Reading Art

Raspberries. Drops of blood.

2022-07-05T12:24:00.000+02:00

Whatever I've been thinking

I am thinking of the drops of blood

in Ukraine

—

Ruins.

2021-10-29T18:16:00.002+02:00

#Anichkin хроники #covid chronicles

This was a free interpretation of the theme of 'ruins' in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic.

Портрет А.Аничкина, холст масло

Portrait of Alexander Anichkin,

oil on canvas

38 х 32 см

October / октябрь 2021

Unknown author, school of fauvistes / Неизвестный автор, школа фовистов

In private collection / В частной коллекции

NB: #язык "Портрет жены художника" - я никогда не мог понять, кто кого рисовал, жена художника или художник жену?

Portrait d'A. Anitchkine,

toile, huile

38x32cm

octobre 2021

Auteur inconnu, école fauvistes

Dans une collection privée

"Portrait de la femme de l'artiste" - Je n'ai jamais pu comprendre qui dessinait qui, la femme peignait l'artiste, ou l'artiste peignait sa femme ?

©A.Anichkin/M.Ingram

Nue. Automne.

2019-09-20T16:28:00.000+02:00

Nue. Automne.
Installation. Bois, des pommes. ©A.Anichkin

Eve, after Eric Gill.

2018-11-02T15:44:00.000+01:00

This is my copy of the famous 'Eve' by Eric Gill (1926).

I haven't quite finished it but decided to publish it here as an aid to the blog post about making pictures in Pages, a popular programme by Apple, that comes preinstalled on Macintosh computers.

Nu mince / Thin Nude.

2017-10-05T15:53:00.000+02:00

The public criticised my work 'Pink Nude' based on a drawing by Amedeo Modigliani.

Members of the public were especially shocked by her healthy, well-rounded forms. I have trawled through other nudes by Modigliani but couldn't find one single thin one.

In desperation I am turning to Marcel Duchamp in the hope that this work will be received more favourably.

'Nu mince, pensant à l'éternité', ©A.Anichkin, 2017, digital photography, industrial plastic, plywood.

Britannia.

2017-09-11T07:57:00.002+02:00

'Britannia',
Drawing by Adolphe Braun, 1916,
from 'Hieroglyphic, or Greek Method of Life Drawing'.

Model is said to be Miss Dorothy Lees,
from here.

This drawing was accompanying the articles related to Britain on my blog 'Tetradki' until Google changed advertising rules that don't allow nudity.

More on Britannia as the national symbol on Wikipedia here and on life drawing here.

Europe. Girl Carrying a Bull.

2017-07-25T07:14:00.000+02:00

A wonderful drawing by the Belorussian artist Vladimir Fokanov (Minsk). He titled it "Girl Carrying a Bull" (Computer graphics, 2009). Of course, we can see the inverted interpretation of the legend of Zeus abducting Europe.

The composition evokes the famous sculpture of the Titan holding the Earth on his shoulders in front of the Rockefeller Center in New York.

I had used this picture as an icon for my blogs on Europe/EU until Google introduced restrictions on nudity as far as its AdSense advertising programme is concerned. I have removed the image from the blogs where AdSense is applied but here you can still enjoy it.

Republished with the kind permission of the author. See Fokanov's work in his gallery here.

Европа — "Девушка, несущая быка". Рисунок белорусского художника Владимира Фоканова, компьютерная графика, 2009 г.

Эдгар Дега, "Молодые спартанцы"

2017-07-16T09:51:00.002+02:00

Эта картина ранее иллюстрировала статью "Секс по-олимпийски" в "Европейских тетрадках". По правилам Гугль, в блогах, участвующих в рекламной программе AdSense, не разрешается публикация обнаженной натуры. Вместо настоящей иллюстрации теперь там помещен "Черный квадрат" А.Аничкина.

Эдгар Дега (Edgar Degas), "Молодые спартанцы", ок. 1860 г., х/м, 109,5 см х 155 см, подписано автором справа внизу; National Gallery, London, room 44.

На русском название картины дается в разных вариантах: "Юные спартанцы", "Молодые спартанки, вызывающие на состязание юношей", "Спартанские девушки вызывают на состязание юношей".

Сюжет картины основан на отрывке из Плутарха. Историк утверждает, что правитель Спарты Ликург призывал девушек тренироваться в состязательной борьбе.

