ARTZUID 2025 Amsterdam

The 9th edition of the Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale ARTZUID takes place from 21 May to 21 September 2025. On Apollolaan and Minervalaan in Amsterdam-Zuid, 70 outdoor sculptures are being showcased of renowned artists and young talented artists.

This exhibition draws from top international artists and Dutch talent for the selection of sculptures and installations that can be seen this summer in Amsterdam. ARTZUID transforms the exhibition location into a surreal urban landscape in which figurative sculptures alternate with architectonic installations. They show a great variety in format and material. What unites them is their focus on the enigma of human existence; the wonder, the emotions and visions of being, the ambitions and fears about our place in the world. Artists such as Leiko Ikemura, Alicja Kwade and Neo Rauch invite the visitor to an exchange of thoughts about this, in a sensual conversation with the sculptures. Displayed is the upheaval of occupation, the fear of war and the spirit of resistance in the contributions of artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Shinkichi Tajiri and Armando. Atelier van Lieshout refers to power and impotence, struggle and victimhood, in a group of figures around a rider on horseback. On the trail of ARTZUID this work is connected to the Indonesia-Netherland Monument on Apollolaan. These are just a few examples of the more than 60 works that populate ARTZUID. The architectural works by often young artists have a commitment and idealism reminiscent of architect H.P. Berlage and urban sculptor Hildo Krop. Both having been instrumental in developing the urban design of the neighbourhood home to ARTZUID. They stimulate visitors to think about the future of the urban community and seek answers to the question of what strategies are needed to create a sustainable and peaceful society

Participating artists ARTZUID 2025

Adam Colton (NL/GB), Arlene Shechet (USA), Art van Triest (NL), Atelier van Lieshout (NL), Alicja Kwade (PL), Armando (NL), Bart Lunenburg (NL), Bastienne Kramer (NL), Britte Koolen (NL), Carin Scholten (NL), Chris Peterson (NL), Cristobal Gabarron (ES), David Bade (CW), David Nash (GB), Erik Buijs (NL), Eiji Watanabe (JP), Esther Jiskoot (NL), Fiona Römpp (NL), Gavin Turk (GB), Helen Vergouwen (NL), Herbert Nouwens (NL) Henk Visch (NL), Hieke Luik (NL), Huub en Adelheid Kortekaas (NL), Isa van Lier (NL), Ilse Oelbers (NL), Iris Le Rütte (NL), Ivan Cremer (NL), Jaume Plensa (ES), Jean-Marie Appriou (FR), Katleen Vinck (BE), Klaas Gubbels (NL), Laura Schurink (NL), Leilah Babirye (USA), Lina Iris Viktor (USA), Leiko Ikemura (JP), Lotta Blokker (NL), Louise Schouwenberg (NL), Maja van Hall (NL), Marcel Pinas (SR), Maen Florin (BE), Magdalena Abakanowicz (PL), Marte Röling (NL), Marieke Bolhuis (NL), Margot Berkman (NL), Marion Verboom (FR), Micky Hoogendijk (NL), Nadia Naveau (BE), Natasja Alers (NL), Nel van Lith (NL), Nelson Carrilho (NL), Neo Rauch (DE), Paloma Varga Weisz (DE), Paul Goede (NL), Rachel Harrison (USA), Ricardo van Eyk (NL), Rob Schreefel (NL), Rob Voerman (NL), Ronald Westerhuis (NL),Ruud Kuijer (NL), Shinkichi Tajiri (USA), Sjef Voets (NL), Sokari Douglas Camp (GB), Stefan Rinck (DE), Tirzo Martha (CW), Tschabalala Self (USA), Tal R (DEN), Tony Cragg (GB), Wim Kok (NL), Wouter van der Giessen (NL), Xavier Veilhan (FR), Yoshitomo Nara (JP)

 

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Steel, Flock, Sponge, cheap plastic flowers, 180cm x 120cm, 2010

  

As is usual this idea has been bouncing around in my head for at least a couple years. Most likely from when after 7 years of threatening the city of Barcelona finally decided to begin the project of rearranging my neighborhood. Since I arrived in Barcelona in 1999 I've been living in the shadow of the wrecking ball but somehow have managed to remain in this small corner of the city unscathed. Then in 2006 things started to move, at least that's when the photo below is dated from which was the view from my front window (I have a workspace that I am extremely fortunate to have so the idea of having to leave it struck terror into the deep recesses of my being). Regardless I had an opportunity to reflect on some heavy equipment for some time. It's impressive to see it up close tearing down walls etc. and reminded me of the fascination I had with these machines as a child. What crossed my mind at that point though was the shift in my understanding of said machines from that of a child's understanding which is one of fascination, creation and possibility as well as responsibility, to that of an adult which recognizes them (at least in an urban environment) as the harbingers of change for better or worse. To be honest I still view cranes, front end loaders, bulldozers etc... with a certain amount of awe for the simple fact that they really are miracles of engineering.

On the other hand in the urban environment they are also the agents of metamorphosis, representatives of decisions that are normally made in other places by people who aren't directly affected by those decisions. Barcelona has undergone unprecedented growth in the construction sector over the last twenty years, to the point that "rabid" might be an appropriate term to describe the nature of what has been going on. With the bursting of the real estate bubble this is no longer the case. Within the metropolitan habitat obviously a certain amount of change is constant and required for a variety of reasons. It's not the idea to go too deeply into the economics and the moral repercussions of the construction boom, although it is fascinating and worthy for reflection, for the simple fact that my knowledge of it is superficial not being an economist. Needless to say there is constant change and constant shifting which has a profound impact on the individual and sometimes the collective as well. I don't say this as a positive or negative judgment just a simple fact.

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Steel, Flock, Sponge, cheap plastic flowers, 180cm x 120cm, 2010

  

As is usual this idea has been bouncing around in my head for at least a couple years. Most likely from when after 7 years of threatening the city of Barcelona finally decided to begin the project of rearranging my neighborhood. Since I arrived in Barcelona in 1999 I've been living in the shadow of the wrecking ball but somehow have managed to remain in this small corner of the city unscathed. Then in 2006 things started to move, at least that's when the photo below is dated from which was the view from my front window (I have a workspace that I am extremely fortunate to have so the idea of having to leave it struck terror into the deep recesses of my being). Regardless I had an opportunity to reflect on some heavy equipment for some time. It's impressive to see it up close tearing down walls etc. and reminded me of the fascination I had with these machines as a child. What crossed my mind at that point though was the shift in my understanding of said machines from that of a child's understanding which is one of fascination, creation and possibility as well as responsibility, to that of an adult which recognizes them (at least in an urban environment) as the harbingers of change for better or worse. To be honest I still view cranes, front end loaders, bulldozers etc... with a certain amount of awe for the simple fact that they really are miracles of engineering.

On the other hand in the urban environment they are also the agents of metamorphosis, representatives of decisions that are normally made in other places by people who aren't directly affected by those decisions. Barcelona has undergone unprecedented growth in the construction sector over the last twenty years, to the point that "rabid" might be an appropriate term to describe the nature of what has been going on. With the bursting of the real estate bubble this is no longer the case. Within the metropolitan habitat obviously a certain amount of change is constant and required for a variety of reasons. It's not the idea to go too deeply into the economics and the moral repercussions of the construction boom, although it is fascinating and worthy for reflection, for the simple fact that my knowledge of it is superficial not being an economist. Needless to say there is constant change and constant shifting which has a profound impact on the individual and sometimes the collective as well. I don't say this as a positive or negative judgment just a simple fact.

I chose to work with a front end loader (Caterpillar 950-H) for a number of reasons, but primarily because it is menacing, the architecture/design of it is all strength, aggression and masculinity. Especially the teeth on the front of the shovel and the treads on the tires. In movement it is full of a sort of awkward muscular grace (yes I know, oxymoron). I chose the surface texture for the obvious visual irony that it proposes which fuses the idealism that I had as a child and the realities exposed to me as an adult in relation to construction and the machinery used to achieve it. And hence the title which reflects on the often life changing displacements of land, architecture, families and people that these machines are fundamental in creating. For better or worse...

On the other hand in the urban environment they are also the agents of metamorphosis, representatives of decisions that are normally made in other places by people who aren't directly affected by those decisions. Barcelona has undergone unprecedented growth in the construction sector over the last twenty years, to the point that "rabid" might be an appropriate term to describe the nature of what has been going on. With the bursting of the real estate bubble this is no longer the case. Within the metropolitan habitat obviously a certain amount of change is constant and required for a variety of reasons. It's not the idea to go too deeply into the economics and the moral repercussions of the construction boom, although it is fascinating and worthy for reflection, for the simple fact that my knowledge of it is superficial not being an economist. Needless to say there is constant change and constant shifting which has a profound impact on the individual and sometimes the collective as well. I don't say this as a positive or negative judgment just a simple fact.

I chose to work with a front end loader (Caterpillar 950-H) for a number of reasons, but primarily because it is menacing, the architecture/design of it is all strength, aggression and masculinity. Especially the teeth on the front of the shovel and the treads on the tires. In movement it is full of a sort of awkward muscular grace (yes I know, oxymoron). I chose the surface texture for the obvious visual irony that it proposes which fuses the idealism that I had as a child and the realities exposed to me as an adult in relation to construction and the machinery used to achieve it. And hence the title which reflects on the often life changing displacements of land, architecture, families and people that these machines are fundamental in creating. For better or worse...

Veteran; " It's not that I can and others can't.

it's that I did and others didn't "

 

Nee, en daar weet ik alles van.

In de jaren '80 was je een hele kerel als je je had weten te onttrekken aan de dienstplicht.

Tijdens een verjaardagsfeest was je de gevierde man als je vertelde dat je met een smoes onder de dienstplicht was uitgekomen.

Vermeende S-5, onmisbaar voor het bedrijf, wapenvrees en andere bullshit argumenten of gewoon dienstweigeraar of totaalweigeraar.

Ging je toch in dienst, dan was je wel een beetje een sukkel.

Daarbij nog eens de gehele antimilitaristische sfeer in het Nederland van toen; wat had je eigenlijk aan dat leger?

 

Dat was de setting waarin ik in maart 1981 mij meldde aan de poort van de Johan Willem Friso kazerne in Assen.

Het werd het begin van een avontuur van 14 maanden dat ik voor geen goud had willen missen.

Nu, 40 jaar later, kijk ik er met trots op terug.

 

Op de foto dienstplichtig soldaat Dirk Bruin, op Unifil Dutchbatt Post 7-12 van de PaOst-Cie van het Nederlands VN-detachement Unifil, 44 Pantserinfanteriebataljon in Zuid-Libanon in het jaar des Heren 1982.

 

In de linkerhand een Russische RGD-5 handgranaat die ik voor 15 Libanese ponden kocht van mijn vriend Mohammed Iskander.

Na twee maanden dienst doen bij het Nederlands Detachement Unifil begon de routine er wel wat in te sluipen, en zochten we naar afleiding.

In dat kader kochten we bij Mohammed een aantal Russische RGD-5 handgranaten.

Waren we in Nederland blij met het afsteken van een paar voetzoekers, in Libanon kon dat met handgranaten.

 

Op de foto draag ik een M69 Flak Jacket , een Amerikaans scherfvest dat vooral in de oorlog in Vietnam werd gedragen.

Het werd door het Nederlandse leger gekocht als aanvulling op de uitrusting van de Unifil militairen.

 

Tijdens het verblijf op onze sub post hebben we een paar van deze handgranaten in de Wadi gegooid; zware explosies die door de hele vallei echode.

 

Vlakbij de subpost 7-12 Charlie was een steengroeve, waar geregeld met explosieven gewerkt werd.

Het was gebruikelijk om explosies en schoten via de radio aan de commandopost e melden; dus in dit geval werd er '1 gecontroleerde explosie richting steengroeve' gemeld.

  

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Today, saturday the 276h of June 2021, it is Veterans Day in the Netherlands.

For this occasion a photo of myself on UNIFIL Post 7-12 in 1982.

 

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Veteran; "It's not that I can and others can't. it's that I did and others didn't "

Op Unifil Dutchbatt Post 7-12 van de PaOst-Cie van het Nederlands VN-detachement Unifil, 44 Pantserinfanteriebataljon in Zuid-Libanon in het jaar des Heren 1982.

#veteranendag

 

Zo deelde ik dat op Facebook, en daar kreeg ik een paar leuke reacties op.

Een reactie schoot mij echter in het verkeerde keelgat.

 

Het was Marian Woestenburg-Grijpstra, die daar op reageerde met;

 

"Others did other things."

 

Ik lees daar dan in; jij ging dan wel naar Libanon, maar denk daar niet teveel van, terwijl je daar was, deden anderen andere dingen.

 

Ja, onnozele, die gingen heel nadrukkelijk niet naar Libanon, die kozen de weg van het minste risico en gevaar, die liepen er voor weg die bleven thuis. Ik ging wèl.

 

Ik reageerde daar wat beleefder op, en zei haar;

 

"Ik vind dit een onaardige opmerking naar een veteraan op Veteranendag, Marian Woestenburg."

 

Marian W. komt terug met;

 

"Ik vind de quote niet zo sympathiek. Hij zet mensen weg die, in dit hele proces niet doen/deden wat anderen doen. Daarbij denk ik aan journalisten die ook hun leven wagen en soms in koelen bloede vermoord worden. Ik denk aan artsen zonder grenzen, aan Amnesty international. Het draagt bij tot verdeeldheid. Ik ben ook niet zo weg van dit soort dagen waarop het in de media gewoon tot een soort verheerlijking komt. Waarom de een wel en de ander niet? In het kader van vrijheid, gelijkheid en broederschap past het niet in mijn wereldbeeld. Heb ik daarom geen respect voor veteranen? Ja, natuurlijk heb ik dat wel."

 

Mooi bullshit verhaal, ik lees geen respect voor een veteraan op veteranendag.

 

Ik leg haar het nog eens uit;

 

"It's not that I can and others can't. it's that I did and others didn't "

Dit schrijf ik, als veteraan, op Veteranendag, bij een foto van mijzelf van 40 jaar geleden toen ik dienst deed bij Unifil in Libanon.

Het is niet ik het wèl kan, en anderen niet, het is dat ik het wèl deed en anderen niet.

Hiermee verwijzend naar mannen die er van afgezien hebben om uitgezonden te worden, dit hebben aangegeven bij de dienstkeuring of na de opkomst.

Het gaat over mannen die onder de dienstplicht uitwurmden met smoesjes als wapenvrees, onmisbaar voor het bedrijf of gewoon dienstweigeraar waren.

Die gingen niet naar Libanon, en ik wel.

Met de quote wordt niemand weggezet, het is gewoon een feitelijke constatering.

Wat jij er vervolgens allemaal van maakt en er nog aan toevoegt is mijns inziens een stropop redenatie, het is in geen geval van toepassing op wat ik zeg.

Ik vond je reactie op mijn bericht niet sympathiek, en dat vind ik nog steeds."

 

Marian moet het laatste woord hebben, en laat mij weten;

 

"Quote van wijlen mijn oude wijze grootmoeder Grietje:" Andermans boeken zijn duister te lezen!""

 

Ik heb het erbij gelaten.

 

De opmerking en houding van Marian Woestenburg bracht mij terug naar het moment dat ik terug kom op Vlieland na vier maanden Libanon. Ik ervoer dat als volgt:

 

" Ja, Dikkie Bruun, dan kom je weer terug naar Vlieland met je gebleekte blauwe baret, terug van 4-maanden vakantie aan de Middellandse zee, maar denk vooral niet te veel van jezelf, en wij zullen je daarbij wel een handje bij helpen".

 

------------------------------------

Aanvulling

 

Marian is van 1952, en valt daardoor onder de babyboomers.

Herman Vuisje heeft een boek geschreven over waarom die babyboomers niets moesten hebben van de militaire dienstplicht.

Het zou een verklaring kunnen zijn voor de houding.

 

In een recensie van het boek van Herman Vuisje krijgen we een beetje een beeld van hoe de babyboomers tegen de dienstplicht aankeken.

 

Er wordt daarin gezegd dat die gevoelens in de jaren ’60 en ’70 heersten, maar ik weet uit eigen ervaring, en heb dit boven ook genoemd, dat het ook tot ver in de jaren ’80 door liep.

Hier even de boekrecensie gedeeld, want ik ben niet alleen in mijn observatie.

 

BOEKRECENSIE

 

Schuldbewust bekritiseert Herman Vuijsje zijn eigen generatie, die niets moest hebben van militaire dienst.

In een fraaie proeve van ‘speculatieve sociologie’ fileert Herman Vuijsje de onwil van de protestgeneratie om de gekoesterde vrijheid te verdedigen in militaire dienst.

Zo vaak komt het helaas niet voor, dat babyboomers zichzelf de maat nemen. En dat is jammer, want veel – zo niet de meeste – problemen die wij nu het hoofd moeten bieden, zijn ontstaan in de tijd waarin zij het voor het zeggen hadden. Een aansporing tot bescheidenheid gaat daar echter niet van uit. Integendeel: de protestgeneratie wenst zichzelf onverkort als idealistisch, dus deugdzaam, te kwalificeren. En ze lijkt bij uitstek ontvankelijk voor de gedachte dat vroeger alles beter was.

 

Als deze zelfgenoegzaamheid inderdaad de regel zou zijn bij babyboomers (je moet met dit soort generalisaties natuurlijk altijd oppassen), vormt socioloog en journalist Herman Vuijsje (1946) er een weldadige uitzondering op. Graag plaatst hij kanttekeningen bij de geloofsartikelen van zijn generatie. Daarbij ontziet hij zichzelf allerminst. Oprechte, schuldbewuste zelfkritiek is zelfs het uitgangspunt van zijn recentelijk verschenen boek Wij waren geen soldaat – over de vanzelfsprekendheid waarmee hij en veel van zijn generatiegenoten zich in de jaren zestig en zeventig hebben onttrokken aan de militaire dienstplicht.

 

Dat was ook het thema van een artikel van zijn hand dat in 2018 in NRC Handelsblad verscheen en dat de aandacht trok van (onder anderen) voormalig VVD-Kamerlid en kolonel b.d. Theo van den Doel. Die reageerde op het artikel met een (niet geplaatste) brief waarin hij Vuijsje weliswaar prees om zijn eerlijkheid, maar waarin hij er tevens zijn teleurstelling over uitsprak dat de ‘salonmilitair’ Vuijsje zich had beperkt tot een persoonlijke getuigenis van spijt, maar er als socioloog ‘geen verdere conclusies’ aan had verbonden.

Vuijsje had, met andere woorden, de individu-overstijgende vragen niet gesteld: waar kwam die generieke afkeer van militaire dienst (en van het leger in het algemeen) vandaan? Hoe keken de jongemannen die gretig opteerden voor een afkeuring op grond van S5 (de laagste score voor geestelijke stabiliteit) aan tegen het reële Russische gevaar? En hoe konden zij hun freeridergedrag – profiteren van de vrijheid die zij niet wensten te beschermen – verenigen met hun vertoon van idealisme en onbaatzuchtigheid?

 

De tijdgeest ontleden

Vuijsje besloot alsnog een poging te doen om het verzuim van zijn generatie te verklaren nadat Van den Doel hem vorig jaar de niet-geplaatste brief had laten lezen. Hijzelf vergelijkt het boek dat hieruit resulteerde met het verslag van een bergwandeling op onbekend terrein: ‘Steeds als je meent de top in zicht te hebben, blijkt daarachter weer een nieuw massief op te doemen.’ Op basis van getuigenissen van dienende en verzakende dienstplichtigen, krijgshistorische en sociologische literatuur probeert hij een tijdgeest te ontleden waarvan hij zelf onderdeel is geweest. En dat levert een zinnige en onderhoudende proeve op van ‘speculatieve sociologie’, die geen sluitende antwoorden oplevert, maar wel degelijk bijdraagt aan onze nationale zelfkennis.

 

Vuijsje schrijft dat de onwillige dienstplichtigen in een lange traditie stonden van het ‘uitbesteden’ van de nationale defensie: in de 17de eeuw aan buitenlandse huurlingen, in de 19de eeuw aan de ‘remplaçanten’ uit de lagere sociale klassen (die de dienstplicht van beter gesitueerden tegen betaling vervulden). Hij oppert dat de verloren ‘goede’ oorlog van mei 1940 en de verloren ‘foute’ oorlog in Indonesië hebben bijgedragen aan de a- of anti-militaire stemming in grote delen van de samenleving.

 

Vuijsje herinnert zich dat de enkeling die zijn dienstplicht vervulde daarvoor door zijn vrienden ter verantwoording werd geroepen, terwijl de velen die een S5 hadden gescoord daar uitbundig om werden geprezen. Hij veronderstelt (op goede gronden) dat achter gewetensbezwaren doorgaans weinig meer schuilging dan ‘ik heb geen zin’. Hij verklaart – in navolging van de historici Duco Hellema en James Kennedy – het meebewegen van de bestuurlijke elite met de protestgeneratie vanuit ‘passiviteit als traditionele Nederlandse reflex’ en munt het begrip ‘passivisme’ voor deze houding.

 

Onder verwijzing naar eigen ervaringen verklaart Vuijsje onze onmacht tegenover geweld. Daarvan getuigde ook het Postbus 51-spotje waarin burgers werden opgeroepen om bij geweldsincidenten vooral niet zelf te interveniëren (‘de held uithangen’ noemde Ivo Opstelten dat, de toenmalige burgemeester van Rotterdam). Vuijsje wijst op de veranderde gevoelswaarde die woorden als ‘eer’, ‘vaderland’, ‘held’, ‘vaderland’ en ‘sneuvelen’ hebben ondergaan.

 

In de dichtbundel Ik ben lekker stout van Annie M.G. Schmidt ziet hij een voorbode van de ongehoorzaamheid die door babyboomers tot hoogste deugd zou worden verheven. Hij betoogt dat het Nederlandse leger in mei 1940 veel meer weerwerk heeft geleverd dan wij menen te weten. En hij noemt de paradox dat Nederlanders enerzijds tot ‘de koplopers in militantie’ behoren als het om de hulp aan Oekraïne gaat, terwijl geen volk zo weinig bereidheid aan de dag legt om voor het eigen land te vechten.

 

Zo voert de ‘speculatieve sociologie’ van Herman Vuisje diens lezers langs talrijke ongerijmdheden, eyeopeners en uithoeken van het collectief geheugen. Afhankelijk van hun leeftijd zal verwondering of gêne bij hen opkomen. Of ergernis, want niet alle ouderen worden graag van hun gelijk of van een glorieus verleden beroofd.

 

Door; Sander van Walsum – Volkskrant - 18 mei 2023

   

mechanical pencil on bfk, 13inx11.25in, 2020

www.vincenzopisani.com/dystopia-photographer-rome

 

Can you "feel" the places where you live?

Do you perceive any relation between your feelings and the geography of your daily path? Are emotions and places connected by some extent? What does your personal landscape look like? Do you ever feel alienated, a stranger in your own place ?

ARTZUID 2025 Amsterdam

The 9th edition of the Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale ARTZUID takes place from 21 May to 21 September 2025. On Apollolaan and Minervalaan in Amsterdam-Zuid, 70 outdoor sculptures are being showcased of renowned artists and young talented artists.

This exhibition draws from top international artists and Dutch talent for the selection of sculptures and installations that can be seen this summer in Amsterdam. ARTZUID transforms the exhibition location into a surreal urban landscape in which figurative sculptures alternate with architectonic installations. They show a great variety in format and material. What unites them is their focus on the enigma of human existence; the wonder, the emotions and visions of being, the ambitions and fears about our place in the world. Artists such as Leiko Ikemura, Alicja Kwade and Neo Rauch invite the visitor to an exchange of thoughts about this, in a sensual conversation with the sculptures. Displayed is the upheaval of occupation, the fear of war and the spirit of resistance in the contributions of artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Shinkichi Tajiri and Armando. Atelier van Lieshout refers to power and impotence, struggle and victimhood, in a group of figures around a rider on horseback. On the trail of ARTZUID this work is connected to the Indonesia-Netherland Monument on Apollolaan. These are just a few examples of the more than 60 works that populate ARTZUID. The architectural works by often young artists have a commitment and idealism reminiscent of architect H.P. Berlage and urban sculptor Hildo Krop. Both having been instrumental in developing the urban design of the neighbourhood home to ARTZUID. They stimulate visitors to think about the future of the urban community and seek answers to the question of what strategies are needed to create a sustainable and peaceful society

Participating artists ARTZUID 2025

Adam Colton (NL/GB), Arlene Shechet (USA), Art van Triest (NL), Atelier van Lieshout (NL), Alicja Kwade (PL), Armando (NL), Bart Lunenburg (NL), Bastienne Kramer (NL), Britte Koolen (NL), Carin Scholten (NL), Chris Peterson (NL), Cristobal Gabarron (ES), David Bade (CW), David Nash (GB), Erik Buijs (NL), Eiji Watanabe (JP), Esther Jiskoot (NL), Fiona Römpp (NL), Gavin Turk (GB), Helen Vergouwen (NL), Herbert Nouwens (NL) Henk Visch (NL), Hieke Luik (NL), Huub en Adelheid Kortekaas (NL), Isa van Lier (NL), Ilse Oelbers (NL), Iris Le Rütte (NL), Ivan Cremer (NL), Jaume Plensa (ES), Jean-Marie Appriou (FR), Katleen Vinck (BE), Klaas Gubbels (NL), Laura Schurink (NL), Leilah Babirye (USA), Lina Iris Viktor (USA), Leiko Ikemura (JP), Lotta Blokker (NL), Louise Schouwenberg (NL), Maja van Hall (NL), Marcel Pinas (SR), Maen Florin (BE), Magdalena Abakanowicz (PL), Marte Röling (NL), Marieke Bolhuis (NL), Margot Berkman (NL), Marion Verboom (FR), Micky Hoogendijk (NL), Nadia Naveau (BE), Natasja Alers (NL), Nel van Lith (NL), Nelson Carrilho (NL), Neo Rauch (DE), Paloma Varga Weisz (DE), Paul Goede (NL), Rachel Harrison (USA), Ricardo van Eyk (NL), Rob Schreefel (NL), Rob Voerman (NL), Ronald Westerhuis (NL),Ruud Kuijer (NL), Shinkichi Tajiri (USA), Sjef Voets (NL), Sokari Douglas Camp (GB), Stefan Rinck (DE), Tirzo Martha (CW), Tschabalala Self (USA), Tal R (DEN), Tony Cragg (GB), Wjm Kok (NL), Wouter van der Giessen (NL), Xavier Veilhan (FR), Yoshitomo Nara (JP)

 

Have you ever felt like your heart was on fire? Maybe you fell in love, gazed into the eyes of your new baby, or caught the fire of the love of the divine.

 

You would definitely recognize that heart-on-fire feeling if you’ve ever had it before. It’s hard to describe, but it kind of feels like your heart warms your entire body and soul with the heat of an internal flame. Do you know what it’s like to sit in front of a blazing hearth on a cold night? Well, that’s what pure love feels like inside.

