Citizens of Tomorrow, Be Forewarned

"Jury Room / The Holdout" (1959) by Norman Rockwell

golden hour in september - michael dudash / kim english / leon wyczółkowski / olga kvasha 

MOVIES VS PAINTINGS, Part III.

Postcards for the Bauhaus Exhibition Weimar (1923)

Vasily Kandinsky / Joost Schmidt

László Moholy-Nagy / Fritz Schleifer / Oskar Schlemmer

Sources & further reading:

images from the MoMA // full collection of postcards // more on the 1923 exhibition // more on the Nazi response to the Bauhaus movement // bonus: women of the bauhaus

Karl Friedrich Schinkel 1816 Stage Designs for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

‘pierrot and the cat’ - théophile steinlen (1889)

Oeugh

So, just wanted to share that early modern pop-up astronomy books were a thing and they are absolutely glorious.

Here's a close-up of the little dragon-serpent guy, because he is especially magnificent.

The artist is Victor Navlet and the painting is called “General View of Paris from a hot-air balloon” (1855)

IT WAS 1855 HE DIDN'T EVEN DO IT FROM A PHOTOGRAPH I AM SO ANGEY

Okay so I've been informed that this is super cool and should be shared so please behold my Great Grandfather's helmet from WWI (my OTHER great grandfather, not the one who was mustard gassed and had perminant laryngitis as a result)

This helmet was painted in 1918 by a French woman for my Great Grandad before he went into the trenches. It's an oil painting, and the woman who did it probably only charged about 50¢-$1, just as a way to make some money and as a way to send the men into battle with something beautiful and unique. The kicker is, my great Gramps caught Spanish Flu before he could actually see any action, and was sent home to either recover or die. He survived, but because of his short deployment the helmet and the painting done to it survived in near perfect condition too.

Whoever the woman was who painted the helmet was a master at her art, and not only is it incredibly detailed but she used the three dimensional surface to full effect, taking the brim of the helmet to make a horizon line for the sunset over the water. And she gave it texture and details that would make Bob Ross proud.

It's 103 years old this year :)

(and yes, the impasto (texture) of the painting feels EXACTLY like how you think it does lol)

First computer animated cat ever - “Koshechka” (”A kitty”), 1968

One of the best things that ever happened to me was during my trip to Venice 5 years ago. I had bought an all-inclusive ticket for all museums and exhibitions in the Piazza, and I was going through an exhibition of statuettes when I entered the next wing with paintings. The styles seemed somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t work out what was happening. Thankfully this incredible lady working at the exhibition saw that I was a bit confused and approached me to ask if I knew what this exhibition was. I said no, just that it had seemed interesting.

She explained that the reason why I might be confused is that I had entered the exhibition of Wolfgang Beltracchi from the end rather than the beginning. She then took me to the start and started explaining about him and his history. He has art forgeries in every style from medieval paintings to modern art and his forgery is not copying existing paintings but creating “lost paintings” that the artist might have painted or talked about painting but never did. He perfectly matched the artist style, composition, ideas, colours and medium. His materials were historically accurate and experts couldn’t determine that they were fakes.

And his wife Helene Beltracchi was incredible. She helped “backdate” paintings and provide evidence of their age. One of the things that stuck with me the most is this black and white photo, created with an old-time camera  and medium and the photo itself was aged so carbon-dating couldn’t discover that it was a modern photo. It was of Helene, with her features slightly altered, dressed in an old-time, era appropriate dress with the painting in the background. can you imagine the level of dedication and the immense attention to detail required to so convincingly fake a photo to provide a reliable history of this painting existing for centuries? She helped him create fake history for a lot of his paintings.

I’ll never forget that exhibition. There were so many paintings, all of them in the styles of different artists, most of them verified by experts as genuine until his mistake with the white paint which prompted a much, much deeper examination by experts. I think the lady mentioned that they could still not forensically confirm that some paintings were fakes, but it’s been a while, I might be misremembering. I was just struck with awe at the sheer knowledge they must have of multitude of painters, not just their styles, but their lives and the way their minds worked. He painted scenes “they might have painted” and when you look at them, you could definitely see it. It hits especially hard when you have more than passing familiarity with the artist, their lives and struggles, their choices of mediums and themes. You can look at this painting and think, this is definitely created by []. It makes so much sense, it has that distinct flair and works incredibly well as a parallel to [], their earlier painting. It was indescribable. Can you imagine the skill required to back that knowledge up? To be able to perfectly mimic the styles of so many artists and be able to so accurately forge paints, brushes and canvas that experts verified them as genuine?

And he had his own original paintings as well. One of them struck a chord with me especially. It was a painting of storage rooms, storing thousands and thousands of paintings that the public doesn’t know of, because they’re the unpopular paintings, the paintings that never get exhibited, the forgotten paintings. I thought it was very poignant.

I love these people. They really did do it because they loved art, they loved playing around with art forensics, and they just had a blast. Seeing his gallery brought be such incredible joy and so many interesting things to think about. 10/10, would definitely recommend

Can you imagine what cathedrals would have been like if the medievals had access to neon lighting?

This is the quote I had in mind when making this post.

Some Vietnamese churches give a glimpse of what it might’ve been like.

For all the people who immediately went “Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet” in the notes, you are absolutely correct.

The Milt Kahl Head Swaggle (Source: Cartoon Brew)

I love it when you can pick up an animator’s quirks. 

     I’ve read in old interviews with Milt Khal’s fellow animators that he did the swaggle to purposefully show off. Moving the head in 3-d space is an exceptionally hard thing to do but Khal upped the level of difficulty to a place many animators wouldn’t go.      Not only are they all doing the swaggle you’ll notice they are all TALKING while they are doing it. This is back in the days where you had to use a timing sheet to pace your animation and a head swaggle doesn’t work if its too slow or too fast so he had to figure out the right speed so it looked natural while the character finishes what they have to say while not interfering with the distinct mouth shapes.       Not only did Khal do it without any shifting weight problems or timing issues he would often do it while moving the rest of the body. This isn’t his signature move just because he was good at it.This is his signature move because he was one of the only people skilled enough to DO IT AT ALL.

Milt Khal was a MASTER.

Painting of the Maharaja of Indore by Bernard Boutet De Monvel (1929)

His name was Yashwant Rao Holkar II! He was the Maharaja of Indore from 1926 to 1948 and commissioned Bernard Boutet De Monvel to paint both him and his wife Sanyogita Bai Holkar, the Maharani of Indore.

There was also a second set of paintings where both wear traditional clothes also painted by Monvel in 1934!

can i also share these two specific picture of the two of them that i’m obsessed with

::soft delighted gasp::

Once Upon A Dream: The Making of Sleeping Beauty