Mona Lisa Crush

Why do we do it? Is it because of the clever marketing? The fact that the portrait is the work of Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest artists of all time? The enigmatic smile, perhaps? Or because if you are visiting the Louvre in Paris, the visit would be incomplete without going to see the Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo (to give the portrait its full title)?

I read somewhere that it has been estimated that most visitors lining up to see the Mona Lisa spend as little as 15 seconds in front of the painting. Fifteen seconds! I don’t know if there is any truth to that claim, but certainly virtually no-one has time to linger more than a few minutes before her. The crush of bodies, the raised cameras, the ridiculous selfie poses struck by gawking teenagers and adults who should know better, and the constant attention and wariness of security guards, all combine to make any visit to the Mona Lisa one of the least enjoyable experiences of any trip to the Louvre.

Besides, the painting is hardly on the grand size. At just 77 cm by 53 cm (30 inches by 21 inches), Leonardo da Vinci’s masterwork is dwarfed by just about every other work of art inside the Louvre. This also makes the possibility of examining the painting closely a pretty much hopeless task—not that you can get that close to it anyway.

When I visited at the beginning of winter in December 2010, the lines to room 6, on the first floor of the Denon wing were thankfully short and the crowds almost thin. I hate to think what the queues must be like during July and August, the peak European tourist season.

If you really must go to see the Mona Lisa during your Parisian holiday, don’t be surprised if you come away from the experience disappointed by the whole circus surrounding this one painting. Instead, make up for any disappointment you feel by immersing yourself in the hundreds (in fact, thousands) of other fabulous art works to be seen and enjoyed, up close and at leisure in the same room and throughout the museum.

Once you have had your glimpse of Señora Gherardini, turn around and stand in awe, as I did, before a work of such monumental proportions that it is impossible not to be impressed by the size and scope of the work. This is Paolo Veronese’s, ‘The Wedding Feast at Cana’.

Where the Mona Lisa is 77cm x 53cm (30in x 21in), Veronese’s ‘Wedding Feast…’ is a massive 6.77 metres by 9.94 metres—or 22.2 feet high, and 32.6 feet long!

Click this link for full screen view of Wedding Feast at Cana... and make sure you use your mouse to zoom in for close up look at this masterpiece. 

Now here is a painting you can get lost in. Here is a work that demands the viewer stop, contemplate, examine, and marvel at Veronese’s vision. This is the work of a true master. Every wedding guest and attendant seems to have their own story to tell, with each either caught mid-sentence or in the act of performing some task (pouring wine, playing instruments, or serving guests). Even the gawkers hanging on to the columns of nearby building or crowding the balconies are filled with life and movement.

For my money, any number of other paintings at the Louvre are far more worthy of closer attention than Leonardo's Mona Lisa, and the placement of Veronese's monumental work on the wall directly opposite her, feels like a deliberate attempt by that institution's curators to show the thousands of daily visitors that there are other masterpieces in the building that are arguably more deserving of their attention.

New York City Arts Round-Up #3

Getting ready for the 2017 Open Studios program

Open Studios, 2017

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council was formed in 1973. I don’t know exactly when it began presenting its now annual Open Studios arts program, or their other major summer festival, the annual River to River music series, but both events provide much needed exposure to dozens of up-and-coming artists, dancers, writer’s and performers. While the River to River festival line-up is yet to be announced, the Open Studios season is begins this coming weekend (April 28-29, 2017), with Workspace Artists-in-Residence.

This free, two-day event shines a spotlight on the work of over 30 artists who are working across all disciplines and genres from painting and sculpture, to poetry and fiction, to dance and theater. The artists have been working in their studios at 28 Liberty Street since last September. They will open their studio doors to the public for two days only, offering a unique, behind-the-scenes window into their creative practices in the visual, literary, and performing arts. 

The opportunity to meet them and see their work is not to be missed. But this is just the beginning. LMCC will host Open Studios events from April through September—click here to see the full calendar of Open Studios this year—all of which are free and open to the public.

If You Go: Open Studios with Workspace Artists-in-Residence

WHERE: In The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Studios at 28 Liberty, 24th Floor.

WHEN: Friday, April 28, 2017 from 6:00–9:00pm

WHEN: Saturday, April 29, 2017 from 1:00–8:00pm

ONLINE: The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council...

