O SÉCULO PRODIGIOSO

A arte no século XX

Parkes, Michael - Ilustração

Sábado, Novembro 26, 2005


The Mask
oil on wood - 1982
23.75 x 29.25in.



The Juggler
oil on wood - 1985
43.25 x 35.5in.



Puppetmaster
oil on wood ~ 1985
19.75 x 25.5in.



Gargoyles
oil on wood ~ 1985
29.5 x 23.75in.



Stalking
oil on wood ~ 1986
19.75 x 23 3/4in.



The River
oil on canvas ~ 1994
39.5 x 51.25in



The Hummingbird Collector - 2004
17-1/2" x 14-1/2"
Signed & Numbered
Edition of 140 Pieces"



The Rose Collector - 2004
17-1/2" x 14-1/2"
Signed & Numbered
Edition of 140 Pieces"



The Strawberry Collector"
17-1/2" x 14-1/2"
Signed & Numbered
Edition of 140 Pieces



The Letter - 2005
33" x 23-½" Signed and
Numbered Stone Lithograph

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Michael Parkes, born in 1944, is American. He studied graphic art and painting at the University of Kansas and then traveled for three years throughout Asia and Europe. In 1975 Michael Parkes settled definitively in Spain, where he now lives. Throughout his career, numerous international exhibitions underline the importance of Parkes’ work. Michael Parkes is both a uniquely talented painter and master of the art of original stone lithography. What is unusual about Michael Parkes is that in his paintings and lithographs, metaphysical and spiritual elements are joined into reality. His work evokes a mysterious atmosphere, which can often only be deciphered with the help of ancient mythology and eastern philosophy. In the fantasy world of Parkes the laws of earthly reality are abolished, and space and time enter into their own motionless communion. It is tempting to speak of a dream world with Michael Parkes, if it were not for the fact that this ‘dream world’ surpasses all of our dreams in audacity, freedom and intensity. In short, in Michael Parkes the figurative art of our age has found a new, fascinating and extremely authentic exponent.
“ As human beings, we limit our sense of perception to what is generally comfortable and present in everyday life. In limiting our perceptions to suit our individuality, we miss the vastness of other perceptions and the doors they represent. Though we have been conditioned to perceive nothing except our own world, this does not mean we cannot enter other realms”.
- Michael Parkes
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Michael Parkes Website
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Gordin, Misha - Fotografia Conceptual

Quarta-feira, Novembro 23, 2005
The New Crowd - 1996/1998







The New Crowd - 1999/2000







The New Crowd - 2001/2002







Tomas - 2002/2005







Sheptun - 2002/2005







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I was born in 1946, the first year after the World War II. My parents just survived hardships of evacuation and returned back home to Riga, then under Soviet occupation. I grew up among Russian speaking population of Latvia, and Russian culture become my root culture. I graduated from the technical college as aviation engineer but never worked as such, instead I joined Riga Motion Studios as a designer of equipment for special effects. I was in my early twenties and mostly ignorant about art. At this time social realism was an official culture of the country and I did not care about it too much. Information about modern western art was hardly available and my knowledge of it was highly limited. I started to photograph when I was nineteen, driven by desire to create my own personal style and vision. I was involved in portraiture and did some documentary shots, but soon realized the results did not satisfy me. I put my camera aside and concentrated on reading (Dostoevsky, Bulgakov) and cinematography (Tarkovsky, Parajanov). I was constantly looking for the way to express my personal feelings and thoughts using photography. One year later it came to me clear and simple. I decided to photograph Concepts. In 1972 I created my first, and most important image - Confession. I instantly recognized the potential possibilities of conceptual approach and the knowledge acquired from this image become a backbone of the work I have produced since. In 1974, after years of disgust with communist authorities, I left my country and arrived in USA.
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Conventional versus Conceptual.
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Do I point my camera outwards to the existing world or turn it inward towards my soul. Am I taking photographs of existing reality, or creating my own world, so real but non existent. Results from this two opposite approaches are notably different and, in my opinion, conceptual. Photography is a higher form of artistic expression that places photography on the level of painting, poetry, music and sculpture. It employs the special talent of intuitive vision. By translating the personal concepts into the language of photography, it reflects the possible answers to major questions of being: birth, death and life. Creating an idea and transforming it into reality is an essential process of conceptual photography. Today's conventional approach, with a few exceptions, completely dominates Art Photography. But introduction of digital photography can change this balance. The ease of producing altered realities, will bring a new wave of talented artists, who will use it to express their special world of visions, with all its meanings, symbols and mystery. In a world of high technology will you still believe in truthfulness of a photograph? And does it matter? To me it matters. In all these years of creating conceptual images, I tried to make them as realistic as possible. My technical abilities have improved, allowing me to broaden horizons for my ideas. But this is not the most important part of the process. The poor concept, perfectly executed, still makes a poor photograph. Therefore, the most important ingredient of the powerful image is a concept. The blend of a talent to create a concept and the skill to deliver it - those are two major building blocks of creating a convincing conceptual photograph. It is not a new idea to manipulate photographic images. As a matter of fact all images are manipulated to a certain degree. The real power of photography emerges when altered reality is presented as existent and is expected to be perceived as such. An obviously manipulated image is a trick that shows a lack of understanding of the unique power of photography - the belief engraved in our subconscious that what was captured by the camera has to exist. In the best examples of successfully manipulated images the question "Is it real?" does not arise. My first introduction to digital manipulations showed me how similar analog and digital techniques are. Each has it's bright and dark spots. At this moment I don't see any reason to switch to digital. I still prefer glowing quality of original print and the laborious process to achieve it. Yet, I believe, that it is only matter of time before digital technology replaces analog and the conceptual approach will receive well deserved place in Art of Photography. I also want to believe that, many years from now, artists will continue to develop the language of photography, understanding and preserving its unique power.
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Misha Gordin Website
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Taares - Arte Iknie

