01 - VARANO feat VINCENT VAN GO GO - LOVE THEME
02 - MATISSE feat. NINA LOTSARI - AGISTRI
03 - MIKAEL DELTA feat. ETTEN - KYMATA
04 - GK feat. IRO - ENA KALOKAIRI
05 - b-BOY feat. MIRANDA - You & I
06 - SERAFIM TSOTSONIS feat. MARIEN - MONAXIA MOU
07 - YOSEBU - GIRLS IN THE SUN
08 - GREGGY K & ETTEN - ANAZITISIS
09 - MATISSE feat. ARIS SIAFAS - AN M'AGAPAS
10 - CYANNA - ZAVARA
11 - INDIGENES SOUND - SILK

http://rapidshare.com/files/117221005/VAGCR.rar.html

Password: aka

gia gianni g

Inside, the collection is as rewarding as ever, but it can't be seen all in a day. If you have a chance to visit, Emsworth offers a modest list of ten pictures at this museum that he wouldn't want his friends to miss.

1. Interior (Degas). Never mind the famous paintings of ballet rehearsals and nudes getting into their baths -- this 1867 painting is the Degas that appeals to me most. There's a story here, but what is it?

The room, with its old-fashioned wallpaper, looks like a set from a play. The painting has been subtitled The Rape, as if the impassive man has just robbed the unfortunate, half-dressed woman of something she can never get back. Is this the story of Amnon (son of King David), who tricked and raped his half-sister Tamar? "Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her." 2 Samuel 13:15 (KJV). But what to make of the oddly lit jewelry box on the table in the middle of the room?

2. Rhetoricians at a Window (Jan Steen). Even without a Rembrandt or a Vermeer, the collection of Dutch and Flemish old masters at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is outstanding. It includes at least half a dozen riveting genre paintings by the Dutchman Jan Steen, of which Rhetoricians at a Window, painted in 1661, is my favorite by an eyelash. Most of these feature middle-class citizens, although one illustrates the Exodus scene of Moses striking the rock in anger to get anger for the Israelites.

3. A Temperance Meeting (Homer). But Dutch genre paintings have nothing on American genre paintings. The Dutch peasant with the cup in Steen's painting isn't drinking milk, but the American farmboy in Winslow Homer's scene, painted in 1874, surely is.

4. Christ Bearing the Cross (Murillo). The gospels tell us that, after his trial, Jesus was forced to carry his own cross to Calvary, where he was to be executed by crucifixion. In this large picture by the great Spanish master Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Jesus meets his mother Mary and kneels to rest, with his cross on his shoulder. Mary holds out her hands as if to ask Jesus whether he truly must give up his life, a conversation she must have had with her son long before his arrest at Passover. Jesus confirms his mission with an expressive look.

With Jesus and Mary as the only figures in the picture, the scene is not literal. Jesus was guarded and whipped along by His tormentors on his way to Calvary, and it seems unlikely that they left him alone for a private minute with His mother.

I interpret the picture figuratively rather than as an attempt to portray a scene on the road to Calvary. Jesus surely knew long before his arrest that He had been sent to yield up His life as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind, and in a real sense He was carrying the cross throughout the years of His ministry. None of the many works of art with Christian themes in the Philadelphia Museum of Art will speak more movingly to a believer than this 1665 picture.

5. Pont Neuf, Afternoon Sunshine (Pissarro). The Philadelphia Museum of Art has a spectacular collection of French impressionist paintings, but the sheer pleasure afforded by this heavily textured view of the most famous of the Paris bridges that cross the Seine is unmatched. Every part of this 1901 painting, from the colorful wagons and figures on the bridge to the fantastical greens and mauves of the river itself, is a sensual treat. To my great disappointment, it was not on the gallery walls during my mid-July 2008 visit.

6. Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) (Duchamp). This cubist painting made a stir when it was first exhibited nearly a century ago (in 1914). Anyone expecting a salacious picture will be disappointed, as it's difficult to find the nude subject of this monochromatic painting at all, let alone identify any particular parts of her figure. Nude Descending a Staircase may be the best-known cubist painting in the world, although the Philadelphia Museum of Art has an excellent collection of other cubist works, especially by Picasso, Leger, and Juan Gris.

