(«Violinistas» image property of Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)
What you see is a fine art print, this one of «Violinistas» is the acrylic print, but there are other types as well as other items with this image. Pixels (a Fine Art America company) is the only company I use to create and sell my fine art prints. Check out my gallery at Pixels and check it often as I often change the images I place there. Fine art prints by Pixels are high quality and Pixels handles the entire transaction and they ship quickly to you. This is a very affordable way to own original art.
(Image featured is property of Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)
(Image property of Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)
«Sun Rise», as you see it is in the form of an «art print» and available only through Pixels (a part of Fine Art America, the only company that I use to create and sell my fine art prints). There are other types of print available with this image as well as other items. Check out my Pixels gallery, and check it often as I often change the images that I make available. Pixels takes care of the entire transaction and ships to you quickly. This is an affordable alternative that allows you to have original art at home.
(Image featured is property of Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)
(«El Cid»/Rosa Bonheur/Foto/Photo Museo del Prado)
Este lienzo que mide 95 x 76 centímetros y titulado «El Cid» fue pintado por Rosa Bonheur en 1879 y ahora, al fin, está en el museo del Prado en Madrid. Esto hace mucho mejor a ese gran museo, digo yo… Bonheur nació en Burdeos, Francia en 1822. Fue pintora, escultora e ilustradora considerada una animalière. Fue extremadamente popular en su propia época y en vida gozó de gran fama. Esto le permitió ganar muchísima pasta lo suficiente como para comprarse un castillo a las afueras de París, el Château de By donde vivía con su compañera, Anna Klumpke (una de las dos con quien convivio). En el castillo habían leones y muchos otros animales que Bonheur pintaba… Fue una excepcional pintora y muy importante para la historia del arte. Como dije, en su época fue muy conocida pero después fue olvidada y ya es hora que eso se acabe porque hay muchas mujeres artistas, de todas las épocas, que fueron conocidas y después olvidadas. Me alegra que esta obra de Bonheur esté ahora en El Prado, pero creo que faltan muchas más y hay que descolgar muchos cuadros para hacer lugar para muchas mujeres (y hombres también) que merecen estar presentes en esas paredes…
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This canvas, measuring 95 x 76 centimetres and titled «El Cid,» was painted by Rosa Bonheur in 1879 and is now finally at the Prado Museum in Madrid. This greatly enhances that great museum, if you ask me… Bonheur was born in Bordeaux, France in 1822. She was a painter, sculptor, and illustrator considered an animalière. She was extremely popular and enjoyed great fame and recognition as an artist during her lifetime. This allowed her to make a lot of money, enough to buy a castle on the outskirts of Paris, the Château de By, where she lived with her companion, Anna Klumpke (one of the two women with whom she lived). In the castle grounds there were lions and many other animals that Bonheur painted… She was an exceptional painter and very important to the history of art. As I said, in her time she was well known, but then she was forgotten, and it is time for that to end because there are many women artists, from all eras, who were known and then forgotten. I am glad that this work by Bonheur is now at the Prado, but I believe that many more are missing, and many paintings need to be taken down to make room for many women (and men as well) who deserve to be present on those walls…
((«Looking at the Sun» original Art Digital by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)
On this side, the side where the sun does not burn
are the stories…
On that side, where the sunburn has reached through to bone,
are the songs…
On the ocean float away all my worries, illusions, bad dreams and lost hope…
C.2024, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, 08 JAN 2024, Valencia, Spain
Just to remind you, a Euro-Ku is a style I developed back in February 2022 when I tried to write a Japanese poem. But being that I am a Westerner I could not manage to get into the spirit. One cannot write what one is not familiar with. One has to have the experience and the life knowledge to write and one must write what is relative to one’s time and one’s place. But since I loved the idea of brevity, I created the Euro-Ku. It is not a Japanese haiku, it is adapted to our western mind and experience. I invite you to try it. It contains three verses (lines) of any length, but they must fit cohesively with each other and without metaphoric phrases that float away to nowhere. It must stick together like good glue and must be accompanied by an original illustration.
(«Dementes» Art Digital original de Francisco Bravo Cabrera/Derechos Reservados)
La locura se ha apoderado del mundo…más o menos…y nos está desviando del buen camino y hasta cambiándonos la cultura. ¿Por qué digo esto? Venga, comenzaré diciendo que, sin dudas, hoy en día vivimos en tiempos de oscurantismo, y de gran atraso moral, cívico y cultural. Esta época se colma de imbecilidades que nos han hecho retroceder hasta más allá de la edad media. Ahora resulta que todo ofende, todo irrita y todo molesta. La sociedad se ha acostumbrado a que el “Big Brother” la proteja de todo mal.
Ya no tienes que pensar mucho che, ¿Para qué? El hermano mayor, o sea, el gobierno, piensa por ti y te cuida. Mare meua, ¡Como nos cuidan! Bueno, tanto es que…para nuestro bien…nos prohíben ver ciertos vídeos, nos ponen avisos antes de ponernos un reportaje, para que las imágenes no nos hieran las sensibilidades, nos censuran la lectura, las pelis etcétera etcétera y ya estoy hasta de esto hasta el forro de las narices.