 

It’s easy for most of us to understand how we can love another human being—but not always as easy to figure out how to love the unknowable essence of the Creator. The Baha’i teachings say that one of the requirements of being a Baha’i, though, is “becoming enkindled with the fire of the love of God …” – Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 336.

 

What does that mean?

 

The symbol of fire has always stood for life, love and health, for energy, transformation and regeneration, for light and warmth. When we feel passion for something or someone, we feel the fiery heat of an enkindled inner flame. We burn with it, that fire of inner feeling, and it sustains us.

 

To understand it, to comprehend its mystical meanings, I suspect, we need to turn to poetry, to the mystical and to the revelatory:

 

Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames. – Rumi

 

… heaven set the fire that burns in our spirits. – Gibran

 

Cause our souls to be enkindled with the fire of Thy tender affection and give us to drink of the living waters of Thy bounty. – The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 199.

 

The Word of God hath set the heart of the world afire; how regrettable if ye fail to be enkindled with its flame! – Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 316.

 

You’ve probably recognized that inner fire in others. Those who have it burn with passion and enthusiasm for life. They have a contagious ardor for what they do; they live and love with great eagerness. Their excitement, because it generates so much heat, can catch everyone around them on fire, too:

 

All creatures that exist are dependent upon the Divine Bounty. Divine Mercy gives life itself. As the light of the sun shines on the whole world, so the Mercy of the infinite God is shed on all creatures. As the sun ripens the fruits of the earth, and gives life and warmth to all living beings, so shines the Sun of Truth on all souls, filling them with the fire of Divine love and understanding. – Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 26.

 

Everyone can access that “fire of divine love and understanding.” It’s simple—just turn your face toward the sun. When you do, it will gradually warm you with its rays:

 

Likewise, in the spiritual realm of intelligence and idealism there must be a center of illumination, and that center is the everlasting, ever-shining Sun, the Word of God. Its lights are the lights of reality which have shone upon humanity, illumining the realm of thought and morals, conferring the bounties of the divine world upon man. These lights are the cause of the education of souls and the source of the enlightenment of hearts, sending forth in effulgent radiance the message of the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God. In brief, the moral and ethical world and the world of spiritual regeneration are dependent for their progressive being upon that heavenly Center of illumination. It gives forth the light of religion and bestows the life of the spirit, imbues humanity with archetypal virtues and confers eternal splendors. This Sun of Reality, this Center of effulgences, is the Prophet or Manifestation of God. Just as the phenomenal sun shines upon the material world producing life and growth, likewise, the spiritual or prophetic Sun confers illumination upon the human world of thought and intelligence, and unless it rose upon the horizon of human existence, the kingdom of man would become dark and extinguished. – Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 94.

 

We all owe our lives to that ever-burning fire we call the sun. Without it, nothing could survive. In the same way, we owe our inner lives, the realities of our souls and their attributes and perfections, to that heavenly center of illumination we call God:

 

Every man trained through the teachings of God and illumined by the light of His guidance, who becomes a believer in God and His signs and is enkindled with the fire of the love of God, sacrifices the imperfections of nature for the sake of divine perfections. – Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 452.

 

When you start that fire burning in your heart, when you enkindle your soul with the fire of the love of God, you’re on your way to achieving the greatest possible attainment in the world of humanity.

 

bahaiteachings.org/feeling-get-hearts-fire

 

Heart intelligence is the flow of awareness, understanding and intuition we experience when the mind and emotions are brought into coherent alignment with the heart. It can be activated through self-initiated practice, and the more we pay attention when we sense the heart is speaking to us or guiding us, the greater our ability to access this intelligence and guidance more frequently. Heart intelligence underlies cellular organization and guides and evolves organisms toward increased order, awareness and coherence of their bodies’ systems.

 

Throughout much of recorded history, human beings have understood that intelligence, the ability to learn, understand, reason and apply knowledge to shape their environment, was a function of the brain in the head.

 

There also is ample evidence in the writings and oral traditions societies passed down through the generations that they strongly believed in an intelligent heart.

 

Research into the idea of heart intelligence began accelerating in the second half of the 20th century. During the 1960s and ’70s pioneer physiologists John and Beatrice Lacey conducted research that showed the heart actually communicates with the brain in ways that greatly affect how we perceive and react to the world around us. In 1991, the year the HeartMath Institute was established, pioneer neurocardiologist Dr. J. Andrew Armour introduced the term “heart brain.” He said the heart possessed a complex and intrinsic nervous system that is a brain.

 

Today, more than a half century after the Laceys began their research, we know a great deal more about the heart:

 

The heart sends us emotional and intuitive signals to help govern our lives.

The heart directs and aligns many systems in the body so that they can function in harmony with one another.

The heart is in constant communication with the brain. The heart’s intrinsic brain and nervous system relay information back to the brain in the cranium, creating a two-way communication system between heart and brain.

The heart makes many of its own decisions.

The heart starts beating in the unborn fetus before the brain has been formed, a process scientists call autorhythmic.

Humans form an emotional brain long before a rational one, and a beating heart before either.

The heart has its own independent complex nervous system known as “the brain in the heart.”

Although scientists say it is clear there is still much to learn, future generations may well look back and cite another important discovery as one of the most pivotal of the 20th century. The HeartMath Solution, the book that details the program used by hundreds of thousands of people to access and utilize heart intelligence to improve their lives, discusses this discovery.

 

“Researchers began showing in the 1980s and ’90s that success in life depended more on an individual’s ability to effectively manage emotions than on the intellectual ability of the brain in the head,” says The HeartMath Solution, by HeartMath founder Doc Childre and his associate and longtime HeartMath spokesman Howard Martin.

 

This discovery naturally resulted in people wanting to know how to infuse emotions with intelligence.

 

Scientists at the nonprofit HeartMath Institute , which had been conducting research into heart intelligence and emotions posed the theory that “heart intelligence actually transfers intelligence to the emotions and instills the power of emotional management,” the book explains. “In other words, heart intelligence is really the source of emotional intelligence.

 

“From our research at the HeartMath Institute, we've concluded that intelligence and intuition are heightened when we learn to listen more deeply to our own heart. It’s through learning how to decipher messages we receive from our heart that we gain the keen perception needed to effectively manage our emotions in the midst of life’s challenges. The more we learn to listen to and follow our heart intelligence, the more educated, balanced and coherent our emotions become. Without the guiding influence of the heart we easily fall prey to reactive emotions such as insecurity, anger, fear and blame as well as other energy-draining reactions and behaviors.”

 

Early HeartMath research found that negative emotions threw the nervous system out of balance and when that happened heart rhythms became disordered and appeared jagged on a heart monitor. This placed stress on the physical heart and other organs and threatened serious health problems.

 

“Positive emotions, by contrast, were found to increase order and balance in the nervous system and produce smooth, harmonious heart rhythms,” Childre and Martin wrote. “But these harmonious and coherent rhythms did more than reduce stress: They actually enhanced people’s ability to clearly perceive the world around them.”

 

The heart has been considered the source of emotion, courage and wisdom for centuries. For more than 27 years, the HeartMath Institute Research Center has explored the physiological mechanisms by which the heart and brain communicate and how the activity of the heart influences our perceptions, emotions, intuition and health. Early on in our research we asked, among other questions, why people experience the feeling or sensation of love and other regenerative emotions as well as heartache in the physical area of the heart. In the early 1990s, we were among the first to conduct research that not only looked at how stressful emotions affect the activity in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the hormonal and immune systems, but also at the effects of emotions such as appreciation, compassion and care. Over the years, we have conducted many studies that have utilized many different physiological measures such as EEG (brain waves), SCL (skin conductance), ECG (heart), BP (blood pressure) and hormone levels, etc. Consistently, however, it was heart rate variability, or heart rhythms that stood out as the most dynamic and reflective indicator of one’s emotional states and, therefore, current stress and cognitive processes. It became clear that stressful or depleting emotions such as frustration and overwhelm lead to increased disorder in the higher-level brain centers and autonomic nervous system and which are reflected in the heart rhythms and adversely affects the functioning of virtually all bodily systems. This eventually led to a much deeper understanding of the neural and other communication pathways between the heart and brain. We also observed that the heart acted as though it had a mind of its own and could significantly influence the way we perceive and respond in our daily interactions. In essence, it appeared that the heart could affect our awareness, perceptions and intelligence. Numerous studies have since shown that heart coherence is an optimal physiological state associated with increased cognitive function, self-regulatory capacity, emotional stability and resilience.

 

We now have a much deeper scientific understanding of many of our original questions that explains how and why heart activity affects mental clarity, creativity, emotional balance, intuition and personal effectiveness. Our and others’ research indicates the heart is far more than a simple pump. The heart is, in fact, a highly complex information-processing center with its own functional brain, commonly called the heart brain, that communicates with and influences the cranial brain via the nervous system, hormonal system and other pathways. These influences affect brain function and most of the body’s major organs and play an important role in mental and emotional experience and the quality of our lives.

 

In recent years, we have conducted a number of research studies that have explored topics such as the electrophysiology of intuition and the degree to which the heart’s magnetic field, which radiates outside the body, carries information that affects other people and even our pets, and links people together in surprising ways. We also launched the Global Coherence Initiative (GCI), which explores the interconnectivity of humanity with Earth’s magnetic fields.

 

This overview discusses the main findings of our research and the fascinating and important role the heart plays in our personal coherence and the positive changes that occur in health, mental functions, perception, happiness and energy levels as people practice the HeartMath techniques. Practicing the techniques increases heart coherence and one’s ability to self-regulate emotions from a more intuitive, intelligent and balanced inner reference. This also explains how coherence is reflected in our physiology and can be objectively measured.

 

The discussion then expands from physiological coherence to coherence in the context of families, workplaces and communities. Science of the Heart concludes with the perspective that being responsible for and increasing our personal coherence not only improves personal health and happiness, but also feeds into and influences a global field environment. It is postulated that as increasing numbers of people add coherent energy to the global field, it helps strengthen and stabilize mutually beneficial feedback loops between human beings and Earth’s magnetic fields.

 

www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart/

 

Note what he wrote concerning the machaira sword in Ephesians 6:17, “And take up…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

 

The sword (machaira) that Paul referenced was approximately nineteen inches long and both sides of the blade were razor sharp. This sword was used for cutting and slicing flesh. The tip of the sword was turned upward so that it could rip out the entrails of the enemy. It was extremely lethal. Paul said that we could stand firm against the schemes of the enemy by taking up, among other things, a spiritual sword—the sword of the Spirit. Paul said that the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. This is the rhema word, which is an inspired utterance from the Lord. It can be defined as a spoken word by a living voice or a divine word spoken through the Holy Spirit.

 

A rhema word is a clearly spoken word in undeniable, unmistakable, and unquestionable language that we hear and understand. Renner wrote, “In the New Testament, the word rhema carries the idea of a quickened word, such as a word of scripture or a ‘word from the Lord’ that the Holy Spirit supernaturally drops into a believer’s mind, thus causing it to supernaturally come alive and impart special power or direction to that believer.” Throughout history, there have been men and women who have made critical decisions or life-changing moves simply because they heard a word from the Lord. God spoke an undeniable, unmistakable, unquestionable word to them and they obeyed it. As a result, through God’s people who were obedient to the spoken Word of God, extraordinary accomplishments have occurred. The sword of the Lord was picked-up by those believers and used to stand firm against the enemy by cutting down the work of darkness.

 

Much of Paul’s ministry was influenced by rhema words being spoken to him. For example: God spoke to Paul at the time of his conversion (Acts 9:4-6), God spoke to Ananias concerning Paul’s life and need of a healing (Acts 9:10-16), the Holy Spirit spoke at the time of Paul’s “commissioning” into public ministry (Acts 13:2), the Holy Spirit warned Paul where he was not to preach (Acts 16:6), God spoke to Paul in preparation for a period of persecution that he would experience in Jerusalem (Acts 21:11), and the Holy Spirit spoke concerning Paul’s ministry in the city of Rome (Acts 23:11).

 

We can conclude that Paul used the sword of the Spirit to advance the kingdom of God. He heard the rhema Word of God and by obeying it, the gospel of Christ was advance against the perils and wiles of the devil. The Holy Spirit desires to speak a rhema word to you, too. He wants to speak to you in undeniable, unmistakable, and unquestionable language that you hear and understand. Have you heard a word from the Lord recently? The challenge becomes living in such a way that we’re able to hear the subtle voice of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says today if we hear His voice we’re not to harden our hearts (Heb. 4:7). I believe the issue is not if God is speaking, but if we’re listening. Recently, I wrote that one of the most significant things that we can do to stand firm against the schemes of the enemy is to “listen” to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Life is in His voice; we don’t live by bread alone, but by every word (rhema) that proceeds out of God’s mouth (Matt. 4:4). If we live by His words, then, could we spiritually die by the absence of hearing them?

 

We must arrange our lives in a posture of intimacy to hear what Jesus is saying to us. Choose to live a “Mary lifestyle” at the feet of Jesus. This is a challenge, no doubt, because we live in a “Martha world” that is worried, bothered and distracted about so many things (see Luke 10:38-42). Intimacy with Jesus is fundamental to hearing, and it’s how we’re equipped to use the sword of the Spirit against the schemes of the enemy. Additionally, some of the greatest spoken words that you will hear occur when you read the written words of God. The Bible says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Become a student of the Bible so that you can be adequately equipped for every work that the Lord calls you to do. Read, soak, immerse, listen, study, and memorize the written Word of God, and watch how frequently He will speak a living word into your heart.

 

Stand firm, my friends, and use the sword of the Spirit against the schemes of the enemy so that you can advance the kingdom of God.

 

www.fireschoolministries.com/blog/the-sword-of-the-spirit

This nurse in her crisply starched uniform has the look of youthful idealism on her face as she gazes directly into the camera. Her spectacles are perhaps the result of pouring over many books while studying for her career. However, I suspect the books in this photograph are photographer's props as the book on the back of the table has a picture on its cover that would be suitable for a children's book. The book she is "reading" is propped up against what appears to be a lovely "woven" small china pot filled with small daisy-like flowers."

 

She has autographed the back of her photograph in pen: "With love & best wishes to all from Nursie."

 

The photograph is blind stamped "E. & E. Pickering , Petersfield" in the lower lefthand corner. So far, I have not been able to find out anything about the photographer.

 

Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 17 miles (27km) north of Portsmouth. The town is surrounded on all sides by farmed countryside, with the South Downs south of the town, the Hampshire Downs to the west, and forested hills (Durford Wood) to the northeast.

mechanical pencil on bfk, 11inx8.5in, 2020

I got this shot at last years Pride event.

Religions... or science.

 

Religiones... o ciencia.

*"dog lovers" based on the famous poem by Guillermo Arriaga, a "R" rated Cumbia by Alonso Castro and lately the expressionist trilogy film by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarrittu

 

Amores Perros is the first movie in Iñárritu's trilogy of death, it is a triptych; an anthology film, containing three distinct stories which are connected by a car accident in Mexico City. Each of the three tales is also a reflection on the cruelty of humans toward animals and each other, showing how they may live dark or even hideous lives. Amores Perros was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2000 and won the Ariel Award for Best Picture from the Mexican Academy of Film. The film Amores Perros gives a clear representation of the division between classes in Latin American society, as we are shown characters from under, working and middle classes. But the film's theme is loyalty, as symbolized by the dog, "man's best friend". Dogs are important to the main characters in each of the three stories, and in each story various forms of human loyalty or disloyalty are shown; disloyalty to a brother by trying to seduce the brother's girl-friend, disloyalty to a wife by keeping a mistress with subsequent disloyalty to the mistress when she is injured and loses her beauty, loss of loyalty to youthful idealism and rediscovered loyalty to a daughter as a hit-man falls from and then attempts to regain grace.

The film was released under its Spanish title in the English-speaking world, although its title was sometimes translated as Love's a Bitch and in Europe as "the dog lovers". The soundtrack included songs by well-known Latin American rock bands, such as Café Tacuba, Control Machete and Bersuit Vergarabat.

The film remains as one of the finest examples of expressionist art of the past century. Some of you may find my attempt to try my humble attempt to link my painting to the two greatest artists of our time an affront, but hey at my age why should I call it abstract if that link has moved me to produce several hundred paintings linked directly to the writings of Guillermo Arriaga.

p.s. on a note of interest, for those not familiar with the film, it is definitely not for the faint of heart for it portrays brutality only humans are capable of. /it comes unrated/ The Cumbia which is beautifully composed and played on accordion, has unfortunately been removed from You Tube.

/no reason given/

The Skater (Portrait of William Grant)

 

West Building, Main Floor—Gallery 59

 

•Date: 1782

•Medium: Oil on Canvas

•Dimensions:

oOverall: 245.5 × 147.4 cm (96⅝ × 58 1/16 in.)

oFramed: 274.3 × 177.2 × 9.5 cm (108 × 69¾ × 3¾ in.)

•Credit Line: Andrew W. Mellon Collection

•Accession Number: 1950.18.1

•Artists/Makers

oPainter: Gilbert Stuart, American, 1755-1828

 

Overview

 

In 1775, Gilbert Stuart set sail for London where Benjamin West welcomed the destitute young man into his home. The Skater marks the end of his five-year apprenticeship to West. Stuart’s first effort at full-length portraiture, its originality brought the artist so much notice at the 1782 Royal Academy exhibition that he soon set up his own studio.

 

The unorthodox motif of skating—indeed, any presentation of vigorous movement at all—had absolutely no precedent in Britain’s “Grand Manner” tradition of life-size society portraiture. The painter recalled that when William Grant, from Congalton near Edinburgh, arrived to have his picture painted, the Scottish sitter remarked that, “on account of the excessive coldness of the weather … the day was better suited for skating than sitting for one’s portrait.” Thus artist and sitter went off to skate on the Serpentine River in Hyde Park. When he returned to West’s studio with Grant, Stuart conceived the idea of portraying his subject on ice skates in a winter landscape, with the twin towers of Westminster Abbey far in the distance.

 

In this innovative design, Grant glides effortlessly forward with arms crossed over his chest in typical eighteenth-century skating form. Except for his folded arms, the figure’s stance derives from an ancient Roman statue, the Apollo Belvedere, a cast of which stood in the corner of West’s studio.

 

Provenance

 

The sitter, William Grant [d. 1821], Congalton, Scotland, and Cheltenham, England; his son, William Grant [d. 1827], Congalton, Scotland, and London; his daughter, Elizabeth Grant [Mrs. Charles Pelham-Clinton, d. 1899];[1] her son, Charles Stapleton Pelham-Clinton [1857-1911], Moor Park, Stroud, Gloucestershire;[2] his widow, Elizabeth Pelham-Clinton [d. 1946], London and Holmes Green, Buckinghamshire; her niece and adopted daughter, Georgiana Elizabeth May Pelham-Clinton [Mrs. John Stuart Bordewich, b. 1913] London; sold 1950 to the NGA.

 

[1]The wills of William Grant and his son (Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh) do not mention the portrait. Burke’s Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, Privy Council and Order of Precedence, 101st ed., London, 1956: 1611, lists Mrs. Pelham-Clinton, the first owner of record, as her father’s only surviving child at the time of her marriage in 1848. Her husband was the second son of Henry Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle.

[2]According to a file note by William P. Campbell (NGA curatorial file), a label from the 1878 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts is attached to the stretcher and documents this owner and address; see Burke 1956, 1611, for the dates of this and later owners.

 

Associated Names

 

•Clinton, Pelham, Miss

•Grant, William

•Grant, William

•Pelham-Clinton, Charles Stapleton

•Pelham-Clinton, Charles Stapleton, Mrs.

•Pelham-Clinton, Elizabeth

 

Exhibition History

 

•1782—Royal Academy, London, 1782, no. 190, as Portrait of a gentleman skating

•1878—Exhibition of Works by Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Royal Academy, London, 1878, no. 128, as Portrait of W. Grant, Esq., of Congalton, Skating in St. James Park, attributed to Thomas Gainsborough

•1946—American Painting from the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day, Tate Gallery, London, 1946, no. 206

•1963—Style, Truth, and the Portrait, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, 1963, no. 38

•1967—Gilbert Stuart, Portraitist of the Young Republic, 1755-1828, National Gallery of Art; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 1967, no. 8

•1976—American Art: 1750-1800, Towards Independence, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1976, no. 44

•1981—American Portraiture in the Grand Manner: 1720-1920, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1981-1982, no. 21.

•2001—Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven; The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, 2001-2002, no. 35, repro.

•2004—Gilbert Stuart, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art (for the National Portrait Gallery), Washington, D.C., 2004-2005, no. 6, repro.

 

Bibliography

 

•1782—”Candid.” Letter to the Editor. The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser (9 May 1782): 2.

•1782—”Postscript. Account of the Exhibition of Paintings, &c. at the Royal Academy.” St. James Chronicle, or British Evening Post, 2-4 May 1782: 4.

•1782—”Royal Academy, 1782. Fourteenth Exhibition.” The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser (30 April 1782): 3.

•1816—Jouett, Matthew Harris. “Notes Taken by M. H. Jouett while in Boston from Conversations on painting with Gilbert Stuart Esqr.” Manuscript, published in Gilbert Stuart and His Pupils, by John Hill Morgan. New York, 1816: 86, 87.

•1846—Lester, C. Edwards. The Artists of America. New York, 1846: 126.

•1869—Dunlap, William. A History of the Rise and Progress of The Arts of Design in the United States. 2 vols. Reprinted in 3. New York, 1969 (1834): 1:183-184.

•1877—Stuart, Jane. “The Youth of Gilbert Stuart.” Scribner’s Monthly 13, no. 5 (March 1877): 642.

•1878—”The Old Masters at Burlington House. Second Notice.” The Illustrated London News 72, no. 2012 (January 19, 1878): 66.

•1878—”The Old Masters at Burlington House. Third Notice.” The Illustrated London News 72, no. 2013 (January 26, 1878): 91.

•1878—”The Old Masters at the Royal Academy.” Saturday Review 45, no. 1159 (January 12, 1878): 50.

•1879—Mason, George C. The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart. New York, 1879: 187-190.

•1880—”Portraits Painted by Stuart...taken from Mason’s Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart.” In Exhibition of Portraits Painted by Gilbert Stuart. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1880: 41, no. 268.

•1883—Quincy, Josiah. Figures of the Past from the Leaves of Old Journals. 4th ed. Boston, 1883: 84.

•1926—Park 1926, 34, 358-359, no. 343, repro.

•1928—Whitley, William T. Artists and Their Friends in England, 1700-1800. 2 vols. London and Boston, 1928: 2:395-396.

•1932—Whitley, William T. Gilbert Stuart. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1932: 15, 31-36.

•1952 Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 138, color repro., as The Skater.

•1956 Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 50, color repro., as The Skater.

•1957—Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 91.

•1961—Oswald, Arthur. “Our Ancestors on the Ice.” Country Life 129 (9 February 1961): 268-270, repro.

•1964—Mount, Charles Merrill. Gilbert Stuart. New York, 1964: 69-74.

•1966—Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:380, color repro.

•1969—Novak, Barbara. American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism, and the American Experience. 2nd ed. New York, 1979: 32, fig. 1.17.

•1969—Prown, Jules David. American Painting, From its Beginnings to the Armory Show. Geneva, 1969: 47-48.

•1970—American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 106, repro., as The Skater.

•1973—Button, Dick. “The Art of Skating.” Antiques 103, no. 2 (February 1973): 351-362, color repro. on cover.

•1973—Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 135.

•1975—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 380, color repro. 381.

•1978—King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 54, pl. 31.

•1980—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 234, repro.

•1980—Evans, Dorinda. Benjamin West and His American Students. Exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, Washington; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Washington, 1980: 55, 57-58, repro. 59.

•1980—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 10, no. 6, color repro.

•1981—Waterson, Merlin. “Hissing Along the Polished Ice.” Country Life 169 (2 April 1981): repro. 872.

•1981—Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 49, 62, repro. 63.

•1984—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 376, no. 531, color repro.

•1986 McLanathan, Richard. Gilbert Stuart. New York, 1986: color repro. 36, 37, 45-47.

•1986—Pressly, William L. “Gilbert Stuart’s The Skater: An Essay in Romantic Melancholy.” American Art Journal 18, no. 1, 1986: 42-51, fig. 1.

•1987—Pearson, Andrea G. “Gilbert Stuart’s The Skater (Portrait of William Grant) and Henry Raeburn’s The Reverend Robert Walker, D.D., Skating on Duddington Loch: A Study of Sources.” Rutgers Art Review 8 (1987): 55-70, fig. 1.

•1988—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 58-59, no. 6, color repro.

•1990—Crean, Hugh R. Gilbert Stuart and the politics of fine arts patronage in Ireland, 1787-1793; A social and cultural study. Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1990: 55-62.

•1992—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 345, repro.

•1992—National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 214, repro.

•1995—Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 162-169, color repro. 165.

•1997—Hughes, Robert. American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America. New York, 1997: 128, color fig. 81.

•1997—Thomson, Duncan. Raeburn: The Art of Sir Henry Raeburn 1756-1823, Exh. cat. Scottish National Portrait Gallery at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; National Portrait Gallery, London, 1997-1998, p. 90, no. 61, repro.

•1998—Mandel, Corinne. “Melancholy.” In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art, edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:586-588.

•2004—Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 294-295, no. 240, color repro.

•2011—Gopnik, Adam. Winter: Four Windows on the Season. Toronto, 2011: 142-143, color repro.

•2013—Evans, Dorinda. Gilbert Stuart and the Impact of Manic Depression. Burlington, 2013: 162-164, 168 nn. 36 and 37, fig. 11.

•2016—Rather, Susan. The American School: Artists and Status in the Late Colonial and Early National Era. New Haven, 2016: 171-172, color fig. 125.

  

From American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century:

 

1950.18.1 (1051)

 

The Skater (Portrait of William Grant)

 

•1782

•Oil on Canvas, 244.5 × 147.4 (96¼ × 58)

•Andrew W. Mellon Collection

 

Technical Notes

 

The support is a finely woven twill fabric. The top and bottom tacking edges have been unfolded and add about 6 cm to the painting’s height. The lateral tacking margins have been cropped, but cusping remains along these edges. The thin white ground extends to cover the tacking margins, suggesting that the canvas was pre-primed. Much of the preliminary drawing, done loosely with paint and brush, is visible on the surface, having been incorporated into the painting. The paint is thinly applied, except in the sitter’s upper body, face, and collar, and in the sky around his head, where the paint is thicker and its handling more controlled. Many pentimenti are evident, including changes in the figure’s hat, shoulders, tail of the coat on the viewer’s right, and the sitter’s right leg.

 

Abrasion is found in the ice at the sitter’s feet. Crackle is more pronounced near the head, where the paint is thicker, and is especially pronounced to the right of the skater’s thigh. There are pinpoint losses throughout. The painting was lined prior to 1950.

