Still Shut-in

I've no medical, or other, news to speak (or rather type)of. We're still shut-in. I do have a follow-up appointment with the oncologist on 4 May, this has to be in the main hospital of our group, it's in a big town some 30 minutes away. Apparently it's necessary for me to attend there once a year - something to do with billing, I think, it flippin' would have to be right now! It's mainly for blood work to check that all is still well. My original appointment was cancelled due to Covid-19. I'm not too happy about visiting the bigger town, things being as they are, Covid-19 wise. Our governor has allowed certain stores to re-open, even though there has been virtually no testing, so you never know who's wandering around infected without knowing it, and passing the virus on. We'll hope for the best. Husband will probably need to wait outside in the car. I'm told that they are being extra vigilant at the Cancer Center there - I should jolly well hope so!

A friend in the UK sent me this link, which I enjoyed - hope others might like it too:

Quarantine Through Art

Vernal Equinox 2019

Arty Farty content comes early this week with a handful of paintings honouring the coming of spring..

"Spring"  (one of a 4-Seasons set ) by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593) 

 "Spring" by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, 1622-35.

 "Winter yet lingers on the footsteps of spring". By Stephen Reid (British, 1873 - 1948)

 "Vesna" (Artist unknown) Vesna,  the old Slavic goddess of spring.  Her name means messenger. She was a protector of Her people, especially the women. She returns from the Underworld at the Vernal Equinox

Arty Farty Friday ~ First there was "surround sound", now there's "surround Van Gogh"

 Self portrait

At a new Van Gogh exhibit in Paris, you won’t just be able to see Van Gogh's most famous works — you’ll also be able to step inside them.

An immersive show called Van Gogh, la nuit étoilée, just debuted at digital art center L’Atelier des Lumièrest and it’s an exquisite treat for the eyes. The exhibit features several of the Dutch artist’s most well-known paintings, from "Starry Night" and "Sunflowers" to "Potato Eaters" and "The Bedroom," by projecting them all over the walls and floors. These larger-than-life works highlight Van Gogh’s exaggerated brushstrokes and bold color choices, and are paired with musical selections from pianist and composer Luca Longobardi.

See HERE.

More on the exhibition HERE, with photographs.


My post from 2007 about Vincent and his astrology is in the archives HERE.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Sir Anish Kapoor & Cloud Gate

[Sir]Anish Kapoor is a leading contemporary British-Indian artist working in large-scale abstract public sculpture. Among his best-known works is the popular Cloud Gate (2006), otherwise known as “the Bean,” featured in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Throughout his career, Kapoor has worked on a variety of scales and with diverse materials—mirrors, stone, wax, and PVC—exploring both biomorphic and geometric forms with a particular interest in negative space. “That's what I am interested in: the void, the moment when it isn't a hole,” he explained. “It is a space full of what isn't there.” (Wikipedia)



FROM:http://www.artnet.com/artists/anish-kapoor/

Born on March 12, 1954 in Bombay, India, Kapoor moved to London in the late 1970s, studying at both the Hornsey College of Art and Chelsea College of Arts. He first gained critical recognition for his work in the 1980s, with his metaphysical site-specific works in which he manipulates form and the perception of space. Kapoor was awarded the Turner Prize in 1991, and named a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2003, and Knighthood in 2013 for services to the visual arts. The artist currently lives in London, United Kingdom. Kapoor’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.

Sir Anish Kapoor's natal chart is at Astrotheme, here. His Sun and Mercury in Pisces somehow feel rather appropriate to his Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago (above), as does the harmonious trine between Pisces' ancient and modern rulers, Jupiter and Neptune. It's as though Pisces has gathered the reflections of the rest of the zodiac -all that has gone before - and reflects them back to us, in a wide gateway to the future.

Photographs of more of this sculptor's work can be seen via Google Image, here.

Arty Farty Friday ~ WHAT IS ART?

A seemingly simple question, posed some years ago at Quora, has one of the longest threads of answers I've yet come across.

What is art?


