Category Archives: Art and Film

Drawings by Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896)

March 11, 2007

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Leighton Drawings Project
The Leighton Drawings Project aimed to catalogue, conserve, photograph and exhibit the collection of almost 700 drawings by Frederic Leighton at Leighton House Museum. It was carried out between 2005 and 2007 with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, and can be accessed, along with a database of all Leighton drawings in other public collections worldwide, from the website of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.

“Flaming June” is the Leighton painting that I find the most sensuous: the imagery is evocative of glorious repose.
flaming june

Frederic Leighton”s studio is now open to the public as a museum : it is known as an amazing work of architecture in its own right- a fusion of Middle Eastern and European styles. Paintings on display include works by contemporaries of Leighton including Edward Burne-Jones.
Leighton House Museum

Categories Architecture, Frederic Lord Leighton, Leighton Drawings Project, Leighton House Museum, News & info

Bill Viola@ Haunch of Venison: Love/Death The Tristan Project

July 29, 2006

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Love/Death: The Tristan Project

viola2

Now showing for free - at two venues: Haunch of Venison Yard and St. Olaf’s College - Tooley St. ( or what used to be the College) [ Adjacent to Tower Bridge Rd, London, SE1 2JR - nearest tube is London Bridge]

The Love/Death: Tristan Project is a twelve piece collaborative project with input from theatre directors and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. The exhibits range from large scale video projections with sound to smaller, silent flat screen panels.

Considered a pioneer in video art, Viola is represented by the James Cohan Gallery in New York, as well as Haunch of Venison in London. His video installations at the SF MoMA ( San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) can be still found as online exhibition features here.

“Viola’s work looks at birth and death, time and human experience. He is said to draw elements of religion into his work and has studied mysticism, Sufism, Kabbalah and Zen Buddhism.”

viola

Much of the work in this latest show comes from material produced for a recent production of the Wagner opera Tristan and Isolde.

The Haunch of Venison Group are an international art group representing contemporary art, based in Zurich.

The exhibition is running till the 2nd of September

Stefan Lubomirski de Vaux’s blog has photos and comments on his experience.

Categories Europe, Galleries and Exhibitions, London

Undercover Surrealism : A Subversive Climate

June 30, 2006

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Picasso documents

Undercover Surrealism explores the ’subversive climate’ of the dark undercurrent within Surrealism in the late 1920’s spearheaded by Georges Bataille. The exhibition draws together work by Picasso, Miro, Masson, Giacometti as well as imagery from the magazine Bataille edited from 1929 to 1930 called DOCUMENTS :

“..a shocking and bizarre juxtaposition of art, imagery, ethnography, archaeology and popular culture in such a way that overturned conventional notions of ‘primitive’ and ‘ideal’. Bataille described himself as Surrealism’s ‘enemy from within’… ”

The exhiition is running at the Hayward Gallery till the 30th July.

Categories Events, Hayward Gallery, London, Surrealism

Moviementos @ the Salmon and Compass

April 28, 2006

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MOVIMIENTOS @ The Salmon and Compass -Thursday 4th May (7pm -2am)

Latin Music

“A politically inspired night of Latin boogie & documentary films on Latin America.
The finest in Afro-Latin, Boogaloo, Brazilian, Funk, Ska, Hip Hop, Reggaeton, Salsa, Cumbia, Bachata, Manguebeat, Tango, Drum and Bass, Broken Beats, Rhumba House, Electronica etc…..Music hosted by DJs Arias & Springfield & Stylo Prohibido MCs With guest DJs Steve M and Mark Wimmers (Que Rico!) DJ Zen (Sonic 360 Records)
With guest DJs : Steve M and Mark Wimmers (Que Rico!) and DJ Zen (Sonic 360 Records)

Upstairs: Film Night- from 7 pm

“Documentary films on Latin America by independent film makers, presented by various solidarity and support groups based in the UK.We are excited to present a unique portrait of water justice and the exploitation of water resources in Latin America and beyond by Northwest London World Development Movement.
In recent years, Latin America has seen failed water privatisations and massive public protests from Cochabamba and El Alto in Bolivia to Argentina, successful alternative cooperative schemes in places like Brazil and a public referendum outlawing water privatisation in Uruguay…but this struggle against making our natural resources a commodity is also happening worldwide!
This month”s films focus on the global nature of this fight but there will be time for discussion of Latin American experiences, UK campaigns and the ways that water privatisation represents larger trends towards eradicating essential public services and human rights in favour of the private sector and multinational corporations.”

