mtanga

Archive: ART

>please note: some links may no longer be active.

Outstanding photojournalism

A remnant of the coastal highway in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, almost one year after the tsunami struck. View many more superb images at the National Press Photographers

Chernobyl, 20 years later

While the name of the city still evokes vague memories of the tragic event, photographer Robert Knoth provides perspective, and triggers an unavoidable, deep sadness with this series.

View the full set of photographs here

India, through the eyes of Major Edward Crichton Hawkshaw

Hawkshaw was a British army officer who served in India (among other places) during the late 1800's. He left a remarkable photographic record of his experiences, and the images have been made wonderfully accessible on the harappa.com site.

Many years ago, I took a fantastic trip to India, and spent seven months exploring the subcontinent. While I have yet to return, my interest hasn't waned, and I find resources such as this to be fascinating.

View the gallery here

An unusual intersection of art and business

[Artist] Carsten Höller has developed a unique work Hotel Room, which will be a permanent sculpture designed to be built in the water out from the shore. The piece has a striking visual appearance, which at a distance looks almost like a huge diamond or an ice crystal. The sculpture will be constructed from semi transparent glass and inside it will house a hotel room. Thus it will be possible to spend the night inside the sculpture with all facilities belonging to a normal hotel room. The difference is the fact that the walls, floor and ceiling will be transparent so that the overnight guests will experience the ocean and the surrounding nature intimately.

Read the full article here (thanks to thecoolhunter)

Graphic design, and the importance of the subject

Michael Bierut is one of the founding authors of a stimulating blog called Design Observer. He recently wrote a post about the importance of having an interest in, and understanding of the subject of one's graphic design. This may seem rather obvious, but as Michael explains it, one can easily imagine artists and designers making the mistake of being disengaged from their subject.

I was completely unfazed by the fact I knew nothing about Robert Wilson, John Rockwell, Einstein on the Beach,or Philip Glass. In my mind, they were all tangential to the real work ahead, which would simply be to lay out 75 photographs and 8,000 words of text over 112 pages in a way that would impress the likes of Milton Glaser. With single-minded obliviousness, I plunged ahead, got the job done, and was quite pleased with the results.

About a year after my disappointing meeting with the planners of the AIGA New York chapter, I finally saw my first Robert Wilson production. It was the Brooklyn Academy of Music's 1984 revival of Einstein on the Beach. And sitting there in the audience, utterly transported, it came crashing down on me: I had completely screwed up that catalog. Seen live, Wilson's work was epic, miraculous, hypnotic, transcendent. My stupid layouts were none of those things. They weren't even pale, dim echoes of any of those things. They were simply no more and no less than a whole lot of empty-headed graphic design. And graphic design wasn't enough. It never is.

Read the full post here

"Confidently Illiterate"

Gore Vidal elicits disparate, often strong reactions from people. No matter how one reacts to him, though, he is undeniably an interesting, accomplished man, whose bracingly honest observations on American culture and society are often worth considering.

Vidal was recently interviewed, and had this to say about Truman Capote:

Oh, Capote. [Sighs.] I spent half a century trying to avoid him, in life, and now suddenly I’m surrounded by him.

He was a pathological liar. He couldn’t tell the truth about anything, and he’d make it up as he went along. He always wore dark glasses, and his eyes would drop behind the dark glasses, and he would seem to be looking down at his nose, and then as he got more and more frenzied—the lies really very frenzied, they were orgasmic—you would start to see the eyes begin to roll up to see if you’d fallen for what he was saying.

And it was always about famous people, some he’d barely heard of before. I remember he told me once “I’m the American Proust.”

So I said, “So who’s your Mme Verdurin?”

“Who?”

He had not heard of one of Proust’s principle characters. He was confidently illiterate. It’s highly suitable that he would become iconic, because he didn’t know anything, and never told the truth. Doesn’t he fit in the age of Bush?

Read the full interview at truthdig.com

Klee in America

Paul Klee is unequivocally my favorite artist. Today's NY Times includes an article about Klee's rise to prominence in the U.S., and, whether you share my lofty opinion of him or not, you may find it to be interesting. Here's an excerpt:

FOR a long time the Swiss-born artist Paul Klee (1879-1940), regarded as a leading modernist figure in Europe, didn't believe his delicate, chimerical work had much of a future in the United States. In fact,this country's culture played a very minor role in his consciousness. Unlike some of his European colleagues, he had no hankering to experience firsthand the brassy, bustling American scene; he never even visited.

Read the full article here

Creative photography

Whether true or not, I've long thought of myself as having a good eye for art. I occasionally use that eye to express myself through photography, and, while not formally trained, I am generally quite satisfied with the results.

When viewing the work of serious (professional, real, call it what you like) photographers, I have a tendency to recoil from those who engage in overt scene manipulation, and/or those who fundamentally alter the character of the original shot through post processing. Mind you, I'm not making a value judgment, but simply expressing a preference for more traditional photography.

So imagine my surprise when I found myself somehow drawn to the work of Kelli Connell, a photographer whose work revolves around naturalistic looking shots of two people interacting, except that she plays both roles in each photomontage.