Most responders took the question and ran with it - ran all over the place in fact, and at length! I patiently read through a majority of answers, some from as long ago as 2011, some from early 2019. I was searching for something that I felt answered the question without...erm...a certain element of "showing off" from the writer, there's a lot of that. One could almost say that defining art can be made into an artform itself!

A few answers which easily resonated with me are below, although a simple, one-line definition does it for me too:
Art is the creative expression of humanity.


Expanded by Jeffrey Colin, former Cryptolinguistic Specialist at National Security Agency (1986-1989) answered January 2019:

Anything requiring a creative element. That may not be the most popular answer to the question, but it is the most pragmatic. The level of subjectivity that so many applied to assessing what “Art” is represents a de facto arrogance. Art is ANYTHING that entails a creative component in its creation and understanding. The Universe itself is the greatest “Artist” of all.

Expanded a little more by Michelle Gaugy, Art gallery owner, author, art consultant.(Jan 2015)
:

"Art" does not have one definition. These three little letters are used to represent very different things at different levels of meaning.

At its shallowest level, art is entertainment - theater, movies, dance, popular music, etc., that we use to relieve ourselves of tedium and anxiety and to unite us socially.

At the next level, art is both an aesthetic expression and an experience that may provide emotive, imaginative and even spiritual responses, for those so inclined. Historically, at this level, it can also provide substantial community, or even national "glue", especially music, theater and select visual arts.

At its deepest level, art - particularly visual art and music - provides one of the few available ways we have through which we can attempt to comprehend and integrate experiences that matter very deeply to us, but that cannot be explained adequately through words - concerns such as love, faith, death, etc. (note: other ways are nature, prayer/ meditation)

Regardless of which level of art we discuss (or argue about), one thing is very clear. Art has existed as long as humans have, so it clearly "comes with the territory". Some of us make it. But all of us use it, in one way or another. Because we need it.

And, from Alex Tamkin (May 2013):

I've struggled with this question for a while, mainly because every time I come up with a definition, I keep on finding counterexamples to disprove it. The definition I've become tentatively satisfied for now is this:

Art is something created or presented with the intent to deliver an aesthetic experience.

This definition is very broad, and includes works where aesthetics is the primary motive (e.g. a painting), or is second in importance to other aims (e.g. perfume, architecture, or commercials).

This definition also emphasizes the matter of context: the same object that may not be considered art in one environment may be considered art in a museum.

Overall though, art, as well as the definition of art, is constantly changing.

While preparing this post I glanced across the room and caught sight of one of my favourite vintage store arty bargains hanging on the wall by a window, it is titled, The Creative Mind, and signed by the artist, Joyce Crowley. What better place to feature a photograph of it - again (see below)? I wrote a full blog post about it just after buying it, in 2015 - SEE HERE.



Joyce Crowley's website is - HERE. In the section titled "Bas Relief", among the group "Contemporary & Abstract", there are several pieces in similar style and colours to this one.

CLIP from website:

All skills of drawing, sculpting and painting are combined in this unique art form. The slow layering process using acrylics and sand creates a bas-relief sculpture presenting a three-dimensional illusion when side – lighted... whether bold abstract, contemporary flowing designs... The surface interest, combining sculpture and soft earth tones, is a feast for the senses. The creative designs command attention. The tactile durability and craftsmanship command respect.

The image below doesn't do the piece full justice - the sculpted texture of it isn't clear.

Arty Farty Friday ~ 2 Arty Birthdays: Franz Marc & Joe Mangrum

A trio of short videos featuring two artists with birthdays today, 8 February, and on Sunday 10th February respectively.




I featured Franz Marc in a full post, a few years ago:

Franz Marc, Casualty of World War I

Joe Mangrum, birthday on 10th February when he'll be 50 is, among his other arty talents, an amazing sand artist.

The artist's own website, with many photographs of his work, is HERE

Arty Farty Friday ~ Venezuela

It's not often that news stories precipitate a change of decor chez Twilight and Anyjazz, but worsening news of the plight of ordinary people in Venezuela, due to a game of political Monopoly being played by governments (US government included) has done just that.

