English Culture

Consumerism

2010-05-12T14:17:00.001-07:00

1 Someone who adquires a product in exchange of money or any other good. A "consumer" can either be someone who buys to satisfy their needs, or the typical "crazy person who goes berserk" everytime he or she goes to the mall with the purpose to buy everything,eventhough being unecessary items most of the times.

2 "Materialism" can be described as an attitude that most of the people who live in developed countries have. It is like a psycological robot in our minds, always reminding us to buy expendable goods, without caring about the price or utility, creating an illusion of need in our heads.

3 Consumer choice is a peculiar moment which everyone experience, each and everytime we are about to buy something, when we think in the pros and cons and then decide.

4 My decisions whether to buy or not buy have to be with design, price, features, brands, how much it satisfy my needs, regarding what I have at the moment or other choices I can have buying another product. But my first point to buy is always the relation of need and its quality.

5 Not much, because I dont usually think in the same way this consumerism society does, trying to sell and impose their products and goods in us without having in mind our needs. I like to go with my instincts, taste and needs.

6 They have the ability to say a litle bit about us, our taste, style, and even our personality and state of being.
For example, our clothes can say if we are shy, timid, classic; or extravagant, fancy and original, without fear of being judge. Clothes also have the power to say if we are careless, relaxed or trendy.

Lucian Freud

2010-03-09T05:46:00.000-08:00

Early life and family

He is the son of Jewish parents Ernst Ludwig Freud, an architect, and Lucie née Brasch. He is the grandson of Sigmund Freud, brother of the late broadcaster, writer and politician Clement Freud (thus uncle of Emma and Matthew Freud) and of Stephan Gabriel Freud,

Freud and his family moved to England in 1933 to escape the rise of Nazism, and became British citizens in 1939. During this period he attended Dartington Hall school in Totnes, Devon, and later Bryanston School.
[edit] Early career

Freud briefly studied at the Central School of Art in London then, with greater success, at Cedric Morris' East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in Dedham, and also at Goldsmiths College - University of London from 1942-3. He served as a merchant seaman in an Atlantic convoy in 1941 before being invalided out of service in 1942. In 1943, Tambimuttu, the Ceylonese editor, commissioned the young artist to illustrate a book of poems by Nicholas Moore entitled "The Glass Tower". It was published the following year by Editions Poetry London and comprised, among other drawings, a stuffed zebra (-cum-unicorn) and a palm tree. Both subjects reappeared in The Painter's Room on display at Freud's first solo exhibition in 1944 at the Alex Reid & Lefevre Gallery. In the summer of 1946, he travelled to Paris before continuing to Greece for several months. Since then he has lived and worked in London.
[edit] Change in style
The Painter's Room, 1944, private collection.

Freud's early paintings are often associated with surrealism and depict people, plants and animals in unusual juxtapositions. These works are usually painted with relatively thin paint, but from the 1950s he began to paint portraits, often nudes, to the almost complete exclusion of everything else, employing a thicker impasto. With this technique he would often clean his brush after each stroke. The colours in these paintings are typically muted.

Freud's portraits often depict only the sitter, sometimes sprawled naked on the floor or on a bed or alternatively juxtaposed with something else, as in Girl With a White Dog (1951-52) and Naked Man With Rat (1977-78)[1]. The use of animals in his compositions is widespread, and often features pet and owner. Other examples of portraits with both animals and people in Freud's work include Guy and Speck (1980-81), Eli and David (2005-06) and Double Portrait (1985-86).[2] He has a special passion for horses, having enjoyed riding at school in Dartington, where he sometimes even slept in the stables.[3] His portraits solely of horses include Grey Gelding (2003), Skewbald Mare (2004), and Mare Eating Hay (2006).

Freud's subjects are often the people in his life; friends, family, fellow painters, lovers, children. To quote the artist: "The subject matter is autobiographical, it's all to do with hope and memory and sensuality and involvement, really."
[edit] Later career
Girl with a white dog, 1951 - 1952, Tate Gallery The subject is Freud's first wife, Kitty (Kathleen) Garman, the daughter of Jacob Epstein and Kathleen Garman.
After Cézanne, 1999 - 2000, National Gallery of Australia.

