All posts tagged: galatēe

Bu Hua: Beijing Babe Loves Freedom

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Bu Hua born in 1973 is a female Chinese artist. In her strong imagery and flat, decorative backgrounds there is a trace of the traditional woodblock prints of the revolutionary period, and also her love of Japanese art and design. Often described as a pioneer of digital animation in China, Bu Hua was one of the first to use animation software in an art context, creating surreal narratives about contemporary life. Her animations and still images often feature a feisty, sassy pigtailed child dressed in the uniform of the Young Pioneers, a Communist Party youth group. A clever combination of innocence and knowing, cuteness and cunning, playfulness and cynical parody through a characteristically crisp graphic style creates an allegory of industrialisation, pollution and militarisation. Her heroine, armed only with a slingshot, takes aim at flocks of white birds which prove, on closer examination, to be military aircraft. More about Bu Hua http://bit.ly/1BAxKsH

La Négresse Blanche by Brancusi

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Brancusi’s art focused not only on the medium and form of his sculptures, but also on the relationships between his works and the light and space around them. His atelier became the site of groundbreaking experimentation, as he regularly combined and recombined the component parts of individual works and rearranged their placement within groups. The complete ensemble of Brancusi’s White Negress unites the natural elements of stone and wood into an exploration of modern, abstract form, weight, and mass balanced with great lightness and delicacy. More about Constantin Brancusi http://bit.ly/1ugZjOy

Gunpowder & Tiger by Cai Guo-Qiang

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Cai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957 in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China. His father, Cai Ruiqin, was a calligrapher and traditional painter who worked in a bookstore. As a result, Cai Guo-Qiang was exposed early on to Western literature as well as traditional Chinese art forms. As an adolescent and teenager, Cai witnessed the social effects of the Cultural Revolution first-hand, personally participating in demonstrations and parades himself. He grew up in a setting where explosions were common, whether they were the result of cannon blasts or celebratory fireworks. He also “saw gunpowder used in both good ways and bad, in destruction and reconstruction”. It seems that Cai has channeled his experiences and memories through his numerous gunpowder drawings and explosion events. More about Cai Guo-Qiang http://bit.ly/1jl0kT6