30 March 2006

Gallery

Thanks to visitors who left notes about their favourite paintings and artists.

To the left we have Vermeer's "Woman With A Water Jug" selected by Alkelda the Gleeful. This beautifully composed, tranquil and exquisitely painted canvas hangs in the New York Metropolitan Museum. Jan Vermeer of Delft in Holland created the picture in the winter of 1664/65.
Next in line is a sample painting by H.R. Geiger - an artist admired by Yorkshire Soul. This particular canvas is called "The Spell II". It seems that Geiger specialised in often rather dark flights of fantasy which have won him something of a cult following. His images are sometimes found on skateboards.

Next there's a sample painting by the Boston-trained Chinese-American artist Zhuo S. Liang - a painter put forward by Crabcake. This piece is simply called "Seated Nude" and it hints at the precise graphical style that has won this artist so many admirers in east coast American board rooms where his heavily price-tagged pictures may often be found.

And finally for my southern friend "By George" who used to teach Art History, there's an example painting by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - "David" holding the severed head of Goliath. Caravaggio was a very influential artist in his day, leading the development of a uniquely baroque style and challenging Italian notions of what painting should be with his new takes on old themes.

Good art both helps us to reflect upon life and enhances it. In appreciating paintings we should find our own paths, our own preferences, learning to look with an open heart and an open mind, glorying not just in the techniques and the patience of the artist but also in the vision, the meaning and the socio-historical milieu from which each canvas has grown. Oh shit...I'm sounding like a boring art historian... Wake up at the back!
The latest addition to my online art gallery was suggested by "Steve". It's Gino Severin's "Sea Dancer" painted as early as 1914 - as World War I broke out in Europe. This is an abstract painting ahead of its time in which bold colour, texture and movement hint at the rowdy and unpredictable power of both the sea and of humanity as we strode confidently into a new century, masters of our planet.

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for that dose of culture. Took me out of meself. I love Gino Severin's "Sea Dancer" 1914.

    It's on my blog somewhere but here's a link:

    http://static.flickr.com/25/44294023_7bce62b8d8_o.jpg

    I'm back in the world but not blogging yet. Thanks for your kind words.

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  2. Caravaggio was also quite the rounder as we say in the South. Jail.. he actually was accused of murder once.

    I love Geiger, Sci Fi art in particular, I have a couple of prints. I used to get to go to Sci Fi conventnions quite a bit and usually bought prints while there. Actually met my husband at a Sci Fi con.

    thank you for the great post. I was actually going to post some today, but got side tracked...

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  3. You sound like me.. I started every Art History class and Art Appreciation class with this line.

    Art effects each and every one of us. Everything you wear, sit in, live in, everything you buy, watch on television was created by an artist.

    I wanted them to understand that art is not just what is hanging on a museum wall. It's all over.

    I think a good many of the got it. Some just never do... *shrug*.

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  4. Anonymous2:19 am

    Hmmmm, I may steal this idea, modify it somewhat, and put it on my own blog. :)

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  5. It's strange but that Severin is nearly 100 years old and yet it is still refarded as "modern".

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  6. I did, of course, mean "regarded

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  7. "Refarded" seems like a good word to me. To refard means to make a cock up when typing an online message or comment. I have refarded on many occasions myselz!

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  8. I am somewhat of a palestinian..., err, philipino..., umm, dolt, when it comes to art, but I can still remember the day I first saw Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock, more than thirty years ago. I've never been so affected by a painting since.

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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