GOYA: MAY3

may 3,by:goya

Francisco Goya showed horror of war in the shooting of 3 may 1808,painted 1814 and became a sensational symbol of resistance against enemies. It shows the spaniard's resistance towards armies of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808 French occupation of Spain./

FRANCISCO GOYA:EL TRES DE MAYO DE 1808 EN MADRID/LOS FUSILAMENTOSDE LA MONTANA DEL PRINCIPE PIO/LOS FUSILAMENTOS DEL TRES DE MAYO

I'M IMPRESSED WITH IMPRESSIONISTS

 paul gauguin's tahiti period: fatata te miti/by the sea

I,m impressed with Impressionists and Post Impressionists who won our hearts twice in 2 fin de ciecles,
once in 19th century,and the other in a revival ,in20th century,and still going.

gauguin ,self portrait

This spring Paul Gauguin of Impressionists-Post Impressionists is coming to our town to show his oeuvres,
 in National Gallery.He is going to compete with Washington's cherry blossoms in a festival and parade.
I'm really impressed.
In this show we are going to Tahiti and other islands of South Sea,earthly paradise,noble savage,erotic Eve,with mythological motifs of both western and Polynisian heritage and legends
Chester Dale's collection with works of Impressionists and Modernist will continue through January 2012
What a Gauguin Gala among saga of charming cherries in budding,pink and blushed and pale and white,and at times purplish!

cherry blossoms dancing in washington air and space

DIEGO RIVERA and MEXICAN MURALISTS

diego rivera's mural

orozco's hombre de fuego

work by siqueiros

rufino tamayo's mural

candido portinari's mural in library of congress,washington,d.c.

What mexican muralist in their L'Ecole Mexicaine offered to the reality of painting was presenting their social scenes in hyperreal size.Canvas and frames were too small a room to breathe.They chose walls.And at times if they lost walls due to differences with owners,like Rockefellers,they moved to larger scales and national dominions,as this was the case with Diego Rivera.

Rivera,born november 24 in Guanajuato,was the most celebrated of the three major mexican muralists.

He was larger than life in reality,and in his hyperreality,and became even larger with dramas of love and marriage with Frieda Khalo,the Reverent Dame of Mexican painting,dpicted in the movie:Frieda.

Diego Rivera first joined the group of School of Paris in Monparnasse.

On return to Mexico,Rivera rediscovered himself through the rich history of Mayans ,Aztecs and their ancient art,and selected the walls of buildings,inside and outside,to express his socio-populist views.

This search and performance pioneered a dynamic school of the art,in which Jose Clemente Orozco(1883-1949) and Sequeiros,among others contributed in doctrines and executions.Rufino Tamayo(1899-1991),and the Brazilian neo-realist artist Candido Portinari also contributed to this school .They  expanded the folk images and their hardship, through the world.Diego Rivera died 1957 and left his legacy in Mexico,Latin America.caribean Islands and the whole world of the art.

I have mentioned somewhere else that one of the biggest collection of Mexican Muralists I ever visited was in Tehran Museum of Fine arts/Musee Honarhaye Ziba.This was after revolution and at  that time I published two articles on the subject in our art and literary publications:Farhang Novin and Iran Honar,and tried to follow them laterin different countries  and continents,but never forgot the memories of that gorgeous exhibition of Tehran in 1358/1979.

I hope they are still there

.When Pablo Neruda was The Chilean Consul in Mexico 1940-1943,he started a close friendship with Rivera-Khalo,to write a poem for them .I also published a translation of this poem in my book:

Pablo Neruda's Love Poems,Tr.F.Soleimani and A Mohit,Yushij 1364/1985,pp 38-39,

under the title of :Dusk 2

(originally from:100 Love Poems LXXVI,pp 160-161)

See More:

www.mypabloneruda.blogspot.com/spanish/english

www.faramarzsoleimani.blogfa.com/farsi
a new translation of this poem will be published soon.

TOULOUSE-LAUTREC

HENRY de TOULOUSE-LAUTREC,French artist
b.24 nov 1864,Albi
d.9 sep 1901
The chronicler of parisian demi-monde,Lautrec spent times in Monmartre with models and also painting prostitute.He was Andy Warhol of his time,and a close friend of absinth,.But hiscolored pencil circus  drawings,lithographs,poster and paintings of clowns and clowness,people of the pleasure times and places remained to make his name a household of French painting.once someone said Lautrec's art all are painted in absinth.
The artist of human figure died of syphilis at age of 37 ,in Chateau de Malromeat Celeyran.No way you can call him sentimental,but he was interested in his characters to the degree of being compassionate with them.

RENE MAGRITTE's SILENT SIRENS

from 21 november 1898
to 15 august 1967
RENE MAGRITTE was tempted badly with creation.
Itching all over body
he pulled submerged sirens
out of the wave on the rocks
and made no comments
between the lines
while nursing them.
Not much of story left
but kisses goodbye
in silence.
What is this constant cry then
for rituals of love?!
An there were clouds
penetrating windows
of the world.

Rene Magritte,born at Lessines,in Belgium and a pioneer of L'ecole Blge de Surrealistes,with his countyman:Delavaux,who was born a year before him in 1897 but never reached  the same level of international acclaim,as Magritte.

In Magritte's oeuvres,objects are constantly transformd and leave behind an absurd trace,not always being seen ,but manipulating the viewer's mind.So although precisions are felt,but his anti-painting ,similar to Chirico's,is going  successfully for confusion and tumult.The tumbler,but stays alive and well ,and his sesitivities are brushing ours.That is how Magritte went towards impressionism,although he started with cubism and even futurism.The great visionary did not overlook the east in his vast world,and his Sheherzad,with three impressive rings of eyes and lips, is one of his final oeuvres,painted 1950.
This brief note and the poem above,is  to celebrate Magritte's birthday on November 21,2010
--F.S.

SISLEY SAILED IN AND AWAY

alfred sisley,a french-english  impressionist landscapist paysagist

b.oct 30,1839

d.29 january 1899

Alfred Sisley sailed his soul
in and out and away.
He roared in rainbow
river and the road
to reflect
the routes of our life.
A national of Britany
he was born in Paris,France
He died in
Moret-Sur_loing,in France.
Not only on his canvas
but over most of his life.
France was his home
but not the islands
next door and in
neighborhood.
His landscape,as an impressionist
expanded
every year.
He Renoired.
He Monet-ed.
Then he reached
the unreachable
in a poetical language with
its words and syntax.
Salon was too small scale space for
his style
and so was the world.
He sang
but he was not
a singer
and he died with throat cancer.
Don't we all do
due to being mute
all our life?

VAN GOGH FINALE

vincent van gogh,in one of his final series of paintings, in dejection and unstable temprament,ending in suicide.He died on 29 July 1890

Night is empty
house empty
street empty
the road after passing
empty  empty...
The night you were gone
remained a starry night
forever
Zohreh Khaleghi
Moj Magazine