View more of Kelli's work here (may require Flash)

Beautiful ruins

Shaun O'Boyle has created an unusual photographic niche. He creates photo essays of "Modern Ruins", including abandoned steel mills, boat yards, and prisons, etc. His work is quite good, and well worth exploring if you have the time.

See Shaun's work at his site, oboylephoto

Sudanese portraits

Beautiful portraiture by photographer Sean Kernan at photoarts.com

Fantastic origami

by Hojyo Takashi

especially the human figures. Take a look (thanks to apostropher)

Mozart and Sid Vicious

It may be difficult for most of us to imagine a connection between the two, but Stephen Brown makes an interesting one in the (London) Times Literary Supplement.

It is true that one doesn’t normally speak of Mozart and Sid Vicious in the same breath, but they do have this in common: primitivism. Rock’n’roll began as a primitivist movement, and it renews itself with mini-primitivisms, of which punk is just one example. To see Mozart as a primitivist is a little harder, since his style is so identified with the civilized and the rational, things we think of as anti-primitive, and yet the Classical movement in music, like its companion neoclassicism in art, owed everything to the primitivist desire to begin anew by stripping away the false and inessential. Écrasez l’infâme. To the Baroque’s heavy sauces, multiple courses, and thickly layered combinations of tastes and textures, the Classical would propose a nouvelle cuisine.

Read the full post here (hat tip to Morgan at 3quarksdaily)

The working horse

I have the pleasure of being around Thoroughbred racehorses on a regular basis. When it comes to art, though, I often find myself attracted to depictions of working horses. Here's a really nice example which is to be sold through Christie's in Amsterdam. The artist is Wouterus Verschuur (Dutch, 1812-1874), and the horse's name was, apparently, Yanko.

Further details of the work can be found here

A lovely, expressive look at NYC's 7 train.

The 7 train was thrust into the nation's conciousness a few years ago when the (unfortunate) baseball player John Rocker revealed his fears in a well-publicized diatribe. Morgan, author of the 3quarksdaily blog, records his impressions of the same train using a much more sensitive lens.

The 7 train is great in a million ways but it really shows off after Hunter's Point when it gets to burst out of the tunnel and go above ground. It's a cocky train. That probably comes from sitting around at Times Square and 5th Ave. and Grand Central. The 7 train knows the bright lights and the glamour. But that's not where it stays or where it spends its time. The 7 train heads out to Queens and it has its heart there.

Read the full post at 3quarksdaily.

photos from the World Press competition.

1st prize Sports Action Singles
Bob Martin, United Kingdom, Sports Illustrated,
200m freestyle heats at Paralympic Games

Spanish swimmer Xavi Torres sets off at the start of the 200m freestyle heats at the Paralympic Games in Athens in September. Torres, all of whose limbs have been amputated, went on to come sixth in the 200m finals, but picked up a silver medal in the 150m individual medley and a bronze in the 4x50m relay medley. Swimming has been one of the main sports in the Paralympics since the first games were held in 1960. International swimming rules are followed with just a few exceptions, such as optional platform or in-water starts, but no prostheses or assistive devices are permitted.

View more at the always interesting Lens Culture site.

A fantastic group of photos of cats in action...

can be found here.

Pieter Hugo takes extraordinary photos of Africa.

He has become fairly well-known as a result of an interesting series relating to a group of Nigerian men who travel with "pet" hyenas (albeit on motorcycle chains with muzzles). His series on Rwanda (example below) is also quite powerful.

Link to the Rwanda series on Pieter's site.

What? I'm recommending hip-hop music? Yes, but...

Where to begin? Well, as I've mentioned on more than a few occasions to certain friends, had I been given the option to wager on the likely future success of rap music during its inception, I would have confidently bet every penny I could have gotten my hands on that it would have been relatively short-lived. As you might imagine, I am quite relieved about that particular betting opportunity's failure to materialize.

On the other hand, I am rather eclectic and open-minded when it comes to music, and, given that it is almost impossible not to be exposed to hip-hop these days, I have certainly made distinctions between the music of that genre which I really dislike (most), that which I find tolerable, and the exceedingly rare track which I actually like.

My initial inclination was to prefer the artists who were technically within the hip-hop realm, but whose work shared little with the hard-boiled and ubiquitous variety. That was probably a bit of a cop-out on my part, sort of like a showing a liking for "smooth jazz" along with a simultaneous distaste for Coltrain. So I have attempted to short-circuit my reflexive wince when a hip-hop beat comes thundering my way (while at the same time reserving the right to maintain the reflex when a painfully distorted version blasts from woefully inadequate car stereo speakers).

One important aspect of the movement which has interested me all along is the rapidly evolving and undeniably creative digital music editing and sampling. Whether one likes the particular genre or not, hip-hop is the leading example of the democratization made possible by the digital music revolution. I'm not talking so much about access to music, but rather the ability to make music. Think about it: the vast majority of hip-hop artists from around the world are young, poor and based in disadvantaged urban settings. What chances would they have had to express themselves in a positive manner, let alone become successful artists, without the digital revolution?

