Word: murals
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...beautiful?" he exclaims. "One must speak of problems in painting!" Such rumblings give the art world warning that the volcano is still alive, may erupt again before the world's astonished eyes. The most demanding commission of his career is now directly ahead of him-a huge mural for Paris' new headquarters for UNESCO. What its subject will be Picasso does not hint. But until the final revolver shot sounds, the old master can be depended on to keep the world's eyes focused on the tip of his brush...
...learn new sports. This is unfortunate, especially in an area not entirely conducive to outdoor recreation. The rather pitiful physical condition of many undergraduates might be improved if exercise could be made interesting and useful by offering classes in worthwhile sports. This exercise can be obtained in the intra-mural program, but because of lack of ability or pressure, many do not participate in this program. The availability of organized instruction would attract those who need the program most, the hesitant beginners...
...James Brooks, 50, for his swirling 7-ft.-by-7-ft. R-1953 (right), a noncommittal title indicating alphabetically that it was Brooks's 18th painting in 1953. Born in St. Louis, Artist Brooks is a former WPA muralist (La Guardia Airport's 235-ft. Marine Terminal mural) who switched'over to abstraction, after Army service in World War II, "with a sense of reawakening and release." For Brooks, "the meaning is in the series of relationships, the pressures, the visual shifts. I don't feel the need of everyday objects in my work, though...
...only as a document of faith but as a legacy of art, the murals are extraordinary. The costumes pictured and some of the painting conventions (e.g., the painted frames surrounding each mural) resemble Persian art of the period. But the paintings as a whole show a transition between the easeful grace of Greek and Roman art and the frozen stiffness of later Byzantine figures. Meanings are conveyed strikingly, as when "the hand of the Lord" takes the shape of several free-floating, detached hands looming above Ezekiel. The coloring is subdued, never garish, subtly harmonious...
Lady in Ceremonial Dress (see cut), now owned by Cinemactress Claudette Colbert, gives some idea of the high style in the fine silk and brocade worn by the court beauties. Unfortunately, much of what was most perishable, including the scroll paintings and murals, has disappeared, and today is known only through third-or fourth-hand copies. That such might be their fate the T'ang artists may even have suspected. The legend of Artist Wu Tao-tzu indicates at least a premonition. After Wu had finished his greatest mural, he stepped through a secret door as his painting vanished...