Museum...

If it looks good from the outside, looks even better from inside...

The Guggenheim museum is a very interesting place... Art can be feel and breath when u r in there, their collection it's unique and diverse from painting to audio visual modern shows...

My senses were in motion while I was in there and the adrenaline ran through my veins when I saw some of my favorite artists pieces(Picasso, Lichtenstein, Warhol...

The architecture and design of the museum are another aspect to admire at, the "big circle" connects all the pieces creating an open atmosphere and a desire to explore.

8 hrs aren't enough to process all what u see under the ceiling of these place, is easy to feel overwhelmed but the joy and appreciation for all the manifesto if art are something that I'll have always with me.

Blog VIII... Eugene Delacroix:"A Passionate, Romantic Traveler"

"IN LOVE WITH PASSION, IN LOVE WITH LIFE, IN LOVE WITH HIS WORK..."

"COLOR ALWAYS OCCUPIES ME, BUT DRAWING PREOCCUPIES ME"... Eugene Delacroix: He meant what he said, an artist passionate about his job, he did what he loved to do do, Drawing, painting and traveling. Started his career in France but traveled to different countries in search for inspiration.

While in England Delacroix Illustrated some of Shakespeare's novels, and trough out his visits to different countries always expressed the way he perceived their cultures: His paintings are Dramatic and Romantic, emotional perhaps, he captures peoples feelings with the emphasis on color and movement that we see in most of his paintings, every single one of his pieces has a very deep a real message, just reading about the message behind the "LIBERTY LEADING PEOPLE" is a whole experience capable of feel the emotions behind this piece.

POLITICS AND ART.... HAND AND HAND?

For long time politicians have been using every single way possible to get peoples attention, along with big expensive campaigns, behind the public and direct propaganda, they create indirect propaganda, sometimes supporting them and sometimes attacking their campaigns, philosophies, resources etc... but always being a resource to keep people talking about them.

An example of Art use by politicians to reach their goal is Copley's painting of Samuel Adams(1770), where we see Adams standing behind a desk holding the petition to England to expel their troops from Massachusetts; now we admired this painting as part of the American history, but going back then this painting was just a way for Adams to show his success, let's no forget that he was one of the architects of the principles of American Republicanism that shaped the political culture of the United States.

Now lets flip the coin and talk about the most recent Art/political events. In 2008 Barack Obama was elected President of US, which is definitely one of the most influential events of our times, the firs no White President, and finally our country realizing that we are more than Race, ethnicity, Sex Gender, we are all human being and the most smart creature on Earth, I personally feel very proud of being part of this generation it doesn't matter how bad things can go, now days every time more people react and start appreciating the most simple and important things of live and our world.

Part of the indirect Obama Campaign was the utilization of one of his picture turned into an Art piece, then turned into a big creation of T-shirts by a very "smart" Brand, the T-shirts became part of the Pop Culture and a Great advertising campaign, we also heard a lot of singers, singing and writing song to express they feeling for the back then candidate, Celebrities talking about Obama philosophy, all one big massive campaign.

Art is an expression of feelings, social changes create feelings in people, and these people express their feelings through Art.

Blog VI "Rembrandt" SMILE!!!

Self portraits are suppose to be a description of yourself, but the question is: Is it a real description of yourself or is a picture of the way you want people to perceived you? When we create a profile in Social networking the most important thing is t pick the right picture or perhaps the picture that we want other people to see, I'm always surprise when I see pictures of friends from long time ago and they look totally different now days, is like being trap in time, and wanting to stay there but what's the point? I mean if we want people to like us for who we are why are we lying to ourselves with outdated pictures?

the work that I most admired of Rembrandt are his self portraits we can see the progression of time in each one of them and know or guess, how old he was, where was he, time etc... but in almost all of them his facial expression seems pretty much the same, we need to really pay attention to the detail in his eyes, because that's where we can get better sense of his feelings.

