Kirkalicious - Random post for the day

Star Trek and workplace humor in the same link. How can you go wrong?

An Assortment of Winslow Homer

The Veteren in the Field (1865)

Long Beach, New Jersey (1869)

Rocky Coast and Gulls (1869)

Boy With Anchor (1873)

Moonlight (1874)

Winslow Homer: master of watercolors

The Red Canoe (1889)

A Brook Trout (1892)

Adirondack Lake (1889)

An October Day (1889)

The Adirondack Guide (1889)

A Good Shot (1892)

Fallen Deer (1892)

Frederic Remington: sculptor of action

Remington is great not just at painting action, but sculpting it, as well. Rarely, does he present a bronze horse that isn't acting up in some manner. Often, the horse is a sun-fishin' son-of-a-gun. At other times, the horse is a chargin' fool. Regardless, it is obvious that Frederic had intimate knowledge of the equestrian physique:

The Rattlesnake

The Cheyenne

The Bronco Buster

The Outlaw

Frederic Remington: painter of soldiers

The first painting is not particularly impressive on its technical merits, but the subject matter is interesting. Imagine such a scene today. Arresting a deserter. No doubt, the cameras would be out and the pieces sympathetic to the deserting soldier would be flooding the papers from coast to coast. Columnists would be demanding what is so horribly wrong with our military establishment that this fellow felt compelled to go AWOL?

Arresting the Deserter (1885)

This portrait of The Trooper, like some of the Indian portraits, is directly linked to our collective image of a cavalry officer – charging, full of confidence.

The Trooper (1892)

The Advance takes the portrait of the Trooper one step further, so far as action is concerned. The man in the lead appears to be the same officer. Does anything sit more erect in the saddle that a U.S. cavalry officer?

The Advance (1898)

This next picture, again, could’ve come directly from a John Ford picture. Some things are worth fighting for. In this case: water.

Fight for the Water Hole (1903)

This final picture looks like a Canadian Mountie, not a U.S. soldier, but regardless, he’s still done a bang up job getting his man.

Single Handed (1912)

Frederic Remington: painter of naturals

As Rob mentioned on the previous Remington post, Remington is one of the few big artists whose work can be enjoyed first hand by an Okie. When I think of Commanches, Apaches, Cheyenne, etc., his work definitely springs to mind.

Pretty Mother of the Night (1880s)

His use of day for night paint was extraordinary.

Cheyenne Scouts Partrolling the Big Timber of the North Canadian, Oklahoma (1889)

Radisson and Groseilliers (1905)

A beautiful dusk to go with this picture that tells a little story:

Coming to the Call (1905)

And, of course, the eco-friendly forms of communication:

Apache Fire Signal (1908)

Frederic Remington: pencil, pen & ink artist extraordinaire

Take a gander at the gander pull. Remington knows how to show men out west at play. This drawing could almost fit right in to John Ford's cavalry trilogy - the camaraderie and spirit are there, just change the hills in the background to plateaus and you're in business.

The Gander Pull (1888?)

And just check out the skill!

Remington knows how to frame a picture and has a great sense of depth - much like John Ford. Plus, he can create dust out of pen and ink:

In the Desert (1888)

A Troop Picket Line (1901)

Thomas Cole - Take 3

Sunrise in the Catskill Mountains (1826)

Sunny Morning on the Hudson River (1827)

The Gardens of the Van Rensselaer Manor House (1840)

More Thomas Cole

because it cooks in five minutes and is ready to post. He's just such a swell landscape artist. Anyone who can paint distance (not just perspective) is topnotch in my book

Morning Mist Rising, Plymouth, New Hampshire (1830)

Mt. Etna (1842)

Mr. Cole has a ruin-fetish, but then again, so do I

Aqueduct Near Rome (1842)

And when necessary, he can get Middle Earth on your ass:

Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (1828)

Expulsion - Moon and Firelight (1828)

Thomas Cole - The Course of the Empire

A five panel chronology from 1836 (more here) . Click to enlarge

The Savage State

The Arcadian or Pastoral State

The Consummation

Destruction

Desolation

Sword exhibit to open in Japanese art museum

This looks like a really kick-ass sword exhibit & the story is a nice overview of the Japanese blade. My experience at looking at a real samurai sword is that you can literally stare into the smooth steel finish. One can easily see how it was a warrior's soul.

She's gorgeous!

Steve Wynn just paid over $10 million for this Ming vase. It is a lovely object - deserving of much affection, and I hope this is prominently on display in Vegas - but I guess I don't love it "$10 million dollars" much. Still, I'd be glad to ogle it like this fellow. You can tell, he likes his pottery.

