An exhibit of American Indian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art throws the connection between art and collector into unusually sharp relief.
A feathered basket from the early 20th century, made of plant fiber and quail feathers from Pomo, California is on display in New York in this photo provided to Reuters on January 17, 2012 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. An exhibit of American Indian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art throws the connection between art and collector into unusually sharp relief. The show features key pieces from The Coe Collection of American Indian Art, the life's work of a Ralph T. Coe, a collector and museum director who played a central role in reviving interest in American Indian art [Credit: Reuters/Metropolitan Museum of Art]The show features key pieces from The Coe Collection of American Indian Art, the life's work of a Ralph T. Coe, a collector and museum director who played a central role in reviving interest in American Indian art.
"The exhibit honors Coe and the role he played in the acceptance and understanding of the Native American work," said Julie Jones, head of the museum's Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.
The show includes about 40 objects representing a wide range of materials, from stone to animal hide, as well as time, place and distinct peoples.
Most of the Coe collection dates from the 19th to early 20th century when Native Americans came in contact with outsiders ranging from traders to missionaries to the U.S. army.
"Coe had some particular interests, one of them being objects that have come to be called souvenir art," Jones explained.
Souvenir art melded Native American art with European art, such as mocassins embroidered with European-like floral designs. Work from the people of the Great Plains evokes the men on horseback wearing feathers and buckskin.
Masks and head dress ornaments, sometimes used in theatrical ceremonies and story-telling, are another aspect of the exhibit.
An imposing sculpture of a Noble Woman by the Northwest Coast Haida artist Robert Davidson, dated to 2001, is a contemporary expression of a long tradition of carving wood. Most of the objects were made by artists who were schooled by their predecessors.
"Traditions were handed down," Jones said.
The man behind the collection
Born in 1929 in Cleveland, Ohio, Coe grew up in a home with filled with works by Renoir, Pissarro, Monet and Manet, all collected by his father, a trustee of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
"Coe came from a solidly Eurocentric point of view. He grew up in a house full of European paintings and learned to love them," Jones said.
But a book by Miguel Covarrubias, a Mexican artist and amateur archaeologist sympathetic to tribal art, was a catalyst for Coe to turn his attention to the art of Native Americans.
Soon after reading it, Coe bought a carved model of a totem pole, his first work of American Indian art that would eventually form part of the Coe Collection, a group of more than 1,100 objects, some dating from prehistoric times.
He became a champion of American Indian art, a mutualism that continued for the next half-century.
By 1962 Coe, a curator at Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, organized "The Imagination of Primitive Man," an exhibit designed to illuminate the creative imagination of tribal peoples.
The most ambitious campaign Coe waged on behalf of this art resulted in "Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art," shown in London as part of the United States Bicentennial in 1976, and in Kansas City one year later.
Its nearly 700 objects revealed the Indian approach to nature and nature's relationship to man, myth, time and space to a public that was unfamiliar with it.
"'Sacred Circles' changed the popular presentation of American Indian art and influenced a generation of collectors and museum professionals," Jones said.
For his last large exhibition — "Lost and Found Traditions: Native American Art, 1965 -1985" — Coe crisscrossed North America, seeking works of art that used traditional forms and materials, but were redefined by contemporary visions.
It marked Coe's transition from art historian to an advocate for the new, larger world of North American Indian contemporary art, and was shown in several museums in 1986.
Author: Ellen Freilich | Source: Reuters [January 17, 2012]
High in the Italian Alps, thousands of stick-like images of people and animals, carved into rock surfaces, offer a tantalising window into the past. Archaeologists believe that the earliest of these 150,000 images date from the Neolithic but that most originate from the Iron Age. The UNESCO-protected ‘Pitoti’ (little puppets) of the Valcamonica valley extend over an area of some three square kilometres and have been described as one of the world’s largest pieces of anonymous art.
An event taking place next Monday (18 January 2016) at Downing College, Cambridge, will give the public an opportunity to learn more about a fascinating project to explore and re-animate the Pitoti of Valcamonica. Displays and hands-on activities staged by seven of the institutions involved in the EU/European Research Council-funded ‘3D Pitoti’ digital heritage project will show visitors how archaeologists and film-makers have used the latest digital technology to explore an art form often portrayed as simplistic or primitive.
The exhibitors from Austria, Italy, Germany and the UK will show that the thousands of Pitoti can be seen as “one big picture” as dozens of artists, over a period of some 4,000 years, added narratives to the giant ‘canvases’ formed by sandstone rocks scraped clean by the movement of glaciers across the landscape. The images are etched into the rock surfaces so that, as the sun rises and then falls in the sky, the figures can be seen to gain a sense of movement.
Displays will introduce visitors to the scanning, machine learning and interactive 3D-visualisation technologies used by Bauhaus Weimar, Technical University Graz, and St Pölten University of Applied Sciences to record, analyse and breathe life into the Pitoti. Cambridge archaeologists Craig Alexander, Giovanna Bellandi and Christopher Chippindale have worked with Alberto Marretta and Markus Seidl to create Pitoti databases using Arctron’s Aspect 3D system.
The scanned images of the Pitoti are stored in the rock-art research institute in Valcamonica, Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici, and have given the project’s team an unprecedentedly rich resource to play with in exploring the power of graphic art in combination with other media.
The 3D Pitoti team members attending next week’s event will engage with visitors who will be given the chance to experience the scanner, UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), computer sectioning, and the Pitoti ‘oculus rift’ virtual reality experience, made possible by using advanced imaging systems which are creating a new generation of ‘real’ images. The live demonstration of the interactive 3D Pitoti children’s app, developed by Archeocammuni and Nottingham University, is likely to prove popular with younger visitors who will have the chance to handle the technology and ask questions. Also taking part in the event will be the renowned craftsperson Lida Cardozo Kindersley who will demonstrate the art of letter cutting as an intensely physical process.
