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From: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. Between the Teeth, Curated by Robert Milne, Manifold Books, Amsterdam, November 28, 2021 – January 22, 2022 [Courtesy of Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA. © Theresa Hak Kyung Cha]
#art#poetry#visual writing#exhibition#theresa hak kyung cha#robert milne#manifold books#berkeley art museum and pacific film archive#2020s
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The treachery of images.
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Saving the Guns at Colenso, 1899 (chromolitho) by Stanley Berkeley
chromolithograph, 1899 National Army Museum, London
#Stanley Berkeley#fineart#art#painting#artwork#masterpiece#fineartprint#gallery#museum#guns#colenso#national#army#london#national army#enemy#enemies#war#shooting#horse#fight#action
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The funeral procession of Henrik Ibsen, walking up Ullevålsveien from the church to the cemetery. 1906-06-01
A Funeral Procession… passing along Berkeley Street in Dublin.
The funeral of Ismail Gasprinsky, Bakhchisaray, 1914.
The funeral procession of French president Sadi Carnot. Image published in Finnish periodical Uusi Kuvalehti in July 1894.
Funeral_do_ator_Joaquim_de_Almeida_(1921)
The Funeral of Lord Trịnh Tùng from Recueil de Plusieurs Relations et Traites by J.B.Tavernier, Chevalier and Baron D'Aubonne 1679.
The lying in state of King Edward VII, showing guards surrounding his coffin at Westminster Hall 17 MAY 1910
Maharaja Ranjit Singh's funeral. ca. 1840, paint on paper, The British Museum. Pahari-Sikh, from the family workshop of Purkhu of Kangra
Marc Antony's Oration at Caesar's Funeral by George Edward Robertson
*All Art from WikiCommons
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Theresa Cha | Life Mixing performance (1975), at University Art Museum, Berkeley.
In the exhibition No other cure none other than words in talking, the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden is currently showing historical and contemporary female artists whose works are linked by the themes of language, memory and the experience of foreignness. The title of the exhibition is taken from the book Temps Morts by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951, Busan, KOR - 1982, New York, USA).
In her lecture, Dr. Lisa Steib refers to the art that influenced Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's work in the Bay Area of California in the 1970s, especially the performance art that emerged in and around San Francisco during this period. In addition to Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, the lecture will focus on artists such as Terry Fox, Jim Melchert and Tom Marioni.
The lecture will be held in German.
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I'm always trying to stay on the cutting edge of every permutation of our constantly evolving visual culture but the elusiveness of every new form makes it difficult for me, even as one of the youngest possible millennials. in fashion, my freshman students are all wearing 2000s or "y2k" fashion: baggy grungy or baby phat hiphop, with an elevated touch of modesty, good color theory, and a stark awareness of bodily proportion. in memes, legendary 00s icon, lisa frank. its embarrassing to follow influencers with over 10 mil, now, as if it breaks the parasocial connection.
someone asked yesterday if tiktok is now the premier vehicle of visual culture. I open tiktok. on one side, a zoomed in interview with the mother of a shooting victim. but the other side is a compilation of slime videos, a woman cutting soap, life hacks, and chinese "smart" product placements. you can hear and see both. this bizarre genre, I can only recognize as content. on social media, content is technically anything you can doomscroll, the action of spending over 2 hours on a social media feed, a for you page, a timeline, a dashboard to tumblr addicts.
I'm watching cable TV with a girl I'm seeing. the ads are remarkably only geared towards boomers and older gen x. but, so is the 'content', bad action movies made for cable and reruns of 80s/90s TV shows, but the exact same show marathoned in hours long successions.
to be an effective art historian, I have to take things from this ever-shifting visual culture and translate it into the equally fickle and amorphous art world... so what does 'content' look like for museum shows? my first 100+ object loan show was in part by a colleague, a younger curator at BAMPFA. a massive exhibition of all female nonbinary artists, from the 60s PoMo feminists to the self obsessed identity displayers of today. I absolutely LOVED it. I had no problem enthusiastically flitting from object to object, frontwards and in reverse twice, to spend special time with all my favorites. a fave professor stopped me. I hadn't even recognized him in the excitement. he looked bewildered, but laughed about how giddy I was. he didn't write any criticism on the show. my boss at the time, our museum director, told me she thought it was "such a big mess". my favorite lesbian professor clutched onto her wife with an anxious look. my lesbian artist friend had panic attack and put his headphones on in a dark corner. on the other hand, the younger undergrad girls from berkeley looked elated and delighted, flitting around and oohing and aahing at my same pace. I learned one of them was an engineering student named erin who needed a feminist pickup from the disouragement in her male dominated field.
