Video: Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase

Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase was a short animated film by Joan C. Gratz that featured the styles of significant works of art in the 20th century (except for the Mona Lisa, of course). Some of the works featured in this short were by Frida Kahlo, Edvard Munch, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein, and Vincent van Gogh. A pioneer of the animation technique called claypainting, Gratz used clay on a flat surface to create the images on the film.

The film received the 1992 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Categories: 20th Century Art, art history, Joan C. Gratz, Videos, Western Art

Dalí Atomicus by Philippe Halsman and Salvador Dalí

Dalí Atomicus was the product of a collaborative effort between photographer Philippe Halsman and surrealist Salvador Dalí back in 1948. It was the most famous among many of their collaborations probably because of the suspension of so many elements in the air at once—a seemingly dynamic, unpredictable and ephemeral scene.

The two met in 1941 and have worked together in many assignments, but it wasn't until the late 1940's that they started collaborating.

Dalí Atomicus (1948) by Philippe Halsman shows Salvador Dalí, a chair, water, cats and paintings suspended in the air.

The photograph, which took 28 attempts to satisfy Halsman, also referenced Dalí's painting Leda Atomica (right of the photograph), which was, at the time, still unfinished. It was completed in 1949.

Jumpology

Philippe Halsman philosophized on jump photography, where he took photographs of his subject/s suspended in the air. He believed that jumping liberated subjects from their inhibitions. Halsman said in a feature by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, "When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears."

Aside from Salvador Dalí, among the famous personalities captured by Halsman for his jump series included Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Richard Nixon and even the Ford family.

A version of the photograph before any post-production editing was applied. The cables and the assistant (left) can be seen while the painting in the center background hasn't been placed.

Background
Philippe Halsman was born in Riga, Latvia (used to be Russian Empire) in 1906 to a Jewish family. After studying engineering in Dresden, he moved to Paris in 1932 to setup his photographic career. By 1936, he was one of the most famous in photographers in France. However, the Nazi invasion in Paris forced Halsman to leave Europe and immigrate to America in 1940. He continued his career in photography in New York City working for Life.

Aside from his jump series, he worked on several editorials, fashion shoots, photojournalism projects, and other commercial and personal projects.

Read more about The Art Historian and the author.

Categories: Philippe Halsman, Photography, Salvador Dalí, Western Art

Spoliarium: The painting that helped shape a nation

In 1884, the Spoliarium by Filipino painter Juan Luna won the gold medal in the now defunct Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Exhibition of Fine Arts) in Madrid. At the time, the Philippines was already over 350 years under the Spanish regime.

The gold medal was a great achievement for a Filipino during those times. More importantly, the painting made a significant historical impact in shaping the Filipino consciousness.

Spoliarium

In the ancient Roman civilization, a spoliarium (latin word for 'den') is an area in a coliseum where the dying gladiators are discarded and stripped off their armors and other possessions. In this painting, we can see the Roman guards dragging the fallen gladiators in the spoliarium. On the left, people are awaiting for the possessions that they could exploit. Meanwhile, on the right, we can see a woman weeping for her dead beloved. An old man can barely be seen holding a torch, probably looking for his dead loved one. This stark contrast that centers around the fallen gladiators make it a truly dramatic and, at the same time, thought-provoking scene.

Currently, the painting, 4.22 m. by 7.675 m., sits in the National Museum in Manila, Philippines.

Spoliarium (1884) by Juan Luna 

Juan Luna and the Ilustrados

A political activist, Juan Luna was a member of the Ilustrados, a political propagandist group that was composed of Filipino middle to upper class intellectuals who were educated in Europe. Through their written and visual works, the Ilustrados dealt with political, moral and social injustices by the Spaniards in the Philippines and sought out reform and equality. Jose Rizal, who authored the novels Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and El Filibusterismo (The Filibuster) that exposed the abuse and the corruption by the Spaniards in the Philippines, was the most well known Ilustrado and was considered the country's national hero.

A photograph of the Ilustrados taken in 1890

During the celebration in honor of Juan Luna and Felix Resurrection Hidalgo, the other Filipino painter who won the silver medal, Rizal in his speech acknowledged the Spoliarium as a work that allegorizes man's constant political, moral and social struggles. In "The First Filipino," a book about Jose Rizal, author Leon Ma. Guerrero implied that Luna's masterpiece inspired Rizal to write his own Spoliarium that would later on become Noli Me Tangere, the biggest historical literary piece in Philippine history.

During the time of the Spanish regime, different groups clamored for different solutions for the sufferings imposed upon the Filipinos. The Ilustrados, for instance, called for a more just political and economic arrangement with the Philippines. On the other hand, several rebel groups, mostly composed of lower to middle class Filipinos, such as the Katipunan, sought for complete independence from Spain. The Spoliarium was one of the many works that influenced as well as inspired such varying groups in their efforts to liberate the Filipinos from oppression.

Read more about The Art Historian and the author.

Categories: Jose Rizal, Juan Luna, Philippine History, Southeast Asian Art, Spain, Spoliarium

The Art Historian

Art is an important piece in the perplexing history of mankind. It is a reflection of the world that we live in seen through the eyes of many different individuals across time. Take for example the Lascaux Cave Paintings in southwestern France that dates as far back as 20,000 years. These paleolithic cave paintings has given many of our anthropologists, archeologists, art historians, and many other scientists a glimpse of man's prehistoric times.

Lascaux cave paintings taken by Ralph Morse (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

A more recent example is Pablo Picasso's Guernica (1937), renowned for its political statement as a reaction to the Nazi's aerial bombardment and destruction of Guernica, a small Basque town in Spain. Rather than being forgotten, Picasso's powerful painting immortalized this controversy and left a footprint in the history of man, taking into account the sufferings brought about by modern warfare to innocent and undefended civilians.

Guernica (1937) by Pablo Picasso

Personally, I like to experience art because it has a direct and deep visceral impact to myself. Beyond the physical experience, I can feel the presence of the artist pleading for me to listen to the voices of the artworks. At the De Young Museum, I remember walking into this photography exhibition by Kael Alford and Thorne Anderson entitled Eye Level in Iraq. In this exhibition, we see the daily lives of the people in Iraq who were caught between the war, a rare view point for someone like me whose knowledge is limited by the headlines. It was an explicit and truthful set of images that directly made an impact to my humanity. I suddenly found myself lamenting with an Iraqi mother, bathing her dead son.

Thorne Anderson, Thawra, Baghdad, Iraq, April 18, 2003. Digital inkjet print. High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

Just like in Picasso's Guernica, the images in Iraq are a reflection as well as a reaction to the truths in our society. I love art because of its depth, but I am passionate about its history because of the truths that come with it.

This blog is not by any means an online textbook or a tutorial (although I will suggest links that will help guide you with the facts). I started this blog because I want people to not only look, but also to listen to the voices of the artworks that people have contributed to our world.

And finally--ambitious as I may sound--I want to start a discussion.

Categories: Ancient Art, art, art history, De Young Museum, European Art, Eye Level in Iraq, Guernica, Kael Alford, Lascaux cave paintings, Museums, Pablo Picasso, Photography, Spanish Art, Thorne Anderson, Western Art