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In a Gallery of their Own: Isolation and Separation
Office in a Small City | Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was a prominent American realist
painter and printmaker. While he was most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was
equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. Both in his urban and rural
scenes, his spare and finely calculated renderings reflected his personal vision of modern
American life.
Edward Hopper is widely acknowledged as the most important realist painter of
twentieth-century America. But his vision of reality was a selective one, reflecting his own
temperament in the empty cityscapes, landscapes, and isolated figures he chose to paint. His
work demonstrates that realism is not merely a literal or photographic copying of what we see,
but an interpretive rendering.
Edward Hopper was born in 1882, in NY, into a middle class family. From 1900 to
1906 he studied at the NY School of Art, and while in school, shifted from illustration to
works of fine art. Upon completing his schooling, he worked as an illustrator for a short period
of time; once this career path ended, he made three international trips, which had a great
influence on the future of his work, and the type of art he would engage in during the course of
his career. He made three trips to Europe between 1906 and 1910. In retrospect, Europe meant
France, and more specifically, Paris, for Edward Hopper. This city, its architecture, light, and
art tradition, decisively affected his development.
When he arrived in 1906, Paris was the artistic center of the Western world; no other
city was as important for the development of modern art. The move toward abstract painting
was already underway; Cubism had begun. The influence of Impressionists, such as Monet,
Cezanne, and van Gogh is directly reflected in his own art. His reaction to the Impressionists is
directly reflected in his own art. He forgot the dark, Old Master-like interiors of his New York
student days, when he was influenced mainly by the great European artists - Francisco Goya,
Caravaggio, El Greco, and Diego Velazquez. His palette lit up and he began to paint with light
and quick strokes. Even in 1962, he could say, "I think I'm still an Impressionist."
In Edward Hopper's most famous piece, Nighthawks, there are four customers and a
waiter, who are in a brightly lit diner at night. It was a piece created during a wartime; and
many believe that their disconnect with the waiter, and with the external world, represent the
feelings of many Americans during this period, because of the war. The piece was set up in
1942, in the Art Institute of Chicago, and was seen by many people while it was on exhibit for
a show.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Hopper found himself losing critical favor in the wake of
Abstract Expressionism. Among the new vanguard art movement emerged in the early 1940s,
artists such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko advanced audacious
formal inventions in a search for significant content. By breaking away from accepted
conventions in both technique and subject matter, those artists made monumentally scaled
works that stood as reflections of their individual psyches, and attempted to tap into universal
inner sources. But Hopper continues on to paint the feeling familiar to most humans - the
triste embedded in existence, in our intimate knowledge of the solitude of the self. Although
the 20th century was the heyday of Sigmund Freud and Freudian Psychoanalysis, if ever
Hopper felt his psyche was distorted, he did not want it corrected, for art came from who the
artist was in every way. He did not wish to tamper with his subconscious nor his personal
vision of the world. Hopper never lacked popular appeal, however, and by the time of his
death in 1967, Hopper had been reclaimed as a major influence by a new generation of
American realist artists.
Office in a Small City
Office in a Small City is a 1953 painting by the American realist painter Edward
Hopper. It is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
It depicts a man sitting in a corner office surveying the landscape outdoors. The
style is reminiscent of many of Hopper's works in that it depicts loneliness and beauty in a
uniquely stark yet pleasing fashion.
Edward Hopper and his wife first rented a cottage in Truro, Massachusetts, in the
summer of 1930, and they would return there regularly through the 1950s. Hopper began
Office in a Small City while he was staying in Truro in the summer of 1953, and he finished it
in his New York studio in the fall. Rather than depicting the Cape Cod landscape, however,
Office in a Small City is a scene that could have taken place in any American town in the
mid-twentieth century. Hopper's explanation of his earlier work Office at Night (1940;
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis) also applies to this painting: "My aim was to try to give the
sense of an isolated and lonely office interior rather high in the air, with the office furniture
which has a very definite meaning to me."
The solitary office worker in this scene is isolated both physically and emotionally.
There is no indication of his particular profession, as he sits in his shirtsleeves; he appears, in
fact, to be daydreaming rather than working. The postwar culture of American business is
evident in the mass-produced office furniture, the impersonal atmosphere of the office
itself, and the man's detachment from his unseen coworkers. Despite the light and air
afforded by his corner office, he appears trapped in place. He is framed by the office window,
and his head is profiled against another window and the wall of the building beyond, in a
manner that suggests his containment within his environment. The solitude of the man, and
the contrast between the stark, utilitarian upper story of the building and its decorative false
front, visible at the lower right, suggest Hopper's own ambivalence toward modern urban life.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired this painting very shortly after its
completion, and included it in the opening of its new galleries for American art in December
1953.
Hiding in the City – Vegetables | Liu Bolin
Liu Bolin
Artist Liu Bolin was born in China’s Shandong province and studied at the Shandong
College of Arts and the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Bolin’s works have been
exhibited in museums across the globe allowing him to gain international notoriety. What he
has become most famous for is his series titled “Hiding in the City”.
The meaning of his artworks
Bolin’s work draws attention to the various social problems that come with China’s
fast-growing economic development. Bolin paints himself into the background of various
man-made structures, using products and slogans as a satirical and highly political statement
within his works as a focus throughout the background. While he is absorbed into the
background and all but ceases to exist, Bolin is questioning the environment in which he
lives. Each background that he has selected has specific and profound meaning.
Bolin questions what the meaning of human beings is in modern society, in which,
industry, the environment, society, and individuals themselves are constantly changing. He
challenges the ideas of people and place, which is why many of the spaces he chose to be
painted include landmarks, construction zones, gardens, retail, and public art spaces.
Inspiration & Bolin’s statement
As evident in his use of colors and pop art theme, Bolin’s style is inspired by Picasso
and Andy Warhol. In order to create his scenes, Bolin has a team of assistants who spend
several hours camouflaging him with paint to help him become one with the chosen
background. Not only does he use imagery that is recognizable in modern society, but he also
uses himself within these scenes as a political statement directed at today’s society and the
place people hold within it. Bolin combines vibrancy and politics in a way that is not only
visually pleasing but also effective at engaging the audience with the backgrounds that have
been carefully selected, thus communicating a silent message to the audience.
Hiding in the City – Vegetables
Bolin’s series began as an emotional reaction to the destruction of Chinese Beijing
artist village Suo Jia Cun, in which studios were demolished. This displacement of artists
serves as an example of the precarity in which artists in China face. “Hiding in the City” was
Bolin’s silent protest of the destruction of Suo Jia Cun. His protest was also meant to bring
attention to the absence of protection of Chinese artists. In his “Hiding in the City” series,
Bolin uses his body and paints himself into a variety of settings in Beijing. Through using
his body and inserting himself into art and by placing public spaces into his scenes, he
creates a space for Chinese artists fighting the precarity that their status often held in
China.
Liu's Hiding in the City series, along with other work by the photographer, is currently
on view at the Eli Klein Fine Art gallery in New York City. For Liu, the most important
element of his images is the background. By using iconic cultural landmarks such as the
Temple of Heaven, the Great Wall, or the remains of Suo Jia Village where his studio was
housed, Liu seeks to direct awareness to the humanity caught between the relics of the
imperial past and the sleek modern monoliths of the 21st century China. Each image
requires meticulous planning and execution: as both artist and performer, Liu directs the
photographer on how to compose each scene before entering the frame. Once situated, he puts
on his Chinese military uniform, which he wears for all of his Invisible Man photographs
and, with the help of an assistant and painter, is painted seamlessly into the scene. This
process can sometimes take up to 10 hours with Liu having to stand perfectly still. Although
the end result of Liu's process is the photograph, the tension between his body and the
landscape is itself a manifestation of China's incredible social and physical change.
