2 DIAMONDS FUJI
by Bob Kessel

2 DIAMONDS FUJI (state 2)
by Bob Kessel

“2 DIAMOND FUJI” paintings are from Bob Kessel’s 2 PIECE SUITE art series.

Mount Fuji ( 富士山 ) is the highest mountain in Japan. An active volcano that last erupted in 1707–08, Mount Fuji is just west of Tokyo, and can be seen on a clear day. Mount Fuji’s exceptionally symmetrical cone is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in Japanese art. Amongst the most renowned works are Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji and his One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji. The mountain is mentioned in Japanese literature throughout the ages and the subject of many poems.

You’ve probably seen the famous image of The Great Wave of Kanagawa before in a million different places. Easily one of the most famous single paintings in the world, it was painted nearly two hundred years ago by the famous Japanese master painter, Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎). Hokusai was born in 1760, and lived to be 89 years old, dying in 1849. I’ve always loved the painting of the Great Wave, but was just recently reminded of Hokusai by this video I found on YouTube of his paintings and sketchbooks being brought to life with animation! The video is really cool, if kind of silly with the trite old British man narration. Watch the video below for a little biography of the Japanese icon and some cool visuals, and click the image above to be linked to a website of his complete works.

 They say if you can keep looking at a picture for more than three seconds, you like it.  What if you find a picture you would like to look at for the rest of your life?  Then I guess you should own it…

 I remember vividly the first time I saw “The Boy on Mount Fuji” by Katsushika Hokusai, – it still makes me shiver in my bones today-, and I thought it was the reflection of pure beauty on a frame.  I was hypnotized; the color scheme was so harmonious.  The use of blue, purple, pink and white was all so subtle yet powerful.  The composition was so spacious and continuous, reminding me of the expansive desert scenes from “Lawrence of Arabia.”  It was natural, serene, peaceful, divine yet simple.  And there were a body of water and a mountain in it, symbolizing life, good fortune and hope.

 I knew I had to have it.  I was so happy when I brought it home, in my mind, my house became more worthy.  After working long hours at my ballet studio, I could not wait to come home, and sit in front of the print, contemplate, dream, imagine, ultimately feel good.  It was my virtual reality, my escape pod, my temple.  It represented the opposite side of me that completed me.  With time I learned to appreciate many more of the details that eluded my vision at first sight:

 The sack that was hanging down from the tree next to him; perhaps he had to carry water to his family?  The scarf he was wearing; a gift from a loved one to protect him from cold weather?  He was playing a flute; what could be a better accompaniment to all of that sweet rhythm around him?  There was breeze soft enough to make the tree branch sway and lift up the foam from the little creek, yet not strong enough to disturb a single hair on his head.  He seemed lonely, weak and pensive.  I noticed how grand, majestic and timeless Mount Fuji was.

 And then I saw the heavy weight that the fragile tree had to carry and the risk the boy took without thinking by sitting on it.  He was poor, because he was not wearing shoes.  The snow was melting, giving birth to the lively stream.  And finally I noticed the dark clouds moving in, suggesting “the calm before the storm?”

 Some people create their own selfish world around themselves; no matter what you do, it is very hard to make them see what is outside of that frame.  And some are about “the greater good”; they become selfless and dedicate their lives completely to what is outside of the frame.  Very few find out the balance, just to realize: “See them both, the true happiness is what you make out of it.”

Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎 , October or November 1760–May 10, 1849) was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. In his time, he was Japan’s leading expert on Chinese painting. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best-known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景, Fugaku Sanjūroku-kei, c. 1831) which includes the iconic and internationally recognized print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, created during the 1820s.

It’s Artists like Katsushika Hokusai that show the world the impact one human can still have on generations after their time. His artistic values become greatly appreciated as an inspiration in society today and praised all around the world. His work shows techniques that are valuable to those who can accomplish them and traditions from a culture like no other.

FUJI TREES by Bob Kessel

Bob Kessel’s art series “100 VIEWS” features pictures based on the works of Katsushika Hokusai. These pictures are available as signed and numbered limited edition fine art prints. Contact Bob Kessel for pricing and availability.

Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎,  1760–1849 was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best-known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景, c. 1831) which includes the iconic and internationally recognized print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, created during the 1820s. Hokusai created the “Thirty-Six Views” both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. It was this series, specifically The Great Wave print and Fuji in Clear Weather, that secured Hokusai’s fame both within Japan and overseas. As historian Richard Lane concludes, “Indeed, if there is one work that made Hokusai’s name, both in Japan and abroad, it must be this monumental print-series…” While Hokusai’s work prior to this series is certainly important, it was not until this series that he gained broad recognition and left a lasting impact on the art world. It was also The Great Wave print that initially received, and continues to receive, acclaim and popularity in the Western world.

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GRAT WAVE by Hokusai

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By 1800, Hokusai was further developing his use of ukiyo-e for purposes other than portraiture. He had also adopted the name he would most widely be known by, Katsushika Hokusai, the former name referring to the part of Edo where he was born and the latter meaning, ‘north studio’. That year, he published two collections of landscapes, Famous Sights of the Eastern Capital and Eight Views of Edo. He also began to attract students of his own, eventually teaching 50 pupils over the course of his life.

He became increasingly famous over the next decade, both due to his artwork and his talent for self-promotion. During a Tokyo festival in 1804, he created a portrait of the Buddhist priest Daruma said to be 600 feet (180 m) long using a broom and buckets full of ink. Another story places him in the court of the Shogun Iyenari, invited there to compete with another artist who practiced more traditional brush stroke painting. Hokusai’s painting, created in front of the Shogun, consisted of painting a blue curve on paper, then chasing a chicken across it whose feet had been dipped in red paint. He described the painting to the Shogun as a landscape showing the Tatsuta River with red maple leaves floating in it, winning the competition.

