Ind. Reading "The Moon and The Sixpence". Part 3

5 years later, our narrator returned to France to live in where he met his old friend Dirk Stroeve and got acquainted with his wife. He found Mrs.  Stroeve to be very enigmatic and full of dignity and noticed how passionately Dirk loved and how greatly he cherished her. The Stroeves seemed to be a pretty and sweet family and the narrator enjoyed spending his free time in their studio-flat.

Once the narrator learned that Dirk knew Strickland and considered him to be a genius artist. Having been an artist too, and quite talented one, Dirk created only vulgar and tasteless canvas. Hу saw a real talent and identified a latent art but continued to paint his insipid and banal pictures.

When they met with Strickland the narrator noticed that this man didn’t changed a lot, maybe he was a bit emaciated but he hardly cared about poverty. They met sometimes to play chess or to drink absinth and after that the narrator and Dirk could the whole evening to discuss him and his talent. Blanche didn’t like these conversations and changed so much that it seemed even strange.  Dirk was good-natured, gentle and placable and very often he didn’t pay attention on Strickland’s wanton pranks but it hurt Blanche to the innermost of her heart.

There were several weeks that nobody saw Strickland, the narrator and Dirk got worried and went to look him for. They found out him on the edge of death or life and even in this condition he could be brute. Dirk insisted on moving Strickland to their studio-flat and Blanche who hated him with her whole heart was reluctant to cede.

Ind. Reading "The Moon and The Sixpence". Part 2

      Having been in London, our main character quickly found the hotel that Mr. Strickland had mentioned in his letter to his partner. But despite expectations, it wasn’t a luxurious or fashionable one. On the contrary, it was quite small, very poor and unpretentious. The narrator didn’t believe that Mr. Strickland could live in such hotel but he decided to make sure and didn’t regret it.

      When he introduced, it seemed that Mr. Strickland waited for someone from London. The narrator was full of indignation and he tried to tell him everything.  Unexpectedly, Mr. Strickland suggested to leave this hotel and had a lunch. During the lunch, the teller returned to his aim of visiting with double passion. Then Mr. Strickland explained him everything. And that he hadn’t left London with a lover, and he didn’t have plenty of money and didn’t want to return to his wife. But he wanted to live in France, to study painting and paid attention only to the art.  At that very moment, the narrator understood what that man Mr. Strickland was. How he was powerful, purposeful and talented.

      After their conversation, the narrator knew there was no sense to stay in France any more. He returned to London and visited Mrs. Strickland immediately. He explained and proved that her husband didn’t want to return because of his desire to painting. But he began to think that Mrs. Strickland liked the status of an abandoned wife without means of subsistence.

Ind. Reading " The Moon and The Sixpence". Part 1

The narrator remembered his youth and events occurred at that time. He was a beginner writer and succeeded in this occupation. So people, interested in art, began inviting him to have a tea. One day, he got an invitation for breakfast from Mrs. Strickland and accepted it with pleasure.

Mrs. Strickland was a kind of woman who liked both speaking with writers and reading their books. It was her passion. She believed that it helped her to go out from a daily routine.  The narrator sympathized her while she was glad that could influence the direction of a young artistic mind.  Her family seemed to be quite ordinary. Mr. Strickland was a mediocre, hard-working man who didn’t like the ardour of his wife. Their children were the exact copy of their mother.

After a small separation, the narrator suddenly knew that Mr. Strickland left his wife and children without money and lived now in Paris. Nobody could believe this treacherous action. Making an attempt to help the poor woman, the story teller agreed to go to Paris and illuminate the mystery.

Rendering on painting(4)

The article published on the website www.independent.co.uk on March 1, 2013 is headlined “In the Studio: Richard Cook, painter”. The article reports at length that Richard Cook moved to Cornwall to get more space to paint.

According to the text of the article, the house is tucked away down a back street of Newlyn, and would have a great view of the sea but for a large painting that obscures the window – a view of the Black Mountains in Wales. Moreover, Cook's studio is upstairs; the floor, studded by years and years of paint, is uneven and difficult to stand on. The walls are lined with still-wet paintings, while books and sketch-books lie open nearby, some revealing rapid pen and ink drawings, others showing more finished and muscular watercolour studies.

It’s an open secret that Leon Kossoff once said that Cook’s paintings are very good but can he be a little more primitive. Kossoff became a sort of father but then Cook had to go his own way.

Speaking of the situation it is necessary to note that the confidence and insight that Cook expresses about his own technique may help explain the making of the works. The actual execution of a large painting can be extremely fast, taking only three, four or five minutes.

It’s important to point out that the canvasses reveal the speed in which they were created by their spare use of paint and large gestural brushstrokes. They have an unmistakably raw energy.

As for me, I think that the studio for painter is like a shrine where he’s able to create his masterpieces. We can see that Richard Cook adore and value his studio

Rendering on painting(3)

The article I would like to present is headlined “Spanish fresco restoration botched by amateur”. The author of the article is not mentioned. It was published on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19349921  in August 23, 2012. The article is dedicated to an elderly parishioner who had stunned Spanish cultural officials with an alarming and unauthorized attempt to restore a prized Jesus Christ fresco.

