An exhibition? A Concert? Who knows what I will want to share but whatever it is, I hope you will share it with me.
A WALK THROUGH ORIENTAL GARDENS
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A Syrian fountain panel XVllC
Every time I have seen any kind of Arabic and Oriental art, I feel strangely attracted to it. Firstly it was in Turkey where my Mother introduced me to Iznik ceramics. In Istanbul alone examples of İznik tiling can be seen in at least 40 mosques, in the Hagia Sophia complex, and certain buildings of the Topkapı Palace complex such as the Circumcision room and the Baghdad Kiosk. It was of course the Topkapi Palace where we spent a lot of time as I did later on, during a visit with Jerome and Laurent. I doubt if we visited the 40 mosques but I have certainly seen a lot of Oriental art in my time.
When I made the remark to Laurent yesterday that it was a culture that attracted me more than the Asian, Indian or Thai, he suggested that perhaps it was closer to our way of thinking. I’m not so sure about that. From my point of view it is not so detailed and fine lined as we see in Temples …..l feel more comfortable. Not surprising then that we sent to see the Jardins d’Orient (Oriental Gardens).
From Alhambra to the Taj Mahal. Yes, the Taj is somewhere I would love to go but from what l have seen recently it now looks like a tourist trap with hundreds of buses lined up at a few kilometers from the Palace. Not my scene any longer - if it ever was.
But did you know that tulips were the emblems of the Ottoman Sultans long before they were introduced to the Pays-Bas? I wonder when Claude Monet painted this in 1886 and if he knew the history of tulips or if like so many of us the took it for granted that they came from Holland?
Claude Monet - "Tulip Fields" 1886
And did you know that public gardens are a relatively recent innovation from the Orient? The word garden in Persian means paradise. I like that.
This is a walk through history with a contemporary reinterpretation of the Eastern Gardens of the orient. With its multitude of artworks, scale models, and historical documents, this exhibition will undoubtedly illustrate the classical Arab-Muslim garden and its evolutions.
To begin with, take a look at the map - all those countries which the art travels from…..
Click on it and take a look
There are over 300 works dating from Antiquity to the present day. I enjoy the relationship between the old and the contemporary as you know.
No Title - Nabil Nahas - 2010
Egyptian Landscape - ALi Selim - Before 2009: Tapestry
Egyptian Landscape - ALi Selim - Before 2009: Tapestry
The desert from the top of the Nile - 1915
Somehow though many of the really ancient drawings, paintings or manuscripts seemed to be as up to date as what we see today. Beautifully conserved, I might add.
Radha and Krishna on a boat around 1860: look closely there are two people bathing
Culture, history, technical achievement, private and public gardens, with the main theme being water. There was one interior installment where from a little way off it really looked like water…..
Wells too and although the videos showed wells from another age, as Laurent said, in certain regions times have not changed.
It was actually turning
Legendary Hanging gardens
Legendary hanging gardens
Reconstruction of Assyrien gardens (Vll BC) - Paul Goodhead 2008
The suspended gardens of Babylone - they existed but where exactly and how did they really look?
Rigorous lines
The tradition dates back to Achaemenian Persia when King Cyrus (c600-230BC) constructed a garden in the city of Passargdae. It was structured by a wide basin that crossed an ally at a right angle and laid the foundations for traditional Persian gardens.
Mouth of a fountain - second half of the XVlc
Superiour panel of a chadar - Indian Monghole XVllC
And some very curious painting on aluminium
The artist, Chaza Charafeddine drew inspiration from Persian and Mughal miniatures and mythical symbolic animals they contain. Here she certainly underlines the ambiguity of the figures represented - women and beautiful young men. Is it a question on the notion of beauty? I wonder.
So many other of not so old and new ...
A patio in Alger - 20th C - Charles Dufresne
Abdallah Benanteur - Saadi Garden - 1894
An evening concert in a garden - Fatima El-Hajj 2010
Incredible detail in the 19th Century painting
Akbar's Mausoleum in Sikandra - unknown artist - 1790
The garden of Assai in Alger : Francois Quelvée 1925
A parc scene - Marquerite Nakhla - Egypt, 1940
In Alger gardens : Henry Valensi - 1920-26
Olive Tress - Abdul Rahman Katani. In barbed wine and an Olive tress tunk - 2015
Garden of Eden - Hussein Madi - 2006
Three palm trees 2013
Before leaving the exhibition we climbed to the top floor and looked down on this. Was it real ?
We came out on the garden to discover and stroll though a not very exciting area
You can see this path in the photo taken from the roof
until we climbed and saw this. A recomposed imagery of the anamorphosis of vegetation in a star-shaped polygon created by visual artist François Abélanet, who believes that his project “proves that plants, a sense of wonder, and heightened awareness, all have a vital role to play in today’s world“. I am sure we all agree.
It was like taking a walk through history with a contemporary reinterpretation of the Eastern Gardens of the orient.
A garden offers intimacy and reassurance, especially in our troubled times. An image of tranquility associated with heritage, culture, as well as the ideals of coexistence and freedom It’s not just a landscape of greenery; it can also be seen as a reflection of our links between past memories, and future discoveries. I’m talking about the garden of course. It would be a better world if we got on with our Arab and Muslim « cousins » - but l wonder if that will ever happen?
Over the years, I have gone on discovering Wifredo Lam. He has been mentioned in different Blog chapters but always within permanent collections. I have to admit today that in the early years, I took one of his paintings for a Picasso….and seeing certain paintings of his today, it didn’t really surprise me. Especially as I learnt that he knew Picasso…This though was a retrospective of his work at the Beaubourg. Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) was a precursor of a cross-cultural style of painting, infusing Western modernism with African and Caribbean symbolism. He must have been one of the very rare artists who was in contact with all the movements of his time …and all those that I follow. Cubism, surrealism, CoBrA…but he never lost sight of the world around him and took on the struggle to paint the drama of his own country, Cuba. The above photo plunges us at once into the exhibition. Was he an attractive man? I think there are later photos which make him look less brutal….but in my book,
After 25 years as a museum, it was time to renovate the Picasso site. The « Hotel » as we call it, has quite a history. It is probably, as Bruno Foucart wrote in 1985, (he is an art historian of 19th century architecture) “the grandest, most extraordinary, if not the most extravagant, of the Parisian houses of the 17th century”. Hotel Salé The Main stair case Another coming down "Picasso" would have liked these lights The building has seen many occupants come and go over the centuries. However, paradoxically, before the place was entrusted to the museum, it was rarely “inhabited”, but instead leased out to various private individuals, prestigious hosts and institutions. And so it became the Picasso museum. The renovations began in 2009 and quite obviously went well over budget and should have opened before the holidays started this year. The political arguments too had to be contended with not to mention the changes in Directors and the big question bei
The exhibition season is very full between January and the French holiday period. I make less and less effort to go and see the « block-busters » and there are some museums which are not easy to get around. The Jacquemart André is one of them. The rooms are so small and when a couple of groups move in, it is virtually impossible to see a picture or move at all. Still I was interested to go and see the Alicia Koplowitz collection. Now I come to think of it, there have been quite a few private collections shown to the public since the end of last year. Naturally I knew nothing about this woman. Alicia Koplowitz is very well known in her home country, Spain. Thanks to her company, the Capital Omega Group a comprehensive financial services company , she has become an important collect er Alicia is is a Spanish business magnate. When her father died, she and her sister inherited Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (CYCSA), a company founded by her father. She sold her part of the comp
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