#art, Camille Pissarro

(Explorando por Turquía/Exploring in Turkey/All Rights Reserved)

Gracias…

Cheers…

#art, «Drink to Me, Drink to My Health…

(Photo by André Villers/1957/La Razón)

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.

(Photo RTVE.es/Pablo Picasso bathing/08 FEB 1956/© David Douglas Duncan 2011)

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.

(Photo The New Barcelona Post)

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…

(Photo by David Douglas Duncan/1957/Pinterest)

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.

(Photo by David Douglas Duncan/Pinterest)

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…

Dear Diary, page 66 (Or Route 66, take your pick)

(Image: detail from the original painting “Danny Boy” by FBC/All Rights Reserved)

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!”

Gran homenatge a Nino Bravo a València – Gran homenaje a Nino Bravo en València

(Nino Bravo – Foto Cadena SER)

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…