Friday, March 30, 2012

Warhol

Andy Warhol
1928 - 1987
C L I C K     T O     E N L A R G E

Picture:  968 x 967 at 300 dpi  -  Andy Warhol Prints

In the future everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.


Picture:  801 x 1200 at 300 dpi  -  Reddit

You have to be willing to be happy about nothing.


Picture:  900 x 1133  -  Joseph K. Levene

I used to think that everything was just being funny but now I don't know.  I mean, how can you tell?


Picture:  1152 x 1600  -  Reddit

What's great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest.  You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too.  A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking.


Picture:  500 x 359  -  Artsology

Dying is the most embarrassing thing that can ever happen to you, because someone's got to take care of all your details.


Picture:  1597 x 1600  -  Reddit

Remember, they've never seen you before in their life.


Picture:  2116 x 1500 at 300 dpi  -  Global Foliage Project

It's the movies that have been running things in America ever since they were invented.  They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.


Picture:  852 x 598 at 96 dpi  -  Painting Here

I never understood why when you died, you didn't just vanish, everything could just keep on the way it was only you just wouldn't be there.  I always thought I'd like my own tombstone to be blank.  No epitaph, and no name.  Well, actually, I'd like it to say 'figment.'


Picture:  795 x 1174  -  Annenberg
Portrait by Alice Neel

Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there.  I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life.  Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television.


Picture:  540 x 650 at 300 dpi  -  Natl. Galleries, Scotland

I'm the type who'd be happy not going anywhere as long as I was sure I knew exactly what was happening at the places I wasn't going to.  I'm the type who'd like to sit home and watch every party that I'm invited to on a monitor in my bedroom.



Thursday, March 29, 2012

Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling

Michelangelo Buonarroti
1475 - 1564
Sistine Chapel Ceiling 
1508 - 1512
C L I C K     T O     E N L A R G E

Picture:  1267 x 850  -  Columbia University
  • Vatican, Vatican City
  • Sistine Chapel
  • Fresco
  • 45 x 128 feet

And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.  And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.  And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.  And Shem and Japeth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
Genesis 9: 20 - 23

Picture:  1176 x 745 at 200 dpi  -  Kwing Hung


Picture:  782 x 495 at 600 dpi  -  Olga's Gallery


And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth:  and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
Genesis 7:23

Picture:  712 x 826 at 96 dpi  -  Wikimedia


Picture:  922 x 1000 at 300 dpi


Picture:  1835 x 900 at 300 dpi  -  Free Christ Images


And Noah builded an alter unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.  And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth:  neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
Genesis 8:  20 - 21

Picture:  1132 x 780 at 300 dpi  -  WGA


Picture:  1149 x 770 at 300 dpi  -  Wikipedia


And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:  and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:  Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.  So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Genesis 3:  22 - 24

Picture:  700 x 600  -  photoWall


Picture:  1073 x 1090  -  TerminArtors


Picture:  1537 x 770  -  Public Domain Photos


And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept:  and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Genesis 2:  21 - 22

Picture:  1086 x 771 at 300 dpi  -  Ad Imaginem Dei


Picture:  1600 x 1177  -  Reddit


And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Genesis 2:7

Picture:  1303 x 670 at 300 dpi  -  UCLS


Picture:  1303 x 670 at 300 dpi  -  UCLS



Picture:  1303 x 670 at 300 dpi  -  UCLS



Picture:  1200 x 802  -  Michelangelo Paintings


And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear:  and it was so.
Genesis 1:9

Picture:  1085 x 820 at 96 dpi  -  Wikipedia


Picture:  1085 x 820 at 96 dpi  -  Wikipedia


And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night:  he made the stars also.
Genesis 1:16

Picture:  1085 x 820 at 96 dpi  -  Wikipedia


Picture:  1085 x 820 at 96 dpi  -  Wikipedia



And God said, Let there be light:  and there was light.  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
Genesis 1:  3 - 5

Picture:  834 x 1050 at 96 dpi  -  Wikipedia


Picture:  1474 x 1100 at 300 dpi  -  WGA


Michelangelo gave visual expression to the words of Genesis.  As he proceeds across the ceiling in reverse order, from the drunkenness of Noah to the dividing of light and dark, he grows in confidence as a painter and his figures loom larger and dramatically foreshortened.  It was a project Michelangelo would never have undertaken without the fierce dominating insistence of Pope Julius II.  




Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Rembrandt Self Portraits

Rembrandt van Rijn
1606  -  1669
Self Portraits
C L I C K     T O     E N L A R G E

1629
Oil on Panel
15.5 x 12.5 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
Picture:  695 x 880 at 300 dpi  -  SUNY

Rembrandt is discovered in 1629 by an influential statesman who procures for him an important commission from the court of The Hague.  


Saskia
Picture:  746 x 1000  -  artMight

1634
71 x 55 cm
Private Collection
Picture:  371 x 480 at 305 dpi  -  Wikipaintings

Rembrandt marries Saskia van Uylenburg, cousin to his art dealer.  He is married in the local church without the presence of his relatives.  During this year he also becomes a burgess of Amsterdam, a member of the local guild of painters and he acquires a number of students.


1640
102 x 80 cm
National Gallery, London
Picture:  835 x 1008 at 300 dpi  -  Ibiblio

Rembrandt's second daughter, Cornelia, is born but dies after one month.  Only Titus, the youngest of his four children, survives to adulthood.  Saskia dies in 1642, shortly after giving birth to Titus.  She is believed to have had tuberculosis.


1643
72 x 55 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Picture:  600 x 785 at 150 dpi  -  Rembrandt Painting

Saskia dies the previous year and Rembrandt's clients begin to dwindle.  He has a relationship with his late wife's nurse that ends unhappily.  She pawns Saskia's jewelry that he had given her.


1658
134 x 104 cm
Frick Collection, New York
Picture:  3054 x 3957  -  Wikipedia

Rembrandt lives beyond his means and is forced to sell his possessions to avoid bankruptcy.


1659
85 x 66 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Picture:  1940 x 2472 at 300 dpi  -  Wikipedia

Despite selling off his possessions the artist still finds himself oppressed with bills and personal tragedy.


1660
111 x 85 cm
Musee du Louvre, Paris
Picture:  700 x 930  -  Brown University

Rembrandt sells his house and his printing press and moves into something less expensive. 


1661
114 x 94 cm
Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood House, London
Picture:  851 x 1012 at 300 dpi  -  Wikipedia

Rembrandt is contracted to complete a work for the new city hall but the finished piece is rejected and returned to the artist.


1669
86 x 70.5 cm
National Gallery, London
Picture:  828 x 1024  -  Wikipedia

The portrait as autobiography was established and defined by Rembrandt.  What began as an exercise in depicting facial expression and role-playing became a chronicle of one's life as it was being lived.




Monday, March 26, 2012

Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper
1882 - 1967
American Realist
C L I C K     T O     E N L A R G E

1942
Picture:  1234 x 673 at 300 dpi  -  Ibiblio

Nighthawks is the painting of a diner in Greenwich Village the artist and his wife frequented.  Jo Hopper, Edward's wife, gave the painting its title.  Edward Hopper says the painting was for him about predators in the night.  Two Hemingway short stores were particular favorites of the artist and may have influenced the painting - The Killers and A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.


1927
Picture:  1547 x 1200 at 300 dpi  -  Wallpaper Z

Automat was the cover of Time magazine in 1995 as illustration for its article on stress and depression in the 20th century.


1930
Picture:  1184 x 695 at 300 dpi  -  Ibiblio

Edward Hopper referred to this type of native American architecture as hideous beauty.  He deliberately left people out of the picture to add to the sense of desolation.  The lighting softens its impact.


1939
Picture:  1031 x 833 at 300 dpi  -  Ibiblio

Hopper uses light and shadow to create mood and saturated color to sharpen contrast.  



1940
Museum of Modern Art
Picture:  1137 x 739 at 600 dpi  -  Ibiblio

Common, mundane scenes of American life are infused with a sense of anticipation.


1957
Picture:  1134 x 682 at 300 dpi  -  Reproduced Fine Art

Shapes are simplified and details left out.  The mood of the woman subject is often ambiguous.


1965
Private Collection
Picture:  1036 x 812 at 600 dpi  -  Ibiblio

Edward Hopper believed painting to be an outward expression of the artist's inner life.


1925 - 30
Picture:  810 x 1013 at 300 dpi  -  Ibiblio

The important qualities of art are mostly contributed by the subconscious, according to Hopper.  He felt the inner life of the human being was too vast and varied to be satisfied with expressions limited to abstraction.


Picture:  620 x 714 at 118 dpi  -  Passion for Paintings

Hopper was raised in a small town along the Hudson River in New York.  He was by nature introverted, stoic and fatalistic.  He wasn't one to be swept up by idealism.  There is a pervasive feeling among his paintings that despite the material advantages of the modern world the individual is left feeling isolated and insignificant.