The aim of the author is to provide the reader with some information about the unexpected damage of fresco be Cecilia Gimenez and her real intentions.

The article can be divided into two parts. The first part deals with the donation of Cecilia Jimenez. She is in her 80s, was reportedly upset at the way the fresco had deteriorated and took it on herself to "restore" the image. She claimed to have had the permission of the priest to carry out the job. The author stresses that the once-dignified portrait now resembles a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic and that the delicate brush strokes of Elias Garcia Martinez had been buried under a haphazard splattering of paint.

In the second part the author writes that Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) by Elias Garcia Martinez has held pride of place in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza for more than 100 years. He adds that the fresco is not thought to be very valuable, but has a high sentimental value for local people and he goes on to say that art historians are expected to meet at the church soon to discuss how to precede.

I found this article knowledgeable and useful. My point is that local authorities must try to prevent such extraordinary cases. This attempt to restore not the masterpiece but the important fresco by amateur was a failure. I think it’s lamentably that someone’s good intentions can bring such harm.

Rendering on painting(2)

The article goes under the headline “Old master paintings worth £100m given to Britain – with strings attached”. It is dated the 19th of February 2013 and you can find it on the guardian.co.uk website. The author of the article is Charlotte Higgins.

The article is devoted to Sir Denis Mahon and his extraordinary collection of mainly Italian 17th century paintings. It assesses the bequest of Mahon and touches upon the problem of replenishment of museums’ collections.

The author starts by telling the reader about Sir Denis Mahon and his bequest. A collection of 57 old masters worth around £100m are to be formally given to the nation, with strings attached. If any attempt is made by the host museum to charge for admission; or any item from their collection is put up for sale, the Art Fund, the charity that is donating them, can take them back. This wonderful present was made up by an art historian Sir Denis Mahon, who died in 2011, aged 100.

The author of the article informs that Mahon left 57 works to the Art Fund with the arrangement that they should be on long-term loan to a selection of British galleries: 8 to the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, 25 to the National Gallery in London, 12 to the Ashmolean in Oxford, six to the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge, five to the Birmingham Art Gallery and one to Temple Newsam House in Leeds.

The final stage of his bequest is now complete, with the formal transference of the 57 works' ownership to the various museums.

In conclusion the author cites a good quotation of Mahon’s pal Christopher Brown, the director of the Ashmolean Museum. He knew Mahon as a man of exceptional erudition: "There was no more enjoyable and illuminating way of looking at paintings than in his company. Poussin, Carracci, Guercino: he spoke about them as if he knew them."

           

I think the aim of the article is to provide the reader with some information about a big collection of Italian paintings and about the way it was created by Sir Denis Mahon. The main idea that despite serious economical situation in the world some people believe, want and try to do that most museums will be free of charge.

To my mind, it’s a very useful article. It’s pleasant to know that there are such people that donating their collection to the museums and galleries, with no strings attached.

Rendering on painting(1)

The article is from а newspaper under the nameplate “The Art Newspaper”. It was published on the http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Painting+by+D%C3%A8lacroix+defaced+in+Louvre-Lens/28609 on the 8th of February of 2013. This article is entitled “Painting by Dèlacroix defaced in Louvre-Lens” and the headline of the article corresponds to the topic. The author of the article is Gareth Harris.

The author starts by telling the reader that Eugene Dèlacroix’s painting “Liberty Leading the People” (28 July 1830) has been defaced while on view at the Louvre-Lens in northern France. According to the text, a 28-year-old woman scrawled across the bottom of the painting with a marker pen shortly before the museum closed on the 7th of February. She was apprehended by security staff and then arrested by the police.

It’s an open secret that Dèlacroix’s painting is on display in the main exhibition area, entitled the Gallery of Time, at the Louvre-Lens, the satellite branch that opened last December. Eugene Delacroix is numbered among the greatest and most influential of French painters. He is most often classified as an artist of the Romantic school. His remarkable use of color was later to influence impressionist painters and even modern artists such as Pablo Picasso.

Later in the article the author describes what specialists from the Louvre’s painting department commented about that. After the initial assessment of the damage, a decision would be taken whether the painting will be removed for restoration.

The author concludes that all the markings had been successfully removed. The restoration work was done on site and took less than two hours. The painting went on show again. The museum said it planned to step up its security measures.

I found the article useful but I appreciate the author's word-painting as ordinary. To my mind, this article could be more emotional, coloured and heartfelt.

 I think that there must be a serious penalty for destroying public property. People should learn how to value and secure the brilliant works of art and be responsible for them. It’s difficult to imagine on what some people can go to earn money or to prove their strange motives.  So we must be very cautious in order to prevent such crimes!

My Pleasure Reading List

Year I Term I -  Agathe Christy " Five Little Pigs"

Year I Term II -  William Golding " Lord of the Flyes"

Year II Term III - Phillip Roth " When She was Good"

Year II Term VI - Michael Cunningham " By nightfall"

Year III Term V - Kazuo Ishiguro " Never let me go"

Year III Term VI - John Fowles " The Magus"