The mellifluous, impenetrable language of theory is often thought of as a sign of sophistication. But it can just as well serve as a way of covering over underlying inconsistency or lack of substance. It all depends on how it is being used … And I must admit, I’m not very happy with the way…
Tag: arts
Roses
reading up & sketching down; roses in art (cont.) Virgin Mary and Jesus is, one could be tempted to say, a standard motif in Western art. However, most portraits depict the virgin looking at her child. In this picture, by British/Austrian Marianne Stokes, Mary looks up and out, as if to introduce her young child…
The Ethics of Art
I have been travelling a lot lately; but unfortunately London is not on my route this year. If it were, I would definitively have visited Jorge Otero-Pailos’ installation The Ethics of Dust, in Westminster Hall. The Ethics of Dust at Westminster Hall (2016), Jorge Otero-Pailos The Ethics of Dust consists of two 25 x 6 metre large sheets of translucent…
enchantment
This post made me want to take a closer look at Rita Felski’s book Uses of Literature (2008). Felski’s intention is to bridge the gap between literary theory and common-sense beliefs about why we read literature. Uses of Literature deals with four key elements of the reading experience: recognition, enchantment, knowledge, and shock. These four recall, as she…
an even darker landscape
Bryan Schutmaat © Abandoned Homestead, Red Mountain Mining District, Colorado, 2011 By happy coincidence I discovered the work of Bryan Schutmaat, and his poetic series: “Grays the Mountain Sends”. In “Grays the Mountain Sends”, Schutmaat skillfully documents the rugged landscapes and people of the great American West. The images describe a series of mining sites and small, hardscrabble mountain…
Beautiful Steps
Beautiful steps #4, by the artist duo L/B, belongs to a series featuring different sets of stairs in unusual locations and positions. In Beautiful steps #4 a wide spiral stair case is suspended from the ceiling so that is floats in the air, L/B: Beautiful Steps #4, Exhibition view “Mon île de Montmajour” Abbaye de Montmajour,…
Is it art?
In 1917 Marcel Duchamp turned a urinal into a readymade sculpture. He called it “Fountain”, and tried to exhibit it at the Independents Exhibition in New York. It was the largest exhibition of modern art ever mounted in America; the “Fountain” was not accepted, but even so it revolutionized the world of art. Duchamp wanted…
the art of achievement
PEGGY SUE: HIGH JUMP a video by Jenny Grönvall
How come blue is the color of melancholy?
Today my study of Bluets has led me home – Edvard Munch, Melankoli (Melancholy), oil on canvas, 1892 © National Gallery, Oslo As with many of Edvard Munch‘s works, “Melancholy” appears in several different versions and techniques. (His repeated use of the same concepts has made it difficult to identify some works due to the lack of…
I want to die painting – (among myriad triumphs of blueness)
In her book; Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter, Patricia Albers tells us: Rilke looked to painting, especially Cézanne’s, as a model for poetry. In late 1907, the writer visited the Paris Salon d’Automne nearly every day, seeking to memorize the work of the Post-Impressionist, whose discipline, nuance, precision, and chromatic emotion he emulated. Having visually devoured the blues…
sub rosa 