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Central Station recently opened the new "Grand Concourse" what a wonderful place to explore with a wide angle lens . . the sandstone tones and textures are just wonderful.
Olympus OM-1 w M.Zuiko 7-14/2.8/Pro
ISO800 f/9 7mm
Two exposures raw developed in DxO PhotoLab7, HDR Merged in Aurora HDR, colour graded in Nik6 Color Efex, tweaked in Topaz AI and finished off back in PhotoLab.
The Voyage of Life: Childhood
West Building, Main Floor—Gallery 60
•Date: 1842
•Medium: Oil on Canvas
•Dimensions
oOverall: 134.3 × 195.3 cm (52⅞ × 76⅞ in.)
oFramed: 162.9 × 224.8 × 17.8 cm (64⅛ × 88½ × 7 in.)
•Credit Line: Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
•Accession Number: 1971.16.1
•Artists/Makers:
oArtist: Thomas Cole, American, 1801-1848
Overview
Cole’s renowned four-part series traces the journey of an archetypal hero along the “River of Life.” Confidently assuming control of his destiny and oblivious to the dangers that await him, the voyager boldly strives to reach an aerial castle, emblematic of the daydreams of “Youth” and its aspirations for glory and fame. As the traveler approaches his goal, the ever-more-turbulent stream deviates from its course and relentlessly carries him toward the next picture in the series, where nature’s fury, evil demons, and self-doubt will threaten his very existence. Only prayer, Cole suggests, can save the voyager from a dark and tragic fate.
From the innocence of childhood, to the flush of youthful overconfidence, through the trials and tribulations of middle age, to the hero’s triumphant salvation, The Voyage of Life seems intrinsically linked to the Christian doctrine of death and resurrection. Cole’s intrepid voyager also may be read as a personification of America, itself at an adolescent stage of development. The artist may have been issuing a dire warning to those caught up in the feverish quest for Manifest Destiny: that unbridled westward expansion and industrialization would have tragic consequences for both man and nature.
Inscription
•Lower Left: 1842 / T. Cole / Rome
Provenance
Sold by the artist to George K. Shoenberger [1809-1892], Cincinnati, perhaps as early as 1845 and no later than May 1846;[1] Shoenberger heirs, after 20 January 1892;[2] purchased 1908 by Ernst H. Huenefeld, Cincinnati;[3] gift 1908 to Bethesda Hospital and Deaconess Association of Methodist Church of Cincinnati;[4] sold 17 May 1971 through (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York) to NGA.
[1]For a discussion of a possible 1845 date, see Thomas Cole, Exh. cat. Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 1969: 35. Other sources place the acquisition a bit later than 1845; see Paul D. Schweizer, “The Voyage of Life: A Chronology,” in The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, Exh. cat. Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985: 45 (“December 1846?”), and Ellwood C. Parry III, The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination, Newark, Delaware, 1988: 332 (“sometime late in 1846 or, more likely, early in 1847”); however in a Boston Transcript article entitled “The Voyage of Life,” which appeared 21 May 1846, the pictures are mentioned as then belonging to “a wealthy gentleman of Cincinnati.”
[2]A letter of April 1979 from Mrs. Robert Heuck (in NGA curatorial files) specifies: “Mr. Shoenberger died in 1892, at which time many of the belongings of the home were given to heirs.” Shoenberger died 20 January 1892; for additional information, see The Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery with an Historical Sketch of the State of Ohio, 6 vols., Cincinnati, 1895: 6:1457-1458.
[3]Mrs. Robert Heuck, letter of April 1979 (in NGA curatorial files) states: “In 1908 Mr. and Mrs. Ernest W. [sic] Huenefeld purchased the land [and the house and contents].”
[4]Edward H. Dwight and Richard J. Boyle, “Rediscovery: Thomas Cole’s ‘Voyage of Life’,” Art in America 55 (May 1967): 62.
Associated Names
•Bethesda Hospital and Deaconess Association
•Hirschl & Adler Galleries
•Huenefeld, Ernst H.
•Shoenberger, George K.
Exhibition History
•1842—Annual Exhibition of Modern Artists, Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 1842, no cat.
•1842—Private Exhibition, Luther Terry’s studio, Orto di Napoli, Rome, 1842.
•1843—Pictures by Thomas Cole N.A. … The Voyage of Life! A Series of Allegorical Pictures, National Academy of Design, New York, 1843-1844, no. 1.
•1843—Second Exhibition, Boston Artists’ Association, 1843, no. 1.
•1844—Paintings Exhibited…, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1844, no. 1.
•1848—Western Art Union, Cincinnati, 1848, no cat.
•1854—Pictures at the Ladies’ Gallery, Cincinnati, 1854, 2 and 5, no. 20, as Infancy.
•1983—A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting 1760-1910, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Grand Palais, Paris, 1983-1984, no. 25, repro.
•1985—The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985, 4, 5, 28, 30-32, 34-36, 38-40, 42, 44, 45, 48, 53, 66-69, no. 33.
•1994—Thomas Cole: Landscape into History, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; The Brooklyn Museum, 1994-1995, fig. 115.
•1995—Loan for display with permanent collection, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1995-1996.
•2000—Explorar el Edén: Paisaje Americano del Siglo XIX, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2000-2001, no. 2, repro.
Technical Summary
Secondary ground layers include red under the top left corner; yellow under the boat and angel; red under the center in the light area of mountain; red under top right corner in the light area of sky; red under the water around the boat. Infrared reflectography reveals some underdrawing of mountain contours in the right middle and far distance. There are scattered small losses along the edges, a small loss below the boat, and craquelure throughout.
All four paintings in The Voyage of Life series were executed on herringbone twill fabric with moderately fine threads and a moderately rough surface. The paintings were lined (apparently for the first time) and the original panel-back stretchers were replaced during treatment in 1970-1971. The presence of unused tack holes and the pattern of wear on the canvas edges suggest that the paintings were originally stretched and painted on slightly larger stretchers, and then restretched by the artist on the panel-backed stretchers. All four paintings have white ground layers; in specific areas of each painting (see individual comments, below) secondary ground layers of different colors were applied. Infrared reflectography reveals only minimal underdrawing. Paint was applied moderately thinly and with low and broad brushstrokes in some areas such as the skies, and more thickly and with some high impasto in details such as the figures and foliage. In general, the paintings are in excellent condition, with only scattered small losses, some craquelure, and minor abrasion. In 1970-1971, discolored varnish was removed and the paintings were restored.
Bibliography
•1843—“Cole’s Pictures at the National Academy of Design.” Anglo American (30 December 1843): 239.
•1843—“Dottings on Art and Artists. No. II.” New World 6 (25 February 1843): 246.
•1843—“Mr. Cole’s Paintings.” New-York Daily Tribune (26 December 1843): 2.
•1843—New-York Daily Tribune (18 February 1843): 3.
•1844—“A Few Words About Mr. Cole’s Paintings.” New World 8 (17 February 1844): 217.
•1844—“Cole’s Paintings.” New-York Daily Tribune (9 January 1844): 2.
•1844—“Editor’s Table.” The Knickerbocker 23 (January/February 1844): 97, 196.
•1844—P., S.H.J. “To Thomas Cole.” New Mirror 2 (27 January 1844): 269.
•1847—Transactions of the Western Art Union for the Year 1847. Cincinnati, 1847: 25.
•1848—Bryant, William Cullen. A Funeral Oration, occasioned by the death of Thomas Cole delivered before the National Academy of Design, New York, May 4, 1848. Philadelphia and New York, 1848: 30.
•1848—Whitley, Thomas W. Reflections on the Government of the Western Art Union and a Review of the Works of Art on Its Walls. [Originally published in the Herald of Truth] Cincinnati, 1848: 17-18.
•1849—Lanman, Charles. “The Epic Paintings of Thomas Cole.” Southern Library Messenger 15 (June 1849): 353.
•1849—Transactions of the Western Art Union for the Year 1848. Cincinnati, 1849: 10.
•1853—Noble, Louis Legrand. The Course of Empire, Voyage of Life, and other Pictures of Thomas Cole, N.A.. New York, 1853: 295-298, 301, 309, 312-314, 317, 320-322, 353, 359.
•1854—“Thomas Cole.” National Magazine 4 (April 1854): 318-321.
•1855—“Sketchings.” The Crayon 1 (7 February 1855): 92.
•1858—“Notes and Gleanings—Cole’s Pictures of Life.” National Magazine 13 (September 1858): 284-285.
•1860—Green, George W. Biographical Sketches. New York, 1860: 101, 105, 110-112.
•1860—“The Artists of America—Taken from New American Cyclopaedia.” The Crayon 7 (February 1860): 46.
•1865—Cummings, Thomas S. Historic Annals of the National Academy of Design (1825-1863). Philadelphia, 1865. Reprint, New York, 1965: 170, 176, 201.
•1932—Mayer, Frank Blackwell. With Pen and Pencil on the Frontier in 1851: The Diary and Sketches of Frank Blackwell Mayer. Edited by Bertha L. Heilbron. Reprint, Saint Paul, 1932: 41.
•1954—La Budde, Kenneth James. “The Mind of Thomas Cole.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1954: 171, 212.
•1962—Devane, James. “Sightseers Have Visited Scarlet Oaks for 95 Years.” Cincinnati Enquirer (20 May 1962): 6A.
•1964—Noble, Louis Legrand. The Life and Works of Thomas Cole (1853). Edited by Elliot S. Vesell. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964: 220-224, 231, 233-235, 237, 239-240, 264.
•1967—Dwight, Edward H., and Richard J. Boyle. “Rediscovery: Thomas Cole’s ‘Voyage of Life’.” L’Art et les Artistes 55 (May 1967): 60-63, repro. 62.
•1967—Merritt, Howard S. “Thomas Cole’s List, ‘Subjects for Pictures.’” In Baltimore Museum of Art, Annual II: Studies on Thomas Cole, an American Romanticist. Baltimore, 1967: 84, 90.
•1970—Riordan, John. “Thomas Cole: A Case Study of the Painter-Poet Theory ofArt in American Painting from 1825-1850.” 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse University, 1970: 1:99-100; 2:345, 455-497.
•1973—Wallach, Alan Peter. “The Ideal American Artist and the Dissenting Tradition: A Study of Thomas Cole’s Popular Reputation.” Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1973: 70-72, 106.
•1976—Kurland, Sydney. “The Aesthetic Quest of Thomas Cole and Edgar Allan Poe: Correspondence in their Thought and Practice in Relation to their Time.” Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio University, Athens, 1976: 105-109, 172, repro. 227.
•1977—Wallach, Alan. “The Voyage of Life as Popular Art.” The Art Bulletin 59 (1957): 234.
•1980—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 133, repro.
•1980—Coen, Rena N. “Cole, Coleridge and Kubla Khan.” Art History 3 (June 1980): 218, 227, pl. 31.
•1980—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 11, 14, 88, repro. 88.
•1981—Virdis, Caterina Limentani. “Paesaggio e racconto in Edgar Allan Poe.” Artibus et Historiae 4 (1981): 90, 94, repro. 89.
•1981—Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 96, 112-113.
•1983—Schweizer, Paul D. “Another Possible Literary Source for Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life.” In “New Discoveries in American Art.” Edited by Jayne A. Kuchina. The American Art Journal 15 (1983): 74-75.
•1985—The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints. Exh. cat. Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985: 66-69.
•1987—Sarnoff, Charles A. “The Voyage of Life Had a Life of Its Own.” Paper presented to the NGA, January 1987.
•1987—Wilmerding, John. American Marine Painting. Rev. ed. of A History of American Marine Painting, 1968. New York, 1987: 44, 46, 47, color repro. 42.
•1988—Parry, Ellwood C., III. The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination. Newark, London, and Toronto, 1988: 218, 228, 265-268, 270-272, 275, 277, 280, 284-285, 291-298, 301-303, 332, 338, 378.
•1988—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 11, 17, 102, 103, repro. 102.
•1990—Powell, Earl A., III. Thomas Cole. New York, 1990: 103.
•1991—Kopper, Philip. America’s National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 261, 263, color repro.
•1991—Wilmerding, John. American Views: Essays on American Art. Princeton, 1991: 56, 67, repro. 57.
•1992—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 145, repro.
•1994—Truettner, William H., and Alan Wallach. Thomas Cole: Landscape into History. Exh. cat. Natl. Mus. of Am. Art, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; Brooklyn Museum. Washington,1994: 42,46-47,79,82,84,98-101,113,130-133,138,144,149-150,152,154,182, no. 115.
•1995—Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. The Spirit and the Vision: The Influence of Christian Romanticism on the Development of 19th-Century American Art. Atlanta, 1995: 137-148, fig. 26.
•1996—Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 95-108, color repro.
•1998—Boeckl, Christine M. “Path/Road/Crossroads.” In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:692.
•2004—Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 308-310, no. 247, color repros.
•2012—“Rethinking ‘Luminism’: Taste, Class, and Aestheticizing Tendencies in Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Painting.” In The Cultured Canvas: New Perspectives on American Landscape Painting edited by Nancy Siegel. Lebanon, N.H., 2012: 133-134.
•2013—Corbett, David Peters. “Painting American Frontiers: ‘Encounter’ and the Borders of American Identity in Nineteenth-Century Art.” Perspective 2013, no. 1: 140, 141, color fig. 9.