In 2015 I wrote a post about a bargain piece of artwork I had found during a trip in Texas. After some research, and with help of a commenter friend, "mike", it was discovered that the signed and titled limited edition print is of a watercolour by Bart Forbes; it is titled "Venezuela". The painting was, very probably, painted as part of a commission by Exxon-Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded international oil and gas company.

This week I've taken down the framed print from its place beside my computer, replaced it with another of my "bargains". I don't wish to celebrate, in any way, what is happening in Venezuela at present, which has got to be, at root, due to the country's oil reserves.

Anyway - to re-cap - here, again, is my 2015 post on the painting titled "Venezuela".



During a short trip to north Texas in late April I bought a signed limited edition print (97/780) of a watercolour painting by Bart Forbes, the picture measures around 25" x 30" in its frame. It was being sold 50% off (original price was only $25). A bargain, I thought, even though the painting's backing was damaged and the framing needed some strengthening, it had once been well-framed, and with expensive non-reflective glass. It was the subject matter of the painting that had first caught my eye though.

Painting's title, written in the artist's own hand is "Venezuela". I hadn't deciphered that until I got a closer look. I did appreciate, or suspect, that the painting was a kind of potted history of the oil industry. Yeah - I know, it's in bad books these days due to environmental destruction and contribution to climate change. However, in a similar way to coal, for use of which our predecessors were eternally thankful I feel sure, oil was another natural resource which catapulted civilisation forward at an amazing rate - possibly too fast - but that's another story.

In the painting, starting top left, is a representation of the forest where basics of oil were laid down aeons ago, to the right of that is a basic oil derrick. At bottom left oil has become the means of easy travel in the 1920s and 30s. The inset illustration shows a couple of oil men standing before a fully fledged oil field. At far bottom right - hmmm - was that patch foggy darkness a depiction of oil itself - or a prophecy, I wonder ?

The picture hasn't translated to computer screen too well, the frame is not black, it's a mid-brown wooden frame. The painting's colours are more subtle yet more distinct, a little sharper than shown. It does have a generally faded look but I don't think it has faded, I think it's in an intended washy water colour style, in shades of aquamarine and grey, with just one splash of a pinkish shade. Click on image for a slightly bigger version.

Husband has now replaced and strengthened the picture's two layers of backing and fixed remaining frame problems - good as new! It now hangs to the right of my compuer desk.


Bart Forbes, I have now discovered was born on 3 July 1939 in Altus, Oklahoma, now lives in Dallas Texas. Wikipedia has a short piece on the artist; there's a 2 minute video featuring Mr Forbes:



More images of his paintings, including lots of sports subjects, can be seen via Google Image.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Bits & Pieces

Book Lover Arranges Her Huge Library of Novels Into Imaginative Scenes
piece by Emma Taggart, arty fartiness by Elizabeth Sagan.

All book lovers will know that a great story can spark your imagination and transport you to another world. However, rather than keep each fictional story in the confines of their pages, self-described “bookstagrammer” Elizabeth Sagan pays homage to her love of literature by arranging her huge collection into imaginative book art displays.

Question at Quora some months ago:

Norman Rockwell had paintings about the First Amendment. Is there any artwork about the Second?

A reminder of Norman Rockwell's painting "Freedom of Speech"

And this was Frank Langben's jocular answer to the question:

Your pictures on the theme of 'inspiration'

"Each week, we publish a gallery of readers' pictures on a set theme."

A couple of my own, silly, captions for artwork by Modigliani and Mucha respectively:

Arty Farty Friday Rabbit-hole (ending on a rainy day in Spain.)

The search for a painter born around this time of year, with fascinating background or life story brought little of interest. My yawns caused me to stumble down an internet rabbit-hole while skimming through the biography of 17th century French painter Jean-Baptiste van Loo (14 January 1684 – 19 December 1745).

One of van Loo's best known paintings is shown in the small image below:
"Triumph of Galatea", and...ooops! Down the rabbit-hole I fell!

A better, larger image of the work is available here.