 

Provenance

 

William Grant [d. 1821], Congalton, Scotland, and Cheltenham, England; his son William Grant [d. 1827], Congalton, Scotland, and London; his daughter Elizabeth Grant [Mrs. Charles Pelham-Clinton, d. 1899];1 her son Charles Stapleton Pelham-Clinton [1857-1911], Moor Park, Stroud, Gloucestershire;2 his widow Elizabeth Pelham-Clin ton [d. 1946], London and Holmes Green, Buckinghamshire; her niece and adopted daughter Georgiana Elizabeth May Pelham-Glinton [Mrs. John Stuart Bordewich, b. 1913], London.

 

Exhibited

 

Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1782, no. 190, as Portrait of a gentleman skating. Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1878, no. 128, as Portrait of W. Grant, Esq., of Congalton, Skating in St. James3s Park, attributed to Thomas Gainsborough.3 American Painting from the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day, Tate Gallery, London, 1946, no. 206. Style, Truth and the Portrait, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, 1963, no. 38. Gilbert Stuart, NGA; RISD, 1967, no. 8. American Art: 1750-1800, Towards Independence, YUAG; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1976, no. 44. American Portraiture in the Grand Manner: 1720-1920, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; NGA, 1981-1982, no. 21.

 

In 1782 Gilbert Stuart, a young painter in London, was “suddenly lifted into fame by the exhibition of a single picture,”4 his full-length of William Grant called Portrait of a Gentleman Skating. (The painting was given its present title of The Skater m 1946.) Stuart devised the theme after an outing on the Serpentine river in Hyde Park with Grant, a young Scottish lawyer, who had come for a sitting for a full-length portrait. According to American artist William Dunlap, who heard the story from miniaturist Charles Fraser,

 

Stuart said that he felt great diffidence in undertaking a whole length; but that there must be a beginning, and a day was accordingly appointed for Mr. Grant to sit. On entering the artist’s room, he regretted the appointment, on account of the excessive coldness of the weather, and observed to Stuart, that the day was better suited for skating than sitting for one’s portrait. To this the painter assented, and they both sallied out to their morning’s amusement. Stuart said that early practice had made him very expert in skating. His celerity and activity accordingly attracted crowds on the Serpentine river—which was the scene of their sport. His companion, although a well-made and graceful man, was not as active as himself; and there being a crack in the ice, which made it dangerous to continue their amusement, he told Mr. Grant to hold the skirt of his coat, and follow him off the field. They returned to Mr. Stuart’s rooms, where it occurred to him to paint Mr. Grant in the attitude of skating, with the appendage of a winter scene, in the back ground.5

 

The setting for the portrait is the Serpentine, a popular skating spot in London that was created when Kensington Gardens was landscaped during the reign of George II.6 Grant is dressed completely in black, from his hat and the fur-lined lapels of his coat to his breeches, stockings, and shoes. Behind him to the right two skaters sit at the edge of the ice, putting on their skates, while two other men stand under a tree. In the left background two skaters perform the Salutation, also known as the Serpentine Greeting, while others watch.7 The painting offers a balance of black, gray, and off-white, with slight touches of red on the clothing of the background figures. Stuart’s pupil Matthew Harris Jouett later described the portrait as a “fine contrast of Grant in full black to the snow & grey chilly background.”8 The young lawyer William Grant (d. 1821) was the son of Ludovick Grant of Edinburgh.9 Why he chose Stuart to paint his portrait is not known ; perhaps he was a friend or a distant relative of Stuart’s early London patron Alexander Grant, also a Scot.10 Moderately wealthy, Grant was fond of portraits. George Romney painted him in 1781 and again in 1787, and in 1794 he painted “ Mrs. Grant, “ perhaps Grant’s wife Dorothea Dalrymple, whom he married that year. Grant’s children were painted by John Opie (LaSalle University Art Museum, Philadelphia).11 At his death in 1821, Grant left his heirs a large estate called Congalton, in Scotland, as well as stock in the Bank of England and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

 

The portrait, Stuart’s first full-length, showed his ability to invent new compositions within the tradition of English portraiture, in which standing cross-legged poses had been popular for men’s portraits since the 17405. Its success made it possible for Stuart to move from West’s studio into one of his own. Comparisons between the two American artists by contemporaries were inevitable. When Giuseppi Baretti, an Italian-born lexicographer, author, and friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, saw the painting at West’s before its exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, he commented, according to Dunlap, “What a charming picture ! Who but the great West could have painted such a one ! “ Later, seeing Stuart at work on the painting, he exclaimed, “What, young man, does Mr. West permit you to touch his pictures?” Stuart replied that it was his own painting. Baretti is supposed to have said, “Why, it is almost as good as Mr. West can paint.”12 The close association of the two men’s work is revealed by an undated chalk drawing by West titled Skateing. West, like Stuart, enjoyed a reputation as a good skater, and in this chalk drawing depicted skaters and spectators on the ice at the Serpentine. A skater in the center foreground turns toward the man behind him, who lies on the ice after a fall. To the left, two figures who perform the Serpentine Greeting are virtually identical to the two skaters in the background of Stuart’s portrait of Grant. To the right is a small figure whose pose seems similar to Grant’s; the figure is very sketchy.

 

A reviewer noted Stuart’s relationship to Benjamin West when Stuart exhibited the painting with three others at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1782.

 

Mr. Stuart is in Partnership with Mr. West; where it is not uncommon for Wits to divert themselves with Applications for Things they do not immediately want; because they are told by Mr. West that Mr. Stuart is the only Portrait Painter in the World; and by Mr. Stuart that no Man has any Pretensions in History Painting but Mr. West. After such Authority what can we say of Mr. Stuart’s Painting.13

 

The portrait enchanted visitors who attended the Academy’s exhibition. Horace Walpole, author of Anecdotes of Painting in England (1762-1771), the first history of British art, wrote “very good” next to the entry for the portrait in his copy of the catalogue.14 Stuart overheard the Duke of Rutland on opening day, urging Sir Joshua Reynolds, “I wish you would go to the exhibition with me, for there is a portrait there which you must see, every body is enchanted with it.” When Sir Joshua asked who painted it, the Duke replied, “A young man by the name of Stuart. “15 Visitors and reviewers praised the portrait’s unusual pose and Stuart’s ability with likeness. Sir John Cullum commented on the novelty of the theme in his letter of 1 May 1782 to Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry and Earl of Bristol. “One would have thought that almost every attitude of a single Figure had long been exhausted in this land of portrait painting but one is now exhibited which I recollect not before—it is that of Skating. There is a noble portrait large as life thus exhibited and which produces the most powerful effect.”16 A reviewer for the Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser commented on 30 April that “Stuart and Opie, whose merits were not so generally known, have proved themselves able artists” and praised Stuart for his “striking likenesses.”17 Stuart’s ability to capture a likeness was borne out by Charles Fraser’s later comment to artist William Dunlap that the picture attracted so much comment that Stuart was “afraid to go to the academy to meet the looks and answer the inquiries of the multitude. Mr. Grant went one day to the exhibition, dressed as his portrait represented him; the original was immediately recognized, when the crowd followed him so closely that he was compelled to make his retreat, for every one was exclaiming, ‘There he is, there is the gentleman.’”18

 

Opinion was divided on the technique of the painting. One reviewer said that “Mr. Stuart seldom fails of a Likeness; but wants Freedom of Pencil, and Elegance of Taste.”19 However, the author of a letter in the Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser noted, “ Mr. Stuart… may be said to be an acquisition to the public; his Gentleman seating, No. 190, is reposed, animated and well drawn.”20 And a critic in the London Courant commented on the portrait as Stuart’s first attempt at a full-length. “If we have been informed aright this is the gentleman’s first essay in this branch of the art ; at all events it does honour to his pencil, from the novelty of the design and the neatness of the execution.”21 A commentator in 1795 wrote about Stuart’s early difficulty with a portrait of this size.

 

It is now some years since Stuart the portrait painter … painted a portrait of a Mr. Grant in the action of skating; this portrait was given in so spirited an attitude and with so appropriate a character that when it was exhibited, it established the fame of the artist, of whom his brethren had before that time said he made a tolerable likeness of a face, but as to the figure he could not get below the fifth button.22

 

The combination of the full-length portrait with the act of skating was indeed a novel theme. Stuart appropriately portrayed Grant as a figure skater, the version of the sport popular in England, which emphasized graceful and refined movements, instead of as a Scottish speed skater, which encouraged skill, speed, and competition. Grant wears skates designed for the “small pivots and graceful maneuvers which were essential to the art of figure skating.”23 Robert Jones, in his influential Treatise on Skating (London, 1772), recommended a similar crossedarm pose as “a proper attitude for genteel rolling” (Figure 2).24 Matthew HarrisJouett in 1816 quoted Stuart on “the importance of keeping the figure in its circle of motion, “ giving the example of “his famous skaiting picture of Grant as contrasted with Buckminster Preble who turns his body one way his neck another and his eyes another…. “25

 

The painting is unlike other images of skaters, which belong to the tradition of sporting scenes. They include Irish painter Robert Healy’s Tom Conolly and his Friends Skating (1768, private collection, Ireland), Sir Henry Raeburn’s The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch (c. 1784, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh), Thomas Rowlandson’s watercolor Skaters on the Serpentine of 1784 (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff), and a view by Julius Caesar Ibbetson engraved in 1787 as Winter Amusement; A View in Hyde Park from the Moated Housed Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg’s A Winter Morning, with a Party Skating of 1776 is particularly close to Stuart’s and West’s images in that it shows skating figures similar to those who perform the Serpentine Greeting. And like de Loutherbourg’s scene, Benjamin West’s undated drawing Skateing focuses its action on the popular Serpentine river. In the background is a structure similar to the Cheesecake House, a refreshment lodge that is also seen in the images by Rowlandson and Ibbetson. De Loutherbourg’s scene, which includes portraits of the artist and his wife, the artist’s partner V.M. Picot and others, was the best known of the various images of skaters made before or at the time that Stuart painted his portrait of Grant. It was reproduced by Matthew Boulton’s picture manufactory in Birmingham, England, between 1776 and 1780 by an unusual reproductive process that replicated paintings with their original coloring. In the mid-1780s a cloth merchant and amateur painter named Joseph Booth revived the idea of reproducing the painting by using a “polygraph process.” Numerous color reproductions of de Loutherbourg’s Winter Morning survive.27

 

Art historian William Pressly has proposed an interpretation of The Skater as expressing the theme of melancholy. To Pressly, the “recently revived tradition of the melancholy hero” explains the somber coloration of the painting, the darkly shaded eyes of the skater, and the use of a crossed-arm pose. In this view the painting becomes a self-portrait of Stuart’s own tendency toward melancholy. The snowy setting is appropriate in this theory, since winter was traditionally associated with melancholia.28 One might even suggest that Stuart included himself as the man on the right who stands under a tree. The physiognomy of this spectator, with his long nose and angular chin, closely resembles Stuart’s self-portrait of around 1786. Whether the association of the mood and the season necessarily points to melancholy as the subject of the painting is uncertain, even though the connection of the two was well known at the time and had been developed in verse many years earlier by the English poet James Thomson in his poem “Winter” in The Seasons (1730). “Winter” itself could be the theme, rather than “melancholy.” As Jules Prown has pointed out, “The skater evokes an allegorical image of Winter as one of the Four Seasons. “29 Lines from Thomson’s “Winter” form the caption for a late eighteenth-century English mezzotint titled “Winter,” which shows three warmly dressed figures walking near the Serpentine, where skaters can be seen in the background. “While every work of man is laid at rest, “ they “swoop on sounding skates a thousand different ways” and the “land is madden’d all to joy” (“Winter,” verses 761, 769, 771).30 The allusion to the mood of the season indicates that Stuart had absorbed the highly sophisticated London practice of borrowing from literary works for the subject matter of portraits.

 

Stuart was also absorbing lessons on technique. The portrait is a masterpiece of the late eighteenth-century British style of portraiture, which focuses on the figure, particularly the face, by painting the background with less detail. X-radiography shows that Stuart, when painting Grant’s face, had not yet developed the fully calligraphic brushwork for which he is known in his later paintings. Here he shaped the eyes, nose, mouth, and shadow of the nose by drawing the features with the brush. Later he would not follow the outline of the individual features as closely. Stuart also used more white pigment in the transitional flesh tones than he would in later works. X-radiography suggests, not surprisingly, that Stuart painted the background after completing the figure; the brushstrokes of the clouds mark the outer edges of the hat, face, and shoulders, which were already blocked out and painted. In addition, close examination of the painting reveals changes, or pentimenti, in the hat, shoulders, tail of the coat, and sitter’s right leg, indicating that Stuart did indeed struggle with the challenge inherent in a full-length, a size he rarely agreed to use again in his long career.

 

EGM

 

Notes

 

1.The wills of William Grant and his son (Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh) do not mention the portrait. Burke 1956, 1611, lists Mrs. Pelham-Glinton, the first owner of record, as her father’s only surviving child at the time of her marriage in 1848. Her husband was the second son of Henry Pelham-Glinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle.

2.According to a file note by William P. Campbell (NGA), a label from the 1878 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts is attached to the stretcher and documents this owner and address; see Burke 1956, 1611, for the dates of this and later owners.

3.Royal Academy 1878, unpaginated; Graves 1913, 1:383,3:1275; Graves 1905,71296. For a discussion of the attribution of the portrait in 1878 to Gainsborough, and the Grant family’s research to determine Stuart’s authorship, see Whitley 1932,33-36.

4.Quincy 1883,84, who does not identify the picture.

5.Dunlap 1834, 1:183; Fraser heard the story from Stuart. John Gait had by then published his story about Benjamin West as a skater; see Gait 1820, 2:26-31. Gait told how, when West was a young artist in London in the 17605, his skating skills had brought him to the attention of the English aristocracy. Allen Staley kindly pointed out the similarity of the two anecdotes.

6.Hayes 1990, 64.

7.Button 1973, 354.

8.Jouett 1816, in Morgan, Stuart, 1939, 87; since Jouett never saw the portrait, his description must be a quotation from Stuart.

9.Faculty of Advocates 1944, 90, courtesy of Dr. Louise Yeoman, Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh.

10.Alexander Grant is mentioned in Stuart 1877, 642; see also Stuart 1967,14.

11.Ward and Roberts 1904, 2:63-64. The earlier portrait of Grant by Romney was sold by Georgiana Bordewich, former owner of The Skater, at Christie’s on 22 March 1974 (lot 96) and bought by Léger Galleries; see Léger Galleries 1975, unpaginated, no. 5. Mrs. Bordewich also sold a portrait said to be of Grant by Thomas Hudson (lot 94), 127 by 101.6 cm (50 by 40 inches), and the portrait of his four eldest children, attributed to Opie (lot 95). The portrait of Mrs. Grant remained in Romney’s studio and was sold at Romney’s sale in 1807.

12.Dunlap 1834, 1:183; Jouett referred to Baretti’s “mistaking it for Wests best production” when he recorded Stuart’s comments about painting in 1816; see Jouett 1816, in Morgan, Stuart, 1939, 87.

13.“Postscript. Account of the Exhibition of Paintings, &c. at the Royal Academy,” St. James’s Chronicle, or British Evening Post, 2-4 May 1782, 4.

14.Whitley 1932,32.

15.Dunlap 1834,1:184.

16.Quoted in Whitley 1932,33, and Pressly 1986, 44, from Childe-Pemberton 1925,1:284.

17.“Royal Academy, 1782. Fourteenth Exhibition,” Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, 30 April 1782, 3.

18.Dunlap 1834,1:184.

19.“Postscript. Account of the Exhibition of Paintings, &c. at the Royal Academy,” St. James’s Chronicle, or British Evening Post, 2-4 May 1782, 4.

20.The letter from the correspondent, identified as “Candid,” was published in the Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser on 9 May 1782, 2.

21.Quoted in Whitley 1932, 33, from an unidentified issue.

22.Quoted in Whitley 1932,33, from an unidentified source.

23.Pearson 1987, 59.

24.Pressly 1986, 48; Pearson 1987, 60, 62, fig. 8.

25.Jouett 1816, in Morgan, Stuart, 1939, 86.

26.For three of these paintings see Hayes 1990, 64-66, no. 19, color repro.; and Pearson 1987, 57 fig. 2 and 61 fig. 7.

27.de Loutherbourg 1973, unpaginated, cat. no. 22. Allen Staley kindly pointed out the significance of this image for Stuart’s and West’s works.

28.Pressly 1986, 42-51.

29.Prown 1969, 48.

30.Quoted in Button 1973, 355, fig. 4.

 

References

 

•1782—”Royal Academy, 1782. Fourteenth Exhibition.” Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser. 30 April: 3.

•1782—”Postscript. Account of the Exhibition of Paintings, &c. at the Royal Academy.” St. James’s Chronicle, or British Evening Post. 2-4 May 1782: 4.

•1782—”Candid.” Letter to the Editor. Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser. 9 May: 2.

•1816—Jouett: 86, 87.

•1834—Dunlap: 1:183-184.

•1846—Lester: 126.

•1877—Stuart: 642.

•1878—”The Old Masters at the Royal Academy.” Saturday Review 45, no. 1159 (12 January): 50.

•1878—”The Old Masters at Burlington House. Second Notice.” Illustrated London News 72, no. 2012 (19 January): 66.

•1878—”The Old Masters at Burlington House. Third Notice.” Illustrated London News 72, no. 2013 (26 January): 91.

•1879—Mason: 187-190.

•1880—MFA: 41, no.268.

•1883—Quincy: 84.

•1926—Park: 34, 358-359, no. 343, repro.

•1928—Whitley: 2:395-396.

•1932—Whitley: 15, 31-36.

•1961—Oswald: 268-270, repro.

•1964—Mount: 69-74.

•1969—Prown: 47-48.

•1973—Button: 351-3 62, color cover repro.

•1980—Evans: 55, 57-58, repro. 59.

•1980—Wilmerding: 50, color repro .51.

•1981—Waterson: 872 repro.

•1981—Williams: color repro. 49, 62, repro. 63.

•1984—Walker: 376, no. 531, color repro.

•1986—Pressly: 42-51, fig.1.

•1986—McLanathan: color repro. 36, 37, 45-47.

•1987—Pearson: 55-70, fig. 1.

•1988—Wilmerding: 58-59, color repro.

•1990—Crean: 55-62.

Adam Lindsay Gordon 1833 - 1870.

This great poet, recognised as one of Australia’s greatest, was born in the Azores to English parents in 1833. But by the time he was twenty his father was exasperated with Adam’s hedonistic lifestyle which was frowned upon in Victorian England. Adam Gordon senior secured a position for young Adam with the SA government and Adan Lindsay Gordon arrived at Port Adelaide in 1853. Adam was tall, handsome, moody, and reckless but an excellent horseman and rider. He was appointed as a police trooper at Penola for two years and then from 1855 he broke horses around the Mt Gambier district with some financial backing from this father. In 1857 Adam met Father Tenison Woods and began reading poetry with him. When his mother died in 1859 he received a legacy of £7,000 which he received in 1861. Although profligate with his money he was comfortable with his winnings from steeple chases and horse breaking of thoroughbreds. In 1862 he married Margaret Park a girl of 17 years who was also an excellent horsewoman. So in 1864 he bought Dingley Dell cottage for their home. The cottage was located at Port MacDonnell where he had lived and when the ship the Admella sank at Cape Northumberland in 1859 with the loss of 89 lives Adam was deeply affected by it. In 1869 he wrote a poem about it entitled the Ride from the Wreck. Around 1864 Adam speculated with land investments that failed and this seemed to increase his reckless horse riding exploits. His famous leap over the edge of the Blue Lake at Mt Gambier occurred in July 1864. The monument to this daring feat was erected on that spot in 1887. In January 1865 he was elected to the SA parliament whilst he kept publishing poems and some stories. He became a good friend of John Riddoch of Yallum Park near Penola once he attended parliament. His time in parliament provoked him into more poetry publishing, horse riding and racing and land speculation in Western Australia as well as South Australia. In 1867 he moved to a residence in Mt Gambier for a short time. He published several poems that year and then moved to Ballarat. He rented Craig’s hotel livery stables but his idealism and lack of business acumen soon delivered financial failure. His pretty little Ballarat Cottage is now located in the Ballarat Botanic Gardens. He left Ballarat at the end of 1868 and moved to Melbourne. He continued racing horses and in 1870 had a serious fall whilst racing at Flemington race course. He never fully recovered but managed to publish two works in mid-1870 Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes. When he got the account for publishing the two books he realised he had insufficient money to pay the publishers and he took his own life in June 1870. Although the newspapers speculated he was an alcoholic his friends were all adamant that he seldom drank but he was subject to depression and melancholy. He was buried in the Brighton cemetery in Melbourne and his friends erected a monument on his grave in October 1870. Sadly his prowess as a poet was mainly recognised after his death. In 1932 a statue of him was erected near Parliament House in Melbourne. In 1934 a bust of Adam Lindsay Gordon was placed in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey the Australian poet to have such recognition. British composer Edward Elgar set several of Adam’s poem to music, Queen Elizabeth II quoted lines from one of his poems in her 1992 Christmas broadcast and Australian Post released a stamp honouring Adam Lindsay Gordon in 1970. In 2014 he was inducted into the Australia Jumps Racing Association Gallery of Champions. On his statue in Melbourne are four of his lines:

Life is mainly froth and bubble

Two things stand like stone —

Kindness in another's trouble.

Courage in your own.

Below are some lines from the Ride from the Wreck (of the Admella.)

Look sharp. A large vessel lies jamm’d on the reef,

And many on board still, and some wash’d on shore.

Ride straight with the news—they may send some relief

From the township; and we—we can do little more.

 

You, Alec, you know the near cuts; you can cross

"The Sugarloaf" ford with a scramble, I think;

Don’t spare the blood filly, nor yet the black horse;

Should the wind rise, God help them! the ship will soon sink.

Old Peter’s away down the paddock, to drive

The nags to the stockyard as fast as he can—

A life and death matter; so, lads, look alive.’

 

Sono tante le scuse che ci raccontano per l'avvenimento di tante guerre, ma per lo più i responsabili sono:

Iraq: Petrolio

Israele e Palestina: Territorio, petrolio e acqua

Giordania: Acqua

Turchia: Petrolio, gas naturale e acqua

Yemene: Petrolio, acqua e gas naturale

Marocco: Acqua e oro

Egitto: Acqua

Colombia: Narcotrafico

Mexico: Droga

Somalia: Petrolio

Etiopia: Platino e oro

Congo: Coltan "columbite e tantalite"

Uganda: Petrolio

Sudan: Petrolio

Repubblica Centrafricana: Diamanti

Ciad: Petrolio

Nigeria: Uranio

Algeria: Petrolio, acqua e gas naturale

Ciprio: Acqua e petrolio

Russia nord Caucaso: Petrolio, tungsteno e gas naturale

Afghanista: Litio, oro, petrolio e oppio

Pakistan: Petrolio e gas naturale

India Assam: Petrolio, acqua e gas naturale

India Naxaliti Kashmir: Bauxite, acqua, carbone e uranio

Birmania: Rubini e legno

Thailandia Cambogia: Acqua, legno, rubini e diamanti

Thailandia Pattani: Petrolio, acqua e gas naturale

Filippine: Oro

Corea: Tungsteno e oro

Amazzonia: Legno

 

I giacimenti della terra sono un bene prezioso per tutta l'umanità, ma c'è sempre qualcuno pronto e diventarne padrone e senza pensarci due volte riduce popolazioni alla povertà più estrema, all'abbandono di territori, alla morte di tante anime innocenti e tutto per arricchirsi e diventare il più potente ... tutto questo viene spesso nascosto da idealismi come la religione e patriottico.

... è ora di levarsi la maschera, noi subiamo ma sappiamo.

E vergognatevi, sciacalli.

 

There are many excuses that we tell to the advent of so many wars, but most managers are:

Israel and Palestine: Land, oil and water

Jordan: Water

Turkey: Petroleum, natural gas and water

Yemene: Oil, water and natural gas

Morocco: Water and gold

Egypt: Water

Colombia: Drugs

Mexico: Drug

Somalia: Oil

Ethiopia: Platinum and gold

Congo: Coltan "columbite and tantalite"

Uganda: Oil

Sudan: Oil

Central African Republic: Diamonds

Chad: Oil

Nigeria: Uranium

Algeria: Oil, water and natural gas

Cyprus: Water and oil

Russia North Caucasus: Oil, natural gas and tungsten

AFGHANISTA: Lithium, gold, oil and opium

Pakistan: Oil and natural gas

India Assam: Oil, water and natural gas

India Naxalite Kashmir: Bauxite, water, coal and uranium

Burma: Rubies and wood

Thailand Cambodia: Water, wood, rubies and diamonds

Thailand Pattani: Oil, water and natural gas

Philippines: Gold

Korea: Tungsten and gold

Amazon: Wood

 

The fields of the earth are a valuable asset for the whole of humanity, but there is always someone ready and master it without thinking twice and reduces populations to extreme poverty, abandonment of land, to the death of many innocent souls and all to get rich and become the most powerful ... this is often hidden by idealism as religion and patriotic.

... it's time to take off the mask, but we know we suffer.

And be ashamed, jackals.

 

97/365 Photo Manipulations Project

Adam Lindsay Gordon 1833 - 1870.

This great poet, recognised as one of Australia’s greatest, was born in the Azores to English parents in 1833. But by the time he was twenty his father was exasperated with Adam’s hedonistic lifestyle which was frowned upon in Victorian England. Adam Gordon senior secured a position for young Adam with the SA government and Adan Lindsay Gordon arrived at Port Adelaide in 1853. Adam was tall, handsome, moody, and reckless but an excellent horseman and rider. He was appointed as a police trooper at Penola for two years and then from 1855 he broke horses around the Mt Gambier district with some financial backing from this father. In 1857 Adam met Father Tenison Woods and began reading poetry with him. When his mother died in 1859 he received a legacy of £7,000 which he received in 1861. Although profligate with his money he was comfortable with his winnings from steeple chases and horse breaking of thoroughbreds. In 1862 he married Margaret Park a girl of 17 years who was also an excellent horsewoman. So in 1864 he bought Dingley Dell cottage for their home. The cottage was located at Port MacDonnell where he had lived and when the ship the Admella sank at Cape Northumberland in 1859 with the loss of 89 lives Adam was deeply affected by it. In 1869 he wrote a poem about it entitled the Ride from the Wreck. Around 1864 Adam speculated with land investments that failed and this seemed to increase his reckless horse riding exploits. His famous leap over the edge of the Blue Lake at Mt Gambier occurred in July 1864. The monument to this daring feat was erected on that spot in 1887. In January 1865 he was elected to the SA parliament whilst he kept publishing poems and some stories. He became a good friend of John Riddoch of Yallum Park near Penola once he attended parliament. His time in parliament provoked him into more poetry publishing, horse riding and racing and land speculation in Western Australia as well as South Australia. In 1867 he moved to a residence in Mt Gambier for a short time. He published several poems that year and then moved to Ballarat. He rented Craig’s hotel livery stables but his idealism and lack of business acumen soon delivered financial failure. His pretty little Ballarat Cottage is now located in the Ballarat Botanic Gardens. He left Ballarat at the end of 1868 and moved to Melbourne. He continued racing horses and in 1870 had a serious fall whilst racing at Flemington race course. He never fully recovered but managed to publish two works in mid-1870 Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes. When he got the account for publishing the two books he realised he had insufficient money to pay the publishers and he took his own life in June 1870. Although the newspapers speculated he was an alcoholic his friends were all adamant that he seldom drank but he was subject to depression and melancholy. He was buried in the Brighton cemetery in Melbourne and his friends erected a monument on his grave in October 1870. Sadly his prowess as a poet was mainly recognised after his death. In 1932 a statue of him was erected near Parliament House in Melbourne. In 1934 a bust of Adam Lindsay Gordon was placed in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey the Australian poet to have such recognition. British composer Edward Elgar set several of Adam’s poem to music, Queen Elizabeth II quoted lines from one of his poems in her 1992 Christmas broadcast and Australian Post released a stamp honouring Adam Lindsay Gordon in 1970. In 2014 he was inducted into the Australia Jumps Racing Association Gallery of Champions. On his statue in Melbourne are four of his lines:

Life is mainly froth and bubble

Two things stand like stone —

Kindness in another's trouble.

