Jul

16

On the road to holidays… and bullfights

2017/07/16 | by Eric Bourdon | Comment


bullfights-eric-bourdon-440

[ click to zoom ] [ dessin en français ] [ dibujo en español ]

 

“On the road to holidays… and bullfights”
 
(Spanish-style bullfights = corridas de toros)
Pen and marker on paper, 2017
© Eric Bourdon

 

     This drawing was inspired by the contrast between the awareness campaigns against the abandonment of pets on the roads to holidays, carried out by the animal welfare associations, and the festive torture of other animals, supported by the law and mostly funded by public money.

     Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. While empathy is stimulated on one side, it is reduced to nothingness on the other. Even more, one encourages not only to stay passive, but also to take a positive pleasure in the spectacle of another’s suffering.

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Jan

30

Read a Nazi philosopher with no reference to Nazism ?

2016/01/30 | by Eric Bourdon | Comment


nazi-philosopher-martin-heidegger-nazism

 

     It’s a most common question, especially since we discovered that Martin Heidegger, the ‘philosopher of authenticity’ was not only personally involved in Nazism, but his so-called ‘philosophy’ was essentially an intellectual (and highly sophisticated) phrasing of the Nazi ideology. The publication of his courses and lectures, writings in their original form, private letters and public statements, and a huge number of texts he wanted to be published only after his death, make this issue increasingly important.

 

See The Introduction of Nazism into Philosophy
in Light of the Unpublished Seminars of 1933-1935
by Emmanuel Faye, Yale University Press, 2009.

INDIES Book of the Year Award
in the Philosophy category, by Foreword Magazine.

 

© Eric Bourdon

Jul

21

Celtic art and monsters coming to UK. Don’t panic, they are not really ‘Celtic’…

2015/07/21 | by Eric Bourdon | Comment


Silver Gundestrup cauldron Denmark

 

Silver Gundestrup cauldron from northern Denmark
© John Lee / The National Museum of Denmark

 
Source : From monsters to manga : golden age of art by the Celtic race that never was, by Maev Kennedy, 10 July 2015
 

Julia Farley, the London curator, said the museums hoped to explode the view that the Celts were a distinct race who kept moving west from eastern Europe until they ended up stranded to this day in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

[…]

…the term “Celt” was used by the ancient Greeks to refer to anyone in Europe north of the Mediterranean. “The word Celt was used to describe what people were not – not Roman, not Viking, not Mediterranean, not metropolitan or imperial”, MacGregor [the British Museum’s director] said. “The name Celt is a badge of otherness.”

[…]

If they had no common language or shared bloodlines, what united the people for 2,500 years was art, spectacular pieces showing humans and animals tangled together like spaghetti – and an element of what Farley called “weirdness”, including helmets for both men and horses which transformed them into horned monsters.

 
Celts : British Museum, London, 24 September 2015 – 31 January 2016, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 10 March – 25 September 2016
 

Jul

17

Western collections of Assyrian art more valuable than ever… thanks to ISIS

2015/07/17 | by Eric Bourdon | Comment


Source : British Museum could send loans worth £1bn to the Gulf
by Martin Bailey, 15 July 2015

The Banquet Scene

 

‘The Banquet Scene’ ; gypsum wall panel relief fragment, 645BC-635BC
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 

Islamic State destroyed 50 complete panels at Nimrud in northern Iraq in April, which has made the remaining reliefs in museums, including the Louvre [Paris] and Metropolitan Museum of Art [New York], even more important. Although the £100m valuation may seem high for the British Museum’s Banquet Scene, Sotheby’s sold the Guennol Lioness (3000–2800BC) for $57m in 2007. The limestone figure of a lioness, believed to have been discovered near Baghdad, measures just 8cm in height.

[…]

The British Museum will receive a fee for the loans [to Abu Dhabi museum], and although the fee has not yet been finalised, it will certainly be millions of pounds a year. This will help the British Museum financially, which has been facing substantial cuts to its UK government funding. In real terms (after inflation) this represents a 30% reduction in grant-in-aid from 2010 to 2016.

 

Jul

13

In Athens, the ruins of the State and the market could reveal true art

2015/07/13 | by Eric Bourdon | Comment


George Vamvakidis and Stathis Panagoulis of The Breeder Athens
 

George Vamvakidis and Stathis Panagoulis of The Breeder, Athens.
Photo: via artnet.com

 

“The art market is basically dead right now in Athens,” said George Vamvakidis in a telephone interview. Vamvakidis is a co-founder of The Breeder, a successful gallery that specialized in Greek contemporary artists and is known on the international art fair circuit. “The state is unable to fund the arts and the private collectors, the biggest ones, choose not to support the local market. So as a result almost every single commercial gallery of our generation has closed its doors.”

[…]

The upshot of the crisis, according to some of the dealers, is that it has caused something of a renaissance in the country. [Artist Dimitra] Vamiali said the crisis became “an inspirational turning point for many artists.” Vamvakidis said that artists are “liberated from the forces of the market” and for this reason Athens has become something of a creative hub because of the resultant creative energy and the low cost of living. “Artists that are working under those circumstances – who have the balls to produce work that is totally unconventional,” said Vamvakidis, “are producing really brave work.”

 
Full article here : Greek Art Dealers Tell Us How to Run a Gallery in Athens On 60 Euros A Day by Rozalia Jovanovic and Eileen Kinsella, July 10, 2015
 

Jul

7

Artists : How to get shows at galleries in major world art centers

2015/07/07 | by Eric Bourdon | Comment


where to start 
     “No one is a prophet in their own land” is a well known popular expression. As an artist struggling to exhibit your work, you could also think “No one is an artist in their own land”. Alan Bamberger defends an opposite – or complementary – view :

A: Many artists believe that all they have to do to get known is to show their art in major national or international art centers, and somehow some way, collectors will discover and appreciate it immediately. Continuing with this magical thinking, they fantasize that the exposure will result in instant recognition, a steady stream of sales, and the beginning of a great career. Why do they think this? It’s kind of a “grass is greener on the other side” mindset, often having to do with the mistaken belief that their art is not in front of the “right audience,” and that the only reason they haven’t been selling is that there’s not much of an art scene in their hometowns or wherever they happen to live, and that hardly anybody who lives there buys art. But the truth is that people do buy art, they buy it everywhere, and the hometown does count, so let’s take a look at the reality of the matter.

Full article here : Artists : How to Get Shows at Galleries in Major World Art Centers