1.
Laleh Park
–
Laleh Park, is a large recreation area of the Iranian capital Tehran. This park lies in central Tehran and north of Tehran University, laleh Park is one of the biggest parks in Tehran. Laleh Park provides pathways for walking and shade for picnics and relaxation, the park has become a popular meeting place for young people and a picnic area for families. Around the park are some popular coffee shops, fast-food outlets, and shopping centers and designer boutiques in nearby Valiasr Square
Laleh Park
–
Laleh Park in
summer
2.
Iran
–
Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
Iran
–
Cave painting in Doushe cave,
Lorestan, Iran,
8th millennium BC
Iran
–
Flag
Iran
–
A depiction of the united
Medes and
Persians in
Apadana,
Persepolis
Iran
–
Ruins of the
Gate of All Nations,
Persepolis
3.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
4.
Art Museum
–
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection, the term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand, private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art, however, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere. In broad terms, in North American usage, the word gallery alone often implies a private gallery, the term contemporary art gallery refers usually to a privately owned for-profit commercial gallery. These galleries are found clustered together in large urban centers. Smaller cities are home to at least one gallery, but they may also be found in towns or villages. Contemporary art galleries are open to the general public without charge, however. They usually profit by taking a portion of art sales, from 25% to 50% is typical, there are also many non-profit or collective galleries. Some galleries in cities like Tokyo charge the artists a flat rate per day, curators often create group shows that say something about a certain theme, trend in art, or group of associated artists. Galleries sometimes choose to represent artists exclusively, giving them the opportunity to show regularly, a gallerys definition can also include the artist cooperative or artist-run space, which often operates as a space with a more democratic mission and selection process. A vanity gallery is an art gallery that charges fees from artists in order to show their work, the shows are not legitimately curated and will frequently or usually include as many artists as possible. Most art professionals are able to identify them on an artists resume, University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art that are developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in both the West and East, making it a global practice, although largely overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in America alone. This number, in comparison to other kinds of art museums, throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions and monarchs and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces. Although these collections of art were private, they were made available for viewing for a portion of the public. In classical times, religious institutions began to function as a form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects often donated their collections to temples and it is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. At the Palace of Versailles, entrance was restricted to wearing the proper apparel – the appropriate accessories could be hired from shops outside
Art Museum
–
The Louvre in
Paris,
France, is one of the world's largest museums and
the most visited art museum in the world.
Art Museum
–
The Gallery of
Cornelis van der Geest,
Willem van Haecht, 1628. A private picture gallery as an early precursor of the modern museum.
Art Museum
–
University of Tartu Art Museum is the oldest museum in
Estonia.
Art Museum
–
The art collection at the
Palace of Versailles in
France was periodically open for 'respectable' public viewing.
5.
Persian language
–
Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
Persian language
–
Old Persian
Persian language
–
Ferdowsi 's
Shahnameh
Persian language
–
Kalilah va Dimna, an influential work in Persian literature.
6.
Art museum
–
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection, the term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand, private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art, however, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere. In broad terms, in North American usage, the word gallery alone often implies a private gallery, the term contemporary art gallery refers usually to a privately owned for-profit commercial gallery. These galleries are found clustered together in large urban centers. Smaller cities are home to at least one gallery, but they may also be found in towns or villages. Contemporary art galleries are open to the general public without charge, however. They usually profit by taking a portion of art sales, from 25% to 50% is typical, there are also many non-profit or collective galleries. Some galleries in cities like Tokyo charge the artists a flat rate per day, curators often create group shows that say something about a certain theme, trend in art, or group of associated artists. Galleries sometimes choose to represent artists exclusively, giving them the opportunity to show regularly, a gallerys definition can also include the artist cooperative or artist-run space, which often operates as a space with a more democratic mission and selection process. A vanity gallery is an art gallery that charges fees from artists in order to show their work, the shows are not legitimately curated and will frequently or usually include as many artists as possible. Most art professionals are able to identify them on an artists resume, University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art that are developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in both the West and East, making it a global practice, although largely overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in America alone. This number, in comparison to other kinds of art museums, throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions and monarchs and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces. Although these collections of art were private, they were made available for viewing for a portion of the public. In classical times, religious institutions began to function as a form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects often donated their collections to temples and it is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. At the Palace of Versailles, entrance was restricted to wearing the proper apparel – the appropriate accessories could be hired from shops outside
Art museum
–
The Louvre in
Paris,
France, is one of the world's largest museums and
the most visited art museum in the world.
Art museum
–
The Gallery of
Cornelis van der Geest,
Willem van Haecht, 1628. A private picture gallery as an early precursor of the modern museum.
Art museum
–
University of Tartu Art Museum is the oldest museum in
Estonia.
Art museum
–
The art collection at the
Palace of Versailles in
France was periodically open for 'respectable' public viewing.
7.
Iranian modern and contemporary art
–
A cursory glance at the history of art reveals that social, political and economic conditions have always played a major role in the emergence of new artistic currents and styles. In Iran, the social and political developments of the 1940s radically altered the evolution of this country’s plastic arts, the modern art movement in Iran had its genesis in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This was the period after the death of famous Persian painter, Kamal-ol-molk, in 1977, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art opened, boasting an important collection of both Western and Iranian artists. Iranian art is shared among people of Iranian cultural continent and is not limited to modern Iran, modern art is emerging in Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Iraqi Kurdistan. In Afghanistan, Rahraw Omarzad, founded Center for Contemporary Art Afghanistan in 2004, also, a museum of modern art is under construction in Iraqi Kurdistan
Iranian modern and contemporary art
–
History of Persian Art
Iranian modern and contemporary art
–
The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art has a sculpture Garden adjacent to Tehran's
Laleh Park.