"I paint people," Freud has said, "not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be." Freud has painted fellow artists, including Frank Auerbach and Francis Bacon. He produced a series of portraits of the performance artist Leigh Bowery, and also painted Henrietta Moraes, a muse to many Soho artists. Freud is one of the best known British artists working in a traditional representational style, and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1989.[4]

His painting After Cézanne, which is notable because of its unusual shape, was bought by the National Gallery of Australia for $7.4 million. The top left section of this painting has been 'grafted' on to the main section below, and closer inspection reveals a horizontal line where these two sections were joined.

Lucian Freud was a visiting tutor at the Slade School of Fine Art of University College London from 1949-54.

Although Freud is internationally acknowledged as one of the most important artists working today, there have been few opportunities to see his paintings and etchings in Britain. In 1996, Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal mounted a major exhibition of 27 paintings and thirteen etchings, covering the whole period of Freud's working life to date. The following year the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art presented "Lucian Freud: Early Works". The exhibition comprised around 30 drawings and paintings done between 1940 and 1945[5]. This was followed most notably by a large retrospective at Tate Britain in 2002. During a period from May 2000 to December 2001, Freud painted Queen Elizabeth II. There was significant criticism of this portrayal of the Queen in some sections of the British media. The highest selling tabloid newspaper, The Sun, was particularly condemnatory, describing the portrait as "a travesty".[6] In late 2007, a collection of Freud's etchings titled "Lucian Freud: The Painter’s Etchings" went on display at the Museum of Modern Art. The etchings allow viewers to get a closer and more detailed look at the artist's creative process. Freud's works sometimes involve the same person and similar compositions, since his works are about getting to know the subject, prompting him to use the same person more than once when he feels there is more he can learn from him or her physically, mentally, or emotionally.[7]

In May 2008, his 1995 portrait Benefits Supervisor Sleeping was sold by auction by Christie's in New York City for $33.6 million, setting a world record for sale value of a painting by a living artist.[8]

In November 2008, letters written by Freud were obtained by The Independent under the Freedom of Information Act. They detail his bitter dispute with some of the most powerful figures in the art world after he was asked to represent Britain at the 1954 Venice Biennale, the world's leading contemporary art exhibition. The publicity-shy portrait painter locked horns with gallery officials after a selection committee rebuffed his suggestions of works to show in Italy. The article includes a copy of the letter written by Freud to the British Council complaining about the selection process.[9]

Henry Moore

2010-03-09T05:45:00.000-08:00

Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art.

His forms are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures. Moore's works are usually suggestive of the female body, apart from a phase in the 1950s when he sculpted family groups. His forms are generally pierced or contain hollow spaces. Many interpreters liken the undulating form of his reclining figures to the landscape and hills of his birthplace, Yorkshire.

Moore was born in Castleford, the son of a mining engineer. He became well-known through his larger-scale abstract cast bronze and carved marble sculptures, and was instrumental in introducing a particular form of modernism to the United Kingdom. His ability in later life to fulfil large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy. Yet he lived frugally and most of the money he earned went towards endowing the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts.[2]

After the war Moore received an ex-serviceman's grant to continue his education, and in 1919 he became the first student of sculpture at the Leeds School of Art (now Leeds College of Art), which set up a sculpture studio especially for him. At the college, he met Barbara Hepworth—a fellow student who would also become a well-known British sculptor—and began a friendship that lasted for many years. Moore had access to many works owned by Sir Michael Sadler, the University Vice-Chancellor.[7] In 1921, Moore won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art in London, where his friend Hepworth had gone the year before. While in London, Moore extended his knowledge of primitive art and sculpture, studying the ethnographic collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum.
A Chac Mool stone statue at Chichen Itza site, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. This reclining Toltec-Maya figure influenced Moore's sculpture.

The early sculptures of both Moore and Hepworth follow the standard romantic Victorian style, and include natural forms, landscapes and figurative modelling of animals. Moore later became uncomfortable with classically derived ideals; his later familiarity with primitivism and the influence of sculptors such as Constantin Brancusi, Jacob Epstein and Frank Dobson led him to the method of direct carving, in which imperfections in the material and marks left by tools became part of the finished sculpture. Having adopted this technique, Moore was in conflict with academic tutors who lacked appreciation of such a modern approach. During one exercise set by Derwent Wood (the professor of sculpture at the Royal College), Moore was asked to reproduce a marble relief of Domenico Rosselli's The Virgin and Child[8] by first modelling the relief in plaster, then reproducing it in marble using the mechanical technique of "pointing". Instead, he carved the relief directly, even marking the surface to simulate the prick marks that would have been left by the pointing machine.

