This is an old picture, taken in the 1992.
After 20 years, I gave it new life :D
Before
After
Monday 27 February 2012
Saturday 25 February 2012
Horror Vacui
So I did it, for real! I visited the exhibition about Gustav and his frieze.
Again, I learnt and thought a lot, thanks to that.
I could not exploit any of my fidelity cards to obtain a reduction. Full price: 8 €! I'm afraid the price of culture is raising both with the one of petrol. We're very near to put oil barrels in Museums, too! (Maybe I'll soon review a visit to the oil station).
It's all based on the original frieze made for the Secession Building in Wien (here there is a made-in-Italy faithful reproduction).
Klimt made a lot of preparatory drawings for that masterpiece, almost 400, and the exhibit presents some of those, in semi-darkness. "For conservative reasons, the drawings cannot be light with more than 30 lumen" a notice was saying. The final effect is like seeing the private collection of Bruce Wayne in his Bat-Cavern.
The papers are very delicate but clear and powerful. Few lines to define the femininity of the luckiest Klimt models, or the tough muscles of the poor ones. The body is at the center of his research, seen from undisclosed points of view, innovative and strongly criticized. Klimt was very touchy and got very angry with the "chaste" society of those days. His wife, on the contrary, was more compliant and open-minded towards that abundance of cheeks and "femininity".
These drawings, very simple, were very different from what I expected from Klimt (because everybody always expect something from the authors studied on school books).
I was used to rich paintings and mosaics "Klimt style", and here I made my first discover: line is the base for Klimt comprehension. You must first follow the lines to better discover the paintings, sometimes so full that one could risk to loose the smallest details in them. Follow the lines, then look at the portions of his drawings, then concentrate on the textures and finally discover the main characters.
After this, I'm ready to talk about the frieze.
I had no idea of how it was. I only made a psychological mesh with what I expected from Klimt and the ancient Greek typical friezes. I was figuring on that image and I entered the dedicated room.
It took me 5 minutes to find the starting point of the frieze and 3 lectures of the explicative boards to understand the followings:
* the reproduction was 2/3 of the original
* the first part was not reproduced
* each character's name
* the logic of the frieze
* the connection with Beethoven n°9 symphony
but what really shocked me, was the fact the half of the 2/3 was… white! No paint on that! I thought of a mistake, a missing, lack of time in the reproduction process…
I soon discovered that white was only a pause. Pause in the presented "story" and pause to guest (in the original first exhibition) Beethoven's statue.
It was just a pause, not a mistake!
This made me think that, nowadays, we have a lot of difficulty in accepting a pause.
We are bounded by images, we are full of stuff, always connected and surrounded by any kind of information. No space for a pause, for a white page.
I initially couldn't accept a white part in the frieze, because I expected more. I'm used to see everything full of things.
Klimt's pauses, Gustav's breaks, are there to make you more concentrated on the main issues. They let you appreciate the story.
Listening to the symphony (played by a stereo) and enjoying the breaks, I could really understand all the frieze, step by step, pause by pause.
The frieze is very interesting, I would say even genial, but if you are not enough receptive, you could think to see "a little" exhibit, with too few things by Klimt (the preparatory papers are no more than 15/20).
An ancient Confucius' saying tells that it's the emptiness that gives value to full parts. We should always accept pauses and stop to concentrate on what is really important. And not only in art!
ps. If you google "Beethoven frieze", you'll mainly find only the "full parts" of that. Nobody seems interested in the white parts.
Again, I learnt and thought a lot, thanks to that.
I could not exploit any of my fidelity cards to obtain a reduction. Full price: 8 €! I'm afraid the price of culture is raising both with the one of petrol. We're very near to put oil barrels in Museums, too! (Maybe I'll soon review a visit to the oil station).
It's all based on the original frieze made for the Secession Building in Wien (here there is a made-in-Italy faithful reproduction).
Klimt made a lot of preparatory drawings for that masterpiece, almost 400, and the exhibit presents some of those, in semi-darkness. "For conservative reasons, the drawings cannot be light with more than 30 lumen" a notice was saying. The final effect is like seeing the private collection of Bruce Wayne in his Bat-Cavern.
The papers are very delicate but clear and powerful. Few lines to define the femininity of the luckiest Klimt models, or the tough muscles of the poor ones. The body is at the center of his research, seen from undisclosed points of view, innovative and strongly criticized. Klimt was very touchy and got very angry with the "chaste" society of those days. His wife, on the contrary, was more compliant and open-minded towards that abundance of cheeks and "femininity".
These drawings, very simple, were very different from what I expected from Klimt (because everybody always expect something from the authors studied on school books).
