Tag: Art
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A man and his dream
A man and his dream This thought occurred to me as I took the photograph. What I actually saw was this:A corner of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. A sleepy visitor sitting in a chair. In the foreground, a sculpture of a voluptuous naked woman. Photo of the week: Art Gallery…
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Blue nude
Blue nude Throughout his long creative life the female figure, dressed or nude, has been a favourite theme of Henri Matisse. In hundreds of paintings, drawings and sculptures he has sung the beauty of woman. The last ten years of his life he was bedridden and couldn’t paint anymore but his creativity remained unbroken. From…
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Fränzi
Fränzi More than a century ago, the painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was part of “Die Brücke”, a small group of German artists that with their work wanted to form a bridge (Brücke) between the old art and a new style of painting which became known as expressionism. For a few years around 1910, a young…
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Coincidence
Coincidence Two swimmers in Wellington Harbour. One in the water, the other on the wall of a gallery at the harbour front. One doing breaststroke, the other backstroke. Both rather clumsily. I remember when seeing the second swimmer I thought of the first whose picture I just had taken outside. It made me decide to…
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Dissected and compounded
Dissected and compounded A breast, a breast with arm, a head, a neck, black hairdo … the figure of a woman put together of its constituent parts. The artist has done a decent job, at least for the portion we see in the picture, which was the part of the sculpture most to my liking when I…
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Dryads
Dryads Are they wounded, these stately wood nymphs with their heavy breasts? The red-lined cuts over the full length of their bodies lead one to suspect this is the case. Maybe the god of thunder and lightning has violated them and left his marks. Many years ago, during a walk on the island of Corsica,…
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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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Ruminating art
Ruminating art After having been exposed to a multitude of diverse works of modern art, as I was during my visit to the 2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, you need time to digest. Art makes you think. I have said that the beauty of a work of art may not be all-important for its appreciation and for…
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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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Cow dung art
Cow dung art At the 2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Slovenian artist Aleš Šteger has built a pyramid covered with cow dung cakes. Going through the labyrinthine passageway inside, one hears a cacophony of soft voices reciting verses in the original language of the poets who have written them. They all speak of exile. Šteger has made…
καιρός remembered 