8.
Farah Pahlavi
–
Farah Pahlavi is the widow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the former Shahbanu of Iran. Farah Diba was born on 14 October 1938 in the Iranian capital Tehran, born as Farah Diba, she was the only child of Captain Sohrab Diba and his wife, Farideh Ghotbi. Pahlavis fathers family is of Iranian Azerbaijani origin, in her memoir, the former Shahbanu writes that her fathers family were natives of Iranian Azerbaijan while her mothers family were from Lahijan on the Iranian coast of the Caspian Sea. Through her father, Farah came from an affluent background. In the late 19th century her grandfather had been a diplomat, serving as the Iranian Ambassador to the Romanov Court in St. Petersburg. Her own father was an officer in the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces, Farah enjoyed an extremely close bond with her father and his unexpected death in 1948 deeply affected her. This situation furthermore left the family in a difficult financial state. In these reduced circumstances, they were forced to move from their family villa in northern Tehran into a shared apartment with one of Farideh Ghotbis brothers. The young Farah Diba began her education at Tehrans Italian School, then moved to the French Jeanne dArc School until to age of sixteen and she was an accomplished athlete in her youth and became captain of her schools basketball team. Upon finishing her studies at the Lycée Razi, she pursued an interest in architecture at the École Spéciale dArchitecture in Paris, many Iranian students who were studying abroad at this time were dependent on State sponsorship. Therefore, when the Shah, as head of state, made visits to foreign countries. It was during such a meeting in 1959 at the Iranian Embassy in Paris that Farah Diba was first presented to Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. After returning to Tehran in the summer of 1959, the Shah and Farah Diba began a carefully choreographed courtship, the couple announced their engagement on 23 November 1959. Farah Diba married Shah Mohammed Reza on 20 December 1959, aged 21, the young Queen of Iran was the object of much curiosity and her wedding received worldwide press attention. Her gown was by Yves Saint Laurent, then a designer at the house of Dior, after the pomp and celebrations associated with the Imperial wedding, the success of this union became contingent upon the Queen’s ability to produce a male heir. Although he had married twice before, the Shah’s previous marriages had given him only a daughter who, under agnatic primogeniture. The pressure for the young Queen was acute, the Shah himself was deeply anxious to have a male heir as were the members of his government. Furthermore, it was known that the dissolution of the Shahs previous marriage to Queen Soraya had been due to her infertility, within the Imperial Household, her public function was secondary to the far more pressing matter of assuring the succession
Farah Pahlavi
–
The
Queen in 1973
Farah Pahlavi
–
Coronation of the Shah of Iran in 1967, official photograph. Princess
Ashraf, Princess
Shahnaz, the
Shah, Princess
Farahnaz and Crown Prince Reza, Queen Farah and Princess
Shams.
Farah Pahlavi
–
Farah Pahlavi at work in her office in
Tehran, 1970s.
Farah Pahlavi
–
The Shah and Shahbanu Farah shortly before leaving Iran in 1979.
9.
Iranian Revolution
–
Demonstrations against the Shah commenced in October 1977, developing into a campaign of civil resistance that included both secular and religious elements and which intensified in January 1978. Between August and December 1978 strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country, the Shah left Iran for exile on 16 January 1979, as the last Persian monarch, leaving his duties to a regency council and an opposition-based prime minister. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government, the royal reign collapsed shortly after on 11 February when guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting, bringing Khomeini to official power. It was a relatively non-violent revolution, and helped to redefine the meaning, the Shahs regime became increasingly oppressive, brutal, corrupt, and extravagant. It also suffered from basic functional failures that brought economic bottlenecks, shortages, the Shah was perceived by many as beholden to – if not a puppet of – a non-Muslim Western power whose culture was affecting that of Iran. The Shia clergy had a significant influence on Iranian society, the clergy first showed itself to be a powerful political force in opposition to the monarchy with the 1891 Tobacco Protest. On 20 March 1890, Nasir al-Din Shah granted a concession to Major G. F. Talbot for a monopoly over the production, sale. The boycotts and protests against it were widespread and extensive because of Mirza Hasan Shirazis fatwa, finally Nasir al-Din Shah found himself powerless to stop the popular movement and cancelled the concession. The Tobacco Protest was the first significant Iranians resistance against the Shah and foreign interests, and revealed the power of the people, the growing discontent continued until the Constitutional Revolution. The revolution led to the establishment of a Parliament and approval of the first constitution, although the constitutional revolution was successful in weakening the autocracy of the Qajar regime, it failed to provide a powerful alternative government. Consequently, within the following the establishment of the new parliament. Many of these events can be viewed as a continuation of the struggle between the constitutionalists and the Shahs of Persia, many of whom were backed by foreign powers against the parliament. He established a monarchy, deposing the last of the Qajar shah in 1925 and introduced many social, economic. A number of reforms led to public discontent which provides circumstances for an Iranian revolution. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavis father, Reza Shah, replaced Islamic laws with Western ones, police forcibly removed and tore chadors off women who resisted his ban on the public hijab. In 1935, dozens were killed and hundreds injured in the Goharshad Mosque rebellion, on the other hand, in the early rise of Reza Shah, Abdul-Karim Haeri Yazdi founded the Qom Seminary and created important changes in seminaries. However, he would avoid entering into political issues, as did other leaders who followed him. Hence, no widespread anti-government attempts were organized by clergy during the Reza Shah Rule, however, the future Ayatollah Khomeini was a student of Sheikh Abdul Karim Ha’eri
Iranian Revolution
–
Protesters around
Shahyad Tower (later Azadi Tower),
Tehran, 1979
Iranian Revolution
–
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Press conference on international oil policies.
