Drokk!

Back in the day I used to spend my dinner breaks with a friend reading 2000AD (or playing AD&D). It was a curious publication. Some of the stories were really good, whilst others were less so... weird, even occaisionally a bit scary...

So now 2000AD is thirty years old, and it looks like the comic that once looked forward with jaded eagerness has become a retro production itself. According to the BBC, 2000AD predicted loads of stuff (no greater accolade for science fiction in the vox populi) but frankly they got a lot more wrong than they got right if you ask me. Big urban sprawls we may have but what about the flying cars? Where are the flying cars!?
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Its fitting (for me) that 2000AD is celebrating its birthday some how. Its flagship character, Judge Dredd roams a city so big and overwhelming it puts all others into shame. Named Megacity One no less, its the amalgamation of all previous and subsequent dystopia's rolled into one. George Lucas may have gone one step further with his city planet Corruscant, but Lucas never comes close to the grit of MC1... (in fact Corruscant never even comes close to the dark city of THX 1138. So much for George Lucas).

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Random musings on mental landscapes

Grimsby Mariner asked about 'Sky Captain the World of Tomorrow' in the comments for the Art Deco post and it got me to thinking. I'm currently posting in a, less than serious, debate over at AD about a 'world without America' and in my current disrupted sleep rythmn, I laid awake for a long time this morning pondering such things. I also watched 'Dark City' before I went to sleep which helped focus my attention.

There seems to be a progression of films in my 'catalogue of favourites' that deal with the theme of the urban landscape forming, as it were, a distinct identity central to the narrative... Okay so this is nothing new. Art critics have long since identifed the urban landscape as a playground for the darker side of the human psyché, and there are countless examples to back this up. The primordial forest is another such aesthetic playground and forms a sort of ying to the urban yang.

For me, there is a direct line of associations in the media of cinema that seems to form a linear progression. (Yes I'm rambling because its 7 am and Freja has awoken me after only a few hours sleep). 'The Matrix' ripped off a lot of other works, but its 'Dark City' that seems to be the previous link in my mental chain. Before that it was 'The City of Lost Children', 'Bladerunner' and all the way back to 'Metropolis'. I'm sure I could fill in other films along the way if I tried hard enough, but the point is made already. All these films share the same characteristics of being tales of the imagination set in fantastic, dark city-scapes. Invariably the city is decaying. In other personal favourites, 'Logans Run', 'Mad Max', 'THX-1138', the city is either destroyed already or in the agony of dying. Urban decay is also the theme most obvious in my own photographic endeavours with rust and moss holding a particular fascination for me.

It could be nice if I could sum up all these random thoughts into a coherent point but in order to do that I'd have to have a deeper insight into the mechanics of my own mind than is currently the case (most of the time now-a-days the only thing I can think about is how fucking knackered I am!).

I used to think that I wanted the world to end. That my fascination with post apocolyptic iconography was an indication of my wish to see this world destroyed, for I have no particular love of this over crowded pop cultural world we live in today. Now however, as I muse all this and attempt to summarize said musings, it strikes me as being something more akin to an obscure love of self. That somehow, for some reason, I appreciate the decayed, rusty fragments and urban detritus, maybe even identify with them. That they, like my perception of self, represent a reality of life. The slow gradual aging that wears us away and forms who we are. The great dark city is a known metaphor for ourselves, gradually aging and growing strange, and with the undergrowth always gnawing at the edges. Vast and complex, but utterly doomed. Its a cheering thought I know, and appealling. Rust is like skin. The ever spreading crows feet that smile at us in the mirror.

'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow' fails on so many levels its hard to know where to begin. Yes, its an homage to the Art Deco movement and its title (world of tomorrow) suggests that its creators are aware of their references, but it has none of the feel of the 1930's period for me. It feels like an experiment gone horribly wrong. 'Rocketeer' feels like the 1930's (at least more so than SCATWOT) because it has the faux realism thats missing from Sky Captain's world; the optimism.

Yes, I know, The film makers went for a film noir look but they failed to take into account that film noir is not simply cinema du look. In other words the ambience of film noir is not determined by the visuals. Shadows alone do not make for film noir, it requires good acting (and probably a half decent story). More than anything else though, it requires that little grain of reality that grounds it in to the human psyché. The strange little thing that makes fantasy credible. I don't know what that little thing is yet but I know SCATWOT doesn't have it.

