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Wong Sir's Trip：Barcelona, Spain　Picasso Museum

Author: Wong sir（Frogwong）
Publisher: ABCNETWORK
ISBN:
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 9

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Book Description
Wong Sir's Trip：Barcelona, Spain Picasso Museum There are many museums related to Picasso around the world, one located in the coast of Barcelona, Spain. When it opened on March 9, 1963, Picasso was still alive, it was the first museum in the world to specialize in Picasso's works. The museum is located in a narrow alley, in five 13-15th century palaces in Ribeira, with typical Gothic architecture. The building is surrounded by an open-air atrium with an open-air staircase leading to the main floor. In order to protect the works, visitors should keep their bags. The museum can take pictures, but cannot use flashlights. The museum has a collection of 4,251 works by Picasso,many of which were donated by Picasso. It mainly displays Picasso's young age, and it is rare in other museums, including oil paints, drawings, prints, pottery and so on. The museum exhibits more than 4,000 works on two floors. There are two exhibition halls dedicated to Picasso's creations in 1917. The museum spreads Picasso's life course in different periods. Picasso (1881-1973) was born in Malaga, Spain on October 25, 1881. At the age of 14, he moved to Barcelona to study painting, leaving many city paintings. Picasso and later moved to Paris to start a life page. 1890-1897: Early years Picasso's father was an art teacher. He had been involved in painting since he was a child. When he was eight years old, he completed his first oil painting. He painted a spear knight on a bullring. At the age of 12, the style of painting was like Raduelle, one of the three masters of Renaissance art. In 1895, Picasso was 14 years old. His father was sent to work at the well-known Longha Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona. Picasso sketched in classical art and still life, passed the entrance examination, successfully entered San Fernando in Madrid two years later. Picasso rarely goes to class and always visits art galleries. 1897-1901: period of schooling Moving from her birthplace to Málaga to Barcelona was a turning point in Picasso's style. Picasso's mastery of lines and colors was perfect and his expression was strong. In 1897, Picasso completed the painting "Science and Compassion", his father appeared as a doctor in the painting. Picasso made many friends, and some became lifelong. He painted portraits of many friends, emphasizing the outlines of the characters with strong and solid lines, with a little color on the background. At this time, Picasso painted the first painting with an abstract orientation. 1901-1904: The blue period Picasso was under nineteen when he first entered the world of Paris, when the Impressionist artist played an important role. Influenced by many Impressionist masters, Picasso was keen on color and had the shadow of Cézanne. Later, the style of painting turned to Fauvism. Within a year, Picasso experimented with various forms of painting. The death of a friend stained Picasso's world. Most of the works in the blue period were completed in Barcelona. He has changed color and subject matter a lot, focusing on prisons, mental hospitals or people suffering from sexually transmitted diseases. The prisoner series shows that they are the victims of society and their lives are desperately tortured by disease. 1904-1906: The Pink Period After the blue period, Picasso entered the pink period with Cubism. Picasso is fascinated by pink characters such as circus performances, street performers, jugglers and clowns. Showing their lives, depression, dreams, short-lived happiness, lonely clowns often appear in the works. 1917-1953: the metamorphosis period Picasso followed Cezanne-style Cubism, which indicated that Cubism was coming, it was a revolutionary breakthrough in the history of modern art. The "Avignon Girl" of 1907 is a representative work. The five nudes in the painting surround the foreground still life. In 1909, when analytic cubism appeared, Picasso and Braque influenced each other, and the two became pioneers of cubism. After 1914, Picasso's style of painting began to turn from abstract to concrete. He felt that he wanted to return to the lines of the sketch, but he did not give up cubism. In 1921, Picasso was fascinated by the world of theatre and dance. The "Three Musicians" returned to the classics to rediscover the tradition and to innovate again. 1937 was a watershed moment in Picasso's artistic career. During this period, a series of fancy paintings, including "The Crying Woman", "The Woman in a Hat", "Mary Taylor", etc., these paintings have in common the portrait is vertically asymmetric. When the Nazis captured Paris in 1940, Picasso's little girl neighbour changed the signboard from white to red when she attracted the pigeons, was killed by the Nazis. Picasso drew several white pigeons to mourn the little girl, and since then "white pigeons" have represented peace. 1953-1973: Old age The older Picasso was, the more he painted like a child, the later works were more "rough" than the earlier ones. Following Picasso's words: "I have pursued painting like a child all my life." Picasso has loved many women , Ji Qilian is his last wife. In 1953, Picasso, 72, married his 26-year-old wife, Ji Qilian painted more than 400 portraits for her, the largest number of Picasso's many lovers. Ji Qilian inspired Picasso's new artistic creation. He invented a new printmaking technique, using multiple colors to print on the same plate, breaking the original monolithic frame of each template, which is a breakthrough in the history of printmaking. On April 8, 1973, one day before Picasso's death, he was accompanied by Ji Qilian to take the elevator home. Before going to the bedroom, he stopped in front of a mirror in the lobby and looked at the mirror for a moment. he said : "Tomorrow , I will start drawing me. " The next day, he died forever,throughout his life, Picasso did not have a self-portrait. Picasso museum Address: Carrer de Montcada 15-23, 08003 Barcelona, Spain Admission fee: EUR 12 for adults Concessionary ticket (ages 18 to 25 and over 65): € 7 Free for under 18 years old and college students Opening hours: 10: 00- 20:00 (Closed on Mondays) Closed days: January 1, May 1, June 24, December 25 Note: Free on the first Sunday of every month February 10, May 18, September 24, open days are free Free every Thursday 18: 00- 21:30 Transportation: Metro Line L1 Arc de Triomf Station, Line L3 Liceu Station, Line L4 Jaume I Station Get off and walk for about 10 minutes