Courage in your own.

Below are some lines from the Ride from the Wreck (of the Admella.)

Look sharp. A large vessel lies jamm’d on the reef,

And many on board still, and some wash’d on shore.

Ride straight with the news—they may send some relief

From the township; and we—we can do little more.

 

You, Alec, you know the near cuts; you can cross

"The Sugarloaf" ford with a scramble, I think;

Don’t spare the blood filly, nor yet the black horse;

Should the wind rise, God help them! the ship will soon sink.

Old Peter’s away down the paddock, to drive

The nags to the stockyard as fast as he can—

A life and death matter; so, lads, look alive.’

 

What’s the matter with Idealism?

Solo exhibition by Charles Avery at GEM, Museum for Contemporary Art The Hague

 

Charles Avery (1973, Oban, Schotland) is een ontdekkingsreiziger van het ‘ouderwetse’ soort. Al tien jaar werkt hij aan zijn project ‘The Islanders’, waarin hij met behulp van tekeningen, teksten, video, objecten en installaties een fictief eiland in kaart brengt. In Charles Avery - What’s the matter with Idealism? etaleert hij de resultaten van de afgelopen vijf jaar.

 

De tentoonstelling laat bezoekers reizen naar de bruisende hoofdstad Onomatopoeia met haar drukke haven, het stadspark en de toegangspoort tot de onherbergzame wildernis eromheen. Het is een diep uitgedachte fantasiewereld die Charles Avery op allerlei manieren vormgeeft en voedt met filosofische bespiegelingen. Daarbij laat hij zich inspireren door het gedachtegoed van bestaande filosofen en kunstenaars als William Blake en Joseph Beuys. Ook is in Onomatopoeia een discussie gaande over het bestaan van het mythische wezen Noumenon. Ondanks de inspanningen van jagers en avonturiers heeft niemand het beest ooit gezien. De tentoonstelling omvat karakterstudies, objecten en scènes die inzicht geven in de cultuur, de economie en de overtuigingen van de bewoners.

 

Avery’s interesse in literatuur, wiskunde en filosofie zien we op allerlei manieren terug. Zo ontwierp hij bomen voor zijn eiland die qua vorm gebaseerd zijn op wiskundige formules. Mooi, fantasierijk, uiterst gedetailleerd en humorvol zijn de verhalende tekeningen die de basis vormen van zijn project. In de loop der jaren heeft hij zijn ideeën en technieken verder uitgebreid, is het formaat van zijn tekeningen groter geworden en het kleurgebruik divers. Met veel aandacht voor details creëert Avery zo een meeslepend verhaal, als beschouwer ga je bijna op in zijn wereld.

 

Met ‘The Islanders’ wil Charles Avery geen utopie neerzetten. Het eiland is een fictieve samenleving, die op verschillende manieren een spiegel vormt voor de onze. Zo is de eindeloze wijsgerige discussie die op het eiland gaande is een humoristische verwijzing naar de praktijk van de filosofie en is de relatie van het eiland met haar voormalige overheerser Triangland te lezen als een politieke metafoor. Door het eiland als overkoepelend thema van zijn kunstenaarschap te nemen, geeft Avery zichzelf bovendien de vrijheid om met uiteenlopende materialen te werken.

  

Charles Avery (b. 1973, Oban, Scotland) is an explorer of the ’old-fashioned’ kind. For the last decade he has been hard at work on his project ’The Islanders’, using drawings, texts, video, objects and installations to create a portrait of a fictional island. Charles Avery – What’s the matter with Idealism? showcases the results of the last five years of his project.

 

The exhibition will transport visitors to Onomatopoeia; bustling port, main town and gateway to the island’s great wilderness: one time colonial outpost turned boomtown, turned depression-ravaged slum and regenerated city of culture and tourist destination.

 

The island is a carefully considered fictional world described by Charles Avery in a multitude of different ways and nourished by philosophical reflection. The project is inspired by the ideas of real-life philosophers and artists such as William Blake and Joseph Beuys. For example, there is an ongoing debate in Onomatopoeia about the existence of a mythical being called the Noumenon, which – despite the best efforts of hunters and adventurers – nobody has ever glimpsed. The exhibition will include character studies, objects and scenes that give an insight to the culture, economy and beliefs of the Onomatopoeians.

 

His interest in literature, mathematics and philosophy is apparent throughout his work. For example, Avery has designed trees for his island, the forms of which are based on numerical patterns. The narrative drawings that form the basis of his oeuvre are skilfully rendered, highly imaginative, extremely detailed and full of humour. Over the years Avery has developed an ever-growing vocabulary of ideas, characters, architecture and techniques, enabling him to portray this ’other country’. With increasing conviction, coherence and attention to detail, he creates a compelling and immersive narrative that the viewer can identify with and inhabit.

 

The world Charles Avery depicts in ’The Islanders’ is not intended to be a utopia. The island is a fictive society, which, in various ways, holds up a mirror to our own. For example, ’The Eternal Dialectic’ (the given name of the endless philosophical argument that smolders throughout the bars and salons of the town) is a reflection on our own pursuit of knowledge, understanding of the concept of truth and our beliefs in its attainability.

 

By taking the island as the overarching theme of his artistic oeuvre, Avery also gives himself the freedom to work with a wide range of media and ideas.

I found this at the internet archives. I thought it would

make a nice Thanksgiving greeting...

 

I enlarged the image, layered it and sharpened

it to bring out some of the detail.

 

Norman Rockwell is regarded as one of the best

illustrators, or graphic designers of his day.

 

This is one of his most popular works.

 

Below is a link to his Wiki entry:

 

Norman Rockwell.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends and contacts on Flickr.

 

My deepest gratitude to all of you...Rob Goldstein

Leica M6

Summicron-M 1:2/35mm ASPH

Fuji Provia 100F + 81a filter

"It was the tension between these two poles — a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other — that kept me going."

 

--Hunter S. Thompson

Me, Larry and Louise.

 

Negotiating a broken light socket fitting, jutting out into the hallway, and an overturned plastic chair blocking what looked an otherwise disused stairwell, we made our way up to the hostel on the first floor.

 

Osama had driven us to the hostel through the wet evening streets of Nablus in his beaten up Peugeot, all the while frantically gesticulating, trying to impress on us the severity of the situation in this city, perhaps seeing us as his or Nablus’s only chance to share a Palestinian perspective with some internationals. With one eye on the road and one arm on the back of the passenger seat, turning to talk to us in the back seat, Osama told us of the closures, the curfews, the checkpoints and the difficulty of moving about freely. Between narrowly avoiding oncoming cars as he occasionally veered into the opposite lane he told us of the nightly Israeli military incursions, the rocket attacks on the refugee camps, the shootings and assassinations, the house demolitions, the funerals and the loss of innocent lives. But for all we were told perhaps the most upsetting thing for me was to see this desperate attempt to squeeze as much information as possible into what was no more than a 10 minute car journey. Most, if not all, Palestinians have shocking stories to tell, and are more than willing to share their opinions about the occupation and the hardship it has created, but nowhere as much as Nablus have I felt that this to be a need and certainly never one so desperate. Osama questioned us, “What life is this? Where is my dignity? Where is my dignity? And what of my son? What life is there for him?” We had no answers. All we could do was sit solemnly and nod, the windscreen wipers jolting back and forth as we continued through the wet streets. My mind wandering, I remembered that very morning when we had come through Hawara checkpoint, just to the south of the city. As we passed through wire mesh walkways, not unlike the pens used for livestock herding before a final despatching at the abattoir, and crossed a wasteland to where Nablus bound minibus taxis waited in muddy pot-holed car park, I watched an old lady, perhaps of grandmother age, tiptoe through sloppy mud to a wheel spinning taxi, its back end sliding out down the slippery dirt mounds. The old lady hitched her traditional style black embroidered dress, at the same time trying to pass her plastic bagged wares to a fellow passenger, finally being dragged aboard before the mud sprayed taxi bounced and skidded off across the wasteland rank. I thought of my own grandmother in a similar scenario, humbled by the relative immobility of old age and humiliated by a blind oppressive system that continues to punish the innocent in ways that are slowly becoming an excepted norm. While the Palestinians continue to put up with life as it is, to see it anew with an outsiders perspective is shocking. It simply isn’t right. Osama’s question came back to me then as it always will whenever the immense disparity between freedom and oppression makes itself even subtly apparent. Where is the dignity? What life is this?

 

The hostel’s reception desk, tucked away in a dingy corner of a strip lit room, was dead apart from where between nicotine yellowed walls the proprietor sat, stooped over a cigarette and a game of cards with another of the guests. A television set flickered and chattered away, ignored in the corner, and from an ashtray on the card table a column of Brownian smoke rose from the lodger’s unstubbed butt. Creaking out of his low chair, and shuffling across the room he took a key from the wall behind the desk and beckoned us to follow him. The better of the two rooms we were shown had what looked to be a relatively new a bullet-hole in the window. Broken reflected light from the florescent on the rear wall accentuated the fissures emanating from the crude hole, and a dent in the opposite wall betrayed the bullets trajectory. “Don’t worry.” Osama told us, “It’s just a stray bullet, probably from children throwing stones at soldiers from the roof.” With that and a recommendation that we didn’t go out, just to be on the safe side, Osama left us. Deciding on a supermarket purchased bread and hommous dinner and an early night, we took Osama’s advice.

 

Later, back in the smoke-filled reception room I sat with Samer, a construction worker from Hebron, in the south of the West Bank. Over the game of cards he continued to play with the proprietor, communicating in broken Arabic and English I learnt that he had no choice but to stay in the hostel during the week due to the difficulty in travel between Hebron and Nablus. Hebron would be just an hours drive away, unhindered, but with at least three main Israeli military checkpoints, and the further possibility of “flying checkpoints”, a system of permanent structures manned only on what seems a random basis, travel has become extremely difficult with no guarantee of reaching work on time, if at all. This, coupled to the rise in oil prices and the longer tortuous routes Palestinians are forced to take around any Israeli territory, including the illegal West Bank settlements, has become a serious issue for travel between all of the West Bank’s major cities and regions. This inefficiency of flow through the West Bank, these restrictive measures upon money, trade and people, has to be looked upon as a very shrewd move by Israel that has a very predictable outcome; a slow death for the Palestinian economy and a gradual chipping away at any chance of a viable Palestinian state. Looked at in terms of Nature, impeding blood circulation between body organs is a sure fire way of killing any organism.

 

At least the closures and checkpoints benefit hostels. The dribs and drabs of tourists though Nablus are certainly too few to keep the hostel industry afloat. In the centre of the city the tourist information centre is now used as mission control for Nablus’s street cleaning operations. We dropped in just to share the fact of our tourist status only to be met with apparent confusion and asked if we wanted the Turkish Bath, Nablus’s biggest attraction. When we again tried to make ourselves understood, we were just met with a shaking head, a smile, and asked if we wanted tea.

 

Just a short walk through the bustling new city reveals obvious signs of ongoing violence. Bullet dents in shops’ steel shutters, shattered, bullet pierced windows in some of the high rise buildings, bill board sized posters of young and proud Kalashnikov toting “militants”, the latest to be killed or assassinated by the Israeli military; one even of a father with his arm around the shoulder of, presumably, his son, not older than 12 years old and bearing an AK47 machine gun. In the old city, these “martyr” bill posters can be found on every free wall and shop shutter, the older sunlight faded faces progressively covered with those of new victims. I can’t help but feel that these serious posters lend further an underlying oppressive air to the everyday comings and goings of an otherwise culturally peaceful society. While I understand the natural principle of action and reaction, these young militants must understand that their activity can only ever at best be a gesture of resistance, never the real thing.

 

Due to its geographical location in the mountainous north of the West Bank, Nablus was at one time a stronghold of the West Bank Palestinian resistance whose militants posed a real problem to Israeli troops during the second Intifada. Now, however, the grinding occupation, closure, siege, and continuing violence has seen this resistance all but crushed, and large parts of the city’s infrastructure damaged with little hope of near future repair. The destruction that Israel has caused the city, both infrastructurally and socially, in retaliation for the actions of relatively few Palestinian militants really amounts to a collective punishment of the city’s population, a population that still live in fear of nightly Israeli military incursions, and even, as a visiting friend experienced last year, sonic boundary breaking Israeli fighter jets flying just hundreds of feet above Nablus city rooftops. I hate to think of the effect these deafening sonic booms have upon the developing inner ear of any young child. Beyond 10 o’clock in the evening the city’s streets are abandoned to Israeli soldiers and whoever they manage to taunt into a showdown. In the narrow alleyways of the old city, Israeli soldiers have been known, locals say, to shout out to anyone in range, “Mujahideen. Show yourselves and fight.” Any rise, usually from stone throwing youths, will be met with live ammunition and more often than not new statistics to add to the ever growing discrepancy between Israeli and Palestinian casualties. The fight, slowly but surely, is becoming a one sided campaign that not only represents continued harassment of the local Palestinian population and provokes disenfranchised youths into bloody confrontations; this fight is even further polarising the impressionable minds of teenage Israeli soldiers, youths that grow up believing popular right wing media and what life in the military instils – hatred for a perceived enemy.

 

Earlier in the day I had visited Al Lod Charitable Society in Nablus’s Asker refugee camp. Asker camp along with the infamous “Balata”, are among the most frequently targeted areas on the Israeli military’s agenda, and where any trouble can rapidly escalate. These camps are the usual sites of stone, Molotov cocktail, and gunfire exchange between angry yet apathetic Palestinian youths in disbelief of their ability to affect social change through peaceful means, and young indoctrinated Israeli soldiers. It was, in fact, the riot in Balata camp following the funeral of a youth killed by an Israeli sniper in 2000, that is partly attributed to the sparking of the second Intifada. I had been sent to photograph some of the donations and projects funded by Muslim Aid UK, an NGO that channels money, food, and education to Al Lod and similar organisations. I sat with Jamal in his office at the Al Lod centre while, over a cup of tea, he showed me some of the centre’s work: charitable donations of meat and money during the Eid festival; computer and Internet facilities for the surrounding camp neighbourhoods; educational and school materials for local children; even a “Charitable Cheese Project”, distributing 400 tons of cheese to camp residents. Besides charitable donations the centre is also involved in art workshop programs that help children deal with internalised emotional issues. Jamal showed me a collection of some of the art produced. One workshop was based around each child producing two drawings; one of a world in which the children would like to live, and one with life as it is in the camp. Flicking through the pages I was met time and time again with the same, or similar images; the idealism of young minds, rainbowed pastures and sunny hillsides, large rabbits eating carrots from a child’s outstretched hand, kite flying and park scenes – nothing materialistic, simple desires. Contrasting these images to the scenes of perceived camp life, green men chain-sawing trees, tanks demolishing homes, barbed wire, walls, rocket launchers, and war planes, a faceless brutality, it is austerely apparent that the occupation is forging young minds warped to the extremity. As I played with local children, called in off the streets to model for a impromptu photo shoot, some of whom had probably produced the drawings I had seen, I realised that these are the Palestinians in need of real help. These are the children whose only contact with Israelis is with armed soldiers sent to demolish a neighbour’s house, or arrest and drag away a youth in the middle of the night. These are the children amongst which real seeds of anger are being sown. All the while Israel is busy tackling its own perceived “security threat”, it is in the process of creating another perhaps more real future threat. If this brutal contact between Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers, this inequality, is propagated much further into the future, Israel will only respond with ever more extreme measures; measures that will not only further escalate violence, but measures that will portray the State of Israel’s already tainted human rights track record as beyond all international acceptance. This further alienation of an already insecure state is not only dangerous; it is far from being in the global community’s interests. Without concerted effort and political pressure, Israel is itself in danger of becoming a “rogue” state.

 

That night, as I lay in bed, I could hear the distant bangs and echoes of stun grenades and bullet split air reverberate up and down streets and alleyways. Jeeps passed by outside, given away by the whirring of off-road tyres on tarmac, and their familiar throaty engine tone. I could not help but think that, in the morning, after sleep has come to us all, maybe, just maybe in those awakening moments, before the reality of the world we live in comes flooding back, before all the complex interactions that have formed the evolution of our social structures, there is a moment when all is well, when peace seems the only possible way, and every sole is equal. If only we could hold on to this innocence and let it permeate into our day.

       

American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, N.Y.,no. ES 3, 1979. Photo: Edward Steichen / International Museum of Photography / George Eastman House. Paul Robeson in The Emperor Jones (Dudley Murphy, 1933).

 

Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was a handsome, eloquent, and highly charismatic actor and singer, who became one of the foremost interpreters of Eugene O'Neill's plays and one of the most treasured names in song during the first half of the twentieth century. With his powerful bass singing voice, Robeson made an evergreen of the song 'Old Man River'. He starred in The Emperor Jones (1933), the first film to feature an African American in a starring role. At the height of his popularity in the 1930s, Robeson became a major box office attraction in British films. In the USA, he courted disdain and public controversy for most of his career as a staunch Cold War-era advocate for human rights, as well as his very vocal support for Joseph Stalin and the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. While the backlash of his civil rights activities and left-wing ideology left him embittered and practically ruined his career, he remains today a durable symbol of racial pride and consciousness.

 

Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1898. His siblings were William, Benjamin, Reeve, and Marian Robeson. Their father, William Drew Robeson, was a humble Presbyterian minister and former slave. In 1900, a disagreement between William and white financial supporters of the Witherspoon church arose with apparent racial undertones. William, who had the support of his entirely black congregation, resigned in 1901. The loss of his position forced him to work menial jobs. The young, impressionable Paul grew up singing spirituals in his father's church. He was only six when he and his four siblings, William, Benjamin, Reeve, Marian, lost their mother, Maria Louisa Bustill, a schoolteacher. She was nearly blind and died in a stove fire accident at home. His father then raised the family singlehandedly. Paul was a natural athlete and the tall, strapping high school fullback had no trouble earning a scholarship to prestigious Rutgers University in 1915. At the age of 17, he became only the third member of his race to be admitted at the time. He excelled in football, baseball, basketball, and track, and field, and was the class valedictorian. In his speech, he was already preaching idealism. Paul subsequently played professional football to earn money while attending Columbia University's law school, and also took part in amateur dramatics. During this time he met and married Eslanda Cardozo Goode in 1921. She eventually became his personal assistant. Following graduation, he obtained work at a New York law firm, but quit when a stenographer refused to copy a memo, telling him, "I never take diction from a n*****." His wife persuaded him to play Simon in Ridgely Torrence's 'Simon the Cyrenian' at the Harlem YMCA in 1921. This was followed by his Broadway debut the following year as Jim in Mary Hoyt Wiborg's play 'Taboo', a drama set in Africa, which also went to London. As a result, he was asked to join the Provincetown Players, a Greenwich Village theatre group that included in its membership playwright Eugene O'Neill. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "O'Neill personally asked Paul to star in his plays 'All God's Chillun Got Wings' and 'The Emperor Jones' in 1924. The reaction from both critics and audiences alike was electrifying...an actor was born." In 1925, he sang the first concert recital consisting solely of black spirituals, at the Greenwich Village Theatre in New York. That year, he also made his film debut starring in Body and Soul (Oscar Micheaux, 1925). Gary Brumburgh: "a rather murky melodrama that nevertheless was ahead of its time in its depictions of black characters. Although Robeson played a scurrilous, corrupt clergyman who takes advantage of his own people, his dynamic personality managed to shine through." Radio and recordings helped spread his name across foreign waters. His resonant bass was a major highlight in the London production of Jerome Kern's and Oscar Hammerstein II's 'Show Boat'. The role of Joe, the deckhand, was written for him, but because of schedule conflicts and Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.'s delay in putting on the show, he had been unable to star in the first stage production but played the role in London five months later. His rendition of "Ol' Man River" became the benchmark for all future performers of the song. In 1928, he made the second-ever recording of 'Ol' Man River'. (Bing Crosby did the first). Show Boat continued for 350 performances. At the time no U.S. company would hire Robeson and so, he remained in London to play the role of William Shakespeare's 'Othello' in 1930. Paul caused a slight stir by co-starring opposite a white actress, Peggy Ashcroft, who played Desdemona. After his wife Essie discovered Robeson had been having an affair with Ashcroft, she decided to seek a divorce and they split up. Around this time Robeson starred in the film Borderline (Kenneth MacPherson, 1930), a silent film that dealt strongly with racial themes. Stephen Bourne at BFI Screen-on-Line: "Black characters in American cinema of the period rarely moved beyond Al Jolson in blackface, or the dim-witted buffoons played by comedy actors like Stepin Fetchit. For the ambitious Robeson, there were hardly any opportunities to play challenging roles." In 1931, he returned to the stage in the O'Neill play 'The Hairy Ape'. The following year he appeared in a Broadway revival of 'Show Boat' again as Joe, to critical and popular acclaim. In the same production, Helen Morgan repeated her original 1927 performance as the half-caste role of Julie, but the white actress Tess Gardella played the role of Queenie in her customary blackface opposite Robeson. In 1932, Ashcroft and Robeson's relationship ended. Robeson and Essie reconciled, although their relationship was scarred permanently.

 

Throughout the 1930s, Paul Robeson spent most of his time singing and performing in England. He also was given the opportunity to recapture two of his greatest stage successes on film: The Emperor Jones (Dudley Murphy, 1933) and Show Boat (James Whale, 1936), with Irene Dunne, Helen Morgan, and Hattie McDaniel. His performance of 'Old Man River' in this film version of Show Boat became legendary, both for its quality and for Robeson’s purposeful changing of the lyrics "I'm tired of livin' and 'feared of dyin’" to the more activist "I must keep fightin' until I'm dying". In Britain, he played Bosambo in Sanders of the River (Zoltan Korda, 1935), which he felt would render a realistic view of colonial African culture. It made Robeson an international film star. Stephen Bourne: "When Robeson became a major star in British films in the mid-1930s, he negotiated for roles that projected a positive image of a black man, roles that broke away from one-dimensional and offensive racial stereotypes. But he often found himself in conflict with an industry that glorified the British Empire and colonialism. This was certainly the case with his first commercial film, Sanders of the River (d. Zoltan Korda, 1935), one of a cycle of imperial adventures produced by Alexander Korda for London Films."Robeson also appeared in such British films as Song of Freedom (J. Elder Wills, 1936), King Solomon's Mines (Robert Stevenson, Geoffrey Barkas, 1937), Jericho (Thornton Freeland, 1937), and The Proud Valley (Pen Tennyson, 1940), set in a Welsh coal-mining town. After returning to America, Robeson played a sharecropper in a segment of the Hollywood movie Tales of Manhattan (Julien Duvivier, 1942) but, after the film was released, he was criticised for perpetuating a racist stereotype. Robeson agreed with his critics and volunteered to join protestors outside cinemas where the film was being shown. He said he wouldn't make any more films until there were better roles for blacks. During the 1930s he gravitated strongly towards economics and politics with a burgeoning interest in social activism. In 1934 he made the first of several trips to the Soviet Union and outwardly extolled the Soviet way of life and his belief that it lacked racial bias, despite the Holodomor and the later Rootless Cosmopolitan Campaign. He was a popular figure in Wales where he became personally involved in their civil rights affairs, notably the Welsh miners. Developing a marked leftist ideology, he continued to criticize the blatant discrimination he found so prevalent in America. In 1939, he premiered Earl Robinson’s multi-ethnic cantata 'Ballad for Americans' on CBS radio, which he would eventually perform in twenty-five languages. In addition to his creative work, Robeson used his personal prominence to push for social and political reform. He supported the Spanish partisans against Franco’s fascist Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, raised funds for refugees from Hitler’s Germany well before such activities were fashionable, and organized a coalition that challenged President Truman to support an anti-lynching law in 1945. The 1940s was a mixture of performance triumphs and poignant, political upheavals. While his title run in the musical drama 'John Henry' (1940), was short-lived, he earned widespread acclaim for his Broadway 'Othello' in 1943 opposite José Ferrer as Iago and Uta Hagen as Desdemona. This production is still the longest-running non-musical production of a Shakespeare play ever to be staged in the United States, due almost entirely to Robeson's enormous popularity. He appeared in a World War II-era U.S. Government War Department propaganda film, Easy to Get, aimed at combating the spread of venereal diseases among black soldiers. In the film, Robeson appears at the end in his capacity as a celebrity football star and singer to advise viewers to stay "clean". By this time, however, Robeson was being reviled by much of white America for his outspoken civil rights speeches against segregation and lynchings, particularly in the South. A founder of the Progressive Party, an independent political party, his outdoor concerts sometimes ignited violence and he was now a full-blown target for "Red Menace" agitators. In 1946, he denied under oath being a member of the Communist Party but steadfastly refused to refute the accusations under subsequent probes. His continued support for the Soviet Union became even more controversial after Stalin publicly turned against Israel in November 1948. As a result, his passport was withdrawn and he became engaged in legal battles for nearly a decade in order to retrieve it. Adding fuel to the fire was his only son's (Paul Jr.) marriage to a white woman in 1949 and his being awarded the Stalin Peace Prize in 1952. He was unable to receive it until 1958 when his passport was returned to him.

