Japanese Art and Architecture, works of art produced in Japan from the beginnings of human habitation there, sometime in the 10th millennium BC, to the present.
Historically, Japan has been subject to sudden invasions of new and alien ideas followed by long periods of minimal contact with the outside world. Over time the Japanese developed the ability to absorb, imitate, and finally assimilate those elements of foreign culture that complemented their aesthetic preferences. The earliest complex art in Japan was produced in the 7th and 8th centuries AD in connection with Buddhism. In the 9th century, as the Japanese began to turn away from China and develop indigenous forms of expression, the secular arts became increasingly important; until the late 15th century, both religious and secular arts flourished. After the Onin War (1467-1477) Japan entered a period of political, social, and economic disruption that lasted for nearly a century. In the state that emerged under the leadership of the Tokugawa clan, organized religion played a much less important role in people's lives, and the arts that survived were primarily secular.
Painting is the preferred artistic expression in Japan, practiced by amateur and professional alike. Until modern times, the Japanese wrote with a brush rather than a pen, and their familiarity with brush techniques has made them particularly sensitive to painterly values. They found sculpture a much less sympathetic medium for artistic expression; most Japanese sculpture is associated with religion, and the medium's use declined with the lessening importance of traditional Buddhism. Japanese ceramics are among the finest in the world and include the earliest known artifacts of their culture. In architecture, Japanese preferences for natural materials and an interaction of interior and exterior space are clearly expressed.
Japanese art is characterized by unique polarities. In the ceramics of the prehistoric periods, for example, exuberance was followed by disciplined and refined artistry. Another instance is provided by two 16th-century structures that are poles apart: Katsura Palace is an exercise in simplicity, with an emphasis on natural materials, rough and untrimmed, and an affinity for beauty achieved by accident; Toshogu Mausoleum is a rigidly symmetrical structure replete with brightly colored relief carvings covering every visible surface. Japanese art, valued not only for its simplicity but also for its colorful exuberance, has considerably influenced 19th-century Western painting and 20th-century Western architecture.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Japanese Art and Architecture
Art Painting TANJORE PAINTINGS
Thanjavur or modern Tanjore is famous for a special style of decorating the paintings, which are done both on glass and board. In both types, the figures and the background are richly embellished with gold leaf and gems as ornaments. The relief work on board is achieved by applying gesso, a mixture of gypsum or Plaster of Paris and glue. The characteristics of the Tanjore paintings are its brilliant colour schemes, decorative jewellery with stones and cut glasses and its larger-than-life figures. The themes are mostly mythological, with figures of Lord Krishna in various poses and depicting various stages of his life being the most favourite. Today people are experimenting with birds, animals, building structures and other subjects. Though Thanjavur was not the birthplace of this art, this style of painting developed here during the 18th century under the patronage of the Maratha rulers. It reached its pinnacle during the rule of Sarfoji Maharaj who was a great patron of art. As people and artists migrated to Tanjore from Mysore, Andhra, Bijapur, Maharashtra and Gujarat, the theme and style came to be largely influenced by various schools of arts and religion as well as the Western and Chinese techniques.
Read More..Painting Art Pol Ledent: "Bellflowers campanulas" - Painting Oil, 2007
I am a self-taught artist. I was born in Belgium o, 23rd October 1952. I started painting in 1995 . I took some drawing lessons in the art academy in Dinant. I try to paint the landscapes of the countryside where I am living : the southern part of Belgium. Firts I took part in many collective exhibitions . Than, I had personal exhibitions in Rochehaut (Galerie La Potèle), in Dinant (Galerie L'impression), in Paris (Rive Gauche Galerie Artimus) in Brussels (Galerie G-Loft).In 2004, I had three exhibitions, again In Rochehaut, galerie La Potèle in May. Then, in September Exhibition Libr'art in Libramont. In November, Galerie Impression in Dinant.