From American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I:
1971.16.1 (2550)
The Voyage of Life: Childhood
•1842
•Oil on Canvas, 134.3 × 195.3 (52⅞ × 76⅞)
•Ails a Mellon Bruce Fund
•Inscriptions:
oAt Lower Left: 1842 / T. Cole / Rome
Technical Notes
All four paintings were executed on herringbone twill fabric with moderately fine threads and a moderately rough surface. The paintings were lined (apparently for the first time) and the original panel-back stretchers were replaced during treatment in 1970—1971. The presence of unused tack holes and the pattern of wear on the canvas edges suggest that the paintings were originally stretched and painted on slightly larger stretchers, and then restretched by the artist on the panel-backed stretchers. All four paintings have white ground layers; in specific areas of each painting (see individual comments, below) secondary ground layers of different colors were applied. Infrared reflectography reveals only minimal underdrawing. Paint was applied moderately thinly and with low and broad brushstrokes in some areas such as the skies, and more thickly and with some high impasto in details such as the figures and foliage. In general, the paintings are in excellent condition, with only scattered small losses, some craquelure, and minor abrasion. In 1970-1971, discolored varnish was removed and the paintings were restored.
1971.16.1 (Childhood): Secondary ground layers include red under the top left corner; yellow under the boat and angel; red under the center in the light area of mountain; red under top right corner in the light area of sky; red under the water around the boat. Infrared reflectography reveals some underdrawing of mountain contours in the right middle and far distance. There are scattered small losses along the edges, a small loss below the boat, and craquelure throughout.
Description by the Artist:
First Picture: Childhood
A stream is seen issuing from a deep cavern, in the side of a craggy and precipitous mountain, whose summit is hidden in clouds. From out the cave glides a Boat, whose golden prow and sides are sculptured into figures of the Hours: steered by an Angelic Form, and laden with buds and flowers, it bears a laughing Infant, the Voyager whose varied course the artist has attempted to delineate. On either hand the banks of the stream are clothed in luxuriant herbage and flowers. The rising sun bathes the mountains and the flowery banks in rosy light.
The dark cavern is emblematic of our earthly origin, and the mysterious Past. The Boat, composed of Figures of the Hours, images the thought, that we are borne on the hours down the Stream of Life. The Boat identifies the subject in each picture. The rosy light of the morning, the luxuriant flowers and plants, are emblems of the joyousness of early life. The close banks, and the limited scope of the scene, indicate the narrow experience of Childhood, and the nature of its pleasures and desires. The Egyptian Lotus in the foreground of the picture is symbolical of Human Life. Joyousness and wonder are the characteristic emotions of childhood.
An extremely confident and composed young tiger on a rock. The bamboo habitat is seen in the background.
Kanha National Park, India.
Sixpack Projects at 170 N Promenade
Reception:
On the occasion of the Women's Conference visit to Long Beach, curator Jeff Rau and Sixpack Projects present Support System, an exhibition of local, national, and international, contemporary women artists.
Support System presents the work of women artists responding to concepts of feminine empowerment through mutual encouragement and community building. The exhibition title is borrowed from a work by Lynn Aldrich constructed from a collection of bras, anonymously donated by women in the art world - curators, dealers, writers, artists, teachers and students. Playing on the actual function of the undergarments, the quilt focuses attention on this community of women in the arts serving as a support system of another kind.
In a day of multiple and occasionally conflicting feminisms, women artists continue to re-interpret their positions in the world. Through diverse materials and methods, the eight artists included here employ humor, beauty, metaphor and mystery in an exchange of tangents and trajectories. From this dialogue a larger concept emerges, one of nurture and development, where individuals and ideas thrive and affect change when they are confident of the support of a shared community.
Artists in the exhibition:
Lynn Aldrich
Natalie Anderson
Monica Bock
Jenine Haard
Anna Von Mertens
Cielo Pessione
Susan Porteous
J.R. Uretsky
Sixpack Projects at Phantom Galleries Long Beach is located at 170 N Promenade in downtown Long Beach at the corner of Broadway and Promenade. The exhibition will be on view, October 16 through December 4, 2010. Gallery admission is free. Gallery is open Thursday through Saturday evenings and by special appointment; regular hours are THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY 4 - 7pm (there is 24/7 pedestrian viewing). To schedule a viewing contact Sixpack Projects at info@sixpackprojects.com, or for more information visit www.SixpackProjects.com and www.PhantomGalleriesLA.com. Also on Facebook.
Sixpack Projects is a collective of six artist/curators committed to organizing innovative contemporary art exhibitions and events throughout Southern California. This project is made possible through a partnership with Phantom Galleries Long Beach and The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency. The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency is proud to partner with Phantom Galleries LA/Long Beach in the revival of empty storefronts along our major corridors, while also showcasing the arts and helping to build a sense of community and culture in Downtown Long Beach.
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November 13, 2nd Sat Art Walk, Downtown Long Beach Art Walk
(All of our galleries will be open)
Saturday November 13th 2010 6 -10pm
Receptions: Promenade openings: Dark Matter, Backspace, The DownCrowd Gallery and Sixpack Projects
E 3rd at Elmopenings: AMC Gallery, LarkGallery Online, Amy Fox, Gallery at 122 E 3rd St
Artist Receptions for November 20: The Projects Gallery and more TBA.
-Promenade-
Dark Matter Gallery
218 N PROMANADE
Photography of Neil A France
Phantom Galleries LA/Long Beach is pleased to present Recalculate, Photographs of the Urban, Suburban and Exurban landscape at Dark Matter Gallery 218 N Promenade in downtown Long Beach.
I have been photographing the Urban, Suburban and Exurban landscape for the past twenty years. I was born in South America Guyana and as a boy I would sit on our front porch and watch the rain sweep in north. I was fascinated by light and how it moved across the fields. Of course as a seven year old buy I wasn’t sitting around thinking “ my the quality of light today is amazing”. That fascination with light and it’s movement did push me to start using the family camera to photograph everything around me.
I started my work of landscape because of my constant and unrelenting amazement with the space we live in and how everything moves and works or doesn’t work. It’s all thought provoking the way a city is planed the way we choose to make a statement about our selves in the way a house is decorated. The way the economics of a community influences what is place in that community.
For further information please contact Neil France at 310 892 0756 or neilafrance@hotmail.com
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Backspace gallery
mět'l-ûr'jē
November 13- December 3, 2010
Phantom Galleries Los Angeles and Backspace Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of mět'l-ûr'jē, a group exhibition curated by Michael Walsh of new work by artists Debbie Carlson, Yassaman Farmani, Mike Feeney, Angeling Krajewski, Elise Preiss, Michael Steinmetz, Lydia Tijoe and Diane Weimer.
Continuing Backspace Gallery’s interest in exploring artists’ materials, techniques, and how they use their specific medium to translate ideas visually, mět'l-ûr'jē focuses the discussion around one medium, and intends to showcase various manifestations of artwork created either entirely of metal or with metal as the primary media.
From stand alone objects to objects intended to interact with or be worn on the body; from functional works to those whose “function” is elusive and/or humorous; from meticulously crafted precious metal works to large-scale installation mět'l-ûr'jē will showcase creative and innovative forays into the world of metal artwork.
The exhibition will open on November 13th, with an opening reception from 6-9 p.m., and will be on view through December 3, 2010. Backspace Gallery is located at 218 North Promenade Long Beach, Ca 90802. For more information, please email backspacegallery218@gmail.com
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Youth, luxe
A collaborative exhibition featuring new mixed media work of Long Beach artists, curated by Stephanie Libanati.
DownCrowd Gallery
thedowncrowd.com
216 The Promenade N, Downtown Long Beach, CA
Youth, luxe
Today, young adults cannot seem to “settle down.” The gab between adolescence and adulthood is as wide as the range of youth that activate it. In 1970, Yale psychologist Kenneth Keniston coined the new life stage “youth.” This youth is taking longer to answer questions that define the transitional phase more than any preceding generation. They proactively seek answers to questions of relationships, comprehension of partaking in society, questions of vocation, lifestyle, and dedicated social role. Without struggle for comfort, no motivation triggers detachment, achievement, or pursuit of individual wealth.
Adolescence extends far beyond the 20-year mark. The delay of this maturity conversion creates an extended comfort zone of experimentation. Many factors play on the changing conceptions about effort, perception and necessity.
With everything at your fingertips, how far is it necessary to reach to get what you want in life?
Today the cohort of emerging adults is transient and undefined. This exhibition interchanges the subject matter of nostalgic youth, the ease of infancy, and the consideration in changing perspectives of societal expectations, and realities.
Live beats
free BIKE VALET provided by LONGBEACHIZE.com
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East 3rd Street
AMC GALLERY
344 E. 3RD ST
LONG BEACH CA
90802
ART, MUSIC & CULTURE www.efrenluna.webs.com
Present: Nature Vs Manmande
A solo exhibition of Rebecca Homapour selected artworks
csulbstudentgalleries.blogspot.com/2010/10/rebecca-homapo...
If you didn’t get a chance to see Rebecca Homapour’s BFA solo show at CSULB this is your chance. Read her artists statement and get a feel for what you’re in for! If you have any slight interest in sculpture or in art in general, you should definitely check out her work. She not only touches on the long dilemma of what is art, but she also searches for it in the physical and negative aspects of her sculptures. Her recent solo show at CSULB back in October 24th was amazing. Her art made of wood is really thoughtful and beautifully sculpted. Her art explores the nature in the wood and how the human manipulation interact…read from her own words below…
Nature Vs Manmade
What is art? That has been an all consuming question ever since Marcel Duchamp displayed his infamous “Fountain” in 1913 at the Armory show in Chicago. The question continues to be of interests, to artists, critics, museum curators, and anyone interested in the art world. To those who are not in this “Art World” this can be an even more perplexing question.
Art can be about the missing lines in a poem, not the written words. In can be about a feeling one gets when looking at something, and not necessarily about what they are looking at. It can be about an emotion that overwhelms us, a memory from the past, or a hope for the future. Art is the aesthetic impact something or someone has on us not about the physicality of them. Art is the energy that is hidden in the atmosphere.
For me Art is the space between the natural and “manmade”. As I looked for wood I was inspired by the form, texture, and possibilities of beauty hidden inside it. The inspiration for my work comes from the wood itself. As I worked with the wood, I found, my goal was to maintain the integrity of the natural form as I scraped, pounded, drilled, turned, sanded, broke, and skinned it. My goal was to reveal, in a formal way, what was always there.
I used wood because it was alive once and it has history hidden within it. I have worked with paper, charcoal, and yarn; all of which have come from wood, trees, and plants; however, none of them gave me the opportunity to create what I truly wanted.
My work has to do with the nature of the material, not what function it can have. I work with the natural design of the wood, emphasizing on the grain or the shape the tree that grew in. By manipulating its scale I change the viewer’s paradigm, to stare so close at a tree that on would typically glance from afar; and put the grain design blown up in their faces that they normally would need to zero in on.
I scrape the surface to reveal the color and design of its nature, and I pound holes in it to display the toils men have brought up its life. I chisel its core to illustrate the hardship it’s gone through. I take off its bark revealing its naked beauty and cut down on it to observe its anatomy. By stitching it back together I try to make it whole again. I glue it up, sprinkling dust on top of it struggle to recreate where it once was.
However, then emptiness comes in once more using its strength against itself ripping it apart, leaving me with a broken existence. All I’m left with is space, a negative void. So, I break its fence into pieces mounting them on a wall putting its beauty on display so no one can move past it without noticing its uniqueness. As a final step in the process of where nature ends and man-made begins, that is the space I work in. A void hat is there but invisible to the naked eye. The question is can you unveil your sight and see the bare truth that exists within and around each individual piece?
Rebecca Homapour
AMC GALLERY www.efrenluna.webs.com
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LarkGallery Online
When : November 14, 6- 9 pm Where: 350 E. 3rd Street Long Beach,
LarkGallery Online presents i "Colors of Life" Exhibition Winners:
First Place: Art Venti
Second Place shared by: Michael Chearney and Kaleeka Bond
Third Place: Marilyn English
Honorable mention: Cynthia Rogers, Tatjana Raichineca, Juan Rosenfeldt, Marlene Struss, Vered Galor, Elisse Pogofsky-Harris, Teresa Lakier .
These artists were chosen by respected art jurors:
Peter Frank - Senior Curator at the Riverside Art Museum and editor of Fabrik Magazine - Main Juror
Edward Goldman - KCRW Art Talk’s resident art critic
Liz Gordon - The Loft at Liz’s Gallery Owner and Director
Dawne Camera - Founder of Dreaming Zebra Foundation
Airom Bleicher - Director, Bleicher/Golightly Gallery
Tony Clark – Art Curator, Board Member of American Association of Museum Directors
Gabor Ujvari - Mimo Gallery and Auctions Owner and Director
Five percent of the funds raised in this exhibition were donated to Dreaming Zebra Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that provides young, low-income artists with tools and resources to explore and develop their creativity.
The First place winner Art Venti impressed the jurors "with his virtuosity, along with the apparent physical breadth of his work and the complexity of his imagery, which goes back and forth between abstraction and the evocation of the landscape. The drama of his images and its texture, its very sensitive tonality, are all the more remarkable for having been hand-rendered" on the big scale- 8 feet long Somerset velvet water-paper.
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360
The work of Amy Fox
AmyFox.com
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Gallery 122 E 3rd Street
TBA
Open Galleries on November 13
346 E 3rd Street:
Long Beach City College Student Art Show.
St. Mary's Church in Lübeck (German: Marienkirche, officially St. Marien zu Lübeck) was built between 1250 and 1350. It has always been a symbol of the power and prosperity of the old Hanseatic city, and is situated at the highest point of the island that forms the old town of Lübeck. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the old Hanseatic City of Lübeck.
St. Mary's epitomizes north German Brick Gothic and set the standard for about 70 other churches in the Baltic region, making it a building of enormous architectural significance. St Mary's Church embodied the towering style of French Gothic architecture style using north German brick. It has the tallest brick vault in the world, the height of the central nave being 38.5 metres.
It is built as a three-aisled basilica with side chapels, an ambulatory with radiating chapels, and vestibules like the arms of a transept. The westwork has a monumental two-tower façade. The height of the towers, including the weather vanes, is 124.95 metres and 124.75 metres, respectively.
