The Culture Enthusiast

Once I wanted to buy a dictionary of rhymes. Yes, a dictionary of rhymes. Let's leave it at that. Anyway, I went to a used book store and happily said: "Good morning, do you have a dictionary of rhymes?”. The salesman laughed and I blushed. This sentence actually rhymes in Portuguese.

3. Nutty librarian 

I briefly worked as a hospital librarian. One day a woman who worked at the hospital came to the library, and asked if we had any books by Nostradamus. I said no, but if she liked prophecies, I recommend Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. She took the book out.

5. Chez Balzac

I love visiting writer's houses. I guess it's the closest thing to meeting them in person. I've been to Balzac's and Poe's houses. I'd love to go to Jane Austen's and Flaubert's house someday.

6. Hospital follies

Once I went to hospital, can't remember why, must have been an asthma attack or something. But it wasn't anything serious. After seeing the doctor, I had to wait for the results of the exams which would take a long time.  I didn't want to just sit there doing nothing. So, I sneaked out of the hospital and went to a bookstore. I ended up buying the book I was reading at the time, Brothers Karamazov. When I went back, my exams had long been ready and that's why I have two copies of Brothers Karamazov.

7. Scouting for treasures

Over the years I've found so many incredible books in used bookstores. You can see I was particularly happy to find a cheap collection of art books with one of my favorite paintings:

8. Rat de bibliotheque

I'm also a big fan of libraries. Even during school and college I took out books from local libraries and I still have my first library card.

9. Stealing memories

I never met any famous author but I really wished I had met David Foster Wallace. Since that's no longer a possibility, I'll just borrow other people's memories then. Here's Ben Casnocha's and Evan Fleischer's.

10. Vintage mementos

One of the best things about used books is that you never know what you'll find inside them. I always keep whatever comes in them. Inside my copy of Life of Christ (just finding this book is a special memory) I found many this images of Saint Joseph and many others. Recently, I bought A Patriotic History of the United States and found this inside it :

While I'm writing I am encouraged to start leaving beautiful pictures and mysterious notes inside my books, so that one day a person will find them and have their own memories.

Well, these are some of my memories. I'd love to hear yours!

Images via

1 We Heart It

2 The Bowler Press (watch out, the letter contains spoilers!)

Granted, it wasn’t that great of an exhibit, but this feeling of bafflement is quite common. ll never forget when a friend of mine told me the thing she enjoyed the least in Italy were the museums. 

The thing is: it doesn’t have to be this way.  Art can be very moving and uplifting, if we know how to approach it.

Here’s what I’ve done over the years that allowed me to enjoy art more:

1) Keep it simple, sugar

If you feel like you don’t “get” art, you should stay away from modern art. There is a lot to “get” in modern art, so we might as well go for artists from the Renaissance or the Classical period. The beauty and the technique from these paintings will have a much more instantaneous effect on you, so there is no feeling of “not getting”  what the hell is going on in the painting.

  

2) Look for the real thing

I try to see paintings live in museums whenever I can. Reproductions in books and the internet are ok, but you shouldn’t miss the opportunity to see the original painting live.

3) The more that you learn…

Once in the museum, fight laziness and read those small explanations next to the paintings and the big ones in the beginning of the exhibitions. Plus, if the museum offers audio guides, use them. I know you have to pay for them, but they are incredibly helpful and interesting. I used one in every big museum I went to and I don’t regret it.

4) Be the king of the pen

5) Take your time

You’ve probably seen this: people enter the exhibit and they form a line. Everybody moves at the same pace - the standard 30 seconds on each painting. That’s crazy. When you like a painting, spend more time observing it. When you don’t, walk away. 

Artists are so passionate about their creations. Why not approach art with the same passion, or at least with some curiosity? 

Now that we are all set, we just need to decide what museum to visit this weekend!

What are your tips for enjoying art? 

Images:

1 - Syndex
2 - People in museums (great idea for a Pinterest board!)
3 - Photobella

I hope you had a blessed Christmas and that you haven’t broken all your New Year’s Resolutions yet. (I myself am only slightly delayed on my To Be Read list).

This is going to be a killer year, I can feel it. I’m working on exciting new features for The Culture Enthusiast and I’ll tell you more about it soon. To have more time to work on them I’ll be posting once a week now, every Wednesday.

Quality before quantity – that’s my motto. Unless we’re talking about cookies.

Now that business is out of the way, let’s catch up.

