Tag: Art
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Sleeping beauty
The bacchante sleeps off her glow of last night’s pleasure under the attentive eyes of a row of men. Only they can see from their point of view that this Maenad is actually a hermaphrodite. The generous curves of her soft, feminine body are beyond their reach. The kouros stands tall in the characteristic posture…
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See-through blouse
And even see-through underwear! All suspended on a clothesline. Meanwhile Aphrodite seems to be anxiously waiting till they’re dry. Photo of the week: Driftwood at Hokitika beach, New Zealand 2013
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Black Arch
It happened at the 2011 biennale in Venice. For the first time Saudi Arabia was represented here in a space of its own. And, even more surprising, the work of art on show was made by two women, the sisters Shadia and Raja Alem. Modern art from Saudi Arabia made by women? It’s nice to…
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Witness from Baghdad
The heads of the women are blurred and their faces hidden in veils. But their eyes see. We see eyes that see. Eyes that have seen. And now the eyes have directed their penetrating look at us, confronting us onlookers. Remember last week’s photo? REMEMBER? We shall remember, Halim Al Karim! Photos of the week:…
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Remember
REMEMBER: written in capital letters on a wall on a hillside in Amman, Jordan. I saw it from the opposite hill during a visit to two modern art galleries situated there. REMEMBER: is it an artistic statement; is it related to the works of art in the gallery compounds and buildings? It could well be. As an isolated…
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Ganesha in Venice
The Italian artist Felipe Cardena called this work of his ‘The last crisis of this crazy, crazy world’. The Hindu gods are well represented in it. Apart from the popular Ganesha, there is Vishnu and also a small Shiva. They are in the company of some iconic figures – political, religious, revolutionary, terrorist, … –…
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Painter’s palette
Aboriginal artists from Arnhem Land in the north of Australia don’t really use a palette. Most of the time they work while sitting on the floor and the space around them gradually gets more and more stained with the clay paint they use for their barks. On the photo we see a worktable at the…
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Clay art
Unlike the wonderful creations of the termite or the crab that we could admire in last two weeks’ posts, the creations of man can sometimes be called art. This is because of man’s capability to reflect, to think about himself and the world. The creative works of man are to a greater or lesser extent,…
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Crab art
While the termites in last week’s post impressed us with their grand architecture, here it is the drawing made on the beach by tiny crabs that pleases our aesthetic sensitivity. A sensitivity that’s probably alien to the dog that has walked right through it, although his or her footprints are a nice addition to the…
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Ant art
Ant hills can be impressive, but these termite structures in the north of Arnhem Land qualify as amazing works of art. Many a bird’s nest may leave us equally awe-struck because of its ingenuity, but it’s the sheer size of these termitariums that’s so amazing. More than man-sized, they evoke images of castles or cathedrals,…
