¡Santa cachucha, Batman!

artfoodmusic:

Guerilla Girls’ poster from 2005 based off of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’ Grande Odalisque

These women are the superheroes of the art world.  When one of the original members came to speak at my college, her speech and explanation of what the Guerilla Girls do opened my eyes to the treatment of women in the art world, and women in the world at large.  I realized that I had been a feminist all along, and that the negative things I’d heard about feminists were lies and exaggerations made by people who are afraid that a change might disrupt their comfortable social hierarchy.

What the Guerilla Girls have to say:

We’re a bunch of anonymous females who take the names of dead women artists as pseudonyms and appear in public wearing gorilla masks. We have produced posters, stickers, books, printed projects, and actions that expose sexism and racism in politics, the art world, film and the culture at large. We use humor to convey information, provoke discussion, and show that feminists can be funny.

(via systematicoppressions)

groovybro:

the Raft of Medusa, Theodore Gericault. Rome, 1819.
This is my second semester of Art History, and I’ve seen beautiful pieces, boring pieces, and pieces with amazing meanings behind them. This, however, is one of the ones that stood out. Maybe because it brought tears to my eyes, perhaps just because it is so chilling.
Gericault made this painting with no patron, which was very risky to do back in the day, especially because the “Raft of Medusa” was a real disaster story.

150 men built a raft from their damaged ship on their way to Africa. After 13 days they were discovered, though only 15 men remained.  This was considered a government scandal, and to paint it was risky, especially since this painting’s dimensions were huge. (16x23ft) No one painted large paintings without a Patron.

Gericault interviewed the survivors, built a copy of the raft in his studio, and even went as far as to go to the morgue and sketch dead bodies to help inspire him. After awhile, he took human remains and kept them in his studio.

One of his models, soon to be famous artist Eugene Delecroix said he literally ran from his studio after finishing his job. In short, Gericault fell into a madness doing this painting.

This painting’s rough sketches started off with their ship of rescue in the right corner, quite large. As he continued on, the ship got smaller, and smaller, until it was  but a small speck on the horizon.

However, the men on the raft can see the ship. They have been traveling for 13 days, have lost countless men, have had to turn to cannibalism, have been drinking salt water. They are desperate, and this painting illustrates their last burst of hope, their utter desperation as they wave for the ship.

The worst part? The ship does not see them. It sails away.

It isn’t until later on that day the ship returned to rescue the men, it was said that they were near catatonic when they found them, they had accepted they were dead, despite finally being rescued.

This piece is haunting. Beautiful and Terrifying.

Sublime.

worldpaintings:

Teun Hocks (b. 1947)

For over a quarter of a century, the Dutch photographer and painter Teun Hocks has been performing as the “everyman” in his photographs, inventing scenes that are confrontations with failure, puzzlement and wonder. His single-figure studies are pictures of a middle-aged man caught in variously absurd circumstances.

Hocks’ photographs are cinematic in their process and mood. First, he constructs scenes in his studio and takes a black and white photograph. He then hand colors the photographs with transparent oil paint, taking precise care in the coloring in order to create specific emotions and atmosphere. The accumulation of these elements makes the environments seem like surreal portals.

(via shiftwspace)

albidude:

unknownskywalker:

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