(no subject)
I visited the High Museum today to check out the last installment of the Louvre Atlanta series. I just finished writing a review of it for the art blog Burn Away, which I was invited to write for. I must say that although I do always jump at the chance to visit the High and have especially enjoyed the Louvre Atlanta series, this final section is by far the weakest.
This casting of a lion killing a python by Antoine Louis Barye is completely fantastic and technically stunning and if you live in Atlanta you had better damn not miss the chance to see this piece because it will put you on your ass. That thing is life-size if not a little larger and it is TERRIFYING and at the same time MARVELOUS. This guy was ridiculously talented, but just as important he was ridiculously disciplined and dedicated to his craft!!! He and Delacroix would hang out at the zoo for hours and hours drawing live lions, studying every inch of them as best as they could, and even when the lions died, Barye and his homie Eugene still weren't done with them. They would pose the dead lions, sometimes without their skin to get every bit of understanding they could of musculature and skeletal motion. Fantastic. On top of that, hell even in spite of all that amazing effort, Barye did multiple small castings and sculptures in a variety of media to completely figure out how he would execute his final piece. And here you have it. If this isn't a masterpiece then you and I are not looking at the same image, because what I see is fucking brilliant.
Go see the new Louvre show at the High. Even though it doesn't begin to touch the previous show (OMG it was so <333333), it is a good lesson for any artist who errantly, foolishly derides the value of good crafting. It will put you on your ass.
This casting of a lion killing a python by Antoine Louis Barye is completely fantastic and technically stunning and if you live in Atlanta you had better damn not miss the chance to see this piece because it will put you on your ass. That thing is life-size if not a little larger and it is TERRIFYING and at the same time MARVELOUS. This guy was ridiculously talented, but just as important he was ridiculously disciplined and dedicated to his craft!!! He and Delacroix would hang out at the zoo for hours and hours drawing live lions, studying every inch of them as best as they could, and even when the lions died, Barye and his homie Eugene still weren't done with them. They would pose the dead lions, sometimes without their skin to get every bit of understanding they could of musculature and skeletal motion. Fantastic. On top of that, hell even in spite of all that amazing effort, Barye did multiple small castings and sculptures in a variety of media to completely figure out how he would execute his final piece. And here you have it. If this isn't a masterpiece then you and I are not looking at the same image, because what I see is fucking brilliant.
Go see the new Louvre show at the High. Even though it doesn't begin to touch the previous show (OMG it was so <333333), it is a good lesson for any artist who errantly, foolishly derides the value of good crafting. It will put you on your ass.