Egyptian Fashion

Clothing in Ancient Egypt was made from varies textured linens which included both coarse and fine texture. The design of their clothing was comfortable while also good to be worn during a dry climate. Egyptian men wore short skirts know as kilts and was a custom of that time through the Old and Middle Kingdoms. The kilts were variant for younger men with wealthy families and those of an older age. Young men wore kilts with pleats while longer kilts were made for men of an older age. 

The royal family wore different clothes than the people they ruled over; they would dress in ceremonials garb with a lot of decoration such as feathers and sequins. No shoes were ever worn with the exclusion of sandals being worn during special engagements. The King's sandals would be the most decorated over all. It was not uncommon that the king wore gloves too. 

When it came to labor work, the men wore a loincloth, while women worn short skirts. Noble women wore beaded dresses. Children in summer went about with no clothes at all but when winter came, they were covered up in wraps and cloaks. During the period of the New Kingdom, noblemen also wore a long coat over their kilt. The women during this same time wore a shawl over their long pleated dresses.

Hair was kept short among the common people. Pigtails were often seen on young girls while boys shaved their heads completely. Wigs were worn by both genders at that time. They also wore hair extensions and stored their wigs in special boxes. 

No matter what social class a person was in, they all wore jewelry like anklets, bracelets  earrings and armlets and were worn by both genders. Each type of jewelry had a different meaning and purpose. Rings and amulets were looked upon as a way to keep evil spirits away and to prevent injury. 

Modern Egyptian Style Fashion
A neck Piece with the god Horus on the sides

History Of Fashion - Egypt. 2013. History Of Fashion - Egypt. [ONLINE] Available at: http://fashionhistory.zeesonlinespace.net/egypt.html. [Accessed 19 May 2013].

Ancient Egyptian Fashion. 2013. Ancient Egyptian Fashion. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.egyptartsite.com/fashion.html. [Accessed 19 May 2013].

TrendQuizz: Egyptian Fashion Runway | Trendland: Fashion Blog & Trend Magazine. 2013. TrendQuizz: Egyptian Fashion Runway | Trendland: Fashion Blog & Trend Magazine. [ONLINE] Available at:http://trendland.com/trendquizz-egyptian-fashion/. [Accessed 19 May 2013].

Egyptian Jewelry: Fashion exotic. 2013. Egyptian Jewelry: Fashion exotic. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.haramlik.com/egyptian_jewelry_fashion_exotic.html. [Accessed 19 May 2013]

Jeff Koons

He is a 58 year old American artist who was born and works in York Pennsylvania. His father was a furniture dealer and interior decorator, while his mother was a seamstress. To gain some pocket money, as a child, after school Koons went door to door selling wrapping paper and candy. He works as an illustrator, painter and sculptor. Koons is well known for being a contemporary artist with works of art touched by an eclectic array of sensibilities.

Some of his art works such as his balloon dogs show his art which consist of neo-kitsch forms while some other of his art works consist of overly sexual themes. His work reflects the commercial systems of the modern world as of those examples of pop artists of the 1960s.

Some of his works include Vacuum cleaners encased in Perspex which were monuments to sterility.

Koons stated that his work had no hidden meanings nor any critiques. This divided critics on the views towards Koons work. The critics, contradicting his rerasoning say that his art work as pioneering and major importance to the history of art. Others felt as though his work was cynical self-merchandising.

In the mid-1980s Koons rose to prominence. This was a generation were artists explored the meaning of art in a media-situated time. He gained recognition and set up a studio which was staffed and running like a factory with 30 assistants. These assistants were tasted with producing different aspects of his work. These days the factory has grown with 91 regular assistants. To be able to execute his canvases and sculptures with the impression and consistency as if they had been done by the same single hand, Koons developed a color-by-number system.

Jeff Koons many Art Work Series incllude:

The Pre-New, The New, and Equilibrium series

The Pre-New – A result of a configuration of a series of domestic objects attached to light fixtures.

The New – A series of vacuum-cleaners mounted in illuminated Perspex boxes. These were displayed as though in a showroom around a central red fluorescent light box with the words “The New” in a style as though to announce a new marketing brand.

Equilibrium series – Working with a prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. Tanks filled with distilled water and a small amount of salt, were able to suspend hollow balls in the centre of the tank filled with water. While in another version of 50/50 Tanks the tanks were filled only half way, the balls were floating half in and out of the water.

Statuary Series – sculptures using inflatable toys cast with highly polished stainless steel like for example The Rabbit.

Luxury and Degradation series - hand-made renderings of alcohol-related paraphernalia, as well as reprinted and framed ads for drinks 

Made in Heaven series - artwork about the media on a billboard.