In 1924, Moore won a six-month travelling scholarship which he spent in Northern Italy studying the great works of Michelangelo, Giotto di Bondone, Giovanni Pisano and several other Old Masters. During this period he also visited Paris, took advantage of the timed-sketching classes at the Académie Colarossi, and viewed, in the Louvre, a plaster cast of a Toltec-Maya sculptural form, the Chac Mool. The reclining figure was to have a profound effect upon Moore's work, becoming the primary motif of his sculpture.[9]

Damien Hirst

2010-03-09T05:44:00.000-08:00

Damien Steven Hirst[1] (born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and the most prominent[2] member of the group known as "Young British Artists" (or YBAs), who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s.[3] He is internationally renowned,[4] and is reputed to be the richest living artist to date.[5] During the 1990s his career was closely linked with the collector Charles Saatchi, but increasing frictions came to a head in 2003 and the relationship ended.

Death is a central theme in Hirst's works. He became famous for a series in which dead animals (including a shark, a sheep and a cow) are preserved—sometimes having been dissected—in formaldehyde. The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a 14-foot (4.3 m) tiger shark immersed in formaldehyde in a vitrine became the iconic work of British art in the 1990s,[6] and the symbol of Britart worldwide.[7] He has also made "spin paintings," created on a spinning circular surface, and "spot paintings", which are rows of randomly-colored circles.

In September 2008, he took an unprecedented move for a living artist[8] by selling a complete show, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, at Sotheby's by auction and by-passing his long-standing galleries.[9] The auction exceeded all predictions, raising £111 million ($198 million), breaking the record for a one-artist auction[10] as well as Hirst's own record with £10.3 million for The Golden Calf, an animal with 18-carat gold horns and hooves, preserved in formaldehyde.[9]

Breakthrough

In July 1988 in his second year at Goldsmiths College, Hirst was the main organiser of an independent student exhibition, Freeze, in a disused London Port Authority administrative block in London's Docklands. He gained sponsorship from the London Docklands Development Corporation. The show was visited by Charles Saatchi, Norman Rosenthal and (Sir) Nicholas Serota, thanks to the influence of his Goldsmiths' lecturer Michael Craig-Martin. Hirst's own contribution to the show consisted of a cluster of cardboard boxes painted with household paint.[16] After graduating, Hirst was included in New Contemporaries show and in a group show at Kettles Yard Gallery in Cambridge. Seeking a gallery dealer, he first approached Karsten Schubert, but was turned down.

In 1990 Hirst, along with his friend Carl Freedman and Billee Sellman, curated two enterprising "warehouse" shows, Modern Medicine and Gambler, in a Bermondsey former Peek Freans biscuit factory they designated "Building One".[17][18] Saatchi arrived at the second show in a green Rolls Royce and, according to Freedman, stood open-mouthed with astonishment in front of (and then bought) Hirst's first major "animal" installation, A Hundred Years, consisting of a large glass case containing maggots and flies feeding off a rotting cow's head.[19] They also staged Michael Landy's Market.[18] At this time, Hirst said, "I can’t wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it. At the moment if I did certain things people would look at it, consider it and then say 'f off'. But after a while you can get away with things."[14]

In 1991 his first solo exhibition, organised by Tamara Chodzko - Dial, In and Out of Love, was held in an unused shop on Woodstock Street in central London; he also had solo exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and the Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery in Paris. The Serpentine Gallery presented the first survey of the new generation of artists with the exhibition Broken English, in part curated by Hirst. At this time Hirst met the up-and-coming art dealer, Jay Jopling, who then represented him.

Art Assignment : Anthony Gomley

2010-03-09T05:25:00.000-08:00

The artists piece of art that I apreciate most is Anthony Gombley "Angel of the North". It is a really amazing monument, not only because it´s sheer size but also original and unique. In my opinion, it is like a real angel, because it can be seen really far away, and gives the impression that is different of the extraordinary, just like a divine creature, which makes it really beautiful and a shrine to some superior being.
The purpose of its construction is also something positive, because it was built in honor of the industrial tradition linked to the North Britain and in homage their effort and hardwork throughout the ages to make Britain a prosperous country.