Wong Sir's Trip：Barcelona, Spain　Picasso Museum

Author: Wong sir（Frogwong）
Publisher: ABCNETWORK
ISBN:
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 9

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Wong sir's Trip?：Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain is a genius designer

Author: Wong sir（Frogwong）
Publisher: ABCNETWORK
ISBN:
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 9

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Book Description
Wong sir's Trip? Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain is a genius designer The Sagrada Familia and Atonement Temple, generally referred to as the Sagrada Familia, is located in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, Spain. Due to the broken funds and war, it has become a Catholic church that has not been completed for more than 100 years. Construction of the Sagrada Familia began in 1882 because it is a Church of Atonement. The source of funds mainly depends on personal donations. The amount of donations directly affects the progress of the project. It is expected to be completed in 2032. At that time, the 170-meter-high Sagrada Familia will replace the Ulm Church in Germany (161.53 meters) and become the tallest church in Europe and the world. The Sagrada Familia is the only building in the world that has been declared a World Heritage Site before it has been completed. The church is not a cathedral. Pope Benedict XVI visited the church on November 7, 2010, and sealed it as a Pontifical temple. Sagrada Familia designer Gaudi has a famous view: "Straight lines belong to humans, and curves belong to God." A covered rectangular cloister in the Sagrada Familia surrounds the entire church and connects the three entrances. There are no right angles inside or outside the church, and few straight lines. All the pillars, door frames, window frames, and corner lines are curved. A holy basin in the church for washing hands is also designed with a graceful curve like a skirt. , A major feature of Gaudi is that he likes to use Spanish porcelain, glass, enamel, and natural stone, shatter them and reassemble them, and give them a strong sense of visual art through color contrast and exaggerated modeling. In appearance, the building looks like a huge stone termite nest, a huge vegetable field, a gingerbread house baked by the world's most evil witch, or a creepy forest. This magnificent building took shape after World War I, and since then its design philosophy has puzzled and puzzled countless architects, critics, and historians. The church was originally designed by architect Villar. It is a towering and unique building. After Villar resigned, he was publicly recruited and taken over by the unnamed Gaudi at that time. Gaudi is famous for his Sagrada Familia, and is considered to be Spain's most outstanding architect in the twentieth century. Most of his representative works have been settled in Barcelona. Seven of them have been selected as world cultural heritage, and the Sagrada Familia is a masterpiece. Religious book dealer Boca Beria was the founder of the Saint Joseph Revered Church, and during its heyday, the number of believers reached 600,000. Members of the association bought a plot of land measuring 130 meters by 120 meters and generously funded the construction of the Sagrada Familia. After visiting the Vatican in 1872, Boca Beria returned to Spain from Italy with the intention of building a church. The church was funded by a religious group and designed by architect Villar. It is a standard-form Gothic Revival building. Construction began on March 19, 1882. On March 18, 1883, the church was built only as an underground sanctuary. Villar resigned because of broken funds for construction. Gaudi, 31, took over the design work. Gaudi was born in Reus, a small town not far from Barcelona, in 1852. For generations, he was a blacksmith for a pot. Gaudi worked as a blacksmith, learned woodworking, cast iron, and molding. In 1873, Gaudi was admitted to the Barcelona School of Architecture, and in 1878 he received a bachelor's degree in architecture. His graduation project was to design an auditorium for a university, and the plan caused a lot of controversy. When the dean issued him a graduation certificate, he said, "I don't know if we will issue the certificate to a genius or a lunatic. We have to wait for time to prove everything. " The exterior of the Sagrada Familia has Gothic characteristics, and Gaudi pointed out: "The Gothic frame has no vitality. This structure is like an overwhelming skeleton. It not only fails to connect the various parts of the body in harmony, but instead You need crutches everywhere. " Gaudi completely readjusted the plan and changed the originally designed Gothic church into a