Contemporary Fresco Gazette

By the People, For the People at the Weisman

2008-05-13T15:41:10Z

Thousands of artists received funds through the Works Progress Administration and other New Deal programs during the 1930s and early 1940s. Some of the artists became household names--Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, and Cameron Booth, to name a few. Many others did not, but their work became part of the fabric of American culture in the form of post-office murals and handicrafts. By the People, For the People: New Deal Art at the Weisman offers up the full spectrum of work from this era.

]]> The show draws from the museum's impressive collection of New Deal art. It's organized by a mish-mash of aesthetic and topical themes: work and industry, abstraction, photography, the University and Minnesota, women. The themes only serve to underscore the premise of the show: that New Deal art encompassed far more than social realism. The Weisman folks even managed to come up with a few examples of Surrealism, which gives you an idea of how eclectic and interesting this show really is.

to full article

Kent Twitchell reflects on a recent settlement and vandalism

2008-05-03T23:41:11Z

Strother Martin Monument 1972, artist Kent Twitchell
photo by Ruth Wallach

Reading through some of the blogs responding to the LA Times story I see that there is still some misunderstanding about the graffiti issue. I only oppose spray paint when it is used to cover over murals or other public art. That is called vandalism and that alone is the reason "we cannot coexist" as I was correctly quoted as saying in the Times. It is the reason LA is no longer the mural capital. Once there were 2 - 3 thousand murals here and every one has been destroyed by spray paint. Either they were painted out because the vandalism became such a blight or they are still out there covered with spray paint and therefore just waiting to be coated over with beige paint.

Spray paint on murals has caused a slow redefinition of the exterior mural,
once an oasis in Los Angeles. Now many people see murals as ugly when actually it is the vandalism that is ugly. I'm not against artists who use spray paint in their work. I used it myself during 1962-63, but every muralist I know is demoralized by all of their works being destroyed by the stuff.

]]> Ernesto de la Losa is an example. He has devoted his life to painting beautiful murals in the city he loves. Vandals using cans of spray paint have now managed to destroy every brush stroke, every careful blend and every studied mixture of color and value and form that Ernesto has placed on every wall. It's as if Ernesto de la Losa never lived. That story is multiplied throughout Los Angeles
The issue is not about aesthetics. That's a straw argument. Let's just call spray paint on any wall art. There, that finishes that. So what? If I painted a work of art on the hood of your new car it's still vandalism and an act of utter disrespect for your rights. So whether it's art or not is irrelevant. Agreeing that it's art does not make it right. It's all a question of having respect, or at the very least consideration, for others. Still there is a growing number of people out there who believe it's our right to free expression to paint anywhere we want with or without permission. I run into that idea more and more. I believe that position is raised by people who surely can not have a capacity for empathy. What if one of the spray paint vandals they like to romanticize decided to paint all over their grandmother's house. Maybe they would blame her for complaining. Then what about on their new car? Maybe then they would start to care. Where does "free expression" end? At what point would they begin to have empathy for Ernesto and so many others? Maybe after they have some tags on their forehead.

Interview with Kent Twitchell, by TrueFresco.org and the FrescoSchool

Renowned Muralist Kent Twitchell Settles Art Desecration Lawsuit for $1.1 Million

2008-05-01T06:20:42Z

-Sheldon Mak Rose & Anderson spearheads settlement vindicating artists' rights

Pasadena, CA - Renowned artist and muralist Kent Twitchell, faculty member of the Fresco School, has settled his lawsuit against the U.S. Government and 12 other defendants for painting over his 70-foot tall landmark mural of Ed Ruscha, an important Los Angeles-based Pop artist. The settlement amount $1.1 million is believed to be the largest settlement ever under the seldom-invoked Federal Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) or the California Art Preservation Act (CAPA). VARA and CAPA forbid desecration, alteration, or destruction of certain public works of art without prior notice to the artist to allow for removal. The U.S. Government is contributing $250,000 to the settlement amount. William Brutocao, with the intellectual property law firm Sheldon Mak Rose & Anderson PC, served as Mr. Twitchell's lead trial attorney in this complex and legally-challenging case.

'This settlement sets an important precedent which will benefit other artists,' said Mr. Twitchell. 'This resolution makes it clear that when it comes to public art, you have to respect the artist's rights, or incur significant liability.' Both an artist and muralist, Mr. Twitchell is recognized for his larger-than-life realist mural portraits, often of celebrities and artists.

]]> 'This settlement sets an important precedent which will benefit other artists,' said Mr. Twitchell. 'This resolution makes it clear that when it comes to public art, you have to respect the artist's rights, or incur significant liability.' Both an artist and muralist, Mr. Twitchell is recognized for his larger-than-life realist mural portraits, often of celebrities and artists.

Mr. Brutocao said, 'This case involved important issues, such as how to put a price on a priceless work of art; the interplay of federal versus state law; the question of the ownership of the physical work; and the moral rights retained by the artist under VARA and CAPA.' Senior Counsel to the firm, Les Weinstein, and associate Eric Bjorgum worked closely with Mr. Brutocao.

Mr. Weinstein, Mr. Twitchell's longtime personal attorney, said, 'Kent Twitchell saw this as much more than an opportunity to simply vindicate his own rights. It was also the moment to sharply focus the scope and reach of VARA for the benefit of all artists.'

Between 1978 and 1987, Mr. Twitchell created the six-story tall landmark mural, 'Ed Ruscha Monument' on the building at 1031 S. Hill St. owned by the U.S. Department of Labor and occupied by the Job Corps. In 2006, as part of the building's repair, the mural was intentionally painted over. Mr. Twitchell sued under VARA and CAPA because he did not receive the legally required prior notification, which would have allowed him to make arrangements to preserve the mural.

Art consultants have determined that it may still be possible to salvage the 11,000 square-foot mural, although it may be difficult and expensive. 'The settlement gives Mr. Twitchell the option to restore and move the mural within the next year,' said Mr. Brutocao. 'Artists should be afforded similar options in advance as the law provides, rather than after great art is destroyed.'

Kent Twitchell painting his Ed Ruscha Monument

Sheldon Mak Rose & Anderson PC provides legal services in the areas of patents, copyrights and trademarks, trade secrets and IP-related litigation, both here and abroad to emerging and established businesses in an array of industries. Headquartered in Pasadena, the firm has offices in Upland, Riverside and Ventura.

The firm is located at 100 Corson Street, Third Floor

Pasadena, California 91103-3842
Phone is 626/796-4000; Fax: 626/795-6321
The firm's website is www.usip.com

Fresco Painting - Introduction

2008-04-07T23:11:03Z

In it's essence, fresco or fresco painting is an - application of natural mineral pigments to a surface on which a following chemical reaction takes place:

Ca(OH)2(s) + CO2(g) ----> CaCO3(s) + H2O(l)

Calcium Hydrate (burned lime stone or marble mixed with water) combined with carbon dioxide resulting in the formation of Calcium Carbonate - lime stone, marble. It is like "Painting with molten Marble".

]]> Those elements naturally surround mankind from the beginning of time. Calcium Hydrate - moist lime stone walls of the caves at first and plaster walls and ceilings of the buildings later. Paints prepared from natural pigments made of minerals, earth oxides and clays and mixed with water. Painting in Fresco results in a painting being a part of the newly formed stone/wall rather than being a "film on a surface".