 

Paul Robeson was essentially blacklisted, and tainted press statements continued to hound him. He began performing less and less in America. Despite his growing scorn towards America, he never gave up his American citizenship although the anguish of it all led to a couple of suicide attempts, nervous breakdowns, and a dependency on drugs. Europe was a different story. The people continued to hold him in high regard as an artist above reproach. He had a command of about 20 languages and wound up giving his last acting performance in Tony Richardson's production of 'Othello' at Stratford-on-Avon in 1959. Although he did give a few interviews on television, he never played any dramatic or musical roles in that medium. In 1960, in what was his final concert performance in Great Britain, Robeson sang to raise money for the Movement for Colonial Freedom at the Royal Festival Hall. In October 1960, Robeson embarked on a two-month concert tour of Australia and New Zealand with Essie. While in Sydney, he became the first major artist to perform at the construction site of the future Sydney Opera House. Back in London, Robeson expressed a desire to return to the United States and participate in the civil rights movement, while his wife argued that he would be unsafe there and "unable to make any money" due to government harassment. His health suddenly took a turn for the worse and he finally returned to the United States in 1963. His poet/wife Eslanda Robeson died of cancer two years later. Double pneumonia and a kidney blockage in 1965 nearly killed Robeson too. Robeson moved in with his son's family in New York City. He remained in poor health for pretty much the rest of his life. His last years were spent in Harlem at his sister's house in near-total isolation, denying all interviews and public correspondence. At a Carnegie Hall tribute to mark his 75th birthday in 1973, he was unable to attend, but a taped message from him was played that said: "Though I have not been able to be active for several years, I want you to know that I am the same Paul, dedicated as ever to the worldwide cause of humanity for freedom, peace, and brotherhood." In 1976, Paul Robeson died at age 77 of complications from a stroke. He was interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Among his many honours: he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1995; he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998; was honored with a postage stamp during the 'Black Heritage' series, and both a Cultural Center at Penn State University and a high school in Brooklyn bear his name. In 1995 his autobiography 'Here I Stand' was published in England in 1958. His son, Paul Robeson Jr., also chronicled a book about his father, 'Undiscovered Paul Robeson: An Artist's Journey' in 2001. When appearing before HUAC, the Committee asked him why he didn't relocate to Russia. He replied: "Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay right here and have a part of it just like you."

 

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Stephen Bourne (BFI Screen-on-Line), Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr. (AllMusic), Find A Grave, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

A National Historic Landmark

Santa Clara County, CA

Listed: 11/07/1978

Designated an NHL: 06/29/89

 

Hanna-Honeycomb was Wright’s first work in the San Francisco region. It is the first and best example of his innovative "hexagonal design" where the rooms flow together and, except for the kitchen and the baths, every room opens to extensive terraces and the outdoors. These concrete terraces connect with the water cascade and pools, the simmer house, the carport, the guest house and the hobby shop. The house has been widely published and photographed and retains the highest level of integrity.

 

In spite of the seeming logical, mathematical plan of this house, Wright's work is basically romantic in spirit. Its free form and open planning in a house that really brought the outside in, with space that flowed easily throughout the structure place him squarely in an American tradition. He deplored the junk of technology and demanded a better balance between the realities of the developers' plans and the need for a better way of life. He insisted on idealism and made it work.

 

The Hanna house was designed for Paul R. Hanna and his wife Jean, both well known educators and for many years associated with Stanford University and the Hoover Institute. The project was begun while they were a young married couple and was expanded and added to over their professional careers. After living in the house for 38 years, the Hannas gave the property to Stanford University.

 

Wright designed over 500 hones and public buildings that were either admired by or scandalized other architects. Even his critics credit Wright and admit that his best work ranks him as one of the greatest of contemporary architects.

 

National Register of Historic Places

 

National Historic Landmarks

United way of self-deprecation.

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Dingley Dell and Adam Lindsay Gordon 1833 - 1870.

This great poet, recognised as one of Australia’s greatest, was born in the Azores to English parents in 1833. But by the time he was twenty his father was exasperated with Adam’s hedonistic lifestyle which was frowned upon in Victorian England. Adam Gordon senior secured a position for young Adam with the SA government and Adan Lindsay Gordon arrived at Port Adelaide in 1853. Adam was tall, handsome, moody, and reckless but an excellent horseman and rider. He was appointed as a police trooper at Penola for two years and then from 1855 he broke horses around the Mt Gambier district with some financial backing from this father. In 1857 Adam met Father Tenison Woods and began reading poetry with him. When his mother died in 1859 he received a legacy of £7,000 which he received in 1861. Although profligate with his money he was comfortable with his winnings from steeple chases and horse breaking of thoroughbreds. In 1862 he married Margaret Park a girl of 17 years who was also an excellent horsewoman. So in 1864 he bought Dingley Dell cottage for their home. The cottage was located at Port MacDonnell where he had lived and when the ship the Admella sank at Cape Northumberland in 1859 with the loss of 89 lives Adam was deeply affected by it. In 1869 he wrote a poem about it entitled the Ride from the Wreck. Around 1864 Adam speculated with land investments that failed and this seemed to increase his reckless horse riding exploits. His famous leap over the edge of the Blue Lake at Mt Gambier occurred in July 1864. The monument to this daring feat was erected on that spot in 1887. In January 1865 he was elected to the SA parliament whilst he kept publishing poems and some stories. He became a good friend of John Riddoch of Yallum Park near Penola once he attended parliament. His time in parliament provoked him into more poetry publishing, horse riding and racing and land speculation in Western Australia as well as South Australia. In 1867 he moved to a residence in Mt Gambier for a short time. He published several poems that year and then moved to Ballarat. He rented Craig’s hotel livery stables but his idealism and lack of business acumen soon delivered financial failure. His pretty little Ballarat Cottage is now located in the Ballarat Botanic Gardens. He left Ballarat at the end of 1868 and moved to Melbourne. He continued racing horses and in 1870 had a serious fall whilst racing at Flemington race course. He never fully recovered but managed to publish two works in mid-1870 Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes. When he got the account for publishing the two books he realised he had insufficient money to pay the publishers and he took his own life in June 1870. Although the newspapers speculated he was an alcoholic his friends were all adamant that he seldom drank but he was subject to depression and melancholy. He was buried in the Brighton cemetery in Melbourne and his friends erected a monument on his grave in October 1870. Sadly his prowess as a poet was mainly recognised after his death. In 1932 a statue of him was erected near Parliament House in Melbourne. In 1934 a bust of Adam Lindsay Gordon was placed in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey the Australian poet to have such recognition. British composer Edward Elgar set several of Adam’s poem to music, Queen Elizabeth II quoted lines from one of his poems in her 1992 Christmas broadcast and Australian Post released a stamp honouring Adam Lindsay Gordon in 1970. In 2014 he was inducted into the Australia Jumps Racing Association Gallery of Champions. On his statue in Melbourne are four of his lines:

Life is mainly froth and bubble

Two things stand like stone —

Kindness in another's trouble.

Courage in your own.

Below are some lines from the Ride from the Wreck (of the Admella.)

Look sharp. A large vessel lies jamm’d on the reef,

And many on board still, and some wash’d on shore.

Ride straight with the news—they may send some relief

From the township; and we—we can do little more.

 

You, Alec, you know the near cuts; you can cross

"The Sugarloaf" ford with a scramble, I think;

Don’t spare the blood filly, nor yet the black horse;

Should the wind rise, God help them! the ship will soon sink.

Old Peter’s away down the paddock, to drive

The nags to the stockyard as fast as he can—

A life and death matter; so, lads, look alive.’

 

Tahirih was the returned Christ Spirit who animated the Bab (meaning Gate), marking the beginning of humanity taking its upward flight towards spiritual evolution. Today we can all be letters of the Living (essences who recognize the Primal Point of ascension)

 

Throughout time humanity has made use of sacred symbols which contain the Mysteries of Life. Often the secrets these symbols have contained were only known to a few. In this day the hidden truths of these symbols are being made known to all as this time marks the beginning of humanity’s ascension, and the capacity of humanity to comprehend the hidden meanings has increased. Thus symbols are being recombined and integrated into a synergy to form new representations of meaning. As such, in this Second Cycle of Tahirih in the Cycle of Balance, we have a new sacred motif.

 

EXPLANATIONS

As a background to the meanings in the Tahirih Path Symbology let us keep in mind that “Tahirih” means “Pure”. Her effect was so purifying that people would bring their food to her to purify before they ate. Also, let us keep in mind that the first part of Her title “Taa” according to the Abjad numbering system equates to the sacred number “9” (unity, fulfillment and harmony). As we move through the explanations of the symbol, we will see other correlations.

 

The “Tau” Symbol

There are two “Tau” representations within the Tahirih Path Sacred Symbol, both having various meanings. One is the base of the triangle with the connecting vertical line that moves to the point of the pyramid; the other is the vertical line which connects with the nine-pointed star atop the pyramid. I will explain some of their primary functions in the Tahirih symbol.

The Tau shape comes from the nineteenth letter of the Greek alphabet (T) and in ancient times was considered the symbol of life. It forms a cross that is associated with the ancient Egyptians, Druids, Christians, and Freemasons. In Freemasonry a circle which means eternity is combined with it as a sign of immortality. The Ankh is also a form of the Tau. It can be seen in the following imagery: The Crucifix, The Eucharistic Chalice, The Monstrance (sign of Christ), The Hawk of Horus, The Tree of Knowledge, The Cabalistic Tree, the Menorah, The Rosy Cross, The Bohdi Tree, The Hindu Tree of Life and Knowledge (symbol of the divine life of the Universe), The Caduceus (symbol of healing and the physician’s Hermetic art).

 

There are stages of mind inclusive in the Tau symbol and the continuation of life. The vertical line represents the inner nature of the individual intelligence. When the top bar is at the top it insures the individual an ongoing of soul or eternal life. The Top bar in Tahirih iconography is the nine-pointed star which forms the Tau or Tree of Life.

 

The bottom line of the pyramid connecting with the vertical line of the Tau in the Tahirih Symbol is more in conformity with Rudolph Steiner’s explanation in his book the Temple Legend (pp 148-165). It is the top half of the cross indicating humankind as a whole ascending away from materiality. The bottom line in this explanation is the animal cycle, and was a necessary interim cycle before beginning humanity’s ascension in what the Hopi Indians call the cycle of the human (‘hu’ meaning spirit in ‘man’). Thus the bottom of the cross symbolizing the descent of man into materiality has now come to a close. Of course this was one of the major functions of Tahirih’s appearance – to signal the closing of the past and open the Path to humanity’s Shift towards ‘Spirit’.

 

The Tau is perhaps the oldest known symbol, one that is related to ‘resurrection’ through ‘immersion’. One of the earliest examples is that of the ancient continent of Mu, as spoken of by Colonel J. Churchward in his book “The Lost Continent”. As we know land surfaces have all been under water at one time or another before being purified and then resurrected to become a new creation. So we see ‘purification’ is an important process for humanity.

 

The Motherland (the beginning) was known as Tau and still is today. The name means “the stars which bring water” (Ta = stars, and ‘ha’ = water). The Marquessans pronounce it today as ‘Ta-ha’ meaning pure motherland or beginning. When the Southern Cross stars would position over Mu it would signify the time of the rainy season which would bring fruitage to the parched land. In the same way Tahirih brought purification for a new fruitage in humanity.

 

The Tau hieroglyph in the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead makes it clear that ‘Tau’ means “holy or sacred gate, or holy sacred opening”. This is significant to Tahirih as She was a ‘Gate’ or Point’ of a new beginning of inner knowledge and awakened consciousness.

Because Tahirih has a direct link with the Creating Impulse, the following is of interest and pertinent to the Tahirih Symbol:

 

*Tula the Great Mother*

William Henry wrote the following about TULA, The Center of the Milky Way Galaxy. TAU is an anagram within the word itself. “No matter where the word Tula appeared it represented the Great Mother. Her lore dominated the thinking of the ancients who believed our souls came from Tula and our mission on earth was to learn to return to Tula. Simultanelusly, we were to turn the Earth herself into a Tula. Jesus called this the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. It is the awareness of the original concepts of Tula, including those of Jesus, that we are now being asked to absorb … According to Greek myths, this heart of Tula beats and vibrations spread throughout the Galaxy. This Central Sun, TULA, is a fountain of healing energy, ‘healing waters’ or ‘living waters’. It is even considered to be the Holy Grail itself.”

 

Stars

When we see the star symbol it usually indicates the sacred vibrations of light emanating in creation, or the divine spark of light within the individual. The five-, six-, and nine-pointed stars are considered especially sacred. The eight-pointed star is the star of Inanna, the Mother or Queen of Heaven. Any profane meanings falsely assigned to stars (witchcraft etc.) are not relevant to this writing, and in fact through this writing and others, have been resacralized in speaking the truth.

 

Pentagram (five-pointed star)& Infinity Sign

The five-pointed star is actually the symbol of Babism. In shape it is representative of the human being. The lower points are humanity’s legs standing on the earth while the middle points are the arms which are a harmonizing balance. The upper point reaches towards the Eternal Spirit. It is a sign of protection and holds within it the names of God/ess. There were two main Manifestations that formed the core of the Primal Point (The Bab, and Tahirih, male and female). The two pentagrams in the Tahirih symbol represent the return of the Bab and Tahirih (as representations of everyone) in this day. In this iconology they are encapsulated in separate circles, indicating that each person is complete within itself, possessing the male and female aspects – a whole being, as it was in the beginning, before the male separated out of the female body. The circles join, showing the joint and symbiotic relationship. The joining of the circles of completeness also forms an infinity sign (the image of God/ess made Whole and connected to all that Is throughout all time). Five-pointed stars have always been indicative of the yin and yang principles. Some more interesting facts about five-pointed stars:

 

The five-pointed star has been known to be used as far back as 4000 BC. It was used as a sign of royalty, a sign for protection, as a sign of humanity reborn, study of the mysteries of life (including the mystical), the elements, and the Buddha used it as a sign of enlightenment. It is also called the endless knot in that it can be drawn without ever lifting the pen continuously, embedding a five-pointed star within a five-pointed star, spiraling into infinity. Therefore the five-pointed star is integral in sacred geometry configurations.

 

Nonagram or Nine-pointed Star

The sacred nine-pointed star indicates balance, order and perfection as it is the last digit in the numbering system before repetition. It is also a symbol of stability and achievement. Other positive words associated with nine are: selflessness, fulfillment, completion, wholeness, universality, universal understanding, interrelatedness, compassion, idealism, tolerance, forgiveness, generosity, benevolence, humanitarianism, emotionalism and justice. The Taoist and Hindu use nine-fold spiritual systems. It is representative of the Trinity often indicated by three triangles forming the nine points. The number nine was considered sacred by many ancient civilizations. Those who are inspired by humanitarian and universal truths are said to be influenced by the number nine.

 

The Nine-pointed star atop the pyramid in the Tahirih Path symbol signifies humanity achieving immortality in this world and connects them to the Cosmos and the Eternal Source.

 

The Pyramid & Triangle

The Pyramid has long been associated with esoteric knowledge and practice. The pyramid configuration conforms to sacred geometry (golden mean), and attracts potent energies when the solar, lunar, and stellar aspects are in particular alignment. The shape causes the Spirit to flow evenly, acting as conduit for spiritual awakening. While it has been shown that food and animal bodies do not decay within the pyramid, it had more profound usages for the ancient adepts. It is not widely known, but is alluded to through studies of mummification: it actually worked as a chamber for rejuvenation, whereby people could live hundreds of years when properly utilizing the knowledge of the pyramid. In other words, the Spirit could leave the body and then return to it in a rejuvenated state (eternal youth). At some juncture this knowledge must have been lost or no longer practiced … we have only the mummified bodies which allude to this practice. The triangle of a pyramid is like a sacred mountain which has the Axis Munde or Tree of Life contained within its configuration. It is also associated with the Hall of Records. In the Tahirih symbol the pyramid or triangle represents this purification and immortality available to all people as they make their evolutionary journeys.

 

Circle

There are several circles within the Tahirih Path Symbol and are used, as they have been throughout history, as an icon of perfection, completeness, oneness, and indivisibility of the Universe.

 

Flower of Life

The flower of life, also called the Seed of Life (Metatron Cube) is the pattern that is seen in all life, and thus is a sacred geometric symbol. It is said to be the fabric of the universe and is visible at all cellular levels. It is formed by the intersection of circles and often forms the hexagon flower or star. It contains the Akashic Records or information of the Platonic Solids from which all life springs. It has often been seen sketched on ancient walls. You will see the flower of life as a background pattern in the Tahirih symbol to indicate ‘living’ and ‘alive’ generating impulses.

 

Love

Love is the indivisible force of the universe, and as such, in Tahirih symbology, it is represented by the pure white spaces in the pyramid and in the circle in the nine-pointed star.

 

Time Line

The Time Line in the Tahirih Symbol is the vertical line within the pyramid. It shows humanity’s ascension. When humanity reaches the apex at the place where the line joins the nine-pointed star, ascension will be achieved, whereby it will be heaven on earth. Humanity as whole has two more cycles to complete to reach this point.

 

Primal Point & Portal

The Primal Point is the white circle in the nine-pointed star, for it is from that dot that the Spirit creates and vivifies humanity. The circle is also the portal to higher realms and merging back to Source.

 

Sun

The Sun in the Tahirih Symbol is the nine-pointed star as it radiates all Perfection in all directions. The Tao, or way, for humankind is to climb the Tree of Life to the Sun in order that it may traverse the universe and find its way back home.

As people meditate on the sacred symbol of the Tahirih Path, they will feel peace and harmony as it connects them with the oneness of all that Is. Ya Tahirih!

starrsaffa.com/sacredsymbol.htm

In fact there were several Algernons running around.

 

Practically every visible surface in Hong Kong is painted with idealisms with the express goal of making you feel inadequate. You live in a pile of garbabge, but if you give me your money, I will let you waddle in my garden for a little while.

 

But maybe we're not living in a pile of garbage after all , we just feel that way because the mirages placed in front of us on buses, on billboard, on tv, on the t-shirt you are wearing right now, is obscuring the view of a golden reality.

 

I guess we are all Algernon, hoping for a miracle tram to take us to that picture perfect garden. But we can never be allowed to stay in this land of contentment. Like Algernon, inevitably, we're kicked off the tram and back feeling as inadequate as ever.

 

But, fortunately, next seasons mirage has arrived, a brand new garden on the tram awaits us.

THE PHILOSOPHIES OF ENLIGHTENMENT

The period of Enlightenment refers to the European culture of the 18th century. The People of Enlightenment believed the almightiness of human knowledge and defied the tradition and the pre-established thoughts of the past. this is the period in which the humans became overconfident in the human Reason an rationality. Philosophers and Scientists committed the fallacy of argumentum ad ignorantiam. Anything which cannot be understood by rational knowledge and the current status of sciences was defied as meaningless or superstitious. Philosophy became very popular among the intellectuals and people read philosophical opera. However, the general concerns were about the practical use of our knowledge. In other words,

The Two Fundamental Characteristics of the Philosophy of Enlightenment are:

1) faith in the European Reason and human rationality to reject the tradition and the pre-established institutions and thoughts;

2) Search for the practical, useful knowledge as the power to control nature.

John Locke is considered generally as the founder of Enlightenment movement in philosophy. However, in England,

both characteristics of Enlightenment, namely the defiance of the tradition and the search for the knowledge as the practical, useful power to control nature, were not so emphatically visible due to the nationality and the social conditions in England. So it is generally agreed that the philosophy of Enlightenment will be divided into a) the Philosophy of Enlightenment in England, that in France and Germany. Therefore, a) is normally called as the British Empiricism and it s development. Distinguished from this, we consider the Philosophy of Enlightenment and its movement with the emphasis of the phases in France and Germany.

1. The relation of Descartes to the philosophy of Enlightenment In France and in England, all the philosophical thoughts from the middle of 17th century through the 18th century were under Descartes's influences.

Fontenelle (1657-1757)The admirer of Descartes' physics and his radical rationalism threatened the Christianity and the established Church. Fontenelle's philosophy did not accept the Cartesian spiritualism and overemphasized the positive elements of the Cartesian philosophy. Thus, Fontenelle merely criticized the Ancient oracles as superstition, but this was immediately applied to the miracles of Christianity.

Bayle (1647-1706)Starting with the Cartesian rationalism, Bayle considered that to believe in Christianity means to abandon Reason and the human rationality and to surrender to the miraculous phenomena. The opposition between philosophy (rationalism) and religion set up by Bayle created an anti-religious movement against Christianity as well as prepared for the development of the 18th Century philosophy.

The Enlightenment Movement in France is a synthesis of the Cartesian philosophy of the mechanistic understanding of nature and the British Empiricism.In the 17th century, British philosophers such as Bacon, Hobbes and Locke came to France and were strongly influenced by the French Philosophies. In the 18th century, the French philosophers visited England and were strongly influenced by the British Empiricism and advocated empiricism rather than idealism in France upon their return.

2. The influences of British Empiricism on the French Philosophies The most conspicuous example of the philosophers who were influenced by the British Empiricism was Voltaire.

Voltaire (1694-1778)

Voltaire was a French man of thought who was most strongly influenced by British Empiricism and attacked the philosophers of Continental Rationalism.Voltaire was the author of Candid, which made fun of Leibniz'optimism.Voltaire attempted to refute Descartes' metaphysics on the basis of Locke's Empiricism and attacked Descartes' physics, employing Newton's mechanics.Voltaire mocked Descartes' innate ideas by referring to Locke's theory of the empirical origin of ideas which refuted the innate idea. Following Locke, Voltaire, too, considered man's desire to pursue one's happiness as inborn.Voltaire further maintained that while Descartes created a novel about the human spirit,Locke wrote the history of the human spirit.Voltaire praised Locke in how he was able to explain the origin and the process of the development of human spirit. Voltaire accused of Descartes in the following points:1. Descartes by reducing physics to geometry denied the absoluteness of motion and argued for its relativity (i.e. motion is no other than the change of place, in other words, a portion of matter changes its place in relation to the portion of the other matter which is immediately touched to the former)2. Descartes did not recognize gravitation (=the weight as the unique quality) by reducing matter to extension3. Descartes by failing in recognizing the universal gravitation had to explain by the celestial vortex the motions of the celestial bodies. Thus Descartes explained the motion of solar planets by a heliocentric vortex.In that sense he did not disagree with Copernicus.In contrast, Newton proposed the universal gravitation by which he explains all the motions of celestial bodies. Voltaire became Newton's follower in physics and astronomy. Against the universal gravitation being a hidden(occult) power, Voltaire argued that the cosmic turbulence (vortex) is more a hidden power than gravitation because the law is verified and the phenomena are explained.In his letter in 1728 Voltaire writes,"When a French went to London, he discovers a lot of things different. So are there a big difference in philosophy. When he was in Paris, the universe is full of something like turbulent ether, upon his arrival in London he discovers that the same space is empty."Following the fashion of his time, Voltaire considers a systematic approach less valuable than a fragmental expression of insights. Voltaire was successful in making philosophy more popularized (journalistic).Voltaire discussed on may topics such as on God, freedom, immortality of soul. Voltaire holds that it is the true religion that one loves God and loves others like one's own siblings and that less dogmas it has, the better and true it becomes. Thus Voltaire fought against the traditional established Christianity. On the other hand, he criticized d'Hollbach's La Systeme de la nature, and attacked Pascal's Christianity.Influenced by British Deism, Voltaire maintained that religion must be a moral, rationalistic natural religion. He did not support the cosmological and teleological argument and yet considered the moral argument for the existence of God to be most useful. Voltaire maintained that without God morality is not possible, therefore God must exist. "If God did not exist, we must invent God!" Voltaire considers that it is not possible to theoretically demonstrate the immortality of soul and yet without the immortality of soul, morality is also not possible.(VERY KANTIAN) Voltaire contends that the basis of metaphysics consists in morality and that the obscurity and incompleteness of metaphysics will be clarified by morality. In his early period, Voltaire held the freedom of will, but abandoned it in his later years as meaningless and recognized only the freedom of action. According to Voltaire, freedom is when one can do what one wants to do. Whether or not what one wants is free, the answer is not, but what wants to desire is to necessarily desire. Otherwise, we desire to do something without reason or cause, that is impossible.Thus Voltaire proposed the psychological determinism. Regarding the problem of evil, he was optimistic, but after Lisbon's earthquakes Voltaire abandoned optimism. In relation to politics and society, Voltaire insisted freedom of reason, freedom of consciousness and particularly the freedom of research which contributed the further development of the contemporary european culture.

Voltaire was the representative of the 18th century Enlightenment Spirit and enormously influenced the intellectuals of the days, according to Thomas Carlyle.

Du Bois-Reymond said, "The reason why we do not consider Voltaire as a very important Enlightenment philosopher is because we unconsciously and implicitly have been a Voltaire ourselves. What Voltaire had fought and won such as culture, freedom of spirit, the dignity of humanity and justice have become some of the essential elements of our natural everyday life today."Voltaire was highly treated by Friedrich the Great at Prussian Sansoun Palace as an important guest. There are two poems of Voltaire; Le mondaine Defense du mondain ou l'apologie du luxe He loved gambling! Lettres sure les Anglais or Lettres philosophiques(1734) Elements de la philosophie de Newton Dictionnaire philosophique La philosophie ignorant Candid Montesquieu (1689-1755) Montesquieu went to England and was also influenced by John Locke. He was deeply impressed by Locke's three division of the government. His main work is L'esprit des lois (1748)Recognizing the peculiarity and uniqueness of each nation, Montesquieu attempted to explain the legal system of the each nation from the geographic conditions and the social conditions of the given nation. In stead of seeking the foundation of the legal system of a certain nation in the rational, universal principles, Montesquieu tried to find the causes of the legal system of a given nation in the particular climates, the nature of soil, the largeness of the land, the living conditions of the people, religion, passions of the people, the degree of wealth and poverty, population and the historical conditions such as customs. He emphasized the uniqueness and the accidental nature of the legal system of a given nation.The differences of the systems of government are due to the peculiarity of the given nation.

the republic = the subject has the right to govern

all the subjects = democracy

a portion of the subjects = aristocracy

the monarchy = the government by one ruler based on the constitution the constitutional monarchy

the despotism = the government by one ruler by his will

There are the basic passions which motivate each of these forms of government the republic = virtue the monarchy = honour And the size of a country will affect the nature of the government. etc.

3. Radical Empiricism in France

Condillac (1715-1780) Condillac developed the Locke's empiricism to an extreme. While in England the common sense plays an important role and balances philosophical ideas, once those ideas were transferred to the Continent, they took up very radical forms.

While Locke denied the Cartesian innate ideas' existence and considered our mind to be "tabula rasa," he was influenced by Descartes and distinguished experience into sensation (external) and reflection (internal) whereby sensation precedes reflection but the latter does not come from the former. On the other hand, Condillac held that everything including reflection comes from sensation, that is a radicalization of Locke's thought about the origin of the internal perception. Sensualism.Condillac's major work is Traité des sensations

4. Encyclopaedists.In France the editing and publication of the Encyclopedia, a comprehensive book of all the books about wisdom of all humanity, was attempted for the first time in the West. Many of the contemporary contributed to drafting the manuscripts. Voltaire, Rousseau and Helvetilus contributed.The basic motive of this edition was the denial of the past and the resistance against church's authority.

The leading motives were 1) nature,2) reason3) humanity.

The encyclopedists were considered the representatives of the Enlightenment Movement.

www.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/western/lect_8.html

 

Tired of seeing the world as it is? Not picking up on platonic idealism? Cut through all that real world nonsense and see the universe as it truly is. We think.

