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Post by Maolsheachlann on Nov 15, 2018 12:16:31 GMT
I thought it might be good to have a thread about visual art, prompted by a recent visit to the National Gallery. Although I am a cultural conservative as well as a social conservative, I must admit that my taste in art runs more towards early modern than classical. I don't mean Turner Prize nonsense, or anything like that, but rather art from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. I like art from this period because it seems to me like the ideal meeting of the subjective and the objective. I prefer pictures that show you the world in a new way, or indeed an abstract or semi-abstract world. Anyway, here are some pictures I like in the National Gallery. The semi-abstract one is called Flemish Garden by Patrick Scott. The one with the snow on the roofs is called Cityscape by Alice Neel. And the one with the scarecrows (I can only find it as a cover of a book) is called Scarecrows at Newtownards by Daniel O'Neill.   Attachments:
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Post by Séamus on Nov 15, 2018 12:48:41 GMT
Volumes could written about it, but I struck by something entirely unrelated today- a writing in defence of the writings of a Spanish nun mentioned that being from the baroque era she included all the emotion and embellishments that this era typifies. Although it was almost said in parenthesis, it was probably the first time I'd really heard of this claim of someone's whole mentality being formed by the arts surrounding them.
Where then does the nihilistic scream of a Francis Bacon point to? Of course art need not stand still, Monet, Degas and Gauguin are splendid. Renoir brings you into another world, perhaps that what many moderns don't want, express the ugliness of reality? And yet many people take on things like Zen meditation for the very purpose of seeing beauty again, perhaps what the 'Reniors' are actually trying to do. I've somehow fallen for Munch's Scream, but Scandinavia always does have a romanticism I can never explain.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Nov 15, 2018 13:38:43 GMT
Volumes could written about it, but I struck by something entirely unrelated today- a writing in defence of the writings of a Spanish nun mentioned that being from the baroque era she included all the emotion and embellishments that this era typifies. Although it was almost said in parenthesis, it was probably the first time I'd really heard of this claim of someone's whole mentality being formed by the arts surrounding them. Where then does the nihilistic scream of a Francis Bacon point to? Of course art need not stand still, Monet, Degas and Gauguin are splendid. Renoir brings you into another world, perhaps that what many moderns don't want, express the ugliness of reality? And yet many people take on things like Zen meditation for the very purpose of seeing beauty again, perhaps what the 'Reniors' are actually trying to do. I've somehow fallen for Munch's Scream, but Scandinavia always does have a romanticism I can never explain. I like Munch and I can't stand Francis Bacon. I don't like art that is actually ugly. I don't think Munch is ugly at all. |
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Post by cato on Nov 15, 2018 18:34:16 GMT
On a general note I think the Dublin National Gallery is a magnificent asset to the city of Dublin and the whole nation. The new building is a fitting home for the country's paintings and a lovely place to spend a few hours.
I have a personal fondness for medieval and Italian Renaissance art but there are many good 20th century Irish artists -Paul Henry , Harry Clark , Jack Yeats among others in the NGI collection. The Hugh Lane Gallery on the north side has a very fine collection of John Lavery portraits of famous Irish 20th century figures too. For a small country with limited resources we have a very good national art collection.
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Post by Séamus on Nov 16, 2018 13:35:28 GMT
This one was started just as a record was broken for the auction of a living artist's work (David Hockney,Portrait of an Artist;Pool with Two Figures). Like cinema grossing, I'm always curious to know what an inflation-amended list of the highest-sellers would actually look like.
At the moment the highest price every paid is said to be for an image of Christ attributed to DaVinci. Is it an irony that the works of many of the accepted masters is disputable because the signatures simply weren't important, now the signature is often the most valuable part?
An interesting series for anyone who likes modern art is Arthur Boyd's Nebuchadnezzar phase- all feature the king going mad in the wilderness, as mentioned in the Book of Daniel. The flora and fauna looks suspiciously Australian, but maybe that's open to interpretation.