This fact makes fresco the only pure "organic" or "green" method of painting - no solvents, glues or man-made materials are used. It is also most permanent method of painting which will not fade, flake off, etc. The aged crumbling look of old frescoes is a result of the damage to the wall surface, not the painting. Recently cleaned frescoes by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel are the great example of the permanence of the medium.

Fresco painting is a direct product of the desire of our species to communicate by visual means when the ?words are not enough or do not yet exist? and a desire to "leave a mark". A "Primal Graffiti" of our ancestors (wall paintings in Neolithic limestone caves) that have evolved into the Grand medium of the Empires and Nations. With earliest known examples from over 40,000 ago, fresco painting is the most practiced method of painting present in every culture and utilized by every known civilization for decorating of the most treasured environments, palaces, public places.

It is said that fresco painting is the logical link between architecture and decoration. During the Renaissance Fresco was regarded to as "The Mother of All Arts" this statement is as relevant today as it was then. Every culture and it's painting in particular is greatly influenced by fresco. Prior to "printing age" public buildings and common places, decorated with the wall paintings (frescoes), were the only sources from which people and artists specifically could learn about current painting techniques and styles as well as about the art techniques of the past - unearthed painting of Pompeii that survived centuries underground due to being true frescoes is just one example of that.

Visual reference provided by Frescoes led to overall development and refinement of the painting, drawing and composition techniques themselves. The magnificent frescoes of the Renaissance are the great example of the levels to which fresco painting has enabled artists to refine the art of painting. In fresco the artist has relatively short period of time to complete the painting while the chemical reaction is taking place, which is generally 6-12 hours (large works are done in sections proportionate to the area that can be completed in a day).

Fresco is a challenging medium - it does not allow for errors or corrections which require adequate level of the artistic and technical skill. Due to this fact paintings done in fresco are mainly created by the most significant artists of the time and consequently found in the most treasured environments. Being present in our lives from "the beginning of time" fresco paintings became the most recognized works of art throughout the world. Every culture and every nation does identify with the monuments of the past as their cultural roots. If the monument carries a painting it is most likely a fresco simply because that will be almost a requirement to last through the centuries or millennia.
_________________

Fresco Workshops and Programs:
http://www.FrescoSchool.org

from the world fresco news - March 2008

2008-04-06T05:33:19Z

A 1930s mural at SDSU, hidden for decades under ceiling tiles, is restored

Mallios hopes to parlay the momentum of this mural's successful restoration into a fundraising campaign for the other mural. It's an egg-tempera fresco that depicts each stage of the local tuna industry, and features Portuguese fishermen in Point Loma, women on an assembly line processing the fish, and Asian merchants preparing to sell the cans.

Full Article
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Medieval times in California

A beautiful fresco of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth is painted above the hand-carved altar.

There is the Great Hall, frescoed with medieval scenes and headed by a massive five centuries old hand-carved fireplace brought from Europe. Above the fireplace is a fresco of an imposing baron holding his coat-of-arms.

Full Article

]]> Mystery of Leonardo's lost work 'almost solved'

The mystery surrounding Leonardo Da Vinci's lost masterpiece, the Battle of Anghiari, is on the verge of being solved, according to an art historian leading the search.

Professor Maurizio Seracini said he will use a revolutionary new technology to discover whether the fresco, which has not been seen since 1563, lies behind a wall in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio.

Full Article
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Four Breathtaking UNESCO Sites Can Be Found Throughout this Diverse State in Southwestern India.

The Ajanta caves are a source of tremendous pride for Maharashtra. The rock-cut caves, which lie in the form of a gigantic horseshoe, illustrate the skill and artistry that Indian craftsmen achieved several hundred years ago. Dating from 100 B.C., these caves were carved out of solid rock with only a hammer and chisel. Many of the caves are elaborated with detailed carvings on walls, pillars and entrances and feature intricate paintings. These works exemplify the finest and oldest examples of Buddhist frescoes in the world.

Full Article

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Israel, Ukraine deal lets Yad Vashem exhibit Holocaust artist's work

The disclosure that the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority had acquired the works and transported them to Israel, in violation of Ukrainian law and without the knowledge of local authorities, caused a public and diplomatic uproar in Ukraine in May 2001. Schulz was forced by Gestapo officer Felix Landau to paint the frescoes on the walls of Landau's home in Drohobycz, Galicia (now called Drogobych and located within Ukraine), for the enjoyment of the officer's children. Shulz was shot to death in 1942 by another SS officer, Karl Gunther, in retaliation for Landau's murder of a Jew who was under Gunther's protection.

Full Article
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Minoan Crete travels to New York

In the section devoted to the Colorful World of Murals, we see another form of communication that the Minoan developed-the art of large-scale wall paintings. Minoan painters covered the walls of palaces and urban mansions with images of Cretan life and special ceremonies. Using the fresco technique-by which Minoan painters applied earthy colors to wet surfaces that even today retain their vivid quality-figurative murals such as the Partridge Fresco illustrate their world.

Full Article
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from the world fresco news - February 2008

2008-03-25T17:37:01Z

B'nai Tikvah to sell paintings by famed local artist
New Jersey Jewish News - Whippany,NJ,USA

He worked in collaboration with a student of renowned artist Diego Rivera to create the frescoes for the San Francisco Jewish Community Center and the
University of California Medical School.

Full Article at:

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Special crane sought for Lahore Forts preservation in Pakistan
Unique Pakistan - Karachi,Sindh,Pakista

It is embellished with panels of tile mosaics and fresco paintings. The decorations are between the two cornices which are divided into a double row of arched recesses of different sizes. The fresco paintings are carried out in the arched recesses, while the spandrels are tastefully decorated with tile
mosaics, depicting men, fairies, elephants, lions, dragons, scenes of animal fights, men playing polo, and numerous other games. The human figures on the
wall give an insight into the fashion sense of that time, from royalty down to the servants and gladiators.

Full Article at:
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]]> UW Memorial Union's Rathskeller murals are 80 years old
The Capital Times - Madison,WI,USA

Hausler had been trained in Germany, and he executed the murals in oil on dry plaster, a technique known as secco, as opposed to fresco -- paintings on wet
plaster.

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'About Art 3' exhibition opens at Bait Al Baranda
Times of Oman - Ruwi,Muscat,Oman

He has lectured extensively and has studied fresco and mural techniques, and experimented with tantra art and Indian miniature styles.

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If walls could talk ... they'd ask for new types of coverings
Belleville News Democrat - IL, USA

"In Italy, fresco is their art. I was even at a McDonalds in Verona that had a fresco." To give customers that authentic European flair, some wallcovering
designers and businesses are going to great distances.

Full Article at:
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Stepping out of the shadows
Daily Press - Newport News,VA,USA

"In the more ancient paintings, the landscape was only a part of a bigger subject," says Giovanna Giusti, head of the departments of painting, fresco and
tapestry at the Uffizi. "Only later did the natural scene become the artist's focus."

Full Article at:
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Piero, in Perfect Proportion
Wall Street Journal - USA

If I had to choose a single work by Piero, other than his frescoes inside the church of San Francesco in Arezzo depicting the history of the True Cross, I'd
take, hands down, the "Virgin and Child With Saints, Angels and Federigo da Montefeltro" -- to give it its full title -- an enormous altarpiece from 1472-74
at Milan's Pinacoteca di Brera.