Catalan modernist building. Gaudí began work in 1883 and was not appointed as an architect until 1884. The Sagrada Familia was planned from the beginning as a main church-sized building with extremely complex architectural structures and decorations, including two side porches, a semicircular apse with seven sacrifices and a cloister, multiple steeples and In and out facades, each facade has a different structure and decoration. The shape of the Sagrada Familia is a Latin cross with five aisles, with the central nave's vault as high as 45 meters and the adjacent nave's vault as high as 30 meters. There is a gap on the apse floor to see the basement below. Forty-three years of Gaudi's life was spent on the design and construction of this church. After 1925, he moved to the church site to live and design the church wholeheartedly. During the construction process, Gaudí continued to modify the design until the end of his life. His style experienced roughly three stages: the Moorish style of the Orientalism in the early period, the neo-Geum and modernism style in the middle period, and the naturalism in the later period. Gaudi designed the church based on animal and plant forms, with a strong natural color, showing each scene in the Bible one by one, making the church a Catholic picture book. The Y-shaped columns of the Sagrada Familia gradually tapered from the bottom up like the old tree roots, and finally turned into branches and trees to reach the zenith, forming a wonderful combination with the zenith pattern, like watching a colorful moment through a kaleidoscope . With twelve constellations on each branch, Gaudi hopes that anyone can find their faith here. In addition to the branches that support its load, the changing surface is the result of the intersection of various geometries. When the pillar rises, it forms an octagonal square base, then a sixteen-sided shape, and finally turns into a circle. This effect is the result of the three-dimensional intersection of the spiral columns. Gaudi's original design had a total of eighteen spires, from low to high representing the Twelve Apostles, the Virgin Mary, the authors of the four Great Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and the highest Jesus Christ. Eight minarets were completed in 2010, and after all the spires are completed, the Sagrada Familia will become the tallest church building in the world. Twelve towers representing twelve disciples, ranging from 98.4 meters to 117 meters in height, four towers representing the Gospel authors at 120 meters, towers representing the Virgin Mary at 120 meters, and towers representing Jesus Christ at 170 It's 180 meters below Montjuic in Barcelona, Gaudí believes that his creativity should not exceed that of God. Representing the authors of the four Gospels of the Bible, the minarets are engraved with statues representing them: winged bull (Luke), angel (Matthew), eagle (John), winged lion (Mark). The lower minaret is engraved with the host of the communion with wheat sheaf, and the communion cup with grape bunches, representing the communion ceremony. Gaudi plans to place the tubular bell in a steeple, driven by wind, to transmit sound into the church. Gaudi conducted a series of acoustic studies in order to obtain the appropriate acoustic results, but only one clock is currently in place. The church was long and unfinished, and Gaudi said, "My client is not in a hurry." What he refers to as a customer is "God." When Gaudi died in 1926, the church was about 15% to 25% complete. On the afternoon of June 7, 1926, Gaudi completed the work of the day, worshipped from the Sagrada Familia to the church in the city center, and was hit by a tram. His shirt was worn out, and the driver thought he was a tramp and refused to send him to the city hospital. A passerby later sent him to the Holy Cross Hospital, and later found that the homeless man was Gaudi. He wanted to send him to a better place for resettlement. Gaudi refused. He said, "This is my place." Three days later, Gaudi died. All the people in Barcelona were empty, and the whole city came out to mourn him. After Gaudi's death, construction work continued under the guidance of designer Grasse. It was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War in 1936, and construction began again in 1954. During the war, the Sagrada Familia was looted by Catalan anarchists, destroying part of the unfinished cathedral and Gaudi's models and workshops. Most of Gaudi's authenticity was damaged, but Gaudi's tomb was intact. Although the anarchists hated General Franco and the Catholic Church, they knew very well that Gaudi was a saint. The Sagrada Familia has three magnificent facades: the birth facade in the east, the crucifixion facade in the west, and the glorious