My name's not important

An amazing installation in the Panthéon (Paris)

2007-09-28T18:57:00.000+10:00

The scrotum of the monster?

Above the centre, pink nets arch above Foucault's Pendulum

Conceived and realised by Ernesto Neto, a Brazilian artist who makes use of nets, one of his favourite forms, to broaden the scope of sewing and knotting. Nets of white lycra tulle suspended from the Pantheon ceiling hold polystyrene beads.

Others are filled with sand or dried lavender.

Léviathan Thot - an anthropomorphic installation inspired by the biblical monster. Forms represent the eyes, brain, mouth and heart of the beast from the Book of Job.

Additionally, Thot, French translation of the Egyptian god Thoth, is representing wisdom, culture, writing and language. Victor Hugo, Louie Braille, Voltaire, Emile Zola and many others lie in tombs beneath the floor of this space. The art installation was in the Pantheon from 15 September 2006 until 31 October for Paris' Autumn Festival.

Yes, that's right, another Moreau post!

2007-09-26T04:59:00.000+10:00

Angels of Sodom "The Lord's two angels only found one righteous person living in Sodom" ... this is the most uncluttered and solemn Moreau painting on display. After reporting back to a higher authority that the only 'righteous' person in Sodom was Lot, the place was destroyed. My interpretation of this composition is that 'shooting the messenger' is not among the artist's values. Are they surveying the wreckage of the city they doomed to destruction? With satisfaction? Or despair? The shadowy faces do not betray an expression.

I wonder if jihadists delight in their 'righteous' destruction more obviously... one example is the way Osama bin Laden does his videos from that location which still eludes the Coalition of the Willing. Others who followed his 'righteousness' to their deaths though... in an afterlife state, are they able to survey the wreckage and awfulness they inflicted on others? What emotions would those willing terrorists experience?

Jupiter and Europa

Whoops! That wierd neck foreshortening is my camera angle, not a fault in Moreau's technique

Hmmm... it looks like Moreau was taken with the Winged Victory's drapery as much as I was

More Moreau: drawings

2007-07-21T23:41:00.000+10:00

In the elegant home of a symbolist painter

2007-07-19T22:14:00.000+10:00

It's Loni's birthday. Her family arrives in Paris in less than 24 hours. So the best way I can think of treating her to a memorable day is to visit a place she has not yet been to herself: the former home and museum of artist Gustave Moreau.

There are scores of sliding drawers and cabinets, filled with hundreds of the artist's studies and working drawings.

No flash allowed... ever!

Seeing these stunning drawings, it is hard not to think of da Vinci and his many anatomical and biological studies. The similarities end there however - Moreau's paintings are different altogether from Leonardo's...

Splendidly busy.. love the technique, but the composition?

See more examples here

l'Orangerie: upstairs, in 'the Sistine Chapel of Impressionism'

2007-06-25T03:57:00.000+10:00

Slartibartfast in front of the centre panel of 'Waterlilies, a water study: Clouds' by Claude MONET (click to enlarge)

The blog owner in front of the left-most panel of 'Waterlilies, a water study: Clouds' by Claude MONET (click to enlarge)

Here is a website that, aside from the hard-sell, has a good clickable archive of paintings from throughout Monet's career: http://www.artofmonet.com/

A brief biography at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet

If you can read French (or run page translation software), Wikipedia en Francais has an alternative bio with a greater emphasis on the evolution and chronology of Monet's paintings: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monet

The Claude Monet Foundation, responsible for maintaining his home in Giverny for the public, has a wonderful site which allows you to see the water garden that was captured in the early 1920's on these Waterlillies panels:
http://www.fondation-monet.com/ (French and English sections)

About the gardens - an extract from the Foundation's page :

Its contribution to Claude Monet's oeuvre was a vital one. He came here repeatedly throughout his life, letting his imagination rove amid the complex interplay of water and light. Here he painted his first Waterlilies series, those marvellous canvases from which, in the closing period of his life, he was to distil the marvellous "Decorations" that rounded off the work of a entire lifetime and irresistibly foreshadowed - as Kandinsky so perceptively noted - all that was to come in abstract painting.