Full Article at:
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Vatican Art on Tour
7 Online.com - New York, NY, USA

"Michelangelo had to more or less teach himself on the job, fresco painting, 60 feet high in the Sistine Chapel for four years," Radetsky said.

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Backpack Blogs: Ajanta Caves
Great Indian Mutiny - Bangalore, Karnataka, India

A fresco in one of the caves at Ajanta was so badly damaged by the Raja loves Rani brigade that the ASI was forced to enclose the entire fresco in a glass
case and put up a board urging the visitors not to damage our national heritage.

Full Article at:
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The West, Japan, and Cultural Secondarity
Global Politician - Brooklyn, NY, USA

True, as Timothy Gregory writes in A History of Byzantium, by the twelfth century there was a new individuality in Byzantine arts: "The mosaics and frescoes
of the period abandon the abstractness of earlier art and the figures are depicted more in a three-dimensional view and with a real sense of movement."

Full Article at:
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Seeing the hidden fresco
physicsworld.com - Bristol, England, UK

Unfortunately, no-one can see these paintings: they are all hidden beneath a layer of plaster. If studies by a team of scientists from the the US and France
continue to prove successful, however, then it could be only a matter of time before such frescoes, which have often been covered for religious or political
motives are exposed.

Full Article at:
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Invisible-shed spy beam tech detects hidden artworks
Register - London, England, UK

Mourou noted that a famous Leonardo da Vinci painting, "The Battle of Anghiari", is thought to lie hidden behind a fresco at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.

Full Article at:
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The vandalisation of heritage
Hindu - Chennai, India

These paintings have to be preserved as they were at their height. The way people do it in Europe. Frescoes in Italy, France and Germany are treated by
professional people, whose job is to do that.

Full Article at:
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This Beauty Still Beguiles
Wall Street Journal - USA

He worked productively in Bologna, painted an intriguing fresco cycle outside of Parma, and contributed to the Steccata frescoes. He also accepted commissions
for frescoes that were never completed, which landed him in jail for a while.

Full Article at:
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Toppling the ivory tower
Art Newspaper - UK

There's all of the equestrian paintings that I did around the theme of war, there's all of the religious work and ceiling frescoes I did at the Brooklyn
Museum, there's all of the late French rococo inspired scenic work.

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Vatican Road Show
Evening Bulletin - Philadelphia, PA, USA

"Michelangelo had to more or less teach himself on the job, fresco painting, 60 feet high in the Sistine Chapel for four years," Mr. Radetsky said.

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Golden War
NY Arts Magazine - New York, NY, USA

... Christian frescos of saints in hieratic absorption, indifferent to the viewer and raptured in their world of beauty and light. Oil painting and oil
war...

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Megillat Esther: The Graphic Novel By JT
Jewish Press - New York, NY, USA

... a vast spectrum of art sources ranging from the frescos at Dura Europus, Persian Court Painting to 20th century illustrations of Ephraim Moshe Lilien.

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The Artists Among Us
Artvoice - Buffalo, NY, USA

For centuries the traditional view of art was an academic segregation of painting and sculpture --- usually pieces done in watercolor, oil or fresco and
three-dimensional portrayals created in marble, granite, wood or bronze.

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Swiss, Italian Police Recover Stolen Art, Artifacts
The Epoch Times Irelan - Dublin, Irelan

ROME -- An ancient mosaic of a dark-haired boy and a fresco from Pompeii were among more than 400 looted archaeological treasures Italian police put on
show on Tuesday that had been recovered during a three-year hunt across Europe.

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Italians recover looted ancient artifacts
CBC Ottawa - Ontario, Canada

Police in Italy announced Tuesday the recovery of dozens of looted artifacts, including a first centruy fresco and ancient Greek pottery.

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From St. Peter to St. Paul
Pioneer Press - St. Paul, MN, USA

... mosaics, paintings, sculptures and a recreation of the scaffolding and tools used by Michelangelo to paint the ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel.

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The Louvre allows some treasures to travel and hopes US show will ...
Seattle Post Intelligencer - USA

In addition to marble statues and reliefs, there are terra cotta pieces, bronzes, silver, jewelry, mosaics and fresco paintings.

Full Article at:
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China: at the Court of the Emperors
Culturekiosque - Menlo Park, cA, USA

... of the tomb of Anjia, Sogdian official in the capital Changan. The exhibition culminates with four frescoes of the Tang period and four paintings on
stone.

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Ancient Minoan Culture Comes To Life At The Onassis Cultural Center
Art Daily - USA

... of Murals section presents another form of communication developed in the Aegean by the Minoans --- the art of large-scale walls paintings known as
frescoes. Minoan painters covered the walls of palaces and urban mansion with images of the Cretn life around them or of special ceremonies. Using the
fresco technique --- applying earthy colors to wet surfaces that even today retain their vivid quality --- iconic murals like the Partridge Fresco
illustrate the animals, plant life, and people that surrounded them.

Full Article at:
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"ONLY ONE ILLUMINATES MY SOUL" III Sells for $75000!
PR Urgent - USA

Born in Verona, Italy and raised in the US, Giorgio has always had a love for drawing and painting. Doing murals, frescoes and private commisioned art
for the past twelve years has created a prolific portfolio.

Full Article at:
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Finally, a retrospective for Pintoricchio
International Heral Tribune - France

But in the case of the Perugian-born Pintoricchio, he was especially negative, and omitted, for example, any mention of the artist's impressive frescoes at
Spello, a hilltop town near Perugia.

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Council hopes to make this safer place
Community Press - Florence, KY, USA

They painted frescoes, like the paintings of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. And there was Annie Calloway. She painted and taught china painting
during the Rookwood Pottery era.

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Six of the best northern Italian towns
Times Online - UK

It is covered, almost wallpapered, in frescoes and paintings, some by II Bergognone. Built on the grounds of a medieval brothel as a kind of almshouse, the
church is a magnificent jewel of space: a place for silent contemplation or listening to rousing music.

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Pompeii art rises from the ashes
Houston Chronicle - United States

The frescoes in particular provide extensive information about Roman interior decor. "They created their ideal architecture with paint," Marzio says. "The
frescoes are like an architectural fantasy. Whatever you wanted the interior of your house to look like, you'd paint it on the wall."

Full Article at:
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Minoan Artifacts Land in Manhattan
New York Sun - New York, NY, US

Unlike wall paintings made by the Egyptians, who applied pigments to dry plaster, Minoan craftsmen painted with a mixed technique of buon fresco (pigments on
wet surface), which required quick execution, and dry fresco for the rendering of details.

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Shades of greatness in Rome
Financial Times - London, England, UK

... having completed the Stanza della Segnature in the Vatican, was painting his Galatea fresco in the palazzo on the Tiber, later known as the Farnesina,
which belonged to Sebastiano's new patron. Thus the newly arrived protege found himself painting the figure of Polyphemus, who gazes down on Galatea, the nymph he can never reach, from a high corner in the ceiling, alongside his most feared rival.

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God inspired Europe's top tourist attractions
Midland Daily News - Midland, MI, USA

... accented with paintings (many ceilings in 3-D), mosaics, tapestries and frescoes. And, incredibly elaborate doors, choir stalls, altars and pulpits. And
always the presence of gold and silver plundered from the Americas.

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Art Review: Parmigianino's 'Antea' Looking at You Looking at Her
New York Times - United States

He let an important job on a church fresco drag on for so long that he was finally jailed for breach of contract. Upon release he left town but died of a
fever a year later in 1540. He was 37.