"The Silence of High Noon — Midsummer," 1907–08. By Marsden Hartley

Marsden Harley at The Met Breuer

The Met Breuer presents Marsden Hartley’s paintings of his home state, Maine

Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), was an icon of American modernism, He was born in Lewiston, Maine, and died in Ellsworth. In the early 1900s, he painted the state’s western mountains in a Post-Impressionist style. In his later years, he aimed to do for Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park what Cézanne did for Mont Sainte-Victoire in Aix-en-Provence. For this exhibition, seven painted views, showing seasonal change, close the show and represent the culmination of a lifelong fascination.

In the 1930s, Hartley became increasingly aware of his legacy and strove to not just paint Maine but to “be recognized as Maine’s greatest modern interpreter,” the show’s co-curator, Randall Griffey, writes in the catalog.

The show at The Met Breuer is a hyper-local collection of rivers, hills, churches, logs and lobster traps. The mountainscapes — and logscapes — are characteristically devoid of people, unlike the Fuji views of Hartley’s heroes Hokusai and Hiroshige, which are sometimes peppered with small figures (eight gorgeous prints are on display).

If You Go

WHAT: “Marsden Hartley’s Maine”

WHERE: The Met Breuer, 945 Madison Ave., at 75th Street

WHEN: Through June 18, 2017

ONLINE: The Metropolitan Museum... 

Read more here…

Is Chinatown the next Chelsea?

Is Chinatown the New Arts District?

Lily Haight, posed the above question this week while writing for Chelsea News. 

Chelsea's gallery district has reigned as the heart of the city's contemporary art movement since the late 1990s. But could skyrocketing rents, coupled to the availability of cheaper options in other parts of the city, mean the district is losing some of its cachet with gallerists?

An August 2016 report by StreetEasy found that real estate prices near the High Line had increased by nearly 50 percent since the park's opening in 2011. Longtime Chelsea gallerists have recently made the move to the Lower East Side, and new galleries are skipping over Chelsea altogether and setting up shop downtown.

However, not everyone is happy with the prospect of Chinatown become the new Chelsea. 

According to the Chinatown Art Brigade's ManSee Kong, residents of Chinatown and the Lower East Side are concerned that the influx of galleries will gentrify the neighborhood and raise residential rents.

“Chinatown is a working-class, ethnic immigrant community. Folks depend on these kinds of immigrant enclaves as a social network of cultural and ethnic resources,” said Melanie Wang, who works as an organizer with the Chinatown Tenants Union. “When galleries come in and are displacing businesses that provide those services and those employment opportunities, it represents a significant threat to the fabric of Chinatown's social community.”

Read the full article here…

Untitled. c.1968, by Alma Woodsey Thomas. In MoMA's current exhibition, Making Space. 

Not Only — But Also in April

• NYCGO’s recommendations…
• The Village Voice recommendations…
• From the New York Times, and Art and Museums in NYC This Week
• And finally, The New Yorker magazine round-up of Art, Music, and Broadway Events in New York City…

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

Tree form (detail).
Click here to see the full work... 

During my stay in Melbourne in January, I paid a visit (as I always do), to the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia (the initials stand for National Gallery of Victoria).

This is one of the great Australian galleries, and its proximity to Federation Square and the heart of downtown Melbourne ensures that there is a constant stream of local and international visitors strolling the centre's wonderful galleries and excellent exhibitions. Entry to the general collection is free, while special exhibitions require paid entry.

The Ian Potter Centre is home to some of the most iconic works of Australian art from many of the country's most celebrated artists. Here you will find Russell Drysdale, Albert Tucker, Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts and many others.

Collins St, 5p.m. (detail).
Click here to see the full work...

"In the early 1950s John Brack adopted Melbourne's urban environment as his subject, recording the shops, bars and workplaces of the city with an ironic edge. In Collins St, 5pm, Brack's depicts Melbourne's financial hub at the end of the working day, it's uniformly dressed office workers streaming homeward. By personalising each figure Brack points to the enduring presence of the individual."

"Shearing the rams, (see image below) by Tom Roberts, is a response to the nationalistic sentiment that developed in Australia during the late 19th century. It reflects the emergence of a national identity defined through heroic rural activity and the economic importance of the wool industry.

