Guernica Explained

Pablo Picasso created an anti-war painting in 1937 after the fascist bombing of Guernica (Gernika), a Basque village in northern Spain. Sadly, it was never more relevant than it is today. A video by James Payne.

______________
Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-F1Y

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Bélizaire

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has aquired an 1837 painting, Bélizaire and the Frey Children, attributed to French painter Jacques Amans. It depicts enslaved teenager Bélizaire and Elizabeth, Léontine, and Frederick Frey Jr., the children of wealthy Louisiana merchant Frederick Frey. For over a century, Bélizaire was painted out of the picture, until restorations in 2005 ond 2022. A New York Times video.

More:

“‘His Name Was Bélizaire’: Rare Portrait of Enslaved Child Arrives at the Met,” Alexandra Eaton, New York Times

_____________
Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-DYY

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Hilma af Klint

Hilma af Klint (1862 – 1944) was the pioneering abstract artist you’ve never heard of. Paul Priestley explains.

_______________
Shortlink: https://wp.me/p6sb6-xhQ

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

 

Olympia

“Western art followed the same rules for centuries. Until Olympia.” a Vox video by Marie Cascione and Coleman Lowndes.

_____________

Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-tLM

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

The History of Art in 60 Seconds

A one-minute video by CaoShu, rendered in hundreds of different art styles, spanning centuries of art history.

Note: Caoshu, “grass script,” is the term for Chinese calligraphy.

________________________

Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-rcO

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Great Art on Mashable

For you connoisseurs of the visual arts, Amanda Wills curates a collection of 16 masterpiece mashups from the NotionsCapital Flickr stream, with a brief explanation of our Digital Primitive aesthetic. Whistler’s Mommy-Blogger (above) didn’t make the cut, and it looks like she’s not pleased about it.

“If History’s Greatest Artists Used Microsoft Paint…” Amanda Wills, Mashable

___________________

Short Link: 

Image (“Whistler’s Mommy-Blogger”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

CSI Auvers-sur-Oise: The van Gogh Case

CBS “60 Minutes” just re-broadcast a story about a claim that painter Vincent van Gogh was murdered in 1890, and did not commit suicide as believed. Authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith write that the artist was shot by two teenagers. Their theory is based on century-old accounts, not forensic evidence. Art world authorities who are not selling books on the topic discount the theory.

Vincent van Gogh was found shot in a field in Auvers-sur-Oise on July 27, 1890, died two days later, and is buried in the small town.

___________________

Short Link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-dII

Image (“Night Shift, after van Gogh”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Cave Paintings, Cartoons, & Neanderthals

Using advanced techniques, scientists have determined that cave paintings in northern Spain are 40,800 years old, the oldest wall paintings in the world. The paintings may predate the arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe, meaning the ancient cave artists may have been Neanderthals, modern man’s older cousins.

If Neanderthals were early Michelangelos, French cavemen may have been Stone Age Walt Disneys. Marc Azéma of the University of Toulouse–Le Mirail  and artist Florent Rivère theorize that 30,000 years ago, cave artists took advantage of the strobe effect of flickering firelight by drawing series of slightly different images to create an illusion of movement, the first animations. The phenomenon of retinal persistence is what makes it work.

Happy Birthday, Picasso

Today is the 130th anniversary of the birth of Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruiz y Picasso, aka Pablo Picasso.

 “Happy Birthday, Picasso!” Michael Ray, Britannica Blog

Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-bmA

Image (“Happy Birthday Pablo, after Picasso”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine