Alex Webb brief

Bill
11/1/17

Alex Webb, one of my favorite American street photographers known for his magical composition he has been showing in his works, and he is a associate member of Magnum Photos as well. Webb documented the everyday life of suburb at southern United States with black-and-white films in the mid of '70s but he became famous when he began to use color films and went on trip to different countries for his works in 1978.

CUBA. 2001. Havana. Street scene

Webb wanders on the streets like all street photographers do, but he certainly have a sense of how to compose massive elements in one small frame. The Composition in every picture stands out strong and the each background itself is really interesting without the figure in the picture. Webb's photo always precisely capture the moment that is sort of surreal or super natural in the reality; the using of colors is absolutely dramatic (contrast of cold and warm tones).

2001. Istanbul. Outside of the Blue Mosque during Ramadan.

USA.1989. Fort Pierce, FL.

GRENADA. 1979. GOUAYAVE. BAR.

HAITI. 1987. Port-au-Prince. Elections

HAITI. 1986. Cite Soleil

PANAMA. 2004. Pinogana. Along the river.

Masks

Bill
10/25/17

Greek Tragedy masks

 Greek masks are very distinctive, their facial features are extremely exaggerated for actors' dramatic performance.

The mouths of Greek masks are usually limited to certain sizes because they have to be small enough to hide actors' mouth.

Greek Comedy Masks

Laocoon Brief

Bill
10/17/17

Laocoon is a Greek statue made of marbles and it is considered to one of the greatest and most ancient statue that is unearthed in Rome. The statue is life-size and done by three Greek sculptors, depicting the scene in which the Trojan priest Laocoon and his two sons, Antiphantes and Thymbraeus, being twisted by sea serpents. The body movements and facial expressions of the human figures of the statue highly emphasize the suffering, especially for Laocoon himself: his body parts are twisting and straining. Multiple versions of the history behind are various; it is not mentioned by Homer. Laocoon, in Virgil's Aeneid (which actually came out later than the statue), is Poseidon's priest who is punished to death be after he trying to expose the Trojan Horse tactic. Another version goes that he is killed because he had sex in the temple of Poseidon. Moreover, in Greek tragedian Sophocles's play, Laocoon is the priest of Apollo who is supposed to stay celibate but he get married. Therefore his sons are killed for the punishment and he is left alone suffering.  

                                         Laocoon, 1504 (excavated) 6'10'' × 5' 4'' × 3'8''

                                                         Laocoon's head

                                               Head of Laocoon's son, Antiphantes

                                                        Head of the younger son, Thymbraeus

Greek Theater brief

Bill
10/10/17

Greek Theater originated in Athens initially from dances performed in the purpose of worshiping the god called Dionysos; The other two main dramatic genres, Greek Tragedy and Greek Comedy then emerged and flourished in late 500 BC. Dramatic performances in the city of Athens were usually held in a uptrend semi-circle space known as orchestra, where the chorus danced and performed the plays with music.

The round-shape plate designed to create acoustics so that actors voices could be heard clearly. The theatron (where audience seat) was created in the idea of "gathering"people, bringing them together to the play, which happened in the center. 

The visual art emergence came from the mask; It was significant to Athenian's cult of Dionysus and it was also important to actors who play certain roles on the stage. Moreover, when actors put on the masks, the audience could sense the emotional movement--panic, dread, tragic--through those very expressive facial expression and exaggerated features on the masks. A Mask was made of light-weight materials, and the mouth opening size was small enough in order to hide the actor's mouth while the whole area of the mask was big enough to cover the actor's entire face. By that It allowed actors to immerse in their roles.   

                                  Mosaic, theatrical mask for tragedy and comedy

                                                        Mask samples
The theater of ancient Greece represents the earliest form of theatrical performing art in western civilization; its cultural influence affect the military and politic power and the social interactions of people. Greek shared the theater culture in the form of festival celebration (Dionysus cult) to its colonies and surrounding city states; the theater was their ways of speaking and communicating.

Ares Pics

Bill
10/2/17

Ares, Head 

Mars, Head, Roman counterpart.

Mars, muscular male statue.

Ares. 

Ares, 5.5" W X 4" D X 12.5" H

Mars.

Ares, Sat Statue

Ares Greek Myth

Bill Wu
9/27/17

Ares the god of war was one of the Olympian deities who represented the row violence, and untamed aspects of war. He was in charge of war all over the world; in other words he was the symbol and spirit of battle and aggressiveness--his worships was not widely extended in Greece. He was the son of the chief god, Zeus, and the queen of the Olympian gods, Hera, the legitimate mate of Aphrodite.

Ares, though not very popular globally, was quite a concern in certain region, especially in north area of Greece. His worship was considered cult since it was devoid of love, civilization, ethic, law or other positive connection toward the mortal world like other major gods, however, he was offered up sacrifices by people at Sparta in Laconia; a tempo was built for him at the foot of Areopagus, the mountain hill where met the highest council in ancient Athens.

God of Mars, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The counterpart of Ares in Roman Mythology, the second only to the roman chief god, Jupiter, however, was considered as a virtuous symbol: a figure of martial arts instead of row violence.  

Egyptian Art brief

Bill
9/19/17

Ancient Egypt civilization mostly based on Egyptians' religious belief on their Pharaohs. In the purpose of spiritually extending their rulers' lives, architectures, arts, literature, science and other essentials of civilization were firmly established. For about 3,000 years Egyptian art retained unchanged in the glory of their rulers; the
Egyptian believed that the pharaoh's spirit, alleged ka, was eternal so they stocked tombs for pharaohs to continue enjoying their glory and perpetuity;  much of knowledge of ancient Egypt were known through the surviving tombs that are discovered.

Many forms of art are applied to display deceased's life and to provide dwelling places for the spirit: detailed works such as hieroglyphics and wall paintings reveal every aspects of daily life; portrait statues are built to be alternative places for the ka of pharaohs if their body corpses deteriorated. How big the human figure is on the painting determines the social position of the person, thus pharaohs are commonly presented as giants. Portrait statues are made of hard materials to last permanently. The pose of the figure is symmetrical and frontal.

The belief of life force are substantiated in various forms of art, and those art forms are displayed in different ways. One of the most representatives is mummy: the Egyptians preserve the body of a pharaoh and using chemical techniques to mummify it. They extract organs and stuff the corpse and warp it in layers of bandages, then placed it in the coffin.