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Hi-tech Indiana Jones hunt for da Vinci secrets
Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

The fresco was long presumed lost forever behind the new paintings. But Maurizio Seracini, an Italian expert in high-technology art analysis, will soon
deploy the cutting-edge science of a neutron generator and gamma ray detector in an attempt to prove that the mural is actually preserved beneath a wall
built just in front of it during the remodelling.

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LEONARDO: THE LAST SUPPER ACCORDING TO DARIO FO IN AUDITORIUM
Agenzia Giornalistica Italia - Italy

... is accompanied by the book "Leonardo's Last Supper", containing all scientific research done on the fresco. Of studied painting at the academy of Brera,
and started his painter. "Let's immediately make it clear that Leonardo hasn't made a mistake in the technique of the fresco" Dario Fo explained. "He only
needed to try the new situation and water caused the disaster we all know of. Milan, in those times, was a water city, in fact Shakespear starts The Tempest
in Milan, with the ship that sails from the sea.

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FROM SPACE SHUTTLE TO DA VINCI 'T-RAY' Technology Strips People ...
Spiegel Online - Berlin, Germany

Frescoes from the 13th and 14th centuries were recently discovered under five layers of plaster on the walls of the 13th-century church. After their first
attempts to expose the frescoes, the conservators gave up. Now they are awaiting the help of the physicists from Michigan.

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Don't Overlook Oberammergu
BostonNOW - Boston,MA,USA

With frescoes on the side of almost every structure, the town is like a giant outdoor museum. Virtualtourist.com member Sharrie says the paintings are
her favorite part of the town: "Strolling throughout town discovering many different art forms is one of the greatest pleasures dervied from visiting
Oberammergau!"

Full Article at:

from the world fresco news - january 08

2008-01-31T08:07:02Z

The Tassili n' Ajjer [Algeria]: birthplace of ancient Egypt?
Journal3 - Oran, Algeria

He wrote a series of books, the best known of which is "The Search for the Tassili Frescoes. The Rock paintings of the Sahara." It is a popular account of the hardships he encountered in trying to discover and make drawings of

the rock paintings that were scattered on the rock faces in the various corners of the Tassili. Lhote himself built on the work of Lieutenant Brenans, who was one of the first to venture deep into the canyons of the Tassili

during a police operation in the 1930s. As the first European to enter that area, he noticed strange figures that were drawn on the cliffs. He saw elephants walking along with their trunks raised, rhinoceros with ugly looking

horns on their snouts, giraffes with necks stretched out as if they were eating at the tops of the bushes. Today, the area is a desolate desert. What these paintings depicted was an era long gone, when the Sahara was a fertile savannah, teeming with wildlife... and humans.

Full Article at:

Fading Heritage: Frescoes of the famous painter fall in oblivion
ArmeniaNow.com - Yerevan, Armenia

The center was ruined during the earthquake and only the wall decorated with the painting has survived. Ordinary people have built some metal covering to protect the painting from rain and sun but the construction is not effective.

Full Article at:

]]> Hummingbird Fern Sirois to hold workshops at Edward Dean
Yucaipa/Calimesa News Mirror - Yucaipa, CA, USA

... she was commissioned by the Hamilton Mint to create a series of paintings for collector plates. Her commissions for murals began with frescos-murals for AME Methodist Church; Church of Scientology had her complete a series and
Child Development of Long Beach requested a mural of the Queen Mary Events Park. In May 2005, the design and completion of mural for the Baldwin Park Historical Society for the west wall of the Baldwin Park Museum resulted in
d brushwork, and her consistent pursuit of wisdom.

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Doors, gates and keys at the Janiculum Hill
Malta Independent Online - Malta

The fourth chapel has a ceiling fresco by Giorgio Vasari. Tradition has it that Beatrice Cenci is buried either in this chapel or below the high altar. This church is located in Piazza dei San Luigi dei Francesi, just off Piazza Navona. It is the French church in Rome and is perhaps most known for having three Caravaggio paintings: The Calling of St Matthew, The Martyrdom of St Matthew and St Matthew and the Angel.
Inside the church there are various blow-ups of the details in this painting and explanations of each of these. The chiaroscuro technique comes out very beautifully in its painting with a ray of light following the line of Christ's arm to the face of Matthew.

Full Article at:

'East-West' to be displayed
BlueRidgeNow.com - Hendersonville, NC, USA

Martin began painting at an early age. He attended Pratt Institute after high school and entered the United States Army as an illustrator for the sixth Army training aides at Fort Ord, Calif., and at the headquarters of the Army Language School, Monterey, Calif.
After his military service, Martin worked as an apprentice for an architectural illustration firm in Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter he began to freelance in architectural rendering -- a skill he continues to practice. Martin's public work includes a fresco secco mural for the Church of Religious Science, Las Vegas. He also illustrated the book, The Voice Celestial by Ernest Holmes, Dodd-Mead, publisher, in 1960. Additionally, Martin worked for 10 years as an illustrator for Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., where he continued to refine his architectural work.

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A year on the road
Chicago Tribune - United States

Inside are the famous Luca Signorelli frescoes on the Apocalypse.

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An Alluring Enigma
Wall Street Journal - USA

... as well as with recruiting fresco painters to embellish the apartments' new ceilings. In Rome, between shopping sprees, he also found time to paint. In particular, he produced a pair of outstanding portraits in sharply contrasting modes.

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Step back in time: Discover what might be Europe's newest country
The Canadian press -

Jesus Christ and the saints beam down from some of the continent's best-preserved fresco paintings and icons, and the monks say the faithful are still healed by contact with the remains of Holy King Stefan entombed in the chapel.

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Kissing Nudes, Mistress Introduce Paris to Swiss Artist Hodler
Bloomberg - USA

The new university in Jena, Germany, commissioned a monumental fresco, depicting the mobilization of German students in the War of Liberation against Napoleon, a brilliant example of Hodler's mastery in organizing crowd scenes.

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ECSTASY MACHINE
Artnet - New York, NY, USA

... this is the largest painting in the Met. It's also one of the more mystical, commanding and mesmerizing. A 14th-centruy fresco painted with water-based and mineral pigments on clay mixed with mud-and-straw, this gigantic picture once adorned a temple in northern China. It has the presence of a shimmering light and a tapestry.

Full Article at:

Study aimed at preserving Land-Grant Frescoes
Penn State Live- PA, USA

The University has retained Harrisburg-based Albert Michaels Conservation Inc. to conduct a study of the entire fresco painting. Turow said the study is
expected to yield information about the frescoes' current condition and recommend steps that may be appropriate to conserve and restore the frescoes.
The fresco technique involves applying water-mixed earth pigments to wet plaster, so that the painting becomes part of the wall. The Land-Grant Frescoes
cover about 1,300 square feet and spread across three walls in Old Main's second-floor lobby.
"Frescoes by their very nature are fairly stable, long-lasting works, but like anything else, they are subject to deterioration, especially if not properly
cared for," said John Rita, Albert Michaels' chief conservator. "Thus far we've found that the frescoes suffer from some common problems that you might
expect in a public place, such as humidity, air currents that carry dust and grease-based soil, and scratches from cleaning and simply being exposed to
innumerable passersby over the years. In addition, since the frescoes are actually part of the building structure, they are vulnerable to the stresses
of building expansion and contraction."