Eleanora Montinari [Credit: CCSP/3-D Pitoti with permission of Marc Steinmetz/VISUM]Archaeologists increasingly believe that the Valcamonica images may have been one element in a kind of ‘proto-cinema’ that might have involved other ‘special effects’. “When I first saw the Pitoti, my immediate thought was that these are frames for a film. Initially I envisaged an animated film but over time I’ve come to realise that the quality of colour, the play of light and shadow, and the texture of the rocks, make the Pitoti much more sophisticated than 2D animated graphics. That’s why we need to work in 3D,” says Cambridge archaeologist and film-maker Dr Frederick Baker, one of the founding participants in the project.
“Many of the images at Valcamonica are contemporary with classical Greek art but are an under appreciated form of art. I believe that the Pitoti are an example of minimalism, an early precursor to work by Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso. They can be just as powerful as the classical art of Athens and Rome in their own way. By showcasing our project in the neo-classical setting of Downing College, we are highlighting this clash of visual cultures and using the digital to raise the appreciation of what has been seen as ‘barbarian’ or ‘tribal’ art.”
Members of the 3D Pitoti team captured thousands of images of people, sheep, deer, horses and dogs found on the Valamonica rocks. The digitised images gave the project a ‘casting directory’ of thousands of ‘characters’ in order to create imagined narratives. The creation of moving images using pixels, or dots, echoes the making of the Pitoti which were pecked out of the rock by people striking the surface with repeated blows to produce lines and shapes.
Dr Sue Cobb, from the University of Nottingham, who led the international team of scientists, said: “Thanks to the 3D Pitoti project, archaeological sites and artefacts can be rendered in stunningly realistic computer-generated models and even 3D printed for posterity. Our tools will give more people online access to culturally-important heritage sites and negate the need to travel to the locations, which can be inaccessible or vulnerable to damage.
“We overcame a number of technical challenges to innovate the technology, including developing weatherproof, portable laser scanner to take detailed images of the Pitoti in situ in harsh, rugged terrain; using both a UAV and glider to take aerial shots of the valley for the computer model and processing huge masses of data to recreate an immersive, film-quality version of the site in 3D.
Michael Holzapfel (left) and Martin Schaich (right) [Credit: ArcTron/3-D Pitoti with permission of Marc Steinmetz/VISUM)]“With our new story-telling app, users can scan and animate 3D Pitoti images to construct their own rock art stories from the thousands of fascinating human and animal figures discovered so far. The aim is to show to public audiences that with archaeology there isn’t a single answer to the art’s meaning –there are theories and interpretations — and to teach the importance of the rock art as a biographical record of European history.”
Next Monday’s event will include a test screening of a 15-minute 3D generated film called ‘Pitoti Prometheus’ which reimagines the story of Prometheus (who, according to legend, created men from clay) by animating digital images captured in Valcamonica. The fully finished film will be launched later in the year.
The film’s 3D engineer Marcel Karnapke and film-maker Fred Baker (contributing via Skype) will take part in a discussion at the end of the day, enabling the audience to ask questions about the film and the unfolding of an ambitious project which breaks new boundaries in terms of European cross-disciplinary collaboration.
“We use the word ‘pipeline’ to describe the process by which we’ve scanned and channelled the rock art images through time and space to bring them to mass audiences,” says Baker. “It’s a pipeline which stretches well beyond what we’ve produced and future technologies will undoubtedly open up new understandings of art forms that communicate so much about humanity and our relationships with each other, with the environment, and with imagined worlds.”
Next Tuesday morning (19 January 2016), a series of talks and workshops, aimed primarily at academics, will take place at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. The two days of events are the official culmination of the 3D Pitoti project. For details of Monday’s event, which is free of charge, go to http://3d-pitoti.eu/
Source: University of Cambridge [January 14, 2016]
The British Museum has acquired a digital copy of the Trust for African Rock Art (TARA) photographic archive to ensure that this important collection is preserved and made widely available, thanks to generous support from the Arcadia Fund. The 25,000 digital photographs of rock art sites from across Africa will be catalogued and made accessible through the British Museum’s online collection catalogue, drawing on documentation from TARA staff and archaeological and anthropological research. The Museum will digitise its own African pictorial collection of 19th and 20th century photographs alongside the TARA images to support the integration of this archive.
Engraving of two cat-like creatures sparring in Libya's Messak Sattafet (Fezzan). c. 7000 BC [Credit: British Museum]The Museum’s African pictorial collection contains nearly 15,000 photographs that range from negatives, gel photos, glass plates, prints, and most recently, digital photographs. These are used for research, exhibitions, training, community outreach, museum partnership programmes and publications. Pictures in this collection are from throughout the African continent and embody the early stages of the medium up to the present day. Subjects include daily life, art, portraiture, official government photographs, natural landscapes and pictures from pre-colonial, colonial and independent Africa. The collection also holds film, video and audio recordings from various time periods and regions.
The TARA collection will be presented through the British Museum’s Collection Online and will form one of the most complete searchable databases on African rock art worldwide. Africa’s rock painting tradition is believed to date back at least 50,000 years while abstract engravings in the Cape, South Africa have been dated to 77,000 years of age.
Today only a handful of isolated cultures still engage in rock art and a few sites are still used for rituals, such as fertility and rainmaking, showing that it is still a living form of expression. TARA’s work over the last 30 years has created one of the best and most extensive photographic surveys of African rock art. Highlights from this collection include images of sites across the Fezzan of Southwest Libya, with dates ranging from 10,000 BC to 100 AD. These include sites in the Messak Sattafet as well as in the Acacus Mountains, (part of the Tadrart-Acacus trans-frontier UNESCO World Heritage site) and depict a wide range of subjects, such as hippopotami, men in chariots and hunting scenes. var objHead = document.getElementsByTagName('head');var objCSS = document.createElement('link');objCSS.rel = 'stylesheet';objCSS.href = 'http://res.hoteltravel.com/style/calendar/zpcal/themes/winter.css';objCSS.type = 'text/css';objHead[0].appendChild(objCSS);var objCSS = document.createElement('link');objCSS.rel = 'stylesheet';objCSS.href = 'http://www.hoteltravel.com/partner/style/searchbox2.css';objCSS.type = 'text/css';objHead[0].appendChild(objCSS); London Hotel ReservationDestination Check-in
Check-out
Rooms :ChildAdult(s)var cal = new Zapatec.Calendar.setup({firstDay: 1,weekNumbers: false,showOthers: true,electric: false,inputField: c_ARRDTHIDDENTXTID,button: c_ARRDTIMGID,ifFormat:"%d/%m/%Y",daFormat:"%d/%m/%Y",numberMonths: 1,monthsInRow: 1,dateStatusFunc: disallowDateBefore});var cal = new Zapatec.Calendar.setup ({firstDay: 1,weekNumbers: false,showOthers: true,electric: false,inputField: c_DEPTDTHIDDENTXTID,button: c_DEPTDTIMGID,ifFormat:"%d/%m/%Y",daFormat:"%d/%m/%Y",numberMonths: 1,monthsInRow: 1,dateStatusFunc: disallowDateAfter});setcurrentdate('EN');doValidation();document.getElementById('htnWidget_btnSearch').style.backgroundColor = '#EBEAEA'; There is a survey of South African sites showing the different styles and subject matters of the Khoi, San and other groups from thousands of years ago to the recent past day. The collection also includes engravings and graffiti by European settlers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In east Africa, the TARA archive contains geometric paintings and engravings by Twa forager-hunters as well as paintings of livestock, shields and clan markings made by Maasai and Samburu pastoralists in rock shelters. In addition to these depictions there are images of rock gongs, rocks with natural resonance once used for communication and divination.
