Identify Your Avatar

[NikF]

She was even more adorable than you mighf have realized
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1994-08-21-9408210170-story.html

Until just now I had no idea Mia Farrow was her daughter.

Cheers, mate, that was interesting. I still haven't seen the restored version it refers to, so I should check it out.
Yeah, the mother or Mia Farrow - and apparently a completely different character to her daughter.
Anyway, next time I'm asked about potential programmes for the local indy/arthouses maybe they'd consider a Tarzan season. It's as hokey as hell but also cool, and I love that kind of stuff, especially on the big screen. 

[Ken B]

Sure, those are all beautiful women.  It's weird, but last year I was at a screening of Hitchcock's Rear Window, and no matter how many times I've seen it or the format it's presented in, those few moments when Grace Kelly's face fills the frame as she closes in to kiss James Stewart - it still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Yup. Hottest moment in movies.

[ritter]

As I'm going through a phase of (renewed) fascination with 20th century French painting, I'm now using Raoul Dufy's early—1910—woodcut La Danse as my avatar.



Dufy, a member of the fauve group at the time, had visited Munich and been exposed to the work of the German expressionists. On his return to France, he produced four woodcuts, collectively titled Les plaisirs de la paix (as irony would have it, that paix wouldn't last for too long ). Apart from La danse, there's the following:

La pêche:


La chasse:


L'amour:


I find these four works rather fascinating, as they somehow combine the aesthetics of fauvism and expressionism, and are also unmistakably French, pre-echoing Dufy's later carefree thematic (horse races, regattas, etc.). Shortly after this suite, Dufy would produce what is arguably his masterpiece in the medium, his illustrations for Guillaume Apollinaire's Le bestiare.

Just after the painter's death in 1953, the four woodcuts were printed again (in an edition of 220, with the stamp of the artist's atelier). Luckily, I've been able to acquire copies of La danse and La pêche from this second edition (the original, pencil signed run from 1910 goes for a small fortune), which hang on the walls of my living room.

[André]

Wonderful works, wonderful acquisition !

[JBS]

Nice enough to motivate me to change mine

Hommage a Mozart by Dufy.
There seem to be two Dufy works by that title. This is the other one


Edit
The Apollinaire woodcuts can be seen here
https://wikilivres.org/wiki/Raoul_Dufy

[ritter]

Nice enough to motivate me to change mine

Hommage a Mozart by Dufy.
...

Great avatar as well, JBS!  There's also works by Dufy in homage to Debussy and J.S. Bach.... And then of course there's Stravinsky's short musical homage to Dufy (the Double Canon for SQ); the two men never actually met...

Wonderful works, wonderful acquisition !

Thanks, André!

Raoul Dufy rocks! 

[NikF]

Decided I don't like having an avatar photo of a woman that I haven't taken myself. So the next few avatars will probably be of stuff I own and like.


Mario Vellani Marchi. Paper, Indian ink and watercolour.

Received as a gift a long time ago, it's one of a few ever present pieces on my (home) office walls, no matter where I live. And almost every dancer who visits and sees it will say how much they love it. It depicts Tanquil Le Clercq in the NYC Ballet 'Le Baiser de la Fée'. Choreography by Balanchine, music by Stravinsky, and lighting by Jean Rosenthal (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Rosenthal)


Triva: that photo is taken with a six euro cellphone and so there's no polarising filter to hide my reflection in the glass. Instead, I steal and employ a simple trick used in the 1920s by the clever James Wong Howe, Oscar winning cinematographer. At work people often thought it was an affectation or gimmick, but they were wrong. It's a valid technique.

[ritter]

Decided I don't like having an avatar photo of a woman that I haven't taken myself. So the next few avatars will probably be of stuff I own and like.


Mario Vellani Marchi. Paper, Indian ink and watercolour.

Received as a gift a long time ago, it's one of a few ever present pieces on my (home) office walls, no matter where I live. And almost every dancer who visits and sees it will say how much they love it. It depicts Tanquil Le Clercq in the NYC Ballet 'Le Baiser de la Fée'. Choreography by Balanchine, music by Stravinsky, and lighting by Jean Rosenthal (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Rosenthal)

Great stuff, NikF. I didn't know about Vellani Marchi until now, but have always found the ballet adventure of Balanchine, Kirstein, Le Clercq et al. In NYC fascinating.

Wonderful watercolour and avatar! 

[Florestan]

Decided I don't like having an avatar photo of a woman that I haven't taken myself. So the next few avatars will probably be of stuff I own and like.


Mario Vellani Marchi. Paper, Indian ink and watercolour.

Received as a gift a long time ago, it's one of a few ever present pieces on my (home) office walls, no matter where I live. And almost every dancer who visits and sees it will say how much they love it. It depicts Tanquil Le Clercq in the NYC Ballet 'Le Baiser de la Fée'. Choreography by Balanchine, music by Stravinsky, and lighting by Jean Rosenthal (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Rosenthal)


Triva: that photo is taken with a six euro cellphone and so there's no polarising filter to hide my reflection in the glass. Instead, I steal and employ a simple trick used in the 1920s by the clever James Wong Howe, Oscar winning cinematographer. At work people often thought it was an affectation or gimmick, but they were wrong. It's a valid technique.

There's a black, elongated object right behind her right buttock. It greatly puzzles me. Do you have any idea what it is?

[NikF]

Great stuff, NikF. I didn't know about Vellani Marchi until now, but have always found the ballet adventure of Balanchine, Kirstein, Le Clercq et al. In NYC fascinating.

Wonderful watercolour and avatar! 

Cheers, mate.

[NikF]

There's a black, elongated object right behind her right buttock. It greatly puzzles me. Do you have any idea what it is?

No, I don't. I even went back upstairs to have a closer look, but I've no idea, sorry.

e: but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. 

[ritter]

There's a black, elongated object right behind her right buttock. It greatly puzzles me. Do you have any idea what it is?

I think it's called a shade....

[Florestan]

No, I don't. I even went back upstairs to have a closer look, but I've no idea, sorry.

e: but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. 

I think it's called a shade....

I am relieved. What I see is someone behind her, trying to insert a black dildo in... Ummm, never mind. 

[NikF]

I am relieved. What I see is someone behind her, trying to insert a black dildo in... Ummm, never mind. 

Different ballet entirely - and one I've only ever seen amateur productions of.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I've restored the Avatar I used before the server issues. It is a painting by Kazimir Malevich entitled Morning in the Village after Snowstorm.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I am relieved. What I see is someone behind her, trying to insert a black dildo in... Ummm, never mind. 

A reminder that we need a "what are you smoking" thread. 

Different ballet entirely - and one I've only ever seen amateur productions of.

We definitely need a thread for that.   0:)

[Ken B]

There's a black, elongated object right behind her right buttock. It greatly puzzles me. Do you have any idea what it is?

It's a shadow, cast by part of her skirt.

[NikF]

A reminder that we need a "what are you smoking" thread. 

And did he bring enough for everyone? 

We definitely need a thread for that.   0:)

Funnily enough, a while back Google permanently suspended my YouTube account.   

[Florestan]

A reminder that we need a "what are you smoking" thread. 

We definitely need a thread for that.   0:)

[Ken B]

Your avatar is Fanucci from The Godfather 2, Andrei?

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcSaS--w5G_YrYqwnfCO_sKdqZ0IgyhyWL9gNpLU4l_vLtgVBSvG