I'd wonder what Terry Gilliam would have done with a concept like Sky Captain, except I don't have to because he's already done it in his own twisted way. Set in its own alternative 1930's, 'Brazil' is what Sky Captain ought to be. Dark and strange its not hard to watch with suspended disbelief. It has all the right elements of the unreal and mates them to the brooding cityscape as well. Best of all it has the sense of humour that is so painfully lacking from Sky Captain.

I think I made a point in all that. Now its time for the Snoos to go to day care and then I'm going back to bed! (Click the image if you want to see more of the same)

Artist of the Month: Tamara de Lempicka

Being a bit pre-emptive now since its not March yet, but in light of my current web surfing with regards to the 1936 period, I reckon its a good idea to add a post about Tamara de Lempicka who was a famous artist of the time, and is one of my all time favourite 'fine artist's'. Its sort of necessary to understand that I do not like most 'fine art' which is why I make the distinction. Most of the artists whose work I admire are commercial artists and are not apt to be included the annals of art history. For Tamara de Lempicka, like Paula Rego, I make an exception. This is because she is primarily a figurative artist with a very pronounced style that appeals to my sense of style, but also because she is an historical reference to my interest in the visual style of the 1930's.

There is probably no other painter of the period who emodied the Art Deco style in their painting as thoroughly and successfully as de Lampicka did. Certainly not any one who made a reputation based on its lines that I am aware of. She captures the post cubist tradition perfectly and invariably uses the grey city motif in the back ground to hammer home the message. These pictures belonged to a metropolitan future that looked set to go on for ever in the 1930's. Today the style looks incredibly retro of course and its probably the vitality of de Lempicka's line and use of colour thats saved her from the obscurity which has long since taken over Art Deco's other prominent artists... that and the love of retro that has taken hold of so many people in the 21st century.

There is an unmistakable element of the erotic in de Lempicka's work as well and though this ought to be at odds with the otherwise austere Art Deco style, I think it works rather well. De Lempicka was bi-sexual so I suppose she was just following her nature, but its noticable all the same that her male figures are nearly always fully clothed and quite stiff where as her female's figures are nearly always sensual and far more colourful.

Gallery at Ten Dreams

O Seculó Prodigioso

Art Deco

When dealing with the 1930’s and the genre of pulp literature as transposed to later media, it is impossible to ignore Art Deco. Its unmistakable look can be found every where from the sky line of Metropolis to the Rocketeers helmet. Furthermore, because pop sci fi had its birth in the 1930's, contemporary descendents also make reference to Art Deco as a means of establishing an ambience, though normally its called an homage. As always the gaps are bridged by a few important works, such as Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis', Flash Gordon and James Bond. In the earlier Flash Gordon serials, Art Deco was every where, from the design of the Rocketships to the matte paintings of alien citys that loomed on distant horizon's. In James Bond, it can be seen lurking in the villains post Bauhaus style secret hide aways, and in Metropolis, its in just about every frame of the film!


Echoing Flash Gordon and 'Metropolis' came 'Forbidden Planet', 'Bladerunner' and the later Star Wars trilogy. In fact, where ever you encounter popular sci fi, you'll find the perpendicular lines of Art Deco lurking in the back ground as a testament to the retro-future that never was. This is probably because Art Deco was the last great art movement before the disillusionment of the Second World War and as such retains the innocent love of progress that died in 1945. In its hey day Art Deco was considered highly futuristic and this is evident in the love of technology it betrays. Great lines of power spike upwards into the sky whilst Atlas like masculine figures bear the weight of progress on their broad shoulders. No one makes art like this anymore, because no one believes in technology or science as they did in 1936. Today we use Art Deco to look back with fond nostalgia.

The biggest problem in recreating the style for table top gamers comes with the lack of visuals. Skirmish wargaming uses models and figures, but these are very seldom so genre specific as to be 'art deco' in appearance, and even those few that fit the description, are as still generic as possible to appeal to as many customers as can be. Mad scientists for example fit in almost any game.

If you are talented enough you can create visuals to help set an ambience, or build model buildings that will generate the same, but this is a very lengthy process that requires a lot of effort. It can be done as the gothic style models of Warhammer 40k gamers proves, but with Art Deco you are largely operating alone and without the wealth of modelling extra's available to Warghammer 40k gamers. One thing you can do is add small details like Soviet style posters to otherwise non descript buildings and try to use period vehicles, but its diffcult to find even these and one must be both vigilant and lucky to find period specific models.

