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Sample image taken with a final-production Olympus OMD EM1 Mark II. These samples and comparisons are part of my OMD EM1 Mark II review at:
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Olympus_OMD_EM1_Mark_II/
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from www.cameralabs.com/
Sample image taken with a Panasonic Lumix TZ60 / ZS40. These samples and comparisons are part of my Lumix TZ60 / ZS40 review at:
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panasonic_Lumix_DMC_TZ60_ZS40/
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from www.cameralabs.com/
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed P-38J-10-LO Lightning:
In the P-38 Lockheed engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson and his team of designers created one of the most successful twin-engine fighters ever flown by any nation. From 1942 to 1945, U. S. Army Air Forces pilots flew P-38s over Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific, and from the frozen Aleutian Islands to the sun-baked deserts of North Africa. Lightning pilots in the Pacific theater downed more Japanese aircraft than pilots flying any other Allied warplane.
Maj. Richard I. Bong, America's leading fighter ace, flew this P-38J-10-LO on April 16, 1945, at Wright Field, Ohio, to evaluate an experimental method of interconnecting the movement of the throttle and propeller control levers. However, his right engine exploded in flight before he could conduct the experiment.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Date:
1943
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 390 x 1170cm, 6345kg, 1580cm (12ft 9 9/16in. x 38ft 4 5/8in., 13988.2lb., 51ft 10 1/16in.)
Materials:
All-metal
Physical Description:
Twin-tail boom and twin-engine fighter; tricycle landing gear.
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay":
Boeing's B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments. Although designed to fight in the European theater, the B-29 found its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a variety of aerial weapons: conventional bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.
On August 6, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, Bockscar (on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Great Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on both missions.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Date:
1945
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft 6 5/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)
Materials:
Polished overall aluminum finish
Physical Description:
Four-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and high-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish overall, standard late-World War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin; 509th Composite Group markings painted in black; "Enola Gay" in black, block letters on lower left nose.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Hawker Sea Hawk was a British single-seat jet fighter of the Royal Navy, built by Hawker Aircraft and its sister company, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. In the final years of the Second World War, Hawker's design team had become increasingly interested in developing a fighter aircraft that took advantage of the newly developed jet propulsion technology. On 1 September 1944, the first prototype of the company's latest piston engine fighter aircraft, the Hawker Fury/Sea Fury, conducted its maiden flight; it was this aircraft that would serve as the fundamental design basis for Hawker's first jet-powered aircraft, the P.1035, which was submitted for evaluation by the Air Ministry in November 1944.
The design was substantially modified in December 1944, leading to a new designation for the project, P.1040. The jet exhaust was moved from beneath the tail and re-designed as two short, split-lateral bifurcated exhausts, embedded in the trailing edge of the wing root. The tail plane was raised in order to clear the jet exhausts. The air intakes were moved to the wing root leading edge, similar to the contemporary de Havilland Vampire. The unusual bifurcated jet pipe reduced pressure losses in the jet pipe and had the additional advantage of freeing up space in the rear fuselage for fuel tanks, which gave the aircraft a longer range than many other early jets. The fuselage fuel tanks, being fore and aft of the engine, also provided for a stable center of gravity during flight. The absence of fuel tanks also meant that a thinner wing could be adopted without any loss of range. To ease manufacture, the elliptical wing form of the Fury was discarded in favor of a straight tapered wing design The P.1040 also featured a nose wheel undercarriage arrangement, the first for a Hawker-built aircraft, and the aircraft was armed with four 20mm Hispano-Suiza Mk. V cannons.
In October 1945, Sydney Camm, Hawker's chief designer, being satisfied with the results generated from engineering mock-ups and wind tunnel testing, authorized the raising of a production order for a single prototype. In light of the diminished RAF interest in the project in the post-WWII era, allegedly due to the aircraft offering insufficient advances over the jet fighters already in service, a navalized version of the P.1040 was offered in January 1946 to the Admiralty as a fleet support fighter.
However, the Admiralty were not initially encouraging to Hawker's approaches, in part due the presence of the in-development jet-powered Supermarine Attacker aircraft, but the service was intrigued by the type's long-range capability, as well as by the promise of increased power from the Nene engine. Thus, in May 1946, the Naval Staff authorized the manufacture of three prototypes and a further test specimen.
On 2 September 1947, the first prototype, VP401, now called “Sea Hawk” and sometimes referred to as the Hawker N.7/46 after the related naval specification, conducted its maiden flight from RAF Boscombe Down.
An initial order was received in November 1949, and shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War, an urgent operational demand for Britain's aircraft carriers, and thus their accompanying aircraft, had become apparent. The rate of production was substantially increased, and further orders for the Sea Hawk were soon placed. The first production Sea Hawk was the F 1, it first flew in 1951 and entered service two years later with 806 Squadron, first based at Brawdy, then transferred to the HMS Eagle. All Sea Hawks were in service by the mid-1950s and eventually over 500 were built in different versions, which soon became fighter bombers. Beyond these ever-improving variants, it was soon clear that a two seat variant would be necessary for naval operation transition training. Hawker responded to this request by the Admirality in 1952 with the T 20 variant.
The Sea Hawk T 20 was based on the FGA 3, the Sea Hawk’s first fighter bomber version which could, beyond its gun armament, also carry offensive ordnance under its wings. In order to accommodate a crew of two, this advanced trainer variant received a completely new front section with a side-by side cockpit, fitted with duplicated flight controls and instrumentation, and a bulbous canopy that allowed both passengers an excellent field of view for carrier landings. In order to allow a seamless transition from initial trainings, the cockpit layout and much of the operational equipment fittings was very similar to that of the Percival Provost. A key feature for the era amongst the fittings in the cockpit was the Centralized Warning Panel, which alerted the pilots in the event of a number of unfavorable or hazardous conditions being detected, such as icing conditions, fire or oxygen failure.
In order to compensate for a loss of directional stability due to the new cockpit section, the aircraft received a taller fin, which was also introduced to export versions of the Sea Hawk. As a weight saving measure and in order to keep the center of gravity within safe limits, the gun armament was reduced from four to two 20 mm Hispano cannon. The underwing hardpoints for bombs, unguided missiles and drop tanks were retained, so that the trainer could - with slight performance losses and a reduced ordnance load - fly the Sea Hawk’s complete mission envelope.
After the T20’s successful acceptance trials during late 1954 at 738 NAS at Lossiemouth, the FAA formally accepted the type in 1956. A total of 32 aircraft were produced and exclusively operated by the Royal Navy, where it quickly received the nickname “Puffin”, due to its bulbous nose section.
The Sea Hawk T20’s were distributed between 738 NAS (18 machines) for land-based conversion training and active, navel units, which received two or three trainers each for advanced training aboard of carriers.
The Sea Hawks in Fleet Air Arm service began being phased out from first line service in 1958, the year in which the Supermarine Scimitar and de Havilland Sea Vixen entered service, both of which types would eventually replace the Sea Hawk in the fighter and attack role. The last front line Sea Hawk squadron, No. 806, disbanded at RNAS Brawdy on 15 December 1960, ending a very brief operational career for the Sea Hawk. Most Sea Hawks in second line service were withdrawn by the mid-1960s, the trainers were retired in 1967, but four of them were refurbished and sold to India, where they served until 1983, partly from the Indian aircraft carrier Vikrant.
General characteristics:
Crew: One
Length: 40 ft 5 in (12.34 m)
Wingspan: 39 ft 0 in (11.89 m)
Height: 9 ft 8 in (2,95 m )
17 ft 8 in (5,39 m with folded wings)
Wing area: 278 ft² (25.83 m²)
Empty weight: 9,482 lb (4,305 kg)
Loaded weight: 13,220 lb (5,996 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 16,150 lb (7,325 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Rolls-Royce Nene 101 turbojet, rated at 5,000 lbf (22.24 kN) thrust
Performance:
Maximum speed: 583 mph (940 km/h)
Range: 480 mi (770 km)
Service ceiling: 44,500 ft (13,564 m)
Rate of climb: 5,700 ft/min (29.0 m/s)
Wing loading: 48 lb/ft² (232 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.38
Armament:
2× 20 mm (0.79 in) Hispano Mk V cannons (200 RPG) in the lower front fuselage
Underwing hardpoints and provisions to carry combinations of:
16× 60 lb (27 kg) unguided 3" rockets or 8× 5” (127 mm) unguided HVAR rockets, and
2× 500 lb (227 kg) bombs, or
2 × 90 Imp gal (410 l) drop tanks
The kit and its assembly:
This one is my submission to the 2018 One Week Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and it was originally inspired by the work a fellow modeler in 2015 (Glenn Gilbertson, from that year’s One Week GB) who mated a Hawker Sea Hawk with the nose section from a Hawker Hunter trainer. The result was, for my personal taste, a rather nose-heavy affair, but it looked very convincing. I liked the concept and I kept the idea in the back of my mind. And the 2018 GB was now a good occasion to tackle this project, also because I had proper ingredients at hand.
This included a Hobby Boss Sea Hawk kit that I had purchased as a cheap, special offer (but without a plan for it yet), and a surplus BAC Strikemaster fuselage (Matchbox) that I had in my stash after the recent BAC Bushmaster kitbashing. A quick test revealed that a transplantation of the Strikemaster nose section appeared feasible, since the width is very similar. Compared with the Hunter nose section from Glenn Gilbertson’s build, the Strikemaster nose is considerably shorter and more compact, but it still offers the plausible side-by-side arrangement.
From this starting point things evolved straightforward, since there was only a limited time frame available to complete the build from box to beauty pics. Most of the Sea Hawk (the Hobby Boss model is a lovely “real” kit!) was built OOB, only the cut for the nose transplant caused some headaches. I eventually settled on a staggered solution, keeping the Strikemaster’s floor section and internal cockpit rear bulkhead in front of the wing roots, but with an extended spine donation so that the whole slide-back canopy could be transferred and opened. All in all, and in contrast to Glenn Gilbertson’s 2015 build, the length of the new aircraft just grew only little, so that the overall proportions could be kept.
Using the Sea Hawk Mk. 100/101 kit had the benefit of a taller fin – which would have had to be scratched in some way in order to balance the trainer’s profile, since the original short fin would look pretty wacky with the enlarged nose section. The whole thing still looks a little goofy, though…?
Inside of the cockpit, I replaced the Strikemaster’s OOB double seat with two single seats from an Intech TS-11 Iskra, and I added a new floor and a rear bulkhead. The dashboard was taken OOB but decorated with instrument decals (from a Matchbox Hunter two-seater). Two scratched gunsights decorate the dashboard, too. The rest of the nose was stuffed with lead beads for a proper stance.
The canopy was cut into two pieces for an opened presentation, and for this purpose I also cut away a part of the Strikemaster spine which is, in real life, attached to the canopy’s sliding part.
The landing gear was taken OOB from the Sea Hawk, I just shortened the length of the nose wheel strut and modified the front wheel well covers (made from much thinner plastic sheet), since the Strikemaster has a shorter and smaller arrangement than the Sea Hawk.
Being a trainer, I just added a pair of OOB drop tanks under the wings.
Painting and markings:
Well, there are only a few potential options for a Fifties RN aircraft, and I guess that a silver livery with orange dayglow markings would have been the most probable option. But I wanted to attach the trainer to an active carrier unit, so I rather settled upon an elegant, shiny Extra Dark Sea Grey/White livery with some orange accents.
Basic colors are a very light grey (instead of pure white, acrylic paint from a rattle can) and Humbrol 123, with the upper tone carried around the leading edges.The kit received a very light black ink wash, so that the engraved panel lines would catch some pigments, as well as some light post-shading with Humbrol 164 and 125 (Dark Sea Grey and FS 36118, respectively) and Humbrol 34, flat white.
The fluorescent orange stripes are all decals, generic material from TL Modellbau. The RN markings were puzzled together from various sources, since the Hobby Boss Sea Hawk Mk. 100/101 only comes with German and Indian markings. The serial number, XA454, actually belongs to a Fairey Gannet and was adapted from a respective Xtradecal sheet. The 809 NAS emblems come from an Model Alliance Buccaneer sheet, while other markings come from a Sea Harrier sheet from the same company.
The aircraft’s tactical code number had to be improvised: placing it on a uniform background on the medium waterline for better contrast and readability was inspired by contemporary types like the Scimitar. Both cases of black code on white or white code on EDSG were used, as far as I can tell, as well as black letters with a thin, white outline. I settled for white, generic decal material as background, which adds to the impression that the code had been applied in the field, and black letters.
Finally the kit was sealed with a mix of Italeri acrylic varnishes, 2/3 “semi gloss” and 1/3 “matt”, for a slightly shiny finish.
You can say that this Sea Hawk trainer “has character”, but the tadpole cockpit from the Strikemaster somewhat ruins the original fighter’s clean lines? The result reminds me of the TF-102, at least when you compare the trainer variant with the original fighter, and the Sea Hawk trainer’s overall lines somewhat resemble a McDonnell F2H Banshee night fighter or even a Grumman A-6 intruder?
However, I like the outcome of this quick rhinoplasty adventure, and within the Group Build’s limited timeframe (and real life happening in parallel) I am quite pleased with the result, even though there are some flaws. Tough job, though, since it involved some serious bodywork and I just did not only build the model, but also produced a beauty pics series.
Sgt. Ian Pocklington, assigned to 21st Theater Sustainment Command, takes part in the Close Combat Attack lane portion of U.S. Army Europe's 2013 Best Warrior Competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany Aug. 21. The competition is a weeklong event that tests Soldiers’ physical stamina, leadership, technical knowledge and skill. Winners in the Soldier and Noncommissioned Officer categories of the USAREUR competition will go on to compete at the Department of the Army level. (U.S. Army photo by Gertrud Zach)
ATLANTIC OCEAN (Oct. 2, 2015) An F-35C Lightning II is catapulted from the flight deck of USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) as test pilots assigned to the Salty Dogs of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 conduct carrier suitability and integration testing of the F-35C carrier variant Joint Strike Fighter. (U.S. Navy Photo Courtesy Lockheed Martin Photo by Andrew McMurtrie/Released)
They're not quite report cards in the usual sense, but every few months, I need to evaluate longtime students. Happily, this usually means positive progress, and students wave them like flags as they run to share their good news.
(Note: This post will be dynamically updated until around 01:30 AM Pacific time Monday, January 18, 2010, or whenever I get tired and go to bed.)
Evaluating a set of Skullcandy Lowrider headphones tonight...
Sound output source: Front headphone/line out jack on a Dell Inspiron 530 home computer running Windows XP SP3
Sound board: Realtek HD Audio (WDM) onboard system main board.
Software used: Apple iTunes 9.0.2.25 for Windows
Media Player Classic 6.4.9.1
K-Lite Mega Codec Pack
Audio sample log with notes:
"A Little Respect" - Erasure, AAC format, 128 kbps - "I need to upgrade this to 256 kbps stat!"
"Jeremy" - Pearl Jam, mp3 format, 192 kbps - "I should pull out some CDs, and make this a fair comparison"
"Sanctify Yourselves" - Simple Minds, mp3 format, 224 kbps - "Hmmm..."
"Shout" - Tears For Fears, mp3 format, 160 kbps - "TOO LOUD!!! ~_~;"
"Hyperactive" - Thomas Dolby, mp3 format, 192 kbps - "Tell me about your mother... ("Let me tell you about my mother..." ^_^;)
"Anarchy In The U.K." - Sex Pistols, mp3 format, 192 kbps - "Sounds awfully damn flat for 192 kbps, I hope that's just the song or the encoding"
"Cliches Of The World (B Movie)" - The Kinks, AAC format, 256 kbps - "About as good, or better than the cassette I had it on when I was a kid."
"Panic" - The Smiths, mp3 format, 128 kbps - "Oh, well... I still like The Smiths - I'll queue this for a 256 kbps rerip, and FLAC it as well."
"Pop Muzik" - M, mp3 format, 160 kbps - "Grew up with it for 30 years, damn near wore down a 45 of it. Now, if I could only find the B-side version of 'M Factor' - It's a different mix from the album version."
"Don't Disturb This Groove" - The System, mp3 format, 160 kbps - "Never get tired of this song."
"Your Woman" - White Town, AAC format, 256 kbps - "I like this song, and remember when it would get played regularly on KOME-FM in San Jose around 1997. I am not ashamed to say that I have performed this song at karaoke. I would probably perform it in public at karaoke. Yes, it was A GUY who sang this song, in fact, the GUY who IS 'White Town' ^_^;"
"Fantastic Voyage" - Lakeside, mp3 format, 223 kbps approx. (VBR encode) - "Aw, yeah... Only con so far about these headphones is the cord is TOO SHORT! I can't stand up while plugged into the computer."
"Labour of Love" - The Kinks, AAC format, 256 kbps - "Another good one, no major ickiness so far with these headphones. I guess I got what I paid for... Continuing onward."
"Bad Boys" - Wham!, mp3 format, 128 kbps - "Sounds about as good as it does coming out the harman/kardon desktop speakers and subwoofer. This song is one of my guilty pleasures, and another karaoke favorite."
"Promises, Promises" - Naked Eyes, mp3 format, 160 kbps - "More of my teenage high school years coming back..."
"Notorious" - Duran Duran, mp3 format, 160 kbps - "No, No, Notorious! Not quite as good as their early stuff, but I can still listen to it - I actually like 'The Skin Trade' almost as much, or more than this."
"To Live And Die In L.A." - Wang Chung, 153 kbps approx. (VBR) - "Another classic... Man, I feel old tonight."
"Demoliton Man" - The Police, mp3 format, 192 kbps - "The song that came before the film."
"The Chauffeur" - Duran Duran, mp3 format, 128 kbps - "Not bad, but I have the CD, I could rerip this - I seem to recall being on a campaign to have nothing LESS THAN 192 kbps in my digital collection. Wait, I heard flaws and hissing - This is getting a re-rip, with the rest of the RIO album."
"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" - Wham!, mp3 format, 160 kbps - "And the guilty pleasures continue..."
"The Hanging Garden" - The Cure, mp3 format, 192 kbps - "Ah, yeah..."
"The Spice Must Flow" - Eon, mp3 format, 160 kbps - "If I wasn't tethered to the computer, I'd get up and dance...."
"Another Nail For My Heart" - Squeeze, mp3 format, 128 kbps - "Ugly hiss... I can hear it. Need to find the disc and re-rip this one too... What was I thinking?"
"Blood Money" - Sisters of Mercy, AAC format, 256 kbps - "Nice... (Last song of the experiment, before I unplug and go to external speakers for sleep...)"
Experiment halting after this song.
Verdict: I got what I paid for, I'm happy. I will take great care not to get them broken.
A paratrooper with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, teaches soldiers with the Ukrainian Land Forces on how to conduct cardiopulmonary resuscitation and take appropriate action, in the correct sequence, to restore breathing and, if necessary, the pulse Nov. 25, 2015, during a combat lifesaver training as part of Fearless Guardian II at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center near Yavoriv, Ukraine. The Ukrainian Land Forces begin the first week of training where soldiers from the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine will instruct on how to conduct infantry-based, defensive-focused training at the individual and collective levels including medical training in combat lifesaver and casualty evacuation. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Russell M. Gordon, 10th Press Camp Headquarters)
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Panther tank, officially Panzerkampfwagen V Panther (abbreviated PzKpfw V) with ordnance inventory designation Sd.Kfz. 171, was a German medium tank of World War II. It was used on the Eastern and Western Fronts from mid-1943 to the end of the war. The Panther was intended to counter the Soviet T-34 medium tank and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV. Nevertheless, it served alongside the Panzer IV and the heavier Tiger I until the end of the war. It is considered one of the best tanks of World War II for its excellent firepower, protection, and mobility although its reliability in early times were less impressive.
The Panther was a compromise. While having essentially the same Maybach V12 petrol (700 hp) engine as the Tiger I, it had better gun penetration, was lighter and faster, and could traverse rough terrain better than the Tiger I. The trade-off was weaker side armor, which made it vulnerable to flanking fire. The Panther proved to be effective in open country and long-range engagements.
The Panther was far cheaper to produce than the heavy Tiger I. Key elements of the Panther design, such as its armor, transmission, and final drive, were simplifications made to improve production rates and address raw material shortages. Despite this the overall design remain described by some as "overengineered". The Panther was rushed into combat at the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943 despite numerous unresolved technical problems, leading to high losses due to mechanical failure. Most design flaws were rectified by late 1943 and early 1944, though the bombing of production plants, increasing shortages of high-quality alloys for critical components, shortage of fuel and training space, and the declining quality of crews all impacted the tank's effectiveness.
Though officially classified as a medium tank, at 44.8 metric tons the Panther was closer to a heavy tank weight and the same category as the American M26 Pershing (41.7 tons), British Churchill (40.7 tons) and the Soviet IS-2 (46 tons) heavy tanks. The Panther's weight caused logistical problems, such as an inability to cross certain bridges, otherwise the tank had a very high power-to-weight ratio which made it highly mobile.
The Panther was only used marginally outside of Germany, mostly captured or recovered vehicles, some even after the war. Japan already received in 1943 a specimen for evaluation. During March–April 1945, Bulgaria received 15 Panthers of various makes (D, A, and G variants) from captured and overhauled Soviet stocks; they only saw limited (training) service use. In May 1946, Romania received 13 Panther tanks from the USSR, too.
After the war, France was able to recover enough operable vehicles and components to equip its army and offer vehicles for sale. The French Army's 503e Régiment de Chars de Combat was equipped with a force of 50 Panthers from 1944 to 1947, in the 501st and 503rd Tank Regiments. These remained in service until they were replaced by French-built ARL 44 heavy tanks.
In 1946, Sweden sent a delegation to France to examine surviving specimens of German military vehicles. During their visit, the delegates found a few surviving Panthers and had one shipped to Sweden for further testing and evaluation, which continued until 1961.
