Uma posta de Bucharest, Romania... amanha volto para os Barbaros.

Hoje vou jantar aqui... e eu que me esqueci do fraque. E pior da estoria, e que estou a falar a serio.

Mais uma a fazer pela vida...

Candice Michelle

the "Duke" teria feito ontem 100 anos...

The Daily Show: "Reverse Progress in Iraq," Vetoes and War C




Daily Show-Mess o potamia

(click on the image to enlarge)

Grindhouse 'Death Proof'

Rubrica: Tu metes nojo!

Ontem fui ver e ouvir: Bobby McFerrin ao Barbican.

E de facto ele meteu muito nojo.

Saudade...
Apesar de ser um capítulo encerrado, é sempre um prazer poder contribuir...

BLOG DA TERCEIRA SECÇÂO/ACANAC (Acampamento Nacional)

(clicar para seguir hyperligação)

A 14 de Maio de 1998 "The Voice" mudou a sua sala de espectáculos para o plano metafisíco...

E a minha sina e andar em mudancas...desta vez vou para BRIXTON SW9 (la dizia o outro, Guns of Brixton)

Este ano com os novos filmes de Kusturica & Tarantino & Coen & outros.

DEATH PROOF

Directed by:	Quentin TARANTINO
Country:	USA
Year:

Synopsis

For Austin’s hottest DJ, Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier), dusk offers an opportunity to unwind with two of her closest friends, Shanna and Arlene (Jordan Ladd and Vanessa Ferlito). This three fox posse sets out into the night, turning heads from Guero’s to the Texas Chili Parlor. Not all of the attention is innocent: Covertly tracking their moves is Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), a scarred, weathered rebel who leers from behind the wheel of his muscle car. As the girls settle into their beers, Mike’s weapon, a white-hot juggernaut, revs just feet away...

************

LES CHANSONS D'AMOUR

Directed by:	Christophe HONORÉ
Country:	FRANCE
Year:	2007

Synopsis

Every love song tells the same story: "Too many people love you"... "I could never live without you"... "Sorry Angel". LES CHANSONS D'AMOUR tells that story too

************

MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS

Directed by:	WONG Kar Wai
Country:	HONG KONG (CHINA)
Year:	2007

Synopsis

After a rough break-up, Elizabeth sets out on a journey across America, leaving behind a life of memories, a dream and a soulful new friend; a café owner -- all while in search of something to mend her broken heart. Waitressing her way through the country, Elizabeth befriends others whose yearnings are greater than hers, including a troubled cop and his estranged wife and a down-on-her luck gambler with a score to settle. Through these individuals, Elizabeth witnesses the true depths of loneliness and emptiness, and begins to understand that her own journey is part of a greater exploration within herself.

************

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Directed by:	Joel COEN, Ethan COEN
Country:	USA
Year:	2006

Synopsis

Llewelyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence that not even the law-in the person of aging, disillusioned Sheriff Bell - can contain. As Moss tries to evade his pursuers-in particular a mysterious mastermind who flips coins for human lives - the film simultaneously strips down the American crime drama and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning’s headlines.

************

PARANOID PARK

Directed by:	Gus VAN SANT
Country:	USA, FRANCE
Year:	2007

Synopsis

Alex, a teenage skateboarder accidentally kills a security guard in the vicinity of Paranoid Park, Portland's tough street park. He decides to say nothing.

PROMISE ME THIS

Directed by:	Emir KUSTURICA
Country:	SERBIA - MONTENEGRO, FRANCE
Year:	2006

Synopsis

"Tsane lives with his grandfather and their cow, Cvetka, on a remote hilltop. Except for their neighbor, Bosa, they are the village’s only inhabitants. One day, Tsane’s grandfather tells the young man that he is dying. He makes Tsane promise to go over the three hills into the nearest town and sell Cvetka at the market there. With the money, he must buy a religious icon, then anything he really wants, and finally he must find a wife to bring home. In town, Tsane easily fulfills the first parts of his promise but how is he going to get home with a wife before his granddad dies? That’s when he meets Jasna, who’s late for school as usual..."