Simultaneously a protester and a performance artist, Liu completely deconstructs himself by
becoming invisible, becoming a symbol of the humanity hidden within the confines of a
developing capital.
Papilla Estelar | Remedios Varo (1958)
Vik Muniz
Vik Muniz is a Brazilian artist based in Brooklyn; originally trained as a sculptor, his
work often involves making large-scale collages from everyday objects and photographing
them from above. In the series Pictures of Garbage, Muniz explored the world's largest
garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro (the dump
has since closed). There he worked with the "catadores”— self-designated pickers of
recyclable materials — to create portraits from the garbage where they make their living.
The resulting collaborative works depict both the strength and the despair of these hard-
working people. Muniz sold the works at auction, giving the money to the catadores.
Woman ironing
Brazilian artist Vik Muniz created this massive digital C-print as part of his 2008
“Pictures of Garbage” series. To complete the works, Muniz enlisted the help the catadores, a
Brazilian workforce that foraged for recyclable materials in a landfill outside of Rio de
Janeiro. Muniz and the catadores collected objects from landfills and arranged them to
resemble well-known artworks, such as Picasso’s Woman Ironing (1904). He then
photographed the constructions before they were disassembled.
Picasso’s Woman Ironing (1905)
Woman Ironing, painted at the end of the Blue Period in a lighter but still bleak color
scheme of whites and grays, is Picasso’s quintessential image of travail and fatigue. Although
rooted in the social and economic reality of turn-of-the-century Paris, the artist’s
expressionistic treatment of his subject—he endowed her with attenuated proportions and
angular contours—reveals a distinct stylistic debt to the delicate, elongated forms of El Greco.
Never simply a chronicler of empirical facts, Picasso here imbued his subject with a poetic,
almost spiritual presence, making her a metaphor for the misfortunes of the working poor.
Seodang | Kim Hong-Do
Kim Hong-Do
Gim Hong-do, also known as Kim Hong-do, most often styled Danwon, was a full-
time painter of the Joseon period of Korea. He was together a pillar of the establishment and a
key figure of the new trends of his time, the 'true view painting'. Gim Hong-do was an
exceptional artist in every field of traditional painting, even if he is mostly remembered
nowadays for his depictions of the everyday life of ordinary people, in a manner analogous to
the Dutch Masters.
Seodang
A sniveling young student with his back turned to his teacher, who is sitting behind
him wearing a square headgear, called a banggeon in Korean, is the focal point of this
painting. He is surrounded by his fellow students, who seem to find the situation amusing.
The circular composition of the painting, the omission of background, the use of simple
brushstrokes to capture the folds in clothes, and the facial expressions help viewers feel the
atmosphere of this old classroom.
Seodang were private village schools providing elementary education during the
Goryeo and Joseon dynasties of Korea.
Free Period in the Amsterdam Orphanage | Max Liebermann (1881-
1882)
Max Liebermann
Max Liebermann, (born July 20, 1847, Berlin, Ger.—died February 8, 1935, Berlin),
painter and printmaker who is known for his naturalistic studies of the life and labour of the
poor. He was also the foremost proponent of Impressionism in Germany.
In 1878 Liebermann returned to Germany, living at first in Munich and finally settling
in Berlin in 1884. From 1875 to 1913 he spent summers painting in the Netherolands. During
this period he found his painting subjects in the orphanages and asylums for the elderly in
Amsterdam and among the peasants and urban labourers of Germany and the Netherlands. In
works such as The Flax Spinners (1887), Liebermann did for German painting what Millet had
done for French art, portraying scenes of rural labour in a melancholy, yet unsentimental,
manner.
The painting
Conservative circles taunted Liebermann as the “apostle of ugliness”. Nevertheless,
the Städelscher Museums-Verein showed courage and providence when it acquired this early
key work immediately after it was founded in 1899. Liebermann had sketched the inmates of
the ‘Burgerweeshuis’ in Amsterdam. It was only later that he executed the oil painting in his
Munich studio. This work was created at a turning point, when Liebermann left behind the
shades of brown of his realist phase and adopted the lighter palette of Impressionism.
It shows Liebermann as a painter who had absorbed the influence of both the
Naturalists and the Impressionists he knew from Paris. The motif reflects his penchant for
social realism; at the same time, however, he bathes reality in an atmosphere of peace and
harmony. The girls have a home here, they are properly dressed, no one harasses them,
they play and busy themselves.
The painting thus also solicits social empathy and visions of social reform. In reality,
the location was not as picturesque; to an extent, the scene was artfully composed by the
painter. The entrance at the back, for instance, was actually further to the left. Even more
significantly, there were no trees in this courtyard filtering the sunlight to form the
“Liebermannesque sun spots” on the ground, walls and figures.
The Fourth Estate | Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1901)
Marcel Duchamp
Trained as a painter, Marcel Duchamp made a radical break with traditional art by
inventing the "readymade." A readymade is a pre-existing, industrially produced object —
e.g. a bicycle wheel, urinal, or bottle rack — that the artist placed on a pedestal with little or no
modification. These banal items became art simply because Duchamp chose to declare them as
such and to display them in the rarified space of the museum or gallery. In so doing, he called
into question art's emphasis on craft and the unique aura bestowed by the artist's hand.
Duchamp brought European avant-garde ideas to America when he immigrated in 1915. He
later abandoned art for chess, but his methods (which also include wry, self-referential
assemblages) paved the way for much of the art of the second half of the century.
Fountain
Fountain is one of Duchamp’s most famous works and is widely seen as an icon of
twentieth-century art. The original, which is lost, consisted of a standard urinal, usually
presented on its back for exhibition purposes rather than upright, and was signed and dated ‘R.
Mutt 1917’. Tate’s work is a 1964 replica and is made from glazed earthenware painted to
resemble the original porcelain. The signature is reproduced in black paint. Fountain has been
seen as a quintessential example, along with Duchamp’s Bottle Rack 1914, of what he called a
‘readymade’, an ordinary manufactured object designated by the artist as a work of art.
Duchamp later recalled that the idea for Fountain arose from a discussion with the
collector Walter Arensberg (1878–1954) and the artist Joseph Stella (1877–1946) in New York.
He purchased a urinal from a sanitary ware supplier and submitted it – or arranged for it
to be submitted – as an artwork by ‘R. Mutt’ to the newly established Society of
Independent Artists that Duchamp himself had helped found and promote on the lines of the
Parisian Salon des Indépendants (Duchamp had moved from Paris to New York in 1915). The
society’s board of directors, who were bound by the Society’s constitution to accept all
members’ submissions, took exception to Fountain, believing that a piece of sanitary
ware – and one associated with bodily waste – could not be considered a work of art and
furthermore was indecent. The board excluded the submission from the Society’s inaugural
exhibition that opened to the public on 10 April 1917. Arensberg and Duchamp resigned in
protest against the board taking it upon itself to veto and effectively censor an artist’s work.
This was no small matter. The idea of having a jury-free exhibition of contemporary
art had become invested with the aspirations of many in the art world for New York to become
a dynamic artistic centre that would rival and even outstrip Paris. Duchamp, as head of the
hanging committee, had already signaled the democratic ethos of the new Society by
proposing that works should be hung by the artists’ last names (in alphabetical order) rather
than according to the subjective views and preferences of one or more individuals.
