Last summer there was a exhibition at the ThyssenMuseum in Madrid about Pop Art Myths, like Andy Warholl, Roy Lichtenstein,... This expo lasted the whole summer, it was organized by the Thyssen Musseum in collaboration with Japan Tobacco International.
It is a really complete exhibition, it has artists of different nationalities, and it is composed of different rooms in which there are different categories of this artistic mouvement, such as Collage, Comic, Myths, Portrait, Still Lifes, ... This exhibition is pretty well-done because it has variety, in all its aspects, and it gives a light feeling, it is not surcharged of works. Everything is worth seeing in this art exhibition although, in my opinion, the most interesting part is the one about Myths and Portraits. It is a quite complete exhibition and I don't think that anything is missing. Pop Art Myths is an exhibition about Pop Art in general, but is has works of great and well-known artists. It aims to show the purpose of Pop Art, that relates "low" culture with "high" culture and make a break with the past.
As a Terminale stuent, who only has common knwoledge about any kind of art, my opinion isn't really well-based. Cleopatra, by Mimmo Rotella, is a work that catched my eye because it is a simple film poster but that has become a piece of art. It was made in 1963. In this work we can see three characters, in the middle there is Cleopatra, embodied by Liz Taylor, and behind her, at each side there is the two roman generals that fell in love with her, Marco Antonio and Julius Caesar. This "poster" is not in a perfect state, it is ripped in various places. I think that this artwork aims to make Liz Taylor stand out as a beauty icon, and a desired woman, just as the historical Cleopatra who was a desirable woman. The light in the "poster" is upon her and the ripped parts are barely on her, mostly around her. This artwork looks like a real poster that you can find on the streets, being torned like that because of time and people that pass by and you can see pieces of the poster that was under this one, but even if it is damaged the most important part, the representation of powerful beauty, can't be damaged. In this picture Elisabeth Taylor gives the impresion of a powerful woman whose beauty is venerated, and because of that it can't be touched.
This exihibition has been the first one about Pop Art since the last one at Reina Sofia in 1992. It is an exihibition that collecs several works from different museums all around the world and it seems to be an exclusive one, because there is no information about if it's going to travel around Spain or about any other Pop Art exhibition.
At last! R.E.M. have come up with an album to compare with their 'greats' of the past. Brand loyalty can come at a price, and R.E.M. have tested my patience with a series of disappointing albums, 'Accelerate' promised much but in reality just offered 4 or 5 good tracks and some really poor tracks also.
'Collapse Into Now' in many ways offers a similar style to 'Accelerate' but 12 of the 12 tracks hit the mark. I am not ready (yet!) to heap too much praise, but this could prove to be a truly great R.E.M. album. I guess my low expectations, might lead me to over state the quality of this album, but I need to go back to albums such as 'Up' and 'Reveal' to hear equivalent quality (and I hold both of these albums in very high esteem). What is particularly impressive about 'Collapse Into Now' is the combination between the gentle and the more rocky tracks. This album flows beautifully and will probably satisfy all R.E.M. fans who have stuck with them over the disappointments of recent years. So if you are hesitating in respect to this latest album, get out there now and buy your copy! PS: This was indeed the final R.E.M. album, at least they went out on a positive note!! Key Track: Uberlin
I'm beginning to think previewing most of this album online weeks, even months, before its release was an act of genius on R.E.M.'s part. For me, it meant that by the time Collapse Into Now was officially released into this die-hard fan's hands, I'd got past the need to constantly compare the songs to bits of the band's back catalogue (you know the kind of thing -- hey, this song sounds a bit like "Drive"! This song sounds a bit like "Crush With Eyeliner"! This song sounds a bit like "Losing My Religion!") and could appreciate it on its own terms. And heck, why shouldn't R.E.M. sound like its past selves? For all that Buck, Mills and Stipe have tried to wear their history lightly, the fact is they will still wear it. (As the old saw goes, "Be yourself -- nobody else is better qualified".)
And the truth is, yes, this is minor R.E.M. I appreciate they wanted to diversify in sound a bit more than Accelerate, but in doing so they've lost focus and impact. And some of Michael Stipe's lyrics are surprisingly silly. There doesn't seem to be any overarching theme to the record, or even a reason for it to be apart from, well, it was time to make another album. So, let me be truthful and rate it 3 1/2 stars.
But let me be even more truthful and say I love this album, in the same way I love Reckoning and Green and Up -- it's tuneful and daft and heartfelt and brash, it swaggers and it simpers, it has its tongue in its cheek and its hand on its heart. It is, as Peter Buck once famously described R.E.M. itself, "part lies, part heart, part truth and part garbage". It endears itself to me. It's like getting a big hug from an old friend you haven't seen in a while.
And while great songs are thin on the ground, I'll make a big exception for "Blue" (as so often in the past, they save the best for last). And if this does turn out to be the last R.E.M. album, they couldn't find a better way to go out than with Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye along for the ride. Which does complete a kind of perfect circle, after all; Horses was the album that Stipe and Buck bonded over a mutual love of, and you can see the influence from "Radio Free Europe" on -- in a sense, Stipe and Buck are Smith and Kaye.
R.E.M. marked the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock. When their first single, "Radio Free Europe," was released in 1981, it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground. R.E.M. brought guitar pop back into the underground lexicon. Combining ringing guitar hooks with mumbled, cryptic lyrics and a D.I.Y. aesthetic borrowed from post-punk, the band simultaneously sounded traditional and modern. Though there were no overt innovations in their music, R.E.M. had an identity and sense of purpose that transformed the American underground. Throughout the '80s, they worked relentlessly, releasing records every year and touring constantly, playing both theaters and backwoods dives. Along the way, they inspired countless bands, from the legions of jangle pop groups in the mid-'80s to scores of alternative pop groups in the '90s, who admired their slow climb to stardom.
For 2011's Collapse into Now, the band favored a more expansive sound, one that combined Accelerate's rock songs, their previous album, with slower ballads and moody atmospherics. Reviews were mostly positive, and it debuted in the Top Five in America. Unexpectedly, in September 2011, the band announced its amicable breakup after 31 years together. Immediately after the split, the band issued a double disc compilation entitled, Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage: 1982-2011, covering both their years at IRS and Warner.
Record review
When I saw the video, I found it weird, because it showed different people doing random things or short videos of birds flying in a house or a cat. Also the quality isn't a good one, it seems to be all a webcam footage. But even if I found it weird I liked it, excatly because it was a video of different types of people doing random things. I think it has a poetic side, it has a charming side because it shows people doing curious things that maybe you hadn't seen before. Also, it has left me curious to know what happens next in some of the footage, like, for example, a guy who was painting himself in white and you never know what he is doing because you don't see it in full.
I think that this song and video talks about every day's life and about how to live it, what you can do to live as much as you can by doing things that you like, and living by taking profit of everything around you. Because "every day is yours to win", you have to take profit of every day in whichever way you think is the best. This video can be related to the four notions studied this year. It can be related to Myths and Heroes because this song is entitled "Every Day Is Yours to Win", it can be seen as if the day has to be conquered, which is what heroes do, so we could it refers to people calling them every days life heroes. It can be related to Science and Techniques as well as The Notion of Progress, because of the way the video is done. It is a mash up of different footages done by different people, and it seems a really innovative video clip. Also in the video we can see people doing things pretty worked on, which we can relate to Science and Techniques. It can be related to the Forms of Power because of the theme of the song, it kind of talks about the power of people in the Do It Yourself, and the power you have when you do things that you like for yourself.
