Influenced on: Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka,
Theo van Doesburg
Friends/Colleagues: Egon Schiele, Koloman Moser
Gustav
Klimt was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members
of the Vienna Secession movement. He is
noted for his paintings, murals and sketches. Klimt's primary subject was the
female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism.
In
addition to his figurative works, which include allegories and portraits, he
painted landscapes. Among the artists of the Vienna Secession, Klimt was the
most influenced by Japanese art and its methods.
Early
in his artistic career, he was a successful painter of architectural
decorations in a conventional manner. However
as he developed a more personal style, his works were the subject of
controversy. He
subsequently achieved a new success with the paintings of his "golden
phase", many of which include gold leaf. Klimt's
works were an important influence on Egon Schiele.
The 25th lecture for today is "World
Music: Gypsy music in Eastern Europe".
This lecture was the 25th lecture of “ACJ Music
Academy”, which was held on 17 October 2015.
The word “Gypsy”often appears when talking
about popular music in the Middle East and Europe.
The Gypsies are vagabonds wandering around,
rather than settling in one area, and their musical tastes also show wandering.
But they did not only absorb local music, but
also had an extraordinary musical talent making their own music based on the local
music of the settled area.
The reason why Gypsies, settled in many
European countries, were able to play a leading role in the development of folk
music in their settlements is because they had the natural talent to borrow and
develop music.
The Gypsies also had a natural talent for playing
musical instruments such as guitars and violins.
The Gypsies are famous for flamenco guitars in
Spain, violins in Hungary, vocal music in Russia, and brass bands in the
Balkans.
TheBalkans, living about half of the Gypsies
in Europe, are known as the world's most populated areas of the Gypsies.
The musical characteristics of the Gypsies are
the same throughout Eastern Europe.
The Gypsy musicians throughout Eastern Europe
have played an important role in the folk music traditions of the countries
where they settled, and indeed, most of the music considered as Eastern
European folk music was played by the Gypsies.
However, critics have also criticized the
destruction or dilution of traditional music due to the characteristics of the
Gypsies, who had great talent in borrowing and transforming local folk music.
Looking at Gypsy music by European countries,
the basic music of Albanian Gypsies is "Kumpaneia" music consisting
of clarinet, violin, accordion or lute.
InMacedonia, the music which is called “Calgia”
is a modern electric sound, mostly played by Gypsies.
In Serbia, ‘Brass band’music is mainstream.
Hungaryis famous for the birth of the word“Gypsy
Violin”.
In Russia, the Gypsies performed prominently on
thevocalarea.
Today, I will introduce 3 Gipsy music as
follows:
1. Ahaj Devla-Ando Drom (Hungary)
2. Czardas-Roby Lakatos (Hungary)
3. Caje sukarije- Esma Redzepova (Macedonia)
You can listen to all the songs from following
YouTube link.
Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is
currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.
The 21st work to introduce for this
week is “Caryatid (c.1912)”.
This work is a nude painting of an
expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 72.9 x 50.1
cm.
Currently, the “Kunstsammlung
Nordrhein-Westfalen” in Düsseldorf, Germany possesses this work.
“Caryatid” is a sculpture of a
female figure and serves as an architectural support replacing a column
supporting the entablature, which is the horizontal part of the upper part of
the column, on her hand.
The Greek word
"karyatides" means “maidens of Karyai”, an ancient village of
Peloponnese.
In Karyai, there was a temple
dedicated to the goddess Artemis in her aspect of Artemis Karyatis.
"As Karyatis, she was
delighted in the dances of the nut-tree village of Karyai. Those Karyatides ecstatically
danced carrying on their heads baskets of live reeds, as if they were dancing
plants”.
Modigliani drew more than 70
drawings for Caryatid.
The style of these works shows that
Modigliani was fascinated by the wide variety of arts considered to be
‘primitive’, including “African” art.
Though not realized, Modigliani is
said to have envisioned a 'temple of humanity' surrounded by hundreds of
Caryatid.
A number of various drawings of
Modigliani as a sculptor at the time were not just preliminary sketches of
particular sculptures, but also a means of generating ideas for his later
sculptures.
As in many sketches, the face of
this work evokes ancient Egyptian or Mycenaean sculpture, and the body is
almost geometrically divided.
The model's hair style in this
work, is very similar to the style used in classical Greek sculptures, showing
more Mediterranean than African.
The arms look elongated and strong,
but the body is long and thin, and the waist is bent at an angle that is
difficult to support the weight of the stone.
The woman's legs also look very
strong, like her arms, but her bent waist seems to be in danger of breaking
soon due to the weight of the stones she supports, and therefore the woman
looks unstable.
In addition, this work is a nude
painting of a women but depicts a vision of power and tranquility despite the
unstable waist rather than the sensuality of the woman.
The work is known to be inspired by
the Russian female poet “Anna Akhmatova”, who was once a lover of Modigliani.
Later, Akhmatova said about
Modigliani as follow.
"I was lucky because I met
Modigliani before everyone else. Everyone who remembers Modigliani met him in
1914 and 1915, but I met him in 1910."