ZODIAC

Directed by:	David FINCHER
Country:	USA
Year:

Synopsis

Based on the true story of a serial killer who terrified the U.S.'s San Francisco Bay Area and taunted authorities in four jurisdictions with his ciphers and letters for decades. Hunting down the hunter would become an obsession for four men, an obsession that would turn them into ghosts of their former selves, their lives built and destroyed by the killer’s endless trail of clues. He publicly claimed 13 victims, then two dozen more. Police pinned him with seven, five dead. The rampage of a madman who has never been caught; the elusive cipher slayer who gripped the nation in fear, America’s very own Jack the Ripper. The true body count may never be known. One thing is certain: That count includes the living.

Pink Floyd Members Appear At Barrett Tribute

May 11, 2007, 10:25 AM ET

Lars Brandle, London

David Gilmour / Rick Wright / Nick Mason - Arnold Layne live



Roger Waters - Flickering Flame @ Barbican, 10/5/07

The surviving members of Pink Floyd took part in a tribute concert last night (May 10) to pay respects to their former frontman, Roger "Syd" Barrett.

Guitarist David Gilmour, bassist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Rick Wright all appeared on stage at the "Syd Barrett -- Madcap's Last Laugh" gig, held at the London Barbican venue.

But it would appear the long-feuding Gilmour and Waters have yet to bury the hatchet. The pair appeared separately, the BBC reports, and were not photographed together.

Gilmour, Mason and Wright performed "Arnold Layne," the group's first hit and one of Barrett's best-known works. Waters performed a solo version of his own track, "Flickering Flame."

The concert was held to pay homage to Barrett, who died on July 7, 2006, at the age of 60, following complications from diabetes. The artist had spent the better part of the past 30 years living in seclusion in Cambridge, England, after being forced out of the band due to deteriorating mental health issues.

Other performers on the night included Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn, the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde and Soft Boys singer Robyn Hitchcock.

They then took part in an all-star finale of one of Barrett's best-known compositions, the psychedelic track "Bike" taken from the band's debut 1967 album, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn." Waters, however, did not join in.

The Barrett concert is part of the Barbican's Only Connect series of events, which offers a podium for unusual collaborations and cross-arts experimentation. Contemporary composer Philip Glass and punk-era artist Patti Smith will take part in a performance of piano and poetry on Oct. 19, under the Only Connect banner.

Poutsoskabilo!

Um dos meus filmes preferidos de sempre...

---

One of cinema's greatest classic adventure stories is director Victor Fleming's Captains Courageous (1937). It is an adaptation of English novelist Rudyard Kipling's 1897 work of the same name, and advertised: "As Great as Mutiny on the Bounty" with exciting action sequences, and a heart-felt story of the emerging relationship between an over-privileged and bratty young boy and a humble, common fisherman.

The classic MGM, coming-of-age children's film acquired four Academy Award nominations (Best Picture, Best Film Editing - Elmo Veron, and Best Screenplay - Marc Connolly, John Lee Mahin, Dale Van Every) with Spencer Tracy taking home his very first Best Actor Oscar (he experienced back-to-back wins when he also won Best Actor the following year for Boys Town (1938)) for his heart-warming performance.

A spoiled, rich 12-year old boy, Harvey Cheyne (first-billed child actor Freddie Bartholomew), the only child of a widowed millionaire business tycoon, leans too far over the rail of a luxury ocean liner (the Queen Anne) to Europe with his father Mr. Cheyne (Melvyn Douglas), while vomiting after consuming six ice cream sodas. He falls into the ocean - unbeknownst to anyone. He is rescued by a crusty, but likeable and kindly Portuguese fisherman with curly-locked hair named Manuel (Spencer Tracy), who works as a doryman on a Gloucester, Massachusetts fishing vessel off the Grand Banks [in the North Atlantic Ocean S/SE of Newfoundland]:

Fifteen years I've been fisherman. First time I ever catch a fish like you.

He brings the water-drenched boy back to his fishing boat on his skiff. Manuel tells his shipmates: "I bring you new kind of feesh...He got no tail. He got pads on his dorsal fins."

After Harvey wakes up aboard the schooner named We're Here, he arrogantly tells Captain Disko Troop (Lionel Barrymore) to take him to shore, but is told that he cannot be brought back to land until they have filled the boat with fish - in about three months time. The captain's obliging son, Dan (Mickey Rooney) attempts to be friendly, and lends the boy clothes, but is put off by the bratty, obnoxious kid who complains: "These are the worst clothes I ever saw. This stuff itches."

