a purely aesthetic matter, even if the present-day viewer tends to perceive it as such. The exhibition “The Magic of Things. Still Life Painting 1500–1800” is designed to convey both aspects – the genre’s aesthetic pleasure as well as its contemporary context with regard to meaning and function.

Pieter Aertsen (1507/08 - 1575), Market Piece with Christ and the Adulteress, 1559
Oil on oakwood, 122.5 x 180.5 cm. Inscribed left on barrel “P A / 1559”.
(between P and A a trident; only upper triangle of “A”)
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Photo: Artothek

With more than ninety masterworks, the show spreads out a panorama of the still life’s development in the Netherlands and Germany from its beginnings in the late fifteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century. To this end, it unites the superb holdings of the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt and the Kunstmuseum Basel, enhanced by a number of selected loans from other collections, public and private.

After its liberation from the religious painting of the late Middle Ages, the still life initially served as a means of recording and interpreting the stationary objects found in the viewer’s everyday surroundings, objects in which the order and structure of the abstract world of the Baroque could be mirrored: for example the individual’s senses and “humours”, the elements or seasons which shaped and moulded his environment, or the mortality of mankind in general and man’s longing for redemption from sin. Due to its concentration on a small number of consistently recurring objects, however, the late Baroque still life also served as an ideal experimental laboratory for means of artistic expression. The still life ranked low in the hierarchy of genres, and to attain success its practitioners had to use it to demonstrate their special artistic abilities: a work owed its charm and value to its composition, the meaningful combination of objects and the skilful brushstroke. As a result, the paintings bear witness to mastery in the wonderful rendition of various surfaces.

Willem van Aelst
Fish on a Tin Plate and Two Glasses, 1679

Retracing the evolution of still life painting from 1500 to 1800, while also acquainting the visitor with the most important pictorial motifs and types, the show begins with the forerunners to the still life produced in the period marking the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern era. The first section thus illustrates the process of the still life’s emancipation from its role as a symbolically charged accessory of religious painting to a pictorial theme in its own right.

The subsequent section is devoted to the early autonomous still life of around 1600 with Jan Brueghel and Georg Flegel as its chief exponents. Here the superb selection of splendid works already constitutes one of the exhibition’s highlights.

Following the cartouche paintings, banquet pieces and vanitas still lifes make up the next group of works, introducing viewers to the symbolism of Baroque imagery and its highly idiosyncratic blend of sensual stimulation and admonitions regarding the transience of earthly existence.

By contrast, the following department on fish and hunting still lifes exemplifies the considerable extent to which seventeenth-century painters specialized in certain genres as a means of gaining a competitive edge on the art market: often one artist in a given city would virtually hold a monopoly on a certain type of composition. The “sumptuous still life”, for its part, – represented above all by the names Jan Davidsz. de Heem and Willem van Aelst, with several works by each of them on view – was entirely dedicated to the description of luxuriance as well as the demonstration of fine-painterly virtuosity.

The final chapter of the show explores the eighteenth century, which lends particularly apt expression to the theme of the “magic of things” in the paintings of Justus Juncker – an artist who elevates a pear, for example, to imposing monumentality by enlarging it and placing it on a pedestal. Jean Siméon Chardin’s Städel painting “Still Life with Partridge and Pear” employs no more than a few laconic brushstrokes to endow those objects with astonishing presence, bringing the exhibition to its magnificent conclusion.

The painting Adolf Hitler liked

2008-03-31T22:29:00.005+02:00

Unpopular heroes are marked with dislike and nobody wish to share their taste for something. Is there a killer or criminal preferring special type of meal, necktie or hair style? I am sure you will avoid of the same liking. How about paintings?

Let's take one of the most destructive man in human history. He had a passion in art and he owned a collection of artworks. Some say his cultural pretensions meant nothing. Others feel very differently about it. The National Gallery in London made a discovery recently. It reveals an interesting fact about a medieval erotic painting Cupid Complaining to Venus by the German Renaissance master Lucas Cranach the Elder. The point is: the painting was once part of Adolf Hitler’s private collection.

Cupid Complaining to Venus by Lucas Cranach the Elder (about 1525). Oil on wood, 81.3 x 54.6 cm. Cupid complains to Venus that he has been stung by bees. He holds in his hand the honeycomb that has been stolen from them. The Latin verses in the upper right point up the moral message in this picture that life’s brief pleasure is mixed with pain.

The research has been carrying out by Dr Birgit Schwartz. The National Gallery believes that her identification of the painting in a photograph of Hitler’s private gallery is correct. The photograph is in an album that is part of Hitler’s former library of 1200 volumes.

For some people many problems arise with this finding. It looks like the artwork got stained and deflated by watching, touching and probably fantasised by the dictator. Shell we watch it, touch it and fantasise about it in spite of all that? Should we mind?

There is an excellent article by Jonathan Jones here (and I have to admit I like to read his articles a lot) throwing light on the historical background of the painting. It is long and worthy to read. Another insightful text about the painting is here.

So, read through and come back. What opinion do you share on the topic? Do you mind who owned a painting you admire? Or will you reconsider your emotions towards the masterpiece?

The Temptation of St Anthony

2008-03-25T23:25:00.011+01:00

I encountered that legend by reading the book of Gustave Flaubert. This quite surrealistic text caused excitement and storm in my fantasy. The story of St Anthony was very inspiring to many other artists in history, probably because it gave freedom to imagination and creativity of the people. Particularly in the age - when media and the flood of fantastic images was missing - they could stand in the role of visionaries depicting monsters, worlds, creatures the ordinary peasant could fear of to death.

Here is a little selection of paintings dealing with the subject.

Hieronymus Bosch c. 1500; Oil on panel
Bosch's spiritual heroes were the saints who endured both physical and mental torment, yet remained steadfast. Among the saints, Bosch's favorite was Saint Anthony, the subject of his triptych The Temptation of Saint Anthony which features physical punishment on the left wing, a Black Mass in the center, and the blandishments of food and sex on the right wing. St. Anthony's triumph over such trials is mirrored by those of other hermit saints and by the Passion of Christ. In Bosch's day, temptation not only had the meaning it has today, but also meant physical/mental assault by demons. So St Anthony is not only tempted by the pleasures of the flesh and so on, he is also beaten up and terrorized by the demons. The central panel of this triptych illustrates the kneeling figure of St Anthony being tormented by devils. These include a man with a thistle for a head, and a fish that is half gondola. Bizarre and singular as such images seem to us, many would have been familiar to Bosch's contemporaries because they relate to Flemish proverbs and religious terminology. What is so extraordinary is that these imaginary creatures are painted with utter conviction, as though they truly existed. He has invested each bizarre or outlandish creation with the same obvious realism as the naturalistic animal and human elements. His nightmarish images seem to possess an inexplicable surrealistic power.