I have always found non-American forms of hip-hop to be more interesting, which is what led me to read this article in the Village Voice about Rio baile funk. This particular hip-hop permutation emanates from the hills of Brazil (hence the a.k.a funky do morro), and strikes me as a genuine, unique and entertaining form. I'm not suggesting that it will ever be at the top of my playlist, but even if you are, as I once was, inclined to scoff at the notion that you will ever like hip-hop music, it's probably worth a listen.

Here's a direct link to a variety of free mp3 downloads. I'd recommend starting with the castelo 10/ link and choosing some examples from that group.

A nice Kandinsky

Details at Sotheby's.

Degas' racehorses

This beautiful one is expected to bring in the neighborhood of $3m. on June 20th at Sotheby's.

Details can be found here.

An exceptionally beautiful photographic gallery...

(in the form of a slideshow) depicting African scenes can be found here. Be sure to use the volume as the audio compliments the photos nicely.

In these hyperbolic times...

the word genius is, of course, badly overused. But much as those witnessing the recent tsunami surely found the experience to be awesome, no matter how badly the impact of the word has been degraded, it is still thoroughly invogorating to come in contact with the work of a true genius.

Take the sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti, for example. His better known brother is responsible for the classic automobiles which bear the family name, but Rembrandt proved to be such a talent that the seemingly unrealistic expectations implicit in his first name proved, remarkably, to be nothing of the sort.

He was, sadly, a troubled genius, and committed suicide at the age of 31. But during his relative short life, he produced some of–no, make that the finest animal sculptures ever created.

As you might expect, it was not simply a matter of his having understood the physiology of his animal subjects; others have also gotten that part of the equation right. It was his ability to capture them in such natural poses that, like the very finest painters and photographers, his work draws us into paying careful attention to something which we might otherwise take for granted.

Views of some of his other sculptures can be found at this archived Sladmore Gallery exhibition.

Sir Alfred Munnings

Most would argue that Munnings (1878-1959) was the finest 20th century equine artist–perhaps the greatest ever. His works regularly generate sums at auction usually associated with names like Picasso or Matisse. If you ever have the chance, try to view his work in person; if you know and love horses, find a way to do so.

The above image is a bit different than some of his better known works. At the same time, Munnings' masterful ability to capture the natural movement of his animal subjects remains a beautiful common denominator.

The work is scheduled to be sold at Christie's on May 20th. It will probably bring somewhere around two million dollars.

Introducing the newest member of my family: Milli

She's 15" tall and adorable! She was created by Gordon Bennett, a NY-based artist who has just begun to market his exceptional robot sculptures made from found objects, both old and new. The idea is interesting, but Gordon's application is, in my view, extraordinary. Each robot is not only unique in the sense that it cannot be replicated, but Gordon's artistic vision enables him to imbue each piece with a certain character, making them both interesting and charming.

Some will no doubt be surprised at the pricing of the robots, but if Gordon keeps up his initial level of quality and creativity, it wouldn't surprise me to see demand push prices even higher. He also has an excellent return policy. His works can be seen here.

Mikhail Petrov

Petrov has some other interesting shots, especially of Russian cities (the one above is of Saint-Petersburg), on a Contax users site found here.

I've long been attracted to Indian miniatureS

It's not so much the precision with which they were obviously crafted, but more the composition and brilliant use of color which appeals to me most. The above example dates from the mid-18th century.

Further details on this piece can be found at Sotheby's, where it was be auctioned. (Note: link may no longer be active.)

straight pasterns, then and now

It is unusual to find a horse which has close to perfect conformation. The vast majority have flaws of some sort, but most horses (and their owners) live with those flaws without suffering in any meaningful sense. In the world of Thoroughbred racing, however, conformation flaws take on much greater importance as the animals are so fragile and put under such tremendous stress. Many flaws are acceptable, as racehorses can and often do compensate well enough to overcome them. There are a few flaws, though, which are unacceptable, as they are almost certain to prevent a racehorse from standing up to the rigors of training and racing. One such flaw - truly one of the very worst - is when a horse is found to be "straight" through the pasterns. This refers to the angle of the pastern (the bone which connects the hoof to the ankle) on the front legs. The ideal angle is 45°, and provides excellent shock absorption for the front legs (which take the brunt of the physical stress as the body weight is not equally distributed). When a racehorse is even somewhat straight through the pasterns, that shock absorbing capability is severely reduced, so that the shock from the concussion of running is transmitted right up to the ankle and knee joints. As you might imagine, those joints are not designed to handle that level of stress, which is why racehorses with this flaw rarely remain sound.

The photo above, a beautiful 7th-8th century Tang Dynasty pottery figure, is a classic example of a horse with straight pasterns. Of course the animal it was modeled after was not a racehorse, and presumably those types lived very productive lives in spite of that kind flaw. If you like the model, feel free to bid at Christie's on March 30th!

full description of the piece at Christie's (Note: link may no longer be active.)

•••

books