JaZzArt en València

Acrylic on Canvas H60cm W45cm Artist “ Francisco Bravo a Cabrera”

Zingarella

OMNIA CAELUM STUDIOS VALENCIA PRESENTS

Cheers…

Spring in Valencia, España

Spring in Valencia, España

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…

What is happening in this world today… I have not a freaking clue! But here are some of the things I have had to put up with while watching the «news» on the tele…

TRUMP ARRESTED! (finally)

No one is above the law Mr. Trump! Not even rich Manhattanites like you. I really don’t care if you go to jail or not, although you deserve nothing less, what I want is for them to forbid you from ever gaining public office again…

GUNS AND MASS SHOOTINGS IN THE UNITED STATES

And reference the most horrible and deadly epidemic in the US, the proliferation of firearms, all I can say is that guns kill! They are made for killing and whoever doesn’t believe guns kill, well then they should go off to war with a frisbee… Less guns means less gun deaths; no guns, no deaths, no mass shootings and a much safer environment. Can evil people still get guns to commit crimes? Yes, but it would be harder for them to do so, therefore still safer for the civilian population…

MADNESS IN FLORIDA

And for those in Florida, or anywhere else, that think Michelangelo’s “David” is pornography, all I can say is you need some culture! The “David” not only is a masterpiece of Renaissance art but a religious symbol. So the perverted mind is yours…

TRANSGENDERED ATHLETES

And finally, a transgender man is not a female and cannot/should not be allowed to compete as a female in athletic events… No matter what they deem politically correct, a phrase I’ve no tolerance for, there are only two genders: male and female, as God made us. You don’t believe in God? You’re a denier. No one’s really an atheist, it’s just a position some take. Even Communist leader of the USSR Nikita Khrushchev said: “I am an atheist and God knows it!”

Nino Bravo murió el 16 de abril 1973 a los 28 años. Hace cincuenta años y lo conmemoraremos en València con una serie de conciertos. El grande será el 12 de abril (a las 17 horas) en la Plaza del Ayuntamiento y otro en Les Arts el 27 de abril. Habrán conciertos gratis en otros centros de la ciudad realizados por la Concejalía de Envejecimiento Activo del Ayuntamiento de València

Aquí os dejo un enlace a un articulo publicado en Valencia Secreta que avisa de todos los conciertos y mas…

Gracias…

Cuadros de la Crucifixión existen desde la época del imperio romano y en el arte religiosa desde el Siglo IV (A.D.). Usualmente incluyen a la Virgen Maria y a otros que miran con tristeza y desespero. En tiempos más recientes se han visto escenas de la Crucifixión en filmes y en programas de television. Lamentablemente muchas veces se usan estas imágenes religiosas irrespetuosamente o para causar escandalo o choques.

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Depictions of the Crucifixion exist all the way back to Roman Empire times. In religious art they begin around the IVth Century and they usually include the Virgin Mary and saddened onlookers. In more modern times we have seen such scenes in movies and television. Lamentably many times the image of the Crucifixion has been used disrespectfully to cause scandal and for shock value.

Gracias…

Cheers…

Nino Bravo nació un día 3 de agosto de 1944 en Ayelo de Malferit (Valencia), y se despidió de nosotros el 16 de abril de 1973 en Cuenca.

Esta es la canción de hoy, jueves, pues hemos llegado ya a la mitad de la semana.

«Un beso y una flor» de 1972… Si la escuchas bien, notaras, como lo he hecho yo, que la letra es algo profética…

Gracias…

A una de mis ciudades favoritas del mundo donde he vivido muchas experiencias y alegrias, Nueva Orleans…

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To one of my favourite cities in the world, where I have experienced many things and much happiness, New Orleans…

Gracias…

Cheers…

THE SPARK

Because the world is full of selfish laughter,
I truly hope the Earth won’t cry.
Because the waters have been filled with man’s atrocities,
I truly hope the Seas won’t dry.
Because the fires have consumed a million trees, a million acres,
I truly hope Nature won’t die.
Because the smoke has filled the winds with ash and filth,
I truly hope that we won’t die.

A voice breaks through the silence of the dawn,
an alternative to laughter…
A word attempts to form upon the crest of waves,
a syllable struggles between the white and blue…
And bodies crumble as the flames grow faster,
while a melody breaks through with fury…
A tiny mouth, a tiny smile will brave the smoke and ash,
amidst the ruins, among the ghosts…

And now I see the shadows forming,
shadows in eternal darkness coming
to frighten those forgotten in the smoke, the fire, or the laughter.
Voices in the fires, voices in the trees, voices in the breeze,
passionate,
vulgar,
loud,
they penetrate each pore and shine
like candles in cathedrals.

Insanity
is alive with pomp and fulgor and in love with pleasure,
with your skin,
with wine,
while I reach, with withered hands spread skyward for a lantern in the night
for luck to win your mercy,
for rhymes to win your heart,
for that smallest, tiny particle of life beyond imagination,
the spark…

C.2022, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, 04 APR 2023, València, España