Cassilis

The 'Monday Gallery' - few, if any, words and just a painting or piece of art that has some resonance or link to contemporary events.

Unfortunately the story that still dominates internationally is one of a monster dominating a people and so this impressive Goya painting sprang to mind. There's no settled view on what Goya's painting depicts but with the people in the foreground fleeing in panic it called to mind the terrible events in Zimbabwe. The painting itself was also in the news this week.....

Labels: gallery

The 'Monday Gallery' - few, if any, words and just a painting or piece of art that has some resonance or link to contemporary events.

The story I wanted to highlight this week is the ongoing tragedy in Zimbabwe. Images of Africa in 'Western Art' are relatively few although Picasso, Matisse and others drew significant influence from native African art in their later work. It then occurred to me that it might be a better idea to show a piece by a contemporary Zimbabwean artist.

I have no information about the particular paining above but it's by Bulawayo based artist Albert Moyo. Albert was a student at Mzilikazi Art Centre and I came across his paintings at africancolours.net and african-easel.com.

Labels: gallery

The 'Monday Gallery' - few, if any, words and just a painting or piece of art that has some resonance or link to contemporary events.

Liberty Leading the People ('La Liberté guidant le peuple') by Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled Charles X. A woman personifying Liberty leads the people forward over the bodies of the fallen, holding the tricolore flag of the French Revolution in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other.

With thoughts of...

Labels: gallery

The 'Monday Gallery' - few, if any, words and just a painting or piece of art that has some resonance or link to contemporary events.

There was only ever one story I was going to use for today's gallery given the weekend's events. When I started looking for a suitable painting I went first to some of the most iconic images in American art - Hopper's 'Nighthawks', Warhol's 'Campbell's Soup Cans' or any number from Rothko or Pollock. And of course Grant Wood's American Gothic from 1930.

For some reason Wood's iconic image stuck in my mind over the weekend. There was no link between the events depicted and the culmination of the race for the Democratic nomination but perhaps because it was a painting of a man and a woman I couldn't shake the mental link I'd formed between it and Hillary & Obama. I also noticed a vague, passing resemblance...

So to my shame I decided to join the legions who've already parodied Wood's work (so often in fact that it rarely gets the attention it deserves as a serious painting) and have a muck about in photoshop. There are others of course who do this sort of thing far better but hey it's just a bit of fun. The Monday Gallery will return to it's high-minded self next week. If anyone sees Brian Sewell please don't tell him....

Labels: gallery

The 'Monday Gallery' - few, if any, words and just a painting or piece of art that has some resonance or link to contemporary events.

Degas' famous "L'absinthe", created in 1876 and currently hanging in the Musée d'Orsay, shows concern about the ill-effects of alchohol is nothing new...

Labels: gallery

Every Monday I'm going to try and do a quick 'Gallery' post - few, if any, words and just a painting or piece of art that has some resonance or link to contemporary events. Given Thursday's events this week has to be one of Monet's magnificent paintings of London - Houses of Parliament, London, 1905.

Labels: gallery

You'll have noticed I'm introducing a few new regular slots on the blog - the mid-week Think Tank Roundups and my Head-to-Head pieces being the recent examples. I still plan to post regular content as and when stories take my interest but I guess these are just my efforts to counter the fact that I have a day job and so can't sit and react to stories that break or every little bit of gossip that emerges elsewhere.

Since I love art I'm going to try and do a short daily 'Gallery' post - few, if any, words and just a painting or piece of art that has some resonance or link to contemporary events. To kick of today 'The Camden Town Murder' by Walter Sickert, linked for a variety of reasons to the 'Jack the Ripper' case and brought to mind by two horrible stories over the last few days.....

Labels: gallery