I have to admit, I had looked up the color yellow and found all this symbolism through the ages and I was going to post it. But, this impending disaster with Hurricane Sandy got my attention. I decided to just post a few images that show the color yellow – and you can decide yourself. Among them, a yellow tree, Rothko, Van Gogh and Kandinsky.
The Portrait of Madame X, by John Singer Sargent
This painting created quite a scandal when shown in Paris in 1884. Painted by John Singer Sargent, it is the portrait 0f Virginie Amelie Avegno Gautreau, an American expatriot married to a French banker. She became notorious for both her beauty and for her infidelities, and even though she craved attention, this portrait ruined her reputation forever. She retired from public life, and it is said she destroyed all the mirrors in her home.
The plunging neckline was considered seductive, and one of the straps was originally shown slipping off the shoulder. The portrait was considered sensual and decadent, even after Sargent returned the strap to the shoulder.
Sargent was considered a rising star at the time the portrait was painted. He fled to England and slowly recovered from the scandel.
This painting was not commissioned, and Gatreau refused to purchase it. Sargent kept it and hung it in his London studio. He started displaying it in international exhibitions and sold it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1916 saying “I suppose it is the best thing I have ever done”.
If you want to know more about the painting, there is an interesting book – Strapless by Deborah Davis which also goes into the world of American ex-patriots living in Paris, where many of the characters could be from fiction rather than non-fiction.
Andy Warhol
I don’t know what you think of Warhol, in fact, I’m not sure what I think of Andy. Everybody knows his name, and outside of Dali’, no artist has been better at marketing art.
Coming from the world advertising, I ask when does self -promoting hurt your art? I don’t know the answer.
I talked to a gallery owner in New York, and he felt Warhol would come to “a door if it was opening”.
What does 15 minutes of fame really mean? It was interesting to find the saying has a Wikipedia page – here
I have read the books – here are the links
Edie, An American Girl – my personal favorite
Then there are the movies – how many actors have portrayed Warhol? Actually seven to eight depending on where you look. Here are my favorite movies.
Another personal favorite – David Bowie – in Basquiat
Guy Pierce in Factory Girl
Crispen Porter in The Doors
Who was the best Warhol?
Guy Pearce
David Bowie
Crispen Porter
The images of Crispen Porter and Guy Pierce as so similar I had to quadruple check the images! Who do you think was the best?
What is your favorite Andy Warhol painting? Marilyn, Jackie O, Campbell Soup Cans (which I bought the limited edition at Target)
It is fall in Atlanta. You know – the time of year when the air is crisp and it feels good to just kick back and relax and reflect. Enjoy the view from my deck – yes, there are woods behind us!
Artist Trading Cards drying before being shipped to San Francisco
bonsai trees
Redwood bonsai tree
I think I lost my lounge chair. My assistant Ziggy
THE LADY AND THE UNICORN is the modern title of six tapestries from Flanders, woven in wool and silk in the late 15th Century. They are on display at the Musee’ du Moyen-Age in Paris (I was lucky enough to see them!)
It is generally agreed five of the tapestries depict one of the five senses – touch, taste, hearing, hearing and sight. The sixth tapestry displays the words “A mon seul desir”- and interpreted to depict love and understanding. Each tapestry shows a noble woman with a unicorn on her left and a lion on her right, and some include a monkey in the scene.
These six tapestries are generally considered one of the greatest works of art in the Middle Ages.
Now, I want to reread The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier!
Vermeer, The Concert
Here is a list of books I thoroughly enjoyed which all about forgery or theft.
The Forgery of Venus – this fictional book was the book that started my fascination with forgery and theft. It is a wild ride, dealing with drugs, forgery, time travel and the Nazi’s plunder.
The Vanished Smile, The Mysterious Theft of the Mona Lisa – yes, this iconic painting was stolen from the Louvre, with Picasso actually being questioned.
Priceless, How I Went Undercover To Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures – written by former FBI agency Robert Wittman, who began the agencies Art Crime Team.
Provenance, How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art – so interesting about how a con man created provenance for forged pieces of art! A good read about art history too.
The Gardner Heist, the True Story of the World’s Largest Unsolved Art Theft – another good art history read, but also an nail biting look at a long investigation that travels the globe, even suspecting the IRA at one time.
Stealing Rembrants, the Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists – a great ride across the planet investigating the underworld of art theft.
The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece – starts with the theft of The Scream by Munch.
Here is an article about the most recent heist in Rotterdam last week.