so how has the 'content' show, or the art world reception to them, changed in the past 4 years? well for one, it seems like major flagship institutions are dropping the mononym altogether. as the french impressionists take over the east coast, none of shows feature one painter as a sole focus, but curators use juxtapositions to keep people interested. in MoMAs, monoynym shows are reserved for major retrospectives or figuratively and literally, monolith artists like simone leigh. the older art historians are hesitant to adapt to these changes. one of my favorite shows this summer, over 300 very different collection pieces packed onto the floor and across the hall, wasn't enjoyed by any of the critics I know. My dates all hated it. except one, a hot ADHD butch who had a tiktok doomscrolling addiction.
what does this mean for the future of how shows are displayed.... how do museums let go of the traditional princely standard: 3.5 inch hangings with a 25 degree downwards tilt? is it better or worse to compromise museums into messy 17th century curiosity cabinets?
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⭐️ government-forced blog intro post ⭐️
(new and improved!)
welcome to marvin’s marvelous mechanical museum!
🌟⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟
^ me if you even care..
art above by the one and only @pingunaa
remember 2 to do ur daily clicks for palestine
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hai!! hello!! hey!! what’s up!! basic info/fun stuff below the cut (very long intro soo sorry)
*flash/blink warning for the blinkies
name: asclexe formally? cameron causally, but call me whatever! no, seriously! idc! nicknames (ex: cam, ronnie, cammy, etc) are welcome! feel free to call me your pookie or your son or child or something, be creative!
⭐️gender and pronouns: i am uhhh. nonbinary i think. they/them preferred, but it/its or he/him are also fine!! i prefer gender neutral terms, but i also am more masc leaning. like im a man. but also just a person.
⭐️not specifying my age but im a minor. B cool!! internet safety!!
⭐️sexuality: aromantic asexual aplatonic lesbian dumbfuck
⭐️nationality/country: american fuck my stupid baka life (EST timezone)
⭐️ i am also white :/
⭐️star sign: leo :3
⭐️personality type: intj (also houses mtbi if u care)
⭐️religious alignment: atheist cause im god /j 💪💪
bigots and pedos/zoos are lame and not welcome. i bite scammers. exclusively nsfw/kink blogs not welcome. im a kid. ed blogs please do not follow me because im uncomfortable with that. also don’t expect a follow back if youre over 24 cus thats weirdd
also if ur a diehard stan of anything pls think :3
dni if you’re from earth or human. aliens only blog. /j
and everyone else is welcome :3
⭐️fandoms im most active in:
house md
doctor who (only on season 2!!)
good omens
warrior cats (on arc 5 but i don’t plan on reading them)
dungeon meshi
movies in general
+ any other fandoms i consume in the future!!
⭐️fandoms i rarely post abt but still enjoy
tbosas/the hunger games
dead poets society
six feet under
a series of unfortunate events
fnaf
she-ra/the owl house/steven universe/gravity falls/etc
bluey
barbie/monster high
doogie howser md
scott pilgrim
the amazing digital circus
the middle
stardew valley
the spiderverse
abbott elementary
aggretsuko
i will post abt my sims occasionally :3 most posts are text posts bc im untalented
*i’m looking to get into evangelion, supernatural, hannibal, saw, and dexter 👍
i write fanfiction and poetry (i take requests feel free to hmu), i do local theater, i make pride icons (also requests hmu) i drabble in the occasional doodle, and i like baking and watching youtube and scrolling through tumblr and walking through the forest and my neighborhood and making bracelets and spending money and laying on the floor and singing and dancing and being silly and reading medical textbooks and cool novels and hanging with my irls and idk, yeah! life! carpe diem!
