Category Archives: Art

Posted in Art, Conservatism, Entertainment

January 6, 2013

America Guided by Wisdom: A Neoclassical Allegory of American Exceptionalism

Posted on January 6, 2013 by ifnm| Leave a comment

On the fore ground, Minerva, the goddess of Wisdom, is pointing to a shield, supported by the Genius of America, bearing the arms of the United States, with the motto UNION AND INDEPENDENCE, by which the country enjoys the prosperity signified by the horn of plenty at the feet of America.

I first saw this print many years ago in Samuel Eliot Morrison’s The Oxford History of the American People. Engraved by Benjamin Tanner after a design by John James Barralet, America Guided by Wisdom is an evocative visual allegory of what American exceptionalism meant to the post-Revolutionary generation. The print draws on the Neoclassical tradition of the Enlightenment, where the United States was often portrayed as an idealized Roman Republic reborn. Issued in Philadelphia between 1815 and 1820, in the wake of Andrew Jackson’s victory at New Orleans, the print expressed the heady nationalistic optimism that the republic had been reborn in the forge of the War of 1812, a second war of independence against Great Britain. Barralet used classical imagery and the symbolism of Greco-Roman mythology to vindicate the triumph of America’s exceptional republican liberty. America, guided by the wisdom of the benevolent deities while engaged in the pursuits of commerce, would now enjoy a golden age of peace and prosperity.

Educated Americans, in the years during and after the American Revolution, were far more familiar with the language of classical iconography and symbolism than we are today. They would understand the print’s allegorical themes without much difficulty. But by 1815 American society was democratizing; middle- and working-class white people were exercising more influence in the cultural marketplace. So the publisher thought it wise to provide a descriptive text (above) for the benefit of those not privileged to have had a classical education.

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Posted in Art, Culture, Education, History

November 29, 2012

You Won’t Believe What Glenn Beck Did to an Obama Bobblehead During His Show on Tuesday

Posted on November 29, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

The idea, for Beck however, is not to be untoward, but through irony, to highlight the hypocrisy of those who would shout in defiance at defacing the image of a sitting U.S. president, but not that of an image so sacred to Christianity — the world’s largest religion.

UPDATE: Ebay, the online marketplace where Glenn Beck put his Obama creation up for auction for charity, has now pulled the ad. At it’s last bidding around 11:00 a.m. ET, the bid for the Obama doll in the jar was up to $11,300. All of the proceeds were to do to the Mercury One charity.

On Monday, TheBlaze alerted readers to a new painting that depicts Barack Obama as Jesus Christ crucified, adorned with a crown of thorns. The work, entitled “Truth,” is part of a larger exhibit at the Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery in Boston titled “Artists on the Stump – the Road to the White House 2012.” This, of course, is not the first controversial rendition that has been labeled “artwork,” nor is it the first time President Obama has been likened to Christ, or in general, God.

Now, the creator of “Truth,” Michael D’Antuono, said that his “First Amendment rights should override someone’s hurt feelings” and that “we should celebrate the fact that we live in a country where we are given the freedom to express ourselves.”

After receiving roughly 4,000 angry emails over the painting, D’Antuono also said he respects “their right to express themselves” and hopes they will afford him the same.

With this in mind, Glenn Beck chose to exercise his First Amendment rights and “express himself,” during his Tuesday evening broadcast by featuring a piece of artwork of his own.

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Listen to the interview here.

Posted in Art, Glenn Beck, Obama, Religion

November 4, 2012

The Sistine: Charlton Heston tells of his role as Michelangelo (Audio)

Posted on November 4, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

(Vatican Radio) As we celebrate five centuries since the unveiling of Michelangelo’s central ceiling vault frescoes in the Sistine Chapel back in 1512, we bring you an archive interview with the late Charlton Heston.

An interview in which former colleague Lana Hale speaks to this Hollywood actor about his role as Michelangelo in the Agony and the Ecstasy.

Posted in Art, Charlton Heston, Europe

September 17, 2012

We’re being conned, Baby

Posted on September 17, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

“Artists” get away with such obscenities as “Piss Christ,” a crucifix in urine, or a “painting” of the Virgin Mary covered with elephant dung – just two of many such deliberately anti-Christian “statements” which the elite laud as art.

The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked and destroyed. The U.S. ambassador, Chris Stevens, aide Sean Smith and two former Navy SEALs, Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty, were killed.

There is no information yet as to the cause of the deaths of the three men, but the details of Ambassador Stevens’ death fits the pattern of other Americans killed by Muslim fanatics.

He was beaten and raped by the mob before he died. Grisly photos show him dead, being dragged through the streets with a gash on his head.

“Smoke inhalation” indeed, although that was the first story issued to what is perceived as a “gullible public.”

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo was almost simultaneously attacked, with the American flag destroyed and replaced by a black, Islamic flag.

The initial reason for the violence, we were told, was a short film made in the United States that supposedly insults Islam.

More fodder for the “gullible public.”

Strange isn’t it that the violence against America coincided with the 11th commemoration of the 9/11 attacks on the United States?

