Google Art Project

I chose to introduce you Bonaparte Crossing the Grand Saint-Bernard Pass, a painting from Jacques-Louis David, a French painter. It was created in 1800 and its dimensions are 271 x 232 cm. This painting was created when Napoleon Bonaparte was the First Consul of France, just after the coup d’état of the 9 November of 1799.

Jacques-Louis David belongs to the neoclassicism movement, which consist in making perfect lines, even if the colors of the paintings are sacrificed. And this artwork is typical of this movement. It shows Napoleon Bonaparte, riding his horse and crossing the Grand Saint-Bernard Pass, a pass located in the Alps. On the background of the artwork, we can notice soldiers of the French army who are crossing too the Grand Saint-Bernard Pass, carrying a barrel. And in the foreground, at the bottom of the painting we can read an inscription on the stone saying: Bonaparte, Annibal, Karolus Magnus (Charlemagne) imp.

I’m now going to describe the significant art elements. First, the tone is soft, there is no highly contrasting tones. It gives a gentle mood.

About the colors, excepting the red cloak, they are all cold with a huge amount of grey, blue, black…

The lines are soft, they indicate a movement of the horse, the clouds and the army. We can notice the wind blowing in the hairs of Bonaparte and in the tail of the horse.

Directions are vertical and horizontal and they bring about calm.

The size of this painting make Bonaparte look important because of his size comparing to the background.

Finally, the mass of the artwork is heavy in effect. Indeed, every surface is occupied by paint and details.

I’m now going to analyse the most significant principles. First, this artwork doesn’t contain so much variety. It’s mainly a mountain landscape. The contrast is made by Bonaparte, the only one who is represented with colors which stand out. There is dominance in this painting: Bonaparte again, the main character, who attracts the eye.

All the elements are organized into a unified artwork. The soldier are wearing the same clothes, the mountain’s landscape is composed of rocks with the same color… Harmony is also present in this painting. We can for instance notice the near clouds because the scene takes place in a mountain, and all the colors are dark.

The painting is mainly composed of the main character at the foreground, with the inscriptions at his feet. Then we notice the soldiers in the background who are crossing the pass. Finally, the proportions are realistic and near of the perfection.

This painting was commanded by the King of Spain to symbolize the friendly relationship between France and Spain. So Jacques-Louis David wanted to represent the perfect leader. In fact, this painting is considered as a stereotype of the picture of propaganda. Napoleon was the first Consul since one year and he wanted to deliver a good image.

That’s why Jacques-Louis David represented Napoleon in a heroic way: young, riding a proud horse, wearing a red cloak, the wind blowing in his hairs, remembering famous figures like Alexander for instance.

This feeling is reinforced by the inscriptions on the stone mentioning the famous figures that have succeeded in crossing the Alps before Napoleon (Annibal and Charlemagne), followed by the letters imp for imperator, which is a prestigious distinction.

Personally I appreciate this artwork for what it is: a painting of a future emperor sublimated. All the elements are well designed and well organized, the neoclassicism style, with its soft lines, permits to illustrate a splendid character. It is also a good illustration of the artist work, considered as the leader of the neoclassicism school.

But I dislike the use of this painting as a propaganda image, to influence the population. But I think that when a King offers you a huge amount of money in exchange for a painting, you can’t refuse (moreover in 1800…).

Richard St. John's 8 secrets of success

The analyst Richard St. John has lead some researches to determine the keys of success. According to him, there are 8 things that really lead to success :

1- Passion : Do what you do for love, not for money
2- Work : Nothing comes easily, you have to work for it
3- Good : You have to be good doing what you do, and for that you must practice again and again
4- Focus : You must focus yourself on one thing
5- Push : You got to push yourself physically and mentally through shyness and self-doubts
6- Serve : To be useful for someone
7- Ideas : You must have original ideas
8- Persist : Do not give up when you encounter a problem.

To my mind, among all these keys of success, the most important is work. The author said that nothing comes easily and it's true, even if you have the passion, original ideas or if you're very good, you have to work for succeed.
And at the contrary if you have no ideas, no passion, if you can't focus on only one thing, you can still succeed whith hard work.
And there are a lot of examples :

      - Even a great tennisman like Roger Federer, who is really good, persisting and focusing on tennis has to work a lot to succeed.

      - From another side, a man like Arnold Schwarzenegger who started his life as a poor thin Austrian has became a very famous culturist, actor and politician thanks to a lot of work.

Then if you want to reach the top of the top, effectivelly you would need more than only work to succeed. To keep the previous example, Federer was born to be tennisman and that's why he is so good. As Newton was a genius, and that's why he discovered so many theories. But I think that whith work you can still go pretty far.

