Unexpected new art, a gift from local sculptor- polymath (and probable cousin of some kind; see below– we share “origin myths”, though have not checked genealogy, and McCabes are rarer than most of my old books), Sigrid “Nina” McCabe, like me a committed incomer. He is cute and even pretty but rather spooky– echoes of …
Tag: Art
Malcolm Appleby
Malcolm Appleby, the engraver and metalsmith who engraves guns as animals and canvases for his fantasies as well as an amazing array of other things– objects, drawings, and more— is probably best known for his Raven Gun in the Tower of London, though I wish they would display it better, not in a dark inaccessible …
Mongolian Art
Just for fun– the cover of a small Mongolian pb treatise on Eagle Hunting (in Mongolian– can’t read a word of it) that I found as I dug deeper into the library.. Sure, it is sort of Soviet- influenced I suppose, but its bold vivid block print style is still striking.
At the Peters
For Santa Feans and other northern New Mexicans: the always stimulating Gerald Peters gallery is featuring new sculpture by two of my friends, Steve Kestrel and Tony Angell, in a show called “Romantic Contours, Modern Terrain”. I only wish I had time to get up there! Steve sent me photos of these two pieces, carved …
Photo Blogging: Central Asian Textiles
Soviet war -era Afghan battle rug, supposedly of a real battle, obtained from an (American) artist who spent a good part of his youth there. Notice almost NMexican architecture and lack of un- Islamic humans despite tanks and helicopters; as always, click to embiggen: Uzbek gun slip– for, of all things, a Jungle carbine SMLE. …
The Wierdest Clock in the World…
… stands in in Ulan Bataar, Mongolia in front of a bank. I know that is a coelacanth on top (why??) but what are those… tentacles? I can’t read Mongolian, only (some) Russian, but I have a vague recollection of shooting a slide of a plaque with an inscription on it. You can see why …
“Mesabi”
Tom Russell has a new album coming this fall, called Mesabi after the Iron Range mining country of northern Minnesota (Hibbing, home of Bob, Dylan stands there). It’s one of the best yet from the man who might be America’s best songwriter storyteller. Tom’s work is unique. It is not just that he is hard …
More Antique Images of “Salukis”…
Or whatever you want to call them. This one is French- Algerian from the 19th century. What interests me is that it is a very heavily feathered dog, like a “mountain” Central Asian dog today (“Khalag tazi”?), but from a place where there are only smooth “sloughis” now. There may be reasons for this, all …
“Une Chienne de Barbarie”
Another non- Arab or at least geographically North African portrait, from the Louvre, courtesy of Daniela. The given title as I got it was “”Un Chien de Barbarie”, but given the obvious I have changed the sex in the title! Daniela called the portrait “a little ‘Taik”– see below (top, most recent, by GG)…
Queen Victoria’s Hound?
Terence Clark sent a fine Landseer portrait from the 19th century of what appears to be a female saluki– or, better, tazi; actually to my eye the dog seems eastern, Asian, even specifically “Turkmeni”. She is doing the rarely portrayed “propitiating” smile and but for color resembles Ataika I think. Terence said, quoting the Country …