(via budgettravel) A must-visit exhibition @ The Baltimore Museum of Art + Looking Through the Lens: Photography 1900-1960 + the museum's tattoo design contest + Meditations on African Art: Pattern .......is on display through August 17, 2008.
Don't miss it!
Useful link:
www.artbma.org
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Design And The Elastic Mind
Design and the Elastic Mind = The Future of Innovation
A wonderful exhibition is on display in the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) + I think when you pair designers with scientists, it's always inspiring.
Useful link:
http://moma.org
A wonderful exhibition is on display in the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) + I think when you pair designers with scientists, it's always inspiring.
Useful link:
http://moma.org
GPS Letter Logger
I found the Economist article on GPS Letter Logger @ http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10909558 interesting + insightful + I was wondering whether the technology could be applicable in tracking gemstones, diamonds and jewelry worldwide.
Useful links:
www.trackingtheworld.com
http://trackingtheworld.com
Useful links:
www.trackingtheworld.com
http://trackingtheworld.com
Henry D Morse
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Henry D Morse (1826-88) began his career as a diamond cutter in the Boston family firm of Morse, Crosby and Foss, where he was taught by Dutch specialists. To begin with he was more interested in weight retention than in refined work, but gradually, under the guidance of the instrument-maker Charles Field who became his collaborator, he abandoned the classic proportions in favor of lower main angles and smaller tables and culets. He also insisted on a regular girdle outline and the symmetrical distribution of facets.
All this, of course, involved a far greater weight loss than would have been tolerated in Europe at the time, but this problem was solved when Field invented a power-driven circular saw which could divide the rough into pieces suitable for fashioning. In fact, Field invented a number of machines for carrying out work previously done by hand.
By contributing to the revival of precision cutting, and through his ability to profit from Field’s mechanical inventions, Morse revolutionized diamond-fashioning methods. He was also responsible for changing the attitude of American jewelers to the details of make—that is, the quality of gem diamonds. This attitude was reflected by W R Cattelle in 1911: ‘A diamond....if it is poorly proportioned, shows an equal distribution of light and brilliancy at all distances from the eye. The center under the table is as full of light as the edge facet, because the back facets are holding the light which has entered from the front. If the stone were cut too deep or too shallow, part of the light would pass through the back facets and leave a dark center, called a ‘well in a deep stone, or ‘a fish-eye’ in a shallow stone.’
Of course, symmetry is as important as correct proportions. It was already considered so in the Table Cut era, rated even more highly during the period of precision cutting in London, and then forgotten again. Morse reintroduced the concept of perfect symmetry, but its importance was not stressed in print until 1916 when Wade stated: ‘The well-cut stone must be perfectly symmetrical. All the facets of a given set should be alike in size and shape. No additional facets should appear....The make of the girdle should be especially scruitinized.’
Wade went on to describe te debt owed to Morse by the diamond cutting industry: ‘When Henry Morse, of Boston, made a really scientific study of the effect of the brilliant upon the light which entered it and found out the angles which gave the best possible results, and then religiously cut his diamonds in accordance with what he had found out, little room for improvement was left. A fine five-carat Morse cut which the writer has seen is about as handsome as any diamond to be found among stones more recently cut. There has been some further refining of the lines and angles, but the ideal brilliant is not far from the shape that Morse gave his stones.
‘The necessity of sawing the rough, in order to save weight and thus cheapen the finished product, has brought us a flatter-topped stone with deeper back. It is very good, but certainly no better, everything considered, than the full-fashioned brilliant of the Morse type.’
The first of two important stones known to have been fashioned by Morse is the Dewey Diamond, a well-shaped rounded octahedron that was discovered in Virginia in 1855, the largest crystal to have been found in the United States. It originally weighed about 24.35 ct and had two large flaws, one on either side. Despite this, Morse was able to produce a Brilliant with a weight loss of only 51 per cent. Presumably he used classic proportions as this was towards the beginning of his career. The final weight of the fashioned diamond was about 12 ct.
The second diamond of which we have details is discussed and illustrated by the eminent American gemologist, Joseph O Gill (1976). In its rough state the diamond weighed about 128 ct and, after fashioning, 78.92 ct—a weight loss of 61.1 per cent. Sawing was not necessary as the rough octahedroid crystal had a rounded bipyramidal form with a height equal to its width. We cannot calculate its exact proportions from Morese’s report because the figures he gives for the main angles do not tally with his sketches, but they are likely to have been within the following ranges:
Table size: c. 49%
Crown height: 18 – 20%
Girdle thickness: (included in crown and pavilion)
Pavilion depth: 39 – 42%
Culet size: c. 5%
Crown angle: 35 – 38°
Pavilion angle: 38 – 41°
These are simply the proportions favored by the rough, so we cannot take them as necessarily represented Morse’s ideal.
It is remarkable how far Morse succeeded in making a slightly cushion-shaped Brilliant appear circular by applying as good as eightfold symmetry all over. He considerably lengthened the lower girdle facets which, in the classic Standard Brilliant, were supposed to be the same as the upper girdle facets (round the turn of the century O M Farrand elongated them further, from 75 percent to nearly 90 percent of the distance from the girdle to the culet). The culet on Morse’s diamond is a relic of the time when this small facet acted as a reflector. Today it would be considered ‘a disturbing spot, seen through the table.’