I was used to rich paintings and mosaics "Klimt style", and here I made my first discover: line is the base for Klimt comprehension. You must first follow the lines to better discover the paintings, sometimes so full that one could risk to loose the smallest details in them. Follow the lines, then look at the portions of his drawings, then concentrate on the textures and finally discover the main characters.
(just an example, among hundreds, of Klimt research in drawings)
After this, I'm ready to talk about the frieze.
I had no idea of how it was. I only made a psychological mesh with what I expected from Klimt and the ancient Greek typical friezes. I was figuring on that image and I entered the dedicated room.
It took me 5 minutes to find the starting point of the frieze and 3 lectures of the explicative boards to understand the followings:
* the reproduction was 2/3 of the original
* the first part was not reproduced
* each character's name
* the logic of the frieze
* the connection with Beethoven n°9 symphony
but what really shocked me, was the fact the half of the 2/3 was… white! No paint on that! I thought of a mistake, a missing, lack of time in the reproduction process…
I soon discovered that white was only a pause. Pause in the presented "story" and pause to guest (in the original first exhibition) Beethoven's statue.
It was just a pause, not a mistake!
(What I call a pause)
This made me think that, nowadays, we have a lot of difficulty in accepting a pause.
We are bounded by images, we are full of stuff, always connected and surrounded by any kind of information. No space for a pause, for a white page.
I initially couldn't accept a white part in the frieze, because I expected more. I'm used to see everything full of things.
Klimt's pauses, Gustav's breaks, are there to make you more concentrated on the main issues. They let you appreciate the story.
Listening to the symphony (played by a stereo) and enjoying the breaks, I could really understand all the frieze, step by step, pause by pause.
The frieze is very interesting, I would say even genial, but if you are not enough receptive, you could think to see "a little" exhibit, with too few things by Klimt (the preparatory papers are no more than 15/20).
An ancient Confucius' saying tells that it's the emptiness that gives value to full parts. We should always accept pauses and stop to concentrate on what is really important. And not only in art!
ps. If you google "Beethoven frieze", you'll mainly find only the "full parts" of that. Nobody seems interested in the white parts.
Thursday 23 February 2012
Before the next Exhibition
Today I'll go to Spazio Oberdan to see an exhibit @ Spazio Oberdan Milan. It's all dedicated to the "Drawings about the frieze of Beethoven" By G. Klimt.
For the moment I've only read something to be prepared, but I also noticed the following similarity.
In the dedicated (serious) review I'll write after my visit, I'll tell you more (serious) stuff about the frieze.
For the moment, let's have fun!
I think this is totally weird...
For the moment I've only read something to be prepared, but I also noticed the following similarity.
In the dedicated (serious) review I'll write after my visit, I'll tell you more (serious) stuff about the frieze.
For the moment, let's have fun!
By Gustav Klimt:
From Monster&co:
I think this is totally weird...
Tuesday 21 February 2012
Friday 17 February 2012
First step: New Clothes for Pinocchio
This COULD BE his firts job: male model for... let's start with something easy, H&M...
H&M Tuscany collection!
H&M Tuscany collection!
Thursday 16 February 2012
Pinocchio
I don't know, for the moment, where this could bring me, but I've just
decided to start working on Pinocchio. Pinocchio as an "icon". Let's see
what I discover...
Wednesday 15 February 2012
Ignorance and Prejudice - no more!
The best thing is starting the day with learning something. This is even better if you can completely change your mind and understand where you were wrong.
Today I went to Spazio Forma, Milan, because I wanted to see the expo of Robert Mapplethorpe work. I was completely ignorant about the man and the work. Moreover, I went there full of prejudice.
Even the first room, containing his first shots of his friends and lovers was not telling me that much. Not to talking about his self-portrait with whip rammed up in his you have clearly understand what.
But then, something happened -I don't know whether in his life or just in the exhibitions- and even the most pornographic shots started becoming -to me- the real research of perfection.
No matter for the numerous still-life about the male you have clearly understand what: that's perfection, and now I'm convinced about this.
He was born in 1949, in Queens. He got his first Polaroid in 1970. He died in 1989.
Everything stay in the middle of these dates. Perfection is the fil rouge of all his work.
He was looking for something that could be a sculpture, no matter for the subject (flowers, nudes, children, friends, actors…) the body is at the center. Even in his still-life research of flowers you can clearly see the power of the nature, that humanizes the subject. So flowers and you have clearly understand what do have the same weight in his work and for the results he obtains. Simply amazing… nothing to add.
