Thursday, February 17, 2011

Cézanne and Debussy




The Post-Impressionist works of "The Father of Modern Art", Paul Cezanne (1839--1906) who inspired Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, et al, are shown here with the music of master of Impressionism in an unique sense of emotion captured in tone, Claude Debussy (1862-1918).

10 comments:

  1. Debussy is one of my favorite modern-classical composers - and Cezanne needs no introduction. Good stuff for a Friday, my friend!

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  2. You summed up my feelings on these two great artists as well, Will. You Tube can be a wonderful thing!

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  3. That worked well Doug each complimenting the other, innovative and avant garde at the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th, messages in a bottle from a France now entirely swept away by the shock of two world wars and the new world order. How things were I think Doug, thanks for posting it.

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  4. Messages in a bottle--I like that AA. What got me thinking about these two men and how they ushered in a fantastic era in France that revolutionized their respective arts camwe from a PBS documentary called "Paris:The Luminous Years". The program tracks the explosion of shocking, vibrant burst of creative energy in that great city the decade before and for a decade after WWI.

    Without these two older men would there have been the great canvasses of Picasso and Braque, the music of the wild Stavinsky and the meloncholy Satie?

    Perhaps, but not as we know their work I'll wager.



    Here's an article on the program and a video if you want to sample a few minutes. Hopefully the video will be available in England as well.

    http://www.pbs.org/paris/

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  5. Thanks for the link Doug, I was able to see the text and photographs but not able to access the video, you need a US zip code for that I'm afraid. I think television should be liberated and made universally available as a basic human right under the global charter of the Greater Bilderbergian Empire.

    If the elected ones are ever allowed to make decisions about things like that.... I'll definitely put some pressure on them to liberate the video resources of Planet Earth for the good of all, but of course we are a long way from democracy yet. I'll have to wait until it is posted on YouTube Doug.

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  6. Yes, AA, I have the same problem with the BBC videos--"not available".

    It seems national borders are recognized at least where media access is concerned...everything to do with production is globalized.

    The likely reason for this "Berlin Wall" in public broadcasting eludes me somehow...anyway, I'm glad you got the article and I hope it will play on one of the channels over you way, as it just premiered in December here.

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  7. I have managed to watch a short clip from the programme with Gore Vidal in it....in time there will be more on You Tube I'm sure
    In the context of a discussion we have had elsewhere about San Francisco, Paris does not have this ambiance any longer and the Left Bank is now a pale imitation of its former self I think.

    One of the symptoms of globalisation and the fact that everything in the main street shops is made in China has been the loss of intellectual prestige of the cities....innovators are now to found elsewhere in the wilderness and in cyberspace.

    I do think I detect some developments however in the form of transition towns which have moved the loci of creativity into smaller communities and which are now creating new innovative zones in settlements of all sizes from villages to inner city suburbs right across the globe, but particularly in the the Anglosphere I think. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_Towns

    This represents the transition of permaculture from a heresy to an orthodoxy which is I think an important development.

    Given the intrinsic link between poverty and creativity it could be that we are on the verge of a new Golden Age with a reinvigorated café culture perhaps Doug?

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  8. Yes hopefully there will be hope added on that program. Some very interesting people, besides Mr. Vidal, were also featured on it.

    Not having been there, nevertheless its hard to think of Paris as having a pale ambiance judging by the friends I know who went through there as tourists in the mid-80's during the last Great American Onslaught of Euro-Tourism...but nothing should surprise me these days.

    Transition Towns sounds like a very interesting development. I would think anything to fight off the homoginization of culture is something to be encouraged, as well las making better use of resources and drawing from local sources.

    I wonder if the social networks in a way can be part of this new cafe society, AA. Or perhaps there is something intrinsic about the direct contact on people in a cafe or some other informal gathering spot that cannot be replicated to the full?

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  9. I think there may well be some truth in your suggestion here that it is the living, face-to-face culture of café society that gives it a special quality Doug, but I also think that social networks are a good alternative. The globalising power of social networking is in my view a perfect corollary of to transition towns and a practical example of thinking globally whilst acting locally. That's my view on it for what it is worth Doug - I think both means of communication and the sharing of information and ideas are important developments in the global revolution that is taking place under the feet, over the heads and behind the back of the collapsing status quo.

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  10. Good point, AA! We really don't have to choose just one of the two, do we? :-)

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