In 1820, Hokusai changed his name yet again, this time to “Iitsu,” a change which marked the start of a period in which he secured fame as an artist throughout Japan (though, given Japan’s isolation from the outside world during his lifetime, his fame overseas came after his death). It was during the 1820s that Hokusai reached the peak of his career. His most famous work, 36 Views of Mount Fuji, including the famous Great Wave off Kanagawa, dated from this period. It proved so popular that Hokusai later added ten more prints to the series. Among the other popular series of prints he published during this time are A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces and Unusual Views of Celebrated Bridges in the Provinces. He also began producing a number of detailed individual images of flowers and birds, including the extraordinarily detailed Poppies and Flock of Chickens.

The next period, beginning in 1834, saw Hokusai working under the name “Gakyō Rōjin Manji” (The Old Man Mad About Art). It was at this time that Hokusai produced One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, another significant landscape series.

In the postscript to this work, Hokusai writes:

“From around the age of six, I had the habit of sketching from life. I became an artist, and from fifty on began producing works that won some reputation, but nothing I did before the age of seventy was worthy of attention. At seventy-three, I began to grasp the structures of birds and beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow. If I go on trying, I will surely understand them still better by the time I am eighty-six, so that by ninety I will have penetrated to their essential nature. At one hundred, I may well have a positively divine understanding of them, while at one hundred and thirty, forty, or more I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive. May Heaven, that grants long life, give me the chance to prove that this is no lie.”

In 1839, disaster struck as a fire destroyed Hokusai’s studio and much of his work. By this time, his career was beginning to wane as younger artists such as Andō Hiroshige became increasingly popular. But Hokusai never stopped painting, and completed Ducks in a Stream at the age of 87.

Constantly seeking to produce better work, he apparently exclaimed on his deathbed,

“If only Heaven will give me just another ten years…
Just another five more years,
then I could become a real painter.”

He died on May 10, 1849, and was buried at the Seikyō-ji in Tokyo (Taito Ward).

A short four years after Hokusai’s death, an American fleet led by Matthew C. Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay and forced Japan to open its arms to the west. Hokusai’s career spanned the last age of Japanese history before its interaction with the west would change the course of the nation.

HOKUSAI self-portrait

[ThS. Hồ Thị Minh Trâm - Viện Nghiên cứu Phát triển TP.HCM]

Bức Sarah và Bạch tuộc hay Tầng trời thứ 7

Văn hóa tính dục khác nhau giữa các nước. Một số biểu hiện tính dục được chấp nhận ở nơi này thì bị lên án mạnh mẽ ở nơi khác. Đó cũng là lý do các nước khác thường rất dị ứng với nhiều cách thể hiện tính dục của dân tộc Phù Tang.

Từ mấy trăm năm trước, dân Phù Tang đã sớm bộc lộ sở thích tính dục dị thường trong quan hệ bạo lực với động vật có vòi (xúc tu, tentacle). Thời đại Edo (triều đại Tokugawa, 1603 – 1867) sản sinh nhiều hình ảnh miêu tả tỉ mỉ và sinh động cảnh phụ nữ bị loài bạch tuộc (octopus) khổng lồ cưỡng bức. Tiêu biểu cho chủ đề này là một tranh khắc gỗ có tên Giấc mơ vợ ngư phủ của họa sĩ Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849), sinh tại thành phố Edo (nay là thủ đô Tokyo), sở trường về tranh mộc bản (khắc gỗ).

Giấc mơ vợ ngư phủ do Hokusai khắc gỗ năm 1820, miêu tả một phụ nữ trẻ đẹp đang bị 2 con bạch tuộc cùng lúc cưỡng bức. Tranh này ra đời vào lúc Thần đạo (Shinto) đang phục hưng sau một thời gian suy yếu, cũng là lúc mà tín ngưỡng vật linh (animism) chi phối tinh thần dân chúng và người ta có xu hướng mê tín hay thích trộn lẫn những chuyện hoang đường được truyền tụng trong dân gian với hành vi tính dục. Họ tin rằng bạch tuộc cưỡng bức phụ nữ để gửi trứng vào cơ thể nạn nhân, trứng sống ký sinh để rồi sẽ nở thành bạch tuộc con. Có thể nói ảnh hưởng đó là sâu rộng và lâu dài. Năm 2001, họa sĩ Nhật là Masami Teraoka vẽ lại đề tài này, đặt tên tranh là Sarah và bạch tuộc, hay Tầng trời thứ 7 (Sarah and octopus/ Seventh heaven).

Một họa sĩ hiện đại người Australia, David Laity, đã vẽ một tranh lớn gần giống như tranh của Katsushika Hokusai. Tranh này đem mỹ thuật tính dục trần trụi của một truyền thống lịch sử xa xưa đi vào đời sống người Australia đương đại. Đây là nhịp cầu nối liền một truyền thống hội họa tính dục vượt qua các thế kỷ cũng như các nền văn hóa.

Tranh của Katsushika Hokusai rõ ràng đã phản ánh một “não trạng” của thời đại ông. Và đây là đề tài mà người Nhật vẫn luôn hâm mộ. Do đó khi nói đến sex Nhật, các nhà nghiên cứu thường có xu hướng đồng hóa nó với tính dục xúc tu, tính dục có vòi (tenacle sex). Những chiếc vòi quấn chặt thân hình phụ nữ cũng giải thích tính bạo lực của nhiều người Nhật với sở thích xiềng hay trói đối tác (sexual bondage) khi hành lạc.

Ngày nay, các nhà nghiên cứu tính dục học (sexologists) còn thấy rằng có mối liên hệ chặt chẽ giữa tính dục xúc tu với các thể loại phim ảnh, truyện tranh, phim hoạt hình, trò chơi điện tử cua Nhật trong đó trộn lẫn sex với bạo lực mà một số đã được xuất bản ở Việt Nam, chứng minh điều đó.