Constructed in 1916 on the site of a tumbledown cottage, the studio was designed to provide the master with a comfortable, well-lit setting for the large-scale "Waterlily Decorations"; at the urging of George Clemenceau he offered the finest of these series to the nation in 1922. The studio is thus the fountainhead of Claude Monet's artistic legacy. After falling into disrepair, it was restored at considerable expense with the aid of two major donations from Michel David Weill. The easels and some of the movable trestle tables are still there, as is the divan. The walls are hung with copies - magnificent reminders of the big canvases - donated by Gérard Delorme.

l'Orangerie - more Matisse images

2007-03-27T17:06:00.000+10:00

Henri Matisse 'Blue odalisque with white skirt' 1921-1923

No prizes for guessing that Matisse was a 'boobs man'. In fact, no prizes ever on this blog. I'm too cheap!

You will also notice in these Matisse pictures from the Orangerie that patterned walls were meticulously captured with his brush - though they are not the focus element of these compositions, they certainly make their presence known! Perhaps the respectful representation Matisse has for wall coverings and fabrics explains his late career use of cut paper as a medium in itself.

Henri MATISSE 'Odalisque in grey pants' 1927

If Van Gogh made glorious yellow all his own through his many sunflower and haystack compositions - Matisse has to be credited for bringing vivid, brighter-than-you-thought-possible red onto canvas. Of course, every colour gets the bright treatment by Matisse eventually. Of his wall-sized torn and scissor-cut paper compositions (made towards the end of his life when he could no longer paint) art critic Robert Hughes once said that you can get a sun tan just standing next to them. These were composed with the most vivid, almost dayglo, yellows and oranges fathomable to chemists and printers of the time (for an example, look for 'The Snail' 1952 in the online gallery at this link.) Before this, however, Matisse revelled in bright fabric, patterned walls and decorated screens:

Henri MATISSE 'Odalisque with red pants' 1924-25

With so much going on, the woman could merely be another element of the composition rather than the subject.

My apologies, the excitement of seeing this painting did make my hands shake a bit for some of these images.

Henri MATISSE 'Woman with violin' 1921-1923

So much of her style of dress still looks contemporary.

Very Picasso-like, those eyebrows

l'Orangerie - Three can be better than one

2007-03-02T16:02:00.000+10:00

Marie LAURENCIN 'Women and a dog' 1923

Henri MATISSE 'The Three Sisters' 1916-1917

l'Orangerie - two's a crowd

2007-03-01T17:45:00.000+10:00

Andre DERAIN 'Harlequin and Pierrot' 1924

Now for Matisse

Henri MATISSE 'The Boudoir' 1921

l'Orangerie - fruity one

2007-02-15T08:54:00.000+10:00

Paul CEZANNE 'Fruits, serviette and jug of milk' 1880-81

Paul CEZANNE 'Fruit & biscuits' 1879-80

Tuileries Gardens - in love with clouds

2007-02-08T04:05:00.000+10:00

More about the area between Louvre and l'Orangerie: click this link

Info about the Tuileries Palace before it was burned down in the Revolution: click here

A discussion about the wonderful set up of the gardens as they exist today: click here

Louvre - 1st visit cont'd - the grandest Goddess

2007-02-06T18:33:00.000+10:00

The Winged Victory of Samothrace has to be one of the most astounding sculptures ever uncovered from the times of Roman and Greek antiquity. Right up there with the Laocoon and Borghese Gladiator.

Though it is regrettable that this goddess cannot be reunited with her divine head and arms, the remarkable detail of her fragile and beautiful wings remains.

Robing is exquisitely rendered and realised also; the impression given is of the person standing on the prow of a boat in a strong wind, with sea spray wetting her garments. Her navel is visible through a part of her dress most soaked by the elements as imagined by the sculptor.

Silver drachma of the Winged Victory dating from 306 - 294 B.C.

Wings without flash...

... and with the flash turned on.

For some less-wobbly, professional images of this goddess, and an excellent English-language commentary on the sculpture, click the link to Museé Louvre embedded in the title of this post (and here again).

