1.
Vincent van Gogh
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Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings and his suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty. Born into a family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet. As a young man he worked as an art dealer, often travelling and he turned to religion, and spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium. He drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in 1881 and his younger brother Theo supported him financially, and the two kept up a long correspondence by letter. His early works, mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers, in 1886 he moved to Paris, where he met members of the avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were reacting against the Impressionist sensibility. As his work developed he created a new approach to still lifes and his paintings grew brighter in colour as he developed a style that became fully realised during his stay in Arles in the south of France in 1888. During this period he broadened his subject matter to include trees, cypresses, wheat fields. Van Gogh suffered from episodes and delusions and though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor and he spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris and his depression continued and on 27 July 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He died from his injuries two days later, Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime, and was considered a madman and a failure. He became famous after his suicide, and exists in the imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius. His reputation began to grow in the early 20th century as elements of his style came to be incorporated by the Fauves. The most comprehensive source on Van Gogh is the correspondence between him and his younger brother, Theo. Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Vincents thoughts, Theo van Gogh was an art dealer and provided his brother with financial and emotional support, and access to influential people on the contemporary art scene. Theo kept all of Vincents letters to him, Vincent kept few of the letters he received, after both had died, Theos widow Johanna arranged for the publication of some of their letters. A few appeared in 1906 and 1913, the majority were published in 1914, Vincents letters are eloquent and expressive and have been described as having a diary-like intimacy, and read in parts like autobiography
2.
Kirk Douglas
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Kirk Douglas is an American actor, producer, director, and author. He is one of the last living people of the film industrys Golden Age, after an impoverished childhood with immigrant parents and six sisters, he had his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s and 1960s, known for dramas, including westerns. During a 64-year acting career, he has appeared in more than 90 movies, other early films include Young Man with a Horn, playing opposite Lauren Bacall and Doris Day, Ace in the Hole opposite Jan Sterling, and Detective Story. He received a second Oscar nomination for his role in The Bad and the Beautiful, opposite Lana Turner. In 1955, he established Bryna Productions, which began producing films as varied as Paths of Glory, in those two films, he starred and collaborated with the then relatively unknown director, Stanley Kubrick. Douglas helped break the Hollywood blacklist by having Dalton Trumbo write Spartacus with an official on-screen credit and he produced and starred in Lonely Are the Brave, considered a cult classic, and Seven Days in May, opposite Burt Lancaster, with whom he made seven films. In 1963, he starred in the Broadway play One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, a story he purchased, which he gave to his son Michael Douglas. As an actor and philanthropist, Douglas has received three Academy Award nominations, an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as an author, he has written ten novels and memoirs. Currently, he is No.17 on the American Film Institutes list of the greatest male screen legends of classic Hollywood cinema, after barely surviving a helicopter crash in 1991 and then suffering a stroke in 1996, he has focused on renewing his spiritual and religious life. He lives with his wife, Anne, a producer. He turned 100 on December 9,2016, Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch in Amsterdam, New York, the son of Bryna Bertha and Herschel Harry Danielovitch. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Chavusy, Mogilev Region, in the Russian Empire, and his fathers brother, who emigrated earlier, used the surname Demsky, which Douglass family adopted in the United States. Douglas grew up as Izzy Demsky and legally changed his name to Kirk Douglas before entering the United States Navy during World War II. Even on Eagle Street, in the poorest section of town, where all the families were struggling, and I was the ragmans son. Growing up, Douglas sold snacks to mill workers to earn enough to buy milk, later, he delivered newspapers and during his youth worked at more than forty different jobs before getting a job acting. He found living in a family with six sisters to be stifling, in a sense, it lit a fire under me. In high school, after acting in plays, he knew he wanted to become a professional actor
3.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
4.
The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
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The Letters of Vincent van Gogh refers to a collection of 903 surviving letters written or received by Vincent van Gogh. More than 650 of these were from Vincent to his brother Theo, the collection also includes letters van Gogh wrote to his sister Wil and other relatives, as well as between artists such as Paul Gauguin, Anthon van Rappard and Émile Bernard. Vincents sister-in-law and wife to his brother Theo, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, spent many years after her husbands death in 1891 compiling the letters, by contrast Vincent infrequently kept letters sent him and just 84 have survived, of which 39 were from Theo. Nevertheless, it is to these letters between the brothers that we owe much of what we know today about Vincent van Gogh, indeed, the only period where we are relatively uninformed is the Parisian period when they shared an apartment and had no need to correspond. The letters effectively play much the role in shedding light on the art of the period as those between the de Goncourt brothers did for literature. Within two years both brothers were dead, Vincent as the result of a wound, and Theo from illness. Joanna began the task of completing the collection, which was published in full in January 1914 and that first edition consisted of three volumes, and was followed in 1952–1954 by a four-volume edition that included additional letters. Jan Hulsker suggested, in 1987, that the letters be organized in date order, the project consists of a complete annotated collection of letters written by and to Vincent. In the last days of December 1901, running through January 1902, Bruno Cassirer and his cousin Paul Cassirer organized the first van Gogh exhibition in Berlin, Germany. Paul Cassirer first established a market for van Gogh, and then, with the assistance of Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, in 1906 Bruno Cassirer published a small volume of selected letters of Vincents to Theo, translated into German. Of the 844 surviving letters that van Gogh wrote,663 were written to Theo,9 to Theo, of the letters Vincent received from Theo, only 39 survive. The first letter was written when Vincent was 19 and begins, at that time Vincent was not yet developed as a letter writer – he was factual, but not introspective. When he moved to London, and later to Paris, he began to add personal information. Beginning in 1888 and ending a year later, van Gogh wrote 22 letters to Émile Bernard in which the tone is different from those to Theo, in these letters van Gogh wrote more about his techniques, his use of color, and his theories. Van Gogh was a reader, and his letters reflect his literary pursuits as well as a uniquely authentic literary style. His writing style in the letters reflect the literature he read and valued, Balzac, historians such as Michelet, additionally he read novels written by George Eliot, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Keats poetry, reading mostly at night when the light was too poor for painting. Gauguin told him that he read too much, poet W. H. Auden wrote about the letters, there is scarcely one letter by van Gogh which I. do not find fascinating. Pomerans believes the letters to be on the level of world literature based on style, in the letters Vincent reflects different facets of his personality and he adopts a tone specific to his circumstances
5.
