JaZzArt en València

The greatest, by far. If you do not know Willie Nelson, well, I am here to make the introductions. This man is the greatest living American singer-songwriter, performer, history-making dude from Abbott, Texas! Wow! He is 91 years old, God bless him, and he is still «On the Road Again» like he has been for most of his phenomenal career. But he is a man of music, authentic US music, country, folk, in other words, good time music that speaks of the common man, trains, heartbreaks, love, rambling, drinking and all the good things in life, so let’s take a listen. Just so you know, I have been a fan since I first heard him and still am.

CHEERS

Venga, que no, que no he nacido en 1957, pero…

Mientras investigaba, y estudiaba la historia contemporánea, descubrí que en ese año pasaron muchas cosas muy interesantes, especialmente para un fan de los Beatles de toda la vida.

Dale, échale un vistazo al vídeo y dime lo que piensas de esas cosas…

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Well, no, I was not born in 1957, but upon researching history I discovered that a lot of interesting things happened that year, especially for me, being a life-long Beatles fan!

Take a look and tell me what you think…

GRACIAS – CHEERS

Cristina nació en Puertollano, Ciudad Real en 1949. Esta fotógrafa fenomenal pertenece al grupo de la Agencia Magnum Photos, de hecho la primera persona de nacionalidad española a pertenecer a ese grupo de fotógrafos elite… Se le conoce por sus fotografías de los ritos tradicionales y fiestas contemporáneas. Sus primeros trabajos se centraban en España, como lo refleja su libro España oculta de1989… Comenzó, en 1968, a estudiar pintura en la escuela de Bellas Artes de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Uno de sus profesores fue el gran pintor español Antonio López. Posteriormente hizo estudios de fotografía en la Escuela de Artes y Oficios… Más adelante fue profesora en ambas instituciones… Cristina es miembro de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, ha recibido el Premio Nacional de Fotografía (1996), la Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes (2005),​ y el Premio Ortega y Gasset a su trayectoria profesional en 2024. Además en 2018 se convirtió en la primera mujer nombrada doctora honoris causa en la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha… Por todo esto, y mucho mas que os urjo que busquéis de ella, Cristina tiene que ser parte de esta serie y tiene que ser conocida por sus méritos y su gran contribución a la historia de la fotografía.

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Cristina was born in Puertollano, Ciudad Real, Spain, in 1949. This phenomenal photographer is a member of the Magnum Photos agency. In fact she is the first person of Spanish nationality to belong to this elite group of photographers… She is known for her photographs of traditional rituals and contemporary festivals. Her early works focused on Spain, as reflected in her book España oculta from 1989, later she expanded to other countries and other continents… In 1968, she began studying painting at the School of Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid. One of her professors was the great Spanish painter Antonio López. She later studied photography at the School of Arts and Crafts… Subsequently, she became a professor at both institutions… Cristina is a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, has received the National Photography Award (1996), the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts (2005), and the Ortega y Gasset Award for her professional career in 2024. Additionally, in 2018 she became the first woman to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Castilla-La Mancha… For all these reasons, and much more that I urge you to look up about her, Cristina must be part of this series and should be recognized for her merits and her significant contribution to the history of photography.

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GRACIAS – CHEERS

“The Picasso Style”

It can be said that after the neo-classicist period, which mostly coincided with his relationship and marriage to Olga Khokhlova, Picasso went into his own. Some may say that the paintings of the years, say from about 1954, after the relationship with Françoise Gilot ended, to the end of his days in 1973, are expressionistic, surreal and some even said abstract. Of course any real art historian will tell you that Picasso never painted a single abstract painting. He never said a kind thing about abstract, a form he clearly did not like. However, without a doubt there is much abstract art within his figurative canvases. But, no matter what the «experts» say, the accepted name for this period in the painter’s life is the “Picasso Style”.

Picasso met Françoise Gilot in Paris during WWII while living in the Rue de Grands Augustins. She was twenty-one years old and had already started painting by then and was very much impressed with Picasso who, by that time was already a well established painter. I am not going to go into all the ins and outs of their relationship. After all it lasted for ten years (1943-1953) and it was rather stormy, to say the least. But during that time, like he always did, he painted his partner, family and surroundings.

Although they never married they did have two children, Claude (1947) and Paloma (1949). Françoise was the only woman who actually got up and left Picasso. He was astonished and could not believe it. He even said that no woman ever left him. After all he was the man who said that women were either goddesses or door-mats. But Gilot was not a door-mat, as he had thought of her, and left him and never came back.