 

Insert the new eyeChip and let true Nature flood through. Pop in an eyeChip and superimposed on your current visual reality is the Universe philosophers have been yammering on about since the beginning of time, if indeed, time isn't just a construct existing in a sea of eternalism.

 

What does it look like? If we told you that, you wouldn't buy it.

 

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Architecture, Environment, and Idealism. SFMOMA, 2018

The angel of splendour by Jean Delville, 1894.

 

Born in Louvain, Belgium in 1867, Jean Delville was an idealist, mystic-occultist who believed in the redemptive power of spiritual art to repair the materialistic social ills of modernity. Unique in the development of his aesthetic and ideology, Delville objected to the pessimistic world view of his French symbolist contemporaries and attempted to spiritually uplift society through art which transgressed the boundaries of material reality. With supreme individuality, Delville harmonized the Natural, the Human and the Divine in art that embodied Idealism and his Mission de l’Art, thus asserting the role of artist as spiritual visionary.

 

The Fin-De-Siecle Museum, Brussels.

ARTZUID 2025 Amsterdam

The 9th edition of the Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale ARTZUID takes place from 21 May to 21 September 2025. On Apollolaan and Minervalaan in Amsterdam-Zuid, 70 outdoor sculptures are being showcased of renowned artists and young talented artists.

This exhibition draws from top international artists and Dutch talent for the selection of sculptures and installations that can be seen this summer in Amsterdam. ARTZUID transforms the exhibition location into a surreal urban landscape in which figurative sculptures alternate with architectonic installations. They show a great variety in format and material. What unites them is their focus on the enigma of human existence; the wonder, the emotions and visions of being, the ambitions and fears about our place in the world. Artists such as Leiko Ikemura, Alicja Kwade and Neo Rauch invite the visitor to an exchange of thoughts about this, in a sensual conversation with the sculptures. Displayed is the upheaval of occupation, the fear of war and the spirit of resistance in the contributions of artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Shinkichi Tajiri and Armando. Atelier van Lieshout refers to power and impotence, struggle and victimhood, in a group of figures around a rider on horseback. On the trail of ARTZUID this work is connected to the Indonesia-Netherland Monument on Apollolaan. These are just a few examples of the more than 60 works that populate ARTZUID. The architectural works by often young artists have a commitment and idealism reminiscent of architect H.P. Berlage and urban sculptor Hildo Krop. Both having been instrumental in developing the urban design of the neighbourhood home to ARTZUID. They stimulate visitors to think about the future of the urban community and seek answers to the question of what strategies are needed to create a sustainable and peaceful society

Participating artists ARTZUID 2025

Adam Colton (NL/GB), Arlene Shechet (USA), Art van Triest (NL), Atelier van Lieshout (NL), Alicja Kwade (PL), Armando (NL), Bart Lunenburg (NL), Bastienne Kramer (NL), Britte Koolen (NL), Carin Scholten (NL), Chris Peterson (NL), Cristobal Gabarron (ES), David Bade (CW), David Nash (GB), Erik Buijs (NL), Eiji Watanabe (JP), Esther Jiskoot (NL), Fiona Römpp (NL), Gavin Turk (GB), Helen Vergouwen (NL), Herbert Nouwens (NL) Henk Visch (NL), Hieke Luik (NL), Huub en Adelheid Kortekaas (NL), Isa van Lier (NL), Ilse Oelbers (NL), Iris Le Rütte (NL), Ivan Cremer (NL), Jaume Plensa (ES), Jean-Marie Appriou (FR), Katleen Vinck (BE), Klaas Gubbels (NL), Laura Schurink (NL), Leilah Babirye (USA), Lina Iris Viktor (USA), Leiko Ikemura (JP), Lotta Blokker (NL), Louise Schouwenberg (NL), Maja van Hall (NL), Marcel Pinas (SR), Maen Florin (BE), Magdalena Abakanowicz (PL), Marte Röling (NL), Marieke Bolhuis (NL), Margot Berkman (NL), Marion Verboom (FR), Micky Hoogendijk (NL), Nadia Naveau (BE), Natasja Alers (NL), Nel van Lith (NL), Nelson Carrilho (NL), Neo Rauch (DE), Paloma Varga Weisz (DE), Paul Goede (NL), Rachel Harrison (USA), Ricardo van Eyk (NL), Rob Schreefel (NL), Rob Voerman (NL), Ronald Westerhuis (NL),Ruud Kuijer (NL), Shinkichi Tajiri (USA), Sjef Voets (NL), Sokari Douglas Camp (GB), Stefan Rinck (DE), Tirzo Martha (CW), Tschabalala Self (USA), Tal R (DEN), Tony Cragg (GB), Wjm Kok (NL), Wouter van der Giessen (NL), Xavier Veilhan (FR), Yoshitomo Nara (JP)

 

Corbyn or Johnson?

I doubt he's happy with any current candidate.

 

Shot @ Liverpool's Derby Square in 2013.

In this rare photograph, the painter and art educator Channel Pickering Townsley (1867-1921) stands with a cohort of young art students and Antonio Corsi (in robe), the Italian-American artist's model who often posed at California missions in period dress.

 

The group gathers before the weathered bell tower of Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, then in a state of partial ruin.

 

The photo captures the cultural ferment of Carmel’s early art colony—where plein-air painting, Spanish Revival aesthetics, and bohemian idealism merged against a backdrop of California light and history.

 

This text is a collaboration with ChatGPT.

ARTZUID 2025 Amsterdam

The 9th edition of the Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale ARTZUID takes place from 21 May to 21 September 2025. On Apollolaan and Minervalaan in Amsterdam-Zuid, 70 outdoor sculptures are being showcased of renowned artists and young talented artists.

This exhibition draws from top international artists and Dutch talent for the selection of sculptures and installations that can be seen this summer in Amsterdam. ARTZUID transforms the exhibition location into a surreal urban landscape in which figurative sculptures alternate with architectonic installations. They show a great variety in format and material. What unites them is their focus on the enigma of human existence; the wonder, the emotions and visions of being, the ambitions and fears about our place in the world. Artists such as Leiko Ikemura, Alicja Kwade and Neo Rauch invite the visitor to an exchange of thoughts about this, in a sensual conversation with the sculptures. Displayed is the upheaval of occupation, the fear of war and the spirit of resistance in the contributions of artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Shinkichi Tajiri and Armando. Atelier van Lieshout refers to power and impotence, struggle and victimhood, in a group of figures around a rider on horseback. On the trail of ARTZUID this work is connected to the Indonesia-Netherland Monument on Apollolaan. These are just a few examples of the more than 60 works that populate ARTZUID. The architectural works by often young artists have a commitment and idealism reminiscent of architect H.P. Berlage and urban sculptor Hildo Krop. Both having been instrumental in developing the urban design of the neighbourhood home to ARTZUID. They stimulate visitors to think about the future of the urban community and seek answers to the question of what strategies are needed to create a sustainable and peaceful society

Participating artists ARTZUID 2025

Adam Colton (NL/GB), Arlene Shechet (USA), Art van Triest (NL), Atelier van Lieshout (NL), Alicja Kwade (PL), Armando (NL), Bart Lunenburg (NL), Bastienne Kramer (NL), Britte Koolen (NL), Carin Scholten (NL), Chris Peterson (NL), Cristobal Gabarron (ES), David Bade (CW), David Nash (GB), Erik Buijs (NL), Eiji Watanabe (JP), Esther Jiskoot (NL), Fiona Römpp (NL), Gavin Turk (GB), Helen Vergouwen (NL), Herbert Nouwens (NL) Henk Visch (NL), Hieke Luik (NL), Huub en Adelheid Kortekaas (NL), Isa van Lier (NL), Ilse Oelbers (NL), Iris Le Rütte (NL), Ivan Cremer (NL), Jaume Plensa (ES), Jean-Marie Appriou (FR), Katleen Vinck (BE), Klaas Gubbels (NL), Laura Schurink (NL), Leilah Babirye (USA), Lina Iris Viktor (USA), Leiko Ikemura (JP), Lotta Blokker (NL), Louise Schouwenberg (NL), Maja van Hall (NL), Marcel Pinas (SR), Maen Florin (BE), Magdalena Abakanowicz (PL), Marte Röling (NL), Marieke Bolhuis (NL), Margot Berkman (NL), Marion Verboom (FR), Micky Hoogendijk (NL), Nadia Naveau (BE), Natasja Alers (NL), Nel van Lith (NL), Nelson Carrilho (NL), Neo Rauch (DE), Paloma Varga Weisz (DE), Paul Goede (NL), Rachel Harrison (USA), Ricardo van Eyk (NL), Rob Schreefel (NL), Rob Voerman (NL), Ronald Westerhuis (NL),Ruud Kuijer (NL), Shinkichi Tajiri (USA), Sjef Voets (NL), Sokari Douglas Camp (GB), Stefan Rinck (DE), Tirzo Martha (CW), Tschabalala Self (USA), Tal R (DEN), Tony Cragg (GB), Wjm Kok (NL), Wouter van der Giessen (NL), Xavier Veilhan (FR), Yoshitomo Nara (JP)

 

Hello! Bonjour! Willkommen! Welcome to Hotel Impérial. Built in 1933, Hotel Impérial is the finest undersea hotel on the globe. Built after the Secession Of The Wealthy, Hotel Impérial has all the amenities any fashionable surface hotel would have, plus the class and style of the Secessionists. The hotel has a grand entrance and lobby, two restaurants, the Cairo Room; a small casino based upon Arabian and North African adventures, Four Deluxe Rooms, and One Grande Suite.

 

This project was an adventure in design and architecture for myself. I've always loved the idealism of the rich elite during the 30's and wanted to build a MOC based entirely around the pure Art Deco styling from the era. I spent about 6 weeks researching styles and sorting true Art Deco from Streamline Moderne, and other styles of the era. I'm pretty happy with what I did in the end. Although I'm sure there are some anachronisms design-wise in the structure, I feel I was able to make it as purely art deco as possible.

Jeremy is un-American.

 

He thinks greed is bad.

 

He tells me there's no reason why hundreds, maybe even thousands, of kids in Africa are dying every day of AIDs when people here in the United States spend hundreds, maybe even thousands, of dollars on cameras.

 

Sure, Jeremy cares about the littles ones dying painfully slow deaths from HIV infections, but I guess he has no compassion for us who can't deal with the suffering of doing without a new "L" series lens or viewfinder Leica.

 

How dare Jeremy suggest that we go without a Pocket Wizard so that some kid in Darfur doesn't die of AIDS. Next thing you know, Jeremy will expect us to feed that kid so he doesn't starve to death.

 

Jeremy is not a patriot. He is not a hero. He is a threat to the morale and security of this country. He should be deported back to Vermont...or whatever socialist country he came from.

  

October 26, 2011

 

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park

 

In 1939 and 1964, at two great turning points of the 20th century, Flushing Meadows hosted the World's Fair. The fairs were visited by hundreds of thousands- my grandparents saw both of them, and my father and wife's mother were at the 1964 fair as little kids. I wish I could have seen them

All that remains now are scattered in ruins throughout the park-- Ruins of structures that represented the deepest ideals of their time and that expressed an imagined future of hope and progress. It is interesting and sad that many of the promises presented by both Fairs were completely trampled in the years immediately following them.

 

The park is woefully neglected and fantastically hard to access- finding open access points is abnormally difficult. Ironically, the highways built in the 1930's to bring visitors to the World's Fair now bind the park in such a way that keeps most people out.

But actually, all this is a blessing, as, once in the park, you can be nearly alone amongst the relics of 20th century idealism. There is a strange surreal serenity here- like the landscape of a 1960's post-apocalyptic, failed-utopia science fiction movie.

Also, the park's neglect means you can approach a lot of the structures un-bothered. There's no other place in the city where you can skateboard around and even CLIMB on such internationally iconic structures as the Unisphere.

 

This is an excellent site about the '64 Fair - the maps are especially superb: www.westland.net/ny64fair/

 

These are some pictures of the 1939 Fair:

www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/41782/future-vision-n...

  

ventilateblog.wordpress.com/2011/07/16/worlds-fair-ground...

    

ARTZUID 2025 Amsterdam

The 9th edition of the Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale ARTZUID takes place from 21 May to 21 September 2025. On Apollolaan and Minervalaan in Amsterdam-Zuid, 70 outdoor sculptures are being showcased of renowned artists and young talented artists.

This exhibition draws from top international artists and Dutch talent for the selection of sculptures and installations that can be seen this summer in Amsterdam. ARTZUID transforms the exhibition location into a surreal urban landscape in which figurative sculptures alternate with architectonic installations. They show a great variety in format and material. What unites them is their focus on the enigma of human existence; the wonder, the emotions and visions of being, the ambitions and fears about our place in the world. Artists such as Leiko Ikemura, Alicja Kwade and Neo Rauch invite the visitor to an exchange of thoughts about this, in a sensual conversation with the sculptures. Displayed is the upheaval of occupation, the fear of war and the spirit of resistance in the contributions of artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Shinkichi Tajiri and Armando. Atelier van Lieshout refers to power and impotence, struggle and victimhood, in a group of figures around a rider on horseback. On the trail of ARTZUID this work is connected to the Indonesia-Netherland Monument on Apollolaan. These are just a few examples of the more than 60 works that populate ARTZUID. The architectural works by often young artists have a commitment and idealism reminiscent of architect H.P. Berlage and urban sculptor Hildo Krop. Both having been instrumental in developing the urban design of the neighbourhood home to ARTZUID. They stimulate visitors to think about the future of the urban community and seek answers to the question of what strategies are needed to create a sustainable and peaceful society

Participating artists ARTZUID 2025

Adam Colton (NL/GB), Arlene Shechet (USA), Art van Triest (NL), Atelier van Lieshout (NL), Alicja Kwade (PL), Armando (NL), Bart Lunenburg (NL), Bastienne Kramer (NL), Britte Koolen (NL), Carin Scholten (NL), Chris Peterson (NL), Cristobal Gabarron (ES), David Bade (CW), David Nash (GB), Erik Buijs (NL), Eiji Watanabe (JP), Esther Jiskoot (NL), Fiona Römpp (NL), Gavin Turk (GB), Helen Vergouwen (NL), Herbert Nouwens (NL) Henk Visch (NL), Hieke Luik (NL), Huub en Adelheid Kortekaas (NL), Isa van Lier (NL), Ilse Oelbers (NL), Iris Le Rütte (NL), Ivan Cremer (NL), Jaume Plensa (ES), Jean-Marie Appriou (FR), Katleen Vinck (BE), Klaas Gubbels (NL), Laura Schurink (NL), Leilah Babirye (USA), Lina Iris Viktor (USA), Leiko Ikemura (JP), Lotta Blokker (NL), Louise Schouwenberg (NL), Maja van Hall (NL), Marcel Pinas (SR), Maen Florin (BE), Magdalena Abakanowicz (PL), Marte Röling (NL), Marieke Bolhuis (NL), Margot Berkman (NL), Marion Verboom (FR), Micky Hoogendijk (NL), Nadia Naveau (BE), Natasja Alers (NL), Nel van Lith (NL), Nelson Carrilho (NL), Neo Rauch (DE), Paloma Varga Weisz (DE), Paul Goede (NL), Rachel Harrison (USA), Ricardo van Eyk (NL), Rob Schreefel (NL), Rob Voerman (NL), Ronald Westerhuis (NL),Ruud Kuijer (NL), Shinkichi Tajiri (USA), Sjef Voets (NL), Sokari Douglas Camp (GB), Stefan Rinck (DE), Tirzo Martha (CW), Tschabalala Self (USA), Tal R (DEN), Tony Cragg (GB), Wjm Kok (NL), Wouter van der Giessen (NL), Xavier Veilhan (FR), Yoshitomo Nara (JP)

 

Fitter, happier, more productive,

comfortable,

not drinking too much,

regular exercise at the gym

(3 days a week),

getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries ,

at ease,

eating well

(no more microwave dinners and saturated fats),

a patient better driver,

a safer car

(baby smiling in back seat),

sleeping well

(no bad dreams),

no paranoia,

careful to all animals

(never washing spiders down the plughole),

keep in contact with old friends

(enjoy a drink now and then),

will frequently check credit at

(moral) bank (hole in the wall),

favors for favors,

fond but not in love,

charity standing orders,

on Sundays ring road supermarket

(no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants),

car wash

(also on Sundays),

no longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows

nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate,

nothing so childish - at a better pace,

slower and more calculated,

no chance of escape,

now self-employed,

concerned (but powerless),

an empowered and informed member of society

(pragmatism not idealism),

will not cry in public,

less chance of illness,

tires that grip in the wet

(shot of baby strapped in back seat),

a good memory,

still cries at a good film,

still kisses with saliva,

no longer empty and frantic

like a cat

tied to a stick,

that's driven into

frozen winter shit

(the ability to laugh at weakness),

calm,

fitter,

healthier and more productive

a pig

in a cage

on antibiotics.

Artist; Victor Pasmore 1969-70.

 

This little structure (1963-1970), synthesis of architecture, painting and sculpture, has a fascinating history which touches socialist idealism in County Durham’s mining community. It involved people like T. Dan Smith, Berthold Lubetkin (1948-1950), and Victor Pasmore (1954 onwards) working on planning, architecture and landscaping.

At every stage of the development difficulties were encountered and this building received more than its fair share of difficulties which hopefully can bring some lessons to this and future generations.

When you confront this structure for the first time your senses get a real jolt. Surrounded by soul-less mediocre housing, this monumental, Brutalist concrete structure/sculpture looks like an alien object anchored near a pool of water and trees.

 

Pasmore describes the Pavilion as “an architecture and sculpture of purely abstract form through which to walk, in which to linger and on which to play, a free and anonymous monument which, because of it's independence, can lift the activity and psychology of an urban housing community on to a universal plane”

 

It is worth remembering that housing surrounding the Pavilion was originally designed by pooling of ideas between architects and Pasmore, very much following De Stijl movement. The flat roof housing forms and Pasmore’s geometrical patterned windows were seen through the gaps in structure Pavilion and around it.

 

Pasmore also explored the ‘kinetic’ aspects by including the movement of people through the space as another of their own spatial re-ordering and composition.

 

However, the constructive optimism soon turned to destructive pessimism.

I am certain Pasmore never anticipated the ‘brutal’ treatment and humiliation this structure received in the way of graffiti and every possible miss-use, resulting in demands for its demolition and removal of stairs and planting on the roof.

 

Pasmore visited the structure in 1982 and praised the quality of graffiti as an addition he was unable to improve upon. However, he suggested that surrounding housing should be pulled down. The opinions started to change and eventually a Lottery Grant transformed the structure to its original intentions.

 

locus_imagination has collected lots of most interesting information on this project and Peterlee

here.

 

Lucretia

 

•Rembrandt van Rijn

•Dutch, 1606-1669

•1664

•Oil on Canvas

•Dimensions:

oOverall: 120 × 101 cm (47¼ × 39¾ in.)

oFramed: 159.1 × 139.4 × 16.5 cm (62⅝ × 54⅞ × 6½ in.)

•Andrew W. Mellon Collection

•1937.1.76

•On View

 

Overview

 

After learning the fundamentals of drawing and painting in his native Leiden, Rembrandt van Rijn went to Amsterdam in 1624 to study for six months with Pieter Lastman (1583-1633), a famous history painter. Upon completion of his training Rembrandt returned to Leiden. Around 1632 he moved to Amsterdam, quickly establishing himself as the town’s leading artist. He received many commissions for portraits and history paintings and attracted several students who came to learn his method of painting.

 

The tragic story of Lucretia, recounted by Livy, took place in Rome in the sixth century BC during the reign of the tyrannical ruler Tarquinius Superbus. Rembrandt portrays Lucretia in utter anguish, right before her act of suicide. The tension surrounding that awful moment poignantly captures the moral dilemma of a woman forced to choose between life and honor.

 

Lucretia’s husband, Collatinus, had boasted to his fellow soldiers that her loyalty and virtue were greater than that of their wives. Taking him up on the challenge, the men immediately rode to Rome where they discovered Lucretia and her handmaidens spinning wool. Lucretia’s very virtue enflamed the desire of Sextus Tarquinius, son of the tyrant, who secretly returned to the house a few days later. Lucretia received him as an honored guest, but he later betrayed that hospitality by entering her chamber and threatening to kill her if she did not yield to him. The next day Lucretia summoned her father and husband, disclosed what had happened, and told them that, even though they deemed her an innocent victim, she was determined to end her life to reclaim her honor. Lucretia then drew a knife from her robe, drove it into her heart, and died. Overwhelmed by grief and anger, Lucretia’s father, her husband, and two accompanying friends swore to avenge her death. Lucretia’s rape and death triggered a revolt that led to the overthrow of monarchical tyranny and the creation of the Roman Republic.

 

Entry

 

In a moment of inner anguish Lucretia stands, with arms outstretched, just prior to her act of suicide. Although her body faces the viewer, she looks down toward the sharply pointed dagger clenched in her right hand. She holds her left hand open at the same height as the right, as though part of her resists completing the self-destructive act. The tension surrounding that awful moment emphasizes the human drama of a woman caught in the moral dilemma of choosing between life and honor, a choice that would take on symbolic connotations.

 

The tragedy of Lucretia’s impending suicide is intensified in the contrast Rembrandt develops between her elegant attire and the poignancy of her gesture and expressions. Richly adorned with golden diadem, pearl earrings, pearl necklace, and a chain with a golden pendant from which hangs a tear-shaped pearl, she is a regal figure. Her golden dress with a cape that falls over her out-stretched arms adds to her splendor. Rembrandt, however, arranged her robes to emphasize her vulnerability. The clasps that hook her dress at the bodice hang unfastened. With her dress parted, her chest covered only by the white chemise that fits so gracefully, she is about to thrust the dagger into her heart.

 

The tragic story of Lucretia, recounted by Livy, took place during the reign of the tyrannical ruler Tarquinius Superbus in Rome in the sixth century BC. While away during the siege of Ardea, Lucretia’s husband, Collatinus, boasted that her loyalty and virtue were greater than that of his compatriots’ wives. Taking up the challenge, the men at camp rode immediately to Rome where they discovered Lucretia alone with her handmaidens, spinning wool while other wives were idly enjoying their leisure. Lucretia’s very virtue, however, inflamed the desire of Tarquinius’ son, Sextus Tarquinius, who returned without Collatinus’ knowledge a few days later. Having been received as an honored guest, he later stole secretly to Lucretia’s chamber, drew his sword, and threatened to kill her if she did not yield to him. She resisted, but when Sextus Tarquinius threatened to kill his own slave as well and place their naked bodies together to give the appearance that they had been killed in the act of adultery, she yielded to his demands rather than die in such disgrace.

 

The next day Lucretia summoned her father and husband to her side and related what had happened, stressing that only her body had been violated, not her heart. Despite their protestations of her innocence, she was determined to make the moral choice that fate had forced upon her, saying: “Never shall Lucretia provide a precedent for unchaste women to escape what they deserve.” Livy relates that with these words Lucretia drew a knife from under her robe, drove it into her heart, and fell forward, dead.[1]

 

Overwhelmed by grief, Lucretia’s father, her husband, and two accompanying friends swore to avenge her death. Her suicide helped rouse the anger of the populace against the tyrannical rule of Tarquinius Superbus, who was forced into exile. Sextus Tarquinius, who was also driven from Rome, was assassinated shortly thereafter. In Livy’s account Lucretia embodied chastity, but her tragedy assumed wider political dimensions because she was also considered a metaphor for Rome itself. Lucretia’s rape came to symbolize the tyrannical subjugation of the city by Tarquinius Superbus and his family.[2] Her rape triggered the revolt that led to the overthrow of tyranny and the creation of political freedom in the form of a republican government.

 

Rembrandt painted at least three images of Lucretia in his later years. The earliest of these is known only through an inventory of the possessions of Abraham Wijs and Sara de Potter, made on March 1, 1658. The inventory lists: “A large painting of Lucretia, by R: Van Rijn.”[3] The two extant images date from the last decade of Rembrandt’s life: the Washington Lucretia, 1664, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ Lucretia, 1666 [FIG. 1]. In the Gallery’s haunting image, Rembrandt has evoked both Lucretia’s profound sadness and her resignation to the fate forced upon her. In the Minneapolis version, Rembrandt has portrayed Lucretia just after she has stabbed herself, her chemise already stained by blood from the mortal wound. The two images complement each other not only because their compositions and painterly qualities are similar, but also because they explore Lucretia’s emotions as she readies herself prior to her self-sacrifice and then responds to the consequences of her action. Nevertheless, they do not seem to have been conceived as a pair. The models Rembrandt used are different and their robes and jewelry, though similar in type, are not identical.[4]

 

As Stechow has demonstrated, three traditions exist for the representation of the Lucretia story: “narrative combinations of various scenes pertaining to the legend; dramatic scenes concentrating entirely on Tarquinius’ misdeed; and single figures of Lucretia stabbing herself.”[5] Rembrandt’s image belongs to the last. He certainly knew several earlier representations of Lucretia through prints and engravings, although only one has been suggested as a prototype for the Washington painting: Marcantonio Raimondi’s engraving after a Raphael design [FIG. 2].[6] The essential transformation of the idealized statuesque figure into the emotionally evocative image of Rembrandt’s Lucretia, however, argues that the relationship is more superficial than real. Far closer in spirit to Rembrandt, however, are half-length depictions of Lucretia by Titian and his school that represent the heroine dressed in loose-fitting robes and poised at the moment before she thrusts the dagger into her heart.[7] Rembrandt, who was profoundly influenced by Venetian art during his later years, may have known of such depictions of Lucretia, for a number of such paintings ascribed to Titian or Paolo Veronese were in Archduke Leopold Wilhelm’s collection in Brussels during the 1650s.[8] The painting of this compositional type that Rembrandt certainly knew, and used as a basis for other paintings in the 1640s and 1650s, was Titian’s Flora [FIG. 3], which was auctioned in Amsterdam in 1639.[9] The similarities in the general disposition of Lucretia’s head in the Washington painting and that of Flora suggest that this work continued to exert its influence on Rembrandt into the mid-1660s. Even supposing such antecedents could have helped provide the visual vocabulary for the rich pictorial effects and iconic composition of Rembrandt’s painting, the psychological characterization of Lucretia’s emotional state is entirely personal.

 

No record of commissions exists for these works, nor other information concerning Rembrandt’s motivation for painting them. Schwartz has suggested that the paintings have political overtones.[10] Because Lucretia’s suicide precipitated the revolt that helped institute the Roman Republic, she had traditionally been viewed, among her other qualities, as a symbol of patriotism. That such an attribute was associated with her in Rembrandt’s time is clear from a poem written by Jan Vos in 1660, quoted by Schwartz, about a Lucretia painted by Govaert Flinck (Dutch, 1615-1660) in the collection of Joan Huydecoper, one of the most influential patrons of the day: “In the red ink [of her blood] she writes a definition of freedom.” Lucretia, then, may well have assumed allegorical importance in the parallels that were being drawn around 1660 between the foundations of the Roman and Dutch Republics, as did Claudius Civilis, the first-century rebel leader of the Batavian revolt and the subject of Rembrandt’s 1661 painting for the Amsterdam Town Hall.[11]

 

The forceful impact of Rembrandt’s paintings of Lucretia, however, seems also to have resulted from personal associations the artist made between experiences in his life and the emotional traumas that he projected onto Lucretia at the time of her suicide. Only thus can we explain the essential transformation of the pictorial traditions for portraying this legendary Roman heroine that occurs in the two majestic paintings in Washington and Minneapolis.