The museum has devoted an entire gallery to Duchamp. What a sad case study this man makes! Some early paintings by Duchamp, in what might be considered a post-impressionist style, make it clear that he had exceptional talent. These include, for example, a fine portrait of his father. But Duchamp was caught up in the rapidly changing artistic and intellectual movements of the day. First, in a cubist phase, as represented by Nude Descending a Staircase, he abandoned representational art. Then, perhaps finding that celebrity and notoriety suited him more than artistic achievement of any kind, Duchamp abandoned his discipline altogether. He gave up painting, bought a bicycle wheel, mounted it on a pedestal, and announced that it was art.

Gratified with the attention, Duchamp repeated it over the years with a urinal, a comb, and other objects, a number of which are exhibited in this gallery. Remarkably, people took these stunts seriously; apparently some still do. The gallery chronicles Duchamp's fall. The visitor will marvel at a century of public gullibility.

7. William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuykill River (Eakins). In the shadows, the famous sculptor chips away at his masterpiece. Neither Rush nor the elderly chaperone look at the nude model, who holds a box on her shoulder to help hold her pose. The model's clothing, laid on a chair, is by far the brightest part of the painting.

8. The Large Bathers (Cezanne). It's the picture that's large, not the bathers. This painting is 83 by 93 inches. Cezanne painted three versions of The Large Bathers, one in the London's National Gallery, one at the Barnes Foundation, in the Philadelphia suburb of Merion, and this 1906 work, which is the finest of the three.

Paul Cezanne's masterpiece can be seen 50 yards away down the long gallery lined with impressionist masterpieces that leads to the circular fountain court gallery.

9. The Rialto (Sargent). If Emsworth ever visits Venice, it will be because of John Singer Sargent's paintings of scenes from Venice.

Visitors to the Philadelphia museum who want to see all the Sargents are led a merry chase. The curators have hung The Rialto among the works of late 19th-century European, presumably for no other reason than that it is a European scene. Portrait of Lady Eden is in the same gallery, presumably because the subject was British. But other Sargent paintings, including several fine portraits and a striking late landscape, are found among the works of his fellow Americans.

10. Mademoiselle Yvonne Landsberg (Matisse). In 1914, while Picasso and Braque were painting the same Cubist painting over and over again, Matisse was using art's new-found freedom from representation to paint this unique portrait. As an afficionado, Emsworth was frustrated no end to find on his recent visit (July 2008) that hardly anything by Matisse was on the walls.

These are not necessarily the finest or the most famous paintings in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I have not forgotten Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Rubens's Prometheus Unbound, Renoir's Large Bathers, Eakins's The Gross Clinic, or Monet's Japanese Footbridge and Lily Pool. But you'd see them anyway.

't Is integendeel Grote Liefde tussen die twee, met een grote G en een grote L.

Kijk maar.

As I move forward with my work it is great to look back and find things that are relevant to what I am doing now. This painted sketch was made in Nice in about 2003. I went on to begin an idea about empty interiors with suggested narrative. All of the paintings were done on paper and influencedin style by Matisse particularly "open window, Collioure "and Raoul Dufy. "Interior with an open window". As with most things the idea slowly evolved and these pieces got forgotten in a folder.

The things that I learnt while making them are relevant now and it is lovely to find them and think about how I can encorporate them into current work.

What I enjoyed most was the lightness and joy in them! I even thought about framing and selling these for an instant! Perhaps I should give that some thought!

