Category: Europe
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Encounter in the forest
Encounter in the forest Two weeks ago I showed you a photo of nature as art. Here we have a case of art in nature. Art and nature … they often go well together. Two ladies in the forest, facing each other. Their upright, elegant figures in wood with metal dress stand still like the trees.…
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Ka’aba Love
Ka’aba Love Why do I consider Dana Awartani’s contribution one of the high points of the 2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale? 1. I find it a beautiful work. It is hanging beautifully in space and dependent on the position of the viewer it reveals its different qualities. Being beautiful may not be a decisive criterion, but as…
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Ελαιώνας
Ελαιώνας Elaionas is the Greek word for olive grove. On the island of Aegina there is a genuine, centuries-old olive grove with trees that are 500 years old and one specimen that is even more than 1,500 years old. What astonishing creatures! The fact that they have reached such a venerable age, with all those…
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Blissful sleep
Blissful sleep After their lovemaking ▲ and ▼ are plunged into a deep, blissful sleep. It must be one of those hot Californian summer days in the 1960’s. As a work of art it may be fragile and look dated, but the tender sweetness of the scene is able to touch the heart. Photo of the…
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A plunge into the unknown
A plunge into the unknown “Voici le temps du vertige et son délicieux effroi. Encore un instant maître, suspendu à la loi, et puis la chute aillée dans le vivant abîme.” (Hans Thomann – Himmel) Ready for the New Year? Photo of the week: Sculpture “Himmel” by Hans Thomann, 8e triennale de sculpture contemporaine Bex &…
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Venice upside down
Venice upside down It’s always a lovely sight: the washing lines laden with clean laundry, stretched taut between houses on opposite sides of narrow streets in the old quarters of southern Europe. But might we ask you to be a little more considerate of others next time, dear lady (or gentleman) doing the washing, when…
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3 x Venus
3 x Venus La femme, toujours la femme. Constant source of inspiration for the arts. 1. A ceramic Venus turning rounds in an ‘attractively’ lit up, enclosed space. A red-light-district Venus? 2. A huge wooden Venus on the landing. Unpolished, roughly cut, she impresses me as a strong piece of nature. A Nordic Venus. I like…
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The GEM of Berlage
The GEM of Berlage Having lived in Amsterdam for nearly half a century, the name Berlage has become very familiar to me, as have the remarkable buildings he designed for this city a century ago and which are now protected monuments often carrying his name. Like the ‘Beurs van Berlage’ (the commodity exchange) and the…
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The LeWitt-Berlage Stairwell
The LeWitt-Berlage Stairwell With the renovation of the Gemeentemuseum in 1998 the drawing of LeWitt that had been on the walls of the stairwell since 1983 had disappeared. LeWitt must have designed hundreds of wall drawings during his lifetime. I only know a few, but drawing # 373 on the stairwell in the Gemeentemuseum was considered…
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Rothko and LeWitt at a glance
Rothko and LeWitt at a glance Right: a person looking attentively at one of Rothko’s last paintings (Untitled, 1969, acrylic on canvas) made shortly before he took his own life in 1970. Black above gray. Middle: an open glass door. We leave the Rothko exhibition, and partly through, partly reflected in the glass of the…
καιρός remembered 