My personal museum

2009-06-07T10:12:00.001-07:00

(in chronological order)
01 - Cerelac - I remember that when i was around 5 years old, this was my favorite dish, i could easily eat it around three or four times a day, it was so delicious I would never get sick of it.
02 - Lion King - Well i can say that this movie was my favorite child movie ever, because i can still remember that I felt so bad when the Simba ´s father died, i almost cried. I was around six years old at that time, but i was cleaver enough to understand the precious values it portrayed, such us bravery and loyalty.
03 - Diabolo - I was around eight years old when I met this alternative sport, it really surprised me at because I never imagined that would be possible to have such fun and it was cool to watch and practice. My first diablo was red and black, and i spent around a year practicing just to learn some tricks such as throwing it two or three story's high and catch it back.
04 - Dragon Ball - Well, this animation was a very successful show in portugal, and it aired more than once on national television. It was my favorite series when I was kid (around 9 years old), and I remember me and my friends running home from school in the frenzy just so we wouldn't miss the intro.
05 - Gran Turismo 2 - It was my favorite game ever. It was made by Sony in 1999, and I started playing it when i was 11 years old. The graphics seemed so real, that I've spent endless nights playing it over and over.
06 - Adidas Terrestra Soccer Ball - This was the ball used in the Euro 2000. I played football very often in my adolescence and i still keep this ball as a souvenir of those times.
07 - XBOX - My favorite game console. Now unfortunately it is out of use and I don't have much time to play it anymore, but it did give me many good days of fun, in multi and single player. It has many of my favorite games such as Dead or Alive and Halo.
08 - Skate board - My favorite sport. Never has anything given me such adrenaline before, and although I'm not in my peak anymore, I still like from time to time to take my skate out onto the streets and give a few spins. I own two skateboards, one from element (see picture) and the other one from Hubba Wheels.
09 - Acoustic Guitar - More recently I've been trying to learn a few chords on an acoustic guitar borrowed from a friend. Playing music is really a nice way to spend your time. It takes practice, just like anything else, but I've only been playing it for a few months and I already see some results. I recommend that everyone just have at least one instrument to play from time to time.
10 - VANS - This is my favorite clothing brand. It is also related with the skating world, hence my preference.

Subjects of my essay

2009-03-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

I will start my essay with a little introduction regarding queen's elizabeth database, including her birthdate, personality, and the beginning and end of her crownship. I will also mention in this introduction the poor social/economical/political situation of the british islands at that time.
In the development of my essay, i will discuss her battle against Spain, the peak of the english renassaince, and talk about the Elizabeth's strong and courageous leadership that allowed her to sail to the discovery of america and eventually led england into a new age of prosperity.

Queen Elizabeth external links

2009-03-08T16:29:00.003-07:00

http://www.elizabethi.org/
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/eliza.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England
http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon45.html
http://www.sho.com/site/tudors/home.do
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tudors

Queen Elizabeth "biography"

2009-03-08T16:29:00.001-07:00

The Queen Coronation

2009-03-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

Queen Elizabeth

Elizabeth became queen at the age of 25. As her triumphal progress wound through the city on the eve of the coronation ceremony, she was welcomed wholeheartedly by the citizens and greeted by orations and pageants, most with a strong Protestant flavour. Elizabeth's open and gracious responses endeared her to the spectators, who were "wonderfully ravished".The following day, 15 January 1559, Elizabeth was crowned at westminster Abbey and anointed by the Catholic bishop of Carlisle. She was then presented for the people's acceptance, amidst a deafening noise of organs, fifes, trumpets, drums, and bells.

On 20 November 1558, Elizabeth declared her intentions to her Council and other peers who had come to Hatfield to swear allegiance. The speech contains the first record of her often-used metaphor of the "two bodies": the body natural and the body politic:

My lords, the law of nature moves me to sorrow for my sister; the burden that is fallen upon me makes me amazed, and yet, considering I am God's creature, ordained to obey His appointment, I will thereto yield, desiring from the bottom of my heart that I may have assistance of His grace to be the minister of His heavenly will in this office now committed to me. And as I am but one body naturally considered, though by His permission a body politic to govern, so shall I desire you all...to be assistant to me, that I with my ruling and you with your service may make a good account to Almighty God and leave some comfort to our posterity on earth. I mean to direct all my actions by good advice and counsel.

Wikipedia

New theme

2009-03-08T16:07:00.000-07:00

In the next weeks, it will be exposed in this blog several information about Queen Elizabeth 1, and that information will be exposed in textes, some essays that i will write and some data that i will collect from internet.

Summary

2009-02-13T05:38:00.000-08:00

The presentation had several points of interess and advices but with one main purpose which is to explain why students can't answer correctly and get good grades.
Usuallly, students just memorize texts and the information collected in class and use it without backing it up with evidence that supports their theories, or don't go any deeper in their research.
To have fully correct answer, one needs to expose not only the more superficial information, but it's also required to support it with evidence, with arguments and personal points of view. The purpose of those arguments is to persuade the reader into more easily believing our theories.

