The Magic of the Cities.

Zen promotes the rediscovery of the obvious, which is so often lost in its familiarity and simplicity. It sees the miraculous in the common and magic in our everyday surroundings. When we are not rushed, and our minds are unclouded by conceptualizations, a veil will sometimes drop, introducing the viewer to a world unseen since childhood. ~ John Greer

Friday, July 30, 2010

Monochrome


Rhinocerus by Henri Alfred Jacquemart 1878 (Musée d'Orsay)



Everything has been figured out, except how to live.
Jean-Paul Sartre

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New York, Washington, Paris, Vienna, Eisenstadt, Venice, Firenze and Rome series try to continue in Sketches of Cities. 
 (At Least Once A Week)
Gracias por su visita. / Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Parisian Walkways

Street  Performers
Avenue de l'Opéra

Place Saint Michel
Place du Pont Neuf


 
Rivière by Aristide Maillol  1943

Jardin des Tuileries
Jardin des Tuileries, Concorde
In the West. Place du Carrousel Jardin des Tuileries stretches over a length of 920 m and a width of 325 m to the Place de la Concorde, between rue de Rivoli and the Quai des Tuileries. Its area is 25.5 hectares.
The eastern and Carrousel gardens, between the two galleries of the Louvre, was founded in 1889 on the site of the former garden of Le Notre, buried under the rubble of the Tuileries Palace. We are created in 1964-1965 a "outdoor museum" containing 19 * bronze statues of the sculptor Aristide Maillol Roussillon (18611944) in N. Lawn, Action chained, River, Night, the Mediterranean, Homage to Cezanne, Venus, Pomona, the dregs of France, draped Bather; in S. Lawn, nymphs, the Monument in Port-Vendres, Air, Summer, Flora, the Bather with arms raised , Pain, Mountain (donation Dina Viemy).
The old part of the Tuileries, between the Avenue du General Lemonnier and the Concorde, is surrounded by gates.

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New York, Washington, Paris, Vienna, Eisenstadt, Venice, Firenze and Rome series try to continue in Sketches of Cities. 
 (At Least Once A Week)
Gracias por su visita. / Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all.

Monday, July 26, 2010

The Centre Pompidou

Centre Pompidou, Le Forum (2040m2) 
Entrance
L'Adieu by Henri Laurens (Terrasse)
Woman sculpture on Terrasse
 

Composition With Two Parrots by Fernand Leger 1935-39.
Guerrilla Girls
Identité by Piotr Kowalski

Background
The Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou was the brainchild of President Georges Pompidou who wanted to create an original cultural institution in the heart of Paris completely focused on modern and contemporary creation, where the visual arts would rub shoulders with theatre, music, cinema, literature and the spoken word. Housed in the centre of Paris in a building designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, whose architecture symbolises the spirit of the 20th century, the Centre Pompidou first opened its doors to the public in 1977. After renovation work from 1997 to December 1999, it opened to the public again on 1 January 2000, with expanded museum space and enhanced reception areas. Since then it has once again become one of the most visited attractions in France. Some 6 million people pass through the Centre Pompidou's doors each year, a total of over 190 million visitors in its 30 years of existence.

The Building
Under the rules of the competition, the architectural project had to meet the criteria of interdisciplinarity, freedom of movement and flow, and an open approach to exhibition areas. The competition was won by two young architects: the Italian Renzo Piano and British designer Richard Rogers who proposed a constraint-free architecture in the spirit of the 1960s. The supporting structure and movement and flow systems, such as the escalators, were relegated to the outside of the building, thereby freeing up interior space for museum and activity areas. Colour-coded ducts are attached to the building's west façade, as a kind of wrapping for the structure: blue for air, green for fluids, yellow for electricity cables and red for movement and flow. The transparency of the west main façade allows people to see what is going on inside the centre from the piazza, a vast esplanade that the architects conceived of as an area of continuity, linking the city and the centre. The centre quickly fell victim to the unexpected scale of its success. With some seven million visitors per year, the building aged prematurely and had to close in October 1997 for 27 months. During this time 70,000 m² were renovated and 8,000 m² added, mainly to display collections. This was possible by relocating the offices outside the centre. When it reopened on 1 January 2000, the centre was an immediate, overwhelming public success again, testifying to the public's inseparable attachment to the site and its spirit. [Centre Pompidou]
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New York, Washington, Paris, Vienna, Eisenstadt, Venice, Firenze and Rome series try to continue in Sketches of Cities. 
 (At Least Once A Week)
Gracias por su visita. / Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The Seine II

