The Earliest Michelangelo's Work

Divisionist

Giovanni Segantini "The Bad Mothers"

The Rape of Europa

In a journey through seven countries, The Rape of Europa documentary takes the audience into the violent whirlwind of fanaticism, greed, and warfare that threatened to wipe out the artistic heritage of Europe . For twelve long years, failed Austrian artist Adolf Hitler and the Nazis looted and destroyed art on a scale unprecedented in history. But young art professionals as well as ordinary heroes, from truck drivers to department store clerks, fought back with an extraordinary effort to safeguard, rescue and return the millions of lost, hidden and stolen treasures.
The Nazis stole one-fifth of all the known artworks in Europe. Many of the displaced art in the decade following the war was recovered, but much of the loot is still missing. Tragically, unique masterpieces were destroyed and lost to posterity forever. Other works of art—the last, forgotten victims of the war—survived but remain unidentified, traceable only with costly and difficult investigation.

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Spanish Art

The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University presents the exhibition, El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III, made for this Spanish court four centuries ago. The show will also introduce great unknown masters of painting and sculpture. The exhibition includes 52 master paintings, including seven late works by El Greco and three early works by Velázquez, monumental altar pieces, life-sized portraits, some of the earliest still-life paintings in Europe, full-length carved and painted wooden sculptures of Spanish saints and more than 50 pieces of period glass and ceramics.

Here's Juan Sánchez Cotán, "Still Life with Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber"



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Headed for China? Gotta see this.

It is believed that Yellow Mountain (Mount Huang or Huangshan) is one of the most beautiful mountains in China. The Huangshan is a mountain range in southern Anhui province (Eastern China). The area is very famous for its scenic beauty, which lies in the peculiar shapes of the granite peaks, in the weather-shaped Huangshan Pine trees, and in views of the clouds from above. The area also has hot springs and natural pools. Today, they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of China's most popular tourist destinations. The landscape was shaped by the influence of glaciers. It is filled with stone pillar forests. The mountain tops are often above cloud level and offer views of the clouds from above and interesting light-effects. The water in the hot springs retains a temperature of 45°C all year.
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Rubens

This the very first sketch of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), called Apotheosis of James I and was made for magnificent ceiling paintings in the Whitehall Banqueting House, London, England. It was owned by a private collector and now will be a part of National Gallery of British art (Tate Britain).
It is valued at £11.5m

Karl Bodmer

Swiss artist (1809-1893)
Confluence of the Fox River and the Wabash, watercolor on paper


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Classics?

A few rich and ruthless people have locked themselves in their palaces in the middle of nowhere, a long with a suite of young and old in order to enjoy in the charms of sex and obscenity for 120 days.
120 days of Sodoma, that is. A cult work by Marquis de Sade. When it appeared it caused a great scandal. It is not really for children but today is considered a classic. De Sade wrote it in prison, so only the first part was written in detail. The rest is made of footnote and shorter synopsises, information which De Sade wrote for himself. In his works he also spoke about corrupted judges and ruthless rich men. The criminals of this book are the pillars of society.
Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller was written in first person, about an adventurer who lived in Paris, and who wanted to become a writer. His top level style of writing and the interesting plots were overshadowed by explicit scenes and obscene language that shocked the nation. Some of the characters were inspired by real people, and the third chapter was dedicated to (imagine this) a prostitute!
Lolita, by Vladimir Nabukov shocked the world telling a story of a middle-aged man, Humbert Humbert, who desperately falls in love with twelve-year-old Lolita. It was labeled pornography and a work which promotes pedophilia. The book recorded crazy sales, but no one wanted to admit having it. Today the book is also considered a critic of American society, full of many witty lingual games and references to classic works. Nabukov admitted that Humbert was and extremely unpleasant person
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, where Holden Caulfield uses dirty words, hangs out with prostitutes and generally does not behave decently, was "shameful" and controversial. However this book is considered a masterpiece of literature from the past century. Mark David Chapman, the murderer of John Lennon, was carrying the book with him at the time of the murder...Not the best recommendation for it, but it is still admired by some of the smartest people in the world.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence, is about young aristocratic Constance, wife of Clifford Chatterley, frustrated with her husband’s impotence caused by his paralysis, started messing around with Oliver Mellors, who is of a much lower class than her. Constance realises that to fulfil a complete life, she must not live only with her mind, but also with her body. Head prosecutor, who in court tried to explain the book was pornography, when asked if it were the kind of book "you would wish your wife or servants to read answered - Yes, Sir!

