New post by our French friends!

Hello bloggers! You are welcome to leave a written comment on our French e-pals' new blog post about a very interesting sculpture: 

http://englishclub.over-blog.fr/article-supermarket-lady-by-duane-hanson-124918585.html  

Click on the link and then click on 'comments' under the text to write something in the comment box. Good luck with your mission! 

If you want to see some Spymasters comment on the sculpture orally, watch this video!!! 

http://youtu.be/pxO8MjCOeqk

Street art!

         A place that everyone art enthusiast must visit!

  

It is an art gallery that is located in Athens. Three talented men have the idea of showing their works of art.

     
            

               
 Street art and graffiti is the way that many people protested about  something to the goverment. Moreover, street art is a way to communicate and to show how you are feeling!  

Nowadays, street art has increased importantly and is in common can be seen everywhere!


                                       

The fist time that street art took place in Greece was in 1980. In 2011 -when the financial crisis had appeared- a huge number of artists created many works of art some of which were destroyed.

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso. It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country village in northern Spain, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces on 26 April 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.

Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. Upon completion, Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention.

Although mention is frequently made of the painting's "return" to Spain, this is not in fact correct. Guernica was painted in Paris, where it was first exhibited, before being placed in the care of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), as it was Picasso's express desire that the painting should not be delivered to Spain until liberty and democracy had been re-established in the country.

Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci!

Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci!

Mona Lisa is my favourite work of art.bIt is also called Gioconda.It really is a masterpiece!It was completed in 1519 and now it is exhibited in the Louvre Museum,in France.It was made by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Leonardo Da Vinci was an Italian artist.He had a lot of professions:He was an architect,a sculptor,a musician,a scientist,a mechanic and of course a painter!He was born in Italy,in a city which is called Vinci in 1452 and he died in Clou,a city in France,when he completed Mona Lisa in 1519!

Mona Lisa is a very impressive painting and it is known worldwide!This painting represents a woman who has got a very very strange smile!I think it is strange because you can't understand if she is happy or if she is sad!But it is a very successful work of art.

It's the best work of art and I want to go to Louvre Museum and see the original painting!

El Greco

                                           El Greco

             

  El Greco, born Doménikos Theotokópoulos (1541 – 7 April 1614), was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Art. "El Greco" (The Greek) was a nickname,from him country that it was Greece, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος (Doménikos Theotokópoulos), often adding the word Κρής .El Greco was born in Crete,in Greece.
  
  He trained hard and became a master within that tradition before travelling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done. In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and he done  a lot of and imprortant  works witch make us proud. During his stay in Italy, El Greco change his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance.
   
  In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major. Produced his best-known paintings. El Greco had dramatic and expressionistic style different than the others in 20th century. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works with important poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis.  

 El Greco has been characterized as a modern artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for his amazing figures and often fantastic  pigmentation,by Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting.
 El Greco painted very important artists such as:

 The Dormition of the Virgin(before 1567)
  
The Assumption of the Virgin(1577–1579)
  
The Disrobing of Christ (El Espolio) (1577–1579)

 View of Toledo (c. 1596–1600)
  


 The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (1586–1588)

 I chose to write about El Greco becasuse he was a popular,talented and important artist in 20 century.He had a different style than other artists.In addition to this,he was born in my country and I feel proud when I learnt this information s about his work s and career.

          

 

My favourite Art gallery and a piece of art I like.

a) If you would like to go to any Art gallery in the world which would it be and why?

I would like to visit the Louvre. The Louvre was created in 1793 and it is one of the first European museums after the Asmolian in London (1683), the Art gallery of Dresden (1744) and after the museums of Vatican (1784). Today  it is an institution in France and international cultural scene. It is very big and it is divided into seven sections. These sections document the evolution of art of ancient civilizations. I would like to go to the Louvre, because it is one of the most famous art galleries in the whole world. 

b) Which is the piece of art you like most and why?

In the Louvre there are many works of art and masterpieces like the Mona Liza (Gioconda), which I like. The Mona Liza painting is the most famous painting of Leonardo da Vinci. This piece of art is also the most famous face of a woman in the world, for which ordinary people and scholars have talked about. We don't have many details about the woman who Leonardo has painted, only that her name was Liza Gherardini (she was born in 1479)  and she was the wife  of Francesco del Goicondo from 1495.  like this portrait, because it's famous and because it's special and mysterious.

This the portrait of Mona Liza.

Art Gallery

Art's Section

If you could go to any art gallery in the world, where would you like to go?

