Author, Lecturer, Broadcaster & Cultural Arts Expert;
President of Art Collage JANG/J Music/J Art/J Books & Media.
Author of over 40 books published on Amazon, including The Crimson Horror series and The Great and Immortal Painters’ Stories series.
Dedicated to sharing insights into art, culture, literature, and creative expression through writing, lectures, media, and content creation.
I launched
my new online lecture on “CLASSU”yesterday.
The
lecture that opened this time is the second lecture of Season 2 of “The Great and Immortal Painters’ Stories,”featuring
the selected artist, “Marc Chagall”.
Marc Chagall is
a painter who expressed blue exceptionally well among all colors and is known
as the “magician of colors”. He
was born on July 6, 1887 in Lyozna, Russian Empire (present Belarus) and died
on March 28, 1985 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. Chagall’s areas of activity included
painting and stained glass, and his art movements belonged to cubism,
surrealism, and expressionism.
In
this lecture, I introduce Chagall’s life, works, a film featuring Chagall, and selected
music for appreciating Chagall’s works. Students will also appreciate a total
of 150 works by Chagall.
The
following is the detailed lecture content.
Title:
The Great and Immortal Painters’ Stories, “Marc Chagall”
Preview (00:02:28)
Brief
introduction to the lecture content and Chagall's profile
Lecture 1 (00:29:57)
Introduction
to the lecture content; Chagall's profile; Chagall's life/activity by year from
birth to death; and Chagall's representative works by year
Lecture 2 (00:05:52)
Introduction
to a film featuring Chagall; selected music for appreciating Chagall's works
Lecture 3 (00:20:31)
Appreciation
of Chagall's works (80 points)
Lecture 4 (00:18:01)
Appreciation
of Chagall's works (70 points)
You
can access more detailed information by the link below.
Currently, I am
introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the
title “Interesting
Art Stories”.
The 70th story is“The Son of Man” by René Magritte.
“The Son of Man” is a 1964 painting by the Belgian surrealist painter
René Magritte, which is his most famous work.
René Magritte
This self-portrait by Magritte depicts a man in an overcoat and a
bowler hat standing in front of a low wall, beyond which are the sea and a
cloudy sky. The man's face is mostly obscured by a green apple floating in the
air, but the man's eyes can be seen peeking over the edge of the apple. Another
characteristic is that the man's left arm appears bent backwards at the elbow.
Regarding this painting, Magritte said:
“In this painting, you can have the apparent face, the apple, but
there is a hidden human face. This is something that happens constantly… We
always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that
which is hidden and which the visible does not show us... ”
Among the paintings of Magritte, there are paintings similar to “The
Son of Man” as follows.
“The Great War” is a variation of “The Son of Man,” showing only the
upper torso and head of the bowler hatted man, with the apple completely hiding
his face.
The Great War, René Magritte (1964)
“The Taste of the Invisible” is a gouache painting of the same
subject.
The Taste of the Invisible, René Magritte (1964)
"The Great War on Facades" depicts a person standing in front
of a wall overlooking the sea, as in “The Son of Man”, but it is a woman with
an umbrella whose face is obscured by flowers.
The Great War on Façades, René Magritte (1964)
"Man in the Bowler Hat" is a similar painting, but a man's
face is obscured by a bird rather than an apple.
Man in the Bowler Hat, René Magritte (1964)
“The Son of Man” has been used in various fields of culture and art
as follows.
In 1970, American artist Norman Rockwell paid a playful homage to
"The Son of Man" with an oil painting entitled "Mr. Apple".
Mr. Apple, Norman Rockwell (1970)
"The Son of Man" appears in the 1999 film "The Thomas
Crown Affair".
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
The apple was a continuing theme in Magritte's work. The apple in his
1966 painting "Le Jeu De Morre,"owned by Paul McCartney, inspired the
Beatles to name their record company "Apple Corps."
Apple Corps' logo
Le Jeu de Morre (The Game of Mora), René Magritte (1966)
“The Son of Man” is mentioned several times in the 2006 film
"Stranger than Fiction."
On every Thursday, I am introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.
The 21st story for this week is “Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man” by a Spanish Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí.
“Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man” is a painting by Salvador Dalí in 1943, which is one of his most famous paintings.
Salvador Dalí
Dali was a Spanish Surrealist artist who was born on May 11, 1904 and died on January 23, 1989. Born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, he was formally educated in fine arts at Madrid.
