| Paintings in history and Edgar Degas innovations:
Degas' art is inherited with the combination of beauty, sometimes fantastic, and prosaic. Fascinated by the diversity and mobility of urban life, he writes of his time in Paris (streets, theaters, cafes, horse racing) in ever changing aspects. The works of Degas, with their strictly verified composition (asymmetric, having a dynamic fragmentariness of film frame), with their precise and flexible pattern, unexpected angles, shapes and active interaction of space (often, as it was inverted onto a plane), combined with the seemingly open-mindedness and chance for a thorough reasoning and exact assessment.
Degas aspired for maximum "realism" or "naturalism" of his works. Despite the fact that these two terms are often interchangeable, in fact, naturalism was a more progressive form of realism, since it is enriched with the latest achievements of science. The writer and journalist Edmond Du rand, a friend of Degas, persistently called friends to follow the discoveries of science, to use innovations so that the art of the artist kept pace with the times. The manner in which Degas followed this scientific realism can be illustrated by his attitude to demonstrate the works in the exhibitions of impressionists.
By posting all the paintings of each artist in the rooms with intimate colors, with walls painted in unusual colors, the effects of which complement the picture, and prolonging the evening visiting hours, when the gas lamps are lit, Degas and his colleagues created the effects, acting in accordance with the latest discoveries of optical physics. Like other Impressionists, Degas attached great importance to frames, he designed their color and shapes. As explained later by Claude Monet, Degas did this so as to "make the frame help the creation and supplement it", thus reinforcing the color. Degas even specially stipulated that the frame of his paintings should not be changed. When one day he saw his picture was inserted into the regular cast gilt frame, in rage he bought it.
The fact that Degas was fond of technological inventions is shown by his prints, he also used a new and traditional, for example, tempera and pastel-based adhesives instead of butter. Both of these materials dry or quick-drying, non-transparent, allowing Degas to easily make changes in his compositions (and to mask). Using their expressive potential for illustrating the world of contemporary opera and café chantants, Degas became convinced that the fragility of these materials could not be better suited for the fleeting pleasures of the performing arts. |
November 21 is a World Television Day, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1998. World Television Day is meant to pay tribute to the invention and use of television as means of information transmission, and increase the awareness of a vital role television plays in the modern world.
Meanwhile, the sales of classic CRT (cathode-ray tube) TVs are dropping fast in favor of LCD and plasma TVs, and analysts predict that CRT TVs may completely disappear from American shop shelves in the next 24 months. The same thing happened with VCRs when DVD players took over years ago.