During my blog break I watched a bunch of movies and it felt… pointless. What was I supposed to do? Write comments about the movie and email them to people?

I did that. Most of my friends probably blocked my email.

But December seemed like the perfect time to go to the movies, didn’t it? It’s the holidays, just before the Oscars, time for some serious blockbusters.

I’m telling you, I must have stood 15 minutes staring at that huge wall of movie posters figuring out which would be less disappointing. 

Had I known  Lee Pace was in Lincoln and The Hobbit that decision would have been much faster.

Luckily I could rely on Dvds and since we last spoke I’ve seen Midnight in Paris, The Thin Man, It’s a Wonderful Life, and all Cary Grant movies I could find.

As for reading… well, in 2012 I didn’t read four books a month as I intended to. That’s why for 2013 my goal is 3 books. And an audio book. 

I’ve recently finished Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and I am beginning Guy the Maupassant’s short stories.

But enough about me. What have you been up to? What are your cultural resolutions for 2013?

And remember:

A little bit of history

Date: 1926

Location: National Museum of Fines Arts, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Georgina de Albuquerque is a Brazilian painter from the 20th century. After marrying the painter Lucílio Albuquerque, she went to Paris where she studied in the Académie Julien and in the École de Beaux Arts. She was the first Brazilian to attend the latter. In 1912, she returned to Brazil where she had many exhibits (she also had some in the U.S.)

A little bit of technique

Georgina is considered an impressionist painter. In  Summer Day, she uses loose brush strokes and soft colors which are impressionist characteristics often used in her paintings. 

She truly managed to set herself apart from other Brazilian artists with her delicate paintings and motifs.

A little bit of enthusiasm

I first saw this painting as a child in a museum in Rio. A couple of years ago, I remembered it somehow but didn’t remember the name of the painting, or of the painter or of the museum! I asked my mother and searched my childhood journals. I also didn’t remember the year of my visit to Rio, so the search took a long time – too bad there’s no ctrl + F command in journals.

A couple of weeks after that I was at a dinner party and I saw at the host’s house a book with this painting in the cover. Talk about coincidence.

This comes to show how strong an impression this painting had on me. I love the warm light and colors. It reminds me a little of Renoir’s portrait of Jeanne Samary. Both knew perfectly well how to convey femininity in the delicate gestures. 

What paintings have made a great impression on you?

It took me forever to watch The Artist. I mean, a modern silent movie, with a plot screaming Singing in the Rain and a trailer that seems to give away the whole movie? 

I had zero expectations when I finally watched it and was utterly amazed. 

The movie is about George Valentin, a silent movie star who gets fired when the studios start producing talking movies. His career is being destroyed while the one of a charming up and comer actress is rising. The so conveniently called Peppy Miller was helped into fame by George and to make matters worse they might be in love with each other.

The Artist is one of those movies that demand something from the viewers and then reward them for it. It wasn’t so difficult to get used to the lack of sound because I actually enjoy watching Buster Keaton’s silent movies. But for some, inferring what’s going on only by gestures and facial expressions might be a challenge. 

However, this work is necessary in order to understand what the movie is expressing. We need to understand George’s facial expressions and gestures, because he won’t talk about his pain, not only because it’s a silent movie but because he is proud.

By the way, how amazing is Jean Dujardin, the actor who plays George? 

He has that old days face, he is vintage handsome. He also has that positive, upbeat attitude that is almost non-existent in today’s Hollywood stars.  There’s a scene where a huge crowd is trying to get to him – photographers, reporters, fans, cops are all around him. And he is truly having fun, he is not faking being happy. Right after posing in a seductive way for a photographer he breaks out laughing.

Also, look out for the rich visual metaphors. You can do a little The Artist drinking game, everybody drinks up every time a mirror appears on screen. They are everywhere. Not only mirrors, but all types of reflection – the spilled water, the shadow in the projection wall, the reflection on a window store.

They are all clues of Valentin’s disintegrated self. Because of this, it reminds me so much of The Fall. People use stories to understand themselves better. They want self-knowledge or at least world knowledge.

The movie is so good that we get George’s struggles, they seem genuine, which is something I did see in My week with Marilyn, for example.

It’s interesting to see that when movie directors want to talk about the passion for cinema they tend to return to silent movies. They are not only paying homages to silent movies but also learning from them. It shows that directors still have a passion and enthusiasm for movies as if movie making had begun only a couple of years ago.

Have you seen the Artist? What did you think of the use of sound?