St. Mary's is located in the Hanseatic merchants' quarter, which extends uphill from the warehouses on the River Trave to the church. As the main parish church of the citizens and the city council of Lübeck, it was built close to the town hall and the market.
HISTORY OF THE BUILDING
In 1150, Henry the Lion moved the Bishopric of Oldenburg to Lübeck and established a cathedral chapter. A wooden church was built in 1163, and starting in 1173/1174 this was replaced by a Romanesque brick church. At the beginning of the 13th century, however, it no longer met the expectations of the self-confident, ambitious, and affluent bourgeoisie, in terms of size and prestige. Romanesque sculptures from this period of the church's history are today exhibited at St. Anne's Museum in Lübeck
The design of the three-aisled basilica was based on the Gothic cathedrals in France and Flanders, which were built of natural stone. St. Mary's is the epitome of ecclesiastical Brick Gothic architecture and set the standard for many churches in the Baltic region, such as the St. Nicholas' Church in Stralsund and St. Nicholas in Wismar.
No one had ever before built a brick church this high and with a vaulted ceiling. The lateral thrust exerted by the vault is met by buttresses, making the enormous height possible. The motive for the Lübeck town council to embark on such an ambitious undertaking was the acrimonious relationship with the Bishopric of Lübeck. The church was built close to the Lübeck Town Hall and the market, and it dwarfed the nearby Romanesque Lübeck Cathedral, the church of the bishop established by Henry the Lion. It was meant as a symbol of the desire for freedom on the part of the Hanseatic traders and the secular authorities of the city, which had been granted the status of a free imperial city (Reichsfreiheit), making the city directly subordinate to the emperor, in 1226. It was also intended to underscore the pre-eminence of the city vis-à-vis the other cities of the Hanseatic League, which was being formed at about the same time (1356).
The Chapel of Indulgences (Briefkapelle) was added to the east of the south tower in 1310. It was both a vestibule and a chapel and, with its portal, was the church's second main entrance from the market. Probably originally dedicated to Saint Anne, the chapel received its current name during the Reformation, when paid scribes moved in. The chapel, which is 12 metres long, 8 metres deep, and 2 metres high, has a stellar vault ceiling and is considered a masterpiece of High Gothic architecture. It has often been compared to English Gothic Cathedral Architecture and the chapter house of Malbork Castle. Today the Chapel of Indulgences serves the community as a church during winter, with services from January to March.
In 1939 the town council built its own chapel, known as the Bürgermeisterkapelle (Burgomasters' Chapel), at the southeast corner of the ambulatory, the join being visible from the outside where there is a change from glazed to unglazed brick. It was in this chapel, from the large pew that still survives, that the newly elected council used to be installed. On the upper floor of the chapel is the treasury, where important documents of the city were kept. This part of the church is still in the possession of the town.
Before 1444, a chapel consisting of a single bay was added to the eastern end of the ambulatory, its five walls forming five eighths of an octagon. This was the last Gothic extension to the church. It was used for celebrating the so-called Hours of the Virgin, as part of the veneration of the Virgin Mary, reflected in its name Marientidenkapelle (Lady Chapel) or Sängerkapelle (Singers' Chapel).
In total, St Mary's Church has nine larger chapels and ten smaller ones that serve as sepulchral chapels and are named after the families of the Lübeck city council that used them and endowed them.
DESTRUCTION AND RESTAURATION
In an air raid by 234 bombers of the British Royal Air Force on 28–29 March 1942 – the night of Palm Sunday – the church was almost completely destroyed by fire, together with about a fifth of the Lübeck city centre, including Lübeck Cathedral and St. Peter's Church.
Among the artefacts destroyed was the famous Totentanzorgel (Danse Macabre organ), an instrument played by Dieterich Buxtehude and probably Johann Sebastian Bach. Other works of art destroyed in the fire include the Mass of Saint Gregory by Bernt Notke, the monumental Danse Macabre, originally by Bernt Notke but replaced by a copy in 1701, the carved figures of the rood screen, the Trinity altarpiece by Jacob van Utrecht (formerly also attributed to Bernard van Orley) and the Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem by Friedrich Overbeck. Sculptures by the woodcarver Benedikt Dreyer were also lost in the fire: the wooden statues of the saints on the west side of the rood screen and the organ sculpture on the great organ from around 1516–18 and Man with Counting Board. Also destroyed in the fire were the mediaeval stained glass windows from the St. Mary Magdalene Church (de), which were installed in St. Mary's Church from 1840 on, after the St. Mary Magdalene Church was demolished because it was in danger of collapse. Photographs by Lübeck photographers like William Castelli (de) give an impression of what the interior looked like before the War.
The glass window in one of the chapels has an alphabetic list of major towns in the pre-1945 eastern territory of the German Reich. Because of the destruction it suffered in World War II, St. Mary's Church is one of the Cross of Nails centres. A plaque on the wall warns of the futility of war.
The church was protected by a makeshift roof for the rest of the war, and the vaulted ceiling of the chancel was repaired. Reconstruction proper began in 1947, and was largely complete by 1959. In view of the previous damage by fire, the old wooden construction of the roof and spires was not replaced by a new wooden construction. All church spires in Lübeck were reconstructed using a special system involving lightweight concrete blocks underneath the copper roofing. The copper covering matched the original design and the concrete roof would avoid the possibility of a second fire. A glass window on the north side of the church commemorates the builder, Erich Trautsch (de), who invented this system.
In 1951, the 700th anniversary of the church was celebrated under the reconstructed roof; for the occasion, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer donated the new tenor bell, and the Memorial Chapel in the South Tower was inaugurated.
In the 1950s, there was a long debate about the design of the interior, not just the paintings (see below). The predominant view was that destruction had restored the essential, pure form. The redesign was intended to facilitate the dual function that St. Mary's had at that time, being both the diocesan church and the parish church. In the end, the church held a limited competition, inviting submissions from six architects, including Gerhard Langmaack (de) and Denis Boniver (de), the latter's design being largely accepted on 8 February 1958. At the meeting, the bishop, Heinrich Meyer (de), vehemently – and successfully – demanded the removal of the Fredenhagen altar (see below).
The redesign of the interior according to Boniver's plans was carried out in 1958–59. Since underfloor heating was being installed under a completely new floor, the remaining memorial slabs of Gotland limestone were removed and used to raise the level of the chancel. The chancel was separated from the ambulatory by whitewashed walls 3 metres high. The Fredenhagen altar was replaced by a plain altar base of muschelkalk limestone and a crucifix by Gerhard Marcks suspended from the transverse arch of the ceiling. The inauguration of the new chancel was on 20 December 1959.
At the same time, a treasure chamber was made for the Danzig Parament Treasure from St. Mary's Church in Danzig (now Gdańsk), which came to Lübeck after the War (removed in 1993), the Parament Treasure is now exhibited at St. Anne's Museum), and above that a large organ loft was built. The organ itself was not installed until 1968.
The gilded flèche, which extends 30 metres (98 ft) higher than the nave roof, was recreated from old designs and photographs in 1980.
LOTHAR MALSKAT AND THE FRESCOS
The heat of the blaze in 1942 dislodged large sections of plaster, revealing the original decorative paintings of the Middle Ages, some of which were documented by photograph during the Second World War. In 1948 the task of restoring these gothic frescos was given to Dietrich Fey. In what became the largest counterfeit art scandal after the Second World War, Fey hired local painter Lothar Malskat to assist with this task, and together they used the photographic documentation to restore and recreate a likeness to the original walls. Since no paintings of the clerestory of the chancel were available, Fey had Malskat invent one. Malskat "supplemented" the restorations with his own work in the style of the 14th century. The forgery was only cleared up after Malskat reported his deeds to the authorities in 1952, and he and Fey received prison sentences in 1954. The major fakes were later removed from the walls, on the instructions of the bishop.
Lothar Malskat played an important part in the novel The Rat by Günter Grass.
INTERIOR DECORATION
St. Mary's Church was generously endowed with donations from the city council, the guilds, families, and individuals. At the end of the Middle Ages it had 38 altars and 65 benefices. The following mediaeval artefacts remain:
A bronze baptismal font made by Hans Apengeter (de) (1337). Until 1942 it was at the west end of the church; it is now in the middle of the chancel. It holds 406 litres (89 imperial gallons), almost the same as a Hamburg or Bremen beer barrel, which holds 405 litres (89 imperial gallons).
Darsow Madonna from 1420, heavily damaged in 1942, restored from hundreds of individual pieces, put back in place again in 1989
Tabernacle from 1479, 9.5 metres high, made by Klaus Grude (de) using about 1000 individual bronze parts, some gilded, on the north wall of the chancel
Winged altarpiece by Christian Swarte (c. 1495) with Woman of the Apocalypse, now installed behind the main altar
Bronze burial slab by Bernt Notke for the Hutterock family (1505), in the Prayer Chapel (Gebetskapelle) in the north ambulatory
Of the rood screen destroyed in 1942 only an arch and the stone statues remain: Elizabeth with John the Baptist as a child, Virgin and Child with Saint Anne , the Archangel Gabriel and Mary (Annunciation), John the Evangelist and St. Dorothy.
In the ambulatory, sandstone reliefs (1515) from the atelier of Heinrich Brabender (de), with scenes from the Passion of Christ: to the north, the Washing of the Feet and the Last Supper; to the south, Christ in the garden of Gethsemane and his capture. The Last Supper relief includes a detail associated with Lübeck: a little mouse gnawing at the base of a rose bush. Touching it is supposed to mean that the person will never again return to Lübeck – or will have good luck, depending on the version of the superstition.
Remains of the original pews and the Antwerp altarpiece (de) (1518), in the Lady Chapel (Singers' Chapel)
John the Evangelist, a wooden statue by Henning von der Heide (c. 1505)
St. Anthony, a stone statue, donated in 1457 by the town councillor Hermann Sundesbeke (de), a member of the Brotherhood of St. Anthony
Remains of the original gothic pews in the Burgomasters' Chapel in the southern ambulatory
The Lamentation of Christ, one of the main works of the Nazarene Friedrich Overbeck, in the Prayer Chapel in the north ambulatory
The choir screens separating the choir from the ambulatory are recent reconstructions. The walls that had been built for this purpose in 1959 were removed in the 1990s. The brass bars of the choir screens were mostly still intact, but the wooden parts had been almost completely destroyed by fire in 1942. The oak crown and frame were reconstructed on the basis of what remained of the original construction.
ANTWERP ALTARPIECE
The impressive Antwerp altarpiece (de) in the Lady Chapel (Singers' Chapel) was created in 1518. It was donated for the chapel in 1522 by Johann Bone, a merchant from Geldern. After the chapel was converted into a confessional chapel in 1790, the altarpiece was moved around the church several times. During the Second World War, it was in the Chapel of Indulgences (Briefkapelle) and thus escaped destruction. The double-winged altarpiece depicts the life of the Virgin Mary in 26 painted and carved scenes.Before 1869, the wings of the predella, which depict the legends of the Holy Kinship were removed, sawn to make panel paintings, and sold. In 1869, two such paintings from the private collection of the mayor of Lübeck Karl Ludwig Roeck (de) were acquired for the collection in what is now St. Anne's Museum. Two more paintings from the outsides of the predella wings were acquired by the Kulturstiftung des Landes Schleswig-Holstein (de) (Cultural foundation of Schleswig-Holstein) and have been in St. Anne's Museum since 1988. Of the remaining paintings, two are in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and two are in a private collection in Stockholm.
MEMORIALS
In the renaissance and baroque periods, the church space contained so many memorials that it became like a hall of fame of the Lübeck gentry. Memorials in the main nave, allowed from 1693, had to be made of wood, for structural reasons, but those in the side naves could also be made of marble. Of the 84 memorials that were still extant in the 20th century, almost all of the wooden ones were destroyed by the air raid of 1942, but 17, mostly stone ones on the walls of the side naves survived, some heavily damaged. Since these were mostly baroque works, they were deliberately ignored in the first phase of reconstruction, restoration beginning in 1973. They give an impression of how richly St. Mary's church was once furnished. The oldest is that of Hermann von Dorne (de), a mayor who died in 1594, a heraldic design with mediaeval echoes. The memorial to Johann Füchting (de), a former councillor and Hanseatic merchant who died in 1637, is a Dutch work of the transitional period between the Renaissance and Baroque times by the sculptor Aris Claeszon (de) who worked in Amsterdam. After the phase of exuberant cartilage baroque, the examples of which were all destroyed by fire, Thomas Quellinus introduced a new type of memorial to Lübeck and created memorials in the dramatic style of Flemish High Baroque for
the councillor Hartwig von Stiten (de), made in 1699;
the councillor Adolf Brüning (de), made in 1706;
the mayor Jerome of Dorne (de) (who died in 1704) and
the mayor Anton Winckler (de) (1707),
the last one being the only one to remain undamaged. In the same year, the Lübeck sculptor Hans Freese created the memorial for councillor Gotthard Kerkring (de) (who had died in 1705), whose oval portrait is held by a winged figure of death. A well-preserved example of the memorials of the next generation is the one for Peter Hinrich Tesdorpf (de), a mayor who died in 1723.
The Sepulchral Chapel of the Tesdorpf family contains a bust by Gottfried Schadowof mayor Johann Matthaeus Tesdorpf (de), which the Council presented to him in 1823 on the occasion of his anniversary as a member of the Council, and which was installed here in 1835. Among the later memorials is also the gravestone of mayor Joachim Peters (de) by Landolin Ohmacht (c. 1795).
THE FREDENHAGEN ALTARPIECE
The main item from the Baroque period, an altar with an altarpiece 18 metres high, donated by the merchant Thomas Fredenhagen (de) and made by the Antwerp sculptor Thomas Quellinus from marble and porphyry (1697) was seriously damaged in 1942. After a lengthy debate lasting from 1951 to 1959, Heinrich Meyer (de), the bishop at the time, prevailed, and it was decided not to restore the altar but to replace it with a simple altar of limestone, with a bronze crucifix made by Gerhard Marcks. Speaking of the historical significance of the altar, the director of the Lübeck Museum at the time said that it was the only work of art of European stature that the Protestant Church in Lübeck had produced after the Reformation.
