I don’t know if any of you have been watching the series on PBS, "Simon Scharma's Power of Art". The Boston Globe aptly wrote "this is the art history class you wish you had". The latest artist featured was Mark Rothko. Simon Scharma weaves beautiful text into the stunning imagery of Rothko’s work. I have always been a big fan of his paintings, but if you asked me, I would be hard pressed to put into words exactly why I love them so much. Simon Scharma was able to fix that. When he starts talking about the canvas throbbing, as if it has a heartbeat, I fell under his and Rothko’s spell. A must see. You can read an excerpt from his wonderful narrative
here.
While on the subject of the power of art, I recently saw a group of artwork created by the children prisoners at the Terezin concentration camp during WWII under the tutelage of another prisoner, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. Many of them were later transferred to Auschwitz and few of the children survived. Here is one of the images done by a young girl, Doris Weiserova. They used whatever materials they could find, often drawing on office documents. It is very powerful to look at this work. It caused me not only to observe how eloquently emotions are expressed through art during times of conflict but also question what motivates us to create art during times of calm as well.
Along this same theme, I recently saw an art exhibit titled “Dreams From Brazil” which is a collaboration of artwork created by impoverished children and professional artists.
Hetty van der Linden started a project called Paint a Future which asks children from around the world to paint their wishes and dreams. Professional artists incorporate their work into a larger scale canvas which is then sold. The money from the sale goes back to the community where the children live. Truly inspirational.
Here are some of the wonderful pieces from the Paint a Future project.
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