Zhang Qikai & Wayne Thibeaud & Victorian Art

Art Knowledge News Article




O.K. so my favorite source of art news has once again introduced me to something super cool - the Chinese artist Zhang Qikai. I love his stuff! He reminds me a lot of Magritte, and surrealism in general. I love the fantasy aspect of his work! He uses the Panda in a lot of his work, which the article I linked to above goes into more detail about. I like Asian art, but I usually like European or American art much better - I think because I understand the historical and cultural context a lot more, but this artists I LOVE! And I think he is one of the first Asian artists I have really been excited about knowing, I will definitely keep my eye out for more news on him. I love fantasy paintings - I love Chagall and Magritte surrealism, and French Roccoco artists with their big broccoli trees and marshmallow clouds, and now I will add Qikai to this list, yay!




Another artist I heard about today ( in the Standard Examiner, no less!) is Wayne Thiebaud, who has an exhibit at the Springville Art Museum. He is a pretty famous artist of the Pop Art style. His stuff is also fun, but in a more realistic way. He does paintings of food and other common day things. He also lived in Utah for a year or two. Some pretty big museums (like the MOMA) have his works in their permanent collections! Hopefully I get a chance to see his Springville exhibit, all his work I have seen so far has been really good! It reminds me of Warhol's Soup Cans, and Oldenburg sculptures - which are always so fun to learn about.


Also, on Monday me and Lori are going down to the BYU Museum of Art to see their Victorian Art exhibit - and I'm pretty dang excited!!! I love the fairytale, shakespearean, beautiful style of the pre-raphaelites. MMM, I can't wait. A blog about that is sure to be in the future :).

I wish I was in the Netherlands

Right now I wish I was a billionaire, and had a plane ticket to Maastricht. Being held, at this very moment, is the Maastricht European Fine Art Fair. Curators, directors, collectors are all flocking there right now for the chance to buy a Rembrandt self portrait ( THE LAST ONE TO BE SOLD!!!) and a beautiful Steen painting ( both of those have been sold already, but still -earlier YOU COULD BUY THEM! EEK!). I'm pretty jealous of all the wheeling and dealing and acquistion that is going on there, I want to be a curator, trying to get the next big artwork for my small museum (or large one!). So if you are still wondering what to get me for my eighteenth birthday, just hit up the Maastrict European Fine Art Fair - I'm sure I'd love anything there! haha jk, but seriously - I wish I was there.

Click here for more on the art fair

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

The only thing that has really been on my mind since I got accepted to AUR (YAY!!!) is where to go to school. I've narrowed it down ( I think) to AUR and BYU - but they are pretty much opposites, and I'm torn.



BYU

Price= A lot cheaper than Rome :)

Student body= 30,000+

Location=Smallish college town in Happy Valley

Proximity= Hour and a half drive from home, less if the familia moves like they are thinking about.

Campus size= Very large

Scholarship= One year tuition

Religious Affilliation=LDS






AUR

Price=Expensive + Plane ride

Student Body=500-600 students a semester

Location=Rome, one of the most beautiful and historic cities in the world!

Proximity= A really long flight ( random google search gave me about 18-24 hrs including layover) away from home.

Campus Size=Very small

Scholarship=I don't know yet

Religous Affilliation=None, but Rome is a very Catholic city.



So I really do want to go to Rome - but it's so expensive and it would be really scary! I don't know what I'm going to do. I might go to AUR for a year and then transfer back to BYU or another U.S. college. I want to major in Art History, later go on to get my Ph.D, and later then that work in a museum. My stepdad told me to contact some college level Art History profs, I emailed about 6 or 7 and heard back from three - one voted for Rome, one for BYU, and another told me neither, so it didn't really help that much, lol. What do you think? Where should I go to college? (Lori, you are probably the only one that will read this - so I should just say Lori, where should I go to college? hahahaha)

sixes

Miss Couturable openly tagged everyone who read her blog to share 6 unimportant things about themselves, and since I haven't blogged in a week and I don't really have anything too pressing on my mind, I thought I would do it.

Rules
1/ you link back to the person who tagged you.
2/ post these rules on your blog.
3/ share six unimportant things about yourself.

1. I hate chinese food. The smell of it makes me sick.

2. Watching Footloose or Grease instantly puts me into a really good mood. If I am ever grumpy - tell me to go watch Footloose, lol.

3. I love watching ballets. I think it is the most graceful and beautiful thing one can do with one's body.

4. My latest guilty pleasure is answering questions on Yahoo Answers! It makes me feel smart when I can answer the history questions!

5. Lately I have been thinking about what I will name my children (who knows why, ha I don't even know if I will have children!), and I have decided it would be super cool to name my girls Audrey and Elisabeth after two of my favorite woman artists - Audrey Flack (super-realism) and Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun (Roccocco, she did the portraits of Marie Antoinette!) and a boy Marc after one of my absolute favorites Marc Chagall (surrealism/fantasy).

6. I just looked over at a Gaudi poster I have in my room, and I decided my 6th random fact will be that I love Gaudi! Even before I knew anything about art or architecture or Art Nouveau I loved Gaudi! His stuff is just so cool and unique, when I visited his Park Guell it reminded me of disneyland! Gaudi is awesome.

Well there are my 6 unimportant facts, this was a lot harder than I thought it would be!