The yellow Brilliant in the Grϋnes Gewölbe, Dresden, fashioned in the early part of the eighteenth century, is surprisingly similar to Morse’s 79 ct diamond. Only the faceting of the pavilion differs. Obviously, also, the Baroque stone lacks modern precision. The gem weighs about 13.5 ct and has a diameter of 15mm.
Table size: c.50%
Crown height: 19.7%
Girdle thickness: thin
Pavilion depth: 39.3%
Culet size: very small
Crown angles: 33.3° (average)
Pavilion angles: 39° (average)
Henry D Morse (1826-88) began his career as a diamond cutter in the Boston family firm of Morse, Crosby and Foss, where he was taught by Dutch specialists. To begin with he was more interested in weight retention than in refined work, but gradually, under the guidance of the instrument-maker Charles Field who became his collaborator, he abandoned the classic proportions in favor of lower main angles and smaller tables and culets. He also insisted on a regular girdle outline and the symmetrical distribution of facets.
All this, of course, involved a far greater weight loss than would have been tolerated in Europe at the time, but this problem was solved when Field invented a power-driven circular saw which could divide the rough into pieces suitable for fashioning. In fact, Field invented a number of machines for carrying out work previously done by hand.
By contributing to the revival of precision cutting, and through his ability to profit from Field’s mechanical inventions, Morse revolutionized diamond-fashioning methods. He was also responsible for changing the attitude of American jewelers to the details of make—that is, the quality of gem diamonds. This attitude was reflected by W R Cattelle in 1911: ‘A diamond....if it is poorly proportioned, shows an equal distribution of light and brilliancy at all distances from the eye. The center under the table is as full of light as the edge facet, because the back facets are holding the light which has entered from the front. If the stone were cut too deep or too shallow, part of the light would pass through the back facets and leave a dark center, called a ‘well in a deep stone, or ‘a fish-eye’ in a shallow stone.’
Of course, symmetry is as important as correct proportions. It was already considered so in the Table Cut era, rated even more highly during the period of precision cutting in London, and then forgotten again. Morse reintroduced the concept of perfect symmetry, but its importance was not stressed in print until 1916 when Wade stated: ‘The well-cut stone must be perfectly symmetrical. All the facets of a given set should be alike in size and shape. No additional facets should appear....The make of the girdle should be especially scruitinized.’
Wade went on to describe te debt owed to Morse by the diamond cutting industry: ‘When Henry Morse, of Boston, made a really scientific study of the effect of the brilliant upon the light which entered it and found out the angles which gave the best possible results, and then religiously cut his diamonds in accordance with what he had found out, little room for improvement was left. A fine five-carat Morse cut which the writer has seen is about as handsome as any diamond to be found among stones more recently cut. There has been some further refining of the lines and angles, but the ideal brilliant is not far from the shape that Morse gave his stones.
‘The necessity of sawing the rough, in order to save weight and thus cheapen the finished product, has brought us a flatter-topped stone with deeper back. It is very good, but certainly no better, everything considered, than the full-fashioned brilliant of the Morse type.’
The first of two important stones known to have been fashioned by Morse is the Dewey Diamond, a well-shaped rounded octahedron that was discovered in Virginia in 1855, the largest crystal to have been found in the United States. It originally weighed about 24.35 ct and had two large flaws, one on either side. Despite this, Morse was able to produce a Brilliant with a weight loss of only 51 per cent. Presumably he used classic proportions as this was towards the beginning of his career. The final weight of the fashioned diamond was about 12 ct.
The second diamond of which we have details is discussed and illustrated by the eminent American gemologist, Joseph O Gill (1976). In its rough state the diamond weighed about 128 ct and, after fashioning, 78.92 ct—a weight loss of 61.1 per cent. Sawing was not necessary as the rough octahedroid crystal had a rounded bipyramidal form with a height equal to its width. We cannot calculate its exact proportions from Morese’s report because the figures he gives for the main angles do not tally with his sketches, but they are likely to have been within the following ranges:
Table size: c. 49%
Crown height: 18 – 20%
Girdle thickness: (included in crown and pavilion)
Pavilion depth: 39 – 42%
Culet size: c. 5%
Crown angle: 35 – 38°
Pavilion angle: 38 – 41°
These are simply the proportions favored by the rough, so we cannot take them as necessarily represented Morse’s ideal.
It is remarkable how far Morse succeeded in making a slightly cushion-shaped Brilliant appear circular by applying as good as eightfold symmetry all over. He considerably lengthened the lower girdle facets which, in the classic Standard Brilliant, were supposed to be the same as the upper girdle facets (round the turn of the century O M Farrand elongated them further, from 75 percent to nearly 90 percent of the distance from the girdle to the culet). The culet on Morse’s diamond is a relic of the time when this small facet acted as a reflector. Today it would be considered ‘a disturbing spot, seen through the table.’
