It has been almost a year since I was motivated to write here.  Darn.  So much has happened. Some good, some bad; c’est la vie.

So, l wonder if I can recharge this blog.  Let me see, I left off with the alphabet from z to a using art.  I’ll try to get started where I left off.  I’ll think for a few minutes to see what I can dream up for the next letter.

Georgia O’Keefe

Violet Oakley

A masterpiece by “Jack the Dripper”

Many people, when confronted with paintings by Pollock and the New York School, can’t understand what the artist was doing or why.

The best way I can explain early modern art is to paraphrase one of the artists working in the style: Traditional painting techniques just didn’t jive with contemporary life.  Realism, perspective, and all of the aims of the western painting tradition from the Renaissance through the mid-19th century, just could not be used any longer to express the developments and atrocities witnessed in the 20th century.  Who wants to look at a perfectly captured painting of an atomic bomb blowing up?  A photograph can capture it.  Leave those subjects for photography and begin to explore other ideas.  Dive into the deep end of your subconscious.

And the winner is:  Erikeno who recommended the Rialto Bridge!  What a great idea!  You can collect your prize in person in September!

Honorable mention goes to JBragg with the suggestion of Raku ware from Japan.  Thank you JBragg! Here’s a picture for you:

But, back to dreamy thoughts of the Rialto…

It turns out that early versions of this beloved, gorgeous ponte di rialto were made of wood and it kept collapsing.  About 1585, it was decided to build the bridge in stone and a Swiss-born engineer/architect known as Antonio da Ponte (1512 – 1595) (Anthony of the bridge, are you kidding me?), helped design and build the bridge that has since become the symbol of Venice.

Check out this link for the latest and greatest information.

http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0000461

 

1588 – 1591

Oh my goodness, I have been delinquent!  Sorry, let me get back —pronto— to the reverse alphabet of art. Last post was for the letter T and now I’m ready to move on to the letter S.  Andiamo!

Wouldn’t you love to be passing a summer afternoon with these ladies?  I would!  I bet they are discussing their beaus.

Or, taking a summer afternoon nap to escape the heat in this little outbuilding in Corfu?  I would!

Or, gliding in a gondola over the waterways of Venice?  I would!

Or, observing some exotic ceremony in some Middle Eastern country?  I would!

Or, playing some board game with your friends on some pretty bank of some lovely, cooling stream?  I would!  But I do wonder why all the women have their heads wrapped up in filmy cloth.  Too many insects, I presume.

One activity from which I…

What’s not to love?

I have loved Thiebaud’s paintings since the first one I ever laid eyes upon in the 1970s.  My love is still going strong.

Plus it is summertime!

Get your tan on, people!

I love them both.

Let’s start in Italy.  How can you go wrong?!  You can’t.

Galleria degli Uffizi. I could look at this view–in person of course– for hours, or days.

Here’s a nighttime view, looking the opposite direction. Sigh.

Here is just one of the masterpieces included in the Uffizi collection.  Botticelli‘s Birth of Venus.
Time spent looking at this painting is my idea of heaven, although I have little patience with the crowds that gather in front of this beauty.

And, before I get carried away with the incredible Florentine museum, let me turn to ukiyo-e.  Japanese wood-block prints.

Here is a masterpiece by Hokusai known as The Great Wave.  Try imagine yourself as one of the boaters in the lower right quadrant.  Scary thought!  Is the artist making a statement about the magnificence of nature and man’s tiny role in it?  Maybe.

Do you know about the Venice Biennale?   The first Biennale was held in 1895 and it is still one of the major international exhibitions of contemporary art.  It is happening right now in its 55th iteration.  This year’s version was curated by Massimiliano Gioni.  He entitled it “The Encyclopedic Palace” (Il Palazzo Enciclopedico) and it includes 88 “national pavilions” with 158 artists.  Several countries are participating in the important Biennale for the first time, including Angola, the Bahamas, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Ivory Coast, the Republic of Kosovo, Kuwait, Maldives, Paraguay, Tuvalu and, perhaps most surprisingly, the Holy See!

If you’d like to know more about this year’s exhibition, here is a link:

http://www.labiennale.org/en/art/

I haven’t been to this year’s exhibition (nor would I want to be in Venice in the summer heat and crowds, but that’s just me!). I was there one August for the…