Niavaran Palace,
Tehran, 1971.
Iranian Revolution
–
The Shah of Iran (left) meeting with members of the U.S. government:
Alfred Atherton,
William Sullivan,
Cyrus Vance,
Jimmy Carter, and
Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1977
10.
Modern art
–
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation. Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with ideas about the nature of materials. A tendency away from the narrative, which was characteristic for the traditional arts, more recent artistic production is often called contemporary art or postmodern art. Matisses two versions of The Dance signified a key point in his career and in the development of modern painting, analytic cubism was jointly developed by Picasso and Georges Braque, exemplified by Violin and Candlestick, Paris, from about 1908 through 1912. Synthetic cubism is characterized by the introduction of different textures, surfaces, collage elements, papier collé, the notion of modern art is closely related to modernism. Although modern sculpture and architecture are reckoned to have emerged at the end of the 19th century, the beginnings of modern painting can be located earlier. The date perhaps most commonly identified as marking the birth of art is 1863. Earlier dates have also proposed, among them 1855 and 1784. In the words of art historian H, harvard Arnason, Each of these dates has significance for the development of modern art, but none categorically marks a completely new beginning. A gradual metamorphosis took place in the course of a hundred years, the strands of thought that eventually led to modern art can be traced back to the Enlightenment, and even to the 17th century. The important modern art critic Clement Greenberg, for instance, called Immanuel Kant the first real Modernist but also drew a distinction, The Enlightenment criticized from the outside. The French Revolution of 1789 uprooted assumptions and institutions that had for centuries been accepted with little question and this gave rise to what art historian Ernst Gombrich called a self-consciousness that made people select the style of their building as one selects the pattern of a wallpaper. The pioneers of art were Romantics, Realists and Impressionists. By the late 19th century, additional movements which were to be influential in art had begun to emerge. The advocates of realism stood against the idealism of the academic art that enjoyed public. The most successful painters of the day worked either through commissions or through public exhibitions of their own work. There were official, government-sponsored painters unions, while governments regularly held exhibitions of new fine
Modern art
–
Pablo Picasso, Dejeuner sur l'Herbe
Modern art
–
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge: Two Women Waltzing, 1892
Modern art
–
Vincent van Gogh, Country road in Provence by Night, 1889, May 1890,
Kröller-Müller Museum
Modern art
–
Paul Cézanne,
The Large Bathers, 1898–1905
11.
Europe
–
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
Europe
–
Reconstruction of
Herodotus ' world map
Europe
Europe
–
A medieval
T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of
Noah — Asia to Sem (
Shem), Europe to Iafeth (
Japheth), and Africa to Cham (
Ham)
Europe
–
Early modern depiction of
Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical
Europa of the 8th century BC.
12.
North America
–
North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
North America
–
Map of North America, from 1621.
North America
–
North America
North America
–
The
El Castillo pyramid, at
Chichén Itzá, Mexico.
North America
–
Benjamin West 's
The Death of General Wolfe (1771) depicting the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
13.
Kamran Diba
–
Kamran Diba is a prominent Iranian architect, residing in Paris, France. He is famous for designing the new campus of Jondishapur University in Ahvaz, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, and he was a visiting scholar at Cornell University. He is a cousin of Farah Pahlavi, former queen of Iran, Kamran Diba was also an artist, although the number of works he did seems to be small. He attended Howard University in Washington, DC and did art for the renowned Blackie Auger, book Review, Four Thousand Days in Kamran Dibas Life, BBC Persian, April 2010
Kamran Diba
–
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, by Kamran Diba.
14.
