Dali House

“Une âme au ciel” (”A Soul in Heaven”) by William Bouguereau, 1878
Click the image to see it much larger.

Pretty feisty bunch down at the Art Renewal Centre, where they’re giddily passionate about the 19th-century realists and won’t spare a poop for anything more modern. Cantankerously building barricades in preparation for an anticipated jihad against the Establishment is Fred Ross, the centre’s chairman, who’s got a major rant going on that seems almost perverse in the way it’s trying to turn art history upside down. But, he has his points (and some terrific art to back him up). See the rest.

Oh, I’ve just received an email from alert reader Lydia with that same bizarre painting featured in my post “Great moments in picture framing”. Apparently it’s more audacious “art” by Thomas Kinkade, who I was busy slamming right about that time. Must have seen the drizzly piece on a website selling his sh– er, talent. See the rest.

Many, many and, yes, many websites and blogs have taken turns harrumphing over the 2004 list of history’s “most influential modern artworks”, but Dali House is joining the list because everyone else gave up in disgust after viewing the first three entries in the Top 10. Here’s the lot, and besides, I don’t see any cause for harrumphing. See the rest.

As well as the great art that catches my fancy and the assorted curiosities of creativity that life tosses my way, Dali House is a shrine to my influences, and though he doesn’t appear in any books on art history, Jon Gnagy is one of them.
He taught me to draw, as he did millions of other kids who saw him on TV back in the ’50s and ’60s. Starting 60 years ago next month, he was, in fact, television’s first art instructor, a genuine pioneer. See the rest.

Got a sunny friend in sunny California, Terri, who shares my affection for sidewalk art and sent me these samples of the work of another contender besides American Kurt Wenner for the World’s Best title, Englishman Julian Beever. See the rest.