Louvre - 1st visit cont'd - Goddesses

2007-02-02T18:29:00.000+10:00

The sacred feminine interpreted and represented in the Louvre by I.M. Pei ... according to Dan Brown at least!

(possibly) Hyakinthos - blurry - circa 520-480 B.C.

Bird-goddess - at rest - circa 480 B.C.

Bird-goddess again

Seated woman - originating from Attica region(?) - late 5th / early 4th century B.C.

Aphrodite riding on the back of a goose - circa 500-475 B.C.

Aphrodite

Aphrodite - from a frieze dated back to 350 years B.C.

Isis-Aphrodite - still beautiful, fertile - and with traces of colour after 2300 years!

Isis-Aphrodite from her right side

The benign face of the Goddess dares you to shoot a sharp picture of her

Sphinx, side-on (slightly blurred), 3rd century B.C.

Sphinx, front-on, 3rd century B.C.

Siren, 3rd century B.C.

Siren, 3rd century B.C. front-on (fooling the autofocus with her beauty)

Winged Victory

Winged Victory statuette, Roman, circa 150 - 100 B.C.

Detail - Winged Victory statuette, Roman, circa 150 - 100 B.C.

Slartibarfast silhouetted with the goddess Aphrodite... exquisite detail of her garment.. so realistic.. an ancient breeze still puffs out the folds of the toga/dress.

Fabulous hair too...

Aphrodite - again her magical power keeps colour intact after two millenia! A wonderful, elegant pose. In its original location, I wonder what balanced her to stay upright?

Louvre - 1st visit

2007-01-30T18:40:00.000+10:00

Arriving early has its benefits...

...almost no queue!

Venus de Milo is always shown in postcards and books front-on.

I think that there is a reason for this - she seems to show a serious case of 'plumber's crack' - an inevitable side effect of wearing your robe so low down on your hips. Not just an early 21st century fad.

Hey! Don't point that camera up MY NOSE!!

But.. I think she is very elegant from every angle.

Musée Rodin III - Balzac

2007-01-29T06:49:00.000+10:00

The upper portion of the finished commission prior to going to the foundry for bronze casting, photographed in Rodin's studio in Meudon, 1897.

Rodin was commissioned to sculpt the writer Honore de Balzac by the writer Emile Zola in his capacity as president of the Société des Gens de Lettres, in 1891. The finished bronze casting was completed in 1898 - all the studies below were done over the intervening years.

On the Wikipedia site for Balzac's biography, an undated (assumed contemporary) portrait shows the writer bore a distinct likeness to Australian comedian Mick Molloy. Sculpted close to five decades after Balzac's death, most of Rodin's studies gave me a flavour of former Federal leader of the Australian Labour Party, Kim Beazley. Not only the body shape - also the brow, the proud stance, even his nose and cheeks from some angles.

Balzac's ball-sack - a nude study Rodin executed to get the right bulges under the gown in the final commissioned cast:

... though those aren't really his genitals there - Rodin gave the model what I think is referred to in Hollywood nowadays as a 'modesty pouch'.

Oddur's sketch of the Balzac study

Loni's sketch of the same Balzac study, from a slightly different angle

Drawing the big brassy study of Balzac in the nude was a great chance to sketch an unconventional body. Most of what we saw in Paris was sculpture based on classical Greek notions of representing humans. Rodin certainly sculpted archetypes - but he was also interested in getting some realism in commissions for historical figures. Balzac's features are quite probably exagerrated, but do not stray into caricature.

Turn off the bloody flash, will you!?

Musée Rodin II - 'Meditation' enigma & collected painters

2007-01-22T06:33:00.000+10:00

'Meditation' 1894

This sculpture could be Rodin's Venus de Milo, or maybe his sculpted Mona Lisa - or perhaps even both. I get the feeling this shape mattered more to Rodin personally than his Thinker or any other work he might be more famous for. Read more on the above hyperlink from Musée Rodin, also in the image below, which you can click on to enlarge:

Loni sketched her from this angle

The work is sometimes also known as The Inner Voice. Here's two more snapped from other angles:
Some paintings collected by Rodin, or acquired by the museum after his death:

Edvard MUNCH 'Rodin's "The Thinker" in the garden of Dr Linde in Lubeck' (undated)

Vincent VAN GOGH 'View of the viaduct near Arles' 1888

Vincent VAN GOGH 'The Harvesters' 1888

Some more detailed images of 'The Harvesters':

You can also see the famous van Gogh, Father Tanguy, here at the Rodin website.