The creation and submission of Fountain can be seen in part as an experiment by
Duchamp to replay his experience of having his painting Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2
withdrawn from a show by the Salon, testing the commitment of the new American Society
to freedom of expression and its tolerance of new conceptions of art.
Within a day or so of the exhibition opening, Duchamp located the work, which had
been stored in the exhibition space behind a partition, and took it to be photographed by the
leading photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz. As the work of art was lost thereafter
(and had been seen by very few people), Stieglitz’s photograph, which according to a letter had
been taken by 19 April 1917, became a key document in recording the work’s existence.
Stieglitz was proud of the image, writing in a letter dated 23 April 1917, ‘The “Urinal”
photograph is really quite a wonder – Everyone who has seen it thinks it beautiful – And it’s
true – it is. It has an oriental look about it – a cross between a Buddha and a Veiled Woman’.
Importantly, Duchamp was not publicly known as the creator of Fountain at the
time. Duchamp later explained that he had not made his identity known because of his position
on the Society’s board. The fact that ‘R. Mutt’ was an unknown artist meant that Duchamp
could test the openness of the society to artworks that did not conform to conventional
aesthetic and moral standards without compromising the outcome or his relationships with
board members, though at the expense of being able to avow that the work was his own.
R. MUTT: Mutt was the tall thin man in the cartoon duo but Duchamp’s point about
having wanted essentially ‘any old name’ remains. On other occasions Duchamp recalled that
he bought the urinal at J.L. Mott Iron Works Company. Richard [French slang for money-
bags]
The rotation of the urinal by ninety degrees: a matter of ‘placing’ it ‘so that its
useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view’. It is possible that
the rotation of the urinal was linked to his broader interest in seeing things quite literally in a
new perspective. The intimate nature of the function of the urinal, and its highly gendered
character, also resonated strongly with the complex psycho-physical themes of the masterpiece
he was working on at the time, The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even 1915–23.
Fountain was not publicly commented upon again until 1934 when the leader of the
surrealist movement and poet André Breton wrote a pioneering article that reviewed
Duchamp’s career to date and placed the Fountain firmly in the context of Duchamp’s
readymades.
Duchamp’s profile in art circles rose dramatically in the 1950s and 1960s, not least as a
new generation of artists identified his dada-period works as precedents for their own. In 1963
the Pasadena Art Museum organised the first retrospective of Duchamp’s work. Addressing the
growing number of requests from gallerists and museums for works to show, Duchamp
authorised a number of replicas of his original readymades, many of which had been lost.
In 2004 Fountain topped a poll of 500 British art experts as the single most
influential artwork of the twentieth century, ahead of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
1907 and Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych 1962. Simple in form but rich in metaphor, the work
has generated many interpretations over the years, and continues to be seen as a work that
challenges – or, at the least, complicates – conventional definitions of art.
Duchamp once attributed the work to a female friend. In 2002 literary historian
Irene Gammel claimed that, if a woman was involved in the submission of Fountain, that
woman might have been Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874–1927), an eccentric
German poet and artist who loved Duchamp and was in turn jealous of him and mildly
contemptuous of what she saw as his absorption in fashionable circles. Gammel explored the
possibility that the Baroness was the creator of Fountain. As Gammel acknowledged, however,
there is no contemporary documentary evidence or testimony that points to the involvement of
von Freytag-Loringhoven in Fountain.
Fountain tested beliefs about art and the role of taste in the art world. Interviewed
in 1964, Duchamp said he had chosen a urinal in part because he thought it had the least
chance of being liked (although many at the time did find it aesthetically pleasing). He
continued: ‘I was drawing people’s attention to the fact that art is a mirage. A mirage, exactly
like an oasis appears in the desert. It is very beautiful until, of course, you are dying of thirst.
But you don’t die in the field of art. The mirage is solid.’ Extensively studied and the subject
of various interpretations, Fountain has continued to exert an extraordinary power over
narratives of twentieth-century art in large part because of its piercing – if also humorous –
questioning of the structures of belief and value associated with the concept of art.
Between the Cracks | Cynthia Decker
Cynthia Decker
I am a lighthearted digital artist currently living and working in Asheville, North
Carolina.
My artwork is best described, I think, as imaginary realism. I like to create
impossible or improbable environments that have familiar textures and evocative moods.
Most of my work has humor, or a bit of a story to tell.
I am inspired by the everyday, by small moments and big ideas. I love working in the
digital medium because it lets me take these ideas and present them to you the same way I see
them in my head...as places you could walk into and explore.
I believe the digital medium is finding its place in the art world, and that artists should
use, value and enjoy all available means of creative expression. I hope that artists and art
lovers everywhere continue to push the boundaries of what constitutes a fine art medium.
Between the Cracks
Digital 3D
In every society, there are people who are overlooked, there are people many choose
not to see. In a social sense, these people have fallen between the cracks.
Unclear Creations: When the Who, How, When, and
What Confound
The Awakening Slave | Michelangelo
Awakening slave, also referred to as Atlante slave, is an incomplete work of art by
Italian renaissance artist Michelangelo. This 2.67 marble statue is dated 1525-30 and is
among the ‘prisoner’ or ‘slave’ series of an aborted plan of sculptors specially made for the
tomb of Pope Julius II which would be located at the Basilica of St. Peter’s.
The awakening slave is the most powerful sculpture among the slaves in the series.
The beautiful figure, which strikes an unnatural pose, is expressive and seems to be struggling
to burst out of the marble block. One can almost feel the extraordinary power that the
prisoner wields.
This work was commissioned by Pope Julius II for his tomb. Originally, Michelangelo
was supposed to carve more than 40 figures to surround Moses. However, after Julius II died,
the project stopped because there was minimal funding and he could not find marble to use for
sculpting. Although Michelangelo was still pressured to complete the work, he was always
busy with other art endeavours.
He eventually returned to work on them but did not complete some of them because
he was not satisfied with them or he had changed plans. For this reason, most of the figures
are incomplete and are fittingly referred to as Titan slaves.
Some argue that this state of incompletion and rough characteristics was necessary for
the feel and impact of the pieces. They claim that the figures were intentionally left
unfinished to represent the unending struggle of humans to be free from the trappings of
material possessions. After his demise, his nephew donated four of the prisoners that were in
his studio to Duke Cosimo I Medici.
Slaves of Michelangelo
Other slaves in different stages of completion are:
The young slave: This one is more clearly defined than the Awakening slave. Also in a
twisted pose, he traps himself by hiding his face in one arm and by burying the other around
his hips. He seems to be significantly younger than the other slaves.
The bearded slave: With a face with a thick, curly beard, this figure is nearly complete.
It only has a section of his arms and his hands unfinished. The upper body is perfectly
chiselled revealing the artist’s passion for his work.
The Atlas slave: The figure is named after Atlas, a Titan who held the world on his
shoulders. This is because he is lifting a huge weight on his head and is struggling to emerge
from the block.
The dying slave: This slave is the most frontal. Although it is referred to as the dying
slave, it is believed that it’s not dying but is in a dream state.
Rebellious slave: This realistic structure bears resemblance to sculptures of prisoners in
imperial Rome, hence the title rebellious slave.
Michelangelo believed that he was a tool of God. He said that he was not just creating
but that he was revealing figures that were already in the marble. He worked on the figures
for several years and took a lot of pride in his work. Unlike other artists, he sculpted free hand
from the front moving to the back. It is clear that Michelangelo has an understanding of the
human body and that a lot of care and detail went into carving the pieces. The prisoners
stand with most of their weight on one foot with shoulders and arms twisting off axis to
give them a powerful appearance.
