2013年2月16日 星期六

An uncomplicated time traveller

In September, 2012, the Baroda-based Malayali artist KP Reji set up base at a lodge near Fort Kochi. And every day, at 8.30 am, he would set out towards Pepper House, a venue of the Kochi Muziris Biennale.

There, on the first floor, inside a large hall, with its windows facing the sea, Reji would sit and ponder about his life, while a blank canvas remained—silent and mute, against one wall.

Slowly, images from his childhood in the village of Allapuzha—the Venice of the East, would come up. “I remembered the time when, during Gandhi Jayanti, a lot of schoolchildren, carrying knives and brooms, would clean the school premises and cut the overgrowing grass lining the roads and highways,” he says. “Although it was done in the name of the apostle of peace, we were using a bit of violence, by using the knives.”

At other moments, he remembered trips to Kochi where he saw large ships sailing towards the Arabian Sea. He also recalled the paddy fields, which were aplenty, when he was growing up. “But our family lost the land because a new railway line was coming up,” says Reji. “As for the others, some of the fields were converted into the more lucrative fish farms.”

Soon, Reji started painting. And, at the end of three months of 12-hour work days, Reji has produced a remarkable triptych, a 15’ x 10’ oil painting.Researchers at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed an indoortracking. On the banks of a river, are a group of boys, with knives, but with a playful look on their faces. Next to them are a flock of ducks. There is also a snow-white goat nearby. But what is eye-catching is the sight of a naked man who lies across a broken bund to prevent flood waters from flowing into a paddy field. Right behind them all, and with a towering presence, is the aircraft carrier, the INS Viraat, painted in grey, which is gliding past peacefully.

Asked about the presence of the carrier, in a sylvan setting, Reji says, “We brought this from Britain. It gives an indication of our long relationship with the British because of their 200-year rule of India.” Reji says that the overwhelming experience for viewers is a sense of loss. “The work has enabled them to go back to the past,” he elaborates.

“There are evocative images... a carrier, small children, ducks and a paddy field. My aim was to take cliche images and present them in a fresh manner.”

If there is a greater thrill than discovering a lost work by an old master it is perhaps discovering a lost old master instead. This is essentially what the National Gallery is presenting with its new exhibition of the work of Federico Barocci.

In his lifetime Barocci was the most celebrated artist of the generation that immediately followed the High Renaissance deities of Michelangelo, Leonardo, Titian and Raphael. His patrons included Pope Pius VI, the Emperor Rudolf, the Duke of Urbino and even a saint, Filippo Neri. While his work strongly influenced later artists such as Rubens and Bernini it is little known today outside Italy, and specifically his home region of Le Marche and the hilltop city of Urbino. Of his 80 finished paintings Urbino alone has more than Britain, France, Spain and America combined, and many of his altarpieces remain in the churches for which they were painted.

Geographical isolation is, however, only one reason why Barocci has slipped from sight. Apart from a few portraits and a single late painting of Aeneas fleeing Troy, his pictures are exclusively religious, which did not endear him to Protestant taste. Nor could his distinctive style – fondant colour harmonies and an emotional sweetness – outshine the shadowy dramas of Caravaggio and his adherents. So while Barocci holds an important place in art history as the missing link between the strained distortions of Mannerism and the dynamism of the baroque, he has left little impression on the public consciousness. The National Gallery's exhibition, which contains some 20 paintings and 65 drawings, pastel studies and oil sketches, sets out to return him to notice.

Barocci deserves it. His birthplace, Urbino, was also that of Raphael,You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth Original buymosaic Descriptions. the beau ideal to whom all painters aspired. Raphael had died some 15 years before Barocci was born in 1535, but the noble tenderness of his style remained a formative influence. So too did his family's profession as scientific instrument makers. The painter's father specialised in astrolabes and clocks, and their motions are echoed in Barocci's compositions, with figures placed around the pictures like the numerals on a dial. He also studied the works of Correggio and Titian, absorbing some of the former's sentimentality and the latter's colour. In Rome, where he went to further his career, he met Michelangelo and probably had access to some of his drawings. His example meant that Barocci began to reconcile the two Renaissance artistic opposites of disegno (design) and colorito (colour).

According to Bellori,Cheaper For bulk buying handsfreeaccess prices.Researchers at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed an indoortracking. Barocci's first biographer,All realtimelocationsystem comes with 5 Years Local Agent Warranty ! Michelangelo first noticed the young painter when he alone among a group of students hung back while the others rushed to gain the great man's attention. The encouragement Michelangelo gave him was one reason behind his fellow painters' jealousy, which, apparently, came to a murderous head in 1565 when they invited him to a picnic and poisoned his salad. Whether or not the poisoning was real, Barocci suffered stomach problems for the rest of his life – although he lived another 47 years. The discomfort was such that he vomited after every meal, slept fitfully and was plagued by nightmares, and could paint for only two hours a day.

沒有留言:

張貼留言