DAVID
Socrates chose death over renouncing his beliefs. More than that, he used his imminent demise to teach his followers — he did not shy away or cower, he faced death calmly and it became his final lesson. In 18th Century France, at the height of the Enlightment, he was a heroic figure for this steadfast commitment to truth and learning. A commitment never more clear then as he faces his death sentence by poison hemlock with dignity, rationality and self-control. Commissioned by a wealthy French scholar, David worked for more than 5 years on the piece, consulting hellenistic and classical historians, studying ancient Roman funerary scenes and reading obsessively to create a work that served as both an allegory for the present and an accurate depiction of the past. While Socrates embodied Enlightenment thought, only 2 years later the French Revolution began and the painting took on another meaning. To proudly die for your beliefs, to strive for truth, righteousness and the betterment of man and accept whatever fate may come from doing so — The Death of Socrates was shown publicly 4 years after its debut and became a symbol of the revolution just as it had become one of the Enlightenment before. David shows that resisting authority is a beautiful, noble thing.
RENOIR
Renoir could hardly hold a paintbrush in 1910. Rheumatoid arthritis had rendered his body feeble and the exacting brushstrokes of his youth impossible. Retreating to the French countryside he refused to give up. Instead, in his final years, he developed an entirely new artistic style fitting to the requirements of his ailing body. In his last self portraits, the canvas became a mirror to the soul of the artist, a celebration of the past and a defiant statement of life in the face of increasingly clear mortality. Renoir represented the end of an artistic journey of portraiture that started with Reubens nearly 400 years earlier. He was the last of his kind, a painter steeped in tradition, embrassing tentatively the Impressionist present he found himself in. In this self-portrait, Renoir immortalizes not just himself, but the essence of artistic endeavor—a testament to the enduring dialogue between creator and creation, between past and future, and between the mortal and the immortal.
MITCHELL
Balanced on fragile stalks, the sunflower is a pure concentration of mass and color that forces its way upwards to bloom in splendour, only to droop and wilt so visibly as to almost express the sadness of its mortality. This oddly human quality was exactly what Mitchell saw in the flowers, treating them ‘like people’ and returning to them over 40 years. The title of her works were decided after they were painted, drawing on the feelings and states she was in during their production. So, the Sunflower series are made in momnts of pride and fradility, their frenetic confident brushstrokes a mask for the delicateness of spirit. “If I see a sunflower drooping, I can droop with it”, she explained, “and I draw it, and feel it until its death”.
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Irà Sheptûn May 2, 2024
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe…
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Friday 3rd May 2024
The moon moves deeper into the sign of Aquarius. The planet Saturn, which can be seen in the morning sky, also continues its journey through the constellation of Aquarius. While the moon takes only a couple of days to pass through a constellation, Saturn takes years and won’t transition from Aquarius until next spring. When the moon and Saturn meet, there is a lunar occultation, during which the moon hides Saturn for a short period of time. This makes the early part of the day unfavorable for working in the garden.