Domingo, Novembro 20, 2005


"Duas Irmãs"
"Tow Sisters"



"As Mulheres e o Cosmos"
"The Women and the Cosmos"



"Fantasia Dupla"
"Double Fantasy"



"E se o mar fosse o nosso corpo?"
"If the sea where our body?"



"Atmosfera Feminina"
"Female Atmosphere"



"Será que nós estamos a viver no Futuro?"
"Are we living in the Future?"



"Fantasia e Ilusão"
"Fantasy and Illusion"



"E depois haverá Iknies em todos os Lugares"
"And then the Iknies will be in all Places"

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Sobre a sua arte, Taares disse-nos: «Iknie, da palavra graga Ícone, representa um esforço muito incomum de criar uma linguagem gráfica real, um código real, uma nova ferramenta composta por novos sinais de "trânsito mental" e de "trânsito intelectual". Sinais que nos dão todo um conjunto de novas instruções a vários níveis. Iknie nasceu em 1997 e nasce cada dia que passa nos pensamentos do JoséTavares, cujo o nome artístico é Taares. Este novo código trata de criar um compacto altamente coerente e regular, dentro de toda a regularidade que a arte pode ainda permitir. De alguma forma, este projecto é o "genoma humano", em versao gráfica. Será que a biologia pensa os genes de uma forma similar a Iknie ? Ou só a biologia daqueles que se deixam fascinar por este mundo de sinais quantas vezes a meia distancia, entre a ciencia, a arte e o tudo?»
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«Já houve quem lhe dissesse que não percebia nada dos seus desenhos. E quem ficasse fascinado pelo que expõe e vende, habitualmente, na Rua Garrett. José Tavares, lisboeta de 42 anos, formado em Engenharia Agrónoma, diz que os seus Ikneis constituem uma linguagem gráfica Universal, a primeira proposta de um "código planetário" tão "filosóficamente avançado" quanto fácil de entender por qualquer criança. De cabeça redonda e sem olhos, estes "anatogramas" que qualquer pessoa pode desenhar, já que se trata de "uma arte liberta das técnicas académicas; não precisa de perspectiva, sombras ou simetria", encerram uma mensagem ética: "São figuras amistosas, desprovidas de negatividade ou agressividade, anti-racistas e anti-machistas"
Paula Lobo in Diário de Notícias
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Taares está quase todos os dias na Rua Garrett, em Lisboa, junto à Zara, após as 18 horas, onde expõe e vende os seus trabalhos. Os seus "anatogramas" são feitos a tinta da china com pastel seco e de óleo sobre papel. Pode ser contactado através do telefone 218 136 046 ou por e.mail para ikniee@hotmail.com. Tem ainda um site (em fase de remodelação).
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Scully, Sean - Arte Abstracta

Quarta-feira, Novembro 16, 2005


Untitled - 1974
Acrylic on canvas
121.9 x 121.9 cm (48 x 48 in.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston



To Want - 1985
Oil on canvas
Walker Art Center



Square Light 1 - 1988
Aquatint on paper
528 x 528 mm
Tate Gallery



Wall - 1988
etching, aquatint, spitbite aquatint, soapground aquatint, crayon resist
31 1/2 x 41 1/2 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum



8.10.89 - 1989
Oil pastel and watercolor on Saunders wove paper
57.2 x 76.5 cm (22 1/2 x 30 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.



