(Foto*/Photo de/by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/Derechos Reservados/All Rights Reserved)
El arte de la pintura y la escultura… Los museos se llenan… Por muchos barrios de nuestras ciudades murales anuncian que el are le encanta a la gente… Se subastan cuadros por millones y millones de euros… Las academias particulares están por doquier y entrenando a futuros artistas… Y hasta las facultades de Bellas Artes se llenan de aspirantes, jóvenes de todas las edades que quieren llegar a ser artistas. Por eso digo que el arte es un universo y aquí está el mío…
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Art, painting and sculpture… The museums are always full… On the walls of our cities murals announce that art is loved by people… Paintings are auctioned for millions and millions of pounds… Private academies are everywhere training future artists… And even the Schools of Fine Arts are filled with aspirants, young people of all ages wanting to become artists. That’s why I say that art is a universe and here’s mine…
Este gran artista, excéntrico, místico y fashionista, fue buscador empedernido de la pura esencia de las cosas en el arte y en la vida… Johannes Itten nació en Suiza en 1888 y fue profesor en la Bauhaus en Ulm, Alemania. Enseñó el curso preliminar de 1919 a 1922. Este curso introductorio sirvió para enseñar a los estudiantes los fundamentos y las características de los materiales, de la composición y del color… Durante estos años publicó su libro «El Arte del Color», que describía su rueda de colores compuesta por doce colores… Itten fue seguidor de una secta (de los EE. UU.) derivada del zoroastrismo llamada Mazdaznan. Era estrictamente vegetariano y practicaba la meditación para alcanzar el equilibrio interior, que según él era la fuente de toda su inspiración artística… Su misticismo y enfoque único hacia el arte influyeron en muchos de sus estudiantes… Itten falleció en Suiza en 1967.
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This great artist was an eccentric, mystical and fashionable searcher of the pure essence of things… Johannes Itten was born in Switzerland in 1888 and was a professor of the Bauhaus in Ulm, Germany. He taught the preliminary course from 1919 to 1922. This introductory course served to teach the students the fundamentals and characteristics of materials, composition and colour… During these years he published his book «The Art of Colour» which described his colour wheel which consisted of twelve colours… Itten was a follower of a sect (from the US) derived from Zoroatrianism called Mazdaznan. He was a strict vegetarian and practised meditation to achieve inner balance, which according to him was the source of all his artistic inspiration… His mysticism and unique approach to art influenced many of his students… Itten died in 1967 in Switzerland.
(«Autorretrato XJ1″/«Self-Portrait XJ1»/ Art Digital de/by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/Derechos Reservados/All Rights Reserved)
¿Por qué pintar? Si no los sabes, te lo diré. Pinto para crear, creo para hacer arte y el arte la hago para venderla. Si alguno piensa que yo pinto solo por el «amor al arte» se ha equivocado completamente. Si, le tengo amor al arte, sin duda alguna, es mi pasión, mi vida, pero también mi forma de vivir. Nunca utilicé el arte como hobby o pasatiempo. Siempre me lo tomé muy en serio y muy en forma de profesión, y para perseguirla la estudié a fondo en la universidad académica y en la de la vida. Nadie nace siendo artista, ni nadie nace con talento. Se nace con inclinaciones y el talento se desarrolla currándolo y mucho que hay que currarlo. No penséis en «genios precoces» como Mozart o Beethoven porque gente así no nace todos los días. La mayoría de los so-llamados «genios» del arte or del ballet clásico o de la música se hacen gracias a su esfuerzo. El arte es faena. Entonces si me preguntas que por qué pinto, te diré que por que no lo puedo evitar, es mi faena, mi profesión y mi manera de comunicarme con el mundo que me rodea y sobre todo porque me pagan muy bien…
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Why do I paint? If you don’t know, I’ll tell you. I paint to create, I create to make art, and I make art to sell it. If anyone thinks that I paint only for the «love of art,» they are completely mistaken. Yes, I love art, without a doubt, it’s my passion, my life, but also my way of living. I never used art as a hobby or pastime. I always took it very seriously and as a profession, and I pursued it. I studied it thoroughly in academic uni and in the uni of life. No one is born an artist, nor is anyone born with talent. You are born with inclinations and talent is developed by working hard, and you really have to work hard at it. Don’t think of «precocious geniuses» like Mozart or Beethoven because people like that don’t come along every day. Most of the so-called «geniuses» of art or classical ballet or music become so thanks to their effort. Art is work. So if you ask me why I paint, I’ll tell you that I can’t help it, it’s my work, my profession, and my way of communicating with the world around me, and above all because I get paid very well…
(«Self-Portrait 08» by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)
FINE ART AMERICA is the only company I use to sell my Fine Art Prints. The image below is the «framed print» of my original «art digital painting» of «Monk in Paris» so check it out…
(«Monk in Paris» by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)
(Original painting by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)
I raise my glass to the biggest scoundrel, and to the biggest coward I will say, three sets of eyes are watching you, count every minute, ‘cause you’ll never see the rising sun again.