1420-1610 Renaissance

• renaissance means "rebirth" in French
• themes include closeness to nature, and beauty of the human nature

1600-1740 Baroque

• baroque was possibly derived from a Portuguese term used to describe erratic shape, and until the late 19th century it was mainly used as a synonym for 'absurd'
• themes include grandeur, drama, vitality, tension, pathos, emotional exuberance

1700-1770 18th Century: Rococo

• rococo means 'stone' in French
• themes include playfulness, aristocrats, leisure, mythological narratives

1750-1800 18th Century: Neoclassicism

• neoclassicism was related to the political circumstances in France
• themes include historical events, religious and mythological subjects

1600-1890 18th Century: Japanese Prints

• theme includes ukiyo-e

1780-1850 Romanticism

• themes include strong emotions, such as trepidation, horror, awe

1850-1900 Realism and Naturalism

• theme includes everyday life without embellishment or interpretation, realistic objects in a natural setting

1860-1900 Impressionism

• impressionism is derived from the title of Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise
• themes include ordinary subject matter, unusual visual angles

1860-1900 Post-Impressionism

• themes include continuation of Impressionism, individual and subjective expression

1850-1900 Symbolism

• themes include spirituality, imagination, dreams

1880-1920 Art Nouveau

• art nouveau means 'new art' in French
• themes include organic, floral and other plant-inspired motifs, highly-stylized, flowing curvilinear forms

1898-1908 Fauvism

• fauvism mean 'wild beasts' in French
• themes include wild brush work and strident colors, simplification and abstraction

1905-1940 Expressionism

• themes include expression of strong emotion, liberating colors, simplifying forms

1908-1920 Cubism

• themes include abstracted, broken up, analyzed, and reassembled, multitude of viewpoints, random angles, shallow ambiguous space

1930-1940 Nouveau Réalisme

• nouveau réalisme means 'new realism' in French
• themes include bringing life and art closer together, collective singularity

1924-1950 Surrealism

• themes include surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non-sequitur

1945 - Abstract Expressionism

• themes include spontaneity, unconsciousness and the mind

1950 - Pop Art

• themes include popular mass culture, paintwork and representational art

1960 - Op Art

• themes include optical illusion, movement, hidden images, flashing and vibration, patterns

many more ...

Matisse attended the local school and later the high school in my hometown. He had art lessons there which he did not enjoy much. His father would have liked him to take the business over but he had a weakly constitution and eventally studied law to work for a solicitor.

At the age of twenty he became very ill. During his convalescence, his mother gave him art supplies to keep him busy. He enjoyed them so much that he went to a different art school which taught design to the people that worked in the local textile factories. There he learned more modern techniques and this experience made such an impact on young Matisse that he decided to leave his family and go to Paris in order to become an artist.

Five months ago his family house was open to the public. It is possible to visit the shop, the stables, the silos and the house. thanks to an audio guide you can walk around the small town while listening to an evocation of what life was like there when Matisse grew up.

Then Bohain was a small but active little town thanks to its prosperous textile industry. At one point there were more than 1,500 looms in the town factories as well as in the main rooms of private homes. It was so famous that Csar Nicholas II of Russia had his household linen made there when he married in 1894. Unfortunately all the factories have now closed down and Bohain is no longer the busy spot that Matisse knew.

I've been so excited about the red room that I have been doing red roomish things such as reading H.G. Wells' "The Red Room," looking at Matisse, and watching Twin Peaks. Here's some other red wally things in honor of moving-in chaos:

This is the third panel of the triptych of the life of St. Anthony that I wrote about two posts previous.  The painting belongs to the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

This is a really fine example of the Gothic practice of representing the same character in different points of time within the same image.  Saint Anthony can be seen first entering this landscape in the upper left hand side of the picture wearing a monk's robe and carrying a traveler's staff.  Later, around the bend, he has an improbable meeting with a Centaur, and lastly in the bottom of the composition, in front of St. Paul's cave, the two saints embrace in greeting.

[Top of the post: The Meeting of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul, c. 1430/1435, Master of the Osservanza (Sano di Pietro?), National Gallery of Art in Washington]

I really found this as an interesting site. I hope you enjoy it. This is a site including sketchbooks of famous artists. Really interesting...here is Matisse's

Wonder how I came across this wonderful website? I found Robert Chunn's blogspot from my google alerts for Henri Matisse

I always remind my friends to keep a sketchbook with them and save all your doodles! Doodling is a great way to relieve stress and keep your ideas! Believe me, when you come to a road block with ideas...it's great to go back and get inspired with your fogotten designs.