From Mental Floss website

4. "Galatea," which means "she who is milk-white," refers to three women in mythology. Of the three, the most well-known was the wife of King Pygmalion of Cyprus. Another was a Sicilian nereid, or sea nymph, who was in love with Acis, the son of Faunus and a river nymph. The final Galatea was the wife of Lamprus; she prayed to Leto that her daughter be turned into a son.

5. Jean-Baptiste van Loo's "Triumph of Galatea" is likely a representation of the Galatea who loved Acis. According to the story, the cyclops Polyphemus was jealous of Acis and thus killed him with a boulder. Galatea was distraught over the murder of her love, and so she turned his blood into the river Acis (in Sicily). However, no sources appear to document the inspiration or source of "The Triumph of Galatea."

Alrighty then - but what about Pygmalion? That word brings forth memories of Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews, Rex Harrison.

Pygmalion, a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after a Greek mythological figure. In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures, which then came to life. The general idea of that myth was a popular subject for Victorian era English playwrights, including one of Shaw's influences, W. S. Gilbert, who wrote a successful play based on the story called Pygmalion and Galatea that was first presented in 1871. Shaw would also have been familiar with the burlesque version, Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed.

Shaw's play has been adapted numerous times, most notably as the musical My Fair Lady and its film version.

See Wikipedia HERE and HERE.


Who'd've thunk it? Jean-Baptiste van Loo, via Galatea, down a rabbit-hole off-shoot, to this:

Arty Farty Friday ~ The Strange Worlds of Yves Tanguy

Yves Tanguy was born in Paris in 1900, son of a retired sea captain. Yves was said to be a very quiet, yet at the same time, anarchistic man. Allegedly, after having visited a an exhibition of the surrealist art of Giorgio de Chirico he spontaneously decided to become a painter, and gravitated naturally to his own version of the surrealist style, more or less untaught.

It's believed that surrealism - painting from the world of dreams and the subconscious mind - may have its roots in the despair felt by the young generations of Europe during and after the First World War. Young artists seemed to be seeking inspiration from their inner mind rather than from what they saw as a failed outer world .

Tanguy moved from France to the USA at the outbreak of World War II, with help from another artist, Kay Sage, who was to become his wife, after divorce from a previous spouse. (For more about Sage, see my 2010 post about the couple).

Tanguy died suddenly in 1955 - a stroke followed an accident.

I'm giving Yves Tanguy's portion of my old post another airing, with some different images included, mainly due to his unusual natal chart.





Tanguy, born in Paris, France on 5 January 1900 at 5:00 am (Astrotheme). I have to confess that Yves Tanguy's natal chart intrigued me more than his paintings. Some of that cluster of symbols occupying the area of Sagittarius and Capricorn are not planets, but they are significant points or bodies (North node of Moon conjunct Chiron, and Part of Fortune). Sagittarius and Capricorn are quite unlike each other, one being expansive, outgoing, optimistic; the other more structured, serious and limiting. I suspect that he was an interesting character, fun - but hard to understand at times.

Outer planets Neptune and Pluto in Gemini, flanking South node of Moon oppose some of the Sagittarius planets. The oppositions provided some much needed balance to the chart, and to his nature. Planet of the arts, Venus was in Aquarius; Moon was in imaginative dreamy Pisces. Venus in harmonious sextile to Uranus, planet of the avant garde and unexpected, reflects his strong attraction to surrealism.


From http://www.surrealists.co.uk/tanguy.php

Tanguy's work is characterised by dreamlike landscapes and is slightly reminiscent of Dali. It can be divided into three stages, 1926-30 was the aerial universe, 1930-48 he painted beaches littered with minerals and after his naturalisation in the United States in 1948, began painting rock formations and the submarine world. Tanguy's slight madness seeps into his artwork as did Dali's, some examples of the more eccentric side of the artist are chewing his socks and marinating spiders in wine. Indeed, he liked nothing more than such novelty in his art, commenting: "I found that if I planned a picture beforehand, it never surprised me, and surprises are my pleasure in painting"

I've picked out a few examples of his work, arranged them in date order. I like the fact that he gave most of his pieces titles - strange as these may be!