Spazio Forma is a wonderful center for Photography, obtained from part of a space once used by the Milan Public Transport Society. You can still see the modern part of that, still working, from a tall and narrow window in the main room. It's always a strange but interesting effect when you are brought back to reality by that. It's like a pause in your artistic walk through the pictures.
Good exhibition,
Good space,
Good morning - spent there!
Today I went to Spazio Forma, Milan, because I wanted to see the expo of Robert Mapplethorpe work. I was completely ignorant about the man and the work. Moreover, I went there full of prejudice.
Even the first room, containing his first shots of his friends and lovers was not telling me that much. Not to talking about his self-portrait with whip rammed up in his you have clearly understand what.
But then, something happened -I don't know whether in his life or just in the exhibitions- and even the most pornographic shots started becoming -to me- the real research of perfection.
No matter for the numerous still-life about the male you have clearly understand what: that's perfection, and now I'm convinced about this.
He was born in 1949, in Queens. He got his first Polaroid in 1970. He died in 1989.
Everything stay in the middle of these dates. Perfection is the fil rouge of all his work.
He was looking for something that could be a sculpture, no matter for the subject (flowers, nudes, children, friends, actors…) the body is at the center. Even in his still-life research of flowers you can clearly see the power of the nature, that humanizes the subject. So flowers and you have clearly understand what do have the same weight in his work and for the results he obtains. Simply amazing… nothing to add.
this should be "Thomas" 1987
Spazio Forma is a wonderful center for Photography, obtained from part of a space once used by the Milan Public Transport Society. You can still see the modern part of that, still working, from a tall and narrow window in the main room. It's always a strange but interesting effect when you are brought back to reality by that. It's like a pause in your artistic walk through the pictures.
Good exhibition,
Good space,
Good morning - spent there!
Monday 13 February 2012
Wednesday 8 February 2012
The undisclosed price of free-art.
Today I went to the Triennale di Milano, one of our best museums (after the already mentioned PAC).
I wanted to see an exhibition about women skin, seen through art and science. Not bad, you could think; the approach is for sure uncommon. And so I thought, why not going?
As soon as I arrived there, I discovered it was free. In my mind this always sounds like a possible swindle, talking about art exhibits, but I anyway entered "the curve" (a part of the museum hosting the show).
The introduction tables, hanging on the entrance, were enough clear about the strategy: the presentation was made possible thanks to sponsors, very famous, that were P&G and Boots Laboratories.
The idea for this project is very simple and subtle: we show you a lot of "skin", artistically talking, and we inform you about the importance of that, from the philosophical, ethical, historical, scientific points of view. Oh, yes moreover, Boots Lab has taken care of your skin for more than 160 year… and still continues now with dedicated lines of products always renewed.
Well, I said, that's ok, let's see what happens…
The path to follow was organized in sections, each taking care of a precise aspect of the skin world, starting with the first baths and skin-care products (all coming from the Boots archives) and then introducing, little by little, the artistic skin, the painted skin, the tattoos, the photographed skin and the "pop" skin reproduced and colorized by Warhol. There was at least one piece for each artistic age, and they were all good pieces.
There was also a video tunnel, where horror scenes involving skin were showed. This was linked to the italian way of saying: "far accapponare la pelle per la paura". It's something like "it gives me gooseflesh", when you are scared by something. All the sections played with Italian sayings related to the skin. We have a lot of proverbs like that (enough to make an exhibition like this...).
I could see, for free, masterpieces by Rodin, Toulouse Lautrec, Balla, Savinio, R. Lichtenstein, Mimmo Rotella, Fontana, Warhol, Andres Serrano, Vanessa Beecroft… but these are only few names!
There was also a section dedicated to the skin as the organ for the touch and, from that, the organ for seeing (for blind people). This part was little but tremendous. There were the books used by the Milanese Institute for Blind People, written in the Braille way. And also gypsum reproductions of great paintings, the only way to "see" art at least through the touch. Those things really gave me gooseflesh, I can assure you.
I was very happy for the time spent inside "the curve". There was even the possibility to take a picture of you, to be shown on a wall before the exit and leave a trace of you there. But for the first time I declined this kind of offer. I was already satisfied by the done experience.
But then, when I completely forgot about the sponsors, here they were again… there was a glazed cabinet, completely filled with Boots products.
It was exactly like waking up by falling down your bed.
This is the undisclosed ticket of the sponsored exhibitions!
I wanted to see an exhibition about women skin, seen through art and science. Not bad, you could think; the approach is for sure uncommon. And so I thought, why not going?
As soon as I arrived there, I discovered it was free. In my mind this always sounds like a possible swindle, talking about art exhibits, but I anyway entered "the curve" (a part of the museum hosting the show).