Bridge - 1991
woodcut
23 x 44 3/4 in. (58.4 x 113.7
Smithsonian American Art Museum



Red Durango - 1991
Oil on linen
100 x 130 in.
Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina



10.12.98 - 1998
painting pastel on paper
paper 76.0 (h) x 57.5 (w) cm
Private collection (Barcelona)



Wall of Light Pink - 1998
Oil on canvas
274.3 x 304.8 cm (108 x 120 in.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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Riscas alternadas, horizontais e verticais, em tinta de óleo densamente trabalhada, cobrem painéis unidos uns aos outros para formar um único quadro. As interrupções são deliberadamente discordantes e aumentam a sensação de conflito entre os painéis desalinhados. As configurações abstractas de Scully parecem fazer referência às grades, superfícies e tensões da baixa de Manhattan, o lar do artista nestes últimos 25 anos. A obra de Scully tem um forte elemento arquitectónico e um sentimento de urbanidade severa. Através do padrão e da combinação de cor de cada quadro, ele é capaz de expressar uma variedade de emoções usando meios limitados. Embora as suas obras se dirijam ao quaotidiano, são decididamente abstractas e conservam um equilíbrio curioso entre a energia gestual do Expressionismo Abstracto e a auto-disciplina rigorosa do Minimalismo americano. Sean Scully nasceu em Dublin, na Irlanda, em 1945. Naturalizou-se cidadão norte-americano, onde reside e trabalha.
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Zuloaga, Ignacio - Realismo

Sexta-feira, Novembro 11, 2005


Retrato do picador «El Coriano» - 1897
Óleo sobre tela
80x60 cm
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo



Toureiros - 1898
Óleo sobre tela
Colecção privada



Paisagem de Castela - 1909
Óleo sobre tela
57.5 x 61.3 cm (22 5/8 x 24 1/8 in.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston




Retrato de Carlos de Beistegui - 1910
Óleo sobre tela
1,46x1,25 m
Museu do Louvre, Paris



El cristo de la sangre - 1911
Óleo sobre tela
248 x 302 cm.
Museo Reina Sofía. Madrid



Paisagem de Antequera
Óleo sobre tela
77 x 85cm
Colecção privada



Condesa Mathieu de Noailles
Óleo sobre óleo
152 x 195,5 cm
Museo de Bellas Artes. Bilbao



Ídolos futuros - 1915
Óleo sobre tela.
248 x 300 cm.
Museo de San Telmo. San Sebastián



Retrato do artista - 1931
Óleo sobre tela
1,37x1,24 m
Museu do Louvre, Paris



Carmen Arconada - 1940
Óleo sobre tela
197 x 148 cm.
Museo Bellas Artes de Álava, Vitória

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Ignacio Zuloaga (1870-1945), pintor es+anhol, nasceu em Eibar. Copista no Museu do Prado viaja a Roma no ano de 1884 e um ano mais tarde a París onde se inscreve no estúdio de La Palette, aprendendo ao lado de Chavannes. Ali tem oportunidade de entabular contacto com Degas, Gauguin e Toulousse-Lautrec, aprendendo a técnica do Impresionismo. Desenvolve muito cedo o interesse por temas taurinos e andaluzes, captando cenas de costumes que retratam a Espanha de 98. Entre as suas influências temos que citar Goya, que o influencia na composição e pincelada de traços grossos. O seu amor por Espanha leva-o a mudar-se no anos de 1898 para Segovia, onde capta a importância dos personajens de Castela com quem se identifica. A sua relacão com a geração de 98, evoca temas de uma Espanha em crise. A crueza dos seus pinceis levou-o a ser repudiado em várias ocasiões pela crítica espanhola. Em obras como "El Cristo de la sangre" retrata com acritude a idiosincracia do povo espanhol. Abandonou o impressionismo, procurando uma linguegem própria em que predominasse a pastosidade e as curvas decorativas procedentes do modernismo. A sua inclinação pelos temas dedicados às mulheres o induz a retratar diversas personagens. Junto com Gutiérrez Solana representa a vertente da pintura de costumes do princípio do século XX, embora se distinga desse pintor, pela sua paleta mais brilhante e a sua visão dos tipos e costumes do campo de Castela é menos pessimista, enquadrando-se num realismo expressionista.
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