Leger’s Paintings

I have been an admirer of Ferdinand Leger’s geometric paintings for a long time, including the two of his murals which had been installed in 1952 in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations headquarters in New York. Now, the Foundation Beyerler is hosting an exhibition of 80 of his paintings in Basel Switzerland, which will continue until the 7th of September. Thanks to the International Herald Tribune displaying of the slides show of some of his famous paintings, I can enjoy seeing “La femme en blue”, Les grands plongeurs noir”. and “Deux femmes tenant des fleurs” without having to travel to Switzerland myself. Ferdinand Leger was a French painter and a member of the Cubism and Tubism movement. He was born in the Argentan, Orne, Basse-Normandie, and at the young age of 25, began painting and producing numerous pieces of arts until at the age of 74 when he died in Gif-sur-Yvette, Essonne. To me Leger was one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century who had left valuable work for appreciation by the generations to come.

“The Horse” Exhibition

The excellent exhibition on horses’ lives, ongoing at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, has given me not only the information on the physical and biological evolution of the horse, but also, new knowledge on how horses have shaped the world for centuries. We entered the exhibit area hearing sound of thunderous galloping and images of wild horses running freely in their natural environment. Then we saw the Botai diorama of horses lives and the inter-relationship between humans and horses. These wonderful audio-visual presentation were from all the regions of the World, from ancient to the present time - the involvement of horses in war and in peace. The artistic decorations on the horse body and on the saddle, sowned by hand, for male and female riders are stunning. The paintings of horses by early artists from the cave to art galleries around the World are also beautiful and inspiring. We saw also how horses are trained and domesticated by humans. Seeing the physical fragility of horses’ legs, I am concerned about what humans are doing to these majestic creatures - using them for funs and games of hunting, of Mongolian horseback sport, polo and horse racing. We must be sure to protect the horses from being abused by humans, especiall in agressive and dangereous activities. For example, in horse-racing, the track can be made to fit more to the fragile legs of the horses etc. I want to congratulate all the people involved, including the collaborators: the Abu-Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, the Arab Emirates, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau-Ottawa, the Field Museum of Chicago and the San Diego Natural History Museum for creating this marvelous exhibition.

Art, Climate Change, and Human Security

An Art exhibition, under this theme, which takes place this week in the South Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, is a great boost for people to change intolerance attitudes towards caring for the environment and human security. Seven contemporary artists, representing Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and North America and Western Asia, contribute their art works for public display. Mia Hanak, Executive Director of the Natural World Museum, said that the exhibition seeks to use the universal language of art as a catalyst for action and social change. She hopes that art will trigger an emotional response on environmental issues and climate change, usually are presented in a dry scientific ways. Catherine Chalmers’ and Cecilia Paredes’ arts explore the links between human and animal world, while the other artist, Subhankar Banerjee, prefers to show his artistic photographs depicting the Arctic and the life of indigenous peoples of the North. These artists, environmental activists and scientists are attending a seminar and panel discussions to find creative approaches in dealing with climate change and human security in a holistic way. Together they have an opportunity to share strategies relating to ways in which communities and government around the World can use art to promote changes in their own cultures and the different ways of life. The Outreach Division of the United Nations Department of Information and the United Nations Environment Programme, who organized this event, are doing an excellent job. The exhibition is open to the public until the end of May.

Art for the Environment and Effective Resource Management

The new “Art for Environment” initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme is most encouraging. An online exhibition of photographs and paintings on the theme of earth’s environment done by world artists are beautiful, not only to the eyes, but to the souls and human spirits. The special exhibition/photo gallery of pictures taken by Luo Hong on the Swans at the Natural World Museum are thought provoking. For me, it is emotionally touching to see groups of swans flying above the melting snow and ice in the North. This is a very effective way in generating individual and community interests, and in moving them to take action on global warming problems and environmental degradation issues. Arts can create common value of safeguarding our Planet. Paintings and photographs of our natural world can create a common language of loving and caring for all living things on earth. Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, should be congratulated for this. He should also be thanked for setting up a new global think tank on resource efficiency, the International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management. The task of this think thank is to tackle pressing issues of biofuel production, metal recycling, security, and environmental impact of selected products and services worldwide. He has invited members of the civil societies to get involvedwith these two initiatives at local, regional, and global levels in the effort to promote a deeper understanding of the interconnection of human behaviors and the future of our natural world and global environment.

Living Over The Store

As artist, my dream is to create a gallery for my computer arts and paintings exhibit, with a living quarter on a top floor. To do that, I need to have big space, which I don’t have right now. Reading an article by Pilar Viladas in the New York Time Magazine last week, Living Over the Store gives me idea for the future to make my dream comes true. I plan to pay a visit to Marianne Boesky’s new Gallery on West 24th Street, New York City. Now I can only see it in a set of slides shows. But I want to see with my own eyes the beautifully designed Gallery done by her friend, Deborah Berke, who is famous for designing houses and apartments for artists. Congratulations to both of them for excellent job. Together they have clarified for me the concept of the difference in texture between the gallery and apartment for artist: the gallery is about looking at art, but the apartment is about living with art.