Lastly, two snapshots of a Monet that was guarded under thick greenish glass. The island in Brittany where this was painted was, for many years, home to a little-known Australian painter, John Peter Russell. The house where he lived on the island was frequently visited by both Monet and Henri Matisse.

Claude MONET 'Belle-Ile' 1886

Musée Rodin

2007-01-18T04:41:00.000+10:00

There is a song that goes, 'I love Paris in the springtime'...
...well you have to love it in late Autumn too when the weather is as mild and delightful as this. Hard to believe it is 1st November! In just a few more days, Loni's family arrives; and it does get cold - bitterly so - for the first time in my five-week stay in Europe.

Thanks to the country of my birth, the coldness does not bother me. However I will not complain about warm or mild weather either. Of course, if this is in fact due to climate change... well we're all screwed.

What did you say?

You mean, I can bare more than just my upper thigh? Hooray for togas!

Aargh! No! Don't encourage him! He'll streak at the drop of a hat!

Yes, global warming is probably welcomed by some sections of society - naturists who advocate a clothes-free lifestyle, and life drawing models who make a living out of posing naked for artists (and perverts posing as art students).

Well, that's it for silly stuff in this posting. Now to a pose that Rodin obviously liked (or maybe it just didn't sell as well as 'The Thinker' so there were lots of these left over when his estate was handed over to the people of France).

Apologies for the mixed-up layout of these images. Of course, there were meant to be lots of these left over and lying around - they are studies for an ensemble of people who are interacting within a large assembled group. It's one of the figures arranged in Rodin's Monument to the Burghers of Calais.

Mr Porter did actually write further:

I love Paris in the fall.

I love Paris in the winter

when it drizzles

I love Paris in the summer

when it sizzles.

I love Paris evry moment

ev'ry moment of the year

Musée d'Orsay VI

2007-01-13T22:10:00.000+10:00

Henry NOCQ 'Yvette Guilbert' (singer) 1893

Georges BASTARD 'Coupe (bowl?)' 1913

Eugene GRASSET ' Apparition ' 1900 Brooch in cloisonné enamel, precious stones & ivory

Rene LALIQUE 'Sarah Bernhardt' (described in gallery plaque as 'tragic actress and sculptor') 1896

French Salon Exhibitor 'Bowls' 1914

Musée d'Orsay - fifth post

2007-01-11T18:25:00.000+10:00

I'm still uploading images from the wonderful five hours I spent in this old railway station!

Just one work I want to show you on this entry:

Pierre BONNARD 'In a boat' circa 1907

Bonnard is as Bonnard does. I cannot help though but think of some pictures by Brett Whiteley when I see this. His tamer, less drug-influenced / mentally ill work, that is!

les enfants et animaux

It is at the same time idyllic and sinister. Who is facing towards the children and their pets in the boat? The child closest to the viewer has a passive facial expression hidden in darkness. The two children behind her are a little more anxious. Are their pets doomed? Is the weather about to turn?

Only the ducks are relaxed - they approach the boat even.

Well, they are in their element.

les canards

Musée d'Orsay - Art Nouveau - Guimard

2007-01-09T22:14:00.000+10:00

The museum hosts a substantial collection of decorative art from the period 1848 to 1914. There are rooms and rooms and more rooms dedicated to Art Nouveau. It's a thrilling thing to experience an entire living area or bedroom decorated in astonishingly original and beautifully crafted pieces of functional art-furniture.

Hector Guimard is the name behind the gorgeous, swoopy-shaped turn-of-the-last-century Metro signs and banisters still in use at some iconic Paris stops. Here in d'Orsay the breadth of his talent is on display.