At first, Harvey stubbornly refuses to help do any of the work, and threatens the crew with jail-time as kidnappers. He is told he must work as part of the crew in order to eat. Because Manuel rescued him, Manuel is given the duty of looking after his "leetle fish," and though he is reluctant and at first calls his catch "bad luck," Manuel takes a paternalistic interest in the boy and wins his confidence. Manuel tells stories and sings sea chanties, accompanied by a vielle (an old Portuguese instrument). He enjoys his singing, feeling good inside:

Say, sometimes a song so big and sweet inside, I...I just can't get him out, and then I look up at stars, and maybe cry, it feels so good.

Gradually, Harvey takes to working in the galley, moves up to deck duty and stands watch. Manuel begins to teach Harvey about life and the ways of the sea - how to cut fish and other fishing techniques, human values and honesty. One day, he begs to go out on a fishing trip with Manuel and is taken along. Manuel gives him fishing advice: "That fish, he have meeting down below. He tell other fish there something not so funny going on." Manuel's young helper catches a big halibut:

My leetle feesh catch feesh beeger than he is... Manuel and hees leetle feesh, they beat everybody. We make fisherman out of you, huh lettle feesh?

But Manuel teaches him a lesson and puts the halibut back in the sea, when he learns that his "lettle feesh" has cheated (fouled the troll line of other fishermen) in order to win. Harvey earns Manuel's respect when he admits to his deed and feels ashamed. He takes his place as Manuel's dory mate apprentice during fishing excursions. In a tribute to Manuel's care and support of his "lettle feesh," and realizing that he will soon be returned to his real father, Harvey tearfully asks: "I want to be with you Manuel, please."

In the climactic race back to Gloucester port against a rival schooner, the Jennie Cushman, Manuel volunteers to climb to the top of the mast to furl the sail, but tragically is mortally injured when the mast cracks and he is plunged into the water, caught in the tangled rope and the topsail canvas. Just before he is cut loose of the ropes to sink below the surface to his death, he delivers a memorable, sentimental, and tearful goodbye to Harvey:

Now listen to me, leetle feesh. I go now...We had good times together, eh, leetle feesh? We laugh. We sing. So you smile...Manuel - he be watching you. You be best fisherman ever lived.

Reunited with his father, Harvey is distraught over the loss of his fishing friend. During a memorial service for Gloucester men who have perished in the sea, Harvey throws a flowery wreath into the water when Manuel's name is called. His father, understanding his son's loss, throws a second wreath in the water. The final shot shows Harvey comforted by his father, the two silently, arm in arm, watching the wreaths float away together in the outgoing tide.

Citando um homem da ferrovia, um condutor do cavalo de ferro, as mulheres de hoje estão estragadas, não tem nada na cabeça, são futeis...





Hey Joe - Jimi Hendrix version

[1st verse [Oo-backing vocals on each line]]
Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand?
Hey Joe, I said where you goin' with that gun in your hand?
Alright. I'm goin down to shoot my old lady,
you know I caught her messin' 'round with another man.
Yeah,! I'm goin' down to shoot my old lady,
you know I caught her messin' 'round with another man.
Huh! And that ain't too cool.

[2nd verse [Ah. -backing vocal on each line]]
Uh, hey Joe, I heard you shot your woman down,
you shot her down.
Uh, hey Joe, I heard you shot you old lady down,
you shot her down to the ground. Yeah!

Yes, I did, I shot her,
you know I caught her messin' 'round,
messin' 'round town.
Uh, yes I did, I shot her
you know I caught my old lady messin' 'round town.
And I gave her the gun and I shot her!

Alright
(Ah! Hey Joe)
Shoot her one more time again, baby!
(Oo)
Yeah.
(Hey Joe!)
Ah, dig it!
(Hey)
Ah! Ah!
(Joe where you gonna go?)
Oh, alright.