The yellow Brilliant in the Grϋnes Gewölbe, Dresden, fashioned in the early part of the eighteenth century, is surprisingly similar to Morse’s 79 ct diamond. Only the faceting of the pavilion differs. Obviously, also, the Baroque stone lacks modern precision. The gem weighs about 13.5 ct and has a diameter of 15mm.
Table size: c.50%
Crown height: 19.7%
Girdle thickness: thin
Pavilion depth: 39.3%
Culet size: very small
Crown angles: 33.3° (average)
Pavilion angles: 39° (average)
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
2
Among the artists of the nineteenth century Whistler holds a unique position. He was the first great painter of American birth to win universal renown. His life was a long struggle against hostile criticism and misunderstanding, and he defended his art and his ideals with the pungent brilliancy of a wit and with the undaunted pugnacity of a soldier. By example and precept he eventually revolutionized English ideas about art and interior decoration. He compelled people who stubbornly repeated ‘Every Picture tells a Story,’ to realize at long last that every picture ought to sing a tune, that is to say, it ought to utter forth a melody of line and harmony of color; in a word, he compelled all England and the United States to recognize the decorative as well as the illustrative element in painting. More than any other English-speaking man Whistler opened our eyes to the true value of Velazquez and Hokusai, and he invented a new style of portraiture in which Spanish realism was exquisitely wedded to a Japanese sense of decoration. A stranger within our gates, he revealed England to the English and recorded both in his etchings and in his paintings poetic aspects of London’s riverside, aspects to which hitherto all artists had been blind, aspects the beauty of which all can now see.
Whistler was born on July 10, 1834, at Lowell, in Massachusetts, and was baptized there with the Christian names of James Abbott. This second name he dropped in later life and substituted for it his mother’s maiden name, McNeill. His father, Major George Washington Whistler, after leaving the United States army, became a railway engineer, and in 1842 journeyed to Russia with his wife and family: he had been appointed chief adviser of the railway under construction between Moscow and Petrograd. The most important consequence to James Whistler of this boyhood stay in Russia was that in Petrograd he learnt to speak French fluently. His father died in 1849, when the widow returned with her children to the United States.
Following in his father’s footsteps, James Whistler in 1851 entered the military college of West Point, but after three years of desultory study he was dismissed, chiefly owing to his deplorable failure in chemistry. The first question in his oral examination floored him completely, and later in life Whistler humorously said, ‘If silicon had been a gas I might have become a general in the United States army.’ Even from his Russian days Whistler had shown a remarkable capacity for drawing, and his delight in sketching prompted his relatives, after his West Point failure, to obtain for him a post as draughtsman in the Government Coast Survey Department at Washington, thinking that this occupation might be more congenial to him. To some extent it was, for here he learnt to engrave and etch, and he executed an excellent plate of a view taken from the sea, of cliffs along the coast; but the fancy heads and figures which he irrelevantly added in the margin showed that he could not take his topographical studies seriously as a preliminary to map-making, but only as an excuse for sketching. In February 1855 he resigned his position, and the end of the year found him an art student in Paris.
Many painters have spent joyous student-days in Paris, but few of them bear the traces of it in their lives as Whistler did. He had barely turned twenty-one when he arrived in Paris, and his high-spirited temperament and sense of fun delighted in all the antics which then distinguished the Bohemians of the Latin Quarter. In those days the art students lived a life apart, making themselves noticed by wearing unorthodox clothes, playing all sorts of practical jokes, affecting to despise the common mortal, and never so happy as when they succeeded in shocking and bewildering what they called the ‘bourgeois’. Whistler plunged hot-foot into this way of life, and, as the distinguished French critic M Théodore Duret, who knew him well, has remarked, there was grafted on him ‘the habit of a separate pose, whimsical attire, a way of despising and setting at defiance the ‘vulgur herd’ incapable of seeing and feeling like an artist. This combination of the distinctive chaaracteristics of a French art student and the manner of an American gentleman, in a man otherwise full of life, spirit, and individuality, made of Whistler a quaint original who could not fail to be remarked everywhere.’
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
2
Among the artists of the nineteenth century Whistler holds a unique position. He was the first great painter of American birth to win universal renown. His life was a long struggle against hostile criticism and misunderstanding, and he defended his art and his ideals with the pungent brilliancy of a wit and with the undaunted pugnacity of a soldier. By example and precept he eventually revolutionized English ideas about art and interior decoration. He compelled people who stubbornly repeated ‘Every Picture tells a Story,’ to realize at long last that every picture ought to sing a tune, that is to say, it ought to utter forth a melody of line and harmony of color; in a word, he compelled all England and the United States to recognize the decorative as well as the illustrative element in painting. More than any other English-speaking man Whistler opened our eyes to the true value of Velazquez and Hokusai, and he invented a new style of portraiture in which Spanish realism was exquisitely wedded to a Japanese sense of decoration. A stranger within our gates, he revealed England to the English and recorded both in his etchings and in his paintings poetic aspects of London’s riverside, aspects to which hitherto all artists had been blind, aspects the beauty of which all can now see.