Như vậy, các thể loại văn học và nghệ thuật tính dục (erotica) của Nhật cũng có chung các chủ đề của phương Tây như quan hệ tính dục khác giới (heterosexual), đồng giới (homosexual), hành lạc tập thể (group sex), sử dụng nhục hình bằng cách xiềng hay trói đối tác (sexual bondage… Con cháu Thái Dương thần nữ thể hiện đủ các “phiên bản” (versions) như tính dục bái vật (fetishism), sùng bái bàn chân (foot fetishism)… Ngoài việc lồng tính dục vào bộ đồng phục (buru sera), hoạt hình (anime), truyện tranh (manga) và trò chơi điện tử (video game)… họ còn kết hợp tính dục với bạo lực, kinh dị. Và tất cả những tính cách này đã có một lịch sử lâu đời, một truyền thống xa xưa trong văn hóa tính dục Nhật Bản ở thời đại Edo.

Từ đầu những năm 90, ở Nhật Bản đã thay đổi chóng mặt về lối sống. Ở Nhật đã xuất hiện đầy rẫy những cuốn tạp chí Playboy, những cửa hàng sex-shop, và trai gái Nhật sống độc thân ngày càng nhiều. Vì sợ những khó khăn khi sống chung với bạn đời hay vì thích sống tự do… nên nhiều thanh niên của Nhật Bản sẵn sàng làm bạn tình với dụng cụ tình dục (sex toy) hơn là cặp đôi với nhau.

Ngoài ra, nhu cầu xem phim ảnh của không chỉ người Nhật mà của nhiều nước khác trên thế giới rất lớn. Đó là lý do mà nghề người mẫu Bikini và diễn viên cấp 3 phát triển mạnh mẽ ở Nhật Bản. Mỗi năm ngành công nghiệp tình dục đem lại cho Nhật Bản hàng triệu USD. Sự nổi tiếng của người mẫu, diễn viên loại này cũng không thua kém các ngôi sao ca nhạc, điện ảnh. Tuy nhiên, loại hình này không được phổ biến rộng rãi vì nó có tính chất khiêu dâm nên chỉ có những người đủ 18 tuổi mới được xem.

Vì vậy, hiện gần một nửa trong số các thanh thiếu niên Nhật Bản ở tuổi 17 từng biết đến sex là 40%, trong khi trước năm 1990, con số này chỉ là 17%, tỉ lệ này đã tăng gần gấp đôi (theo thống kê của Bộ Y tế Nhật Bản).

Bên cạnh đó, tình trạng các bệnh lây qua đường tình dục (STD) và tỷ lệ nạo phá thai tăng nhanh trong thanh thiếu niên đã làm nổ ra các cuộc tranh cãi về giáo dục giới tính tại Nhật, nơi mà băng đĩa, sách báo khiêu dâm được bày bán rộng rãi nhưng các cuộc thảo luận thẳng thắn về sex lại là điều cấm kỵ.

Các cuộc tranh cãi nảy ra giữa một bên là những người ủng hộ việc giáo dục cụ thể hơn nữa về sex với những người cho rằng chương trình giảng dạy trong trường học đã quá chi tiết rồi. Eriko Yamatani, một nghị sĩ, cho rằng chương trình giáo dục chi tiết về sex chính là nguyên nhân dẫn đến tình trạng quan hệ tình dục phổ biến trong lứa tuổi teen. Bà Eriko Yamatani đã nói: “Chẳng khác gì dạy học tiểu sinh tiểu học rằng miễn là có biện pháp tránh thai thì các bạn có thể thoải mái quan hệ tình dục”.

Chuyên gia Yamatani, 54 tuổi, ủng hộ việc giáo dục về sex trong trường học, song bà lo rằng một số phương pháp, ví dụ như học giải phẫu trên búp bê có kích thước gần bằng người thật hoặc những cuốn sách giáo khoa có hình minh họa về hoạt động tình dục, là quá trực quan. Bà cho rằng: “Các cô gái nên hiểu rằng họ có thể trở thành mẹ, cơ thể họ là thiêng liêng và không chỉ thuộc về bản thân họ. Họ nên giữ gìn cho đến tận khi kết hôn và thông điệp này phải được truyền đạt rộng rãi”.

Giáo dục về giới tính là một phần chương trình giáo dục sức khỏe tại hầu hết các trường tiểu học ở Nhật trong khi học sinh cấp hai và trung học lại nhận được rất ít thông tin về các biện pháp tránh thai. Các nhà giáo dục cho rằng cần cung cấp cho học sinh những kiến thức cụ thể hơn nữa, đặc biệt là trong xã hội mà sự tò mò tự nhiên về vấn đề giới tính luôn được các phương tiện thông tin đại chúng hâm nóng. Bên cạnh đó, truyện tranh khiêu dâm thì lan tràn và quan niệm của giới trẻ về tình dục lại rất thoáng.

Cô nữ sinh trung học 16 tuổi trong bộ đồng phục và đeo kính phát biểu khi ngồi tán chuyện với bạn bè tại quận Shibuya ở Tokyo, Monami Okubo thấy rằng việc quan hệ tình dục trước hôn nhân chẳng có gì là sai trái. Thái độ của những người như Okubo đang khiến các nhà hoạch định chính sách của Nhật đau đầu trước tình trạng số thanh thiếu niên quan hệ tình dục trước hôn nhân tăng vọt. “Tôi nghĩ chẳng việc gì mà phải đợi đến tận khi kết hôn. Chẳng thực tế gì cả”…

Bức Giấc mơ vợ ngư phủ

Bức Giấc mơ vợ ngư phủ (trong hai bức này không rõ bức nào của Nhật, bức nào của Úc)

[Trích. Suốt ngày chính chị chính em, đau đầu, mệt người. Tựa là do tớ tự ý đặt ]

Salve a tutti!!!

Oggi vi parlo di un’interessante campagna pubblicitaria relativa ad un’organizzazione ambientale malasyana: nella fattispecie, la REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS. Il gruppo di artisti cui è stato commissionato il presente visual si chiama CUE Arts Illustration ed ha realizzato un vero e proprio esempio di trompe d’oeil. Infatti, da una prima analisi può sembrare di trovarci davanti ad una classica onda di Katsushika Hokusai ma pochi istanti dopo vediamo una pila di alberi tagliati e catastati a mò di onda. Ciò è sensibile alla tematica rappresentata: la distruzione degli alberi.