The painting is based on a number of preliminary sketches that Roberts completed on the spot at Brocklesby Station, Corowa, New South Wales, in the late spring of 1888. He returned during the following two spring periods (shearing season) to work on the painting."

Jarlu Jukarrpa (detail).
Click here to see the full work...

Paddy Japaljarri Stewart was an Australian Aboriginal artist from Yuendumu, in the Northern Territory. Wikipedia provides this introduction to Mr. Stewart:

Paddy Japaljarri Stewart (circa 1940–2013) was an Australian Aboriginal artist from Mungapunju, south of Yuendumu. He was chairman of the Warlukurlangu Artists Committee. Stewart was one of the artists who contributed to the Honey Ant Dreaming mural on the Papunya school wall in 1971 - the very genesis of the modern Aboriginal art movement.

In 2004 Stuart Macintyre wrote in a A concise history of Australia that Paddy Japaljarri Stewart "...evokes the continuity of dreaming from Grandfather and father to son and grandson, down the generations and across the passages of time..."

Lost (detail).
Click here to see the full work...

"The theme of the lost child in the bush had a long literary and artistic tradition in Australia and was still topical during the 1880s. Lost was the first of Frederick McCubbin's 'national' pictures: paintings of Australian subjects which culminated in 1904 with The pioneer."

There is much to see and enjoy here, and the Ian Potter Centre is one place I make sure I visit over and over again whenever I am in Melbourne. Don’t miss it.

* * *

Location:
Federation Square: Cnr Russell and Flinders Streets
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 
Ph: +61 3 8620 2222
Online at Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia... 

* * *

Shearing the rams (detail).
Click here to see the full work...

Note: unless otherwise noted, text in italics indicates content adapted from the information cards placed alongside each of the above works of art in the Ian Potter Centre.

Metropolitan Museum (NYC) Free Publications

Screen shot of MetPublications Portal

During my 2010 visit to New York City, I paid a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (colloquially called the ‘Met’), and made a point of visiting The Cloisters, that branch of the Met Museum devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. The Cloisters was a short 10-15 minute walk from where I was staying in Washington Heights. I wrote about that visit here, so I won’t cover old ground today. Instead I wanted to let you know about a treasure trove of online publications that all art lovers, visitors to New York, and New Yorkers themselves will surely want to explore further.

Like the online publications collection available at the Getty Museum website, the Metropolitan Museum has also made available hundreds of publications through their own online portal via the MetPublications section of the website.

About MetPublications

MetPublications is a portal to the Met's comprehensive publishing program with 1,500 titles, including books, online publications, and Bulletins and Journals from the last five decades. Current book titles that are in-print may be previewed and fully searched online, with a link to purchase the book. The full contents of almost all other book titles may be read online, searched, or downloaded as a PDF. For the Met's Bulletin, all but the most recent issue can be downloaded as a PDF. For the Met's Journal, all individual articles and entire volumes can be downloaded as a PDF.

I don’t know about you, dear reader, but when 1,500 publications from one of the world’s leading art institutions are made freely available to anyone with an internet connection, that constitutes a real treasure trove. Back in 2010, I was completely unaware of this resource, and anyway I didn’t have an iPad which would help me make the most of that knowledge―even if I did know about MetPublications. However, now I do have an iPad, and I do know about the Getty Museum publications and those from the Met Museum, so lately I have been making up for lost time by downloading and reading some of the catalogues and bulletins from both organizations. By the way, you don't need an eReader to access these publications, they can be downloaded to your laptop or desktop computer as well.

The Unicorn Tapestries

Which brings me back to my visit to The Cloisters. There are some unique and priceless works of art on display in The Cloisters, and probably none more so than the seven Gothic Unicorn Tapestries the building is famous for. I was familiar with the tapestries (which depict the Hunt For The Unicorn) in a very general way, and as much as I enjoyed seeing them, my visit suffered from a lack of real knowledge about the background and history of these magnificent works. Even worse, I had absolutely no way of ‘reading’ or understanding the importance of the hundreds of individual images woven on to these treasures.

Thankfully, all that changed after I discovered MetPublications and the numerous catalogues and bulletins available there that examine the Unicorn Tapestries in great detail.

I know, I know, you could argue this information came four years too late, but when I return to New York City next year, and return again to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and to The Cloisters, I can assure you I will be much more knowledgeable and informed, not only about the tapestries, but about many other works of art, and the buildings that house them.