Of course Françoise was the subject of many paintings. The most famous, of her many portraits was “La Femme Fleur” of 1946. As you may know, Picasso was an autobiographical painter. He once even alluded to the fact that his diary were his paintings. He painted his wives, companions, partners, dealers, children, his surroundings, the things of his time and everything and anything connected with his life. He truly captured the spirit of the times he lived in and the people and things that existed around him. I suppose he would have been an avid Instagrammer in these days.

To help him deal with the end days, which were certainly en route, although still quite distant, Jacqueline Roque, whom he met in 1953. And in 1955, after his first wife Olga Khokhlova, whom he refused to divorce for financial reasons, passed away, he was free to marry Jacqueline. Jacqueline took excellent care of him and posed for a surprising 400 portraits, some of them not very flattering. She remained with him until the end of his days.

Pablo Picasso died in Mougins on the 8th of April 1973 at the age of 91 years. Jacqueline was not allowed to bury him there, so she chose his last resting place to be the grounds of the Château of Vauvenargues.

Lamentably, in 1986, Jacqueline took her own life in Mougins where they had lived.

CHEERS

Y mira que hay que les encanta hacerlo…

A few days ago a friend and fellow blogger on WP suggested I look into a woman artist from the United Kingdom who I did not know, and I certainly did and here she is: Beryl Cook. She was born on September 10 of 1926 in Egham, Surrey, England, and although she claimed not to have had any «formal» art training, she painted very well. Her paintings are of everyday people, sometimes a bit bizarre but almost always with a comical twist.

Although her bulky figures might remind one of Botero, (another one who claimed to be self-taught), in my opinion Cook’s work is much more interesting. She painted volume in her outlandish and extroverted characters. Beryl Cook was influenced, according to her own words, by the work of Sir Stanley Spencer and Edward Burra, both highly trained and successful British painters.

Cook moved to Plymouth in 1968 and at the Plymouth Arts Centre had her first exhibition. The success of that exhibition led to her being contracted to the Portal Gallery in London (1976) where she exhibited until her death in 2008. In 1995 she was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE). Channel 4 News produced, in 2005, a short film of her work and the Royal Mail used one of her paintings for a first class postage stamp.

Although I did not know much about this painter, she is certainly well known in the UK and her work has achieved a wide level of success. Can it be that because she is a woman artist she has not been taken as seriously as men in Art History? I don’t know. But her country did take her seriously. So I ask myself, why did I not hear of her in Art School? In any event, I like her work and I wanted to share it with you and find out what you think.

I would highly suggest that if you are interested in art, either as an artist, student, lover of art or collector, that you look further into the work of Beryl Cook.

CHEERS – CHEERS – CHEERS

(Thank you M.)

In Macca’s song, “Picasso’s Last Words” it says that the grand old painter died at three o’clock in the morning and that his last words were “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink anymore.” This song, recorded in Nigeria in 1973, was included in Macca’s best album (my opinion), Band on the Run.

This April marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Picasso and of the song. Good grief, time does fly! Picasso continues to be a major reference to art. His paintings still sell for millions of euros or dollars* and the influence that he exerted on the art world is still palpable, alive, well felt. And although we can say that Picasso was a man of the XIXth Century who conquered the XXth, his philosophy, aesthetics and artistry have seeped easily and clearly into the XXIst Century.

There is no other artist in art history that has as many museums with his name and dedicated to his art. There are six, some I have visited, there is the Picasso museum in Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga, Paris, Antibes and the Kunstmuseum of Munster and a new one coming to Aix-en-provence. Picasso said once that if they gave him a museum he would fill it. He has filled six, and soon a seventh.

Frankly I am not surprised as I knew that Picasso was a very hard working artist. We don’t really know, to be exact, the amount of work he produced. And if we include his ceramics and sculptures, his book illustrations, theatre designs, ballet designs, et al, we would reach incredible numbers. Books, (oh books!), say that he created 13,500 paintings and designs, 100,000 engravings or lithographs, 34,000 illustrations for books, 300 sculptures or ceramics, but there may be more, or less…

Now, when the art world began to go in different directions, say around the time of Pollock’s Action Painting and other vanguards, Picasso was introduced to all of them but he rejected them all. He became an “outsider” and was left behind as a major player in the new emerging art world. So he re-created himself as the “buffoon.” He appeared several times on the cover of TIME and LOOK magazines, sometimes with flowers in his ears, disguised as a bullfighter or even in his underwear. He became a media sensation, showing his body at the age of seventy five.