Individual items from the altarpiece are now in the ambulatory: the Calvary group with Mary and John, the marble predella with a relief of the Last Supper and the three crowned figures, the allegorical sculptures of Belief and Hope, and the Resurrected Christ. The other remains of the altar and altarpiece are now stored over the vaulted ceiling between the towers. The debate as to whether it is possible and desirable to restore the altar as a major work of baroque art of European stature is ongoing.
STAINED GLAS
Except for a few remains, the air raid of 1942 destroyed all the windows, including the stained glass windows that Carl Julius Milde had installed at Saint Mary's after they were rescued from the St. Mary Magdalene Church (de) when the St. Mary Magdalene's Priory was demolished in the 19th century, and including the windows made by Professor Alexander Linnemann (de) from Frankfurt in the late 19th century. In the reconstruction, simple diamond-pane leaded windows were used, mostly just decorated with the coat of arms of the donor, though some windows had an artistic design.
The windows in the Singers' Chapel (Lady Chapel) depict the coat of arms of the Hanseatic towns of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck, and the lyrics of Buxtehude's Lübeck cantata, Schwinget euch himmelan (BuxWV 96).
The monumental west window, designed by Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen (de), depicts the Day of Judgment.
The window of the Memorial chapel (Gedenkkapelle) in the South Tower (which holds the destroyed bells), depicts coats of arms of towns, states and provinces of former eastern territories of Germany.
Both windows in the Danse Macabre Chapel (Totentanzkapelle), which were designed by Alfred Mahlau in 1955/1956 and made in the Berkentien stained glass atelier in Lübeck, adopt motifs from the Danse Macabre painting that was destroyed by fire in 1942. They replace the Kaiserfenster (Emperor's Window), which was donated by Kaiser Wilhelm II on the occasion of his visit to Lübeck in 1913. It was manufactured by the Munich court stained glass artist Karl de Bouché (de) and depicted the confirmation of the town privileges by Emperor Barbarossa.
In 1981–82, windows by Johannes Schreiter (de) were installed in the Chapel of Indulgences (Briefkapelle). Their ragged diamond pattern evokes not only the destruction of the church but also the torn nets of the Disciples (Luke 6).
In December 2002, the tympanum window was added above the north portal of the Danse Macabre Chapel after a design by Markus Lüpertz.
This window, like the windows by Johannes Schreiter in the Chapel of Indulgences (Briefkapelle), was manufactured and assembled by Derix Glass Studios in Taunusstein.
CHURCHYARD
Saint Mary's Churchyard (de), with its views of the north face of the Lübeck Town Hall (de ), the Kanzleigebäude (de), and the Marienwerkhaus (de) has the ambiance of a mediaeval town.
The architectural features include the subjects of Lübeck legends; a large block of granite to the right of the entrance was supposedly not left there by the builders but put there by the Devil.
To the north and west of the church, the courtyard is now an open space, mediaeval buildings having been removed. At the corner between Schüsselbuden (de) and Mengstraße (de) are the remaining stone foundations of the Maria am Stegel (de) Chapel (1415), which served as a bookshop before the Second World War. In the late 1950s, it was decided not to reconstruct it, and the remaining external walls of the ruins were cleared away. On Mengstraße, opposite the churchyard, is a building with facades from the 18th century: the clergy house known as die Wehde (de), which also gave its name to the courtyard that lies behind it, the Wehdehof.
The war memorial, created in 1929 by the sculptor Hermann Joachim Pagels (de) 1929 on behalf of the congregation of the church to commemorate their dead, is made of Swedish granite from Karlshamn. The inscription reads (in translation):
The congregation of St. Mary's
in memory of their dead
1914 1918
(to which was added after the Second World War)
and
1939 1945
MUSIC AT ST: MARY´S
Music played an important part in the life of St. Mary's as far back as the Middle Ages. The Lady Chapel (Singers' Chapel), for instance, had its own choir. After the Reformation and Johannes Bugenhagen's Church Order, the Lübeck Katharineum school choir provided the singing for religious services. In return the school received the income of the chapel's trust fund. Until 1802, the cantor was both a teacher at the school and responsible for the singing of the choir and the congregation. The organist, was responsible for the organ music and other instrumental music; he also had administrative and accounting responsibilities and was responsible for the upkeep of the building,.
MAIN ORGAN
St. Mary's is known to have had an organ in the 14th century, since the occupation "organist" is mentioned in a will from 1377. The old great organ was built in 1516–1518 under the direction of Martin Flor (de) on the west wall as a replacement for the great organ of 1396. It had 32 stops, 2 manuals and a pedalboard. This organ, "in all probability the first and only Gothic organ with a thirty-two-foot principal (deepest pipe, 11 metres long) in the western world of the time",[a] was repeatedly added to and re-built over the centuries. For instance, the organist and organ-builder Barthold Hering (de) (who died in 1555) carried out a number of repairs and additions; in 1560/1561 Jacob Scherer added a chest division with a third manual. From 1637 to 1641, Friederich Stellwagen carried out a number of modifications. Otto Diedrich Richborn (de) added three registers in 1704. In 1733, Konrad Büntung exchanged four registers, changed the arrangement of the manuals and added couplers. In 1758, his son, Christoph Julius Bünting (de) added a small swell division with three voices, the action being controllable from the breast division manual. By the beginning of the 19th century the organ had 3 manuals and a pedalboard, 57 registers and 4,684 pipes. In 1851, however, a completely new organ was installed – built by Johann Friedrich Schulze (de), in the spirit of the time, with four manuals, a pedalboard, and 80 voices, behind the historic organ case by Benedikt Dreyer, which was restored and added to by Carl Julius Milde. This great organ was destroyed in 1942 and was replaced in 1968 by what was then the largest mechanical-action organ in the world. It was built by Kemper & Son. It has 5 manuals and a pedalboard, 100 stops and 8,512 pipes; the longest are 11 metres (36 feet), the smallest is the size of a cigarette. The tracker action operates electrically and has free combinations; the stop tableau is duplicated.
Danse macabre organ (choir organ)
The Dance macabre organ (Totentanzorgel) was older than the old great organ. It was installed in 1477 on the east side of the north arm of the "transept" in the Danse Macabre Chapel (so named because of the Danse Macabre painting that hung there) and was used for the musical accompaniment of the requiem masses that were celebrated there. After the Church Reformation it was used for prayers and for Holy Communion services. In 1549 and 1558 Jakob Scherer added to the organ among other things, a chair organ (Rückpositiv), and in 1621 a chest division was added. Friedrich Stellwagen also carried out extensive repairs from 1653 to 1655. Thereafter, only minor changes were made. For this reason, this organ, together with the Arp Schnitger organ in St. James' Church in Hamburg and the Stellwagen Organ in St. James' Church (de) in Lübeck, attracted the interest of organ experts in connection with the Orgelbewegung. The disposition (de) of the organ was changed back to what it had been in the 17th century. But, like the Danse Macabre organ, this organ was also destroyed in 1942.
In 1955 the organ builders Kemper & Son restored the Danse Macabre organ in accordance with its 1937 dimensions, but now in the northern part of the ambulatory, in the direction of the raised choir. Its original place is now occupied by the astronomical clock. This post-War organ, which was very prone to malfunction, was replaced in 1986 by a new Danse Macabre organ, built by Führer Co. in Wilhelmshaven and positioned in the same place as its predecessor. It has a mechanical tracker action, with four manuals and a pedalboard, 56 stops and approximately 5,000 pipes. This organ is particularly suited for accompanying prayers and services, as well as an instrument for older organ music up to Bach.
As a special tradition at St Mary's, on New Year's Eve the chorale Now Thank We All Our God is accompanied by both
OTHER INSTRUMENTS
There used to be an organ on the rood screen, as a basso continuo instrument for the choir that was located there – the church's third organ. In 1854 the breast division that was removed from the Great Organ (built in 1560–1561 by Jacob Scherer) when it was converted was installed here. This "rood screen organ" had one manual and seven stops and was replaced in 1900 by a two-manual pneumatic organ made by the organ builder Emanuel Kemper, the old organ box being retained. This organ, too, was destroyed in 1942.
In the Chapel of Indulgences (Briefkapelle) there is a chamber organ originally from East Prussia. It has been in the chapel since 1948. It has a single manual and eight voices, with separate control of bass and descant parts. It was built by Johannes Schwarz in 1723 and from 1724 was the organ of the Schloßkapelle (Castle Chapel) of Dönhofstädt near Rastenburg (now Kętrzyn, Poland). From there it was acquired by Lübeck organ builder Karl Kemper in 1933. For a few years it was in the choir of St. Catherine's Church, Lübeck. Then, Walter Kraft brought it, as a temporary measure, to the Chapel of Indulgences at St. Mary's, this being the first part of the church to be ready for church services after the War. Today this organ provides the accompaniment for prayers as well as the Sunday services that are held in the Chapel of Indulgences from January to March.
ORGANISTS
Two 17th-century organists, especially, shaped the development of the musical tradition of St. Mary's: Franz Tunder from 1642 until his death in 1667, and his successor and son-in-law, Dieterich Buxtehude , from 1668 to 1707. Both were defining representatives of the north German organ school and were prominent both as organists and as composers. In 1705 Johann Sebastian Bach came to Lübeck to observe and learn from Buxtehude,[b] and Georg Friedrich Händel and Johann Mattheson had already been guests of Buxtehude in 1703. Since then, the position of organist at St. Mary's Church has been one of the most prestigious in Germany.
With their evening concerts, Tunder and Buxtehude were the first to introduce church concerts independent of religious services. Buxtehude developed a fixed format, with a series of five concerts on the two last Sundays of the Trinity period (i.e. the last two Sundays before Advent) and the second, third, and fourth Sunday in Advent. This very successful series of concerts was continued by Buxtehude's successors, Johann Christian Schieferdecker (1679–1732), Johann Paul Kunzen (de) (1696–1757), his son Adolf Karl Kunzen (de) (1720–1781) and Johann Wilhelm Cornelius von Königslöw.
For the evening concerts they each composed a series of Biblical oratorios, including Israels Abgötterey in der Wüsten [Israel's Idol Worship in the Desert] (1758), Absalon (1761) and Goliath (1762) by Adolf Kunzen and ''Die Rettung des Kindes Mose [The Finding of Baby Moses] and Der geborne Weltheiland [The Saviour of the World is born] (1788), Tod, Auferstehung and Gericht [Death, Resurrection and Judgment] (1790) , and Davids Klage am Hermon nach dem 42ten Psalm [David's Lament on Mount Hermon (Psalm 42)] (1793) by Königslöw.
Around 1810 this tradition ended for a time. Attitudes towards music and the Church had changed, and external circumstances (the occupation by Napoleon's troops and the resulting financial straits) made such expensive concerts impossible.
In the early 20th century it was the organist Walter Kraft (1905–1977) who tried to revive the tradition of the evening concerts, starting with an evening of Bach's organ music, followed by an annual programme of combined choral and organ works. In 1954 Kraft created the Lübecker Totentanz (Lübeck Danse Macabre) as a new type of evening concert.
The tradition of evening concerts continues today under the current organist (since 2009), Johannes Unger.
The Lübeck Boys Choir at St. Mary’s
THE LÜBECK BOYS CHOIR
has been at St. Mary’s since 1970. It was originally founded as the Lübecker Kantorei in 1948. The choir sings regularly at services on Sundays and religious festivals. The performance of the St John Passion on Good Friday has become a Lübeck tradition.
ST. MARY´S CHURCH TODAY
CONGREGATION
Since the establishment of Johannes Bugenhagen's Lutheran Church Order by the town council in 1531 St. Mary has been Protestant. Today it belongs to the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Services are held on Sundays and Church festivals from 10 o'clock. From Mondays to Saturdays in the summer season and in Advent there is a short prayer service with organ music at noon (after the parade of the figures of the Astronomical Clock), which tourists and locals are invited to attend. Since 15 March 2010 there has been an admission charge of two euros for visitors.
ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK
The astronomical clock was built in 1561–1566. It used to stand in the ambulatory, behind the high altar but was completely destroyed in 1942. Only a clock dial that was replaced during a previous restoration remains, in St. Anne's Museum The new Astronomical Clock, which was installed on the East side of the Northern transept, in the Danse Macabre Chapel. It is the work of Paul Behrens, a Lübeck clockmaker, who planned it as his lifetime achievement from 1960 to 1967. He collected donations for it, made the clock, including all its parts, and maintained the clock until his death. The clock front is a simplified copy of the original. Calendar and planetary discs controlled by a complicated mechanical movement show the day and the month, the position of the sun and the moon, the signs of the zodiac (the thirteen astronomical signs, not the twelve astrological signs), the date of Easter, and the golden number.
At noon, the clock chimes and a procession of figures passes in front of the figure of Christ, who blesses each of them. The figures originally represented the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire; since the post-War reconstruction, they represent eight representatives of the peoples of the world.
CARILLON
After the War, a carillon with 36 bells was installed In the South Tower. Some of the bells came from St Catherine's Church in Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). On the hour and half-hour, choral melodies are played, alternating according to the season. Formerly the carillon was operated by a complicated electromechanical system of cylinders; the mechanism is now computer-controlled. At Christmas and Easter, the organist plays the clock chimes manually.
