Giorgio de Chirico had once been accused by a Signor Martin Alzaga of plagiarizing his early paintings and selling them. He was later accused of denouncing some of his genuine earlier paintings as plagiarism because Alzaga was jealous of the high prices they were drawing, even though his later work wasn’t commanding such high prices. Ironically and strangely enough, he’s accused of forging his paintings and then denouncing his forgeries as forgeries! But despite the absurd accusations, his paintings remain even more strange and mysterious. Paintings that will poetically haunt generations to come, long after Picasso, Matisse, and Monet are forgotten.

Hector and Andromache. 1917.

“Art is the fatal net which catches these strange moments on the wing like mysterious butterflies, fleeing the innocence and distraction of common men.”

Giorgio de Chirico. The Melancholy of Departure. 1916.

There is a complex relationship between Arthur Ganson and his art. His intentions in his motion devices seem to be just for the love of logic behind the intricacies of how it’s done. He states at the end of this video that these devices mean nothing. That whatever he makes, and what that person feels, is like the gear in one of his devices. These essentially meaningless objects could mean something to you, magnifying some emotional aspect in life, and again, you’re on a trip with the creator and yourself. It brings you back around to a shared emotional idea and passion that Ganson has created. In essence, the creator has done something he loves and has a passion for and you’ve experienced those same feelings just by watching the object in motion.

“Technology is very seductive, and it is certainly changing the way things are designed and made and taught. The problem is when technology has seduced you away from thinking about things as deeply as you should.”
-Arthur Ganson

Looking to improve your figure drawing? Check out PoseManiacs. Go there and set the timer to 1 minute; do 10 a day.

“A work of art is useless. So is a flower.”
-Oscar Wilde

There is only one absinthe drinker, and that’s the man who painted this idiotic picture. (on Manet’s “Absinthe Drinker”) - Thomas Couture

The painter of grand history paintings couldn’t abide the emphasis on the present and the individual artist. Though Manet studied 6 years under Couture, the Parisian life was quite removed from their circle, but nonetheless very real. When asked to write his autobiography, Couture grieved that “biography is the exaltation of personality—and personality is the scourge of our time.”