Whistler was born on July 10, 1834, at Lowell, in Massachusetts, and was baptized there with the Christian names of James Abbott. This second name he dropped in later life and substituted for it his mother’s maiden name, McNeill. His father, Major George Washington Whistler, after leaving the United States army, became a railway engineer, and in 1842 journeyed to Russia with his wife and family: he had been appointed chief adviser of the railway under construction between Moscow and Petrograd. The most important consequence to James Whistler of this boyhood stay in Russia was that in Petrograd he learnt to speak French fluently. His father died in 1849, when the widow returned with her children to the United States.
Following in his father’s footsteps, James Whistler in 1851 entered the military college of West Point, but after three years of desultory study he was dismissed, chiefly owing to his deplorable failure in chemistry. The first question in his oral examination floored him completely, and later in life Whistler humorously said, ‘If silicon had been a gas I might have become a general in the United States army.’ Even from his Russian days Whistler had shown a remarkable capacity for drawing, and his delight in sketching prompted his relatives, after his West Point failure, to obtain for him a post as draughtsman in the Government Coast Survey Department at Washington, thinking that this occupation might be more congenial to him. To some extent it was, for here he learnt to engrave and etch, and he executed an excellent plate of a view taken from the sea, of cliffs along the coast; but the fancy heads and figures which he irrelevantly added in the margin showed that he could not take his topographical studies seriously as a preliminary to map-making, but only as an excuse for sketching. In February 1855 he resigned his position, and the end of the year found him an art student in Paris.
Many painters have spent joyous student-days in Paris, but few of them bear the traces of it in their lives as Whistler did. He had barely turned twenty-one when he arrived in Paris, and his high-spirited temperament and sense of fun delighted in all the antics which then distinguished the Bohemians of the Latin Quarter. In those days the art students lived a life apart, making themselves noticed by wearing unorthodox clothes, playing all sorts of practical jokes, affecting to despise the common mortal, and never so happy as when they succeeded in shocking and bewildering what they called the ‘bourgeois’. Whistler plunged hot-foot into this way of life, and, as the distinguished French critic M Théodore Duret, who knew him well, has remarked, there was grafted on him ‘the habit of a separate pose, whimsical attire, a way of despising and setting at defiance the ‘vulgur herd’ incapable of seeing and feeling like an artist. This combination of the distinctive chaaracteristics of a French art student and the manner of an American gentleman, in a man otherwise full of life, spirit, and individuality, made of Whistler a quaint original who could not fail to be remarked everywhere.’
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Every Disaster Tells A Tale We Can Learn From
(via HBS Working Knowledge) I found the article Sharpening Your Skills: Disaster! @ http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5881.html brilliant + useful.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Ancient Gold Jewelry Made In The Americas
It has been reported that the earliest known gold jewelry with either greenstone or turquoise, made nearly 4,000 years ago, has been found in a burial site near Lake Titicaca, Peru + the experts believe the gold was probably wrapped around a piece of wood and pounded until it was folded into small tubes to look like jewelry.
I think it's an interesting find + it also highlights the status-consciousness of the early people.
Useful link:
www.pnas.org
I think it's an interesting find + it also highlights the status-consciousness of the early people.
Useful link:
www.pnas.org
The New Face Of The Music Industry
According to industry analysts, Live Nation, world's biggest concert promoter, owns 170 plus venues of various sizes worldwide + due to piracy and declining CD sales, artists are now realizing that the money lies in touring and merchandising + in the coming years we are going to see new business models via band merchandising, digital and branding rights.
Useful link:
www.livenation.com
Useful link:
www.livenation.com
The Magical Chorus
The Magical Chorus by Antonina Bouis offers a unique perspective + an insider's insight on writers, musicians, artists, dancers, theater and film directors, each an important masterstone in the social and political dynamics of Russian culture.
Old English And Old European Cuts
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
In gemological literature, the terms Old English and Old European are used for the same type of round cut. This is confusing,and I should like to suggest that the two names be retained but be given separate definitions: Old English for the fine products of the English master cutters of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and Old European for the poorer-quality diamonds with proportions of all kinds, produced by the major cutting factories elsewhere.
Small and medium-sized Brilliants were, on the whole, haphazardly fashioned. Almost all the exceptions are high-class English jewels. A striking example of a jewel with Old European Cuts is the large Bouquet made in 1760 for the Empress Catherine II, now in the Treasury of the Diamond Fund in Moscow. If such a mixture of different Brilliant Cuts was acceptable to this exacting imperial court, what must not lesser mortals have been satisfied with? Most customers were unfamiliar with the splendor of well-made Brilliants. The emphasis was on the style and execution of the ensemble rather than on the perfection of individual stones. This is why the English cutters were hard put to find customers for their superb—but expensive—products, and eventually went out of production altogether. However, by the late nineteenth century, jewelers were once again realizing that there was a market for well-cut stones and were refusing to buy poor-quality ones, so that Tolkowsky found a great many Brilliants in London as fine in quality as his ‘mathematically calculated’ ideal cut.
