Wandering around the Tokyo National Museum website on a Tuesday night in early Spring 2014

Wandering around the Tokyo National Museum website. So many fun and interesting things to see. Treasures of all kinds. Some strange ones too. Here is a page of doll's heads from the last century, so realistic and exquisitely detailed.

How a doll of this kind looks fully clothed

Buddha image from the Tokyo National Museum

Antique embroidery from the Tokyo National Museum

Heian Period (12thC) sculpture in the Tokyo National Museum

A 19C musical instrument in the Tokyo National Museum

Some cool Edo Period shoes from the Tokyo National Museum

Sandy's CanCars

hotrod models out of beer cans

IT'S A GOOD TIME OF YEAR FOR SOME 

BIRDSONG RADIO. ALWAYS A SOURCE OF JOY.

Fortune teller stalls in Hong Kong. Huh. What an interesting way to make a living.

HONG KONG’S FORTUNE TELLER SHOPS PHOTOGRAPHED BY KRIS VERVAEKE

Folding Electric (3 wheeled) Car from 1920s

A Japanese website, The International Library Of Children's Literature, with an online selection of vintage children's picture books

A delicate Spring treat. Cherry Blossom marshmallows

Stewarts Law RCA Secret is an exhibition and sale of original postcard-sized artworks, by internationally acclaimed artists plus up-and coming graduates from the Royal College of Art. It's your chance to get your hands on original works of art for a tiny price.

THE CLEAREST PICTURE OF MERCURY EVER TAKEN

Assorted, pre-Spring, March 11th 2014

Jake Verdoza's Portraits of Karen Women in Chaing Mai, Thailand

Must post this poster around Hell's Kitchen for the cellphone zombies. Not that they'd notice.

Nifty architectural doll houses.

The above is the Vanderbilt family's Doll House made by Paul Cumbie in 1883, the real building is 660, Fifth Avenue, NY

So cool. Mapping the connections artists had with others.
MOMA has this cool website where one can click on an artist's name and see the names of people with whom they were connected.

Have always liked this typically dark poem by Charles Bukowski, who calls his true self a blue bird in this instance.The poem describes the impact of alcoholism on a person's true self so aptly and poignantly.


Rudolf Balogh was an innovative Hungarian photographer, who was born in 1879 and died in 1944. These are a few of his images I like.

Rudolf Balogh: "Shepherd with his Dogs, Hortobágy". c. 1930

Hungarian Museum of Photography

Dangerous turn by Rudolf Balogh,1927

Lake Balaton and its surroundings are the most beautiful and varied region of Hungary. Balaton often called as the “Hungarian Sea” - the biggest lake in Central Europe.

Rudolf Balogh, 1909

Stud, Rudolf Balogh, Stud,1930 © Hungarian Museum of Photography

Six Cattle, Hortobágy, 1930 by Rudolf Balogh

The world of Victorian trade cards.

From Newfoundland Dog Paper Collectibles-Early Trade Cards

The following is pretty astonishing. It's a 30 minute film, called, The Idea. In French,

L'Idée (1932)

THE IDEA by Berthold Bartosch (1932) from ed end on Vimeo.

"L'Idee is an animated narrative on the theme of humanity's response to ideals. This film traces the story of an artist who sends his abstract ideal out into the world. His artistic conception (symbolized by the figure of a nude woman) is rejected and exploited by the ruling powers of business, religion and the military. As the titles make clear, Bartosch's conclusion is that "men live and die for an idea... the idea is immortal. You can persecute it, judge it, forbid it, condemn it to death. But the idea continues to live in the minds of men." 

Despite its heavy didacticism, the film is interesting for its unique style of animation. Bartosch utilizes two-dimensional figures posed at varying distances in relation to the painted backgrounds for diverse depth effects. 

The lighting creates a soft-focus halo around the figures and produces an overall muting of the painted decor. The history of the film's inception dates back to 1930, when Bartosch met Masereel in Berlin and agreed to make an animated version of the latter's book, Die Idee. The collaboration fell through, however, and Bartosch proceeded alone. 

The music was written expressly for the film by Honegger and added in 1934. It makes use of a new electrical instrument, "Les Ondes Musicales," played by Martenot. The female figure representing the artist's idea is always announced by notes from this instrument.