BELLS
The 11 historic bells of the church originally hung in the South Tower in a bell loft 60 metres high. An additional seven bells for sounding the time were made by Heinrich von Kampen (de) in 1508–1510 and installed in the flèche. During the fire in the air raid of 1942, the bells are reported to have rung again in the upwind before crashing to the ground. The remains of two bells, the oldest bell, the "Sunday bell" by Heinrich von Kampen (2,000 kg, diameter 1,710 mm, strike tone a0) and the tenor bell by Albert Benningk from 1668 (7,134 kg, diameter 2,170 mm, strike tone a0F#0), were preserved as a memorial in the former Schinkel Chapel, at the base of the South Tower The "Council and Children's Bell" made in 1650 by Anton Wiese (de), which used to be rung for the short prayer services before council meetings and for christenings, was given to Strecknitz Mental Home (de) in 1906 and was thus the only one of the historic bells to survive World War II. Today it hangs in the tower of what is now the University of Lübeck hospital.
The set of bells in the North Tower now consists of seven bells. It ranks among the largest and deepest-pitched of its kind in northern Germany. The three baroque bells originate from Danzig churches, (Gratia Dei and Dominicalis from St. John's (de) and Osanna from St. Mary's). After the Second World War, these bells from the "Hamburger bell cemetery" were hung in the tower as temporary replacement bells.
In 1951 the German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer donated a new tenor bell. In 1985 three additional bells were made., completing the set. They have inscriptions referring to peace and reconciliation.
In 2005, the belfry was renovated. The steel bell frame from the reconstruction was replaced with a wooden one and the bells were hung directly on wooden yokes, so that the bells ring out with more brilliance.
This great peal is easily recognised because of the unusual disposition (intervals between the individual bells); the series of whole tone steps between bells 1–5 results in a distinctive sound with added vibrancy due to the tone of the historic bells.
DIMENSIONS
Total Length: 103 metres
Length of the middle nave: 70 metres
Vault height in the main nave: 38.5 metres
Vault height in the side naves: 20.7 metres
Height of the towers: 125 metres
Floor area: 3,300 square metres
WIKIPEDIA
photos of this series flic.kr/s/aHsjGcjoVd
photos of this series
bicycle bike Velo Bicyclette Fiets bicicleta bici Fahrrad Rad www.flickr.com/photos/97695964@N02/albums/72157667498023871
Soapbox derby, June 16. 2013 in Wahnbek / near Oldenburg - city in the German state of Lower Saxony.
Spontaner Entschluss der Ju-Jutsu Kinder- u. Jugendgruppe des TuS Bloherfelde am Seifenkistenrennen (Sonntag, den 16. 06. 2013) in Wahnbek / Nähe Oldenburg (Oldb) teilzunehmen.
Over the years I have become a more confident T-lady. I hope this can be an encouragement for other T-ladies to feel confident and happy as well.
The Voyage of Life: Childhood
West Building, Main Floor—Gallery 60
•Date: 1842
•Medium: Oil on Canvas
•Dimensions
oOverall: 134.3 × 195.3 cm (52⅞ × 76⅞ in.)
oFramed: 162.9 × 224.8 × 17.8 cm (64⅛ × 88½ × 7 in.)
•Credit Line: Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
•Accession Number: 1971.16.1
•Artists/Makers:
oArtist: Thomas Cole, American, 1801-1848
Overview
Cole’s renowned four-part series traces the journey of an archetypal hero along the “River of Life.” Confidently assuming control of his destiny and oblivious to the dangers that await him, the voyager boldly strives to reach an aerial castle, emblematic of the daydreams of “Youth” and its aspirations for glory and fame. As the traveler approaches his goal, the ever-more-turbulent stream deviates from its course and relentlessly carries him toward the next picture in the series, where nature’s fury, evil demons, and self-doubt will threaten his very existence. Only prayer, Cole suggests, can save the voyager from a dark and tragic fate.
From the innocence of childhood, to the flush of youthful overconfidence, through the trials and tribulations of middle age, to the hero’s triumphant salvation, The Voyage of Life seems intrinsically linked to the Christian doctrine of death and resurrection. Cole’s intrepid voyager also may be read as a personification of America, itself at an adolescent stage of development. The artist may have been issuing a dire warning to those caught up in the feverish quest for Manifest Destiny: that unbridled westward expansion and industrialization would have tragic consequences for both man and nature.
Inscription
•Lower Left: 1842 / T. Cole / Rome
Provenance
Sold by the artist to George K. Shoenberger [1809-1892], Cincinnati, perhaps as early as 1845 and no later than May 1846;[1] Shoenberger heirs, after 20 January 1892;[2] purchased 1908 by Ernst H. Huenefeld, Cincinnati;[3] gift 1908 to Bethesda Hospital and Deaconess Association of Methodist Church of Cincinnati;[4] sold 17 May 1971 through (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York) to NGA.
[1]For a discussion of a possible 1845 date, see Thomas Cole, Exh. cat. Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 1969: 35. Other sources place the acquisition a bit later than 1845; see Paul D. Schweizer, “The Voyage of Life: A Chronology,” in The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, Exh. cat. Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985: 45 (“December 1846?”), and Ellwood C. Parry III, The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination, Newark, Delaware, 1988: 332 (“sometime late in 1846 or, more likely, early in 1847”); however in a Boston Transcript article entitled “The Voyage of Life,” which appeared 21 May 1846, the pictures are mentioned as then belonging to “a wealthy gentleman of Cincinnati.”
[2]A letter of April 1979 from Mrs. Robert Heuck (in NGA curatorial files) specifies: “Mr. Shoenberger died in 1892, at which time many of the belongings of the home were given to heirs.” Shoenberger died 20 January 1892; for additional information, see The Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery with an Historical Sketch of the State of Ohio, 6 vols., Cincinnati, 1895: 6:1457-1458.
[3]Mrs. Robert Heuck, letter of April 1979 (in NGA curatorial files) states: “In 1908 Mr. and Mrs. Ernest W. [sic] Huenefeld purchased the land [and the house and contents].”
[4]Edward H. Dwight and Richard J. Boyle, “Rediscovery: Thomas Cole’s ‘Voyage of Life’,” Art in America 55 (May 1967): 62.
Associated Names
•Bethesda Hospital and Deaconess Association
•Hirschl & Adler Galleries
•Huenefeld, Ernst H.
•Shoenberger, George K.
Exhibition History
•1842—Annual Exhibition of Modern Artists, Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 1842, no cat.
•1842—Private Exhibition, Luther Terry’s studio, Orto di Napoli, Rome, 1842.
•1843—Pictures by Thomas Cole N.A. … The Voyage of Life! A Series of Allegorical Pictures, National Academy of Design, New York, 1843-1844, no. 1.
•1843—Second Exhibition, Boston Artists’ Association, 1843, no. 1.
•1844—Paintings Exhibited…, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1844, no. 1.
•1848—Western Art Union, Cincinnati, 1848, no cat.
•1854—Pictures at the Ladies’ Gallery, Cincinnati, 1854, 2 and 5, no. 20, as Infancy.
•1983—A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting 1760-1910, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Grand Palais, Paris, 1983-1984, no. 25, repro.
•1985—The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985, 4, 5, 28, 30-32, 34-36, 38-40, 42, 44, 45, 48, 53, 66-69, no. 33.
•1994—Thomas Cole: Landscape into History, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; The Brooklyn Museum, 1994-1995, fig. 115.
•1995—Loan for display with permanent collection, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1995-1996.
•2000—Explorar el Edén: Paisaje Americano del Siglo XIX, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2000-2001, no. 2, repro.
Technical Summary
Secondary ground layers include red under the top left corner; yellow under the boat and angel; red under the center in the light area of mountain; red under top right corner in the light area of sky; red under the water around the boat. Infrared reflectography reveals some underdrawing of mountain contours in the right middle and far distance. There are scattered small losses along the edges, a small loss below the boat, and craquelure throughout.
All four paintings in The Voyage of Life series were executed on herringbone twill fabric with moderately fine threads and a moderately rough surface. The paintings were lined (apparently for the first time) and the original panel-back stretchers were replaced during treatment in 1970-1971. The presence of unused tack holes and the pattern of wear on the canvas edges suggest that the paintings were originally stretched and painted on slightly larger stretchers, and then restretched by the artist on the panel-backed stretchers. All four paintings have white ground layers; in specific areas of each painting (see individual comments, below) secondary ground layers of different colors were applied. Infrared reflectography reveals only minimal underdrawing. Paint was applied moderately thinly and with low and broad brushstrokes in some areas such as the skies, and more thickly and with some high impasto in details such as the figures and foliage. In general, the paintings are in excellent condition, with only scattered small losses, some craquelure, and minor abrasion. In 1970-1971, discolored varnish was removed and the paintings were restored.
Bibliography
•1843—“Cole’s Pictures at the National Academy of Design.” Anglo American (30 December 1843): 239.
•1843—“Dottings on Art and Artists. No. II.” New World 6 (25 February 1843): 246.
•1843—“Mr. Cole’s Paintings.” New-York Daily Tribune (26 December 1843): 2.
•1843—New-York Daily Tribune (18 February 1843): 3.
•1844—“A Few Words About Mr. Cole’s Paintings.” New World 8 (17 February 1844): 217.
•1844—“Cole’s Paintings.” New-York Daily Tribune (9 January 1844): 2.
•1844—“Editor’s Table.” The Knickerbocker 23 (January/February 1844): 97, 196.
•1844—P., S.H.J. “To Thomas Cole.” New Mirror 2 (27 January 1844): 269.
•1847—Transactions of the Western Art Union for the Year 1847. Cincinnati, 1847: 25.
•1848—Bryant, William Cullen. A Funeral Oration, occasioned by the death of Thomas Cole delivered before the National Academy of Design, New York, May 4, 1848. Philadelphia and New York, 1848: 30.
•1848—Whitley, Thomas W. Reflections on the Government of the Western Art Union and a Review of the Works of Art on Its Walls. [Originally published in the Herald of Truth] Cincinnati, 1848: 17-18.
•1849—Lanman, Charles. “The Epic Paintings of Thomas Cole.” Southern Library Messenger 15 (June 1849): 353.
•1849—Transactions of the Western Art Union for the Year 1848. Cincinnati, 1849: 10.
•1853—Noble, Louis Legrand. The Course of Empire, Voyage of Life, and other Pictures of Thomas Cole, N.A.. New York, 1853: 295-298, 301, 309, 312-314, 317, 320-322, 353, 359.
•1854—“Thomas Cole.” National Magazine 4 (April 1854): 318-321.
•1855—“Sketchings.” The Crayon 1 (7 February 1855): 92.
•1858—“Notes and Gleanings—Cole’s Pictures of Life.” National Magazine 13 (September 1858): 284-285.
•1860—Green, George W. Biographical Sketches. New York, 1860: 101, 105, 110-112.
•1860—“The Artists of America—Taken from New American Cyclopaedia.” The Crayon 7 (February 1860): 46.
•1865—Cummings, Thomas S. Historic Annals of the National Academy of Design (1825-1863). Philadelphia, 1865. Reprint, New York, 1965: 170, 176, 201.
•1932—Mayer, Frank Blackwell. With Pen and Pencil on the Frontier in 1851: The Diary and Sketches of Frank Blackwell Mayer. Edited by Bertha L. Heilbron. Reprint, Saint Paul, 1932: 41.
•1954—La Budde, Kenneth James. “The Mind of Thomas Cole.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1954: 171, 212.
•1962—Devane, James. “Sightseers Have Visited Scarlet Oaks for 95 Years.” Cincinnati Enquirer (20 May 1962): 6A.
•1964—Noble, Louis Legrand. The Life and Works of Thomas Cole (1853). Edited by Elliot S. Vesell. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964: 220-224, 231, 233-235, 237, 239-240, 264.
•1967—Dwight, Edward H., and Richard J. Boyle. “Rediscovery: Thomas Cole’s ‘Voyage of Life’.” L’Art et les Artistes 55 (May 1967): 60-63, repro. 62.
•1967—Merritt, Howard S. “Thomas Cole’s List, ‘Subjects for Pictures.’” In Baltimore Museum of Art, Annual II: Studies on Thomas Cole, an American Romanticist. Baltimore, 1967: 84, 90.
•1970—Riordan, John. “Thomas Cole: A Case Study of the Painter-Poet Theory ofArt in American Painting from 1825-1850.” 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse University, 1970: 1:99-100; 2:345, 455-497.
•1973—Wallach, Alan Peter. “The Ideal American Artist and the Dissenting Tradition: A Study of Thomas Cole’s Popular Reputation.” Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1973: 70-72, 106.
•1976—Kurland, Sydney. “The Aesthetic Quest of Thomas Cole and Edgar Allan Poe: Correspondence in their Thought and Practice in Relation to their Time.” Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio University, Athens, 1976: 105-109, 172, repro. 227.
•1977—Wallach, Alan. “The Voyage of Life as Popular Art.” The Art Bulletin 59 (1957): 234.
•1980—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 133, repro.
•1980—Coen, Rena N. “Cole, Coleridge and Kubla Khan.” Art History 3 (June 1980): 218, 227, pl. 31.
•1980—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 11, 14, 88, repro. 88.
•1981—Virdis, Caterina Limentani. “Paesaggio e racconto in Edgar Allan Poe.” Artibus et Historiae 4 (1981): 90, 94, repro. 89.
•1981—Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 96, 112-113.
•1983—Schweizer, Paul D. “Another Possible Literary Source for Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life.” In “New Discoveries in American Art.” Edited by Jayne A. Kuchina. The American Art Journal 15 (1983): 74-75.
•1985—The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints. Exh. cat. Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985: 66-69.
•1987—Sarnoff, Charles A. “The Voyage of Life Had a Life of Its Own.” Paper presented to the NGA, January 1987.
•1987—Wilmerding, John. American Marine Painting. Rev. ed. of A History of American Marine Painting, 1968. New York, 1987: 44, 46, 47, color repro. 42.
•1988—Parry, Ellwood C., III. The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination. Newark, London, and Toronto, 1988: 218, 228, 265-268, 270-272, 275, 277, 280, 284-285, 291-298, 301-303, 332, 338, 378.
•1988—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 11, 17, 102, 103, repro. 102.