Beauty In The Sky

I always enjoy watching fireworks. Lucky for me this year to be in New York to watch the whole of Macy’s firework show on 4th of July US Independence Day Celebration. It was a spectacular event on the East River, the bursting of vibrant colors into the sky: red which comes from strontium and lithium salts, blue from copper, green from barium, yellow from sodium, silvery flashes come from the combinations of magnesium, aluminium and titanium, all natural ingredients from our Earth. All these fireworks displays are copied from the Chinese who invented them in the ninth century. It has now become a world custom. Many countries celebrate auspicious occasions or national days with fireworks, using similar recipes – a mixture of 75% potassium nitrate, 15th%charcoal and 10%sulphur to make a small balls and shoot them up to create starburst in the sky. The London Economist says that the Japanese firework is the best in the world. They make
flowers in the sky, a new form of artwork, to celebrate Flower-fire Festival in Japan from July onward.

Artwork on Climate Change

Congratulation to Charlette Sullivan, an eleven-year old student of the United Kindom, for winning the first prize in the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Children’s Painting Competition for her painting, rendering of the world as umbrella turned inside out by powerful storm. I also want to commend the organizers for managing to get participation of 14,000 children from 104 countries in this worthwhile activities which inspired the whole world to put more effort in solving the problem of global warming.

Moscow Chamber Orchestra

While in Thailand, I enjoyed the special concert of the Moscow Cnamber Orchestra under the famous conductor, Maestro Constantine Orbelian. He did a fantastic job in conducting the group that he brought together to play in Bangkok in February to celebrate the 80th birthday of the King of Thailand. For this occasion, twenty-five great musicians played superbly the Tchaikovsky”s Serenade for String in C Major OP.48 and Sarasate”s Zigeunerweisen OP.20, arranged for violin and orchestra with the young Alexander Sitkovetsky playing the lead violin, and Federico Mondelci playing the saxophone. Mondelci recieved a standing ovation from the audiences at the Thailand Cultural Centre when he played the Argentinian Libertango arranged specially for saxophone and orchestra.The wonderful music played by the Moscow Chamber Orchestra are now in CD under the titled: Piazzolla, and the Stars of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. I agree with the New York Times review that the “dynamic Moscow Chamber Orchestra” is one of the world’s great ensembles.

Beautiful Architecture, the Morgan Library/Museum

I am very impressed with the Renzo Piano design of the newly high-ceiling enlarged building of the Morgan Library/Museum on Madison Avenue and 36th Street. He geniously combined Mr. Morgan’s fabulously ornate library, his study, the old family living quarters, and various galleries into one single complex with tall glass Gilbert Court and the JP Morgan Chase Lobby connecting them. The little courtyard at the entrance of the building on Madison Avenue gives a feeling of a warm welcome to visitors. The photographic exhibition of the renovation work plans and construction design are displayed in the lower level where the Gilbert Lehrman Hall and Education Center are located.
The Morgan dining room, located in the room where the family used to dine, serves food from early twentieth-century New York City cuisine.
I enjoyed the afternoon going through the galleries of Pierpont Morgan’s collection of artistic objects, drawings, prints, old books and manuscripts. Most impressive of all are the music manuscripts of Beethoven, Bach, Brahms Mozart, Schubert, and Stravinsky. The Morgan Library and Museum lives up to its name as a place where “every object is a treasure”. It was really wonderful to be able to see them displayed in a magnificent setting

Gravitational Waves/ Spiral Patterns

I am happy to join the excitement of the German/UK team of scientists in their recent launching of a GEO 600 gravitational wave detector.

I’ve been interested in Astronomy and the Space Exploration for a long time, since childhood in fact. I loved watching the beauty of the night sky, and as a student bewildered by the forces and movements of the constellation of stars in the universe.

The new instrument called an interferometer will enable the scientists to prove the existence of gravitational waves as predicted by Einstein some ninety years ago in his general theory of relativity by measuring the ripples of waves when two stars, or two black holes collide. We will also gain more knowledge about the Big Bang theory on how the universe began.

As a painter, I am thrilled to see the beautiful patterns of the digital images produced by the instrument — the thin looking string circling one on top of the other in a layer of spiral forms. The image looks quite like a ripple of waves made on water when a stone is thrown into it.

It’s the same pattern that I found when I painted spirals on seashells.

It’s exciting that I can also paint the spiral patterns of the gravitational waves.