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Posted in Art, Radicals, Religion

June 25, 2012

Caught on Camera: ‘Up-And-Coming Artist’ Tags Picasso Painting Inside Houston Museum

Posted on June 25, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

A man identifying himself as “an up-and-coming Mexican-American artist” has taken credit for a daylight defacing of Pablo Picasso’s “Woman in a Red Armchair.”

Uriel Landeros is said to be responsible for stenciling a matador slaying a bull and the word “Conquista” on the 1929 Picasso painting that is currently hanging in Houston’s Menil Collection.

The entire brazen endeavor was caught on camera by a suspected conspirator and uploaded to YouTube. The video’s description names Landerous as the perp. Speaking with KPRC, an eyewitness said the vandal told him he was paying tribute to Picasso’s work.

Luckily, Menil’s chief conservator Brad Epley was able to repair the painting before any serious damage could be done. “The most important thing is to get the painting to full health, which is happening,” Collection spokesman Vance Muse told FOX 26. “All the spray paint has been removed. It is in the right hospital. The painting now needs to rest.”

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Posted in Art, Crime, La Raza

June 15, 2012

World’s oldest movies discovered in prehistoric caves (VIDEO)

Posted on June 15, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

“Paleolithic thaumatropes can be claimed as the earliest of the attempts to represent movement that culminated in the invention of the cinematic camera,” Azéma and Rivère wrote.

The world’s oldest moving picture shows have been discovered in French caves dating back 30,000 years.

Marc Azéma of the University of Toulouse—Le Mirail and independent French artist Florent Rivère published their discovery in the June issue of Antiquity. They report that Stone Age artists used torches to create an animation effect on cartoon-like drawings inside caves.

“Stone Age artists intended to give life to their images,” Azéma wrote. “The majority of cave drawings show animals in action.”

The paintings show various animals in states of motion. Without the torch effect, the images appear to simply be of superimposed animals with multiple heads and appendages. But when the lighting effect is administered, the paintings appear to move in sequence.

Azéma has spent 20 years studying Stone Age animation techniques, citing 53 figures in 12 French caves.

“That such animation was intentional is endorsed by the likely use of incised disks as thaumatropes,” Azéma wrote.

Astronomer John Hershel first developed thaumatropes in 1825. The “miracle wheel,” works by spinning several images on a disk to create the illusion of movement. The world’s oldest known film is the Roundhay Garden Scene, created in 1888.

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Posted in Art, Entertainment, History

May 28, 2012

Obama ‘Hope’ Artist Creates Trayvon Martin Painting

Posted on May 28, 2012 by ifnm| 3 Comments

As LA Weekly noted, Fairey’s detractors have been known to criticize him for “never meeting a social-justice cause he didn’t like.” Fairey has previously created art for Occupy Wall Street.

Shepard Fairey, the street artist behind the iconic “Hope” poster of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, has created a similarly-styled work in honor of Trayvon Martin.

According to Fairey’s website, Ebony magazine commissioned the image several months ago, but the artist was not able to unveil it “until the issue hit newsstands this week.”

The painting recreates the now-famous photo of Martin wearing a hoodie. The background features images from rallies demanding justice for the Florida teen’s death.

“I have followed Trayvon’s case closely and I think any compassionate human being can relate to Trayvon as a brother or son and would want to see a thorough investigation into the killing of an unarmed person,” Fairey said in a statement on his website. “In my portrait I wanted to emphasize Trayvon’s humanity as well as the public outcry for a just investigation into his death.”

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Posted in Art, Democrats/Progressives, Multiculturalism, Obama, Radicals

May 15, 2012

Book Presentation: Art and Social Movements: Cultural Politics in Mexico and Aztlán

Posted on May 15, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

McCaughan argues that the social power of activist artists emanates from their ability to provoke people to see, think, and act in innovative ways. Artists, he claims, help to create visual languages and spaces through which activists can imagine and perform new collective identities and forms of meaningful citizenship.

Start:
May 26, 2012 2:00 pm
End:
May 26, 2012 4:00 pm
Cost:
sliding scale

Venue:
Galeria de la Raza

Address:
2857 24th Street, San Francisco, CA, United States, 94110

Art and Social Movements offers a comparative, cross-border analysis of the role of visual artists in three social movements from the late 1960s through the early 1990s: the 1968 student movement and related activist art collectives in Mexico City, a Zapotec indigenous struggle in Oaxaca, and the Chicano movement in California.

“Art and Social Movements makes a powerful statement about the continued vitality of—and need for—the creative arts in radical political movements. By effectively synthesizing grounded analysis of grassroots politics with deft theoretical explanations of artistic genres, Edward J. McCaughan provides what I believe is the most significant empirically grounded study of cultural politics in Latin America since the anthology Cultures of Politics, Politics of Cultures: Re-Visioning Latin American Social Movements was published in 1998.”

—Howard Campbell, author of Mexican Memoir: A Personal Account of Anthropology and Radical Politics in Oaxaca

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Posted in Art, Culture, La Raza, Radicals

April 13, 2012

Objection to mural sparks political correctness debate (Video)

Posted on April 13, 2012 by ifnm| 1 Comment

The latest debate focused on a school mural painted by a 17 year old student artist. It is meant to depict the journey of a man’s life, ending with a marriage, with a wife and a child; a concept school officials originally said was “too offensive” for the mural.