Elgin Marbles

Lord Elgin (Elgin Marbles,British Museum)
The Monuments were taken from the Acropolis by Lord Elgin,
the then British Ambassador, around 1811. A British Naval Vessel, the Lusieri,
brought them to Britain. Byron referred to the removal of the Marbles as "the
last plunder from a bleeding land" in his literary work Childe Harold.
There exist a controversy regarding the "ownership" of the Marbles. Lord Elgin
said he had received permission to remove the Marbles...but since there are no
actual records to prove this one hundred percent...hence, exists the dispute.

Contemporary Works

The tradition of Conversation Pieces (influenced by Wm. Hogarth in the 18th. century) continues today. The works of Anthony Gormley,Damien Hirst, Anslem Kieffer, and Tracy Emin, to name a few, are examples of works which inspire conversation in the world of contemporary art and the general public alike. Conversations which are no longer restricted to paintings but to a very much wider world of art, be it indoor or outdoor works of art.
The idea of having a blog entiled Conversation Piece was intended as a collection of art pieces which could stimulate conversations within the blog community, be it discussions around Hogarth's work or Contemporary art works. I will contiue to add pieces to this collection and look forward to any comments or conversation it may inspire.

The Conversation Piece (short definition)

Definition:

1. An unusual object(s),sculpture(s) or painting(s),etc that arouse comment or interest .

2. A genre painting popular especially in the 18th. century depicting a group of fashionable
people.

Consider:

Installation Pieces ( in or out door)

Areas of Public Art "

Art Perfomances "

Literature (works that stimulated comment/conversations)

Museums & Galleries (Public and Private comments and conversations re. works)

Acrylic On Card

These two paintings are from my series of acrylic and oil on card paintings which are part of my practice of works in progress. My main influence has been taken from the works of Gerhard Richter whose abstract work in rich colours I find very attractive.

On a recent visit to the Pompidou Centre in Paris I saw one of his paintings "Huile sur Toile" achat 1988 .

Acrylic On Card

Conversation Piece (Marriage a la Mode) 1745

In this series of Marrriage a la Mode Hogarth narrates the unhappy union of a wealthy middle-class alderman's daughter and an aristocrat's son. The painting shows us the married couple "newlyweds" who have yet to retire for the night. The grotesque clock informs us it is well over 1 a.m. Their activities for the evening did not include each other. The little dog is busy pulling a woman's cap from Squanderfield's pocket. The wife of Squanderfield is making amorous gestures but Mr Squanderfield is in no shape to take on his wife's invite. The book on the carpet causes us to assume that his wife has spent the evening "at home" in the company of friends...perhaps playing cards. Hogarth via his satire wished to draw attention to the hypocrisy that exists within the society.

De Stijl (Style) Modern Art Gallery. Amsterdam

The De Stijl Gallery situated in Amsterdam in many ways depicts the contiuum of art since those early days Golden Age years of Dutch Art. In 1917 the influential movement in art, architecture and design in the Netherlands was behind the creation of this art gallery. Some of the Founders of the Gallery of the De Stijl, notably were Piet Modrian and Theo van Doesburgh .

The main idea of these founders were to bring art and design together in a single coherent,simplified system,i.e. to simplify art into pure abstraction via forms of rectangles,geometric shapes and primary colours of black and white.
I visited the De Stijl Gallery in 2005. The Gallery is situated in what I would describe as an industrial-looking area of Amsterdam and the building is quite simply built with large "warehouse-looking" rooms,quite maze-like. The collection of art is very inspiring and mostly colourful and hopefully I will be able to revisit in the not too distant future. For me it is an important gallery to visit because of its links to the development of modern art and design.