Category: Europe (page 2 of 4)

Art History in the Time of COVID: At the First Touch of Winter, Summer Fades Away

For most of 2020 there’s been a danger in touching, there have been all sorts of face coverings, a feeling of ailment is in the air, a loss of energy and now a changing of seasons bringing new dangers. When I saw this painting again in 2020, it seemed to offer a different context than before. It’s an artwork that has been through its own devastating challenges too. Let’s have a long stare at Val Prinsep’s At the First Touch of Winter, Summer Fades Away (1897):

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Tour Street Art Aberdeen: Union Row

In 2019, Scotland’s third-largest city launched its third annual Nuart Street Art Festival, taking a positive approach towards creating a public platform for local artists whilst celebrating international street artists. The festival took place over an Easter weekend of installations, murals, tours, talks and events. Although the 2020 festival has been postponed, the street art continues.

Much of the street art from previous years still exists around the city centre. The artworks can be sought out in one day with some good planning.

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Live the John and Yoko Bed-in Experience

John Lennon would have been 80 today. It’s difficult to imagine what he would have done in the years since his death in 1980. Most of us, though, will have heard about the time he and artist Yoko Ono gave some of their honeymoon over to promoting the idea of peace. After getting married on the 20th March 1969 in Gibraltar, the couple staged perhaps the most perfect of publicity stunts in Amsterdam and Montreal from their hotel bed.

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Mosaic Graffiti in Edinburgh

Street art, graffiti art, guerilla art, whatever you want to call it, it’s everywhere. Thanks to Banksy, the good stuff gets noticed and appreciated. How about some guerilla mosaic art to look out for in Edinburgh? How about Helen Miles? How about leaving behind any preconceptions you have about street artists?

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walk in the footsteps of Alice Guy

So, after looking at the previous post on the history of her life, how can we travel in the footsteps of Alice Guy? Much of her working life has been lost to cinema’s forgotten history. The advent of the talkies and the later dominance of Hollywood as a production centre in the USA can often obliterate the early years of cinema. Much of it is not preserved and, much like the old nitrate films themselves, seems to have gone up in smoke. But, let’s have a peek at what we might find. For a few moments, let me be your travel guide in space and time 😉

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Alice Guy cinema pioneer

In which decade was the world’s first-ever female film director? Was it perhaps the ’60s? Or possibly the ’20s? No. Try the ’90s — the 1890s. Try 1896, to be exact.

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Tour the Royal Mile, Edinburgh: White Horse Close

During lockdown days, I’ve been staying local (of course). So I’ve been delving a little deeper into the alleyways and corners of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to uncover its most creatively-charged stories and details. Let’s have a look at White Horse Close. But first up…

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Museum of Innocence, Istanbul

Did you ever walk into a museum and wonder about your own history, identity, longings and obsessions? Did you ever discover objects which had more of a direct line to your heart’s history than the history of the world ever could? Did you ever think you would discover that in a narrow street in Istanbul?

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