What people like most in my paintings are the colours. My art doesn't speak to the intellect but to the soul and to the feelings. Talink the risk to seem old fashioned , I would say it is rather romantic.
I wish you much pleasure looking at my paintings.
Pol Ledent
Art Painting Title: "Silence" , 2001 By : Setyo Mardiyantoro
Il Ramo d'Oro in Naples, Italy, presents works by Guido Della Giovanna and Setyo Mardiyantoro in "Neapolitan Exotic" during the last two weeks of March, 2007. For Guido Della Giovanna and Setyo Mardiyantoro the lightness is an efficient strategy of surviving that permits them, daily to overcome the angst and to give wellness to their own souls. Il Ramo d'Oro promotes their artists with an absolutearts.com Gallery Portfolio.
In the Guido's paintings the lightness is expressed by bright colours, light tones, simple shapes that reflect a simple message: peace, love, harmony. This lyric dimension is changed by the black and white pictures of Yoshiko Ikeda, who continuously withdraws her own face. The photography sight doesn‚t look outside but insight to look for answers that the world cannot give.
Setyo, immigrant from Java Island, carefully uses the colour to reinvent natural shapes arriving near to the abstraction. With a lyric breath, an oneiric sensitiveness, a subtle taste for ornament, Setyo expresses on paper, wood or batik his nostalgia for a pure environment, where the balance between man and nature hasn't been violated yet.
- Marco di Mauro
Chinese furniture Art - Mid-19th century juwood daybed.
Mid-19th century juwood daybed, circa 1860 A.D. from Shanxi, China.
from : www.art-treasures-gallery.com
Antique Chinese furniture Art Elmwood canopy bed.
18th century elmwood canopy bed, circa 1780 A.D. from Shanxi, China.
Friday, February 23, 2007
International Gothic Style
By the end of the 14th century, the fusion of Italian and Northern European art had led to the development of an International Gothic style. For the next quarter of a century, leading artists travelled from Italy to France, and vice versa, and all over Europe. As a consequence, ideas spread and merged, until eventually painters in this International Gothic style could be found in France, Italy, England, Germany, Austria and Bohemia.
Masters of illumination
The ancient art of book illumination was still the prevailing form of painting in France at the beginning of the 15th century. It reached new heights, however, in the work of the three Limbourg brothers, Pol, Herman, and Jean, exponents of the International Gothic style.
They came from Gelderland, a province of the Netherlands, but worked in France. They were the only other Gothic painters to take such orderly joy as that shown by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the city and its environment, its people, and its rulers. The Limbourg brothers all died suddenly in 1416, probably of the plague.
The Limbourgs' joint masterpiece, Les Très Riches Heures, was commissioned by the wealthy and extravagant manuscript collector, the Duc de Berry. Les Très Riches Heures is one of a genre of 15th-century illustrated prayer books known as ``book of hours''. The ``hours'' were prayers to be said at one of seven hours of the day. A book of hours would naturally contain a calendar, and this became the opportunity for a display of the illuminator's talent. Sadly, this particular example was unfinished at the time of the Limbourgs' and the Duc de Berry's deaths.
Each month is marked by an enchanting scene, usually showing appropriate seasonal activities. In August, we see courtly lovers riding to hunt with their falcons, while the great white ducal castle gleams in the distance and the peasant swim happily in the winding stream. The blue upper part of the painting shows an astrological hemisphere. With its mixture of courtly refinement and everyday reality, this miniature is representative of many in the book.
The Garden of Eden was painted separately from the rest of Les Très Riches Heures and inserted into it later. It is a great enclosed circle showing the world as it was intended to remain before Adam and Eve's fall from grace. The whole story of the loss of Eden and human self-will is set graphically before us. Adam and Eve are finally ejected from the lush greenery of Eden unto a dangerous rocky shore. The Limbourgs' consciousness of tragedy is no less acute for being so chivalric in its manner. For all their elegance, they are as aware as all great artists that pain is our human lot.