Thursday, March 31, 2016

The Infinite Art Tournament, Left Bracket Second Round: Nash v. Master of Moulins!

Paul Nash
1889 - 1946
British

Lost at the last second to Murillo in Round 1. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
Tied with Edvard Munch in First Round Elimination.
Defeated Sir Jacob Epstein in First Round Elimination Tiebreak.






Master of Moulins (probably Jean Hay)
late fifteenth century
French

Defeated Robert Motherwell in Round 1.
Skunked by Norman Rockwell in Round 2.






Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting, but likely much longer.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Element of the Month: Erbium!

March's Element of the Month:

Erbium!
Er
68

Atomic Mass: 167.259 amu
Melting Point: 1529 °C
Boiling Point: 2868 °C

It's been a few years since we mentioned the Ytterby Element-Discovery Juggernaut, so let's briefly rehearse it here. Ytterby is a small village on one of the islands around Stockholm. It had a little quarry.

The humble Ytterby quarry, today.

In the late nineteenth century, when brainy chemists got really excited about filling in the blanks in Dmitri Mendeleev's famous spreadsheet, the Ytterby quarry turned out to be a real gold mine for Swedish scientists from the nearby capital. Well, not a gold mine. Rather, a new-element mine.  In arguably monomaniacal homage to the village of their discovery, they gave the new elements names like Ytterbium and Yttrium and Terbium and, in the case of our element of the month, Erbium.  (When they ran out of permutations of Ytterby, they moved on to Holmium (as in Stockholm), Thulium (as in "Thule," ie. Sweden), and Gadolinium, for which they finally gave up on geography and honored a famous brainy guy.)

Erbium is one of the lanthanide elements, the ones we're not supposed to call "rare earths," and like most of them it is not so much incredibly rare as incredibly hard to isolate.  It reacts amiably with almost every substance in nature -- air, water, and the like -- so it is never found in a pure state.  In fact, it took more than 90 years between the "discovery" by Carl Gustaf Mosander in 1843 and the first time anybody could really cook up a chunk of pure Erbium, in 1934. 

The Centerfold!


Once you get it good and pure, Erbium is a silvery metal like most of the other elements.  Many of its chemical compounds, however, are a fetching pink, or violet.  That means that one of its modern uses is as a colorant in extremely expensive art glass.

Erbium is also useful in dental surgical lasers, which can perform many of the tasks usually done with dental drills, except better, and at twenty times the expense!

Throw in a few specialized metallurgical uses -- Erbium can alloy Vanadium to make it more workable, for instance -- and you are well on your way to knowing your way around Erbium's place in the modern human economy.  Which means you're better off then you were before you read this little precis.

Dale Chihuly, Erbium Chandelier with Gilded Putto, 1993. Corning Museum of Glass.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

The Infinite Art Tournament, Round Two: Prud'hon v. Raeburn!

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
1758 - 1823
French

Drubbed Francesco Primaticcio in Round 1.







Sir Henry Raeburn
1756 - 1823
British

Walloped Jacopo Della Quercia in Round 1.







Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting.

Monday, March 28, 2016

The Songs of the Fifty States: Missouri revisited


(What is "The Songs of the Fifty States"?)



It's only been four months since I did a "Songs" post on Missouri, but last week I had an opportunity to spend a few days kicking around the state, which I hadn't visited since 1999.  Missouri from the freeway is, alas, pretty awful: glimpses of farmland peeking out from behind huge signs, most of which tell you either that you should purchase a huge sign or that the signowner's beliefs and values are better than yours.  Once off the freeway, it's a mixed bag of pleasant town and rural landscapes and grim town and rural landscapes, depending on local conditions.

The final score for the road trip, incidentally, was: 19 new counties in Missouri, 2 in Illinois, 2 in Arkansas, and 2 in Tennessee.  Also, 4 in Kentucky, which had been the state that I hadn't visited in the longest time; Florida takes over that spot now. 



Thomas Hart Benton, Truman Library Murals, Independence.
Missouri!

Size: 180,533 km2 (21st)

2015 Population: 6,083,672 (18th)

Statehood: 1821 (24th).

American Human Development Index: 4.60 (36th)


Art Mecca: Last November, I wrote about how the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art was the museum where I really became interested in art for the first timeI thought that the Nelson Atkins must be the coolest museum in the world, I said, and I suppose for me, at the time, it was....  I wonder if I'd still love it now that I've seen a lot more museums, or if I'd be all jaded.  So, knowing I would be back in Missouri, I made it a priority to revisit the Nelson-Atkins.

