Its the end of February in Aussie...

And I wish my birthday was on the 29th of Feb. but unfortunately it isn't. So I have to face every year and add it to my list of years. Nevertheless I thought I would finish the month and our trip to Switzerland and Austria with Marc Chagall and his efforts found in Zurich and Vienna.
 Once again the artist has changed his style as he progressed as a successful artist, I was used to seeing him only doing fantasy ceilings such as in the Paris Opera house or the Opera House in New York. But there are always surprises in store!






A view from his bedroom window I could have described as the view from ours in Tuscany some trips before. But after this effort I found myself pleased to have found Chagall's style to have progressed to the fantasy methods...how? And why? Only he knows.

 Was it his experience in romance and religion as he chose to picture his inner feelings in his Art?







Or perhaps the wars of the world and the destruction of life posed many unanswered
questions to him? The situation and frustration he could only picture in his work.


Press on each picture to enlarge! Perhaps he loved colour and felt love between people would solve all.

More favourites....with a bit of gossip!

Can my memory go back that far? Yes it can. Suddenly I see artists, their work displayed on the walls of the Leopold museum in Vienna, yet representing parts of Germany, the Germany I knew as a child growing up.

Gabriele Munter, 1877-1962, painted this image of Murnau am Staffelsee and immediately I thought of my three sisters who had gone to the Gymnasium (High school) there. And on reading about Ms Munter I recalled how she loved Bavaria so much (the south of Germany) that she lived for some time in a defacto relationship with another artist in our village, Kochel am See, near the Austrian border. The artist with whom she had the affair was Kandinsky, Russian in origin, a lover of great colours also, one of the originators of the Blue Rider Circle. I was lucky enough to find a publication by
Annagret Hoberg, 160 pages with 86 illustrations, 49 in colour, displaying their work and lives together in Bavaria.

 Franz Marc, another famous artist has an art
gallery also in Kochel am See as he lived and worked there for some time, around the beginning of the C20th. My mother had several of his paintings which found their way to Australia in 1956 with our migration but then
to our regret my eldest sister on moving to France in 1959 felt she had to take some of these paintings with her.

The picture on the left was a colourful example of Wassily Kandinsky's work. To me his work looks very similar to the artistry of Gabriele Munter or seeing Wassily Kandinsky was holding art lessons in Kochel and having several students, perhaps Gabriele Munter couldn't avoid having a similar style.

 The Leopold gallery briefly recognised the
work of Christian Rohlfs, 'The King of the Potato Pancakes' circa 1909 which was embroidery with woollen threads...a technique of which three pictures done more recently now hang on my walls. (not by this artist).

Conrad Felix-Muller, Dresden 1897-1977, showed his skill with water colour on paper when in 1924 he created 'The Poet'. The striking colours and the stress or concern reflected on the face of the poet make this a memorable artwork.





And so a much ignored yet extremely talented artist, Lyonel
Feininger, New York 1825-1956 NY., he presented as a fine pencil sketcher as well as a magnificent artist.

 This was the train, the Locomotive with the Big Wheel, of 1910...images I could be sure to be recognised by the youngest in our family, both keen observers of our visit to any museum in Austria.

 This beautiful flower arrangement  with its striking colours painted by Emile Nolde I couldn't pass by without
letting everyone see it. Perhaps you love it as much as I do especially on or near St. Valentine's Day.

A painting of flowers such as this says it all and what's more will keep for ever!

Click on the images to enlarge!

You've seen the recipe book and....

...now it's time to see some more paintings that Picasso left behind in the Zurich Museum. Of course we've been to Arles in France where we had the chance to spend some hours in the gallery which Picasso created with his money. Of course it wasn't filled only with his work but it was meant as a memorial to his artistry. So here are some more. You can decide if you want to enlarge the pictures by clicking on them. I was often surprised at the colours and at the figurative display...one person...maybe two...maybe more. If you give them the time you may see the reward you didn't expect.

 OMG! Where is the reward in these you might ask?