However, this was not the Panther’s end of service. The last appearance by WWII German tanks on the world’s battlefields came in 1967, when Syria’s panzer force faced off against modern Israeli armor. Quite improbably, Syria had assembled a surprisingly wide collection of ex-Wehrmacht vehicles from a half-dozen sources over a decade and a half timeframe. This fleet consisted primarily of late production Panzer V, StuGIII and Jagdpanzer IVs, plus some Hummel SPAAGs and a handful Panthers. The tanks were procured from France, Spain, and Czechoslovakia, partly revamped before delivery.
All of the Panthers Syria came from Czechoslovakia. Immediately after Germany’s collapse in May 1945, the Soviet army established a staging area for surrendered German tanks at a former Wehrmacht barracks at Milovice, about 24 miles north of Prague, Czechoslovakia. By January 1946, a total of roughly 200 operational Panzer IVs and Panthers of varying versions were at this facility. Joining them was a huge cache of spare parts found at a former German tank repair depot in Teplice, along with ammunition collected from all over Czechoslovakia and the southern extremity of the Soviet occupation zone in Germany. Throughout 1946, the Czechoslovak government’s clean-up of WWII battlefields recovered more than one hundred further tank wrecks, of which 80 were pieced back together to operational status and handed over to the Czechoslovakian Army,
In early 1948, the now-nationalized CKD Works began a limited upkeep of the tanks, many of which had not had depot-level overhauls since the war. A few were rebuilt with a Czechoslovak-designed steering system, but this effort was halted due to cost. These tanks remained operational in the Czechoslovak army until the end of 1954, when sufficient T-34s were available to phase them out.
A Syrian military delegation visited Prague from 8 April – 22 April 1955. An agreement was struck for the sale, amongst other items, of 45 Panzer IVs and 15 Panthers. Despite their obsolescence the Czechoslovaks were not about to just give the tanks away and demanded payment in a ‘hard’ western currency, namely British pounds. The cost was £4,500 each (£86,000 or $112,850 in 2016 money), far above what they were probably worth militarily, especially considering the limited amount of foreign currency reserves available to the Damascus government. The deal included refurbishment, a full ammunition loadout for each, and a limited number of spare parts. Nonetheless, the deal was closed, and the tanks’ delivery started in early November 1955.
The Syrians were by that time already having dire problems keeping their French-sourced panzers operational, and in 1958, a second contract was signed with CKD Works for 15 additional Panzer IVs and 10 more Panthers, these being in lesser condition or non-operational, for use as spare parts hulks. An additional 16 refurbished Maybach engines for both types were also included in this contract, as well as more ammunition.
The refurbished Panthers for Syria had their original 7.5 cm KwK 42 L70 replaced with the less powerful Rheinmetall 7.5 cm KwK 40 L48 gun – dictated by the fact that this gun was already installed in almost all other Syrian tanks of German origin and rounds for the KwK 42 L70 were not available anymore. and the Panther’s full ammo load was 87 rounds. The KwK 40 L48 fired a standard APCBC shell at 750 m/s and could penetrate 109 mm (4.3 in) hardened steel at 1.000 m range. This was enough to take out an M4 Sherman at this range from any angle under ideal circumstances. With an APCR shell the gun was even able to penetrate 130 mm (5.1 in) of hardened steel at the same distance.
Outwardly, the gun switch was only recognizable through the shorter barrel with a muzzle brake, the German WWII-era TZF.5f gunsight was retained by the Syrians. Additionally, there were two secondary machine guns, either MG-34s or MG-42s, one coaxial with the main gun and a flexible one in a ball mount in the tank’s front glacis plate.
A few incomplete Panther hulls without turret were also outfitted with surplus Panzer IV turrets that carried the same weapon, but the exact share of them among the Syrian tanks is unknown – most probably less than five, and they were among the batch delivered in the course of the second contract from 1958.
As they had been lumped all together in Czechoslovak army service, the Syrians received a mixed bag of Panzer IV and Panther versions, many of them “half-breeds” or “Frankensteins”. Many had the bow machine gun removed, either already upon delivery or as a later field modification, and in some cases the machine gun in the turret was omitted as well.
An obvious modification of the refurbished Czech export Panthers for Syria was the installation of new, lighter road wheels. These were in fact adapted T-54 wheels from Czechoslovakian license production that had just started in 1957 - instead of revamping the Panthers’ original solid steel wheels, especially their rubberized tread surfaces, it was easier to replace them altogether, what also made spare parts logistics easier. The new wheels had almost the same diameter as the original German road wheels from WWII, and they were simply adapted to the Panther’s attachment points of the torsion bar suspension’s swing arms. Together with the lighter main gun and some other simplifications, the Syrian Panthers’ empty weight was reduced by more than 3 tonnes.
The Czechoslovaks furthermore delivered an adapter kit to mount a Soviet-made AA DShK 12.7mm machine gun to the commander cupola. This AA mount had originally been developed after WWII for the T-34 tank, and these kits were fitted to all initial tanks of the 1955 order. Enough were delivered that some could be installed on a few of the Spanish- / French-sourced tanks, too.
It doesn’t appear that the Czechoslovaks updated the radio fit on any of the ex-German tanks, and it’s unclear if the Syrians installed modern Soviet radios. The WWII German Fu 5 radio required a dedicated operator (who also manned the bow machine gun); if a more modern system was installed not requiring a dedicated operator, this crew position could be eliminated altogether, what favored the deletion of the bow machine gun on many ex-German Syrian tanks. However, due to their more spacious hull and turret, many Panthers were apparently outfitted with a second radio set and used as command tanks – visible through a second whip antenna on the hull.
A frequent domestic Panther upgrade were side skirts to suppress dust clouds while moving and to prevent dust ingestion into the engines and clogged dust filters. There was no standardized solution, though, and solutions ranged from simple makeshift rubber skirts bolted to the tanks’ flanks to wholesale transplants from other vehicles, primarily Soviet tanks. Some Panthers also had external auxiliary fuel tanks added to their rear, in the form of two 200 l barrels on metal racks of Soviet origin. These barrels were not directly connected with the Panther’s fuel system, though, but a pump-and-hose kit was available to re-fuel the internal tanks from this on-board source in the field. When empty or in an emergency - the barrels were placed on top of the engine bay and leaking fuel quite hazardous - the barrels/tanks could be jettisoned by the crew from the inside.
Inclusive of the cannibalization hulks, Syria received a total of roughly 80 former German tanks from Czechoslovakia. However, at no time were all simultaneously operational and by 1960, usually only two or three dozen were combat-ready.
Before the Six Day War, the Syrian army was surprisingly unorganized, considering the amount of money being pumped into it. There was no unit larger than a brigade, and the whole Syrian army had a sort of “hub & spokes” system originating in Damascus, with every individual formation answering directly to the GHQ rather than a chain of command. The Panthers, Panzer IVs and StuG IIIs were in three independent tank battalions, grossly understrength, supporting the normal tank battalions of three infantry brigades (the 8th, 11th, and 19th) in the Golan Heights. The Jagdpanzer IVs were in a separate independent platoon attached to a tank battalion operating T-34s and SU-100s. How the Hummel SPGs were assigned is unknown.
The first active participation of ex-German tanks in Syrian service was the so-called “Water War”. This was not really a war but rather a series of skirmishes between Israel and Syria during the mid-1960s. With increasing frequency starting in 1964, Syria emplaced tanks on the western slope of the Golan Heights, almost directly on the border, to fire down on Israeli irrigation workers and farmers in the Galilee region. Surprisingly (considering the small number available) Syria chose the Panzer IV for this task. It had no feature making it better or worse than any other tank; most likely the Syrians felt they were the most expendable tanks in their inventory as Israeli counterfire was expected. The panzers were in defilade (dug in) and not easy to shoot back at; due to their altitude advantage.
In 1964, Syria announced plans to divert 35% of the Jordan River’s flow away from Israel, to deprive the country of drinking water. The Israelis responded that they would consider this an act of war and, true to their word, engaged the project’s workers with artillery and sniper fire. Things escalated quickly; in 1965, Israeli M4 Shermans on Israeli soil exchanged fire with the Syrian Panzer IVs above inconclusively. A United Nations peacekeeping team ordered both sides to disengage from the border for a set period of time to “cool off”, but the UN “Blue Berets” were detested and considered useless by both the Israelis and Syrians, and both sides used the lull to prepare their next move. When the cooling-off period ended, the Syrians moved Panzer IVs and now some Panthers, too, back into position. However, the IDF had now Centurion tanks waiting for them, with their fire arcs pre-planned out. The Cold War-era Centurion had heavy armor, a high-velocity 105mm gun, and modern British-made optics. It outclassed the WWII panzers in any imaginable way and almost immediately, two Syrian Panzer IVs and a Panther were destroyed. Others were abandoned by their crews and that was the end of the situation.
Syria’s participation in the Six Say War that soon followed in 1967 war was sloppy and ultimately disastrous. Israel initially intended the conflict to be limited to a preemptive strike against Egypt to forestall an imminent attack by that country, with the possibility of having to fight Syria and Jordan defensively if they responded to the operations against Egypt. The war against Egypt started on 5 June 1967. Because of the poor organization of the Syrian army, news passed down from Damascus on the fighting in the Sinai was scarce and usually outdated by the time it reached the brigade level. Many Syrian units (including the GHQ) were using civilian shortwave radios to monitor Radio Cairo which was spouting off outlandish claims of imaginary Egyptian victories, even as Israeli divisions were steamrolling towards the Suez Canal.
Syrian vehicles of German origin during the Six Day War were either painted overall in beige or in a dark olive drab green. Almost all had, instead of tactical number codes, the name of a Syrian soldier killed in a previous war painted on the turret in white. During the Six Day War, no national roundel was typically carried, even though the Syrian flag was sometimes painted to the turret flanks. However just as the conflict was starting, white circles were often painted onto the top sides of tanks as quick ID markings for aircraft, and some tanks had red recognition triangles added to the side areas: Syrian soldiers were notoriously trigger-happy, and the decreased camouflage effect was likely cancelled out by the reduced odds of being blasted by a comrade!
During the evening of 5 June, Syrian generals in Damascus urged the government to take advantage of the situation and mount an immediate invasion of Israel. Planning and preparation were literally limited to a few hours after midnight, and shortly after daybreak on 6 June, Syrian commanders woke up with orders to invade Israel. The three infantry brigades in the Golan, backed up by several independent battalions, were to spearhead the attack as the rest of the Syrian army mobilized.
There was no cohesion at all: Separate battalions began their advance whenever they happened to be ready to go, and brigades went forward, missing subunits that lagged behind. A platoon attempting a southern outflank maneuver tried to ford the Jordan River in the wrong spot and was washed away. According to a KGB report, at least one Syrian unit “exhibited cowardice” and ignored its orders altogether.
On 7 June, 24 hours into their attack, Syrian forces had only advanced 2 miles into Israel. On 8 June, the IDF pushed the Syrians back to the prewar border and that afternoon, Israeli units eliminated the last Egyptian forces in the Sinai and began a fast redeployment of units back into Israel. Now the Syrians were facing serious problems.
On 9 June, Israeli forces crossed into the Golan Heights. They came by the route the Syrians least expected, an arc hugging the Lebanese border. Now for the first time, Syria’s panzers (considered too slow and fragile for the attack) were encountered. The next day, 10 June 1967, was an absolute rout as the Syrians were being attacked from behind by IDF units arcing southwards from the initial advance, plus Israel’s second wave coming from the west. It was later estimated that Syria lost between 20-25% of its total military vehicle inventory in a 15-hour span on 10 June, including eight Panthers. A ceasefire was announced at midnight, ending Syria’s misadventure. Syria permanently lost the Golan Heights to Israel.
By best estimate, Syria had just five Panthers and twenty-five Panzer IVs fully operational on 6 June 1967, with maybe another ten or so tanks partially operational or at least functional enough to take into combat. Most – if not all – of the ex-French tanks were probably already out of service by 1967, conversely the entire ex-Spanish lot was in use, along with some of the ex-Czechoslovak vehicles. The conflict’s last kill was on 10 June 1967 when a Panzer IV was destroyed by an Israeli M50 Super Sherman (an M4 Sherman hull fitted with a new American engine, and a modified turret housing Israeli electronics and a high-velocity French-made 75mm gun firing HEAT rounds). Like the Centurion, the Super Sherman outclassed the Panzer IV, and the Panther only fared marginally better.
Between 1964-1973 the USSR rebuilt the entire Syrian military from the ground up, reorganizing it along Warsaw Pact lines and equipping it with gear strictly of Soviet origin. There was no place for ex-Wehrmacht tanks and in any case, Czechoslovakia had ended spares & ammo support for the Panzer IV and the Panthers, so the types had no future. The surviving tanks were scrapped in Syria, except for a single Panzer IV survivor sold to a collector in Jordan.
Specifications:
Crew: Five (commander, gunner, loader, driver, radio operator)
Weight: 50 tonnes (55.1 long tons; 45.5 short tons)
Length: 6.87 m (22 ft 6 in) hull only
7.52 m (24 ft 7¾ in) overall with gun facing forward
Width: 3.42 m (11 ft 3 in) hull only
3,70 m (12 ft 1¾ in) with retrofitted side skirts
Height: 2.99 m (9 ft 10 in)’
Ground clearance: 56 cm (22 in)
Suspension: Double torsion bar, interleaved road wheels
Fuel capacity: 720 liters (160 imp gal; 190 US gal),
some Syrian Panthers carried two additional external 200 l fuel drums
Armor:
15–80 mm (0.6 – 3.93 in)
Performance:
Maximum road speed: 56 km/h (35 mph)
Operational range: 250 km (160 mi) on roads; 450 km (280 mi)with auxiliary fuel tanks
100 km (62 mi) cross-country
Power/weight: 14 PS (10.1 kW)/tonne (12.7 hp/ton)
Engine & transmission:
Maybach HL230 V-12 gasoline engine with 700 PS (690 hp, 515 kW)
ZF AK 7-200 gearbox with 7 forward 1 reverse gear
Armament:
1× 7,5 cm KwK 40 (L/48) with 87 rounds
2× 7.92 mm MG 34 or 42, or similar machine guns;
one co-axial with the main gun, another in the front glacis plate
with a total of 5.100 rounds (not always mounted)
Provision for a 12.7 mm DShK or Breda anti-aircraft machine gun on the commander cupola
The kit and its assembly:
A rather exotic what-if model, even though it’s almost built OOB. Inspiration came when I stumbled upon the weird Syrian Panzer IVs that were operated against Israel during the Six Day War – vehicles you would not expect there, and after more than 20 years after WWII. But when I did some more research, I was surprised about the numbers and the variety of former German tanks that Syria had gathered from various European countries, and it made me wonder if the Panther could not have been among this shaggy fleet, too?
I had a surplus Dragon Panther Spähpanzer in The Stash™, to be correct a “PzBeobWg V Ausf. G”, an observation and artillery fire guidance conversion that actually existed in small numbers, and I decided to use it as basis for this odd project. The Dragon kit has some peculiarities, though: its hull is made from primed white metal and consists of an upper and lower half that are held together by small screws! An ambiguous design, because the parts do not fit as good as IP parts, so that the model has a slightly die-cast-ish aura. PSR is necessary at the seams, but due to the metal it’s not easy to do. Furthermore, you have to use superglue everywhere, just as on a resin kit. On the other side, surface details are finely molded and crisp, even though many bits have to be added manually. However, the molded metal pins that hold the wheels are very robust and relatively thin – a feature I exploited for a modified running gear (see below).
For the modified Panther in my mind I had to retrograde the turret back to a late standard turret with mantlet parts left over from a Hasegawa kit – they fitted perfectly! The PzBeobWg V only comes with a stubby gun barrel dummy. But I changed the armament, anyway, and implanted an aftermarket white metal and brass KwK 40 L48, the weapon carried by all Syrian Panzer IVs, the Jagdpanzer IVs as well as the StuG IIIs. This standardization would IMHO make sense, even if it meant a performance downgrade from the original, longer KwK 42 L70.
For a Syrian touch, inspired by installations on the Panzer IVs, I added a mount for a heavy DShK machine gun on the commander’s cupola, which is a resin aftermarket kit from Armory Models Group (a kit that consists of no less than five fiddly parts for just a tiny machine gun!).
To change and modernize the Panther’s look further, I gave it side skirts, leftover from a ModelCollect T-72 kit, which had to be modified only slightly to fit onto the molded side skirt consoles on the Panther’s metal hull. A further late addition were the fuel barrels from a Trumpeter T-54 kit that I stumbled upon when I looked for the skirts among my pile of tank donor parts. Even though they look like foreign matter on the Panther’s tail, their high position is plausible and similar to the original arrangement on many Soviet post-WWII tanks. The whip antennae on turret and hull were created with heated black sprue material.
As a modern feature and to change the Panther’s overall look even more, I replaced its original solid “dish” road wheels with T-54/55 “starfish” wheels, which were frequently retrofitted to T-34-85s during the Fifties. These very fine aftermarket resin parts (all real-world openings are actually open, and there’s only little flash!) came from OKB Grigorovich from Bulgaria. The selling point behind this idea is/was that the Panther and T-54/55 wheels have almost the same diameter: in real life it’s 860 vs. 830 mm, so that the difference in 1:72 is negligible. Beneficially, the aftermarket wheels came in two halves, and these were thin enough to replace the Panther’s interleaved wheels without major depth problems.
Adapting the parts to the totally different wheel arrangement was tricky, though, especially due to the Dragon kit’s one-piece white metal chassis that makes any mods difficult. My solution: I retained the inner solid wheels from the Panther (since they are hardly visible in the “3rd row”), plus four pairs of T-54/55 wheels for the outer, more rows of interleaved wheels. The “inner” T-54/55 wheel halves were turned around, received holes to fit onto the metal suspension pins and scratched hub covers. The “outside” halves were taken as is but received 2 mm spacer sleeves on their back sides (styrene tube) for proper depth and simply to improve their hold on the small and rounded metal pin tips. This stunt worked better than expected and looks really good, too!
Painting and markings:
Basically very simple, and I used pictures of real Syrian Panzer IVs as benchmark. I settled for the common green livery variant, and though simple and uniform, I tried to add some “excitement” to it and attempted to make old paint shine through. The hull’s lower surface areas were first primed with RAL 7008 (Khakigrau, a rather brownish tone), then the upper surfaces were sprayed with a lighter sand brown tone, both applied from rattle cans.
On top of that, a streaky mix of Revell 45 and 46 – a guesstimate for the typical Syrian greyish, rather pale olive drab tone - was thinly applied with a soft, flat brush, so that the brownish tones underneath would shine through occasionally. Once dry, the layered/weathered effect was further emphasized through careful vertical wet-sanding and rubbing on all surfaces with a soft cotton cloth.
The rubber side skirts were painted with an anthracite base and the dry-brushed with light grey and beige.
The model then received an overall washing with a highly thinned mix of grey and dark brown acrylic artist paint. The vinyl tracks (as well as the IP spare track links on the hull) were painted, too, with a mix of grey, red brown and iron, all acrylic paints, too, that do not interact chemically with the soft vinyl.
The decals/markings are minimal; the Arabian scribble on the turret (must be a name?), using the picture of a Syrian Panzer IV as benchmark, was painted in white by hand, as well as the white circle on the turret roof. The orange ID triangles are a nice contrast, even though I was not able to come up with real-life visual evidence for them. I just found a color picture of a burned T-34-85 wreck with them, suggesting that the color was a dull orange red and not florescent orange, as claimed in some sources. I also found illustrations of the triangles as part of 1:35 decal sets for contemporary Syrian T-34-85s from FC Model Trend and Star Models, where they appear light red. For the model, they were eventually cut out from decal sheet material (TL-Modellbau, in a shade called “Rotorange”, what appears to be a good compromise).
Dry-brushing with light grey and beige to further emphasize edges and details followed. Finally, the model was sealed with matt acrylic vanish overall, and some additional very light extra dry-brushing with silver was done to simulate flaked paint. Dirt and rust residues were added here and there with watercolors. After final assembly, the lower areas of the model were furthermore powdered with mineral pigments to simulate dust.
The idea of a modernized WWII Panther: a simple idea that turned into a major conversion. With the resin DShK machine gun and T-54/55 wheel set the costs of this project escalated a little, but in hindsight I find that the different look and the mix of vintage German and modern Soviet elements provide this Panther with that odd touch that sets it apart from a simple paint/marking variation? I really like the outcome, and I think that the effort was worthwhile - this fictional Panther shoehorns well into its intended historical framework. :-D
Sample image taken with a Panasonic Lumix GH5. These samples and comparisons are part of my Lumix GH5 review at:
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panasonic_Lumix_GH5/
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from www.cameralabs.com/
For the Twisted Fairytales project, the initial idea was to use the story of 'Sleeping Beauty' but then chose to do 'The Gingerbread Man' as I thought it would be simpler and less time constraining. Being a gingerbread, the character design was very simple and the story only needed two types of characters, them being 'The Gingerbread Man' and the cannibals (the fox not being needed as only his head would be featured) so I used a template and created two gingerbreads. The main character would feature two round, black eyes and 3 black buttons and the cannibals would have a grass skirts, spears, a bloodstained shirt and an angry expression as standard.
The story went that The Gingerbread Man kills the fox after he learns of his intention to eat him, he then tries to find a town where he would be safe. The Gingerbread Man finds a town which unbeknownst to him is inhabited by cannibals, the cannibals capture the gingerbread man and march him over to a pot where he is cooked and eaten. The story never differentiated throughout the project as what I had in mind seemed elegantly simple and the idea of having cannibals always stuck as it sticks to the theme of Twisted Fairytales and adds a unique twist to the original fairytale where instead of being eaten by any of the people or animals in the town, he is instead ironically eaten by his own kind.