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Greek Art

Following the rise and growth of the Greek Art market in recent years, Sotheby's forthcoming sale will be the most important sale of its kind ever staged. It will present 177 lots, offering works by major Greek artists such as Constantinos Volanakis, seen here.
Nice.
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Island of the World

Michael O’Brien, an honourable author with a Christian background, best known for his recent novels “Eclipse of the Sun” and “Plague journal", who is also an honourable painter, illustrator of his own covers, in his 800 pages work “Island of the World” tells the story of Josip Lasta, a man who grows up in the turbulent time of the Second World War and who lives in "communist" Yugoslavia. As Lasta’s life goes by, the region lives important events and the hero soon finds himself in front of the key moments of his life and of the most challenging tests of his soul.
O’Brien thinks that the western civilisation has come to its sunset and that we are threaten by new Totalitarianism. He fights against the uniformity of the world, and he insists on the value of human life.
I am intrigued. Gotta read this book...

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So after over 60 years...

Germany launches the Tintin-style comic Book called `The Search` that tells the story of Esther, a fictional Jewish survivor of the Holocaust. Schools will aim to teach underprivileged children about the Nazi era. Germany now has the world's fastest growing Jewish community, with 220,000 arriving from the former Soviet Union since 1990. Racist violence remains a big problem there, and the revival of a Jewish community has brought a rise in anti-Semitism with it.

Street Art

Street art is illegal, as a rule, but it seems that the situation is slowly changing. The proof of that is Bansky whose work has become protected by law. Will such an attitude of authorities towards street art become more popular only time will tell. But for now, only crime has united the artists from all over the world. Here are the works from New York, Washington, Spain, Russia, Malaysia, Australia and Canada.

Letter to my Mother

Are you still alive my mother?
Alive am I, and greetings I send.
And may the tranquil light of evening
Upon your humble home descend.

They write me you are anxious, mother,
Consumed with longing for your absend son,
Are seen too often in your faded jacket
Waiting by the roadside when your work is done.

And when you sit alone in twilight,
A horrifying vision makes you start:
You see me brawling drunken in a tavern
And someone stick a knife into my heart.

Take comfort, mother: that is only
The foolish fancy of a troubled brain.
Not such a drunkard I, nor such a monster,
To die without embracing you again.

I love you tenderly as ever
My only hope, my only desire
Is to find at last a longed-for harbor
Besides your steady-burning fire.

I'll come when buds are bursting in the garden,
When in the orchard blossoms blow.
But mind you do not awaken me at dawning
As you were wont to wake me long ago.

Do not awaken what is meant to slumber,
Do not evoke the ghosts of blighted dreams.
Too early did I suffer bitter losses,
And learned the worth of human schemes.

And do not try again to make me pious:
What's gone is gone - forever out of sight.
You alone are all my strength and gladness,
You alone - ineffable my light.

So be not anxious any longer, mother,
Not warse your strength in longing for your son.
And go no longer in your faded jacket
Down to the roadside when your work is done.

Sergey Esenin

Nov.12 B-Day: Auguste Rodin

The Hand of God

About Rodin

How much would you pay for it?

The escalating value of the late Italian conceptual artist Piero Manzoni's canned feces was chronicled in News of the Weird in 1993, 1998, 2002 and 2004, but now in June 2007 his former colleague Agostino Bonalumi told a reporter that the project had been a hoax and that Manzoni had merely filled the cans with plaster. Manzoni created 90 small tins, and collectors had paid thousands of dollars each (making his feces worth more per ounce than gold, including once, in 1993, paying $75,000 for a tin). A spokesman for Britain's Tate gallery, which once paid the equivalent of about $35,000 for one, said that the actual content of the art is beside the point.(?)

