Dali House

I’m planning a string of posts on Canadian art, but I think I’ll begin with a Canadian art “scandal” that actually involved an American artwork.

In 1990, the National Gallery of Canada purchased “Voice of Fire”, a huge abstract painting by Barnett Newman, for $1.76 million. The media, the government and a big chunk of the public went postal for two months. We’ll get to my own take on the controversy, published at the time. See the rest.

“One of those days” is not the title of this picture of a man being built. (Or is he being disassembled?) It’s called “Block 2″, and it’s one of the many astounding photographic creations of David Ho from northern California. Apart from the ones reproduced below, you can see his work here.
See the rest.

The advertising-oriented site Surrealists.Classified has a “surrealist insult generator”, which laid the following curse on me: “Ceaselessly flapping at the eyelid lettuce – and may you perish like it!”
I’ve felt distinctly uncomfortable ever since.

Illusions of a different order are at work in these clever designs passed along by occasional Dali House guest Terri in California.

More modern, more wow: Édouard Manet’s “Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe” got a proper rogering in its own time and another one 120 years later by the British pop band Bow Wow Wow. Name your favourite and win!

A review in the Washington Post last month by San Francisco magazine’s Jonathon Keats of Ross King’s new book, “The Judgment of Paris”, paints an acute picture of salon intrigues at the dawn of impressionism. See the rest.