New Thing 1, New Thing 2

So today was a day of learning more about two things that I thought I knew something about. In Islam class, I learned about liberal Islam and in Art History, I learned about Russian Impressionism. Both concepts were new to me which was fun. Plus the sun was shining. Basically, a great day.

So in Islam vs. the West we discussed liberal Islam. (As a side note, my prof canceled class last week so I didn't miss anything by being in Spain which was nice.) Some of you might be thinking "liberal Islam. Isn't that an oxymoron?" Well, no, it's not. There are all different kinds of philosophies in Islam. There are fundamentalists, radicals, moderates, and of course, liberals. The liberal Muslims think that Islam has nothing to do that so many Fundamentalists do. Liberal Muslims also think that Islam is compatible to democracy. In connection with the idea of Liberal Muslims, we talked about the role of women in Islam. There are many issues to discuss like marriage, dress code, domestic violence and the right to work. Generalizing (a very bad thing to do), liberal Muslims have very Western ideas about all of those things where as Fundamentalists follow exactly what the with political or economic systems and should not force its beliefs on people. The best example of this is in Turkey. It is a secular country (the only majority Muslim, secular country in the world) and has been doing OK for the most part. There are many other aspects to Liberal Islam like how they are more open to Western ideas and how they reject the literal readings of the QuranQuran says. After seeing a slide show and taking notes for a while on that stuff, we watched a video. The video was about a guy who went to a bunch of different Islamic countries looking for liberal Islam. He visited Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, and Turkey. It was a really interesting movie. I liked the parts about Turkey simply because I am going to go there. Honestly, I had never even heard of liberal Islam before so it was a really eye-opening experience for me.

After Islam class, I came back and went on the computer and added a ton of pictures to Facebook. It took a while but I eventually got a bunch on. For lunch, I had tortilla chips with salsa (SO GOOD!!!) and an already prepared salad thing. Then I walked over to the Royal Academy of Art for Art History class (picture 1). For our class, we went into an exhibit called "From Russia". It is an exhibit featuring paintings from 4 different Russians museums. The paintings are by French and Russian artists from 1860-1925. That means more Impressionism. Yay! The exhibit almost didn't happen because some people claimed they owned the paintings and said they didn't want them being shown. That caused a ruckus and some talking back and forth of the two governments but eventually they came to a consensus and the paintings were shown. It is a really popular exhibit (sold out just about every day). This is the first time that these paintings have ever have shown in the different country and all together like this. Very special.

We met up outside the exhibit and Linda talked to us about "From Russia" and stuff. Then we got our tickets and were sent on our own way in. The exhibit is really about how the French Impressionists affected the painting styles of the Russians and how the Russians used that style but in their own way. As I said, all the paintings are in 4 different museums throughout Russia but just about, if not all, of the paintings are from two Russian collectors. One was named Morozov and the other was named Shchukin. They both loved Van Gogh and Monet and had extensive collections by them. They did have slightly different tastes though. Shchukin loved Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso. Morozov favored the Nabi artists and Fauvism. Both men had all their paintings in their houses but by 1905, both opened up their houses to painters and other artists to view the paintings and get inspiration.

I did have some paintings that I liked a lot. There were a ton of paintings by the way and it took me much longer than everyone else to get through because I read all the information and looked at each of the ones I liked carefully. I actually went through slowly, writing down the ones I especially liked, and then went back to the beginning and walked through again to make sure there weren't any other that jumped out at me (borrowed this technique from my mom). So the first painting that I especially liked was Cezanne's "Woman in Blue" (picture 2) which I don't really know anything about (no info card next to it) but I really liked how the woman's body language and face looked "blue" just like her dress and stuff. The next painting that I really, really liked was a painting by Derain called "Drying the Sails" (picture 3). It is a fauvist painting meaning that the colors are not realistic, the shapes are a little abstract and the brush strokes are quick and stuff. I just like how the blue and orange clash and make the painting really bright and stand out. When I walked into the room with this painting, it immediately jumped out at me. A painting by a Russian artist that has a very fauvist quality to it that I also really enjoyed was "Date Palm, Egypt" by Saryan (picture 4). I also liked a painting called "Kissing the Earth" by th Russian artist Roerich (picture 5). I don't know much about it other than it is a landscape painting so I almost automatically liked it. The "natural abstraction" of it really caught my eye. There were tons of other paintings that I really liked but the last one I will mention here (I don't want you all to get bored) is "Peasants Dancing" by Natalya Goncharova (picture 6). She painted in pretty abstract ways but always featured something about Russia. She drew landscapes, people, and still-lifes. This painting is of very Russian looking peasants dancing together.

After I got done with the exhibit, I walked over to another art gallery called White Cube (picture 7). Linda recommended it to us and it was right across the street so I figured I might as well check it out. Linda said it was "a hip and happening art gallery" or something. Inside, there is literally two white rooms. One room had probably 25 identical statues of an abstracted naked guy all over the walls, ceiling and floor (picture 8 but without the guy in the middle obviously). Can anybody say extremely weird? I wasn't really in the mood I suppose after seeing all the sweet paintings before. The other big white room had a bunch of metal pieces of varying sizes welded together to form a big metal caterpillar looking thing. It was more complicated than that but, again, I didn't really get it. Oh well, it was still cool.

