Thursday, January 26, 2017

Art + Alternative Facts = ???

Oh, my heavens. If that recently coined phrase, "alternative facts" isn't an inherent "Call to Artists", I don't know what is. 
The merger of art with "alternative facts" has a tradition literally going back millennia. 
Remember these guys?
The Terracotta Army from the late 3rd century BCE? Believed to be created under the rule of Qin Shi Huang shows us a boatload of alternative facts, starting with "They will accompany me after my death". Well, who am I to say that's alternative? Maybe they did. (Names of the estimated 700,000 artisans involved in the installation's making are lost to us.)
State-sponsored 20th century propaganda posters, aka alternative facts art, may arguably be among the most significant tools for influencing public opinion in the Soviet Union. They gave rise to the art movements Constructivism, Suprematism and, later, Socialist Realism.
 Artist unknown

Alternative facts of a different nature kicked in when this famous beauty by Klimt, shown restored to her owner, kicked off an international lawsuit over it's provenance. Seems the Austrian's icon, kind of equivelent to France's Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty in the U.S. was obtained through, well, state-sponsored theft by Nazi Germany. Yikes.
 "Alternative Facts, the exhibition" I'm thinking we need it. Who's in?



Saturday, January 14, 2017

Days of Books is Back


O.k., I took a loooonnnnggggg blogging vacation, right? Enough. I'm back at it, with pictures and words and ART. Regarding the words part, I'll keep them to 300 or less. Well, hold-on. Maybe more if I'm blogging an on-line lesson. You're o.k. with that, yes?
As for pictures, no holds barred. Since I last was blogging, I got a smart phone with a really sweet camera. Rocked my world.
See me here. See me on Facebook. It's all good.
Happy 2017