 |
EnjoyingEnglish® Arts&Entertainment.
Crazy paving: Britain's top street artist will cheer you up with his amazing 3D illusions
By
Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:17 PM on 13th August 2011
From white-water rafting in a
shopping centre to an encounter with the world’s biggest butterfly,
these amazing images have all been created using nothing more than chalk
and a lot of imagination.
The work of British street-artist Julian Beever, the pictures use a technique known as ‘anamorphia’.
This means they are drawn in two dimensions, but when seen from a particular angle they appear three dimensional.
Beever,
who was born in Melton Mowbray, Leics, has been travelling the world
for 15 years creating the scenes, which have been collected in a new
book, Pavement Chalk Artist.
Taking the plunge: The Montreal steps are real, but the water pouring down them is an illusion
Down the drain: The artist gets himself into the
perfect position in this set-up in Brussels so it's hard to spot the
hose and water are a drawing
Hold tight: The artist takes a spectator white water rafting, in Charleston, West Virginia
Flight of fancy: The butterfly looks ready to
land, even casting a shadow, yet look how far away the crowd have to
stand not to step on it
Fall guy: All the scaffolding and even the boards Julian Beever is kneeling on are drawn in challk in this photo from Vienna
Hang on: In 'Barrowford Mill' the boy clings to a real pole in the ground fusing the real world with the image
Something fishy: It all looks real until you notice the lines of the paving slabs. The girl, in Lisbon, IS real
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025506/Britains-pavement-artist-Julian-Beever-cheer-depressing-week.html#ixzz1Uw7WIfixA lost Michelangelo? Art scholar claims controversial find in Oxford
By Rob Sharp, Arts Correspondent
The painting, bought in the 1930s, was previously attributed to Marcello Venusti
A respected Italian art scholar claims to
have identified a previously unknown painting by Michelangelo at the
University of Oxford.
Antonio Forcellino, a veteran Italian conservator, made international
headlines last month when he backed a wealthy New York family's claim that a
painting they had stored behind their sofa was by the Renaissance master.
Now Forcellino says new research techniques applied to a piece owned by
Campion Hall, an institution which allows religious scholars to study at
Oxford, has revealed it to be an authentic Michelangelo.
Crucifixion With The Madonna, St John And Two Mourning Angels was believed to
have been a work by Marcello Venusti, one of Michelangelo's contemporaries.
"You can immediately see the difference between this work and that of
Venusti," said Mr Forcellino, who used infra-red techniques to study
layers beneath the finished painting. He writes in his new book, The Lost
Michelangelos, that "no one but Michelangelo could have painted such a
masterpiece".
While most of the headlines accompanying Mr Forcellino's book have focused on
his discovery in the US, none have mentioned his British find.
"The figure of Christ was in a wholly different league... the modelling
was stronger, and the painting and facial expression had a clarity that
created the impression of an artist of much greater standing," writes
Mr Forcellino.
The hall bought the painting at a Sotheby's auction in the 1930s. According to
the hall's master, Brendan Callaghan, scholarship until now had attributed
the work to Venusti. Mr Callaghan said: "If true, the painting would go
from being one member of our fine collection to the most exciting part of
it. It could not remain within our four walls." The work is being cared
for by Oxford's Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology.
Mr Forcellino claimed London's National Gallery continued to attribute the
work to Venusti "out of embarrassment" that they had not
identified it. A National Gallery spokeswoman said the gallery did not
comment on works not held in its collection.
The Michelangelo painting of Jesus and Mary identified in New York had been
placed behind a sofa after being knocked off the wall by a tennis ball.
The Experts
Antonio Forcellino is one of the world's leading authorities on
Michelangelo and an expert art historian and restorer. He has been involved
in the restoration of numerous masterpieces, including Michelangelo's Moses.
In 2009 he wrote a biography on the artist and his work – Michelangelo: A
Tormented Life retraces the master's journey from Rome to Florence, explores
his changing religious views and examines the complicated politics of
patronage in Renaissance Italy. He has also written The Lost Michelangelos,
which used historical research, restoration and radiographic analysis to
trace two paintings to Michelangelo's studio.