Astronomy Domine
Le Seigneur des étoiles
Jean-Charles de Castelbajac 2010
Installation
(Lord of  The Stars)
Le Seigneur des étoiles

Astronomy Domine
Lime and limpid green
a second scene,
A fight between the blue
you once knew.
Floating down the sound resounds
Around the icy waters underground
Jupiter and Saturn
Oberon Miranda and Titania
Neptune Titan
Stars can frighten...you

Blinding signs flap flicker flicker flicker
Blam pow pow
Stairway scare Dan Dare,who's there?

Lime and limpid green
The sound surrounds the icy waters under
Lime and limpid green
The sound surrounds the icy waters
Underground
Syd Barrett (Pink Floyd)



Notre Dame

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New York, Washington, Paris, Vienna, Eisenstadt, Venice, Firenze and Rome series try to continue in Sketches of Cities. 
 (At Least Once A Week)
Gracias por su visita. / Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Seine I

Faraway, So Close!
In the background,  the Pont des Arts or Passerelle des Arts is a pedestrian bridge wich crosses the Seine River.
It links the Institut de France and the central square (cour carrée) of the Palais du Louvre.
“Under a blazing mid-afternoon summer sky, we see the Seine flooded with sunshine . . .
 people are strolling, others are sitting or stretched out lazily on the bluish grass.”   
Georges Seurat.





The waters of the River Seine have always been the heart and soul of Paris, dating back to the days when the Parisii tribe first established a fishing village on the island now known as Île de la Cité — between 250 and 200 B.C. Prized for its position as a major inland port, Paris has been invaded, occupied, and conquered by its share of foreigners over the course of two millennia, many of whom arrived by this waterway. The last major invasion by water occurred between 885 and 886 A.D., when 30,000 Norman pirates in 700 ships sailed up the Seine, only to find it valiantly defended by Comte Eudes.
Ever since the days of the Roman Empire, when Paris prospered through extensive river trading and expanded to the Left Bank, the Seine has been a great commercial artery, linked by canals to the Loire, Rhine, and Rhône rivers. Officially established as the capital city by Clovis, king of the Franks (who defeated the Roman governor of Gaul and established the Merovingian dynasty), Paris evolved into a cultural center and a showcase of glorious architecture.
It is appropriate that the center of Paris — particularly that section gracing the Seine around Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis — features some of the city's oldest and most majestic historic monuments. (discoverfrance.net)



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New York, Washington, Paris, Vienna, Eisenstadt, Venice, Firenze and Rome series try to continue in Sketches of Cities. 
 (At Least Once A Week)
Gracias por su visita. / Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Parisian Pixels

Centre Pompidou (Dreamlands Exhibition)
Forum des Halles 
The Map 2 (Rue Pierre Lescot)
Paris Authentic 
Under The Roofs of Paris

Centre Pompidou
Essay

Live every act fully, as if it were your last.
                                           -   Buddha


Life would be much easier if I had the source code.
                                             -   Unknown
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New York, Washington, Paris, Vienna, Eisenstadt, Venice, Firenze and Rome series try to continue in Sketches of Cities. 
 (At Least Once A Week)
Gracias por su visita. / Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Musée d'Orsay

Metro





Noon: Rest from Work (After Millet) 
Self Portrait. 1889 Vincent van Gogh
Portrait de la Baronne Robert de Domecy. 1900 Odilon Redon

One must work and dare if one really wants to live.
- Vincent van Gogh
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New York, Washington, Paris, Vienna, Eisenstadt, Venice, Firenze and Rome series try to continue in Sketches of Cities. (At Least Once A Week)
Gracias por su visita. / Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all.