"To me there is no past or future in art. The art of the great painters who lived in other times is not an art of the past; perhaps it is more alive today than it ever was."
--Pablo Picasso
Perhaps the one unavoidable fact all museums
must face is the reality of limited space. Who stays? Who goes? Most importantly,
who makes those decisions? In Germany, these questions have taken on a whole
new degree of importance. The Gemäldegalerie—home
of Berlin’s most prestigious Old Masters’ collection, with works by Vermeer,
Rembrandt,
Dürer, Jan van
Eyck, Raphael,
Titian, Caravaggio,
Rubens, and others—faces a move to another,
smaller location to make room for the expansion of the Neue
Nationalgalerie, where masterpieces by some of the biggest names of 20th
century art will be displayed. Germans seem split between those who want their
Rembrandt (shown above, in his 1630 etching Self-Portrait
with a Cap, Openmouthed) right where he’s been and those who
would like to see Germany finally to have a world-class modern art museum. As
other museums and countries eventually face this same problem, we’ll all have
to ask if the Old Masters should give way to the new ones?Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Should the Old Masters Give Way to the New Ones?"
When Sigmar Polke’s family crossed over to the freedom of West Berlin from the oppression of East Berlin on the subway in 1953, 12-year-old Sigmar feigned sleep to add to the picture of normalcy for his fugitive family. Polke (pronounced “polka,” like the dance), who passed away last Thursday, feigned many things during his life in his art, but usually to question the idea of normalcy, especially the rushed, forced normalcy of his native Germany after World War II. With a smile on his lips, Polke never slept through an opportunity to poke fun at the establishment—artistic, social, or political—and help people connect the dots, usually closely spaced, between apparent normality and absurd abnormality. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Polke Dots."
What famous paintings are discussed most often in art history books? Which famous painters created these masterpieces? Masterpiece Cards explore major Renaissance paintings to modern ones, offering art analysis and vital statistics about each. Details? Click the box.
Custom oil portraits or drawings from photographs. Philadelphia-area portrait artist is available for custom renderings in oil or pencil. Preserve your family members in a lasting work of art. All it takes is a photograph. For more information and pricing, please contact Dave at dwell123 “at” verizon.net. Click on the portrait above to go to http://woodburyfineartportraits.blogspot.com/