As rock art can be susceptible to destruction by natural and man-made events, and, in most cases, is fairly inaccessible geographically, this project will allow a greater access to rock art images and research for both academic and general audiences. By integrating these images with existing African collections, the British Museum is able to offer new insights into the techniques and tools used, the subjects represented and the people that made them.
The project will take five years and involve research by Museum staff and on-going collaboration with TARA, as well as involving African communities. Through the incorporation of this collection into the British Museum’s online database, people across the world will be able to both use and contribute to the archive and its documentation. Partnership between TARA and the Museum will help preserve and disseminate this important collection and establish it as a major academic resource. By combining a wide range of research from the Museum, TARA’s international network and colleagues in Africa, the archive will capture and preserve knowledge about rock art for future generations.
An island at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, Sicily occupied a pivotal place in antiquity between Greece, North Africa, and the Italian peninsula.
Statue of a Youth (The Mozia Charioteer), Sikeliote (Sicilian Greek), 470–460 B.C. Marble. Courtesy of the Servizio Parco archeologico eambientale presso le isole dello Stagnone e delle aree archeologiche di Marsala e dei Comuni limitrofi–Museo Archeologico Baglio Anselmi. By permission of the Regione Siciliana, Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana. Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana. Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome, on view at the Getty Villa April 3–August 19, 2013, will showcase ancient Sicily as a major center of cultural innovation from the fifth to the third centuries B.C., when art, architecture, theater, poetry, philosophy, and science flourished and left an enduring stamp on mainland Greece and later on Rome.
“This is the first major exhibition to arise from the Getty’s 2010 Cultural Agreement with Sicily, presenting masterpieces that are among the most accomplished examples of ancient Greek art in the world,” said Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum.
“We are especially thrilled to have on view the exceptional statue of a victorious Charioteer from Mozia that the Getty has recently conserved. This object is a unique expression of the marvelous artistry of Greek sculptors at the dawn of the Classical era.”
Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome, co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana, features some 150 objects, a major portion on loan from institutions in Sicily, including stone and bronze sculptures, vase-paintings, votive terracotta statuettes and reliefs, carved ivory, gold and silver metalwork, jewelry, inscriptions, architectural revetments, and coins.
“These splendid objects bear witness to the athletic and military victories, religious rituals, opulent lifestyles, and intellectual attainments of the Sicilian Greeks, which shaped Greek culture at its peak,” explains Claire Lyons, acting senior curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum and curator of the exhibition.
The Mozia Charioteer
The Mozia Charioteer, widely considered one of the the finest surviving examples of Greek sculpture, serves as the exhibition’s centerpiece. Recently on view at the British Museum in London during the 2012 Summer Olympics, the statue has since undergone conservation treatment at the Getty Villa. Part of the Getty’s cultural agreement with Sicily, this 18-month collaborative conservation project involved remounting the sculpture and the provision of a seismic isolation base, which will accompany the object when it is reinstalled at the Whitaker Museum on the island of Mozia.
The triumphant Mozia Charioteer, discovered in 1976 on the island of Mozia in western Sicily, is believed to represent a charioteer who competed at Olympia on behalf of one of the Sicilian rulers. The extraordinary style of the sculpture, especially notable in the sinuous pleating of the long linen xystis that sheathes the figure’s athletic physique, is a tour-de-force of stone carving. Clearly a master of his craft, the sculptor was able to reveal the torso and limbs beneath the thin fabric. With its confident gaze and proud stance, this statue conveys the high level of originality and experimentation achieved by Greek sculptors working in Sicily.
The “Signing Masters”
Important evidence of Sicilian artistic innovation is also apparent in the exquisite coins of the time. Beginning in the late fifth century B.C., a group of Sicilian Greek coin engravers, mainly based in Syracuse, added their signatures to the dies used to stamp coins. Known as the “Signing Masters,” these remarkable craftsmen created extraordinary works of art on a miniature scale. Departing from the traditional profile view, they devised novel ways of representing the human body in a lively three-quarter perspective or striking frontal pose. This testimony of individual mastery of the medium is virtually exclusive to Sicilian Greek coins created around 400 B.C. Often abbreviated in tiny but legible script, the artists’ signatures are typically all but hidden in locks of hair or elements of jewelry.
Known as the “coin of coins,” the unique Aitna tetradrachm from the Royal Library of Belgium is one of the most precious ancient coins in the world. On view in the exhibition along with 50 other exceptionally crafted Sicilian Greek coins, the image on the tetradrachm depicts the head of Silenos on the obverse and on the reverse, Zeus enthroned with an eagle perched beside him, imagery that alludes to the cult of Zeus on Mt. Etna. Greek settlers and their gods
Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome will also examine how settlers from the Greek mainland brought their myths and religious practices to Sicily. To sanctify new colonies and maintain ties with mother cities, they built altars and temples to such gods as Apollo, the patron deity of colonists, as well as the deified hero Herakles. Included are terracotta heads of Apollo, Hades, and Persephone, created as cult or votive images of deities that played a central role in ancient Sicilian worship. The skillfully modeled clay, embellished with striking polychrome pigments, compares favorably with the most accomplished works in marble and bronze. An exceptional example of metalwork is a religious offering dish made of two and a half pounds of gold. Known as a phiale mesomphalos, the vessel is embossed from the center outward with bands of beechnuts, acorns, and bees above blossoms; the owner’s name —Damarchos, son of Achyris— is inscribed beneath the rim, together with its equivalent weight in gold coins.