Hector GUIMARD 'Crossed balcony section' 1905-07 cast by Saint-Dizier Foundry

Hector GUIMARD 'Smoking Room Bench' 1897-98

Hector GUIMARD 'Coffin Handles' 1907 (left) 'Door Handles' 1897 (right)

Some more balcony grilles by Guimard
(L & R)

Musee d'Orsay III

2007-01-07T22:17:00.000+10:00

Edouard MANET - 'Berthe Morisot on the range' (?) [original caption: á l'éventail]

Four images of another Manet; the title of which I did not record:

Musee d'Orsay II

2007-01-05T20:25:00.000+10:00

Paul Cezanne 'Christ with limbless man' 1867-69

It's obvious when I get excited by a picture - I go all wobbly when holding the camera shutter : )

Vincent VAN GOGH 'L'Arlesienne (Madame Ginoux)' November 1888

Vincent did not wobble so much when composing this one. Maybe he was saner than usual at the time... or perhaps his finances in this period limited his absinthe consumption.

Pierre-Auguste RENOIR 'Young woman with veil' around 1875

Isn't this exquisite? Make sure to click the image and look at it close-up. I'm proud of the fact I snapped this one sans-tripod with minimal shudder. It still makes me weak in the knees looking at it now.

It's Halloween today - students visiting the Musee dress to mark the date. No pumpkins were sighted however.

Gustave CAILLEBOTTE 'Planers of flooring' 1875

I'm certain every Australian who sees this does a double-take. No, they're in a European apartment house, not an outback shearing shed! The poses are amazingly similar though. Maybe skin tones shown here are paler than workers from the sunburnt country. A wonderful, under-rated painter - not strictly Impressionist, but from the same era - and enjoying the same gallery space among Cezanne, Pissarro and van Gogh.

Alright, now for a couple more silly pictures:

'Da Vinci Code Blartibartfast'

Eediot! You're posing in the wrong Museum! Anyway, aren't you supposed to take your clothes off?

'Loni in Paradise'

Wait on, make your right arm more vertical. Oh, you can't? Why not? Oops - boobies in the way. Ah well...

Koloman MOSER 'The Paradise' 1904 (design for stained glass panels, intended for the Cathedral Am Steinhof)

Angels to my left... angels to my right. Sleeping babes all around. A wonderful Art Nouveau-themed religious composition.

Musee d'Orsay I

2007-01-04T21:31:00.000+10:00

A large crowd lines up to enter the museum. This is the last long queue we endured - a 4-day Paris Museum Pass cuts us directly to the front every time after this visit.

So much to enjoy... where do I start? Loni suggests the top floors with late career impressionists. I was not disappointed with her recommendation:

Paul CEZANNE Uncle Dominique the lawyer 1866

This picture struck us both dumb in our tracks . We found a place to sit and sketched. Lots of people blocked our view, however lots more respectfully stepped out of our way as soon as they noticed us at work:

Oddur AUGUSTSSON pencil copy of Cezanne's uncle dominique 31-10-2006

Loni MILLS pastel copy of Cezanne's uncle dominique 31-10-2006

Well, you can tell who has kept up their technique over all these years!! Yes, Mr Cezanne, we're not worthy!

; )

Loni should have laughed at my effort but instead she was very encouraging and constructively critical. She's a very nice human being. I think she could design some lovely fjords too.

Heeere's Loni

2007-01-04T17:02:00.000+10:00

My host in Paris is a friend from one of my Brisbane community choirs, Tongues of Fire. It is in fact her sister Yani who runs the ensemble. Loni is not as outgoing as her sister and does not like to be photographed normally - unless it is posing to do something silly:

Autumn splendor - make like an enlightened Eve after tasting forbidden fruit

..not that I am much different from Loni - you do not see many pics of me on this blog but here is my Adam pose snapped by the Lonsta:

Only 9 more days of silliness remain before my departure. Either with Loni, or alone sometimes, or in the company of Yani, Pete (Y's partner) and Helen ( L and Y's mother) we also got down to the serious business of Paris museums and galleries.

Loni is a theatre nurse however she also boasts a degree in Fine Arts and has taught drawing. Loni never leaves home without a sketchbook. She has a fine visual eye and is a great companion for these visits.

