“Proudest and most arrogant man in France” *

The pioneering artist of the 19th century, Realist painter Gustav Courbet once and for all rejected academic traditions and conventions of the bourgeois society. He is the one who paved the way for the Impressionism and all the avant-garde movements that followed it in the 20th century.

Courbet became tired of the pretentiousness of the official art and was determined to render the world as he saw it. Courbet strived to be independent from the public’s taste and constantly challenged convention by his emphatically realistic renderings of scenes from the daily life. No graceful poses or impressive colors – Courbet was not depicting beauty, he was depicting truth. This uncompromising artistic sincerity made him stand out from all other artists working at that time in Paris and often forced him to exhibit his work independently from the Salon.

Before he developed his unique realistic painting style and before he produced his groundbreaking masterpieces, including The Origin of the World and The Stone Breakers, Courbet made a number of Romantic self-portraits including this one. Deeply emotional, The Desperate Man is among the earliest works by the artist that he completed in 1845. With his eyes wide-open, Courbet is staring straight at you and tearing his hair. Popular at the time, the Romantic approach to portraiture was concerned with expressing emotional and psychological states of the individual. And although Courbet never considered himself a Romantic painter, he coped with the task extremely well. When you look at this self-portrait you do not only experience his desperation (as the title suggests) but you also get the idea of what kind of personality Gustave Courbet was himself. Bold, wily, radical, ambitious and determined. Determined to challenge established painting genres, protest against traditional clichés, and change the course of art history.

Read more:

http://www.galleryintell.com/artex/the-desperate-man-gustave-courbet/

Man! free thinker! - you delude in your thinking exclusive
In this world where life shines in every hide:
Forces that you restrain, as your choices decide,
But in all your ideals, the universe is excluded.

Respect in all beast, an acting spirit: ...
Each flower is a Natural soul that matures;
The mystery of love in the metal allures:
"Everything is feeling!" - And you are so dominant!

Fear the wall from where hidden eyes spies on you
To every essense of matter a word is attached ...
So do not use these names for any nasty desires!

Often in the weird animal lives a hidden thought;
And like a new eye covered by its eyelids,
A pure spirit, grows under the surface of the stones!



From "Les Vers Dorés" by Gérard de Nerval ...
See   Faust

 

 

Translation by Jules Letambour...

 

See also: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/8011

 

Talking animals: we aren’t the only species capable of speech …

Ongoing studies show that some mammals and birds can mimic the sound of the human voice

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/10/talking-animals-speci...

 

 

Read Poem by Gérard de Nerval above this comment. 

An art museum in the south of France has discovered that more than half of its collection consists of fakes, in what the local mayor on Sunday described as a “catastrophe” for the region.

The tiny 8,000-strong community of Elne just outside Perpignan re-opened its Etienne Terrus Museum, dedicated to the works of the local artist who was born in 1857 and died in 1922, on Friday after extensive renovation work.

But an art historian brought in to reorganise the museum following the recent acquisition of around 80 paintings, found that nearly 60% of the entire collection was fake.

“Etienne Terrus was Elne’s great painter. He was part of the community, he was our painter,” said mayor Yves Barniol. 

“Knowing that people have visited the museum and seen a collection, most of which is fake, that’s bad. It’s a catastrophe for the municipality.”

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/30/french-museum-discovers-ha...

 

I think this should be a plus: "Come and see the fakes in our new Old Fake Museum!" Read from top.

For the real money shots, as usual, we must look to the Europeans, whose fearlessness in the gynaecological sector rivals men’s top-shelf magazines in their pre-Pornhub heyday. The French film-maker Catherine Breillat, for example, out-Apatows Apatow with an explicit cervical examination and birth sequence in Romance (1999). Then, in Anatomy of Hell (2004), she got porn actor-director Rocco Siffredi (AKA “the Italian Stallion”) to apply lipstick to the labia and anus of his leading lady’s vulva double, though in both films the characters’ tendency to earnestly debate gender politics undercuts potential shock value, let alone any hint of eroticism (which is presumably the intention). Meanwhile, her compatriot François Ozon’s preposterous but delicious thriller L’Amant Double (2017), kicks off its daft plot with a speculum’s-eye view of the female protagonist’s internal couloir: about as sexy as a smear test, but a witty invitation into its heroine’s psyche.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/07/european-cinema-embraces-th...

 

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One of the greatest mysteries in art history appears to have been solved.

The identity of the model who posed for the most scandalous painting of the 19th century, Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde (The Origin of the World), has finally been revealed.

Experts say they are “99% sure” the painting depicts the Parisian ballet dancer Constance Queniaux.

The canvas has never lost its power to shock – bringing out the prude in Facebook, which censored profiles using it as late as 2011.

For decades art historians have been convinced that the naked torso and genitalia it depicts belonged to Courbet’s lover, the Irish model Joanna Hiffernan, who was also romantically linked with his friend, the American artist James Whistler.

But doubts persisted – mainly because the dark pubic hair in the painting did not correspond with Hiffernan’s mane of flaming red curls.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/sep/25/origin-of-gustave-c...

 

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A Melbourne artist who is documenting and live-streaming their attempts to self-inseminate with donor sperm has had their funding rescinded by the Australia Council, which said it would not support a project that could bring new life into the world.

The federal government's major arts funding and advisory body had approved funding for Immaculate in early August, after being told what the project involved. But a week later the council sent the artist, Casey Jenkins, a transcript of a heavily critical segment on Sky News by former Tony Abbott adviser Peta Credlin, and called in lawyers.

The body eventually cancelled the $25,000 grant in a letter to Jenkins from Australia Council chief executive Adrian Collette in September that said he had made the decision alongside chair Sam Walsh.

Mr Collette told Jenkins "we cannot be party to any act that could result in bringing a new life into the world" and that "the ethical issues that will inevitably surround this project, possibly for years to come, are not something the council can take responsibility for".

 

 

 

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/australia-council-pulls-funding-for-self-insemination-art-project-20201008-p5635x.html

 

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