Max Ernst
What is surrealism? Well, there isn’t a simple definition. Briefly, the surrealist works will have elements of surprise with unexpected and very illogical things together. Andre’ Breton, the founder of surrealism called is “pure psychic automatism in it’s pure state”. He went on to write the Manifesto of Surrealism.
The Surrealists were interested in children’s art, folk art, and outsider art. They were also very interested in the insane. They were tired of trivial every day living, they loved exploring dreams, magic and the subconscious. In fact, the movement really began with literary men exploring automatic writing.
They loved to play games, one of which was called “exquisite corpses”. This was a verbal game where three or more people were assigned part of a sentence, usually the subject, verb, a predicate and so forth, which was unknown to the rest of the group. The game got it’s name from the first sentence produced in this method “The exquistie/corpse/shall drink/the bubbling wine”. The visual artists did much the same game by drawing and folding the paper so the next artist could not see what was drawn already. The Surrealists loved chance, and as Breton said “they stood for something that couldn’t possibly be the work of a single brain.”
This is a very simplified version of what surrealism is – there have been tomes and tomes written about it. Not wanting to bore you, I thought I’d just share some examples of surrealist art. From left to right, the artists are: Valdimir Kush, George De Chirico, Joan Miro, Yves Tanguy, Rene’ Magritte, and Salvador Dali.
Wow! the past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. I finally broke down and got a SmartPhone. AND I committed myself to my first car payment in 21 years! Yes, I bought a car!!!
2012 Toyota Camry
This isn’t MY CAR, but it does look very similar (and it is too dark outside to take a decent picture!)
I have joined an International Creative Accountability group online which began with fellow students from Flying Lessons, a class we took together. Here is what I want to accomplish during the upcoming week:
2. ART-O-MAT
I was accepted in this program, which refurbishes vintage cigarette machines and fills them with original pieces of art. They require 50 completed pieces of art to go in one of the machines. I have completed 40 of them, and I plan to complete the remaining 10.
I will edit these a little, and finish the remaining 10. Then I have to label them, sign them and wrap them in cellophane.
3. I will pick a minimum of 10 pieces I have at home to list on Etsy and make sure they have all been photographed.
4. Work on the patterns and collage to start organizing the Coolage Parties I previously blogged about.
5. Learn more about my phone (and how to get photographs off of it!) and my car
Do you have any goals for this week? What are they?
Frankly, I am extremely tired. I spent the day car shopping and actually purchased a car. You must understand, this was a big step, I haven’t had a car payment in 21 years! I wasn’t going to post anything, even though I am committed to the Blogtoberfest and posting every day in October. I already knew I was going to write about Rembrandt, but I don’t have the energy to tell the interesting facts about his life. So, I thought I’d post some of his self portraits. After all, there are at least 40 paintings and 31 etchings as well as some drawings.
ink and pen
I didn’t know quill pens had such an interesting history!
First used around 600 AD in Spain, they were the main writing instrument until the mid 19th when the introduction of metal introduced the metal nib.
They are made from the stiff-spined flight feathers on the leading edge of a bird’s wing. And for you bird lovers, they were feathers that were discarded by birds during their annual moult. There were only two or three feathers found per bird.
Goose feathers were most commonly used, with more expensive swan feathers used for larger lettering. However, only in the USA feathers from the crow, eagle, owl, hawk and turkey were used.
To construct a pen, the shaft of the feather was cleaned, carved and then sharpened, with a slit cut at the point making a nib.
On a true quill pen, the barbs are completely stripped away. Later, some decorative barbs were left on the top. In short, the fancy plumed quill pen is an invention of Hollywood. (A barb is defined as one of the parallel filaments projecting from the main shaft of a feather.)
Thomas Jefferson actually bred geese to make sure he always had a supply of quill pens handy.
AND, to this day, 20 goose-quill pens are placed at the four counsel tables each day in the U.S. Supreme Court while in session: and it is said “most lawyers appear before the Court only once, and gladly take the quills home as souvenirs”. This has been done since the beginnings of the court. Historic documents written by a quill pen include the Magna Carta, The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
Now – my FAVORITE fact, pens for right handed writers come from the left wing, while pens for left handed writers come from the right! (I am left handed!)
As noted below, artists used the quill pen also. However, Rembrandt favored the reed pen.
Wan to make your own quill pen? Click here for directions! If you make a quill pen or use one, leave me a comment, let me know.
View of the Alcantara bridge (Toledo) Nobility Section of the National Historical Archive, Toledo © Ministerio de Cultura