Martin Schongauer ca. 1470–75, Engraving
Saint Anthony gazes serenely out at the viewer as frenzied demons grab at his limbs, clothes, and hair and pound him with sticks. Schongauer depicted these imagined creatures in a remarkably convincing way. His realistic description of their scales and fur point to his direct observation of animals, yet he compiled these naturalistic details to produce some of the most fantastic and grotesque fabrications in the history of printmaking. Although this is one of Schongauer's earliest prints, it was probably his most influential: Vasari recounted that even Michelangelo made a color drawing of the work at the age of thirteen.

Mathis Grünewald, c. 1515
It was painted for the monastery of St. Anthony Isenheim. Grünewald shows the saint harassed by hideous demons in the wilderness. The figure on the left suffers from the skin disease ergotism, known as "St. Anthony's fire", caused by eating contaminated rye.The work's original viewers were from hospital dedicated to skin diseases attached to monastery.

Max Ernst, 1945
Clearly inspired by Grünwald's painting on the same subject, but transmogrifies the landscape into dead water and "fishbone forest". Although Ernst lived in America from 1941, the setting of this work, painted in the wake of Second World War for a Hollywood film set evokes the devastated cities of Europe. St Anthony is inextricably entangled in a dense web of nightmarish creatures, phantasmagoria of the subconscious mind.

Salvador Dali, 1946
In this picture temptation appears to Saint Anthony successively in the form of a horse in the foreground representing strength, sometimes also symbol of voluptuousness, and in the form of the elephant which follows it, carrying on its back the golden cup of lust in which a nude woman is standing precariously balanced on the fragile pedestal, a figure which emphasizes the erotic character of the composition. The other elephants are carrying buildings on their backs; the first of these is a obelisk inspired by that of Bernini in Rome, the second and third are burdened with Venetian edifices in the style of Palladio. In the background another elephant carries a tall tower which is not without phallic overtones, and in the clouds one can glimpse a few fragments of the Escorial, symbol of temporal and spiritual order. This picture was painted in the studio that the artist occupied for a few days next to the Colony Restaurant in New York. It is the first and only time that he participated in a contest. It was an invitational artistic competition for a painting of the theme of the temptation of Saint Anthony, organised in 1946 by the Loew Lewin Company, a movie- producing firm. The winning picture was to figure in a film taken from the story "Bel Ami" by Maupassant. Eleven painters took part in the competition, among them Leonora Carrington, Dali, Paul Delvaux, Max Ernst, and Dorothea Tanning. The prize was given to Max Ernst by jury composed of Alfred Barr, Marcel Duchamp, and Sidney Janis. All these works were shown at an exhibition in Brussels and in Rome during 1947.

Salvator Rosa, 1646
St. Anthony was particularly solicitous about animals, to which a whimsical picture by Salvator Rosa represents him as preaching. From his practices, perhaps, arose the custom of blessings passed on animals still practised at Rome; he regarded all God's creatures as worthy of protection. The painting contains Rosa's own portrait.

Apple To Offer Subscription Music Service?

2008-03-21T20:51:00.004+01:00

Apple makes a change in strategy. A year ago, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said he didn't believe most consumers wanted to rent their music and that Apple had no plans to offer a music subscription service. "Never say never, but customers don't seem to be interested in it," Jobs told Reuters then.

The Apple company logo at the Apple store in New York. Foto: Don Emmert / AFP / Getty Images

iTunes is today the biggest online seller of music. Apple may be rethinking how it sells music, offering a subscription service. "Apple's position might be changing, in part because of competition in the online music market, where music is increasingly sold without digital copyright protections that keep it tied to one device."

Read more...

Warhol and his rare art

2008-03-19T22:41:00.004+01:00

There are always works of art the public does not see so often. Such are the Ten Portraits Reconsidered by Andy Warhol. The paintings will be on view at The Jewish Museum, New York, through August 3, 2008. When it premiered in 1980, Warhol’s Ten Portraits of the Twentieth Century was met with both admiration and hostility.

Andy Warhol, Sarah Bernhardt from Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, 1980, synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas. Private collection. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society, New York/Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York.

The series depicts such luminaries of Jewish culture as Sarah Bernhardt, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir, and Franz Kafka, among others. On view in this exhibition are the photographs that Warhol used as source images, several preliminary sketches, a preparatory collage, an edition of the final silk-screen print portfolio (of which 200 were published), and one of the five complete sets of paintings that he made for the series. The drawings and source photographs have not previously been exhibited alongside the finished pictures. Additional materials related to the portraits, including the list of nearly 100 “famous Jews” prepared by Warhol’s dealer, and television coverage of the artist’s trip to Miami for the world premiere of the series, will shed light on their creation and display. Following its New York City showing, the exhibition will travel to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA (October 12, 2008 – January 25, 2009).

The Jewish Museum initially showed three sets of paintings and an edition of prints in the fall of 1980. While Jewish audiences tended to embrace Warhol’s series, several leading art critics dismissed it as crass and exploitative. In the twenty-eight years since its debut, Ten Portraits has continued to confront viewers with these questions: Why did a Pop artist who otherwise displayed little interest in Jewish culture or causes create a series devoted to eminent Jews? How do we reconcile Warhol’s commercial motives with the high-minded portrayal of cultural and historical icons? How has our view of Ten Portraits changed since its first showing?

Andy Warhol, Sigmund Freud (detail) from Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, 1980, synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas. Private collection. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society, New York/Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York.

Unlike many of Warhol’s portraits, Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century depicts subjects whom the artist never met. Warhol was evasive when asked to divulge his selection criteria for the series and once told a reporter that he chose these ten subjects “because I liked the faces.” The idea for Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century originated with Ronald Feldman, a New York gallerist, who commissioned it with Israeli art dealer Alexander Harari.

I am a born artist and oil canvas paintings are my passion

2008-03-17T21:12:00.008+01:00

Internet discussions are full of similar (and a bit naive) requests: I am a beginner, where do I start? How to begin my career in art? I want to sell my paintings and really want to paint and sell and I want to grow my art skills but I don't know how to start and where. I don't know what's going on in today's art market, how much money to sell my work for and where? Do really anyone buy my paintings? Do I need to attend classes, or anyone can suggest me anything?