I will review some of the publications I have downloaded at a future date. In the meantime, why not check out both the Getty Museum and The Met Museum, and see what exciting treasures you can discover for yourself.

Getty Museum Free Virtual Library

Here’s  one for the booklovers.

This image crossed my ‘desk’ via my Facebook page, and not only did I have to check out the free books for myself, but I also had to share the good news here.

The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center, in Brentwood, and Getty Villa in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.

Like all major museums, the Getty produces exhibition catalogues and art books focussing on specific areas of their massive collection. The museum also publishes on a regular basis the J. Paul Getty Museum Journal. The free publications available through the museum site includes all three publication types as well as symposium papers and other material.

All of the books are available as PDF downloads only, which means the content of each has a fixed format. The downside of this is that the text can not be enlarged or reduced in size to assist reading, but hopefully this is a small price to pay for having access to an amazing range of wonderful publications. You can also read the books online, although this is probably not the best way to read them. However, you might do as I did, and check out titles of interest online first, and then download those books that interest you the most.

If you are interest in art, check out the free collection at the Getty Museum site…

More Information

The Getty Museum...
Getty Museum FreePublications...

Melbourne, Fourth Time Around

Actually, I have lost count of the number times I have been to Melbourne in the past five years. It is at least four times but it could be my fifth or sixth visit. But hey, who’s counting, right? Each time I have come here to house sit for friends, who take the opportunity to enjoy a summer break elsewhere.

Each time I come back, I like to return to locations I have enjoyed on previous visits. Places like the Melbourne Museum, the ArtsCentre, the National Gallery of Victoria, ACMI (the Australian Centre for the Moving Image) at Federation Square, and of course many other places.

HOTHAM STREET LADIES

This time my first trip into the city took me as always, to Federation Square, and since it was Saturday, I went straight to the Atrium where every Saturday numerous booksellers from around the city display their second hand titles to a constant flow of willing buyers and interested browsers. Right next to the Atrium is the Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria, Australia. I popped into the gallery, but decided not to do the rounds of the various exhibition halls. I confined myself to several large, colourful installations on display in the foyer of the gallery. These sat under the collective title: At Home with the Hotham Street Ladies. The installations were created by five female artists who go under the name, Hotham Street Ladies.

Above: A typical suburban lounge room setting with a difference. Each of the major pieces of furniture are here adorned with individually hand crafted icing fashioned to resemble pieces of pizza (and the box the pizza came in), cigarette butts, home furnishings, and other items.

Above: What appears to be a multicoloured floor covering on closer inspection (below) is an installation consisting of thousands of individually placed elements ‘woven’ together from ordinary icing coloured to give the impression of carpet fibre.

In an artist statement on display at the exhibition the group state: “We like to make art that is interesting, funny and even a little bit disgusting. We take old fashioned activities such as cake decorating and handicrafts, and make them fresh and new.“ The statement goes on to explain that the work was inspired by the house they used to share in Hotham Street, Collingwood.

Above: I particularly liked this installation, because it reminded me of the many family gatherings  which always left assorted crockery and tables covered with the detritus of long, wholesome, home cooked meals. Incredibly, all the ‘food’ on the table is made from coloured icing.

Above: The title board for the installation consists of hundreds of small icing sugar candies (see detail below) that are literally good enough to eat. One can only wonder at the patience and fortitude of the artists as they slowly and methodically created each piece of icing, hand coloured it, and carefully attached every piece in place.

The installation is on display until March 2014. I wonder if we are allowed to eat the icing once the exhibition is over?

More Information

Hotham Street Ladies…

Hotham Street Ladies Blog…

National Gallery of Victoria…

Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, France

I visited the Musée de l’Orangerie, in Paris during my stay in the ‘City of Lights’, in December 2010. The Museum is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, located on the banks of the Seine in the old orangery of the Tuileries Palace, on the Place de la Concorde near the Concorde metro station.

I first encountered two of Monet’s magnificent Water Lily masterpieces when visiting the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Although I had seen photographs of some of these paintings often enough, nothing prepared me for the sheer joy I experienced standing before these masterpieces of shadow, light and colour.

Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840 on the fifth floor of 45, rue Laffitte, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature. The term Impressionism, is derived from the title of his painting: Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant).