Ugly to some but perhaps they require some understanding of the shapes and the perspective he saw.

 Then again the colours are what make the picture attractive in the first place. Or maybe it is all very personal. His original artistry expressed in the picture presented of a lovely young female in my previous Blog entry is more like one expects from an artist. And it is difficult not to like better than his cubist imaging which came later.

Don't forget to click on the images to enlarge.

Remember that word...mensuration?

I certainly can't! There is a similar word...different spelling...very different meaning...and nothing to do with men. Right, now that we are quite clear on that. It just shows you that reading Zoltan Kovacs column 'Opinion' in the Weekend Western Australian can leave you a little more educated even if the word used means nothing to you. But according to the President of the Society of Pedants (WA) this word means : the mathematics of measuring areas, lengths and volumes. And this brings me to the point of knowing the value of travelling...in this case...travelling to Vienna, Austria, and marching up and down the long corridors of the museums available to all. And it is not an occasion of catching up with the latest exhibitions of artists, their work on display, inviting your comment and understanding
but just sometimes a little bit extra is offered.

And it is not a case of the blind leading the blind. In fact, as I stumbled on what I thought to be one of the first computer designs ever, not to be used in 'mensuration' but in the mechanised computation of various basic arithmetical operations and primarily used for land surveying calculations, I asked myself, why couldn't it have been used for mensuration?

Anton Braun,1686, active at the Viennese Court created this pinwheel machine and dedicated it to the Emperor CharlesVI. As the photo shows the device was gilded and partially made of tinned brass. It was known as a calculator. But that wasn't all that caught my eye and started me thinking.


There appeared the interactive frog
made by Robert Wilson 2008 which depending

on how the viewer moves and in which direction the move, the frog will react with the opening and closing of eyes, lip movements as well as the usual frog sounds.







 Then again who on this earth would have the patience to make a sculpture out of thousands of dice...don't ask me what it represents but a dice has numbers on each side and is only a certain small size. something for the gambler in us!





And have you ever seen a picture if Van Gogh with his ear bandaged?

Or Marc Chaggall's  painting of St. Nicholas leaving the cathedral with his bag full of gifts?










It must have been done before his fantasy period.

And would you recognise this wonderful young woman as having been painted by Picasso? Again the cubist era was still in the future.
So travelling and museum searching does have its small surprises for the tourists.

Leopold!

Who ? Oh the Leopold Museum. I can't explain why the name Leopold was given to this museum but it doesn't really matter. It was well and truly worth visiting.

Even if we were a little early before the doors opened.

The choice was there...even if I did indulge my interest in Street photography from the windows ...sometimes.

 It is a bird's eye viewing but the whole square was a site for museums of all kinds.



As advertised there was much to look at! Not to leave out the style of seating for those interested in sitting and contemplating the meaning of all on the walls.



Was the subject filling in a little time by having his apple before he took the museum on? Perhaps! I'll never know.

 The maps of
Vienna took my interest too.


In the C19th...to the massive
increase in size in 1903.

Not travelling far...but in these temperatures...the ice melting...it was almost a pleasure!

Yes the Karl's Kirche or Charles' Church was within walking distance from the Dom of St. Stephens. This time two great pillars carrying inscriptions and drawings welcomed us. But we had to find the back entrance around the corner to be allowed to use the built-in lift which would take us 3/4 of the way up and up and up...in a most civilized manner...paying at the cash box of course.

Once there we stepped out of the lift to find a series of man-made steps, broad planks rather and held up by a network of scaffolding. Warnings were everywhere and in all sorts of languages that these structures were not to be tempered with or jumped upon etc. etc.
Full of confidence we started off to make our way up through the ceiling. Every now and then I was able to take a photo through the wired windows. The colourful stone work we left below us. We could explore the inner church later.

 To our surprise our climbing was more than adequately rewarded when we reached the top to find ourselves to be surrounded by enormous paintings of religious images covering the ceilings and walls.There were cherubs everywhere surrounded by smiling and welcoming presences.

 We almost believed that we had reached heaven...ALMOST!