Fortunately Art Deco fonts are easy to come by and these can be used for titles by any one who has a printer. I like to use the Farscape font which has the benefit of being genuine 'retro sci fi'.

Art Deco II

Here are a few example of Art Deco posters:

For MM

Here you go. Just to prove I can. Now its your turn mate!

Spring?

The last two nights have seen winter suddenly catch up with us in Århus (or Aarhus for those of you who can't see the å). The snow has moved in and clogged up everything from one end of Denmark to the other and the last two days we've been house bound. Århus is completely sodden and this morning I saw one of the new Danish M113's driving through along Nørre allé (the street out front, see above image) on a mission to rescue drivers. We've also been ill the lot of us, with Mette in bed for two days with fever. Freja's been okay but today the day care was shut because of the weather and she's been driving us up the wall with her boundless energy.

Roll on summer!

I've been tagged I guess...

List seven songs you are into right now, no matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to

1) 'Galvanize'. Chemical Brothers.

2) 'The Fires of Ork' Namlook & Jensson.

3) 'Joanni' Kate Bush.

4) 'Vertigo' U2.

5) 'Sonne' Rammstein.

6) 'Ich Will' Rammstein.

7) 'Dalai Lama' Rammstein.

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Freja: Fastelavn

Yesterday was a kids holiday in Denmark, called Fastelavn. The tradition is for children to dress up in costumes then go about asking for treats, much like the 'trick or treat' tradition in the UK.
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Freja had a bumble bee costume Mette made (after she'd spent a day making costumes for other kids and had little time left), but Freja hated wearing the hat with antenae and the wings never even got made... the results were less than impressive, but we both thought she was as cute as a button. It was difficult to get her to wear the hat at all and even the above, lousy photograph, took all our collected parenting skills to acheive.
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In the mean while, the Snoos has taken to sitting beside me at the keyboard and dictating what we look at. Her favourite game is to browse pictures of us three and name who is in each picture, Dada, Mama and 'Deja'. Every so often we come to a picture of some other person and Freja makes up a noise name for them. The only other person she seems to be able to recognise well enough to name is her maternal grandmother, but this has long been the case.
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Så blev det Snusen's første rigtig fastelavn og i den anledning havde vuggestuen arrangeret et forældre dag hvor man kunne kom og nyde en kop kaffe sammen med sine børn. Så, klokken to dukkede jeg op og opdaget et nærmest tom rum. Seks børn (ingen Freja) sad og spiste sammen med en af medhjælperne og de gloede allesammen på mig med skræk i øjnene. Jeg ved ikke hvorfor så mange børn er bange for mig. Der er ikke dem allesammen så det må være et eller andet ved mit ansigt der skræmmer, eller er det måske fordi jeg er grim...?

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Når, men på et tidspunkt dukkede Mette op og så var vi de eneste to forældre til sted. Freja sov stadig så vi sad og trillede tommelfingene. Mette fortælte at hun havde fået en praktik plads ved Teko centret, og så kom Snusen!

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All børn var iklædt deres sjovt dragter men Freja gad ikke hendes 'bomlebi hue', so hun lignede altsa en ninja eller et eller andet. Personnelet var meget glade for de andre dragter Mette havde lavet og prøvet og få hende interesseret i at lave nogle andre dragter til vuggestuen. Jeg tror ikke Mette gad. Freja sad så og spiste sin forkost og Mette og jeg fik boller og kaffe of en snak med nogle af personnelet. Det var sjøvt at se børnene leje. Der er en pige ved stuen som hedder Malou og some er meget sød. Hun kan altid få mig tid at grin fordi hun ser altid så alvorligt ud, men er parat til at smil hvis jeg siger noget til hende. Nogle af de andre børn er åbenbart så bange for mig at bare jeg kigger på dem begynder deres læber at ryste!
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The Battle of La Coruna II

So we finally played a naval battle last night. In the event, only two of us were actually present which put a different emphasis on the game, but it was fun nonetheless. I played the British and my friend Oleg played the French. Technically I won, but since we kept going until each side had utterly depleted their fighting forces, winning was entirely academic. Especially since there was no winning critieria for the British beyond reaching the far end of the table with at least four supply ships (which I didn't since only three made it). The game started with the British coming in two columns from the north. Already here I made a critical error however because I convinced myself to combine the supply ships with the fighting ships, where as I probably should have had the supply ships in a seperate line. My mistake meant I spent much of the game trying to redress the supply ships, and largely failing.

