Puppets

World Puppetry Day, comes every March 21.

The idea came from the puppet theater Artist Javad Zolfaghari from Iran. In 2000 at the XVIII Congress of the Union Internationale de la Marionnette, (UNIMA) in Magdeburg, he made the proposal for discussion. Two years later, at a meeting of the International Council of UNIMA in June 2002 in Atlanta, the date of the celebration was identified. The first celebration was in 2003.

Well then, all those media puppets whose strings are being pulled by corporations, banks, plutocrats et al, in this part of the world, should feel quite at home today.

What first came to mind when I noticed that it is World Puppetry Day ? This painting by Michael Cheval:

Clicking on the image should bring forth a slightly larger version.

There are other puppet-related paintings by this artist, including a different version of this one. I like this one because, looking closely, we see that even the puppeteers are subject to their own strings being pulled, from even higher up the "food chain".

Arty Farty Friday ~~ Michael Cheval - Illusion & Metaphor

In yesterday's post I included a couple of works by Michael Cheval. His paintings, discovered online during research, made me an instant fan. So - a little more about this fascinating artist.

Michael Cheval is the world’s leading artist specializing in Absurdist paintings, drawings and portraits. He defines "absurdity" as an inverted reality, a reverse side of logic. This doesn't come from dreams, or from the subconscious. It's more a game of imagination with carefully chosen connections to construct "a literary plot". Cheval’s paintings are "maps of his journey into illusion", often metaphorical. They require a certain level of knowledge and a sharp eye to translate often hidden allusions. These are not simply "pretty pictures!"

Michael Cheval was born in 1966 in Kotelnikovo, a small town in southern Russia. He grew up in an artistic family. His love of drawing was encouraged from early childhood by his father, a self-taught artist, and by his grandfather, Yuri Lipov, a professional artist and sculptor. His talents developed quickly and by three years old, he could already draw complex compositions.

He has lived, painted, and studied in Germany (where his love of history, literature and music further blossomed). There he led a rock 'n' roll band and for several years, composed songs, wrote poetry. Many of his paintings contain musical references.

Cheval later moved to a Turkmenistan city in the middle of the desert, near the Iranian border. Here he developed a deep interest in oriental philosophy. He began work as a professional artist. His decision to emigrate to the USA in 1997 brought a new beginning. Adding to his early inspirations drawn from Western culture, his own experience, philosophy and vision gathered from his time in the East, his work rapidly evolved and made its mark on the art world. His paintings these days command high prices, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars.

The artist's own website has more information and lots of examples of his work.
HERE and HERE.

I'm astrologically frustrated by not having Mr. Cheval's full birth data. All that's available is his place of birth and "1966", so a peek at his natal chart isn't possible. In 1966 Uranus and Pluto were conjoined in Virgo all year, with Neptune in Scorpio in sextile. That information alone sets a general background atmosphere of inventiveness, depth and incisive insight.

Trying to translate the symbolism in his paintings is mind-boggling at times. A few examples follow. One would have to be as well-versed and well-travelled as Mr. Cheval to catch every nuance! Titles, where available, offer clues.

Clicking on the images should bring up a slightly bigger version, to investigate important detail.

Practice of the Big Boom

Division of Prime Cause

The Truth is Always Inbetween

Official title is Lady of Hurricane. without knowing its title I saw it as Pandora opening her Box.....maybe that's the same thing!

Sunset Tango

Sounding Silence

Loquacious Blues (Many of his paintings have musical references.)

I want to go on, and on... but I'd be apprehended by copyright police - so, just one more:

Zenith of Time

Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner.

ART-FOOL

Staying with Fools again today - this time in art.

Quentin Massys 1465 - 1530
Belgian Painter, many religious subjects and portraits. See some examples via thumbnails HERE

His painting An Allegory of Folly

Hans Sebald Beham (1500–1550) was a German printmaker who did his best work as an engraver, and was also a designer of woodcuts and a painter and miniaturist. He is one of the most important of the "Little Masters", the group of German artists making printss in the generation after Dürer. See Wikipedia.

Two Fools, circa 1532-1550.

'Stanczyk', by Polish artist Jan Matejko (1837-1893).
The jester is depicted as the only person at a royal ball who is troubled by the news that the Russians have captured Smolensk. This event happened in 1514.
Stańczyk (c. 1480–1560) was the most famous court jester in Polish history. He was employed by three Polish kings: Alexander, Sigismund the Old and Sigismund Augustus.

Cecil C. Collins (See more here)

Cecil Collins was born in Plymouth, Devon, England. He studied at Plymouth School of Art and at the Royal College of Art, London. For a while he was interested in Surrealism but in the later 1930s, after meeting the American painter Mark Robey, he became interested in the art and philosophy of the Far East. He taught for a time at Dartington Hall, a progressive boarding school in Devon, and published The Vision of the Fool in 1947. He frequently drew on symbolism in his work and had a special interest in the figure of the fool. This creature came to signify for him such qualities as spontaneity, purity and light, unappreciated but for the artist, in modern capitalist life. He painted some powerful faces staring out at the viewer with large sad eyes. These expressive surveys recur throughout his work and the brush strokes echo these rhythms, while pattern and detail are applied in brief dark outline. .......The fool does not see the world with the disillusioned knowingness of the scientist; rather he marvels; he looks with the eyes of a child. Collins is not a conventionally religious man: indeed he is deeply critical of the world’s established faiths. He believes that they have lost sight of this ‘vision of the fool’.............
See also HERE.

The Sleeping Fool, 1943.

The Joy of a Fool, 1944.

Michael Cheval (born Mikhail Khokhlachev, Russian: Михаил Хохлачев; 1966, in Kotelnikovo, Russia is a contemporary artist specializing in Absurdist paintings, drawings and portraits (inverted side of reality, a reverse side of logic). Amazing artist! More on him and his work tomorrow.

His painting Ship of Fool

And: Art of Diplomacy

Michael Parkes His lovely paintings often include references to a Fool motif (see my post about him and his natal chart HERE)

Finally, back to tarot representations of The Fool - variations on a theme ~~~

From the Thoth Tarot deck, painted by Lady Frieda Harris according to instructions from Aleister Crowley:

From the Quantum Tarot - The Fool, the archetypal beginning is represented by Event One - The Big Bang

The card below - of course - is from The Peanuts Tarot:

Note: Copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).