[3rd verse]
Hey Joe, said now,
(Hey)
uh, where you gonna run to now, where you gonna run to?
Yeah.
(where you gonna go?)
Hey Joe, I said,
(Hey)
where you goin' to run
to now, where you, where you gonna go?
(Joe!)
Well, dig it!
I'm goin' way down south, way down south,
(Hey)
way down south to Mexico way! Alright!
(Joe)
I'm goin' way down south,
(Hey, Joe)
way down where I can be free!
(where you gonna...)
Ain't no one gonna find me babe!
(...go?)
Ain't no hangman gonna,
(Hey, Joe)
he ain't gonna put a rope around me!
(Joe where you gonna..)
You better belive it right now!
(...go?)
I gotta go now!
Hey, hey, hey Joe,
(Hey Joe)
you better run on down!
(where you gonna...)
Goodbye everybody. Ow!
(...go?)
Hey, hey Joe, what'd I say,
(Hey.......................Joe)
run on down.
(where you gonna go?)

Johnny Cash @ the Muppets singing with Miss Piggy



Ghostriders in the Sky

Zoot the sax player: Forgive me Charlie Parker, wherever you are!!!

Faz hoje 10 anos que o Deep Blue derrotou (ou nao) o Grande Gary Kasparov (recentemente desafiou Putin, mas ele preferiu prende-lo)

"History

The computer system dubbed "Deep Blue" was the first machine to win a chess game against a reigning world champion (Garry Kasparov) under regular time controls. This first win occurred on February 10, 1996. Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1996, Game 1 is a famous chess game. However, Kasparov won 3 games and drew 2 of the following games, beating Deep Blue by a score of 4–2. The match concluded on February 17, 1996.

Deep Blue was then heavily upgraded (unofficially nicknamed "Deeper Blue") and played Kasparov again in May 1997, winning the six-game rematch 3.5–2.5, ending on May 11th, finally ending in game six. Deep Blue thus became the first computer system to defeat a reigning world champion in a match under standard chess tournament time controls.

The project was started as "ChipTest" at Carnegie Mellon University by Feng-hsiung Hsu; the computer system produced was named Deep Thought after the fictional computer of the same name from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Hsu joined IBM (Research division) in 1989 and worked with Murray Campbell on parallel computing problems. Deep Blue was developed out of this. The name is a play on Deep Thought and Big Blue, IBM's nickname.

The system derived its playing strength mainly out of brute force computing power. It was a massively parallel, 30-node, RS/6000, SP-based computer system enhanced with 480 special purpose VLSI chess chips. Its chess playing program was written in C and ran under the AIX operating system. It was capable of evaluating 200,000,000 positions per second, twice as fast as the 1996 version. In June 1997, Deep Blue was the 259th most powerful supercomputer, capable of calculating 11.38 gigaflops, although this did not take into account Deep Blue's special-purpose hardware for chess.

The Deep Blue chess computer which defeated Kasparov in 1997 would typically search to a depth of between 6 and 12 ply to a maximum of 40 ply in some situations. An increase in search depth of one ply corresponds on the average to an increase in playing strength of approximately 80 Elo points.

Deep Blue's evaluation function was initially written in a generalized form, with many to-be-determined parameters (e.g. how important is a safe king position compared to a space advantage in the center, etc.). The optimal values for these parameters were then determined by the system itself, by analyzing thousands of master games. The evaluation function had been split into 8,000 parts, many of them designed for special positions. In the opening book there were over 4,000 positions and 700,000 grandmaster games. The endgame database contained many six piece endgames and five or fewer piece positions. Before the second match, the chess knowledge of the program was fine tuned by grandmaster Joel Benjamin. The opening library was provided by grandmasters Miguel Illescas, John Fedorowicz and Nick De Firmian. Deep Blue's programmers tailored the computer program to beat Kasparov by studying in great detail prior games Kasparov had played. When Kasparov requested that he be allowed to study other games that Deep Blue had played so as to better understand his opponent, IBM refused. However, Kasparov did study many popular PC computer games to become familiar with computer game play in general.

After losing the match, Kasparov said that he sometimes saw deep intelligence and creativity in the machine's moves, which he could not understand. He also suggested that humans may have helped the machine during the match, based on the fact that other computer programs at that time could not find some of the strong moves that Deep Blue did, particularly 37. Be4, in the second game. However, recent computer programs such as Rybka and the Computer Assistant Project did find this move. In addition, Kasparov said the program made a human-like mistake on move 44. Kf1 in the same game. However, recent programs also make the same mistake. Kasparov demanded a rematch, but IBM declined and retired Deep Blue.