The entire Impressionist and Modern evening sale was supposed to bring in more than £90m for Christie's. The works being sold from the Miller collection were supposed to bring in more than £40m. Well, the Monet water lilies from the Miller collection alone managed to do that. Going for £40.9m ($80.5m), Le bassin aux nymphéas, 1919, well exceeded it's £18m - £24m estimate and set an artist record for Monet. It is now the second most expensive painting sold at a European auction. Tania Buckwell Pos, director of AMI arts consultancy, bought the painting from the front row of the saleroom while on the phone with a client. She declined to give her client's name or nationality.

I think the demand for this work of art has proved that the Impressionist market is far from dead. For great works, collectors will be willing to part with large sums of money.

To get the Monet, Ms. Buckwell Pos outbid Brett Gorby, a specialist in contemporary art at Christie's New York, who was also on the phone. However, Mr. Gorby was the successful bidder for Degas' Danseuses à la barre, which sold at £13.5m ($26.5m), more than doubling its high estimate of £6m.

The early fauvist portrait by Matisse, La Pudeur (L'italienne), 1906, failed to reach its estimate of £3m - £4m, selling for only £2.5m ($4.9m). Still, the sale did incredibly well overall, achieving £144.4m ($284.5m) for Christie's, the highest ever for a European auction.

The Miller collection includes one of the best Monets I have ever seen outside of a museum. Le Basin aux nympéas, 1919, is a large, rectangular painting of Monet's beloved water lilies. According to Christie's press release, it is one of a set of four paintings that were released by the artist during his lifetime. Of the other paintings, one is in a private collection, one is at the Met, and another was divided. It's a gorgeous painting, just the type of Monet that people think of when they envision a Monet, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it performs. The estimate is £18m - £24m. I'll let you know how it does.

They also have a monumental Henry Moore bronze from the Miller collection up for sale. Draped Reclining Woman, 1957/58, is number 5 of an edition of 6, with all the other editions in public collections. With an estimate of £2.5m - £3.5m, I'm pretty sure collectors will be clambering for it (or at least museums will be).

Degas's Danseuses à la barre, circa 1880, is also in the sale.  Pastel, gouache, and charcoal on paper, it's a lovely piece where one can literally trace a single crayon mark along the paper.  As with the Miller Monet, it's exactly what one thinks of when envisioning a scene of Degas' ballet dancers during practice.  Originally owned by the Havemeyers (American collectors of Degas during his life) and with an estimate of £4m - £6m, I think it will do very well.

There's a lovely fauvist portrait by Matisse from 1906.  La Pudeur (L'Italienne), is fantastically colorful and bold.  Bought by Sarah Stein (sister-in-law of Gertrude and Leo and a great patron of Matisse) during Matisse's life and with a rather complete provenance, the painting is estimated at £3m - £4m.

I'm looking forward to watching to sale, and I'll let you all know how it goes.  All photos courtesy of Christie's.

It is no surprise that France has always known how to attract an international clientele with their cuisine, wines, cheeses, music, films, literature, architecture, countryside and fashion that are incomparable and very distinct from other cultures. There seems to be a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ to everything that is French and which is known throughout the world, and art is no exception. What is their secret?

Art is second nature to French painter François Couvet, who spent a lot of time drawing during his youth and who benefitted from the advice of his mother, also an artist. At the age of 13, he already knew that he wanted to be an artist but pursued the exploration of his personal techniques for a few years to be sure before starting his art studies in Paris at 17 years old. For his thesis, he spent six months in the mountains at an altitude of 2000 meters in order to be immersed in nature and fine-tune his sketches. Diplomas in hand from the Beaux-Arts school and from advertising and decoration schools, François Couvet painted animals and landscapes as well as worked on stone sculptures while in Paris, but Provence is where he found his real happiness.

He shares, “At 26 years old, I left Paris for the French Riviera. Although there are more galleries in Paris, choosing between great weather and traffic jams was easy. There is a big difference in the lighting found in my recent paintings, compared to my artwork created in Paris.”

