"artistic contemplation and the picture gallery are incompatible..."

"The reason why the art museum made its appearance in Asia so belatedly (and, even then, only under European influence and patronage) is that for an Asiatic, and especially the man of the Far East, artistic contemplation and the picture gallery are incompatible.  In China the full enjoyment of works of art necessarily involved ownership, except where religious art was concerned; above all it demanded their isolation.  A painting was not exhibited, but unfurled before an artlover in a fitting state of grace; its function was to deepen and enhance his communion with the universe.  The practice of pitting works of art against each other, an intellectual activity, is at the opposite pole from the mood of relaxation which alone makes contemplation possible.  To the Asiatic's thinking an art collection (except for educational purposes) is as preposterous as would be a concert in which one listened to a programme of ill-assorted pieces following in unbroken succession."  Andre Malraux in Voices of Silence, 1935. 

What a compelling bit of historical information.  It really makes me think about the way we all view artwork today. 

 

This is a quickie 15 minute class demo on getting a figure started; I started with laying in a loose contour sketch in translucent paint, then laying in my skin in shadow in a cad-red-light/viridian mix, then hair in shadow (yellow ochre/purple made with winsor red/ultramarine blue), then my skin-in-light in a titanium white/cad-rd-light/yellow ochre mix and hair in light(yellow ochre/titanium white), then transitional half-tone in a cad-red-light/viridian/titanium white mix and half-tone for hair (mix of hair in light plus hair in shadow);  THEN with bit of remaining time, started to adjust for differences in the skin in light (by adding a little more pigment to my mother light palette); and adding some deep pigment for reflected light within shadow.