The divine hero Herakles was also embraced by Greek settlers, who linked his deeds to their cities. Contrasting aspects of Herakles’ identity —peaceful healer, solitary herdsman, and violent aggressor— heightened the appeal of his cult among the men of rural Sicily, who tended flocks and worked as mercenary soldiers. Among the objects on view is a finely preserved bronze statuette of Herakles recovered from a river-bed in Contrada Cafeo (Modica), which suggests that a shrine to the hero was situated nearby.
Preeminent among the honored deities was Demeter, goddess of agriculture, and her daughter Persephone (or Kore). Sanctuaries of the goddesses dotted the island, but their cult was most enthusiastically embraced in central Sicily, where, according to myth, Kore descended to the Underworld as the bride of Hades. Depictions of these deities include a terracotta bust with a rare painted figural scene that may represent part of a ritual honoring or celebrating the goddesses, and a cult statuette disc overed near an altar in Gela together with an offering jug of carbonized seeds of grain.
Archimedes of Syracuse
A section of the exhibition will focus on Archimedes of Syracuse (about 287–212 B.C.), one of history’s foremost scientists and mathematicians. More than a millennium ahead of its time, his work laid the foundation for branches of math, physics, engineering, and even computer science. When Syracuse’s King Hieron II asked him to determine whether a crown was made of pure gold, Archimedes made his legendary deduction that a solid displaces a volume of liquid equal to its own volume, a discovery that supposedly caused the scientist to leap from his bath and run naked through the streets crying “Eureka” (“I have found it!”).
On view is a leaf from the Archimedes Palimpsest, the only surviving manuscript containing copies of Archimedes’ writings. The medieval prayer book that included this leaf was inked by a scribe onto recycled parchment that originally bore the theories of Archimedes. The pages were scraped clean before being overwritten, but with the use of advanced imaging technology, the original writing is visible. The leaf on view is a section of text from “Proposition 1” from Archimedes’ Method, a work integrating geometry and physics.
Literature on Sicilian art
Finally, the exhibition examines the reflections of literature in Sicilian visual arts. Many mainland Greeks became familiar with Sicily through the epic poetry of Homer, including Odysseus’s wanderings after the Trojan War, which took him to the western Mediterranean.
Often depicted in vase-painting and sculpture, Odysseus’s encounters with strange creatures like the Cyclops and Scylla were allegories for early colonial settlement and trading enterprises that spread Greek culture to distant, exotic regions. The pastoral genre created and perfected by the Syracusan poet Theokritos (about 300–after 260 B.C.) flourished as Sicily was falling under the dominion of Rome in the third century B.C. He is renowned for his Idylls (literally, “little pictures”), which paint nostalgic word-images of Sicilian country life from the point of view of a sophisticated urbanite. Theokritos’s rustic characters—including satyrs, shepherds, and the woodland deity Priapos—also populated the visual arts of the period, attesting to the appeal of rural fantasies during a time of civic turmoil. On extended loan from Syracuse, a life-size statue of the fertility god Priapos, the earliest such figure in Greek art will be featured in the exhibition. Like the Mozia Charioteer, it was also the subject of a collaborative conservation project undertaken by the Getty Museum.
The importance and popularity of Greek comedy and drama outside of Athens is evident in the theatrical figurines, masks and scenes on vases, many of which come from the island of Lipari. The celebrated “Father of Tragedy,” Aeschylus (Greek, 525–456 B.C.) traveled to Sicily on at least two occasions, where his plays found fertile ground in the strong local tradition of performance on the island.
On display is a terracotta mixing vessel with the earliest known depiction of the myth of Perseus and Andromeda, which likely reflects a performance of Sophocles’ Andromeda (about 450 B.C.). The Greek inscription painted above the figure of Perseus—“Euaion, the son of Aeschylus, is handsome”— names the actor, son of the great tragedian.
Rich harvests, bountiful seas, and a favorable trade location brought immense wealth to the Sicilian city-states, and the exhibition highlights their widespread reputation for luxurious lifestyles with five gilt-silver vessels, part of a larger group of fifteen. The silver treasure had been buried for safekeeping beneath the floor of a house in Morgantina during the Roman sack of the city in 211 B.C. The entire hoard comprises religious vessels as well as a set for the symposion, a convivial drinking party for men that was an important part of the social life of well-to-do Greeks.
Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome is the latest in a series of cooperative efforts between the Getty and the Sicili an Ministry of Culture and Sicilian Identity arising from a 2010 agreement that calls for a number of collaborative projects, including object conservation, seismic protection of collections, exhibitions, scholarly research, and conferences. Recent related projects include the 2010 loan of the Gela Krater, a monumental red-figured volute krater (wine mixing vessel) attributed to the Niobid Painter; The Agrigento Youth, a rare example of an early classical marble statue called a kouros (an idealized nude young man), loaned to the Getty from the Museo Archeologico Regionale in Agrigento (2010/2011); and most recently the loan of thirty-six objects from the sanctuaries of Demeter at Morgantina (2012/January 2013).
The exhibition is co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana, and celebrates 2013 as the Year of Italian Culture in the United States, an initiative of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, realized under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Italy.