Dirty Aid, Dirty Water - World Development Movement, 2005
Length: 15 mins

Thirst - Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman, 2004
Length: 35 mins

A World Without Water : C4, 2005
Length: 90 mins

@ The Salmon & Compass
58 Penton Street (Corner of Chapel Mkt)
Angel , N1 9EZ

–

crossposted @ sonia.pickledpolitics.com

Categories Environment and eco-friendliness, Events, Latin America, London, News & info

Virtual Uffizi

January 28, 2006

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Virtual Uffizi: the complete catalogue of the Uffizi Gallery of Florence.

The “Virtual Uffizi” web site makes available all texts and most of the images, and provides information on the Gallery and on visits, buying tickets online etc. etc. Very useful and another step in the virtual museums/gallery direction.
The Galleria degli Uffizi is one of the most famous museums of paintings and sculpture in the world, and its four centuries of history make it one of the the oldest- it was opened to the public in 1591.

Its collection of Primitive and Renaissance paintings, as well as important collection of classical sculpture, includes masterpieces including works by Giotto, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Correggio, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo and Caravaggio.

The Gallery occupies the top floor of a building which was erected by Giorgio Vasari around 1570 to house the administrative offices of the Tuscan State.Started by Grand-duke Francesco I and added to by various members of the Medici family who were keen collectors as well as patrons of the arts.
A famous Botticelli painting is housed at the Uffizi: The Birth of Venus (c. 1485-86) which was painted for the villa of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de” Medici at Castello.

More on Renaissance Art here : Page on Botticelli

Categories Florence, Galleries and Exhibitions, News & info, Renaissance Art, Uffizi Gallery, Virtual Museums, botticelli

bonjour tristesse

November 6, 2005

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Beautiful and haunting; full of pathos.

bonjour tristesse by françoise sagan: written over the summer of 1953.

francoisesagan

autobiography: “Avec mon meilluer souvenir” published 1984

Categories Books and Literary Things, News & info, Paris

'Portrait of a Lady Far Away' on the London film festival

October 31, 2005

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“Portrait of a Lady Far Away” was on this afternoon at 2.00 p.m. and sounded most interesting, if only i hadn”t been at work! ah well - referred to as ” a dreamy, hallucinatory ride through Tehran by twilight” - it sounds worth holding on to for future viewing purposes. Its a debut feature also - by actor-turned-director Ali Mosaffa, and stars Leila Hatami who”s previously been (amongst other films!) in Deserted Station ( 2004) and “Leila” which premiered at the 1997 Fajr festival in Tehran.

synopsis of the film - extracted off the LFF website somewhere !

“An aging architect finds a message on his answering machine from an unknown woman who claims to have dialled his number at random. She also claims that she is planning on committing suicide. But when he arrives at the given address, he finds the apartment empty. Instead, he chances to meet the caller’s girlfriend who is understandably very upset. Together they drive round the hospitals, but there is no trace of the suicide. He and the young woman — who, like her girlfriend, is an actress — continue to traverse the city through the night. In the process, several seemingly insignificant events and encounters take place which, in his weary mind, gradually create a disquieting image of a world racked by alienation and doubt. The taciturn young woman at his side becomes a kind of guide, taking him surprisingly deep into his own past. “

if anyone”s managed to see this film, let me know.

Leila
( grabbed from http://leila.4t.com/ - thank you! )

Categories Iran, London, News & info

the Getty villa opens..

October 28, 2005

12

on a lighter note..

i hear the Getty Villa in Malibu is opening next January. tickets are going to be available from november. ( the best thing is admission is FREE) the museum at the villa will be focusing on the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. The villa should provide a fabulous setting and the gallery themes will include Gods and Goddesses, Monsters and Minor Deities and suchlike. Oh how yummy it all sounds.

The collection of the main Getty Museum ranges from pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts; and includes nineteenth and twentieth century American and European photographs. They do currently have a small selection of classical antiquities.

getty villa

Categories Los Angeles, News & info

late gothic painting: hieronymus bosch

October 17, 2005

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“The master of the monstrous… the discoverer of the unconscious” –- Carl Jung, on Hieronymus Bosch

A Flemish painter ( circa 1450 - 1516) from the small Dutch town of Hertogenbosch, we know very little about this enigmatic character. The Surrealists were rather fond of him, and you can see why in the symbolism and iconography of the garden of earthly delights - painted about 1504. The original painting ( well alright its a triptych: [works of three paintings on wooden panels that are attached to each other] ) hangs in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Other important works include the temptation of st. anthony.

Bosch Hell

Hell - right panel of the Garden of Earthly Delights

Categories Old things

flaming june

June 30, 2005

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By Frederic Leighton 1871

The very image of perfect repose and glorious sleepy afternoons

Flaming June by Frederic Leighton

Categories Aesthetics, Flaming June, Frederic Lord Leighton, Imagery, Musings

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