In 2003 a documentary film was made that explored these claims. It was titled Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine and implied that Deep Blue's heavily promoted victory was a plot by IBM to boost its stock value. Clearly coverage in the popular press was a goal of the effort and this did not hurt the sales of IBM supercomputers.

The rules allowed the developers to modify the program between games. Deep Blue was modified between games to understand Kasparov's playstyle better, allowing it to avoid a trap in the final game that the computer had fallen for twice before.

One of the two racks that made up Deep Blue is on display at the National Museum of American History in their exhibit about the Information Age; the other rack appears at the Computer History Museum in their "Mastering The Game: A History of Computer Chess" exhibit."(wikipedia.org)

A continuacao...:D

Garfield

Ontem foi o cortejo universitário desta "Lusa Apenas"

duas miuditas universitárias no autocarro:

ele é super romântico...nunca conheci ninguém assim é mesmo muito romântico.... eu guardo todos os sms e as conversas no messenger.

Amiga: E ele também?

Sim - disse ela num tom de voz pouco convicto.

Ontem estavamos mesmo naquele momento, estava a apetecer deixar-me ir... ainda pensei em entregar-me... ele diz-me que nao é rapaz de curtir só uma vez... blá, blá...

Eu, no banco da frente, só me lembrava da música dos joane e o amendoim saltitante:

Chegaste virgem a Coimbra, vais sair toda fodi i i i ida

Garfield

"When the routine bites hard
And ambitions are low
And the resentment rides high
But emotions wont grow
And were changing our ways,
Taking different roads
Then love, love will tear us apart again

Why is the bedroom so cold
Turned away on your side?
Is my timing that flawed,
Our respect run so dry?
Yet theres still this appeal
That weve kept through our lives
Love, love will tear us apart again

Do you cry out in your sleep
All my failings expose?
Get a taste in my mouth
As desperation takes hold
Is it something so good
Just cant function no more?
When love, love will tear us apart again" (Joy Division)

Joy Division



Nao podia por a voz de Ian Curtis ai ao lado sem um post...

(a sempre amiga wikipedia.org)
"Joy Division refers to a group of women used as sex slaves in Nazi concentration camps, as depicted in Ka-tzetnik 135633's 1955 novel The House of Dolls."

"At the time, Curtis's relationship with his wife Deborah was collapsing because of his infidelity with a Belgian woman, Annik Honoré, whom he had met on tour (no photograph of Honoré had been published until the 2006 book Torn Apart: The Life of Ian Curtis by Middles & Reade in which Annik gives her first public account of their relationship)."

"On May 18th, 1980, the evening before Joy Division were to embark on their first American tour, Curtis returned to his home and convinced his wife, Deborah, to spend the evening at her parents' house. He watched the Werner Herzog film "Stroszek", then listened to the Iggy Pop album "The Idiot" and wrote a letter to his estranged wife. He then hanged himself in the kitchen using a clothesline. Deborah found him the following morning."

"On June 4, 1976, the Lesser Free Trade Hall, a smaller room upstairs from the main hall, was the venue for a concert by the Sex Pistols which has become legendary as a catalyst to the punk rock movement and New Wave. Around 40 people attended the gig although many more have since claimed to have been there. Some of the people who are believed to have attended include:

• Tony Wilson (one of the founders of Factory Records, home to Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays, among others. Also was - with New Order and Factory - a founder of the seminal Manchester nightclub, The Haçienda.)
• Howard Devoto (Buzzcocks, Magazine and Luxuria)
• Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks)
• Morrissey (The Smiths)
• Ian Curtis (Joy Division)
• Bernard Sumner (Joy Division, New Order and Electronic)
• Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order, Revenge and Monaco)
• Mick Hucknall (Simply Red)
• Martin Hannett (legendary record producer for Factory)
• Mark E. Smith (lead singer of The Fall)
• Jon the Postman (Mancunian musician and personality)

Following the success of this gig, the Sex Pistols were invited to return. This second concert on July 20, 1976, saw the live debut of Buzzcocks and was attended by many more people."

"

George Steiner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Francis) George Steiner (born April 23, 1929, in Paris, France) is a prominent literary critic.