Celebration series -   large-scale sculptures and paintings of others balloon dogs, Valentine hearts, diamonds, and Easter eggs.

Puppy - A 43 ft (13 m) tall topiary sculpture of a West Highland White Terrier puppy.

              

        West Highland White Terrier Puppy                                        The Rabbit

 http://www.jeffkoons.com/site/index.html

http://www.biography.com/people/jeff-koons-507550

http://www.lmgallery.com/artists/jeff-koons/?view=bio

http://www.answers.com/topic/jeff-koons

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/jeff-koons-2368

Egyptian Furniture

Fully furnished houses in ancient Egypt were quite rare as they usually had little furniture. Most of the Egyptians did not have a lot of belongings that needed to be hidden, so a couple of chests and a few baskets would be used as plenty of storage space and tables were rarely used. Some modern furniture is being inspired from Egyptian design. This is distinguished by the shape r colors chosen and some chairs or tables have the sphinx or a symbol that relates to the Egyptians.

Scribes were not written on tables, but instead squatted on the floor while holding a wooden board on which papyrus was spread with a hand and written on with the other. Kitchen work with utensils was also done crouching on the floor while having things laid out. 

Most houses also had low stools but many just simply sat on the ground. While the rich slept on beds, the poor made mattresses with straw and wool as stuffing, or they slept on a mat, or even on the plain floor.

Design of Egyptian Furniture

Egyptian Style Furniture

Modern Egyptian Style Furniture

Ancient Egypt: Furniture. 2013. Ancient Egypt: Furniture. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/furniture.htm. [Accessed 15 May 2013].

Everyday furniture of ancient Egypt. 2013. Everyday furniture of ancient Egypt. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.goldenageproject.org.uk/181furniture.php. [Accessed 15 May 2013].

Flickriver: The Adventurous Eye's photos tagged with egyptian. 2013.Flickriver: The Adventurous Eye's photos tagged with egyptian. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.flickriver.com/photos/theadventurouseye/tags/egyptian/. [Accessed 15 May 2013].

iDesign / Styles/ Empire. 2013. iDesign / Styles/ Empire. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.jbdesign.it/idesignpro/Empire.html. [Accessed 15 May 2013].

Art Deco - Egyptian Design

Excess and greed rose up in the twenthys and this is because the people had just come out of a war. Fashion, architecture, literature, dance, music and jewelry all dramatically changed into a new style which was influences from all over the world and different cultures. Some of them were Mayan, Chinese, but the one which especially had impact was Egyptian. 

Egyptian-inspired architecture styles were used for  grave markers, courthouses, prisons, funerary sculptures and structures as the style was deemed appropriate for them seeing because Egyptian architecture had for the Victorians connotations of eternity. Not only did the Egyptian Revival show itself in architecture, but in 1927 created a clock inspired from a gate with a wall built around an Egyptian temple. This clock was made to fit in with the Egyptian popularity in the 1920's. Many illustrations of Egyptian architecture, jewelry and poetry were created that showed the modern Western fascination with the exotic wonders of Ancient Egypt.

Cartier Egyptian revival striking clock of the Gate of Khons at Karnak.

Egyptian Revival mausoleum, Forrest Home Cemetry, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Egyptian Revival in Art Deco | Aileen Mason - Academia.edu. 2013. Egyptian Revival in Art Deco | Aileen Mason - Academia.edu. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.academia.edu/1551501/Egyptian_Revival_in_Art_Deco. [Accessed 19 May 2013].

Cartier Egyptian revival striking clock of the Gate of Khons at Karnak | Flickr - Photo Sharing!. 2013. Cartier Egyptian revival striking clock of the Gate of Khons at Karnak | Flickr - Photo Sharing!. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonomapicman/4423183235/. [Accessed 19 May 2013].

Egyptian Architecture

Probably the world's best architectural achievement even though they were built many centuries ago, the Pyramids are world wide famous structures used to hold within them the deceased kings. These structures can be as tall as 147m high. The first pyramid was built for the king Zoser in Saqqara, and it was called a step pyramid because as the name implies  it had a step-like shape. The pyramids that where later built were smooth sided.

 The Step Pyramid at Saqqara in Egypt.

Before the pyramid, the kings used to be buried in tombs. The tomb also featured a false door which was accommodated by highly decorated walls of the funerary chapel. This was a symbol which meant the linking of the dead with those who were alive. There used to also be a carved image of the pharaoh buried of the tomb. The halls led to many smaller rooms that housed the deceased pharaoh's furniture, offerings, victuals and sacred text and this was done because the Egyptians believed that once the pharaoh crosses over, he would need these riches. 

