Ugly Renaissance Babies-the kids Aren't AlRight

Ugly Renaissance Babies is a blog dedicated to the ugliness of kids' representation in renaissance paintings.

Every picture is followed by a 'comment'

"Oh… Oh god. They’re fucking that lamb, aren’t they? THAT’S GROSS, JESUS."

Louis Wain's disorder and his fractal patterns

This is work of Louis Wain, who lived between 1860 and 1939, and is frequently held up as an example of the progression of schizophrenia, and the effects of the disorder on the perceptions of an artist.

But as you can read here, Wain may instead have been suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, because his skill as a draughtsman remained plain to see throughout his illness.

The similarities of his late paintings to fractals is striking. Fractal patterns that we are familiar with today were not produced until the 1970s. There would appear to have been something about Wain’s condition that allowed him to perceive and represent these invisible natural patterns long before anyone else had seen them.

13 Outsider Artists

A collection of 13 Outsider Artists titled "The 13 Most Amazing Outsider Artists of All Time"with one of their artworks had a brief presentation in Flavorwire.
Among them Judith Scott,

Henry Darger (i didn't know that Henry Darger considered an outsider artist),

Miroslav Tichý (Miroslav Tichy and Henry Darger thought to be naive artists, not outsider artists, but...)

Digital Distorted Paintings by Jens Jesse

Jens Hesse, usually paints with oil and acrylic.

In his website you can see the paintings grouped by different kind of digital distortions such as influenced by digital distorted satellite signals, datamosh videos, interlace effects, and by anaglyph images. He uses corduroy for two of his painting series (digital distorted satellite signals and interlace effects) to get a excellent digital looks.

via triangulation blog

Pam et Jenny’s de Design Graphique Bruxelles

"As part of ‘Share/d Heritage,’ a recent symposium at the Royal Library in Brussels, examining the digitalization of cultural heritage, design team Pam et Jenny created these oddly fascinating mis-scanned versions of classical portraits and what appear to be vintage film stills..." via flavorwire

Pam et Jenny’s website for more.

Francoise Gamma's Animated gif's

Francoise Gamma is a Spanish artist and seems to be a master of animated gif art.

Look more of his animated gif's on his site http://francoisegamma.computersclub.org/

Disability Aesthetics and Politics

There is always a connection between art and politics and so it is with disability aesthetics and politics. Disability is connected with politics as long as there is a discourse around the identity of the disabled people and as long as it refers to the struggles of disabled people to be free to identify (or not) themselves in order to be accountable and visible in the social arena. The connection between aesthetics and politics (or art and politics) is so huge that I wish I could properly analyze it here, but as long as aesthetics are referred to the constituents of beauty and to the power of this beauty to subvert the existing orders of perceiving and understanding the world, or to emancipate the people, or to give the power to the people to emancipate themselves, then the connection of aesthetics (or art) and politics is quite obvious. The relation of disability aesthetics and politics came into my mind as I was reading the post of 'Spananart's Blog - Information about visual art in Suriname' to a work of Mona Liza from the Surinamese artist Kurt Nahar.

"Every image, every word that does not fit within the general consensus of what is considered socially acceptable, is excluded, deleted, literally removed from sight. The result? Cultural flatness: Productions, exhibitions, that are easily digestible, to the taste of a wider public and described by the majority as being ‘beautiful’.

Is this true beauty? No. But it does teach us something about the general view on ‘beauty’. It thus could have something to do with being proper, acceptable,…This is where the relation between ‘the good’ and ‘the beautiful’ comes into play. It also clearly ascertains that there are standards, generally accepted amongst the majority of people, for what is considered ‘beautiful’. Even though it is true that this only applies when these people have also been brought up with the same rules about what beauty is. Because beauty is of course culturally and socially determined. A Chinese person has other ideas about a beautiful vase as does one from African descent. Kitsch is beautiful to the art lover as long as it’s from Jeff Koons or one of his followers. For a “similar” statuette on the mantel of the retired laborer he shows only disdain."

Read the rest of the post here.

Specimens and Superhumans

A copy of a press release just received.

Specimens to Superhumans is a series of events curated by The Arts Catalyst and Shape exploring contemporary issues around biomedical science, disability and ethics, and how these are explored, represented and critiqued in art.

The events provide creative opportunities to show the work of and to provide mentoring, development and networking opportunities for disabled artists. The series hopes to identify and nurture artists who could participate in future programmes, with the long-term aim of commissioning a series of new artists’ projects.

Labyrinth of Living Exhibits, Hunterian Museum, London 12 May 2011

Bye Bye Kitty!!!-Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art

The "SP Extra: Malformed Noh-Mask Series Half Skeleton’s Twins: Tosaka", (2008) is series of works by Motohiko Odani exhibited at the Bye Bye Kitty!!!-Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art exhibition, launched a few days before in NY's Japan Society.