The story featured medias such as pencil to plan out each scene, watercolored and cheap paints to fill the scene and fine liner pens to go around characters and scenery to make them more bold. I marked out the paper and used square card to create the boxes and used a small gingerbread cookie-cutter to create the characters and make sure they were all proportionate.
Though happy with the overall storyboard If I were to change anything I would add more features to The Gingerbread Man (e.g. tie, scarf) as he looks slightly plain and colourless in comparison to the cannibals as he only has black eyes and black buttons and the cannibals have green, grass skirts.
I still marvel that I painted her--even though I was just copying a Momoko face, I think I adapted it well to the Hi:Glam sculpt, and it's some of my better brush control.
rom a critical portofoglio to try to understand what is the anatonomy of the Venice Biennale 2015 .and evaluate how BIENNALES CAN BE DANGEROUS www.emergencyrooms.org/biennalist.html
for Press images and more at works contact 1@colonel.dk
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during Venice Biennale contemporary art will be shown by
ABBOUD, Jumana Emil .ABDESSEMED, Adel .ABONNENC, Mathieu Kleyebe
ABOUNADDARA.ACHOUR, Boris ADKINS, Terry AFIF, Saâdane
AKERMAN, Chantal AKOMFRAH, John AKPOKIERE, Karo
AL SOLH, Mounira ALGÜN RINGBORG, Meriç ALLORA, Jennifer & CALZADILLA, Guillermo
ATAMAN, Kutlug BAJEVIC, Maja BALLESTEROS, Ernesto
BALOJI, Sammy BARBA, Rosa
BASELITZ, Georg BASUALDO, Eduardo BAUER, Petra
BESHTY, Walead BHABHA, Huma BOLTANSKI, Christian
BONVICINI, Monica BOYCE, Sonia
BOYD, Daniel BREY, Ricardo BROODTHAERS, Marcel BRUGUERA, Tania
BURGA, Teresa CALHOUN, Keith & McCORMICK, Chandra CAO, Fei
CHAMEKH, Nidhal CHERNYSHEVA, Olga CHUNG, Tiffany
COOPERATIVA CRÁTER INVERTIDO CREATIVE TIME SUMMIT
DAMIANI, Elena DELLER, Jeremy DJORDAJDZE, Thea DUMAS, Marlene
E-FLUX JOURNAL EDWARDS, Melvin EFFLATOUN, Inji EHMANN, Antje & FAROCKI, Harun
EICHHORN, Maria EVANS, Walker FAROCKI, Harun FLOYD, Emily
FRIEDL, Peter FUSCO, Coco FUSINATO, Marco
GAINES, Charles GALLAGHER, Ellen GALLARDO, Ana GARCIA, Dora
GATES, Theaster GENZKEN, Isa GLUKLYA GOMES, Sônia GROSSE, Katharina
GULF LABOR GURSKY, Andreas HAACKE, Hans
HADJITHOMAS, Joana & JOREIGE, Khalil HARRY, Newell HASSAN, Kay
HIRSCHHORN, Thomas HÖLLER, Carsten HOLT, Nancy & SMITHSON, Robert
IM, Heung Soon INVISIBLE BORDERS: Trans-African Photographers ISHIDA, Tetsuya
JI, Dachun JULIEN, Isaac K., Hiwa KAMBALU, Samson KIM, Ayoung
KLUGE, Alexander KNGWARREYE, Emily Kame LAGOMARSINO, Runo LEBER, Sonia & CHESWORTH, David
LIGON, Glenn MABUNDA, Gonçalo MADHUSUDHANAN MAHAMA, Ibrahim
MALJKOVIC, David MAN, Victor MANSARAY, Abu Bakarr MARKER, Chris
MARSHALL, Kerry James MARTEN, Helen MAURI, Fabio McQUEEN, Steve
MOHAIEMEN, Naeem MORAN, Jason MÜLLER, Ivana MUNROE, Lavar MURILLO, Oscar
MUTU, Wangechi NAM, Hwayeon NAUMAN, Bruce NDIAYE, Cheikh NICOLAI, Olaf
OFILI, Chris OGBOH, Emeka PARRENO, Philippe PASCALI, Pino PIPER, Adrian
PONIFASIO, Lemi QIU, Zhijie RAISSNIA, Raha RAQS MEDIA COLLECTIVE
(NARULA, Monica; BAGCHI, Jeebesh; SENGUPTA, Shuddhabrata) REYNAUD-DEWAR, Lili
RIDNYI, Mykola ROBERTS, Liisa ROTTENBERG, Mika SCHÖNFELDT, Joachim SELMANI, Massinissa
SENGHOR, Fatou Kand SHETTY, Prasad & GUPTE, Rupal SIBONY, Gedi
SIMMONS, Gary SIMON, Taryn SIMPSON, Lorna SMITHSON, Robert SUBOTZKY, Mikhael
SUHAIL, Mariam SZE, Sarah THE PROPELLER GROUPthe TOMORROW
TIRAVANIJA, Rirkrit TOGUO, Barthélémy XU, Bing YOUNIS, Ala
ALBANIA
Albanian Trilogy: A Series of Devious Stratagems
Armando Lulaj
Commissioner: Ministry of Culture. Curator: Marco Scotini. Deputy Curator: Andris Brinkmanis. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale
ANDORRA
Inner Landscapes
Roqué, Joan Xandri
Commissioner: Henry Périer. Deputy Commissioner: Joana Baygual, Sebastià Petit, Francesc Rodríguez
Curator: Paolo de Grandis, Josep M. Ubach. Venue: Spiazzi, Castello 3865
ANGOLA
On Ways of Travelling
António Ole, Binelde Hyrcan, Délio Jasse, Francisco Vidal, Nelo Teixeira
Commissioner: Ministry of Culture, Rita Guedes Tavares. Curator: António Ole. Deputy Curator: Antonia Gaeta. Venue: Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello - Palazzo Pisani, San Marco 2810
ARGENTINA
The Uprising of Form
Juan Carlos Diste´fano
Commissioner: Magdalena Faillace. Curator: Mari´a Teresa Constantin. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale – Sale d’Armi
ARMENIA, Republic of
Armenity / Haiyutioun
Haig Aivazian, Lebanon; Nigol Bezjian, Syria/USA; Anna Boghiguian Egypt/Canada; Hera Büyüktasçiyan, Turkey; Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, Argentina/Germany; Rene Gabri & Ayreen Anastas, Iran/Palestine/USA; Mekhitar Garabedian, Belgium; Aikaterini Gegisian, Greece; Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi, Italy; Aram Jibilian, USA; Nina Katchadourian, USA/Finland; Melik Ohanian, France; Mikayel Ohanjanyan, Armenia/Italy; Rosana Palazyan, Brazil; Sarkis, Turkey/France; Hrair Sarkissian, Syria/UK
Commissioner: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia. Deputy Commissioner: Art for the World, Mekhitarist Congregation of San Lazzaro Island, Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in Italy, Vartan Karapetian. Curator: Adelina Cüberyan von Fürstenberg. Venue: Monastery and Island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni
AUSTRALIA
Fiona Hall: Wrong Way Time
Fiona Hall
Commissioner: Simon Mordant AM. Deputy Commissioner: Charles Green. Curator: Linda Michael. Scientific Committee: Simon Mordant AM, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Max Delany, Rachel Kent, Danie Mellor, Suhanya Raffel, Leigh Robb. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
AUSTRIA
Heimo Zobernig
Commissioner: Yilmaz Dziewior. Curator: Yilmaz Dziewior. Scientific Committee: Friends of the Venice Biennale. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
AZERBAIJAN, Republic of
Beyond the Line
Ashraf Murad, Javad Mirjavadov, Tofik Javadov, Rasim Babayev, Fazil Najafov, Huseyn Hagverdi, Shamil Najafzada
Commissioner: Heydar Aliyev Foundation. Curators: de Pury de Pury, Emin Mammadov. Venue: Palazzo Lezze, Campo S.Stefano, San Marco 2949
Vita Vitale
Edward Burtynsky, Mircea Cantor, Loris Cecchini, Gordon Cheung, Khalil Chishtee, Tony Cragg, Laura Ford, Noemie Goudal, Siobhán Hapaska, Paul Huxley, IDEA laboratory and Leyla Aliyeva, Chris Jordan with Rebecca Clark and Helena S.Eitel, Tania Kovats, Aida Mahmudova, Sayyora Muin, Jacco Olivier, Julian Opie, Julian Perry, Mike Perry, Bas Princen, Stephanie Quayle, Ugo Rondinone, Graham Stevens, Diana Thater, Andy Warhol, Bill Woodrow, Erwin Wurm, Rose Wylie
Commissioner: Heydar Aliyev Foundation. Curators: Artwise: Susie Allen, Laura Culpan, Dea Vanagan. Venue: Ca’ Garzoni, San Marco 3416
BELARUS, Republic of
War Witness Archive
Konstantin Selikhanov
Commissioner: Natallia Sharanhovich. Deputy Commissioners: Alena Vasileuskaya, Kamilia Yanushkevich. Curators: Aleksei Shinkarenko, Olga Rybchinskaya. Scientific Committee: Dmitry Korol, Daria Amelkovich, Julia Kondratyuk, Sergei Jeihala, Sheena Macfarlane, Yuliya Heisik, Hanna Samarskaya, Taras Kaliahin, Aliaksandr Stasevich. Venue: Riva San Biagio, Castello 2145
BELGIUM
Personnes et les autres
Vincent Meessen and Guests, Mathieu K. Abonnenc, Sammy Baloji, James Beckett, Elisabetta Benassi, Patrick Bernier & Olive Martin, Tamar Guimara~es & Kasper Akhøj, Maryam Jafri, Adam Pendleton
Commissioner: Wallonia-Brussels Federation and Wallonia-Brussels International. Curator: Katerina Gregos. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
COSTA RICA
"Costa Rica, Paese di pace, invita a un linguaggio universale d'intesa tra i popoli".
Andrea Prandi, Beatrice Gallori, Beth Parin, Biagio Schembari, Carla Castaldo, Celestina Avanzini, Cesare Berlingeri, Erminio Tansini, Fabio Capitanio, Fausto Beretti, Giovan Battista Pedrazzini, Giovanni Lamberti, Giovanni Tenga, Iana Zanoskar, Jim Prescott, Leonardo Beccegato, Liliana Scocco, Lucia Bolzano, Marcela Vicuna, Marco Bellagamba, Marco Lodola, Maria Gioia dell’Aglio, Mario Bernardinello, Massimo Meucci, Nacha Piattini, Omar Ronda, Renzo Eusebi, Tita Patti, Romina Power, Rubens Fogacci, Silvio di Pietro, Stefano Sichel, Tino Stefanoni, Ufemia Ritz, Ugo Borlenghi, Umberto Mariani, Venere Chillemi, Jacqueline Gallicot Madar, Massimo Onnis, Fedora Spinelli
Commissioner: Ileana Ordonez Chacon. Curator: Gregorio Rossi. Venue: Palazzo Bollani
CROATIA
Studies on Shivering: The Third Degree
Damir Ocko
Commissioner: Ministry of Culture. Curator: Marc Bembekoff. Venue: Palazzo Pisani, S. Marina
CUBA
El artista entre la individualidad y el contexto
Lida Abdul, Celia-Yunior, Grethell Rasúa, Giuseppe Stampone, LinYilin, Luis Edgardo Gómez Armenteros, Olga Chernysheva, Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo
Commissioner: Miria Vicini. Curators: Jorge Fernández Torres, Giacomo Zaza. Venue: San Servolo Island
CYPRUS, Republic of
Two Days After Forever
Christodoulos Panayiotou
Commissioner: Louli Michaelidou. Deputy Commissioner: Angela Skordi. Curator: Omar Kholeif. Deputy Curator: Daniella Rose King. Venue: Palazzo Malipiero, Sestiere San Marco 3079
CZECH Republic and SLOVAK Republic
Apotheosis
Jirí David
Commissioner: Adam Budak. Deputy Commissioner: Barbara Holomkova. Curator: Katarina Rusnakova. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
ECUADOR
Gold Water: Apocalyptic Black Mirrors
Maria Veronica Leon Veintemilla in collaboration with Lucia Vallarino Peet
Commissioner: Andrea Gonzàlez Sanchez. Deputy Commissioner: PDG Arte Communications. Curator: Ileana Cornea. Deputy Curator: Maria Veronica Leon Veintemilla. Venue: Istituto Santa Maria della Pietà, Castello 3701
ESTONIA
NSFW. From the Abyss of History
Jaanus Samma
Commissioner: Maria Arusoo. Curator: Eugenio Viola. Venue: Palazzo Malipiero, campo San Samuele, San Marco 3199
EGYPT
CAN YOU SEE
Ahmed Abdel Fatah, Gamal Elkheshen, Maher Dawoud
Commissioner: Hany Al Ashkar. Curator: Ministry of Culture. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
FINLAND (Pavilion Alvar Aalto)
Hours, Years, Aeons
IC-98
Commissioner: Frame Visual Art Finland, Raija Koli. Curator: Taru Elfving. Deputy Curator: Anna Virtanen. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
FRANCE
revolutions
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot
Commissioner: Institut français, with Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication. Curator: Emma Lavigne. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
GEORGIA
Crawling Border
Rusudan Gobejishvili Khizanishvili, Irakli Bluishvili, Dimitri Chikvaidze, Joseph Sabia
Commissioner: Ana Riaboshenko. Curator: Nia Mgaloblishvili. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale – Sale d’Armi
GERMANY
Fabrik
Jasmina Metwaly / Philip Rizk, Olaf Nicolai, Hito Steyerl, Tobias Zielony
Commissioner: ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office. Deputy Commissioner: Elke aus dem Moore, Nina Hülsmeier. Curator: Florian Ebner. Deputy Curator: Tanja Milewsky, Ilina Koralova. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
GREAT BRITAIN
Sarah Lucas
Commissioner: Emma Dexter. Curator: Richard Riley. Deputy Curator: Katrina Schwarz. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
GRENADA *
Present Nearness
Oliver Benoit, Maria McClafferty, Asher Mains, Francesco Bosso and Carmine Ciccarini, Guiseppe Linardi
Commissioner: Ministry of Culture. Deputy Commissioner: Susan Mains. Curator: Susan Mains. Deputy Curator: Francesco Elisei. Venue: Opera don Orione Artigianelli, Sala Tiziano, Fondamenta delle Zattere ai Gesuati, Dorsoduro 919
GREECE
Why Look at Animals? AGRIMIKÁ.
Maria Papadimitriou
Commissioner: Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs. Curator: Gabi Scardi. Deputy Curator: Alexios Papazacharias. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
BRAZIL
So much that it doesn't fit here
Antonio Manuel, André Komatsu, Berna Reale
Commissioner: Luis Terepins. Curator: Luiz Camillo Osorio. Deputy Curator: Cauê Alves. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
CANADA
Canadassimo
BGL
Commissioner: National Gallery of Canada, Marc Mayer. Deputy Commissioner: National Gallery of Canada, Yves Théoret. Curator: Marie Fraser. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
CHILE
Poéticas de la disidencia | Poetics of dissent: Paz Errázuriz - Lotty Rosenfeld
Paz Errázuriz, Lotty Rosenfeld
Commissioner: Antonio Arèvalo. Deputy Commissioner: Juan Pablo Vergara Undurraga. Curator: Nelly Richard. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale - Artiglierie
CHINA, People’s Republic of
Other Future
LIU Jiakun, LU Yang, TAN Dun, WEN Hui/Living Dance Studio, WU Wenguang/Caochangdi Work Station
Commissioner: China Arts and Entertainment Group, CAEG. Deputy Commissioners: Zhang Yu, Yan Dong. Curator: Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation. Scientific Committee: Fan Di’an, Zhang Zikang, Zhu Di, Gao Shiming, Zhu Qingsheng, Pu Tong, Shang Hui. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale – Giardino delle Vergini
GUATEMALA
Sweet Death
Emma Anticoli Borza, Sabrina Bertolelli, Mariadolores Castellanos, Max Leiva, Pier Domenico Magri, Adriana Montalto, Elmar Rojas (Elmar René Rojas Azurdia), Paolo Schmidlin, Mónica Serra, Elsie Wunderlich, Collettivo La Grande Bouffe
Commissioner: Daniele Radini Tedeschi. Curators: Stefania Pieralice, Carlo Marraffa, Elsie Wunderlich. Deputy Curators: Luciano Carini, Simone Pieralice. Venue: Officina delle Zattere, Dorsoduro 947, Fondamenta Nani
HOLY SEE
Commissioner: Em.mo Card. Gianfranco Ravasi, Presidente del Pontificio Consiglio della Cultura. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale – Sale d’Armi
HUNGARY
Sustainable Identities
Szilárd Cseke
Commissioner: Monika Balatoni. Deputy Commissioner: István Puskás, Sándor Fodor, Anna Karády. Curator: Kinga German. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
ICELAND
Christoph Büchel
Commissioner: Björg Stefánsdóttir. Curator: Nína Magnúsdóttir. Venue: to be confirmed
INDONESIA, Republic of
Komodo Voyage
Heri Dono
Commissioner: Sapta Nirwandar. Deputy Commissioner: Soedarmadji JH Damais. Curator: Carla Bianpoen, Restu Imansari Kusumaningrum. Scientific Committee: Franco Laera, Asmudjo Jono Irianto, Watie Moerany, Elisabetta di Mambro. Venue: Venue: Arsenale
IRAN
Iranian Highlights
Samira Alikhanzaradeh, Mahmoud Bakhshi Moakhar, Jamshid Bayrami, Mohammed Ehsai
The Great Game
Lida Abdul, Bani Abidi, Adel Abidin, Amin Agheai, Ghodratollah Agheli, Shahriar Ahmadi, Parastou Ahovan, Farhad Ahrarnia, Rashad Alakbarov, Nazgol Ansarinia, Reza Aramesh, Alireza Astaneh, Sonia Balassanian, Mahmoud Bakhshi, Moakhar Wafaa Bilal, Mehdi Farhadian, Monir Farmanfarmaian, Shadi Ghadirian, Babak Golkar, Shilpa Gupta, Ghasem Hajizadeh, Shamsia Hassani, Sahand Hesamiyan, Sitara Ibrahimova, Pouran Jinchi, Amar Kanwar, Babak Kazemi, Ryas Komu, Ahmad Morshedloo, Farhad Moshiri, Mehrdad Mohebali, Huma Mulji, Azad Nanakeli, Jamal Penjweny, Imran Qureshi, Sara Rahbar, Rashid Rana, T.V. Santhosh, Walid Siti, Mohsen Taasha Wahidi, Mitra Tabrizian, Parviz Tanavoli, Newsha Tavakolian, Sadegh Tirafkan, Hema Upadhyay, Saira Wasim
Commissioner: Majid Mollanooruzi. Deputy Commissioners: Marco Meneguzzo, Mazdak Faiznia. Curators: Marco Meneguzzo, Mazdak Faiznia. Venue: Calle San Giovanni 1074/B, Cannaregio
IRAQ
Commissioner: Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Culture in Iraq (RUYA). Deputy Commissioner: Nuova Icona - Associazione Culturale per le Arti. Curator: Philippe Van Cauteren. Venue: Ca' Dandolo, San Polo 2879
IRELAND
Adventure: Capital
Sean Lynch
Commissioner: Mike Fitzpatrick. Curator: Woodrow Kernohan. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale - Artiglierie
ISRAEL
Tsibi Geva | Archeology of the Present
Tsibi Geva
Commissioner: Arad Turgem, Michael Gov. Curator: Hadas Maor. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
ITALY
Ministero dei Beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo - Direzione Generale Arte e Architettura Contemporanee e Periferie Urbane. Commissioner: Federica Galloni. Curator: Vincenzo Trione. Venue: Padiglione Italia, Tese delle Vergini at Arsenale
JAPAN
The Key in the Hand
Chiharu Shiota
Commissioner: The Japan Foundation. Deputy Commissioner: Yukihiro Ohira, Manako Kawata and Haruka Nakajima. Curator: Hitoshi Nakano. Venue : Pavilion at Giardini
KENYA
Creating Identities
Yvonne Apiyo Braendle-Amolo, Qin Feng, Shi Jinsong, Armando Tanzini, Li Zhanyang, Lan Zheng Hui, Li Gang, Double Fly Art Center
Commissioner: Paola Poponi. Curator: Sandro Orlandi Stagl. Deputy Curator: Ding Xuefeng. Venue: San Servolo Island
KOREA, Republic of
The Ways of Folding Space & Flying
MOON Kyungwon & JEON Joonho
Commissioner: Sook-Kyung Lee. Curator: Sook-Kyung Lee. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
KOSOVO, Republic of
Speculating on the blue
Flaka Haliti
Commissioner: Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. Curator: Nicolaus Schafhausen. Deputy Curator: Katharina Schendl. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale - Artiglierie
LATVIA
Armpit
Katrina Neiburga, Andris Eglitis
Commissioner: Solvita Krese (Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art). Deputy Commissioner: Kitija Vasiljeva. Curator: Kaspars Vanags. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale
LITHUANIA
Museum
Dainius Liškevicius
Commissioner: Vytautas Michelkevicius. Deputy Commissioner: Rasa Antanaviciute. Curator: Vytautas Michelkevicius. Venue: Palazzo Zenobio, Fondamenta del Soccorso 2569, Dorsoduro
LUXEMBOURG, Grand Duchy of
Paradiso Lussemburgo
Filip Markiewicz
Commissioner: Ministry of Culture. Deputy Commissioner: MUDAM Luxembourg. Curator: Paul Ardenne. Venue: Cà Del Duca, Corte del Duca Sforza, San Marco 3052
MACEDONIA, Former Yugoslavian Republic of
We are all in this alone
Hristina Ivanoska and Yane Calovski
Commissioner: Maja Nedelkoska Brzanova, National Gallery of Macedonia. Deputy Commissioner: Olivija Stoilkova. Curator: Basak Senova. Deputy Curator: Maja Cankulovska Mihajlovska. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale - Sale d’Armi
MAURITIUS *
From One Citizen You Gather an Idea
Sultana Haukim, Nirmal Hurry, Alix Le Juge, Olga Jürgenson, Helge Leiberg, Krishna Luchoomun, Neermala Luckeenarain, Kavinash Thomoo, Bik Van Der Pol, Laure Prouvost, Vitaly Pushnitsky, Römer + Römer
Commissioner: pARTage. Curators: Alfredo Cramerotti, Olga Jürgenson. Venue: Palazzo Flangini - Canareggio 252
MEXICO
Possesing Nature
Tania Candiani, Luis Felipe Ortega
Commissioner: Tomaso Radaelli. Deputy Commissioner: Magdalena Zavala Bonachea. Curator: Karla Jasso. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale – Sale d’Armi
MONGOLIA *
Other Home
Enkhbold Togmidshiirev, Unen Enkh
Commissioner: Gantuya Badamgarav, MCASA. Curator: Uranchimeg Tsultemin. Scientific Committee: David A Ross, Boldbaatar Chultemin. Venue: European Cultural Centre - Palazzo Mora
MONTENEGRO
,,Ti ricordi Sjecaš li se You Remember "
Aleksandar Duravcevic
Commissioner/Curator: Anastazija Miranovic. Deputy Commissioner: Danica Bogojevic. Venue: Palazzo Malipiero (piano terra), San Marco 3078-3079/A, Ramo Malipiero
MOZAMBIQUE, Republic of *
Theme: Coexistence of Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Mozambique
Mozambique Artists
Commissioner: Joel Matias Libombo. Deputy Commissioner: Gilberto Paulino Cossa. Curator: Comissariado-Geral para a Expo Milano 2015. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale
NETHERLANDS, The