Exhibit offers fresh look at Leonardo da Vinci
 Jon Hurdle
If it's hard to grasp the genius
of Leonardo da Vinci, it may be because he left no working models of the
drawings that showed his intimate grasp of fields ranging from
engineering to botany and anatomy. But Philadelphia's Franklin
Institute is hosting an exhibition that explains his paintings and the
construction and operation of his famous inventions using newly created
models as well as dazzling touch-screen technology.
"Leonardo da Vinci's Workshop," which runs from Saturday until May
22, examines his flying machines, weapons of war, robots and other
mechanical devices by using computer graphics to create
three-dimensional pictures of the items that in their original form are
represented only by drawings in the artist notebooks.
"The genius of Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest mind of the
Renaissance, springs to life in this much heralded exhibit from Italy,"
the institute said on its website.
It added that for the first time new discoveries about "The Last Supper," one of his most famous paintings, will be unveiled.
A digital restoration of the work highlights elements that had been
obscured by five centuries of deterioration, including plates of fish
and slices of orange on the table where Jesus and his disciples are
sitting. It also reveals a bell tower rising in the distance behind the
figure of Jesus.
The lack of halos on the figures of Jesus and the disciples
suggests that da Vinci was not a religious man and may even have had an
antagonistic relationship with the monks who commissioned the painting,
according to Mario Taddei, a co-curator of the exhibition.
"These are common people," Taddei said, referring to the figures in the painting.
The exhibit also includes a giant crossbow, one of 1,780 drawings
in the Codex Atlanticus, da Vinci's largest collection of inventions,
that can be selected from a touch screen.
The screen shows a replica of the drawing in the notebook,
alongside the left-handed inventor's famous right-to-left handwriting.
But the touch of a visitor's finger on the notebook draws out a much
larger 3D representation of the device which can be rotated and examined
from all angles.
Another touch illustrates its moving parts.
The touch screens allow visitors to flip the pages of the artist's
notebooks as if they were paper copies, and to select any drawings of
interest for closer inspection.
Another screen can deconstruct, reassemble and present a
three-dimensional representation of the mechanical lion, a complex
machine the artist made as a gift to the King of France in 1515.
The lion is also represented as a large wooden model that has been
created by the exhibition's curators Leonardo3, a Milan, Italy-based
company dedicated to research and media related to the artist and
inventor. Painter buys old set of negatives for £30 at garage sale... but 10 years later expert values them at £128 MILLION
Their owner said the old set of negatives was worth £50.
So Rick Norsigian thought he had a bargain when he managed to haggle down to £30. Just imagine his joy, then, when he had them valued ten years later and was told that their true worth was £128.5million.
Priceless: Painter Rick Norsigian picked up a set of 65 negatives for just £30 - only to find they were worth £128.5million The 65 negatives from the 1920s and 1930s are the work of acclaimed U.S. nature photographer Ansel Adams, experts say.
Mr Norsigian, a painter, found the 6.5 x 8.5in glass plates at a California garage sale.
When he turned them into prints, his relatives suggested that they resembled Adams’s work.
Unwanted: The prints were in a garage sale and relatives suggested they resembled the work of nature photographer Ansel Adams 
Some find: Mr Norsigian was actually looking for an antique chair before stumbling across the negatives But it took years of painstaking research before experts said they were sure - and a Beverly Hills gallery
revealed their astronomical value.
Mr Norsigian said: ‘These
photographs take your breath away. But it is even more meaningful to
finally confirm what I believed in my heart when I saw the images for
the first time.'
Reward: Rick Norsigian with one of
the prints. Many of the images have never been printed before and are
of scenes from the 1920s and 1930s 
Authentic: Mr Norsigian has
carefully researched Ansel Adams' work before experts revealed they
were the work of the nature photographer Elusive fish shot wins 2010 underwater photo prize (8 pictures)
Gallery (10 pictures): Underwater robot films Sahara seamounts off the Canary islands
1 / 8 Winner: Black-faced blenny by Arthur Kingdon
'This
black-faced blenny (also known as a yellow triple fin) was under
Swanage pier, Dorset, in June 2009. Although only about three inches
long, he was quite easy to spot, but it took me a while to spot the
very well camouflaged female that he was trying to impress'
Photograph: Arthur Kingdon/The Wildlife Trusts
Charles Darwin film 'too controversial for religious America'
By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor
Published: 4:53PM BST 11 Sep 2009
Charles Darwin: A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer.