My favorite Rembrandt's self portrait is the one where he is laughing, a very unusual pose and expression from any other self portraits done by anyone, he captured all the details of himself laughing, the wrinkles in his face are so detailed and clear, I imagined he stood in front of a mirror and practice, took a picture in his mind and worked on the painting, I tried to research more about this piece but there's no much info, I absolutely enjoyed seeing happy people in pictures it makes me feel good.

from now on when I think of Rembrandt this picture will be the first thing coming to my mind as if it was a profile picture.

Blog V "Caravaggio" and Baroque Art

There's something particular about Caravaggio that got my attention, since I started reading about his life and work, I admired is Chiaroscuro technique and the fact that he wasn't the first Painter using that, but he was the one that elevated it to a point of perfection and Realism, and if we talk about Realism in Caravaggio's work we have to mention the fact that he used actual people as models to create his paintings, (clever right?) maybe not if we think it in our times but at that time the fact that started searching for people and searching for faces that will inspire him to paint and represent human beings that he knew just in his head or by reading in the Bible( in case of religious paintings) in some of his paintings he was h9is own muse, as he appears in a lot of them, they are consider self portraits but in some of them he was representing some else.

another interesting fact about Caravaggio is that he was able to create a real business with his work, selling amazing quantities of the same work making copies,l a perfect example ifs The Fortune Teller, there are 50 copies altought there not identical, they are all the same concept, I also appreciate the fact that he painted people in their real way with the real image of what he was looking at, I feel that these give more credibility to his work, and altought it took him more than a life time to gain a deserved position in the art world as one of the best painters of Italy, he's now one of the main characters in the Baroque Art.

15th Century Painting... Piero della Francesca

Piero De La Francesca an artist that used the resources that he had to create his work and created his resources to keep working and innovating: This is what I take with me from his life, he was able to transmit emotions in painting that had no facial expressions, the representation of the emotions was in the actions of the figures. reminds me of classic family portrait from the 50s and 60s, all the family getting together for a picture taking in their best clothes and posing, most of the facial expressions would be the same, everyone is looking at the lense of the camera waiting for the flash and the picture will soon be ready to be hung in the Living room(like the one in my grandparents house).

Out of all his work the different pieces related to the Madonna are by far the wants the get my attention the most and also the curiosity of knowing what inspired him to represent this scenes in the way he did; in the MADONNA DEL PARTO almost feels like a theatrical representation, Real and Breath taking for the meaning behind it, with the divine presence and the support of Angels showing us the scene, notice the color balance all throughout the painting (look at the clothes that the angels are wearing they match and contrast each other).

the MADONNA DE SENIGALLIA feels like a continuation of the MADONNA DEL PARTO the Virgin is showing her baby Christ Di Salvatore that comes to life full of love for us and I can feel the innocence in both of them. In the paint we can also see 2 women behind them admiring the scene. Piero used often the Sacra conversation in his paintings as other artists of the time.

The Madonnas of Piero had the same expression but totally different messages (also look at the Brera Madonna).

Art in the 15th Century

A couple months one of my best friends gave me "Italian Joy" a book written by Carla Coulson, an Australian photographer who found her muse in Italy, she talks about the great the Italian culture is, how Fantastic the Architecture is, how warmth the Italians are and of course about their amazing cuisine.

Since I read that book, I have found myself very interested in the Italian culture, (hoping to visit soon) reading about humanism and Renaissance in Italy I realized that a lot of their culture comes from this 2 movements, one Cultural the other Social but both of them impacted the way the country is perceived in the world, I definitely have to read more about it to put this ideas in a better shape and make more sense, I particularly will definitely research more about humanism.

The David by Donatello it's definitely a perfect representation of this tought, Donatello's put a more physiological meaning into his word (David being a representation of triumph over something that seemed almost impossible) his facial expression and the pose show security, at that time when Florence won the battle over Milan gave a huge security and pride to the Florentines, but I also think that Donatello's used this opportunity to express his self in a different and more personal way, definitely way ahead of his time.

Donatello was also and inspiration for a lot of other Artist whom adopted his technique to add more emotion into their work. I would say that taking risk pays back and the David it's a perfect example of it.

Now I know more about a great country and where it comes from and find myself even more in interested in visiting soon.