And light is one of the qualities that invites the public to really enter into his paintings. At first sight, Ruelle Animée looks almost like a photograph, loyally capturing the sweetness and the sensation of a sunny Sunday afternoon. But looking closer, the painting highlights the aspects that a camera or even the naked eye may not notice in the moment. If architects continually look at buildings and homes whenever they go out, artists see everything and are attentive to details at every instant.

“When I see something that inspires me, I like to make a sketch on site by blackening important shapes and indicating two or three colors. Taking a photo can ruin the artist’s interpretation at the moment, but I do not always have my materials with me so I usually have my camera just in case.”

Living in rhythm with the seasons is important too, and François Couvet unveils his new creations little by little in his spring, summer and fall-winter collections. His artwork Cassis from the spring collection depicts the simple pleasure of being outside and people-watching after the cold of winter. And Ambiance à Juan from the summer collection leaves a soft light on a starry Mediterranean night shared in the good company of friends.

Technology is a very useful and practical method of experimentation to make sketches, and his placement of subjects and use of colors are refined with Photoshop. This involves meticulous research to create paintings that are both beautiful and simple, but these steps are necessary in order to communicate the desired message. Furthermore, this enables him to fully concentrate on ‘sculpting’ the final image with his knife technique when he starts to paint.

“My artwork has evolved considerably since I started my career. We are always in the process of evolving, and I believe that the road to develop one’s own style is essential. It is necessary to be patient and honest with oneself and with one’s own talent by not copying other people’s work. It took Picasso 30 years to find his style of cubism!”

François Couvet appreciates great masters such as Monet and Manet, but he confides, “Modern artists have less restrictions; they give fresh inspiration to figurative painters and vice versa. I also appreciate the modernity and simplicity of Italian design as well as its urban look, its pure and smooth style.”

After years of work and exploration, his unique mixes of a modern-figurative style give birth to creations socializing with impressionism, cubism and fauvism. Similar to French artists such as Matisse who have tipped their hats to foreign cultures, François Couvet still keeps his artistic roots. This open-mindedness of the world and of modernity while having a solid foundation of traditions may very well be the secret recipe of the French Touch.

Today, he is a Drouot artist, a precious status in France that is awarded by a commission, enabling artists to integrate a prestigious classification used by the major auction houses and which includes stars like Van Gogh, Monet, Rodin and Picasso. His works are regularly exhibited in galleries in Provence, especially in Vence and in old-town Antibes (currently at the gallery Zay Toy).

Despite the annual publication of the Drouot Cotation des Artistes Modernes et Contemporains price catalogue since 2001 after the initiative of the French government in 1992 to “structure the art professions,” the art market in France lacks a real media presence.

François Couvet adds, “It would be ideal if the French government financed advertising campaigns for artists and facilitated international exchanges in order to give artists opportunities to develop their creative vision of other cultures.”

And he shows his own vision exceptionally well in his painting New York, in which he dedicates his talent to the city that never sleeps. We find here a very surprising sensation of harmony and well-being, contrasted with the urbanism and cold feeling of big cities.

With so much research and energy put into his paintings, is it difficult to be separated from them? “No, because the life of a painting truly starts when it is purchased. What I would like to communicate most of all in my artwork is a message of peace, and when you look closer, each moment is sweet and calm once you take the time to notice.”

For more information, visit:

• François Couvet's website
• Drouot Cotation des Artistes

The whole sweeping range of the human spirit's expression is manifest in the history of art.  The images of the past are like an enormous dictionary of ideas and forms that an artist can consult for the purpose of creating something new.  Many artists have been taught that to make something new you have to depart from the past.  But the "old masters" believed just the opposite: that to make new things you begin with the past starting with the motif, which has been passed down many times, like shoes, from one generation of artists to the next, from sibling to sibling in one big family.

For the motif of this collage, I reached way back in the family closet.  I reached as far back as ancient Rome to the Garden of Livia at Primaporta.  I used a branch of one of the painting's fruit bearing trees and "translated" it into the medium of collage.  This collage is made of paper colored with kids' tempera paints, which I then cut into shapes (à la Matisse), "drawing" the forms by cutting and assembling.