herman de vries - to be all ways to be
herman de vries
Commissioner: Mondriaan Fund. Curators: Colin Huizing, Cees de Boer. Venue: Pavilion ar Giardini
NEW ZEALAND
Secret Power
Simon Denny
Commissioner: Heather Galbraith. Curator: Robert Leonard. Venue: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Marco Polo Airport
NORDIC PAVILION (NORWAY)
Camille Norment
Commissioner: OCA, Office for Contemporary Art Norway. Curator: Katya García-Antón. Deputy Curator: Antonio Cataldo. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
PERU
Misplaced Ruins
Gilda Mantilla and Raimond Chaves
Commissioner: Armando Andrade de Lucio. Curator: Max Hernández-Calvo. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale – Sale d’Armi
PHILIPPINES
Tie a String Around the World
Manuel Conde, Carlos Francisco, Manny Montelibano, Jose Tence Ruiz
Commissioner: National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Felipe M. de Leon Jr. Curator: Patrick D. Flores. Venue: European Cultural Centre - Palazzo Mora
POLAND
Halka/Haiti. 18°48’05”N 72°23’01”W
C.T. Jasper, Joanna Malinowska
Commissioner: Hanna Wróblewska. Deputy Commissioner: Joanna Wasko. Curator: Magdalena Moskalewicz. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
PORTUGAL
I Will Be Your Mirror / poems and problems
João Louro
Commissioner/Curator: María de Corral. Venue: Palazzo Loredan, campo S. Stefano
ROMANIA
Adrian Ghenie: Darwin’s Room
Adrian Ghenie
Commissioner: Monica Morariu. Deputy Commissioner: Alexandru Damian. Curator: Mihai Pop. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
Inventing the Truth. On Fiction and Reality
Michele Bressan, Carmen Dobre-Hametner, Alex Mirutziu, Lea Rasovszky, Stefan Sava, Larisa Sitar
Commissioner: Monica Morariu. Deputy Commissioner: Alexandru Damian. Curator: Diana Marincu. Deputy Curators: Ephemair Association (Suzana Dan and Silvia Rogozea). Venue: New Gallery of the Romanian Institute for Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice
RUSSIA
The Green Pavilion
Irina Nakhova
Commissioner: Stella Kesaeva. Curator: Margarita Tupitsyn. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
SERBIA
United Dead Nations
Ivan Grubanov
Commissioner: Lidija Merenik. Deputy Commissioner: Ana Bogdanovic. Curator: Lidija Merenik. Deputy Curator: Ana Bogdanovic. Scientific Committee: Jovan Despotovic. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
SAN MARINO
Repubblica di San Marino “ Friendship Project “ China
Xu De Qi, Liu Dawei, Liu Ruo Wang, Ma Yuan, Li Lei, Zhang Hong Mei, Eleonora Mazza, Giuliano Giulianelli, Giancarlo Frisoni, Tony Margiotta, Elisa Monaldi, Valentina Pazzini
Commissioner: Istituti Culturali della Repubblica di San Marino. Curator: Vincenzo Sanfo. Venue: TBC
SEYCHELLES, Republic of *
A Clockwork Sunset
George Camille, Léon Wilma Loïs Radegonde
Commissioner: Seychelles Art Projects Foundation. Curators: Sarah J. McDonald, Victor Schaub Wong. Venue: European Cultural Centre - Palazzo Mora
SINGAPORE
Sea State
Charles Lim Yi Yong
Commissioner: Paul Tan, National Arts Council, Singapore. Curator: Shabbir Hussain Mustafa. Scientific Committee: Eugene Tan, Kathy Lai, Ahmad Bin Mashadi, June Yap, Emi Eu, Susie Lingham, Charles Merewether, Randy Chan. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale – Sale d’Armi
SLOVENIA, Republic of
UTTER / The violent necessity for the embodied presence of hope
JAŠA
Commissioner: Simona Vidmar. Deputy Commissioner: Jure Kirbiš. Curators: Michele Drascek and Aurora Fonda. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale - Artiglierie
SPAIN
Los Sujetos (The Subjects)
Pepo Salazar, Cabello/Carceller, Francesc Ruiz, + Salvador Dalí
Commissioner: Ministerio Asuntos Exteriores. Gobierno de España. Curator: Marti Manen. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC
Origini della civiltà
Narine Ali, Ehsan Alar, Felipe Cardeña, Fouad Dahdouh, Aldo Damioli, Svitlana Grebenyuk, Mauro Reggio, Liu Shuishi, Nass ouh Zaghlouleh, Andrea Zucchi, Helidon Xhixha
Commissioner: Christian Maretti. Curator: Duccio Trombadori. Venue: Redentore – Giudecca, San Servolo Island
SWEDEN
Excavation of the Image: Imprint, Shadow, Spectre, Thought
Lina Selander
Commissioner: Ann-Sofi Noring. Curator: Lena Essling. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale
SWITZERLAND
Our Product
Pamela Rosenkranz
Commissioner: Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Sandi Paucic and Marianne Burki. Deputy-Commissioner: Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Rachele Giudici Legittimo. Curator: Susanne Pfeffer. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
THAILAND
Earth, Air, Fire & Water
Kamol Tassananchalee
Commissioner: Chai Nakhonchai, Office of Contemporary Art and Culture (OCAC), Ministry of Culture. Curator: Richard David Garst. Deputy Curator: Pongdej Chaiyakut. Venue: Paradiso Gallerie, Giardini della Biennale, Castello 1260
TURKEY
Respiro
Sarkis
Commissioner: Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts. Curator: Defne Ayas. Deputy Curator: Ozge Ersoy. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale – Sale d’Armi
TUVALU
Crossing the Tide
Vincent J.F. Huang
Commissioner: Taukelina Finikaso. Deputy Commissioner: Temate Melitiana. Curator: Thomas J. Berghuis. Scientific Committee: Andrea Bonifacio. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale
UKRAINE
Hope!
Yevgenia Belorusets, Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Mykola Ridnyi & SerhiyZhadan, Anna Zvyagintseva, Open Group, Artem Volokitin
Commissioner: Ministry of Culture. Curator: Björn Geldhof. Venue: Riva dei Sette Martiri
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
1980 – Today: Exhibitions in the United Arab Emirates
Abdullah Al Saadi, Abdul Qader Al Rais, Abdulraheem Salim, Abdulrahman Zainal, Ahmed Al Ansari, Ahmed Sharif, Hassan Sharif, Mohamed Yousif, Mohammed Abdullah Bulhiah, Mohammed Al Qassab, Mohammed Kazem, Moosa Al Halyan, Najat Meky, Obaid Suroor, Salem Jawhar
Commissioner: Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation. Curator: Hoor Al Qasimi. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale – Sale d'Armi
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Joan Jonas: They Come to Us Without a Word
Joan Jonas
Commissioner: Paul C. Ha. Deputy Commissioner: MIT List Visual Arts Center. Curators: Ute Meta Bauer, Paul C. Ha. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
URUGUAY
Global Myopia II (Pencil & Paper)
Marco Maggi
Commissioner: Ricardo Pascale. Curator: Patricia Bentancour. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
VENEZUELA, Bolivarian Republic of
Te doy mi palabra (I give you my word)
Argelia Bravo, Félix Molina (Flix)
Commissioner: Oscar Sotillo Meneses. Deputy Commissioner: Reinaldo Landaeta Díaz. Curator: Oscar Sotillo Meneses. Deputy Curator: Morella Jurado. Scientific Committee: Carlos Pou Ruan. Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
ZIMBABWE, Republic of
Pixels of Ubuntu/Unhu: - Exploring the social and cultural identities of the 21st century.
Chikonzero Chazunguza, Masimba Hwati, Gareth Nyandoro
Commissioner: Doreen Sibanda. Curator: Raphael Chikukwa. Deputy Curator: Tafadzwa Gwetai. Scientific Committee: Saki Mafundikwa, Biggie Samwanda, Fabian Kangai, Reverend Paul Damasane, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Stephen Garan'anga, Dominic Benhura. Venue: Santa Maria della Pieta
ITALO-LATIN AMERICAN INSTITUTE
Voces Indígenas
Commissioner: Sylvia Irrazábal. Curator: Alfons Hug. Deputy Curator: Alberto Saraiva. Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale
ARGENTINA
Sofia Medici and Laura Kalauz
PLURINATIONAL STATE OF BOLIVIA
Sonia Falcone and José Laura Yapita
BRAZIL
Adriana Barreto
Paulo Nazareth
CHILE
Rainer Krause
COLOMBIA
León David Cobo,
María Cristina Rincón and Claudia Rodríguez
COSTA RICA
Priscilla Monge
ECUADOR
Fabiano Kueva
EL SALVADOR
Mauricio Kabistan
GUATEMALA
Sandra Monterroso
HAITI
Barbara Prézeau Stephenson
HONDURAS
Leonardo González
PANAMA
Humberto Vélez
NICARAGUA
Raúl Quintanilla
PARAGUAY
Erika Meza
Javier López
PERU
José Huamán Turpo
URUGUAY
Gustavo Tabares
Ellen Slegers
001 Inverso Mundus. AES+F
Magazzino del Sale n. 5, Dorsoduro, 265 (Fondamenta delle Zattere ai Saloni); Palazzo Nani Mocenigo, Dorsoduro, 960
May 9th – October 31st
Organization: VITRARIA Glass + A Museum
Catalonia in Venice: Singularity
Cantieri Navali, Castello, 40 (Calle Quintavalle)
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: Institut Ramon Llull
Conversion. Recycle Group
Chiesa di Sant’Antonin, Castello (Campo Sant’Antonin)
May 6th - October 31st
Organization: Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Dansaekhwa
Palazzo Contarini-Polignac, Dorsoduro, 874 (Accademia)
May 7th – August 15th
Organization: The Boghossian Foundation
Dispossession
Palazzo Donà Brusa, Campo San Polo, 2177
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: European Capital of Culture Wroclaw 2016
EM15 presents Doug Fishbone’s Leisure Land Golf
Arsenale Docks, Castello, 40A, 40B, 41C
May 6th - July 26th
Organization: EM15
Eredità e Sperimentazione
Grand Hotel Hungaria & Ausonia, Viale Santa Maria Elisabetta, 28, Lido di Venezia
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: Istituto Nazionale di BioArchitettura - Sezione di Padova
Frontiers Reimagined
Palazzo Grimani, Castello, 4858 (Ramo Grimani)
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: Tagore Foundation International; Polo museale del Veneto
Glasstress 2015 Gotika
Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti, Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti, San Marco, 2847 (Campo Santo Stefano); Chiesa di Santa Maria della Visitazione, Centro Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli, Dorsoduro, 919 (Zattere); Fondazione Berengo, Campiello della Pescheria, 15, Murano;
May 9th — November 22nd
Organization: The State Hermitage Museum
Graham Fagen: Scotland + Venice 2015
Palazzo Fontana, Cannaregio, 3829 (Strada Nova)
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: Scotland + Venice
Grisha Bruskin. An Archaeologist’s Collection
Former Chiesa di Santa Caterina, Cannaregio, 4941-4942
May 6th – November 22nd
Organization: Centro Studi sulle Arti della Russia (CSAR), Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia
Helen Sear, ... The Rest Is Smoke
Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, Castello, 450 (Fondamenta San Gioacchin)
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: Cymru yn Fenis/Wales in Venice
Highway to Hell
Palazzo Michiel, Cannaregio, 4391/A (Strada Nova)
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: Hubei Museum of Art
Humanistic Nature and Society (Shan-Shui) – An Insight into the Future
Palazzo Faccanon, San Marco, 5016 (Mercerie)
May 7th – August 4th
Organization: Shanghai Himalayas Museum
In the Eye of the Thunderstorm: Effervescent Practices from the Arab World & South Asia
Dorsoduro, 417 (Zattere)
May 6th - November 15th
Organization: ArsCulture
Italia Docet | Laboratorium- Artists, Participants, Testimonials and Activated Spectators
Palazzo Barbarigo Minotto, San Marco, 2504 (Fondamenta Duodo o Barbarigo)
May 9th – June 30th; September 11st – October 31st
Organization: Italian Art Motherboard Foundation (i-AM Foundation)
www.venicebiennale-italiadocet.org
Jaume Plensa: Together
Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore
May 6th – November 22nd
Organization: Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore Benedicti Claustra Onlus
Jenny Holzer "War Paintings"
Museo Correr, San Marco, 52 (Piazza San Marco)
May 6th – November 22nd
Organization: The Written Art Foundation; Museo Correr, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia
correr.visitmuve.it
Jump into the Unknown
Palazzo Loredan dell’Ambasciatore, Dorsoduro, 1261-1262
May 9th – June 18th
Organization: Nine Dragon Heads
9dh-venice.com
Learn from Masters
Palazzo Bembo, San Marco, 4793 (Riva del Carbon)
May 9th – November 22nd
Organization: Pan Tianshou Foundation
pantianshou.caa.edu.cn/foundation_en
My East is Your West
Palazzo Benzon, San Marco, 3927
May 6th – October 31st
Organization: The Gujral Foundation
Ornamentalism. The Purvitis Prize
Arsenale Nord, Tesa 99
May 9th – November 22nd
Organization: The Secretariat of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2015
www.purvisabalva.lv/en/ornamentalism
Path and Adventure
Arsenale, Castello, 2126/A (Campo della Tana)
May 9th – November 22nd
Organization: The Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau; The Macao Museum of Art; The Cultural Affairs Bureau
Patricia Cronin: Shrine for Girls, Venice
Chiesa di San Gallo, San Marco, 1103 (Campo San Gallo)
May 9th – November 22nd
Organization: Brooklyn Rail Curatorial Projects
curatorialprojects.brooklynrail.org
Roberto Sebastian Matta. Sculture
Giardino di Palazzo Soranzo Cappello, Soprintendenza BAP per le Province di Venezia, Belluno, Padova e Treviso, Santa Croce, 770 (Fondamenta Rio Marin)
May 9th – November 22nd
Organization: Fondazione Echaurren Salaris
www.fondazioneechaurrensalaris.it
www.maggioregam.com/56Biennale_Matta
Salon Suisse: S.O.S. Dada - The World Is A Mess
Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi, Dorsoduro, 810 (Campo Sant'Agnese)
May 9th; June 4th - 6th; September 10th - 12th; October 15th - 17th; November 19th – 21st
Organization: Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia
Sean Scully: Land Sea
Palazzo Falier, San Marco, 2906
May 9th – November 22nd
Organization: Fondazione Volume!
Sepphoris. Alessandro Valeri
Molino Stucky, interior atrium, Giudecca, 812
May 9th – November 22nd
Organization: Assessorato alla Cultura del Comune di Narni(TR); a Sidereal Space of Art; Satellite Berlin
Tesla Revisited
Palazzo Nani Mocenigo, Dorsoduro, 960
May 9th – October 18th
Organization: VITRARIA Glass + A Museum
The Bridges of Graffiti
Arterminal c/o Terminal San Basilio, Dorsoduro (Fondamenta Zattere al Ponte Lungo)
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: Associazione Culturale Inossidabile
The Dialogue of Fire. Ceramic and Glass Masters from Barcelona to Venice
Palazzo Tiepolo Passi, San Polo, 2774
May 6th - November 22nd
Organization: Fundaciò Artigas; ArsCulture
The Question of Beings
Istituto Santa Maria della Pietà, Castello, 3701
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MoCA, Taipei)
The Revenge of the Common Place
Università Ca' Foscari, Ca' Bernardo, Dorsoduro, 3199 (Calle Bernardo)
May 9th – September 30th
Organization: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University Brussels-VUB)
The Silver Lining. Contemporary Art from Liechtenstein and other Microstates
Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi, Dorsoduro, 810 (Campo Sant'Agnese)
October 24th – November 1st
Organization: Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein
The Sound of Creation. Paintings + Music by Beezy Bailey and Brian Eno
Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello, Palazzo Pisani, San Marco, 2810 (Campo Santo Stefano)
May 7th - November 22nd
Organization: ArsCulture
The Union of Fire and Water
Palazzo Barbaro, San Marco, 2840
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: YARAT Contemporary Art Organisation
Thirty Light Years - Theatre of Chinese Art
Palazzo Rossini, San Marco, 4013 (Campo Manin)
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: GAC Global Art Center Foundation; The Guangdong Museum of Art
Tsang Kin-Wah: The Infinite Nothing, Hong Kong in Venice
Arsenale, Castello, 2126 (Campo della Tana)
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: M+, West Kowloon Cultural District; Hong Kong Arts Development Council
Under the Surface, Newfoundland and Labrador at Venice
Galleria Ca' Rezzonico, Dorsoduro, 2793
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: Terra Nova Art Foundation
Ursula von Rydingsvard
Giardino della Marinaressa, Castello (Riva dei Sette Martiri)
May 6th - November 22nd
Organization:Yorkshire Sculpture Park
We Must Risk Delight: Twenty Artists from Los Angeles
Magazzino del Sale n. 3, Dorsoduro, 264 (Zattere)
May 7th - November 22nd
Organization: bardoLA
Wu Tien-Chang: Never Say Goodbye
Palazzo delle Prigioni, Castello, 4209 (San Marco)
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: Taipei Fine Arts Museum of Taiwan
Xanadu
Istituto Santa Maria della Pietà, Castello, 3701
May 9th - November 22nd
Organization: Dream Amsterdam Foundation
Universities and Associations that have joined the project
Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London / St Lucas University College of Art & Design, Antwerp / University of Washington - College of Arts & Sciences, Seattle / Iowa State University - College of Design, Ames / Universität für angewandte Kunst, Vienna
Venice International University / Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia / Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia - Dipartimento di Filosofia e Beni Culturali / Università IUAV di Venezia / Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Milano - Dipartimento di Marketing / Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milano - Ufficio Relazioni Internazionali. Erasmus Office / Politecnico di Milano - Scuola del Design. Laurea in Design degli Interni / Università di Roma Sapienza - Facoltà di Architettura / Associazione Cinemavvenire, Roma / Università per Stranieri di Perugia / Università per Stranieri di Siena
Central Pavilion at the Giardini (3,000 sq.m.) to the Arsenale
Bice Curiger Massimiliano Gioni
A Parliament for a Biennale
Paolo Baratta, President of la Biennale di Venezia
Okwui Enwezor the ARENA Karl Marx’s Das Kapital
Theaster Gates Chris Rehberger Joseph Haydn Cesare Paveset David Adjaye Olaf Nicolai Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige Marsilio Editori. emergency cinema.” Abounaddara
Mathieu KleyebeCharles Gaines’Jeremy Deller Jason Moran , venedig biennale biennial
other Biennale :(Biennials ) :
Venice Biennial , Documenta Havana Biennial,Istanbul Biennial ( Istanbuli),Biennale de Lyon ,Dak'Art Berlin Biennial,Mercosul Visual Arts Biennial ,Bienal do Mercosul Porto Alegre.,Berlin Biennial ,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial .Yokohama Triennial Aichi Triennale,manifesta ,Copenhagen Biennale,Aichi Triennale
Yokohama Triennial,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial.Sharjah Biennial ,Biennale of Sydney, Liverpool , São Paulo Biennial ; Athens Biennale , Bienal do Mercosul ,Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art
Engineers and astronauts conducted testing in a representative model of the Orion spacecraft at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to gather the crew's feedback on the design of the docking hatch and on post-landing equipment operations.
While the crew will primarily use the side hatch for entry and exit on Earth and the docking hatch to travel between Orion and a habitation module on long-duration deep space missions, the crew will need to be able to exit out of the docking hatch if wave heights in the Pacific Ocean upon splashdown are too high. The work is being done to help ensure all elements of Orion's design are safe and effective for the crew to use on future missions on the journey to Mars.
Image Credit: NASA / Radislav Sinyak
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin [nb 1] (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet Air Forces pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space, achieving a major milestone in the Space Race; his capsule Vostok 1 completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, his nation's highest honour.