This artist was very talented with his work demonstrating physical realism and
understanding of the human psyche. For this reason, many powerful men of his time
including religious leaders commissioned him.
The Awakening slave is a masterpiece that continues to attract visitors and impress
many people long after its completion. Although the art is incomplete, it is clear from its detail
that the artist put a lot of attention and effort into creating it. Four sculptures are kept at the
Gallery of the Academy of Florence, a museum in Italy. The rebellious and dying sculptures
were complete figures which were sent as presents to King Francis and are now on display at
the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Isleworth Mona Lisa | Unknown/Da Vinci
In February 1914, a painting resembling the Mona Lisa made headlines following its
rediscovery by Hugh Blaker, an art connoisseur and museum curator, who after years of
searching found the work stored in a mansion in Somerset, England. Art critic P.G. Konody in
his New York Times report described the features of the portrait's sitter, Lisa del Giocondo, as
"far more pleasing and beautiful than in the Louvre version" but recognized that the
painting "is likely to be received with a good deal of skepticism." Today, one century after
Blake's finding and years of research into the work's authenticity, the painting known as the
"Isleworth Mona Lisa" is on view to the public for the first time at the Arts House in
Singapore's Old Parliament before it travels to museums around the world. Accompanying the
portrait is evidence compiled by a group of art historians and experts who assert that it is a
genuine da Vinci that captures a younger Lisa del Giocondo over a decade before the artist
completed his famous masterpiece hanging in Paris.
Although this is the painting's first worldwide exhibition tour, it initially received
international attention in 2012, when Swiss non-profit The Mona Lisa Foundation unveiled it
to the media with the findings of over 35 years of historical research and scientific tests. The
Foundation says the examined documents and test results confirm that da Vinci painted this
earlier version between 1503 and 1506, and the exhibition, which opened in December,
seeks to unravel the mystery of multiple portraits for the public.
Historical evidence that the portrait depicts the wife of wealthy merchant Francesco
del Giocondo in her youth includes
a 1504 sketch by Raphael based on the Mona Lisa after he visited da Vinci's
studio that year. The pen and brown ink drawing shows a young woman on a
balcony flanked by two columns, which appear in the "Early Mona Lisa" but
are missing in the Louvre painting, implying that Raphael was not studying the
latter.
Descriptions of the alleged earlier painting also emerge in the writings of
the historian Giorgio Vasari, who wrote in 1550—and again in 1568—that da
Vinci had worked on a portrait of Lisa that her husband commissioned but left
it unfinished after four years. The Louvre Mona Lisa hangs as a complete
portrait (it also entered the collection of Francis I at Fontainebleau, which is
unlikely to house an unfinished painting), leading some experts to conclude that
Vasari saw a second version of it.
Other mentions of the existence of two different commissions of the same sitter
appear in a travel journal written by Antonio de Beatis, secretary to Cardinal
Luigi of Aragon, and in Gian Paolo Lomazzo's 1584 treatise on painting.
Da Vinci has created multiple versions of his works, including reproductions of "The
Virgin of the Rocks," but dozens of paintings closely resembling the Mona Lisa have revealed
themselves as copies after careful examination. To attribute the "Early Mona Lisa" to da Vinci
himself, experts studied the painting's pigments, brushstrokes and techniques. While the
pigments confirm the work's date to the start of the 16th century, analysis of the brushwork
reveals that a left-handed artist executed several parts of the painting. Da Vinci, who
worked with his left hand, may have rendered the sitter's features while another artist may
have painted the landscape. Spectral analysis also revealed clear underdrawings in the
"Early Mona Lisa" that usually appear only in original works and not in copies. Furthermore,
when comparing the two versions of the most recognized face in the world, researchers found
that they were both framed identically by the Golden Ratio and conformed to the intricate
geometric codes on which da Vinci based almost all his portraits, including his Vitruvian Man
and "The Virgin of the Rocks."
Woman-Ochre | Willem de Kooning (1955)
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was a Dutch abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam, in
the Netherlands. He moved to the United States in 1926, and became an American citizen in
1962. On December 9, 1943, he married painter Elaine Fried.
In the years after World War II, de Kooning painted in a style that came to be referred to as
abstract expressionism or "action painting", and was part of a group of artists that came to
be known as the New York School. Other painters in this group included Jackson Pollock,
Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Franz Kline, Arshile Gorky, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann,
Nell Blaine, Adolph Gottlieb, Anne Ryan, Robert Motherwell, Philip Guston, Clyfford Still,
and Richard Pousette-Dart.
The painting
Woman-Ochre is a 1955 abstract expressionist oil painting by Dutch-born American artist
Willem de Kooning, part of his Woman series from that period. It was controversial in its day,
like the other paintings in the series, for its explicit use of figures, which Jackson Pollock and
other abstract expressionists considered a betrayal of the movement's ideal of pure, non-
representational painting. Feminists also considered the works misogynistic, suggesting
violent impulses toward the women depicted.
In 1985 it was stolen from the University of Arizona Museum of Art (UAMA). Investigators
believed the thieves were a couple who had visited the museum briefly on the day after
Thanksgiving Day that year, as it was found to have been cut from its frame shortly after they
left. Sketches were circulated in an effort to identify them, but no leads turned up until it was
recovered 32 years later after it was offered for sale at a New Mexico antique store, where it
had been part of the estate of Jerry and Rita Alter, two former New York City public school
teachers who had retired to the area. Visitors to the store speculated that the work was a de
Kooning, and then the proprietor found a picture of the missing painting on the Internet. He
contacted museum staff, who were able to provisionally authenticate it, and it was returned to
Tucson. The museum has not yet put it back on exhibit; it is raising funds to restore and repair
it.
It has not been determined who stole the painting. Suspicion has fallen on the Alters, who
were photographed at a family Thanksgiving dinner in Tucson the night before the theft, and
displayed it in their house in a manner that only they were likely to have seen during their
lifetimes. They also did bear a slight resemblance to the couple in the sketches, and Jerome
Alter later wrote a book of stories in which two characters carry out a similar theft of a
museum piece to reserve for their own exclusive enjoyment. However, as they are dead they
cannot be interviewed, and their living relatives believe it is entirely possible that they bought
the painting from a third party, entirely unaware of its provenance.
The theft
On November 27, 1985, the day after Thanksgiving, an older woman and younger man,
wearing heavy winter coats against the 55 °F (13 °C) late November chill, were waiting outside
the museum shortly before its 9 a.m. opening time. When security guards let a staff member in,
the couple followed. The guards decided to let them in anyway.
The couple went upstairs. Midway up the stairs, the woman began asking the guard on duty
about some of the artwork in the museum, while the man continued upstairs. Shortly
afterwards, he returned and the two left.
This very short visit to the museum seemed unusual to the guard, and he went upstairs to see if
anything was amiss. He found that Woman-Ochre had been cut from its frame. It appeared that
the man had hidden the painting under his coat before leaving. A witness later recalled seeing
the two drive off in a rust-colored two-door sports car.
No fingerprints were found at the scene. At the time the museum had no security cameras, so
investigators had to rely on eyewitness accounts which described the man as in his late 20s,
with dark brown hair, glasses and a mustache, wearing sunglasses and a dark blue water-
repellent coat with a hood; the woman was said to be older, with a scarf and granny glasses,
reddish-blonde hair, wearing a red water-repellent coat and tan bell-bottoms. Sketches were
made and distributed to the public. The university's police department turned the case over to
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but no leads materialized.
