This book is like having the best of good times with old friends, except that in this case, many of those friends are four-legged. A joyous romp through Paris and the south of France, meeting a host of characters with the footloose author leads to India, where she finally finds her dream-dog, an irresistible cocker spaniel named Joshua. With many …
Read More »MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / THE HAGUE – Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring
Regarded as Vermeer’s masterpiece, this canvas is often referred to as the Mona Lisa of the North or the Dutch Mona Lisa. The Girl with a Pearl Earring (or girl with a turban), is one of the most famous paintings by Jan Vermeer, probably painted around the year 1666. The girl in this painting is believed to be Vermeer’s eldest …
Read More »MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / PARIGI – Leonardo da Vinci, La Gioconda
Lisa was born in Florence on June 15 1479. She was named Lisa, like a wife of her paternal grandfather. In 1538, her husband Francesco died of plague. Four years later, she became sick and was taken to the convent of St. Ursula, where she died and was buried July 15, 1542, at the age of 63 years. In the …
Read More »MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / CHICAGO – George Seurat: A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
The painting has precise geometric rules, but the most important is symmetry with respect to the central axis, determined by the woman with the little girl. That painting was lent to The Art Institute of Chicago, where you can go to admire it. Imagine being inside a Sunday afternoon on the island of Grande-Jatte. Imagine that on that day you …
Read More »MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / AMSTERDAM – Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn: The Night Watch
No, it is not a picture. Almost like a photographer, a famous painter has captured an image, without people he aware of it. The Night Watch (also known as the Civic Guard marching, or as The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq), is an oil painting on canvas on canvas 363 x 437 cm, made in 1642 by Rembrandt Harmenszoon …
Read More »MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / ROME – Raphael: The School of Athens
Fifty-eight are the characters depicted in the fresco. Plato and Aristotle are in the center of the composition. Even your eyes – is instantly attracted to these figures, but not randomly, because they are the lines of the floor and the prospect of the building to make possible this colorful magic. As you have observed, the center of the scene …
Read More »CONTEMPORARY INDIAN LITERATURE – The pleasure can not wait, to Tishani Doshi novel
A strange family, a pleasant story of a family “out of line”, in the throes of love, death and indissoluble family ties. Stories told with simplicity and tenderness. It all began when Babo was the first member of the Patel family to leave Madras, flying to London to further his education. Leafing through the pages of the novel, you find …
Read More »CONTEMPORARY INDIAN POETRY – Love poem, by Tishani Doshi
Tishani Doshi – graduated with a master’s degree in creative writing from the Johns Hopkins University – she is an Indian poet, journalist and dancer, and was born in the city of MADRAS in 1975, but currently she lives on a beach, between two fishing villages. Tishani’s debut novel (The pleasure seekers), was shortlisted for the Hindu Literary Prize, and …
Read More »WHEN THERE IS NO HINT OF AN EXPRESSIVE SEXUALITY – Arpana Caur: painting composition and visual tension
ARPANA CAUR 1/3 – Born in New Delhi, Arpana Caur spent her college years studying literature. As an contemporary Indian artist, she is largely self-taught, but observing her work you can feel that she continue the line begun by Amrita Sher-Gil. She started looking at the architecture in Pahari miniatures that led to her creating strange, linear tensions vis-à -vis the …
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