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Post by cato on Nov 16, 2018 13:45:34 GMT
This one was started just as a record was broken for the auction of a living artist's work (David Hockney,Portrait of an Artist;Pool with Two Figures). Like cinema grossing, I'm always curious to know what an inflation-amended list of the highest-sellers would actually look like. At the moment the highest price every paid is said to be for an image of Christ attributed to DaVinci. Is it an irony that the works of many of the accepted masters is disputable because the signatures simply weren't important, now the signature is often the most valuable part? An interesting series for anyone who likes modern art is Arthur Boyd's Nebuchadnezzar phase- all feature the king going mad in the wilderness, as mentioned in the Book of Daniel. The flora and fauna looks suspiciously Australian, but maybe that's open to interpretation. The above mentioned rather sinister androgynous looking De Vinci portrait of Christ is I believe in the Louvre's Abu Dhabi off shoot in the desert kingdom for all those Renaissance art loving peaceful followers of the prophet. If that venerable kingdom ever falls to the really fundamentalist fundamentalists who live near by then a lot of very expensive canvas may end up on a bonfire of western vanities. |
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Post by Séamus on Nov 17, 2018 5:28:41 GMT
T...etc... highest price every paid is said to be for an image of Christ attributed to DaVinci....etc. The above mentioned rather sinister androgynous looking De Vinci portrait of Christ is I believe in the Louvre's Abu Dhabi off shoot...etc. I can remember a lot of discussion about androgynous paintings during the Dan Brown era. That there were homosexuals involved in the art world of the Renaissance is hard to deny, but one art academic at the time did point out, concerning the John/Magdalene theory, that it would have been considered normal enough in DaVinci's time to depict higher-class or educated young men as being what we would consider feminine, there's evidence that Leonardo himself was a bit dandyish in his younger days; the old philosopher look that we're used to came later, as classical-era philosophers became more and more 'the rage', and maybe also because he felt himself becoming too unattractive for the younger image anyway. Young Italian noblemen wore jewellery, the best of fabric and buffy hairstyles (that would have made girls in the 1980s quite jealous.) And we can see in our own days how certain faces have come and gone as the popular look, ranging from men with hard, chiseled appearances to men that look quite feminine or boyish. My parents still find it odd to see a male wearing a scarf, unless it's a team one, simply because only women or 'spivs' would wear them when they grew up in Dublin. |
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Post by Séamus on Nov 21, 2018 8:49:21 GMT
Happy feastdays.
Today's and tomorrow's.
Two which are almost impossible to think about without art coming to mind.
For the Virgin Mary's Presentation feast, Titian probably holds the trump card in Western art with his 1530s THE PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN. It's said to be fairly unoriginal in design and symbolism and he's perhaps not noted for his spiritual lessons either, but it certainly became the template of the scene. The old woman selling eggs, said to bear the artist's features, almost seems to be there to bring us back down from the spiritual exaltation of Mary and the High-priest and important looking dignitaries to the everyday and mundane.
St Cecilia's day is arguably the most romantic feast on the Christian calendar and, of course, she's always done well in the art world even in the pre-Raphaelite movement- ironic seeing that Raphael's is possibly her most famous depiction. In ST CECILIA WITH SAINTS PAUL, JOHN THE EVANGELIST,AUGUSTINE& MARY MAGDALENE Raphael paints a heap of discarded instruments at the base which really work as an opposite to the egg seller in Titian's work, even the organ is slipping out of the Saint's hands, as though all is pointing from the everyday and mundane to the angelic voices above, even if St Paul seems a bit concerned about the possible waste of musical instruments.
What comes to my mind anyway.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Nov 21, 2018 12:05:18 GMT
My parents still find it odd to see a male wearing a scarf, unless it's a team one, simply because only women or 'spivs' would wear them when they grew up in Dublin. I agree with your parents. Scarves are for cissies. The only excuse for a man to wear a scarf is if he's at a football match and it's in the team colours. Also, undergraduates wearing the varsity scarf is OK. The same is true of umbrellas. |
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Post by Tomas on Nov 21, 2018 13:14:41 GMT
Pleasant to find a thread on arts this gloomy november season. One remarkable painting that sticks to the mind is the odd Dali´s crucified Christ seen from above, the one that may originate with St John of the Cross that made a sketch of it four centuries before. The Pre-Raphaelites always got a hold on my senses yet never wholeheartedly. Even some simple things like portraits and landscapes does the same. When I was in Dublin (only been there once) the visit to the National Gallery was a highlight.