The Tomb of Sennefer on the West Bank at Luxor.

Stone figures can also be seen throughout Egypt. These figures had various shapes which represented figures like a king, a tiger, an eagle or even a mixture of both. The best known stone figure is probably the Sphinx  which is a creature with the body of a lion and a head of a king wearing a striped head cloth.

Stone Figures

Egyptian Architecture . 2013. Egyptian Architecture . [ONLINE] Available at:http://library.thinkquest.org/10098/egypt.htm. [Accessed 19 May 2013].

At the Step Pyramid. 2013. At the Step Pyramid. [ONLINE] Available at:http://aghill.fatcow.com/CRI/step.html. [Accessed 19 May 2013].

The Great Pyramid of Giza | OpenBuildings. 2013. The Great Pyramid of Giza | OpenBuildings. [ONLINE] Available at: http://openbuildings.com/buildings/the-great-pyramid-of-giza-profile-1161. [Accessed 19 May 2013].

Egyptian Stories (Myth-Folklore Online). 2013. Egyptian Stories (Myth-Folklore Online). [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.mythfolklore.net/3043mythfolklore/reading/egypt/images/tomb.htm. [Accessed 19 May 2013].

Egyptian History

Most of the Egyptian people were farmers and this meant that agriculture was the center of the Egyptian life. The growing season lasted eight to nine months. They also had pastoral farming which is the herding of cattle, sheep and goats. The harvesting and growing of wheat, fruit and vegetables was very important as they were the principal crops. When the annual flooding of the Nile came, farming was rendered impossible. when the water receded, this was a very good thing for the farmers as it left a thick layer of fertile soil over the farmlands and this helped to insure thick grass for their grazing animals and rich soil for their crops. 

The Nile was the center of their culture, with its cycle of growth, death and rebirth to new growth becoming their cycle of everyday life that made up their religion and understanding of an afterlife.Apart from aiding to supply food, the river Nile also insured a line of communication and transportation among the provinces of the kingdom. To the pharaohs the Nile was an advantage because it was a means to transport their armies and thus maintaining a strong, unified nation. 

The River Nile.

Egypt had a centralized government controlled by a line of hereditary rulers by 3100 BC. The Pharaohs kept a royal court of advisers and nobility and controlled the governors of the provinces of the kingdom. They also commanded the Egyptian army and also ordered priests and priestesses who officiated at the complex religious ceremonies and played as servants to the gods and served the pharaoh. The pharaohs represented of the gods on earth and also they were considered and treated as gods themselves.

Hieroglyphs of a pharaoh. 

Life in Ancient Egypt. 2013. Life in Ancient Egypt. Available at:http://www.watson.org/~leigh/egypt.html. [Accessed 19 May 2013]

Civilization.ca - Egyptian civilization - Geography - Nile valley . 2013.Civilization.ca - Egyptian civilization - Geography - Nile valley . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/egypt/egcgeo3e.shtml. [Accessed 19 May 2013].

World History to 1500: Ancient Egypt. 2013. World History to 1500: Ancient Egypt. [ONLINE] Available at:http://worldhistoryto1500.blogspot.com/2010/09/ancient-egypt.html. [Accessed 19 May 2013].

Exhibition 4 - Tonio Mallia

Tonio Mallia  was born in Malta in 1955 and he began his artistic career as a painter of landscapes in watercolors. He perfected the use of this medium; which he uses  in most of his works; with years of experience and testing.

In the Exhibition at St James Cavalier in Valletta, the theme of the works exhibited was War. most of them were on the pain of War and the suffering it brings like death, suffering, loneliness and tragedy. When you look at Tonio Mallia's works, you can see that the theme war is presented well even with the dark, dirty colors he used. 

Some of the Works from the Exhibition at St James Cavalier Valletta

Waiting

The Sea

Crushed

Desert Rat

Exhibition 3 - Portrait Busts - Various Artists

This Exhibition was not made or focused on the works of one artist. These Portrait busts are of various personalities and have been produced by many different artists coming from different centuries. these busts in the exhibition represent the various people throughout time. These people are all from different classes, different jobs and show their different characters in life. 

The busts are quite realistic as they represent people who lived throughout the years and they show no abstraction. The works which are representing higher class people are easily distinguished from those of a lower class. this is because the posture they are in and even the clothing they have distinguish one from the other.

