Posts tagged history

Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery

December 4, 2011

Henri Cartier-Bresson - Sunday on the banks of the river marne, 1938 — Sunday on the banks of the river marne, 1938

I first discovered Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photography back in university when his work was used as examples. Despite analysing his photographs, we never really got the chance to learn about the man himself. When I heard the Queensland Art Gallery was holding an exhibition of his work, I told myself I had to go and see it. Luckily I managed to get down to the art gallery on the last day ^^;.

Cartier-Bresson was born into a well-off family and at a young age was exposed to photography when he was given a Box Brownie. He attended art school at 19 and was mentored by Cubist artist André Lhote. From Lhote he learned about the combining of reality and classic forms, which you can see in his photography.

Inspiration Collection: September 2011

October 7, 2011

Only 81 days now till Christmas! This year has been flying by. But for now it’s a new month and that means a new collection of inspirational images to share with you! As noted before, I don’t post all images from last month (seen above) but you can find them all in my tumblr archive. Images will click through to their original sources if available and I’ll note if there’s more than one image in the series.

So let’s get on with it!

Surrealism: The Poetry of Dreams Exhibition at GoMA

September 30, 2011

I’ve been meaning to go and see the Surrealism exhibition at GoMA but it wasn’t until my friend mentioned catching up that we decided to spend a day checking it out since it’s in its last week. Please excuse the low res photos, I only had my phone with me ^^;.

I will admit going into this that I knew little about the history, artists and philosophy of Surrealism. What I discovered was that the movement came about in response to Dadaism which focused on intentional irrationality and the rejection of the standards of art. Surrealism took a different direction, focusing more on the creativity that spurred from the unconscious mind. The movement originally started off as a literary one before spreading to painting, sculpture and film.

Favourite Artists: Vermeer

July 13, 2011

Vermeer - Girl With The Pearl Earring — Vermeer – Girl With The Pearl Earring

Most people will recognise the above picture as one of Vermeer’s most famous works: Girl with the Pearl Earring. To be honest, my love of his paintings started when I saw the movie based off this work (Who wants to see Scarlett Johansson with no eyebrows?). I found myself captivated by the idea of the story behind the picture and as I looked more into Vermeer’s work I discovered that each one has a tale to tell.

For those wanting a bit of history, Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter who lived in Delft between 1632 and 1675. He had a mostly well off life with his wife and 11 children who he supported by selling paintings and art dealing.

Melbourne – Old buildings, great humour and cold weather, oh my!

April 27, 2011

In Australia we’ve just had a 5 day weekend due to ANZAC day and Easter falling on the same dates. My boyfriend and I were lucky enough to spend our week down in cold Melbourne for the last days of the International Comedy Festival and to get in some general sight-seeing. We went down last December for a sci-fi convention (’cause we’re nerds, yo) and we enjoyed Melbourne so much that we’ve needed an excuse to come back. This time we got 2 and 1/2 days to fully explore and take in all the sights of this beautiful city.

There is so much to talk about that I’ve broken it down into sections spread over 2 posts to make easier to group together places we checked out. Most of this post is about the historic buildings around Melbourne we saw because there’s just so many gorgeous old designs and architecture that you don’t see in other Australian cities like Brisbane.

Topical Musings

Incoherent ramblings of an Australian digital designer