The museum's insurance company paid it $400,000, the painting's estimated market value at
the time, on the claim. It used the money to buy security cameras; the museum also revised its
schedule to stay closed on the day after Thanksgiving in the future. Like many other art
museums that have suffered thefts of works on display, it did not replace Woman-Ochre,
instead placing a blank ochre-colored canvas on the wall behind the frame, where the cut
fibers were still visible, to call attention to the loss. By 2015, when another 1955 de Kooning,
Interchange, was sold for $300 million, making it the most expensive painting ever at that
time, the museum estimated the value of the still-missing work at $160 million.
Mike the Headless Chicken - Lyle Nichols
Sculpture
Miracle Mike
Mike the Headless Chicken (April 20, 1945 – March 17, 1947), also known as Miracle Mike,
was a Wyandotte chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off. Although
the story was thought by many to be a hoax, the bird's owner took him to the University of
Utah in Salt Lake City to establish the facts.
On September 10, 1945, farmer Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorado, was planning to eat supper
with his mother-in-law and was sent out to the yard by his wife to bring back a chicken. Olsen
chose a five-and-a-half-month-old Wyandotte chicken named Mike. The axe removed the
bulk of the head, but missed the jugular vein, leaving one ear and most of the brain stem
intact.
Due to Olsen's failed attempt to behead Mike, the chicken was still able to balance on a perch
and walk clumsily. He attempted to preen, peck for food, and crow, though with limited
success; his "crowing" consisted of a gurgling sound made in his throat. When Mike did not
die, Olsen instead decided to care for the bird. He fed it a mixture of milk and water via an
eyedropper, and gave it small grains of corn and worms.
Once his fame had been established, Mike began a career of touring sideshows in the
company of such other creatures as a two-headed baby. He was also photographed for dozens
of magazines and papers, and was featured in Time and Life magazines. Mike was put on
display to the public for an admission cost of 25 cents. At the height of his popularity, the
chicken's owner earned US$4,500 per month ($50,500 today); Mike was valued at $10,000.
In March 1947, at a motel in Phoenix on a stopover while traveling back from tour, Mike
started choking in the middle of the night. He had managed to get a kernel of corn in his
throat. The Olsens had inadvertently left their feeding and cleaning syringes at the sideshow
the day before, and so were unable to save Mike. Olsen claimed that he had sold the bird off,
resulting in stories of Mike still touring the country as late as 1949. Other sources say that the
chicken's severed trachea could not properly take in enough air to be able to breathe, and it
therefore choked to death in the motel.
The sculpture
In 2000, sculptor Lyle Nichols paid tribute to Mike's fortitude with this 300-pound
interpretation, and the city of Fruita, Colorado, plays host to an annual festival that invites
visitors to "party their heads off" called “Mike the Headless Chicken Festival,” usually in
May or June. Attendees can participate in events like the “5K Run Like a Headless Chicken
Race” and “Pin the Head on the Chicken.”
The statue of Mike is is being permanently installed in a flower planter on a downtown
corner today. The 4-foot-high Mike likeness is appropriately made from 300 pounds of old
metal farm castoffs that include ax heads, sickle blades, hay-rake teeth and other cutting
objects.
The Fruita Chamber of Commerce decided to enshrine Mike because the rooster has brought
the world's notice to this town of 6,000 more than half a century later.
Fruita's reputation for mountain biking and dinosaurs has paled beside the attention drawn by a
bird without a head. Since his bizarre tale was publicized last year, when the town held its first
Mike the Headless Chicken Festival, Fruita chamber officials and historians have been
inundated with thousands of calls, letters and e-mails, from New Delhi to Auckland, wanting
more information about Mike.
La Sagrada Familia | Gaudi
When the foundation stone of the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família
was laid in 1882, it’s unlikely that anyone involved anticipated that the construction of this
church would take well over a century to complete. But when Catalan architect Antoni
Gaudí, now famous for his unique take on the Modernista movement, took charge of the
project a year later, he scrapped the original neo-Gothic design plans and exchanged them for a
grander vision, unlike any the world had ever seen.
Gaudí worked steadily on his masterpiece until his death in 1926, at which point an
estimated 15 to 25 percent of the total design, including the crypt, the apse walls, a portal,
and a tower, was complete. Since then a series of architects have attempted to continue his
legacy. Not surprisingly, progress on Sagrada Família’s construction has faced a few
setbacks over the past 130+ years. Vandalism in 1936 following the outbreak of the Spanish
Civil War resulted in the destruction of many of Gaudí’s models. The sacristy was destroyed
in a fire in 2011.
When complete, the church will be composed of three major facades, two of which —
the Passion facade and the Nativity façade — have already been completed, while construction
of the Glory facade remains ongoing. Much of the ornate Nativity facade was completed by
Gaudí himself, who feared that beginning with the austere Passion facade would temper the
public’s enthusiasm. The Passion facade’s gaunt, tortured figures, sculpted by Josep Maria
Subirachs, have met with probably some of the harshest complaints from critics, though the
church’s website defends the design, saying its graphic nature remains true to Gaudí’s original
vision of a facade meant to inspire fear. The Glory facade, expected to be the largest and most
impressive of the three, began construction in 2002.
The church’s interior is defined by columns that stretch like tree branches toward the
ceiling. Gaudí’s plans also called for 18 spires, eight of which are complete, as well as
numerous towers, chapels, portals, and other interior features. When built, the tallest spire,
which symbolizes Jesus Christ, will secure Sagrada Família’s place as the world’s largest
church building.
Though Sagrada Família is said to be Gaudí’s magnum opus, the architect appeared
unfazed by its glacial progress, remarking, “There is no reason to regret that I cannot finish the
church. I will grow old but others will come after me. What must always be conserved is the
spirit of the work, but its life has to depend on the generations it is handed down to and with
whom it lives and is incarnated.” Despite this statement’s apparent acceptance of the inevitable
variations on his design at the hands of the architects who followed him, some have
advocated for leaving the church unfinished out of respect for the original designer.
Some projections have Sagrada Família’s completion date as 2026, the centennial
anniversary of Gaudí’s death, while others estimate construction could continue into the 2040s.
Though still incomplete, the church sees an estimated 2.8 million visitors each year.
The Arts as a Verb: To Help, Mayhaps to Hurt
Key to the City - Paul Ramirez Jonas (2010)
Paul Ramírez Jonas’s Key to the City bestowed the key to New York City—an honor
usually reserved for dignitaries and heroes—to esteemed and everyday citizens alike. For this
participatory public art project, Ramírez Jonas reinvented the civic ornamental honor as a
master key able to unlock more than 20 sites across New York City’s five boroughs and
invited the people of the city to exchange keys in small bestowal ceremonies. Upon
receiving a key, individuals were then encouraged to explore locations ranging from
community gardens to cemeteries, and police stations to museums.
Key to the City sought to ignite the public’s imagination with a complex portrait of
New York City that included both the traditional tourist attractions and new places city
dwellers might otherwise never visit. The project expanded Ramírez Jonas’s longstanding
interest in the key not so much as an object, but as a vehicle for exploring social contracts as
they pertain to trust, access, and belonging.