(Fonte: The Museum of Modern Art Circulating Film Library Catalog, New York, 1984)."

Berthold Bartosch (1893-1968)/ Arthur Honegger (1892/1955): L'Idee, film sperimentale di animazione di Berthold Bartosch con illustrazioni di Franz Masereel e musiche originali di Arthur Honegger (1932/1934).

In 1930 Bartosch moved to Paris and created the 30 minute film entitled "The Idea" to which he is most remembered for. It is described as the first serious, poetic, tragic work in animation.

Bali,Borneo in the 1910's, 1920's,1930's, 1940's, wandering around the Tropenmuseum website

Some beautiful images, photographs of Bali.

Bali in the 1910's, 1920's,1930s and 1940's

Wayang Wajang Wong Dancer "Ontoseno"

Western travelers there were pretty astonished by the Balinese lifestyle, the topless women, the extraordinary, tropical paradise beauty of the island and its interesting customs. The images below ere taken from the Wikimedia Commons site, which took them in turn from the Dutch Tropenmuseum library of images. About the Tropenmuseum. The Dutch colonized Bali and Indonesia for about 150 years, from 1800 to about 1950. It was once called the Dutch East Indies.

Here is a brief but interesting 1930's film, Legong: Dance of the Virgins


Setting the mood with a glimpse of the magic of the culture of Bali.
The Legong dance with young girls. A little about Legong.
This is a mesmerizing dance with gamelan music playing. 



Understanding Balinese dance

This is an amazing Balinese dance, called Kecak. Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 150 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from theRamayana.

Wow.

Balinese Legong dancer

with the evil witch, Rangda

For images of vintage Bali I went to the Tropenmuseum online collections, which are really marvelous.

The Tropenmuseum (English: Museum of the Tropics) is an anthropological museum located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and established in 1864.

One of the largest museums in Amsterdam, the museum accommodates eight permanent exhibitions and an ongoing series of temporary exhibitions, including both modern and traditional visual arts and photographic works. The Tropenmuseum is owned and operated by the Royal Tropical Institute, a foundation that sponsors the study of tropical cultures around the world.

Balinese Legong dancer

Balinese girls heading to
the temple with offerings

Tropenmuseum, Balinese dancers, 1929

Memorial to Thomas Stamford Raffles wife Olivia, who died in Java 1814.Erected by him along theKanarielaan in Lands Plantentuin (now Bogor Botanical Gardens)  inBuitenzorg (now Bogor),West Java.

Balinese dancers

Rice fields near Yogyakarta

A farmer who carries a plow on his shoulders, in the middle: cattle crossing a ditch / cooling of in the ditch.
Photo: O. Kurkdjian & Co. - 1890-1916

Fishermen at the beach

Photo: O. Kurkdjian & Co. - 1910

Balinese dancer

(Love the cat, sitting patiently.) Tropenmuseum, traditional selametan. A Selametan in a mosque in Cibodas, with tumpeng as its main menu. ca. 1907. The slametan (or selametan, slamatan, and selamatan) is the communal feast from Java, symbolizing the social unity of those participating in it. 

Kris dancers in a trance, 1949

Kris dancers all fallen down in a trance, 1930-1940

Kecak Dance, Bali

In tropical countries,

 trees are often painted

with lime to protect them from "sun scald"

Below this are vintage photographs of the Dayak people, in Borneo


Tropenmuseum,Talini of Bawomataluwo in costume, unknown date

Tropenmuseum, "A headhunter with a skull on his belt, which is used at parties to drink, a woman with a big blangai pot and behind them piles of killing festival Tiwah, Borneo"

A group of children and a husband with megaliths1930

A Dayak from Apokajanstam of Makulits with a shield and a spear, East Borneo. Unknown date.

Tropenmuseum, Icon in a Dayak village 1898-1900

Tropenmuseum  Two Zaiwo male dancers with sword and shield, Sumba, 1930

Portrait of a Dayak warrier, 1900-1940

Batukaran village in Batak country, taken by Tassilo Adam.

Wandering around the http://collectie.tropenmuseum.nl/

Oohing and ahhing at their wonderful online collections.

Indonesian textile, sarong