Family

Steiner is the son of Dr Frederick George and Mrs Else Steiner; he was educated first at the Lycée "Janson-de-Sailly" in Paris and then at the French Lycée in New York after the family moved to the United States in 1940.

In 1955 he married Zara Shakow, to whom he had been introduced by friends in 1952. They have one son (David, Dean of the School of Education at Hunter College) and one daughter (Deborah, Professor of Classics at Columbia).

Education

He gained his BA from the University of Chicago, an MA from Harvard and a DPhil from Oxford (Churchill College, of which he became an Honorary Fellow in 1995). Between 1952 and 1958 Steiner taught at Williams College in Massachusetts.

Career

Steiner had been active on undergraduate publications while at University and in 1952 he joined the staff of The Economist, in London, (1952-56). He returned to America in 1956 to attend the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, (1956-58) where he also lectured (1959-60). He held a Fulbright professorship in Innsbruck (1958-59), and in 1961 became a Founding Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, to which he was elected an Extraordinary Fellow in 1969. In 1974, after several years as a freelance writer and occasional lecturer, he accepted the post of Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Geneva, which he held until 1994, becoming Professor Emeritus on his retirement. He has since held the positions of Weidenfeld Professor of Comparative Literature and Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford, (1994-95) and Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University (2001-02).

His field is comparative literature. His work as a critic has tended toward exploring cultural and philosophical issues, particularly having to do with translation and the nature of language and of literature. His work has influenced intellectual discourse on popular culture and scholarly popular culture studies. Steiner's best-known book, After Babel, was an early contribution to the field of translation studies.

He is a regular contributor of reviews and articles to journals and newspapers including the New Yorker, the Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian.

Honours

Steiner's career has been graced by many honours including:

• A Guggenheim Fellowship, 1971-72
• An Honorary Membership of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences, 1989.
• Hon. D.Litt from the following Universities: East Anglia, 1976; Louvain, 1980; Mount Holyoke College, USA, 1983; Bristol, 1989; Glasgow, 1990; Liège, 1990; Ulster, 1993; Durham, 1995; Queen Mary, University of London, 2006.
• Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (1984).
• The Truman Capote Lifetime Achievement Award by Stanford University (1998)
• Fellowship of the British Academy.

He has also won numerous awards for his fiction and poetry.

Works

A list of his published works is to be found here

A cabeça vai falhando. Demorei um dia para me lembrar: "Ideia de europa" George Steiner.

Rubrica: Hoje fui à bola

Barbican, 5 de Maio 2007

Grupo 1, Bennie Maupin Quartet... valeu!

Bennie Maupin - clarinet/sax/flute
Michael Lee Stephans - drums
Muyungo Jackson - percussion
Darek Oles - acoustic bass violin

Grupo 2, Charles Lloyd Quartet... valeu, muito!

Charles Lloyd - tenor and alto sax/taragat
Jason Moran - piano
Reuben Rogers - bass
Eric Harland - drums

No flyer lembravam que foi com Charles Lloyd, em 1967, que Keith Jarrett e Jack DeJohnette se mostraram ao mundo. Hoje vi um baterista e um contrabaixista...suberbos.

After Vermeer? Han van Meegeren!!!

Sempre gostei da história do pintor medíocre que pinta aquele que é considerado o melhor período de Vermeer...
O homem que foi acusado no final da W.W.II de vender património holandês aos nazis e que para não ser acusado de colaboração com terceiro Reich pinta um vermeer na prisão.

Van Meegeren paints the Jesus amongst the Doctors for the benefit of the court

After Vermeer? Han van Meegeren!!!

PAINTING	ARTIST COPIED	PRICE	BUYER
Christ at Emmaus	Vermeer	$174,000	Boymans Museum
Head of Christ	Vermeer	$165,000	van Beuningen
The Last Supper	Vermeer	$480,000	van Beuningen
Isaac Blessing Jacob	Vermeer	$381,000	van der Vorm
Washing of Christ Feet	Vermeer	$390,000	Dutch Gov't
Christ and The Adultress	Vermeer	$495,000	Marshal Goering
Young Christ	Vermeer	NONE	Trial Painting
The Card Players	deHooch	$117,000	van Beuningen
A Drinking Party	deHooch	$87,000	van der Vorm
Woman Reading Music	Vermeer	unsold	at the Rijksmuseum
Woman Playing Music	Vermeer	unsold	at the Rijksmuseum

