Month: January 2018

Arnold Bocklin

Arnold Bocklin, “Self Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle”, 1872, Oil on Canvas, Getty Museum

The Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin studied in Germany, where he became friends with Ludwig Feuerbach, one of the most important philosophers of the 19th century. Later after thirty trips to the Italy, the artist finally decided to live there for ten years uninterruptedly. It is in Rome where Böcklin studied the classical artista and Roman mythology. This experience in Italy transformed Böcklin’s work which slowly changed to a work full of symbols, fantastic worlds and mythical creatures.

After the period in Italy, the artist traveled back to Germany and painted  “Self Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle” in 1872. Here we see the artist untidy, with a long beard and a neckless shirt. Behind him, in shadows, there is a skeleton playing a violin, a symbol used for centuries to represent Death. With a grimace, Death seems to laugh sarcastically, foreseeing the inevitable fate of the artistand us all.

Böcklin exercised an influence on Surrealist painters like Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí, and on Giorgio de Chirico. Otto Weisert designed an Art Nouveau typeface in 1904 and named it “Arnold Böcklin” in his honor. Böcklin’s paintings, especially “The Isle of the Dead”, inspired several late-Romantic composers. Sergei Rachmaninoff and Heinrich Schülz-Beuthen both composed symphonic poems after it.

Calendar: January 28

Year: Day to Day Men: January 28

Skin and Fur

January 28th in 1896 was the day upon which the first person was charged with a speeding offense in the United Kingdom. 

On the twenty-eighth of January in 1896, Walter Arnold drove his horseless carriage, a German-made Benz that he had imported to Britain the previous year, through the village of Paddock Wood, Kent, at more than four times the legal speed limit, a reckless thirteen kilometers per hour (eight miles per hour). A local constable on his regulation issue bicycle succeeded in catching him after a five kilometers pursuit (three miles).

The officer charged Arnold with four counts of breaking the law: using a locomotive without a horse on a public road, allowing said locomotive to be operated by fewer than three persons, traveling at a greater rate than three kilometers per hour (2 mph), and failing to display his name and address on the locomotive.

Walter Arnold appeared before a local magistrate on the thirtieth of January in 1896. In his defense, Arnold’s barrister Mr. Cripps stated that existing locomotive laws had not foreseen the type of vehicle Arnold was driving and mentioned several users of that type of vehicle including Sir David Salmons and the Honorable Evelyn Ellis, who were never charged when driving their vehicles. Cripps added that if the Bench considered the vehicle a locomotive within the existing acts, consideration should be given for a nominal fine. 

Walter Arnold was found guilty on all four counts. He was fined 5 shillings for the first count, using a carriage without a locomotive horse, plus £2.0s.11d costs. On each of the other counts, Arnold was to pay 1 shilling fine and 9 shillings costs. 

It should be noted that Arnold’s daredevil ride down Paddock Wood’s High Street could have been a publicity stunt. He was one of the earliest car dealers in the country and the local supplier for Benz vehicles. Arnold had set his own car company to begin providing a locally built variant of the Benz design. Marketing of the Arnold Motor Carriage began a few months after the incident.

Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin, “Self-Portrait Dedicated to Vincent van Gogh”, Oil on Canvas, 1888, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Once settled in the town of Arles, van Gogh embarked upon a project to establish a community of artists: he rented a home he called the “Yellow House,” which would serve as a “Studio of the South” and invited Gauguin to join him there. In the months preceding Gauguin’s arrival, the two artists both exchanged letters outlining their creative strategies and painted prolifically, producing works such as van Gogh’s The Poet’s Garden and Gauguin’s The Vision of the Sermon. Both artists began to experiment with compositional techniques derived from Japanese art as well as the symbolic language of color, emphasizing subjective feelings and ideas over naturalistic representation.

In the unfolding dialogue between them, each artist allowed his identity to emerge, their relationship developed, and a budding creative competition was born. Van Gogh viewed himself as a monk or disciple, spreading the word about a “new art,” and looking to the older artist for leadership, while Gauguin perceived himself as a rebellious bohemian, a victim of society.

Gauguin presented himself as an “outlaw” in his self-portrait, which specifically alludes to the noble character of Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables. The bold lines of the figure and the vivid colors of the flowered wallpaper manifest Gauguin’s interest in “an abstract, symbolic style.” Van Gogh, however, was disappointed when he received Gauguin’s Self-Portrait, believing that it expressed torment while failing to offer any hope or consolation. He even suggested to his brother Theo that the troubled Gauguin would benefit from a stay in the reinvigorating environment of Arles.