facade in the south. The birth façade was built before the interruption of construction work in 1935. The façade is entitled the birth of Christ. The sculpture on the wall shows the story of the birth of virgin Mary to the growth of Christ, because it welcomes the celebration of Christ's birth.. The crucifixion was named after the death of Christ. According to Gaudí's design in 1917, construction began in 1954 and was completed in 1976. The facade includes Jesus Christ who was whipped, Jesus Christ on the cross. It attracted attention with its simple, sloppy, tortured characters. To express suffering, it designed modern angular and angular lines, which resembled nerves that were strained by pain With ribs. The sixteen sudokus on the crucifix facade, whether horizontally, vertically, or obliquely, add up to thirty-three, representing the age of Jesus' death. The glorious façade, which began construction in 2002, is the largest and most memorable of the three façades, representing Jesus Christ's ascension. Describe a series of scenes such as hell, purgatory, and other elements, including the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Virtues. The four towers on the glorious facade are all hollowed out. The light can fully fall through the colored windows of the church. The stained glass is arranged strictly according to progressive colors, and the lighter it is, the more it goes up. In 2013, the architect Olle was the fourth-generation person in charge. Three facades have been constructed: the "nativity facade", the "crucifixion facade", and the "honor facade". Eighteen towers have been built with four clock towers on the "nativity facade", four clock towers on the "crucifixion", and ten towers owed, of which six towers have not yet started construction, and the entire building is almost half completed. Computer-aided design technology is used to accelerate construction. Current technology allows stone to be processed in CNC machine tools. In the 20th century, stone was carved by hand. On July 24, 1969, the Sagrada Familia was registered as a Spanish cultural property under the name "Holy Family Atonement Hall". In mid-2010, the nave of the Sagrada Familia was capped, and an organ was installed on the altar. This unfinished church can begin religious activities. To overcome the unique acoustic challenges posed by the church's architecture and huge size, the church has several additional organs installed at different locations, which can be played independently or simultaneously. Pope Benedict XVI ordained the Sagrada Familia in front of 6,500 worshippers on November 7, 2010. Outside the church, more than 50,000 people attended the orthodox mass, and more than a hundred bishops and three hundred priests attended the sacrament. On April 19, 2011, an arsonist set fire to the sacrifice collection. Tourists and construction workers were to evacuate. The sacrifice collection was damaged. The fire was brought under control 45 minutes later. Beginning in 2013, Spanish high-speed rail trains travel through an underground tunnel next to the Sagrada Familia in central Barcelona. In October 2015, 70% of the construction was completed, entering the final stage, that is, raising six huge spires. Beginning July 9, 2017, the Sagrada Familia will hold an international mass ritual (until the church is full) on Sunday or 9 AM, and the Mass will occasionally be celebrated at other times, only to be invited to attend. On June 7, 2019, the Sagrada Familia was granted a legal construction permit by the Barcelona City Council, and construction began in 1882, 137 years later. The minaret and most of the church structure will be completed in 2026, the centennial of Gaudi's death, and the decorative elements will be completed in 2030 or 2032. Gaudi saw the Sagrada Familia as a "Gothic ancient Greek temple" in the Mediterranean. He was once called "Dante in the history of architecture." The construction of the Sagrada Familia is protracted. The main reason is that there is no special funding for the construction cost, all of which come from ticket income and donations. At the end of Gaudi's lifetime, he also had to raise funds for the Sagrada Familia project. Some relatives and friends later turned away when they saw him. He donated all his property to the Sagrada Familia before his death. In 1998, Gaudi was sealed as a saint by the Cardinal. The Sagrada Familia has a budget of 25 million euros per year. Currently, the largest funder of the Sagrada Familia is from Japan. Through sponsorship projects, a large number of young Japanese architects are sent for internships. Sagrada Familia Visitor admission is 15-20 Euros Address: Carrer de Mallorca, 401, Barcelona Transportation: Subway Lines 2 and 5 and get off at Shengjiatang Station

