Tag: Art
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Kimono show
Judging from the number of spectators at the Kimono show on the photo, we can infer that people, including the younger generation, remain intrigued by this classical Japanese dress. (See also last week’s post.) That’s interesting, since it is an attire that conceals more than we are used to these days: except for head and…
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Dream women
Was the opening between the trees of this Japanese garden specially conceived to let me have a look at the two lovely girls that were seated there so nicely framed? Having come closer, I noticed that they were swathed in kimonos, those beautiful, traditional dresses that transform women who wear them into mysterious, almost unapproachable…
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Leonardo between the Sunday painters
Krakow is the proud owner of a real oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci: Lady with an Ermine. So maybe it shouldn’t surprise us to find a copy or reproduction of it in this open air stall in Krakow. It’s hanging there in the middle – even in duplicate -, unpretentiously hidden between work of…
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Where is Mandela?
I am not particularly keen on paying attention to the news of the day in this blog, but today, when the remains of what once was Nelson Mandela are carried to the grave, I do feel tempted. The world of man doesn’t know many like him. Maybe it’s also the vivid memory of my own…
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Bird’s-eye view (1)
As you can see, I was interested here in the black and white pattern of the floor in this courtyard. It is made of small round pebbles, a kind of simple mosaic that can be observed in some places in Greece. This particular courtyard is inside the monastery of Panormitis on the island of Symi.…
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Non-objects
My criticism of the large number of mirror works by Anish Kapoor in last week’s post, doesn’t do him justice sufficiently. He has made other, different works that deserve attention. Nevertheless I start here again with a distorting mirror work. Kapoor has named it a Non-Object, a title that fits many of his works and…
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Distorting mirrors
I remember with delight the fun-fair that once a year pitched its tents in the small Dutch town in which I grew up. One of the attractions sometimes was a tent full of concave and convex mirrors in different sizes and combinations that showed the strangest, distorted reflections when one stood in front of them.…
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The art is not our thing
Art critic and politician Vittorio Sgarbi was chosen as curator of the Italian pavilion at the 54th Biennale in Venice (2011). Since he is known not to like modern art and even less its organizational “mafia”, his nomination was rather controversial. He decided not to select the works for the exhibition himself but to ask…
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Art is my thing
The experience of art in all its manifestations (literature, music, visual arts) is occupying a privileged place in my mental and intellectual life. I could say: in my spiritual life, but I always hesitate using that word since it has these strong religious connotations I’d like to avoid. With acknowledgement and approval I quote what…
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Fall of man
Adam and Eve, thrown out of paradise by an angry god. What had they done wrong? They had committed the first, original sin. They had eaten the fruits from ‘the tree of knowledge of good and evil’ which god had explicitly forbidden. As a consequence the first man and woman lost their innocence and they…
καιρός remembered 