For this type of Brilliant cut I should like to suggest the term Early Circular Fine Cut. This would cover the first precision cuts fashioned with mechanical devices and introduced in about 1900, possibly by Morse himself. Crystals could be divided without difficulty by motor-driven circular saws, and the two parts could equally easily be bruted or rounded up into circular outlines on a lathe or cutting machine. The classical high 45° proportions were abandoned; by trial and error, cutters developed modern proportions and an attractive combination of brilliance and fire with the minimum of leakage of light through the pavilion facets.
The table below indicates the limits of variation in the proportions of Early Victorian or Old English round Brilliants.
Table size: 45 – 60%
Crown height: 20%
Crown angles: 36 - 45°
Girdle: very thin
Pavilion depth: 40%
Pavilion angles: c.40°
Culet size: max. 5%
By trial and error the London cutters must have discovered the correct angle for the main facets of the pavilion—an angle which is still applied today. It seems that they retained the old vertical proportions of a crown height equal to half the pavilion depth. However, they continued to try different ways of fashioning the crown, in an attempt to strike a balance between brilliance and fire. There is still no general agreement on the best way to achieve this, but today most Brilliants are fashioned for maximum brilliance and restricted dispersion of color.
Most authors of the nineteenth century, and even some later writers, repeat the definitions given by Jeffries and Mawe. However, one frequently comes across illustrations of incorrect and even impossible proportions. Clearly, the cutters took advantage of the ignorance of most of their customers. They had to compete with low-priced but ill-fashioned diamond of which there were plenty on the market. This is why, sadly, most of the old Brilliants, even the finest, were eventually refashioned.
In gemological literature, the terms Old English and Old European are used for the same type of round cut. This is confusing,and I should like to suggest that the two names be retained but be given separate definitions: Old English for the fine products of the English master cutters of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and Old European for the poorer-quality diamonds with proportions of all kinds, produced by the major cutting factories elsewhere.
Small and medium-sized Brilliants were, on the whole, haphazardly fashioned. Almost all the exceptions are high-class English jewels. A striking example of a jewel with Old European Cuts is the large Bouquet made in 1760 for the Empress Catherine II, now in the Treasury of the Diamond Fund in Moscow. If such a mixture of different Brilliant Cuts was acceptable to this exacting imperial court, what must not lesser mortals have been satisfied with? Most customers were unfamiliar with the splendor of well-made Brilliants. The emphasis was on the style and execution of the ensemble rather than on the perfection of individual stones. This is why the English cutters were hard put to find customers for their superb—but expensive—products, and eventually went out of production altogether. However, by the late nineteenth century, jewelers were once again realizing that there was a market for well-cut stones and were refusing to buy poor-quality ones, so that Tolkowsky found a great many Brilliants in London as fine in quality as his ‘mathematically calculated’ ideal cut.
For this type of Brilliant cut I should like to suggest the term Early Circular Fine Cut. This would cover the first precision cuts fashioned with mechanical devices and introduced in about 1900, possibly by Morse himself. Crystals could be divided without difficulty by motor-driven circular saws, and the two parts could equally easily be bruted or rounded up into circular outlines on a lathe or cutting machine. The classical high 45° proportions were abandoned; by trial and error, cutters developed modern proportions and an attractive combination of brilliance and fire with the minimum of leakage of light through the pavilion facets.
The table below indicates the limits of variation in the proportions of Early Victorian or Old English round Brilliants.
Table size: 45 – 60%
Crown height: 20%
Crown angles: 36 - 45°
Girdle: very thin
Pavilion depth: 40%
Pavilion angles: c.40°
Culet size: max. 5%
By trial and error the London cutters must have discovered the correct angle for the main facets of the pavilion—an angle which is still applied today. It seems that they retained the old vertical proportions of a crown height equal to half the pavilion depth. However, they continued to try different ways of fashioning the crown, in an attempt to strike a balance between brilliance and fire. There is still no general agreement on the best way to achieve this, but today most Brilliants are fashioned for maximum brilliance and restricted dispersion of color.
Most authors of the nineteenth century, and even some later writers, repeat the definitions given by Jeffries and Mawe. However, one frequently comes across illustrations of incorrect and even impossible proportions. Clearly, the cutters took advantage of the ignorance of most of their customers. They had to compete with low-priced but ill-fashioned diamond of which there were plenty on the market. This is why, sadly, most of the old Brilliants, even the finest, were eventually refashioned.
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Hokusai is now generally regarded as one of the world’s great artists, worthy to rank with Rembrandt, Durer, and other giants. His ‘River Scene’, with the great bridge over the water and Fujiyama in the distance, shows his unsurpassed skill in the technique of his art, the largeness of his view, and the intense human interest with which he invested every scene he painted. A master of the first order as a draughtsman, Hokusai was also a daring pioneer as a colorist, being the first to combine the particular greens, blues, yellows, and browns which distinguish his famous series ‘Thirty six Views of Fujiyama,’ to use the telling contrast of red, bright blue, and brown seen in his ‘Views of te Loochoo Islands’, and to harmonise with infinite tenderness a whole gamut of greens and blues in his great designs based on carps. Hokusai lived to a great age, his death occurring when he was approaching his ninetieth birthday, and shortly before he expired he murmured, ‘If Fate had given me but five more years, I should have been able to become a true painter.’ He was not only one of the greatest and most poetic of the world’s artists, he was one of the most modest.