 

Lucretia, in maintaining her honor through death, come to be revered as a symbol of chastity, honor, and faithfulness. Knuttel speculated that the 1664 Lucretia may have served as a psychological catharsis for Rembrandt after the death of his companion, Hendrickje, the previous year. Indeed, parallels can be found between Lucretia’s faithfulness and self-sacrifice and the indignities Hendrickje suffered because of her commitment to Rembrandt.[12]

 

The mythology surrounding Lucretia, however, was complex. While she was honored for her faithfulness she was also criticized by later Christians for having taken her own life, which was seen as a greater evil than adultery and a life of shame. As Garrard has written: “In Roman terms, Lucretia killed herself not out of guilt, but out of shame, concerned for her reputation and for the precedent of pardon that she might set for voluntary adulterers. Christian writers, schooled in a religion that placed the highest premium on the innocence of one’s personal conscience, regarded such values as excessively concerned with appearances and the opinion of others.”[13] Rembrandt, as he so often did, fused here the pagan and Christian worlds to create an exceptionally profound image of the psychological moment just prior to Lucretia’s fatal decision to thrust the knife into her heart. With her arms raised in a gesture that echoes that of Christ on the cross, she looks down toward the weapon of her destruction with an expression of one who, in her decision to commit suicide, must weigh issues never described by Livy: Rembrandt’s Lucretia is not the assured tragic heroine who has determined her punishment and dies for honor, but one who hesitates at that crucial moment because of an awareness of the moral dilemma that she faces.

 

It may be, as Held has remarked, that Rembrandt drew upon a theatrical tradition to give added poignancy to the moment, for Lucretia, whose mouth is partially open, seems to address the dagger as though giving the closing monologue of this tragic drama.[14] Shakespeare did exactly that in his Rape of Lucretia when she asks:

 

Poor hand, why quiver’st thou in this decree?

Honour thyself to rid me of this shame;

For if I die, my honour lives in thee,

But if I live, thou livest in my defame.[15]

 

Rembrandt’s late paintings, whether portraits, biblical accounts, or mythological stories, often take on an almost sacramental character in the way that the artist confronts the viewer with his images. His broad execution, rich colors, impressive use of chiaroscuro, and iconic compositional structure give these works unparalleled forcefulness. In Lucretia, all these elements of his late style are evident. Particularly remarkable in this painting is his use of chiaroscuro to transform an essentially symmetrical and static pose into an active one. Lucretia is lit not from the front but from the left. Light thus strikes her head, right arm, and shoulder. The dagger blade glistens against her white cuff. Although her left arm is thrown into shadow, her outstretched left hand catches the light. Through these subtle means of emphasis, which until the mid-1980s had been hidden by thick, discolored layers of varnish, Rembrandt heightened the drama by reinforcing the psychological and physical tension of the scene.[16]

 

Rembrandt painted this image using a broad range of techniques. He modeled the face quite densely by applying a sequence of paint layers. Some layers, such as the soft lavenders that model the shaded portions of the lower cheeks and chin, are quite smooth. Others, such as the pinks and oranges that highlight the cheekbones and the yellowish-whitish areas on the nose and forehead, are brushed on more vigorously. The eyes, nose, and mouth are broadly rendered. Specifics of eyebrows, eyelids, pupils of the eyes, nostrils, and lips were of little concern to the artist; instead he heightened and accented them with deft touches of rust-colored paint. One particularly bold stroke of ocher paint defines the upper left edge of the top lip.

 

Rembrandt varied his painting techniques in Lucretia’s cape and dress according to the play of light falling across her figure. Where light hits her right arm, Rembrandt cast a golden tone with a rich mixture of yellow, white, red, and salmon-colored paints. Under the lightest areas of the shoulder, he first laid in a light gray layer to give an added luminosity to the paints. On the shaded left sleeve, the paint is much less dense. A deep brown and reddish-brown layer covering the Ground in this area forms the basis for the sleeve’s tonality. Over it, Rembrandt, often with a dry brush, applied yellow, greenish yellow, red, and white highlights. In certain instances, for example, in a series of black strokes that shade part of the sleeve, he clearly used a palette knife as well as a brush.

 

Rembrandt utilized the palette knife even more frequently in the white of the left sleeve. Here he applied a rather dry paint onto the underlying brown layer to suggest the material’s transparency. More extensive use of the palette knife is seen in the dress near Lucretia’s waist. Here he spread broader areas of light-ocher paint with the knife to suggest the luminous character of the fabric. In general, the treatment of this area of the dress resembles that of the left sleeve where the underlying dark brown paint becomes an important ingredient in the overall color tonality. The one area with thick highlights in the dress is the belt, but even here Rembrandt did not really overlap paints. The accents of yellow, orange, and white are loosely applied and do not define the belt to any great degree.[17]

 

Stylistically, this painting resembles the so-called Jewish Bride in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The head of Lucretia is extremely close in type and in concept to that of the bride: both are built up in a comparable fashion. Remarkably similar are the ways in which the features are modeled with dense and somewhat roughly brushed strokes of paint. The similarities extend to the technique for the modeling of the pearls and even for indicating the gold diadem in the back of the hair. While most of the robes in the Jewish Bride are more densely painted than those of Lucretia and are built up almost exclusively with a palette knife, in the shaded area under the collar of the man Rembrandt used a modeling technique very similar to that seen in Lucretia’s left arm. Here he also used a brownish Imprimatura layer for the base collar of the robe and accented it lightly with a series of thin strokes of red paint applied with a palette knife.[18]

 

Similarities in painting technique also exist between this figure of Lucretia and that in Minneapolis, even though the latter work was painted two years later, in 1666. As is appropriate to its starker concept, Rembrandt applied his paints in a more angular fashion in the Minneapolis version than he did in the Washington painting. Still, the modeling of the facial features is once again comparable. One notices the way the top lip is defined with a bold stroke of flesh-colored paint along its upper edge. Also similar is the use of an Imprimatura layer as a base color of the left sleeve, and finally, the structure of the hand holding the dagger.

 

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.

 

April 24, 2014

 

[1] Livy, The Early History of Rome, trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt (Aylesbury, 1973), book 1, LIX, 99.

 

[2] Ian Donaldson, The Rapes of Lucretia: A Myth and Its Transformation (Oxford, 1982), 9, stresses the political significance of this point.

 

[3] Walter L. Strauss and Marjon van der Meulen, The Rembrandt Documents (New York, 1979), doc. 1658/8, 418. “In ’t Voorhuijs Een groot stuck schilderij van Lucretia van R: Van Rijn.”

 

[4] The features in the Washington Lucretia resemble Rembrandt’s companion Hendrickje Stoffels, as she is seen in Rembrandt’s paintings from the mid-1650s (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, inv, no. 828B). Hendrickje, who appears much older in the portrait of 1660 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, had died in July 1663. The model Rembrandt used for the Minneapolis Lucretia is not found in other of Rembrandt’s paintings.

 

[5] Wolfgang Stechow, “Lucretia Statua,” in Essays in Honor of Georg Swarzenski (Chicago and Berlin, 1951), 114.

 

[6] First suggested by N. Beets (see N. Beets, “Een ‘print van Rafel’ en Rembrandt’s Lucretia,” Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant [January 1, 1914], I). Northern prints and paintings of Lucretia have a quite different character and do not seem to have influenced Rembrandt in his depictions of Lucretia; for the prints see Ilja M. Veldman, “Lessons for Ladies: A Selection of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Dutch Prints,” Simiolus 16 (1986): 113-127.

 

[7] The most profound sixteenth-century images of Lucretia were created in Venice. In two memorable paintings, Tarquin and Lucretia (Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna) and Tarquin and Lucretia (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), Titian focused on the dramatic confrontation between Tarquin and Lucretia, capturing the animal energy of Tarquin blindly driven by lust.

 

[8] For paintings attributed to Titian see Harold E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian, 3 vols. (London, 1975), 3:215, cat. no. x-24, 219, cat. no. x-33. For Veronese’s Lucretia see Kunsthistorisches Museum, Katalog der Gemäldegalerie I, Italiener, Spanier, Franzosen, Engländer (Vienna, 1965), 169, cat. no. 750.

 

[9] Harold E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian, 3 vols. (London, 1975), 3:154-155, cat. no. 17.

 

[10] Gary Schwartz, Rembrandt: zijn leven, zijn schilderijen (Maarssen, 1984), 330, no. 382, repro. (English trans., Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings [New York, 1985], 330). It seems unlikely, however, that there is any pro-Orange or anti-Orange sentiment implied in these works, as Schwartz suggests.

 

[11] For the parallels drawn between the story of Claudius Civilis and the foundation of the Dutch Republic as seen in the decorations of the Town Hall in Amsterdam see H. van de Waal, “The Iconographical Background to Rembrandt’s Civilis,” in H. van de Waal, Steps towards Rembrandt: Collected Articles 1937-1972, ed. R. H. Fuchs, trans. Patricia Wardle and Alan Griffiths (Amsterdam, 1974), 28-43.

 

[12] In 1654 Hendrickje, who lived with Rembrandt but was not married to him, had been publicly disgraced when a tribune of the Dutch Reformed Church condemned her for “living in sin like a whore” with the artist. After Hendrickje’s death in 1663, Rembrandt may have linked the tribulations she had suffered and the emotional traumas he projected onto Lucretia. The resemblance of Lucretia to Hendrickje as she appeared in the mid-1650s (see note 4) seems to reinforce this hypothesis. For his part, Rembrandt identified himself with a historical figure in his Self-Portrait as the Apostle Paul of 1661 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), in which the sword of Paul’s martyrdom protrudes from Rembrandt’s chest.

 

[13] Mary D. Garrard, Artemisia Gentileschi: The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art (Princeton, 1989), 219.

 

[14] Julius Held, “Das gesprochene Wort bei Rembrandt,” Neue Beiträge zur Rembrandt Forschung, ed. Otto van Simson and Jan Kelch (Berlin, 1973), 123. The theatrical character of the image is reinforced by the suggestion of curtains hanging behind Lucretia. These may have been more apparent before the paint darkened and the background suffered from Abrasion. Lucretia’s theatricality, however, has not always met with favor. Wilhelm von Bode, Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei (Braunschweig, 1883), 524, found the theatricality unconvincing given the portraitlike character of the image. The art dealer René Gimpel was more outspoken. When Lucretia was on the market in 1921 he wrote: “She is stabbing herself in her terror, with a ridiculous gesture. Neither realism nor idealism. A terrible lack of taste” (René Gimpel, Diary of an Art Dealer, trans. John Rosenberg [New York, 1966], 161).

 

[15] This quotation was first associated with Rembrandt’s 1664 Lucretia by Jan Veth, “Rembrandt’s Lucretia,” Beelden en Groepen 25 (1914): 25.

 

[16] The discolored varnish also had the effect of flattening the three-dimensional character of the image, which reduced the emotional impact of the scene by making the spatial relationships more difficult to decipher. One such critique against the painting was levied by Alfred Gold, “Die Sammlung Hielbuth,” Der Cicerone 13 (March 1921): 93.

 

[17] While I find the painting techniques described here characteristic for Rembrandt, Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann (personal communication, 1993) is quite critical of the way these areas are executed. He feels that the “paint has an abstract, unfunctional quality, and makes the impression of a method applied without regard for its reason.” He rejects the attribution to Rembrandt and notes that the painting has “strong similarities with works by Aert de Gelder.” This opinion is shared by Ernst van de Wetering, who argued in a lecture at the National Gallery of Art in January 2005 that Lucretia was painted by Aert de Gelder.

 

[18] The similarities in technique in this area have become even more evident since the 1993 restoration of the Jewish Bride.

 

Inscription

 

•Center Left: Rembrandt / 1664

 

Provenance

 

Jean-Joseph-Pierre-Augustin Lapeyrière [1779-1831, known as Augustin Lapeyrière, then de Lapeyrière], Paris; (his sale, Galerie Le Brun, Paris, 19 April 1825 and days following [originally scheduled for 14 March 1825 and days following], no. 143). Michael M. Zachary [d. 1837], London;[1] (sale, Phillips, London, 14-15 April 1826, 1st day, no. 64, bought in); (Zachary sale, Phillips, London, 31 May 1828, no. 25); purchased by Sir Thomas Lawrence [1769-1830] for Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro [1797-1864], London, and Novar House, near Evanton, Ross-shire, Scotland.[2] Paul Pavlovich Demidoff [1839-1885], Prince of San Donato, near Florence; (his sale, at his residence, Florence, 15 March-10 April 1880, no. 1146). (Léon Gauchez, Paris); (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 13 July 1889, no. 56, bought in); (Léon Gauchez, Paris), until at least 1893.[3] (Bourgeois & Cie., Paris); (Leo Nardus [1868-1955], Suresnes, France, and New York);[4] Matthew Chaloner Durfee Borden [1842-1912], New York, by 1906;[5] (his estate sale, American Art Association, New York, 13-14 February 1913, 1st day, no. 28); (M. Knoedler & Co., New York and Paris);[6] sold 1913 to (Frederik Müller and Co., Amsterdam); sold 1913 to August Janssen [1863-1918], Amsterdam;[7] his estate; sold 1919 with the entire Janssen collection to (Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam).[8] Hermann Heilbuth [1861-1945], Copenhagen, by 1920.[9] (Ehrich Brothers, New York), in 1921.[10] (M. Knoedler & Co., New York and Paris); sold November 1921 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.

 

[1] Although the main seller at the April 1826 sale was Lord Berwick, there were also other consignors. One annotation in the Wallace Collection (London) Library’s copy of the sale catalogue indicates that Zachary was the consigner of the NGA painting; another annotation next to the Lucretia entry reads “Sir T Lawrence.” The Getty Provenance Index© Database, Sale Catalogs, lot 0064 from sale catalog Br-2806, identifies the latter annotation as indicating a previous owner.

 

[2] This information is given by Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols., Esslingen and Paris, 1907-1928: 6(1915):120, no. 218 (also English edition, Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, trans. Edward G. Hawke, 8 vols., London, 1907-1927: 6(1916):143-144, no. 218). However, the Wallace Collection (London) Library’s copy of the sale catalogue is annotated with the name “Woodin” as the buyer (The Getty Provenance Index© Database, Sale Catalogs, lot 0025 from sale catalog BR-3135). Munro acquired a significant collection that was dispersed in sales both before and after his death, but the painting has not been in any of the sale catalogues. Hofstede de Groot lists a Munro sale in London on 26 March 1859 (given as 26 March 1851, in the 1920-1921 exhibition catalogue), which has not been identified; the painting does not appear in a sale of Munro’s English pictures held in London on 26 March 1860.

 

[3] Although Algernon Graves, Art Sales from early in the eighteenth century to early in the twentieth century (mostly old master and early English pictures), 3 vols. London, 1918-1921: 2:383, gives the buyer at the 1889 sale as Wontner, the painting was in fact bought in and returned to the consignor, Gauchez. This information was kindly provided by Lynda McLeod, Librarian, Christie’s Archives, London, in her e-mail of 28 March 2013 (in NGA curatorial files). Émile Michel (Rembrandt: Sa vie, son oeuvre et son temps, Paris, 1893: 489) saw the painting in Paris, but did not identify the owner, who is named by Malcolm Bell (Rembrandt Van Rijn and His Work, London, 1899: 157).

 

[4] Jonathan Lopez kindly provided this information (oral communication, 13 October 2006). See also Jonathan Lopez, “‘Gross False Pretences’: The Misdeeds of Art Dealer Leo Nardus,” Apollo, 2nd ser., vol. 166, no. 548 (December 2007): 78, 80, 82 nn. 25, 26.

 

[5] Wilhelm von Bode and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, The Complete Work of Rembrandt: History, Description and Heliographic Reproduction of All the Master’s Pictures, with a Study of His Life and His Art, translated by Florence Simmonds, 8 vols., Paris, 1897-1906: 8(1906):152, no. 595.

 

[6] Newspapers speculated that Knoedler’s might have been buying for the New York collector Henry Clay Frick; copies of various articles are in NGA curatorial files.

 

[7] The 1913 sales are described by Ben Broos, Great Dutch Paintings from America, exh. cat. The Hague and Zwolle, 1990: 69-70. See also Gerhardus Knuttel, “De Lucretia En Andere Werken Van Rembrandt Bij De Firma Fred. Muller & Co. Amsterdam,” Elsevier’s Geïllustreerd Maandschrift 47, no. 2 (January-June 1914): 137-144.

 

[8] “Janssen Paintings Sold in Holland,” The Milwaukee Journal (3 August 1919): 10; Otto Hirschmann, “Die Sammlung August Janssen,” Der Cicerone 12 (January 1920): 17-18.

 

[9] The painting was included in a 1920-1921 exhibition of Heilbuth’s collection in Copenhagen.

 

[10] René Gimpel, Journal d’un collectionneur: marchand de tableaux, Paris, 1963: 184-185.

 

Exhibition History

 

•1832—British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom, London, 1832, no. 44.[1]

•1909—The Hudson-Fulton Celebration, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1909, no. 105.

•1920—A Collection of Paintings [H. Heilbuth], Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, 1920-1921, no. 63.

•1969—Rembrandt in the National Gallery of Art [Commemorating the Tercentenary of the Artist’s Death], National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, no. 23, repro.

•1991—Rembrandt’s Lucretias, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1991-1992, brochure.

•2001—Rembrandt’s Women, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh; Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2001, no. 141, repro.

•2006—Rembrandt?: The Master and his Workshop, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, 2006, no. 18, repro.

•2014—Rembrandt: The Late Works, National Gallery, London; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2014-2015, no. 115, repro.

 

Exhibition History Notes

 

[1] In 1833 Alfred Joseph Woolmer (1805-1892) painted a fanciful view of the exhibition of 1832 in which Lucretia can be seen hanging prominently to the right of an arched doorway (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, inv. no. B 1981.25.694). Celina Fox, London World City, 1800-1840 (London, 1992), 447, repro. no. 383.

 

Technical Summary

 

The original coarse, plain-weave fabric, composed of heavy, unevenly spun threads, has been lined. The top, right, and left edges have been trimmed slightly, leaving worn and ragged edges. The bottom was at one time used as a tacking margin but has now been returned to the picture plane. Slight cusping present along the top and sides, but not the bottom, suggests a reduction in that dimension.

 

The double ground consists of a thick, gray lower layer and a moderately thin, dark brown upper layer.[1] In the dark areas, particularly the background, the dark brown upper ground layer was incorporated into the design, and in the upper left and lower right quadrants the upper ground was deliberately scraped away to expose the gray lower ground layer as part of the composition. In the richly impasted details on the dress, paint was applied thickly and freely with broad brushwork. Paint was both blended wet-into-wet and scumbled with a dry brush to exploit the coarse canvas texture. Extensive use of the palette knife can be recognized in the proper left cuff and in the lower portion of the dress. Incisions with the butt end of the brush are found in the proper left cuff and on the neck.

 

Several pentimenti have become visible over time. The dagger was once 3.5 cm longer, and the sitter’s proper right sleeve has been altered. Stray brushmarks cross the dress and white blouse at right, suggesting alterations to the neckline.

 

The paint is in good condition with few losses. Wide-aperture drying crackle has formed on either side of the head. Moderate abrasion has occurred in the darks, and the bottom tacking margin has been overpainted to incorporate it into the design. Conservation treatment was carried out in 1985 to remove an aged, discolored varnish layer and discolored inpainting.

 

Technical Summary Notes

 

[1] The ground composition was analyzed by the NGA Scientific Research department using cross-sections (see report dated May 8, 1985, in NGA Conservation files).

Dimitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was born in 1834 in Tobolsk, Siberia, the youngest of 14 children. He studied in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he became a professor of chemistry at the university in 1863. He published his initial periodic table in 1869. Although his table was not the first, his version is the one that had the biggest impact on the scientific community. He also championed the system, defending its validity and devoting time to its elaboration. Mendeleev died just over 100 years ago, in 1907. A statue of him with his table stands in St. Petersburg.

www.researchgate.net/figure/Dimitri-Ivanovich-Mendeleev-w...

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Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev 8 February 1834 – 2 February 1907 [OS 27 January 1834 – 20 January 1907]) was a Russian chemist and inventor. He formulated the Periodic Law, created a farsighted version of the periodic table of elements, and used it to correct the properties of some already discovered elements and also to predict the properties of eight elements yet to be discovered.

 

Mendeleev was born in the village of Verkhnie Aremzyani, near Tobolsk in Siberia, to Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev (1783–1847) and Maria Dmitrievna Mendeleeva (née Kornilieva) (1793–1850). His paternal grandfather Pavel Maximovich Sokolov was a Russian Orthodox priest from the Tver region. Ivan, along with his brothers and sisters, obtained new family names while attending the theological seminary. He worked as a school principal and a teacher of fine arts, politics and philosophy at the Tambov and Saratov gymnasiums.

 

Maria Kornilieva came from a well-known dynasty of Tobolsk merchants, founders of the first Siberian printing house who traced their ancestry to Yakov Korniliev, a 17th-century posad man turned a wealthy merchant. In 1889 a local librarian published an article in the Tobolsk newspaper where he claimed that Yakov was a baptized Teleut, an ethnic minority known as "white Kalmyks" at the time. Since no sources were provided and no documented facts of Yakov's life were ever revealed, biographers generally dismiss it as a myth. In 1908, shortly after Mendeleev's death, one of his nieces published Family Chronicles. Memories about D. I. Mendeleev where she voiced "a family legend" about Maria's grandfather who married "a Kyrgyz or Tatar beauty whom he loved so much that when she died, he also died from grief". This, however, contradicts the documented family chronicles, and neither of those legends is supported by Mendeleev's autobiography, his daughter's or his wife's memoirs. Yet some Western scholars still refer to Mendeleev's supposed "Mongol", "Tatar", "Tartarian" or simply "Asian" ancestry as a fact.

 

Mendeleev was raised as an Orthodox Christian, his mother encouraging him to "patiently search divine and scientific truth". His son would later inform that he departed from the Church and embraced a form of "romanticized deism".

 

Mendeleev was the youngest of 17 siblings, of whom "only 14 stayed alive to be baptized" according to Mendeleev's brother Pavel, meaning the others died soon after their birth. The exact number of Mendeleev's siblings differs among sources and is still a matter of some historical dispute. Unfortunately for the family's financial well being, his father became blind and lost his teaching position. His mother was forced to work and she restarted her family's abandoned glass factory. At the age of 13, after the passing of his father and the destruction of his mother's factory by fire, Mendeleev attended the Gymnasium in Tobolsk.

 

In 1849, his mother took Mendeleev across Russia from Siberia to Moscow with the aim of getting Mendeleev a higher education. The university in Moscow did not accept him. The mother and son continued to Saint Petersburg to the father's alma mater. The now poor Mendeleev family relocated to Saint Petersburg, where he entered the Main Pedagogical Institute in 1850. After graduation, he contracted tuberculosis, causing him to move to the Crimean Peninsula on the northern coast of the Black Sea in 1855. While there, he became a science master of the 1st Simferopol Gymnasium. In 1857, he returned to Saint Petersburg with fully restored health.

 

Between 1859 and 1861, he worked on the capillarity of liquids and the workings of the spectroscope in Heidelberg. Later in 1861, he published a textbook named Organic Chemistry. This won him the Demidov Prize of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

 

On 4 April 1862 he became engaged to Feozva Nikitichna Leshcheva, and they married on 27 April 1862 at Nikolaev Engineering Institute's church in Saint Petersburg (where he taught).

 

Mendeleev became a professor at the Saint Petersburg Technological Institute and Saint Petersburg State University in 1864, and 1865, respectively. In 1865 he became Doctor of Science for his dissertation "On the Combinations of Water with Alcohol". He achieved tenure in 1867 at St. Petersburg University and started to teach inorganic chemistry, while succeeding Voskresenskii to this post. and by 1871 he had transformed Saint Petersburg into an internationally recognized center for chemistry research.

 

In 1863, there were 56 known elements with a new element being discovered at a rate of approximately one per year. Other scientists had previously identified periodicity of elements. John Newlands described a Law of Octaves, noting their periodicity according to relative atomic weight in 1864, publishing it in 1865. His proposal identified the potential for new elements such as germanium. The concept was criticized and his innovation was not recognized by the Society of Chemists until 1887. Another person to propose a periodic table was Lothar Meyer, who published a paper in 1864 describing 28 elements classified by their valence, but with no predictions of new elements.

 

After becoming a teacher in 1867, Mendeleev wrote the definitive textbook of his time: Principles of Chemistry (two volumes, 1868–1870). It was written as he was preparing a textbook for his course. This is when he made his most important discovery. As he attempted to classify the elements according to their chemical properties, he noticed patterns that led him to postulate his periodic table; he claimed to have envisioned the complete arrangement of the elements in a dream:

 

I saw in a dream a table where all elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper, only in one place did a correction later seem necessary.

— Mendeleev, as quoted by Inostrantzev

 

Unaware of the earlier work on periodic tables going on in the 1860s, he made the following table:

Cl 35.5 K 39 Ca 40

Br 80 Rb 85 Sr 88

I 127 Cs 133 Ba 137

 

By adding additional elements following this pattern, Mendeleev developed his extended version of the periodic table. On 6 March 1869, he made a formal presentation to the Russian Chemical Society, titled The Dependence between the Properties of the Atomic Weights of the Elements, which described elements according to both atomic weight (now called relative atomic mass) and valence. This presentation stated that

 

The elements, if arranged according to their atomic weight, exhibit an apparent periodicity of properties.

Elements which are similar regarding their chemical properties either have similar atomic weights (e.g., Pt, Ir, Os) or have their atomic weights increasing regularly (e.g., K, Rb, Cs).

The arrangement of the elements in groups of elements in the order of their atomic weights corresponds to their so-called valencies, as well as, to some extent, to their distinctive chemical properties; as is apparent among other series in that of Li, Be, B, C, N, O, and F.

The elements which are the most widely diffused have small atomic weights.

The magnitude of the atomic weight determines the character of the element, just as the magnitude of the molecule determines the character of a compound body.

We must expect the discovery of many yet unknown elements – for example, two elements, analogous to aluminum and silicon, whose atomic weights would be between 65 and 75.

The atomic weight of an element may sometimes be amended by a knowledge of those of its contiguous elements. Thus the atomic weight of tellurium must lie between 123 and 126, and cannot be 128. (Tellurium's atomic weight is 127.6, and Mendeleev was incorrect in his assumption that atomic weight must increase with position within a period.)