Persian architecture
–
Iranian architecture or Persian architecture is the architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Its history dates back to at least 5,000 BCE with characteristic examples distributed over a vast area from Turkey and Iraq to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and from the Caucasus to Zanzibar. Persian buildings vary from peasant huts to tea houses and garden, in addition to historic gates, palaces, and mosques, the rapid growth of cities such as the capital, Tehran has brought about a wave of demolition and new construction. Iranian architecture displays great variety, both structural and aesthetic, from a variety of traditions and experience, without sudden innovations, and despite the repeated trauma of invasions and cultural shocks, it has achieved an individuality distinct from that of other Muslim countries. Traditionally, the guiding formative motif of Iranian architecture has been its cosmic symbolism by which man is brought into communication and participation with the powers of heaven. This theme has not only given unity and continuity to the architecture of Persia, according to Persian historian and archaeologist Arthur Pope, the supreme Iranian art, in the proper meaning of the word, has always been its architecture. The supremacy of architecture applies to both pre- and post-Islamic periods, traditional Persian architecture has maintained a continuity that, although temporarily distracted by internal political conflicts or foreign invasion, nonetheless has achieved an unmistakable style. In this architecture, there are no buildings, even garden pavilions have nobility and dignity. In expressiveness and communicativity, most Persian buildings are lucid - even eloquent, the combination of intensity and simplicity of form provides immediacy, while ornament and, often, subtle proportions reward sustained observation. g. g. Anahita Temple, Khorheh, Parthian era e. g. Hatra, the compounds at Nysa, Sassanid era e. g. Ghaleh Dokhtar. Chehelsotoon, Ali Qapu, Agha Bozorg Mosque, Kashan, Shah Mosque, available building materials dictate major forms in traditional Iranian architecture. This technique, used in Iran from ancient times, has never completely abandoned. The abundance of heavy plastic earth, in conjunction with a lime mortar, also facilitated the development. Certain design elements of Persian architecture have persisted throughout the history of Iran, the most striking are a marked feeling for scale and a discerning use of simple and massive forms. The consistency of decorative preferences, the high-arched portal set within a recess, columns with bracket capitals, through the ages these elements have recurred in completely different types of buildings, constructed for various programs and under the patronage of a long succession of rulers. Similarly, the dome on four arches, so characteristic of Sassanid times, is a still to be found in many cemeteries, the pre-Islamic styles draw on 3000 to 4000 years of architectural development from various civilizations of the Iranian plateau. Iran is recognized by UNESCO as being one of the cradles of civilization, each of the periods of Elamites, Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids were creators of great architecture that, over the ages, spread far and wide far to other cultures. Although Iran has suffered its share of destruction, including Alexander The Greats decision to burn Persepolis, the Achaemenids built on a grand scale
Persian architecture
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Persian arts
Persian architecture
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Si-o-se Pol
Persian architecture
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The Eram Garden in
Shiraz is an 18th-century building and a legacy of the
Zand Dynasty.
Persian architecture
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Persian-style column, as seen in Persepolis.
15.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
–
It is the permanent home of a continuously expanding collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions throughout the year. The museum was established by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1939 as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, under the guidance of its first director and it adopted its current name after the death of its founder, Solomon R. Guggenheim, in 1952. In 1959, the museum moved from rented space to its current building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the cylindrical building, wider at the top than the bottom, was conceived as a temple of the spirit. Its unique ramp gallery extends up from ground level in a long, the building underwent extensive expansion and renovations in 1992 and from 2005 to 2008. The museums collection has grown organically, over eight decades, and is founded several important private collections. The collection is shared with the museums sister museums in Bilbao, Spain, in 2013, nearly 1.2 million people visited the museum, and it hosted the most popular exhibition in New York City. Solomon R. Guggenheim, a member of a mining family, had been collecting works of the old masters since the 1890s. In 1926, he met artist Hilla von Rebay, who introduced him to European avant-garde art, in abstract art that she felt had a spiritual. Guggenheim completely changed his strategy, turning to the work of Wassily Kandinsky. He began to display his collection to the public at his apartment in the Plaza Hotel in New York City, as the collection grew, he established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, in 1937, to foster the appreciation of modern art. The foundations first venue for the display of art, the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, opened in 1939 under the direction of Rebay, in midtown Manhattan. By the early 1940s, the foundation had accumulated such a collection of avant-garde paintings that the need for a permanent museum building had become apparent. In 1943, Rebay and Guggenheim wrote a letter to Frank Lloyd Wright asking him to design a structure to house, Wright accepted the opportunity to experiment with his organic style in an urban setting. It took him 15 years,700 sketches, and six sets of working drawings to create the museum, in 1948, the collection was greatly expanded through the purchase of art dealer Karl Nierendorfs estate of some 730 objects, notably German expressionist paintings. By that time, the collection included a broad spectrum of expressionist and surrealist works, including paintings by Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka. Nevertheless, she left a portion of her collection to the foundation in her will, including works by Kandinsky, Klee, Alexander Calder, Albert Gleizes, Mondrian. The museum was renamed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1952, Rebay conceived of the space as a temple of the spirit that would facilitate a new way of looking at the modern pieces in the collection. She wrote to Wright that each of these great masterpieces should be organized into space, would test the possibilities to do so
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
–
from Fifth Avenue
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
–
Albert Gleizes, 1915, Composition pour Jazz, oil on cardboard, 73 x 73 cm
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
–
The museum's atrium
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
–
Museum under construction in photo taken on Nov. 12, 1957
16.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
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Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
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Flag
United States
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The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
17.
David Galloway (writer)
–
David Darryl Galloway FRSA is an American novelist, curator, journalist and academic. He currently resides in both France and Germany, david Galloway was born on 5 May 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1955 he enrolled in Harvard University, where he was mentored by Leonard Bernstein and Arthur M. Schlesinger, there Galloway met Radcliffe student Sally Gantt, whom he married in 1959, relocating to the University at Buffalo where their son was born two years later. David Galloway first worked as an editor for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Leaving the United States, he taught at Trinity College Dublin, in 1967 Galloway returned to the U. S. to assist in founding the New Gallery. While teaching at the Ruhr University, Galloway lectured extensively throughout Europe, Africa, several months before the Iranian Revolution, Galloway left Tehran for Wuppertal, Germany, to resume his professorship in Bochum. While visiting Forcalquier, France, he purchased the former episcopal residence, known as the Maison de Chapitre. In 1979, Galloway began writing for the International Herald Tribune, alongside his journalism, Galloway published three more novels, A Family Album, Lamaar Ransom, Private Eye and Tamsen. In 2011, he opened exhibitions at both Art Basel in Miami Beach and the Kunsthalle Wien of paintings by singer Marilyn Manson and he has been a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts since 1988
David Galloway (writer)
–
A Family Album - First U.S. edition cover
18.
