Category Archives: Arts & Literature

Short Films: “The Art Of Collecting” By Petr Krejčí

Filmed and Directed by: Petr Krejčí

A film commissioned by Goldsmith’s Compay for Goldsmith’s Fair 2019. This year’s theme was about collecting and collectors.

Goldsmiths’ Fair is recognised internationally as the premier UK showcase for contemporary jewellery and silver.

The Art of Collecting short Film Goldsmiths' Fair 2019

Each year, this unique event draws collectors, design lovers and luxury shoppers to the magnificent Goldsmiths’ Hall where they can browse the latest collections from this handpicked selection of craftsmen and women.

Website: https://www.goldsmithsfair.co.uk/

Literary Milestones: A Letter To Sylvia Beach, Founder, “Shakespeare And Company” In Paris (100 Years Old This Month)

From a Shakespeare and Company email:

Dear Sylvia Beach,

Sylvia Beach Shakespeare and Company 1919-1941One hundred years ago this month, you opened the shutters of a small bookshop on rue Dupuytren. Its name was Shakespeare and Company. I often wonder if, on that first morning, you could ever have imagined how important your story would be.

You were only 32 but had already lived quite a life. Soulful and fearless, witty and energetic, you’d been active in the women’s suffrage movement, studied French poetry in Paris, and served with the Red Cross in Serbia during the First World War. You had also met Adrienne Monnier, one of the first women in France to found her own bookshop. Adrienne would be your companion for decades to come.

Your bookshop—first on rue Dupuytren, then around the corner on rue de l’Odéon—became a sanctuary for Anglophone and Francophone writers. T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Djuna Barnes, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, as well as André Gide, Paul Valéry, and Louis Aragon, among many others, all bought and borrowed books from you, and attended readings and parties at Shakespeare and Company. As André Chamson wrote about you: “Sylvia Beach carried pollen like a bee. She cross-fertilised these writers. She did more to link England, the United States, Ireland, and France than four great ambassadors combined.” I think of this whenever I ponder the role booksellers and bookshops can play during this age of political and ecological turbulence. When James Joyce couldn’t find anyone to publish Ulysses—his modernist masterpiece that had been condemned for obscenity—you stepped up. Even when you closed your bookshop in 1941, it was not an act of defeat but of defiance—you would rather see your life’s work shuttered forever than sell Finnegans Wake to a high-ranking Nazi officer.

Sylvia Whitman Shakespeare and Company Paris
Sylvia Whitman

When my father, George Whitman, opened this bookshop in 1951, you were not just a regular visitor but an inspiration. You had shown how a true bookseller must also be prepared to be a librarian, a publisher, a PO box, a banker, a hotelier, and—most importantly—a friend to writers and readers. For your belief that a love of reading is more important than the quest for profit, you have been called the patron saint of independent bookstores. We’re sure that your extraordinary memoir and your beautiful letters continue to embolden booksellers the world over, just as they embolden us. Particularly during hard times, your story stands like a beacon when we need direction, comfort, or inspiration.

Thank you, Sylvia, for everything you did and everything you stood for.

In loving homage,

Sylvia Whitman
Proprietor
Shakespeare And Company

https://shakespeareandcompany.com/

Shakespeare And Company Parisjpg

 

New Collector Books: “Salvador Dalí Tarot Card” Book Set (Taschen)

Dalí’s Tarot Book and Card Set TaschenDalí poses as the Magician, his wife Gala becomes the Empress, and the death of Julius Caesar is reinterpreted as the Ten of Swords in the artist’s  extraordinary custom tarot deck. First published in a 1984 limited edition that has since long sold out, this lush box set brings back all 78 cards, each dazzling in color, along with a companion book on the making-of and practical instructions.

To read more: https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/art/all/44640/facts.dali_tarot.htm

Science & Art: Jackson Pollock’s Drip Painting Style (And Genius) Avoided “Coiling Instability”

From PLOS One Journal online release:

Jackson Pollock Full Fathom Five 1947We conclude that Pollock avoided the appearance of the hydrodynamic instabilities, contrary to what was argued by previous studies. Pollock selected the physical properties of the paint to prevent filament fragmentation before deposition, and applied it while moving his hand sufficiently fast and at certain heights to avoid fluid filaments from coiling into themselves. An understanding of the physical conditions at which these patterns were created is important to further art research and it can be used as a tool in the authentication of paintings.