*also i’m trying to get into reality shifting! (im not a freak i swear)
⭐️my fav music artists (a little all over the place:3) jack stauber, will wood, lemon demon, tally hall/miracle musical, dazey and the scouts, mommy long legs, the oozes, bear ghost, mitski, chappell roan, weezer, the smashing pumpkins, my chemical romance, laufey, liana flores, faye webster, MARINA, pearl & the oysters, queen, no doubt, slipknot, korn, mindless self indulgence, hole, some olivia rodrigo, charli xcx, some vocaloids,
i love pretty much all kinds of jazz, rock, and showtunes (except ballads. i dislike ballads)
my music taste can be described as like. neurodivergent weird kid alt rock and hot girl summer pop.
(music recs are very much welcome <33)
*taylor swift enjoyers follow at your own risk (i hate on her occasionally. i really dislike her music and she’s also not that great of a person)
random facts about me :3
⭐️i’m left-handed (bully me for it ik im a freak)
⭐️unfortunately a theater kid :/
⭐️tall for this website
⭐️the most insufferable and annoying person ever
⭐️DOESNT BITE!! (i swear)
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⭐️favorite planet is ur mom (i ❤️ venus)
⭐️honors roll baby 🔥🔥
⭐️im most likely neurodiverse?? undiagnosed but speculated
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⭐️i haven’t cried properly in like a year and i am not breaking my mewing streak
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⭐️i’ve never seen an episode of spongebob but saw the musical
⭐️#1 BEST XBOX SIMMER 🔥🔥
⭐️im nicer than i seem (i’m also a very negative person in general but i keep my thoughts to myself!)
⭐️i have a massive sweet tooth :3
⭐️(new) tags guide!⭐️
*note this is a new system i’m trying out, some older posts do not apply
#asclexeposting - all original content
#camyyaps - unhinged text posts/late night eepy time posts/yapping in the tags
#cam touches grass - the rare times i go outside and touch grass and do stuff
#ask the fellows - relating to my ask blog (go follow it go do it its @ask-the-ducklings go ask stuff)
#me ask :3 - reblog of something i asked another blog
#mootie :3 - if we’re mutuals and you send me an ask i tag it with this :3
*you also get your own individual tag for asks, for example @pingunaa is ping :3 and @rubeslovesthesmiths is rubes :3, etc
#cammy’s 4 later tag :3 - stuff for later!!
#cam plays the sims :3 - my simming tag
old man doctor yaoi prompt list :3
my house md oc :3
⭐️side blogs!⭐️
@ask-the-ducklings - ask/roleplay blog 4 the house md duckligns
1/2 of @meanwhile-on-the-road, the other half is pookie @sillyhyperfixator
@house-md-referrer - house md references
@theindierockcafe - writing blog
this will be mostly reblogs of my silly mutuals/my fyp, i try to make original content often! I ❤️ REBLOGGING ART YOU SHOULD DO IT TOO!!!! hope we can get along! ask me whatever! i don’t know! be nice and respectful cause i’m a minor!
SPAM MY ASK BOX :3 create lore, send me images, ask for comfort, WHATEVER!!!! im friendly and ill answer your ask eventually.
disclaimer; i live in the us and a snowflake so im occasionally political, nothing too extreme im just scared 👍 i also don’t spoiler tag!! sorry!
if you want me to share your fundraiser; give me some time to verify you!!!! i promise im not ignoring you!!
blinkies made in the blinkie cafe :3
#introductory post#intro post#blog into#pinned post#asclexe#get to know me#ask me anything#yippie#asclexeposting#camyyaps#cam touches grass#me ask :3#Spotify#cam plays the sims :3#nonbinary#aromantic#asexual#aplatonic#lesbian
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Trina Robbins
American cartoonist and author whose pioneering work in comics included being the first female artist to draw Wonder Woman
The American illustrator and writer Trina Robbins, who has died aged 85, began her career in comics in her native New York in the 1960s as a contributor to the counterculture newspaper East Village Other. She also drew and wrote strips for Gothic Blimp Works, an underground comic.