The introduction tables, hanging on the entrance, were enough clear about the strategy: the presentation was made possible thanks to sponsors, very famous, that were P&G and Boots Laboratories.
The idea for this project is very simple and subtle: we show you a lot of "skin", artistically talking, and we inform you about the importance of that, from the philosophical, ethical, historical, scientific points of view. Oh, yes moreover, Boots Lab has taken care of your skin for more than 160 year… and still continues now with dedicated lines of products always renewed.
Well, I said, that's ok, let's see what happens…
The path to follow was organized in sections, each taking care of a precise aspect of the skin world, starting with the first baths and skin-care products (all coming from the Boots archives) and then introducing, little by little, the artistic skin, the painted skin, the tattoos, the photographed skin and the "pop" skin reproduced and colorized by Warhol. There was at least one piece for each artistic age, and they were all good pieces.
There was also a video tunnel, where horror scenes involving skin were showed. This was linked to the italian way of saying: "far accapponare la pelle per la paura". It's something like "it gives me gooseflesh", when you are scared by something. All the sections played with Italian sayings related to the skin. We have a lot of proverbs like that (enough to make an exhibition like this...).
I could see, for free, masterpieces by Rodin, Toulouse Lautrec, Balla, Savinio, R. Lichtenstein, Mimmo Rotella, Fontana, Warhol, Andres Serrano, Vanessa Beecroft… but these are only few names!
There was also a section dedicated to the skin as the organ for the touch and, from that, the organ for seeing (for blind people). This part was little but tremendous. There were the books used by the Milanese Institute for Blind People, written in the Braille way. And also gypsum reproductions of great paintings, the only way to "see" art at least through the touch. Those things really gave me gooseflesh, I can assure you.
I was very happy for the time spent inside "the curve". There was even the possibility to take a picture of you, to be shown on a wall before the exit and leave a trace of you there. But for the first time I declined this kind of offer. I was already satisfied by the done experience.
But then, when I completely forgot about the sponsors, here they were again… there was a glazed cabinet, completely filled with Boots products.
It was exactly like waking up by falling down your bed.
This is the undisclosed ticket of the sponsored exhibitions!
Saturday 4 February 2012
The unbearable lightness of Cezanne
After a long period of uncertainty, I finally decided to visit the exhibit "Cezanne" @ Palazzo Reale, Milano.
I won't speak about the Great Painter, since I haven't the right competences to do that, nor the interest in add something to all has been already written.
I'll talk about what I found there and what I learnt.
First of all, I must admit that I've found the will to go, despite the quite expensive ticket, only because I could use my brand-new "fidelity card" issued by the FAI, the Fondo Ambiente Italiano. This card allowed me to take advantage of the special reduction for the FAI members.
Then, I went there because I was very curious to see Cezanne not only on books or by Google. It was a (too) long time since I last saw a true one! Moreover, this summer I read a book on Francis Bacon, ONLY WORDS - NO IMAGES, that was amazing. It's "The logic of sensation" by Gilles Deleuze, talking of Bacon for half the book, and of Cezanne for the remaining half. I went crazy not being able to follow all the mentioned paintings, by both the Masters…
Even if I'll have to read that book at least other 6 times before understanding everything inside that, I well got the main message: No Cezanne, no Bacon (let's avoid all the possible culinary puns, for a while).
I loved the book, and that's why I really wanted to go deepened with my "aesthetically research".
It was a sudden decision going there. Once inside the rooms, I found quite a little exhibition compared to what I was expecting, but good - I suppose. Again, I'm not an expert, but the space was well organized following the different "ages" of Cezanne, demonstrating all the efforts he made in becoming what he was. It seemed like a effective summary of his career, with few but meaningful pieces.
The first paintings of the young Master, please excuse my childishness, where quite embarrassing. It was a kind of art nuveau mixed with the best advertising of the period. But considering that Mr Cezanne Father was against the artistic career of his son, Cezanne Junior did the best he could, basically learning by himself.
Then, there were macro-pictures of his studio near Aix-en-Provence, making you the feel like being inside the true one, no matter for the B/W colors. This section created a division between a certain "before and after". Passing "through the studio" you enter the section of the best Cezanne, the one of the Nature seen as nobody ever did before.
I loved all the portraits of his friends - I can bet they were very new for his contemporaries. There where also the still-life paintings, so physical but balanced, powerful.
As usual, it's all about colors: colors that makes everything, the world around us, the volumes and the surfaces. Always changing, nothing is immobile, even on Cezanne canvas.