Prophet and his contemporaries, drawing by Michal Splho

What would you answer to that guy? Is it worthy to express true opinion to his questions? A girl with good heart came and gave suggestion:

I would attend classes. I would go to art school and get a bachelors of science. You will learn how to make a professional portfolio, and how to work in the world of art. I go to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I learned there is so much more I need to learn. I learned how to communicate with people. I learned the value of art history.

Not bad answer, isn't it? A single-minded guy see the thing clearly without any obstacles, the success guaranteed:

Very simple, as fast as you make your project you start exhibit it here and there. Just like fair, town hall, and some small size painting you sale in gift item shop and you contact all embassies to sale your item in another country.

If that does not help, a real artist bothers to give a sound advice:

OK, I am an artist, I can help you now and give you notes, advice and little projects to get you where you need to be.
My questions are: Can you come up with your own ideas for an art painting? Do you understand value, do you know the primary and secondary colors? This will allow me to know where you are as an artist.

Looks like the requesting guy should turn to that artist, but if the answer is still not yet satisfactory, another clever ideas are coming:

First thing you need to do is get some work created before you start worrying about the rest. If you have the passion you say you do, this will be easy work. Do a few paintings and then get a portfolio together. Try to find a niche subject that you like to portray. Depending on how you want to sell your work, there are multiple venues - from local craft fairs to galleries. If you want to grow your skill, you should definitely take classes that will teach you varied technique. The rest comes with practice as you develop your own style. Many artists sell work as a secondary source of income, and much is freelance. Good luck.

Can you still breathe well? The guy is lucky and another expert advice follows:

In my opinion, before you start painting you should have a pretty solid course in drawing. They are different, but you still will find ways of expressing volume/form, and some painters use line in their paintings. Also, color theory. Start with a limited palette and don't just use black or white to lighten or darken colors...

Finally, some light:

Most of all, I think you need to paint because you NEED to paint. Not because you want to sell art and make money. If you want to do that, it's actually harder to make it, because you're less willing to put the time and passion into learning art.

This is the short guide to fulfill your desire to develop your talent. Are you a born genius? Do you have all the questions the guy expressed in the beginning of that article? Then the answers are right for you. And what's my suggestion? What would I answer to the questions? I would say: A born artist should know all that.

Painting of Renoir on view

2008-03-14T23:53:00.005+01:00

We all know the basic set of paintings, which represent each master of brush and color in books about art. To see other aspects of their work, to see rare paintings you need to travel around the world. One of such a paintings is Young Woman in White Reading painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919).

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), ‘Jeune femme en blanc lisant’ (Young Woman in White Reading), 1873. Photo © National Gallery of Ireland.

The National Gallery of Ireland has placed on view this recent acquisition. The painting, which is the first Renoir to enter the collection, was purchased at auction, at Sotheby’s Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in New York (November 2007).

Janet McLean, the National Gallery’s Curator of European Art 1850-1950, says that this recent acquisition is considered a fine example of the artist’s work and will strengthen the Gallery’s collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art.

Painted in 1873, the painting depicts a fashionably dressed woman seated on a sofa absorbed in a book. The sitter is unknown, although it may portray Camille Monet, wife of the artist Claude Monet. Capturing an informal, everyday moment with an immediate accuracy, the painting also anticipates the motif of the intimate interior.

Do you find it attractive?

Volcano on ice - the icon Katarina Witt

2008-03-13T00:14:00.003+01:00

Is there a person you can steel horses with? This German expression indicates someone you can share everything with, that you can share all sides with. Someone that is honest, trustworthy, funny – a little bit of everything. I cannot say whether Katarina Witt is such a person, but certainly she is a phenomenon functioning as a symbol transformed into myth. It was possible because of the right combination of the political climate, historical timing, exploitation of great amount of talent – at the time, when there were all conditions ready.

Katarina has ended her show career on ice one week ago in Hannover, with show in great style in front of audience of eight thousand people. She drew thunderous applause with a final performance as Carmen – the role that accompanied her greatest triumph. She showed a video montage of her career that dated back to when longtime coach Jutta Müller first began to groom the five-year-old for ice skating glory.

Carmen, Olympic games 1988

Thousands of young people spent their youth on ice. Just handful could become the top of glacier. Salvador Dalí once wrote, that you can be a best draughtsman in the world, but if there is no angel standing by you and leading your hand, your artwork will not be good nor attractive nor successful. Maybe here lies the secret of Katarina Witt's myth. How else can we comprehend the difference, when after perfect "athletic" performance of Debi Thomas enters Katarina and whole world suddenly revives, the atmosphere gets charged with energy, beauty, charm not much connected to physical abilities of the skater. It is aureole, shining phenomenon which is filling the stadium and the hearts of fans watching the competition at home. She fascinates, sweeps to agreement, excitement, evoking feelings of closeness. Surely you remember it.

Broadway medley, World championship 1988. Just a few figure skaters can end up their performance with tap dancing sequence.

It is a story of a girl willing to believe in hard toil, give up the pleasures of childhood, one of the million, who could break down the jail and scheme of mediocrity, where the people are imprisoned from the beginning of time. Charm, sensuality, a character of perfectionist, success in dominating the figure skating domain nearly for a decade, unbelievable ability to gain an international sympathy of audience. Embodiment of great self control – which is paradoxically, feared by mass, because it feels threat of getting under control. In spite of this mass acceptes and embraces her.

Gala program, World championship 1987. Tango.

She could endure a life disclosing a pattern, which opens a way out of the trap – for those who see and want to see and those who hear and want to hear. The price paid if you waste the opportunity in early childhood is lifelong wandering on the side line, if not in a blind street. The desire for comfort is imprisoning, there is no escape anymore.

Where have all the flowers gone, Olympic games 1994

The combination of a little dictator in person of Frau Müller, system controlling everything including the first touch of love, which had to end as "responsible" people arranged it, and incredibly stubborn and ambitious girl, who resolved to touch the sky and stars – this all made possible the rise of phenomenon. In addition the incredible ability to come through when she had to, to withstand pressure and skate better than she normally did in practice.

Rare performance from 1978, aged 13.

A bowl of rice and apple instead of good lunch after hard, seven hours training, ban on chocolate, which could be eaten in precious moments behind the back of the coach Frau Müller, long years of discomfort in own body, endless hours of boring training of obligatories. Six times gold on European championship, four times gold on World championship, two consecutive Olympic gold medals. Only one person in history of figure skating could do it.

