Larkin chair, Wall·e

 Frank Lloyd Wright, Larkin chair (1904)

Naked: Jenny Saville, Spencer Tunnick

According to some catholic sect popular in developing countries anything close to a bikini is pornography. But statues such as Louvre's Venus is plain art, and even a masterpiece.

Without noticing it, this people have drawn the difference between naked and nude.

Frances Borzello has published a book about this. I want it badly! By Christmas, the latest... Even though Jonathan Jones does not like it.

Jenny Saville, Shift (1996-1997)

Spencer Tunnick, Sydney Opera House (2010)

V&A Furniture

This week, the London V&A museum announced a new gallery dedicated to furniture. A blast! I am looking forward sooo much to visit it asap.

Hegel's desk at the Humboldt Uni, Berlin

Not that I am an specialist, but when I came the first time to my Kolloquium in Berlin, I was impressed by Hegel's desk, right behind me.

Then, I visited the Kraemers in Paris, and that was the most impressive experience I have had regarding furniture: plenty of Boulles (a magnificent Heraclitus table worth 7 million euro, gawd!) and other exquisite examples. Right after me, Lenny Kravitz was the next appointment, since he also has a cool design collection.

Heraclitus desk by Boulle

Anyways... The new gallery at the V&A has a desk which might have been property of Jonathan Swift, works by Frank Lloyd Wright (such as this chair for the Ward Willits house, back to 1902!), and a super interesting etcetera.

Frank Lloyd Wright, Ward Willits chair

Vignau: Montparnasse, Monterrey

A mess: 100 Top... "Thinkers"?

This Foreign Policy list looks like the worst joke of the year. I would hardly pick no more than ten names from here. What a mess! They should define "thinker" first.

On the rocks: Mesa Verde, Setenil de las Bodegas

If I never see you again...

I was very touched this morning by a poem I read. It is attributed to Charles Bukowski, but I have my doubts...

If I never see you again
I will always carry you
inside
outside 

on my fingertips
and at brain edges

and in centers
centers
of what I am of
what remains.

René Burri

Bad art

"Artists are good or bad, not fashionable or unfashionable. The tragedy of art today is that it is caught up in an empty fashion game that goes against the very nature of creativity, as artists are judged to be in or out, not for their merits, but their supposed buzzy immediacy."

Jonathan Jones wrote this in order to criticize Gormley. The piece is good, as almost always, but the comments are a blast!

Andrea Schmidt, Mana Lisa, at the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA)

Paz y la arquitectura oficial

Octavio Paz escribió en 1985:

"Hay ya mucha pesadez y desmesura en nuestros edificios públicos y demasiados adefecios escultóricos en las plazas y parques de México. El arte oficial no es menos deletéreo que las fugas de gas: envenena la sensibilidad y la imaginación."

Cuánta razón.

Consuelo Sáizar "pretendió encumbrarse" con edificios como la Cineteca Nacional y el Centro Cultural Elena Garro. Buscó a arquitectos renombrados como Rojkind y Gómez Pimienta. Aunque las obras impresionan, es evidente que faltó el sentido común: la fachada de la Cineteca es un estacionamiento y los estantes de libros son inalcanzables y están mancos de escaleras.

Viva el gasto a lo güey, al cabo que es el erario.

Faceless: Cartier-Bresson, Meyerowitz

There is a Cartier-Bresson-Magritte sosias I posted once.

Henri Cartier Bresson, Livorno, Italia (1933)

Joel Meyerowitz, Times Square (1963)

Architectural boobs: Berlin, Kilmington

Gustav Peichl, Betriebskindertagesstätte (1999)

Kindergarten for the children of German Bundestag personnel in Berlin

Bruce Munro, Beacon on the Hill (work in progress)

Hill in Kilmington (UK) converted in a boob to draw attention to breast cancer

Disgregated: Aztecs, Géricault, Goya, Goitia, Sherman, Chapman, narcos

Aztec codex, Human sacrifice to honor the sun (16th century)

Théodore Géricault, Heads severed (1818)

Théodore Géricault, Anatomical pieces (1819)

Francisco Goitia, Cabeza de ahorcado (1958-1960)

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #342 (1999)

 

Francisco Goya, Grande hazaña! Con muertos! (Los desastres de la guerra #39) (1810-1820)

 

Jake and Dinos Chapman, Great Deeds Against the Dead (1994)

Unfortunately, in Mexico it's not longer about art, but about real people tortured by drug dealers, like the Aztecs did for religious reasons. Love this country!

Eames

There is a new and fab docu about the Eames couple, which is worth watching: Eames: The Architect And The Painter.

