Michelangelo Caravaggio’s The Calling of St Matthew, 1600.

Caravaggio was born in Milan, Italy on September 29, 1571.  He was of the first generation of renowned artists of the Baroque era with his use of naturalism and Tenebrism techniques. Caravaggio made images look like how they would in real life and used an incredible contrast between light and dark in his paintings. Since he proved his skill as a painter and he lived in the days of the Counter-Reformation, he never had troubles finding work in Catholic churches. In Rome he was commissioned to create The Calling of St. Matthew in 1599. The piece shows the power and sway of Christ as he inspires Matthew to join him with light rather than a physical display of divine might. This piece is in accord with the Counter-Reformation’s persuasive message that God is all-powerful and to resist His calling is to be cast into darkness. Caravaggio masterfully uses light and shadows in his painting to illuminate the important characters in the scene (Jesus and Matthew amidst the tax collectors).

Japanese Puppet Show, 2007.

“Bunraku is exceptionally disconcerting.”

This is what my friend said after we watched this video. The Bunrako style of Japanese theatre is both curious and unnerving. The puppets are extremely lifelike, to the point where you would think they were real if it was dark or you were tired, but they are artificial enough to let you know they do not have lives of their own. This is a particularly dramatic performance where the main character is in great turmoil.

Bunrako began in the 1700s and is a traditional favorite of the Japanese. They are dramatic plays with a narrator and a shamisen musical instrument. The puppets have three controllers: one for each side of the body (hands and face) and a person to do the puppet’s speaking part (narration of the story). The eyes can move and the face has more detailed expressions than most puppets ever do. Many find this style of theatre beautiful and entertaining, but I still need to think about how to overcome the cultural barriers so I can truly appreciate these works.

Ali says in this video that the festival was organized for people who had never heard of the word “festival.”   This idea could be applied to his music.  The way he plays the guitar and the way his songs are structured evoke a nice calm feeling, one anyone could get in on, dance to, relax to, or whatever.  Basically, its just happy music; festival music!  You can tell from watching all the performers on stage, and the shots of the audience that everyone is having a good time.  There’s a groove everyone’s getting into.  At the heart of this music is a communal spirit, one of sharing and contribution.  Everyone’s singing, everyone’s clapping, everyone’s dancing, and everyone is enjoying.

In Ali’s playing in general this sort of emotion is brought out in his playful bouncing guitar style, with licks that hop all around the guitar neck.  Ali’s style reflects a great love for his country, and a celebration of people in general.  

Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, 1936.

The 1930′s were a bleak time in America’s history, the Great Depression was upon the nation. People were unemployed like never before, food was scarce because of the Dust Bowl, and WWI was over but the world remained tense for more violence. Art was the least of most people’s interests when money was used to fight for survival and not a new painting or to go listen to a concert. Fortunately, the Federal Government realized it needed to preserve America’s culture so it established the Farm Security Administration in order to create jobs and envigorate the nation. The FSA even employed artists to perform music for the public, put on plays to entertain the downtrodden people, and create visual art to capture the reality of the disaster in the country.

Dorothea Lange was hired by the FSA to display the effects of the federal programs in the worst economic regions of the Dust Bowl when she stopped to take at a camp. She was drawn by some instinct to see what was happening in the camp and how the people there lived. What Lange saw startled and horrified her and she realized she had to show others the truly horrific conditions the people in that camp endured. She took a photo of a woman with her three children for documentation of the camp’s conditions; the photo was called Migrant Mother and the government sent food immediately to the camp when they saw the photo. Lange’s talent was that she could reveal the suffering in the mother’s eyes and the hopelessness of her condition. The mother had to endure and be strong for her children, but how could she provide for her family when she did not have any reason to hope for saving her starving children (7 in all). The country could not allow its people to wither away in this time of need, but there seemed like too much had to be done and too many people were in need. This photo displayed to the world the difficulties faced by individuals and as well as the entire nation.

Sandro Botticelli’s Bertoldo di Giovanni. Creation most likely happened in Florence and the exact date is unknown, but it probably occurred near the end of his career (early 1500s).

Botticelli was born in Florence Italy on March 1st, 1445. He was raised in the city and studied painting and probably had some lessons from Leonardo da Vinci before he turned 25 and began his own studio. His main supporting patron was Lorenzo de Medici and through him he was introduced to important religious figures, artists, and philosophers in Italy. He strove as an artist to reveal the passion and talent needed for his craft, in a time that viewed artists as little more than stonemasons or other workers of raw materials. An artist’s profession was not considered intellectual’s work (still before the influence of Donatello and Da Vinci brought society around in their medieval logic).