L’azione operata nella presente illustrazione risulta particolarmente efficace, in quanto provoca un effetto di spiazzamento rispetto al relativo headline:

“DISTRUGGIAMO I NOSTRI ALBERI E DISTRUGGIAMO NOI STESSI.”

Una frase d’effetto che ci cala pienamente nel futuro prossimo del NOSTRO pianeta Terra.

There’s one thing you need to learn pretty quickly as a writer – perseverance. Whether for the thought processes that go into making a story, the actual bum-on-seat work or the many months between manuscript submission to notification from a publisher. Then you either pick up the pieces and start another re-write or toast the beginnings of a brand new book.

Not that it’s an easy thing, this perseverance game!

One of my survival tactics is to read an except from the biography of  Katsushika Hokusai, brilliant artist and Japanese master of the ukiyo-e, the woodcut print. You would’ve seen copies of his most famous works from Thirty-six views of Mt Fuji – they’ve featured in advertisements and fabric designs. Hokusai was born in Edo (Tokyo) in 1760 and died at the age of 88, in 1849.

Japanese woodcut printmaking is a labourious, time-consuming procedure of carving in stages into a cherry wood board before printing and reprinting on the same piece of paper – yes, you do require patience.

Hokusai was a man obsessed with printmaking. He even took the art name of Gakyo-rojin at one stage which translates old man mad with painting. Which makes his attitude to perseverance all that more remarkable.

This is what he wrote in his autobiography, probably with tongue planted in cheek as he had a little dig at himself:

From the age of five I have had a mania for sketching the forms of things. From about the age of fifty I produced a number of designs, yet of all I drew prior to the age of seventy there is truly nothing of great note. At the age of seventy-two I finally apprehended something of the true quality of birds, animals, insects, fish and of the vital nature of grasses and trees. Therefore, at eighty I shall have made some progress, at ninety I shall have penetrated even further the deeper meaning of things, at one hundred I shall have become truly marvelous, and at one hundred and ten, each dot, each line shall surely possess a life of its own. I only beg that gentlemen of sufficiently long life take care to note the truth of my words.

So, you can see how this puts my own obsession with writing into a much clearer perspective. Attitude is all important. Like everyone else I go through the frustrations of rejections, but it is true, persevere with re-writing and submitting and eventually they stop being one-line or one paragraph dismissals and return with letters suggesting possible problems or an editor’s positive encouragement. It makes all the difference.

Not that I’d ever give up doing what I love most!

Here’s a picture of one of Hokusai’s woodprints. Enjoy.

The Great Wave at Kanagawa

Print by Bob Kessel from the art series "ART HISTORY"

Many famous artists are depicted in the Bob Kessel Art History Series, a few of them are: Giovanni Bellinii, Pietro Berninii, Pierre Bonnard, Sandro Botticelli, François Boucher, William Bouguereau, Caravaggio, Marc Chagall, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Gustave Courbet, Jacques-Louis David, Eugene Delacroix, Otto Dix, Paul Gauguin, Hendrick Goltzius, Francisco de Goya, Francesco Hayez, Erich Heckel, Ando Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, Pieter de Hooch, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Jan van Kessel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Gustav Klimt, Willem de Kooning, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Ferdinand Leger, Frederic Lord Leighton, Edouard Mant, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Jean Francois Millet, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Nicolas Poussin, Rembrandt Van Rijn, Karl Schmidt-Rottloff, Peter Paul Rubens, Georges Seurat, Georges de La Tour, Titian, Kitagawa Utamaro, Diego Velazquez, Jan Vermeer, and Max Weber.

http://www.blogcatalog.com

The Signoria took note, and observed that Titian was neglecting his work in the hall of the great council.
Monet lived from December 1871 to 1878 at Argenteuil, a village on the Seine near Paris, and here he painted some of his best known works. Giotto’s compositions later influenced Masaccio’s Cappella Brancacci. After he returned to America Philosopher Watching a Pair of Butterflies 1857, he joined an overland. This major battle scene, was lost along with so many other major works by Venetian artists by the great fire which destroyed all the old pictures in the great chambers of the Doge’s Palace in 1577. The family lived

Brüsseler Straße until August was 13. This would be the first of several travels to the East : in 1854 he made another journey to Turkey and the shores of the Danube, where he was present at a concert of Russian conscripts, making music under the treat of a lash. Cleopatra 651888 friend Eliza Haldeman wrote home that artists are leaving the.
Katsushika Hokusai were made up of parts.
On close examination, the painting reveals much that has been painted or touched up over the tempera using the new technique of oil paint, the landscape, the rocks that can be seen through the brown mountain stream and much of the figure of Jesus bearing witness to the hand of Leonardo.
Most authors accept that Giotto was Hokusai: People Crossing an Arched Bridge real name, but it.

Biography
Jacob Jordeans was born on May 19, 1593, the first of eleven children, to the wealthy linen merchant Jacob Jordaens Sr.
The Hokusai had eight children, three with Isabella and five with. He was often as anti-impressionist as the critics who reviewed the shows, according to art historian Carol Armstrong; as Degas himself explained, no art was ever less spontaneous than mine. He went to Venice, evidence of his travels being derived from drawings and engravings that are closely linked to existing northern Italian works by Mantegna, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Lorenzo di Credi and others.

Numerous painters from northern Italy were influenced

Giotto’s work in Padua. His output was prolific, and his work reflected the maturity of an artist in full command of his talents.
The three nude figures form an animated pyramid, bathed in a raking light which penetrates the grotto in which Medea has hidden.
Cezanne can be said to form the Orange Orchids between late 19th. Meaning: Here lies that famous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself to die.
He also introduced Schiele to the Wiener Werkstätte, the

and.
Peter’s, but drawings of the facade and courtyard remain.
Lilies following year, accompanied by a friend, the illustrator A P.

Like his friend Vincent Van Gogh, with whom in 1888 he spent Multiply.

After 1890, however, he changed direction again, returning to the use of thinly brushed color which dissolved outlines as in his earlier work.
A few erotic, Plum Blossom and the Moon just obscene, compositions have no equivalent in. Maurice went to Paris in 1891 and studied with Jean Paul Laurens at the Académie Julian.