(C.2024, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, 16 APR 2024, Valencia, Spain)
El tío tiene 93 años y es un genio del Jazz y se llama Sonny Rollins… Nació en el barrio de Harlem en la ciudad de Nueva York en 1930 y es saxofonista y compositor… Lo ha hecho todo, desde tocar el bop el hard hard bop, el «free Jazz» al estilo de Ornette Coleman, a cantar acompañado por el trompetista/cornetista Don Cherry… Rollins ha tocado con los más grandes del Jazz, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon y John Coltrane… Entre sus composiciones, consideradas estándares del Jazz se encuentran temas como «St. Thomas», «Oleo», «Doxy», «Airegin» y «Tenor Madness»… Sonny Rollins, de padres de las Islas Vírgenes (de EEUU), comenzó a dar clases de saxofón a los ocho años… Ha tenido, y sigue teniendo, grandes éxitos, en una carrera que comenzó en 1949, pero ya desde 2012 no actúa porque tiene problemas respiratorios… En 1981 grabó varios temas del álbum Tattoo You, de Los Rolling Stones, como «Waiting on a Friend«, aunque sin aparecer en los créditos del disco… En 1983 la National Endowment for the Arts lo nombró «Maestro de Jazz»… ¡Un autentico fenómeno!
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The cat is 93 years old and he is a freakin genius! His name is Sonny Rollins… He was born in the Harlem neighbourhood of Manhattan, NYC, in 1930. If you did not know, Rollins is a saxophonist and composer… He has done it all, from playing bop and hard bop, to «free Jazz» in the style of Ornette Coleman, to singing accompanied by trumpeter/cornetist Don Cherry… Rollins has played with the greatest in Jazz, including Roy Hanes, Bud Powell, Fats Navarro, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, and John Coltrane… Among his compositions, considered Jazz standards, are songs like «St. Thomas», «Oleo», «Doxy», «Airegin», and «Tenor Madness»… Sonny Rollins, whose parents are from the US Virgin Islands, started taking saxophone lessons at the age of eight… He has had, and continues to have, great success in a career that began in 1949, but he has not performed since 2012 due to respiratory problems… In 1981, he recorded several tracks for the album Tattoo You by The Rolling Stones, such as «Waiting on a Friend», although he did not appear in the album credits… In 1983, the National Endowment for the Arts named him a «Jazz Master»… A true phenomenon!
“Jazz is really America’s classical music,” he said. “Like our country itself and especially like the people who created it, jazz is a music born of struggle but played in celebration.” (Bill Clinton at the 40th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival)
Well, if Bill Clinton said it I am buying it! The greatest president that ever served the US talking about the greatest musical invention of the US! Wow! It cannot get better than that! Unless Jerry Lewis was there to dance and sing…
(NPR)
But I want to bring you the music of Billy Taylor, a great ambassador of Jazz. He was an American pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was a distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville. And since 1994 the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. So I think this man is a true authority on music, as well as on the prevalence, complexity and compositional qualities of Jazz.
Dr. Billy Taylor, (he received his Masters and Doctorate degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst) was a jazz educator. He gave lectures in many colleges and universities and served on panels, travelling the world as an authentic jazz ambassador. It was said by critic Leonard Feather that «It is almost indisputable that Dr. Billy Taylor is the world’s foremost spokesman for jazz.»
(NPR)
Dr. Billy Taylor was born in North Carolina in 1921… In 1944 he moved to New York City and started playing piano professionally with Ben Webster’s Quartet and on his first night with the boys he met Art Tatum. He also worked with Machito and developed a love for Latin Jazz… By 1946 he was the house pianist at Birdland and played with major stars like Charlie Parker, J.J. Johnson, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. Actually he was Birdland’s longest lasting piano player… In 1949 he published his first book, a textbook about bebop piano styles… Then in 1952 Billy Taylor composed one of his best known tunes, «I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free«. This tune (song), recorded by Nina Simone was known in the UK as a piano instrumental for the BBC’s «Film…» programme… Dr. Billy Taylor died of a heart attack in Manhattan in 2010.
