Joseph Beuys

One of the prominent avant gardes of the '70s, Joseph Beuys is reflected with his most important students in Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul.

Joseph Beuys being a pilot in WWII was rescued from his plane crash by the Siberians. His story became a self-myth, not making clear which parts are true- not important for his works anyway. Creating the myth as a focus point for his art is what counts. His works are currently exhibited in all the world's famous modern museums, such as Munich and New York. However knowing his myth can be a prerequisite of visiting his installations, since he often uses felt and fat as materials and is directly linked to how he is treated by the Siberians.

The picture is by Andy Warhol, with whom Beuys had frequent discussions..

Beuys believed 'life itself is a creative act.'

Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird whistles away the already known tunes of folk rock.
He played in the château room of The PuKKelPOP festival (which is all another story with 8 stages, astonishing the audience, poor audience had to plan every bit not to miss anything and even then there would alway be something being missed.) The atmosphere was an indoors tent, making the tension between us and The Bird more intense. It started raining and luckily there was a leakage just in front of the stage. Seeing the Bird through a thin curtain of raindrops was fantastic. The twin gramaphones turning irregularly on his stage add to the suspense. Does anybody know are they for decoration or just one of Bird's eccentric instruments?
He runs on the stage from the glockenspiel to his guitar and to his violin.He dips his violin and his whistles in each of his songs to drag his folk music to somewhere different. somewhere where you forget to blink. Fitz and Dizzyspells is only one example of many of the magnificant ways he combines them both.
In the coming months Andrew Bird will be touring in the U.S.

Edvard Munch

The Art Institute of Chicago hosted an Edvard Munch Exhibition from Feb.14 and April 24 of this year.


They had the challenge of questioning the myths surroundering this one of the greatest influences in Expressionalism. Although Munch is famous for all his neurotic paintings, also his behaviour lead by his clear mind is underlined in the exhibition. He is smart, although driven mostly by his heavy hearted sentimentals, he has a commercial mind. The critics finding his work "shocking" never dared to buy them although they did not restrain themselves from going into his exhibitions either. Knowing this, Munch's commercial mind guided him to charge an entry fee for his exhibitions. Not an act you would expect from an artist totally living in his own depressed world.


He works with Femme Fatal figures, popular theme of 1900s, the woman who binds the men to herself and lets them suffer. Use of hair as the binding element of the Femme Fatal to her man are apparent.
Madonna, 1895,one of the Femme Fatals of Munch, is seen above.


He is also inspired by the impressionists such as Monet, Van Gogh, Gaugin. The existence of the window in all of their works is a common element, which helps them in using the light in the scenery. Munch likes to use similar colors with Van Gogh.


It is also suprising to see that he has bright colored works where he paints vivid nature scenes. The exhibition tries to draw a more complete picture of Munch with all aspects of his mind and links to the artists of his time. It is interesting to see once again how media can effect the face of an artist to promote his charateristic in a more interesting way the viewers would like to see. The critics and media was succesful in doing this in the first half of the 20th century and it is no suprise that not much has changed today in that media shapes what we see in many areas, including art.

Currently university of Glasgow has loaned prints of Edvard Munch which will be displayed until September 5th. Works of the artist can be discovered at the Munch Museum Oslo at all times.

Team B

As Kelly Pratt came up with the B Team project, he pulled together his strings tying him to Beirut, Arcade Fire and finalizing the knot with LCD Soundsystems. One cannot say he blended each and every influence he experienced in the last two years while he has been touring around with Arcade Fire and Beirut, since you can pick out which band he was influenced from for each song in the B Team album. "No Purchase Necessary" bounces between LCD Soundsystem and the harsh rhythms of Arcade Fire, whereas "Mystery Man" and "My Papa Waltz" create the expectation to hear Zach Condon in the background form the first note on. Whatever the mess, the outcome is definitely rhapsodic. And Kelly Pratt is definitely a one to watch for.

http://www.myspace.com/teambnyc

Oscar Niemeyer

"Here, then, is what I wanted to tell you of my architecture. I created it with courage and idealism, but also with an awareness of the fact that what is important is life, friends and attempting to make this unjust world a better place in which to live."
— Oscar Niemeyer.

a Brazilian architect age of 101. First European exhibition in Glaspaleis just ended.

Cathedral of Brasilia:

16 columns represent two hands moving upwards to heaven, darkness of the low ceiling of the entrance contrasting the brightness and spatiousness of inside, reflecting the greatness of the spirituality.

Contemporary Art Museum, Rio de Jenario

From an organic impression, resembling a flower, overlooking the sea. Described as an UFO landing on the beach by Niemeyer.

make the girls dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o0BhC8Y9qo

Our Cat Enters Heaven

Our cat ruptured up to heaven. He'd never liked heights, so he tried to sink his claws into whatever invisible snake, giant hand, or eagle was causing him to rise in this manner, but he had no luck.
When he got to heaven, it was a large field. There were a lot of little pink things running around that he thought at first were mice. Then he saw God sitting in a tree. Angels were flying here and there with their fluttering white wings; they were making sounds like doves.
Our cat went politely over to the tree.
Meow said our cat.
meow.