Louise Bourgeois: "o retorn do desejo proibido"

This Sunday, In Sao Paulo, I had the pleasure to see the work of Louise Bourgeois in Instituto Tomie Ohtake, that will be exhibiting until August 28th. "The return of the prohibited desire" would be the exact translation. 

I went, without doing my research, and not knowing much about what I would see. I knew about the "Maman", her huge spider sculpture, but that was about it.

"I have been to Hell and back and let me tell you it was wonderful."

Her Story:

Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris, December 25th (Capricorn), 1911. She had a big childhood trauma: discovering her English governess and nanny was also her father's mistress. Eventually, all her traumas and tensions triggered her creative impulse. 

Bourgeois' parents owned a gallery that dealt with tapestries, and she would fill in designs that would become worn. She studied math & geometry at the Sorbonne (used to be the University of Paris), but when her mother died in 1932, she abandoned math to study art. 

Her father, whom she'd always disliked since the incident with her nanny, obviously didn't support her decision. She said he would always tease her, dominate the household and he had an explosive temper. 

She would write all her memories in her diary, since she was a little girl. The Ecole de Beaux-Arts was Bourgeois' next school, and she turned to her father's infidelities for inspiration. 

"Art is a guarantee of sanity. That is the most important thing I have said."

Bourgeois opened a print shop next to her father's tapestry shop/gallery, where her soon-to-be husband, Robert Goldwater [art historian], one day came in asking for a print of Pablo Picasso. She soon got married and went to New York City. She could not conceive, so she adopted her first child, but soon gave birth to her other two children. 

"I am not what I am, I am what I do with my hands."

Profession: Fine Artist/Feminist

Influences: Surrealism, primitivism, and modernism

(Alberto Giacometti, Constantin Brancusi)

Work: Abstract, symbolic, autobiographical

Themes: 

1. Childhood trauma & hidden emotions (anxiety and loneliness)

2. Architecture & memory (betrayal)

3. Sexuality & fragility (women, and human figures)

"Once I was beset by anxiety but I pushed the fear away by studying the sky, determining when the moon would come out and where the sun would appear in the morning."

"Art is manipulation without intervention."

Cells.

"Bourgeois stated that the Cells represent “different types of pain; physical, emotional and psychological, mental and intellectual… Each Cell deals with a fear. Fear is pain… Each Cell deals with the pleasure of the voyeur, the thrill of looking and being looked at.”

During the 50's she made the transition from would and other upright structures to marble, plaster and bronze. 

In 1982, she received her 1st retrospective at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). 

In 2010, she used her art to speak up for the LGBT equality, and soon died in New York City. She finished all her work one week before her death.

Death: Heart failure.

Maman

::: The exhibition I saw was beautiful, her art expresses her feelings and transmits it to the audience. I felt her anxiety, her claustrophobia, and her hatred towards her father. 

This woman was beautiful and fragile, and her art work had to be huge, involving whoever wants to be in it (literally). 

My favorite quote from her:

"CLAUSTROPHOBIA AND OMNIPOTENCE

I WANT THEREFORE I CAN

I CAN BUT I'M AFRAID

I'M AFRAID THEREFORE I LIVE."

Quote

"Some people say I live in my own world, that's OK, they know me there."

- Alix Smith (American Emerging Photographer)

Frida Kahlo, our colorful Mexican

Frida!!! How can I start writing about this amazing woman? 

She was born July 6th, of 1907 (Sign: Cancer), in Coyoacan, Mexico, under the name: Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon. 

When she was 6, she developed Polio, which made her right leg seem much thinner than the other one. Because of this, Frida would use long skirts and dresses, to disguise. She suffered from various health problems because of the accident that she suffered when she was 18/19 years old. An iron handrail pierced her abdomen and uterus, which left her childless, but full of dolls and pets. She was in bed for a long time, but her parents found a way so that she could PAINT, she had just abandoned the idea of becoming a doctor. 