Black Square, 2017.

2017-07-09T09:11:00.000+02:00

The Black Square, by Alexander Anichkin, July 2017.
Slate, photogrhapy, computer graphics.
Signed and dated by author, l.left.

Saint Armel.

2017-05-02T19:40:00.002+02:00

This is a surprisingly lively image of St Armel in the Scriptorial museum of Avranches, Normandy. It is mainly devoted to books, handwritten and manually bound by the monks of Mont-Saint-Michel. After the French revolution of 1789 the books were transferred to the nearby town of Avranches.

The statue of Armel is almost life-size, of painted wood. The man has a jovial lively expression I'd associate with the height of Renaissance.

Since Armel was a holy man and a Breton prince of the 6th Century, but the statue is dated of 16th Century, I'd assume that it was made in the image and likeness of someone living at the time.

What a character!

1917. Old t-shirt.

2017-03-13T13:15:00.002+01:00

This month it's a hundred years since the Russian revolution began in 1917 with toppling the tsar.

My old hammer and sickle t-shirt. I still use it ocassionally. Just noticed that the hole has the shape of a heart.

Seurat in the Met and on Artsy.

2017-02-23T14:06:00.000+01:00

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York is currently holding a Seurat Circus Sideshow (en exhibition devoted to Seurat).

The Web resource Artsy, dedicated to making works of art accessible to anyone with an internet connection, has a page on Seurat and invited The Normandy Photo Journal (see this post about Seurat and Port-en-Bessin) to share and publicise it. Reading Art is also invites its readers to have a look.

Thanks, Artsy! This is Seurat's most famous work 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of L Grande Jatte' (Un dimanche après-midi à l'île de la Grande Jatte), 1884, a masterpiece of the technique known as pointillism (painting by small colour points).

Portrait of Alexander Anichkin.

2017-02-18T10:21:00.000+01:00

Portrait of writer A.Anichkin, Feb. 2017
"Sasha", bottom right
Oil on cardboard, 80x42 cm,
signed by author bottom left 'David Taylor', 10 Feb 2017'
Original in private collection.
Est. v. £1,255

Kandinskiy at 150

2016-12-04T18:36:00.000+01:00

A Study after Matisse.

2016-06-19T11:21:00.001+02:00

This is my study based on Henri Matisse's work Nu bleu IV, 1952. The original is in Musée Matisse de Nice.

Matisse did it in paper cuttings glued onto paper with pale pencil strokes.

The Dog.

2016-02-29T09:57:00.002+01:00

This a copy of Picasso's minimalist drawing The Dog. He had a favourite dachshund called Lump and put it in many of his pictures.

What is interesting here is that it's done in one continious curving line, all of it. And this is how I've done it too.

The Thaw.

2016-02-12T10:08:00.002+01:00

"The Thaw" is a period in Russian Art of the Soviet Period around 1956-1966 when experimentation was allowed again and new ideas, that avant-garde movements of the early 20 Century had developed, returned to the foreground.

This photo is a tribute to those artists.

(Snow, wood, January 2016)

See another "Thaw" composition on my "Normandy Photo Journal" blog here.

Constructivist Composition #1.

2016-01-22T16:49:00.001+01:00

(Anichkin 2016)
paper, cardboard.

The Volga Boatmen Bird Song.

2016-01-16T09:53:00.000+01:00

The Volga Boatmen is a famous grand canvas (131,5 × 281 cm) by Ilya Repin, painted in 1870-73.

There is realism and there is symbolism in the picture. It has been endlessly analysed and reproduced, and over the years it has been attached to another great piece of Russian cultural heritage, the Volga Boatmen song, performed by Shaliapin, the Read Army Choir and Glen Miller too.

Still, a detail or two remain unexplained.

One curious little fragment is the little bird in the bottom left corner of the painting. It is shimmering in the bright sunlight. He stands on the sandbank looking at the approaching band of barge-haulers.

The colours of the bird are strikingly similar to the sunlit central figure of the composition, 'Lar'ka' (Ларька) the young blond burlak, who is adjusting his harness irritatedly while looking ahead and at the sun.

