Tag: ancient art

The Ancient Art of Bonsai Trees

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bonsaiScott Elser, a graphic designer and painter, has a collection of hundreds of bonsai specimens in his backyard. The unique display showcases the ancient art of turning trees into miniature plants.

“I’ve always been interested in the artistic aspect of trees,” Elser said, explaining that the passion was passed down to him from his grandfather. His first trees were a pine and a juniper from Arizona. “They lived despite me,” he said. “Everything changes when they get in a pot.”

Elser is not the only artist who loves to manipulate roots and tree trunks. Chas Martin, another painter, is also devoted to the process.

“You’re totally immersed in the moment,” he describes. “You observe the minute, day-to-day changes. You know what the tree wants to do, or that it’s time for you to do something. It’s very settling.”

The art of bonsai is becoming more popular, possibly because the trees are outliving their original caretakers. The trees can live for centuries with proper care. Martin recalls seeing an oak that was 2 feet tall with an 8-inch diameter trunk.

“I thought it must be 100 years old,” he said, “but it was 400 years old. Part of it is creating an illusion. But a tree well cared for can outlast their owners by a long shot.”

Martin says the process is the most important part. “You tend to them, they tend to you,” he says.

New Contemporary Art Exhibit Revives Ancient Classics

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A new ancient art exhibition in Rome is blurring the boundaries between antiquities and contemporary art. The Post-Classical: The Revival of the Ancient in Contemporary Italian Art exhibit illustrates the profiles in history of the works of 17 artists, including Jannis Kounellis, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Giulio Paolini of the Arte Povera, as well as Frank Shapell, Vanessa Beecroft, Claudio Parmiggiana and Mimmo Jodice.

Contemporary Art Rome

Vincenzo Trione, exhibition curator, said:

“What brings them together is the need to reinvent the fundamental themes of Classicism, to the point of rendering them unrecognizable. They don’t make faithful copies, they don’t out the culture of the past on a pedestal, they privilege discontinuity and margins.”

Rome Contemporary Art

 

The Honorable Company of Horners

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The Honorable Company of Horners is a group of practitioners of the ancient art of horn carving. This past weekend, the artisans gathered at an annual conference to discuss and showcase their trade. This year, the event was hosted by the Army Heritage and Education Center in Pennsylvania.

According to Art DeCamp, a member of the Honorable Company, the gathering provides an outlet for kindred spirits to share knowledge and techniques that would otherwise be lost in history.

“In the old days, it was knowledge that was passed down word-of-mouth from the shop master to his apprentice,” DeCamp explained. “It was not written down.”

The non-profit organization aims to document the trade in a way that is educational to the public while remaining loyal to the period.

“We are all artisans,” said Jeff Bibb, guild master of the Honorable Company. “We are all working to produce items that are historically significant and continue the study of the history of our country.”

Learn more about the Company:

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Exhibit Reveals Similarities Between Pablo Picasso’s Work and Prehistoric Art

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According to the British Museum, the works of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse contain elements similar to the artwork of cavemen.

In a new exhibit called “Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind,” the history museum presents more than one hundred works ranging from 40,000 to 10,000 years ago alongside some of the more modern artists including Henri Matisse, Henry Moore and Joseph Hecht. The ancient pieces are made primarily of ceramic or mammoth bone.

Jill Cook, the exhibit’s curator, said “The modern works are there to show that way back in time, the key concepts of drawing, sculpting and modeling were well-known and utilized.”

“The modern brain has been able to create and formulate in these ways as far back as the ice age,” she added.

Many scholars have stated that Picasso and Moore’s works were influenced by paleolithic art. The French artist owned two casts of Venus de Lespugue, which was made with mammoth ivory, and is known to have lamented the vast stores of prehistoric art that has been lost or destroyed throughout the years.

9-Foot Statue of Ancient Queen Shamiram Presented to Turlock City

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nsshamiramNarsai David, a Turlock native, recently presented a model of a bronze statue which he hopes to donate to the city. The 9-foot sculpture depicts Queen Shamiram, an ancient Assyrian ruler and the first woman to run an empire on her own.

David, a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, is especially grateful to the community. He has hosted a national PBS televisions series, written for the San Francisco Food Chronicle, and co-hosted a number of radio broadcasts and cooking shows.

In an effort to give back, David is involved in many projects. He serves as president of the Board of the Assyrian Aid Society of America and chairman of the Board of the Berkley Fund, while hosting the annual Narsai’s Taste of the Mediterranean which support the Assyrian Aid Society of America.

David explained that Turlock is part of his identity, as it is of many Assyrians from Chicago.

“All Assyrians came to Chicago, where the first jobs were. Once they had enough money, they wanted to find land that reminds them of home. The first Assyrian went to Turlock and bough requisite of land and began an Assyrian migration in Turlock,” he said. “There are a lot of Assyrians here. I graduated from Turlock Joint Union High School and have a warm spot in my heart for Turlock.”

David’s statue has evoked numerous responses in the community already. Resident Amil Adishol said: “This statues is a symbol of art and symbol of women in power. She was the first female that ruled the empire without being ruled by a king. Regardless of race, it is something that everyone can appreciate.”

Raymond George, president of the Assyrian American Civic Club of Turlock, added: “Aside from being Assyrian, we have a civilization of 5,000 years. The Queen is known for her beauty and pride. It is fitting to see that beauty and pride in Turlock.”