She often modelled for Modigliani
and said as follow.
"What Modigliani was
interested in was not a model's appearance, but a pose. He drew several
drawings, representing me as a dancer or an Egyptian princess."
Her slender, elegant body,
glamorous face with an aquiline nose and short hair are well represented in
many drawings and sculptures by Modigliani.
After breaking up with Modigliani,
she lived a painful and turbulent life due to the Soviet’s political
persecution, and as a result, she was able to preserve only one drawing of
Modigliani.
In this work, you can see a
dark-colored man's head in the back of a kneeling woman, and some critics claim
that this man is “Maldoror”, the fictional main character of Modigliani's
favorite literary work.
In this work, Maldoror emerged as
an evil figure who gave up the conventional morality.
It was not well known at
the time of its first publication, but was rediscovered by surrealist artists
in the early 20th century.
Another interesting fact is that by
turning this work 180 degrees, you can discover a new painting, such as an
Egyptian sculpture, and perhaps Modigliani seems to continue testing while thinking
about how to draw Caryatid.
Died: 8 May 1903, Atuona, Marquesas
Islands, French Polynesia
Active Years: 1873 - 1903
Nationality: French
Art Movement: Impressionism,
Post-Impressionism, Primitivism, Symbolism
Field:Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Engraving
Influenced by: Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro,
Giotto, Raphael, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Eugene Delacroix, Edouard
Manet, Paul Cezanne, Alfred Sisley
Friends/Colleagues:Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh
Paul
Gauguin was a French post-Impressionist artist and he is recognized for his
experimental use of color and Synthetist style that were distinctly different
from Impressionism. Toward the end of his life, he spent ten years in French
Polynesia, and most of his paintings from this time depict people or landscapes
from that region.
His
work was influential to the French avant-garde and many modern artists, such as
Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Gauguin was an important figure in the
Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer.
The 24th lecture for today is "World
Music: Yodel".
This lecture was the 24th lecture of “ACJ Music
Academy”, which was held on 10 October 2015.
Also known as “Yodelling” or “Jodeling”,
“Yodle” is a song that quickly changes the range repeatedly between the
low-pitch chest register (or “chest voice”) and the high-pitch head register or
falsetto.
The English word “yodel” comes from the German
word “jodeln” and this vocal technique is used in many countries around the
world.
“Alpine yodeling” has long
been a rural tradition in Europe, and became famous for entertainment in
theaters and music halls in the 1830s.
In Central Africa, yodel was a form of
communication that informed the location and existence of the yodeler.
In the United States, minstrels sang yodel songs
in the 1800s, and in 1920 Victor Record included 17 yodel songs in the company
catalogue.
Music historians cite “Riley Puckett” in 1924 as
the first country music recording including yodel.
In 1928, by mixture of Alpine yodels, blues and
cowboy music, "Jimmie Rodgers" released the song "Blue Yodel No.
1".
Rogers' "Blue Yodel" brought the great
popularity of yodel songs across the United States, which continued until the
1940s.
Most experts agree that the yodel was used by herders
in the Central Alps calling their stock or for communication between Alpine
villages, and the multi-pitched "yelling" later became part of the
region's traditional oral knowledge and musical expression.
The earliest record of a yodel is in 1545,
which is described as "the call of a cowherd from Appenzell" in
northeastern Switzerland.
Today, I will introduce 3 yodel songs as
follows:
1. Jugendchörli Appenzell
2. Dirndlrock-Stefanie Hertel
3. Yodelling-Franzl Lang
You can listen to all the songs from following
YouTube link.
The Korean versions of Klimt and Chopin, which
are currently available as English versions in the US Amazon, have been
released for sale in Kyobo Books, Aladin, Interpark and J Art.
The exact titles of the books are:
1. The Great and Immortal Painters’ Stories
6. Gustav Klimt
2. The Life & Music of Frederic Chopin,
and His Portrayal in Movies & Arts
Number 1 is a series of painter stories
with the same title, "The Great and Immortal Painters’ Stories", which
is one of the programs I have made and lectured.
The five artists of Modigliani, van Gogh,
Monet, Gauguin and Picasso have been published as the series through a
publisher so far.
The “Klimt” is the first book published in
this series by the J Books & Media, founded in February 2018, and the 6th
book in the series as a whole.
The book consists of various stories about
Klimt including his life, interesting stories, women in his portraits, the
story with Egon Schiele, author’s commentary, his unfinished works, and a
gallery of his works.
Like the previous books, the films and
music regarding Klimt are included as QR codes.
Number 2 is the second story of the series
" The Life & Music of ~, and His Portrayal in Movies & Arts,"
and about Frederic Chopin, a Polish genius pianist.
This book introduces Chopin's life,
interesting stories, and his influence on culture and arts.
The book also introduces films and paintings
about Chopin to help readers understand Chopin's reflections in other culture
and arts areas.
I also organized all of Chopin's music by
genres and the number of works, and categorized them into his lifetime and posthumous
to help readers understand Chopin's music.
Like the previously published “Paganini”,
readers can appreciate trailers of films about Chopin as well as all of his
music using QR codes.