Video montage in farewell show last Tuesday.

There are several ways you can pay tribute to somebody. I have chosen my own approach. What is the meaning of the toil of that ambitious person? First of all setting of co-ordinates, which enlighten the way wandering mankind is undertaking for centuries.

Apple logo mystery

2008-03-09T22:40:00.003+01:00

Developing company needs to establish it's distinct identity. Such an identity is typically reflected in the company's logo. There is a text giving deeper insight into ideas and thoughts behind this process.

A past chairman of the Apple Products division is explaining the logo: "Our logo is a great mystery. It is a symbol of pleasure and knowledge, partially eaten away and displaying the colours of the rainbow, but not in the proper order. We couldn't wish for a more fitting logo: pleasure, knowledge, hope and anarchy".

Clearly, the bitten apple refers both to the story of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden and to association of IBM with the east coast and the "Big Apple" of New York. The psychedelic mixed-up rainbow (green, yellow, orange, red, violet and blue) signifies the west coast hippie era of the 1960s, with its associations of idealism and 'doing your own thing'. Thus, despite representing a binary opposition to the IBM logo, the multi-colored Apple logo seeks to signify a rejection of the binarism reflected in the 'black-and-white' (or rather monochrome)linearity of IBM logo.

Does your company have logo with the deeper meaning too? Leave here a link, it can be featured in next post!

Portrait and Gertrude Stein case

2008-03-06T20:17:00.004+01:00

As an artist involved in portraits painting I am often faced with a discrepancy of my view of the painted model and the sitter's or his relatives opinion. Always there is something around lips or nose they cannot recognise as corresponding to real image. Many times I have to agree with them regarding resemblance of the painting. On the contrary I am convinced of my vision too, which is considering the problem in a different way.

The purpose of a naturalistic painting is to approximate the image to the visible world and deceive the eye. There are many problems involved in this process, mostly because reality does not look like flat canvas, but the painting on flat canvas can look like reality. Efforts to reach exact likenesses led to the invention of photography, but painting has a bit different dimension, I believe.

I think that painting on canvas is the interpretation of the model, and this is the most important part of the artwork. There is a story about Gertrude Stein and Picasso giving more light to the problem. Once she looked at the portrait he painted for her and she said:"It doesn’t look anything like me". Picasso responded immediately: “In time it will”.

I tried to find resemblance of the portrait to Ms. Stein's photographs many times. I did not find much of her in the painting, neither did my friends. Here lies the main point – it is about interpretation, and this is something we remember best. It is a code helping us memorize the reality, which is so rich and constantly changing, that it is impossible to remember it as a whole. The role of the artist is to select, reduce naturalistic information and to create a symbol easy to remember and recall.

Of course, the purpose of such a painting is that it's subject should be recognised, that's the pleasure we get from it. Nevertheless I have a feeling that even not recognizable drawing or painting can bring a lot of joy too. What do you think?

Drawing facing the reversal of values

2008-03-04T22:56:00.013+01:00

It happened many times in history. An artist appeared and paved a new way and many admirers and shades started to follow it. A century later people changed their taste. The works of art representing a valid ideal of beauty suddenly changed into examples not worthy to follow, not worthy to deal with. The ideals lost their validity.

Michelangelo:

This instability of values can be discomforting to someone. We like order of things valid yesterday, today and tomorrow too. If a gold was a gold and a shit was a shit, we have unconscious desire to maintain this order of values forever. The problems start if the order is inverted, when the gold becomes a shit and vice versa. Especially the older generations start paying attention, because they suspect attack on the society foundation, which they built for ages with great effort. On the contrary the young generation perceives this change of taste as a development and progress.

So that is the flow of history. We dedicate our youth to progress and we ward off the attacks on the society foundation when getting old. It is uneasy to keep distance here. How can we apprehend objectively this change of taste and values? Is it really a decline or is it progress moving the limits further?

Hans Holbein the younger:

With the turn of the century came a new means of grasping the ways in which the mind plays with elements of sensory experience and out of them shapes new patterns.

Classical civilization and it's values were shaken, when romantics began sought out the primitives, which a few centuries later led to an interest in Negro sculptures among the Cubists. There is a remarkable difference in what was considered as "a painting" by Renaissance master and what is considered as "a painting" in contemporary gallery – many times a Renaissance master would not even think of it as of painting.

I noticed a shift in perceiving of old masters drawings. The virtuosity of it was balanced by decades of hard work. The attitude of a pretentious modern artist changed a lot towards such art as he considers it to be obsolete now. Here lies a reason behind my decision to create a mini show of the giants acknowledged by history, who reached the highest level of the challenging "craft". I think it is pretty distant from the contemporary discipline called "drawing", where there is enough to draw a twisted line and proclaim it as interpretation of mutual relationship and energy, which we can or do not have to see.

Leonardo da Vinci:

Raphael Santi:

Selfportrait. You can estimate Raphael's age here to be the teenager in his bloom. That's why we are staggered by the maturity and perfection of drawing.

Pope Julius II

The portrait of a girl with enticing glance and mysterious smile gives suggestion, that Raphael was very aware of Leonardo's paintings, particularly of Mona Lisa. He could adopt the most essential features into his works. Just imagine a peasant, not much aware even of his own name, entering a church after a whole week of toil and facing such a seductive glance and smile of beautiful Madona on an altar painting, he never even dreamed of. Would not you be looking forward to visiting the church regularly and meeting with such a glamour? Would not you be looking forward to entering the Paradise? The art was that powerful...

Peter Paul Rubens:

Comics 2.

2008-03-02T22:17:00.008+01:00

From time to time I will post a handfdul of comics drawings. There is nothing more to say. Enjoy it.

The Catcher in the Rye

2008-02-29T23:52:00.006+01:00

Knowingly borrowing from the works of well known or forgotten artists is really an attractive staff. Salvador Dalí can be a very good example for that research. He knew very well the value of a good idea, which was not yet in the central focus of mass culture conscious.

There is a story about a temptations of hermit Anthony, first written by Athanasius of Alexandria. This experience represents an irresistible life challenge for certain people, which cannot be rejected. The story went through countless interpretations. One of the most incredible experience is awaiting you in the book "Temptation of st. Anthony" written by Gustave Flaubert. This surrealistic typhoon stirred my waters about fifteen years ago, when I was living in my hermitage of wood. I got intoxicated by this unusual text during deep nights – I did not experience any religious shock – just the touch of the Flaubert's phenomenon made me shivering and shaking and caused birth of new horizons somewhere deep inside of my rising universe.

