Two Calder's sculptures missing since 1984 in Rio de Janeiro

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.

Another work by the Brazilian sculptor Sérgio Camargo was broken last Mars and it is still there as if nothing had happened.

They were really amazing and I have a very good recollection being at the park and stopping to interact with one of the sculptures that were there.

This is a shame.

Happy birthday Alexander Calder but be careful to whom you donate your work.

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Artist and activist Ai Weiwei is released in China after 81 days in Chinese prison

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.

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Monument to peace by Richard Bartle

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.

This is very strange.

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George Segal and Stephen Hansen: on women

Right: High Maintenance, 2003 by Stephen Hansen

Left: The Curtain, 1974, by George Segal

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Albert Einstein Memorials at Washington and at Ulm

Left: "The Albert Einstein Memorial in Washington's National Mall neighborhood is one of the most instantly recognizable landmarks in Washington DC. Measuring 12 feet / 3.5 meters, this large and imposing statue of Albert Einstein is actually seated on a bench, at the front of Washington's National Academy of Sciences." Sculpture by Robert Berks. Photo" By wallyg at Flickr.

Right: detail of "Jürgen Goertz bronze sculpture of Albert Einstein, Ulm’s internationally most famous son, in 1984. It is located on the grounds of historic Zeughaus. (Zeughaus is Ulm’s historic arsenal; today it is home to parts of Ulm’s municipal court.)

It consists of three elements:

The rocket symbolizes technology, the conquest of the universe and the atomic threat.

On this base you see a big snail shell which symbolises the opposite, namely nature, wisdom and skepticism about mankind’s dominance of technology."

The right photography is by by Kakapo2

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."

Albert Einstein

Update: June, 14 2011

I changed the right picture because the previous one belongs to a blogger that I couldn't find the name and just making a link is not enough. I like this one! I love watermarks. I think all images should have them because it makes it easier for everybody to attribute, something I'm very careful.

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Duane Hanson complex world

"I'm not duplicating life. I'm making a statement about human values."
Duane Hanson

Duane Hanson did a diverse work under the label hyper-realism. Although his groups of people evokes the social the individuality of each person is preserved in such a way that sometimes it reminds a Edward Hopper scene where a certain psychological moment is captured.
I have already start approaching his work at this post and I plan doing others because there is nothing simple about these people.
If you want to watch more you can go to this site.
(put your mouse at each picture to see the title)

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Claes Oldenburg's objects

I think that many people look at the left Oldenburg's sculpture and asks themselves if it's a creation of the artist because it doesn't look like any familiar object in a large scale that characterizes the artist work.

It is a typewriter eraser. The round part was made of rubber, the eraser and at the other end the brush that took away the dust after erasing.

At the left side a stamp made of rubber that is seldom seen nowadays with the word "Free".

This is what Claes tells about his objects:

"We do invest religious emotion in our objects. Look at how beautifully objects are depicted in ads on Sunday newspapers. It's all very emotional. Objects are body images, after all, created by humans, filled with human emotion, objects of worship."*

Enchantment is the word that comes to my mind when I watch Oldenburg's work. There are many of his objects and I plan to publish some others.

* (C. Oldenburg, quoted in M. Rosenthal, "Unbridled Monuments; or, How Claes Oldenburg Set Out to Change the World," Claes Oldenburg: An Anthology, New York, 1995, p. 259)

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Long Distance Information by Bill Woodrow

In 1983 the British Council exhibited "Transformations - New Sculpture from Britain" at the São Paulo Biennal showing the sculptures of six artists.
Bill Woodrow was chosen and "Long Distance Information, 1983" was one of his works.
He has a diverse oeuvre and you can search at this site his many periods even though the photographies online sometimes are not very good.
In the eighties he did several works by cutting the shape of an object from a metal structure and transforming the two-dimensional projection into three dimensional objects.
Long Distance Information was the title of a popular song by Chuck Berry which celebrated the possibility of talking to a child by telephone across a continent and Woodrow draw from an old car bonnet the shapes of a photographic camera, walkie-talkies and a bullet.
What these objects have in common are speed if you will - even the bullet which is faster than a knife for instance if you intend to kill.
It is very difficult and sometimes unfair to attribute meaning to the work of some artists.
But I cannot help thinking that Woodrow predicted cell phones. :) I am sorry Bill.
But what really strikes me the most in the work of this period is this ability to make the illusion that the object was taken from the metal shape. I think it is amazing.

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V-J day in Times Squares Alfred Eisenstaedt photography and J. Seward Johnson sculpture

V–J day in Times Square, a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, was published in Life in 1945 with the caption, In New York's Times Square a white-clad girl clutches her purse and skirt as an uninhibited sailor plants his lips squarely on hers.

Unconditional Surrender by J. Seward Johnson often compared to the photograph V–J day in Times Square by Alfred Eisenstaedt.

Have a great weekend.

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Camille Claudel

Right: Abandon, 1905, by Camille Claudel
Left: The flute player (The Little Fairy), 1904

I am thinking about many sculptures that depicts amazing torsos and focusing on the back. This is the voodoo way I am planning to help me get rid of my back pain.
I hope it works. I must be away from the computer as much as possible.... Camille Claudel... creative, amazing woman... Paul Claudel's sister and Rodin's lover... sad end.... got paranoid and thought Rodin was going to steal her ideas.... ended in a mental institution.... Sad story to such an amazing artist and woman....
Telegraphic post... rest now...

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