The beginning of the artistic influence of Japan on Europe is generally dated from the International Exhibition held at London in 1862, when the examples of Japanese art there shown made a profound impression on all who studied them. Seidlitz, in his History of Japanese Color Prints, gives the same date, but this authority traces the first discovery of Japanese art in Europe to a Japanese shop in the Rue de Rivoli, Paris. This shop, known as ‘La Porte Chinoise’ and owned by a dealer name Soye, was frequented by a number of artists who delighted in the color prints by Hokusai, Hiroshige, and others which they found there. To this shop came Manet, Degas, Monet, and other French artists afterwards to become famous, and to it also came a young American artist, James McNeill Whistler. The Japanese have a perfect instinct of decoration and consequently these color prints made an immediate and powerful appeal to a young artist who already had within him the instinct of decoration. In the work of Hokusai and Hiroshige, Whistler recognized those qualities which above all he desired to have in his own work.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Hokusai is now generally regarded as one of the world’s great artists, worthy to rank with Rembrandt, Durer, and other giants. His ‘River Scene’, with the great bridge over the water and Fujiyama in the distance, shows his unsurpassed skill in the technique of his art, the largeness of his view, and the intense human interest with which he invested every scene he painted. A master of the first order as a draughtsman, Hokusai was also a daring pioneer as a colorist, being the first to combine the particular greens, blues, yellows, and browns which distinguish his famous series ‘Thirty six Views of Fujiyama,’ to use the telling contrast of red, bright blue, and brown seen in his ‘Views of te Loochoo Islands’, and to harmonise with infinite tenderness a whole gamut of greens and blues in his great designs based on carps. Hokusai lived to a great age, his death occurring when he was approaching his ninetieth birthday, and shortly before he expired he murmured, ‘If Fate had given me but five more years, I should have been able to become a true painter.’ He was not only one of the greatest and most poetic of the world’s artists, he was one of the most modest.
The beginning of the artistic influence of Japan on Europe is generally dated from the International Exhibition held at London in 1862, when the examples of Japanese art there shown made a profound impression on all who studied them. Seidlitz, in his History of Japanese Color Prints, gives the same date, but this authority traces the first discovery of Japanese art in Europe to a Japanese shop in the Rue de Rivoli, Paris. This shop, known as ‘La Porte Chinoise’ and owned by a dealer name Soye, was frequented by a number of artists who delighted in the color prints by Hokusai, Hiroshige, and others which they found there. To this shop came Manet, Degas, Monet, and other French artists afterwards to become famous, and to it also came a young American artist, James McNeill Whistler. The Japanese have a perfect instinct of decoration and consequently these color prints made an immediate and powerful appeal to a young artist who already had within him the instinct of decoration. In the work of Hokusai and Hiroshige, Whistler recognized those qualities which above all he desired to have in his own work.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
No Dirty Gold
In a new report released by Earthworks + Oxfam America irresponsible mining continue to pollute air and water, and in some parts of the world, fuel violent conflict, at a time when metal prices are soaring, driving new mining development worldwide.
I think consumers can make a big difference by insisting mining companies to implement best practices that can be independently verified.
Useful links:
www.nodirtygold.org
www.earthworksaction.org
www.oxfamamerica.org
I think consumers can make a big difference by insisting mining companies to implement best practices that can be independently verified.
Useful links:
www.nodirtygold.org
www.earthworksaction.org
www.oxfamamerica.org
Money Laundering And Financial Crimes
I found the 2008 report on Money Laundering and Financial Crimes by numerous U.S government/international agencies @
http://www.state.gov/p/inl/rls/nrcrpt/2008/vol2/ interesting + insightful + I really don't know how effective the AML/CFT compliance programs are worldwide.
Useful links:
www.state.gov
www.imf.org
www.fincen.gov
www.worldbank.org
http://www.state.gov/p/inl/rls/nrcrpt/2008/vol2/ interesting + insightful + I really don't know how effective the AML/CFT compliance programs are worldwide.
Useful links:
www.state.gov
www.imf.org
www.fincen.gov
www.worldbank.org
Jean Nouvel
Jean Nouvel is a prolific French architect + he has designed a number of notable buildings across the world + he has been awarded his profession's highest honor--the 2008 Pritzker Prize.
I think his designs are different + connects the dots in a natural way.
Useful links:
www.jeannouvel.com
www.pritzkerprize.com
I think his designs are different + connects the dots in a natural way.
Useful links:
www.jeannouvel.com
www.pritzkerprize.com
Monday, March 31, 2008
Heard On The Street
Usually in the market when someone says I've never seen anything like this before, it means he/she is losing.
Vermeer's Hat
Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World by Timothy Brook is a great book + the writer takes one piece of porcelain in a painting by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer and uses it to explain 17th-century trade with China + he reflects on the cultural impacts of global commercial trade, an important era in the opening up of the world + I highly recommend the book.