The Potato Eaters
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The Potato Eaters is an oil painting by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh painted in April 1885 in Nuenen, Netherlands. It is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and he worked on the painting from April 13 until the beginning of May, when it was mostly done except for minor changes which he made with a small brush later the same year. Van Gogh said he wanted to depict peasants as they really were, I wanted it to give the idea of a wholly different way of life from ours — civilized people. So I certainly don’t want everyone just to admire it or approve of it without knowing why, however, the work was criticized by his friend Anthon van Rappard soon after it was painted. Van Gogh made a lithograph of the composition The Potato Eaters before embarking on the painting proper and he sent impressions to his brother, and in a letter to a friend, wrote that he made the lithograph from memory in the space of a day. Van Gogh had first experimented with lithography in The Hague in 1882, though he appreciated small scale graphic work and was an enthusiastic collector of English engravings he worked relatively little in graphic mediums. No, in most cases the solidity and pith of the small is only obtained through much more study than is imagined by those who think lightly of the task of illustrating. Anyway, some paintings in their huge frames look very substantial, and from what you said about ‘Impressionism’, I’ve grasped that it’s something different from what I thought it was, but it’s still not entirely clear to me what one should understand by it. But for my part, I find so much in Israëls, for instance. Compositionally the two are similar, in both paintings the composition of the painting is centered by a figure whose back is turned to us. Thieves stole the early version of The Potato Eaters, the Weavers Interior, in April,1989, the thieves returned Weavers Interior in an attempt to gain a $2.5 million ransom. The police recovered the two on July 14,1989, no ransom was paid. On April 14,1991, the Vincent van Gogh National Museum was robbed of twenty major paintings including the version of The Potato Eaters. For unknown reasons, the abandoned the art 35 minutes after the robbery. ISBN 1-86046-859-4 De La Faille, Jacob Baart, the works of Vincent van Gogh. The Complete Van Gogh, Paintings, Drawings, Sketches, new York, NY, Harrison House/Harry N. Abrams Distributed by Crown Publishers, Random House. Naifeh, Steven and Smith, Gregory White
6.
Sunflowers (Van Gogh series)
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Sunflowers are the subject of two series of still life paintings by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The earlier series, executed in Paris in 1887, depicts the flowers lying on the ground, while the set, executed a year later in Arles. In the artists mind both sets were linked by the name of his friend Paul Gauguin, who acquired two of the Paris versions, Van Gogh was upset and replied that Gauguin had absolutely no right to make this request, I am definitely keeping my sunflowers in question. He has two of them already, let that hold him, so if he ever broaches this subject again, Ive told you just how matters stand. The two Sunflowers in question show two buttons each, one of them was preceded by a study, and a fourth large canvas combines both compositions. These were Van Goghs first paintings with nothing but sunflowers—yet, he had already included sunflowers in still life, leaving aside the first two versions, all Arlesian Sunflowers are painted on size 30 canvases. None meets the descriptions supplied by van Gogh himself in his announcement of the series in every detail. The first version differs in size, is painted on a size 20 canvas—not on a size 15 canvas as indicated—and all the others differ in the number of flowers depicted from van Goghs announcement. The second was evidently enlarged and the initial composition altered by insertion of the two flowers lying in the foreground, center and right, neither the third nor the fourth shows the dozen or 14 flowers indicated by the artist, but more—fifteen or sixteen. Both repetitions of the 4th version are no longer in their original state, in the Amsterdam version a strip of wood was added at the top—probably by van Gogh himself. The Tokyo version, however, was enlarged on all sides with strips of canvas, the series is perhaps van Goghs best known and most widely reproduced. In recent years there has been regarding the authenticity of one of the paintings. Most experts, however, conclude that the work is genuine, a definite hint for the arrangement of the triptych is supplied by Van Goghs sketch in a letter of July 1889. Later that year, Vincent selected both versions for his display at Les XX,1890, Van Gogh began painting in late summer 1888 and continued into the following year. One went to decorate his friend Paul Gauguins bedroom, the paintings show sunflowers in all stages of life, from full bloom to withering. The paintings were considered innovative for their use of the yellow spectrum, in a letter to Theo, Vincent wrote, Its a type of painting that changes its aspect a little, which grows in richness the more you look at it. Besides, you know that Gauguin likes them extraordinarily and he said to me about them, among other things, ‘that —. You know that Jeannin has the peony, Quost has the hollyhock, the price was over four times the previous record of about $12 million paid for Andrea Mantegnas Adoration of the Magi in 1985
