Tag Archives: Art

The Lost Leonardo painting – NYT article and update.

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A couple of posts back, I urged you to support or, at least, repost the request for help to discover the lost Leonardo Da Vinci painting, ‘The Battle of Anghiari. Well, hopefully to rediscover it.

Here we have a rather good article in the New York Times about the history and the current situation with the project. Since last week, the funding has doubled in size (possibly as a result of the NYT article) but there is still a long way to go.

Here is the Kickstarter Project which is, apparently, the biggest Kickstarter project of its kind to date. Here you can donate money for ‘things’ promised. Including a personalised tour of the very palace itself.

Do go and have a look. It’s all terribly exciting.

Searching for ‘The Battle of Anghiari’ and your help is required.

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There’s this nice American (but he can’t help where he was born, can he?) guy that I know, living in Milan who is a professional photographer.

He has a project and it’s exciting.

It goes something like this: Leonardo (of the Da Vinci fame) did this huge painting which was regarded as a bit special.

Then, just like changing the wallpaper, they got some guy (Giorgio Vasari) who was paid to paint over it except that, being a bit of a fan of Leo, he probably didn’t just paint over it but rather painted over a wall in front of it.

Another guy (Dr. Maurizio Seracini) reckons that the Leo’s painting will be behind it but cannot get to it.

Dave, the photographer, got involved and there may be a way to ‘see’ it using some special gamma camera.

Although this project has been funded by National Geographic to a great extent, they now need some funding for the camera itself.

And this is where you come in. Please visit the link below and if you like the idea, pledge some money. If not, you can still help by posting it on your blog or on Facebook or passing it onto friends. They have a lot of money to raise before October 10th and it would be so good if it can be done. Any help is gratefully received.

The Search for the Lost Da Vinci is here.

Please help!

Sons and Daughters

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It’s going to be a busy few weeks before the holidays.

Apart from that, it’s also going to be a fattening few weeks with lots of meals out.

So, by the time the holidays come, I shall be, at once, fatter and slimmer – although, probably, the ‘fatter’ part will win through.

I am quite looking forward to next weekend when my son and his wife will be over.

For those of you that have just thought, ‘Have I missed something?’, no, you haven’t. I’m not really being serious. But it’s sort of like that. It’s the guy who got married last year. They’re coming to celebrate their first anniversary here, in Milan. Aw, bless.

Actually, in all these years, only 3 people/couples have come here to Milan to visit me (previously, us). This will be the fourth. In six years.

I hope to be able to help them to enjoy their stay and am taking some days off to do so. During their time here we shall be eating (rather well, I think :-) ), drinking and doing some other things that are less important. Mainly eating and drinking. Oh, and seeing the Last Supper. And, maybe going to the Duomo and, if it’s nice, up to the roof. And, did I mention? Eating and drinking.

I will be enjoying it.

But that’s the weekend after this one. In the meantime, have a good weekend.

I am a truly grateful

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“So”, the voice queries, “how rich are you?”

It is, for sure, the most stupid fucking question to ask.

Worse still that I should ask it.

Even worser (yes, I know it’s not good English – it’s a joke) that the question is in my head.

And the worst is that this is inside my head – me asking this question of myself but as if I were someone else asking – not me at all.

Normal. My normal.

This morning was nothing different. On the way to work. And then I thought:

“Actually, I am a trillionaire.”

No, I don’t have loads of money. Instead I have my life, my perfect flat in the perfect street, my dogs, F, health, enough money to live on comfortably, a full-time job, I live in Italy and more specifically, Milan, I have good friends.

Yes, for sure, I am a trillionaire.

And, then I go and read this:

September 14
Was a complicated day – tried to get my phone to get bars so
Zach could talk to Julie. Finally got bars – one.

Zach called her ‘mom’ He sounded like he had prepared all
his words for days – honest – thoughtful. Calling her ‘mom’
when he could not hear her.

Julie raised her head the most she had all day. Using all her
strength that kept her living to talk with her son. Repeating her
words… she trembled – touched her face. She tried so hard to
be there in the last moments for Zach.

Zach said, ‘Thank you for having me…’

He told her that his favorite time with her was when she kissed
him on his head – he wants to be with her and never wanted to
leave – he loved her…

About a mother, dying of aids, speaking by phone to the one of her children, this child having been taken away from her when it was born and then put up for adoption and then found by the photographer who recorded, by photographs, the last 18 years of the mother’s life.

Read/view it (and you should ……no you must) here.

It makes you want to cry. How can we call ourselves civilised? Someone made a point in the newspaper that the USA should get a proper healthcare system. But, actually, they’re wrong. I’m sure you could do a similar photograph-documentary in the UK or, for that matter, anywhere in the Western world. And, anyway, it’s not just the healthcare that isn’t up to the job. It’s the state and the relatives and the people involved. It’s everything and everyone, even the person themselves.

And so, it reinforced my thought this morning. I am a trillionaire.

And truly grateful.

Video Art – here IS the passion I have been talking about.

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Art.  It’s all down to what you like.  Just because someone says it is good doesn’t mean you like it (even if you can admire it for it’s skill, of course).

Modern art – even more so.  Picasso doesn’t really do much for me, I’m afraid.  Damien Hirst and his polka dot phase also left me very cold, although I did like the half a cow thing.

However, my favourite modern art stuff is video art.  I don’t know why but I can get quite excited about it all and watch it for, well, if not quite hours, certainly a long time.  Video art to me is NOT a film.  It’s something else.  It can be almost mundane but, somehow, to me, intriguing, interesting, fun, etc.

If anyone is going to London, I always tell them that a ‘must see’ in my opinion is the Tate Museum of Modern Art – for me, possibly, the most wonderful place on this planet as far as museums and art galleries go.  There I have seen the film of a woman eating a sausage, rotting fruit, a boxer and others (I know it doesn’t sound like great stuff but, really, it is).

And now there is an exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery where Phillipe Parreno is showing some of his films (and other stuff).  But there is one film that really excites me.  And that is from seeing two stills!  It is InvisibleBoy – a film of a Chinese immigrant boy with monsters and the like ‘scratched’ onto the film.

I know it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – but video art does something for me that most other media don’t quite achieve – and, if I lived in London or nearby, this one I could not miss.  Below is the still.  You probably won’t find it exciting at all but for me it almost took my breath away.  If you go to the site link (above) you will see another still.  Really, this is something incredible.