The Eames furniture is not exactly my style or taste – it's too American. But still, the influence of the Eames' reaches far more than chairs in the States. It's about being a classic. (I prefer the Mondrian-style private bridge house they built.)

My favorite quote from the film, which I just watched:

“I’m a little taken aback by anyone calling himself an artist because of my feeling that that’s the kind of designation that other people should give. You can be an artist in any field, but getting a degree to call yourself an artist would be like getting a diploma to call yourself a genius.”

Such a jerk!

The upper pic shows that Ai Weiwei is a jerk.

Today's interview published by The Guardian –sort of a Proust Questionnaire– shows that he is an idiot.

For instance:

Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Myself, because I'm still alive.

Where would you like to live?
Planet Earth.

And this is a gem:

What is the worst thing anyone's ever said to you?
"You're an artist."

Indeed, even if I was impressed by the roots transformed into trees I saw last year.

I just can't understand why Germans are so in love with him. Perhaps to purify their conscience regarding how much they praise China, despite the constant human right violations.

Urban downhill: Taxco meets Valparaíso

Sticks and wheels: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Miguel Ángel Vargas

The late dad of P shot this. When she posted it on FB, I recalled a similar pic by Cartier-Bresson.

Why do kids play with sticks and wheels? I never did that. Maybe the answer is in that awesome Slate piece: Why boys like sticks? Have to read it again.

And Wikipedia offers a large article on this called Hoop Rolling, a game as old as humankind. I missed it!

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Palermo, Sicily (1971)

Joel Meyerowitz, Andreas Gursky

Joel Meyerowitz' picture, which serves as the cover of his book Tuscany, somehow resembles the best paid photography ever: Andreas Gursky's Rhein II, which was auctioned by Christie's for 4.3 million dollar.

Joel Meyerewitz

Andreas Gursky

Catholic Cartier-Bresson: Ireland, Spain

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Tralee, Ireland (1951)

 Henri Cartier-Bresson, Castile, Spain (1955)

Zoomorphic architecture

Besides uninteresting elephants, dogs, alligators, cats, muskellunges, Thai elephants, sharks, ducks, sheeps and chickens and dinos...

A tribolite

Roger Taillibert, Olympic Velodrome, Montreal (1976)

A horse's head

Frank Gehry, DG Bank, Berlin (2000)

A whale

Kas Oosterhuis & Ilona Lénárd, CET, Budapest (2010)

This book shows plenty of examples.

Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht dixit

"Wo immer die Oszillation aber ausbricht, wo immer - bildlich gesprochen - ein primärer physischer Impuls gegen von der gesellschaftlichen Vernunft errichtete Formen oder Begrenzungen prallt, da entstehen Schmerzen. Deshalb gehören Schmerzen, deshalb gehört Leiden-Schaft zur erotischen Liebe, selbst dann, wenn aus ihr ein Gefühl der Erfüllung hervorgeht (denn mit der Gewissheit der Erfüllung wächst nur die Begierde nach noch vollkommener Erfüllung - oder doch zumindest nach ihrer Dauer)."

Hier weiterlesen..

 

Wing tattoo: Isabeli Fontana, Felix Baumgartner

Bruegel, Remedios

Remember this old sosias.

Tower of Babel (1563)

Remedios Aqueduct

Bicycle kick: Hugo Sánchez, Rooney, Ibrahimovic

Today, this guy, Ibrahimovic, scored an amazing goal, which reminded me (us, Mexicans) of that goal by Real Madrid's star Hugo Sánchez, back in the late 80s, early 90s. Plus Rooney's score one year ago.

 

 

Max Galuppo, Nobleman

This is so great! Find your sosias in a museum...

Max Galuppo standing by “Portrait of a Nobleman with Duelling Gauntlet” (1562), by an anonymous artist

"Memorabilia", by Robert Browning

This poem was the occasion upon which Borges and Reyes met. I read it today again, and thought not of fond memories ("Ah, did you once see Shelley plain"?), but rather of annoying people who try hard to make your life miserable. One day, we will ask: "Ah, did you once see xxx plain", and instead of "laughter", the reaction will be: "Oh, that motherfucker..."

Ah, did you once see Shelley plain,
And did he stop and speak to you,
And did you speak to him again?
How strange it seems, and new!

But you were living before that,
And also you are living after;
And the memory I started at—
My starting moves your laughter!

I cross’d a moor, with a name of its own
And a certain use in the world, no doubt,
Yet a hand’s-breadh of it shines alone
’Mid the blank miles round about:

For there I picked up on the heather
And there I put inside my breast
A moulted feather, an eagle-feather!
Well, I forget the rest.