Credits: Advertising Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab, USA Chief Creative Officer: Duncan Milner Executive Creative Director: Eric Grunbaum Group Creative Directors: Drew Stalker, Chris Ribeiro Associate Creative Director / Art Directors: Paul Wysocan, Niraj Zaveri, Melinda Keough Associate Creative Director / Copywriters: Brooks Jackson, Kevin Butler Senior Art Director: Shannon Tham Copywriter: Rob Goldenberg Art Director: Edward Vince Head of Art Production: Helen O'Neill Senior Art Producer: Sara Clark Art Producer: Jessica Gerweck Global Director of Print Production: Peter Nolan Print Producer: Anna Haro Project Manager: Jayson Dana Photographer: Jason Nocito Production Company: First Shot Productions Digital Art: Epilogue Inc. Prepress: Continental Colorcraft
In Greek mythology, Eros was the god of love. He was capable of overpowering the minds of all gods and all men. Literary sources of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. portrayed him as a powerful, often cruel, capricious being, and in classical Greek art Eros was usually represented as a winged youth.
A radically different visual image of Eros—as a charming, winged child asleep on a rock—was introduced centuries later by Hellenistic artists. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s statue of Eros Sleeping—one of the finest of the surviving bronze statues from classical antiquity—will be the focus of the special exhibition Sleeping Eros, opening January 29, 2013. The exhibition is made possible by The Vlachos Family Fund.
Eros Sleeping will be shown with 46 related works of art in various media, ranging in date from the fifth century B.C. to the 17th century A.D., drawn primarily from the Museum’s permanent collection. Two works from private collections will also be shown.
Through these examples, the exhibition will examine the cult and image of Eros before and after the Sleeping Eros statue type, show the breadth of its influence, and trace the wide dispersal of the type in Roman times and its subsequent rediscovery during the Renaissance. The exhibition will also consider the original function and context of the sculpture, how the statue was made, and the issue of originals and copies in Greek and Roman sculpture.
The Sleeping Eros was among the earliest types of ancient sculpture to be rediscovered during the Italian Renaissance, and it was the subject of numerous figural studies by Renaissance and Baroque artists in Italy—including Michelangelo, among many others—who were looking to the classical tradition for training and inspiration. Some works were close likenesses, such as the fine Drawing of a Sleeping Eros after an antique sculpture by Giovanni Angelo Canini (1617–1666), which will be shown in the exhibition. Other, less literal, adaptations will also be displayed.
In 1943, when the Metropolitan Museum acquired its statue of Eros Sleeping, it was believed to be an original Hellenistic sculpture or a very close replica created between 250 and 150 B.C. Subsequently, some scholars have suggested that it is a very fine Roman copy of one of the most popular sculptures ever made in Roman Imperial times. Recent research—to be presented in the exhibition—supports the former identification, but also makes apparent that it was restored in antiquity—most likely in the Early Imperial period.
Details of the research will also be published in an upcoming article in the Metropolitan Museum’s annual Journal.
A public lecture by the curator on Friday, April 5, 2013, and gallery talks will be offered in conjunction with the exhibition.
Additional information about the exhibition and its accompanying programs can be found on the Museum’s website at www.metmuseum.org.
The exhibition is organized by Seán Hemingway, Curator, Department of Greek and Roman Art. Exhibition design is by Michael Batista, Exhibition Design Manager; lighting is by Clint Ross Coller and Richard Lichte, Lighting Design Managers; graphics are by Mortimer Lebigre, Associate Graphic Designer, all of the Museum’s Design Department.
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art [January 23. 2012]
Art + Games App gets a complete redesign and goes retro with an ode to the popular 80's Peanut Butter Cup commercial. dabball, the first-ever art gallery + games app for the iPhone and iPad, relaunched this week with a completely new redesign, repricing structure, and retro-inspired web commercial.
In addition to discovering more than 400 original artworks by 43 international artists, art and game enthusiasts can now play all 400+ dexterity games, download featured art as digital wallpapers, as well as take 20% off their favorite museum-quality prints ordered directly from their mobile device.
To celebrate this momentous occasion, ecopop teamed up with We Are Helsinki to create a commercial that pays homage to a popular peanut butter cup advertising campaign you might remember from the 80’s. Peanut butter cups? Yep. Using the same simple analogy to communicate dabball's unique combination of art and games seemed just too delicious to pass up.
Film Credits: Agency: ecopop CW/CD: Chad Rea Production Co: We Are Helsinki Director: Steve Porcaro Editor: Steve Porcaro Music: Marcus S. Johnson
G-Star Denim new Spring/Summer 2013 campaign 'The Art of RAW' animated video is not what we've been use to seeing to seeing in typical denim ads. The campaign captures the G-Star fascination with the many facets of RAW in unexpected combinations, as seen in the Skeleton Dog art object within the campaign and the artist collaboration with electronic dance music producer Skrillex.
Accompanying the Art of RAW video is a custom created track created by electronic dance music producer Skrillex. He is a natural fit for the artist collaboration; RAW talent, self-made digital music pioneer and genuine fan of the G-Star Elwood denim. Currently Skrillex is packing stadiums with his signature sound, "a mixture of dubstep, electro-house and fidget," in the words of the producer. G-Star appreciates Skrillex as a RAW talent who has developed in a range of disciplines, from lead-singer, to solo artist, to producer with his own record label.
The video, ending with the G-Star signature Skeleton Dog, celebrates a passion for denim craftsmanship and its unlimited possibilities. Known for innovating 3D design in denim, G-Star and the brand's designers continually seek to pioneer new construction techniques, fabric treatments and denim creations through experimentation with the RAW Art Series, including the Skeleton Dog centrepiece. By looking outside and beyond the world of fashion, G-Star is able to uncover and apply new concepts within the medium of modern denim.
Electrolux has released the next expression from their artful appliances idea with a new online film from Saatchi & Saatchi Thailand that demonstrates the artistic capability of its washing machines.
Collaborating with upcoming Thai experimental artist Pitchanan Sornyen, and production company Wakeup Rabbit, ‘Washing: Re-Imagined’ uses the magic of art and the power of imagination to highlight appliance product features in a way not done before. Washing functions like Time Manager, Vapour Action and Refresh Cycle are used to create a piece of unique art that will be showcased by Electrolux at a later date.
"Most advertisements for washing machines treat appliances like commodities,” said Nuntawat Chaipornkaew, Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi. “With Electrolux, we wanted to showcase the product with creativity and mystery to show that there is a lot more to the appliance than people expect."