How art gives shape to cultural change

1) After watching Thelma Golden's presentation, I have chosen an artwork that appears in the video at 9:08 :

This work seems to be composed of several chains on which different colors are added. When the chains are assembled together, a picture is revealed. This picture represents a landscape, and more precisely a sunset (or a sunrise I don't know...) seen through tree branches.
I liked this artwork because it represents a simple but beautiful thing with an original support. But in my mind it is still not enough "nice". I prefer well defined drawings than suggestive art. For me a well defined drawing is like this :

 I can clearly identify a sunset and the landscape whereas in the first artwork it could be as well a sunset as a fire in a forest...

2)
   a) According to Thelma Golden, images can change the way we think about cultures and about ourselves. They can create a new story, a new narrative in art history and in the world.
She thinks that the power of images is to raise the question of how people understand themselves and each other.

   b) Then, as a curator, she raises some questions about the role of museum in a society. As she sees museum as a thinking tank, she is wondering if a museum can be a catalyst in a community, if it can house artists and allow them to be change agents as communities rethink themselves ? She also wants to know how museum could be the space for a contest of ideas.

3) For Thelma Golden, we must "think about artists, not as content providers,... but again as real catalysts for change". I agree with this idea enven if personally I have some doubts about the impact of an artwork. I can understand that when an artist creates a painting for instance, most of the time he wants to deliver a message, to criticize something in order to change it.
And it's on this last point that I'm skeptical. Today, if you're not expert, you can't understand what the author wants to say. And even if you do, the impact is very low.
Finally, today, artists are still for me content providers bacause I don't think they can change something, they can only influence a minority.

Definition of art

In my mind, art is the human capacity to prepare things they like, they find beautiful, and yet which are useless. It serves neither to eat, nor to subsist human essentials needs.
Whith their hands, or more generally with their body, the artists produce forms, associate colours or sounds they appear to their melodious when they are linked.

When an artwork is completed, and succeeded, spectators must feel emotions and an inner peace. And in this way, it joins a quotation of Nietzsche I apreciate when he said that we "need art to save us from the truth". According to Nietzsche, art help us tu support the life, with illusions and dreams.

I don't have a lot of knowledge in paint, nor in dance or in sculpture. But I really apreciate movies, books and especially music. To attend at a concert is just awesome ! Currently it's the thing that get me the more emotions.
For instance, here is the link to a video showing song of a concert of Muse, a great band :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjfGOZh6Hpo

Just enjoy !

The salmon's life

The salmon's life and reproduction is an amazing natural process !

Salmons are born in a stream. To begin with, they leave their natal stream to join the ocean. Simultaneously, they modify their breathing in order to support cold salt water.
During this period, they guzzle a lot of food to reinforce their muscles.

Nobody know why but then the salmons decide to go back to their natal stream. And by an unknown process, they are able to guide himself through the oceans untill they locate the mouth of their river.

The next step is very impressive because they have to swim up the stream to the source. During this phase, they must cross waterfall, face strong flow and resist to their predators like bears. Very few of them will survive. The survivors will couple and breed.
Finally, they willl spend their last strength to protect their eggs and die when eggs hatch. Sometimes, a salmon keep enough strength to do this travel a second time.

Don't miss this !

It is my first year at Grenoble, yet I know some nice places. But if I had to choose only one I would recommend Steak. Steak is a restaurant, located 1 Place Notre Dame.
To go there you can get on the tram line B and go down at Notre Dame. The restaurant itself is just in front of the spring, on the other side of the rail.

Steak is, as it's name let guess it, specialized in meat. Most of the dishes are composed of meat and potatoes (and also some green beans but for me they are especially decorative...). And I must say that their dishes are excellent and copious.
You must count 15€ for a meal, a little more if you want a dessert too, so it's affordable.

Another positive aspect of this restaurant is the atmosphere. While you are eating they play rock music and the decoration is oriented rock too : name of famous band, posters, plates signed Harley Davidson...

To conclude if you love meat and rock you must know at least one name : Steak !

Who am I ?

Hello everyone !

Here is my first blog entry ! This blog will only be used for the Teacher Initiated Project, an english course project. But first I should introduce myself.

My name is Jefferson and I am 20 years old. I'm currently following scientific courses at INP Phelma, a french engineering school. I don't actually know what to do after, but I still have two years and three internships to choose ! Last year I have obtained a Higher National Diplomas in Physics with Instrumentation which mean I didn't followed the standard way to enter at Phelma.

 I am now living at Grenoble for studies but I come from Cholet, a city in Maine et loire. I practice tennis and I'm fond of rock music. I've never skied but now that I am at Grenoble I can't wait for it. The first stage is planned for wednesday...

The next entries of this blog will be depending on the tip's subjects. I'm expecting to see you next time !

Jefferson