The international esteem Zorn received was not based solely on his paintings.
His fame abroad is founded mostly on his portraiture where he had the ability to capture the character and the personality of the depicted person. In addition to souvenirs of Monet and other Katsushika Hokusai of his.
In later life, Degas regretted Hokusai: Shower Below the Summit (Sanka hakuu) loss of those friends. In Waterhouse – A Song of Springtime 1913 last years, Rembrandt painted his most deeply reflective self-portraits.
Bell-Flower and Dragonfly was a barn that doubled as a painting studio, orchards.

Paddy field Art in Inakadate (Aomori prefecture,2007)

Hokusai ’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa and Red Fuji (1832)

Instead, by precisely planting four varieties of rice with differently colored leaves in fields their ancestors have farmed for centuries, the people of Inakadate Village have this year grown remarkable reproductions of famous woodblock prints by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849).

Homegrown art, Japan Times, Sunday, Aug. 26, 2007

36 Views of Mount Fuji

36 Views of Mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景) is an ukiyo-e series of 46 large, color woodblock prints by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). The series depicts Mount Fuji in differing seasons and weather conditions from a variety of different places and distances. It actually consists of 46 prints created between 1826 and 1833.

National security

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shigeru Ishiba asked his advisory body Tuesday to draft a new farm policy focusing on a proposed review of the long-standing practice of curtailing rice output to maintain prices…
The advisory body is also expected to propose a numerical target to raise Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate from 40 percent in the 2007 crop year to 50 percent in the 2017 crop year.

Farm policy review may end limits on rice output, Kyodo News, Jan. 28, 2009

see Also : Rice Self-Sufficiency is a Matter of National Security

DEGAS. EL PROCESO DE LA CREACIÓN.

Salas de Exposiciones Recoletos. Fundación Mapfre: 14 Octubre 2008 – 6 Enero 2009

Edgar Degas (París, 1834 – 1917) es uno de los grandes nombres del arte moderno. Próximo al impresionismo, pero poseedor de un estilo propio, su obra va más allá de la pintura, abarcando también la escultura, dibujos, grabados y fotografías.

Degas contaba con una formación artística muy sólida, anclada en los cánones tradicionales. Entendía sus creaciones, producto de una cantidad indefinida de estudios, como un trabajo continuo. Desde su propia consideración, nunca se podía saber a ciencia cierta cuándo estaban acabadas, porque lo importante era el proceso, que en ocasiones le llevaba al dibujo, al óleo o al pastel, mientras que en otras la misma idea le conducía al grabado, la escultura o la fotografía. De este modo, la obra final es una conquista del espectador; Degas únicamente le muestra el camino a través de un juego de dimensiones.

Degas, como la mayoría de los artistas modernos, quería hacer un arte más verdadero capaz de transmitir en imágenes la realidad dinámica y en constante transformación que le tocó vivir. Frente a un clasicismo armónico y convencional, había que buscar un arte que sirviera para representar un mundo desconcertante; el arte ya no podía tratar temas heroicos o morales, tenía que centrarse en lo que estaba ocurriendo en cada momento.

Cuando vemos las obras de Degas, todavía nos asombra esa cercanía con la realidad y nos sorprende la mirada del artista: lo que hay en él de voyeur, de espectador silencioso que nos da el sentimiento
de la mirada en su estado puro, sin idealizaciones. Su modernidad recuerda al flâneur baudeleriano, al paseante de las grandes ciudades que encuentra escenas insólitas e inesperadas y que
llenan de colorido y acción las calles.
Desde mediados del siglo XIX hasta los primeros años del XX se produce un cambio importante en los puntos de vista. La realidad ya no se mira frontalmente y llama a puntos de vista insospechados.
Cuando se crea la Torre Eiffel, no sólo se introduce un icono del mundo mecanicista, sino que, además, la gente podía subir y contemplar de manera diferente su ciudad.
Conjugar esta nueva manera de mirar con el viejo arte de la pintura es lo que plantea Degas. Su obra es renovadora en los puntos de vista, en los temas y en el tratamiento del color, pero mantiene los conceptos clásicos del arte, como el dibujo –que tanto admiró en Ingres–.

Fue el más solitario y singular de los impresionistas, sólo se suma al grupo para exponer. La suya es una aventura personal que parece basarse en un principio: pintar lo que no se ve. No es infrecuente encontrar
en sus retratos a personajes de espaldas o con la fisonomía cortada.
Parece interesarle más lo que ocurre a un lado de la escena, como restando protagonismo a los personajes centrales del cuadro. Degas va más lejos al pintar también las escenas que no se ven. Pinta los ensayos del ballet, las toilettes de mujeres a las que retrata con desapasionamiento y una frialdad casi científica. Esto hace que su obra adquiera una presencia misteriosa, espléndida en el color y en el dominio de los recursos. Pintura como algo artificial para retratar un mundo que se ha hecho prosaico o al que, como reclamaba Baudelaire al pintor moderno, Degas ha sabido conferirle su heroísmo.
Pintar lo que no se ve implica un proceso complejo. El crítico Claude Roger-Marx contó que había oído decir al artista: “Un cuadro es una obra artificial fuera de la naturaleza y que exige tanta astucia como la perpetración de un crimen». La sentencia deja entreabierta la puerta a entender lo complejo del proceso de la pintura en Degas. Es conocida su dificultad para dar por terminada una obra, a menudo las retomaba y retocaba para replantearse algo más. Y es que en Degas hay un afán que nunca llega a materializarse; toda obra sería un proceso abierto de acercamiento al mundo y a la experimentación.