Full Article at:

Helter-shelter
Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

... immediately obvious when fighting elephant tusks and skinned humans vie for attention, but at the tops of the walls are a series of fresco paintings.

Full Article at:

Also on our mind...
The Flint Journal - MLive.com - Flint, MI, USA

Granted, public buildings throughout the ages have been adorned with statues, paintings and frescoes that tourists marvel at today.

Full Article at:

Golden triangle
Hindu - Chennai, India

... as walls (actually the plaster covered face of the rock) on which are found some of the most beautiful and best preserved fresco paintings in Sri
Lanka.

Full Article at:

Back in Time: Red Pompeii Pictures Turn Up in Rome
Jaunted - USA

If you're young enough--it's meant to be for kids--you can also try your own hand at fresco painting while you're at the museum. And maybe your frescoes
will be on display in another 2000 years.

Full Article at:

Newly emerging Kosovo is land of paradoxes, surprises
Providence Journal - Providence, RI, USA

Christ and the saints beam down from some of the continent's best-preserved fresco paintings and icons, and the monks say the faithful are still healed by
contact with the remains of Holy King Stefan entombed in the chapel.

Full Article at:

Major Michelangelo Exhibition in Syracuse and New York City in...
Newswise (press release) - USA

Sculptor of the colossal stature "David" in Florence and painter of the Sistene Chape ceiling and large fresco "The Last Judgement" at the Vatican,Michelangelo
was also a renowned poet, patriot, architect, anatomist, military engineer and entrepreneur---a true Renaissance man. As such, the exhibition will explore
multiple facets of Michelangelo's life, art and reputation.

Full Article at:

The Sistine Chapel was created 500 years ago by Michelangelo...or...
Independent - London, England, UK

"They prove upon closer inspection chiefly to be early copies after the finished fresco... occasionally deliberately trying to pass themselves off as
original sketches." A second Blitzkried is under way.

Full Article at:

from the world fresco news

2007-12-08T08:06:43Z

Critics log: 20 turning points in art
AZ Central.com - AZ,USA
Second, Giotto's interior frescoes for the Arena Chapel in Padua, for waking up to the idea that painting not only could, but should try to capture...
Abbey of Strahov
Catholic Online - Bakersfield,CA,USA
These beautiful frescos are the work of the Prague artist Georg WilhelmNeuherz (d. 1743). The Chapel of St. Norbert has the saint's relics in a casketof...
[SACRED SITES] The story of Akdamar
Today's Zaman - Istanbul,Turkey
... frescos that depict religious scenes. The cycle of Nicholas at
the church represents a significant step in the development of Byzantine wall
painting...
Great man, small reputation ... Taschen's new large format ...
Guardian Unlimited - UK
Michelangelo is still one of the world's top famous artists; queues still snake around the Vatican to see his frescoes; even a show of his drawings can draw...

]]>
Candon City church hosts 150-ft long oil painting
Inquirer.net - Philippines
It was moldy and the two frescoes were beyond repair. He wanted to put the Mysteries in the church and visited Catholic churches all over the country...
Mirror conspiracy surrounds Da Vinci's art
Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom
... front of Christ in the celebrated Last Supper fresco. The mirror-technique is applied to another painting of John the Baptist to reveal the four-legged...

Fresco Class at Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence, Kansas

2007-10-06T21:06:34Z

by Margaret Springe

I believe that children learn most effectively through completing a process to achieve a desired outcome. It is this belief that led me to include Buon Fresco in my after school art program.
Googling ?fresco? led me to iLia Anossov, founder of The Fresco School, who graciously agreed to conduct a workshop for me while on holiday in LA. iLia?s expert knowledge of the technique and process provided me with enough guidance and confidence to fulfill my desire to teach buon fresco to several groups of 5th and 6th graders at the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence, Ks.
The workshops I conduct consist of 12 to 18 students and last about two hours. The fresco steps that I teach the kids are: making a cartoon, poking holes in the cartoon for pouncing, applying the intonaco coat of plaster on their tile, pouncing and painting. The children are encouraged to use all of the tools associated with each step.

]]>

The workshops I conduct consist of 12 to 18 students and last about two hours. The fresco steps that I teach the kids are: making a cartoon, poking holes in the cartoon for pouncing, applying the intonaco coat of plaster on their tile, pouncing and painting. The children are encouraged to use all of the tools associated with each step.
The tiles that the children will be painting on are 6 x 6 ceramic tiles that have been soaked and prepped with an initial layer of plaster, the rough coat. The paint is also prepared ahead of time and stored in small plastic containers with lids. For a class of 15, I would prepare three containers of each color. I begin the workshop with a definition of fresco and ask several open questions regarding other painting techniques. We briefly discuss the history of fresco from cave paintings to the masters of the Renaissance and many reproductions of art are shown to the children. Throughout this discussion I slowly reveal the chemical process that makes fresco so unique and the children begin to realize how different a painting technique fresco is. A piece of limestone is circulated among the children while we explore the breakdown of the stone through the addition of intense heat causing the release of CO2 into the atmosphere. This reaction turns the stone into a powder called lime to which water is added to make lime putty. The plaster that is so vital to creating fresco is made by adding sand to the putty in varying amounts and particle sizes to create the many different layers of fresco. As water is evaporated from the plaster and the paint, CO2 is reabsorbed into the lime turning the plaster back into a stone. A circular diagram illustrates this chemical process? the kids love it!
We break to complete the first three steps: create a cartoon, poke holes into the cartoon for pouncing and applying the intonaco coat of plaster on a 6 x 6 tile. While the children are drawing, or creating a cartoon, I encourage simplicity in their design and ask them to begin thinking of color combinations. The second step is poking holes in their cartoon, roughly making a stencil. This step seems to pose more problems than it should. When the holes are too close together the pouncing can cause a mess on their tile. To resolve that, I give the kids a corkboard tile with a pushpin holding a small piece of paper illustrating the proper spacing of the pouncing holes, the pushpin is also used to poke the holes in their cartoon. Next, I spray each prepared tile with water and let the children smooth on the intonaco layer of plaster with a trowel or japan scrapper, and then they smooth the top with a wooden float. Every child attempts the new technique and is eager to try the tools. I always make two or three extra tiles, accidents happen. The tiles are then placed to the side for 10 to 15 minutes to allow the plaster to set and the chemical reaction to begin.
While the plaster is setting, we gather as a group again to talk about the last two steps, pouncing and painting. Pouncing is fun and unique to fresco; most kids say it was the best thing about fresco. However, muslin bags filled with charcoal dust are messy. The pouncing table should be placed outside or in a well covered spot in the corner manned by an adult wearing a mask. The adult holds the cartoon in place over the tile while the child taps the muslin bag over their cartoon to make a guide, a kind of dot-to-dot on their tile to help them paint. I emphasize a light tapping of the pouncing bag. We discuss why Michelangelo used pouncing and I show them a reproduction of a Sistine Ceiling detail which shows his pouncing marks. If a mess does occur in pouncing, a quick blow across the tile and a light wipe with a wet wipe will usually remedy the situation. If not, there are extra tiles.
It?s been a long process but finally everyone is ready to paint. We begin the painting section by comparing and contrasting buon fresco and painting a secco. I show details from da Vinci?s? Last Supper, done a secco, and Michelangelo?s Sistine Ceiling done in buon fresco which brilliantly compares the two techniques. I compare the fresco painting process to watercolor, emphasizing the need to squeeze out the extra water before they paint and encourage them to move their brush around their tile while painting. I supply the children with plenty of brushes in different sizes and towels to absorb the excess water. Sometimes a child will work an area too much and end up with a soupy mess; the extra tiles come in handy here also.
The results have been magnificent! The students have shown much pride in their accomplishment. Most of my students participated fully in each step, enjoying the different tools and hands on medium. During the plastering step, the students have engaged me in discussions on chemistry, Michelangelo and the Renaissance. It is a great avenue into history and science, and a wonderful interrelated activity.

by Margaret Springe

The Fresco School - Fresco Painting Workshops & Programs (click for schedule)

Fresco by Vasnetsov uncovered in Moscow

2007-09-11T05:03:07Z

The frescoes were recently uncovered in a room at the Church of the Birth of John the Baptist in Presnya, located on a quiet side street near the Moscow Zoo. Vasnetsov painted the frescoes in the 1890s, but they were painted over in the Soviet era and forgotten for decades.