‘Washing: Re-Imagined’ follows the success of Saatchi & Saatchi Thailand’s previous film for Electrolux that captured the first piece of art in the world created with a vacuum cleaner. ‘The Power to Capture Imagination’ film has received more than 1 million views on YouTube.
here is a great new ad from the creative ad agency Y&R, Peru for the League Against Cancer. The ad, featuring an attractive young lady at the beach in a typical beach like setting, add some Jaws theme music and unless you didn't read the ad title you would have been pleasantly surprised to learn this is a PSA for Cancer awareness.
Credits: Advertising Agency: Y&R, Peru Executive Creative Director: Flavio Pantigoso Head of Art: Christian Sánchez Copywriter: André Toledo, Gino Bernabè Art Director: Alejandro Bottas Agency Producer: Fiorella Barrantes General Manager: Eduardo Grisolle Account Director: Manuel Ahumada Account Executive: Gabriela Misari Production: Chita Films Director: Mikael Stornfelt Photography / Camera: Beto Gutiérrez Camera Assistant: Luis Enrique Cateriano Assistant Director: Juan Diego Servat, Quique Anaya Art Director: Brissa García Checa Art Assistant: Wendy Gonzales Line Production: Cecilia Bracco Executive Producer: Diane Varela Field Production: PSV Producciones
Whether you look to the 80-foot-long mosaic at the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal, the giant white wording ‘You’ve Changed’ on the side of a building near Queen Street West and Ossington Avenue or the Greenwood Village Mural in the Beach, Lilie Zendel said the first year of StreetARToronto (StART) accomplished exactly what the program set out to do.
“(StART) was created last year as part of the graffiti management program to support and celebrate permitted graffiti and street art,” said Zendel, manager of the City of Toronto program.
StART is administered by the Public Realm Section of the Transportation Services Division at the City of Toronto and aims to develop, support, promote and increase awareness of street art and its role in adding beauty and character to neighbourhoods across Toronto.
StART hosted a meeting at MOCCA in West Queen West on Jan. 21 to wrap up their inaugural year and share details of this year’s program. In 2012 StART partnered with 20 Toronto organizations to create 48 murals across the city, on walls, fences, underpasses, benches and pavement, particularly in areas that are targeted by graffiti.
The creation of these murals assisted in cleaning up 1,300 pieces of ‘tagging’. More than 60 artists were involved in the projects.
The challenges that program participants faced in the first year, Zendel said, was finding the funds to match StART grants, which is a criteria of the program, finding walls to use in the city, and managing complaints from building owners, artists, non-profits and Business Improvement Areas.
The other big issue is maintaining the murals and preventing vandalism. “We certainly want to expand as much as we can in a geographic sense,” Zendel said. In 2013 StART will continue with its Partnership Program and its Diversion Program, which involves at-risk youth. Although StART aims to support artists it does not fund artists directly, but funds projects through organizations. Applications for murals to be painted this year are due by April 15 and they can be made through the StART website at http://www.toronto.ca/streetart/ Applications have to be made by incorporated non-profit or charitable organizations and must operate in Toronto.
“I personally would like to see some really large-scale projects this year,” Zendel said, adding the maximum funding for the partnership program has been increased to $30,000.
The StART contribution cannot exceed 70 per cent of the cost of the mural and of that remaining 30 per cent the partner organization must raise at least 15 per cent in cash.
By the spring of 2013 Zendel said they hope to launch a user-friendly map, which gives the details of the 585 murals and street art pieces found in Toronto. The map would include information about the artists and their inspiration for the work.
Story by Erin Hatfield via: York Guardian To learn more about the City of Toronto program that aims to beautify communities across the city through street art and wall murals visit http://www.facebook.com/StreetARToronto
The Maya are one of the oldest cultures in the world. This exhibition is all about the magnificent artistic forms of expression of the Maya. With a collection of around 300 works of art, including many Mexican national treasures, it displays the fundamental aspects of pre-Hispanic art: the body and the physique are central to this exhibition.
The Maya present their vision of life using various materials and techniques from their daily life, splendid buildings and works of art. They describe their relationship with gods, their everyday existence, their literature, their astronomy, their music and their dances. What often dominates these works is an idealised notion of humanity, which the Maya retained not only in their conception of humans and the ideal of beauty, but also in the location of mankind in the cosmos.
M&S has launched a new campaign for its summer 2016 collection for women, men and children.“The Art of Summer” campaign, created by RKCR/Y&R, showcases M&S’s summer fashion, from trench coats to floral dresses, and highlights the brand’s unique quality and style. “The Art of Summer” campaign will run across TV, press, online, and on digital outdoor platforms from Wednesday, May 4th. The TV, online and press work is the latest instalment in the brand’s “The Art of” campaign and will run until the end of July.
Creative Credits: Ad Agency: RKCR/Y&R, London Creative Director: Mark Roalfe Creative Team: Pip Bishop + Chris Hodgkiss Head of Strategy : Roisin Robothan-Jones Senior Strategist: Hayley Sivner Business Director: Matt Delahunty Account Director: Eileen Cosgrove-Moloney Agency Producer: Rachel “Chops” Amess Director/ Production Co: Christian & Patrick @ Park Pictures Producer: Malachy McAnenny Editor: Sam Jones @ Cut & Run Post Production: MPC (Grade — George K; Flame – Bevis Jones) Sound Design: James Clark @ Clearcut Sound Typographer: Tivy Davies DoP: Simon Chaudoir
BC egg farmers salute others who get up early and work hard to make British Columbia a great place to live with this great new ad campaign entitled "Good Morning BC" created by the creative team at DDB, Canada.