La formación artística de este joven burgués había seguido los cánones tradicionales. Su educación clásica y distinguida le había permitido viajar muy joven a Italia, donde, en contacto con los grandes maestros del pasado, había aprendido la importancia de una composición sólida y estructurada. El dibujo fue desde entonces la base sobre la que construyó su arte, y la copia de los maestros antiguos se convirtió en un ejercicio constante que cultivó durante toda su vida. Pero la gran novedad es que, en la etapa de madurez del artista, esos ingredientes esenciales de su formación siguieron conservando un valor indispensable y adquirieron una nueva dimensión. Los valores compositivos clásicos empezaban a tambalearse con la llegada de los primeros modernos. La pincelada deshecha de los cuadros impresionistas no parecía adecuarse a los principios ingrescos; sin embargo, el arte de Degas sí lo hacía: las convenciones formales del arte –la línea, el volumen o la perspectiva– constituían la base de toda su obra, aunque, a la vez, eran redefinidas. Del proceso de dibujar insistentemente el cuerpo humano, inquiriendo su forma y su expresión, parece haber nacido en Degas la necesidad de hacer escultura. Dibujar era, para el artista, un modo de pensar; modelar, otro: “Si modelo es para dotar a mis pinturas y a mis dibujos de mayor expresión –decía Degas en 1897 a Thiebault-Sisson–. En realidad, son ejercicios para entrenarme”.

A través de sus esculturas, Degas podía investigar cuestiones como el centrode gravedad de sus figuras, sus líneas recortando el espacio, su manera
de estar en un escenario… Podía mirarlas desde arriba o desde abajo, y podía hacerlas girar, creando la ilusión de un movimiento. Degas modelaba insistentemente en cera pequeñas figurillas que, siempre frágiles, podía retocar o rehacer. Se ha hecho hincapié en la dejadez de Degas respecto a la superficie de las esculturas, afirmando que la piel o sus efectos no le importaban demasiado. Sin embargo, hoy nadie desdeña la poesía que encierra cada figura, cada pequeño instante que se plasma en las sutiles variaciones de cada pose. Resulta muy relevante que Degas guardara celosamente todo ese “proceso” sublime de sus obras en su taller. Es interesante reflexionar, a partir de estas esculturas, sobre los procesos del artista,
sobre esas convenciones formales. Podríamos considerar que, en Degas, destacan cinco grandes conceptos formales, cinco “clásicos” de la historia del arte: línea, perspectiva, volumen, movimiento y expresión, que adquieren en sus obras una nueva dimensión. En torno a esas grandes ideas se podrían agrupar las esculturas, óleos, dibujos, estampas y pasteles.

- Línea:
En sus primeras obras clásicas, de asunto histórico, las poses de sus personajes estructuran la composición. Así ocurre en Semiramis construyendo Babilonia. Los estudios de figuras que realiza para Muchachas espartanas provocando a los muchachos o para Las desgracias de la ciudad de Orleans muestran la importancia de la pose en la obra de Degas: estas mujeres proyectan las mismas posturas corporales que más tarde volveremos a encontrar en las mujeres que se asean o que descansan tras un ensayo de danza.
Este concepto de línea se adecua a la perfección a las representaciones artísticas sobre el ballet, en las que todas las partes del cuerpo deben estar alineadas y centradas. “Línea” es, de hecho, un término técnico del ballet que se refiere a la configuración del cuerpo de la bailarina, tanto en movimiento como en reposo. Una “buena línea” se desarrolla, en parte, por el entrenamiento. Por este motivo, todas las bailarinas de ballet, sin importar su experiencia, toman diariamente clase para mantener sus cuerpos flexibles y preparados.
La búsqueda de la pureza formal se encerraba en ese proceso de repetición: Degas dibuja insistentemente el instante en el que sus bailarinas alcanzan la belleza absoluta de su pose. En sus esculturas, repite los arabescos en los que las bailarinas, sobre una pierna y con los brazos extendidos, dibujan una línea pura en el espacio.

-Perspectiva:
La mirada de Degas parece propia de una fotografía; diríamos que el artista observa una escena, retratando los elementos de la composición en la disposición en la que se los encuentra. Sin embargo, esta apariencia de visión instantánea, fragmentada y espontánea está profundamente construida a través de los procedimientos compositivos de la estampa japonesa, de la fotografía y de la ilustración gráfica. Degas conoció la estampa japonesa en 1856 a través de su amigo Bracquemond. Junto a él visita la famosa tienda parisina “El junco chino”, regentada por Madame Desoye, que se convirtió casi en una escuela de arte japonés. Además, Degas adquiere dibujos de Hiroshige, dieciséis álbumes de Utamaro y diversas estampas de Sikenebu, Kiyonaga y Hokusai. Las estampas de Ukiyo-e le muestran los puntos de vista elevados, la libertad de privilegiar determinados elementos de la composición y de descentrarla, así como la utilización
estética del vacío.

- Volumen:
Frente a la supuesta artificiosidad de las bailarinas, parece evidente que, en sus toilettes, Degas despoja a la mujer de todo artificio. Al poner énfasis en la carne de estas mujeres se destacaba, por encima de todo, el volumen de las figuras. La mujer había quedado reducida a la gesticulación de sus miembros, al aspecto de su cuerpo. Despojada de cualquier interioridad, era evidente que quedaba humillada, pero su figura podía contener conceptos puramente formales. Elimina los detalles, lo pintoresco, su línea se depura,
sus formas se amplifican y sus obras, despojadas así de todo artificio, y libres de cuanto no es esencial, toman un carácter casi escultórico. Frente a la línea que dibuja el arabesco de las bailarinas, el pastel
amplifica las formas de las mujeres aseándose, destaca sus volúmenes y la superficie de su carne; las esculturas, por su parte, se vuelven más sólidas, más escultóricas.

- Movimiento:
Las investigaciones de Degas sobre el movimiento se desarrollaron principalmente a través de las representaciones de caballos. A partir de 1861, Degas visitaba con frecuencia a los Valpinçon, en Normandía,
donde había numerosos hipódromos. En torno a esas fechas, y hasta los años ochenta, el artista respeta los convencionalismos en su manera de representar los caballos al galope. Reconoce a Thiebault-Sisson en 1897 que, aunque conocía muy bien la anatomía de los purasangre, lo ignoraba absolutamente todo respecto al mecanismo de sus movimientos. Los nuevos descubrimientos científicos en torno al movimiento de los animales cambiaron radicalmente la percepción de Degas. En este sentido, la influencia de las fotografías en movimiento resultó fundamental. Valéry fue el primero en apuntar la relación entre Degas y el fotógrafo americano Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), que, desde 1872, analizaba el movimiento del caballo sirviéndose de
una secuencia de imágenes fijas. Muybridge realizaba fotografías con cámaras de obturador múltiple, con las que, de modo simultáneo, podían obtenerse diversas imágenes coincidentes.

