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Painter, Collector, Forger

Painter, Collector, Forger


Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) casts a long shadow over the modern history of Chinese painting. As a painter, he was known for his singular ability to mix traditional techniques and styles with contemporary ideas and currents. As a collector, he accumulated important examples from all genres of Chinese painting and left behind copious seals and inscriptions. As a forger, Zhang so mastered the art of deception that his fakes were purchased unwittingly by nearly every major art museum in the United States—the MFA included. Indeed, the first question asked by experts when a work is considered suspect is: “Could this be by Zhang Daqian?”


Splashed-color Landscape, dated 1965
Zhang Daqian (Chinese, 1899–1983)
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
23 3/4 x 37 3/4 in. (60.3 x 95.9 cm)
Inscribed by the artist
Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, in memory of La Ferne Hatfield Ellsworth, 1986 (1986.267.361)



Source: Zhang Daqian: Splashed-color Landscape (1986.267.361) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

great american romantic

"...this is not just Dennis Hopper as an artist. It's Dennis Hopper as a painter, Dennis Hopper as a filmmaker, Dennis Hopper as a photographer, Dennis Hopper as an actor." The great glory of it is, of course, that, "It's all one person."

wide eyed, assured

I come across this picture of Susan Sontag today, couldn't help being touched by her beauty...after being touched by her mind. So I felt like paying a hommage to her.


"I am a crusader about the ill," she says. "Once you've experienced being mortally ill and you've come back, you have learned something that's worth knowing." She shifts on the couch, frowns at her hands and settles into a thought. "When you find out that you are ill," she continues, "your priorities are shattered. One moment you are in a boat, and the next moment you are in the water. But if you can take in the idea that you're going to die, there is a euphoria in it as well as great terror. Nothing else is real except the most intense experiences, intimacy. It can be exalting, even as you are reduced to this damaged body that is being cut up and made ugly and made to hurt and feel vulnerable. But it's passionate and turbulent and intense."

Cântico Negro

"Vem por aqui" - dizem-me alguns com os olhos doces
Estendendo-me os braços, e seguros
De que seria bom que eu os ouvisse
Quando me dizem: "vem por aqui!"
Eu olho-os com olhos lassos,
(Há, nos olhos meus, ironias e cansaços)
E cruzo os braços,
E nunca vou por ali...

A minha glória é esta:
Criar desumanidade!
Não acompanhar ninguém.
- Que eu vivo com o mesmo sem-vontade
Com que rasguei o ventre a minha mãe

Não, não vou por aí! Só vou por onde
Me levam meus próprios passos...

Se ao que busco saber nenhum de vós responde
Por que me repetis: "vem por aqui!"?

Prefiro escorregar nos becos lamacentos,
Redemoinhar aos ventos,
Como farrapos, arrastar os pés sangrentos,
A ir por aí...

Se vim ao mundo, foi
Só para desflorar florestas virgens,
E desenhar meus próprios pés na areia inexplorada!
O mais que faço não vale nada.

Como, pois sereis vós
Que me dareis impulsos, ferramentas e coragem
Para eu derrubar os meus obstáculos?...
Corre, nas vossas veias, sangue velho dos avós,
E vós amais o que é fácil!
Eu amo o Longe e a Miragem,
Amo os abismos, as torrentes, os desertos...

Ide! Tendes estradas,
Tendes jardins, tendes canteiros,
Tendes pátria, tendes tectos,
E tendes regras, e tratados, e filósofos, e sábios...
Eu tenho a minha Loucura !
Levanto-a, como um facho, a arder na noite escura,
E sinto espuma, e sangue, e cânticos nos lábios...

Deus e o Diabo é que guiam, mais ninguém.
Todos tiveram pai, todos tiveram mãe;
Mas eu, que nunca principio nem acabo,
Nasci do amor que há entre Deus e o Diabo.

Ah, que ninguém me dê piedosas intenções!
Ninguém me peça definições!
Ninguém me diga: "vem por aqui"!
A minha vida é um vendaval que se soltou.
É uma onda que se alevantou.
É um átomo a mais que se animou...
Não sei por onde vou,
Não sei para onde vou
- Sei que não vou por aí!

José Régio

The balls can be quite elaborate

interesting stuff



this one also has its entry

Bach

Forró

Mais do que os géneros, interessam as pessoas...

Aqui explica o que é o Forró

impressionism in times of haste

found here

medos

"Tememos a morte, sim. Mas nenhum medo é maior que aquele que sentimos da vida cheia, da vida vivida a todo o peito."
Jesusalém, Mia Couto, encontrado aqui : http://sem-avisos.blogspot.com/2010/07/dicionario-dos-medos.html

Diz

news here

leaf

sometimes I feel like a motherless child...

self taught

Rachel Freire is a London based designer with a background in fine art whose debut fashion collection was presented at London Fashion Week with On|Off in February 2009 at the Science Museum in London.
Already her work has been seen in publications such as Dazed and Confused, AnOther, Zink, Issue One, Sublime, Timeout London, Juxtapoz, Illustrated Ape, Art Business Today and Metro London.
Educated at Central Saint Martins, she graduated in 2006 with a BA in Theatre Design. Rachel is self taught in pattern cutting and tailoring and has never studied fashion. Her influences stem from her love of historical costume combined with futuristic imagery. Militaristic accents compliment the meticulous construction of each garment. Behind the dramatic silhouettes and decadent embellishments, the pieces are designed to be wearable, durable, feminine and flattering.
..
'This London based designer certainly knows how to put on a show. As the final model exits the stage, I can’t wait to see her new designs....her fine art conceptual imagery and imaginative pieces are truly eye catching.'
-Fashion156.com
..
'But it was Rachel Freire that took the breath away, with a debut fashion collection that featured sci-fi warrior queens, trussed up in beige body suits, with huge armour-like shrugs, leg bandages and the most wholeheartedly aggressive shoe boots that we have ever seen.'
-Metro

her site

Regeneration

David De Beyter, "Sans titre", 2008.



Liu Xiao Fang, "Le Nuage" de la série "Je me souviens" 2009



Savas Boyraz, "Sans titre". De la série "ben û sen", 2009.

found here

Marie Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun

tons of info, here

the buffoon

Velazquez, Diego
The Buffoon Calabazas (Calabacillas)
1637-39
Oil
105.5 x 82.5 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Let their lives come down in multiple colours

“Just for the applaud of common people
They tear themselves into pieces
Let their lives
Come down in multiple colours.”

found at Firecracking Poetry
by Errant Aesthete

Alguns dias são mais estranhos do que os outros, ontem levámos um corpo jovem a enterrar, uma mãe que partiu sem ver os filhos acabarem de crescer.
Junto à Igreja e ao cemitério, duvida-se da existência de Deus, trocam-se ditos espirituosos - aprende-se no fundo, a aceitar o jugo da morte. Mesmo que ainda não o sintas agora, mesmo que o teu corpo atraia as cobiças que a madurez lhe trouxe, que os teus olhos brilhem com a luz dos sonhos ainda por cumprir...
Ontem demos mais um passo no caminho da nossa morte - que esta certeza não nos detenha e nos impeça de fazer os nossos caminhos.