The French tried to use the weather gage to range up along side the British fleet and come in behind and rake them from the rear. This plan failed however because the British fighting ships saw the French tactic and turned to keep them broadside on for most of the game. By the time the French had reached their advantageous position, they only had two ships left and the game was already done. The real high point of the battle came after an hour and a half when the French ship Braave, having been defeated by the British Admiral in HMS Africa, caught fire and exploded. The image below shows the 'drama' unfolding. Red lines denote the direction of the British, blue, the French. Braave is the damaged ship counter marked with a die at the top of the image the British supply ships (one also sinking) are the two lines fleeing southward to the rear. The red arrow shows the direction of the wind.

In hindsight I can see our rules need some more polishing. Our battle was way to 'clean' with no smoke markers (though we discovered popcorn works really well as smoke) and sinking ships disapearing very fast. We also had ships sinking due to rifle fire from the fighting tops, which was just plain ridiculous. Rifles could, and often did, kill a ships officers, but the ships didn't sink as a result. Often they would keep on firing from a stationary position, or flee.

I already have the next game planned. It will involve four players and multiple ships of the line!

Ships involved were:

The British
(fighting ships).
HMS Africa. 64. Third rate Ship of the Line. 1781. (Adm)
HMS Hotspur. 38. Fith rate Frigate. 1792.
HMS Andromache. 32. Fifth rate Frigate. 1782.
HMS Beagle. 18. Sloop of War. 1804.
HMS Viper. 12. Brig. 1797.
HMS Turbulent. 12. Gun Brig. 1790.

(Supply ships)
HMS Eurydice. 24. Sixth rate Frigate. 1781.
HMS Jamiaca. 24. Sixth rate Frigate. 1800.
HMS Saracen. 18. Sloop of War. 1800.
HMS Minx. 14. Gun Brig. 1796.
HMS Rattle. 14. Gun Brig. 1781.
HMS Sheerness. 6. Brig. 1789.

The French:
Le Formidable. 74. Third rate Ship of the Line. (Adm)
La Cleopatre. 36. Fifth rate Frigate. 1799.
Zephyr. 32. Fifth rate Frigate. 1779.
Braave. 28. Sixth rate Frigate. 1794.
Sirene. 24. Sixth rate Frigate. 1785.
Comet. 18. Brig. 1790.
Belina. 4. Gun boat. 1789.
Antoinette. 2. Gun boat. 1803.

Dragon Hunters II

I've noticed a lot of non English speakers visiting my blog apparently searching for 'Dragon Hunters'. This was a cartoon series , one of which I saw a while back and which I wrote an ethusiastic post about.

You can find the 'Dragon Hunters' official web pagere here.

Naked

All the facial hair had to come off so I could apply the relevent creams to the affected area's so here I am as I appear now. Most of my family haven't 'seen my chin' since I was 18 or so so make the most of it whilst you can...
Peter & Philip (who never comment anyways) Do you think I look a bit like Dad?

Sherlock Holmes

Any fans of the great detective may be interested to know that BBC7 is running audio plays every day starring Clive Merrison and Michael Williams. They repeat these every six months or so, but they're so good I can't help but listen to them again.

Age

I started a new medication today. Actually I started two, but they are unrelated except in an oblique way. The first is meant to stabilize my digestive system which has been on the fritz for years now, since 1993 in fact and the other is to tackle an excema which has attacked my ears, which may or may not be related to an excema which has attacked my face, for which I began a new course of medication on Saturday. I'm also due to start another regimen of medication in two weeks time, which will bring my total to no less than nine doses of five seperate medicines per day.

It seems, excessive, but the alternative is a lot of annoyance and the idea that had I been born in an earlier time I'd have died of a wasting illness by now (though none of my afflictions is considered anything like terminal) helps me get through it all. And then there's my trips to the hospital of course. There's nothing like the sight of a young child in a wheel chair with a bald head to put one's life in perspective. I saw such a poor little kid last Wednesday in the car park as I unlocked my mountain bike and I had to crouch down and let it all out. And people actually believe in God!

Its good to be dealing with all these problems though I still have one to go. The recuring pain I've had in my body, just above my left testicle is still there and I'm still waiting to hear from a specialist on that one. I think the old sod has forgotten me... again. In the mean time, the pain comes and goes. A blood test reassurred me it was not a cancer, but I remain in ignorance as to the cause. Yeah, the good times just never end in Århus!