Unfortunately, and replicating a mistake that I made in 1999, I forgot that it's closed on Tuesdays.

Fortunately, I was able to try again and pull off a short visit on Saturday, before my flight home.  

And the answer is, the Nelson-Atkins has a really terrific collection!  It is particularly strong in the Impressionist/Post-Impressionist era, and has some very nice medieval stuff, and I bet that's why I thought for quite a few years that I was mostly interested in the Impressionists and medieval art -- my fine arts tastes were forged in Kansas City. I was surprised that they seem to have no Modern Art collection at all, but eventually figured out the problem: they are deeply confused about what the word "contemporary" means:



Bottom line: If you have the chance, visit the Nelson-Atkins!  It's free, even!  But closed Tuesdays!

Now, in the comments last time Christine M. volunteered that "St. Louis also has a lovely art museum, and it's free, too."  I was a little underwhelmed with the St. Louis show when I visited in 1999, but what the hell did I know?  So, I gave serious thought to remedying the situation this time in order to give you a fair and balanced treatment of the Art Meccas of the Show-Me State.  Unfortunately, the lure of randomly exploring rural backroads was too much for me.



Michael 5000's Missouri: March 2016

First Visited: April 1, 1991 (5th)
Most Recently Visited: March 26, 2016 (2nd)

First Run In: 2.62 miles, Cape Girardeau, March 23, 2016
Best Run: 3.63 miles, Bolivar, March 25, 2016

Have Admired the Visual Arts In: Yes.
Have Geohashed In: No.
Have Slept Overnight In: Yes.

Counties Visited: 75/115 (passes Colorado to take 2nd place)
% Complete: 65.2% (18th, passing New York, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania)


Mrs. 5000's Counties Visited: 22/115 (15th)
% Complete: 19.1% (39th)
Mrs.5000 First Visited: c. 1969 c. 1967 (date suggested by even more recent research)
Mrs.5000 Most Recently Visited: August 1989 (date suggested by recent research)


Atlas of All Roads Traveled



Plans and Aspirations

It will probably be quite a few years before I return to Missouri.

Saturday, March 26, 2016

The Infinite Art Tournament, Round One: Ribera v. Richter!

José de Ribera
1591 – 1652
Spanish; worked in Italy



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Gerhard Richter
Born 1932
German



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Vote for the artist of your choice! Votes go in the comments. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

The Infinite Art Tournament, Round 3: Patenier v. Picasso!

Joachim Patenier
1485ish - 1524
Dutch

Skunked German Expressionist Max Hermann Pechstein in Round 1.
Beat Francis Picabia in Round 2.








Pablo Picasso
1881 - 1973
Spanish

Beat Piero della Francesca easily in Round 1.
Beat Piero di Cosimo in Round 2.







Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

The Wednesday Post


Incidentally, I've been on vacation
Art Tournament content only for the next little while.
Try to be strong.





Tuesday, March 22, 2016

The Infinite Art Tournament, Round Two: Popova v. Poussin!


We had a First Round tie today, which as always had shuffled up the ol' brackets a bit.  It was the Leighton/Modersohn-Becker bout, which now has the distinction of being the only First Round tiebreaker (so far) to itself end up in a tie; those two are having a really, really tough time getting into the swing of the Tournament. 



Ljubov Popova
1889 - 1924
Russian

Beat Jacopo Pontormo in in Round 1.







Nicolas Poussin
1594 - 1665
French; worked in Italy

Defeated American sculptor Hiram Powers in Round 1.






Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

The Infinite Art Tournament, Round One: Renoir v. Reynolds!

Pierre Auguste Renoir
1841 - 1919
French



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Sir Joshua Reynolds
1723 - 1792
British



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Vote for the artist of your choice! Votes go in the comments. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

The Infinite Art Tournament, First Elimination Round #46/64



Faceoff #1: Piper v. Pisano

John Piper
1903 - 1992
British

Lost to Pisanello in Round 1.



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Andrea Pisano
1290ish - 1348
Florentine

Lost to Camille Pissarro in Round 1.





Faceoff #2: Poliakoff v. del Pollaiolo

Serge Poliakoff
1906 - 1969
Russian; worked in France

Lost to Sigmar Polke in Round 1.




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Antonio del Pollaiolo
1430ish - 1498
Florentine

Lost to Jackson Pollock in Round 1.





Vote for the two artists of your choice! Votes generally go in the comments, but have been known to arrive by email, by postcard, or in a sealed envelope.

Please note that you may vote only once in each face-off.  Opining that both of the artists in one of the two face-offs is superior to the other is fine, but casting your votes for two artists in the same face-off is not permissible.