•1990—Powell, Earl A., III. Thomas Cole. New York, 1990: 103.
•1991—Kopper, Philip. America’s National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 261, 263, color repro.
•1991—Wilmerding, John. American Views: Essays on American Art. Princeton, 1991: 56, 67, repro. 57.
•1992—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 145, repro.
•1994—Truettner, William H., and Alan Wallach. Thomas Cole: Landscape into History. Exh. cat. Natl. Mus. of Am. Art, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; Brooklyn Museum. Washington,1994: 42,46-47,79,82,84,98-101,113,130-133,138,144,149-150,152,154,182, no. 115.
•1995—Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. The Spirit and the Vision: The Influence of Christian Romanticism on the Development of 19th-Century American Art. Atlanta, 1995: 137-148, fig. 26.
•1996—Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 95-108, color repro.
•1998—Boeckl, Christine M. “Path/Road/Crossroads.” In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:692.
•2004—Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 308-310, no. 247, color repros.
•2012—“Rethinking ‘Luminism’: Taste, Class, and Aestheticizing Tendencies in Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Painting.” In The Cultured Canvas: New Perspectives on American Landscape Painting edited by Nancy Siegel. Lebanon, N.H., 2012: 133-134.
•2013—Corbett, David Peters. “Painting American Frontiers: ‘Encounter’ and the Borders of American Identity in Nineteenth-Century Art.” Perspective 2013, no. 1: 140, 141, color fig. 9.
From American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I:
1971.16.1 (2550)
The Voyage of Life: Childhood
•1842
•Oil on Canvas, 134.3 × 195.3 (52⅞ × 76⅞)
•Ails a Mellon Bruce Fund
•Inscriptions:
oAt Lower Left: 1842 / T. Cole / Rome
Technical Notes
All four paintings were executed on herringbone twill fabric with moderately fine threads and a moderately rough surface. The paintings were lined (apparently for the first time) and the original panel-back stretchers were replaced during treatment in 1970—1971. The presence of unused tack holes and the pattern of wear on the canvas edges suggest that the paintings were originally stretched and painted on slightly larger stretchers, and then restretched by the artist on the panel-backed stretchers. All four paintings have white ground layers; in specific areas of each painting (see individual comments, below) secondary ground layers of different colors were applied. Infrared reflectography reveals only minimal underdrawing. Paint was applied moderately thinly and with low and broad brushstrokes in some areas such as the skies, and more thickly and with some high impasto in details such as the figures and foliage. In general, the paintings are in excellent condition, with only scattered small losses, some craquelure, and minor abrasion. In 1970-1971, discolored varnish was removed and the paintings were restored.
1971.16.1 (Childhood): Secondary ground layers include red under the top left corner; yellow under the boat and angel; red under the center in the light area of mountain; red under top right corner in the light area of sky; red under the water around the boat. Infrared reflectography reveals some underdrawing of mountain contours in the right middle and far distance. There are scattered small losses along the edges, a small loss below the boat, and craquelure throughout.
Description by the Artist:
First Picture: Childhood
A stream is seen issuing from a deep cavern, in the side of a craggy and precipitous mountain, whose summit is hidden in clouds. From out the cave glides a Boat, whose golden prow and sides are sculptured into figures of the Hours: steered by an Angelic Form, and laden with buds and flowers, it bears a laughing Infant, the Voyager whose varied course the artist has attempted to delineate. On either hand the banks of the stream are clothed in luxuriant herbage and flowers. The rising sun bathes the mountains and the flowery banks in rosy light.
The dark cavern is emblematic of our earthly origin, and the mysterious Past. The Boat, composed of Figures of the Hours, images the thought, that we are borne on the hours down the Stream of Life. The Boat identifies the subject in each picture. The rosy light of the morning, the luxuriant flowers and plants, are emblems of the joyousness of early life. The close banks, and the limited scope of the scene, indicate the narrow experience of Childhood, and the nature of its pleasures and desires. The Egyptian Lotus in the foreground of the picture is symbolical of Human Life. Joyousness and wonder are the characteristic emotions of childhood.
Confident in a bold golden suit and alluring accessories, this mademoiselle has a certain undefined something that takes style soaring to brilliant heights! Classic French design — peppered with glorious hues worthy of the City of Lights — makes for a page in the Paris sketchbook drawn with scintillating skill! C'est fantastique!
Ann looks toward the camera with a serious look on her face, like a confident and resolute lady with class. That's her personal style of posing and that's great, yet I would prefer that she would also shows her smile a bit more, her friendliness, warmth and pleasure. But hey, Ann can pose like she wants to just like I make the photos how I want to. I think you get the best results and have most fun when everybody is free in their creative contribution, so no forced half-fake poses and pictures.
Photography by Renee Keith: Confident Business Man Playing Chess
This images is available to purchase Royalty Free from iStockphoto at the following link: www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-20724581-confident-busine...
The Voyage of Life: Childhood
West Building, Main Floor—Gallery 60
•Date: 1842
•Medium: Oil on Canvas
•Dimensions
oOverall: 134.3 × 195.3 cm (52⅞ × 76⅞ in.)
oFramed: 162.9 × 224.8 × 17.8 cm (64⅛ × 88½ × 7 in.)
•Credit Line: Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
•Accession Number: 1971.16.1
•Artists/Makers:
oArtist: Thomas Cole, American, 1801-1848
Overview
Cole’s renowned four-part series traces the journey of an archetypal hero along the “River of Life.” Confidently assuming control of his destiny and oblivious to the dangers that await him, the voyager boldly strives to reach an aerial castle, emblematic of the daydreams of “Youth” and its aspirations for glory and fame. As the traveler approaches his goal, the ever-more-turbulent stream deviates from its course and relentlessly carries him toward the next picture in the series, where nature’s fury, evil demons, and self-doubt will threaten his very existence. Only prayer, Cole suggests, can save the voyager from a dark and tragic fate.
From the innocence of childhood, to the flush of youthful overconfidence, through the trials and tribulations of middle age, to the hero’s triumphant salvation, The Voyage of Life seems intrinsically linked to the Christian doctrine of death and resurrection. Cole’s intrepid voyager also may be read as a personification of America, itself at an adolescent stage of development. The artist may have been issuing a dire warning to those caught up in the feverish quest for Manifest Destiny: that unbridled westward expansion and industrialization would have tragic consequences for both man and nature.
Inscription
•Lower Left: 1842 / T. Cole / Rome
Provenance
Sold by the artist to George K. Shoenberger [1809-1892], Cincinnati, perhaps as early as 1845 and no later than May 1846;[1] Shoenberger heirs, after 20 January 1892;[2] purchased 1908 by Ernst H. Huenefeld, Cincinnati;[3] gift 1908 to Bethesda Hospital and Deaconess Association of Methodist Church of Cincinnati;[4] sold 17 May 1971 through (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York) to NGA.
[1]For a discussion of a possible 1845 date, see Thomas Cole, Exh. cat. Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 1969: 35. Other sources place the acquisition a bit later than 1845; see Paul D. Schweizer, “The Voyage of Life: A Chronology,” in The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, Exh. cat. Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985: 45 (“December 1846?”), and Ellwood C. Parry III, The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination, Newark, Delaware, 1988: 332 (“sometime late in 1846 or, more likely, early in 1847”); however in a Boston Transcript article entitled “The Voyage of Life,” which appeared 21 May 1846, the pictures are mentioned as then belonging to “a wealthy gentleman of Cincinnati.”
[2]A letter of April 1979 from Mrs. Robert Heuck (in NGA curatorial files) specifies: “Mr. Shoenberger died in 1892, at which time many of the belongings of the home were given to heirs.” Shoenberger died 20 January 1892; for additional information, see The Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery with an Historical Sketch of the State of Ohio, 6 vols., Cincinnati, 1895: 6:1457-1458.
[3]Mrs. Robert Heuck, letter of April 1979 (in NGA curatorial files) states: “In 1908 Mr. and Mrs. Ernest W. [sic] Huenefeld purchased the land [and the house and contents].”
[4]Edward H. Dwight and Richard J. Boyle, “Rediscovery: Thomas Cole’s ‘Voyage of Life’,” Art in America 55 (May 1967): 62.
Associated Names
•Bethesda Hospital and Deaconess Association
•Hirschl & Adler Galleries
•Huenefeld, Ernst H.
•Shoenberger, George K.
Exhibition History
•1842—Annual Exhibition of Modern Artists, Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 1842, no cat.
•1842—Private Exhibition, Luther Terry’s studio, Orto di Napoli, Rome, 1842.
•1843—Pictures by Thomas Cole N.A. … The Voyage of Life! A Series of Allegorical Pictures, National Academy of Design, New York, 1843-1844, no. 1.
•1843—Second Exhibition, Boston Artists’ Association, 1843, no. 1.
•1844—Paintings Exhibited…, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1844, no. 1.
•1848—Western Art Union, Cincinnati, 1848, no cat.
•1854—Pictures at the Ladies’ Gallery, Cincinnati, 1854, 2 and 5, no. 20, as Infancy.
•1983—A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting 1760-1910, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Grand Palais, Paris, 1983-1984, no. 25, repro.
•1985—The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985, 4, 5, 28, 30-32, 34-36, 38-40, 42, 44, 45, 48, 53, 66-69, no. 33.
•1994—Thomas Cole: Landscape into History, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; The Brooklyn Museum, 1994-1995, fig. 115.
•1995—Loan for display with permanent collection, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1995-1996.
•2000—Explorar el Edén: Paisaje Americano del Siglo XIX, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2000-2001, no. 2, repro.
Technical Summary
Secondary ground layers include red under the top left corner; yellow under the boat and angel; red under the center in the light area of mountain; red under top right corner in the light area of sky; red under the water around the boat. Infrared reflectography reveals some underdrawing of mountain contours in the right middle and far distance. There are scattered small losses along the edges, a small loss below the boat, and craquelure throughout.
All four paintings in The Voyage of Life series were executed on herringbone twill fabric with moderately fine threads and a moderately rough surface. The paintings were lined (apparently for the first time) and the original panel-back stretchers were replaced during treatment in 1970-1971. The presence of unused tack holes and the pattern of wear on the canvas edges suggest that the paintings were originally stretched and painted on slightly larger stretchers, and then restretched by the artist on the panel-backed stretchers. All four paintings have white ground layers; in specific areas of each painting (see individual comments, below) secondary ground layers of different colors were applied. Infrared reflectography reveals only minimal underdrawing. Paint was applied moderately thinly and with low and broad brushstrokes in some areas such as the skies, and more thickly and with some high impasto in details such as the figures and foliage. In general, the paintings are in excellent condition, with only scattered small losses, some craquelure, and minor abrasion. In 1970-1971, discolored varnish was removed and the paintings were restored.
Bibliography
•1843—“Cole’s Pictures at the National Academy of Design.” Anglo American (30 December 1843): 239.
•1843—“Dottings on Art and Artists. No. II.” New World 6 (25 February 1843): 246.
•1843—“Mr. Cole’s Paintings.” New-York Daily Tribune (26 December 1843): 2.
•1843—New-York Daily Tribune (18 February 1843): 3.
•1844—“A Few Words About Mr. Cole’s Paintings.” New World 8 (17 February 1844): 217.
•1844—“Cole’s Paintings.” New-York Daily Tribune (9 January 1844): 2.
•1844—“Editor’s Table.” The Knickerbocker 23 (January/February 1844): 97, 196.
•1844—P., S.H.J. “To Thomas Cole.” New Mirror 2 (27 January 1844): 269.
•1847—Transactions of the Western Art Union for the Year 1847. Cincinnati, 1847: 25.
•1848—Bryant, William Cullen. A Funeral Oration, occasioned by the death of Thomas Cole delivered before the National Academy of Design, New York, May 4, 1848. Philadelphia and New York, 1848: 30.
•1848—Whitley, Thomas W. Reflections on the Government of the Western Art Union and a Review of the Works of Art on Its Walls. [Originally published in the Herald of Truth] Cincinnati, 1848: 17-18.
•1849—Lanman, Charles. “The Epic Paintings of Thomas Cole.” Southern Library Messenger 15 (June 1849): 353.
•1849—Transactions of the Western Art Union for the Year 1848. Cincinnati, 1849: 10.
•1853—Noble, Louis Legrand. The Course of Empire, Voyage of Life, and other Pictures of Thomas Cole, N.A.. New York, 1853: 295-298, 301, 309, 312-314, 317, 320-322, 353, 359.
•1854—“Thomas Cole.” National Magazine 4 (April 1854): 318-321.
•1855—“Sketchings.” The Crayon 1 (7 February 1855): 92.
•1858—“Notes and Gleanings—Cole’s Pictures of Life.” National Magazine 13 (September 1858): 284-285.
•1860—Green, George W. Biographical Sketches. New York, 1860: 101, 105, 110-112.
•1860—“The Artists of America—Taken from New American Cyclopaedia.” The Crayon 7 (February 1860): 46.
•1865—Cummings, Thomas S. Historic Annals of the National Academy of Design (1825-1863). Philadelphia, 1865. Reprint, New York, 1965: 170, 176, 201.
•1932—Mayer, Frank Blackwell. With Pen and Pencil on the Frontier in 1851: The Diary and Sketches of Frank Blackwell Mayer. Edited by Bertha L. Heilbron. Reprint, Saint Paul, 1932: 41.
•1954—La Budde, Kenneth James. “The Mind of Thomas Cole.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1954: 171, 212.
•1962—Devane, James. “Sightseers Have Visited Scarlet Oaks for 95 Years.” Cincinnati Enquirer (20 May 1962): 6A.
•1964—Noble, Louis Legrand. The Life and Works of Thomas Cole (1853). Edited by Elliot S. Vesell. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964: 220-224, 231, 233-235, 237, 239-240, 264.