Then came comic strips, covers and spot illustrations for the underground publications Berkeley Tribe and It Ain’t Me, Babe, often described as the first feminist newspaper, before before she put together an all-women comic, It Ain’t Me, Babe Comix (1970), followed by the anthology All Girl Thrills (1971) and the solo comic Girl Fight Comics (1972).
Her black heroine, Fox, was serialised in Good Times (1971) and another of her characters, Panthea, who first appeared in Gothic Blimp Works (1969), was a regular in Comix Book (1974-76).
She also became one of the 10 founders of Wimmen’s Comix, an all-female underground comics anthology published from 1972 to 1992, and in the late 70s was a contributor to High Times, Heavy Metal, National Lampoon and Playboy.
Later she adapted the 1919 novel Dope, by Sax Rohmer, for Eclipse Comics (1981-83) and wrote and drew Meet Misty (1985-86) for Marvel. She was also the first woman to draw Wonder Woman, in The Legend of Wonder Woman (1986).
Robbins’ wider interest in the history of girls’ comics led her to co-write a book about the genre, Women and the Comics (1986), with Catherine Yronwode, and later A Century of Women Cartoonists (1993), followed by a number of biographies of female comic pioneers, including Nell Brinkley, Lily Renée, Gladys Parker and Tarpé Mills.
Born in Brooklyn, she grew up in Queens, where her mother, Bessie (nee Roseman) was a teacher. Her father, Max Perlson, was a tailor who later wrote for Yiddish-language newspapers and published a collection of stories, A Minyen Yidn (1938), that was turned by Trina into a comic anthology in 2017.
At the age of 10 she graduated from reading wholesome animal comics to Millie the Model, Patsy Walker and others with female protagonists. The Katy Keene comic was especially influential, as it encouraged Robbins to make paper dolls and design clothing for them. She was also a huge fan of the jungle adventuress Sheena.
Having discovered science fiction at 14, Robbins began attending conventions, and at one such gathering she met the short story writer Harlan Ellison. At 21 he was five years her senior, but they dated briefly and he later wrote her into his film The Oscar (1966) as Trina Yale, played by Edie Adams.
Trina attended Queens College before studying drawing at Cooper Union, although she dropped out after a year. In 1957 she married the cartoonist Art Castillo; they moved to the Bay area of Los Angeles until he disappeared to Mexico and the relationship ended.
Working for a time as a model for men’s magazines, she was a cinema usherette when she met Paul Robbins, whom she married in 1962 following Castillo’s death. Her new husband wrote for the LA Free Press, which gave her access to the Byrds, Bob Dylan and other musicians, and she began making clothing to sell to musician friends, including Mama Cass.
Returning alone to New York in 1966 (she and Robbins eventually divorced, in 1972), she opened a boutique called Broccoli on East 4th Street, making clothes for exotic customers and having flings with a number of them, including the Doors’ singer Jim Morrison and the activist Abbie Hoffman; she also had longer relationships with Paul Williams, editor of Crawdaddy magazine, and the cartoonist Kim Deitch, with whom she set up a cartoon art museum on East 9th Street.
Her clothes-making got her into a song by Joni Mitchell, who wrote in Ladies of the Canyon that “Trina wears her wampum beads / She fills her drawing book with line / Sewing lace on widows’ weeds / And filigree on leaf and vine”.
After she had sold her boutique in 1969 and began to make her living in comics, there was no looking back.
Apart from her writing and illustrating activities over the years, in 1994 she became one of the founders of Friends of Lulu, a US-based charity that promotes the reading of comic books by women and the participation of women in the comic book industry.
Her later work on the history of women in comics produced three further books, From Girls to Grrrlz (1996), The Great Women Cartoonists (2001) and Pretty in Ink (2013).
She also wrote a number of books for children, starting with Catswalk: The Growing of Girl (1990), and including the Chicagoland Detective Agency series (2010-14) of bizarre high school mystery adventures.
For adults she wrote The Great Women Superheroes (1996), Eternally Bad: Goddesses With Attitude (2001), Tender Murderers: Women Who Kill (2003) and Wild Irish Roses: Tales of Brigits, Kathleens and Warrior Queens (2004).