Sandro Botticelli’s painting of Bertoldo di Giovanni is significant because of the way Bertoldo is clothed and what he holds in his hands. Bertoldo was an illegitamite offspring of the Medici family and a struggling artist. Though over his life, Bertoldo was supported by the Medici family even though he was not acknowledged as part of the line. Botticelli is displaying Bertoldo as an intellectual like that of a clergyman (from the robes and hat) and the medallion he holds is engraved with Cosimo de’ Medici’s face on it to symbolize his connection to the Medici family. Sandro Botticelli was around enough philosophers to have the humanist philosophy interwoven into his paintings. He designed a beautiful image of Bertoldo di Giovanni with powerful implications about an artist striving for their full potential as a person.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosimo_de%27_Medici

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandro_Botticelli

http://www.leninimports.com/sandro_botticelli.html#luciangallery

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertoldo_di_Giovanni

This is Wolfgang Laib’s Reishaus, created in 2008. It is a beautiful pyrimad sculpture made of red sealing wax and rice. It is 8.3” tall, 16.5″ wide, and 16.5″ inches deep. It is on display for sale in Germany at the Buchmann Galerie Berlin. It is simple and yet appealing.

Born March 25th, 1950 in Metzingen Germany, he studiend medicine and become a doctor back in 1974. He then realized his love of art and began working with different materials to make his art. Wolfgang makes many pieces with a combination of traditional artist materials like marble, clay, wax and normal items like rice, milk stone, and pollen. He works mainly in Germany, the Middle East, and New York on his projects.

Laib is interesting because he combines unusual ingredients to make works that reflect natural works or pastoral art.

Wolfgang Laib’s Pollen from Pine (1999).

Laib is reknowned for his work with pollen that he collects from fields and forests. His Pollen is on display in the Balnaves Foundation Sculpture Project. The pollen is lovely and very easy for the eyes to take in the way they amplify the naturalistic beauty.

Wolfgang Laib’s 1989 Reishaus, white marble surrounded by grains of rice.

This earlier piece of Laib’s reflects the styles of medieval burial chambers and improvised grain storage in times of urgency. The light touch of the rice makes the scene pastorally beautiful.  Laib excels at enhancing beauty with little effort. Almost like a minimalist and enviromentalist artist combined in his works.

Tony Cragg’s Recycling Sculpture of Flotsam and Jetsam, 2008.

Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool in 1949. He was a laboratory technician at the Natural Rubber Producers Research Association before attending Gloucestershire College of Art and Design, Cheltenham, and the Royal College of Art, London. Tony Cragg has lived and worked in Wuppertal, Germany for the past 30 years. He uses unique combinations of materials (often times trash or household objects) to make his sculptures.

Cragg is interesting because he takes driftwood, trash, and recycled objects to emphasize the beauty of what people take for granted. The things that people would think were trash or at least debree become art when Cragg works with them. He uses nothing exquisite to make something so visually appealing.

Tony Cragg’s Stack, 1975.

Stack shows unity and structure despite the random assortment of household and construction materials used to develop the box. The miscellanious assortment of natural and human-made products is a commentary on how people are affected by and affect nature. Everyone could probably make a Stack from supplies from their own house. Cragg shows us all how it is not what is used that makes something artist, but the thought that went into fashioning it.

Tony Cragg’s Axehead, 1982.

Cragg’s Axehead is made from assorted wooden and fake wood products to create an oversided replication of a tool of people made to destroy and shape nature. This sculpture is not even linked or molded together, so the artist nature of it solely comes from the idea of the piece and what means to the viewer.

As I was finding these pictures one of my friends came over and saw the pictures I was looking and commented, “I wish I could get paid thousands of dollars to make things like that.” I am sure people have said that for years about art and even things like science. How obvious it must be to scientists that there are invisible forces like gravity at work wherever matter exists, but it was not always to simple. Just a few centuries ago it was heresy to say the Earth revolved around the sun and now it is common knowledge. As I said to my friend, “Too bad you did not do it first then,” because it is the initial spark of genius that makes something revolutionary and artistic.

Filming for the Internation Polar Year

Hi! That’s me up there.

Have a great weekend,
Molly