I reached very far back for my image, far away in time and space, plucking an apple from an espalier centuries old.  It ought to astonish us that today an artist can do this more easily than at any other time in history.  One thing that makes the "modern" world what it is, in fact, is our unprecedented, easy access to the Past.

[Top of the post:  A study of branches from the "Garden of Livia," collage of colored papers, by Aletha Kuschan]

The STPI is having its summer blockbuster exhibition on now. Matisse is the guest artist.

On show are lithographs, as well as some aquatints, etchings and a lone linocut.

As usual, the STPI has done a wonderful job at displaying the different works in different "rooms" by theme.

I urge you to go and admire the works. It will be a very restful visit since it is all in black and white. Relatively small works, and mostly linework.

For the children, Sophie Fort of Wonder Art and I are organising a "Wonder and Draw" tour on the 25th of June - the focus will be on understanding his lines, compositions and how he drew. The idea is to put the prints in the context of the artist as a whole. Children will also be given an introduction to the techniques used to reproduce the prints on display, and try their hand at drawing (leave a comment below for details - but hurry, it's almost full!). Last minute edition: the tour is full. I will therefore be offering another tour the following Wednesday, 2nd July. This tour will be similar, but Sophie will not be able to attend and the number will therefore be limited to 6 children.

For the adults, I recommend that you take one of the guided tours organised by the STPI on Saturdays, at 2.30 pm (free, just walk in). You'll get to know Matisse a bit better (besides that he was the biggest French artist of the 20th century), and visit the STPI printing facilities too. Highly recommended.

I've been thinking I should paint her.  She's so sleek and cool.  A Rhapsody in Blue.  I just wonder: could I really get a true life-likeness?  Too beautiful for art?  Oh, Matisse where are you when we need you?  Here's a subject you would have loved.

Henri Matisse
French Artist
1869-1954

Music: Claude Debussy's Arabesque No. 1 in E Major

eggman913@gmail.com

El 21 de junio se celebra en Valencia el Día Europeo de la Música, el Congreso Internacional de Tipografía y el congreso nacional del PP. De los dos primeros algo nos corresponde a nosotros, pero sobre todo del primero.

Detrás de un buen cartel siempre debe haber un buen concepto y esta vez ha sido transformar la bandera europea en una bandera de la música europea. No se sí lo habremos conseguido, pero espero que esto se quede como icono del día europeo de la música.

Del festival, no hace falta decir, que no os lo podeís perder ya que actúan lo más florido y representativo de la escena musical valenciana. Además un festival recomendado por Efe Eme, la mejor publicación musical del país, no puede defraudar.

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Blog sala matisse

Niki de Saint Phalle:
Le Monstre de Soisy
I watched a Martial Raysse stencil get fatter and fatter.
Woman face.
Cai Guo-Quang.
Bon Voyage: 10,000 collectibles from the airport.
“I am in love with this giant scissor whale.” I say.
Simon Hantai – Peinture, great scribbles up close.
Marc Chagall
Max Ernst: Chimere.
Looking at all these Picasso pieces in Paris my chest gets slightly constricted, I can’t stop flipping the lid off my pen, and have to sit down. This is the first physical reaction to being overwhelmed by art I have ever had. There will be more, but my body feels wired - what are they pumping through the air conditioner?
Femme aux Pigeons is beautiful.
The realization that only seeing pictures or reproductions will never be enough again.
The close up imperfections of Mondrian’s work.
Seeing Georges Braque gives me a strange feeling because I never liked his work, but in this setting…
Staring at Picasso’s Le Guitariste.
All of these Matisse, some horrible some sublime.
Nicolas de Stael.
What is “Les Toits” made of?
and Bernard Requichot’s work reminds me of Charlene’s but was done fifty years ago.

"This is a list of several films about the lives of famous artists; mainly painters or sculptors. I would have loved to expand it to include photographers (like the movie Fur [06] about Diane Arbus) but I realized that once I got going on this one it was primarily about masters of the brush. Either way, hope you enjoy. "...more on this .....