Grecia antica

Antica Grecia (o Grecia antica) è il termine utilizzato per descrivere la civiltà sviluppatasi nella Grecia continentale, in Albania, nelle isole del Mar Egeo, sulle coste del Mar Nero e quelle occidentali della Turchia, in Sicilia, nell'Italia Meridionale (poi chiamata Magna Grecia), nelle isole del Mediterraneo occidentale di Corsica e Sardegna, nonché sulle coste di Spagna e Francia e, successivamente, dell'Africa settentrionale.

La cultura Greca, nonostante la conformazione geografica del continente favorisse l'insorgere di molteplici unità politiche a sé stanti, fu un fenomeno omogeneo, che interessò tutte le genti elleniche, accomunate dalla stessa lingua e dalla stessa religione.

Età arcaica

Le prime civiltà di cui si ha notizia per la Grecia antica sono la civiltà egea, quella cicladica e quella micenea, influenzata dalla civiltà minoica, che sorse a Creta nell'età del bronzo.

Happy Birthday Édouard Manet!

It’s Édouard Manet’s birthday - born on this day - January 23, 1832. To this day, Manet is still considered to be the father of Modernism.

Édouard Manet -the eldest son of an official in the French Ministry of Justice- had early hopes of becoming a naval officer. After twice failing the training school's entrance exam, the teenager instead went to Paris to pursue a career in the arts. There he studied with Thomas Couture and diligently copied works at the Musée du Louvre.

The biennial (and later, annual) Parisian Salons were considered the most expedient way for an artist to make himself known to the public, and Manet submitted paintings to Salon juries throughout his career. In 1861, at the age of twenty-nine, he was awarded the Salon's honorable mention for The Spanish Singer.

Eugenio Montale | Ho sceso, dandoti il braccio, almeno un milione di scale, 1967

Ho sceso, dandoti il braccio, almeno un milione di scale

e ora che non ci sei è il vuoto ad ogni gradino.

Anche così è stato breve il nostro lungo viaggio.

Il mio dura tuttora, né più mi occorrono

le coincidenze, le prenotazioni,

le trappole, gli scorni di chi crede

che la realtà sia quella che si vede.

Joe Webb | Embrace Magritte

Alfred Stevens | Academic Classical painter

Alfred Émile Léopold Stevens (11 May 1823 - 24 August 1906) was a Belgian painter, known for his paintings of elegant modern women.

After gaining attention early in his career with a social realist painting depicting the plight of poor vagrants, he achieved great critical and popular success with his scenes of upper-middle class Parisian life.

In their realistic style and careful finish, his works reveal the influence of 17th-century Dutch genre painting.

Gustave de Jonghe (1829-1893)

Gustave Léonard de Jonghe, Gustave Léonard De Jonghe or Gustave de Jonghe (4 February 1829 – 28 January 1893) was a Flemish/ Belgian painter known for his glamorous society portraits and genre scenes. After training in Brussels, he started out as a painter of historical and religious subjects in a Realist style. After moving to Paris where he spent most of his active career, he became successful with his scenes of glamorous women in richly decorated interiors.

Life

Gustave Léonard de Jonghe was born in Kortrijk as the son of the prominent landscape painter Jan Baptiste de Jonghe.

He received his first art lessons from his father. He continued his studies in Brussels at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts where leading Belgian painter François-Joseph Navez was one of his teachers.

The history painter Louis Gallait was his close friend and mentor. When de Jonghe’s father died when he was only 15 years old, his native city granted him a scholarship.

Legge di Murphy: "Si riesce a far funzionare qualsiasi cosa, se ci si pasticcia abbastanza".

Della Murfologia Applicata alla Meccanica | Capitolo 4

Legge della perversità della Natura

• Non si può prevedere con successo quale lato del pane andrebbe imburrato.

Legge della gravità selettiva

• Un oggetto cadrà sempre in modo da produrre il maggior danno possibile.

Corollario di Jenning

• Le probabilità che il pane cada sul lato imburrato sono direttamente proporzionali al costo del tappeto.

Atsushi Koyama (Artista giapponese, 1978)

Matt Talbert, 1982 | Abstract portrait painter

Matt Talbert is a contemporary oil painter living in Southern California. While he grew up at the beach, Matt attributes much of his artistic development to his years spent in New York City.

Working in the basement of the famous Pearl art store on Canal Street and meeting a wide range of artists from all disciplines was indispensable.

He is both a graduate from the Orange County School of the Arts and the Laguna College of Art and Design and has had the honor of being named one of the "Top 100 Figurative Artist Working Now" by PoetsArtists Magazine.

Matt's primary focus is expressive paintings of the human figure exhibited in galleries such as Arcadia Contemporary, Abend Gallery, and the Salmagundi Club in New York.

Robert Lyn Nelson, 1955 | Magic realism painter

Robert Lyn Nelson is an American artist known for his paintings of marine wildlife, particularly those in his "Two Worlds" style, which simultaneously shows life above and below the surface of the sea.

Artistic career

Nelson moved to Hawaii when he was eighteen years old.

According to Nelson, the turning point in his life and his career occurred when he encountered a group of whales while surfing off Lahaina, Hawaii.

"In learning to ride the waves, I also learned to respect the ocean...to feel its pulse with all five of my senses, and to feel its spirit at an extra-sensory level. It was a blend of magic and realism that I wanted to communicate in my paintings", says Nelson.