Tanzanite Gem Miners Feared Dead
(via BBC) It has been reported that about 65 miners are feared dead after rainfall triggered the collapse of mines in the Mererani region, about 40km (25 miles) south-east of Arusha in north-eastern Tanzania + the area mines Tanzanite, a valuable violet-blue to blue gemstone found only in a small area near Arusha + Tanzania is also rich in diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires and is Africa's third-largest gold producer.
I think there will be some price adjustments in Tanzanite in the coming days due to unexpected events in Tanzania.
I think there will be some price adjustments in Tanzanite in the coming days due to unexpected events in Tanzania.
The Jubilee, Or Twentieth-Century, Cut
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The short-lived Jubilee Cut is said to have been created in the United States in honor of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. The Jubilee itself was in 1897 but the cut did not appear until the beginning of the twentieth century. It is variously described, but appears to have been applied mainly to rough which was too thin for a well-made Brilliant. The illustrations are based on an actual gem weighing 2.63 ct, with a diameter of 8.85 x 8.95 mm and an overall height of 5.45 mm. It is slightly tinted J (Crystal) and somewhat scratched and abraded by wear. It could, however, be restored to flawless condition with very little loss of weight.
This cut may be described as an elaborate extension of the historical Pointed Star Cut, with five concentric rows of interlocking facets. The crown and the pavilion, though possessing forty facets each, are of totally different design from each other.
The short-lived Jubilee Cut is said to have been created in the United States in honor of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. The Jubilee itself was in 1897 but the cut did not appear until the beginning of the twentieth century. It is variously described, but appears to have been applied mainly to rough which was too thin for a well-made Brilliant. The illustrations are based on an actual gem weighing 2.63 ct, with a diameter of 8.85 x 8.95 mm and an overall height of 5.45 mm. It is slightly tinted J (Crystal) and somewhat scratched and abraded by wear. It could, however, be restored to flawless condition with very little loss of weight.
This cut may be described as an elaborate extension of the historical Pointed Star Cut, with five concentric rows of interlocking facets. The crown and the pavilion, though possessing forty facets each, are of totally different design from each other.
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Japanese Color-prints And The Art of Whistler
1
To attempt any historical survey of the art of the East is beyond the scope of this Outline, but since several of the most distinguished Western painters of the nineteenth century were profoundly influenced by the art of China and Japan, it is necessary to make some brief mention of the wonderful art of the Far East and to record the genesis of its appreciation in Europe in order that we may perceive the part it played in shaping the style of certain modern masters.
Painting in water-colors on silk, or less often on paper, was practised in China from the earliest years of the Christian era. One of the oldest Chinese pictures known to exist is a scroll-painting called ‘Admonitions of the Instructress’ in the British Museum. This has been pronounced by experts to be a work of the fourth century, but has none of the characteristics of a primitive work executed when an art is in its infancy. The mastery of natural attitude and of the relation of figures to each other and the delicate expressiveness of the drawing prove that behind the art which produced it is a long history of development.
Chinese painting attained its highest excellence during the Sung Dynasty, i.e approximately between A.D 950 and 1250, and to this period belongs the masterly painting of ‘Two Geese’ in the British Museum. The exquisitely refined drawing and simple naturalism in this dignified bird painting show the high state of civilization in China at a time when Europe was only painfully emerging from the Dark Ages. We have only to turn back to the first chapter of this work and to compare the paintings of Cimabue or of Giotto with this still earlier picture from the East, to realize how superior was the naturalism of the Chinese artist to that of the most gifted of the earliest Europen painters. The art of the Sung period excelled in landscape and animal painting, and it was ‘inspired a mystical feeling for Nature (akin to that expressed by Wordsworth’s poetry) which gives a serious beauty to its treatment of simple or seemingly insignificant subjects.’
It is only in quite recent times, however, that Western artists have been attracted by the nobility of early Chinese art. In the nineteenth century Chinese paintings were scarce and little known in Europe, and the first examples of Oriental art made familiar to Europe were color prints from Japan. Though te Japanese today have a deservedly high reputation as an artistic nation, China was their intructress in all the arts. The art of printing in colors from a number of wood blocks in succession was practised in China in the seventeenth century, perhaps earlier, but it was not till the eighteenth century that it flourished in Japan. In that country the demand for a popular art had fostered a school of painting devoted to themes of daily life, and the woodcut provided a cheap means of multiplying designs. At first, in the early part of the eighteenth century, these woodcuts were colored by hand, then prints were made in two colors, rose-red and green, and in 1764 the first full-colored prints, known as ‘brocade prints,’ were issued. Harunobu (1705-72) was the first master to use te new invention, which during the next hundred years was to produce the most beautiful examples of color printing that the world has seen.