1000000000 (number)
–
1,000,000,000 is the natural number following 999,999,999 and preceding 1,000,000,001. One billion can also be written as b or bn, in scientific notation, it is written as 1 ×109. The SI prefix giga indicates 1,000,000,000 times the base unit, one billion years may be called eon in astronomy and geology. Previously in British English, the word billion referred exclusively to a million millions, however, this is no longer as common as earlier, and the word has been used to mean one thousand million for some time. The alternative term one thousand million is used in the U. K. or countries such as Spain that uses one thousand million as one million million constitutes a billion. The worded figure, as opposed to the figure is used to differentiate between one thousand million or one billion. The term milliard can also be used to refer to 1,000,000,000, whereas milliard is seldom used in English, in the South Asian numbering system, it is known as 100 crore or 1 Arab. 1000000007 – smallest prime number with 10 digits,1023456789 – smallest pandigital number in base 10. 1026753849 – smallest pandigital square that includes 0,1073741824 –2301073807359 – 14th Kynea number. 1162261467 –3191220703125 –513 1232922769- 35113^2 Centered hexagonal number,1234567890 – pandigital number with the digits in order. 1882341361 – The least prime whose reversal is both square and triangular,1977326743 –7112147483647 – 8th Mersenne prime and the largest signed 32-bit integer. 2147483648 –2312176782336 –6122214502422 – 6th primary pseudoperfect number,2357947691 –1192971215073 – 11th Fibonacci prime. 3405691582 – hexadecimal CAFEBABE, used as a placeholder in programming,3405697037 – hexadecimal CAFED00D, used as a placeholder in programming. 3735928559 – hexadecimal DEADBEEF, used as a placeholder in programming,3486784401 –3204294836223 – 16th Carol number. 4294967291 – Largest prime 32-bit unsigned integer,4294967295 – Maximum 32-bit unsigned integer, perfect totient number, product of the five prime Fermat numbers. 4294967296 –2324294967297 – the first composite Fermat number,6103515625 –5146210001000 – only self-descriptive number in base 10. 6975757441 –1786983776800 – 15th colossally abundant number, 15th superior highly composite number 7645370045 – 27th Pell number,8589934592 –2339043402501 – 25th Motzkin number. 9814072356 – largest square pandigital number, largest pandigital pure power,9876543210 – largest number without redundant digits
1000000000 (number)
–
Visualisation of powers of ten from one to 1 billion
19.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
Berlin
Berlin
Berlin
Berlin
20.
Germany
–
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
Germany
–
The
Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.
Germany
–
Flag
Germany
–
Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the
Protestant Reformation.
Germany
–
Foundation of the
German Empire in
Versailles, 1871.
Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.
21.
MAXXI
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The museum is managed by a foundation created by the Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali, the Italian ministry of cultural heritage. It was designed as a space by Zaha Hadid and committed to experimentation and innovation in the arts. The project was first announced in 2000 and took over 10 years to complete, the design of Zaha Hadid was the winner of an international design competition. The site of the new museum was that of a military compound. The competition proposal by Zaha Hadid envisaged the construction of five new structures, the art installation and the opening of MAXXI, in 2010, were photographed by Simone Cecchetti, who was chosen from national photography competition. The Royal Institute of British Architect’s 2010 Stirling Prize for architecture has been awarded to MAXXI, the building is a composition of bending oblong tubes, overlapping, intersecting and piling over each other, resembling a piece of massive transport infrastructure. The MAXXI consists of two museums, MAXXI art and MAXXI architecture, the large public square designed in front of the museum is planned to host art works and live events. The MAXXI has been acclaimed by The Guardian as Hadids finest built work to date, the outdoor courtyard surrounding the museum provides a venue for large-scale works of art. The permanent collections of two museums grow through direct acquisitions, as well as through commissions, thematic competitions, awards for young artists, donations. Media related to MAXXI at Wikimedia Commons
MAXXI
–
Virtual design for the museum by
Zaha Hadid
22.
Hirshhorn Museum
–
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D. C. the United States. The museum was endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and is part of the Smithsonian Institution, the Hirshhorn is sited halfway between the Washington Monument and the US Capitol, anchoring the southernmost end of the so-called L’Enfant axis. The building itself is an attraction, an open cylinder elevated on four massive legs, in the late 1930s, the United States Congress mandated an art museum for the National Mall. At the time, the venue for visual art was the National Gallery of Art, which focuses on Dutch, French. During the 1940s World War II shifted the project into the background, meanwhile, Joseph H. Then, in 1955, Hirshhorn sold his uranium interests for more than $50-million. He expanded his collection to warehouses, an apartment in New York City, a 1962 sculpture show at New Yorks Guggenheim Museum awakened an international art community to the breadth of Hirshhorns holdings. Word of his collection of modern and contemporary paintings also circulated, and institutions in Italy, Israel, Canada, California, president Lyndon B. Johnson and Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley successfully campaigned for a new museum on the National Mall. In 1966, an Act of Congress established the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, most of the funding was federal, but Hirshhorn later contributed $1-million toward construction. Joseph and his wife, Olga Zatorsky Hirshhorn, visited the White House. The groundbreaking was in 1969 and Abram Lerner was named the founding Director and he oversaw research, conservation, and installation of more than 6,000 items brought from the Hirshhorns Connecticut estate and other properties to Washington, DC. What I accomplished in the United States I could not have accomplished anywhere else in the world, one million visitors saw the 850-work inaugural show in the first six months. In 1984, James T. Demetrion, fourteen-year director of the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa, Art collector and retail store founder Sydney Lewis of Richmond, Virginia, succeeded Senator Daniel P. Moynihan as board chairman. Mr. Demetrion held the post for more than 17 years, ned Rifkin became director in February 2002, returning to the Hirshhorn after directorship positions at the Menil Collection in Texas and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. Rifkin was previously curator of the Hirshhorn from 1986 until 1991. In October 2003, Rifkin was named Under Secretary for Art of the Smithsonian, in 2005, Olga Viso was named director of the Hirshhorn. Viso joined the department of the Hirshhorn in 1995 as assistant curator, was named associate curator in 1998. In October 2003, Viso was named deputy director of the Hirshhorn, after two years, Ms. Viso accepted the position of Director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, departing in December 2007
Hirshhorn Museum
–
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Hirshhorn Museum
–
Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden
Hirshhorn Museum
–
David Smith,
Cubi XII, 1963
Hirshhorn Museum
–
The Burghers of Calais
23.