But, to stay in the trays of the topic, the opportunity to substantiate the wondrous Anthony's experience tempted many masters of brush and colour. One of them was Salvator Rosa, whose monsters attacking the lonely hermit have quite temporary look.

Salvator Rosa, Temptation of st. Anthony, 1646

Three centuries later a painting with the same subject and features was created by a painter with the same first name. You can discover there an interesting idea of Rosa, which immediately became an ace of spades in the hands of master Dalí.

Salvador Dalí, Temptation of st. Anthony, 1946, detail

The general view of the painting discloses the power of imagination of the very specific Spaniard, producing new and new variations exploiting the unnoticed detail, lying bare several centuries. But the little spark inside the right head can cause unexpected fire.

Art of youth

2008-02-27T22:45:00.017+01:00

The Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava is a place causing mixed emotions to its students as well as to its visitors. But anyway, if we search for a place, where the future of the culture is born in this country, this is the right one. Mostly because there is no other choice.

Twice a year The Academy is open for public. You can go in and walk through the workshops and have a look at the works of students. You may have all kind of expectations before seeing the show and you will be filled with very different feelings after you finish the inspection. Last time I participated the weekend of the open doors in January. Honestly, after my previous experience I decided to walk only through the department of painting.

Author of the painting: Sylvia Cechova

Facing the courage and self-confidence of young people I am slowly realising my age. But, for the sake of respectability and diplomacy, this time I will focus on the works I found interesting or even attractive. Other does not matter. The word "painting" for me has a particular content based on certain experience. More specifically a historical experience, which in the light of Academy production looks pretty out-fashioned.

Well, in spite of this I can introduce a few interesting authors and works worthy to be seen. The choice is purely subjective.

Author of the paintings: Lucia Talova

I found catching look series of decorative paintings induced from a city views – in transcending to a slight abstraction they are very suitable for a company's representative interiors. With potential to get paid well, of course. After a short discussion the author – Lucia Talova, expressed slight disagreement with my opinion that it is decorative. But is not a good decorative painting a piece of art too? Is it something minor? I do not think so. These paintings were well done.

Author of the paintings: Kristina Simekova

Pure abstract forms with special choice of colours is quite a tradition at this academy. Year after year the students repeat almost the same repertoire. From time to time some of them get free from that standard and offer something more spectacular. Such is Kristina Simekova, whom I know personally and in the future I will try to interview her. Her paintings shake my attention particularly with the choice of colours. Sometimes it feels quite bold to me, something as a manner of youth rebellion. But these are just a few paintings in the light of what may and must come. I expect bursting of creativity in the near future, so let's wait and see.

Author of the paintings: Agnesa Urgeova

These are the works I got most inspired of, mostly because I am involved in figure painting. Series of portraits titled "Wanted". Monotypic prints implying portraits, where the raw features of a face can be recognized. Hang on the wall, about ten pieces side by side, leaving deep impression of freedom to imagine all the possible connotations - from horror to basic sketch of portrait. The author was facing slight critique from academy authorities, taking it seriously and thinking of adjusting the future work to their suggestions. But, to me the prints worked well, I really felt they were good and wished to see more from the author's production. Maybe she will be willing to answer some questions. Surely you will hear more about her soon.

Did you like the show? Feel free to comment the artwork, ask questions to the authors, I can provide answers in future posts. Even more: Do you study in an academy of fine arts? Do you think your works could be shown here, interviewed by me? Leave your link, let others know your work. This is the right place for it.

Lunchtime intermezzo for black ink and reed pen

2008-02-26T22:01:00.011+01:00

Lunch is a part of the day I like the most (of course, I enjoy the work too, because it cultivates :-)). On one side I can switch off my machine and for a short time look at the sunshine, smiling faces and put fingers deep into my wallet. In addition the lunch time is an opportunity for me to be myself. At least for a while.

Regular part of our lunch programme is a coffee session in a cafe bearing proud name Lagoon. We call it realistically "The Stink". Without further explanation...

My time is short – just sit down in a chair, greet the waitress, agree with question: "Same as usually?". Follows quick withdrawal of the staff from the pocket of my wind-jacket, shaking the bottle of black ink, free the reed pen from it's box, open the sketchbook. There is a Vienna coffee with heavy load of cream and chocolate already put on the table – then short exercise with fingers and my colleague John gives an order: "Now!" and in a second I start to draw the lines on a blank paper.

I am inconspicuously monitoring potential victims randomly dispearsed around The Stink interior. Colleague Imro remarks: "Do you always have to produce such a strange faces when drawing? Does it help to create a better drawing?" I am hunting details, features, noses, lips, fingers in the clouds of smoke. I pretend watching my colleagues, but to be honest, my eyes follow only one person in the room. That is a dream of all mad painters who dedicated their lives to brushes and colours. You can search such a forms expressing fully your ideals of art and beauty whole life, and you are lucky if you find at least close compromise. It is one person in a million.

The Stink is the place of fulfilled ideals of the artist almost veteran. Here is the embodiment of everything you can expect from your model. The light is breaking on her faceforms in a ways, which cause five minutes breathe breaks. You wish to scream: "Stop! Do not move!" and try to catch everything in a three quick draws of ink on the blank paper you have. You try to stop the time, put down on the paper all you saw and felt. Unfortunately, I missed it, including the likeness, light, proportions – of course, ten seconds is not enough to catch the pose Zuza takes while washing the cups and dishes. It is raw reduction limited to the very basic impulses of artistic instinct.

Then the time comes, John stands up, gives an order again: "We leave!" and my dark part of soul hates him a lot. The dream is dissolving, Zuza hides behind the clouds of smoke, moment of freedom ends here. I pack up the staff, blow the papers to dry the ink. I am faced to the reality – I missed it again. Tomorrow there will be another attempt. We say good bye to Zuza, John is buying cigarettes in the booth nearby, and in a short time we sit at work again, preparing magazine, which is weekly distributed to the hands of this small nation.

PS: The drawings here are just short excerpt from the time spent in The Stink. As you can see, Zuza is really the person in the leading role of my lunch time. Hope you enjoy the show.