Tim Doyle

Tim Doyle, “Pyramid”, Silk Screen Print, 18 x 24 Inches, Edition of 100

Tim Doyle is an illustrator and print-maker working out of Austin, Texas.  Growing up in the suburban sprawl of the Dallas area, he turned inward and sullen, only finding  joy in comic books and television and video games.

Moving to Austin, Texas in 1999 to fulfill a life-long dream of not living in Dallas, Doyle begun painting and showing in galleries in 2001.  He self-published a diary zine, ‘Amazing Adult Fantasy’ from 2001-2003.  Doyle has held many nerd-friendly jobs, including running a small chain of comic-book stores, as well as being the art director/ lead designer for MONDO from 2004-2009.

Doyle launched his own company Nakatomi Inc. in January of 2009. In the Summer of 2009, Tim Doyle along with artist Clint Wilson built their own screen printing studio Nakatomi Print Labs, in which they and other artists work out of, as well as do commercial printing for outside clients. A print of “Pyramid” is available through Nakatomi.

Reblogged with thanks to https://geekynerfherder.blogspot.com

Calendar: January 27

Year: Day to Day Men: January 27

Magic Mirror

On the twenty-seventh of January in 2003, the first fifty sound recordings for preservation in the National Recording Registry were announced by James Billington, the Librarian of Congress. This registry was established by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, which created the National Recording Preservation Board with membership appointed by the Librarian of Congress. Its members select the recordings for preservation on a yearly basis from a list of nominations. 

The National Recording Preservation Act established a national program to guard and preserve America’s sound recording heritage. Recordings and collections of recordings to be preserved and maintained must meet the criteria for selection: 

Recordings must be culturally, historically or aesthetically significant and/or inform or reflect culture in the United State. 

Recordings will not be considered for inclusion in the Registry if no copy of the recording exists. 

No recording is eligible for inclusion until ten years after the recording’s creation.

For the years 2003 to 2006, the National Recording Preservation Board selected fifty recordings for the Registry; in the following years, twenty-five have been selected each year. Public nominations are accepted for inclusion in each calendar year and are announced the following spring. Registry title works, either original or copies, are housed at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus for Audio Video Conservation in Culpeper, Virginia. Among each year’s selections are a few recordings of significance that are housed in the National Archive’s audiovisual collection.

Among the six hundred and twenty-five recordings preserved in the Registry are:

—Jesse Walker Fewkes’s 1890 Pasamaquoddy Indians Field Recordings

—Scott Joplin’s 1916 Ragtime Compositions (Piano Rolls)

—George Gershwin’s 1924 Rhapsody in Blue

—Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933-1944 Fireside Chats Radio Broadcasts

—Abbott and Costello October 6, 1938 “Who’s on First” Radio Broadcast

—James Brown and The Famous Flames 1963 Live at the Apollo

—Russ Hodges’s Coverage of the October 3rd, 1951 National League Tiebreaker; New York Giants vs Brooklyn Dodgers

Frank Brangwyn: “The Blacksmiths”

Frank Brangwyn, “The Blacksmiths”, One of Four Panels, Oil on Canvas, 165.1 x 205.7 cm, Gallery of Leeds, Leeds, England

Frank Brangwyn was an Anglo-Welsh artist, painter, and progressive designer. As well as paintings and drawings, he produced designs for stained glass, furniture, ceramics, glassware, buildings and interiors. He received some training from his father, and later from Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo and in the workshops of William Morris. However, he was largely an autodidact without a formal artistic education.

This panel is from the decorations that Frank Brangwyn carried out in the Venice International Exhibition of 1905. He designed the whole scheme in the British section, including its woodwork and its furniture. There were four large oblong panels and two smaller ones, representing forms of present-day labour — potters, navvies, smiths, and workers in steel. It was hoped in Venice that these decorations would remain permanently there, in the Municipal Gallery: however, an English patron of art, Mr. S. Wilson, purchased them for the City Art Gallery of Leeds. A fifth panel “Weavers” was commissioned to bear them company in the Brangwyn room.

The group of the smiths is perhaps the finest of the four original panels. Here the scheme of lighting is reversed, and the two foreground figures stand out in the warm, golden light from the forge, while the two on the opposite side of the anvil sink into a greyish-blue shadow. A strong note of blue is seen in the glimpse of the afternoon summer sky which one gets through the opening beyond.

Reblogged with thanks to a great art site: http://monsieurlabette.tumblr.com

Wallerant Vailant

Wallerant Vailant, “Self Portrait with Turban”, 1655-60, Oil on Canvas, 74 x 59.5 cm, Private Collection

The Dutch painter and printmaker Wallerant Vaillant is best known for his engravings, especially his numerous mezzotints, a technique he did much to develop. His painted oeuvre is rarer, largely consisting of portraits, and including a number of self-portraits in which the artist presents himself clothed in a variety of picturesque costumes – for example in Orientalist mode, as seen here.