Washington, D.C.
–
Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
Washington, D.C.
–
Clockwise from top left:
Smithsonian Institution Building,
Rock Creek Park,
National Mall (including the
Lincoln Memorial in the foreground),
Howard Theatre and the
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
Washington, D.C.
–
Map of the District of Columbia in 1835, prior to the
retrocession
Washington, D.C.
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Ford's Theatre in the 19th century, site of the 1865
assassination of
President Lincoln
Washington, D.C.
–
Crowds surrounding the
Reflecting Pool during the 1963
March on Washington
24.
Vincent van Gogh
–
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
Vincent van Gogh
–
Self-Portrait, Spring 1887, Oil on pasteboard, 42 × 33.7 cm.,
Art Institute of Chicago (F 345)
Vincent van Gogh
–
Vincent c. 1871-1872 aged 18. This photograph was taken at the time when he was working at the branch of
Goupil & Cie 's gallery in
The Hague.
Vincent van Gogh
–
Vincent c. 1866, approx. age 13
Vincent van Gogh
–
Van Gogh's drawing of
87 Hackford Road
25.
Lithograph
–
Lithography is a method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone or a plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by German author and actor Alois Senefelder as a method of publishing theatrical works. Lithography can be used to print text or artwork onto paper or other suitable material, Lithography originally used an image drawn with oil, fat, or wax onto the surface of a smooth, level lithographic limestone plate. The stone was treated with a mixture of acid and gum arabic, when the stone was subsequently moistened, these etched areas retained water, an oil-based ink could then be applied and would be repelled by the water, sticking only to the original drawing. The ink would finally be transferred to a paper sheet. This traditional technique is used in some fine art printmaking applications. In modern lithography, the image is made of a coating applied to a flexible aluminum plate. The image can be printed directly from the plate, or it can be offset, by transferring the image onto a sheet for printing. In fact, photolithography is used synonymously with offset printing, the technique as well as the term were introduced in Europe in the 1850s. Beginning in the 1960s, photolithography has played an important role in the fabrication, Lithography uses simple chemical processes to create an image. For instance, the part of an image is a water-repelling substance. Thus, when the plate is introduced to a printing ink and water mixture, the ink will adhere to the positive image. This allows a flat print plate to be used, enabling much longer, Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder in the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1796. In the early days of lithography, a piece of limestone was used. After the oil-based image was put on the surface, a solution of gum arabic in water was applied, during printing, water adhered to the gum arabic surfaces and was repelled by the oily parts, while the oily ink used for printing did the opposite. Lithography works because of the repulsion of oil and water. The image is drawn on the surface of the print plate with a fat or oil-based medium such as a wax crayon, which may be pigmented to make the drawing visible
Lithograph
–
Charles Marion Russell 's The Custer Fight (1903), with the range of tones fading toward the edges
Lithograph
–
Lithography stone and
mirror image print of a map of Munich
Lithograph
–
A 1902 lithograph map (original size 33×24 cm)
26.
Paul Gauguin
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Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a French post-Impressionist artist. Underappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his use of color. His work was influential to the French avant-garde and many artists, such as Pablo Picasso. Many of his paintings were in the possession of Russian collector Sergei Shchukin and he was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer. He was also a proponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms. Gauguin was born in Paris, France to Clovis Gauguin and Alina Maria Chazal on June 7,1848 and his birth coincided with revolutionary upheavals throughout Europe that year. His father, a 34-year-old liberal journalist, came from a family of petit-bourgeoisie entrepreneurs residing in Orléans and he was compelled to flee France when the newspaper for which he wrote was suppressed by French authorities. Gauguins mother, the 22-year-old Aline Marie Chazal, was the daughter of Andre Chazal, an engraver, and Flora Tristan and their union ended when Andre assaulted his wife Flora and was sentenced to prison for attempted murder. Paul Gauguins maternal grandmother, Flora Tristan, was the daughter of Thérèse Laisnay. Details of Thérèses family background are not known, her father, Don Mariano, was a Spanish nobleman, members of the wealthy Tristan Moscoso family held powerful positions in Peru. Nonetheless, Don Marianos unexpected death plunged his mistress and daughter Flora into poverty, when Floras marriage with Andre failed, she petitioned for and obtained a small monetary settlement from her fathers Peruvian relatives. She sailed to Peru in hopes of enlarging her share of the Tristan Moscoso family fortune and this never materialized, but she successfully published a popular travelogue of her experiences in Peru which launched her literary career in 1838. An active supporter of early socialist societies, Gauguins maternal grandmother helped to lay the foundations for the 1848 revolutionary movements, placed under surveillance by French police and suffering from overwork, she died in 1844. Her grandson Paul idolized his grandmother, and kept copies of her books with him to the end of his life. In 1850, Clovis Gauguin departed for Peru with his wife Alina and he died of a heart attack en route, and Alina arrived in Peru a widow with the 18-month-old Paul and his 2 ½ year-old sister, Marie. Gauguins mother was welcomed by her granduncle, whose son-in-law would shortly assume the presidency of Peru. To the age of six, Paul enjoyed an upbringing, attended by nursemaids. He retained a vivid memory of period of his childhood which instilled indelible impressions of Peru that haunted him the rest of his life
Paul Gauguin
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Aline Marie Chazal Tristán, La mère de l'artiste ("The Artist's Mother"), 1889,
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.
