[Novikov-Vodkin]

As promissed here is one of my favorites - Lasansky prints.If you are interested further feel free to explore his site http://www.lasanskya...int_index.shtml

This pair is interesting. The crying baby is from the "Nazi drawings" series. The series was inspired by a documentary about the WWII concentration camps. The second picture is of a different series done in a different time and of an old man. the 3rd and 4th is also "nazi".

I always thought that children and old people are very much alike. Babies look like old people and old people do like babies and both are very vulnerable. Also by my observation (I might be wrong though) babies are kind and trusting - because they haven’t explored life yet, but old people also seem kind and trusting - although they did live and have seen the worst and best of life. Or maybe they know that they are at the mercy of others (servival instinkt?)?

Also the crying child in the first one reminds me of some shots from WWII (can't remember where I saw it). Every time I think about that image it brakes my heart: a little girl standing in a pile of debris by a dead body of a woman and she is crying. She is no older then 3, but her entire body filled with so much disparity and sorrow... It is not a child's grief over a dead mother - it is a despair and powerlessness of a person in the face of horrors of the war. The same with Lasansky child. It is not a cry of baby it is a cry of a human in a horrific despair.

The third picture is of a woman in black caring a dead baby. A sceleton is crouching on top of the woman with a stretched arm pointing the way, a little girl is clutching the woman's skirt in fear. I think the woman in black is death. It seems there is more humanty in that Death woman who is carefully caring the baby then in humans who killed it. And the little girl seem to prefer to be taken by Death then be where she is.

The forth one of a nazi wearing scull/helmet and a gas mask with a skeleton on top of him. He is gasing children and women. I feel very sad when I look at it. And it also makes me think of Bosnia and all the people who were exterminated there, and how it could of been repeted after the world survived WWII. Sad and scarry.

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[Novikov-Vodkin]

Now here are some more but less sad. really pretty actually. The first one is of the artist and I love the whole simplicity of it (makes me think of the Soviet artists and poets of the 60's). The second one called Amish boy - it reminds me of Russian parsunas. the third is a girl with her dog.

And the the cardinal and the pop. These two look like to overfed cats. And also make me think of Federico Fellini's "Roma" (if I am not mistaken) and "Casanova". In "Roma" Fellini parades models down the catwalk in the latest clergy fashions. Quite a show that was. In "Casanova" a couple of nuns are seduced by Casanova. The nuns were wearing head dress and the hoop structures (but with ought the skirt). It was very symbolic with their bodies locked in the hoop cages below the waist. There is something wrong with these two as well. And like in Fellini's films I can't put a finger on it.

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[Thaibebop]

And you think Dali is creepy?


I like them, I really do.

[Novikov-Vodkin]

And you think Dali is creepy?
I like them, I really do.

Well, to me Lasansky depicts human experiances and emotions that I can assosiate with. Also I love his execution style. For instance the cardinal and the pope is a nearly life size etching! I like how he is very limited with color and uses unconventional combinations like red with orange or diferent hues of blue. He can use red for a dress and then orange or deeper red for a background. It's nothing I've been tought in art schools.

On the other hand I can't assosiate with Dali's melting clocks, grand pianos and elephants on needles. It just doesn't make me to want more of it. It doesn't make me want to live in it. I feel very lonely when I look at Dali's art. this is it - LONELY.

[Squirrel]

NovikoOn the other hand I can said:

That's more what I wanted....I'm disappointed that I couldn't bring that out in you. You and TBB seem to have connected through that little conflict you had. Maybe I should be more confrontational....unfortunately thats not in my nat

That's more what I wanted....I'm disappointed that I couldn't bring that out in you. You and TBB seem to have connected through that little conflict you had. Maybe I should be more confrontational....unfortunately thats not in my nature. SQ

[Thaibebop]

Well, to me Lasansky depicts human experiances and emotions that I can assosiate with. Also I love his execution style. For instance the cardinal and the pope is a nearly life size etching! I like how he is very limited with color and uses unconventional combinations like red with orange or diferent hues of blue. He can use red for a dress and then orange or deeper red for a background. It's nothing I've been tought in art schools.

On the other hand I can't assosiate with Dali's melting clocks, grand pianos and elephants on needles. It just doesn't make me to want more of it. It doesn't make me want to live in it. I feel very lonely when I look at Dali's art. this is it - LONELY.

Ahhh, this I can understand. I love works of art that isolate me, and my thoughts. Lonely works of art are profoundly beautiful to me, but I understand why others would think differently. Lonely makes more sense then creepy.

However, I get that lonely feeling from some of these as well. Helplessness as well. Perhaps I will start a thread of lonely, helpless art?

[Novikov-Vodkin]

However, I get that lonely feeling from some of these as well. Helplessness as well. Perhaps I will start a thread of lonely, helpless art?

Don't get me wrong, I will be the last one to add his Nazi drawings to my collection. And vewing them ones is enough for me. I do think it's very gutsy of him even to explore such theam the way he did (very tastfully and with respect) and still get the message across. Usually war subjects like that get expressed through photography or the ever boring shock art.

I'd love to have one of his non-war related pieces though. Can look at them all day long.