"God and other artists are always a little obscure. ~Oscar Wilde"
I dislike people who pontificate about art as if art & artists inhabited some rarefied stratosphere unattainable to ordinary plebs like me. Irks me no end. Irks me when I know jolly well artists were, & are, as prone to sin as the rest of us & often less shy about indulging it. I dislike it when people don't bother to form their own opinions but spit out the same tired old depthless drivel that can be found in any tourist guidebook when all the really interesting stuff can be found somewhere else...when people look but don't see.
Now I have that off my chest I adore Michelangelo's work ~ more particularly his latter work which strikes me as more impressionistic but let's face it; the man began his artistic career as an art faker. Ditz & I have never forgotten that the aged patina on faked antiques was achieved by covering them in yogurt & human excrement before burial. Now you won't forget either, will you?! Totally gross. And how many of you have admired his David? Did you realise David is left handed as Michelangelo was himself along with Da Vinci? Have a look. It's true. The sling is held by David's left hand. Mind you, Michelangelo detested Da Vinci. He also dissected corpses & did not really want to paint the Sistine Chapel. An interesting man ~ & that's without going into his more controversial quirks.
Not so fond of Da Vinci. The man had a twisted mind. He is responsible for inventing high heels & it was just a tad obsessive to spend 12 years painting the Mona Lisa's lips. However there is something to be said for realism in art. I'm pretty sure the Mona Lisa has never been hung upside down as Henri Matisse's Le Bateau once was. It was 46 days before anyone visiting N.Y's Museum of Modern Art noticed ~ & had the problem rectified!
Art has been round a long time but a little historical digging makes the mind boggle because the Renaissance painters & sculptors modeled their work on the classical pieces of Ancient Rome & Greece ~ & the Romans made their statues with detachable heads!!! Helpful when you are busy assassinating emperors I guess. Rodin[1840~1917] however was accused of human sacrifice his bronze was considered so realistic. He died off frostbite in 1917, the French government happily housing his pieces in nice warm museums while denying Rodin financial aide.
I like Dali too ~ for his quirkiness, for his eccentricity, for the opulence of so much of his work but also for providing that shift in perspective that gives depth to one's own perceptions such as his
crucifixion scenes. In almost all his work you will find a self portrait, even if it is only a lightening sketch or silhouette.
But one of the more bizarre pieces of trivia belongs to Ghengis Khan ~ who imported cobalt blue into China from Iran. The Chinese adored cobalt blue. Actually, so do I!
2 comments:
I think it was Dali's crucifixion scenes that really made me sit up and take notice of his art. Prior to that, I'd actively disliked his work. After that, I became fascinated by Surrealism in general and his work in particular and he was the subject of one of my major essays in senior history.
My husband is very succinct in his own descriptions of art: he either likes it or he doesn't, so I have come to appreciate true criticism of my own art much more than I did when I was younger. I have to agree with my husband at times, though; if you cannot tell which side is up...how can it be *seriously* considered art?
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