My hope is, by summer I'll be mobile again. I can't wait to swim in the sea with the Snoos. Mette and her parents are going to London in a few weeks time, and of course they're taking Freja. Once agan I'll be left behind thanks to my fucked up intestine. Five days or so all alone whilst life passes by. Some times I wish I did believe in God because then I could beg for mercy. As an agnostic there is nothing to cling to but medical science...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

The Battle of La Coruna

The Peninsula War is in full swing and Britain is preparing for a new offensive. Troops and supply’s are being brought to assist Field Marshal Wellesley and Marshal Beresford. Captain Sir John Franklin has been given command of a heavily armed convoy and promoted to Commodore with acting orders to bring his ships safely to Lisbon. Under his command are twelve men-o-war, six of whom are acting supply ships.

Opposing the Royal Navy is a French squadron of ten ships under the command of Captain Georges de Feure, all men-o-war, and, having received a tip off, all intent on preventing the supplies from reaching their destination. Despite Commodore Franklin trying to evade the French, the two forces meet some seventy kilometres due west of La Coruna on a cool and clear morning with moderate sea’s.

Its been a good long while since I made my little Napoleonic ship counters and now finally, it looks like we might actually get around to using them! The above is the intro to a game my friends and I have planned for Thursday, using 'the big table'. Its been a whole year since we did any sort of table top battle. I can hardly believe it. We play every Thursday we can and yet a full year has passed since the last time we had the big table board out. The problem is all the bleeding fantasy campaigns we get bogged down in, we're still doing two now, alternating every week between them. One is winding down, but the other is only just beginning. Fortunately, we're set to play ROCKETMAN III soon and that will be a series of five games (which were originally planned for a year ago). Frankly I'm thinking of giving up fantasy role playing games. I've had just about enough of them. They're all so similar, I want to do something new, or at least something old that I haven't touched in a long time. Call of Cthulhu maybe...?
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Freja: approaching 18 months

So, now The Snoos is reaching the one and a half year mark. She has a total of 12 teeth, a vocabulary of circa 10 to 15 words and one hell of a temper! She's developing a regular personality as well, with a sly sense of humour that surprises me everytime I fall for it. The other day she offered me a bite of her bread and when I went to pretend to eat it (it was covered in drool and snot) she pulled it away at the last moment and chuckled to herself. Mette and I were left open mouthed and laughing, which of course meant she repeated the joke on Mette.

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She has certainly figured out how to press her mothers buttons though and keeps up a whining 'I want' noise when ever Mette is around. She does this on me too but her utterances don't have the same effect on me. Mette complains that the noise drives her nuts, but I feel nothing much for the first hour or so. Apparently Freja has a very high pitched voice that can be like nails on a black board but I can't hear it. My hearing is obviously not as good as it used to be for when Freja kicks off a screeching (sometimes this is a game I join in) Mette complains that the noise cuts right through her head, but it has no such effect on me at all.

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Nu er Snus'en snart halvanden år gammel. Hun har tolv tænder, kan sige næsten 15 ord og har en fandens temperament! Hun er også begyndt at udvikle en lumsk humøristisk sans. Snus'en er snu... heh. Forleden tilbød hun mig en styk brød og da jeg lænede frem for at tage den, så træk hun den hurtigt til sig igen med et grin og grinede til sig selv på en måde der fik Mette og mig til glo overrasket, og så grinede vi allesammen, så skulle Mette ha' samme tur selvfølig.

Freja er god til at pres Mette, ihvertfald bedre til det med Mette end med mig. Hun hviner og peger indtil Mette er ved af flip, så bliver hun slæbt ind til 'Dada', men det hjælper ikke særlig meget, jeg prøver at distrahere hende men hun gider ikke lege med mig når Mama er ud i køkken for der er der mad!

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Hun skråler og skaber sig med et højt hvine, så Mette klager at lyden skærer lige igennem hendes hovedet, men jeg kan ikke mærk det. Jeg tror mit hørelse er ved at blive slidt op af alt det højt musik. Jeg bliver ikke kørt ud som Mette gør ihvertfald. Det tager lift mere tid før jeg bliver træt af at hør på Freja's evig klagen... men jeg skal heller ikke høre på hende så meget. Når Mette ikke er tid sted er Freja langt mere rolig. Hun ved allerede godt at Dada er en dovn svin som ikke gider slæb sin flad røv ud i køkken hele tiden, og selv når jeg er der ud, så siger jeg bare nej. Heh heh heh. Dada er lidt ondt nogen gang.