Imaginary Youth Culture: Mockers

2009-01-05T11:08:00.000-08:00

Mockers are one of the most rebellious youth sub-cultures of our generation. Despite their bad habits and weird attitude, they can gather up a lot of followers to their circle. Almost all of the mockers share a true passion to the electronic music, psychedelic lights and all kinds of drugs. The older and more conservative people see mockers as outcasts living outside the law and with no purpose; But in fact, the way they dash and blast through the night life is part of their philosophy, to always have fun and explore life as it was meant to be; losing yourself to find yourself again.

The press and the government also see mockers a guilty faction of the illegal underworld, but not all mockers are alike; While some might feed the hype, there are also innocent teens who's only goal is to either have fun or have a new experience.

Their clothes are usually not similar since they defend that each person should be unique in the way they feel apropriate. However they all share some identical visual tastes, like dyed hair,piercings,most of their clothes are dark, simple and alternative.

They dont have any philosophy of life or religion, but they gather up in major psytrance and techno events, such as boom festivals, dance valley and some goa events, all over the world.

Despite their lack of religion, they all worship the biggest djs and music productor and follow them all around the world in digressions.

Sarah Palin

2008-12-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

This work was made by
Nuno Cruz (30583) and Carlos Fonseca (29877)
__________________________________________________

1. Explain the title of the article

The title of this article is in direct relation to the "american dream",
an utopia once again recovered and used by the republicans to gain favoritism
in the more smaller (and usually southern) states. And Sarah Palin, the chosen candidate for the vice presidency, is the epitome of such mith, that seems can no longer be applied to the current united states, or even believeable by most, something that was proven with Obama's victory.

2. How have the Republicans used the myths of small-town America to their political
advantage?

This strategy was developed to gain the empathy and trust of the more modest and patriotic
americans, especially through nostalgia. Sarah Palin, who wasn't well known in the world of politics, entered the spotlight of the elections, and gave the viewers what they wanted to see:
A perfect "average" american who's just like everyone else. However, the truth is she was merely a political figure, a kind of icon made purposely to give the right-wing militants a sense of moral and national rightiousness.

3. Why is this tactic difficult for Barack Obama's campaign to counter?

First and foremost, the democrats have no similar mith to counter with. The second aspect
that made it more difficult for Obama is that democrats do have the facts, and the more than obvious failure of the Bush administration made the road softer for Barack's campaign. But americans do love stories more than facts, and fear change, some more than others; and Obama doesn't have that kind fully flegded biography to fight in the same lines; and his racial background certaintly doesn't help in the more conservative states. Obama is in fact, the opposite of the myth that Sarah Palin ressurected; While the republicans uphold past Reagan values and national ideals, the democrats are looking at the future of change: a multiracial society where aging fantasies cannot exist anymore.

Graffiti comment

2008-12-10T08:55:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, Graffiti is a way of art, that defines the feelings and expresses ideas and thoughts of the creators.
In the beggining, Graffiti was created to define the territories of the gangs, but some time later, some art critics started noticing that those "paintings" were actually great expressions of art and some of those graffitis are even exposed in art galleries.
Nowadays, famous people spends large accounts of money buying graffitis to expose in their houses or private locations, as the text shows, and that is one kind of proof that graffiti can be useful and beautiful, because it is a great way to express our feelings and we dont need any type of studies or learnings to do it.
It´s true, in the other hand, that one neighbourhood with graffitis can be a litle bit scary if you don´t know that place or the people that live there, but its ridiculous to say that graffiti is an "eyesore" and an act 0f vandalism.
In my opinion, it shouldn´t be forbidden to do graffitis, but start creating special areas where anyone can paint whatever they want, despite of loving that way of art, i think it is a crime to paint in areas like building or spaces that dont belong to us.
I think also that it still exists too much prejudice against this art, because most of the people when they watch one "tagger" paint on the streets, still think that it was a junkie or a delinquent the author, and don´t believe that some artist can earn money and live by doing those marvelous creations and showing them around the world.

2008-12-10T08:54:00.000-08:00

Hello, my name is Nuno Cruz, I'm student number 30583, LRE I.
This is my english culture blog.

Thank you for your visit.

Hello world

2008-10-27T12:31:00.001-07:00

Hello world