Category:
Statues and Monuments

Artwork Khrushchev Probably Would Not Have Liked 36



"Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst with his sculpture, Capricorn, 1947"

Foto source.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jul 13, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Art, Avant Garde, Surrealism, Statues and Monuments, Husbands, Wives, 1940s

The Invisible statues of Salvatore Garau

The Italian artist Salvatore Garau has been creating "invisible statues". The 'statues' are simply squares drawn on the ground with white ribbon.

He just sold one of them for 15,000 euros. Garau says that even though you may not see the statue, it exists. "It is made of air and spirit".

Would this fit into Paul's category of artwork that Khrushchev probably wouldn't like?

More info: Garau's instagram page, courier

Posted By: Alex - Mon May 31, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Statues and Monuments

Banana Ganesh

Read all about it here.

Posted By: Paul - Mon May 24, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Art, Statues and Monuments, Food, Religion, Bananas

The Ettl Enlarging Machine

I would love to see a picture of this gadget, but cannot find one online. I assume all such work today is done easily on computers.





Source.



Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 22, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Statues and Monuments, Inventions, 1910s

Artwork Khrushchev Probably Would Not Have Liked 33



Nude Woman with Upraised Arms ca. 1926
Gaston Lachaise American

Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 20, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Art, Avant Garde, Statues and Monuments, Body Modifications, 1920s, North America

Mystery Illustration 98

What is this a statue of?

The answer is at the link (scroll down).

Or after the jump.



More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Mon Dec 21, 2020 - Comments (5)
Category: Statues and Monuments

Clothes for Snowmen

Various sources report that when Madame de la Bresse died in 1876, she instructed in her will that all her money be used for buying clothes for snowmen. For instance, Bill Bryson shares this anecdote in his 1990 book The Mother Tongue: English & How it got that Way:
[The nineteenth century] was an age when sensibilities grew so delicate that one lady was reported to have dressed her goldfish in miniature suits for the sake of propriety and a certain Madame de la Bresse left her fortune to provide clothing for the snowmen of Paris.

Here's a 1955 cartoon about Madame de la Bresse and the snowmen:

The Montana Standard - May 6, 1955



But the earliest source for the story I've been able to find is a 1934 edition of Ripley's Believe it Or Not!. Which makes me wonder if the story is true, because I'm convinced Ripley invented many of his "strange facts". I can't find any French references to Madame de la Bresse.

However, it's possible Madame de la Bresse and her odd bequest were real, and the best argument for this I've been able to find is made by Bob Eckstein in his The History of the Snowman. He doesn't provide any sources to verify the existence of Madame de la Bresse, but he does give some historical context that could explain what might have inspired her to want to clothe snowmen:
When noted prude Madame de la Bresse passed away in 1876, she instructed in her will that all 125,000 francs (about $22,500 today) of her fortune were to only be spent putting clothes on the vulgar and offensive naked snowmen in the streets. This bizarre bequest may have had something to do with a certain celebrated snow statue made during the later part of her life in 1870...

The date was December 8, 1870. Snow began to cover Paris. Bored officers threw snowballs, and some of the soldier-artists began to make snow sculptures. Before long, the snowballs became monumental snow statues. One soldier, Alexandre Falguière, channeled his angst of his home city being attacked by creating La Résistance, a colossal snow woman, which was constructed in a mere two to three hours with the help of others.

Although the artist Moulin built a huge snow-bust nearby, it was twenty-nine-year-old Falguière's snow woman that attracted the press to visit the site...

The snow woman was light in the bosom yet clearly blessed with a female face. She had broad shoulders with folded muscular arms and possessed an able-bodied, World Wrestling Federation savoir faire, which suggests Falguière compared the Prussian siege of Paris with the sexual aggression of a relentless female refusing to succumb (La Résistance).

La Résistance by Falguière. Source: wikipedia



So maybe Madame de la Bresse was invented by Ripley. Or maybe she was real and decided to clothe snowmen because she was offended by Falguière's nude snow statue. I'm not sure. Hopefully someone else may be able to shed some light on this mystery!

Posted By: Alex - Sun Dec 13, 2020 - Comments (4)
Category: Art, Statues and Monuments, Death, Law

S. P. Dinsmoor’s Garden of Eden

The oldest surviving outsider art installation in the USA.

Home page.

Creator's Wikipedia entry.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 16, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Outsider Art, Statues and Monuments, Regionalism, 1900s

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