 Extinction of Useless Lights (1927)

 He Did What He Wanted (1927)

 Ribbon of Extremes (1932)

 Tomorrow (1938)

 The Satin Tuning Fork (1940)

 My Life, White and Black.(1944)

 There, Motion Has Not Yet Ceased. (1945)

Sept Microbes vus à travers un tempérament  (1953)

I think the title translates to "Seven microbes seen through a temperament".

Arty Farty Friday ~ Giovanni Boldini, "Master of Swish"

 Self portrait

One needs only to see a couple of portraits by Giovanni Boldini (31 December 1842 - 11 July 1931) to be able to recognise others - his style is striking and individualistic. He was known in some circles as the "Master of Swish".

Snip from article at Daily Art Magazine: also at that website are some large format images of his portraits, well worth a look.

Boldini must have really loved fashion, since most of his portraits feature evening gowns as least as prominently as the women wearing them. These dresses typically steal the show, but when you look at them closely, they seem to dissolve into near abstraction. Boldini was a master at using loose, flowing, swirling brushstrokes to indicate elegant silks and chiffons that take on a life of their own. The most recognizable feature of his style, this earned him the nickname “the Master of Swish”. He usually painted other sections of his works, such as sitters’ faces and elegant furniture, with more solidity, and this contrast only makes the fabrics that much more striking. His works are also recognizable for the subjects’ exaggerated pointed chins, bow-like red lips, elegant noses, and lithe hands and fingers held at jaunty angles.

From a New York Times article

A reviewer of the 1897 Paris Salon wrote that to encounter one of Giovanni Boldini’s flamboyant portraits of society beauties was to see “a woman, and in her the entire age.”

Chiefly famous for his portraits of wealthy, often titled, Belle Époque women, Boldini also painted the composer Giuseppe Verdi, the artist James MacNeill Whistler and the dandy and decadent Robert de Montesquiou. These male portraits too seem to capture both the personalities of their subjects and the era they lived in.

Boldini divided critics and confused even his admirers. In 1878, his longtime friend the critic Diego Martelli said, “To describe the talent of this artist is a more than difficult task, and it is even harder to explain his painting.” Boldini’s pictures, he observed, “have parts that are executed with incredible minuteness, and parts that are left capriciously unfinished” — a characteristic that was to become the trademark of his mature style.

Many critics during his lifetime and since have regarded his work as flashy, facile and lacking in depth — the mirror of a spoiled and frivolous period that would end with World War I. Yet a contemporary, the writer J.-K. Huysmans, said, perceptively, that Boldini was “truly more than a fashion painter.”

 Lady in Red

 Mme Charles Max-Pictif

 Portrait of a Young Woman in Profile

 Reading in bed

ASTROLOGY

I found no natal chart online, so decided to add one here. Time of birth is unknown, so a 12 noon chart has to suffice.
Giovanni Boldini was born in Ferrara, Italy on 31 December 1842. He died on 11 July 1931.

Hmm - that's a lot of Capricorn!  Predominance of Capricorn would indicate a good businessman, which he obviously was. It indicates someone  solid and reliable in tasks or commissions undertaken. Boldini was much sought after as portraitist of the wealthy.

Things to note:  At each end of the Capricorn cluster are Neptune in Aquarius and Venus in Sagittarius at 17 and 20 degrees respectively - in helpful sextile. That is a good aspect for any artist, Neptune represents imagination and creativity and Venus is planet of the arts.  Pluto, from Aries is making a harmonious trine to Venus in Sagittarius adding a touch of sensuality - present in some of his paintings.

Where do we see his 'Swish' ? It could be Mars at 1 Scorpio making a sextile to either Moon, depending on time of birth, or a little more widely to natal Sun. The energy of Mars is definitly a good place to look for 'Swish' .