In light of the recent tragedy in Japan a number of related programs are taking place in conjunction with the exhibition. The donation of 50 percent of all ticket sales to aid victims of the devastation announced and the organization’s Japan Earthquake Relief Fund has already raised over $500,000; you can also contribute directly by making an online donation.

What is also striking regarding the interests of this blog, is the inextricable relation of disability aesthetics and the ways that devastating disasters get into the realm of aesthetics (although this is might not be a very clear example). The relation of disability aesthetics and the introduction of any disaster into an analysis of its aesthetic impact seems to be one of the most controversial subject matters of disability aesthetics and needs a lot more close and careful examination or study.

Da Vinci and the Grotesque

What relates grotesque to disability it might not be so obvious (or it might be so stereotypically obvious that it can be rejected as abusive!). But as the origins of the grotesque lie in the aesthetic discourse, then disability aesthetics should be concerned for grotesque as a form.

That's what it lies also behind Jonathan Jones's article "Character Witness - Art & caricature", he wrote for Frieze Magazine. He contemplate on many topics, but highlights Leonardo Da Vinci's admiration to grotesque faces.

In his Notebooks in the chapter "The Practice of Painting", Leonardo is giving advices to portrait and figure painters for drawing grotesque faces.

572. OF A METHOD OF KEEPING IN MIND THE FORM OF A FACE.
"If you want to acquire facility for bearing in mind the expression
of a face, first make yourself familiar with a variety of [forms of]
several heads, eyes, noses, mouths, chins and cheeks and necks and
shoulders: And to put a case: Noses are of 10 types: straight,
bulbous, hollow, prominent above or below the middle, aquiline,
regular, flat, round or pointed. These hold good as to profile. In
full face they are of 11 types; these are equal thick in the middle,
thin in the middle, with the tip thick and the root narrow, or
narrow at the tip and wide at the root; with the nostrils wide or
narrow, high or low, and the openings wide or hidden by the point;
and you will find an equal variety in the other details; which
things you must draw from nature and fix them in your mind. Or else,
when you have to draw a face by heart, carry with you a little book
in which you have noted such features; and when you have cast a
glance at the face of the person you wish to draw, you can look, in
private, which nose or mouth is most like, or there make a little
mark to recognise it again at home. Of grotesque faces I need say
nothing, because they are kept in mind without difficulty."

Another allusion of what it might Da Vinci was thinking when he was looking at exceptional and grotesque faces, can be found in a brief record in the chapter "Miscellaneous Notes"

1404.
"Giovannina, has a fantastic face,--is at Santa Caterina, at the Hospital.""

According to Giorgio Vasari in "The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects Vol.05 (of 10)" Leonardo... "(He) was so delighted when he saw certain bizarre heads of men, with the beard or hair growing naturally, that he would follow one that pleased him a whole day, and so treasured him up in idea, that afterwards,on arriving home, he drew him as if he had had him in his presence.
Of this sort there are many heads to be seen, both of women and of men, and I have several of them, drawn by his hand with the pen, in our book of drawings, which I have mentioned so many times ; such was that of Amerigo Vespucci, which is a very beautiful head of an old man drawn with charcoal, and likewise that of Scaramuccia, Captain of the Gypsies, which afterwards came into the hands of M. Donato Valdambrini of Arezzo, Canon of S. Lorenzo, left to him by Giambullari."


This sheet might be "Scaramuccia, king of the gypsies" ; others think it was a cartoon used for the head of an onlooker in a now lost painting of the Mocking of Christ.

Although it is written in Jonathan Jones's article that "Da Vinci’s notebooks contain a large number of drawings of grotesque faces; Vasari collected them, and so did a lot of other people." and that "as Sir Kenneth Clark lamented in his 1939 biography of da Vinci, ‘for three centuries these were the most typical of his works, familiar in numerous engravings. Today we find them disgusting, or at best wearisome.’" it is also written by Jean Paul Richter, commentator of Da Vinci's "Notebooks" that "Nor should I be justified if I intended to include in the literary works the well-known caricatures of human faces attributed to Leonardo-- of which, however, it may be incidentally observed, the greater number are in my opinion undoubtedly spurious. Two only have necessarily been given owing to their presence in text, which it was desired to reproduce: Vol. I page 326, and Pl. CXXII. It can scarcely be doubted that some satirical intention is conveyed by the drawing on Pl. LXIV (text No. 688)."

