Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Art For Art's Sake Thread

Thanks for posting that link, FC.

Here\'s the Ganesha statue I saw with mr_cleome yesterday. They had a number of smaller carvings, too. Along with textiles and photographs of Indian temple architecture.

Lovely sculpture.

Museums restore paintings to their original condition, or as close as possible/probable, but don't seem to do the same for sculpture. They fixed the Pieta after somebody attacked it, but usually sculpture is "as is". Would Winged Victory have the same impact if her head was restored? Or does having parts missing in a sculpture add to the perception of age and agelessness? Whereas an old and dirty painting just looks muddy....

Probably.

Now-a-days, when they restore paintings they usually don't try to fill in lost pigment colors, though.
Work on the 'Last Supper' by DaVinci cleaned off atmospheric grim and old paints added to repair damage over the centuries.

The restorer filled gaps with a neutral cream colored paint.

There wasn't a lot of lost pigment in the Sistine Chapel where Michaelangelo's work was restored a few years ago because he didn't experiment with pigments like DaVinci and he used a wet plaster method that holds up better against time.
But old 'restoring' paints were removed there, too.

Sculptures are usually kept how they're found unless a broken piece(s) are found with the statue or relief. Those are sometimes replaced but usually so that the breaks can be seen or broken parts may be on display beside the sculpture.

They DO clean them and try to keep them from deteriorating, though.

I was lucky enough to see a show called "The Artist At Sea" earlier this evening. (Most of the crowd had dispersed by 7-ish, so it was easy to get close to the small pics and stand the proper distance from the large ones.)

Here's one of the pics, by a painter named Mimi Fox . I did a double take when I saw her name, because there's a killer jazz guitarist with the same name, but they're definitely not the same person.

Here\'s the gallery link. Don't know how long it'll stay up.

Beautiful! I really like that Wagner at Midnight one.

There's a similar type of painting of waves crashing on shore in a gallery near here, which I admire through the window. I've thought of inquiring, but then I wonder why put a picture of waves on the wall, when I can just walk down to the shore and see them....

Look, if anyone thinks it's too extravagant or too strange, just put on a superior look and huff, "Those are from a different part of the ocean, you plebian!"

You can't see it in the images, but several of the larger paintings had mixed-in gloss polymer/gesso or some kind of varnish/sealant that kept the surfaces very shiny: creating the illusion that the paint hadn't actually dried.

Graham Chaffee used to be a cartoonist, and a damn fine one , too. His work for Drawn and Quarterly and Fantagraphics is what I think of when I try and explain to doubters just how fantastic "alternative" comics can be.

Nowadays, he's working as a tattoo artist , and he's every bit as amazing at doing that. (Note: main page NSFW.) I especially love the jellyfish (man o'war?) and the Tenniel Alice.

If ever I were going to buy an original work of art, it would have to be from Francoise Nielly[/color] . Her portraits (especially some of the earlier ones) seem almost sculptural. [color:Orange] This one and this one are two of my favorites.

Ram Boy, these are really vibrant and, yeah, almost 3-D in the way they fill up space.

Really loving this one the best.

Those tattoos are beautiful! Lots of maritime/pirate themes. I like the typewriter with wings, but can't help but think, what if she gains weight? Maybe it's an incentive to stay slim.

Very striking portraits, as well. The single-color ones are very sculptural, a bit sombre; the multi-colors have a lot of energy.

A cool "costume" image from Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) . (Since it's almost Halloween and all.)

Borrowed from here .

A bio and several other striking works are available here .

I was over at the Grand Central Bakery coffee shop (local chain. good pie.) a few days before Thanksgiving. They're currently displaying work by a local art collective that specializes in art by artists from Zimbabwe who now live and work in this part of the U.S.

Some samples and a link back to the main page here . Most of the paintings are on slighly curved surfaces similar to a "display" plate. They're about 1' X 1', or a little smaller. The detail that the artists can pack into such a small space is pretty damn amazing.

There were some tapestries and other kinds of cloth works as well, but the paintings were my favorite.

Three surviving portraits by 19th Century painter Marie Bashkirtseff (Russia, 1858-1884).

Lots more images and a detailed bio here .

Dark Angel (1996), Egg Tempera on Gesso Panel, by George Tooker (b. 1920), USA

...at Candle's request.

Let me try this as a link, first:
(I have to figure out how to do it with the title of the picture, it's so elegant that way.)

This is a version of Gustov Klimt's 'the Kiss' (I'm pretty sure.)
http://gi105.photobucket.com/groups/m228/CV1ARFWWH1/Klimtmorph.gif

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh:

http://gi105.photobucket.com/groups/m228/CV1ARFWWH1/starrynight2morph.gif

Oh, my. [boggles] That first one makes me think of "sand art," and the second reminds me of those "Fidgit" toys we had as kids. There was a flat surface the size and shape of a coaster. Two panes of clear plastic with multi-colored oils in the middle. When we moved our fingers over the lower pane, the oil would shift and change colors on the top!

Starry Night seems to have influenced a lot of cartoonists. Gilbert Hernandez, for one, likes to ink a lot of his landscape backgrounds "Starry Night" style.

Loving the Starry Night gif, Candle. I'm wondering if I've seen a similar effect in a movie or maybe a TV spot.

A glorious assortment of sculptures by Diego Giacometti (1902-1985), Switzerland. Third from the bottom is my favorite, simply called "Ostrich."

I honestly think that if I could afford to acquire one piece of "great art," it would be that one. So solid and yet so mysterious, too!

Lovely. I like the Cat Butler.

Me, too, Arachne.

I've seen this statue reproduced in museum gift shops before. The fantasy of the obedient cat servant must be strong in a great many of us cat lovers.

Okay. Joan Miro (1893-1983, Spain)... what to say? You either "get" his vibe or you don't. Personally, I love it.

"Toward the Rainbow" (from the series "Constellations." )

The jazz drummer and composer Bobby Previte wrote a whole series of pieces based on this series of paintings. One of the interesting things he said about it is that modern painters (and curators and viewers) expect paintings to be huge. It's almost shocking how much Miro could pack into these relatively small spaces. (Previte made a point of having all his musical interpretations also stay small: they clocked in at around two minutes apiece.)

(One of Miro\'s own poster promos...)

Nice. That's my kind of abstract.

Mine, too A!

I always feel kind of sad when people look at work like Miro's and say, "Yeah, well my eight-year-old could paint better than that!" I think they miss the whole idea that Miro wanted his stuff to have a feeling of youthful intensity to it. (Despite some of the dirty imagery! )

Anyway, moving along:

"Les Deux Chats" (1918) by Susanne Valadon (1865-1938, France).

A bio, and other images here .