My Desktop

Claude Monet. Gare Saint Lazare, Paris. 1877. Oil on canvas.

Riding in the dark

I didn't expect to work into the night yesterday, so I rode my bike to work. But still, I worked till 9:30.

It was all dark out there. There was no light in the next 200 feet. No moon either. I couldn't even see my own fingers, and I had to push my bike to avoid running into the trees and meadows.

As dark as it could be, I saw many fireflies. Plenty of stars too. It was not a bad idea to bike at night after all. I only need to buy a head light for my bike.

Starry night over the Rhine, Vincent Van Gogh (1888), Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Paul Klee

Paul Klee, Ancient Sound, Abstract on Black; 1925
Oil on cardboard, 15 x 15 in; Kunstsammlung, Basel

Art tour

Sue is here and we have visited a few art museums in NY and Boston lately, and seen paintings of many great artists: Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Georges Seurat, Alfred Sisley, Max Beckmann...

In the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) of NY, we saw van Gogh's The Starry Night. They also have an exhibit of Georges Seurat. Although they don't have the final work of Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, they are showing a collections of over 20 studies Seurat made in preparation for the work.

In Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY, I looked at The Cornfield with Cypresses as close as 3 inches from the painting and saw how thick the paint he had put on the canvas.

Part of The Cornfield with Cypresses in Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

There are also paintings of these artists not seen so often:

Three Pairs of Shoes, Vincent van Gogh, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

Foreground: A Woman with Chignon, Pablo Picasso, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

Alfred Sisley revisited

I have written about Alfred Sisley before. He is one of the pioneers of expressionism, a friend of Monet but he did not live long enough to enjoy any fame or fortune. He lived in poverty for the second half of his life.

I looked at my painting collection in my computer just now and got struck by this painting. Maybe it is the time of snow, maybe the desolate feeling the painting is giving out. It was painted 100 years before I was born.

Snow at Louveciennes 1874; Oil on canvas, 55.9 x 45.7 cm; Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

Stephen Lewontin

We are having a small exhibit of the work of Stephen Lewontin at work. He used to be a photo journalist (still is?) and starts painting using pastel lately.

As quoted from his web page "I'm currently working on a series of small pastels of imagined people in imagined landscapes. I like to think of these as illustrations for a story that I haven't gotten around to writing yet."

Pastel gives a softness to imagine, but his use of color gives the pictures lives.

All images © 2006-2007 Stephen Lewontin

The Stage Coach at Louveciennes

Feeling blue. It looks like this:


Camille Pissarro, The Stage Coach at Louveciennes, 1870

秦始皇兵馬俑博物館

看了秦始皇兵馬俑博物館的網頁，見到兵馬俑和銅車馬造型準確，形象逼真，禦手俑和馬匹的解剖比例準確。比起歐洲文藝復興時代Michelangelo的當然有所不及，兵馬俑畢竟是比文藝復興早一千年的作品。

人常言中國的藝術不求準確，只求意境。我想這只是一個籍口。看看二千多年前的秦俑，它們的表情多仔細，解剖比例多準確？

究竟是誰主管秦俑的藝術工藝？為什麼秦俑之後便沒有了類似的作品？在秦的專政帝制之下，這樣有才華的天才連正式的名字也沒有留下來，更何況他們的命子？如果秦沒有「一統天下」，像製造秦俑這些天才還可以逃到別國，保住命子和把工藝留傳後世。歷史不是漸進，而是由個別的人突然創造出來的。專政帝制畢竟容不下個人的天份。

我建議各位，到不了西安秦始皇兵馬俑博物館，也要到它的網頁看看。看完之後，你會明白中國的文化和藝術比歐洲起步早幾百甚至上千年，為甚麼後來卻給人家趕上。

p.s. 我常說，有了互聯網和Wikipedia，無知已經變成罪。

清明上河圖與兵馬俑

今日報紙報導，北京故宮博物院可能會借出北宋的《清明上河圖》到香港展覽，慶祝香港回歸十周年。

我對回歸幾多周年沒有興趣，《清明上河圖》卻很想看看。我在Wikipedia查到，原來自從北宋的《清明上河圖》之後，歷代都有畫家臨摹或用相同的技巧繪畫類似的風景。其中最有名的是《清院本清明上河圖》，乾隆元年（1736）由清宮畫院的五位畫家陳枚、孫祜、金昆、戴洪、程志道合作畫成，現由台灣的故宮博物館收藏。


至於原來的《清明上河圖》現在只能推測是宋徽宗朝任朝翰林畫院畫史張擇端所繪畫，經過一千年的轉折現在被北京故宮博物院收藏。《清明上河圖》的特色是用全長528公分，高24.8公分的長卷，採用散點透視法「描繪了清明時節，北宋（960年－1127年）京城汴梁及汴河两岸的繁華和熱鬧的景象和優美的自然風光」。宋徽宗酷愛此畫，用“瘦金體”親筆在圖上題寫「清明上河圖」五字。


另一方面，大英博物館從秦始皇兵馬俑博物館借得120具兵馬俑（Terracotta） ，由今年9月13至明年4月6日展出。 大英博物館館長指出，「 重點不僅在兵馬俑上，而是秦始皇 。 」

這是刊登在大英博物館的網頁的介紹：

This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition will explore one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century and provide an insight into China’s First Emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, and his legacy. Objects featured in the exhibition will include a number of the world-famous terracotta warriors from Xi'an, China, which were buried alongside the First Emperor in readiness for the afterlife, as well as some of the most striking recent discoveries made on the site. In introducing the idea of a unified state and effectively creating China in 221 BC, the First Emperor of Qin created what is today the oldest surviving political entity in the world. How that state has survived, developed and is viewed today will be explored through events, lectures and debates around the exhibition.

Alfred Sisley

I like impressionist painting. Claude Monet is a bit experimental to me. I prefer Alfred Sisley.

Sisley is actually a friend of Monet. Unlike classical painters who sketched the scene and painted back in the studio, they started painting outdoor to capture the realistic transient effect of sunlight. This is the essence of Impressionism: paint exactly what you see. If you are as irritated and sick as Vincent van Gogh, you see a swirling world of intense coloration. If you are as well-off as Sisley, you see tranquility: sunlight caresses every surface it touches and the colors it manifests.

Impressionists had invented a brand new way to paint, but they wouldn't be able to do it without one technical breakthrough of their time: the invention of tin tubes that allow painters to bring their oil paints outdoor.

I like Impressionist painting because I can feel what the painters felt by looking at their paintings. I liked Vincent van Gogh until a couple of years ago. Now I prefer Alfred Sisley. Maybe I have passed the stage of adrenaline surge and now want some tranquility. Sisley was British after all.


Sisley - Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne. 1872 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Scull

Too much violence in my mind.

Gotta neutralize it with some calm views.


Thomas Eakins
Max Schmitt in a Single Scull
1871
Oil on canvas
32 1/2 x 46 1/4 in. (82.6 x 117.5 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Angelus

This is probably the only piece of art that strikes me on the first sign. The Angelus of Jean-Francois Millet.

The Angelus
Jean-Francois Millet; 1857-59; Oil on canvas; 21 3/4 x 26 in. (55.5 x 66 cm); Musee d'Orsay, Paris.

The church has rang the evening bell in the far background. A humble peasant couple prays at their potato harvest in the field.

A masterpiece is a masterpiece because it touches the audience's soul. This is a masterpiece.

Scream

Yvette has hung the Scream of Edvard Munch at home.


And I happened to come across this on the web today..


It seems like the Simpsons people are escalating our dear Homer into the classics...