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Nu er det ikke såden at jeg står og spiser foran hende. Såden er det ikke. Hvis jeg tager en bid så få hun også nogen. Nogen gang ser hun at jeg få mig en snejl, så vil hun har et stykke og det får hun også, men kun fra kanten fordi Mama vil ikke har hun får for meger sukker... og jeg kan også bedst lide det stads i midten!

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Francophonic aggro

Seen on the BBC:

French trades unions have discovered a new enemy to
protest against: the English language.
Leading the charge of the French
language brigade in its latest skirmish against the invading Anglo-Saxon force
is French MP Jacques Myard.

...well, with a name like that, no wonder he hates English.


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Fearless

Dir: Ronny Yu

What a laugh. Jet Li was never a great actor, though he's obviously more comfortable in his native language. Here he is playing a great Chinese martial arts legend called Huo Yuanjia and the nationalism is laid so thick its hard to not laugh. I can't but help wonder if this is how western films come across to those who don't 'get' the west. I can imagine Bin Laden and his gang in their hide out watching 'Apocolypse Now' and failing utterly to catch the nuances. Not that I'm comparing myself to Bin Laden! I just can't help but wonder about these things. I had too many art-ref and contemporary art classes back in uni to not see the connections between a society and the art it produces. All art is a reflection you see and any given film is a finger print of the society that made it.

So, it doesn't look too good for the Chinese. The funny thing is, the Japanese film I saw last week had many of the same underlying emotional themes. They say the new century will belong to the new emerging powers, China, India, maybe... Japan and perhaps these films reflect a growing sense of regional independence. Good for them, amusing for us. We can see ourselves reflected in those who follow us I guess and these films give us an indication of how 'we', the west, probably appear to those who do not fit into that loose identification.

As for Jet Li. He's obviously made the right choice. His time in Hollywood was unremarkable by my perception and the roles he was offered were pretty abysmal. The roles he's getting now might be equally petty to me, but I bet he's getting more 'love' from his audience.

On the edge of Bladerunner

Click the image to see Mark Kermode's excellent documentary about the making of the film... unless you don't want to know, if Deckard is actually a replicant or not...

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5,000 visits

Yay!

Its a small blog but comfy. Thanks to everyone who drops by and those who added a comment here and there.

Cavity Microtron

Know what that is?

This doesn't really relate to 1936, but its a near enough miss, and exotic enough to catch my attention, though this is an invention that had massive repercussions. The odd thing is, I've never heard of the thing before!

BBC: The briefcase that changed the world

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I've also come across a cute video doc regarding Nicola Tesla. 'The Truth is out there'.

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Artist of the Month: Jean-Léon Gérôme

Any one paying attention will know by now that I have two main points of interest when it comes to art. The human figure as a subject and 'ambience'. Neither contradicts the other though ambience is extremely subjective to my particular moods and fascinations. When I say ambience, I mean of course, a state of perception which appeals to my escapist sensibilities. Or in other words, anything which helps to create the feeling of sensory immersion that allows my mind to wander within realms of its own creation.

Such places are common in art. The primordial forest is one such and the Orient is another. History provides us with many opulent arena's for our fertile imaginations to wander and sometimes an artist comes along who manages to capture, perhaps only for a fleeting instance, the image of such a place. Jean-Léon Gérôme was just such an artist.

Born in 1824 he belongs to a period when artists were still able to describe the outside world by virtue of their own cultural bias, and not be ripped apart by critics who couldn't create themselves, but who would gladly dictate the terms of creation unto others. The history of art is full of such small people, and alas in the long run, they have brought the creative talents to such a place that the genius born in Jean-Léon Gérôme is now ever harder to find. The world of 'Fine Art' has long since passed by Gérôme and now regards him with something approaching disdain. Contemporary film makers do not create art for the sake of the fine establishment however, and thankfully, being subject to the popular need to escape the dull reality of the modern world, they still refer to Gérôme's work, as can be seen by the above image which was an inspiration for the film 'Gladiator' by director Ridley Scott.

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Gérôme was as typical of his day as Scott is as atypical of his. He saw the world and painted the world as he saw it, and whilst being objective in his style, was completely subjective in his execution. The result is often a romantic bagatelle, unapologetic in its bias and obsessed with its own surrender unto ambience. A place to hide from reality, if only for a few seconds.

Jean-Léon Gérôme at Wikipedia
....at ArtCyclopedia

...at Art Renewal

...at Ten Dreams