•1967—Dwight, Edward H., and Richard J. Boyle. “Rediscovery: Thomas Cole’s ‘Voyage of Life’.” L’Art et les Artistes 55 (May 1967): 60-63, repro. 62.
•1967—Merritt, Howard S. “Thomas Cole’s List, ‘Subjects for Pictures.’” In Baltimore Museum of Art, Annual II: Studies on Thomas Cole, an American Romanticist. Baltimore, 1967: 84, 90.
•1970—Riordan, John. “Thomas Cole: A Case Study of the Painter-Poet Theory ofArt in American Painting from 1825-1850.” 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse University, 1970: 1:99-100; 2:345, 455-497.
•1973—Wallach, Alan Peter. “The Ideal American Artist and the Dissenting Tradition: A Study of Thomas Cole’s Popular Reputation.” Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1973: 70-72, 106.
•1976—Kurland, Sydney. “The Aesthetic Quest of Thomas Cole and Edgar Allan Poe: Correspondence in their Thought and Practice in Relation to their Time.” Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio University, Athens, 1976: 105-109, 172, repro. 227.
•1977—Wallach, Alan. “The Voyage of Life as Popular Art.” The Art Bulletin 59 (1957): 234.
•1980—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 133, repro.
•1980—Coen, Rena N. “Cole, Coleridge and Kubla Khan.” Art History 3 (June 1980): 218, 227, pl. 31.
•1980—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 11, 14, 88, repro. 88.
•1981—Virdis, Caterina Limentani. “Paesaggio e racconto in Edgar Allan Poe.” Artibus et Historiae 4 (1981): 90, 94, repro. 89.
•1981—Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 96, 112-113.
•1983—Schweizer, Paul D. “Another Possible Literary Source for Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life.” In “New Discoveries in American Art.” Edited by Jayne A. Kuchina. The American Art Journal 15 (1983): 74-75.
•1985—The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints. Exh. cat. Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985: 66-69.
•1987—Sarnoff, Charles A. “The Voyage of Life Had a Life of Its Own.” Paper presented to the NGA, January 1987.
•1987—Wilmerding, John. American Marine Painting. Rev. ed. of A History of American Marine Painting, 1968. New York, 1987: 44, 46, 47, color repro. 42.
•1988—Parry, Ellwood C., III. The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination. Newark, London, and Toronto, 1988: 218, 228, 265-268, 270-272, 275, 277, 280, 284-285, 291-298, 301-303, 332, 338, 378.
•1988—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 11, 17, 102, 103, repro. 102.
•1990—Powell, Earl A., III. Thomas Cole. New York, 1990: 103.
•1991—Kopper, Philip. America’s National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 261, 263, color repro.
•1991—Wilmerding, John. American Views: Essays on American Art. Princeton, 1991: 56, 67, repro. 57.
•1992—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 145, repro.
•1994—Truettner, William H., and Alan Wallach. Thomas Cole: Landscape into History. Exh. cat. Natl. Mus. of Am. Art, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; Brooklyn Museum. Washington,1994: 42,46-47,79,82,84,98-101,113,130-133,138,144,149-150,152,154,182, no. 115.
•1995—Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. The Spirit and the Vision: The Influence of Christian Romanticism on the Development of 19th-Century American Art. Atlanta, 1995: 137-148, fig. 26.
•1996—Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 95-108, color repro.
•1998—Boeckl, Christine M. “Path/Road/Crossroads.” In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:692.
•2004—Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 308-310, no. 247, color repros.
•2012—“Rethinking ‘Luminism’: Taste, Class, and Aestheticizing Tendencies in Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Painting.” In The Cultured Canvas: New Perspectives on American Landscape Painting edited by Nancy Siegel. Lebanon, N.H., 2012: 133-134.
•2013—Corbett, David Peters. “Painting American Frontiers: ‘Encounter’ and the Borders of American Identity in Nineteenth-Century Art.” Perspective 2013, no. 1: 140, 141, color fig. 9.
From American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I:
1971.16.1 (2550)
The Voyage of Life: Childhood
•1842
•Oil on Canvas, 134.3 × 195.3 (52⅞ × 76⅞)
•Ails a Mellon Bruce Fund
•Inscriptions:
oAt Lower Left: 1842 / T. Cole / Rome
Technical Notes
All four paintings were executed on herringbone twill fabric with moderately fine threads and a moderately rough surface. The paintings were lined (apparently for the first time) and the original panel-back stretchers were replaced during treatment in 1970—1971. The presence of unused tack holes and the pattern of wear on the canvas edges suggest that the paintings were originally stretched and painted on slightly larger stretchers, and then restretched by the artist on the panel-backed stretchers. All four paintings have white ground layers; in specific areas of each painting (see individual comments, below) secondary ground layers of different colors were applied. Infrared reflectography reveals only minimal underdrawing. Paint was applied moderately thinly and with low and broad brushstrokes in some areas such as the skies, and more thickly and with some high impasto in details such as the figures and foliage. In general, the paintings are in excellent condition, with only scattered small losses, some craquelure, and minor abrasion. In 1970-1971, discolored varnish was removed and the paintings were restored.
1971.16.1 (Childhood): Secondary ground layers include red under the top left corner; yellow under the boat and angel; red under the center in the light area of mountain; red under top right corner in the light area of sky; red under the water around the boat. Infrared reflectography reveals some underdrawing of mountain contours in the right middle and far distance. There are scattered small losses along the edges, a small loss below the boat, and craquelure throughout.
Description by the Artist:
First Picture: Childhood
A stream is seen issuing from a deep cavern, in the side of a craggy and precipitous mountain, whose summit is hidden in clouds. From out the cave glides a Boat, whose golden prow and sides are sculptured into figures of the Hours: steered by an Angelic Form, and laden with buds and flowers, it bears a laughing Infant, the Voyager whose varied course the artist has attempted to delineate. On either hand the banks of the stream are clothed in luxuriant herbage and flowers. The rising sun bathes the mountains and the flowery banks in rosy light.
The dark cavern is emblematic of our earthly origin, and the mysterious Past. The Boat, composed of Figures of the Hours, images the thought, that we are borne on the hours down the Stream of Life. The Boat identifies the subject in each picture. The rosy light of the morning, the luxuriant flowers and plants, are emblems of the joyousness of early life. The close banks, and the limited scope of the scene, indicate the narrow experience of Childhood, and the nature of its pleasures and desires. The Egyptian Lotus in the foreground of the picture is symbolical of Human Life. Joyousness and wonder are the characteristic emotions of childhood.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
Knight Concert Hall
1300 Biscayne Boulevard
Miami, Florida
Remarks by the President at a DNC Event
Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami, Florida
7:50 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, Miami! (Applause.) It's good to see you. (Applause.) It is good to be back in Miami. (Applause.) Thank you, thank you, everybody. Thank you. Everybody have a seat. Have a seat.
What do you guys think of our new DNC chair? (Applause.) Debbie Wasserman Schultz. We are so thrilled to have her. You want Debbie on your side. (Applause.) She's a mom, she's got that cute smile and all that, but she is tough. Don't mess with Debbie. (Laughter.) We are so glad of her leadership.
I know that a lot of folks have already been acknowledged. I want to make sure to mention resident commissioner Pedro Pierluisi of Puerto Rico. Where is he? Pedro, are you still here? There he is right there. (Applause.)
Adrienne Arsht, thank you so much for everything that you've done for the civic life in Miami. (Applause.) Our Florida finance chair, Kirk Wager, is here. (Applause.) Founding co-chair of Gen44, Andrew Korge, is here. (Applause.) Alonzo Mourning is in the house. (Applause.) And, look, he's not from Miami, but he's got 11 championships, so I've got to mention Bill Russell is in the house. (Applause.) Bill Russell -- greatest champion of all time in team sports in North America right here. (Applause.)
It is wonderful to be back. Many of you I've known for a very long time, some of you I'm getting a chance to see for the first time. And it got me thinking back to election night two and a half years ago, in Grant Park. It was a beautiful night in Chicago, and everybody was feeling pretty good who had supported me. And it was an incredibly hopeful time. And you will recall -- maybe you won't but I'm going to remind you -- (laughter) -- I said, this is not the end, this is the beginning. This is the beginning.
Because what I said to the American people that night was that for almost a decade too many Americans had felt as if the American Dream was slipping away. We had seen economic growth and corporate profits and a stock market that had gone up, but there were too many folks who were struggling each and every day, working as hard as they could, being responsible for their families, being responsible to their communities, but somehow they just couldn’t keep up. Wages and incomes had flat-lined, even though the cost of everything from health care to college tuitions to gas had all skyrocketed.
Around the world, the impression of America as a preeminent force for good had lost sway. We were in the midst of two wars. We didn’t seem to be able to tackle challenges that had confronted us for decades -- didn’t have an energy plan that was worthy of the greatness of America; didn’t have an immigration system that would allow us to be a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants; had a school system in which we had no longer -- we were no longer at the top and weren’t preparing our young people to meet the challenges and demands of the 21st century global interdependent economy.
And so when I started the race for President, what I said to all of you was, if you’re looking for easy answers, you’re looking in the wrong place. If you’re looking for just a bunch of partisan rhetoric, I’m probably not your guy. But if you want to join me on this journey,, to make sure that America is living up to its ideals, if you wanted to reclaim the that sense that in America anything is possible if we’re willing to work for it, and if you wanted to see if we could get beyond some of the politics of the past and point towards the future, then I wanted you to be a part of this process. And so all that culminated in Grant Park that night.
But then I said, you know what, this just gives us the opportunity to do what’s possible. This is not the end state. I didn't run for President just to be President. (Applause.) I ran for President to do things -- to do big things, to do hard things.
What we didn't know at the time -- I said this is going to be a steep climb to get to where we want to go, to achieve that summit. We didn't know how steep that climb was going to be because what we now know was we were already in the midst of what would turn out to be the worst recession since the Great Depression -- came this close to a financial meltdown that would have spun the global financial system out of control.
We lost 4 million jobs in the six months before I was sworn in, and we’d lose another 4 [million] before any of our economic initiatives had a chance to take effect. And all the challenges that ordinary families, working families, middle-class families had been feeling for years were suddenly compounded. Folks were losing their jobs, losing their homes, didn't know what the future held.
And so we’ve spent the last two and a half years trying to heal this country, trying to mend what was broken. And with the help of people like Debbie and Pedro, we’ve made enormous strides. With the help of you, we have made enormous strides. I mean, think about it. An economy that was contracting is now growing. An economy that was shedding millions of jobs, we’ve seen over 2 million jobs created in the last 15 months, in the private sector. (Applause.) The financial system stabilized. And some of the decisions that we made were not popular. Everybody acts now like, well, yeah, that was easy. (Laughter.) Think about it.
Just think for a moment about the U.S. auto industry. We were on the verge of the liquidation of two of the three big automakers in the United States -- Chrysler and GM. Now, there’s been some revisionist history that’s been offered lately about, well, they might have survived without our help -- except nobody at GM or Chrysler believes that. They were going to break that up and sell off the spare parts. And as a consequence, you would have seen a million people -- suppliers, dealerships -- all gone, in the midst of this incredible hardship that people were already experiencing. (Applause.) And we made tough decisions and we made the right decisions. And now we’ve got the big three automakers -- (applause) -- all profitable, all increasing market share, hiring back workers.
And we didn’t forget the promises that we had made during the campaign. We said we wanted to make sure that once again America would have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. And so in pursuit of that goal, we said let’s stop subsidizing big banks as middlemen on the student loan program. (Applause.) Let’s take back billions of dollars and give it directly to young people so that millions of children -- a million of our kids are going to be able to go to college without $100,000 or $200,000 worth of debt.
We said we’re going to start building a genuine clean energy industry in this country, and made the largest investment in clean energy in our history. And we did that. We said that we’d begin the process of rebuilding our infrastructure in this country, and made the largest investment rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our ports since Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s, putting hundreds of thousands of people to work all across America, doing the work that needs to be done.
We said we had to finally, after generations, deal with the travesty of the richest nation on Earth having people who went bankrupt because they went sick and couldn’t afford to provide health care to their families -- (applause) -- and we passed a historic health care law that is going to make sure that everybody in this country can get health care and is going to help drive prices down on health care in the bargain. (Applause.) We promised we’d do that, and we did it.
Oh, and along the way, we did a few other things, like pass equal pay for equal work legislation. (Applause.) And make sure that never again will you be barred from serving your country in uniform just because of the person that you love. (Applause.) And we appointed two women to the Supreme Court, one of them the first Latina in our history. (Applause.) And we expanded national service so that our young people would know what it means to give back to this country. (Applause.)
And we passed financial regulatory reform so that not only would we not see a reprise of the financial shenanigans that had gone on before, but we’d actually have a consumer bureau that would be able to look after folks when they take out credit cards and they take out mortgages, so that they wouldn’t be cheated. (Applause.)
And on the international front, we said we would end the war in Iraq -- and we have ended combat operations in Iraq and will be bringing our troops home this year. (Applause.) And we said that we would start refocusing our efforts in Afghanistan, and especially go after al Qaeda -- and we went after al Qaeda and we’re going after al Qaeda -- (applause) -- and beginning the transition process so that Afghans can take responsibility for their security.
And in the meantime, we dealt with a few other things -- like pirates. (Laughter.) And pandemic and oil spills. So there were a few other things that kept us occupied.
And I describe all this not for us to be complacent, but for all of us to remember that as hard as these battles have been, as much resistance as we’ve gotten, as much as the political debate has been distorted at times, that our basic premise -- the idea that when we put our minds to it, there’s nothing America can’t do -- that's been proven. (Applause.) That's been borne out. We have the evidence. We’ve brought about amazing change over the last two and a half years.
And we couldn’t have done it without you. We couldn’t -- we could not --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Keep your promise, stop AIDS now!
THE PRESIDENT: That's all right. That's all right. We’re good. We’re good.
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Hold up. Hold up.