Credits: Agency: DDB Canada, Vancouver Production: Transmission Productions Director: Joe LaFleur Executive Creative Director: cosmo campbell Executive Creative Director: Dean Lee Art Director: Brandon Thomas Copywriter: Keith Rathgeber Copywriter: Ryan Leeson TELEVISION: Client: BC Egg Marketing Board Agency: DDB Canada, Vancouver Executive Creative Director: Cosmo Campbell / Dean Lee Copywriter: Kevin Rathgeber, Ryan Leeson Art Director: Brandon Thomas Agency Producer: Dana Rudelier Account Director: James Pelletier Account Supervisor: Roger Nairn Strategy: Rob Newell Social Media Strategy: Media Company: OMD
Production Company: Transmission Productions http://transmissioninc.com/ Director: Joe LaFleur Director of Photography: Mike Hawley Cameraman: Mike Hawley & Robert Leon Line Producer: Bob Christie Post-Production Company: Transmission Productions http://transmissioninc.com/ Editor: Bradley Smith Online Editor: Bradley Smith Colourist: Bradley Smith Audio House: Vapor Music http://www.vapormusic.com/ Audio House Producer(s): Natalie Schnurr Audio House Engineer(s): Julian Rudd & Roger Morris
ONLINE: Executive Creative Director: Cosmo Campbell / Dean Lee Creative Director, Digital: Josh Fehr Associate Creative Director: Copywriter: Kevin Rathgeber, Ryan Leeson Art Director: Brandon Thomas Designer: Antonio Roman Director of Technology: Steven Arsenault (Webstager) Information Architect: Kristy Streefkerk Digital Production Manager: Dana Rudelier Account Director: James Pelletier Account Supervisor: Roger Nairn Strategy: Rob Newell Website illustrations, Holly Prince & Antonio Roman POS: Executive Creative Director: Cosmo Campbell / Dean Lee Copywriter: Kevin Rathgeber, Ryan Leeson Art Director: Brandon Thomas Account Director: James Pelletier Account Supervisor: Roger Nairn Print Producer: Dana Rudelier PUBLIC RELATIONS: Account Manager: Chris Dagenais Managing Director: Martine Levy Coordinator: Sam Cheng MEDIA: Media Agency: OMD Media Strategist: Erica Bauer Managing Director: Jason Snider
Lenthéric Solo: Fail. Up your game. Ad Agency: Bester Burke, Cape Town, South Africa
For Dettol hand sanitizer. Ad agency: Havas Worldwide, Santiago, Chile. via: copyranter
Don't let the stains tell the wrong story. Restaura Car. Car Cleaning. Advertising Agency: Hermandad, Brazil Creative Director: Paulo Lima Art Director: Pedro Teixeira Copywriter: Hélio Maffia Illustrator: Douglas Reis
Bliss Self-Foaming Body Wash. Really cares of your body. Advertising Agency: Looma, Kishinev, Moldova Creative Director/Art Director: Sergey Prokopchuk
AXE. The cleaner you are. The dirtier you get. Advertising Agency: BBH, London, UK Executive Creative Director: Nick Gill Creative Director: Dominic Goldman Copywriter: Richard Mcgrann Art Director: Andy Clough Photographer: Dimitri Daniloff
Rowenta Foot Massage. Spa For Your Feet...Or Foot Fetish. Advertising Agency: Publicis, Frankfurt, Germany Executive Creative Director: Stephan Ganser Creative Directors: Nico Juenger, Konstantinos Manikas Creatives: Merlin Kwan, Konstantinos Manikas Photographer: Mert Photo
Sanitol,Urinal. Touch him. And you touch everything he’s touched. Advertising Agency: McCann Worldgroup, New Delhi, India
Boots Body Cream. For sexier knees. Advertising Agency: McCann Worldgroup, Bangkok, Thailand
Brazilian Beauty. Keep yourself tidy. Advertising Agency: The Cavalry Melbourne, Australia Creative Director: Tony Greenwood Art Director: Craig Maclean Copywriter: Tony Greenwood
New Remington bikini trim & shape.
In honor of May 4th, as “May the Fourth be with you!”, the Nerdist Channel came up with this video as nothing says celebrating Star Wars fandom like two lovely ladies with lightsabers. Directed by Seth Green, the “Saber” sequel delivers some good, “clean” fun involving super-sudsy saber action.
Dick Sittig, Founder & Creative Director Fiona Forsyth, Executive Producer Leah Dieterich, Associate Creative Director Reece Hoverkamp, Associate Creative Director Brian Hallisey, Copywriter Neil Desai, Art Director Scott Myers, Copywriter Janete Chun, Art Director Joanne O'Brien, Group Account Director Alexis Varian, Account Supervisor
Digital Agency: StruckAxiom, USA Creative Director: Matt Anderson Developers: Matt Austin, Eric Atwell Interactive Designer: Josh Balleza Interactive Producer: Hannah Carmody IT Specialist: Jon Deal Lead Developer: Max Folley Junior Developer: David Gilvar Senior Interactive Producer: Pati Goodell U/X Designer: Nate Goss Senior Account Manager: Stephen Grieco Strategist/Account Director: John Gross Quality Assurance Engineer: Brian Jolley Associate Technical Director: Ryan Kee Interactive Art Director: Mark Kellar Developer: Amos Lanka Interactive Art Director: Abe Levin Interactive Designer: Adam Meyer Developer: Thomas Mulloy
The hamsters are back! Kia’s new ad for the all-new 2014 Soul is officially launching this Sunday at the MTV Video Music Awards. Titled “Totally Transformed,” the campaign is centered around a 60-second spot set to the new single, “Applause,” from Lady Gaga. The spot will air following Lady Gaga’s first-ever live performance of “Applause.”
In the spot, both the Soul and its formerly frumpy hamster mascots undergo a transformation. Mirroring the newfound refinement of the all-new Soul, the hamsters shed their furry folds and baggy clothes to become lean, mean head-turning machines.