Vostok 1 was Gagarin's only spaceflight but he served as the backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission, which ended in a fatal crash, killing his friend and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. Gagarin later served as the deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre, which was subsequently named after him. He was elected as a deputy to the Soviet of the Union in 1962 and then to the Soviet of Nationalities, respectively the lower and upper chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Gagarin died in 1968 when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting with his flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin crashed near the town of Kirzhach.
Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Soviet Air Force service
3 Soviet space program
3.1 Selection and training
3.2 Vostok 1
4 After the Vostok 1 flight
5 Personal life
6 Death
7 Awards and honours
7.1 Medals and orders of merit
7.2 Tributes
7.3 Statues and monuments
7.4 50th anniversary
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
10.1 Sources
11 Further reading
12 External links
Early life and education
Yuri Gagarin was born 9 March 1934 in the village of Klushino,[1] near Gzhatsk (renamed Gagarin in 1968 after his death).[2] His parents worked on a collective farm:[3] Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin as a carpenter and Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina as a dairy farmer.[nb 2][4] Yuri was the third of four children: his siblings were brothers Valentin (1924) and Boris (1936), and sister Zoya (1927).[5][6]
Like millions of Soviet Union citizens, the Gagarin family suffered during the Nazi occupation of Russia during World War II. Klushino was occupied in November 1941 during the German advance on Moscow and a German officer took over the Gagarin residence. The family were allowed to build a mud hut approximately 3 by 3 metres (10 by 10 ft) inside on the land behind their house, where they spent twenty-one months until the end of the occupation.[7] His two older siblings were deported by the Germans to Poland for slave labour in 1943 and did not return until after the war in 1945.[5][8] In 1946, the family moved to Gzhatsk, where Gagarin continued his secondary education.[7]
In 1950, aged 16, Gagarin began an apprenticeship as a foundryman at the Lyubertsy steel plant near Moscow,[5][8] and enrolled at a local "young workers" school for seventh-grade evening classes.[9] After graduating in 1951 from both the seventh grade and the vocational school with honours in mouldmaking and foundry work,[9] he was selected for further training at the Saratov Industrial Technical School, where he studied tractors.[5][8][10] While in Saratov, Gagarin volunteered at a local flying club for weekend training as a Soviet air cadet, where he trained to fly a biplane, and later a Yak-18.[8][10] He earned extra money as a part-time dock labourer on the Volga River.[7]
Soviet Air Force service
In 1955, Gagarin was accepted to the 1st Chkalovsky Higher Air Force Pilots School, a flight school in Orenburg.[11][12] He initially began training on the Yak-18 already familiar to him and later graduated to training on the MiG-15 in February 1956.[11] Gagarin twice struggled to land the two-seater trainer aircraft, and risked dismissal from pilot training. However, the commander of the regiment decided to give him another chance at landing. Gagarin's flight instructor gave him a cushion to sit on, which improved his view from the cockpit, and he landed successfully. Having completed his evaluation in a trainer aircraft,[13] Gagarin began flying solo in 1957.[5]
On 5 November 1957, Gagarin was commissioned a lieutenant in the Soviet Air Forces having accumulated 166 hours and 47 minutes of flight time. He graduated from flight school the next day and was posted to the Luostari airbase close to the Norwegian border in Murmansk Oblast for a two-year assignment with the Northern Fleet.[14] On 7 July 1959, he was rated Military Pilot 3rd Class.[15] After expressing interest in space exploration following the launch of Luna 3 on 6 October 1959, his recommendation to the Soviet space program was endorsed and forward by Lieutenant Colonel Babushkin.[14][16] By this point, he had accumulated 265 hours of flight time.[14] Gagarin was promoted to the rank of senior lieutenant on 6 November 1959,[15] three weeks after he was interviewed by a medical commission for qualification to the space program.[14]
Soviet space program
Selection and training
See also: Vostok programme
Vostok I capsule on display at the RKK Energiya museum
Gagarin's selection for the Vostok programme was overseen by the Central Flight Medical Commission led by Major General Konstantin Fyodorovich Borodin of the Soviet Army Medical Service. He underwent physical and psychological testing conducted at Central Aviation Scientific-Research Hospital, in Moscow, commanded by Colonel A.S. Usanov, a member of the commission. The commission also included Colonel Yevgeniy Anatoliyevich Karpov, who later commanded the training centre, Colonel Vladimir Ivanovich Yazdovskiy, the head physician for Gagarin's flight, and Major-General Aleksandr Nikolayevich Babiychuk, a physician flag officer on the Soviet Air Force General Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Air Force.[17]
From a pool of 154 qualified pilots short-listed by their Air Force units, the military physicians chose 29 cosmonaut candidates, of which 20 were approved by the Credential Committee of the Soviet Government. The first twelve including Gagarin were approved on 7 March 1960 and eight more were added in a series of subsequent orders issued until June.[18] Gagarin began training at the Khodynka Airfield in downtown Moscow on 15 March 1960. The training regiment involved vigorous and repetitive physical exercises which Alexei Leonov, a member of the initial group of twelve, described as akin to training for the Olympics Games.[19] In April 1960, they began parachute training in Saratov Oblast and each completed about 40 to 50 jumps from both low and high altitude, and over land and water.[20]
Gagarin was a candidate favoured by his peers. When they were asked to vote anonymously for a candidate besides themselves they would like to be the first to fly, all but three chose Gagarin.[21] One of these candidates, Yevgeny Khrunov, believed that Gagarin was very focused and was demanding of himself and others when necessary.[22] On 30 May 1960, Gagarin was further selected for an accelerated training group, known as the Vanguard Six or Sochi Six,[23][nb 3] from which the first cosmonauts of the Vostok programme would be chosen. The other members of the group were Anatoliy Kartashov, Andriyan Nikolayev, Pavel Popovich, German Titov, and Valentin Varlamov. However, Kartashov and Varlamov were injured and replaced by Khrunov and Grigoriy Nelyubov.[25]
As several of the candidates selected for the program including Gagarin did not have higher education degrees, they were enrolled into a correspondence course program at Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. Gagarin enrolled in the program in September 1960 and did not earn his specialist diploma until early 1968.[26][27] Gagarin was also subjected to experiments that were designed to test physical and psychological endurance including oxygen starvation tests in which the cosmonauts were locked in an isolation chamber and the air slowly pumped out. He also trained for the upcoming flight by experiencing g-forces in a centrifuge.[28][25] Psychological tests included placing the candidates in an anechoic chamber in complete isolation; Gagarin was in the chamber on July 26 – August 5.[29][20] In August 1960, a Soviet Air Force doctor evaluated his personality as follows:
Modest; embarrasses when his humor gets a little too racy; high degree of intellectual development evident in Yuriy; fantastic memory; distinguishes himself from his colleagues by his sharp and far-ranging sense of attention to his surroundings; a well-developed imagination; quick reactions; persevering, prepares himself painstakingly for his activities and training exercises, handles celestial mechanics and mathematical formulae with ease as well as excels in higher mathematics; does not feel constrained when he has to defend his point of view if he considers himself right; appears that he understands life better than a lot of his friends.[21]
The Vanguard Six were given the title of pilot-cosmonaut in January 1961[25] and entered a two-day examination conducted by a special interdepartmental commission led Lieutenant-General Nikolai Kamanin, tasked with ranking of the candidates based on their mission readiness for the first human Vostok mission. On 17 January 1961, they were tested in a simulator at the M. M. Gromov Flight-Research Institute on a full-size mockup of the Vostok capsule. Gagarin, Nikolayev, Popovich, and Titov all received excellent marks on the first day of testing in which they were required to describe the various phases of the mission followed by questions from commission.[22] On the second day, they were given a written examination following which the special commission ranked Gagarin as the best candidate the first mission. He and the next two highest-ranked cosmonauts, Titov and Nelyubov, were sent to Tyuratam for final preparations.[22] Gagarin and Titov were selected to train in the flight-ready spacecraft on 7 April 1961. Historian Asif Siddiqi writes of the final selection:[30]
In the end, at the State Commission meeting on April 8, Kamanin stood up and formally nominated Gagarin as the primary pilot and Titov as his backup. Without much discussion, the commission approved the proposal and moved on to other last-minute logistical issues. It was assumed that in the event Gagarin developed health problems prior to liftoff, Titov would take his place, with Nelyubov acting as his backup.
Vostok 1
Main article: Vostok 1
Poyekhali!
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Gagarin's voice
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On 12 April 1961, 6:07 am UTC, the Vostok 3KA-3 (Vostok 1) spacecraft was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Aboard was Gagarin, the first human to travel into space, using the call sign Kedr (Russian: Кедр, Siberian pine or Cedar).[31] The radio communication between the launch control room and Gagarin included the following dialogue at the moment of rocket launch:
Korolev: Preliminary stage ... intermediate... main... LIFT-OFF! We wish you a good flight. Everything's all right.
Gagarin: Off we go! Goodbye, until [we meet] soon, dear friends.[32][33]
Gagarin's farewell to Korolev using the informal phrase Poyekhali! (Russian: Поехали!)[nb 4] later became a popular expression in the Eastern Bloc that was used to refer to the beginning of the Space Age.[35][36] The five first-stage engines fired until the first separation event, when the four side-boosters fell away, leaving the core engine. The core stage then separated while the rocket was in a suborbital trajectory, and the upper stage carried it to orbit. Once the upper stage finished firing, it separated from the spacecraft, which orbited for 108 minutes before returning to Earth in Kazakhstan.[37] Gagarin became the first to orbit the Earth.[31]
File:1961-04-19 First Pictures-Yuri Gagarin-selection.ogvPlay media
An April 1961 newsreel of Gagarin arriving in Moscow to be greeted by First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev.
"The feeling of weightlessness was somewhat unfamiliar compared with Earth conditions. Here, you feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended", Gagarin wrote in his post-flight report.[38] He also wrote in his autobiography released the same year that he sang the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows" (Russian: "Родина слышит, Родина знает") during re-entry.[39] Gagarin was qualified a Military Pilot 1st Class and promoted to the rank of major in a special order given during his flight.[15][39]
At about 23,000 feet (7,000 m), Gagarin ejected from the descending capsule as planned and landed using a parachute. There were concerns Gagarin's spaceflight record would not be certified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the world governing body for setting standards and keeping records in the field, which at the time required that the pilot land with the craft.[40] Gagarin and Soviet officials initially refused to admit that he had not landed with his spacecraft,[41] an omission which became apparent after Titov's subsequent flight on Vostok 2 four months later. Gagarin's spaceflight records were nonetheless certified and again reaffirmed by the FAI, which revised it rules, and acknowledge that the crucial steps of the safe launch, orbit, and return of the pilot had been accomplished. Gagarin continues to be internationally recognised as the first human in space and first to orbit the Earth.[42]
After the Vostok 1 flight
Gagarin in Warsaw, 1961
Gagarin's flight was a triumph for the Soviet space program and he became a national hero of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, as well as a worldwide celebrity. Newspapers around the globe published his biography and details of his flight. He was escorted in a long motorcade of high-ranking officials through the streets of Moscow to the Kremlin where, in a lavish ceremony, Nikita Khrushchev awarded him the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Other cities in the Soviet Union also held mass demonstrations, the scale of which were second only to World War II Victory Parades.[43]
Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova (seated to his right) sign autographs in 1964
Gagarin gained a reputation as an adept public figure and was noted for his charismatic smile.[44][45][46] On 15 April 1961, accompanied by official from the Soviet Academy of Sciences, he answered questions at a press conference in Moscow reportedly attended by 1,000 reporters.[47] Gagarin visited the United Kingdom three months after the Vostok 1 mission, going to London and Manchester.[48][44] While in Manchester, despite heavy rain, he refused an umbrella, insisted that the roof of the convertible car he was riding in remain open, and stood so the cheering crowds could see him.[44][49] Gagarin toured widely abroad, accepting the invitation of about 30 countries.[50] In just the first four months, he also went to Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, and Iceland.[51]
In 1962, Gagarin began serving as a deputy to the Soviet of the Union,[52] and was elected to the Central Committee of the Young Communist League. He later returned to Star City, the cosmonaut facility, where he spent several years working on designs for a reusable spacecraft. He became a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Forces on 12 June 1962, and received the rank of colonel on 6 November 1963.[15] On 20 December 1963, Gagarin became Deputy Training Director of the Star City cosmonaut training base.[53] Soviet officials, including cosmonaut overseerer Nikolai Kamanin, tried to keep Gagarin away from any flights, being worried about losing their hero in an accident noting that he was "too dear to mankind to risk his life for the sake of an ordinary space flight".[54] Kamanin was also concerned by Gagarin's drinking and believed the sudden rise to fame had taken its toll on the cosmonaut. While acquaintances say Gagarin had been a "sensible drinker", his touring schedule placed him in social situations in which he was increasingly expected to drink alcohol.[5][10]
Gagarin with U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, French Prime Minister Georges Pompidou and the Gemini 4 astronauts at the 1965 Paris Air Show
Two years later, he was re-elected as a deputy of the Soviet Union but this time to the Soviet of Nationalities, the upper chamber of legislature.[52] The following year, he began to re-qualify as a fighter pilot[55] and was backup pilot for his friend Vladimir Komarov on the Soyuz 1 flight after five years without piloting duty. Kamanin had opposed Gagarin's reassignment to cosmonaut training; he had gained weight and his flying skills had deteriorated. Despite this, he remained a strong contender for Soyuz 1 until he was replaced by Komarov in April 1966 and reassigned to Soyuz 3.[56]
The Soyuz 1 launch was rushed due to implicit political pressures[57] and despite Gagarin's protests that additional safety precautions were necessary.[58] Gagarin accompanied Komarov to the rocket before launch and relayed instructions to Komarov from ground control following multiple system failures aboard the spacecraft.[59] Despite their best efforts, Soyuz 1 crash landed after its parachutes failed to open, killing Komarov instantly.[60] After the Soyuz 1 crash, Gagarin was permanently banned from training for and participating in further spaceflights.[61] He was also grounded from flying aircraft solo, a demotion he worked hard to lift. He was temporarily relieved of duties to focus on academics with the promise that he would be able to resume flight training.[62] On 17 February 1968, Gagarin successfully defended his aerospace engineering thesis on the subject of spaceplane aerodynamic configuration and graduated cum laude from Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy.[27][63][62]
Personal life
Gagarin and his wife Valentina clapping at a concert in Moscow in 1964.
Gagarin and his wife Valentina at a concert in Moscow in 1964.
Gagarin was a keen sportsman and fond of ice hockey as a goal keeper.[64] He was also a basketball fan and coached the Saratov Industrial Technical School team, as well as being a referee.[65]
In 1957, while a cadet in flight school, Gagarin met Valentina Goryacheva at the May Day celebrations at the Red Square in Moscow.[66] She was a medical technician who graduated from Orenburg Medical School.[8][10] They were married on 7 November 1957,[8] the same day Gagarin graduated from Orenburg, and they had two daughters.[67][68] Yelena Yurievna Gagarina, born 1959,[68] is an art historian who has worked as the director-general of the Moscow Kremlin Museums since 2001;[69][70] and Galina Yurievna Gagarina, born 1961,[68] is a professor of economics and the department chair at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in Moscow.[69][71] Following his rise to fame, at a Black Sea resort in September 1961, he was reportedly caught by his wife during a liaison with a nurse who had aided him after a boating incident. He attempted to escape through a window and jumped off a second floor balcony. The resulting injury left a permanent scar above his left eyebrow.[5][10]
Death
Plaque on a brick wall with inscription: Юрий Алексеевич Гагарин, 1934-03-09–1968-03-27
Plaque indicating Gagarin's interment in the Kremlin Wall
On 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base, Gagarin and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died when their MiG-15UTI crashed near the town of Kirzhach. The bodies of Gagarin and Seryogin were cremated and their ashes were buried in the walls of the Kremlin.[72] Wrapped in secrecy, the cause of the crash that killed Gagarin is uncertain and became the subject of several theories.[73][74] At least three investigations into the crash were conducted separately by the Air Force, official government commissions, and the KGB.[75][76] According to a biography of Gagarin by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony, Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin, the KGB worked "not just alongside the Air Force and the official commission members but against them."[75]
The KGB's report declassified in March 2003 dismissed various conspiracy theories and instead indicated the actions of airbase personnel contributed to the crash. The report states that an air-traffic controller provided Gagarin with outdated weather information and that by the time of his flight, conditions had deteriorated significantly. Ground crew also left external fuel tanks attached to the aircraft. Gagarin's planned flight activities needed clear weather and no outboard tanks. The investigation concluded Gagarin's aircraft entered a spin, either due to a bird strike or because of a sudden move to avoid another aircraft. Because of the out-of-date weather report, the crew believed their altitude was higher than it was and could not react properly to bring the MiG-15 out of its spin.[76] Another theory, advanced in 2005 by the original crash investigator, hypothesizes that a cabin air vent was accidentally left open by the crew or the previous pilot, leading to oxygen deprivation and leaving the crew incapable of controlling the aircraft.[73] A similar theory, published in Air & Space magazine, is that the crew detected the open vent and followed procedure by executing a rapid dive to a lower altitude. This dive caused them to lose consciousness and crash.[74]
On 12 April 2007, the Kremlin vetoed a new investigation into the death of Gagarin. Government officials said they saw no reason to begin a new investigation.[77] In April 2011, documents from a 1968 commission set up by the Central Committee of the Communist Party to investigate the accident were declassified. The documents revealed that the commission's original conclusion was that Gagarin or Seryogin had manoeuvered sharply, either to avoid a weather balloon or to avoid "entry into the upper limit of the first layer of cloud cover", leading the jet into a "super-critical flight regime and to its stalling in complex meteorological conditions".[78]
A Russian MiG-15UTI, the same type as Gagarin was flying
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, a member of a state commission established to investigate Gagarin's death, was conducting parachute training sessions that day and heard "two loud booms in the distance". He believes that a Sukhoi Su-15 was flying below its minimum altitude and, "without realizing it because of the terrible weather conditions, he passed within 10 or 20 meters of Yuri and Seregin's plane while breaking the sound barrier". The resulting turbulence would have sent the MiG-15UTI into an uncontrolled spin. Leonov said the first boom he heard was that of the jet breaking the sound barrier and the second was Gagarin's plane crashing.[79] In a June 2013 interview with Russian television network RT, Leonov said a report on the incident confirmed the presence of a second, "unauthorized" Su-15 flying in the area. However, as a condition of being allowed to discuss the declassified report, Leonov was barred from disclosing the name of the Su-15 pilot who was 80 years old and in poor health as of 2013.[80]
Awards and honours
Medals and orders of merit
Jânio Quadros, President of Brazil, decorated Gagarin in 1961.