And here there is a thing I really noticed and convinced me to write this review: have you ever looked at the frames of the drawings? I mean, the wooden ones, more or less decorated…
Frames always reflect the true age of a paint, far beyond the authors intentions.
Who decides the frames for a drawing? For sure Cezanne knew he was new, "futuristic", not understood by most of his contemporaries. He described himself as a painter of the next generation! So what's the problem?
I think is the following: look at the image.
(Taking pictures was forbidden, so I used my bad-quality phone to feel less guilty).
The fact that a revolutionary style as the one of Cezanne was framed by shells and flowers, I think it's amazing. It's true that Cezanne tried, for a long time, to be respected and accepted by the academicians, but there is surely a short-circuit in this juxtaposition. The frame is old, and Cezanne is new, too new for that.
And you know what? No matter the "framer", I think you can really understand Cezanne only if it is contained by that kind of gorgeous and flowered mounting.
The proof is in the following bad photo. It was a watercolor.
Is this still a Cezanne? For sure it is, but in my opinion, even if the frame could result more "apt" for the style (linear, simple, wooden and somehow cold) that mount weakens the painting.
The unbearable modernity of Cezanne, in my opinion, do need a old-style frivolous support.
I won't speak about the Great Painter, since I haven't the right competences to do that, nor the interest in add something to all has been already written.
I'll talk about what I found there and what I learnt.
First of all, I must admit that I've found the will to go, despite the quite expensive ticket, only because I could use my brand-new "fidelity card" issued by the FAI, the Fondo Ambiente Italiano. This card allowed me to take advantage of the special reduction for the FAI members.
Then, I went there because I was very curious to see Cezanne not only on books or by Google. It was a (too) long time since I last saw a true one! Moreover, this summer I read a book on Francis Bacon, ONLY WORDS - NO IMAGES, that was amazing. It's "The logic of sensation" by Gilles Deleuze, talking of Bacon for half the book, and of Cezanne for the remaining half. I went crazy not being able to follow all the mentioned paintings, by both the Masters…
Even if I'll have to read that book at least other 6 times before understanding everything inside that, I well got the main message: No Cezanne, no Bacon (let's avoid all the possible culinary puns, for a while).
I loved the book, and that's why I really wanted to go deepened with my "aesthetically research".
It was a sudden decision going there. Once inside the rooms, I found quite a little exhibition compared to what I was expecting, but good - I suppose. Again, I'm not an expert, but the space was well organized following the different "ages" of Cezanne, demonstrating all the efforts he made in becoming what he was. It seemed like a effective summary of his career, with few but meaningful pieces.
The first paintings of the young Master, please excuse my childishness, where quite embarrassing. It was a kind of art nuveau mixed with the best advertising of the period. But considering that Mr Cezanne Father was against the artistic career of his son, Cezanne Junior did the best he could, basically learning by himself.
Then, there were macro-pictures of his studio near Aix-en-Provence, making you the feel like being inside the true one, no matter for the B/W colors. This section created a division between a certain "before and after". Passing "through the studio" you enter the section of the best Cezanne, the one of the Nature seen as nobody ever did before.
I loved all the portraits of his friends - I can bet they were very new for his contemporaries. There where also the still-life paintings, so physical but balanced, powerful.
As usual, it's all about colors: colors that makes everything, the world around us, the volumes and the surfaces. Always changing, nothing is immobile, even on Cezanne canvas.
And here there is a thing I really noticed and convinced me to write this review: have you ever looked at the frames of the drawings? I mean, the wooden ones, more or less decorated…
Frames always reflect the true age of a paint, far beyond the authors intentions.
Who decides the frames for a drawing? For sure Cezanne knew he was new, "futuristic", not understood by most of his contemporaries. He described himself as a painter of the next generation! So what's the problem?
I think is the following: look at the image.
(Taking pictures was forbidden, so I used my bad-quality phone to feel less guilty).
The fact that a revolutionary style as the one of Cezanne was framed by shells and flowers, I think it's amazing. It's true that Cezanne tried, for a long time, to be respected and accepted by the academicians, but there is surely a short-circuit in this juxtaposition. The frame is old, and Cezanne is new, too new for that.
And you know what? No matter the "framer", I think you can really understand Cezanne only if it is contained by that kind of gorgeous and flowered mounting.
The proof is in the following bad photo. It was a watercolor.
Is this still a Cezanne? For sure it is, but in my opinion, even if the frame could result more "apt" for the style (linear, simple, wooden and somehow cold) that mount weakens the painting.
The unbearable modernity of Cezanne, in my opinion, do need a old-style frivolous support.
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