Jackson Pollock Painting TechniqueConsidered one of the most prominent American painters of the 20th century, the life and work of Jackson Pollock have been the subject of books, movies, and documentaries [13]. His paintings can be broadly categorized as being abstract-expressionist. Although his painting style evolved during his sometimes tormented life, the so-called ‘dripping’ technique is certainly the most widely recognized both by experts and the general public.

Jackson Pollock described the technique himself [4]. In summary, Pollock would lay a canvas horizontally and pour paint on top of it, in a controlled manner. To regulate the flow of paint, he either used an instrument (a stick, knife or a brush), poured it directly from a can and in some instances he also used a syringe. Viscous fluid filaments were produced and laid over the canvas while ‘rhythmically moving’ around it. It is believed that Pollock developed this technique strongly influenced by an experimental painting workshop, organized in New York by Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros in 1936 [5]. Interestingly, Siqueiros himself also developed the ‘accidental painting’ technique during this workshop, which was recently analyzed by Zetina et al. [6].

To read more: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0223706

Museum Insider: Curators & Artists Oversee New Frames, Placement Of Paintings At MoMA (Video)

The new MoMA opens. Cherished works return to the walls of the galleries in brand new frames, while curators and artists watch the completion of the reinstallation. After being closed for four months, MoMA reopens its doors to the public.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

0:13 – Associate sculpture conservator Roger Griffith and sculpture conservation fellow Joy Bloser clean Arthur Young’s Bell-47D1 Helicopter.

0:52 – Senior curator of Painting and Sculpture Anne Umland and chief curator of Painting and Sculpture Ann Temkin oversee the hanging of Pablo Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.”

1:20 – Peter Perez, frame shop foreman, discusses “The Starry Night’s” new, black frame.

2:53 – Artist Amy Sillman explains how she curated and arranged “The Shape of Shape,” part of the long-running Artist’s Choice exhibition series in which artists selects works to show from the Museum’s collection

4:17 – Photography curator Sarah Meister and conservator Lee Ann Daffner adjust the lighting on Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey’s “Rome. Arch of Septimus Severus and Capitoline Lion.”

5:02 – Senior deputy director of exhibitions and collections Ramona Bronkar Bannayan and director of exhibition design and production Lana Hum make a final checklist of things to accomplish before the opening.

5:32 – Artist Betye Saar sees her exhibition for the first time.

7:11 – Manager of enterprise applications Rik Vanmechelen and developer Ryan Sprott check the new ticket machines.

8:04 – Chief facilities and safety officer Tunji Adeniji welcomes the public to the new MoMA on opening day.

8:30 – Silent film accompanist Ben Model improvises a live piano soundtrack for Frank Powell’s 1915 film “A Fool There Was.”

9:12 – Security supervisor Chet Gold greets volunteer Fred Liberman. Gold returns to his favorite room in the new MoMA.

Literary Destinations: The Faulkner House Bookstore, New Orleans

From an Atlas Obscura online review:

Faulkner House Bookstore New Orleans interiorInside, the small store has a good selection of literary fiction ranging from classics to current publications. There is also a great selection of books about New Orleans and local culture. There is, of course, a dedicated area, almost shrine-like, for Faulkner’s works, and the shop owner will let you take a look at those more expensive books, “if you want to get in trouble with your wallet.”

Blink while passing through New Orleans’s French Quarter, and you may miss this small, charming bookstore. But step inside, and you’ll steal a quick peek at the space where William Faulkner himself lived while in the city.

Though he later penned famous works like The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying, Faulkner wasn’t much of anybody yet when he moved to New Orleans, and in fact published his first work in a local journal. There is a historical plaque outside the building that states that Faulkner wrote his first novel, Soldiers’ Pay, while in residence there in 1925.