Paul Gauguin
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Gauguin, c. 1891
Paul Gauguin
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Woman Sewing, 1880,
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
27.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
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Toulouse-Lautrec is among the best-known painters of the Post-Impressionist period, with Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin. In a 2005 auction at Christies auction house, La Blanchisseuse, his painting of a young laundress, sold for US$22.4 million. The last part of his name means he was a member of an aristocratic family and his younger brother was born in 1867, but died the following year. After the death of his brother, Henris parents separated and a nanny ended up taking care of him, at the age of eight, Henri went to live with his mother in Paris where he drew sketches and caricatures in his exercise workbooks. The family quickly realised that Henris talents lay in drawing and painting, a friend of his father, René Princeteau, visited sometimes to give informal lessons. Some of Henris early paintings are of horses, a speciality of Princeteau, in 1875, Toulouse-Lautrec returned to Albi because his mother had concerns about his health. He took thermal baths at Amélie-les-Bains and his mother consulted doctors in the hope of finding a way to improve her sons growth, Toulouse-Lautrecs parents, the Comte and Comtesse, were first cousins, and he suffered from congenital health conditions sometimes attributed to a family history of inbreeding. At age 13, Toulouse-Lautrec fractured his right femur, at age 14, he fractured his left. The breaks did not heal properly, modern physicians attribute this to an unknown genetic disorder, possibly pycnodysostosis, or a variant disorder along the lines of osteopetrosis, achondroplasia, or osteogenesis imperfecta. Rickets aggravated by praecox virilism has also been suggested, afterwards, his legs ceased to grow, so that as an adult he was extremely short. He developed an adult-sized torso, while retaining his child-sized legs, additionally, he is reported to have had hypertrophied genitals. Physically unable to participate in many activities enjoyed by males his age and he became an important Post-Impressionist painter, art nouveau illustrator, and lithographer, and, through his works, recorded many details of the late-19th-century bohemian lifestyle in Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec contributed a number of illustrations to the magazine Le Rire during the mid-1890s, after initially failing college entrance exams, he passed his second attempt and completed his studies. Toulouse-Lautrecs mother had high ambitions and, with the aim of her son becoming a fashionable and respected painter and he was drawn to Montmartre, the area of Paris famous for its bohemian lifestyle and the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers. Studying with Bonnat placed Toulouse-Lautrec in the heart of Montmartre, an area he rarely left over the next 20 years. After Bonnat took a new job, Toulouse-Lautrec moved to the studio of Fernand Cormon in 1882 and studied for a five years. At this time he met Émile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh, Cormon, whose instruction was more relaxed than Bonnats, allowed his pupils to roam Paris, looking for subjects to paint. During this period, Toulouse-Lautrec had his first encounter with a prostitute, which led him to paint his first painting of a prostitute in Montmartre, a woman rumoured to be Marie-Charlet
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
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La Toilette (fr), oil on board, 1896
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
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Woman at the Tub from the Portfolio Elles (Femme au Tub) (1896)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
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Toulouse-Lautrec's grave in
Verdelais
28.
Wassily Kandinsky
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Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting one of the first recognised purely abstract works, born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa, where he graduated at Grekov Odessa Art school. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics, successful in his profession—he was offered a professorship at the University of Dorpat—Kandinsky began painting studies at the age of 30. In 1896 Kandinsky settled in Munich, studying first at Anton Ažbes private school and he returned to Moscow in 1914, after the outbreak of World War I. Kandinsky was unsympathetic to the theories on art in Communist Moscow. There, he taught at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture from 1922 until the Nazis closed it in 1933. He then moved to France, where he lived for the rest of his life, becoming a French citizen in 1939 and he died at Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944. Kandinskys creation of work followed a long period of development. He called this devotion to beauty, fervor of spirit. Kandinsky was born in Moscow, the son of Lidia Ticheeva and Vasily Silvestrovich Kandinsky, Kandinsky learned from a variety of sources while in Moscow. He studied many fields while in school, including law and economics, later in life, he would recall being fascinated and stimulated by colour as a child. His fascination with colour symbolism and psychology continued as he grew, in 1889, he was part of an ethnographic research group which travelled to the Vologda region north of Moscow. In Looks on the Past, he relates that the houses and churches were decorated with such shimmering colours that upon entering them and this experience, and his study of the regions folk art, was reflected in much of his early work. The artist is the hand plays, touching one key or another. Kandinsky was also the uncle of Russian-French philosopher Alexandre Kojève, in 1896, at the age of 30, Kandinsky gave up a promising career teaching law and economics to enroll in the Munich Academy where his teachers would eventually include Franz von Stuck. He was not immediately granted admission, and began learning art on his own and that same year, before leaving Moscow, he saw an exhibit of paintings by Monet. He was particularly taken with the style of Haystacks, this. Later, he would write about this experience, That it was a haystack the catalogue informed me and this non-recognition was painful to me
Wassily Kandinsky
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Wassily Kandinsky, c. 1913 or earlier
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky
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Der Blaue Reiter (1903)
Wassily Kandinsky
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Early-period work, Munich-Schwabing with the Church of St. Ursula (1908)
29.