 Paul Betty plays Darwin PHOTO: ALLSTAR
Creation, starring Paul Bettany, details Darwin's "struggle between faith and reason" as he wrote On The Origin of Species. It depicts him as a man who loses faith in God following the death of his beloved 10-year-old daughter, Annie.
The film was chosen to open the Toronto Film Festival and has its British premiere on Sunday. It has been sold in almost every territory around the world, from Australia to Scandinavia.
Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half-baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.
The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as "a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying".
Jeremy Thomas, the Oscar-winning producer of Creation, said he was astonished that such attitudes exist 150 years after On The Origin of Species was published. "That's what we're up against. In 2009. It's amazing," he said.
"The film has no distributor in America. It has got a deal everywhere else in the world but in the US, and it's because of what the film is about. People have been saying this is the best film they've seen all year, yet nobody in the US has picked it up.
"It is unbelievable to us that this is still a really hot potato in America. There's still a great belief that He made the world in six days. It's quite difficult for we in the UK to imagine religion in America. We live in a country which is no longer so religious. But in the US, outside of New York and LA, religion rules.
"Charles Darwin is, I suppose, the hero of the film. But we tried to make the film in a very even-handed way. Darwin wasn't saying 'kill all religion', he never said such a thing, but he is a totem for people."
Creation was developed by BBC Films and the UK Film Council, and stars Bettany's real-life wife Jennifer Connelly as Darwin's deeply religious wife, Emma. It is based on the book, Annie's Box, by Darwin's great-great-grandson, Randal Keynes, and portrays the naturalist as a family man tormented by the death in 1851 of Annie, his favourite child. She is played in the film by 10-year-old newcomer Martha West, the daughter of The Wire star Dominic West.
Early reviews have raved about the film. The Hollywood Reporter said: "It would be a great shame if those with religious convictions spurned the film out of hand as they will find it even-handed and wise."
Mr Thomas, whose previous films include The Last Emperor and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, said he hoped the reviews would help to secure a distributor. In the UK, special screenings have been set up for Christian groups.
Environmental photographer of the year 2009 (25 pictures)
Radiologist turns scans into art
A radiologist has turned scans of his patients' hearts, teeth and other body parts into works of art. 2009.08.23.
Kai-hung Fung maps various organs using 3D computed tomography (CT) scans. After feeding the data into a computer, he adds colour to his works using a method he invented called the 'rainbow technique'. But he makes no other alterations, preferring a pure picture of what body parts really look like.
He said: "The pictures I create are generated directly from the medical 3D workstation, representing what I see on it. I do not use software such as Adobe Photoshop to further change the image. "My aim is to preserve the direct relationship between the data and the artwork. "It is a true integration of art, science and technology and can be studied both scientifically and enjoyed as a visual art.
"The imagery is packed with information. Each line or point represents specific anatomical structures in the body in normal or diseased state. It creates an unusual perspective." Since he started producing his works at Pamela Youde Nethersole Easter Hospital in Hong Kong they have been shown in galleries across the world.
Proceeds from sales of his pieces are donated to charity.
Chalk in three dimensions: the pavement art of Kurt Venners
Master street artist Kurt Wenner's creations on cobbles and pavements across the world may look like they have been dug into the ground...
Capturing the 19th Century, photographs of the 1800s at the British Library
A new free exhibition at the British Library in London collects over 250 rarely-seen images from the dawn of photography. See www.bl.uk/pointsofview for more information
Antoine Jean François Claudet, Portrait of William Henry Fox Talbot, early 1840s.
William Henry Fox Talbot was a brilliant scholar in many fields - including mathematics, etymology, botany and physics - but he is today most remembered as the inventor of the negative/positive photographic process known as the calotype, which formed the basis of almost all photography up to the advent of the digital age. Ironically the most successful portraits of Talbot were taken using his main rival Daguerre¡¯s more financially successful process.
(Daguerreotype)
Fox Talbot's home was Lacock Abbey, Laycock in Wiltshire. It is a beautiful village, and his former home contains a fascinating Museum of Photography.
YouTube symphony orchestra heads to Carnegie Hall
Ninety-six musicians from 33 countries have come together in New York to create musical harmony when the YouTube symphony orchestra makes its world debut at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday evening. 15 Apr 2009.
Video: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/5157542/YouTube-symphony-orchestra-heads-to-Carnegie-Hall.html
|
 |
enlarge
1 / 8 
1 / 25