Her most recent comic was Won’t Back Down (2024), a pro-choice anthology.
She is survived by her partner, Steve Leialoha, a daughter, Casey, from her relationship with Dietch, and her sister Harriet.
🔔 Trina Robbins, writer and illustrator, born 17 August 1938; died 10 April 2024
Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?
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From: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. Between the Teeth, Curated by Robert Milne, Manifold Books, Amsterdam, November 28, 2021 – January 22, 2022 [Courtesy of Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA. © Theresa Hak Kyung Cha]
(art: Untitled (Poem to Mother and Father))
#art#poetry#visual writing#exhibition#theresa hak kyung cha#robert milne#manifold books#berkeley art museum and pacific film archive#2020s
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handler's intro page absolutely delights me ....
Daniel Handler is the author of seven novels, including Why We Broke Up, We Are Pirates, All The Dirty Parts and, most recently, Bottle Grove.
As Lemony Snicket, he is responsible for numerous books for children, including the thirteen-volume A Series of Unfortunate Events, the four-volume All the Wrong Questions, and The Dark, which won the Charlotte Zolotow Award.
Mr. Snicket’s first book for readers of all ages, Poison for Breakfast, was published by Liveright/W.W. Norton in 2021.
Handler has received commissions from the San Francisco Symphony, Berkeley Reperatory Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has collaborated with artist Maira Kalman on a series of books for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and with musicians Stephin Merritt (of the Magnetic Fields), Benjamin Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie), Colin Meloy (of the Decemberists) and Torquil Campbell (of Stars).
His books have sold more than 70 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages, and have been adapted for film, stage and television, including the recent adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events for which he was awarded both the Peabody and the Writers Guild of America awards.
He lives in San Francisco with the illustrator Lisa Brown, to whom he is married and with whom he has collaborated on several books and one son.
books page:
Daniel Handler Writes novels.
The Basic Eight
Watch Your Mouth
Adverbs
Why We Broke Up
We Are Pirates
All the Dirty Parts
Bottle Grove
Poison for Breakfast
And not novels.
Weather, Weather
Girls Standing on Lawns
Hurry Up and Wait
Books for the Holidays.
The Baby In The Manger
The Lump of Coal
The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming
Assorted and sundry.
Goldfish Ghost
The Bad Mood and The Stick
Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid
The Composer Is Dead
13 Words
The Dark
Swarm of Bees
And one as the Pope.
How To Dress For Every Occasion
All while penning children’s books as Lemony Snicket.
A Series Of Unfortunate Events
All the Wrong Questions
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Getty to Acquire Ancient Portrait Bust of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius
First documented in 1851, the bust was previously unknown to scholars or the public.
The J. Paul Getty Museum is set to acquire an over-life-size ancient Roman marble bust of the emperor Antoninus Pius (ruled AD 138–161).
The work was purchased at auction in December; its final acquisition is subject to an export license being granted by the Arts Council England.
A prime example of Antoninus Pius’s main portrait type, the bust was created sometime after he ascended the throne in AD 138. With minor variations, this portrait type remained the emperor’s official image throughout his reign until AD 161. Carved from a single block of fine-grained white marble, the bust shows the emperor as a mature man with distinct facial features, a full, neatly trimmed beard, and thick curly hair. He wears a tunic, a cuirass (body armor), and a fringed paludamentum (a general’s cloak) folded in half and pinned at his right shoulder. “This exquisitely sculpted and remarkably preserved portrait ranks among the finest of more than 100 versions of Antoninus’s image that have survived from antiquity,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum. “The bust adds a new highlight to the series of high-quality imperial portraits at the Getty Villa, including the full-length statue of Antoninus’ wife Faustina the Elder, and the busts of Augustus, Germanicus, Caligula, and Commodus.”
Born in Lanuvium to a family that had migrated to Italy from Nemausus in southern Gaul (today’s Nîmes in France), Antoninus was not groomed to become emperor. At the advanced age of 51, following a career as governor of the province of Asia and as Roman senator, he was adopted by Emperor Hadrian to be his successor. Antoninus’ long and exceptionally peaceful reign brought great prosperity to the Roman Empire, and the economy, culture, and artistic production flourished. The emperor started the dynasty of the Antonines, which lasted for more than two generations and ended with the death of Commodus in AD 192.
