Realities of FSUW

[Sculpto]

Check these guys out Sandro.. all is not lost..

http://www.kronosquartet.org/

and here is a little list of innovative rock and roll.. sounds never before heard that have withstood the test of a short amount of time..

Sgt. Pepper
Pink Floyd
Bob Marley as the "daddy" of reggae
Frank Zappa ( you might find his compostions as complex as the best classical music)
Cafe Tacuba
Incubus
Mermen

there are others but this particular list crosses genre lines and I think have the most innovative sounds.  You might especially like the Mermen.. SF group, all instrumental so called "surf music" but it is much deeper and textured than the tag implies.. they have done things like have free clandestine concerts underneath the Golden Gate Bridge after midnight... Best heard at pretty high volume LOL

BTW, the burrito was good

[OlgaH]

Good point.. Bosch is certainly an exception. 

Ok, so one thing I am a bit curious about is why painting in Russia never developed very far beyond icon painting until the modernists who were all wiped out by Stalin or simply left Russia.

Kandinsky is and will always be one of my favorites and I am pretty partial to Chagal also.

But, there is no real excitement that I am aware of from the 14th century until the late 19th century.  If I am wrong please accept my apologies but I don't know a heck of a lot about early Russian art.

Sculpto, sorry for my late answer, we had pretty busy pre-weekend days and weekend.

I agree with you that the artists as Bosh are certainly an expectation.

Till the Peter's reforms Russia was a closed country for European influence. The icon painting in Russia is also divided on two periods. Till the end of the 14th century and beginning 15th century Russian icon painting was under Greek influence, and after the icon painting started to  gain its Russian peculiarity. Though Peter the Great opened the "window to Europe" the visual arts still had second place towards science. Elizabeth of Russia (governing 1741–1762) realized the Peter's idea about foundation of the Academy of visual arts in Russia, but the Russian artists whose names could be stand with the names of the European masters of that time started to shine during Catherina the Great governing (1762—1796).

I also would agree with you that in general the art was under "the church and decorative fashion of the aristocracy" influence, but I would disagree that it was till modernism, Romanticism was a start for the freedom of a spiritual-creative individuality     

Yes, Stalin in USSR (as Hitler in Germany) was not so tolerant to the modernism (I guess better to say to postmodernism (the "key words" of postmodernism are pluralism and tolerance  ) Many of the artists immigrated, some of them became victims of repressions, and some of them went underground. and some of them were working and creating.  In general during the Soviet time the postmodernism tendencies always felt the "heavy hand" of the Soviet government, only in 1920s (during the New Economic Policy) the modernists felt free to express themselves. 

If you are interested here is a link with the name of the Russian avant-garde artists  Look through the names and biographies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_avant-garde

[OlgaH]

Sculpto,

here is an interesting article
103-Year-Old Russian Artist
One of the patriarchs of Russia's Avant-garde movement, Moisei Feigin...
http://www.mnweekly.ru/local/20080306/55315150.html

[Sculpto]

Sculpto,

here is an interesting article
103-Year-Old Russian Artist
One of the patriarchs of Russia's Avant-garde movement, Moisei Feigin...
http://www.mnweekly.ru/local/20080306/55315150.html

Interesting story Olga.  As soon as I opened the page and saw the image I immediately thought "Cezanne" and enjoyed the article and that connection. 

When I read about artists that lived through the Stalinist period and somehow managed to retain their integrity I am really inspired.  Since 911 there has been an enormous amount of self censorship in this country.  A few years ago in SF an artist had done some canvasses depicted the Abu Grabe prison scandals.. the gallery that hung the works was fire bombed.  Everyone is afraid these days to lose their careers. 

[OlgaH]

When I read about artists that lived through the Stalinist period and somehow managed to retain their integrity I am really inspired. 

Nikita Khrushchev publicly called abstract expressionists "pederasts" and their paintings "sh!t" when he visited their exhibition. I remember a joke, my uncle told : "Nikita Khrushchev looking at the abstract paintings points to one :"Is this a painting? It is an ugly a$$..." Oh, sorry, Nikita Sergeevich, it is really not a painting, it is just a mirror."

famous Bulldozer Exhibition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulldozer_Exhibition

The View From Khrushchev's Head
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/25/books/the-view-from-khrushchev-s-head.html?pagewanted=all

[Sculpto]

haha funny story about Kruschev.

A lot of people don't understand abstraction in art.  They want paintings to be pretty pictures they can easily understand.  I really don't fault people for that.  Not everyone understands particle physics either. 

When I was in Moscow I did a sketch of "A".  It was a bit abstracted and possibly a little "dark".  She HATED it.  lol.

[Shadow]

haha funny story about Kruschev.

A lot of people don't understand abstraction in art.  They want paintings to be pretty pictures they can easily understand.  I really don't fault people for that.  Not everyone understands particle physics either. 

When I was in Moscow I did a sketch of "A".  It was a bit abstracted and possibly a little "dark".  She HATED it.  lol.

Perhaps your art was as accurate as the painter who portretted my parents. He did a good job, they just needed 15 years to look as old in real life as in the painting. 

[2tallbill]

Aren't we men upgrading by looking to marry 'up' thru searching abroad?

Why on Earth would anyone travel 20 hours to meet a woman if the prospects
weren't better?

I drove from Norf Dekody* to Portland Oregon to meet a girl who traveled from Kiev.
The drive took 24 hours.



My quickest trip From Norf Dekody to Voronezh Russia, took only 20 hours.
I went to Russia because it was closer!!!

*Note: They didn't have women in North Dakota.