So -- now, here’s the thing. The reason we’re here today is because our work is not done. (Applause.) For all the progress we’ve made, our work is not complete. We’re not at the summit. We just -- we’re just partway up the mountain. There’s more to do. There is more to do.
We still don't have the kind of energy policy that America needs -- and all of you experience that at the pump each and every day. Our economy is still vulnerable to the spot oil market and us having to import billions of dollars, when we could be not only producing more energy right here at home, but we could be producing energy that's clean and renewable and what would ensure that we could pass on the kind of planet to the next generation that all of us long for. (Applause.)
We know that we’re not done when it comes to issues like immigration reform. I was down here at Miami Dade -- (applause) -- an amazing institution that embodies what America is all about. Young people who can trace their heritage to 181 different countries were represented. (Applause.) And some of you who may not be familiar with the ceremony, what they do is they bring out the flags of each country where somebody can trace their roots. And everybody cheers. The Cuban flag comes up and everybody goes crazy. (Applause.) The Jamaican flag comes up and everybody is hooting and hollering. (Applause.) See, sort of just like this.
But then there’s one flag that comes up, and that is the American flag, and everybody explodes -- (applause) -- because that’s the essence of who we are. Out of many, one. But we don’t have a system that reflects those values. It is still an issue that’s exploited, that’s used to divide instead of bringing people together. We’ve got more work to do.
We’ve got more work to do when it comes to rebuilding the infrastructure of this country. We’ve got a couple of trillion dollars worth of work that needs to be done. We were at a Jobs Council meeting up in North Carolina and the chairman of Southwest, the CEO of Southwest, he explained how because our air traffic control system is so archaic, we probably waste about 15 percent of fuel because planes are having to go this way and that. The whole system was designed back in the 1930s before you even had things like GPS. But think about -- what’s true for the airlines industry is true for our roads, it’s true for our ports, it’s true for our airports, it’s true for our power system. We’ve got more work to do.
We’ve made incredible progress on education, helping students to finance their college educations, but we still don’t have enough engineers. We still don’t have enough scientists. We still lag behind other countries when it comes to training our young people for the jobs, the high-skilled jobs that are going to provide high wages and allow them to support a family.
But we’ve made incredible progress K through 12 with something we call Race to the Top, which basically says -- (applause) -- to school districts and to states, you reform the system and we will show you the money, and so providing incentives. And 40 states across the country have made critical reforms as a consequence to this program. But we still have schools where half the kids drop out. We still consign too many of our young people to lives of desperation and despair. We’ve got more work to do.
And we’ve got so much work to do on our economy. We’ve got so much more work to do on our economy. Every night I get letters. We get about 40,000 pieces of mail at the White House every day, and I ask my team to select 10 letters for me to read that are representative of what people are feeling out there. And I will tell you these really are representative, because about half of them call me an idiot. (Laughter.) And -- but most of the stories are just some ordinary folks who have done the right thing, have worked hard all their lives. Some of them are small business owners who have poured their savings into a venture, and then when the recession hit they lost everything, and now they’re trying to get back on their feet.
You get letters from moms who are trying to figure out how to pay their bills at the end of the month, and they’re going back to school while they’re working to see if they can retrain for a better job. Sometimes you get folks who have sent out 100 resumes and haven’t gotten a response, and are trying to describe what it’s like to tell your child than nobody wants to hire you. Sometimes you get a letter from a kid who says, my parents are about to lose my home -- Mr. President, is there something you can do to help?
And in all those stories, what you see is incredible resilience and incredible stick-to-itiveness, and a sense on the part of people that no matter how down they are, they’re not out. And they don’t expect government to solve all their problems. All they’re looking for is that somebody cares and that we’re doing everything we can, trying every idea to make sure that this economy is moving. And they don’t understand how it is that good ideas get caught up in partisan politics, and why is it that people seem to be arguing all the time instead of trying to do the people’s business.
So we’ve got more work to do -- investing in our education system and making sure that -- (applause) -- making sure that our infrastructure is built and we’re putting people back to work, and helping the housing market recover, and dealing with our budget in a way that allows us to once again live within our means but doing so in a way that is consistent with our values.
You know, this budget debate that we’re having in Washington right now, it’s not just about numbers. It’s about values. It’s about what we believe and who we are as a people. The easiest thing to do to balance a budget is you just slash and burn and you cut and you don’t worry about the consequences. But that’s not who we are. We’re better than that. (Applause.)
I don’t want to live in a country where we’re no longer helping young people go to college, and so your fate is basically determined by where you were born and your circumstances. If that were the case, I wouldn’t be standing here today. I don't want to live in a country where we no longer believe that we can build the best airports or the best rail systems. I don't want to live in a country where we’re no longer investing in basic research and science so that we’re at the cutting edge of technology. I don't want to live in a country where we are abandoning our commitment to the most vulnerable among us -- the disabled, our seniors -- making sure that they’ve got a basic safety net so that they can live with dignity and respect in their golden years. (Applause.)
And so here’s the -- the good news is that we can bring down our deficit and we can work down our debt, and we can do so the same way families all across America do, by prioritizing and deciding what’s important to us. So we’re going to have to scrub the federal budget and get rid of every program that doesn't work, and get rid of every regulation that is outdated. And we’ve got to make sure that we build on all the tax cuts that we’ve provided to small businesses and to individuals over the last couple years so that they’re getting back on their feet.
But we’ve also got to make sure that whatever sacrifices we make, whatever burdens are borne are spread among all of us; that we’re not just doing it on the backs of the poor; that we’re not just doing it on the backs of our seniors; that we’re not just doing it on the backs of the most vulnerable. (Applause.)
And the other side say, well, you know what, we can just cut and cut and cut and cut -- and by the way, you, Mr. President, since you’ve been so lucky, we’re going to give you a $200,000 tax break. I’d love to have a tax break. I don’t like paying taxes -- I’m the President. (Laughter.) This notion somehow that I enjoy paying taxes or administering taxes, that makes no sense. Nothing is better for a politician than saying, you know what, forget about it, you will have everything you need and everything this country needs and you don’t have to pay for a thing.
But, you know what, I don’t want a $200,000 tax break if it means that 33 seniors are each going to have to pay $6,000 more a year for their Medicare. (Applause.) I don’t want that. I don’t want a tax break if it means hundreds of kids won’t be able to go to Head Start. (Applause.) That’s not a tradeoff I’m willing to make. That’s not a tradeoff most of Americans are willing to make. That’s not who we are. That’s not what we believe in.
And the reason I’m not willing to make a tradeoff, it’s not out of charity. It’s because my life is better when I know, as I’m driving by a school, you know what, those kids in there, they’ve got the best teachers, they’ve got the best equipment -- I know that they’re going to succeed. That makes me feel better about my life and about my country. (Applause.)
And if I’m seeing an elderly couple stroll by holding hands -- and I’m saying to myself, you know, that’s going to be Michelle and me in a few years -- and I know that whatever their circumstances, I know they’ve got Social Security and they’ve got Medicare that they can count on, that makes my life better. That makes my life richer. (Applause.)
So that's what this campaign is going to be about. It’s going to be about values. It’s the same thing that the 2008 campaign was about: What's important to you? Who are we? What is it about America that makes us so proud?
When I think about why our campaign drew so much excitement, it was because it tapped into those essential things that bind us together. I look out at this auditorium, and I see people from every walk of life, every age, every demographic -- but there’s something that binds us together, that says this is what makes our country so special.
And that's what’s at stake. That's the journey that we’re on. And the only way that we stay on track, the only way that we continue that journey is if all of you are involved. Because what also made the campaign special was it wasn’t about me -- it was never about me -- it was about us. It was about you. (Applause.) It was about you being willing to be involved, and you being willing to be engaged. Because that's also what makes America special -- ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Now, two and a half years have passed since that night in Grant Park, and I’ve got a lot more gray hair. (Laughter.) And what seemed so fresh and new, now -- we’ve seen Obama so many times on TV, and we know all his quirks and all his tics and he’s been poked apart. And there’s some of you who probably have felt at times during the last two and a half years, gosh, why isn’t this happening faster? Why isn’t this easier? Why are we struggling? And why didn’t health care get done quicker? And why didn’t we get the public option? (Laughter and applause.) And what -- I know the conversation you guys are having. (Laughter.) "I’m not feeling as hopeful as I was." And I understand that. There have been frustrations, and I’ve got some dings to show for it over the last two and half years.
But I never said this was going to be easy. This is a democracy. It’s a big country and a diverse country. And our political process is messy. Yes, you don’t always get 100 percent of what you want, and you make compromises. That’s how the system was designed. But what I hope all of you still feel is that for all the frustrations, for all the setbacks, for all the occasional stumbles, that what motivates us, what we most deeply cherish, that that’s still within reach. That it’s still possible to bring about extraordinary change. That it’s still possible to make sure that the America we pass down to our kids and our grandkids is a better America than the one we inherited. (Applause.) I’m confident about that. I believe in that, because I believe in you.
And so I’m glad you guys came to the rally. But just like in 2008, if we want to bring about the change we believe in, we’re going to have to get to work. You’re going to have to make phone calls. (Applause.) You’re going to have to knock on doors. You’re going to have to talk to all your friends and all your neighbors, and you’re going to have to talk to the naysayers. And you’re going to have to go out there and say: We’ve got more work to do. And if they tell you, I don’t know, I’m not sure, I’m not convinced -- you just remind them of those three words that captured this campaign, captured the last campaign and will capture the 2012 campaign: Yes, we can.
Thank you, Miami. God bless you. (Applause.) God bless the United States of America.
END
8:20 P.M. EDT
© Frank Schacht
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so sind sie, die chinesen, laechelnd und freundlich.
arbeiten sehr hart, halten die familie zusammen, finden immer irgendwie eine loesung fuer herausforderungen und koennen sehr viel ertragen. in china ist es immer bergauf gegeangen mit der wirtschaft und das rasant. wie die zukunft ausieht weiss niemand. ich vermute es wird etwas langsamer voran gehen. kein problem,da chinesen sehr flexibel sind und das finde ich sehr beeindruckend.
wir in deutschland, koennen sehr viel von der mentalitaet lernen , denn sie lernen vom ausland.
ein aufeinander zugehen in der gesamten welt kann berge versetzen und mehr verstaendnis bringen fuer alle seiten
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so they are, the Chinese, smiling and friendly. work very hard, hold together the family, find a solution for every challenge and can bear very much. in China it is went always uphill with the economy and that rapidly. for the future ,nobody knows. I assume it more slowly will somewhat in front go. no problem, Chinese are very flexible and i find it very impressive . we can learn very much in Germany ,of their mentality, because they learn a lot from foreign countries. more understandingcan bring us all more together and the world will be more peaceful. one world , one dream
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expo2010-----SHANGHAI-----expo2010------SHANGHAI
expo2010-----SHANGHAI-----expo2010------SHANGHAI
EXPO 2010年 Weltausstellung 上海世界博览会 Shànghǎi shìjiè bólǎnhuì
我爱中国 / Ich liebe China / I love China
加油中国 /China gebe niemals auf , geh voran /Go go China
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Von mir persoenlich gegruendet, die groessten
EXPO-GRUPPEN auf flickr.
EXPO 2010年 Shanghai shibóhuì上海世界博览会exklusiv #1
www.flickr.com/groups/1253656@N25/
Weltausstellungen / EXPOS-exklusiv-Expositions / World's Fairs
Hier sind Fotos und Videos zu sehen vom Beginn der Idee einer
Weltausstellung 1851 in London bis heute 2010 in Shanghai.
2012 in Suedkorea, 2015 in Italien.....
www.flickr.com/groups/1445322@N21/
balancity Deutscher Pavillion
www.flickr.com/groups/1521855@N21/
information zum logo = die 3 menschen sollen eine familie darstellen
die weltausstellung findet im jahre 2010 in der aufstrebenen metropole shanghai statt .
shanghai hat mittlerweile ueber 18 millionen registrierte einwohner.
Die bedeutung der grossen veranstaltung ist sehr wichtig und alles laeuft auf vollen touren.
Das motto der weltausstellung heisst “bessere stadt, besseres leben” . ein schoeneres leben fuer die in shanghai in einer sauberen umwelt.
Die umgebung von ca. 5,28 quadratkilometern, werden die veranstaltung abdecken
Dauer
01.mai bis zum 31.oktober 2010
erwartete besucherzahl
70.000.000 aus dem aus-und inland
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created the biggest EXPO GROUPS on flickr.
EXPO 2010年 Shanghai shibóhuì上海世界博览会exklusiv #1
www.flickr.com/groups/1253656@N25/
Weltausstellungen / EXPOS-exklusiv-Expositions / World's Fairs
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here you can be seen photographic pictures from all expositions
and world's fairs. from 1851 in london till today 2010 in shanghai.
this unique idea, to show your own country to the whole world and
at the same time you can visit the world on few square kilometers,
that is great and wonderful.
2012 in south korea, 2015 in italy....
www.flickr.com/groups/1445322@N21/
balancity German Pavillion
www.flickr.com/groups/1521855@N21/
information to logo = the three symbolised a family
the world fair takes place in the year 2010 in the ongoing metropolis shanghai. shanghai meanwhile registered inhabitants have over 18 million. The meaning of the large meeting is very important and everything runs on full routes. The slogan of the world fair is called “better city, better lives”. a more beautiful live for in shanghai in a clean environment. The environment of approx. 5.28 square kilometers, the meeting will cover Duration 01. May up to the 31.oktober 2010 expected number of visitors 70.000.000 from foreign coutries and domestics
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我爱中国 / Ich liebe China / I love China
加油中国 /China gebe niemals auf , geh voran /Go go China
EXPO 2010年 Weltausstellung 上海世界博览会 Shànghǎi shìjiè bólǎnhuì
expo2010-----SHANGHAI-----expo2010------SHANGHAI
expo2010-----SHANGHAI-----expo2010------SHANGHAI