Beginning in the 1880s and 1890s through the end of his life in 1926, Monet worked on several "series" paintings, in which his subject matter was depicted in varying light and weather conditions. Using his own gardens (with their water lilies, pond, and bridge as inspiration), Monet’s Water Lilies date from this period.

In 1922, Claude Monet signed a contract donating the Nymphéas series of decorative panels to the French government. With input from Monet, the Nymphéas were arranged on the ground floor of the Orangerie in 1927. The eight paintings are displayed in two oval rooms, and are viewed under direct diffused light as was originally intended by Monet.

In what I can only assume is a very unconventional method of mounting the paintings, the eight massive canvases have been glued directly to the walls.

Monet died of lung cancer on 5 December 1926 at the age of 86, and is buried in the Giverny church cemetery. His home, garden and water lily pond were bequeathed by his son Michel, to the French Academy of Fine Arts in 1966. Through the Claude Monet Foundation, the house and gardens have been open for visits since 1980, and are a ‘must see’ for all devotees of Monet’s work.

According to the museum's website, the Orangerie was originally built in 1852 to shelter the orange trees of the garden of the Tuileries. Today, while it is most famous for being the permanent home for eight Water Lilies murals by Claude Monet, the Musée de l’Orangerie also contains works by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri Rousseau among others.

Here is a brief look at some of those magnificent works of art:

More Information

Wikipedia... 

Musee de l'Orangerie... 

Art: Ballroom

~ During my three week house sitting stint in Melbourne over January, I frequently found myself hanging out at the city’s Federation Square. The square has become the active heart of Melbourne with some type of event, or events taking place there throughout the summer, and at other times of the year.

While I was there, a major installation, Ballroom, attracted much attention from visitors and locals alike. The installation was created by American artist, Patrick Dougherty, who bends, weaves, snags and flexes a humble pile of sticks to create works of art that are inseparable from nature and landscape. Over the last twenty five years, Dougherty has build more than two hundred works throughout the Untied States, Canada, Europe and Asia, with every piece mesmerising in its ability to fly through trees, overtake buildings, and virtually defy gravity.

In addition to freestanding structures, Patrick’s art functions just as easily as adornments. What shape the works take, depends very much on the site and methodology used.

The work took three weeks, or 2000 hours, to build with the help of 70 volunteers. In part inspired by the architecture of Flinders Street Station, Patrick named this piece, Ballroom.

Speaking about the installation, Patrick had this to say: “I think that a good sculpture is one that evokes in the viewer a wealth of personal associations. My viewers see stick castles, lairs, nests, architectural follies; and they remember moments in the woods building forts and hide outs.

I hear stories about the Garden of Eden, favourite trees, and secrets about first dates. Some viewers touch the surfaces and talk about the momentum of wind of other forces of the natural world. Most important, people love to explore strange shapes and hidden spaces, particularly if they encounter them in unlikely spots. I like to see children running towards the openings and people standing on the street and pointing. I like to spark people’s imaginations and connect them with nature in a surprising way.”

Here is a brief video I shot of the installation during my stay:

More information:

Federation Square... 

Zuccotti Park, New York City

Mark di Suvero's, Joie de Vivre

On both my trips to New York City in 2008 and 2010, I have at various times found myself wandering through Zuccotti Park. Strictly speaking, it is more of a plaza than a traditional park, and in fact it used to be known as Liberty Plaza Park. Created in 1968, the park was one of the few open spaces with tables and seats in the Financial District. It is located just one block from the World Trade Center. Following the events of September 11, 2001 it was left covered with debris, and subsequently used as a staging area during the ensuing recovery efforts.

As part of the Lower Manhattan rebuilding efforts, the park (renamed Zuccotti Park in honor of John E. Zuccotti, a former City Planning Commission chairman),  reopened on June 1, 2006, after an $8 million renovation which involved regrading the area, the planting of numerous trees, and the reintroduction of tables and public seating.

The park is home to two sculptures: Joie de Vivre by Mark di Suvero, and Double Check, a bronze businessman sitting on a bench, by John Seward Johnson II.

Double Check, John Seward Johnson

When I first saw Johnson’s life sized statue of a businessman sitting on a bench, I was some distance away. Initially, I thought the figure was one of those ‘human statues’ that can be seen in many major cities around the world. You know the sort I mean: they cover their clothing in paint, strike a fancy pose, and only move if you put a coin or two in their tip jar.