Morandi retrospective

2008-02-22T23:21:00.013+01:00

Just recently I met a few young people at my workshop. We had an interesting chat, looked through my new paintings and I got a new things to learn. To be specific, the fact, that nothing can stop young generation today. Twenties does not mean a free space available to fill. It is uneasy to astonish a young Prometheus with an unknown information. Mostly because the unknown information does not exist for him. Where have the times gone...

In the age of internet there are no secrets. Where had Salvador Dali stolen his motives from? What colours were on Rembrand's palete? Where did Picasso hide his bank notes? How many children had Vermeer? Are we screwed up? Click, click - the fingers dance tango on the keyboard and the sreen will spit out the answer in less than a second: We are not srewed up.

I tested the young blood with many secrets and got convinced word by word, that the hiden knowledge is not "in" anymore. All is revealed. We tasted a wine and I tried several aces of spades: seven layers painting technique, Carravaggio's painting style, El Greco's miracles of complementary colour combinations placed in monochromatic space, Goethe's theory of colours. Prometheus came up with Morandi.

Giorgio Moranadi? I sharpened my attention. He knows a lot, but Morandi? How can he know about Morandi in his age? How can the Italian genius gain attention of this young abstractionist in the bloom of his development and power? What more, here in Slovakia? Well, maybe not all is lost.

Great Morandi, who did not leave his studio in Bologna during all his life. His paintings - as an escape from time and space, a strange effect he elicited by removing labels from the bottles, dials from a clock and people from landscapes. Pure metaphysics. The heros in main role: bottles, bowls, kettles, cups, ceramics. In the final part of the show they get pure abstract form, dissolving on the limit of recognition of the real world. In Morandi's words: There is nothing more surreal and abstract than reality.

Well, we cannot enjoy Morandi here in Slovakia, but for the lucky ones crossing the New York in autumn time, there is opportunity to visit retrospective of his works in The Metropolitan Museum of Art - aproximately 110 paintings, drawings and etchings. September 16 - December 14, 2008. Maybe we will meet there.

Danubiana

2007-08-07T21:46:00.000+02:00

Quite regularly I am getting questions from abroad: What atractive places could you recommand to visit in your city? Searching for an answer always brings a few unpleasant questions. I turned for an answers to a friend of mine: Why should turists visit our country? Or more precisly Bratislava? Why should they travel hundreds or thousands of miles to come here? My friend reacted: To take a photo of some historical buildings in our little Old Town and some of the kitshy sculptures.

So I try to find an answer myself: What could become an attraction for curious fellows from abroad? Devin Castle? Bratislava Castle? Cumil? The Botanic Gardens? Sitina Tunel? Apollo Bridge? Gallery by Danube River? Sand beach at Janko Kral Park? Artificial skating-rink at Hviezdoslav Square? A new Slovak National Theatre? New supermarkets?

Perhaps everyday life made me insensitive to finding outstanding objects in our dynamic city. Or prhaps I know little about it. Well, our Wienislava does not seem so atractive to me. Cheap and funsy things make no impression on me. On the contrary the places I like do not belong to turists top atractions but I like them for other reasons.

One of these is a Museum of Modern Art Danubiana in Čunovo. I can’t really explain why I feel so good when I’m there and why I keep coming there. I rather share with you some photodocumentation.

It was opened on 9th September 2000 about 15 kilometres south of the centre of Bratislava, on the edge of a peninsula where the Danube flows. It is one of the youngest museums of modern art in Europe and it is really cool place.

Here is the situation on the map.

And here is the place itself.

More here.

PS: When I visited Danubiana last time, there was exhibition of artwork of painter, poet and photographer Lucebert. Except of that he was involved in drawing, graphic art, ceramics, wall painting etc, so it looks his fingers were dip in every possible asshole. Anyway, here are three paintings I really liked.

Dark side of the moon?

2007-05-28T23:29:00.000+02:00

We all know the thick heavy biographies of old masters. Unfortunately, ten books about Picasso consist of the same 100 reproductions of his paintings. You cannot easily see behind, into the master`s kitchen. Or can you?

Here is your chance to break through the door of perception. Here is the place to see the rare works of art, look closer on the hands of the famous gigants. Discover the construction of their top masterpieces.

Let`s begin with some sketches by ink or sepia stick. Well, the first place here is taken by master Rembrandt van Rijn. For years he was creating a large and heavy canvases with thick layers of colors. On the contrary, mostly as a mature old man he created quite a lot of ink drawings, with excelently mastered northern (and typically Flamish) style. He reduced complicated technique used in oilpaintings to a few brushstrokes with ink and water. And a few lines of pen.

Now follows a unique study drawing of italian landscape. It was created by a monk Fra Angelico. There is really little known of him.

Equally unique is a drawing by G. D. Tiepolo. You do not meet such an artwork everyday. It discloses his way of building the composition and light and darkness contrast.

Claude Lorrain is known by his aerial perspective landscapes. We know the Lorrain`s mirror. Of course, we know mostly his oilpaiontings. But look closer at his ink drawings. He carefully prepared many such a studies before he painted final oilpainting. Anytime you get an opportunity to see the exhibition of his ink drawings, do not miss it!

Something similar by J. L. David. In his oilpaintings you cannnot observe this mechanism so easily.

Sepia stick drawing by Fragonard. Young Renoir was fascinated a lot by his works.

Where are the limits of a pencil in the hand of Ingres? Do you feel the same?

Finally comes Raphael and his excelent drawing. Florence was strongly focused on fine, gentle drawing style. Michelangelo absolutelly disregarded artists, who did not focus on drawing. Especially he disregarded venetian painters. In Venice of those times the painters did not consider drawing to be very important. Michelangelo carefully praised Tizian only as an old crock.

Mozart and The Line

2007-05-05T21:27:00.000+02:00

Osvaldo Cavandoli (January 1, 1920 – March 3, 2007), also known by his pen name Cava, was an Italian cartoonist. His most famous work is his short cartoon series, La Linea ("The Line"). Here is a Mozart`s piece.

Cavandoli was born in Maderno sul Garda, Italy, but moved to Milan when he was two years old. From 1936 to 1940 he worked as a technical designer for Alfa Romeo. When he developed his interest in cartoons in 1943, he started working with Nino Pagot, who later created Calimero. In 1950 he started working independently as a director and a producer. He became famous for his La Linea, a simply drawn cartoon, first appearing in 1969. In 1978 and 1988 he developed two new characters: sexlinea and eroslinea.