Art in the Streets

Author: Jeffrey Deitch
Publisher: Skira
ISBN: 0847836177
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
A catalog of an exhibition that surveys the history of international graffiti and street art.

The Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings

Author: Kathleen Dardes
Publisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 0892363843
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 582

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Book Description
This volume presents the proceedings of an international symposium organized by the Getty Conservation Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum. The first conference of its kind in twenty years, the symposium assembled an international group of conservators of painted panels, and gave them the opportunity to discuss their philosophies and share their work methods. Illustrated in color throughout, this volume presents thirty-one papers grouped into four topic areas: Wood Science and Technology, History of Panel-Manufacturing Techniques, History of the Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings, and Current Approaches to the Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings.

The Photomontages of Hannah Höch

Author: Hannah Höch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Here, in the first comprehensive survey of her work by an American museum, authors Peter Boswell, Maria Makela, and Carolyn Lanchner survey the full scope of Hoch's half-century of experimentation in photomontage - from her politically charged early works and intimate psychological portraits of the Weimar era to her later forays into surrealism and abstraction.

Pity and Terror

Author: Timothy J. Clark
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788480265522
Category : Terror in art
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
The news of the bombardment of the Basque town of Guernica by German planes during the Spanish Civil War was the inspiration that set Picasso to work on Guernica, the picture that transcended the specific historical moment to wich it refers to become the great icon of the twentieth century. In 2017 we commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the work's creation and the twenty-fifth anniversary of its arrival to the Museo Reina Sofía, with the organization of Pity and Terror: Picasso's Path to Guernica, a new exhibition of more than 170 pieces from the museum's own collection and from other institutions. To coincide with the anniversary of Guernica, the Museo Reina Sofía is publishing two books that are the result of research carried out by the Collections Department. The first is the current volume, Pity and Terror: Picasso's Path to Guernica, while the second will examine Guernica's travels.

A Political Affair

Author: Suzanne Pederson
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Graham Gosling is an important man with a big problem. As White House chief of staff, he is advisor to the newly elected president, and also a hands-on father to six children and a devoted husband to Jillian, his beautiful wife of fifteen years. There's a lot on Graham's plate, but nothing he can't handle - until he is unexpectedly implicated in - The Scandal. Everyone is talking about it. The DC Madame who is expected to take a lot of high-powered political operatives down - and nobody has more octane driving their political career than Graham Gosling. But Graham is innocent! If only there wasn't so much evidence against him, like the important dates when he stood Jillian up, the incriminating list on the internet that implicates him in scandal, and even worse, that phone call that everyone heard, not to mention the horrible grand jury testimony that Graham gave under subpoena. Can this high-stakes political operative take back control of an uncontrollable story and make everything right before he loses everything that matters to him?