To read more: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/faulkner-house-books?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=5bf02e2e8b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_10_31_02_06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-5bf02e2e8b-63029309&mc_cid=5bf02e2e8b&mc_eid=9baf474570

Top New Books: “The Seine – The River That Made Paris” By Elaine Sciolino

From an advance review:

The SeineSciolino’s keen eye and vivid prose bring the river to life as she discovers its origins on a remote plateau of Burgundy, where a pagan goddess healed pilgrims at an ancient temple. She follows the Seine to Le Havre, where it meets the sea.  Braiding memoir, travelogue, and history through the Seine’s winding route, Sciolino offers a love letter to Paris and the river at its heart and invites readers to explore its magic.

In the spring of 1978, as a young journalist in Paris, Elaine Sciolino was seduced by a river. In The Seine, she tells the story of that river through its rich history and lively characters—a bargewoman, a riverbank bookseller, a houseboat dweller, a famous cameraman known for capturing the river’s light. She patrols with river police, rows with a restorer of antique boats, discovers a champagne vineyard, and even dares to swim in the Seine.

To read more: https://elainesciolino.com/the-seine-the-river-that-made-paris

Exhibition & Book Review: “Unto This Last – Two Hundred Years Of John Ruskin” (Yale Center)

From a Wall Street Journal online review:

Unto This Last Two Hundred Years Of John Ruskin BookIn “Unto This Last and Other Essays on Art and Political Economy” (1860), which gives the exhibition its title, Ruskin “sees” interconnected social injustices. He attacks economic inequality. Later, he sets out to establish a utopian community in working-class Sheffield, England. In one gallery we see his influence on “progressive thinkers worldwide.” Gandhi said that reading “Unto This Last” in 1904 transformed his life and ideas.

The novelist Charlotte Brontë exclaimed after reading that first volume, “I feel now as if I had been walking blindfold[ed]—this book seems to give me eyes.”

maxresdefault‘If you can paint one leaf,” John Ruskin once declared, “you can paint the world.” And in “Unto This Last: Two Hundred Years of John Ruskin”—the hypnotically potent (though flawed) exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art marking the bicentennial of his birth—we see how wonderfully he kept trying.

To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/unto-this-last-two-hundred-years-of-john-ruskin-review-going-to-nature-in-his-own-fashion-11572692401

Best New Books: “Ahab’s Rolling Sea – A Natural History Of Moby-Dick” By Richard J. King

From a University of Chicago Press review:

9780226514963A revelation for Moby-Dick devotees and neophytes alike, Ahab’s Rolling Sea is a chronological journey through the natural history of Melville’s novel. From white whales to whale intelligence, giant squids, barnacles, albatross, and sharks, Richard J. King examines what Melville knew from his own experiences and the sources available to a reader in the mid-1800s, exploring how and why Melville might have twisted what was known to serve his fiction. King then climbs to the crow’s nest, setting Melville in the context of the American perception of the ocean in 1851—at the very start of the Industrial Revolution and just before the publication of On the Origin of Species. 

Featuring a coffer of illustrations and an array of interviews with contemporary scientists, fishers, and whale watch operators, Ahab’s Rolling Sea offers new insight not only into a cherished masterwork and its author but also into our evolving relationship with the briny deep—from whale hunters to climate refugees.

Website: https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo27616248.html

Exhibitions: “Leonardo – Experience A Masterpiece” At The National Gallery, London (Nov 9 – Jan 12)

The secrets of Leonardo’s masterpiece are revealed in four distinct spaces. Each space invites you to look at ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’ in a new way.

Leonardo Experience a Masterpiece National GalleryThe mind of Leonardo

Start your journey in a landscape populated by the thoughts and ideas of Leonardo as he sets about painting ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’.

The studio

Discover the secrets only science and conservation can reveal in this projection-filled space which unlocks the mysteries of how ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’ was painted and reveals the lost composition hidden beneath the painted surface.

The light and shadow experiment

Take part in the room-sized experiment to discover the dramatic effects of light and shadow on Leonardo’s composition for ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’.

The imagined chapel

At the end of your journey, you will come face to face with the original masterpiece where it hangs on the walls of an imagined chapel for you to contemplate how ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’ might have appeared in its original setting as part of an elaborate altarpiece.

To read and view more: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/leonardo-experience-a-masterpiece#HighlightPaintings93395