Is there a symbolic connection between the bird and the man? What is it? Is it a representation of God? Or the elusive Blue Bird of happiness? I have my theories but was hoping to find an explanation in critical writings or memoirs — and couldn't.

And what is the bird? I've used several bird identifiers, including the RSPB site, to find out. It could be a wader but waders commonly have long legs and beaks, unlike the bird in the picture. And waders usually come in flocks. It may be a temminck (RSPB description), but it does not appear on the Volga. A common European and Russian bird that is often seen everywhere is a wagtail (picture), and they usually forage alone.

A wagtail, in Russian трясогузка (literally, tail, bottom shaker) is often associated with fickleness, or diffidence, or irresponsible behaviour. How does this apply here, if it is a wagtail, I don't know. The mystery remains.

The painting in high definition can be seen on Repin's internet gallery and on Wikipedia. His signature is lower right. Other birds, presumably gulls, are seen top right. The small bird is at lower left.

Christmas Composition #12 (The Gift of Life)

2016-01-05T10:58:00.000+01:00

Alexander Anichkin
2016
CHRISTMAS COMPOSITION #12 (THE GIFT OF LIFE)
wood, enamel, egg
photo
signed and dated
Provenance: enamel plate stamped 'Made in Poland 26', from family kitchenware at Plas Uchaf, Wales, currently nr. St John's Wood (Saint-Jean-des-Bois), France.

Part XII concluding my Christmas Compositions for the 2015/2016 festive season.

Christmas Composition #11 (Adoration)

2016-01-04T07:54:00.002+01:00

Alexander Anichkin
2016
CHRISTMAS COMPOSITION #11 (ADORATION)
wood, enamel, egg
photo
signed by author l.l.
plate stamped underneath in English 'MADE IN POLAND 26'
Provenance: enamel plate stamped 'Made in Poland', from family kitchenware at Plas Uchaf, Wales, currently nr. St John's Wood (Saint-Jean-des-Bois), Normandy.

Part XI of my Christmas Compositions for the 2015/2016 festive season.

Christmas Composition #10 (Let's Get Together and Praise the Lord)

2016-01-03T10:35:00.000+01:00

Alexander Anichkin
2016
CHRISTMAS COMPOSITION #10 (LET'S GET TOGETHER)
wood, enamel, tomatoes, lemon
photo
signed by author l.l.
plate stamped underneath in English 'MADE IN POLAND 26'
Provenance: enamel plate stamped 'Made in Poland', from family kitchenware at Plas Uchaf, Wales, currently nr. St John's Wood (Saint-Jean-des-Bois), Normandy.

Part X of my Christmas Compositions for the 2015/2016 festive season.

Christmas Composition #9 (We Are Not Alone.)

2016-01-02T14:27:00.002+01:00

Alexander Anichkin
2016
CHRISTMAS COMPOSITION #9 (WE ARE NOT ALONE)
wood, lichen, a hair
photo
signed by author l.r.
Provenance: it remains unclear if the hair belongs to the author or to his dog.

Part IX of my Christmas Compositions for the 2015/2016 festive season.

Christmas Composition #8 (Here Comes the Sun)

2016-01-01T12:44:00.000+01:00

Alexander Anichkin
2016
CHRISTMAS COMPOSITION #8 (HERE COMES THE SUN), HAPPY NEW YEAR
wood, enamel, lemon
photo
signed by author l.l.
plate stamped underneath in English 'MADE IN POLAND 26'
Provenance: enamel plate stamped 'Made in Poland', from family kitchenware at Plas Uchaf, Wales, currently nr. St John's Wood (Saint-Jean-des-Bois), Normandy.

Part VIII of my Christmas Compositions for the 2015/2016 festive season.

Christmas Composition #7 (Children of the Sun)

2015-12-31T09:50:00.000+01:00

Alexander Anichkin
2015
CHRISTMAS COMPOSITION #7 (CHILDREN OF THE SUN.), NEW YEAR'S EVE
wood, enamel, tomatoes, lemon
photo
signed by author l.l.
plate stamped underneath in English and Chinese (pre-simplification characters) 'BUMPER HARVEST. MADE IN CHINA. 304P-23-22CM.'
Provenance: found amongst discarded kitchenware nr. St John's Wood (Saint-Jean-des-Bois), Normandy.

Part VII of my Christmas Compositions for the 2015/2016 festive season.