In my view Chanel Mobile Art is irresistible + the exhibition in Hong Kong, the first stop of a two-year world tour, opened February 27, 2008 and runs until April 5, 2008 and showcases the works of 20 international contemporary artists.
A unique alchemy of luxury brands + artists!
Useful links:
www.chanel-mobileart.com
www.zahahadidblog.com
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The Writing On The Wall
The Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st Century by Will Hutton is an interesting and informative book + I think he was spot on with his analysis of the world + economics of the 21st century will belong to China.
The Regent
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The main facets of both the crown and the pavilion of the magnificent Regent Diamond (now in the Galerie d’Apollon, Musée du Louvre, Paris) are similar in width and shape to those of the Wittelsbach. However, the Regent has fourfold symmetry which is reflected in its culet facets as well as in the split star facets. Both types of facet appear to have been applied in pairs. The Regent, fashioned in London between 1704 and 1706 by a master cutter named Harris, eventually became one of the French Crown Jewels. Because of its excellent proportions and exceptional symmetry, it was regarded for centuries as unrivalled in every respect. Incredible as it may seem, by the application of a deliberately wavy girdle the ingenious cutter produced almost identical angles of inclination of the main facets all round the gem. This obviously resulted in uniform brilliance—virtually unheard of in cushion-shaped diamonds.
The main facets of both the crown and the pavilion of the magnificent Regent Diamond (now in the Galerie d’Apollon, Musée du Louvre, Paris) are similar in width and shape to those of the Wittelsbach. However, the Regent has fourfold symmetry which is reflected in its culet facets as well as in the split star facets. Both types of facet appear to have been applied in pairs. The Regent, fashioned in London between 1704 and 1706 by a master cutter named Harris, eventually became one of the French Crown Jewels. Because of its excellent proportions and exceptional symmetry, it was regarded for centuries as unrivalled in every respect. Incredible as it may seem, by the application of a deliberately wavy girdle the ingenious cutter produced almost identical angles of inclination of the main facets all round the gem. This obviously resulted in uniform brilliance—virtually unheard of in cushion-shaped diamonds.
The Modern Dutch School
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
3
Of the landscape painters of modern Holland, the nearest to Corot—nearest in the delicacy of his coloring and in the lyrical note that rings out clearly in all his work—is Anton Mauve (1838-88). The son of a Baptist minister, Mauve was born at Naandam and brought up in a strict Protestant home, where art was not encouraged. It was much against the will of his parents that he eventually took up art, and he made little progress under his first master, Van Os, a dry academic painter whose stiff style had little attraction for his sensitive, rather dreamy pupil. The earliest paintings of Mauve were tightly drawn and highly finished, but later, after he had made the acquaintance of Israels, Willem Maris, and other artists in Amsterdam, he completely changed his style, his handling became looser and broader, and he restricted his palette to delicate greys, greens, light fawns, and pale blues. When he was thirty he exhibited at the Free Society in Brussels, and he was influenced by the French artists who exhibited there, particularly by Corot and by Daubigny, whose works he saw in the house of Mr Mesdag and other places in Holland. Mauve soon began to excel in landscape, rendering the soft hazy atmosphere that lingers over the meadows of Holland with infinite tenderness and poetic truth. The sand dunes near Scheveningen were for many years his favorite sketching-ground, and it was there that he painted one of the most popular of his pictures, ‘The Sand Cart’. It is a painting that captivates us at once by its winning simplicity, its entire truth, and the atmosphere of repose which it exhales; and this reposefulness is a general characteristic of the art of Mauve, though his subjects are usually taken from workday life. We do not think of him primarily as an animal-painter, though his love of animals is made clear by the frequency with which he introduces them into his pictures. But Mauve’s animals never seem to have been painted solely for their own sake; they are part and parcel of the landscape, in which they take a natural place, fulfilling their allotted function as aids to human activity. Each of Mauve’s landscapes has the animals appropriate to it. He painted horses—for many years his ‘Watering Horses,’ belonging to Mr J C J Drucker, was lent to the National Gallery—but he also painted donkeys on the seashore, cows in meadows and on the road, sheep at pasture and in their pens. The fine collection of Mauve’s work in the Mesdag Museum atThe Hague contains examples of all these subjects. Towards the end of his life Mauve painted sheep more frequently than any other animals, the reason being that after living at Amsterdam and The Hague he settled at Laren, which is in the heart of the sheep country to the north-east of Amsterdam. Mauve took all rural and seashore life for his province: he painted fishermen and fishwives at a fish auction on the beach, he painted groups of peasants gathered together at a timber sale, drawing the various types of faces with great insight and humor, but in all his pictures life is pleasant and work proceeds placidly in an atmosphere of peace and contentment.