The restoration will give art historians a chance to examine previously unstudied works by the artist, who is best known for "The Three Bogatyrs," a painting of three medieval Russian warriors on horseback that often turns up in parodies and advertisements.

The discovery also comes at a time when works by Vasnetsov and his peers are hot items on the art market, eagerly snapped up by rich Russians seeking to amass prestigious art collections. Last year, a canvas by the artist called "Wise Oleg" set a record for his work when it sold for $637,000 at a Sotheby's auction in London.

]]> Vasnetsov was born in 1848 in a remote village in the present-day Kirov region and later moved to St. Petersburg to study art.

He rose to prominence as a member of the Wanderers movement, which rebelled against the classical style taught at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts, choosing to depict realistic scenes from Russian life instead.

Later, Vasnetsov switched to mythological and fairy-tale themes. He died in Moscow in 1926.

more about Victor Vasnetsov - click here

The secrets of Diego

2007-07-29T09:37:15Z

from The Walls have The Word by Melchor Peredo

Being a student, I went at times to the Palacio Nacional to invite Diego Rivera to give a conference at the School "La Esmeralda", the voluminous artist himself moved-disturbed by the interruption, slightly in its scaffold, descending his protruding eyes towards me and skewered: Yes I will go, because that is a revolutionary school. "The Yuca" that more than his assistant he was from time to time his model, posed as the face of the black slave brought by the army of Hernon Cortez from Cuba. Diego was shading with smooth tones of vineyard black before applying color. Naturally, already on the wet plaster. According to Juan O'Gorman his great friend and communist comrade the master always worked this way, what gave him total liberty at the moment of the application of color. The curious thing if this resulted for him for the fresco; his easel paintings generally in oil were executed under the impressionist principle to exclude black in the shadows. What he did instead, then, was to shade with the Complementarie's. The amazing thing is that his frescoes, initially almost grisaille (monochrome) in color, in the end, black turns out to be almost imperceptible one. What is his secret?

]]> The rich chromatism in Rivera's frescoes is due to an ingenious play of alternations among the shades with black and the exaltation of the natural colors of the figures by means of the juxtaposition of opposite shades and the systematic relation of contrast between the figure and the depth. It fittings to say that given that the painters communicated their experiences, before Orozco abandoned the fresco buono for the wet fresco he shaded and painted in similar manner to Rivera. Moreover, Siqueiros's frescoes from the National Preparatory School are shaded with black, and even in excess is noted. It's not so much a war among the impressionism against a pre-Venetian past. It's something more subtle.

The presence of black in the grisaille (monochrome) of Orozco and Rivera have an important symbolic value, that is to say, a precise expressionistic function; a certain breath of death that floats in life synchronized by colors. It is very important, and I repeat, this phenomenon because such breath of death comes from the pre-Hispanic art and of some way currently survives Mexico. The men of the Mexican Renaissance wanted to extract the roots of the fortified ancient art from the aesthetics quality of Manuel Toussaint escaped from the archaeological re-implantations from the Italian Renaissance of all the ancient gods, nymphs, lovers, Nikes, Venus, Hercules, Tantalus, sex fiends and others. In Mexico-Save some similar exhumations - was a matter of rescuing the style, the magnificent, epic of Olmec art, the tenderness of the Totonacan figurines, the geometric elegance of the Huastecs sculptures and above all, the terrible antithesis of the sublime. Why to the new Mexicans, Texcaltlipoca does not serve us, neither does the god Tajon, or the goddesses Ciuateteos. What is required is the rising of the Zapatista Indian - perhaps without their knowing it was the recovery of the identity of the Mexican, denied by colonial slavery and by the survival of a foreign-sounding feudalism until 1910. Thus the presence of black, tillan in Nahuatl was for these endeavored Renaissance Mexicans the rescue of the first one "color" of the Mexican palette. We will see later how others are rescued, until arriving at the palette of Rufino Tamayo. If someone doubts of the previous, observe some good reproductions-if unable to go to the walls of: "The Farewell of the Soldier", "The Banquet of the Rich" and all the others murals of Orozco in the National Preparatory School. Then we will see "The exit of the mine" and "The Hacienda" by Rivera, in the Office of the Secretary of Public Education. The respect to the grisaille (monochrome) is such that there is a true appearance of photography in black illuminated by hand. That charm is maintained in the subsequent mural work of Rivera. Finally, it is not about of an exclusively a voluntary esthetic, but of certain conditions that agree to the technique of the fresco. Concretely, is not possible to apply a clear color over a dark one, because when dried it appears ashen. Thus, black tends to navigate alone. Another exception that is observed in Rivera is that when he wants to emphasize an intense color he places black over the chromatic spot, generally delineating. Shortly after the death of Diego, I found in the study of its assistant and disciple Guillermo Monroy, a sketch in a sheet of paper set to the wall. It was the indication of the teacher on how to paint following the order of the colors of the iris. Another of his and Frida's students, Arturo Estrada, has coded his success in the management of this palette. As we see in the Riverian palette for the easel painting - although it may not seem so - the presence of black of the frescoes, is eliminated to a degree post-impressionist of unusual results. It is not the same thing to paint mural than it is to paint on easel.

written by Melchor Peredo- one of Mexico's foremost traditional muralists.