- Expresión:
Degas buscaba retratar a la gente en sus poses más típicas y familiares. Sus retratos burgueses muestran una llamativa empatía entre el artista y el retratado: parece como si conociera desde pequeño el desencanto, la apatía y la nostalgia vivida desde el interior de un saloncito burgués.
La observación moderna debía fundamentarse en las características físicas, sociales y raciales de los individuos. El interés por la ciencia que embargaba a la sociedad en estos momentos, y a Degas en particular, había convencido a todos de que el verdadero realismo debía, ante todo, clasificar a los retratados.
La tendencia a construir signos visuales de la diferencia moral y evolutiva de los individuos provenía de la necesidad burguesa de asegurarse un estado más elevado biológica y culturalmente que las clases más bajas.

This was totally inspired by a YouTube video.

(click for full size)

Apologies to Youtube. Rob made me do it.

Happy Birthday Katsushika Hokusai

Hokusai, full name Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Japanese painter and wood engraver, born in Edo (now Tokyo). He is considered one of the outstanding figures of the Ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world” (everyday life), school of printmaking.

Hokusai entered the studio of his countryman Katsukawa Shunsho in 1775 and there learned the new, popular technique of woodcut printmaking. Between 1796 and 1802 he produced a vast number of book illustrations and color prints, perhaps as many as 30,000, that drew their inspiration from the traditions, legends, and lives of the Japanese people. Hokusai’s most typical wood-block prints, silkscreens, and landscape paintings were done between 1830 and 1840. The free curved lines characteristic of his style gradually developed into a series of spirals that imparted the utmost freedom and grace to his work, as in Raiden, the Spirit of Thunder.

In his late works Hokusai used large, broken strokes and a method of coloring that imparted a more somber mood to his work, as in his massive Group of Workmen Building a Boat. Among his best-known works are the 13-volume sketchbook Hokusai manga (begun 1814) and the series of block prints known as the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (circa 1826-33).

Hokusai is generally more appreciated in the West than in Japan. His prints, as well as those by other Japanese printmakers, were imported to Paris in the mid-19th century. They were enthusiastically collected, especially by such impressionist artists as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, whose work was profoundly influenced by them.

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hokusai/

So for my fourth Materials and Processes assignment we had to work with light and shadows. One problem I ran into was keeping detail in the highlights and in the shadows but after angling my light source to the right position I was able to achieve. I’m sure most of you recognize the background image, if you don’t it’s from Katsushika Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mt. Fuji. I also decided to use selective color to really make the image stick out. I decided to leave in the blues and purples by the process of selective color. You can do this in Lightroom by reducing the saturation of all the other colors but the colors you want to remain or by using layers and mask in Photoshop.

Siklus

Lebaran agaknya memang momen pertautan alam (nature) dan budaya (culture) yang paling masif di Indonesia. Entah siapa yang pernah bilang bahwa lebaran, tepatnya ritus mudik yang menakjubkan itu, mirip betul dengan aktifitas tahunan ikan salmon Amerika, belut laut Jepang atau angsa liar Kanada, yang setelah mengembara menjelajahi hampir separuh belahan bumi, akhirnya kembali lagi ke tempat asal untuk meletakkan telur: tempat yang sama di mana mereka sendiri dan segenap leluhur mereka ditetaskan. Dalam siklus tahunan yang berat itu, terhampar kehidupan yang terus-menerus memperbaharui dirinya, bioorganisme yang menyambung keberlanjutan spesiesnya dalam sebuah rantai regenerasi yang tak pernah putus sejak jutaan tahun yang silam.

Di hampir setiap kesempatan, para ulama dan cendekiawan muslim, terus-menerus menegaskan betapa puasa adalah perintah agama yang telah melintasi banyak sejarah. Puasa adalah ibadah yang telah dikerjakan oleh anak cucu Ibrahim, bahkan sebelum Islam lahir di Jazirah Arab. Dengan berbagai versinya, puasa memang bisa ditemui di berbagai agama dan kebudayaan, dan berkait erat dengan gagasan penyucian diri, dengan kelahiran kembali dan peningkatan derajat diri.

Yang menarik pada puasa di Indonesia adalah bahwa ibadah menahan diri ini tampak jadi seperti peristiwa pelepasan: pengumbaran. Mungkin karena sifat massalnya, Ramadan seakan menjadi festival nasional yang untuk sementara waktu mengubah sejumlah denyut kehidupan. Nada-nada dan citraan-citraan berkonotasi religius yang selama ini tersimpan agak di sudut, tiba-tiba muncul merajalela. Media cetak dipenuhi banyak tulisan tentang Ramadan dan pedoman pelaksanaannya. Musik-musik nasyid dan album lama Bimbo mengalun di mana-mana. Acara TV dan iklan-iklan juga disesuaikan dengan suasana Ramadan. Karena perubahan atmosfir itu, ditambah dengan peningkatan pemakaian busana muslim dan penggunaan salam dalam Bahasa Arab, bisa dikatakan bahwa terjadi semacam Islamisasi tahunan di Indonesia pada bulan istimewa itu.

Uraian tentang Islamisasi tahunan ini bisa ditemui di buku André Möller, peneliti Swedia, Ramadan di Jawa: Pandangan dari Luar (Jakarta: Penerbit Nalar, 2005). Dalam buku yang berasal dari disertasi itu, Möller yang tidak cuma ikut menunaikan shalat Tarawih itu, mencatat banyak hal yang menyanggah sejumlah stereotype tentang Islam dan Jawa. Möller juga menandaskan betapa ibadah menahan lapar, haus dan syahwat yang bagi orang luar mungkin tampak tak tertahankan, ternyata adalah kegiatan yang manis dan menyenangkan. Ikatan-ikatan komunal yang selama ini merenggang akibat hempasan kehidupan dunia, kembali dipererat dan dipertautkan lagi. Yang masuk dalam pertautan itu, bukan hanya mereka yang masih hidup, tapi juga mereka yang sudah meninggal. Semua anggota masyarakat dari berbagai lapis usia, laki dan perempuan, terlibat antusias sesuai dengan posisi dan kerja yang diperuntukkan baginya.