La libertad que todo el mundo occidental ganó durante la época de los “hippies”, (la década de los 1960), nos la han robado. Y ni tanto, la hemos entregado sin pelear por ella. Nos embobaron con tantas chucherías electrónicas…los “smart phones”…que ni nos dimos cuenta que toda esa mierda nos la habían cambiado por nuestro sentido común. Nos han hecho olvidar los tiempos cuando queríamos ser libres, especialmente del “establishment”, digamos de ellos, del sistema, de los burócratas, de los generales, de los policías y de la puta que los parió. Ahora somos todo lo contrario, somos los niños bitongos, bien portaditos, los pringaos que aspiramos a lo “políticamente correcto”. Somos borregos.
Yo no quiero ofender a nadie, pero coño ¿Será que la gente ya no sabe defenderse? O ¿Habrá perdido el sentido del humor o el sentido común? Jejeje… El sentido común es el menos común de los sentidos y cuando se pierde no se recupera fácilmente. Hace falta someterse a un psicoanálisis intenso y a muchos otros tratamientos para volver a la normalidad.
No quieren que hablemos de lo que ellos denominan temas engañosos o controvertidos, digamos las teorias conspiranoicas. Bueno, muchas se convirtieron en grandes verdades. Pero bueno, de esas…supuestas…mentiras nos protegen, pero no de los malos ejemplos que salen en casi todas las series, mini-series, pelis y programas de televisión. Hacerle pensar a los críos que a los quince años ya son adultos y pueden hacer lo que les salga, eso no lo censuran. Tampoco censuran la violencia, y no hablo de los reportajes si no de la violencia gratuita, ficticia y que conduce a más violencia. No censuran los videojuegos que incitan a los malos comportamientos a la holgazanería y a la no-productividad. No censuran las estupideces que han llevado a muchos…especialmente en la tele…a dirigirse a los Españoles y a las Españolas, cuando todo el mundo sabe que el plural siempre ha sido masculino. Ademas hablar asi no adelanta ni un apice la causa feminista, al contrario, la lleva a la ridiculez.
Estamos en un salón sin puertas, como el que creo Sartre en “Huis clos” (“A puerta cerrada”). Dentro estamos flotando en un ambiente lleno de todas las estupideces del mundo y nosotros nutriéndonos de ellas, absorbiéndolas hasta por osmosis. Y lo peor es que la puerta no está cerrada del todo, se puede abrir, pero como estamos tan acondicionados a obedecer, ni siquiera hacemos el esfuerzo por pirarnos…
Si, se han soltado los dementes, al fin han roto los portones del manicomio y se han fugado y los loqueros se han quedado jugando videojuegos y vapeando con el dedo en la nariz…
(Image property of Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved0
This drawing, «JaZzArt With Violin» is something else I’ve got to say, and now it is available (limited time only) as a fine art print. I use Fine Art America/Pixels as the only company to create and sell my fine art prints. They offer many types of fine art prints as well as many other items, and they handle the entire transaction and ship to you quickly. It is a phenomenal way to own original art in an affordable manner. Check out my gallery at Pixels, and I suggest you do it often as I change the images often as well…
(«Demented» an original Art Digital by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)
Madness has taken over the world…more or less…and is derailing our culture and our lives. Why do I think…and say…that? Well, I’ll start by explaining that these days are dark days indeed. We are in the age of mindlessness and stupidity. We have regressed further back than the dark Middle Ages.
Why? Because now everything offends, everything irritates sensibilities, everything threatens to knock us off our balance and catapult us into the void. Society has succumbed to the aid of «Big Brother».