Ancient Art Center Uncovered in Rome

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A recent excavation of an ancient art center in Rome is the most monumental discovery in 80 years, according to archaeologists.

The center, uncovered beneath one of the city’s busiest streets, was built by the emperor Hadrian in 123 A.D. Featuring three enormous halls and marble terraced seating, the center hosted poetry and speech performances for Roman nobles.

“Hadrian’s auditorium is the biggest find in Rome since the Forum was uncovered in the 1920s,” Rossella Rea, the dig’s supervising archaeologist, explained.

The site was discovered thanks to recent excavations for a new subway.

Rea said: “We don’t have funds for these kinds of digs so this has come to light thanks to the new line.”

Though the discovery may hinder the subway construction, Rea believes the ruins can be left intact beside the new station.

“I believe we can run one of the exits from the station along the original corridor of the complex where Romans entered the halls,” she said.

Divers Discover New Ancient Bronze Artifacts

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Forty years after the celebrated Riace Bronzes were discovered, a new group of artifacts have been found only 50km south of the site of the earlier discovery.

Three divers were investigating the area in the Calabrian Sea in southern Italy when they saw a gilded bronze sculpture of a lion on top of a 15cm square panel.  They also saw what they at first thought was a set of armor made of bronze but what is now thought to be a statue. The statue is still stuck between rocks on the sea’s floor, about 300 meters from where the lion was discovered.

It is thought that the artifacts are of either Phoenician or Greek origin, and were perhaps sunk along with a ship, the remains of which were also found close by. The divers also said that they found parts of colored vases spread out over the seafloor, which also most likely went down with ship.

It is a lucky twist of fate that this is the same area where the famed Riace Bronzes were found in 1972. Unfortunately the bronzes have not been on for public view since 2009 as the government is waiting until the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Reggion Calabria completes its extensive renovation project. When the museum does open, hopefully in December of this year, there will be several new items to be displayed.

Holter Museum of Art Opens New Exhibits

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This weekend, the Holter Museum of Art opened a new exhibit featuring rare bronze pieces from over 3,000 years ago in celebration of the museum’s 25th year.

The exhibit, called “Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation” comes alongside four other new exhibits at the Holter. The 85 artifacts were created by people of the Asian steppes and used by chieftains, shamans and horsemen.

According to Holter curator Yvonne Seng, the steppe artisans were the first to domesticate the horse. They were also one of the leading parties who traded along the Silk Road through Asia and Europe.

“It’s a huge honor,” Seng said of hosting the exhibit, which features items like ancient cauldrons used by shamans, yak-shaped belt buckles, intricate swords and knives and more.

Other exhibits opening include the gallery of life-size modern-day warriors in “Wanxin Zhang: A Ten Year Survey,” as well as “Horse and Rider,” “Shifting Perspectives,” and “Invite Your Demons to Tea.”

Seng said: “It’s exciting, it’s really exciting to have all these exhibits together… it will be a feast for the eye. I think it will be a great celebration for the 25th.”

Ancient Art Studio Uncovered in South Africa

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Researchers believe they may have uncovered an ancient art studio in South Africa, having found two shells containing a primitive paint mixture from 100,000 years ago.

Found at Blombos Cave in Cape Town, the shells were found alongside various other tools, suggesting that the users were mixing flakes of ochre, an iron ore used to create red and yellow shades, with other compounds to create a liquid paste.

According to the study, “a bone was probably used to stir the mixture and to transfer some of the mixture out of the shell.”

The paint could have been ceremonial, decorative or protective, used perhaps on the body.

“Ochre may have been applied with symbolic intent as decoration on bodies and clothing during the Middle Stone Age,” explained Christopher Henshilwood, head of the study at the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of Witwatersrand.

“This discovery represents an important benchmark in the evolution of complex human cognition in that it shows that humans had the conceptual ability to source, combine and store substances that were then possibly used to enhance their social practices.”

Ancient Glass Pieces Found to Be Decorated with Gold Foil

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84 pieces of antique broken glassware were found under a Buddhist statue in 2004, in Kyoto’s Byodoin temple. Two days ago, on October 7th, temple authorities announced that they had originally been decorated with gold foil. This discovery is the first finding of gold-foil decoration on glassware in all of East Asia.

A glassware history researcher and part-time instructor at Tokai University, Akiko Inoue, analyzed the pieces, and concluded that the vessels must have had a special significance.

The fact that “they were treated so importantly even though they were broken pieces suggests the original vessels they came from may have had some special meaning,” Inoue said.

Experts believe that the original glass vessels were made through glassblowing, though with a more advanced technique than some other glass balls found alongside them. Basing their theory on both technique and technology, researchers concluded that the pieces were made between the 10th and 12th century in China, while the gold foil was likely added in Japan.

Now on display at the Hosho Museum, the pieces still present several mysteries. Yoshitaka Aruga, a professor of the Tokyo University of the Arts, said the patterns are “simple and pictorial.” He added that the pattern on the lid looks like it could signify trickling rain. “The patterns let us imagine ancient times,” he said.

Norihiko Ogura, a professor at the same university, said the design can be seen as the inner core of a flower, as well. “There are probably meanings to the designs and the fact that gold was used, but these and many other things, including technical questions like how they applied the gold leaf, are still mysteries,” he said.