Grotesque image in page 326


Pl. LXIV. Emblematic Representation; From the Royal Library, Windsor Castle-see text No. 688

688.
On this side Adam and Eve on the other;
O misery of mankind, of how many things do
you make yourself the slave for money!
[Footnote: See PI. LXIV. The figures of Adam and Eve in the clouds
here alluded to would seem to symbolise their superiority to all
earthly needs.]

Pl. CXXII Drawing of Caricatures; From the Royal Library, Windsor Castle


And in case of dispute regarding the relation of Leonardo Da Vinci and disability aesthetics, a quote in ViaRoma100.net, on the opportunity of the exhibition "Leonardo e lo Sport" held in Athens during the Olympic Games 2004, leave no doubt regarding the relation of Leonardo Da Vinci and disability.

LEONARDO PROGETTO' PROTESI PER HANDICAP
(Google translator)"The Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci, who designed and curated the exhibition in Athens, on this occasion indicates that the artist/scientist is interested in the Renaissance 'also studies related to the issue of physical disability. The painter of 'Mona Lisa' 'record 'stunning drawings of mechanical limbs and a therapeutic chair, in addition to those on gymnastic exercises, the functioning of muscles and the ability' sensory. Between the sheets of anatomical studies of Leonardo, says Professor Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale, are among other things: outstanding design of the structural pattern of a shoulder rebuilt with 'wires' on which the artist intends to superimpose graphically first bones and muscles. Then there is, especially, the extraordinary design of a reconstructed left leg with copper wires (''As a major round, and makes' the strings of annealed copper wire and then fold under the natural effect'': cosi' specifies in a sheet of the Royal Library of Windsor dated circa 1508)."

Symbol of this exhibition was "Head satiresca", an image never exposed to the public, dated on 1508, signed by Leonardo, and exceptionally granted for the occasion by an anonymous collector.

Head satiresca

Vandalized Art

Again from T. Siebers article:
"What is the impact of damage on classic works of art from the past? It is true that we strive to preserve and repair them, but perhaps the accidents of history have the effect of renewing rather than destroying art works. Vandalized works seem strangely modern. In 1977 a vandal attacked a Rembrandt self-portrait with sulfuric acid, transforming the masterpiece forever and regrettably."



Would vandalized works become more emblematic of the aesthetic, if we did not restore them, as the Venus de Milo has not been restored?
Vandalism modernizes art works, for better or worse, by inserting them in an aesthetic tradition increasingly preoccupied with disability. Only the historical unveiling of disability accounts for the aesthetic effect of vandalized works of art. Damaged art and broken beauty are no longer interpreted as ugly... They also suggest that experimentation with aesthetic form reflects a desire to experiment with human form. Beholders discover in vandalized works an image of disability that asks to be contemplated not as a symbol of human imperfection but as an experience of the corporeal variation found everywhere in modern life."

While much have been written about vandalized works of art here and here are some very basic articles for well known works of art like "Guernica" and Michelangelo's "Pietà" or Duchamp's "Fountain".

Felix Gmelin, a Swedish artist, in his exhibition "Art Vandals" has been interested in artworks that have literally been destroyed in museums, galleries, or other public spaces. In "Art Vandals", Felix Gmelin reinterprets twelve works that have been subjected to vandalism.
'Repeatedly, the attacks occure, often committed by people who describes themselves as artists. Museums are reluctant to release information about these events, fearing that they will inspire future outrages. Or are there other reasons?'
A webbproject Art Vandales has been made and into Felix Gmelin's official web site two relevant essays (Daniel Birnbaum's "The Art of Destruction" and Dario Gamboni's "Recreating Destroyed Destructions: Felix Gmelin's Art Vandals") cast more light on the subject.



Felix Gmelin's "Kill Lies All After Pablo Picasso (1937) & Tony Shafrazi (1974)" artwork belongs to Saatchi Galery and is a reproduction of a section of Pablo Picasso's celebrated 1937 anti-war masterpiece Guernica following its defacement by young art student (and now art dealer) Tony Shafrazi while on loan to The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1974. Gmelin's painting takes its title from the words daubed by Shafrazi in red spray paint across the work's surface; an attempt, he claimed afterwards, "to bring the art absolutely up to date, to retrieve it from history and give it life." The painting belongs to an ongoing series in which the artist meticulously replicates well-known paintings and sculptures as they appeared in the immediate aftermath of similar acts of vandalism or disfigurement.