Probably the most dramatic art scam of the 20th c. was the Han van Meegeren case. In 1937, Abraham Bredius (one of the most authoritative art historians who had dedicated a great part of his life to the study of Vermeer) was approached by a lawyer who claimed to be the trustee of a Dutch family estate in order to have him look at a rather large painting of a Christ with his Disciples. Shortly after having viewed the painting, the 83 year old art historian wrote the Burlington Magazine, the "art bible" of the times: "It is a wonderful moment in the life of a lover of art when he finds himself suddenly confronted with a hitherto unknown painting by a great master, untouched, on the original canvas, and without any restoration, just as it left the painter's studio! And what a picture! Neither the beautiful signature "I. V. M. in monogram) nor the pointillè on the bread of the Christ is blessing, is necessary to that we have a - I am inclined to say the masterpiece of Johannes Vermeer of Delft...." No doubts were advanced since Bredius' opinion was taken as gospel in the art world so much that he had been nick-named "the Pope."

This work that today seems so heavy handed and awkward was in reality a fake by Hans van Meegeren, a mediocre Dutch artist who had lived and worked in almost complete obscurity.
The Trial

In May 1945 Van Meegeren was arrested, charged with collaborating with the enemy and imprisoned. His name had been traced to the sale made during the second world war of what was then believed to be an authentic Vermeer to Nazi Field-Marshal Hermann Goering. Shortly after, to general disbelief, Van Meegeren came up with a very original defense against the accusation of collaboration, then punishable by death. He claimed that the painting, The Woman Taken in Adultery, was not a Vermeer but rather a forgery by his own hand. Moreover, since he had traded the false Vermeer for 200 original Dutch paintings seized by Goering in the beginning of he war, Van Meegeren believed that he was in fact a national hero rather than a Nazi collaborator. He also claimed to have painted five other "Vermeer's," as well as two "Pieter de Hoogh's" all of which had surfaced on the art market since 1937.

The Trial

"In 1947 the trial took place and in order to demonstrate his case it was arranged that, before the court under police guard, he would paint another "Vermeer", Jesus Among the Doctors, using the materials and techniques he had used for the other forgeries. During the incredible two year trial Van Meegeren had confessed that "spurred by the disappointment of receiving no acknowledgements from artists and critics....I determined to prove my worth as a painter by making a perfect 17th century canvas." "During the investigation, Van Meegeren revealed that having once fooled the art world with Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus, probably his best forgery, he was encouraged to try new forgeries. He painted a head of Christ, sold it through an intermediary and then "found" the Last Supper for which it was a supposed study. The buyer of the Christ painting was only too eager to snap-up the full scale painting." 1


"Perhaps the greatest problem that faced Van Meegeren then was the secrecy in which he had to work. He could hire no models, since they might talk. For the painting below he was forced to rely mainly on his imagination and it is a wonder that he dared such a accomplished composition, involving 13 figures in a variety of poses. At one point he stole directly from Vermeer, using the head of the Girl with a Pearl Earring for his head of St. John, as the paired photo at the right shows. " 2

Van Meegeren spent four years working out techniques for making a new painting look old. The biggest problem was getting his oil paint to harden thoroughly - process that normally takes 50 years. He solved it by mixing his pigments with a synthetic resin instead of oil, and baking the canvas. Now he was ready to begin. He took an actual 17th c. painting and removed most of the picture with pumice and water, being most careful not to obliterate the network of cracks, which had an important role to play." 3

After having tried his hand at a few of the more typical Vermeer's, Van Meegeren had what might be called his own stroke of genius. Instead of forging the more typical interiors which could be compared to works hanging in museums, Van Meegeren chose to forge an early Vermeer of a religious theme based on a composition of Caravaggio. Scholars had long suspected that Vermeer had been to Italy and Van Meegeren's lost painting confirmed that. The subject and early technique of the painting also helped to mask his own technical and expressive inadequacies.

At the end of the trial collaboration charges were changed to forgery and Van Meegeren was condemned to one year in confinement.

Cartoons matinais

Logic! ..isn't it?
Hobbes & Calvin


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Rubrica eu me confesso: completely fed up with Mutts...but in love with Pooch Cafe
Pooch Cafe