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Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts

Sunday, December 6, 2015

The Unintented Utility

I selected
a mini  platter
as a gift
a ceramic one
with small and big
round alternating
indentations on it

The artist referred
to it as the
Soap dish

Her intended utility
for it
I am thinking small
squares of cheese on it



Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Rubiks cube Art

My friend sent this link to  Rubiks cube art
Most people usually have one or no Rubik's cube in their house.
A pattern on one cube would have set off the artist to gather more and coming to the realisation that the artist would need so many Rubiks cube is a crazy Eureka moment. Making icon pictures out of icon material is a hedged tete-a-tete with audience (for lack of a specific term for art readers). 

Friday, April 25, 2014

Some good techniques


Discover your World in Pen, Ink and Watercolor by Claudia Nice
The book gets the general interest of the reader in painting with its circles used to approximate and get the proportions of animals right. the book goes through many kinds of drawing. For example, painting the street lights and so on. It works at the general level than the details.

June 23, 2013

Wow pictures


Few interesting things that I learnt from reading this book:

The beautiful marble work in Tajmahal, which looks like a painting to a layman is 'Pietre Dura'.

Islam forbade depiction of humans and animals in architecture design. This makes us see why there is not much of structures with human forms like in European architecture.

May 30, 2009

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Beyond Buffalo Hunts




Paintings and photos that I have never seen before. I imagined English women with their umbrellas only on the covers of novels. This book Art of the American Frontier has an image of couple of English ladies watching the Old Faithful.
The writers of the various essays have provide not just the context of the paintings but also about the elements of a painting.
There is a compare and contrast too with the plates of paintings and pictures. Showing the transition of the extreme hunterer to the end of the trail.
The format of essays add meaning to the exquisite pictures and trace the history of the wild as well as its representation as a way for the East to know the West.

Monday, July 23, 2012

How to read a potato in a painting as a potato and not a solar symbol?




This book is about writing on art.It has sections to equip you with what to keep in mind while writing an essay, research paper or review of an exhibit.

The book has sample examples for comparitive essays and reviews with a good analysis on the organization of the material, its purpose and aptness for the reader.

The checklist on writing on art can be extended to writing on books too. The many references to artists of all times with your interest will give you a walk through the whole of history of art.

The sections on what is art, interpretation, the importance of seeing for creating art and quotes by many writers and artists are interesting to read.

Sep 4, 2006

Excellent book on art




This book is an excellent study of Palestinian art and its history. Art work of Ismail Shammout, Sliman Mansour, Kamal Boullata are extensively described with the relevant context to the times and loss of Palestine inhabitants.

One comes across not only paintings but also other forms of expression - 'mud on wood'(page 84).

One of the paintings 'Whereto?' on page 49 shows the effect of influence of 'absence of a character (part of defined standard of family)' by exclusion from the figure-ground of a painting but not from a higher space of our understanding. While paintings are assumed to be more real by blending into the atmosphere i.e extending onto the walls that they are placed. This one creates a great seperation. It is to such art that you get introduced to in this book.
Mona Hatoum's work is described , most of which is daily home objects turned useless in a very prickly way, the source of it being her sense of alienation from home.
The same themes are explored in works of Khalil Rabah and Asad Azi.


sep 10, 2006

Friday, July 20, 2012

An artist and a child




This is the story of the great painter Goya, and Rosarita, a poor child who dreams of 'the art of strokes', while her canvas is the earth, and her finger the only sketch.

Goya moves from the King's Court to a rustic life, so that he can paint in peace and not worry about what theme in his painting will offend the church.

When Rosarita chalks out a picture of him as a wicked man, he is impressed by her talent ,but realises that she needs help in 'seeing' more than just two eyes can see, to be a good painter.

He then appoints Rosa's mother as the housekeeper giving them a roof. While he is doing paintings in his own style, he also teaches Rosa to finetune her skills and lets Rosa do an ivory painting. She does the ivory more justice than expected from a child.

Two extremes in relation to parents, children and art can be seen. Goya's son is a failure at art. Rosa's mother believes art's no good to earn bread.The son's dedication for father, trying to get him out of Inquisition, have been well brought out.

Towards the end, an important point is driven home, that it is scary to express your innermost fears, but the result will relieve you, for having found the expression. After all, what good is art if you cannot communicate your deep felt emotions.

Aug 30, 2005

Sunday, June 17, 2012

A motley expression




Author: Kristina van dykes

Ladislas Segy, an expert on modern and African art writes in his book African sculpture, that for a background of it, one needs to explore a dozen different branches of science - the history of African kingdoms, archeology, ethnology, anthropology, the study of mythology, folklore, linguistics, ethno- psychology, psychoanalysis.

The objects with their simplicity and unity are well described as for their source and purpose. The fact that contributions are not from a single author goes to show the wide range of expertise required to understand African art.

Kuba cups and Divination pestle from Luba with pictures of real people and their coiffures showing the inspiration point, show how the art derives from their way of life.

When objects serve as authority or status symbol, the rituals involved are explained.

Shoulder masks. Multi- Figure altar. Caryatid stool. Serpent sculpture. Aesthetically these were totally new to me.

Staff from Kongo is a story in wood.


June 27, 2010


5/5

Tuesday, June 5, 2012





The author questions the part played by evolution in the beauty adaptation. His inspiration for the book - a commonality in the song of two different species encourages us to keep scrutinising things that interest us.
The shape of a shell. Even when I imagine it, it seems so luscious.
According to him abstract act opens up art and the possibility of its occurrence in things around us even more like how removing the strict rules of form on poetry unshackles it.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Very interesting read





The content i.e details of Bernini's sculpture is very interesting to know.

The author makes us look at the sculptures in an expert way by mentioning things like - one sculpture having an inaccurate centre of gravity. The concept of one medium used to look like the other being immoral was new to me.

And just one sentence that I needed to know, about how Bernini viewed his work -' he considered most of his works far inferior to the Beauty that he knew and conceived in his mind'. Bernini's work and his interest in it seems like 'progressive improvement'. So It was interesting to know that he was inspired in a way that didnt stop at one work or with the greater beauty that he saw, he never seems to have been at loss for inspiration.

My favourite is Cornaro Chapel.


Oct 5, 2006, 5/5