It is significant that the painter never represents himself exercising his art – that is, with palette and paintbrushes. In this respect, he was clearly inspired by the numerous self-portraits of Rembrandt in which the great Dutchman created sartorially-varied likenesses, accentuating expression and social status more than his own entirely true profession. These have the appearance of exercises, almost a series of repertory characters, within the greatly prized genre of portraiture.

In Amsterdam, Vaillant would have had ample opportunity to witness Rembrandt’s genius, since he was obliged for religious motives to seek exile early in his career in the capital of the Dutch kingdom, where he lived –with the exception of some extended trips abroad – until his death.

Creating this portrait through an oculus that offsets the bust enables the painter to play with optical space, an expedient he used on other occasions.  In this case, the highly refined, painstaking technique used in describing the face, treating transparency in an exceptionally realistic manner, heightens the photographic appearance of the work. Conversely, the reflections on the rich brocade of the turban, no doubt a product of the Compagnie des Indes, are depicted with a free, more generously loaded brush. It is striking how a master known for his manière noire was such a talented colourist.

Calendar: January 26

Year: Day to Day Men: January 26

Clear Water

On the twenty-sixth of January in 1905, the Cullinan Diamond, the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, was discovered at the Premier Number Two mine in Cullinan, South Africa. The diamond was named after Thomas Cullinan, a South African diamond magnate and owner of the Premier mine.

The Cullinan diamond, weighing 3,106 carats or 621.2 grams, was put on sale in London in April of 1905. Although there was considerable interest in the sale, it remained unsold until 1907 when the British-ruled Transvaal Colony purchased the diamond. The colony’s Prime Minister Louis Botha presented it to King Edward VII, who reigned over the territory. The Cullinan diamond was sent to Amsterdam where Joseph Asscher & Company were commissioned to cut it. 

The Cullinan diamond produced stones of various sizes and cuts. The largest, Cullinan 1, was 530.4 carats, or 106 grams, was named the Great Star of Africa by Edward VII. This stone was mounted in the head of the Sovereign’s Scepter with Cross, a token of the King or Queen’s temporal power as head of state. The Scepter was redesigned in 1910 specifically to incorporate the Great Star of Africa, the largest clear cut diamond in the world. The gold clasps that hold the diamond can be opened, thus allowing the diamond to be worn as a pendant. 

The second largest cut stone from the Cullinan diamond was named the Second Star of Africa. It weighs 317.4 carats or 41.7 grams, and is mounted in the Imperial State Crown which symbolizes the sovereignty of the British monarch. As with the Scepter, the Imperial State Crown was altered to accommodate the Second Star of Africa in 1909. The Imperial State Crown, at 31.5 cm tall, weighs 1.06 kilograms and has four fleurs-de-lis in the shape of lilies alternating with four crosses pattée, crosses with arms narrower at the center point. The purple velvet cap is trimmed with ermine. The gold, silver and platinum framework is decorated with diamonds, pearls, sapphires, emeralds and five rubies.

Seven other major diamonds cut from the Cullinan, weighing a total of 209.3 carats or 41.7 grams, were privately owned by Elizabeth II who inherited them from her grandmother, Queen Mary, in 1953. These were used in brooches and as part of the Coronation Necklace; the smallest at 4.39 carats was set in a platinum ring known as the Cullinan IX Ring.

The Cullinan was estimated to have been formed in the Earth’s mantle and reached the surface 1.18 billion years ago. It was found 5.5 meters below the surface at Premier Mine by Frederick Wells, the mine’s surface manager. It was three times the size of the 1898 Excelsior Diamond, the previous largest gem-quality rough diamond. As four of its eight surfaces were smooth, the blue-white hued Cullinan was once a part of a much larger stone that was broken up by natural forces. For a short period after its discovery, the diamond was on display at Johannesburg’s Standard Bank where it was seen by over eight thousand visitors. 

After the period of display, London’s sale agent S. Neumann & Company created a diversionary tactic for the transport of the Cullinan diamond to London. Detectives were assigned to a steamboat that was rumored to be carrying the stone; the parcel, containing a fake diamond, was locked under great circumstance in the captain’s safe and guarded the entire voyage. The Cullinan Diamond was actually sent to London in a plain box by registered mail. When it arrived in London, the package was sent to Buckingham Palace for King Edward VII’s inspection.