Translated by Rio Diaz

The Fresco School - Fresco Painting Workshops & Programs (click for schedule)

Los Muros tienen la Palabra
Melchor Peredo
Los secretos de Diego

Siendo estudiante, fui cierta vez al Palacio Nacional para invitar a Diego Rivera a impartir una conferencia en la Escuela de La Esmeralda, el voluminoso artista se movio-incomodado por la interrupcion-, ligeramente en su andamio, descendie sus saltones ojos hasta mi persona y espet: Sir, porque esa es una escuela revolucionaria .El Yuca que mos que su ayudante era en ocasiones su modelo, le posaba para el rostro del esclavo negro traedo por las huestes de Hernen Cortes desde Cuba. Diego estaba sombreando con suaves tonos de negro de viea antes de meter color. Naturalmente, ya sobre el intonaco fresco. Segen Juan O'Gorman su gran amigo camarada comunista y maestro siempre trabajaba ase, lo que le daba una total libertad en el momento de meter el color. Lo curioso es que si esto le resultaba para el fresco, sus pinturas de caballete-generalmente al temple de eleo-las ejecutaba bajo el principio impresionista de excluir el negro en las sombras. Lo que hacea, entonces, era sombrear con los complementarios. Lo asombroso es que sus frescos, si son casi grisallas coloreadas en las primeras obras, en las eltimas, resulta casi imperceptible el negro. Cuel es el secreto?
El rico cromatismo de la pintura al fresco de Rivera se debe a un ingenioso juego de alternancias entre el sombreado con negro y la exaltacien de los colores naturales de las figuras mediante la yuxtaposicien de matices opuestos y la sistemetiuca relacien de contraste entre la figura y el fondo. Cabe decir que -dado que los pintores se comunicaban sus experiencias- se advierte que antes de que Orozco abandonara el buon fresco por el fresco seco ,sombreaba, y coloreaba de manera similar a la de Rivera. Inclusive los frescos de Siqueiros de la Escuela Nacional Preparatoria esten sombreados con negro ,y hasta se nota un exceso.
No se trata tanto de una guerra entre el impresionismo contra un pasado pre-veneciano. Es algo mes sutil. La presencia del negro en esa grisalla de Orozco y Rivera tiene un valor simbelico importantesimo, es decir, una funcien expresionista precisa; es un cierto helito de muerte que flota en toda la vidae sincretizado por los colores. Es importantesimo, repito, este fenemeno porque tal helito de muerte viene del arte prehispenico y de alguna manera pervive en la actualidad mexicana.
Los hombres del Renacimiento Mexicano querean extraer las raeces del arte antiguo fortalecidos por estetas de la calidad de Manuel Toussaint escaparon de las arqueolegicas reimplantaciones que hiciera el Renacimiento Italiano de todos los dioses antiguos, ninfas, amorcillos, nikes, Venus, Hercules, Tantalos, setiros y demes. En Mexico-salvo algunas exhumaciones similares- se trate de rescatar el estilo, lo grandioso, epico del arte olmeca, la ternura de las figurillas totonacas, la geometral elegancia de las esculturas huastecas y sobre todo, lo terrible como antetesis de lo sublime. , porque ,aunque a los nuevos mexicanos, no nos sirve de nada Texcaltlipoca, ni el dios Tajen, ni las diosas Ciuateteos. lo que exigea el levantamiento de los indios zapatistas- acaso sin saberlo ellos-era la recuperacion de la identidad del mexicano ,negada por la esclavizacien colonial y por la supervivencia de un feudalismo extranjerizante hasta 1910.
eLa presencia ase del negro, tillan en nahuatl , fue para estos esforzados renacentistas mexicanos el rescate del primer 'color' de la paleta mexicana. Veremos despues cemo son rescatados otros, hasta llegar a la paleta de Rufino Tamayo.
eNo podemos dejar esta nota sin observar que si lo literario en la pintura reside en el dibujo quedando lo sensorio para el color la conjuncion entre forma y contenido que tanto preocupe a Rivera, puede traslucirse entre ese juego del dibujo sombreado con el mecanismo crometico descrito.
Si alguien duda de lo anterior, observe algunas buenas reproducciones-si no puede ir hacia los muros-de: La despedida del soldado, El banquete de los ricos y todos los demes murales de Orozco en la Escuela Nacional Preparatoria. Luego veamos La salida de la minae y 'La Hacienda' de Rivera, en la Secretarea de Educacien Peblica. El respeto por la grisalla es tal, que hay una verdadera apariencia de fotografea en negro iluminada a mano. Ese encanto se mantiene en la obra posteriore obra mural de Rivera. No se trata, finalmente, de una voluntad exclusivamente estetica, sino de ciertos condicionamientos que convienen a la tecnicae del fresco. Concretamente, no es posible aplicar un color claro sobre uno obscuro pues al secar aparece ceniciento. Es por ello que el negro tiende a navegar solo. Otra excepcien que se observa en Rivera es que cuando quiere destacar un colorido intenso coloca el negro encima de la mancha crometica., generalmente delineando.
Poco despues de la muerte de Diego, encontre en el estudio de su ayudante y discepulo Guillermo Monroy, un croquis en una hoja de papel fijada a la pared. Era la indicacien del maestro sobre cemo pintar siguiendo el orden de los colores del iris. Otro de sus alumnos y de Frida , Arturo Estrada, ha cifrado su exito en el manejo de esta paleta. Como vemos en la paleta riverianae para la pintura de caballete- aunque no lo parezca-la presencia del negro de los frescos , se elimina a un grado postimpresionista de resultados inusitados. No es lo mismo pintar murales que hacer obras de caballete.

Buy Posters at AllPosters.com

View Diego Rivera Posters
at TrueFresco Postershop

The House That Faux Built

2007-06-16T22:49:01Z

For the Fresco School, June 2007 came with exciting event - release of hard cover edition of "The House That Faux Built", which includes a reproduction of the "Dolphin Fresco" by Fresco School's founder and head instructor, iLia Anossov.

Dolphin Fresco was painted using classic Buon (true) Fresco Technique. In true fresco the artist must start applying his colors on the wet (or fresco) intonaco as soon as it has been prepared and laid on the wall. When it dries and hardens, the colors become one with plaster. Technically speaking the plaster does not 'dry' but rather a chemical reaction occurs in which calcium carbonate is formed as a result of carbon dioxide from the air combining with the calcium hydrate in the wet plaster.

FrescoSchool offers variety of workshops and programs on traditional fresco painting technique.

About "The House That Faux Built":
Transform Your Home Using Paints, Plasters & Creativity

100 top artists from across the U.S., England and France participated!
Together they transformed the rooms of a 1940s colonial fi xer-upper in Metro DC
and an inner-city Chicago church into incredible works of art.
The Artist's version of 'We are the World,' This amazing
project-turned-book has a dual purpose:
- Raise money to house Katrina victims.
- Showcase the cutting edge in painting/plaster home make-overs.
(Includes the latest in green paint products and techniques.)
The House that Faux Built captures the project in over 500 full color
photos. It is being snapped up by homeowners, DIYers, realtors and
designers eager to see the latest in faux and home transformations.

]]> �What a difference
faux makes!�
Costco Connection
Must See, Painted
House of the Year!
Paint Magic Magazine
�A book full of inspirational
ideas, heart
and Soul�
Mark Victor Hansen,
author, Chicken Soup
for the Soul�

THE HOUSE THAT FAUX BUILT
Adrienne van Dooren
Photography: David Galen
Special Photography: Omar Salinas
Includes: iLia Anossov, Sean Crosby, Pierre Finkelstein, Gary Lord, Melanie Royals, Nicola Vigini and over 100 other top artists in support of Katrina Victims.

THE BOOK EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT :
HGTV Ideas
Washington Post
Decorating Solutions
Channel 7 News
Washington Spaces
The Faux Finisher
Paint Magic
Costco Connection ...

Home makeover ideas and solutions including:
� 15 tricks to make a small room look larger
� 5 ways to transform cement fl oors
� 5 secrets to make ceilings appear higher
� Inexpensive methods to customize existing cabinets and appliances
� New techniques to make old wood fl oors look like expensive inlay
� 3 ways to make old brick, tile, and countertops look like stone
� The latest in green/ eco-friendly paints, stains, and plasters
� Dozens of ideas and products that did not exist even a year ago
Proceeds from The House That Faux Built, and �how to� DVD series,
will fund the �Habitat House(s) that Faux Built� in New Orleans.
More than half the money has been raised through the special edition
of the book. Art auctions earned an additional $2000 for animals made
homeless by the hurricanes. Many artists will go to New Orleans to
help build the homes.

