Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Masked Beauty At a Ball, Immanuel Kant and Saul Steinberg

 Arthur Schopenhauer assessing Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy:

 “I should liken Kant to a man at a ball, who all evening has been carrying on a love affair with a masked beauty in the vain hope of making a conquest, when at last she throws off her mask and reveals herself to be his wife”

(On the Basis of Morality)

Add caption

Artist: Saul Steinberg

A painful misunderstanding-  'No, I'm not a lioness, I'm a bald lion'

Drawing from the satirical magazine 'Bertoldo' (Editor: Giovannino Guareschi) 1938

 

Saturday, August 27, 2022

Old Sweet Songs of Raja Ravi Varma and Zula Kenyon

 below:

 'Love's Old Sweet Song', calendar illustration, 1924 by Zula Kenyon

bottom:  

Lady in the Moon Light, 1889 by  Raja Ravi Varma,

A lady sitting alone in the moon light. A classic painting with extraordinary light effects. Female figure in the picture sometimes interprets as a Yakshi also. (Read my earlier post on this image here.)

 

Thursday, August 25, 2022

आर्ट का जाहिरात... Leonetto Cappiello


फक्त खालील चित्र पाहिल्यावर मला ती केवळ कला भासली....


काही क्षणात पूर्ण चित्र डोळ्यासमोर आले...



Artist : Leonetto Cappiello (1875-1942)


Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Quietly Sensual Images : Dinanath Dalal and Henri Cartier-Bresson

Martine Franck's long, stockinged legs resting on a sofa, 1967

Photographer: Henri Cartier-Bresson

courtesy:Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos/Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson


Artist: Dinanath Dalal, Satyakatha, December 1954





Saturday, August 20, 2022

No Wonder You Could Get Tickets: One Caption, Three Cartoons

तुम्ही कधी रेल्वेच्या टपावरून, विमानाच्या लगेज कंपार्टमेंट मधून, बसमध्ये पूर्ण वेळ उभारून प्रवास केलाय? कधी क्रिकेट सामना, नाटक, सिनेमा बहुतांशी रिकाम्या प्रेक्षागृहातून पाहिलय ?

तस असेल तर लक्षात ठेवा: No wonder you could get tickets


Artist: Frank Cotham, The New Yorker,  Nov 28 2005

Artist: Leo Cullum (1942-2010), The New Yorker, Nov 28 2005


Artist: Mick Stevens, The New Yorker, Nov 28 2005

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Dali's Beach....Are We There Yet?

The late J G Ballard:
"...Dalí's masterpiece and, I believe, the greatest painting of the 20th century is The Persistence of Memory, a tiny painting not much larger than the postcard version, containing the age of Freud, Kafka and Einstein in its image of soft watches, an embryo and a beach of fused sand. The ghost of Freud presides over the uterine fantasies that set the stage for the adult traumas to come, while insects incarnate the self-loathing of Kafka's Metamorphosis and its hero turned into a beetle. The soft watches belong to a realm where clock time is no longer valid and relativity rules in Einstein's self-warping continuum.
What monster would grow from this sleeping embryo? It may be the long eyelashes, but there is something feminine and almost coquettish about this little figure, and I see the painting as the 20th century's Mona Lisa, a psychoanalytic take on the mysterious Gioconda smile. If the Mona Lisa, as someone said, looks as if she has just dined on her husband, then Dalí's embryo looks as if she dreams of feasting on her mother..."


Artist: Salvador Dali, 'The Persistence of Memory', 1931 & David Sipress, The New Yorker, 2007

Also see my earlier post dated  Sept 26 2010.


Sunday, August 14, 2022

Do They Come to Buy Vegetables?...17th Century Painting
























'Cookmaid with Still Life of Vegetables and Fruit', c.1620–5

Artist: Sir Nathaniel Bacon  (1585- 1627)



Friday, August 12, 2022

Behind The Stacks of Books!

Today August 12 2022 is National Library Day in India



Artist: Not known to me

Tuesday, August 09, 2022

"The ultimate joy is to be alive in the flesh."...Philip Larkin@100


 

"The sure extinction that we travel to

And shall be lost in always. Not to be here,

Not to be anywhere,

And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true."

 

A Man of Brass...The Arabian Nights

"...Then the sea grew troubled and rose till it reached the top of the mountain; nor had I long to wait before I saw a boat in the midst of the sea coming towards me. So I gave thanks to God: and when the boat came up to me, I saw in it a man of brass, with a tablet of lead on his breast, inscribed with names and talismans; and I embarked without saying a word. The boatman rowed on with me for ten whole days, till I caught sight of islands and mountains and signs of safety; whereat I was beyond measure rejoiced and in the excess of my gladness, I called upon the name of the Almighty and exclaimed, “There is no god but God! God is most great!” When behold, the boat turned over and cast me out into the sea, then righted and sank beneath the water. Now, I knew how to swim, so I swam the whole day till nightfall, when my arms and shoulders failed me for fatigue, and I abode in mortal peril and made the profession of the Faith, looking for nothing but death. Presently, the sea rose, for the greatness of the wind, and a wave like a great rampart took me and bearing me forward, cast me up on the land, that the will of God might be done. I clambered up the beach and, putting off my clothes, wrung them and spread them out to dry, then lay down and slept all night...."

('Story of the Third Calender', 'One Thousand and One Nights -The Complete  Collection', Delphi Classics')




















Artist: Maxfield Parrish (1870- 1966), "The Arabian nights", 1909

Sunday, August 07, 2022

Why Can't We Be More Like Dogs?

#Friendshipday

Artist: Lisa Rothstein, The New Yorker, August 2019