Brother man! Now you don’t have to think that much! What for! Big Brother does that for you and more so, he takes good care of you. For your own good you can no longer watch videos that were on YouTube that dealt with unreal topics and lies such as «conspiracy theories», (although many turned out to be true). For your benefit the internet has shrunk so that you won’t be faced with misleading lies that might misguide you. Big Brother has even placed black screens and disclosures on news items that might hurt your sensibilities or shock you…
But they haven’t sheltered you or your children from the bad examples that they portray on most programmes, series, movies and music. No, that’s ok, it’s for the kids enjoyment! They haven’t protected you from the gratuitous violence of videogames that lead to laziness, lack of productivity and improper behaviour…
The freedom that the Western World gained during the age of the «hippies» (think of the 60’s) has been stolen from us. No! Wait! Not stolen, good grief! We gave it away without a fight! They got us drunk of mobile phones and all sorts of other gadgets that we just gave it all away in exchange for having «information» in the palm of our hands. Information for what? We’re just as stupid as we were before smart phones…
But during those glorious years we wanted to be free of the «establishment», of the government, of the generals, of the police, of the bureaucrats and whatever the fuck engendered them! Now we are sheep, we are well-behaved little idiots repeating their phrases and aspiring to be «politically correct»…
Good grief! Listen mate, I don’t want to offend anybody, but have we lost our ability to defend ourselves? Have we lost our sense of humor or our common sense? Hehehe… common sense is the least common of all the senses, do not you know that? Once you lose your common sense it is practically impossible to get it back, even after multiple sessions of head shrinking…
Folks, we are in a room with no exit, like Sartre wrote in (“Huis clos” – “No Exit”). Inside float all manner of stupidities and we are there taking them all in, even through osmosis. We are so dumbed down we do not even realise that the doors are not really locked, but since we have become accustomed to obedience, we do not even try to escape…
Yes, the loonies have escaped the looney bin, they’ve flown the cuckoo’s nest and the head shrinkers and assistants are too busy with a finger up their nose while they vape and play videogames online…
Acabamos de perder a «Colita», (Isabel Steva Hernández) murió el 31 de diciembre (2023)… Nació en Barcelona en 1940… A los 17 años se fue a Francia y estudió en la Sorbonne pero regreso a Catalunya e hizo amistad con varios y reconocidos fotógrafos como Xavier Miserachs. Con Miserachs trabajó un año de laboratorista y estilista (1961)… En 1962 hizo amistad con la bailaora de flamenco Carmen Amaya cuando ella trabajaba en el archivo de la peli «Los Tarantos» de Francesc Rovira Beleta… Se trasladó a Madrid donde hizo las fotografías de promoción de Antonio Gades y La Chunga… Colaboro con Caballero Bonald, en el libro «Luces y sombras del flamenco» (1975)… Colaboró con la Escuela de Barcelona… Su primera exposición fue una colectiva de artistas titulada Evocación del modernismo en 1965… Su especialidad fue el retrato y la denominaron la fotógrafa de la Guache divine barcelonesa, un grupo de intelectuales y artistas de izquierda… Realizó portadas de discos de los artistas de la Nova Cançó, especialmente de Joan Manuel Serrat… Su trabajo atravesó mas de cuatro décadas, mas de 40 exposiciones y 30 libros de fotografía… sus trabajos posterior al franquismo fueron realizados en Barcelona donde se dedicó a fotografiar su ciudad y dando testimonio de los cambios culturales y sociales de Catalunya.
Picasso was one of the first, if not «the» first artist to make of himself and his life part of his work. He was not afraid of publicity of any sort, and as he got older he got bolder and bolder. He had pics of him in the bathtub, on the beach and even standing with his dogs in underwear at his front door published. He was the image that would capture hearts and minds alongside his paintings. He started this trend that Dalí took to the extremes about twenty years or so later…
But, how did he become the «genius» of art of the 20th Century? With superb planning skills, tremendous talent (for sure) and with a little help from his friends. Of course we must factor in the amount of good luck that he enjoyed all his life. First he was never a «starving artist» eking an existence in the lower depths of Paris at the turn of the 20th Century. He immediately gained an income and a dealer. He also managed to surround himself with influential people in the arts and in the intellectual circles of the time. He became the darling of the American millionaire art collector Gertrude Stein and he married into the aristocracy. Secondly, he quite clearly planned every step he took in art.
He is remembered for his «Blue Period», for cubism and for the collage. But in effect he went through many «periods». From the blue to the rose to the black (African), and those three overlap a lot, to the more extravagant ones like neo-classicist, cubist, surrealist, war year paintings, the Françoise period, the Dora Maar period and ultimately to the end of life. He claimed to never seek a style, that God, the ultimate creator, never focused on a style. He created a lizard and a snow leopard, a rose and a scorpion. Picasso saw himself as such a creator…
So, as you have noticed I am not filling these posts with «facts» that you can research on Wikipedia or other books. After all there are many books about Picasso out there. Some are very, very good, others are rubbish. What I am trying to do is to give you some perspective as well as my understanding and appreciation of the man and of his art.
One of the paintings that made Pablo Picasso a household name was «Guernica». It is thought that he painted it after succumbing to a maddening impulse after hearing about the bombing of that city by the German Luftwaffe, in support of Franco’s troops during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Well, it was not exactly like that. The title alludes to that historical event, but not the painting, not really.
Picasso was commissioned to paint it by Max Aub, the Director of Fine Arts at the petition of the government of the Spanish Second Republic. It was to be exhibited at the International Exposition of 1937 in Paris. The aim was to attract good public attention to the republican cause during the Spanish Civil War. The painting itself is based upon the «Minotauromaquia» an etching and engraving that he had done in 1935.
(Photo Fundación Juan March)
All I can say, in conclusion, is that Picasso is my favourite, no doubt about it, a pillar for my art development, education and inspiration, and a philosophical source that enlightens me. But I will leave you with a view of some of the things he did towards the end of his life that will leave you scratching your head and thinking, «is this the work of the genius of the 20th Century?»
JaZzArt en València 