La Linea ("The Line") is an Italian animated series of about 100 episodes created by Osvaldo Cavandoli in 1969. Due to its short duration (usually 2 minutes 30 seconds), it is often used as an interstitial program.

The cartoon features a man (known as "Mr. Linea" or, in some parts of Europe, "Balou", as well as "Linus" in Sweden), drawn as a single outline around his silhouette, walking on an infinite line of which he is a part. The character encounters obstacles and often turns to the cartoonist to draw him a solution, with various degrees of success. One reoccurring obstacle was an abrupt end of line. The character would often almost fall off the edge into oblivion and get angry with the cartoonist and complain about it. He was voiced by Carlo Bonomi in Italian gibberish, giving the cartoon the possibility to be easily exported without dubbing. The voice resembles Pingu's, the Swiss animated penguin, which was also voiced by Bonomi.

The character's relationship with his cartoonist is very similar to that of Daffy Duck's plight in the Warner Brothers' 1953 cartoon short Duck Amuck where he too is at the mercy of the cartoonist (Chuck Jones). Their reactions to their artists' whims are also very similar in as they both try to work with what is drawn around them, but often end up hurt and losing their tempers.

The first 8 episodes of the series were, in fact, created to publicize Lagostina kitchenware products, and the accompanying narration identified Mr. Linea as "Agostino Lagostina, a sharp little man with a truly expressive nose." After the 8th episode, however, the series broke its association with Lagostina.

From 1972 on La Linea was shown on numerous TV stations in Europe as well as in cinema, mostly as interstitial between commercials. La Linea was shown in more than 40 countries over the world. The series won prizes 1972 in Annecy and 1973 in Zagreb.

In the United States, the cartoons were featured on the children's TV series The Great Space Coaster, although La Linea was given different names by the show's characters, Roy and Goriddle Gorilla, before the cartoon was played. Not all La Linea cartoons were featured on this show as a few of them featured some rather suggestive content that children would not have understood. In 2005, the video for the Jamiroquai song (Don't) Give Hate a Chance paid homage to La Linea. The video is an animated commentary on the War on Terrorism and features 3D representations of the familiar La Linea character, as well as the animator's hand and pencil. A similar concept was used in the final introduction for the British version of Whose Line is it Anyway? Cavandoli drew La Linea for the last time, just before his death, for use in advertisements of an Icelandic bank called Kaupthing.

A set of 3 DVDs with all episodes was released in Germany in 2003 (but seems to be out of print now), and the first volume was recently released in France and Serbia.

How to write a Fugue (the bullshit subject Britney Spears Edition)

2007-04-25T22:21:00.000+02:00

Fugue is a type of contrapuntal composition or compositional technique, for a specific number of parts or voices (referred to as "voices" regardless of whether the work is vocal or instrumental). The form evolved during the 17th century from several earlier types of contrapuntal compositions (imitative ricercars, capriccios, canzonas, fantasias, etc.).

One main theme (the "subject") sounds in successive imitation in each voice; when each voice has entered, the exposition is complete. This is usually followed by a connecting passage, (usually termed an episode) often developed from the opening material and further "entries" of the subject (in related keys). Episodes and entries will alternate until the "final entry" of the subject, in the same key as the opening (the tonic), followed by a coda. In this sense, fugue is a style, rather than fixed structure, of composition, and though there are certain established practices, in writing the exposition for example, composers approach the style with varying degrees of freedom and individuality.

The English term fugue originates in the 16th century and is derived from either the French or Italian fuga, which in turn comes from Latin, also fuga, which is itself related to both fugere (‘to flee’) and fugare, (‘to chase’). The adjectival form is fugal. Variants include fughetta (literally, 'a small fugue') and fugato (a passage in fugal style within another work that is not a fugue).

Liked it? Write comment and ask for more.

The nude in art (and it`s censorship)

2007-04-18T23:30:00.000+02:00

It has been a consistent theme and subject throughout the history of fine art. Be it religious art or portraiture, the naked human form has always fascinated mankind, and been one of the enduring subjects of art. Many of the masterpieces of fine art have featured the nude – and many were facing numerous attempts of censorship.

Consider Michelangelo’s fresco in the Sistine Chapel – The Last judgement, the Christian history of the world. Pushed by the pope in his young age he created a most controversial work to date and was as much condemned (for its nudity) as it was praised (for its artistry). After the death of Michelangelo, the fresco was nearly destroyed, but the Church authorities settled for Daniele da Volterra painting draperies over the offending nudity.

Another case is Gustave Courbet. On January 1864 he embarked on a large-scale figure painting destined for the upcoming Salon. Writing to the dealer J. Luquet, he described the work as „two nude woman, life size, and painted in a manner that you have never seen me do.“ In later letters he suggested that he might call it Venus in Jealous Pursuit of Psyche. But in April, when he submitted it to the Salon, he gave it the neutral title Etude de femmes, or study of Women, which allowed for a maximum freedom of interpretation. The painting, which has since disappeared, was after some apparent disagreement between the jury and the Count de Nieuwerkerke, superintendent of the Fine Arts Administration, barren from the Salon for reasons of immorality.

Today we witness quite the same attitude towards works of art featuring nudity as before. A few days ago a midnight marauder had censored the sculptures scattered through Oslo's Vigeland Sculpture Park. With the exception of one lone figure, every scrap of nipple, crotch or posterior was covered with black strips of paper, no matter the size nor position of the statue.

The unknown assailant left an explanatory note behind: "There is too much nudity in newspapers and magazines, so here on the bridge the limit has been reached!"

Young blood

2007-04-10T22:41:00.000+02:00

Do you like it? Are you attracted by it`s colour or smell? In that case it is flowing just for you – so enjoy it. Place of the feast: Bratislava, Palffy palace, Panska Street. It`s oveflowing in big streams there.

Juraj Puchovský, Michaela Nociarová-Rázusová, Petra Ševčíková, Ildikó Pálová, Igor Ondruš, Jozef Srna, Rastislav Podoba, Katarína Balážová, Ivona Žirková, Monika Hrachovinová, Ján Vasilko and others.

Miscellaneous blood group, blood young but not always fresh. The paintings of the young Slovak generation, sometimes just applying the colour on the suraface only. However, the last of the Mohicans acknowledging any value of painting today. I like the painting. As a vampire and not only during the nights.

I really like the blood of Jozef Srna (please, take notice, that here is the end of any objective coverage and begins the personal opinion), his clouds and skies in variety of forms, portrait or excelently executed figure. Jozef is cool guy and I am his fan. Maybe once I will bring you an interview with him (if he is willing to talk).