Frida always witnessed a lot of violence. During the Mexican Revolution (1910) she was hearing gunfires on her street, in her teenage years she boxed and had dated violent men. She went through more then 35 operations after her accident. So, her work always showed a lot of pain. 

"I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best."

This sentence describes a lot about her. Out of 143 paintings, 55 were her self-portraits. 

Her symbol was a monkey - in Mexico, a symbol for LUST. 

Frida was an admirer of Diego Rivera, her soon to-be husband in 1929, and met him to ask him an advice in pursuing an art career, and so they married. It was a troubled marriage, they were both temperamental and has affairs with other people. She was bisexual, (one of the most interesting things I read), which Diego tolerated, but he just couldn't deal with her affairs with other men (i.e. Trotsky). She once had an affair with Josephine Baker, a dancer, actress, and singer. On the other hand, Diego was having an affair with her younger sister, Cristina. 

"I never painted dreams, I painted my own reality.

Influenced by the Indigenous Mexican Culture she always used bright colors and dramatic symbolism. She became more well-known with the artistic style: NEOMEXICANISMO, before she was just know as "Diego Rivera's Wife".

Before Frida died, she wrote in her journal:

"I hope the exit is joyful - and I hope never to return."

She was born and died in the same place, The Blue House, on July 13th, 1954, when she was 47 years old. Diego said is was the most tragic day of his life, and that he realized that the most wonderful part of his life had been his love for her (realized too late). 

This is one of my favorite pictures of Frida. This was in front of her house, with her pet, smoking her cigarette. She was always using drugs, whether they were painkillers, cigaretts, alcohol, or whatever. Between her friends/family she was known to have a great sense of humor, which you can see in this picture - Can you?

After her use of alcohol with her painkillers, her painting began to change - they were looser, hurried, with a lack of detail. 

Self Portrait with a portrait of Diego on the Breast and Maria Between the Eyebrows

Self Potrait with Stalin

I found something interesting, an explanation of the colors she uses in her art, in her diary.

GREEN: good warm light

MAGENTA: Aztec. Old TLAPALI blood of prickly pear, the brightest and oldest

BROWN: color of mole, leaves becoming earth

YELLOW: madness, sickness, fear (part of the sun and of joy)

COBALT BLUE: electricity and purity love

BLACK: nothing is black - really nothing

LEAF GREEN: leaves, sadness, science; the whole of Germany is this color

GREENISH YELLOW: more madness and mystery, all the ghosts wear clothes of this color, or at least their underwear

DARK GREEN: color of bad advertisements and a good business

NAVY BLUE: distance... also tenderness can be this blue

RED: blood? Well, who knows?

:: Researching this woman was so inspiring. Understanding the story behind all those colors and her unibrow was catalyst. ::

"Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?"

"I love your more than my own skin."

George Santayana Says

"An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world."

- George Santayana 

(Spanish Philosopher born in Madrid in 1863).

Serie: "In Dumbo with a Leica"

Philip Glass at the Metropolitan Museum

"Self-esteem comes from your parents. Somebody tells you that you can do whatever you want, and you believe them."

This Saturday, June 11th, I had the pleasure to be just a few meters away from the genius of minimalism, Philip Glass! He was present at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for a quick Q&A, followed by an orchestra playing his compositions... 

I confess I did not know much about him, before I went... I knew I knew his name, and I knew he composed soundtrack for films, but that was about it...

So, I researched:

Philip Glass was born January 31st, 1937 (74 years old), in Baltimore, Maryland. He is a composer who brought "art music" (serious music/erudite music) to the public and one of the most influential of the 20th century. 

Glass describes himself as "classicist", and his biggest influences were Beethoven and Schubert (his favorite composer). He is a minimalist [music with repetitive structures], and went to the Juilliard School of Music where the keyboard became his main instrument. 

He went to live in Paris, where he worked with Godard and Truffaut, and later Samuel Beckett. In 1967, he came back to NYC (where he currently lives),  and became Richard Serra's regular studio assistant, and lived in the art/gallery world. Glass also worked as a plumber and a cab driver!