Key to the City is now officially closed, but you can still use your key to open the locks
below:
Postnet
The Point
The Rincon Criollo Cultural Center
PS 73
Bronx County Court House
Louis Armstrong House Museum
Eddie's Sweet Shop
Cabinet
Staten Island Buddhist Vihara
Conference House Park
This emotional picture shows a rather astonished little boy: he isn’t sure what’s
happening, or how it’s happening. From a world of silence, he has suddenly been
transported to a world of rich, vibrant sound. It is new, it is strange, and it’s also a little
scary. His little eyes grow wide with wonder, and he is itching to respond to this new world
that has been presented to him. Harold Whittles, the little boy, has just been fitted with a
hearing aid. Deaf until then, Harold was introduced to sound with the arrival of technology at
his doorstep. Just as his doctor fitted the hearing aid, the first wave of sound awoke a dormant
sense in the little boy.
At that precise moment, photographer Jack Bradley froze the scene in a frame from
behind the lens. The photo was published in the February 1974 edition of Reader’s Digest, in
the article “Unforgettable moments caught on film”.
A Show of Hands | Htein Lin
Since my return to Burma in July 2013 after six years in London, I have been hoarding
arms. Those arms are the forearms of former political prisoners (PPs), captured in plaster
of Paris (PoP). I now have several hundred, but the incarcerating enthusiasm of the military
regime which ruled Myanmar from 1962-2010 – or arguably until 2012 or even today – means
that I have several thousand more to cast.
The purpose of plaster of Paris is to fix a broken bone. I had my own broken arm – a
bicycle accident – during my break in London, and as a result, I developed an interest in the
art of breaking, fixing and healing.
After six years, I was able to return to Burma for the first time in February 2012. I met
a number of my old friends, former political prisoners, freshly released from prison. In the
eighteen months since, almost all political prisoners have been released.
During this period, fresh from jail, they remain strongly cohesive, bound by their
common past. Over time, they will start to take different paths, as politicians, business people,
journalists, activists and parents. I wanted to capture this important period in their lives,
and gather them and their experiences into an archive, called ‘A Show of Hands’.
A Show of Hands is a multimedia work. It combines sculpture, in the plaster of Paris
arms, photographs of the making process, videos which record both the plastering, and the
past, their experience in jail. There are texts cataloguing the individuals and the years they
sacrificed in jail.
Under decades of military rule since 1962, Burma became a broken country. But now
it is starting the slow process of healing, not least by the return of the political prisoners to
society, and their contribution to a better future.
If you break your arm, your bones heal thanks to the immobilization of the plaster,
and the natural healing of your body. But it takes time to heal, and during that time you are
immobilized. Over 3,000 political prisoners were immobilized in prison and sacrificed
years of their lives during the period 1988-2012. I may well not gather them all. Some are
dead, dying in jail, or after their release, and some may never get in touch.
3,000 is just a number. But the visual impact of over a thousand arms will remind
the audience of just how many people gave up their freedom of movement to try to fix a
broken nation, just as the cases of bones in Cambodia document the evils of Pol Pot.
A Show of Hands is more than just a show of hands. It is a process of community
engagement, performance, and public art. I have found old jail comrades and new friends,
put faces and arms to names of those whom I never met but heard about through the prison
grapevine. I have found them in their new environments: monasteries, teashops, newspaper
offices, hospitals.
The casting process requires trust, just as a political movement requires trust. I
have asked doctors who have plastered a hundred arms themselves but never experienced it, to
submit to my amateur wraps. I have asked former prisoners whose fingers were broken in
torture to have them immobilized years after they should have received treatment. There is the
initial promise that the plaster will only be temporary, and the trust of taking a knife close
to the skin to release the arm from the cast.
This year was the 25th anniversary of the 1988 uprising. I have found many arms at
memorial events and celebrations. As I have plastered my subjects, old memories and even old
allergies have returned; a former prisoner who suffered a bad allergy to water while in jail
found a similar rash build up under her damp cast.
A Show of Hands is being both recorded and being extended via the social media.
Through the website http://www.hteinlin.com/ and through Facebook and other social media,
word of the project is spreading, and more former prisoners are tracking me down. We are
putting political prisoners in touch with their friends and families in exile. Even as the plaster
dries, former prisoners have recorded and uploaded their own casting experience. They have
been contacted across continents by Skype with friends in the diaspora, using social media and
internet opportunities which we did not even dream of at the start of our struggle in 1988.
These connections represent the importance of the community in Myanmar, and
reinforce the importance of treating our fellow men and women with respect, compassion
and loving kindness. People often ask us how we survived under the military regime, and
how we survived in jail. Each of us had our survival strategies, but the main answer to that
question is that we had the support of our community, and we had solidarity between
individuals, just as plaster of Paris supports the arm and the healing bone.
Music
In a Gallery of their Own: Isolation and Separation
Songs of a Wayfarer no. 2 | Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was born on 7 July 1860 in Bohemia and died on 18 May 1911 aged 50.
His father was an innkeeper, and Gustav was the second of 14 children, though many of his
siblings died as children, and his musical gifted brother Otto committed suicide in 1895.
In 1901 he married Alma Schindler and they had two daughters together, Anna and
Maria. His early marriage seemed to be happy, and some love themes in his works depict Alma
or his relationship with her. Strains began to show in their marriage after the tragic death of
Maria, aged four, following completion of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder. On top of this he was
diagnosed with a fatal heart condition and subject not just to musical criticism but also public
expressions of anti-Semitism. Some years later, when Mahler's works were beginning to
receive a certain recognition, Alma had succumbed to alcoholism. At the sanatorium where she
was treated she met and had an affair with Walter Gropius.
A life so full of tragic events clearly had a major influence on much of Mahler's
output, though there is also much in his music which expresses joy and hope. Mahler has said
that his music is about life, and there is clearly an autobiographical aspect to his works, where
a "hero" struggles with the meaning of life, death, love and disappointment. However, Mahler
withdrew any programmatic comments he had previously made about his compositions saying
that they should be appreciated as pure music and this is indeed the best approach.
Mahler is labelled a late Romantic composer denoting the freer type of music which
developed after the stricter Classical period. He produced large-scale dramatic works with
enormous contrasts in sounds and moods, and has been quoted as saying that his music is
"about life". This is evident from the juxtaposition of tragedy, humour, love, and other
extremes of emotion, conveying melancholy and pathos amid joy, strength and consolation
within tragedy, and the knowing use of self-mocking irony and sarcasm.
The piece
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) is a song cycle by Gustav
Mahler on his own texts. The cycle of four Lieder (German song) for medium voice (often
performed by women as well as men) was written around 1884–85 in the wake of Mahler's
unhappy love for soprano Johanna Richter, whom he met while conductor of the opera house
in Kassel, Germany, and orchestrated and revised in the 1890s.
Although Songs of a Wayfarer is the title by which the cycle is generally known in
English, Fritz Spiegl has observed that German "Geselle" actually means "journeyman", i.e.,
one who has completed an apprenticeship with a master in a trade or craft, but is not yet a
master himself; journeymen in German-speaking countries traditionally traveled from town
to town to gain experience with various masters. A more accurate translation, therefore,
would be Songs of a Travelling Journeyman. The title hints at an autobiographical aspect of
the work; as a young, newly qualified conductor (and budding composer), Mahler was himself
at this time in a stage somewhere between 'apprentice' and recognized 'master' and had
been moving from town to town (Bad Hall, Laibach, Olmütz, Vienna, Kassel). All the while,
he was honing his skills and learning from masters in his field.