Certain characteristic properties of elements can be foretold from their atomic weights.

 

Mendeleev published his periodic table of all known elements and predicted several new elements to complete the table in a Russian-language journal. Only a few months after, Meyer published a virtually identical table in a German-language journal. Mendeleev has the distinction of accurately predicting the qualities of what he called ekasilicon, ekaaluminium and ekaboron (germanium, gallium and scandium, respectively).

 

For his predicted eight elements, he used the prefixes of eka, dvi, and tri (Sanskrit one, two, three) in their naming. Mendeleev questioned some of the currently accepted atomic weights (they could be measured only with a relatively low accuracy at that time), pointing out that they did not correspond to those suggested by his Periodic Law. He noted that tellurium has a higher atomic weight than iodine, but he placed them in the right order, incorrectly predicting that the accepted atomic weights at the time were at fault. He was puzzled about where to put the known lanthanides, and predicted the existence of another row to the table which were the actinides which were some of the heaviest in atomic weight. Some people dismissed Mendeleev for predicting that there would be more elements, but he was proven to be correct when Ga (gallium) and Ge (germanium) were found in 1875 and 1886 respectively, fitting perfectly into the two missing spaces.

 

By giving Sanskrit names to his "missing" elements, Mendeleev showed his appreciation and debt to the Sanskrit grammarians of ancient India, who had created sophisticated theories of language based on their discovery of the two-dimensional patterns in basic sounds. Mendeleev was a friend and colleague of the Sanskritist Otto von Böhtlingk, who was preparing the second edition of his book on Pāṇini at about this time, and Mendeleev wished to honor Pāṇini with his nomenclature. Noting that there are striking similarities between the periodic table and the introductory Śiva Sūtras in Pāṇini's grammar, Prof. Kiparsky says:

 

[T]he analogies between the two systems are striking. Just as Panini found that the phonological patterning of sounds in the language is a function of their articulatory properties, so Mendeleev found that the chemical properties of elements are a function of their atomic weights.

 

Like Panini, Mendeleev arrived at his discovery through a search for the "grammar" of the elements (using what he called the principle of isomorphism, and looking for general formulas to generate the possible chemical compounds).

 

Just as Panini arranged the sounds in order of increasing phonetic complexity (e.g. with the simple stops k,p... preceding the other stops, and representing all of them in expressions like kU, pU) so Mendeleev arranged the elements in order of increasing atomic weights, and called the first row (oxygen, nitrogen, carbon etc.) "typical (or representative) elements".

 

Just as Panini broke the phonetic parallelism of sounds when the simplicity of the system required it, e.g. putting the velar to the right of the labial in the nasal row, so Mendeleev gave priority to isomorphism over atomic weights when they conflicted, e.g. putting beryllium in the magnesium family because it patterns with it even though by atomic weight it seemed to belong with nitrogen and phosphorus. In both cases, the periodicities they discovered would later be explained by a theory of the internal structure of the elements.

 

The original draft made by Mendeleev would be found years later and published under the name Tentative System of Elements.

 

Dmitri Mendeleev is often referred to as the Father of the Periodic Table. He called his table or matrix, "the Periodic System".

 

Later life - Dmitri Mendeleev

 

In 1876, he became obsessed with Anna Ivanova Popova and began courting her; in 1881 he proposed to her and threatened suicide if she refused. His divorce from Leshcheva was finalized one month after he had married Popova (on 2 April) in early 1882. Even after the divorce, Mendeleev was technically a bigamist; the Russian Orthodox Church required at least seven years before lawful remarriage. His divorce and the surrounding controversy contributed to his failure to be admitted to the Russian Academy of Sciences (despite his international fame by that time). His daughter from his second marriage, Lyubov, became the wife of the famous Russian poet Alexander Blok. His other children were son Vladimir (a sailor, he took part in the notable Eastern journey of Nicholas II) and daughter Olga, from his first marriage to Feozva, and son Ivan and twins from Anna.

 

Though Mendeleev was widely honored by scientific organizations all over Europe, including (in 1882) the Davy Medal from the Royal Society of London (which later also awarded him the Copley Medal in 1905), he resigned from Saint Petersburg University on 17 August 1890. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1892, and in 1893 he was appointed director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures, a post which he occupied until his death.

 

Mendeleev also investigated the composition of petroleum, and helped to found the first oil refinery in Russia. He recognized the importance of petroleum as a feedstock for petrochemicals. He is credited with a remark that burning petroleum as a fuel "would be akin to firing up a kitchen stove with bank notes".

 

In 1905, Mendeleev was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The following year the Nobel Committee for Chemistry recommended to the Swedish Academy to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1906 to Mendeleev for his discovery of the periodic system. The Chemistry Section of the Swedish Academy supported this recommendation. The Academy was then supposed to approve the Committee's choice, as it has done in almost every case. Unexpectedly, at the full meeting of the Academy, a dissenting member of the Nobel Committee, Peter Klason, proposed the candidacy of Henri Moissan whom he favored. Svante Arrhenius, although not a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, had a great deal of influence in the Academy and also pressed for the rejection of Mendeleev, arguing that the periodic system was too old to acknowledge its discovery in 1906. According to the contemporaries, Arrhenius was motivated by the grudge he held against Mendeleev for his critique of Arrhenius's dissociation theory. After heated arguments, the majority of the Academy chose Moissan by a margin of one vote. The attempts to nominate Mendeleev in 1907 were again frustrated by the absolute opposition of Arrhenius.

 

In 1907, Mendeleev died at the age of 72 in Saint Petersburg from influenza. His last words were to his physician: "Doctor, you have science, I have faith," which is possibly a Jules Verne quote.

 

Other achievements

 

Mendeleev made other important contributions to chemistry. The Russian chemist and science historian Lev Chugaev has characterized him as "a chemist of genius, first-class physicist, a fruitful researcher in the fields of hydrodynamics, meteorology, geology, certain branches of chemical technology (explosives, petroleum, and fuels, for example) and other disciplines adjacent to chemistry and physics, a thorough expert of chemical industry and industry in general, and an original thinker in the field of economy." Mendeleev was one of the founders, in 1869, of the Russian Chemical Society. He worked on the theory and practice of protectionist trade and on agriculture.

 

In an attempt at a chemical conception of the Aether, he put forward a hypothesis that there existed two inert chemical elements of lesser atomic weight than hydrogen. Of these two proposed elements, he thought the lighter to be an all-penetrating, all-pervasive gas, and the slightly heavier one to be a proposed element, coronium.

 

Mendeleev devoted much study and made important contributions to the determination of the nature of such indefinite compounds as solutions.

 

Mendeleev Medal

 

In another department of physical chemistry, he investigated the expansion of liquids with heat, and devised a formula similar to Gay-Lussac's law of the uniformity of the expansion of gases, while in 1861 he anticipated Thomas Andrews' conception of the critical temperature of gases by defining the absolute boiling-point of a substance as the temperature at which cohesion and heat of vaporization become equal to zero and the liquid changes to vapor, irrespective of the pressure and volume.

 

Mendeleev is given credit for the introduction of the metric system to the Russian Empire.

 

He invented pyrocollodion, a kind of smokeless powder based on nitrocellulose. This work had been commissioned by the Russian Navy, which however did not adopt its use. In 1892 Mendeleev organized its manufacture.

 

Mendeleev studied petroleum origin and concluded hydrocarbons are abiogenic and form deep within the earth – see Abiogenic petroleum origin. He wrote: "The capital fact to note is that petroleum was born in the depths of the earth, and it is only there that we must seek its origin." (Dmitri Mendeleev, 1877).

 

Intellectual activities beyond chemistry

 

Beginning in the 1870s, he published widely beyond chemistry, looking at aspects of Russian industry, and technical issues in agricultural productivity. He explored demographic issues, sponsored studies of the Arctic Sea, tried to measure the value of chemical fertilizers, and promoted the a merchant navy. He was especially active in promoting the Russian petroleum industry, making careful detail comparisons with the more advanced industry in Pennsylvania. He joined in the debate about the scientific claims of spiritualism, arguing that metaphysical idealism was no more than ignorant superstition. He bemoaned the widespread acceptance of spiritualism in Russian culture, and its negative effects on the study of science. Although he was not well grounded in economic theory, he helped convince the Ministry of Finance in 1887-1891 to impose a temporary tariff in 1891 which, based on his wide travels in Europe, suggested it would allow Russian industry to mature faster. After resigning his professorship at at St. Petersburg University following a dispute with officials at the Ministry of Education in 1907, he became director of Russia's Central Bureau of Weights and Measures, he led the way to standardize fundamental prototypes and measurement procedures. He set up an inspection system, and introduced the metric system to Russia.

 

Vodka myth

 

A very popular Russian story is that it was Mendeleev who came up with the 40% standard strength of vodka in 1894, after having been appointed Director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures with the assignment to formulate new state standards for the production of vodka. This story has, for instance, been used in marketing claims by the Russian Standard vodka brand that "In 1894, Dmitri Mendeleev, the greatest scientist in all Russia, received the decree to set the Imperial quality standard for Russian vodka and the 'Russian Standard' was born", or that the vodka is "compliant with the highest quality of Russian vodka approved by the royal government commission headed by Mendeleev in 1894".

 

While it is true that Mendeleev in 1892 became head of the Archive of Weights and Measures in Saint Petersburg, and evolved it into a government bureau the following year, that institution was never involved in setting any production quality standards, but was issued with standardising Russian trade weights and measuring instruments. Furthermore, the 40% standard strength was already introduced by the Russian government in 1843, when Mendeleev was nine years old.

 

The basis for the whole story is a popular myth that Mendeleev's 1865 doctoral dissertation "A Discourse on the combination of alcohol and water" contained a statement that 38% is the ideal strength of vodka, and that this number was later rounded to 40% to simplify the calculation of alcohol tax. However, Mendeleev's dissertation was about alcohol concentrations over 70% and he never wrote anything about vodka.

 

Commemoration

Bust of Mendeleev in the city of Mendeleyevsk, Tatarstan

 

A number of places and objects are associated with the name and achievements of the scientist.

 

In Saint Petersburg his name was given to D. I. Mendeleev Institute for Metrology, the National Metrology Institute,[ dealing with establishing and supporting national and worldwide standards for precise measurements. Next to it there is a monument to him that consists of his sitting statue and a depiction of his periodic table on the wall of the establishment.

 

In the Twelve Collegia building, now being the centre of Saint Petersburg State University and in Mendeleev's time – Head Pedagogical Institute – there is Dmitry Mendeleev's Memorial Museum Apartment with his archives. The street in front of these is named after him as Mendeleevskaya liniya (Mendeleev Line).

 

In Moscow, there is the D. Mendeleyev University of Chemical Technology of Russia.

 

After him was also named mendelevium, which is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Md (formerly Mv) and the atomic number 101. It is a metallic radioactive transuranic element in the actinide series, usually synthesized by bombarding einsteinium with alpha particles.

 

The mineral mendeleevite-Ce, Cs6(Ce22Ca6)(Si70O175)(OH,F)14(H2O)21, was named in Mendeleev's honor in 2010. The related species mendeleevite-Nd, Cs6[(Nd,REE)23Ca7](Si70O175)(OH,F)19(H2O)16, was described in 2015.

 

A large lunar impact crater Mendeleev, that is located on the far side of the Moon, also bears the name of the scientist.

 

The Russian Academy of Sciences has occasionally awarded a Mendeleev Golden Medal since 1965 (Wikipedia).

 

“I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.”

ARTZUID 2025 Amsterdam

The 9th edition of the Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale ARTZUID takes place from 21 May to 21 September 2025. On Apollolaan and Minervalaan in Amsterdam-Zuid, 70 outdoor sculptures are being showcased of renowned artists and young talented artists.

This exhibition draws from top international artists and Dutch talent for the selection of sculptures and installations that can be seen this summer in Amsterdam. ARTZUID transforms the exhibition location into a surreal urban landscape in which figurative sculptures alternate with architectonic installations. They show a great variety in format and material. What unites them is their focus on the enigma of human existence; the wonder, the emotions and visions of being, the ambitions and fears about our place in the world. Artists such as Leiko Ikemura, Alicja Kwade and Neo Rauch invite the visitor to an exchange of thoughts about this, in a sensual conversation with the sculptures. Displayed is the upheaval of occupation, the fear of war and the spirit of resistance in the contributions of artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Shinkichi Tajiri and Armando. Atelier van Lieshout refers to power and impotence, struggle and victimhood, in a group of figures around a rider on horseback. On the trail of ARTZUID this work is connected to the Indonesia-Netherland Monument on Apollolaan. These are just a few examples of the more than 60 works that populate ARTZUID. The architectural works by often young artists have a commitment and idealism reminiscent of architect H.P. Berlage and urban sculptor Hildo Krop. Both having been instrumental in developing the urban design of the neighbourhood home to ARTZUID. They stimulate visitors to think about the future of the urban community and seek answers to the question of what strategies are needed to create a sustainable and peaceful society

Participating artists ARTZUID 2025

Adam Colton (NL/GB), Arlene Shechet (USA), Art van Triest (NL), Atelier van Lieshout (NL), Alicja Kwade (PL), Armando (NL), Bart Lunenburg (NL), Bastienne Kramer (NL), Britte Koolen (NL), Carin Scholten (NL), Chris Peterson (NL), Cristobal Gabarron (ES), David Bade (CW), David Nash (GB), Erik Buijs (NL), Eiji Watanabe (JP), Esther Jiskoot (NL), Fiona Römpp (NL), Gavin Turk (GB), Helen Vergouwen (NL), Herbert Nouwens (NL) Henk Visch (NL), Hieke Luik (NL), Huub en Adelheid Kortekaas (NL), Isa van Lier (NL), Ilse Oelbers (NL), Iris Le Rütte (NL), Ivan Cremer (NL), Jaume Plensa (ES), Jean-Marie Appriou (FR), Katleen Vinck (BE), Klaas Gubbels (NL), Laura Schurink (NL), Leilah Babirye (USA), Lina Iris Viktor (USA), Leiko Ikemura (JP), Lotta Blokker (NL), Louise Schouwenberg (NL), Maja van Hall (NL), Marcel Pinas (SR), Maen Florin (BE), Magdalena Abakanowicz (PL), Marte Röling (NL), Marieke Bolhuis (NL), Margot Berkman (NL), Marion Verboom (FR), Micky Hoogendijk (NL), Nadia Naveau (BE), Natasja Alers (NL), Nel van Lith (NL), Nelson Carrilho (NL), Neo Rauch (DE), Paloma Varga Weisz (DE), Paul Goede (NL), Rachel Harrison (USA), Ricardo van Eyk (NL), Rob Schreefel (NL), Rob Voerman (NL), Ronald Westerhuis (NL),Ruud Kuijer (NL), Shinkichi Tajiri (USA), Sjef Voets (NL), Sokari Douglas Camp (GB), Stefan Rinck (DE), Tirzo Martha (CW), Tschabalala Self (USA), Tal R (DEN), Tony Cragg (GB), Wjm Kok (NL), Wouter van der Giessen (NL), Xavier Veilhan (FR), Yoshitomo Nara (JP)

 

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 2716, 1966. Retail price: 0,20 MDN.

 

Polish actress Ewa Krzyzewska (1939 – 2003) was a beautiful and fascinating star of the East-European cinema in the 1960’s. Her most famous film was also her debut, Andrzej Wajda’s masterpiece Popiól i diament/Ashes and Diamonds (1958).

 

Ewa Krzyzewska was born as Hanka Ehrenkreutz Krzyżewska in Warszawie (Warsaw), Poland in 1939. Her father was the poet Julius Krzyżewski. She studied acting at the Państwowe wyższe szkoły teatralne - PWST (Academy of Dramatic Arts) in Krakow. During her first year at the PWST she worked on the film Kalosze szczęścia/Lucky Boots (1958, Antoni Bohdziewicz). She was noticed by Janusz Morgenstern, assistant to director Andrzej Wajda. Wajda invited her to play the role of the attractive barmaid Krystyna Rozbicki in his now classic war drama Popiól i diament/Ashes and Diamonds (1958, Andrzej Wajda). The film, based on the 1948 novel by Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski, completed Wajda's war films trilogy, following Pokolenie/A Generation (1954) and Kanal/Sewer (1956). At Rovi, Hal Erickson writes: “Like most of Polish director Andrzej Wajda's best films, Ashes and Diamonds draws on his personal experiences in the Resistance during World War II. Zbigniew Cybulski, the director's favorite leading man, plays a young underground fighter told to kill a Communist leader on the last day of the war. This blend of idealism and defeatism won numerous awards and brought Wajda international acclaim”. In 1960 Krzyzewska graduated from the PWST. That year she played a part was in the Yugoslavian Science Fiction film Rat/Atomic War Bride (1960, Veljko Bulajic) about the horrors of the atomic weapon era. During the early 1960’s she played leading parts in such Polish films as the drama Zaduszki/All Soul’s Day (1961, Tadeusz Konwicki), the thriller Zbrodniarz i panna/The Criminal and the Lady (1963, Janusz Nasfeter) again opposite Zbigniew Cybulski, and Zvony pre bosých/ The knell of the tramps (1965, Stanislav Barabas). In the Rumanian fantasy-comedy Faust XX (1966, Ion Popescu-Gopo), she was She-Devil Margueritte, a nightclub singer, who entertains Faust (Emil Botta) and his young assistant (Iurie Darie) in the gateway to Hell. That year she also played a small but memorable role of a beautiful Jewish girl in the historical drama Faraon/Pharaoh (1966, Jerzy Kawalerowicz) with Jerzy Zelnik as Ramses XIII, and she appeared in the adventure drama Zejscie do piekla/The Descent to Hell (1966, Zbigniew Kuzminski).

 

In these busy years 1962 - 1967 Ewa Krzyzewska’s was also working on stage for the Teatru Dramatycznego (Warsaw Dramatic Theatre). Then there was an hiatus in her film and stage career. The introvert Kryzewska did not like to talk about herself and seldom gave interviews. Therefore she had for many filmgoers a fascinating, mysterious air. In 1971 she returned to the cinema in a small role in the drama Akcja 'Brutus'/Operation 'Brutus' (1971, Director: Jerzy Passendorfer). That year she also appeared in the romantic comedy Dzieciol (1971, Jerzy Gruza) and in East-Germany she played the lead role in Liebeserklärung an G.T./ Declaration of love to G.T. (1971, Horst Seemann). She also reunited with director Tadeusz Konwicki for the drama Jak daleko stad, jak blisko/How Far, How Near (1972). Her final film was Zazdrosc i medycyna/Jealousy and medicine (1973, Janusz Majewski). According to Justyna Kobus at the Polish site Teatry Art her part as “a beautiful, but unfaithful wife of a wealthy entrepreneur (Mariusz Dmochowski) seemed written especially for her. The film was acclaimed screen adaptation of a 1930s novel by Michael Choromanski and its heroine, a classic femme fatale, disturbingly and sensually performed by Krzyzewski, passed into the history of the cinema.” After this sensational turn, Krzyzewska suddenly retired from acting and left Poland with her husband, diplomat Boleslaw Kwiatkowski, a specialist in international law. They lived in several countries, including Syria, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, and Tanzania. She worked for a short while as the head of the Radio Library at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. In the US she also worked as a beautician, fashion designer, and real estate agent. Later the couple moved to Spain. In 2003, Ewa Krzyzewska died of the injuries sustained in a car crash in southern Spain. Her husband died on the spot of the car crash. She herself died two days later in a hospital. She was 64.

 

Sources: Hal Erickson (Rovi), Justyna Kobus (Teatry.Art.pl) (Polish), Filmweb.pl (Polish), Wikipedia (Polish) and IMDb.

erlage at ARTZUID 2025 Amsterdam

The 9th edition of the Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale ARTZUID takes place from 21 May to 21 September 2025. On Apollolaan and Minervalaan in Amsterdam-Zuid, 70 outdoor sculptures are being showcased of renowned artists and young talented artists.

This exhibition draws from top international artists and Dutch talent for the selection of sculptures and installations that can be seen this summer in Amsterdam. ARTZUID transforms the exhibition location into a surreal urban landscape in which figurative sculptures alternate with architectonic installations. They show a great variety in format and material. What unites them is their focus on the enigma of human existence; the wonder, the emotions and visions of being, the ambitions and fears about our place in the world. Artists such as Leiko Ikemura, Alicja Kwade and Neo Rauch invite the visitor to an exchange of thoughts about this, in a sensual conversation with the sculptures. Displayed is the upheaval of occupation, the fear of war and the spirit of resistance in the contributions of artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Shinkichi Tajiri and Armando. Atelier van Lieshout refers to power and impotence, struggle and victimhood, in a group of figures around a rider on horseback. On the trail of ARTZUID this work is connected to the Indonesia-Netherland Monument on Apollolaan. These are just a few examples of the more than 60 works that populate ARTZUID. The architectural works by often young artists have a commitment and idealism reminiscent of architect H.P. Berlage and urban sculptor Hildo Krop. Both having been instrumental in developing the urban design of the neighbourhood home to ARTZUID. They stimulate visitors to think about the future of the urban community and seek answers to the question of what strategies are needed to create a sustainable and peaceful society

Participating artists ARTZUID 2025

Adam Colton (NL/GB), Arlene Shechet (USA), Art van Triest (NL), Atelier van Lieshout (NL), Alicja Kwade (PL), Armando (NL), Bart Lunenburg (NL), Bastienne Kramer (NL), Britte Koolen (NL), Carin Scholten (NL), Chris Peterson (NL), Cristobal Gabarron (ES), David Bade (CW), David Nash (GB), Erik Buijs (NL), Eiji Watanabe (JP), Esther Jiskoot (NL), Fiona Römpp (NL), Gavin Turk (GB), Helen Vergouwen (NL), Herbert Nouwens (NL) Henk Visch (NL), Hieke Luik (NL), Huub en Adelheid Kortekaas (NL), Isa van Lier (NL), Ilse Oelbers (NL), Iris Le Rütte (NL), Ivan Cremer (NL), Jaume Plensa (ES), Jean-Marie Appriou (FR), Katleen Vinck (BE), Klaas Gubbels (NL), Laura Schurink (NL), Leilah Babirye (USA), Lina Iris Viktor (USA), Leiko Ikemura (JP), Lotta Blokker (NL), Louise Schouwenberg (NL), Maja van Hall (NL), Marcel Pinas (SR), Maen Florin (BE), Magdalena Abakanowicz (PL), Marte Röling (NL), Marieke Bolhuis (NL), Margot Berkman (NL), Marion Verboom (FR), Micky Hoogendijk (NL), Nadia Naveau (BE), Natasja Alers (NL), Nel van Lith (NL), Nelson Carrilho (NL), Neo Rauch (DE), Paloma Varga Weisz (DE), Paul Goede (NL), Rachel Harrison (USA), Ricardo van Eyk (NL), Rob Schreefel (NL), Rob Voerman (NL), Ronald Westerhuis (NL),Ruud Kuijer (NL), Shinkichi Tajiri (USA), Sjef Voets (NL), Sokari Douglas Camp (GB), Stefan Rinck (DE), Tirzo Martha (CW), Tschabalala Self (USA), Tal R (DEN), Tony Cragg (GB), Wjm Kok (NL), Wouter van der Giessen (NL), Xavier Veilhan (FR), Yoshitomo Nara (JP)

 

ARTZUID 2025 Amsterdam

The 9th edition of the Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale ARTZUID takes place from 21 May to 21 September 2025. On Apollolaan and Minervalaan in Amsterdam-Zuid, 70 outdoor sculptures are being showcased of renowned artists and young talented artists.

This exhibition draws from top international artists and Dutch talent for the selection of sculptures and installations that can be seen this summer in Amsterdam. ARTZUID transforms the exhibition location into a surreal urban landscape in which figurative sculptures alternate with architectonic installations. They show a great variety in format and material. What unites them is their focus on the enigma of human existence; the wonder, the emotions and visions of being, the ambitions and fears about our place in the world. Artists such as Leiko Ikemura, Alicja Kwade and Neo Rauch invite the visitor to an exchange of thoughts about this, in a sensual conversation with the sculptures. Displayed is the upheaval of occupation, the fear of war and the spirit of resistance in the contributions of artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Shinkichi Tajiri and Armando. Atelier van Lieshout refers to power and impotence, struggle and victimhood, in a group of figures around a rider on horseback. On the trail of ARTZUID this work is connected to the Indonesia-Netherland Monument on Apollolaan. These are just a few examples of the more than 60 works that populate ARTZUID. The architectural works by often young artists have a commitment and idealism reminiscent of architect H.P. Berlage and urban sculptor Hildo Krop. Both having been instrumental in developing the urban design of the neighbourhood home to ARTZUID. They stimulate visitors to think about the future of the urban community and seek answers to the question of what strategies are needed to create a sustainable and peaceful society

Participating artists ARTZUID 2025

Adam Colton (NL/GB), Arlene Shechet (USA), Art van Triest (NL), Atelier van Lieshout (NL), Alicja Kwade (PL), Armando (NL), Bart Lunenburg (NL), Bastienne Kramer (NL), Britte Koolen (NL), Carin Scholten (NL), Chris Peterson (NL), Cristobal Gabarron (ES), David Bade (CW), David Nash (GB), Erik Buijs (NL), Eiji Watanabe (JP), Esther Jiskoot (NL), Fiona Römpp (NL), Gavin Turk (GB), Helen Vergouwen (NL), Herbert Nouwens (NL) Henk Visch (NL), Hieke Luik (NL), Huub en Adelheid Kortekaas (NL), Isa van Lier (NL), Ilse Oelbers (NL), Iris Le Rütte (NL), Ivan Cremer (NL), Jaume Plensa (ES), Jean-Marie Appriou (FR), Katleen Vinck (BE), Klaas Gubbels (NL), Laura Schurink (NL), Leilah Babirye (USA), Lina Iris Viktor (USA), Leiko Ikemura (JP), Lotta Blokker (NL), Louise Schouwenberg (NL), Maja van Hall (NL), Marcel Pinas (SR), Maen Florin (BE), Magdalena Abakanowicz (PL), Marte Röling (NL), Marieke Bolhuis (NL), Margot Berkman (NL), Marion Verboom (FR), Micky Hoogendijk (NL), Nadia Naveau (BE), Natasja Alers (NL), Nel van Lith (NL), Nelson Carrilho (NL), Neo Rauch (DE), Paloma Varga Weisz (DE), Paul Goede (NL), Rachel Harrison (USA), Ricardo van Eyk (NL), Rob Schreefel (NL), Rob Voerman (NL), Ronald Westerhuis (NL),Ruud Kuijer (NL), Shinkichi Tajiri (USA), Sjef Voets (NL), Sokari Douglas Camp (GB), Stefan Rinck (DE), Tirzo Martha (CW), Tschabalala Self (USA), Tal R (DEN), Tony Cragg (GB), Wjm Kok (NL), Wouter van der Giessen (NL), Xavier Veilhan (FR), Yoshitomo Nara (JP)