If I could chose an art gallery to go, I would chose the Louvre museum art gallery. I have heard that it is major with lots of sections and pieces of art. Many people go to Paris to admire the beautiful paintings and drawings of famous artists, the ancient and the contemporary sculptures and lots of others things kept there. It's one of my dreams to visit the Louvre art gallery and see all those impressive masterpieces.

pyramide of Louvre's museum

My favourite piece of art

Which is your favourite piece of art and why you like it?

    One of my favourite pieces of art is the portrait of Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. It is very famous and the most popular piece of art in the world. The painting is displayed on the Louvre museum and lots of people go to see it. The reason that I like this painting is because it doesn't have a lot of details and the colours are very simple but there is something very impressive on it. Another thing that I like is the expression of Mona Lisa which many artists and scientists have explored. Some people believe she's smiling, some others believe that she's very serious. Also, some people believe that the woman in the picture didn't exist and the portrait is showing a random woman with some characteristics of Da Vinci. No-one knows the truth about the painting and I love the mystery about this brilliant piece of art.

Edvart Munch

Edvart Munch is one of my favourite painters. He was a Norwegian painter and printmaker. He was born in 1861. 

  Some things about his studies:

In 1879 he enrolled in a technical college to study engeneering, where he excelled in physics, chemistry and maths. He learnt scaled and perspective drawing, but frequent illnesses interrupted his studies, because he wanted to bacome a painter. In 1881, Munch enrolled at the Royal School of Art and Design of Christiania. In 1883 he took part in his first exhibition and shared a studio with other students.He went to many countries to work like : Berlin and Paris.

His major works and the way he paints :

He paints, or rather regards, things in a way that is different from that of the other artists. He sees only the essential, and that, naturally is all he paints.

1892 : Evening on Karl Johan
1893 : The Scream
1894 : Ashes 
1894-1895 : Madonna 
Also, there are more that you can see....

My favourite painting of Edvart Munch is The Scream.

The Scream exists in 4 versions : 2 pastels ( 1893 and 1895) and 2 paintings ( 1893 and 1910). The Scream is Munch's most famous work and one of the most recognizable paintings in all art. Also, it is the most colorful of the versions and is distinctive for the downward-looking stance of one of its background figures. It is also the only version not part of the collection of a Norwegian museum.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch

Georgios Jakobides

Georgios Jakobides

   One of my favourite Greek painters is Georgios Jakobides. Georgios Jakobides was born in 1853 on Lesbos island. From a young age he showed his interest in art (mainly in woodcarving). In 1870 he went to the Athens School of Nice Arts and his teacher was the famous artist Nikiforos Lytras. In 1877 (March) he graduated from the academy and in 1877 (November) he went to Monacho academy.

   While he was in the academy he created his own school of art and a workshop. He was very hard-working and this helped him to become very lovable and popular too. In his career he received lots of prizes for his work. In 1889 his wife, Agla, died and then he stopped painting cheerful paintings with children. 

    Then he came back to Greece and he became the favourite artist of the royal family. In 1932, before his 80th birthday, he died. The National gallery honored him by creating a section only for him.

A famous Greek painter

                                  Nicolaos Lytras

One of the most famous painters in Greece was Nicolaos Lytras. He was born in Athens in 1883.

 He studied painting at the School of Fine Arts from 1902 to 1906.His teacher was his father, Nikiforos Lytras and another famous painter George Jakobides.A few years later, he studied in Monach Academy in Germany.There, he learnt more about expressionism and he created his first paintings.Morover, in the period of the Balkan War he took part in an exhibition of Greek Artists.In 1823, he took an award from the School of Fine Arts in Greece.Also, he had the opportunity to teach in the High School of Fine Arts in Athens.Generally, he introduced expressionism in Greece.

Unfortunately, he died in 1927 in Athens.After his death, exhibitions of his paintings were organised at Zappeio in 1929, at Venice in 1936 and at the National Gallery of Greece in 2008.His most well-known paintings are : Peeling Quinces, Boat with sail, Lighthouse and the Straw Hat .

 

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/nikolaos-lytras/the-straw-hat

 

You can see more samples of his art there :

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/nikolaos-lytras

Pablo Picasso

My favourite artist is Pablo Picasso. Pablo Picasso was Spanish. He was a painter, but he also liked ceramics and sculpture. He spent most of his adult life in France. He lived from 25 October 1881 to 8 April 1973. His most famous work is Guernica. Guernica shows the tragedies of war, especially concerning innocent people. Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour and became famous quickly. The main colours are grey, black and white and it is 3.5 meters tall and 7.8 meters wide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PicassoGuernica.jpg