On 14 April 1961, Gagarin was honoured with a 12-mile (19 km) parade attended by millions of people that concluded at the Red Square. After a short speech, he was bestowed the Hero of the Soviet Union,[81][82] Order of Lenin,[81] Merited Master of Sports of the Soviet Union[83] and the first Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR.[82] On 15 April, the Soviet Academy of Sciences awarded him with the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Gold Medal, named after the Russian pioneer of space aeronautics.[84] Gagarin had also been awarded four Soviet commemorative medals over the course of his career.[15]
He was honoured as a Hero of Socialist Labor (Czechoslovakia) on 29 April 1961,[85][86] and Hero of Socialist Labor (Bulgaria, including the Order of Georgi Dimitrov) on 24 May.[15][chronology citation needed] On the eighth anniversary of the beginning of Cuban Revolution (26 July), President Osvaldo Dorticos of Cuba presented him with the first Commander of the Order of Playa Girón, a newly created medal.[87]
Gagarin was also awarded the 1960 Gold Air Medal and the 1961 De la Vaulx Medal from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in Switzerland.[88] He received numerous awards from other nations that year, including the Star of the Republic of Indonesia (2nd Class), the Order of the Cross of Grunwald (1st Degree) in Poland, the Order of the Flag of the Republic of Hungary, the Hero of Labor award from Democratic Republic of Vietnam,[15] the Italian Columbus Day Medal,[89] and a Gold Medal from the British Interplanetary Society.[90][91] President Jânio Quadros of Brazil decorated Gagarin on 2 August 1961 with the Order of Aeronautical Merit, Commander grade.[92] During a tour of Egypt in late January 1962, Gagarin received the Order of the Nile[93] and the golden keys to the gates of Cairo.[50] On 22 October 1963, Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova were honoured with the Order of Karl Marx from the German Democratic Republic.[94]
Tributes
The date of Gagarin's space flight, 12 April, has been commemorated. Since 1962, it has been celebrated in the USSR and most of its former territories as Cosmonautics Day.[95] Since 2000, Yuri's Night, an international celebration, is held annually to commemorate milestones in space exploration.[96] In 2011, it was declared the International Day of Human Space Flight by the United Nations.[97]
Yuri Gagarin statue at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London
A number of buildings and locations have been named for Gagarin. The Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, was named on 30 April 1968.[98] The launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome from which Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1 were launched is now known as Gagarin's Start. Gagarin Raion in Sevastopol, Ukraine, was named after him during the period of the Soviet Union. The Russian Air Force Academy was renamed Gagarin Air Force Academy in 1968.[99] A street in Warsaw, Poland, is called Yuri Gagarin Street.[100] The town of Gagarin, Armenia was renamed in his honour in 1961.[101]
Gagarin has been honoured on the Moon by astronauts and astronomers. During the American space program's Apollo 11 mission in 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a memorial satchel containing medals commemorating Gagarin and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov on the Moon's surface.[102][103] In 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin left the small Fallen Astronaut sculpture at their landing site as a memorial to the American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who died in the Space Race; the names on its plaque included Yuri Gagarin and 14 others.[104][105] In 1970, a 262 km (163 mi)-wide crater on the far side after him.[106] Gagarin was inducted as a member of the 1976 inaugural class of the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico.[107]
Gagarin is memorialised in music; a cycle of Soviet patriotic songs titled The Constellation Gagarin (Russian: Созвездье Гагарина, tr. Sozvezdie Gagarina) was written by Aleksandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov in 1970–1971.[108] The most famous of these songs refers to Gagarin's poyekhali!: in the lyrics, "He said 'let's go!' He waved his hand".[35][108] He was the inspiration for the pieces "Hey Gagarin" by Jean-Michel Jarre on Métamorphoses, "Gagarin" by Public Service Broadcasting, and "Gagarin, I loved you" by Undervud.[109]
Russian ten-ruble commemorating Gagarin in 2001
Vessels have been named for Gagarin; Soviet tracking ship Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin was built in 1971[110] and the Armenian airline Armavia named their first Sukhoi Superjet 100 in his honour in 2011.[111]
Two commemorative coins were issued in the Soviet Union to honour the 20th and 30th anniversaries of his flight: a one-ruble coin in copper-nickel (1981) and a three-ruble coin in silver (1991). In 2001, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, a series of four coins bearing his likeness was issued in Russia; it consisted of a two-ruble coin in copper-nickel, a three-ruble coin in silver, a ten-ruble coin in brass-copper and nickel, and a 100-ruble coin in silver.[112] In 2011, Russia issued a 1,000-ruble coin in gold and a three-ruble coin in silver to mark the 50th anniversary of his flight.[113]
In 2008, the Kontinental Hockey League named their championship trophy the Gagarin Cup.[114] In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Gagarin was ranked as the sixth-most-popular space hero, tied with Star Trek's fictional James T. Kirk.[115] A Russian docudrama titled Gagarin: First in Space was released in 2013. Previous attempts at portraying Gagarin were disallowed; his family took legal action over his portrayal in a fictional drama and vetoed a musical.[116]
Statues and monuments
There are statues of Gagarin and monuments to him located in Gagarin (Smolensk Oblast), Orenburg, Cheboksary, Irkutsk, Izhevsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and Yoshkar-Ola in Russia, as well as in Nicosia, Cyprus, Druzhkivka, Ukraine, Karaganda, Kazakhstan, and Tiraspol, Moldova. On 4 June 1980, Monument to Yuri Gagarin in Gagarin Square, Leninsky Avenue, Moscow, was opened.[117] The monument is mounted to a 38 m (125 ft) tall pedestal and is constructed of titanium. Beside the column is a replica of the descent module used during his spaceflight.[118]
Bust of Gagarin at Birla Planetarium in Kolkata, India
In 2011, a statue of Gagarin was unveiled at Admiralty Arch in The Mall in London, opposite the permanent sculpture of James Cook. It is a copy of the statue outside Gagarin's former school in Lyubertsy.[119] In 2013, the statue was moved to a permanent location outside the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.[120]
In 2012, a statue was unveiled at the site of NASA's original spaceflight headquarters on South Wayside Drive in Houston. The sculpture was completed in 2011 by artist and cosmonaut Alexei Leonov and was a gift to Houston by various Russian organisations. Houston Mayor Annise Parker, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were present for the dedication.[121][122] The Russian Federation presented a bust of Gagarin to several cities in India including one that was unveiled at the Birla Planetarium in Kolkata in February 2012.[123]
In April 2018, a bust of Gagarin erected on the street in Belgrade, Serbia, that bears his name was removed, after less than week. A new work was commissioned following the outcry over the disproportionately small size of its head which locals said was an "insult" to Gagarin.[124][125] Belgrade City Manager Goran Vesic stated that neither the city, the Serbian Ministry of Culture, nor the foundation that financed it had prior knowledge of the design.[126]
50th anniversary
50th anniversary stamp of Ukraine
The 50th anniversary of Gagarin's journey into space was marked in 2011 by tributes around the world. A film titled First Orbit was shot from the International Space Station, combining sound recordings from the original flight with footage of the route taken by Gagarin.[127] The Russian, American, and Italian crew of Expedition 27 aboard the ISS sent a special video message to wish the people of the world a "Happy Yuri's Night", wearing shirts with an image of Gagarin.[128]
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation released gold and silver coins to commemorate the anniversary.[129] The Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft was named Gagarin with the launch in April 2011 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first manned space mission.
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin [nb 1] (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet Air Forces pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space, achieving a major milestone in the Space Race; his capsule Vostok 1 completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, his nation's highest honour.
Vostok 1 was Gagarin's only spaceflight but he served as the backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission, which ended in a fatal crash, killing his friend and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. Gagarin later served as the deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre, which was subsequently named after him. He was elected as a deputy to the Soviet of the Union in 1962 and then to the Soviet of Nationalities, respectively the lower and upper chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Gagarin died in 1968 when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting with his flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin crashed near the town of Kirzhach.
Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Soviet Air Force service
3 Soviet space program
3.1 Selection and training
3.2 Vostok 1
4 After the Vostok 1 flight
5 Personal life
6 Death
7 Awards and honours
7.1 Medals and orders of merit
7.2 Tributes
7.3 Statues and monuments
7.4 50th anniversary
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
10.1 Sources
11 Further reading
12 External links
Early life and education
Yuri Gagarin was born 9 March 1934 in the village of Klushino,[1] near Gzhatsk (renamed Gagarin in 1968 after his death).[2] His parents worked on a collective farm:[3] Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin as a carpenter and Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina as a dairy farmer.[nb 2][4] Yuri was the third of four children: his siblings were brothers Valentin (1924) and Boris (1936), and sister Zoya (1927).[5][6]
Like millions of Soviet Union citizens, the Gagarin family suffered during the Nazi occupation of Russia during World War II. Klushino was occupied in November 1941 during the German advance on Moscow and a German officer took over the Gagarin residence. The family were allowed to build a mud hut approximately 3 by 3 metres (10 by 10 ft) inside on the land behind their house, where they spent twenty-one months until the end of the occupation.[7] His two older siblings were deported by the Germans to Poland for slave labour in 1943 and did not return until after the war in 1945.[5][8] In 1946, the family moved to Gzhatsk, where Gagarin continued his secondary education.[7]
In 1950, aged 16, Gagarin began an apprenticeship as a foundryman at the Lyubertsy steel plant near Moscow,[5][8] and enrolled at a local "young workers" school for seventh-grade evening classes.[9] After graduating in 1951 from both the seventh grade and the vocational school with honours in mouldmaking and foundry work,[9] he was selected for further training at the Saratov Industrial Technical School, where he studied tractors.[5][8][10] While in Saratov, Gagarin volunteered at a local flying club for weekend training as a Soviet air cadet, where he trained to fly a biplane, and later a Yak-18.[8][10] He earned extra money as a part-time dock labourer on the Volga River.[7]
Soviet Air Force service
In 1955, Gagarin was accepted to the 1st Chkalovsky Higher Air Force Pilots School, a flight school in Orenburg.[11][12] He initially began training on the Yak-18 already familiar to him and later graduated to training on the MiG-15 in February 1956.[11] Gagarin twice struggled to land the two-seater trainer aircraft, and risked dismissal from pilot training. However, the commander of the regiment decided to give him another chance at landing. Gagarin's flight instructor gave him a cushion to sit on, which improved his view from the cockpit, and he landed successfully. Having completed his evaluation in a trainer aircraft,[13] Gagarin began flying solo in 1957.[5]
On 5 November 1957, Gagarin was commissioned a lieutenant in the Soviet Air Forces having accumulated 166 hours and 47 minutes of flight time. He graduated from flight school the next day and was posted to the Luostari airbase close to the Norwegian border in Murmansk Oblast for a two-year assignment with the Northern Fleet.[14] On 7 July 1959, he was rated Military Pilot 3rd Class.[15] After expressing interest in space exploration following the launch of Luna 3 on 6 October 1959, his recommendation to the Soviet space program was endorsed and forward by Lieutenant Colonel Babushkin.[14][16] By this point, he had accumulated 265 hours of flight time.[14] Gagarin was promoted to the rank of senior lieutenant on 6 November 1959,[15] three weeks after he was interviewed by a medical commission for qualification to the space program.[14]
Soviet space program
Selection and training
See also: Vostok programme
Vostok I capsule on display at the RKK Energiya museum
Gagarin's selection for the Vostok programme was overseen by the Central Flight Medical Commission led by Major General Konstantin Fyodorovich Borodin of the Soviet Army Medical Service. He underwent physical and psychological testing conducted at Central Aviation Scientific-Research Hospital, in Moscow, commanded by Colonel A.S. Usanov, a member of the commission. The commission also included Colonel Yevgeniy Anatoliyevich Karpov, who later commanded the training centre, Colonel Vladimir Ivanovich Yazdovskiy, the head physician for Gagarin's flight, and Major-General Aleksandr Nikolayevich Babiychuk, a physician flag officer on the Soviet Air Force General Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Air Force.[17]
From a pool of 154 qualified pilots short-listed by their Air Force units, the military physicians chose 29 cosmonaut candidates, of which 20 were approved by the Credential Committee of the Soviet Government. The first twelve including Gagarin were approved on 7 March 1960 and eight more were added in a series of subsequent orders issued until June.[18] Gagarin began training at the Khodynka Airfield in downtown Moscow on 15 March 1960. The training regiment involved vigorous and repetitive physical exercises which Alexei Leonov, a member of the initial group of twelve, described as akin to training for the Olympics Games.[19] In April 1960, they began parachute training in Saratov Oblast and each completed about 40 to 50 jumps from both low and high altitude, and over land and water.[20]
Gagarin was a candidate favoured by his peers. When they were asked to vote anonymously for a candidate besides themselves they would like to be the first to fly, all but three chose Gagarin.[21] One of these candidates, Yevgeny Khrunov, believed that Gagarin was very focused and was demanding of himself and others when necessary.[22] On 30 May 1960, Gagarin was further selected for an accelerated training group, known as the Vanguard Six or Sochi Six,[23][nb 3] from which the first cosmonauts of the Vostok programme would be chosen. The other members of the group were Anatoliy Kartashov, Andriyan Nikolayev, Pavel Popovich, German Titov, and Valentin Varlamov. However, Kartashov and Varlamov were injured and replaced by Khrunov and Grigoriy Nelyubov.[25]
As several of the candidates selected for the program including Gagarin did not have higher education degrees, they were enrolled into a correspondence course program at Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. Gagarin enrolled in the program in September 1960 and did not earn his specialist diploma until early 1968.[26][27] Gagarin was also subjected to experiments that were designed to test physical and psychological endurance including oxygen starvation tests in which the cosmonauts were locked in an isolation chamber and the air slowly pumped out. He also trained for the upcoming flight by experiencing g-forces in a centrifuge.[28][25] Psychological tests included placing the candidates in an anechoic chamber in complete isolation; Gagarin was in the chamber on July 26 – August 5.[29][20] In August 1960, a Soviet Air Force doctor evaluated his personality as follows:
Modest; embarrasses when his humor gets a little too racy; high degree of intellectual development evident in Yuriy; fantastic memory; distinguishes himself from his colleagues by his sharp and far-ranging sense of attention to his surroundings; a well-developed imagination; quick reactions; persevering, prepares himself painstakingly for his activities and training exercises, handles celestial mechanics and mathematical formulae with ease as well as excels in higher mathematics; does not feel constrained when he has to defend his point of view if he considers himself right; appears that he understands life better than a lot of his friends.[21]
The Vanguard Six were given the title of pilot-cosmonaut in January 1961[25] and entered a two-day examination conducted by a special interdepartmental commission led Lieutenant-General Nikolai Kamanin, tasked with ranking of the candidates based on their mission readiness for the first human Vostok mission. On 17 January 1961, they were tested in a simulator at the M. M. Gromov Flight-Research Institute on a full-size mockup of the Vostok capsule. Gagarin, Nikolayev, Popovich, and Titov all received excellent marks on the first day of testing in which they were required to describe the various phases of the mission followed by questions from commission.[22] On the second day, they were given a written examination following which the special commission ranked Gagarin as the best candidate the first mission. He and the next two highest-ranked cosmonauts, Titov and Nelyubov, were sent to Tyuratam for final preparations.[22] Gagarin and Titov were selected to train in the flight-ready spacecraft on 7 April 1961. Historian Asif Siddiqi writes of the final selection:[30]
In the end, at the State Commission meeting on April 8, Kamanin stood up and formally nominated Gagarin as the primary pilot and Titov as his backup. Without much discussion, the commission approved the proposal and moved on to other last-minute logistical issues. It was assumed that in the event Gagarin developed health problems prior to liftoff, Titov would take his place, with Nelyubov acting as his backup.
Vostok 1
Main article: Vostok 1
Poyekhali!
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Gagarin's voice
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On 12 April 1961, 6:07 am UTC, the Vostok 3KA-3 (Vostok 1) spacecraft was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Aboard was Gagarin, the first human to travel into space, using the call sign Kedr (Russian: Кедр, Siberian pine or Cedar).[31] The radio communication between the launch control room and Gagarin included the following dialogue at the moment of rocket launch:
Korolev: Preliminary stage ... intermediate... main... LIFT-OFF! We wish you a good flight. Everything's all right.
Gagarin: Off we go! Goodbye, until [we meet] soon, dear friends.[32][33]
Gagarin's farewell to Korolev using the informal phrase Poyekhali! (Russian: Поехали!)[nb 4] later became a popular expression in the Eastern Bloc that was used to refer to the beginning of the Space Age.[35][36] The five first-stage engines fired until the first separation event, when the four side-boosters fell away, leaving the core engine. The core stage then separated while the rocket was in a suborbital trajectory, and the upper stage carried it to orbit. Once the upper stage finished firing, it separated from the spacecraft, which orbited for 108 minutes before returning to Earth in Kazakhstan.[37] Gagarin became the first to orbit the Earth.[31]
File:1961-04-19 First Pictures-Yuri Gagarin-selection.ogvPlay media
An April 1961 newsreel of Gagarin arriving in Moscow to be greeted by First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev.
"The feeling of weightlessness was somewhat unfamiliar compared with Earth conditions. Here, you feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended", Gagarin wrote in his post-flight report.[38] He also wrote in his autobiography released the same year that he sang the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows" (Russian: "Родина слышит, Родина знает") during re-entry.[39] Gagarin was qualified a Military Pilot 1st Class and promoted to the rank of major in a special order given during his flight.[15][39]
At about 23,000 feet (7,000 m), Gagarin ejected from the descending capsule as planned and landed using a parachute. There were concerns Gagarin's spaceflight record would not be certified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the world governing body for setting standards and keeping records in the field, which at the time required that the pilot land with the craft.[40] Gagarin and Soviet officials initially refused to admit that he had not landed with his spacecraft,[41] an omission which became apparent after Titov's subsequent flight on Vostok 2 four months later. Gagarin's spaceflight records were nonetheless certified and again reaffirmed by the FAI, which revised it rules, and acknowledge that the crucial steps of the safe launch, orbit, and return of the pilot had been accomplished. Gagarin continues to be internationally recognised as the first human in space and first to orbit the Earth.[42]
After the Vostok 1 flight
Gagarin in Warsaw, 1961
Gagarin's flight was a triumph for the Soviet space program and he became a national hero of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, as well as a worldwide celebrity. Newspapers around the globe published his biography and details of his flight. He was escorted in a long motorcade of high-ranking officials through the streets of Moscow to the Kremlin where, in a lavish ceremony, Nikita Khrushchev awarded him the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Other cities in the Soviet Union also held mass demonstrations, the scale of which were second only to World War II Victory Parades.[43]
Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova (seated to his right) sign autographs in 1964
Gagarin gained a reputation as an adept public figure and was noted for his charismatic smile.[44][45][46] On 15 April 1961, accompanied by official from the Soviet Academy of Sciences, he answered questions at a press conference in Moscow reportedly attended by 1,000 reporters.[47] Gagarin visited the United Kingdom three months after the Vostok 1 mission, going to London and Manchester.[48][44] While in Manchester, despite heavy rain, he refused an umbrella, insisted that the roof of the convertible car he was riding in remain open, and stood so the cheering crowds could see him.[44][49] Gagarin toured widely abroad, accepting the invitation of about 30 countries.[50] In just the first four months, he also went to Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, and Iceland.[51]
In 1962, Gagarin began serving as a deputy to the Soviet of the Union,[52] and was elected to the Central Committee of the Young Communist League. He later returned to Star City, the cosmonaut facility, where he spent several years working on designs for a reusable spacecraft. He became a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Forces on 12 June 1962, and received the rank of colonel on 6 November 1963.[15] On 20 December 1963, Gagarin became Deputy Training Director of the Star City cosmonaut training base.[53] Soviet officials, including cosmonaut overseerer Nikolai Kamanin, tried to keep Gagarin away from any flights, being worried about losing their hero in an accident noting that he was "too dear to mankind to risk his life for the sake of an ordinary space flight".[54] Kamanin was also concerned by Gagarin's drinking and believed the sudden rise to fame had taken its toll on the cosmonaut. While acquaintances say Gagarin had been a "sensible drinker", his touring schedule placed him in social situations in which he was increasingly expected to drink alcohol.[5][10]
Gagarin with U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, French Prime Minister Georges Pompidou and the Gemini 4 astronauts at the 1965 Paris Air Show
Two years later, he was re-elected as a deputy of the Soviet Union but this time to the Soviet of Nationalities, the upper chamber of legislature.[52] The following year, he began to re-qualify as a fighter pilot[55] and was backup pilot for his friend Vladimir Komarov on the Soyuz 1 flight after five years without piloting duty. Kamanin had opposed Gagarin's reassignment to cosmonaut training; he had gained weight and his flying skills had deteriorated. Despite this, he remained a strong contender for Soyuz 1 until he was replaced by Komarov in April 1966 and reassigned to Soyuz 3.[56]
The Soyuz 1 launch was rushed due to implicit political pressures[57] and despite Gagarin's protests that additional safety precautions were necessary.[58] Gagarin accompanied Komarov to the rocket before launch and relayed instructions to Komarov from ground control following multiple system failures aboard the spacecraft.[59] Despite their best efforts, Soyuz 1 crash landed after its parachutes failed to open, killing Komarov instantly.[60] After the Soyuz 1 crash, Gagarin was permanently banned from training for and participating in further spaceflights.[61] He was also grounded from flying aircraft solo, a demotion he worked hard to lift. He was temporarily relieved of duties to focus on academics with the promise that he would be able to resume flight training.[62] On 17 February 1968, Gagarin successfully defended his aerospace engineering thesis on the subject of spaceplane aerodynamic configuration and graduated cum laude from Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy.[27][63][62]
Personal life
Gagarin and his wife Valentina clapping at a concert in Moscow in 1964.
Gagarin and his wife Valentina at a concert in Moscow in 1964.
Gagarin was a keen sportsman and fond of ice hockey as a goal keeper.[64] He was also a basketball fan and coached the Saratov Industrial Technical School team, as well as being a referee.[65]
In 1957, while a cadet in flight school, Gagarin met Valentina Goryacheva at the May Day celebrations at the Red Square in Moscow.[66] She was a medical technician who graduated from Orenburg Medical School.[8][10] They were married on 7 November 1957,[8] the same day Gagarin graduated from Orenburg, and they had two daughters.[67][68] Yelena Yurievna Gagarina, born 1959,[68] is an art historian who has worked as the director-general of the Moscow Kremlin Museums since 2001;[69][70] and Galina Yurievna Gagarina, born 1961,[68] is a professor of economics and the department chair at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in Moscow.[69][71] Following his rise to fame, at a Black Sea resort in September 1961, he was reportedly caught by his wife during a liaison with a nurse who had aided him after a boating incident. He attempted to escape through a window and jumped off a second floor balcony. The resulting injury left a permanent scar above his left eyebrow.[5][10]
Death
Plaque on a brick wall with inscription: Юрий Алексеевич Гагарин, 1934-03-09–1968-03-27
Plaque indicating Gagarin's interment in the Kremlin Wall
On 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base, Gagarin and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died when their MiG-15UTI crashed near the town of Kirzhach. The bodies of Gagarin and Seryogin were cremated and their ashes were buried in the walls of the Kremlin.[72] Wrapped in secrecy, the cause of the crash that killed Gagarin is uncertain and became the subject of several theories.[73][74] At least three investigations into the crash were conducted separately by the Air Force, official government commissions, and the KGB.[75][76] According to a biography of Gagarin by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony, Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin, the KGB worked "not just alongside the Air Force and the official commission members but against them."[75]
The KGB's report declassified in March 2003 dismissed various conspiracy theories and instead indicated the actions of airbase personnel contributed to the crash. The report states that an air-traffic controller provided Gagarin with outdated weather information and that by the time of his flight, conditions had deteriorated significantly. Ground crew also left external fuel tanks attached to the aircraft. Gagarin's planned flight activities needed clear weather and no outboard tanks. The investigation concluded Gagarin's aircraft entered a spin, either due to a bird strike or because of a sudden move to avoid another aircraft. Because of the out-of-date weather report, the crew believed their altitude was higher than it was and could not react properly to bring the MiG-15 out of its spin.[76] Another theory, advanced in 2005 by the original crash investigator, hypothesizes that a cabin air vent was accidentally left open by the crew or the previous pilot, leading to oxygen deprivation and leaving the crew incapable of controlling the aircraft.[73] A similar theory, published in Air & Space magazine, is that the crew detected the open vent and followed procedure by executing a rapid dive to a lower altitude. This dive caused them to lose consciousness and crash.[74]
On 12 April 2007, the Kremlin vetoed a new investigation into the death of Gagarin. Government officials said they saw no reason to begin a new investigation.[77] In April 2011, documents from a 1968 commission set up by the Central Committee of the Communist Party to investigate the accident were declassified. The documents revealed that the commission's original conclusion was that Gagarin or Seryogin had manoeuvered sharply, either to avoid a weather balloon or to avoid "entry into the upper limit of the first layer of cloud cover", leading the jet into a "super-critical flight regime and to its stalling in complex meteorological conditions".[78]
A Russian MiG-15UTI, the same type as Gagarin was flying
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, a member of a state commission established to investigate Gagarin's death, was conducting parachute training sessions that day and heard "two loud booms in the distance". He believes that a Sukhoi Su-15 was flying below its minimum altitude and, "without realizing it because of the terrible weather conditions, he passed within 10 or 20 meters of Yuri and Seregin's plane while breaking the sound barrier". The resulting turbulence would have sent the MiG-15UTI into an uncontrolled spin. Leonov said the first boom he heard was that of the jet breaking the sound barrier and the second was Gagarin's plane crashing.[79] In a June 2013 interview with Russian television network RT, Leonov said a report on the incident confirmed the presence of a second, "unauthorized" Su-15 flying in the area. However, as a condition of being allowed to discuss the declassified report, Leonov was barred from disclosing the name of the Su-15 pilot who was 80 years old and in poor health as of 2013.[80]
Awards and honours
Medals and orders of merit
Jânio Quadros, President of Brazil, decorated Gagarin in 1961.