From the time of Harunobu to the death of Utamaro in 1806, a succession of artists poured forth a series of these popular pictures, which were sold for the merest trifle, chiefly to the working classes of Japan. The painters of Japan catered for aristocratic tastes and were patronized by the wealthy and eminent, but the makers of color-prints were democratic both in origin and aim and were regarded socially as artisans rather than artists. The aristocratic painters of Japan, like those of China, were symbolists, whose work conveyed subtle allusions to educated Orientals; but the designers of color prints were realists, who rendered the common life of everyday people. Among the Japanese this art, despised by the higher classes, was named the ‘Mirror of the Passing World.’ With the common people of Japan the drama was an overwhelming passion, and consequently the subjects of innumerablle color prints are taken from the stage, which provided endless themes. In all the earlier Japanese color prints figures predominate, but after the death of Utamaro a great artist arose in Hokusai (1760-1849), who invented a new landscape style. Hokusai was followed by other great landscape artists, Hiroshige (1796-1858) and his successor Hiroshige II, who worked c. 1840-65, and the splendid landscape designs by these artists were the first to make their influence felt in Europe.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Japanese Color-prints And The Art of Whistler
1
To attempt any historical survey of the art of the East is beyond the scope of this Outline, but since several of the most distinguished Western painters of the nineteenth century were profoundly influenced by the art of China and Japan, it is necessary to make some brief mention of the wonderful art of the Far East and to record the genesis of its appreciation in Europe in order that we may perceive the part it played in shaping the style of certain modern masters.
Painting in water-colors on silk, or less often on paper, was practised in China from the earliest years of the Christian era. One of the oldest Chinese pictures known to exist is a scroll-painting called ‘Admonitions of the Instructress’ in the British Museum. This has been pronounced by experts to be a work of the fourth century, but has none of the characteristics of a primitive work executed when an art is in its infancy. The mastery of natural attitude and of the relation of figures to each other and the delicate expressiveness of the drawing prove that behind the art which produced it is a long history of development.
Chinese painting attained its highest excellence during the Sung Dynasty, i.e approximately between A.D 950 and 1250, and to this period belongs the masterly painting of ‘Two Geese’ in the British Museum. The exquisitely refined drawing and simple naturalism in this dignified bird painting show the high state of civilization in China at a time when Europe was only painfully emerging from the Dark Ages. We have only to turn back to the first chapter of this work and to compare the paintings of Cimabue or of Giotto with this still earlier picture from the East, to realize how superior was the naturalism of the Chinese artist to that of the most gifted of the earliest Europen painters. The art of the Sung period excelled in landscape and animal painting, and it was ‘inspired a mystical feeling for Nature (akin to that expressed by Wordsworth’s poetry) which gives a serious beauty to its treatment of simple or seemingly insignificant subjects.’
It is only in quite recent times, however, that Western artists have been attracted by the nobility of early Chinese art. In the nineteenth century Chinese paintings were scarce and little known in Europe, and the first examples of Oriental art made familiar to Europe were color prints from Japan. Though te Japanese today have a deservedly high reputation as an artistic nation, China was their intructress in all the arts. The art of printing in colors from a number of wood blocks in succession was practised in China in the seventeenth century, perhaps earlier, but it was not till the eighteenth century that it flourished in Japan. In that country the demand for a popular art had fostered a school of painting devoted to themes of daily life, and the woodcut provided a cheap means of multiplying designs. At first, in the early part of the eighteenth century, these woodcuts were colored by hand, then prints were made in two colors, rose-red and green, and in 1764 the first full-colored prints, known as ‘brocade prints,’ were issued. Harunobu (1705-72) was the first master to use te new invention, which during the next hundred years was to produce the most beautiful examples of color printing that the world has seen.
From the time of Harunobu to the death of Utamaro in 1806, a succession of artists poured forth a series of these popular pictures, which were sold for the merest trifle, chiefly to the working classes of Japan. The painters of Japan catered for aristocratic tastes and were patronized by the wealthy and eminent, but the makers of color-prints were democratic both in origin and aim and were regarded socially as artisans rather than artists. The aristocratic painters of Japan, like those of China, were symbolists, whose work conveyed subtle allusions to educated Orientals; but the designers of color prints were realists, who rendered the common life of everyday people. Among the Japanese this art, despised by the higher classes, was named the ‘Mirror of the Passing World.’ With the common people of Japan the drama was an overwhelming passion, and consequently the subjects of innumerablle color prints are taken from the stage, which provided endless themes. In all the earlier Japanese color prints figures predominate, but after the death of Utamaro a great artist arose in Hokusai (1760-1849), who invented a new landscape style. Hokusai was followed by other great landscape artists, Hiroshige (1796-1858) and his successor Hiroshige II, who worked c. 1840-65, and the splendid landscape designs by these artists were the first to make their influence felt in Europe.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Art + Commerce + Technology Model
I like the concept of pairing art with commerce and technology because artists are amorphous and have an inquisitive mind + when you have an open-minded environment with the right attitude, there will be spontaneous interaction between the faculties of mind, resulting in natural synthesis and orderly crystallization of ideas into functional formats.
Useful links:
http://shl.stanford.edu
www.julie9.org
http://montalvoarts.org
www.aec.at
Useful links:
http://shl.stanford.edu
www.julie9.org
http://montalvoarts.org
www.aec.at
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