I – "Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht" ("When My Sweetheart is Married")
The first movement is entitled "Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht" ("When My
Sweetheart is Married"), and the text discusses the Wayfarer's grief at losing his love to
another. He remarks on the beauty of the surrounding world, but how that cannot keep him
from having sad dreams. The orchestral texture is bittersweet, using double reed instruments,
clarinets and strings. It begins in D minor and ends in G minor.
II – "Ging heut' Morgen über's Feld" ("I Went This Morning over the Field")
The second movement, "Ging heut' Morgen über's Feld" ("I Went This Morning over
the Field"), contains the happiest music of the work. Indeed, it is a song of joy and wonder at
the beauty of nature in simple actions like birdsong and dew on the grass. "Is it not a
lovely world?" is a refrain. However, the Wayfarer is reminded at the end that despite this
beauty, his happiness will not blossom anymore now that his love is gone. This movement is
orchestrated delicately, making use of high strings and flutes, as well as a fair amount of
triangle. The melody of this movement, as well as much of the orchestration, was later reused
by Mahler and developed into the 'A' theme of the first movement of his First Symphony. It
begins in D major and ends in F-sharp major.
III – "Ich hab' ein glühend Messer" ("I Have a Gleaming Knife")
The third movement is a full display of despair. Entitled "Ich hab' ein glühend Messer"
("I Have a Gleaming Knife"), the Wayfarer likens his agony of lost love to having an actual
metal blade piercing his heart. He obsesses to the point where everything in the environment
reminds him of some aspect of his love, and he wishes he actually had the knife. Note: while
the translation of "glühend" as gleaming is not totally incorrect, "gleaming" misses an
important point: "glühend" includes an element of heat, as in "glowing with heat"; a
potentially better translation might be any of "glowing", "burning", scorching". This isn't just a
bright-looking (i.e. gleaming") knife, but one that burns and scorches. The music is intense and
driving, fitting to the agonized nature of the Wayfarer's obsession. It begins in D minor and
ends in E-flat minor.
IV – "Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz" ("The Two Blue Eyes of my
Beloved")
The final movement culminates in a resolution. The music, also reused in the First
Symphony (in the slow movement), is subdued and gentle, lyrical and often reminiscent of a
chorale in its harmonies. Its title, "Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz" ("The Two
Blue Eyes of my Beloved"), deals with how the image of those eyes has caused the
Wayfarer so much grief that he can no longer stand to be in the environment. He describes
lying down under a linden tree, finding rest for the first time and allowing the flowers to fall
on him; and somehow (beyond his own comprehension) everything was well again:
"Everything: love and grief, and world, and dream!" It begins in E minor and ends in F minor.
Viva la Vida | Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1996. The four members, lead
singer and pianist Chris Martin, lead guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, and
drummer Will Champion were at University College London, and came together from 1996 to
1998, during which time the band changed names from Pectoralz, to Starfish, then Coldplay.
Creative director and former manager Phil Harvey is often referred to as the fifth member by
the band. They recorded and released two EPs: Safety in 1998 and The Blue Room in 1999.
The latter was their first release on a major label, after signing to Parlophone.
Coldplay have won numerous awards throughout their career, including nine Brit
Awards, six MTV Video Music Awards, seven MTV Europe Music Awards and seven Grammy
Awards from 29 nominations. They have sold more than 100 million records worldwide,
making them one of the world's best-selling music artists. Three of their albums: Parachutes, A
Rush of Blood to the Head, and X&Y, are among the best-selling albums in UK chart history.
In December 2009, Rolling Stone readers voted the group the fourth-best artist of the 2000s.
Coldplay have supported various social and political causes, such as Oxfam's Make Trade Fair
campaign and Amnesty International. They have also performed at charity projects, including
Band Aid 20, Live 8, Global Citizen Festival, Sound Relief, Hope for Haiti Now: A Global
Benefit for Earthquake Relief, One Love Manchester, The Secret Policeman's Ball, Sport
Relief and the UK Teenage Cancer Trust.
Viva la Vida
"Viva la Vida" is a song by British rock band Coldplay. It was written by all members
of the band for their fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008), and was
released as the second single from the album. On the album, this song segues directly into the
next track, "Violet Hill". Viva la Vida is Spanish for "Long Live Life" or simply "Live Life".
The lyrics to the song contain historical and Christian references, and the track is
built around a looping string section in unison with a digital processed piano, with other layers
gradually being added as the song builds.
The song's Spanish title, "Viva la Vida", is taken from a painting by 20th-century
Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. In Spanish "viva" is an expression used to acclaim someone or
something, so "Long Live Life" is an accurate translation and the painting reflects the artistic
irony of acclaiming life while suffering physically. When asked about the album's title,
referring to Frida Kahlo's strength, enduring polio, a broken spine, and a decade of
chronic pain, lead singer Chris Martin said: "She went through a lot of pain, of course, and
then she started a big painting in her house that said 'Viva la Vida', I just loved the boldness of
it."
During the album's production, "Viva la Vida" was one of the songs that had polarised
each member's opinion over which version they should choose. In an interview, Martin
recalled: "We did quite a few different versions and went round the houses a bit and eventually
settled on those treatments for it."
The lyrics to "Viva la Vida" are narrated by a protagonist who says he "used to rule the
world". Martin has explained the song lyric "I know Saint Peter won't call my name" in an
interview with Q magazine: "It's about ... You're not on the list," When asked about the song,
bass guitarist Guy Berryman said: "It's a story about a king who's lost his kingdom, and all the
album's artwork is based on the idea of revolutionaries and guerrillas. There's this slightly
anti-authoritarian viewpoint that's crept into some of the lyrics and it's some of the pay-off
between being surrounded by governments on one side, but also we're human beings with
emotions and we're all going to die and the stupidity of what we have to put up with every day.
Hence the album title."
Unlike the then-typical arrangement of Coldplay songs, in which either the guitar or
piano is the prominent instrument, the track mostly consists of a string section and a digital
piano playing the song's upbeat riff, along with a steady bass drum beat, percussion (including
a timpano and a church bell), bass guitar, and Martin's vocals; there is limited use of electric
guitar. All the strings are arranged and conducted by violinist Davide Rossi, who is one of the
main collaborators of the album. Rossi's strings comprise the main driving force throughout
the song, with a strong beginning loop that supports Martin's voice, until the choruses where
the symphonic power of the orchestra takes its fullest shape. The prominent chords played by
the string section throughout the song (and in the chorus of "Rainy Day," another of the band's
songs) are very similar to those used by "Viva la Vida" co-producer Brian Eno in his piece "An
Ending (Ascent)," meaning they could have been suggested partially for the song by Eno.
The song is written in the key of A-flat major. Its main chord progression is
D♭/E♭/A♭/Fm.
Therru’s Song | Tales from Earthsea
Far far above the clouds soaring the wind,
A falcon flies alone, silent as the sky,
I hear his lonely cry, never can he rest,
The song is played in the key of E major. "The Way You Make Me Feel" has a mid-tempo of
medium rock and has a metronome of 120 beats per minute. The song follows in the chord
progression of C—E♭/C—C—C/E♭ in the first line, when Jackson sings "Hee-hee! Ooh Go
on!" and continues on the same progression in the second line, when Jackson sings "Girl!
Aaow!".
Follow the Drinking Gourd | American Folk Song
"Follow the Drinking Gourd" is an African American folk song first published in 1928.
The Drinking Gourd is another name for the Big Dipper asterism. Folklore has it that
fugitive slaves in the United States used it as a point of reference so they would not get lost.