Arty Farty Solstice Friday ~ Masaccio

Masaccio, Painted by Himself, Lately Added to the National Gallery

The painter I'd decided to to feature this week was born this day,
December 21 in 1401, in a town close to Florence, Italy. The artist died aged 26, which could account for lack of more colourful information than the mostly fact-based and rather stodgy stuff I found at first. Then I found this lighter, yet still informative piece from The Guardian a decade ago, in 2008.
Masaccio, the old master who died young
A star of Renaissance Florence, Masaccio's artistic legacy helped shape western art. Thankfully, he avoided today's morbid personality cults.
by Simon Goddard.

A few snips ~

As the piece begins, the author is referencing the then (2008) flurry of stuff in the media remembering the untimely death of Kurt Cobain

If the world of art was stricken by the same incurable, anniversary-fixated old rope disease as the UK music press then, round about now, there'd be brainstorming editorial meetings on how best to commemorate the imminent 580th anniversary [ in 2008] of the untimely death of Masaccio - Renaissance Italy's hippest young gunslinger who more or less invented painting as we know it. Cue "The 20 Best Masaccio works ... as voted by the stars!", "580 Reasons We Love Masaccio" and the obligatory "What Masaccio Means to Me", wherein vacant twentysomething goons line up to pay tribute to one of the founding fathers of western art by mumbling hollow plaudits about him being "a proper geezer and all that".
Saints be praised, this isn't the case. But even if an art history equivalent of magazines such as Mojo or Uncut existed (Fresco? Unchiselled?) they'd be hard pushed to do a Kurt Cobain number on Masaccio. For while enough major works have survived to earn him a rightful place in the pantheon of Renaissance masters, his biography is the palest of sketches. We know, or rather we think we know, that he was born near Florence on December 21, 1401 and that he died, aged 26, in Rome some time in the latter half of 1428 (we don't even have an exact date). And that's it. History has failed to record whether Masaccio's fate was murder, bubonic plague or perhaps even suicide. All we have are the concrete facts that: a) just like Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Cobain, Masaccio never lived to blow out the candles on his 28th birthday cake (nor his 27th for that matter), and b) he was a total genius.


The vague accounts of his life that exist tell us he was born Tommaso (Thomas) Cassai and grew to be the archetypal teenage weirdo - socially inept, moody, withdrawn and so preoccupied with drawing that his bedraggled appearance became local legend. Accordingly, he earned the affectionate nickname Masaccio - the 15th century Tuscan equivalent of "scruffy git" (or more literally "silly Thomas"). By 19, he was deemed great enough to be admitted into the Florentine painters' guild and befriended both the sculptor Donatello and the architect Brunelleschi. What those men had already revolutionised in their respective fields, Masaccio would soon revolutionise in painting.

In rock'n'roll terms, his bequest to art was the equivalent of Elvis Presley's Sun recordings, a year zero foundation stone for future generations to develop and perfect. Masaccio was the first to fully master depth and perspective on a two-dimensional surface. Before his arrival, paintings were flat, ornamental images beholden to staid Gothic tradition. After him, they became windows on walls, peering into another universe of similar spatial dimensions to our own. Significantly, his frescoes were a vital influence on Michelangelo. The latter's close friend, the great Florentine biographer Vasari, was still swooning over Masaccio's legacy 140 years after his inexplicable death. "Everything done before him can be described as artificial," frothed Vasari, "whereas he produced work that is living, realistic and natural."



It seems the greatest tribute to Masaccio is that, ultimately, he needs no "Who killed Kurt?" coffin-raiding industry to sustain his legend. His death is forever a puzzle but his achievements have resonated for centuries beyond the grave.

A couple of Masaccio's paintings - one appropriate to the current season:

 Madonna & Child with St. Anne c.1424.

The Madonna and Child with St. Anne, also known as Sant'Anna Metterza, is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Masaccio, probably in collaboration with Masolino da Panicale. The painting is in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy, and measures 175 centimetres high and 103 centimetres wide. (Wikipedia)

Tribute Money shown above is a classic example of the expert realism captured in Masaccio's work. Click on the image to bring up a larger, clearer version.


For any passing reader curious about the astrology of this artist, there's a natal chart at astro.com.