The Modern Dutch School (continued)
3
Of the landscape painters of modern Holland, the nearest to Corot—nearest in the delicacy of his coloring and in the lyrical note that rings out clearly in all his work—is Anton Mauve (1838-88). The son of a Baptist minister, Mauve was born at Naandam and brought up in a strict Protestant home, where art was not encouraged. It was much against the will of his parents that he eventually took up art, and he made little progress under his first master, Van Os, a dry academic painter whose stiff style had little attraction for his sensitive, rather dreamy pupil. The earliest paintings of Mauve were tightly drawn and highly finished, but later, after he had made the acquaintance of Israels, Willem Maris, and other artists in Amsterdam, he completely changed his style, his handling became looser and broader, and he restricted his palette to delicate greys, greens, light fawns, and pale blues. When he was thirty he exhibited at the Free Society in Brussels, and he was influenced by the French artists who exhibited there, particularly by Corot and by Daubigny, whose works he saw in the house of Mr Mesdag and other places in Holland. Mauve soon began to excel in landscape, rendering the soft hazy atmosphere that lingers over the meadows of Holland with infinite tenderness and poetic truth. The sand dunes near Scheveningen were for many years his favorite sketching-ground, and it was there that he painted one of the most popular of his pictures, ‘The Sand Cart’. It is a painting that captivates us at once by its winning simplicity, its entire truth, and the atmosphere of repose which it exhales; and this reposefulness is a general characteristic of the art of Mauve, though his subjects are usually taken from workday life. We do not think of him primarily as an animal-painter, though his love of animals is made clear by the frequency with which he introduces them into his pictures. But Mauve’s animals never seem to have been painted solely for their own sake; they are part and parcel of the landscape, in which they take a natural place, fulfilling their allotted function as aids to human activity. Each of Mauve’s landscapes has the animals appropriate to it. He painted horses—for many years his ‘Watering Horses,’ belonging to Mr J C J Drucker, was lent to the National Gallery—but he also painted donkeys on the seashore, cows in meadows and on the road, sheep at pasture and in their pens. The fine collection of Mauve’s work in the Mesdag Museum atThe Hague contains examples of all these subjects. Towards the end of his life Mauve painted sheep more frequently than any other animals, the reason being that after living at Amsterdam and The Hague he settled at Laren, which is in the heart of the sheep country to the north-east of Amsterdam. Mauve took all rural and seashore life for his province: he painted fishermen and fishwives at a fish auction on the beach, he painted groups of peasants gathered together at a timber sale, drawing the various types of faces with great insight and humor, but in all his pictures life is pleasant and work proceeds placidly in an atmosphere of peace and contentment.
The Modern Dutch School (continued)
Starting A Gem Collection
Many collectors of gemstones like to keep their specimens uncut (in the rough), while others cut and polish to bring out their color, character and beauty + one way to collect is to specialize in a particular family of gem species first, and the add more species and varieties gradually + beginners also will find that more experienced collectors are always ready with advice and assistance on the field + what's amazing is many now-popular gemstones were passed over by early prospectors as being of no commercial value.
Business Blogs
(via Fortune) I found these business blogs interesting + educational.
- Paul Kedrosky
http://paul.kedrosky.com
- Michelle Leder
www.footnoted.org
- Matt Marshall
http://venturebeat.com
- Paul Jackson
www.housingwire.com
- Business Tabloid
http://dealbreaker.com
- Paul Kedrosky
http://paul.kedrosky.com
- Michelle Leder
www.footnoted.org
- Matt Marshall
http://venturebeat.com
- Paul Jackson
www.housingwire.com
- Business Tabloid
http://dealbreaker.com
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The Statens Museum, Copenhagen
(via budgettravel) The Statens Museum for Kunst is the best source for free art in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Useful link:
www.smk.dk
Useful link:
www.smk.dk
Borghese Gallery
(via Wikipedia) The Borghese Gallery (Italian: Galleria Borghese) in Rome is an art gallery housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana, a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens. The Galleria Borghese houses a substantial part of the Borghese collection of paintings, sculpture and antiquities, which was begun by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V (reign 1605–1621). The Villa was built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, developing sketches by Scipione Borghese himself, who used it as a villa suburbana, a party villa at the edge of Rome.
Scipione Borghese was an early patron of Bernini and an avid collector of works by Caravaggio, who is well represented in the collection by his Boy with a Basket of Fruit, St. Jerome, Sick Bacchus and others. Other paintings of note include Titian's Sacred and Profane Love, Raphael's depiction of the Entombment of Christ and works by Peter Paul Rubens and Federico Barocci.
Useful link:
www.galleriaborghese.it
Scipione Borghese was an early patron of Bernini and an avid collector of works by Caravaggio, who is well represented in the collection by his Boy with a Basket of Fruit, St. Jerome, Sick Bacchus and others. Other paintings of note include Titian's Sacred and Profane Love, Raphael's depiction of the Entombment of Christ and works by Peter Paul Rubens and Federico Barocci.
Useful link:
www.galleriaborghese.it
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