Thursday, May 26, 2011

Art has healing powers


Turner @The National Gallery, Washington DC (Venice)

Read this article in the NY Times yesterday called Can a Picasso Cure You? Artist Alexander Melamid has opened an Art Healing Ministry in SoHo NYC where one can be healed via ones exposure to art. Especially enjoyed these last lines:

"I discovered 5 years ago that the truth is funny. Not everything that's funny is true, for sure. But whatever is not funny is not true. That's why truth has never been revealed, because scientists don't understand that the end product needs to be funny."

We headed down to DC for some healing, not only seeing Herzog's new film Cave of Forgotten Dreams- (which I highly recommend!) but also stopping in The National Gallery catching the Canaletto exhibit, Venice in tight obsessive reproductions x50. Was interesting to compare his renderings of Venice to Turner's above. The Canalettos highly structured and mechanical, the Turner on the other hand lives and breathes with air moving the clouds and water. 

detail, Turner
detail, Turner

Have found ourselves engaged with things Italian lately, Moretti, Bianchi, Peroni, The Giro, Venice, Tiepolo...  Meet us in Rome this Summer??

1 comment:

Bethany said...

Turner's paintings are definitely all about the atmosphere. I will have to read that article though I'm not sure ALL truth is funny. But then again...