As today Calder would have celebrated his 113th birthday I cannot help remembering that Rio de Janeiro's city hall took these two works by Calder from the park where they were for restoration but in November, 1985 they disappeared.
Nobody knows what happened and they are missing till today 26 years later.
It was a scandal and many people have manifested in newspapers wrote letters and petitions to the mayor and even the police has a record of the occurrence but they are still missing.
The right one, Stable, 1941, was a donation by Calder during the acquisition of the mobile "Rio", 1951, by Rio de Janeiro government.
After 81 days in Chinese prison the artist and activist Ai Weiwei is back at this studio as the Reuter's picture shows. I knew Ai Weiwei because of videos, statements and interviews the British sculptor Anish Kapoor, that I like very much, did to denounce Ai Weiwei imprisonment. In one of them he rejects a British exhibition in China that would take place at Tienanmen Square as a protest for Ai Weiwei imprisonment. I loved Weiwei work immediately and felt ashamed I didn't know him yet. He has a great work and is a very bright man, a man of dignity and integrity. Still that is the way Chinese government treats one of it's most important artist because they cannot listen to any phrase that shows any kind of dissent. The most ridiculous example: this blog. After I published two posts this one and this the blog was blocked in China. What does this blog have of importance? What is written in these posts that is so offensive? The truth? Yes. Chinese people in general don't know about Tienanmen Square, 1989, when the Chinese government massacred young people in one of the most cowards ways.
Now with Lybia and Syria and others it is hard to rank who is the worst. But having these kind of massacres, I'm listening to the TV and they are reporting crackdowns. How to describe it? I changed the subject. But as Kapoor said in May, 10 for BBC about Ai Weiwei prison and he don't even know him personally:
"It's a month now that the poor man has been held without a voice, but not only that, his family doesn't know where he is," said Kapoor.
"This is not a situation that is acceptable in any circumstances.
Kapoor, left, has called on the art world to support Ai Weiwei
"It does bear witness to the barbarity of governments if they're that paranoid that they have to put away artists. It's a ridiculous situation."
Kapoor exhorted the artistic class and galleries and museums to be active in situations like that saying that museums, for instance could be closed for one day. I agree with Kapoor. Too much is happening and I don't see artists and those people who belong to the "cultural elite" doing what they used to do: say "NO". "This make us back to a Soviet-style time when the voice of artists... were seen as being dangerous." Kappor said. I remembered dictatorship times in South America when artists also "disappeared". This is unacceptable and we have to say it repeatedly: "NO!" NEVER AGAIN!"
Welcome back Ai Weiwei! We'll be watching Chinese government watching you.
Richard Bartle has been dedicating his art to promote peace and raising political issues with great artistic value.
A punk when teenager who used to gather with his friends at Peace Gardens, Sheffield city, UK, he did seven life-size sculptures made of stain using a Picasso's work.
They are perched on the chimney of Bar Ha!Ha! on St Paul’s Parade next to the Peace Gardens.
Bartle says:
"We live in a society where the media seem to perpetuate a feeling of nihilism on behalf of governments and big business as method of keeping us all in a state of fear and depression, it seems also that those who lobby against these power groups are equally as guilty of this. In my work I refuse this state of nihilism – I look for hope in all situations, and long for a world where dialogue triumphs over violence and the focus of life shifts from the negative to positive.”
More about this work here. I loved the way he put the media creating the nihilist sentiment. If you are following the news today you know how far the world is from peace.
Peace became a word that doesn't inspires the same feelings it did in the 60ies and 70ies.