I spent a longer time by figural paintings of J. Puchovsky, I cought resonation of the courage to present a man, who quite often keeps his mouth open.

K. Balazova is exhibiting an interiors, they remind me of my recent workshop I inhabited. Doors by doors, the walls by side and some windows there. I like these forms.

The painting with good point – The eye of a prophet from R. Podoba. Great space to interpret, the mirror to the future or past. Rooted nowadays.

There was as well quite an interesting portrait Behind glass-glazing. I. Žirková.

And than The way to hell by I. Ondrus. Sometimes I think of similair paintings as of cliché. Kind of moralistic approach. I really keep distance from such a works of art, but maybe Ondrus is a different case. Come, see it yourself and make your judgement.

What the staff of the gallery thinks about the exhibition? A young man in basement definitely recognizes as a best painting the Highway to hell. He hopes it does not reflect the reality. „Some of the paintings are more interesting and some of them less. Some of them would attract children. But I think, everybody can find his cup of tea here."

Conclusion: there is a quotation on the painting of Vasilko: „Once the art will be as a hockey“. I have a feeling it already is. Most important is the tension, violence and „the young blood“.

PS: Please, leave the message of being here and reading this article. The exhibition „Young blood“ is open untill 6. may 2007.

Van Leyden

2007-04-08T01:16:00.000+02:00

It happens sometimes. Quite unexpectedly. At an unexpected place. You anticipate an ordinary day. Then it comes. A revelation. A blow directly amid of your forehead. It hapened to me last time, when I visited National Gallery in Bratislava. The show “Flying Dutchmen” knocked me down on my knees, namely the energy shock represented by the etching of Lucas Van Leyden, which he created when he was only 14.

Just try to imagine – you are amidst of quantum etchings and woodcuts, 15 – 17 century, by itself you expect balanced works of old masters, aged and experienced men. You are ready to see Rembrandts, (eventhough they do not present the best ones), you can bear the shivering caused by the splendid harmony of the black and white kingdom of beauty.

And then suddenly – a big bang! In front of you there is a finest etching you ever saw, sensitive array of lines, a unique harmony of composition and relationship of light and obscure parts. Something really outstanding among the number of other sheets of paper:

Saint Paul Led Away to Damascus, 1509

Yes, 14 years old. This child really brought me down. With the innocent smile of confident yobbo he brought down as well all other etchings and engravings exhibited there, or which I ever saw (except of the Rembrandts and Dürers, whom he is boldly breathing on neck).

He was the pupil of his father, from whose hand no works are known. Where he learnt engraving is unknown, but he was highly skilled in that art at a very early age: the earliest known print by him (Mohammed and the Murdered Monk) dates from 1508, when he was perhaps only 14, yet reveals no trace of immaturity in inspiration or technique.

Milkmaid, 1510

Untill today I cannot completely cope with the fact, that in so early age that extremly skilled guy created works of art, which cannot be compared with any other for the next 500 (and more) years, and you can find better pieces only among Rembrandts or Dürers. Would you like to see it? Try New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Poet Virgil Suspended in a Basket, 1525

Leonardo the recordman

2007-04-06T23:01:00.000+02:00

I used to spend a lot of time in bookstores. I like to touch the books, smell and heft them, browse through the pages. Once I found a large book about Leonardo da Vinci, I could n`t raise it up so easily. It is a half-meter long and the weight is a few kilogramms. Complete set of the Leonardo`s works, including drawings and notebooks. Here I discovered his unbeaten historical record.

Well, the book was nice, the chapters were sorted perfectly, and while looking through the part with oilpaintings, I realised that. Just take a book with complete list of Leonardo`s oilpaintings and you will see it too. Count them. All together, the 500 years of history knows only twenty Leonardo`s oilpaintings. Two of them are unfinished, just in the state of a sketch, as an underpainting.

Twenty oilpaintings. Only that preserved, but probably he did not paint much more. Here I realised it. I am not fond of that kind of conclusions, because to tell that Leonardo is better than Rembrandt is not serious. Actually, you cannot compare the masters on that level. Nevertheless, generally Leonardo is refered to as a greatest painter of the history, not a physician or scientist. We cannot deny the fact that most people consider him the best one. We cannot explain enough, why Mona Lisa is so famous, while there are many great portraits from Titian, Vélazquéz or Ingres, not to mention Picasso.

It is difficult to understand that phenomenon. After 500 years, Leonardo is still No1. Moreover, he made it with twenty oilpaintings. Comparing the number of paintings, Vermeer is close with about 40 ones. No drawings are known, unlike Leonardo. However, his fame cannot be compared. Regarding the fame, Raphael could compete, but the number of his paintings is much larger. Picasso, who in 500 years might be as famous as Leonardo, left several thousends of paintings.

Simply said, nobody can compete with Leonardo the recordman. If you wish to beat him, you have to be equally famous for at least next 500 years with less than twenty paintings. Good luck.

The Death of Tchaikovsky - A Sherlock Holmes Mystery

2007-02-14T16:05:00.000+01:00

Do you think you know all about Sherlock Holmes? Did you ever reconsidered the interpretation of Tchaikovsky‘s death?

Forget it. The source is open. Think of the following story:

Death of Tchaikovsky in mysterious circumstances in St Petersburg in 1893 coincides exactly with the period when Sherlock Holmes had gone off incognito on his travels after „disappearing“ in the Reichenbach Falls. One of the countries he visited was Russia. Tchaikovsky witnessed the fight between Moriarty and Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls - becomming the only witness of the fact that it was not Moriarty that perished in the Falls, but Holmes! Moriarty then adopts Holmes‘s persona and goes travelling - with main purpose to track down the one witness, Tchaikovsky, and eliminate him. This he does successfully in 1893 ...

Funny? Interesting? Read more in Miles Kington‘s column.

Cartoons 1

2007-01-20T21:32:00.000+01:00

First set of cartoons by Michal Šplho. I have much more to show. Just make sign of your interest.

Watch the masters in action

2007-01-19T20:31:00.000+01:00

A selection of videos with Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, David Hockney.

Pablo Picasso

Musée Picasso

Pablo Picasso : Guernica

Zabludovsky entrevista a Dalí Parte I

Zabludovsky entrevista a Dalí Parte II

Zabludovsky entrevista a Dalí Parte III

Dalí film director

Jackson Pollock 51

Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol 01-2 (1966)

David Hockney