On 14 April 1961, Gagarin was honoured with a 12-mile (19 km) parade attended by millions of people that concluded at the Red Square. After a short speech, he was bestowed the Hero of the Soviet Union,[81][82] Order of Lenin,[81] Merited Master of Sports of the Soviet Union[83] and the first Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR.[82] On 15 April, the Soviet Academy of Sciences awarded him with the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Gold Medal, named after the Russian pioneer of space aeronautics.[84] Gagarin had also been awarded four Soviet commemorative medals over the course of his career.[15]
He was honoured as a Hero of Socialist Labor (Czechoslovakia) on 29 April 1961,[85][86] and Hero of Socialist Labor (Bulgaria, including the Order of Georgi Dimitrov) on 24 May.[15][chronology citation needed] On the eighth anniversary of the beginning of Cuban Revolution (26 July), President Osvaldo Dorticos of Cuba presented him with the first Commander of the Order of Playa Girón, a newly created medal.[87]
Gagarin was also awarded the 1960 Gold Air Medal and the 1961 De la Vaulx Medal from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in Switzerland.[88] He received numerous awards from other nations that year, including the Star of the Republic of Indonesia (2nd Class), the Order of the Cross of Grunwald (1st Degree) in Poland, the Order of the Flag of the Republic of Hungary, the Hero of Labor award from Democratic Republic of Vietnam,[15] the Italian Columbus Day Medal,[89] and a Gold Medal from the British Interplanetary Society.[90][91] President Jânio Quadros of Brazil decorated Gagarin on 2 August 1961 with the Order of Aeronautical Merit, Commander grade.[92] During a tour of Egypt in late January 1962, Gagarin received the Order of the Nile[93] and the golden keys to the gates of Cairo.[50] On 22 October 1963, Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova were honoured with the Order of Karl Marx from the German Democratic Republic.[94]
Tributes
The date of Gagarin's space flight, 12 April, has been commemorated. Since 1962, it has been celebrated in the USSR and most of its former territories as Cosmonautics Day.[95] Since 2000, Yuri's Night, an international celebration, is held annually to commemorate milestones in space exploration.[96] In 2011, it was declared the International Day of Human Space Flight by the United Nations.[97]
Yuri Gagarin statue at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London
A number of buildings and locations have been named for Gagarin. The Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, was named on 30 April 1968.[98] The launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome from which Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1 were launched is now known as Gagarin's Start. Gagarin Raion in Sevastopol, Ukraine, was named after him during the period of the Soviet Union. The Russian Air Force Academy was renamed Gagarin Air Force Academy in 1968.[99] A street in Warsaw, Poland, is called Yuri Gagarin Street.[100] The town of Gagarin, Armenia was renamed in his honour in 1961.[101]
Gagarin has been honoured on the Moon by astronauts and astronomers. During the American space program's Apollo 11 mission in 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a memorial satchel containing medals commemorating Gagarin and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov on the Moon's surface.[102][103] In 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin left the small Fallen Astronaut sculpture at their landing site as a memorial to the American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who died in the Space Race; the names on its plaque included Yuri Gagarin and 14 others.[104][105] In 1970, a 262 km (163 mi)-wide crater on the far side after him.[106] Gagarin was inducted as a member of the 1976 inaugural class of the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico.[107]
Gagarin is memorialised in music; a cycle of Soviet patriotic songs titled The Constellation Gagarin (Russian: Созвездье Гагарина, tr. Sozvezdie Gagarina) was written by Aleksandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov in 1970–1971.[108] The most famous of these songs refers to Gagarin's poyekhali!: in the lyrics, "He said 'let's go!' He waved his hand".[35][108] He was the inspiration for the pieces "Hey Gagarin" by Jean-Michel Jarre on Métamorphoses, "Gagarin" by Public Service Broadcasting, and "Gagarin, I loved you" by Undervud.[109]
Russian ten-ruble commemorating Gagarin in 2001
Vessels have been named for Gagarin; Soviet tracking ship Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin was built in 1971[110] and the Armenian airline Armavia named their first Sukhoi Superjet 100 in his honour in 2011.[111]
Two commemorative coins were issued in the Soviet Union to honour the 20th and 30th anniversaries of his flight: a one-ruble coin in copper-nickel (1981) and a three-ruble coin in silver (1991). In 2001, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, a series of four coins bearing his likeness was issued in Russia; it consisted of a two-ruble coin in copper-nickel, a three-ruble coin in silver, a ten-ruble coin in brass-copper and nickel, and a 100-ruble coin in silver.[112] In 2011, Russia issued a 1,000-ruble coin in gold and a three-ruble coin in silver to mark the 50th anniversary of his flight.[113]
In 2008, the Kontinental Hockey League named their championship trophy the Gagarin Cup.[114] In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Gagarin was ranked as the sixth-most-popular space hero, tied with Star Trek's fictional James T. Kirk.[115] A Russian docudrama titled Gagarin: First in Space was released in 2013. Previous attempts at portraying Gagarin were disallowed; his family took legal action over his portrayal in a fictional drama and vetoed a musical.[116]
Statues and monuments
There are statues of Gagarin and monuments to him located in Gagarin (Smolensk Oblast), Orenburg, Cheboksary, Irkutsk, Izhevsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and Yoshkar-Ola in Russia, as well as in Nicosia, Cyprus, Druzhkivka, Ukraine, Karaganda, Kazakhstan, and Tiraspol, Moldova. On 4 June 1980, Monument to Yuri Gagarin in Gagarin Square, Leninsky Avenue, Moscow, was opened.[117] The monument is mounted to a 38 m (125 ft) tall pedestal and is constructed of titanium. Beside the column is a replica of the descent module used during his spaceflight.[118]
Bust of Gagarin at Birla Planetarium in Kolkata, India
In 2011, a statue of Gagarin was unveiled at Admiralty Arch in The Mall in London, opposite the permanent sculpture of James Cook. It is a copy of the statue outside Gagarin's former school in Lyubertsy.[119] In 2013, the statue was moved to a permanent location outside the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.[120]
In 2012, a statue was unveiled at the site of NASA's original spaceflight headquarters on South Wayside Drive in Houston. The sculpture was completed in 2011 by artist and cosmonaut Alexei Leonov and was a gift to Houston by various Russian organisations. Houston Mayor Annise Parker, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were present for the dedication.[121][122] The Russian Federation presented a bust of Gagarin to several cities in India including one that was unveiled at the Birla Planetarium in Kolkata in February 2012.[123]
In April 2018, a bust of Gagarin erected on the street in Belgrade, Serbia, that bears his name was removed, after less than week. A new work was commissioned following the outcry over the disproportionately small size of its head which locals said was an "insult" to Gagarin.[124][125] Belgrade City Manager Goran Vesic stated that neither the city, the Serbian Ministry of Culture, nor the foundation that financed it had prior knowledge of the design.[126]
50th anniversary
50th anniversary stamp of Ukraine
The 50th anniversary of Gagarin's journey into space was marked in 2011 by tributes around the world. A film titled First Orbit was shot from the International Space Station, combining sound recordings from the original flight with footage of the route taken by Gagarin.[127] The Russian, American, and Italian crew of Expedition 27 aboard the ISS sent a special video message to wish the people of the world a "Happy Yuri's Night", wearing shirts with an image of Gagarin.[128]
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation released gold and silver coins to commemorate the anniversary.[129] The Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft was named Gagarin with the launch in April 2011 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first manned space mission.
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Out on the pan at RAF Coningsby were three of No.41(R) 'TES' Squadron's Eurofighter Typhoons, ZK332/EB-J, ZJ947/EB-L & ZJ914/EB-H, all being readied for the day's 'Test & Evaluation' tasks.
A dashboard dial created by an artist during a session of Lucy Kimbell's Free Evaluation Service performance/service
Sample image taken with a Fujifilm X-T30. If you find my reviews and samples useful, please treat me to a coffee at www.paypal.me/cameralabs
These samples and comparisons are part of my Fujifilm X-T30 review at:
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|- Location: Joymontop, Saver, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
|- Shooting Date/Time : 8-Mar-12, 4:08:55 PM
|- Gear : Canon 550D
|- Lens : EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
|- Focal Length : 45.0mm
|- Shooting Mode : Manual Exposure
|- Metering Mode : Evaluative Metering
|- Tv Shutter Speed : 1/200
|- Aperture Value : 5.6
|- ISO Speed : 160
|- Picture Style : MonoChrome
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Sample image taken with a Sony Cyber-shot RX10. These samples and comparisons are part of my Cyber-shot RX10 review at:
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Problem Evaluation & Prioritization
Problem areas are evaluated and ranked for each mission. Prioritization uses a needs-based approach which addresses worst problems first.
[group] Owls | [order] STRIGIFORMES | [family] Strigidae | [latin] Asio flammeus | [UK] Short-eared Owl | [FR] Hibou marais | [DE] Sumpfohreule | [ES] Lechuza Campestre | [NL] Velduil | [IRL] Ulchabhán réisc
Measurements
spanwidth min.: 90 cm
spanwidth max.: 105 cm
size min.: 37 cm
size max.: 40 cm
Breeding
incubation min.: 24 days
incubation max.: 29 days
fledging min.: 24 days
fledging max.: 29 days
broods 1
eggs min.: 4
eggs max.: 8
Status: A scarce winter visitor throughout Ireland and rare breeding species, mainly in the south and east. Favours uplands and coastal lowlands.
Conservation Concern: Amber-listed in Ireland due to its small breeding population. The European population is currently evaluated as Depleted due to a large historical decline.
Identification: The only Irish owl species likely to be seen hunting during the day. Very similar in appearance to Long-eared Owl in all plumages. Adult Short-eared Owls can be identified by their yellow eyes and very small "ear" tufts. The black steeaking on the body tends to be much coarser than on Long-eared Owl. Juvenile Short-eareds are identical to juvenile Long-eared Owls, but have yellow eyes.
Similar Species: Long-eared Owl, Barn Owl.
Call: Generally silent when seen in Ireland. Display includes a quiet series of hoots given in flight.
Diet: As for Long-eared Owl. Comprises small mammals, frogs and birds.
Breeding: Rare and sporadic breeding species in uplands throughout Ireland. The majority of the European population breeds in Scandinavia and Russia.
Wintering: Widespread winter visitor to coastal lowlands (dunes, scrubby fields, machair). Sometimes two or more Short-eared Owls can be seen hunting together at favoured sites.
Where to See: The Wicklow coast, including the East Coast Nature Reserve is a good area to look for Short-eared Owls in winter. Numbers fluctuate from year to year, so may absent from even optimal sites in some years.
Status: A scarce winter visitor throughout Ireland and rare breeding species, mainly in the south and east. Favours uplands and coastal lowlands.
Conservation Concern: Amber-listed in Ireland due to its small breeding population. The European population is currently evaluated as Depleted due to a large historical decline.
Identification: The only Irish owl species likely to be seen hunting during the day. Very similar in appearance to Long-eared Owl in all plumages. Adult Short-eared Owls can be identified by their yellow eyes and very small "ear" tufts. The black steeaking on the body tends to be much coarser than on Long-eared Owl. Juvenile Short-eareds are identical to juvenile Long-eared Owls, but have yellow eyes.
Similar Species: Long-eared Owl, Barn Owl.
Call: Generally silent when seen in Ireland. Display includes a quiet series of hoots given in flight.
Diet: As for Long-eared Owl. Comprises small mammals, frogs and birds.
Breeding: Rare and sporadic breeding species in uplands throughout Ireland. The majority of the European population breeds in Scandinavia and Russia.
Wintering: Widespread winter visitor to coastal lowlands (dunes, scrubby fields, machair). Sometimes two or more Short-eared Owls can be seen hunting together at favoured sites.
Where to See: Skerries, Rogerstown Estuary, Bull Island, the East Coast Nature Reserve is a good area to look for Short-eared Owls in winter. Numbers fluctuate from year to year, so may absent from even optimal sites in some years.
Physical characteristics
Short-eared Owls are medium-sized owls with mottled brown and buff plumage. Their facial disks are light, with dark patches at the eyes. They have short ear-tufts that are usually held down, out of view. They are light underneath, with finely streaked chests and bellies. Males are paler than females. Short-eared Owls have dark markings at the wrist on both the underside and upper side of the wings. In flight they can be hard to tell from the closely related Long-eared Owls, except by behavior and habitat.
Because they are active during the day, Short-eared Owls are easier to see than most other owls. They are especially active at dawn and dusk, and they perform dramatic courtship flights, complete with vocalizing and wing clapping, during the breeding season. They are chase-predators and hunt by flying low over an open area, with their wings at a slight dihedral, somewhat like Northern Harriers. Their buoyant wing-beats give them a distinctive moth-like appearance.
Habitat
Short-eared Owls inhabit open terrain in all seasons. They use shrub-steppe, grasslands, agricultural areas, marshes, wet meadows, and shorelines. They are often seen perched on fence posts or pieces of driftwood.
Other details
Asio flammeus is a widespread but patchily distributed breeder across much of Europe, which accounts for less than a quarter of its global breeding range. Its European breeding population is relatively large (>58,000 pairs), but underwent a large decline between 1970-1990. Although declines continued in a few countries during 1990-2000, they abated across most of Europe, and the species was broadly stable overall. Nevertheless, its total population size remains below the level that preceded its decline.
This owl inhabits a large part of Eurasia, North America and southern South America. In Europe, especially in the south, its distribution is increasingly fragmented. The total population of the European Union is estimated at 1500-3500 breeding pairs. It fluctuates according to rodent densities, but seems to decrease following mainly habitat loss, but also persecution and use of pesticides (especially rodenticides). Many birds are also killed along roads and railways.
Fluctuations in the Short-eared Owl population, due most likely to cyclical variation in the population of voles, make it difficult to determine long-term trends. However, declines have been recorded from many parts of the owls range, and Short-eared Owls are listed as an at-risk species by Partners in Flight. Development and agriculture, which result in loss of habitat, are the most significant threats to the population.
Feeding
Short-eared Owls eat small mammals, especially voles. They take other small rodents, shrews, rabbits, gophers, bats, and muskrats as well. Occasionally, they prey on birds.
Conservation
This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence 30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is extremely large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern. [conservation status from birdlife.org]
Breeding
Courtship and territorial behaviour is spectacular for an Owl. Males perform aerial displays by rising quickly with rhythmic and exaggerated wing beats, hovering, gliding down, and rising again, often 200 to 400 meters above ground. Wing claps, in bursts of 2 to 6 per second, are often made during this flight and some singing occurs. The flight can be ended with a spectacular descent where the male hold his wings aloft and shimmies rapidly to the ground. Two birds may engage in flight, locking talons, and fighting briefly. Often, a display where one bird flashes its light underwing towards another is used during territorial and courtship flights.
The Short-eared Owl nests on the ground, unlike most other Owls. Nests are usually situated in the shelter of a grass mound, under a grass tuft, or among herbaceous ground cover. Nests are loosely constructed by the female, who scrapes a spot on the ground and then lines the scrape with grass stems, herb stalks, and feathers plucked from her breast. Clutch sizes range from 4 to 14 eggs (average 5 to 7), with large clutches laid during years of high food abundance. Clutch size increases from south to north. Eggs are laid every 1 to 2 days and incubation commences with the first. Incubation is done largely by the female, with the male bringing food to the nest and occasionally taking a turn incubating. Young grow very rapidly after hatching, and begin to wander from the nest as soon as 12 days, an adaptation for a ground-nesting species to reduce the amount of time they are vulnerable to predation. Young fledge at about 4 weeks.
The Short-eared Owl routinely lays replacement clutches, because of high predation rates. In southern areas, it may raise 2 broods in 1 year. Because reproductive success is relatively poor, the ability to lay large clutches helps populations recover after periodic declines.
The Short-eared Owl is highly migratory, and nomadic, except in southern parts of its range. Movements of up to 2,000 kilometers have been documented. This Owl has relatively small nesting territories and home ranges, varying from 15 to 200 hectares (35 to 500 acres), and may nest in loose colonies in excellent habitat. Because of its nomadic tendencies, mate and site fidelity are very low. Breeders tend to wander until they find areas with high densities of prey before settling to breed. In winter, large numbers of Owls will occur in areas with lots of food. Communal winter roosts of up to 200 birds are known, with these birds ranging over nearby areas to hunt. Resident Owls will defend winter foraging territories of about 6 hectares (15 acres), before expanding the territory size during the breeding season.
Migration
Thought to be highly migratory in N part of range, though migration perhaps confused with nomadic food searches and juvenile dispersal; also, wintering areas may become breeding areas if food plentiful. Although present throughout year in middle latitudes, ringing data indicate seasonal N-S and W-SW migration: bird rings in Oklahoma recovered 1730 km SSE in California. In Europe and Asia, migratory in N of range: N populations winter from British Is, S Scandinavia and C Asia S to N half of Africa and parts of S & E Asia; known to breed in N China and winter in S China. Accidental Spitsbergen, Bear Is, Jan Mayen, Azores, Madeira and Cape Verde Is.
A dashboard dial created by an artist during a session of Lucy Kimbell's Free Evaluation Service performance/service
Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma addressing the joint media briefing with the leaders of the business sectors represented in the Public-Private Growth Initiative (PPGI) at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. [Photo: GCIS]
Midtown Manhattan, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
200 West 57th Street, Midtown, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
The Rodin Studios building, built in 1916-17, was designed by Cass Gilbert specifically for artists. Named for the most innovative living artist of the time, it represents a refinement on the earlier essays in what was a relatively new building type. The two principal elevations of this fourteen-story, reinforced concrete frame building, are sheathed in rough brick, polychromatic — buff to gray, laid in American bond. The elaborate and extensive terra cotta and iron trim is molded and cast in the late Gothic-early Classical motifs which characterize the French Renaissance style, the style of the neighboring Arts Students League as well as a style Gilbert thought appropriate for- artists. The studio windows on the West 57th Street elevation with their cast iron canopies are particularly noteworthy. The brickwork is remarkable also; the broad and narrow bay reveals, linking the building's base and cap, give this elevation a distinct visual coherence.
Background of the Studio Building Type
The Rodin Studios building is prominent in the development of the studio building type in the early years of this century. The Van Dyck Studios, c.1889, 939 Eighth Avenue, and the studios in Carnegie Hall, 1894, at 881 Seventh Avenue, were mixed use buildings. The first studio buildings designed in this century specifically for artists were built on West 67th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.
In an effort to provide satisfactory space for artists, Henry Ward Ranger , the successful landscape painter, rallying a group of artists agreeable to renting space in any building erected for that purpose, approached potential investors to underwrite the financing of such a building. Because so novel a concept found little support, the artists themselves raised the necessary capital.
They elected officers and formed a corporation to which each contributed and, in return, became an owner with the exclusive right to occupy or sublet one of the studio apartments within the building. Maintenance costs were assessed according to the amount of space each artist owned. Not all the studios were sold; it was decided to hold a few for rental. The income thus produced provided capital to maintain the building.
The earliest West 67th Street studio buildings were designed by Pollard & Steinam . Inevitably any new concept is evaluated against existing standards and the initial building, The Sixty-seventh Street Studios, was found to be in violation of the city's tenement law. To qualify for reclassification from tenement to Class A Hotel, a public restaurant was introduced on the ground floor, and as a result of building code requirements subsequent studio buildings were constructed on avenues, not streets.
Securing capital to construct the Rodin Studios building was, like its predecessors on West 67th Street and Central Park South, done through a corporation of artists. The president of Rodin Studios, Inc. was Lawton S. Parker , the vice-president was Georgia Timken Fry , and her husband John Hemming Fry was treasurer. All three were painters and all three had travelled from early training in the Midwest to study in Paris: Parker from Michigan to the Academie Julian, Fry from Indiana also to the Academie Julian, and Mrs. Fry from Saint Louis to work with Aimee Morot and Jules Cazin Both Mr. and Mrs. Fry had attended the Saint Louis School of Fine Arts in the early 1880s where Parker was later to teach in 1892. Though not one of them is well-known today, the least obscure of the three in the second decade of this century was Parker.
Lawton S. Parker was identified in the early 1910s with the small group of Americans in Paris calling themselves The Giverny Group. Frederick Carl Frieseke is by far the best known of these Monet devotees. Like Frieseke, Parker had turned from his academic training in the late 1880s and embraced Impressionism. Back in New York" he studied with Harry Siddons Mowbray and William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League in 1897. He exhibited with the Giverny Group at New York's MacBeth Gallery in 1910 and was accorded a one man show at the Art Institute of Chicago two years later.
Georgia Timken Fry's strength was landscape in which she synthesized the humble subject matter of Francois Millet with the misty Impressionism of her teacher Cazin; the painting Harvest in Normandy was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1885.