Gert Jan Kocken's exhibition "Defacing" at the Artefact Festival 2009,"...is a series of photographs of religious objects that were destroyed during the Reformation and the Beeldenstorm (Image War) which raged across Europe in several waves in the 16th century. Gert Jan Kocken discovered that very few artworks with visible damage survived. The damaged artifacts which have survived on the spot (reliefs and paintings) and scratched out missal texts, have rarely if ever systematically been illustrated. The sharpness of Kocken's prints and their format give them a material quality that closely approaches that of the original sculptures and paintings, and makes them even better and more easily visible than in their location in churches, or in museum depots. In the exhibition the emphasis comes to lie on the faces of the saints, chiselled away or scratched out in a way that is as malicious as it is meticulous, while the rest of the image remains almost entirely intact.
Gert Jan Kocken places history and memory in relation to the image. Defacing is a series of photographs that focus attention on the fury that images have provoked in the past. In doing so, he poses questions about the way the image exercises its power today."

Auguste Rodin, The Thinker, collection Singer Museum, Laren Defacement: 17 January 2007


Thomas Beckett, St. Andrew, North Burlingham Defacement: 1538


Anna retable, Domkerk, Utrecht, the Netherlands Defacement: 7 March 1580


Annunciation, Swanden. Defacement 21 december 1528


Willem V, Assen. Defacement 1795


In "The Past in the Present" photography series Gert Jan Kocken also looks at moments of important historical change. Among other images, we see paintings made by Adolf Hitler at his 18th year of age when he submitted his watercolours as application for the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and he was not admitted.



From "The Art of Iconoclasm" by Sven Lütticken
Gert Jan Kocken "...began his Disaster Sites series in 1999: using a view camera, he photographed various locations where a great disaster had once occurred, printing the photographs in large format to produce a monumental, detailed image. Because the photographs were made long after the disaster involved, there is nothing more to be seen than a landscape, and there is only the memory of what took place at this specific location. For instance, the majestic views of the slope of Mont Blanc, with the entrance to the tunnel of the same name, or the sea at Zeebrugge, or the park-like space in the midst of the Bijlmer receive a certain charge – a tension between the aesthetic image and what collective memory knows about the place. A similar series was to be seen in the group show ‘Something Happened’, which Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA) assembled with work by Kocken for the Amsterdam Art Fair in 2004, this time with life-sized photographs of places in Amsterdam where a murder, suicide or a shocking disclosure had taken place. At first glance all are ordinary locations – with, however, a charged history."
"The history of iconoclasm is very closely interwoven with theological and philosophical ideas that may differ by time and place, but which are often quite profoundly rational. It began with the iconoclastic controversy in the Byzantine Empire, which ran on nearly a century after 726, the year that the Emperor Leo III had a mosaic of Christ that was above the entrance to his palace removed in favour of a simple cross. This interweaving of iconoclasm and religion continued through modern, abstract art by Kandinsky, Malevich, Mondrian and others. [1] Iconoclasm took on a symbolic, aesthetic form in the work of these artists. Over the centuries most forms of iconoclasm have however gone down in history as instances and examples of the act of destruction, and not so mush the specific remains of the deed. In other words, iconoclasm is mostly understood to be just blind vandalism, and has therefore become a taboo in the modern context of far-reaching musealisation and conservation of art and a constantly expanding system of historical preservation."

For a more comprehensive examination of modern iconoclasm, The destruction of art: iconoclasm and vandalism since the French Revolution by Dario Gamboni looks at deliberate attacks against works of art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.


"We shall not have demolish everything unless we demolish even the ruins! Now I can not think of another way than making beautiful, well arranged buildings out of them"
Alfred Jarry "Ubu Enchained"

Marcel Duchamp's readymade "L.H.O.O.Q" ("Elle a chaud au cul" literally translates into "She has heat in the ass" but Duchamp gave a loose translation of "L.H.O.O.Q." as "there is fire down below" - in fact the term avoir chaud au cul is slang used in the sense of "to be horny".) is the objet trouvé (found object) - a cheap postcard reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa - onto which Duchamp drew a mustache and beard in pencil and appended the title.



Marcel Duchamp's "L.H.O.O.Q." also poses questions about the way the image exercises its power today and if a vandalized cheap reproduction of Mona Lisa is justified or acclaimed as a great work of art, then the vandalized cheap reproductions of icons of "Virgin Mary and Holy Child Jesus" on January 2007, at the School of Theology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, they can also claim their justification as great works of art.



"My point is not to encourage vandalism but to use it to query the effect that disability has on aesthetic appreciation." again from T. Siebers's article. But as vandalism very often poses aesthetic and political questions over its damaged objects, the questions coming from the vandalized image of Virgin Mary are: Does the veil symbolize a burga, a chador, a niqab and therefore a holy Christian turned into a devout Muslim, or more plainly a holy Christian turned into a musketeer infantry soldier of social change?

A rather conservative view on art vandalism, can be found in "Why art vandals strike" Katrina Kuntz's article with a list of ten exceptional examples of vandalized art between 1972 and 1998.