“Many objects in our collection were made in the Antonine period, as it is known today, including portraits, mythological sculptures, sarcophagi, and numerous other works,” says Jens Daehner, associate curator of antiquities at the Getty Museum. “The bust of Antoninus provides a firmly dated visual reference for what characterized Roman aesthetics during that period. On display in our galleries, the bust will convey to visitors how, for example, Antonine sculptors carved drapery folds, used drills to give texture to hair, or incised the eyes of their sitters.”
The marble bust was acquired in 1851 in Naples, Italy, by Robert Martin Berkeley (1823–1897), who brought it to his estate at Spetchley Park, Worcestershire, in England. It remained there with his heirs until it was offered at auction late last year at Sotheby’s, London. Although documented in the estate’s archive, the bust was previously unknown to the public or scholars. Once acquired, the bust of Antoninus Pius will go on display in the Getty Villa’s Later Roman Sculpture gallery with its selection of other Antonine period portraits.
#Getty to Acquire Ancient Portrait Bust of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius#portrait bust#marble bust#marble sculpture#ancient artifacts#history#history news#ancient history#ancient culture#ancient civilizations#ancient rome#roman history#roman empire#roman art#emperor antoninus pius
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Why The Italian City of Lecce Is Nicknamed 'The Florence of The South'
Rich in honey-hued basilica's and elaborately decorated baroque cathedrals, the Southern Italian city of Lecce is often regarded as the 'Florence of the South'.
— By Angela Locatelli | October 5, 2024
The construction of Basilica di Santa Croce took over 140 years to complete, boasting a grand facade. Photograph By Francesco Lastrucci
It’s not easy to carry a basilica on your shoulders, but, despite the summer heat, these men aren’t breaking a sweat. Carved into the honey-hued exterior of the Basilica di Santa Croce, the stone figures kneel in a line from one side of the wall to the other, seemingly supporting the upper facade with their bare hands. Above them, the building is so richly decorated as to seem in motion: cherubs swirl in a spiral and garlands of pomegranate and acanthus leaves rise, reaching fever pitch where they all circle the central rose window. “Construction began in 1549,” says local guide Anita Maggiulli. “But it took over 140 years to complete.”
It seems to have been worth it, as the church has become the symbol of the city. I’m on a half-day tour of Lecce, the biggest urban centre of Salento, the tip of the heel to the Italian peninsula’s boot. It’s an area that distils what the wider region of Puglia is known for: white-washed hamlets, long stretches of sandy beach and the crystal-clear waters of the Ionian and Adriatic Seas. But this city in the hinterland has a different claim to fame — its grand, expertly carved architecture, which has earned it the moniker ‘Florence of the South’.
Baroque paintings frame the interior of Lecce Cathedral, located within the Piazza del Duomo (Left). In Lecce's city centre, many shops can be found selling local specialties (Right). Photographs By Francesco Lastrucci
According to Anita, while the nickname is often associated with German historian Ferdinand Gregorovius, it was first thought up by George Berkeley, an Irish bishop who travelled through Puglia in the 18th century. At a time when the Italian south was seen as unsafe and lawless, he reached the peripheries and found a city with protective walls, some 140 churches and, above all, magnificent facades. “He was left… disconcerted,” Anita says, mimicking a mix of surprise and confusion. “He described it as a place that had nothing to envy Rome or Venice, and even resembled a small Florence.”
If the Tuscan capital had been the cradle of the Renaissance, Lecce came to exemplify the Baroque era. The opulent art form originated in Rome in the 17th century, when the Vatican fought the threat of Protestantism the way it knew best — through an ostentatious display of power. As the style spread southward, it took on a local twist. “We couldn’t play with dimensions like the Romans, nor employ prestigious materials like the Neapolitans,” says Anita. “But we’d been blessed with a ‘poor’ material that allowed us to create marvels: Lecce stone.”