Bagi Möller, Ramadan di Jawa seolah-olah telah menjadi saksi atas pernikahan antara Agama Islam dan Kebudayaan Jawa. Puasa pun membuat banyak orang kembali ke kehidupan yang lebih Islami pada bulan yang penuh berkah ini. Momentum inilah yang hendak digunakan oleh sejumlah aktivis Islam untuk membuat permanen Ramadan sepanjang tahun, untuk — meminjam judul buku yang disunting Ramli Bihar Anwar — Meramadankan Semua Bulan. (Jakarta: Penerbit IIMan dan Penerbit Hikmah, 2002).

Kalau saja ada penelitian yang bisa menunjukkan, bahwa selain meningkatkan ketaqwaan dan memperbaiki metabolisme tubuh, Ramadan juga meningkatkan produktivitas nasional, membuat ummat lebih sanggup memikul tugasnya sebagai khalifah di Bumi, maka gagasan meramadankan semua bulan akan menjadi gagasan yang layak disambut. Sebagai sebuah sistem epistemik besar yang peduli pada kemaslahatan manusia, agama wajib terlibat memikirkan peningkatan kemampuan ummat menyelesaikan persoalan-persoalan besar berskala luas. Sementara itu, sebagai khalifah di Bumi, manusia tentu wajib memahami aktifitas Bumi agar tak mati konyol tergilas aktifitas planet itu, lalu sibuk  mewek tersedu-sedu mempertanyakan iradat Tuhan di balik semua kejadian itu.

Ada memang yang meremukkan hati saat melihat tsunami menelan separuh Aceh dan gempa melantak separuh Islamabad. Tentu banyak yang berterima kasih pada upaya sejumlah ulama dan intelektual memberi penjelasan religius yang kemudian memistifikasi kejadian-kejadian besar yang menelan banyak korban jiwa itu dan akhirnya meminta ummat untuk bersabar dan meningkatkan taqwa. Yang luput dari penjelasan religius itu adalah bahwa sesaran tektonik di dasar laut yang melontarkan tsunami, erupsi vulkanik yang melontarkan lahar, adalah aktifitas geofisika Bumi yang alami. Aktifitas ini bahkan berfungsi besar dalam membangun kehidupan di Bumi. Gas-gas yang terperangkap dalam perut bumi tapi kemudian lepas masuk atmosfir akibat sesaran tektonik yang ikut mengakibatkan tsunami itu, telah membuat atmosfir menjadi lingkungan yang mampu memangku kehidupan. Tanpa aktifitas-aktifitas alam yang berskala besar itu, kehidupan di Bumi mustahil muncul.

Sebagaimana ummat meremajakan keimanannya dalam sebuah siklus tahunan, Bumi pun meremajakan dirinya dalam sebuah siklus, meski bukan siklus tahunan.

Karena itu, menyebut gempa bumi, letusan gunung berapi dan berbagai gejala fisik planet itu sebagai  murka Ilahi, sama saja dengan menyebut terbitnya fajar atau meruahnya wangi kemuning tiga malam seusai hujan besar sebagai amarah Tuhan: penyebutan yang jelas-jelas lebih menunjukkan tabiat manusia ketimbang hakikat Ilahi. Selain bisa terlihat sebagai kebelum-mampuan untuk bersyukur, penyebutan berbagai gejala alam berskala besar sebagai murka atau ujian Ilahi, akan juga tampak sebagai sebentuk fitnah massal tak berkesudahan terhadap Tuhan.

Yang tak kalah buruk adalah: pengertian tentang bencana alam dan murka Ilahi — setelah memfitnah Tuhan — akan  benar-benar membuat konyol kematian puluhan bahkan ratusan ribu nyawa. Pengertian itu dapat membekukan imajinasi dan daya tindak untuk mencegah berulangnya kematian-kematian serentak, mencegah benturan kepentingan manusia dengan aktifitas bumi dan bagian-bagiannya yang sedang menuntaskan siklusnya. Penjelasan problematis tentang intervensi Ilahi, tidak akan mendorong habis ummat menyusun agenda sistematis buat memantau dan mengaji aktifitas bumi, dan bisa membuyarkan kesempatan untuk mensyukuri dan memanfaatkan gempa 10 skala richter.

Padahal, bukan hanya gerak inti bumi penyebab gempa itu bisa dimanfaatkan. Bahkan rontoknya bintang-bintang dan lepasnya tiang pancang gunung-gunung yang dalam narasi religius klasik sering ditampilkan sebagai hari kiamat, itu tak lain hanyalah aktifitas alam berskala lebih gede; dan karena itu, juga dapat dimanfaatkan sebagaimana para leluhur manusia memanfaatkan sekaligus mensyukuri datangnya musim hujan, atau berubahnya arah angin di siang dan malam hari, menurut siklusnya masing-masing.***

Nirwan Ahmad Arsuka

Dimuat di Majalah Azzikra, edisi November 2005

]]> http://stickme.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/stick-me-a-wave-katsushika-hokusai/ Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:33:56 +0000 ivosousa http://stickme.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/stick-me-a-wave-katsushika-hokusai/

Katsushika Hokusai

…que viene la ola!!!

La gran ola de Kanagawa

Realmente no tengo que hablar de olas, ni nada parecido. Sólo quería poner esta gran obra de Katsushika Hokusai!

VENGANZA, no merece lapena ir a verla al cine! Estáis avisados! Encima se me ha revuleto el estómago con tanta violencia y persecución, por eso me he puesto aquí a hacer el tonto! xD

Y ahora a momir queya tengo bien el estómago!!!

おやすみなさい！