h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Who were we talking about? Some Spanish dude, wasn't it?

Always happy to go off on tangents! And so was Picasso.

I'm already aware of Gombrich, ed I based some pieces on the monocular depth cues stuff he did. I made little groups of homogenous fields in these shapes within a bigger field where each group told a distinct, but contradictory to the other groups, story about space. The whole thing was in the form of a maze set up in such a way that there was not enough room to manouver in order to deconstruct the illusion/s. I also had reverberating sounds to match the apparent size of each group. It made my mum barf and a fat man got stuck in it stuck in the installation, not the barf.

I'm still here btw and intend on continuing discussions with Ed (and others) but want to do the convo justice!

At the moment I completely taken in by discovering the ancient art of narbling cats. I believe the practice to be illegal in most western countries these days though.

It's OK so long as the cat is anaesthetised first.

Ed,
Sorry, I didn't realise a search for research on ancient statuary would involve so many hits on modern garden decorations and landscaping services. There is a glut of reproductions on the market and it is difficult to locate honest academic sources on the subject. A few even require subscriptions or expensive downloads.

However;
The Romans valued Greek art and culture highly and took pains to recreate it. They used methods similar to that of making concrete to cast marble reproductions of Greek bronze statues (in much the same way modern reproductions are made of 'cast marble').

But the Greeks themselves cast life size bronzes as explained here:
http://library.thinkquest.org/23492/data/bronze.htm

peace
~jwf~





~jwf~

>> ...completely taken in by discovering the ancient art of narbling cats. <<

Please tell me that was a typo and you meant 'marbling'.
Or is 'narbling' some sort of Brit slang I'm not familiar with. I can't find it in any dictionary - many keep referring me to Narbles, a candy.


~jwf~

ED,
PS:
I think this is the guy who proposed the new idea about Greek sculture but again it's a subscription download with this tempting "Summary"

>> Summary. The discovery presented in this paper may reshape the stylistic history of Greek art. It is that the torso and limbs of the Riace Bronzes were cast from life, rather than having been previously modelled in clay. <<


http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2004.00217.x?cookieSet=1&journalCode=ojoa

peace
~jwf~

Oh, indeed - the Greeks did sophisticated bronze statuary. But tghe ones I was thinking of - and which are generelly regarded as the acme are the ones in marble, as the Lely's Venus I linked to.

Also...sometimes the clue is in the title: The Parthenon *Marbles*.



Picasso mainly sculpted in clay, sheet metal and bicycle parts. I'm not aware of any Narble - but I might be wrong.

I'm *determined* thet we're going to get back to him!

worth noting that only very briefly were greek statues of humans anatomically correct and the idealised form so often acquainted with classical art: isn't.

Indeed. Fully in line with Christopher's quote.

( at not immediately spotting the name of the best-selling photographer of all time. )

That really is quite a profound concept, isn't it. Descriptive art destroys the artistic experience. Even representational art has to do something *more* than simply represent, if it's to be any use.

ed. the quote rather assumes that a work cannot be faithfully representative, descriptive in construction if you like AND maintain artistic integrity. you extend the argument well, but the original quote prevents it. the act of describing 'destroys' the potential for art. so by that view the 'something more' cannot be added.

i see that as every bit as irrationally restrictive as the contrasting claim that to be art is has to be representational.

Perhaps you should stick with the "To suggest is to create" bit.

That's what I love about Domain Field. Physically, a collection of metal bars constructed around the forms of people. But you can take so much from the spaces they occupy, moods and meaning. Visual innuendo.

>>> ......<<<

Hey it ain't like they were being used by the locals like that Stone of Scone thingy which left the Scots with nought to sit on for hundreds of years.

~jwf~

Ah...but the one in Edinburgh Castle is a fake...

obviously. No cream or strawberry jam on it so it can't be a real scone.

Is this a clue to ancient celtic trading routes? Deep in the dark days of Anglo-Saxon hegemony there was a secret trade of clotted cream and strawberry jam between the Cornish and the Northmen.

Ah, and perhaps the official agents of kingdoms/realms inbetween would intercept any smugglers or illegal traders in such items and get them to prove they were real scones liable for taxation?

At such busts the officials would ask the illegal traders to prepare the scones and cream and jam with the command "Spread'em!" which can still be heard in use by USA police forces when intercepting modern illegal traders?

Simpler than that I think. Get 'em to say the word, any hint of a scohn and you're nobbled. Only a rightly pronounced skonn or a guttaral scottish "Skoon" would do!

Well, only until the 13th centruy, at which point 'Skohn' became the correct pronunciation - up until 1996 anyway.

Anyone else ever get a suggestion, an intuitive, perhaps not even consciously realised, sense that Picasso was sorta Scottish in a Sean Connery way even...?

~jwf~