In the coming days we visit Musee d'Orsay, Louvre, Auguste Rodin's museum, Gustave Moreau's apartment-museum, l'Orangerie and the Musee de Quai Branly. Outside of hushed halls guarded by rope and security guard we also ascend the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower and freeze our arses off looking for Jim Morrison's grave in the Pere Lachaise cemetary. We also celebrate Loni's birthday with some fun outings, some low-key meals, and also some quite serious activities.

But silly and fun was the dominating theme:

Silliness rules at this shop in the Marais district

Arrival in Paris

2007-01-04T05:25:00.000+10:00

It's the 29th of October and I farewell Marc and take the TGV to Paris. Arriving there, I get a call from Loni on mobile who gives me advice on the best Metro stop to get off and which exit to take. She waits for me there . We leave from Goncourt station and make our way to her apartment just a few streets away in the 10th arrondisement.

Loni is pleased I'm visiting; she's bought bread, cheese and bubbles to celebrate:

On tasting, we discover the cheap bubbly is not champagne; no it's not even sparkling wine: it's fizzy apple cider! I soon learn to my surprise that Loni can barely understand a lick of French and speaks even less.

We're soon out the door again to enjoy the last hours of daylight. I snap a few sunsets near her place - they're all blurry though:...but never mind, I took many more. I will be uploading uploading lots in the coming month. I'm sacrificing social outings to spend more time at the PC for this purpose. Promise!

Farewell Grenoble - movies in town

2007-01-01T19:40:00.000+10:00

Watching movies at night

DVD
Japanese Story
I had not watched this film for a long time - owning DVDs makes you lazy and you often think 'Oh, I can watch that anytime'. Seeing this in France with Marc allowed me to watch it again with fresh eyes. I loved the red dust and Toni Collette's raw performance the first few times I saw this. Marc enjoyed the way Japanese actor Gotaro Tsunashima struggled with English and his simple, poetic dialogue - especially the letter he wrote to Toni's character, which she read posthumously. Marc was also very taken with the music in this film - some sections were very reminiscent of Ryuchi Sakamoto's compositions. He recorded grabs of the soundtrack onto his tape deck and played it in the car as we drove around Grenoble and the Rhone Alps region. Curiously, he did not record Toni's scratchy a cappella rendition of 'On the road again', a tune made famous by Willie Nelson. When he played the tape, I would say to him, 'Marc, we're driving, yet you overlooked the best driving song ever! Then to his horror I would start to sing it, worse than Toni does in the film. Of course, she is not a half bad vocalist when not in character as a tone-deaf mining engineer. She sang 'Don't dream it's over', a Crowded House tune, on the closing credits of Cosi, as well as 'Stand by me' during the course of the film itself. Also, just this year, she has released an album of her own recorded in collaboration with her musician husband.

House of flying daggers
Not a great film but visually stunning. Music makes the majesty of certain scenes in it much more grand. The standout sequence is without a doubt the 'Duel of the drums' game. Marc recorded this as well ... does not sound as cinematic as Japanese Story on tape but the feeling of China is evoked nicely.

Cinema
Poltergay
'Can't vait for zhat vone' - the premise of this film just cries out for a synopsis by Marg Downey, as the stoney faced SBS presenter from the kooky old days when you could only get UHF channel 28 by connecting a fragile cable to your backyard Hills Hoist.

A cute young couple - spunky building site manager and wife, played by Gerard Depardieu's daughter, move to a run down old house. At night, wife sleeps well, but husband is woken by the sounds of Boney M coming from the basement. He ventures down to the basement to discover the ghosts of five homosexuals from the La Cage au Folles era who died in a horrific electrical accident during a 1970's foam party. Cute straight guy learns to cohabit with the flouncy gay ghosts, with hilarious consequences.

In a non-Marg voice, I thought it was funny but not RoFL hilarious. It owes a bit to 'Queer eye for the straight guy' and a lot to Boney M and Patrick Hernandez - Depardieu sings 'Born to be alive' as a slow ballad during the film and it is quite beautiful. I do not know if she has plans to do a whole album like Toni did.