Najveca tajna na svijetu

Smijacu se svijetu.
Nijedno zivo bice ne moze da se smije osim covjeka. Drvece moze da krvari kad je ranjeno, i zivotinje placu od bola ili gladi, ali ja imam dar smijanja i mogu da ga koristim kad god zazelim. Ubuduce cu njegovati obicaj smijanja. Smijacu se i probava ce mi biti bolja; smijacu se i olaksacu sebi teret; smijacu se i zivot ce mi se produziti, jer je to tajna dugog zivota koju ja sada posjedujem.
Smijacu se svijetu.
Najvise od svega, smijacu se sebi, jer je covek najsmjesniji kad sebe uzima suvise ozbiljno. Nikada necu upasti u tu klopku uma. Jer iako sam ja najvece cudo prirode, zar nisam ipak samo obicno zrnce koje bacaju vjetrovi vremena? Da li ja stvarno znam odakle dolazim i kuda idem? Nece li moja briga za ovaj dan izgledati budalasta za deset godina? Zasto bih dozvolio da me danas uznemiravaju sitni dogadjaji? Sta moze da se do zalaska sunca desi sto ne bi izgledalo beznacajno po rijeci vijekova?
Smijacu se svijetu.
A kako da se smijem kad se suocim sa covjekom ili djelom koje me toliko vrijedja da mi tjera suze na oci ili mami psovke? Vjezbacu sebe da izgovaram cetiri rijeci sve dok one ne postanu navika tako jaka da ce se one javljati u mom umu kada god dobro raspolozenje prijeti da me napusti. Ove rijeci, prenosene od davnina, nosice me kroz svaku nevolju i odrzati mi zivot u ravnotezi. Ove cetiri rijeci jesu: "I to ce proci."
Smijacu se svijetu.
Sve zemaljske stvari ce proci. Kad mi srce oteza od patnje, tjesicu se da ce i to proci; kada sam ushicen uspjehom, upozoricu sebe da ce i to proci. Kad me davi neimastina, reci cu sebi da ce i to proci; kada me optereti bogatstvo, reci cu sebi da ce i to proci. Da, zacijelo, gde je onaj sto je
gradio piramide? Zar nije i on pokopan u njenom kamenju? Nece li i piramida jednog dana isto biti zakopana ispod pijeska? Ako sve stvari prolaze, zasto bih se ja brinuo za danasnji dan?
Smijacu se svijetu.
Obojicu ovaj dan smijehom, uramicu ovu noc pjesmom. Nikada necu raditi da bih bio srecan. Bolje da budem suvise zaposlen da bih imao vremena za tugu. Uzivacu danasnju srecu danas. To nije zrno da se drzi u kutiji. To nije vino da se cuva u flasi. Ona se ne moze sacuvati za sutra. Ona se mora sijati i ubrati istog dana, i ja cu to raditi, od danas pa nadalje.
Smijacu se svijetu.
Mojim smijehom sve ce stvari biti smanjene na svoju pravu velicinu. Smijacu se svojim neuspjesima i oni ce nestati u oblacima novih snova. Smijacu se svojim uspjesima i oni ce se skupiti do njihove tacne vrijednosti. Smijacu se zlu i ono ce umrijeti neoprobano. Smijacu se dobroti i ona ce uspijevati u izobilju. Svaki dan bice trijumf samo ako moji osmijesi izmame osmijehe od drugih, a ja to radim iz sebicnosti, jer oni na koje se mrstim jesu oni koji ne kupuju moju robu.
Smijacu se svijetu.
Od sada cu liti samo suze od znoja, jer suze od zalosti ili kajanja, ili razocarenja nemaju vrijednost na trzistu, dok svaki osmijeh moze da se zamijeni za zlato i svaka ljubazna rijec, izgovorena iz mog srca, moze da sagradi dvorac. Nikada necu dozvoliti sebi da postanem tako nestrpljiv, toliko mudar, toliko dostojanstven, toliko mocan, pa da zaboravim kako da se smijem sebi i svom svijetu. U ovome cu uvijek ostati kao dijete, jer jedino mi je kao djetetu data sposobnost da gledam navise u nekoga. Nikada necu prerasti svoj krevet.
Smijacu se svijetu.
I sve dok mogu da se smijem necu biti siromasan. Ovo je, dakle, jedan od najvecih poklona prirode, ja ga necu traciti. Samo smijehom i srecom mogu postati istinski uspijesan. Samo uz smijeh i srecu mogu da uzivam plodove svoga rada. Da nije tako, bolje bi bilo ne uspjeti, jer je sreca vino koje pojacava ukus jelu. Da bih uzivao u uspjehu moram imati srecu, a smijeh ce
biti djevojka koja me sluzi.
Bicu srecan.
Bicu uspijesan.

Og Mandino

El Greco

Athens is hosting Exhibition El Greco and His Workshop.Museum visitors will be able to see 45 oil paintings of the great master of 17th ct Spanish art. Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco) works and woks of his students, son Manuel Theotocopouli, Luis Tristan and other unsigned works attributed to his workshop will be presented.

Royal Flush

87-year-old British novelist Doris Lessing said she was delighted at winning the 2007 Nobel Prize for literature:"I've won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one. I'm delighted to win them all, the whole lot...It's a royal flush."
Her body of work delved into human relationships and inspired a generation of female writers. The academy called her an "epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".
Lessing debuted as a novelist with "The Grass is Singing" in 1950, a book that examined the relationship between a white farmer's wife and her black servant.
Her 1962 novel "The Golden Notebook" was widely considered her breakthrough work.
She was born to British parents in what was then known as Persia and is now Iran.

Ivan Mestrovic