On closer inspection, I realised that this incredibly life-like figure was forged in bronze. Apparently, the artist John Seward Johnson II, uses casts of real people as the basis of his work, which accounts for the realism of his sculptures.

Double Check, John Seward Johnson

Joie de Vivre, seen below and in the top image, is a 70-foot-tall sculpture by Mark di Suvero. The work, consisting of bright-red beams, was installed in Zuccotti Park in 2006, having been moved from its original location in the Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY.

Mark di Suvero's, Joie de Vivre

Of course, since I was last in New York City, and by extension Zuccotti Park, the area has become known around the world as the location of the "Occupy Wall Street" protest which began on September 17, 2011. It will be interesting to see if the OWS protests are still taking place when I visit New York again over the summer of 2012.

Here is a short video I shot during my April, 2008 visit to the park.

...

A Master Class in Animation From Terry Gilliam

Open Culture has fast become one of my favourite online sites. There is so much great information on there that I find myself regularly sharing interesting links and content through these pages.

Today’s Viewing List includes another nod to Open Culture for bringing the inimitable Terry Gilliam to my attention. Terry, you should know, is the legendary animator with the Monty Python team (and if you don’t know who they are, you should hang your head in shame).

Gilliam was born in Medicine Lake, Minnesota, and began his career as an animator and strip cartoonist, and went on to become a highly regarded screenwriter, film director, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. To name just a handfull, among his many directorial credits are Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), The Fisher King (1991), 12 Monkeys (1995), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). Since this is a travel site, embedded here is a video of Gilliam’s 1974 animation, The Miracle of Flight.

If you are tempted to try making your own animations, the following 14+ minute video shows you how to make your own cut-out animations.



Thanks to Biblioklept and Open Culture for bringing this to our attention.

Friday Fotos – Moon Lantern Festival

...

The Moon Lantern Festival is held as part of the annual OzAsia Festival which takes place every spring in Adelaide, Australia under the direction of the Adelaide Festival Centre. The OzAsia Festival celebrates the diversity of Asian life – from the Indian subcontinent, to Japan, China and Korea, and South-East Asia and Indonesia (and a multitude of places in between).

The OzAsia Festival and the Moon Lantern Festival are great examples of how our communities are exploring the links between Australia and our neighbours in the Asian region.

...

...

The Moon Lantern Festival takes place each year when the moon shines brightest – at the time of the full moon on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. This festival celebrates the South-East Asian belief that the moon provides positive influences over the earth during this time of the year.

The Festival brings together families to enjoy the beauty of the moon, eat moon cakes, sing songs about the moon and take pleasure in each other’s company to celebrate this special event.

For Australia, the countries of the Asian region are of critical importance. They are our closest neighbours and major trading partners. Their rich traditional and contemporary cultures provide opportunities for our social, creative and intellectual development.

...

...

The Moon Lantern Festival is celebrated by many Asian cultures including Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Laotians, Cambodians, Koreans, Japanese, Indonesians, Malaysians and Singaporeans. For many Asian cultures, the Moon Lantern Festival is the most important date in the second half of the lunar calendar and has been celebrated for thousands of years.

In Australia ‘mid autumn’ is early spring, so the first full moon of the new season is a important time, when winter is behind us and the energy of summer is on the horizon. People celebrate the beauty of the moon at public celebrations across Australia, as well as in backyards, with lanterns and moon cakes.

...

...

In Vietnam the Moon Lantern Festival is one of the most popular family holidays, while in Korea the festival occurs during the harvest season when Korean families thank their ancestors for providing them with rice and fruits. The Japanese too celebrate the full moon in September, admiring the moons beauty and praying for a good rice harvest.

...

...

And yes, despite a day of clouds and overcast skies, the full moon did make an appearance right on queue, soon after the sun set in the west and the Moon Lantern Festival got underway.

-o0o-

Things You Discover Walking - Vertical Carpet

Vertical Carpet, Stephen Killick, 1990

Stephen Killick's 1990 work, Vertical Carpet (hardwood, industrial resin, 230 x 440 x 20 cm), graces the exterior wall of the Adelaide Festival Centre close to the main entrance.