So, although «classical» music is intrinsically, historically and culturally European, Jazz is intrinsically, historically and culturally American, especially having been «born» in the USA.
Si no lo sabias yo te lo voy a decir… Pues en 2020 la coreógrafa Annabelle López Ochoa creo el ballet Frida para el Dutch National Ballet. La aclamada revista de baile Dance Europe lo nomino para el premio de mejor premier mundial y en 2023 el Dutch National Ballet lo presentó en Los Ángeles. La música para este opus la ha compuesto Peter Salem, compositor de la música de otros ballets como Un tranvía llamado deseo. Frida resulta ser una gran explosion de movimiento y música…como todo ballet…pero con un gran colorido, asociándolo, artísticamente, con la pintora mexicana que tratan de recordar. Yo no lo he visto, pero como trata con alguien relacionado con el mundillo del arte y tiene música, he decidido incluirlo en las entradas de hoy, jueves, dia de la música. Me imagino que este Halloween habrán mas disfraces de Frida que el del año pasado…
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If you didn’t know, I’m going to tell you… Well, in 2020, choreographer Annabelle López Ochoa created the ballet Frida for the Dutch National Ballet. The acclaimed dance magazine Dance Europe nominated it for the best world premiere award, and in 2023 the Dutch National Ballet presented it in Los Angeles. The music for this opus has been composed by Peter Salem, composer of the music for other ballets such as A Streetcar Named Desire. Frida turns out to be a great explosion of movement and music… like any ballet… but with great color, artistically associated with the Mexican painter they are trying to remember. I haven’t seen it, but since it deals with someone related to the art world and has music, I have decided to include it in today’s entries, Thursday, music day. I imagine that this Halloween there will be more Frida costumes than last year’s…
(Foto/Photo Art Digital de/by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/Derechos Reservados/All Rights Reserved)
HABLEMOS DE LAS BUENAS INVERSIONES
Y las mejores inversiones son los cuadros de Gerhard Richter. El valor total de sus obras subastadas (en USD, dólares) es de 214.734.793… Le siguen las obras de Andy Warhol, 197.433.540… las de Yayoi Kusama, 190.513.356… En total las obras post guerra y contemporáneas generaron cinco billones de dólares (USD), mientras que las obras de los Impresionistas y de Arte Moderno generaron 4,5 billones en 2023. Asi que a invertir en los nuevos artistas que seguramente en pocos años sus obras llegaran a valer mucho más que todas estas juntas. El arte mola…
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LET’S TALK ABOUT GOOD INVESTMENTS
And the best investments are Gerhard Richter’s paintings. The total value of his auctioned works (in USD) is 214,734,793… This is followed by Andy Warhol’s works, 197,433,540… Yayoi Kusama’s, 190,513,356… In total, post-war and contemporary works generated five trillion dollars (USD), while Impressionist and Modern Art works generated 4.5 trillion in 2023. So, it’s a good idea to invest in new artists, whose works will surely be worth much more than all of these combined in a few years. Art is cool…
(«Interchange» Willem de Kooning)
HABLEMOS DE LA LOCURA
«Interchange» (1955) de Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) es la segunda obra más cara, hasta ahora, vendida en 2015 por 300 millones de dólares (USD). La más cara sigue siendo «Salvator Mundi» (circa 1500), obra atribuida (por algunos) a Leonardo da Vinci que se subastó (Christie’s NYC/2017) por más de 400 millones de euros. Claro está que hay obras que jamás se venderán y que nunca sabremos su valor monetario, pero asi gira este mundillo del arte en su viaje a través del universo de los sueños…
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LET’S TALK ABOUT MADNESS
«Interchange» (1955) by Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) is the second most expensive artwork. It was number one in in 2015 when it was sold for 300 million dollars (USD) so far. However, the most expensive one now is «Salvator Mundi» (circa 1500), a piece attributed (by some) to Leonardo da Vinci, which was auctioned (Christie’s NYC/2017) for over 400 million euros.Of course there are paintings which will never sell and we will never know their value in currency, but that is how the mad, mad world of art spins across the universe of dreams…