I started to walk back to my flat but the sun was shining and I noticed in Green Park a bunch of deck chairs. I didn't sit in them but I did take a couple pictures which was cool (picture 9). The parks were really busy today with people walking and biking and roller blading because of the nice weather. I continued walking back to my flat and soaking up the sunshine. The reflection of the sun on the water, which I am always a sucker for (e.g. Crater Lake, Grand Teton, Lake Sag, etc.), in Hyde Park was so cool (picture 10). It was a perfect spring day. Back at the flat, I finished organizing my class schedule, ate dinner and lounged around like usual. I didn't do anymore Spain posts because I spent a lot of today putting up a ton of pictures on Facebook. Sorry, as I have said before, when I find time, I will do it. I guess that's all for now. I hope everyone had at least a little bit of fun today! I know I did.

Farewell!

Impressions of Impressionism

My day started out like usual. That being hitting the snooze like 4 times and then showering and having toast. I went to Islam vs. the West. We talked about Fundamentalism in Islam today. It was interesting but a lot of intense notetaking going on. Holy crap. Next week we are going to a mosque which is going to be super sweet.

*Disclaimer: Lots of art talk below. You have been warned.*

Then I came back and had lunch and went to the National Gallery yet again for Art History. As you can tell by the title of this blog entry, we talked about Impressionism. First, we talked about what painting was like before Impressionism. People spent a ton of time copying and practicing techniques, then they made their own paintings which were sent into this competition called the Salon. In the Salon, rich people would find paintings they liked and ask the artist to paint for them. That's it. The impressionists were rebelling against this sort of thing. They were a co-op and all very young and self-funded in Paris. They painted modern life and made no qualms about it. Some critics thought their paintings were boring or whatever but the artists just wanted to paint what was going on right now, not what already happened like the Salon type painters did. A good example of this is the artist Manet (not Monet) was painting a model who was posing all weird so he said to her, "Is that how you look when you buy your radishes?!?!" I thought that was a funny quote and totally epitomizes what the Impressionists were about ideaologically.

The Impressionists did not just disagree with the subject matter of the Salon painters but also how they painted. They would sketch and then spend hours or days in a studio making it perfect. Impressionists wanted the painting to be done as fast as possible. They wanted to capture moments and the feelings associated with them. If you can't tell yet, I love Impressionism.

Some of the works we looked at included Manet, Monet, Sisley, Pissaro, Van Gogh, Caillebotte, Seurat (Post-Impressionist), and Degas. The more recognizable pieces we saw were "Sunflowers" and "Van Gogh's Chair" by Vincent Van Gogh and "The Water Lilly Pond" by Monet. If you look any of those up online, chance are that you saw them in an art class in high school or whatever. On a side note, "Van Gogh's Chair" is actually a self-portrait that Van Gogh did. Just like if I asked you, "If you could be any vegetable, which would you be?" Except that you would then draw the vegetable.

One of my absolute favorite paintings (maybe my favorite ever?) that I have seen in all the art galleries I have been to here in London is "Lake Keitele" by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (picture 1) which I don't think is actually Impressionistic because the artist is Finnish. The silver streaks on the lake represent where the boat of a mythical Norse hero paddled by. I just love the way the lake and mountains look. It's like a picture but better. Like I said, not really Impressionist but it looks just like it and who cares, it's a beautiful painting. One of my favorites that we saw today was "Houses of Parliament, Sunset" by Monet (picture 2). He went to London in 1870-1 because of the Franco-Prussian War. He painted a bunch of stuff while here. He said that he liked London a lot because of the fog (actually smog from the factories) and the way it made the sunsets and sunrises look. Another painting that I liked was "A Coastal Scene" by Theo Van Rysselberghe (picture 3). He used a technique called pointillism where you just make dots to create the painting. He actually copied the technique from Seurat. I thought this painting was peaceful and it reminds me of some of the places I have been in the US and here. "A Wheat Field with Cypresses" by Vincent Van Gogh (picture 4) was another painting that just blew me away. This is actually a field outside of a mental institute that Van Gogh stayed in for a year (he was a little unbalanced). It reminded me a lot of "Starry Night" but during the day. I love this one too. So bright and just happy looking if you ask me. Last painting I want to mention is Monet's "Water Lily Pond" again (picture 5). It's a Japanese bridge over a pond in his gardens. You can actually go to Monet's gardens in Giverny, France. They aren't too far from Paris. He spent a ton of his time painting scenes from his garden. I have heard that the gardens are spectacular.

There are probably 30 other pictures I could talk about and put on here but I don't want to bore anyone (I hope I haven't already). If anyone who reads this comes to London someday, seriously make time to go to the National Gallery and check out the Impressionists there. It is totally worth the time and they are more beautiful in person. Anyway, after that was over I walked back to the flat but on the way, I was still overcome by the Impressionists and stuff, so I stopped off in St. James's Park and took some pictures of the flowers (picture 6 and my shadow with flowers picture 7). There are SO MANY daffodils blooming right now. There were just tons of them. I took a whole bunch of pictures but deleted a lot of them. I couldn't get the effect I wanted to appear on the camera. There was an awesome sunset in Hyde Park while I was walking (picture 8). After getting back, I read for a while and went online for a while and made dinner and did my usual night routine but just sitting around. Tomorrow we are listening to the whole War Requiem which should be interesting. Till next time!

Bon Soir!