Credits: Creative Ad Agency: David&Goliath Chief Creative Officer: David Angelo Executive Creative Director: Colin Jeffery CD/Copywriter: Gary DuToit CD/Art Director: Eron Broughton ACD/Copywriter: Greg Buri ACD/Art Director: Basil Cowieson ACD/Art Director: Kriss Grove Executive Producer, Managing Director: Carol Lombard Executive Producer: Paul Albanese Managing Partner, Client Services: Brian Dunbar Group Account Director: Brook Dore Account Director: Justin Manfredi Account Supervisor: Nancy Ramirez Account Executive: Kammie Dons Associate Strategic Planning Director: Steven Garcia Sr. Planner: Armando Potter
Production Company: @radical.media Director: Colin Jeffery Executive Producer: Frank Scherma Producer: Kathy Rhodes Director of Photography: Toby Irwin Production Designer: Brock Houghton Wardrobe Stylist: Christina Blackaller
Special EFX: Legacy Effects
Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors Editor: Angus Wall Executive Producer: CL Weaver Producer: Toby Louie Assistant Editor: Austyn Daines
Post Production: MPC VFX Supervisor/ 3-D Lead: Andy Boyd Compositing Supervisor: Jake Montgomery Animation Lead: Stew Burris Animator/Rigger: Ian Wilson Animator: Jean-Dominique Fievet Lighter: William Schilthuis Lighter: Shaun Comly Texture: Hayley O’Neil Modeler: Aaron Hamman 3-D FX: Charles Trippe Tracking: Mike Wynd Compositor: Clement Compositor: Jason Heinz Compositor: Brendan Smith Smoke Artist: Mark Holden Telecine: Mark Gethin Executive Producer: Asher Edwards VFX Producer: Nicole Fina
Record Label: Interscope Records Artist: Lady Gaga
Sound Design: Hammers Project Sound Designer: Johannes Hammers
XXXX have got an island for Australian mates to experience the good life. So check out a slice of Island of free-love where rules are rules, everyone is equal and visitors are free from all of the fancy 5 star treatments. It's not Club Med - it's more Club Shed. Simply kick back and enjoy a beer with your mates.
Category: Drinks;
Client: Lion;
Agency: BMF;
Art Director / Copywriter: Alex Booker;
Executive Creative Director: Shane Bradnick;
Art Director / Copywriter: Philip Sicklinger;
Photographer: Kent Matthews;
Retoucher: Vanessa Brownlee;
Art Buyer - Basir Salleh.
Translation has unveiled the second chapter of its ongoing brand campaign for Champs Sports with “Game Loves an Audience,” a dynamic new marketing program for the back-to-school season. Seizing on the pins-and-needles feeling of anticipation that comes along with every new school year, “Game Loves an Audience” is all about looking good, and wanting everyone to see it. The campaign reinforces Champs’ well-established “We Know Game” tagline with three :30 spots, daily content for Champs Sports’ social media channels, digital banners, and a custom digital hub.
“The first day back to school is more than just a day,” notes Translation CCO John Norman, “it’s the red carpet moment of the school year. It’s a reunion, a chance to try something new, and a special moment to stand out. It’s the perfect time for a brand like Champs Sports to help you show off your game with new kicks, stylish tees, and a fresh look.”
“Game Loves an Audience” is the follow-up to “Game Never Sleeps,” Translation’s summer campaign for the athletic footwear and apparel retailer. Each element of the new campaign – from the music, to the fashion, to the storylines of the individual films – is rooted in a commitment to cultural relevancy, continuing Translation’s overarching strategy of appealing to both the on- and off-field passions of the modern day student athlete. The new digital hub, allows users to rank the most #FirstDayWorthy gear in Champs’ colossal inventory of new styles with a contemporary “swipe-to-like” design.
“Translation, through its new brand work, has done an exemplary job of expanding on the idea of ‘We Know Game’,” explains Champs Sports Director of Marketing Scott Burton. “We’re showing that ‘Game’ is as much about athletic skill as it is about swagger and confidence in all other arenas. Moreover, the work is done through the lens of a high school athlete, making the impact and its meaning to our consumers relevant during this time of year when students are going back-to-school.”
Creative Credits: Brand/Client: Champs Sports Campaign Title: Champs Sports Back to School Campaign Spot Title: “Joy Ride,” “First Period,” “Practice” Launch Date: August 2014
Agency: Translation Chief Executive Officer: Steve Stoute Chief Creative Officer: John Norman President: Nils Peyron Executive Creative Director: Jay Berry Executive Creative Director: Marc d’Avignon Creative Director: Mat Jerrett Associate Creative Director, Copywriter: Matt Herman Associate Creative Director, Art Director: Matthew McFerrin Art Director: Adam Chang Copywriter: Greg Dyer Art Director: Allison Bulow Copywriter: Jameson Rossi Director of Content Production: Miriam Franklin Producer: Carole McCarty Assistant Producer: Monica Johnson Head of Brand Strategy: Tim Flood Strategist: Shon Mogharabi Music Supervision: Nick Pacelli VP Account Director: Daniel Mize Account Supervisor: Patrice Caracci Account Executive: Steven Molinari Asst. Account Executive: Jackson Brodie
Production Company: @radical.media, Los Angeles Director: Michael Lawrence Director of Photography: Alex Disenhof Executive Producer: Donna Portaro Line Producer: Scott Cunningham
Editorial Company: Cut + Run NYC Editor: Dayn Williams Assistant Editor: Katie Pehowski Post Executive Producer: Rana Martin Post Producer (“Joy Ride,” “First Period”): Olivia Chiu Post Producer (“Practice”): Ellen Lavery
Telecine Company: CO3 NYC Colorist: Damien Vandercruyssen Producer: Katie Andrews Assistant Colorist: Matt Paul
On line: Cut + Run Flame Artist: Joseph Grosso Assistant: Matt Dolven Producer: Julia Williams
Our favorite Baby is back in a new ad for ETrade. The ETrade baby shows us how to spend our money in the spot entitled "Save It." From playing Polo, running with the bulls in Spain, to going into space with his dog, relaxing in hot tub with a Panda and yachting.
Credits: Creative Ad Agency: Grey, New York Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren Art Director: Corel Theuma Assistant Producer: Sophia Pellicoro Copywriter: Peter Holmes, Jonathan Koffler, Pieter Melief Creative Director: Kimberly Kietz, AJ Mazza, Leo Savage Editor: Alex Cohan — Vision Post Assistant Editor: Jackie Helfgott Director of Broadcast Production: Bennett McCarroll Executive Producer (Vision Post): Gary Hirshfield VP/Executive Producer: Kimberly Kietz Still Frame Retouching: Vision Print Studio Still Frame Retouching: Peeqmedia NYC Art Producer: Ana Suarez Associate Art Producer: Lauren Brunelle Special Effects: The Mill — New York Executive Producer: Jared Yeater
Check-out
