Site visit SVC concert

 

I want to share the wonderful experience of the SVC concert on Friday evening (10/9)at the Weis Center.  The concert was Alzheimer's Stories: A Monument to Memory.

First of all, we the WFAA, Inc., can be very proud of our association with the SVC.  It is an excellent organization as it celebrates its 40th anniversary.

Secondly, we can be proud of the fact that we were a concert sponsor for the premiere of this stunning three-movement choral work commissioned by the SVC.

The music is soul stirring in several ways: the music is very satisfying from an emotional and intellectual standpoint, it is very tonal and harmonic, while edgy; and it articulates the pathos, confusion, humor, frustration, anger and hope in those who have AD and in those who care for AD patients.  It is a very satisfying work.

The words are taken from the stories submitted to the SVC and used in the writing of the work.

Robert S. Cohen - composer - http://www.svcmusic.org/stories/about.php#Cohen

Herschel D. Garfein - librettist - http://www.svcmusic.org/stories/about.php#Garfein

For the three soloists - http://www.svcmusic.org/concerts/2009-2010/fall_concert  scroll down to the middle of the page to start their bios.

There should be CDs of the performance available to the SVC and sponsors in the near future.  I can't wait to hear it again!!

WVIA was there and taped the concert which will air sometime in November, so check your listings. 

These are weak site visit comments because I have no way to convey the excitement, the drama, the quality of music and performance.  It really packed a wallop from every point of view.  Congratulations to the SVC for taking on such a challenging subject and presenting it in a superb manner.

 

Return For A Final Appearance...Sort Of...

It has been a LONG time since I actually posted on this blog ~~ April 2006 to be exact. The reason for the blogging I was doing here was changing dramatically at that time. And finally the purpose for which this blog was set up was eclipsed & terminated.

However, a new opportunity to blog on ArtInterests has grown out of the aforementioned change. I have started a new blog ~~ AndMoreArtInterestsGreatAndSmall ~~ come on over & check it out!! I'll have the first post up soon.

Ciao!!

FYI

As I mentioned in the last post, I need to close this blog or at least make some revisions in it. So it will be under some reconstruction. I don't plan to do further posts in this blog.
However, I will have a new blog up soon & will link from here to the new one as my final post.

Weeeeelllll.....

It looks like 'light blogging alert' was an understatement...right???
In fact, I am closing the blog out. It has been fun, but changes with respect to the WOOCOCK MUSEUM have necessitated closure of ArtInterestsGreatAndSmall.
Thanks to everyone who read & enjoyed this blog.

LIGHT BLOGGING ALERT

Will be on the road for the next few weeks. I will post, but it will be intermittent. Thanks for your patience!

Some Come and Some Go

It is wonderful when some pieces of art COME in to a public venue but sadly recent news also reports that some paintings are GONE from public access.

Well, here is the good news. Some beautiful works of art will be seen soon. The estate of Henry Ford is gifting the Detroit Institute of Arts with works by Picasso, Matisse and Renoir - estimated value around $15 million. The Detroit Institute is working on renovation and expansions and plans to have the works on public view by 2007. This addition should add around 77,000 square feet to the existing 600,000 sq.ft.

Among those paintings to be COMING to the DIA:
Marc Chagall's "The Green Circus Rider"
Degas "Seated Nude Woman Brushing Her Hair"
Renoir "Coco"
Picasso "Girl Reading"
Matisse "Anemones and Peach Blossoms"
and Modigliani's "Girl in a White Blouse"

And here is the bad news. Using the cover of a Carnival parade and celebrations in Rio last week, thieves made off with Picasso, Dali, Monet and Matisse paintings from the Chacara do Ceu museum. The paintings were considered the most valuable pieces at the museum and spokesmen could not give a value of their worth at this time. The four thieves used grenades to overpower the guards and then fled into the huge crowd that was following the Carnival band.
The purlioned pieces include:
Picasso "The Dance"
Dali "The Two Balconies"
Monet "Marine"
and Matisse " Luxemburg Garden"

Current news events remind us that we are fortunate when some good people make fine art accessible but unfortunately, in the same news cycle, reality tells us that there are also bad people who would deprive us from enjoying the beauty of these grand pieces.

Even in the art world, they come and they go.

What is

genre painting?

From Artlex ~~

"Genre painting is the depiction of subjects and scenes from everyday life, ordinary folk and common activities. It achieved its greatest popularity in seventeenth century Holland (the Netherlands) with the works of Jan Steen (1626-1679) and Jan Vermeer (1632-1675)."

This charming painting (1449) by Petrus Christus, has three different titles, one is A Goldsmith in his Shop, Possibly St. Eligius & St. Eligius in His Workshop, & Portrait of a Betrothed Couple & St. Eligius. The first title sort of hedges its bets, since we are not absolutely sure this is St. Eligius. However, there is good evidence that the panel was "commissioned by the Bruges guild of goldsmiths," & St. Eligius is the patron saint of goldsmiths, so we can proceed with a fair amount of confidence that the goldsmith in the painting is St. Eligius.

You can see that it fits the definition of a genre painting ~ a style that really flowered in the Northern Renaissance period of the 15th & 16th centuries.

Take note of the brown girdle in the left foreground ~ "used in betrothal ceremonies & clearly part of the young woman's costume, lies on the edge of the workbench, seemingly projecting into the viewer's space. Many painters enjoyed inserting trompe-l'oeil details of this kind."

"The vessel on the far right was possibly intended to hold consecrated hosts, as suggested by the fact that it is surmounted with a decorative pelican piercing its own breast to feed its young, a symbol of how Christ saved humanity with his blood."

And finally let's look at the nifty convex mirror (also at the far right) which "does not reflect the room containing the three main figures, but the marketplace that must lie beyound the goldsmith's workspace. This is another trick to close the distance between the painted space & that of the viewer, & one that Van Eyck had previously used [in his painting Giovanni Arnolfini & his Wife]. Two men amble across the square, one of them holding a falcon. Their 'sloth' - one of the seven deadly sins - contrasts with the industry of the goldmith."

After you have enlarged the image, be sure & click on the 200% in order to be able to enjoy the exquisite details in the painting like the bride-to-be's brocade gown (check out the white background as well), her transparent veil & the high gloss of the three decanters on the top shelf at the right. This kind of detail is a marvelous feature of Northern Renaissance art.

Quotes are from How to Read a Painting: Lessons from the Old Masters by Patrick de Rynck p. 52 & 53.