Though influenced by Impressionism and the Renaissance art at young age, he became attracted to Cubism and avant-garde art while growing up. Then, Dali became fascinated by Surrealism in the late 1920s, and joined the Surrealist group in 1929, soon becoming one of its main figures in the field.
Dali lived in France during Spanish Civil War and then moved to the United States in 1940, where he achieved commercial success. He then returned to Spain in 1948, announcing his return to Catholicism, and developed his "nuclear mysticism" style, based on his interest in classicism, mysticism and recent scientific developments.
Homage to Isaac Newton, Salvador Dalí, UOB Plaza, Singapore (1985)
This painting, drawn during Dalí's stay in the United States from 1940 to 1948, seems to predict the change in the world America would bring after the World War II. It depicts a woman and her child watching a man born and climbing out of an earth-covered egg.
In the painting, the continents of Africa and South America have been enlarged, suggesting the growing importance of the Third World after the war, while Europe, represented by Britain, crushed by the man’s hand, suggests that the importance will be diminished in an international power.
Statue of Salvador Dali, Cadaqués, Spain
The blood flowing out of the egg suggests World War II and the foot of the man kicking out of the egg into the Pacific area seems to suggest that the United States will defeat the Japanese in the Pacific. The parachute, or cloth above and below the egg, which appears to be its shield, appears to symbolize the placenta of the new nation.
The woman and her child holding her legs are watching the man coming out of the egg and the woman is pointing at the man with her finger. The starving and exhausted woman, who seems to symbolize the past era, seems to be pointing her finger at the man to tell her child the importance of this new world power. The child's shadow, drawn longer than the woman, seems to represent a new era that will soon replace the old one.
Dalí Theatre and Museum, Figueres, Catalonia, Spain
In the background of the painting there is a person in red clothes on the left side of the egg, and a skeleton and a tower are on the right side. Since the red color often symbolizes Japan, the person dressed in red seems to suggest Japan, and the foot of the kicking man next to it seems to suggest the justification of the US attack on Japan.
The skeleton on the right side seems to imply that Germany will be defeated by the United States, and the tower in the background that appears to symbolize a refuge for safety seems to imply that Europe will be safe when the United States helps Europe.
Dali often used the image of an egg shape in his paintings. The examples are "Illumined Pleasures (1929)”, “The Allegory of an American Christmas (1934)”and "The Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937).” The eggs in these paintings are the birth of something new, of a change taking place.
Allegory of an American Christmas, Salvador Dali (1934)
Illumined Pleasures, Salvador Dalí (1929)
Metamorphosis of Narcissus, Salvador Dalí (1937)
Since this painting was drawn during World War II, it could have contained various symbols suggesting many events during the war, and the placement of certain objects is also very important for understanding the painting.
It was also used as the cover of the record album "Newborn", released in 1975 by American rock band “James Gang.”
On every Thursday, I am
introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the
title “Interesting Art Stories”.
The 10th story for this week is "The Persistence of Memory"by a Spanish artist Salvador Dalí.
“The Persistence of Memory” is a painting by a Spanish artist Salvador Dalí in 1931, and one of his most famous works as well as the most recognizable works of Surrealism. This painting is sometimes referred to as the title, such as “The Melting Watches” or “The Soft Watches”.
Salvador Dalí (1939)
Like many of his other works, it is a deeply personal painting of Dali. Around the time he drew this painting, he tried self-induced hypnosis to get into the state of psychotic hallucinations, and then painted what was seen in that state. Many people claimed that the melting watches signify Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, symbolizing the relationship between time and space, but Dali stated that the melting watches were only inspired by a piece of cheese that had melted in the sun.
When drawing this painting, Dali was deeply influenced by Freud, and the unshapely form with long eyelashes in the foreground of this painting represents Dali himself who is in his dream state. The melting watches depict that in this state the time loses its meaning.
In this painting, the orange clock at the bottom left is covered with ants, and Dali often used ants as a symbol of decay in his paintings. The craggy rocks depicted on the right background represent the hills of Cap de Creus in his hometown of Catalonia, and many of Dali's paintings were inspired by Catalonia's landscapes.
After drawing this painting, Dali returned to the theme of this painting in 1954 with the variation of this painting called “The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory”. This variation shows a series of systematically divided rectangular blocks, suggesting something beneath the surface of the original version "The Persistence of Memory".
The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1954)
The variation is now in the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the original version has been held by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City since 1934, after first showing at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932.
Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida
In the late period of his career, Dali also made various sculptures on the theme of the soft watches, such as “Nobility of Time” and “Profile of Time.”
