Happy Birthday Vincent!



Happy Birthday to Vincent Van Gogh! - born on this day in 1853. "Self-Portrait," 1889

Self–Portrait with a Straw Hat (obverse: The Potato Peeler), 1887
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)
Oil on canvas; 16 x 12 1/2 in. (40.6 x 31.8 cm)
Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), 1967 (67.187.70a)
Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coldplay's Viva la Vida

Image
Frida Kahlo Viva la Vida 59 x 50.7 cm. oil on masonite 1954 Frida Kahlo Museum, Mexico City, Mexico. Coldplay's lead singer, Chris Martin, was inspired by the life and art of the Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo, while recording Coldplay's latest album: Viva la Vida . Martin was struck by the appeal to life gouged into the watermelon in the foreground of Frida's Viva la Vida which he viewed on a visit to the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City, Both Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera were involved in revolutionary politics in the Americas. Both artists felt it was their responsibility to point out and help change the injustices in society. But the band has used another painter's work to stand in for their inspiration. Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People graces the cover of Coldplay's new album. Though, the painting has been tagged by Frida, Chris, Banksy or perhaps Ricky Martin in white paint with the phrase "Long Live Life!" The undamage...
Read more

What Lies In the Shadow of the Statue? ~ Ille qui nos omnes servabit.

Image
Update; January 26, 2010 The statue is of Tawaret the goddess of protection during pregnancy and childbirth. Temple of Haroeris and Sobek, Kom Ombo , copyright by Gary Jones . The Egyptian god Sobek seems to be the inspiration for the giant statue on LOST. I was leaning towards Anubis but the crocodilian snout gives it away. (Anubis was probably a bit too close to Stargate anyway.) Gary Jones' masterful photo of the Temple of Haroeris and Sobek in Egypt shows Sobek in detail. The light in Jones' photo is stunning - mysterious and beckoning. Caroline Seawright writes of Sobek: "Having the form of a crocodile, the Egyptians believed that he also had the nature of a crocodile. He could be the strong, powerful symbol of the pharaoh, showing the ruler's might. He could use this force to protect the justified dead in their after life, and be the protector and rescuer of the other gods... yet he could also use that power to savage his enemies and the sinful decease...
Read more

Cherry Blossoms and Kamikaze

Image
by Gregg Chadwick While glancing at the schedule for this week’s National Critics Conference (May 25-28, 2005) at the Omni Hotel in Los Angeles, I came across the description for Elizabeth Zimmer's "Kamikaze Writing Workshop." Obviously the word "kamikaze" has shifted in tone and meaning since it first entered the American vocabulary during the last years of WWII. I doubt that Zimmer’s criticism class will make a fiery plunge into the conference hall as a final project. But I was reminded of the important work being done in the fields of aesthetics and history by Emiko Ohnuki – Tierney at the University of Wisconsin. Cherry blossom send off. Kamikaze means "divine wind" in Japanese, and originally referred to a miraculous typhoon that saved Japan from a Mongolian invasion force in the 13th century. The Japanese Navy used this term to describe their suicide attack planes. In America, the word "kamikaze" describes actions that are...
Read more