Jackson Pollock
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Paul Jackson Pollock, known professionally as Jackson Pollock, was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was well known for his style of drip painting. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety, he was a major artist of his generation, regarded as reclusive, he had a volatile personality, and struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career, Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related single-car accident when he was driving. In December 1956, four months after his death, Pollock was given a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. A larger, more comprehensive exhibition of his work was held there in 1967, in 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London. Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming, in 1912, the youngest of five sons and his parents, Stella May and LeRoy Pollock, were born and grew up in Tingley, Iowa and were educated at Tingley High School. Pollocks mother is interred at Tingley Cemetery, Ringgold County, Iowa and his father had been born with the surname McCoy, but took the surname of his adoptive parents, neighbors who adopted him after his own parents had died within a year of each other. Stella and LeRoy Pollock were Presbyterian, they were of Irish and Scots-Irish descent, LeRoy Pollock was a farmer and later a land surveyor for the government, moving for different jobs. Stella, proud of her familys heritage as weavers, made, in November 1912, Stella took her sons to San Diego, Jackson was just 10 months old and would never return to Cody. He subsequently grew up in Arizona and Chico, California, while living in Echo Park, California, he enrolled at Los Angeles Manual Arts High School, from which he was expelled. He had already been expelled in 1928 from another high school, during his early life, Pollock explored Native American culture while on surveying trips with his father. In 1930, following his older brother Charles Pollock, he moved to New York City, bentons rural American subject matter had little influence on Pollocks work, but his rhythmic use of paint and his fierce independence were more lasting. In the early 1930s, Pollock spent a summer touring the Western United States together with Glen Rounds, an art student. Pollock was introduced to the use of paint in 1936 at an experimental workshop in New York City by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. He later used paint pouring as one of techniques on canvases of the early 1940s, such as Male and Female. After his move to Springs, he began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor, from 1938 to 1942 Pollock worked for the WPA Federal Art Project. Henderson engaged him through his art, encouraging Pollock to make drawings, jungian concepts and archetypes were expressed in his paintings
Jackson Pollock
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Photographer
Hans Namuth extensively documented Pollock's unique painting techniques.
Jackson Pollock
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No. 5, 1948
Jackson Pollock
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Pollock's studio in
Springs, New York
Jackson Pollock
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Jackson Pollock's grave in the rear with Lee Krasner's grave in front in the
Green River Cemetery
30.
Claude Monet
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Monets ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. From 1883 Monet lived in Giverny, where he purchased a house and property, Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840 on the fifth floor of 45 rue Laffitte, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. He was the son of Claude Adolphe Monet and Louise Justine Aubrée Monet. On 20 May 1841, he was baptized in the parish church, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, as Oscar-Claude. Despite being baptized Catholic, Monet later became an atheist, in 1845, his family moved to Le Havre in Normandy. His father wanted him to go into the familys ship-chandling and grocery business and his mother was a singer, and supported Monets desire for a career in art. On 1 April 1851, Monet entered Le Havre secondary school of the arts, locals knew him well for his charcoal caricatures, which he would sell for ten to twenty francs. Monet also undertook his first drawing lessons from Jacques-François Ochard, a student of Jacques-Louis David. On the beaches of Normandy around 1856 he met fellow artist Eugène Boudin, Boudin taught Monet en plein air techniques for painting. Both received the influence of Johan Barthold Jongkind, on 28 January 1857, his mother died. At the age of sixteen, he left school and went to live with his widowed, childless aunt, when Monet traveled to Paris to visit the Louvre, he witnessed painters copying from the old masters. Having brought his paints and other tools with him, he would go and sit by a window. Monet was in Paris for several years and met other painters, including Édouard Manet and others who would become friends. After drawing a low number in March 1861, Monet was drafted into the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry in Algeria for a seven-year period of military service. His prosperous father could have purchased Monets exemption from conscription but declined to do so when his son refused to give up painting. While in Algeria Monet did only a few sketches of scenes, a single landscape. In a Le Temps interview of 1900 however he commented that the light, after about a year of garrison duty in Algiers, Monet contracted typhoid fever and briefly went absent without leave. Following convalescence, Monets aunt intervened to get him out of the army if he agreed to complete a course at an art school and it is possible that the Dutch painter Johan Barthold Jongkind, whom Monet knew, may have prompted his aunt on this matter
Claude Monet
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Claude Monet, photo by
Nadar, 1899.
Claude Monet
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Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant), 1872; the painting that gave its name to the style.
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris
Claude Monet
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The Woman in the Green Dress,
Camille Doncieux, 1866,
Kunsthalle Bremen
Claude Monet
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Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, (right section), 1865–1866, with
Gustave Courbet,
Frédéric Bazille and Camille Doncieux, first wife of the artist,
Musée d'Orsay,
Paris
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Media related to Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art at Wikimedia Commons