The former Hospital of the Holy Spirit is made out of Lecce stone. Photograph By Francesco Lastrucci
When it comes to this type of limestone, there are three key takeaways: it’s extracted in quarries around Lecce; it once formed the bed of an ancient sea, and to this day, you can find shells and fossils caked in its slabs; and it’s so malleable, it can be carved with a penknife. “It’s as soft as mollica,” says Anita, comparing it to the interior of a bread roll, as we move away from Santa Croce. “It became the defining characteristic of the Lecce Baroque.”
The city centre is almost entirely tinted in the stone’s characteristic warm, off-white shade. And while the Baroque approach was initially reserved for churches and mansions, large swathes of the city came to be rebuilt in its style. Locals wander around, unaffected by the open-air museum on display above their heads: the window lintels carved with scallop shells; the doorways flanked by Corinthian-style pillars; the balconies with stately balustrades.
Over the past 30 years, local artisans have started experimenting with a more modern approach to stonemasonry, too. One of the first was sculptor Renzo Buttazzo, now in his 60s, who greets me the next morning outside his home-turned-studio on the outskirts of San Cesario, a 10-minute drive from Lecce.
“Hot, eh?” he says in his garden by way of greeting, tugging at his grey linen shirt to fan himself. “I hold stonemasonry workshops here, to show visitors there’s more to Salento than sun and sea,” he tells me. “If you want to truly get to know the area, you must meet the people who built it up.”
Within his San Cesario workshop, sculptor Renzo Buttazzo experiments with modern stonemasonry techniques. Photograph By Angela Locatelli
Here, he builds, both figuratively and literally. At the far end of the garden, there’s a small exhibition space for his Lecce stone works. The ceiling is see-through; the daylight washes down on his sculptures, displayed on wooden pedestals all around the walls. There are sinuous figures with neither face nor features, and molecular-like forms that seem to contract and expand, with no angles or hard lines, no beginnings or ends. They’re a study in oxymorons: something solid that seems soft, something heavy that looks feather-light.
When describing his approach to working with Lecce stone, Renzo uses the word sconvolgere, an Italian verb for the act of shaking something out of its status quo. In the early 1990s, when artisans still used the material to sculpt angel-like putti and seraphim, Renzo was turning it into everyday objects, like clocks and lamps, before progressing to abstract sculpture. In 2001, he was honoured with the Order of Merit of the Republic, the Italian equivalent of being knighted.
“I take the old — the Baroque — to create the contemporary,” Renzo tells me as he flip-flops back outside in battered sandals, his soles chalk-white from the stone residue dusting the floor. “We local stonemasons come from a long legacy of excellence, and we have a duty to carry it forward. Our predecessors built something as magnificent as Santa Croce with their hands. Four centuries on, I work the same way.”
He reaches his workstation, a table on a covered patio surrounded by scattered tools, and turns his attention to a work in progress. He positions a wooden scalpel, then hits it with a hammer to sculpt sections from the undulating, hollow figure. A rasp is used to model its curves; sandpaper to shave its surface smooth. “Sometimes I’m here for 10 hours a day, and I come away exhausted,” he says, eyebrows furrowed, taking a step back to size up his efforts. “It’s not easy, you know — gifting people beauty.” And yet, as his face softens, pleased by the results, all I can think is how easy he makes it look.
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THE ONE AND ONLY OTHNIEL CHARLES MARSH
For Throwback Thursday we will be discussing one of the most important people in paleontology: Professor Othniel Marsh. He was born in Lockport, New York to a modest family but he was lucky enough to be the nephew of George Peabody.
Peabody paid for his formal education at Yale College where he received a bachelor's degree in...art?
He did receive a Berkeley Scholarship so he went on to study geology, mineralogy, and chemistry.
Fun fact, in 1866 he was appointed the professor of vertebrate paleontology at Yale University making him the very first professor of paleontology in the U.S.
The Peabody Museum of Natural History was founded and he was made one of the first curators.
Marsh went on to write 400 scientific papers, naming about 500 new species of fossil animals including many of our Morrison favorites:
Stegosaurus
Brontosaurus
Apatosaurus
Allosaurus
Atlantosaurus
Camptosaurus
Ceratosaurus
Diplodocus
Dryosaurus
and Nanosaurus.
