Richard Picciuto originally posted this blog in September 2011. Since Richard’s death in February 2012, this blog has consistently been the most visited. I thought it should be shared again, since so many people appreciate the research and rich material about this popular, iconic modern artist…enjoy! Roy Lichtenstein’s elegant, buoyant canvases may be as close …
Category Archive: Art
Sep 11 2012
Sep 11…’I ♥ NY’-The Logo & The Emotion–on 9/11
Richard Picciuto wrote a beautiful tribute to New York City in his blog on December 11, 2011. In explaining about the creation of the I LOVE NY logo, he included a quotation that beautifully describes how people realize how precious something is to them, when it has almost been lost. The blog needs to be …
Sep 01 2012
Sep 01…The Burning Man Festival 2012
Richard Picciuto wrote this blog in September 2011. Since the annual festival is again in full swing, the blog is re-posted so that the history and details of the festival will be available to readers, attendees and those interested in unique “happenings.” Richard was very thorough in his coverage and research of unusual topics and …
Feb 22 2012
Feb 22…The Terra Cotta Warriors
The ‘Terra Cotta Warriors’ is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BC, whose purpose it was to protect the emperor. According to historian Sima Qian (145–90 BC,) work on this mausoleum …
Feb 21 2012
Feb 21…The Lascaux Cave Pictures
The Vézère valley contains 147 prehistoric sites dating from the Palaeolithic Era and 25 decorated caves. It is particularly interesting from an ethnological and anthropological, as well as an aesthetic point of view because of its cave paintings, especially those of the Lascaux Cave, whose discovery in 1940 was of great importance for the history …
Feb 17 2012
Feb 17…BOLLES+WILSON — Helmond City Library
The Dutch city Helmond is transforming its central shopping area, per a master plan by Professor Joan Busquests. Falling within that zone is the city’s new library designed by BOLLES+WILSON, the first component of the project. The plans for the library represented a major challenge for the architectural firm, due to the fact that the …
Feb 16 2012
Feb 16…The Harpsichord
The harpsichord is from a family of keyboard instruments which are plucked, not struck, by the key mechanism (a small plectrum, originally of quill.) The harpsichord was most probably invented in the late Middle Ages usually considered as having sprung from the clavichord. The harpsichord was much more complicated than the clavichord, in that the …
Feb 15 2012
Feb 15…The Long Night of Museums, Berlin
The Long Night of Museums is a cultural event where a group of museums and cultural institutions in an area cooperate to remain open late into the night to introduce themselves to new potential patrons. The very first Long Night of Museums took place in Berlin (a city of over 170 museums) in 1997, when …
Feb 14 2012
Feb 14…Rubber Duck Artist, Florentijn Hofman
Florentijn Hofman is a playful Dutch artist who makes giant versions of children’s toys and animals. You might be familiar with his giant rubber duck, too big to fit into anyone’s bathtub and impossible to ignore. It was first set adrift at the Loire river in France but then made its way to Japan, Brazil, …
Feb 13 2012
Feb 13…The Music Box, New Orleans
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, it left behind a city full of destroyed homes. Despite ongoing rebuilding efforts, thousands of blighted properties remain. Ms. Delaney Martin sent an e-mail to people she variously calls “tinkerers and makers, wonderful eccentric genius types and “weirdos,” and asked each to design and build a shack, …