According to legend, the song was used by a conductor of the Underground Railroad, called
Peg Leg Joe, to guide some fugitive slaves. While the song may possibly refer to some lost
fragment of history, the origin and context remain a mystery. A more recent source challenges
the authenticity of the claim that the song was used to help slaves escape to the North and to
freedom.
Uses
In Tamil, the word parai means 'to speak' or 'to tell'. It was performed in the courts of
Sangam, Chola, and Pandiyan rulers. The drums were used to announce important messages
and orders of the great Tamil Kings.
In olden days, parai was used for multiple reasons, ranging from warning people
about the upcoming war, requesting the civilians to leave the battlefield, announcing
victory or defeat, stopping a breach of water body, gathering farmers for farming
activities, warning the wild animals about people's presence, during festivals, wedding,
celebrations, worship of nature and so on. Parai has been an instrumental part of the
people's life.
Chorus
Follow the drinking gourd,
Follow the drinking gourd,
For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom,
Follow the drinking gourd.
Verse 1
When the sun comes back and the first quail calls,
Follow the drinking gourd.
The old man is a waiting for to carry you to freedom,
Follow the drinking gourd.
Chorus
Verse 2
Now the river bank makes a mighty good road,
The dead trees will show you the way.
Left foot, peg foot, traveling on,
Follow the drinking gourd.
Chorus
Verse 3
Now the river ends between two hills,
Follow the drinking gourd.
There's another river on the other side,
Follow the drinking gourd.
Chorus
LYRICS EXPLANATION
VERSE 1 Taken together, this verse suggests escaping in the spring and heading North
to freedom.
When the sun Refers to the winter or spring. The days are getting longer, and the angle of
come back, the sun is higher each day at noon.
When the firs' Refers to the breeding season. Quail in Alabama start calling to each other in
quail call, early to mid-April.
Foller the The "drinkin' gou'd" alludes to the hollowed out gourd used by slaves (and
drinkin' gou'd. other rural Americans) as a water dipper. Used here it is a code name for the
Big Dipper star formation, which points to Polaris, the Pole Star, and North.
CHORUS
For the ole "Ole man" is nautical slang for "Captain" (or "Commanding Officer.")
man say, According to Parks, the Underground Railroad operative Peg Leg Joe was
formerly a sailor.
"Foller the
drinkin'
gou'd."
VERSE 2 Describes how to follow the route, from Mobile, Alabama north.
The riva's bank The first river in the song is the Tombigbee, which empties into Mobile Bay.
am a very Its headwaters extend into northeastern Mississippi.
good road,
The dead trees According to Parks, Peg Leg Joe marked trees and other landmarks "with
show the way, charcoal or mud of the outline of a human left foot and a round spot in place
of the right foot." (1)
Lef' foot, peg
foot goin' on,
Foller the
drinkin' gou'd.
CHORUS
VERSE 3 Describes the route through northeastern Mississippi and into Tennessee.
The riva ends The headwaters of the Tombigbee River end near Woodall Mountain, the
a-tween two high point in Mississippi and an ideal reference point for a map song. The
hills, "two hills" could mean Woodall Mountain and a neighboring lower hill. But
the mountain itself evidently has a twin cone profile and so could represent
both hills at once.
Foller the
drinkin' gou'd;
'Nuther riva on The river on the other side of the hills is the Tennessee, which extends
the other side outward in an arc above Woodall Mountain. The left-hand side proceeds
virtually due north to the Ohio river border with Illinois – definitely the
preferred route, since the right hand side meanders back into northern
Alabama and then proceeds up into Tennessee.
Follers the
drinkin' gou'd.
CHORUS
Meet the grea' ...meets the Ohio River. The Tennessee and Ohio rivers come together in
big un, Paducah, KY, opposite southern Illinois.
The ole man Per one of Parks's informants, the runaways would be met on the banks of the
waits-- Ohio by the old sailor. Of course, the chances that Peg Leg Joe himself would
be there to meet every escapee (as depicted literally in the children's books)
are quite small.
Foller the
drinkin' gou'd.
We care a lot
We care a lot
We care a lot about disasters, fires, floods and killer bees
We care a lot about the NASA shuttle falling in the sea
We care a lot about starvation and the food that Live Aid bought
We care a lot about disease, baby Rock, Hudson, rock, yeah
We care a lot
We care a lot
We care a lot about the gamblers and the pushers and the freaks
We care a lot about the people who live on the street
We care a lot about the welfare of all the boys and girls
We care a lot about you people 'cause we're out to save the world, yeah
It's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Oh, it's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Its a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Oh, it's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
It's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Oh, it's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
We care a lot about the army, navy, air force and marines
We care a lot about the NY, SF and LAPD
We care a lot about you people
We care a lot about your guns
We care a lot about the wars you're fighting gee that looks like fun
We care a lot about the cabbage patch, the smurfs, and DMC
We care a lot about Madonna and we cop for Mr.T
We care a lot about the little things, the bigger things we top
We care a lot about you people yeah you bet we care a lot, yeah
It's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Oh, it's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Said, it's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Oh, it's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Oh, it's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Oh, it's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Oh, it's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Oh, it's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Oh, it's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Oh, it's a dirty job but someones gotta do it
Wavin’ Flag
Go on girl!
Hey pretty baby with the high heels on
You give me fever
Like I've never, ever known
You're just a product of loveliness
I like the groove of your walk,
Your talk, your dress
I feel your fever
From miles around
I'll pick you up in my car
And we'll paint the town
Just kiss me baby
And tell me twice
That you're the one for me
The way you make me feel
(The way you make me feel)
You really turn me on
(You really turn me on)
You knock me off of my feet
(You knock me off of my feet)
My lonely days are gone
(My lonely days are gone)
I like the feelin' you're givin' me
Just hold me baby and I'm in ecstasy
Oh I'll be workin' from nine to five
To buy you things to keep you by my side
I never felt so in love before
Just promise baby, you'll love me forevermore
I swear I'm keepin' you satisfied
'Cause you're the one for me
The way you make me feel
(The way you make me feel)
You really turn me on
(You really turn me on)
You knock me off of my feet
Now baby
(You knock me off of my feet)
My lonely days are gone,
(My lonely days are gone)
Go on girl!
Go on! Hee! Hee! Aaow!
Go on girl!
I never felt so in love before
Promise baby, you'll love me forevermore
I swear I'm keepin' you satisfied
'Cause you're the one for me
The way you make me feel
(The way you make me feel)
You really turn me on
(You really turn me on)
You knock me off of my feet
Now baby
(You knock me off of my feet)
My lonely days are gone
(My lonely days are gone)
The way you make me feel
(The way you make me feel)
You really turn me on
(You really turn me on)
You knock me off of my feet
Now baby
(You knock me off of my feet)
My lonely days are gone
(My lonely days are gone)
Ain't nobody's business,
Ain't nobody's business
(The way you make me fell)
Ain't nobody's business,
Ain't nobody's business but
Mine and my baby
(You really turn me on)
(You knock me off of my feet)
Oh!
(My lonely days are gone)
Give it to me, give me some time
(The way you make me feel)
Come on be my girl, I want to
Be with mine
(You really turn me on)
Ain't nobody's business
(You knock me off of my feet)
Ain't nobody's business but
Mine and my baby's
Go on girl! Aaow!
(My lonely days are gone)
Hee hee! Aaow!
Chika, chika
Chika, chika, chika
Go on girl!, Hee hee!
(The way you make me feel)
Hee hee hee!
(You really turn me on)
(You knock me off of my feet)
(My lonely days are gone)