He also named several of their families: Allosauridae, Camptosauridae, Diplodocidae, and Stegosauridae as well as four famous suborders: Ceratopsia, Ceratosauria, Ornithopoda, Stegosauria and Theropoda.
He also had several named in his honor but only Marshosaurus has stood the test of time.
#paleontology#dinosaur#fossils#geology#allosaurus#Othniel Charles Marsh#stegosaurus#diplodocus#apatosaurus#ceratosaurus#dryosaurus#brontosaurus#bone wars#george peabody#yale university#yale peabody museum of natural history
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Janet Gaynor - The First Oscar Winner
Janet Gaynor (born Laura Augusta Gainor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 6, 1906) was an American actress whose image was that of a sweet, wholesome and pretty young woman. She was notable for playing her roles with depth and sensitivity. She is "The First Oscar Winner" of the Best Actress award. Gaynor was not only the first actress to win the award, but at 22, was the youngest until 1986, when actress Marlee Matlin, 21, won for her role in Children of a Lesser God.
As a child, she began acting in school plays. Her family moved to Los Angeles, where her parents wanted her to pursue an acting career. She was initially hesitant to do so and enrolled at Hollywood Secretarial School. Her parents continued to encourage her to become an actress, and she began making the rounds to the studios to find film work. Her first professional acting job was as an extra in a Hal Roach comedy short in 1924, which led to more work in feature films and shorts.
Fox Film Corporation eventually signed Gaynor to a five-year contract and began to cast her in leading roles. By 1927, Gaynor was one of Hollywood's leading ladies. In fact, during the early 1930s, Gaynor was one of Fox's most popular actresses and one of Hollywood's biggest box-office draws. She continued to garner top billing for roles in State Fair (1933) and A Star Is Born (1937).
Despite being at the top of the industry, Gaynor retired from acting at age 33. However, she did return to acting from time to time with guest appearances on TV and films.
Aside from acting, Gaynor also became an accomplished oil painter of vegetable and flower still lifes. She sold over 200 paintings and had four showings under the Wally Findlay Galleries banner in New York, Chicago, and Palm Beach from 1975 to February 1982.
Gaynor had been in failing health and required frequent hospitalizations since a 1982 traffic accident critically injured her. At 77 years of age, two years after the car accident, she passed away in Palm Springs, California, her injuries being officially ruled to have caused her death
Legacy:
Was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929 for her performances in three films: 7th Heaven (1927), Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) and Street Angel (1928), the only occasion an actress won one Oscar for multiple film roles; and nominated for another for A Star Is Born (1937)
Named as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1926
Listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America’s top-10 box office draws from 1930 to 1934
Awarded the Order of the Southern Cross for her cultural contributions to Brazil in 1979
Given a tribute by the American Cinema Awards for her outstanding contribution to the Arts 1983
Honored by the San Diego Festival of the Arts in 1984 for her contributions to the movies at the Spreckels Theatre
Was the subject of "Janet Gaynor: A Centennial Celebration" exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 2006
Inducted in the Online Film and Television Association Film Hall of Fame in 2012
Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6284 Hollywood Blvd for motion picture
#Janet Gaynor#First Best Actress#First Oscar Winner#A Star is Born#Silent Films#Silent Movies#Silent Era#Silent Film Stars#Golden Age of Hollywood#Classic Hollywood#Film Classics#Classic Films#Old Hollywood#Vintage Hollywood#Hollywood#Movie Star#Hollywood Walk of Fame#Walk of Fame#Movie Legends#Actress#hollywood actresses#hollywood icons#hollywood legend#movie stars#1900s
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Jo Whaley is a photographer with a MFA in painting from UC Berkeley. She has worked as a scenic artist for various theaters, including the San Francisco Opera and Ballet. Whaley has exhibited in the U.S., Europe & Japan, at institutions including the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the George Eastman House in Rochester. Her book “The Theater of Insects” accompanied a traveling exhibition that originated at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC and concluding at the Henry Fox Talbot Museum, UK. In 2019 she had a solo exhibit at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, where her photographs where paired with O’Keeffe Paintings.
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