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Post by Séamus on Dec 8, 2018 12:56:32 GMT
Pleasant to find a thread on arts this gloomy november season. One remarkable painting that sticks to the mind is the odd Dali´s crucified Christ seen from above, the one that may originate with St John of the Cross that made a sketch of it four centuries before. The Pre-Raphaelites always got a hold on my senses yet never wholeheartedly. Even some simple things like portraits and landscapes does the same. When I was in Dublin (only been there once) the visit to the National Gallery was a highlight. Through today's feast of the Immaculate Conception I became aware of an artist I'd either never before heard of or never paid attention to at any rate- Spaniard (Fray)Juan Sánchez Cotán, originally a professional studio artist, still known for his still-lifes from his period, later a Carthusian monk who eventually took up painting again with religious themes, one of The Immaculate Conception is well known and, as Sánchez was older than both Velázquez and Murillo, it may have even been painted before the similar ones for the same theme by both these better-known men. There's something rather eerie about his still-lifes, looking on the phone-screen anyway. One with a single carrot oddly hung on a string reminds me somehow of Dali. |
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Post by cato on Dec 8, 2018 14:38:47 GMT
Pleasant to find a thread on arts this gloomy november season. One remarkable painting that sticks to the mind is the odd Dali´s crucified Christ seen from above, the one that may originate with St John of the Cross that made a sketch of it four centuries before. The Pre-Raphaelites always got a hold on my senses yet never wholeheartedly. Even some simple things like portraits and landscapes does the same. When I was in Dublin (only been there once) the visit to the National Gallery was a highlight. I think Tomas that Dali is in Glasgow,Scotland of all places. It's on my to visit list. |
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Dec 8, 2018 14:52:07 GMT
Pleasant to find a thread on arts this gloomy november season. One remarkable painting that sticks to the mind is the odd Dali´s crucified Christ seen from above, the one that may originate with St John of the Cross that made a sketch of it four centuries before. The Pre-Raphaelites always got a hold on my senses yet never wholeheartedly. Even some simple things like portraits and landscapes does the same. When I was in Dublin (only been there once) the visit to the National Gallery was a highlight. I think Tomas that Dali is in Glasgow,Scotland of all places. It's on my to visit list. Yes, Adrian Mole visits it during his time in Scotland, in one of his teenage diaries. He is amazed it is the actual painting and not a copy. |
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Post by Séamus on Jan 21, 2019 7:05:21 GMT
St Agnes' day.
A good day to reflect on Irish stained-glass artists as Harry Clarke's colourful contemporary series of Keats' THE EVE OF ST AGNES poem holds a unique place as a secular subject that's named after the vigil of a Christian feast, featuring a tale of non-secular people's secular lives.
The fact that St Agnes had an Eve or vigil, shows her importance through the years.
An addendum:
One of Clarke's last works was completed by Richard King (apparently also known by his Gaelic name Rísteard O'Cíonga) after Clarke's fairly early death. Forward two decades, Kerry-born Archbishop Prendiville of Perth commissioned King to make eight stylised windows for the modern St Thomas More Chapel, connected with the University of Western Australia, one of John Henry Newman who wouldn't be beatified for several decades.
Quote from a visitor's guide:
"Newman appears in the green robes of the rector of the Catholic University of Ireland, a University which he was asked to establish in Dublin. In his hands is a copy of 'the Idea of a University'- the series of lectures he delivered when carrying out that task.... In the background is a monastic settlement of cells and a Celtic church... Above the top of the window is Newman's motto COR AD COR LOQUITIUR; one can also see EX UMBRIS ET IMAGINIBUS IN VERITATEM... The shield is that of the Irish National University the successor (of Catholic University).."
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Post by Séamus on Feb 21, 2019 8:18:25 GMT
The death a few days ago of George Mendonsa, believed to be the kissing sailor in Alfred Eisenstaedt's iconic 1945 VJ Day shot, is a good reminder of how photography, even by journalists, takes it's place among the visual arts.
The photo would definately seem a lot more artistic than the sculpture eventually erected on the spot (the #metoo graffiti on this following his death, at 95,was rather pathetic. Certainly there was great suffering attached to America's victory- particularly by the civilians of Japan- but I'm sure Miss Zimmer recovered from an unsolicited kiss, considering the occasion.)
Aside from the photographer, the identities have been disputed, but it seems wryly amusing that Mr Mendonsa was the only American-born of the three protagonists and,indeed, Greta Zimmer-Friedman was Austrian-born, Mr Eisenstaedt born in then-Germany.
Posthumous praise to Mrs Mendonsa who stayed married for seven decades, until her own death, to a man perpetually remembered for kissing another woman
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