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Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts – XXII

January 17, 2012 By Wendy Campbell

1. Art Competitions were part of the modern Olympic Games from 1912 to 1952. Medals were awarded for works of art inspired by sport, divided into five categories: architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture.

The juried art competitions were abandoned in 1954 because artists were considered to be professionals, while Olympic athletes were required to be amateurs. Since 1956, the Olympic Cultural Programme has taken their place. (wikipedia)

2. The famous marble sculpture Pietà created between 1498 and 1500 by Michelangelo Buonarroti, was the only work he ever signed. The story goes that Michelangelo overheard a pilgrim say that the work was created by rival sculptor Christoforo Solari. In a fit of rage, Michelangelo took hammer and chisel and scrawled: “Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine, made this” across Mary’s breast.  According to Italian Biographer Giorgio Vasari, he later regretted his passionate outburst of pride and determined to never again sign a piece of his work.(BBC)

3. Tattooing has been a Eurasian practice at least since around Neolithic times (about 10,700 to 9400 BC). Ötzi the Iceman, dating from the fourth to fifth millennium BC, was found in the Ötz valley in the Alps and had approximately 57 carbon tattoos consisting of simple dots and lines on various parts of his body. These tattoos were thought to be a form of healing because of their placement which resembles acupuncture. Other mummies bearing tattoos and dating from the end of the second millennium BC have been discovered, such as the Mummy of Amunet from ancient Egypt and the mummies at Pazyryk on the Ukok Plateau. (wikipedia)

4. Decoupage is the art of decorating an object by gluing colored paper cutouts onto it in combination with special paint effects, gold leaf and so on. Commonly an object like a small box or an item of furniture is covered by cutouts from magazines or from purpose-manufactured papers. Each layer is sealed with varnishes (often multiple coats) until the “stuck on” appearance disappears and the result looks like painting or inlay work. The traditional technique used 30–40 layers of varnish which were then sanded to a polished finish. This was known in 18th century England as the art of Japanning (Asian lacquer work) after its presumed origins. (wikipedia)

5. Corbis Corporation, privately owned by Bill Gates, was founded in 1989 and owns the licensing rights to over 100 million digital images and 500,000 video clips. Gates started the company with the belief that people would someday decorate their homes with a revolving display of digital artwork using digital frames. Corbis’s collections include historical and editorial images from photojournalists, museums, and cultural institutions including Andy Warhol Foundation, Ansel Adams, The Smithsonian Institution, The National Gallery, London, The State Hermitage Museum, Christie’s Images, and the Bettmann, Hulton-Deutsch, Sygma and Brett Weston collections, and others. (Wikipedia, New York Times)

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Body Art, Collage, Digital, Photography, Sculpture Tagged With: Bill Gates, Corbis, Decoupage, Michelangelo, Olympics, Pieta, Tattoing

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts XIX

May 20, 2011 By Wendy Campbell

1. Macro Photography is photography that is 1x magnification(1:1) or greater. For example, an insect that is 1/2 an inch when photographed on film at “life size” , it will take up 1/2 an inch on a piece of 35mm film. Macro photography allows us to experience what we would normally fail to notice with the naked eye.  Up close, the eye of a lizard becomes a beautiful textured landscape, a tiny dust mite becomes what could be a creature out of a sci-fi movie, the fly on the wall seems to have an expression on its face.

2. En Plein Air is a French expression which means “in the open air”, and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors. French Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Vincent van Gogh, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir advocated en plein air painting, and much of their work was done outdoors, in the diffuse light provided by a large white umbrella.  The popularity of painting en plein air increased in the 1870s with the introduction of paints in tubes which were easy to transport.

3. Frottage is a technique developed by German artist Max Ernst in 1925. Drawings were made by placing sheets of paper over different objects such as floorboards and leaves, and rubbing with a stick of graphite. Through precise selection, combination, control of texture and some discreet additions, he was able to build up delicate, surprising images of fantasy landscapes, plants and creatures. He adapted this fundamentally simple technique to painting in the form of grattage, by which textures and patterns were made through simultaneously rubbing and scraping off layers of paint. Representational forms were then extracted from the whole by means of over-painting.

4. Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement  involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design. It concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. Its purpose was to ridicule what its participants considered to be the meaninglessness of the modern world. In addition to being anti-war, Dada was also anti-bourgeois and anarchist in nature. Notable artists involved in the movement include: Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp, Andre Breton, and Man Ray.

5. Art Competitions formed part of the modern Olympic Games during its early years, from 1912 to 1952. The competitions were part of the original intention of the Olympic Movement’s founder, Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin. Medals were awarded for works of art inspired by sport, divided into five categories: architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture.

The juried art competitions were abandoned in 1954 because artists were considered to be professionals, while Olympic athletes were required to be amateurs. Since 1956, the Olympic cultural programme has taken their place.


Sources: Wikipedia (Art Competitions), Wikipedia (Dadaism), DAF (Frottage), DAF (Macro Photography), Wikipedia (en plein air)

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Art-e-Facts, Photography Tagged With: Dadaism, En Plein-Air, Frottage, Macro photography, Olympics

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