Dog Art Today

Tag: The Independent

  • French Prince Thinks Murakami’s Dog is Grotesque

     

      Murakami_Pom_Me_Versailles

    Pom and Me by Takashi Murakami

    The Independent's Molly McGuinnes reports from Paris:

    A descendant of France's King Louis XIV is seeking a court order to halt a radical contemporary exhibition by Takashi Murakami in the royal apartments at Versailles because it sullied "supreme good French taste".

    Prince Sixte-Henri de Bourbon-Parme launched his legal action to rid the palace's ornate halls of the fiberglass cartoon figures and giant Buddha statues, calling for "respect of the château and of his ancestors".

    "There are puppets in that exhibition that are frankly grotesque," he said. "Versailles was conceived with the idea of displaying the essence of supreme good French taste.  (read full story)

    There are some who might think the ostentatiousness of Versailles is grotesque, given that it sucked all the money out of the treasury for pure Narcissistic self-indulgence.  And, there are some, like me, who think Prince Sixte-Henri's 2007 support of far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, is even more grotesque. Seriously, if you're going to cling to your title, go race cars or grow organic vegetables like a normal, modern prince, and stop picking fights with cartoon characters.  It's unseemly.

    P.S. Prince Sixte-Henri's nephew, Charles-Emmanuel de Bourbon-Parme wasn't keen on Jeff Koons's dog at Versaille either.  Remember that story?

  • Is Titian’s Diana and Actaeon (with Two Dogs) Worth Saving?

    Diana_and_actaeon

    Diana and Actaeon, 1956-59

    Tom Lubbock of The Independent thinks ginning up public support to spend £50 million to keep Titian's Diana and Acteaon in Britain has been, "a magnificent act of aesthetic blackmail."

    OK, I think the painting is a bit of a fleshy mess, too.   But, Lubbock really hates it…

    The picture doesn't establish a decisive action. The central
    confrontation of Actaeon and Diana is hamstrung between his daft
    gesticulations and her flamenco flourish. It doesn't establish a
    defined space either. The setting is an inarticulate add-up of arch,
    trees, column, bodies. The sloping fountain, the ground area, make no
    clear sense.

    It's cobbled together from bits and pieces in
    search of a structure. If ever a picture hadn't been worked out yet,
    it's this one. So, interesting perhaps as an example of a Titian in
    progress, but the opposite of miraculous.  (read full article, it gets worse.)

    And then sticks it to the Getty…

    It would be no tragedy if we lost it. It has scholarly value. It's just
    the kind of thing that belongs in the Getty Museum in California. But
    what we've now bought for our £50m is not only the painting itself, but
    the perpetual obligation to believe it's a work of supreme genius.
    Bingo!

    Ouch!

    Related Links:
    OMG: Another Titian Dog Art Masterpiece!
    Titian's Dog Art Returns to the Joslyn Art Museum
    Titian the Dog Artist

  • The Dog by Francisco de Goya

    Goya_The_Dog_2

    The Dog, 1820

    Britain's The Independent is doing an interesting Great Art Series. They recently featured this powerful and mysterious painting by Francisco de Goya simply entitled The Dog.

    Tom Lubbock writes:

    It's a frightful picture of dream-like helplessness and despair. It's
    also a demonstration of the power of simplicity. Goya's     The Dog is one
    of his so-called "Black Paintings", the sequence of murals, usually
    with nightmarish subjects, that the artist painted on the walls of the
    Quinta del Sordo, a country house outside Madrid he occupied in the
    early 1820's    .

    Read his full analysis here.  It's fascinating.

    (Click on image for a larger view.)