Close up of Vertical Carpet, Stephen Killick, 1990

A plaque attached to the wall close to the work states: The three central figures in this allegorical relief sculpture are intended to symbolise technology, money and innocence, which the artist regards as the controlling influences in contemporary society. Killick stated that the wider meaning of the tableau is deliberately enigmatic and open to individual interpretation, intended to have infinite readings. The figures assume attitudes that are readily identifiable, but their relationship to each other and the scene as a whole is affected and determined by the course of history.

The work was commissioned by the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust in 1990. Assisted by the Art for Public Places Program of the South Australian Government.

Close up of Vertical Carpet, Stephen Killick, 1990

Stephen Killick was born in London in 1947, and came to Australia in 1952.

This post is another in an occasional series of entries under the general theme: Things You Discover Walking. The premise behind the series is that you never know what might be just around the corner from your home, place of work, or favourite attraction, and the only way you might discover them is if you get out of your car and start walking.

-o0o-



Rabindranath Tagore Exhibition, NYC

The Asia Society Museum in New York City is presenting an exhibition of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s paintings and drawings.

Titled, Rabindranath Tagore: The Last Harvest, the exhibition marks the 150th anniversary of Tagore’s birth, and is the first U.S. museum exhibition devoted to his artistic legacy. The exhibition comprises more than 60 works on paper, drawn from three collections in India.

The exhibition runs September 9 through December 31, 2011.

While I have a large volume of the collected works of Tagore’s poetry, which includes many illustrations, I must admit to being pretty much in the dark about his career as an artist. In deed, Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) is lauded around the world as a poet and writer, yet few outside India (including myself) know that he was also a highly regarded visual artist.

A transformative figure in the modern cultural history of India, Tagore began painting in 1924 at the age of 63 (there’s hope for me yet!). He had no formal training, but his artistic practice grew from his habits as a writer and poet, with revision marks and scratched out words on his manuscripts becoming free-form doodles.

He was encouraged to pursue art by his friend Victoria Ocampo, an Argentinian socialite and poet. With Ocampo’s help, Tagore mounted the first exhibition of his artwork in Paris in May 1930. The show then travelled to Europe, Russia and the United States, earning him much critical acclaim. He continued to paint until his death at the age of 80 in 1941.

Exhibition organization
The exhibition is divided into four thematic sections. A section titled The Beginning looks at the origins and development of his drawing and painting. Beyond the Pages explores Tagore’s landscape paintings. Discovery of Rhythm considers how his creative work in other fields, particularly music and dance, enabled Tagore to project movement and gestures into pattern, forms and fields of color in his drawings and paintings. The Faces of the World section explores Tagore’s representation of the human face, the most frequently recurring form in his painting.

About Tagore’s lifeBorn in 1861 to a wealthy and prominent Bengali family, Rabindranath Tagore published his first poetry collection at the age of 17. He attended school at the University College of London in 1878, but soon returned to India to manage his father’s agricultural estates. As Tagore’s fame grew in the West, he remained devoted to political and social progress in his home state of Bengal.

Tagore received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913—the first non-European to win the prize—for the English translation of his work Gitanjali. In 1915 he was knighted by the British government, but later renounced this title in protest of British involvement in the massacre of civilians in Punjab.

Rabindranath Tagore was a passionate advocate for the abolition of the caste system and for Indian independence, and he became good friends with Mohandas Gandhi, whom he was first to dub Mahatma (“great soul”). He wrote the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh. He died in 1941 without seeing an independent India.

Unfortunately, I won’t be anywhere near New York for the remainder of 2011, so I won’t be able to visit this exhibition, or take part in other events planned around the exhibition. However, if you are lucky enough to live in New York City, or are planning a visit between now and the end of the year, why not take the time to check out this exhibition during its four month run.

For more information about programs visit Asia Society…

About Asia Society Museum
Asia Society Museum is located at 725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), New York City. The Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. and Friday from 11:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. Closed on Mondays and major holidays. General admission is $10, seniors $7, students $5 and free for members and persons under 16. Free admission Friday evenings, 6:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m. The Museum is closed Fridays after 6:00 p.m. from July 1 through September 15.

More Information
Rabindranath Tagore Exhibition…
Asia Society website…
Wikipedia…

-o0o-

Below you will find a selection of the many books by and about Tagore on Amazon.Com. Click on the images to go directly to the Amazon page to explore further.