I think that no matter how they tried, no one could contain the grand old master. Only death could and would hold him back. A death he had seen, accepted and painted. With that in mind it is no wonder he closed his “final curtain” with this most precise and nostalgic phrase: “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink anymore.” And I truly thank Paul McCartney for turning it into a great song.

CHEERS

Una obra de esta artista llegó a ser la obra más cara de la historia en 2018. Fue «Propped» (de 1992) y se vendió (en subasta) por 10 millones de euros. Pero no importa, es una mujer y los hombres ganan más pues en la lista de los que mas valen están solo hombres. Algunos de estos son Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst y Banksy, artistas de los cuales no quiero ni acordarme porque uno es un empresario, el otro es un artista con poca imaginación y gusto y el tercero es un «activista» contra sistema que vive muy bien gracias al sistema. La obra de Jenny Saville si la considero arte, buena y verdadera, además de única, original, y muy bien hecha. Saville es una artista consagrada y muy bien preparada. No es una grafitera ni una a la que se le hubiera ocurrido meter un tiburón en un tanque de formol, ni tampoco hace un conejito de acero inoxidable (o de que se yo…), como el de los payasos en los cumpleaños de los críos.

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This artist had the highest selling work by a woman artist in 2018 when her 1992 painting «Propped» sold at auction for 10 million euros. But it did not matter, male artists sell much higher and she was obscured by artists the likes of Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Banksy. These are «artists» which I prefer not to even think about. One is more of a business man than anything else, the other has very little imagination and taste and the third one is an «activist» against the «establishment» which has made him very, very rich. Jenny Saville is a real artist, trained and hard working. She is unique, original and well committed to her art. She is no graffiti activist or one who puts a shark in a tank of formaldehyde or one whose workers have created a bunny made of stainless steel (or whatever).

Jenny Saville nació en Cambridge, Reino Unido en 1970 y forma parte de los Young British Artists.

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Jenny Saville was born in Cambridge, United Kingdon in 1970. She is a member of the Young British Artists.

Es una artista que hay que conocer porque es joven, todavía esta trabajando y lográndose un lugar en la historia del arte.

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This is an artist we must all come to know. She is young and working and achieving for herself a place in Art History.

OMNIA CAELUM STUDIOS VALENCIA PRESENTA LA SERIE DE MUJERES ARTISTAS/ OMNIA CAELUM STUDIOS VALENCIA PRESENTS WOMEN ARTISTS SERIES

Aquí os dejo un corto vídeo de dos de mis artistas favoritas, Dorothea Tanning y Louise Bourgeois…

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Here I leave you with a short video about two of my favourite artists: Dorothea Tanning and Louise Bourgeois…

Gracias…

Cheers…

From Málaga to A Coruña and from there to Barcelona… From the prestigious Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Madrid), to Els Quatre Gats and from Barcelona to Paris… From a start at the «bateau lavoir» in Montmartre (1900) to the end at Mougins in 1973…

In a «nutshell» this was Pablo Picasso’s life. The child prodigy who grew up to be the «genius» of the 20th Century, the inventor of the collage, cubism and who opened the door to many of the art vanguards of the 20th Century was a card-carrying communist (but I won’t hold that against him), a womaniser, a…supposed…abuser and an infatigable artist who towards the end of his life decided to cannibalise most of art history…

Welcome to this post about my main and most important reference (as an artist), Pablo Ruiz Picasso. He was born in 1881 in Málaga, a small, provincial city in Andalucía, Spain. He died in a castle in southern France 91 years later. He lived life with abundance. He painted voraciously. His passion for life extended to many things including bullfighting, wine, women and clowning around. He must have had quite a unique sense of humour.

They say he was a child prodigy, but I don’t really think so. It’s hard to judge him against other children as we’ve no samples to view. But I can say that his father…who was an artist and an art professor…trained him well and taught him all he knew. So the young Pablo had a huge advantage over other children who might have also aspired to be the «genius» of art that Pablo ultimately became.

Here are some of his early works…

Although the last two show signs of knowledge, ability and technique, the first one doesn’t strike me as being the work of a child prodigy. Actually none of them do. With the training Pablo received, the coaching and the supervision of his father, it is no surprising he painted so well as a youth.

Part two coming very soon!

CHEERS…