About the Author: Adrienne van Dooren is a 20 year Army veteran turned artist.
In an eff ort to make art not war, she organized this project and started a non-profit organization: Artists4Others. Plans for future projects to raise money for hospice and animal rescue centers will be announced in the near future.
For more information go to www.fauxhouse.com and click on Author Bio.

Exterior Buon Fresco in Los Angeles

2007-04-29T18:57:18Z

iLAdesigns has completed first stage of the exterior fresco project at Sunset Plaza drive in Los Angeles. Historic town of Positano on the Amalfi coast of Italy became an inspiration for the fresco artist, iLia Anossov (fresco) - iLAdesigns.com and Architect Frank Schuetz in their creation of the grand entry fresco to the house of Brian Witzer.

Trompe l'oeil carved plaster work and vignette views of Positano Bay on the left and the Town of Positano street scene on the right, surround main entry doors. The style is in the best traditions of early Italian Renaissance. The technique is a genuine Buon (true) Fresco - the glorious technique of Giotto, Michelangelo and Rafael making it's mark in Los Angeles.

]]>
An artist painting in buon fresco must paint with paints made from pure minerals which have been ground into powder and mixed with water. Artist must paint on the wet calcium based lime plaster before it dries. As plaster cures paints applied become trapped within the newly formed calcium crystals becoming one with the wall. The best calcium lime for fresco is made of marble or fine limestone.

"We import lime for our frescoes from Florence, Italy where it is made from pure Carrara Marble. And as lime in plaster cures it becomes once again - marble, it is like painting with "Molten Marble" - said artist iLia Anossov (fresco).

Since the area that can be painted while the plaster is still wet is relatively small - a few square feet, which is especially challenging outdoors, the artist has to work in sections that can be fully completed in one session. Those sections are called "giornata" (giorno - Italian for "day"). After the day is finished the painting is trimmed to the "cut-line". The new plaster is mended and painted the next day.

Ian Hardwick - master fresco plasterer is applying new "giornata"

The second stage of this project is in development and will feature trompe l'oeil elements throughout the exterior of the building in secco fresco (painted on dry plaster).

Comissioning Buon (buon) Fresco in Los Angeles is made possible due the efforts of fresco artist and educator iLia Anossov (fresco) - iLAdesigns.com and his Internationally recognized Fresco School (FrescoSchool.org).

Florence: the Master Talani fulfilled the biggest strappo of fresco in the world

2007-04-24T16:04:43Z

FLORENCE 16/11/2006 - Something has happened in Italy at last, and particularly in the cradle of Art, Florence. On last 20th September 2006 one of the most important artistic events of the last years took place: inside Santa Maria Novella Station in Florence it was inaugurated the colossal fresco by the master Giampaolo Talani, one of the few contemporary painters still able to execute a work of those dimesions.

The fulfilment of the fresco, patronised by Regione Toscana and by the Comune di Firenze in collaboration with Grandi Stazioni, enters into the restructuring and redevelopment plan of the main Italian train stations. Technical sponsorship provided by "Zecchi: Soluzioni per artisti, materiale per restauro". It represents an artistic operation of extraordinary value and enriches the historc building designed by the architect Giovanni Michelucci in the '30s, now considered one of the most significant examples of the Italian functionalist architecture.

]]> Only after two months from the first bush-stroke on the almost 80 sm. of the big fresco which combines the ancient trade with some innovative technical aspects, Giampaolo Talani's work and the revolutionary structure planned to receive and support the hanging wall were unveiled to scholars, art critics and the large public.

Partenze (departures), contemporary icon of the traveller, is the theme of Talani's big fresco: a train of mankind in everlasting departure or arrival, because only the journey, after all, has a sense. It is more a journey of shadows and thoughts than a journey of bodies. Souls and minds are represented with the red burdens of memories - the suitcases are red, an absolute colour - feelings, and hopes which always accompany our existences. These figures are thought specifically for Santa Maria Novella, which presents in its space the same almost incorporeal humankind that every days crosses the space of a train station. The monumental work Partenze is the first fresco in a train station with presents the ancient Renaissance technique, a technique that today regains renewed topicality and strength...

Read full article at: "The Florence Newspaper"

from world fresco painting news:

2007-01-16T00:41:02Z

Italy to seek 'lost Leonardo' behind Florence wall
Tarankai Daily News - Taranaki,New Zealand
Florence's leaders commissioned Leonardo the painter of the Mona
Lisa and the most famous version of the Last Supper in 1503 to create afresco ...

Italy to Ask Japan for Return of 'looted' Antiques
Buzzle - Costa Mesa,CA,USA
About 50 of the missing treasures, including a sculpture and fresco
painting, are being kept at the Miho museum, a private museum in Shiga
prefecture in ...

Nation and world round up
The State - Columbia,SC,USA
... a cryptic message on a Giorgio Vasari fresco. Now, Seracini is using experimental scanning techniques to find thepainting in the Palazzo Vecchio, ...

Fresco may hide Da Vinci painting
Buffalo News - Buffalo,NY,USA
"We made this decision to verify conclusively if the cavity exists and
if there are traces of the fresco," Rutelli said. ...

'Pompeii' is more than a history lesson
Mobile Register - Mobile,AL,USA
I stood over the prone body of a young woman lying on a bed of pumice near
the large painting at one end of the room. Who was she, and what
were her last ...

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Charlotte Salomon's Life? or Theater? : A theatrical vision in ...
Jewish Theatre - Tel Aviv,Israel
... and in another painting, where Salomon positions herself
sitting in a boat with Daberlohn, she too is in the Adam pose of the same
fresco. ...

Seeing the Notion-State
Hindustan Times - New Delhi,Delhi,India
The fresco, 8-feet tall and 70-feet long, is in the form of a
procession of medieval saints. Sinha shows convincingly how the symbolic
nature of this ...

Japan Still a Cultural Looter
오마이뉴스 - South Korea
The antiquities in question at the museum include a sculpture and fresco
painting from ancient Rome. The report did not say when the suspected
items were ...

Palace may hold lost da Vinci painting
Detroit Free Press - Detroit,MI,USA

Between 2002 and 2003, radar and X-ray scans allowed Seracini and his team
to find a cavity behind the fresco that is the right size to cocoon
da Vinci's ...

Looking for Leonardo
Montreal Gazette (subscription) - Montreal,Quebec,Canada

This fresco contains the words "Cerca trova," which means
"seek and you shall find." Researchers suggest this could be a
clue to the location of a long-lost ...

Metropolitan Museum Presents "Barcelona and Modernity"
HULIQ - Hickory,NC,USA

On view at the Metropolitan Museum from March 7 through June 3, 2007, the
exhibition will feature some 300 remarkable works in a range of media:
painting, ...

Hunt for lost Da Vinci to resume
China Post - Taipei,Taiwan
... if the painting is there or not," he said. The work
would include documentary research to determine which chemicals Leonardo
used to paint the fresco, ...

Estate auction generates excitement
Bradenton Herald - Bradenton,FL,USA

A good example of how age does not affect value was the fate of a 15th
century fresco of St. Leonard. Old information on the back claimed
the fresco had ...