John Fry appears to have remained true to the academic principles first established by Poussin and as this pedagogy deteriorated, he was given to diatribes against contemporary art — "a bedlam of confusion." Fry had formed a small teaching collection, leaving it to the Canton Art Institute with the conviction — no doubt founded on his own experience — that a sound national culture could only develop in the Midwest far from the vulgarization and novelty of New York and Hollywood-
Included was the small Rodin bronze Maternity, which Fry purchased three years after his wife's death-
Parker and the Frys were but part of the wave of young American artists who, from the mid-seventies on, had been drawn to Paris and who, upon their return to New York, populated the area near the Art Students League. The League was housed in Henry H. J. Hardenburgh's recently completed American Fine Arts Society Building, 1892, at 215 West 57th Street, just half a block from the new Carnegie Hall, 1891. Harderbergh's use of the Francois I style for the building's West 57th Street facade was in keeping with the League's French sympathies. From the late nineties until the First World War, Parker was back and forth between Paris and this country, teaching and painting.
The Frys returned to New York about 1902 and resided in several studio buildings until, nine years later, they moved to 222 Central Park South, the Gainsborough Studios. They remained at the Gainsborough for at least seven years in which time John Fry became vice-president of the Gainsborough corporation, no doubt learning the responsibilities of running a studio building corporation.
The Architect
In retrospect, the Rodin corporation officers' choice of Cass Gilbert as architect for their new studio building should not surprise us. Gilbert was known to be sympathetic to artists. Had he not shewn himself a worthy inheritor of McKim's ideal of the unity of the arts when he selected at least a dozen nationally known artists to embellish his well -publicized Minnesota State Capitol ?
This patronage continued throughout his professional career; however, following his Minnesota Capitol and New York Customs House commissions he often contracted the interior work out to a firm of architectural decorators. One such firm with when Gilbert collaborated frequently was Paris £ Wiley .
Like Gilbert, William Francklyn Paris was an unabashed francophile. It was Paris who initiated the Hall of American Artists at New York University's Gould Memorial Library in 1917. Based on the Institute de France, it has served as a pantheon in which the most accomplished artists of the so-called American Renaissance — the academic tradition that bred Lawton and the Frys — are honored. Supported through an agency of volunteer patrons committees, both Cass Gilbert and John Hemming Fry were committee chairmen.' Paris also admired Albert Besnard, the French painter and etcher, in whose atelier Lawton Parker had worked.
These mutually cherished, aesthetic sympathies suggest that Parker, the Frys, William Francklyn- Paris and Cass Gilbert were acquainted or could easily become so.
Certainly by 1915 Gilbert's reputation as an architect was not unknown to Lawton Parker and to John and Georgia Timken Fry. Not only had the Wool worth Building , a "cathedral for commerce," been his design, but Gilbert's training, though not identical, approximated theirs. He had studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Eugene Letang — whom William Ware had brought from the Ecole des Beaux Arts — and though he did not study at the Ecole himself, Gilbert admired the national French school's principles and method.
After travel abroad in 1881 he returned to New York to work for McKim, Mead & White within the same year. Like the Rodin Studios' corporate officers, Gilbert had cone from the Midwest as well — Zanesville, Ohio and St. Paul, Minnesota. And again like the Rodin's officers Gilbert thought of himself as an artist.
Gilbert returned to St. Paul in 1883 where he opened an office, joining James Knox Taylor in partnership the following year — an arrangement which continued until Taylor became Supervising Architect of the Treasury in 1892. But seven years later Gilbert's Broadway Chambers
project brought him back to New York. Models and drawings of this building were featured at the International Universal Exposition held in Paris in 1900, garnering Gilbert some recognition abroad and useful publicity at home.
Meanwhile, his design for the New York Customs House won the national competition . Gilbert then turned to commercial office building design in New York; the West Street Building and the Wool worth Building are the best known of these. Both, though steel frame structures, are articulated in the late Gothic style characteristic of 15th century France. Net only was this style considered an appropriate one for - tall building, but it evoked for Gilbert the dawn of the French Renaissance, an epoque exemplary for the conscientiousness of its craftsmen and the reawakening of classical values. These allusions he would see as equally valid for his artist contemporaries. And there is no reason to doubt that the Rodin corporation officers were in accord.
The Building
In choosing a name for their building and corporation in 1916, Parker and the Frys chose to honor Auguste Rodin - a Frenchman, a sculptor and a living artist. The Frys bad occupied the studio buildings named in honor of Van Dyck and Gainsborough, painters associated with the English School. Although their francophilia has been acknowledged, we must rely upon contemporary evaluations of Rodin to understand the significance of the corporate officers' choice.
Towards the end of his lifetime Auguste Rodin was recognized as an undisputed genius. His dedication to his craft triumphed over the adverse criticism that attended his early production so that Rodin had become a symbol to American artists trained in France. In 1905 Kenyon Cox discussed the essential character of Rodin's work — his reverence for the quality of his material was as important as his romantic realism.
So too, these Americans, immersed in Impressionism, returned to the challenge of acceptance in their own land. , Rodin's was an appropriate name to grace their efforts and distinguish their abode.
The site of the Rodin Studios building would have been familiar to former tenants at Carnegie Hall. Originally- .part of the Cornelius Cozine farm devised to his gran-daughter Rebecca Cozine and conveyed into lots in 1833, this parcel on the southwest corner of Seventh Avenue and West 57th Street saw several owners until 1881 when it was purchased by William F. Croft.
Croft secured John D. Prague to design and construct a seven story, brick and stone building of French flats to house twenty-four families. It was called "The Inverness" and subsequently "The Grenoble." The Inverness/Grenoble changed hands three times before 1916 when Rodin Studios, Inc. purchased it from the executors of Mary Chisholm and were issued a demolition permit. This corner site with its adjacent broad street widths was well-chosen; any of the problems which Ranger's corporation had incurred on West 67th Street were precluded.
The Rodin officers were looking for a new and homogeneous expression of the several functions their building would serve. Gilbert's program for the Rodin Studios building called for stores on the first floor and business offices on the second and part of the third floor. Simplex apartments and two sizes of duplex studio were to occupy the balance of the third floor and the eleven floors above.
The studios were either working studios or studios with adjacent living apartments. All of the duplex studios were to be positioned across the building's northern front — a room height and orientation which provided the maximum light with minimum shadow, the conditions necessary to a painter's work.
To maximize this important orientation fully, Gilbert repeated Buckham's solution at the Gainsborough Studies, one he could easily have seen upon a visit to the Frys' Gainsborough studio. The Rodin's broad corner site allowed him to place five studios abreast across the West 57th Street elevation rather than the two to which the Gainsborough's narrower mid-block site had limited Buckham.
But, as Buckham had, Gilbert isolated the smaller, working studios in the central three bays of this elevation, staggering the studies of the center bay so that a portion of each studio unit, a bathroom or kitchenette, overlapped that of its neighbor — as in an interlocking joint. The building's corner studios were the ones with apartment accomodations behind them . The simplex apartments were behind these.
As a consequence, in plan the Rodin Studios building does not fill its let but roughly approximates the letter F. Two wings extend south from the F's staff — the building's full northern front on West 57th Street . The longer wing along Seventh Avenue reaches to within ten feet of the southern lot line. The shorter is separated from the longer to the east and the western lot line by open light wells and extends almost as far into the lot. These wings contain the simplex apartments.
The fourteen-story structure is of reinforced concrete and the walls are faced with rough, subtly varicolored brick, predominantly buff, rising from a base faced with granite. The comprehensive ornamental program is iron and terra cotta. The building's principal elevations, on West 57th Street and on Seventh Avenue , follow the traditional tall building canon: a two story base, ten story shaft, and a cap consisting of the upper two stories and the cornice. An alternating rhythm of broad and narrow bays, articulated both at the base and the top by the building's decorative program, is spread horizontally across the two elevations.
The West 57th Street Elevation
The building's base is comprised of five broad bays with a central entrance and four shop windows; the narrow bays contain shop doors or smaller shew windows. A row of five double-hung sash windows fill the five bays on the second story.
Single, double-hung sash windows fill the narrow bays. The five broad bays within the building's main-section contain the duplex studio windows . The staggered studio windows within the center bay are the only exterior clue to the system of interlocking units within. Instead of five, the center bay contains four duplex windows; single story windows compensate for the interlocking arrangement.
The four narrow bays contain single double-hung windows on each story, lighting the overlapping bathrooms and kitchenettes of the interlocked studio units in the building's three center bays. Within the building's cap the five broad bays contain duplex studio windows and the narrow bays, as below, single windows at each of the cap's two stories, repeating the interlocked system below.
The Seventh Avenue Elevation
Here , as on the West 57th Street facade, the broad bays at the building's base contain four shop windows, though not all the narrow bays contain these shops' entrances. On the second story paired double-hung sash windows fill the broad bays and single, double-hung sash windows the narrow bays. This pattern is repeated across the building's main-section although, originally, there were no windows on the fourth, sixth, eighth, tenth and twelfth stories of the northernmost broad bay .
The left-hand windows in the southernmost broad bay, again on the fourth, sixth, eighth, tenth and twelfth stories, remain blind . In the building's two-story cap, the pattern of paired and single windows is retained, though the paired windows in the northernmost bay on the fourteenth story, as well as the single window in the niche to the right and the left-hand window in the southernmost broad bay, are blind.
South Elevation
Looking north on Seventh Avenue from West 56th Street, several bays of the building's southern elevation are apparent but only the first contains a window type unlike those in either of the preceding elevations. These windows are tripartite, a broad, central double-hung sash flanked by narrower fixed lights. The face brick here is uniformly buff; there are neither polychrome brick nor other decorative elements.
West Elevation
The visible portion of the western elevation, a lot line wall, is faced with stucco over brick and contains a vertical row of windows.
Ornamental Program
Much of the building's original ground story ornament was removed by its second owner, especially at the base. However, these portions of the building had been photographically recorded by Gilbert's firm and are described below. The building's architectural ornament is expressed in three materials, the brickwork itself, terra cotta and cast and wrought iron.
The Brickwork
The binding's rough, face brick is laid in common, or American, bend . On the two principal facades a tight range of polychromatic hue was specified. Though predominantly buff in color, there are stretchers of gray and headers of a burnt gold color randomly placed throughout the bond, a combination giving the surface a particularly rich texture.
The correspondence between building parts does not rely so ley on the building's more conspicuous decorative materials; where there is little terra cotta and no cast iron, the continuity of the building's decorative program is continued in the brickwork- Hie reveals , a column of headers next to a column of stretchers, separating the broad and narrow bays on both elevations are more visible on the Seventh Avenue facade where, without the duplex winders to offer contrast, they function visually as piers, connecting the building's base to its cap.
Some of the ornamental brickwork can still be seen below the shop windows' terra cotta corbel table cornices. The terra-cotta panels in the bread bay spandrels between the thirteenth and fourteenth stories are framed in two borders of brick : a border of headers inside a border of stretchers.
Terra Cotta Ornament
Like the Broadway Chambers, West Street and Woolworth Buildings, the Rodin Studios attests to Gilbert's predilection for terra cotta. It is the rich combination of classical motives and late Gothic tracery molded in terra cotta which gives the building its early French Renaissance character. On closer inspection the brittle character of the ornament make it very much of this century. It is remarkable for two reasons: much of it has been molded in high relief and the consequent shading and deep shadow offer a striking contrast to the building's planar surfaces; and the mythic animal and human representations are rendered in vivid caricature. The repetition of motifs emphasizes the cohesion of the building's decorative scheme.
Adjacent to the gateway south of the building's Seventh Avenue elevation are a broad terra-cotta molding — fluted molding between cable moldings — just above the granite base and a string course , suggesting the top rail of a dado, a bit above it. The building's entrance is arched and now faced with travertine.
At present the travertine revetment extends to and around the building's northeastern corner to the second broad bay from its southeastern corner, incorporating the building's rhythm of broad and narrow bays. The broad bays are square headed and glazed with narrow, bronzed metal framing; a horizontal mull ion, bearing the shop's name , separates the lower plate glass window and door from the upper. Two openings, one above -the other, articulate the narrow bays including those at the building's" northeast corner.
The lower openings contain a single plate glass window set in bronzed metal framing. The upper contain gold color metal grilles pierced with a symmetrical pattern incorporating the building's West 57th Street number, 200, right side up, upside down and inverted. Only on the Seventh Avenue elevation has the integrity of the broad and narrow bays been compromised; the second narrow bay from the building's northeast corner has a doorway flanked by glazed, single pane windows abutting the plate glass windows of the adjacent, broad bays. The horizontal muntin extends south across the travertine to include a broad bay, a narrow bay and a portion of the second southernmost bay, an arrangement necessitated by the BMT Subway staircase.
The original corbel table cornices above the broad bay show windows remain . The twelve corbel arches are supported by a series of five antic figures, or "marmosets": a frog, a rapt reader, a sky gazer, a frontal supporting figure and a supporting figure in profile, repeated as necessary. Above the corbel arches the cornice comprises a fluted frieze and Roman molding. The cornice carries a long paneled sill the width of the paired windows above.
In a wall extending from the building's south wall to the southern lot line, a few feet back from the building line along Seventh Avenue, there is an arched gateway , originally permitting access to the building's basement and rear yard but new the service entrance to the one-story restaurant addition of 1932-33. The gateway's foliated surround and ogee drip molding terminate in a crocketed accolade. Still in place within the arch's head is the original wrought-iron tympanum and lantern. Above the arch, three rectangular plaques containing a tracery design — a circle and four mouchettes — ornament the wall surface. The accolade's finial becomes the central element in the design of the middle plaque. The wall's coping is supported on a corbel table cornice like those above the shop windows.
Most of the ornament in the building's main-section is on the West 57th Street elevation and most of this is iron. Terra cotta is limited to two string courses and five drip moldings. The string courses run the breadth of the 57th Street and Seventh Avenue elevations : the thinner just above the second story windows, the thicker above it at the third-story windows' sill. These separated the building's base from its main-section. Above each of the adjacent windows in the northernmost broad bay of the Seventh Avenue facade — at the third, fifth, seventh and eleventh stories — there is an ogee, drip molding and accolade, borne on "marmoset" corbels. Not unlike the gateway diagonally below, the accolade finial is incorporated into the tracery design — a circle and four mouchettes — of the rectangular plaque above the window.
The terra cotta of the building's two-story cap is largely intact and the arched corbel motif from over the shop windows below is reintroduced in great variety. An arched corbel course and frieze between the twelfth and thirteenth stories on both the 57th Street and Seventh Avenue elevations separates the building's cap from its main-section.
Across the broad bays the corbelled course comprises twelve arches, like the shop window cornices, and thirteen marmosets; the narrow bays course have only four arches and five "marmosets." The Marmosets" are not a repetition of those below. There are three: one wears a head band, another is hooded, and the third bears an expression of stress. In both the broad and narrow bays all but the narrow panels at the extreme ends of the deeply molded frieze depict paired dolphins supporting a disk above a reeded basin? the narrower panels contain flambeaux in lew relief.
Corbelled pilasters corresponding to the brick reveals below mark the broad and narrow bays in the building's cap. Like the masks of comedy and tragedy the '•marmosets" alternate in expression: one depicts a grinning ancient grasping a palette; the other a distraught ancient pointing to a slender statuette. Each "marmoset" supports a paneled plinth faced with an urn in low relief.
The pilaster rises from this plinth and, like the plinth is paneled. Its lower portion is fluted. like the "marmosets," the pilaster capitals alternate also, though both are early Renaissance variations of the Corinthian order. The volutes of one are griffins; instead of a fleuron, a flambeau appears between them. The griffin capital crowns the pilaster resting on the "marmoset" of the grinning painter. The volutes of the other capital are cornucopia flanking a palmette; instead of the fleuron there is a mask of a hooded gnome. The "marmoset" of the distraught sculptor supports the pilaster with the cornucopia capital.
Terra cotta plaques in brick borders face the spandrels between the paired windows of the thirteenth and fourteenth stories.
Canopies of small pendant arches articulate the tops of the broad bays, above the duplex windows of the 57th Street elevation and the paired fourteenth story windows of the Seventh Avenue elevation. All of the single windows on the fourteenth story in both elevations , have become niches with corbelled sills articulated with escutcheons bearing fleur de lys and flanked by antic eagles. Repeated above each face of the tri-faceted canopies is the mask of the hooded gnome.
The cornice itself is an elaborate corbel table ; the small arches therein incorporate the shell motif and are supported on modillions. Between each of these modillions, on the bottom face of the corbel table, the winged heads of putty are molded in low relief. The cornice cymatium is articulated in a variation of a Roman molding; the acanthus leaves alternate with fleur de lys. A parapet originally rested on the cornice; it carried a pattern, most likely, akin to that of the frieze between the twelfth and thirteenth stories.
Cast and Wrought Iron Ornament
Cast and wrought iron in combination are also used within the building's decorative program. Except for the tympanum in the gateway adjacent to the Seventh Avenue elevation, most of the iron is found on the West 57th facade . Iron is used exclusively for the canopies which project from between the duplex windows. Gothic choir stall canopies appear to have been the model for these elements. Each is five bays wide, corresponding to the windows below and above, and each bay is separated by a thin rib and pinnacle. It is on these pinnacles that the winged finial figures perch.
One of these iron canopies should -be described from bottom to top . A narrow ivy frieze runs across the top. The thin ribs correspond with the mull ions between windows and rise across the ivy to become brackets supporting the canopy; the top of the bracket is attached to the back of the pendant pinnacle.
The panel above the window and be lew the canopy is divided in half vertically by a thinner rib. Running behind the canopy pinnacles are three horizontal moldings: the lowest one of pendant arches; a broad rinceaux; and a cable molding on top. Each pinnacle carries a winged creature finial; a foliate boss is the pinnacle's lower terminal feature.
Iron grilles once covered the second story, narrow bay windows . Ten stories above there were once balconies fronting the single windows on the West 57th Street elevation .
Conclusion
The Rodin Studios , commissioned by a corporation of artists — the painters Lawton S. Parker, Georgia Timken Fry and her husband John Hemming Fry— was designed by Cass Gilbert for a site in the heart of what once was Manhattan's artistic community. Not only did he refine the existing studio building type for them but he gave them a building comprising the best of contemporary building technology. And because he empathized with the earlier tradition of fifteenth-century French artists and artisans he gave his clients a building articulated in the French Renaissance style. Handsome and elaborate molded terra cotta and cast iron were the mediums of the style and where the building's function and its style came together, imaginative solutions, like the cast-iron canopies between studio windows on the West 57th Street elevation, were introduced. And for their building the corporate officers chose the name of the most innovative and revered contemporary artist, the sculptor Auguste Rodin .
- From the 1988 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
Company is evaluating the impact of 90,000 additional storm and heat-related outages – over and above the outages experienced last Friday night – on its overall restoration schedule
BALTIMORE, July 6, 2012 – Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) today announced that it continues to aggressively restore service to the remaining four percent of the more than 725,000 customers – nearly the amount affected during Hurricane Irene – who have experienced power outages since last Friday’s severe weather system. BGE expects this work to continue through the weekend.
In addition, the company will also work to restore service to customers who may have experienced outages last evening due to storms or heat- related issues; however, restoration of these new outages may be delayed due to the company’s continued priority focus on outages related to last Friday’s storm activity. In total, BGE has experienced approximately 90,000 additional outages, unrelated to last Friday’s severe weather system. The company is evaluating the impact of these additional storm and heat-related outages on its overall restoration schedule. As extreme temperatures are forecasted throughout the remainder of the restoration effort, the company urges any customer currently without power to consider visiting one of the several cooling centers located throughout the state. More information regarding specific locations is available on the Maryland Emergency Management Agency’s (MEMA) website and on bge.com.
“As we continue repairs, we are providing information on where crews are working each day,” said Stephen J. Woerner, senior vice president and chief operating officer for BGE. “Specific timeframes for individual customers are only available once we have assessed the scope of the restoration work necessary. However, customers should know that operating conditions, severe weather such as the kind we have seen since last Friday’s storm activity, or the discovery of additional damage may result in work extending into successive days. We appreciate your understanding that our crews are working as safely and quickly as possible to restore your electricity.”
Approximately 4,600 field and support forces are actively engaged in completing the restoration of secondary lines and associated equipment servicing smaller groups of customers. Once addressed, BGE will focus on repairs that are specific to an individual customer’s home or business. This work is often time-consuming, as in many cases, BGE is unable to determine the exact size and cause of an outage until crews arrive on the scene and make a complete assessment of the damage. As the company completes these repairs, customer involvement is crucial.
Customers still without power after their neighbors have been restored should report their outage by calling 1-877-778-2222, as equipment damage may exist beyond the initial repair that BGE is not aware of.
BGE is continually updating its website to reflect general crew locations daily. Customers should also visit bge.com, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Flickr for more information. In addition, the company asks that customers avoid downed wires at all costs and to report them immediately by calling 1-877-778-2222.
As a reminder, BGE customers who may be elderly, handicapped or dependent on electricity for medical equipment, should always have alternate arrangements in place should they experience an extended power outage. Customers using a generator should follow manufacturer instructions and be sure to locate generators in well-ventilated areas. For more information about BGE storm preparation and how customers can protect their families and property, go to bge.com.
BGE, headquartered in Baltimore, is Maryland’s largest gas and electric utility, delivering power to more than 1.2 million electric customers and more than 650,000 natural gas customers in central Maryland. The company’s approximately 3,400 employees are committed to the safe and reliable delivery of gas and electricity, as well as enhanced energy management, conservation, environmental stewardship and community assistance. BGE is a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation’s leading competitive energy provider with approximately $33 billion in annual revenues. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.
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Sample image taken with a Sony FE 70-200mm f4G OSS lens mounted on an Alpha A6000 body at 70mm f4. These samples and comparisons are part of my Sony FE 70-200mm f4G OSS review at:
cameralabs.com/reviews/Sony_FE_70-200mm_f4_G_OSS/
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