Meanwhile, in a museum far far away, this hapless buckeroo helped increase the value of other vases:

"I snagged my shoelace, missed the step and 'crash bang wallop,' there was a million pieces of high-quality Qing ceramics lying around beneath me," Nick Flynn told BBC radio.

"There is no way my pocket will stretch to reimburse them for the damage that I have done".

The museum staff (The Fitzwilliam) vowed to glue the pieces together, and asked the patron to never come back, please.

Outside the Farting Man’s show at Asakusa

“Some fools survive a serious illness by taking ginseng and then go hang themselves when they can’t pay for it. Other men love potentially poisonous blowfish soup yet manage to reach old age.” (all quotes from “A Theory of Farting”, by Gennai in 1774)

The new show provoked much discussion among the onlookers.

“Opinion was divided between those who asserted the man was using medicine and those who argued he had some sort of hidden device.”

Author: “Yes, there is in fact a farting medicine on the market. A man in Osaka, Seiemon, who owns the Chigusaya Publishing House, also sells unusual herbal remedies. His signboard advertises both Argument Laxatives and Fart Starters. But when I asked about the ingredients of the farting formula, I discovered it’s only for nudging out stubborn farts, not for producing the artistic releases we saw today.

“...Yesterday’s new seems old today, and the old gets even older. But the Farting Man is different. True, you can find gifted fictional farters in old tales. But what that Farting Man actually does right in front of your eyes can’t be found in any old record or legend…. And you won’t find anyone like him in China, Korea, India, Holland, or any country on earth. What brilliant conception! And what execution!”

Military Man: “What we have just heard is truly shameless. The authorities permit plays and other public performances only as a means of harmonizing people and revealing the proper Way of ruler and ruled, father and child, husband and wife, older and younger brother, friend and friend…[cites puppet play examples]…Even freak shows teach audiences that their own children will be punished if they commit bad deeds….Freak shows urge constant vigilance and demonstrate the chilling truth that retribution for deeds comes swiftly and without mercy. In the last few years, however, the people who put on these shows have completely abandoned morality….And now the ‘farting man’ is on exhibit! It’s outrageous!

“One must absolutely never fart in public. For a warrior to fart during a formal meeting is an act so dishonorable in calls for suicide….Such people know what shame is. But for someone to put up a sign beside a main street and fart right in front of people’s eyes, why, it’s vulgar and impudent beyond words!…And those who watch him are dimwits.”

Author: “How different he is from our professional musicians who go to a certified master to receive secret instruction on the proper way to articulate and chant so they themselves can later charge high fees to their own students. These musicians caw and croak like crows or night herons, imitating old pieces without putting any feeling into the phrases….They simply slaughter the words of the new puppet plays. The profession as a whole is in decline. But look at the Farting Man. He’s invented everything by himself, without master or secret oral transmission. With an unspeaking rear end and uncomprehending farts…Call him one of a kind, call him a wonder. Truly he is the founder of the Way of Farting.

“But musicians aren’t the only ones these days who are, as they say, ‘shit bad.’ Scholars stare at thousand-year old wastepaper from China, and writers who use classical Chinese collect stray shavings from the works of Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, and the middle-Tang poets, heaping them into what they think are great pillars. Waka poets just sit around, but rice grains manage to stick to the bottoms of their feet, and they make a good living….[but the Farting Man] has captured the imagination of the whole country.”

Can you sculpt fire?

I wouldn't know where to start - yet, that's what we see here from this Heian era (ca 11th century) bronze. Fudo Myoo (see below) is a Buddhist/Shinto god of fire. He's supposed to have a flaming sword (sounds like a light saber to me).

Don't let his belly fool you, he may look a little out of shape, but he's fully prepared to slice you in twain. I'm not sure when curved swords came into widespread use in Japan though they would have been around during the Heian period. I guess if your sword is made of fire, then it really doesn't matter what shape it is.

Two Chinese snowscapes...

With the passing of winter, I figured I'd pay a little belated tribute to snow:

The first one is from Sun Jun-ze during the Yuan Dynasty (1280-1370). You'd think that Mongol hordes could ruin a culture, but they didn't, at least not judging by this kickingly serene pavilion. Chinese art has a way of layering backgrounds in such a manner as to create the absence of depth. It's not flat, but airy and flat. Very exotic...



The second snowscape is from the previous Song Dynasty (10th-13th century) by Liang Kai (1279). The Song dynasty was a docile empire that eagerly shed any interest in maintaining a strong military, making it vulnerable to Mongol aggression down the road. That it lasted so long is a testament to the strength of Chinese culture and institutions. It's one of my favorite dynasties (which explains why I'm blogging on a Friday night), but I digress. Here we have two riders swallowed up in an immense but non-threatening nature.