The Chiffon Trenches

Author: André Leon Talley
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0593129261
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the pages of Vogue to the runways of Paris, this “captivating” (Time) memoir by a legendary style icon captures the fashion world from the inside out, in its most glamorous and most cutthroat moments. “The Chiffon Trenches honestly and candidly captures fifty sublime years of fashion.”—Manolo Blahnik NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Fortune • Garden & Gun • New York Post During André Leon Talley’s first magazine job, alongside Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decades-long friendship with the enigmatic, often caustic designer. Propelled into the upper echelons by his knowledge and adoration of fashion, André moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild’s Women’s Wear Daily, befriending fashion's most important designers (Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta). But as André made friends, he also made enemies. A racially tinged encounter with a member of the house of Yves Saint Laurent sent him back to New York and into the offices of Vogue under Grace Mirabella. There, he eventually became creative director, developing an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour. As she rose to the top of Vogue’s masthead, André also ascended, and soon became the most influential man in fashion. The Chiffon Trenches offers a candid look at the who’s who of the last fifty years of fashion. At once ruthless and empathetic, this engaging memoir tells with raw honesty the story of how André not only survived the brutal style landscape but thrived—despite racism, illicit rumors, and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry—to become one of the most renowned voices and faces in fashion. Woven throughout the book are also André’s own personal struggles that impacted him over the decades, along with intimate stories of those he turned to for inspiration (Diana Vreeland, Diane von Fürstenberg, Lee Radziwill, to name a few), and of course his Southern roots and faith, which guided him since childhood. The result is a highly compelling read that captures the essence of a world few of us will ever have real access to, but one that we all want to know oh so much more about.

Conversations with Durito

Author: Marcos (subcomandante.)
Publisher: Autonomedia
ISBN: 1570271186
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
'We are all Zapatistas.' Subcomandante MarcosThis book began in 1994, when Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos replied to a 10-year-old girl from Mexico City who had sent him a drawing. The ensuing collection of related tales about the warrior-beetle, narrated by his pipe-smoking, black-ski-masked human squire is an extraordinary account for the general reader of current global political struggle.Marcos created a humorous fictitious character, Don Durito, a beetle with Quixotic fantasies which regards Marcos as his Sancho Panza. In this book, Marcos creates a new political genre, so-called "postdata": ironical commentaries which he affixes to his formal communiqués or declarations. In one of them he even offers to perform a striptease for government negotiators.'We are the product of 500 years of struggle...They [Mexican government] don't care that we have nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a roof over our heads; no land, no work, no health care, no food, no education... nor is there peace nor justice for ourselves and our children. But today, we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!' First EZLN declaration of war, December 31st 1993The Zapatistas are not Marxist, Rightists, or Anarchists. They seek not to replace one infrastructure of power with another, thus rejecting the normal goal of an armed struggle. They are armed but do not use violence as a tool to expand their aims. Although a localized rebellion, the Zapatistas are unified in a worldwide struggle that transcends the mainstream media's limited perspective through eloquent dictations distributed globally via the Internet.With a fresh perspective and tactics that have never been seen in relation to an armed insurrection, the EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army) has changed the definition of what revolution means. From the marginalized confines of the poorest region in Mexico, a new concept of revolutionary change with a new solution to societies woes is currently being proposed.

Human Accomplishment

Author: Charles Murray
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061745677
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 790

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Book Description
A sweeping cultural survey reminiscent of Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence. "At irregular times and in scattered settings, human beings have achieved great things. Human Accomplishment is about those great things, falling in the domains known as the arts and sciences, and the people who did them.' So begins Charles Murray's unique account of human excellence, from the age of Homer to our own time. Employing techniques that historians have developed over the last century but that have rarely been applied to books written for the general public, Murray compiles inventories of the people who have been essential to the stories of literature, music, art, philosophy, and the sciences—a total of 4,002 men and women from around the world, ranked according to their eminence. The heart of Human Accomplishment is a series of enthralling descriptive chapters: on the giants in the arts and what sets them apart from the merely great; on the differences between great achievement in the arts and in the sciences; on the meta-inventions, 14 crucial leaps in human capacity to create great art and science; and on the patterns and trajectories of accomplishment across time and geography. Straightforwardly and undogmatically, Charles Murray takes on some controversial questions. Why has accomplishment been so concentrated in Europe? Among men? Since 1400? He presents evidence that the rate of great accomplishment has been declining in the last century, asks what it means, and offers a rich framework for thinking about the conditions under which the human spirit has expressed itself most gloriously. Eye-opening and humbling, Human Accomplishment is a fascinating work that describes what humans at their best can achieve, provides tools for exploring its wellsprings, and celebrates the continuing common quest of humans everywhere to discover truths, create beauty, and apprehend the good.