His influences: rock, ambient music, electronic music and world music. 

Glass is a vegetarian, and a supporter of the Tibetan cause!

My point of view of Saturday: 

I was extremely excited to go see Philip Glass play the piano... I arrived there... Naturally you get inspired with all the art and just the simple idea of being at that amazing place... Seats were comfortable, our seats were pretty good, at the mezzanine, with the piano placed in the middle of the stage, and where it was faced our direction. It started 10 minutes late, interviewer Richard Guerin and Philip Glass finally enter stage and sit down. Philip seemed distracted touching the microphone to see if it was working, even though interview had began. (Was funny!). Interviewer asked a couple of questions, but I couldn't really understand the answers. In 20 minutes, the music began. I had understood wrong, I thought Glass would be playing, but 4 different people was playing his music. 

It was okay, until the last 30 minutes where an incredible violonist, Tim Fain, began to play. Absolutely unbelievable and inspiring young man who apparently did the soundtrack for "Black Swan"! 

I have to say, it was worth it. 

"Motivation will make up for a lot of failings."

"You practice and you get better. It's very simple."

 "I work every morning without fail."

"I always knew what I wanted to do and I did it." 

Andy Warhol Says

"An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have."

- Andy Warhol

Nan Goldin

"I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I've lost."

- Nan Goldin

* My true inspiration

Quote

"It takes a lot of money to look this cheap!" - Dolly Parton

Who is Dolly Parton? Sorry for my ignorance.. But I heard this quote on TV last night and I thought it was phenomenal! So, I decided to research who had said it. I didn't know about Dolly's existence until then. 

She's an actress/singer/song-writer, famous for her country music.

Quote

"Although we've never met, you have truly inspired me."

- Anonymous

All Rights Reserved (c)

Unstuck in The World

"There was once a man who became unstuck in the world – he realized that he was not his car, he realized that he was not his job, he was not his phone, his desk or his shoes. Like a boat cut from its anchor, he’d begin to drift."

 

"There was once a man who became unstuck in the world – he took the wind for a map, he took the sky for a clock, and he set off with no destination. He was never lost."

"There once was a man who became unstuck in the world – instead of hooks or a net, he threw himself into the sea. He was never thirsty."

"There was once a man who became unstuck in the world – with a Polaroid camera he made pictures of all the people he met, and then he gave all the pictures away. He would never forget their faces."

"There was once a man who became unstuck in the world – and each person he met became a little less stuck themselves. He traveled only with himself and he was never alone."

"There was once a man who’d become unstuck in the world – and he traveled around like a leaf in the wind until he reached the place where he started out. His car, his job, his phone, his shoes – everything was right where he’d left it. Nothing had changed, and yet he felt excited to have arrived here – as if this were the place he’d been going all along."

Castles in the Sky

... A 16mm film by Taylor Steele...

"A movie about traveling, one step too far"

 

One of those inspiring surf movies, that make you wanna pack, and leave.. Everything and everyone behind.. Just go, see where destiny will take you. 

It's not only a film about surf, or traveling - but a film about the surfers and the their holy sea, about people, about cultures, and about inspiration.

I had already seen "Sipping Jetstreams", another of Taylor Steele's movies, and I watched it 7 times in the same day. I couldn't believe my eyes. He is capable of making, with no dialogue, no interview, the most beautiful documentaries I've ever seen. Those that make you think, "I wish I had done it". 

This one is no different. Shots of horses with a rainbow, details of elephants, the sun hitting the sea and its reflection, funny personal moments, eyes all around the world.

Let's Surf!

Thank You For Reading.

Photography Quote

“Look, I'm not an intellectual - I just take pictures.” - Helmut Newton

Quote

"The world is a book, and those who don't travel, read only one page." - Anonymous

Quote by Yves St Laurent

‎"Nothing is more beautiful than the naked body. The most beautiful piece of clothing a woman can wear is the arms of the man she loves." 

 

- Yves St Laurent