Some of the Busts in the Exhibition

Man with Tie

Vincent Apap

 

Smiling Girl

Antonio Sciortino

                                                                    

                                                                       

  

Medical Officer

George Borg

 

Man in Uniform

Vincent Apap        

                 

  Very Elegant Woman 

  Antonio Scortino   

  Elegant Woman

 Antonio Scortino 

Exhibition 2 - Chris Ebejer

Chris Ebejer was born in 1979 and is a Maltese artist who taught himself how to be a sculptor, and despite his young age, he had already shown an interest in the baroque heritage of the Maltese Islands. His training was given to him later on for 3 years in the History of Western European Art which helped him meet masters of the trade as Carpeaux, Bernini, Michelangelo and Rodin.

While training to become a painter, he found that three dimensionality was his way to forward in producing high standard works for the types of works he produced.  throughout the years he designed many works including those for cinema. His most notable work being the horse of troy for the film "Helen of Troy" which was released in 2002. His work ranges from film set design, to interiors, to fine art. He has now completed many public commissions and his Art is also included in various private collections.

 Images of The Swan lake Series in the Exhibition

The works seen in the photos taken in the exhibition are all monochrome in color (black and white) and have the theme Swan Lake. When you look at his work, you can see movement and this is because they are very flowing. Organic shapes are the main element in his works and geometric shapes are barely present.

 

Exhibition 1 - Alfred Chircop

Alfred Chircop is a Maltese artist. He has attended the Malta School of Art, the Accademia Pietro Vannucci in Perugia, the Bath Academy of Art at Corsham UK and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome where he learned and mastered techniques. This is seen in the media he uses in his work which are paintings, drawings using water colors  etchings and aquatints, lino cuts, pen and wash and mono prints. His works have developed through the years and are figurative and abstract. 

Apart from a career as an artist, he also was a teacher in Malta in various levels of schools. Among them, he taught at primary, secondary schools and sixth forms. he also taught at the Faculty of Architecture in Malta as a Senior Lecturer teaching visual education and design. He has exhibited his work interdependently from 1960 in Malta and abroad. Alfred Chircop has participated in many collective exhibitions in which he had his work highly renowned by local and foreign critics. 

His works of art are found in both private and public collections in Malta and Abroad. His paintings and drawings were done in different media like for example using water colors or pen. The pictures that are seen below are of these different media. They were in the exhibition which Alfred Chircop had at Auberge D'Italie in Merchant Street in Valletta on March 25th 2013.

Some of his works

 

                       

                  

  

   www.alfredchircop.com/about.html - 18.05.2013.

Art Nouveau

The Art Nouveau Style contained:

• sinuous, elongated, curvy lines
• the whiplash line
• vertical lines and height
• stylized flowers, leaves, roots, buds and seedpods
• the female form - in a pre-Raphaelite pose with long, flowing hair
• exotic woods, marquetry, iridescent glass, silver and semi-precious stones

This movement was aimed at producing a modernized design and to go against paintings and sculptures being superior to craft-based decorative arts. Their designs had combined flowing, natural forms with more angular contours. These elegant designs were inspired from both organic and geometric forms.

Their key ideas were as follows:

Desire to abandon the historical styles of the 19th century and establish a modernized art movement.

To revive good workmanship

 Raise the attitude of craft

 Produce genuinely modern design

To establish the new belief of “total works of the arts” were attention was taken to good craftsmanship and overturn the idea of paintings and sculptures being Superior to crafts
The function of an object should dictate its form and not be heavily ornamented.                                                                                                                                                                    Although this movement faded by the time of the first world war ( 1941 – 1918 ) as mass-produced products were seen more then just surface decoration. Here is where they started to focus on shape, form and color of the materials then the tiny detailed decor works.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/design/period_artnouveau.shtml

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-art-nouveau.htm

http://www.artnouveau-net.eu/Network/ArtNouveau/AboutArtNouveau/tabid/133/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

http://pinterest.com/thebigmachine/art-movements-art-nouveau/

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh was born in 1853. As he grew struggled for identity and longed for direction. He spent most of his adulthood on a pilgrim throughout Europe; painting, sketching and preaching the word of god.

He studied the word of the new impressionist painters and artists in Paris to try to imitate their delicate strokes and soft colors  But the result seemed stiff and effected. Then he developed his own bold and unconventional style. This although offended and alienated the art world elite.

In his whole lifetime he only sold 1 painting.

Work and solitude took its toll on van Gogh, and he started to act strangely from paint and turpentine fumes. Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear and delivered it to a prostitute.

While hospitalized, van Gogh worked in a studio set up by his brother Theo. There inspired by a dream, Vincent van Gogh painted "Starry Night."

Overcome with despair in 1890, he had written a letter in despair to his brother Theo. This was discovered only after his suicide.

                                                                      Starry Night

http://www.biography.com/people/vincent-van-gogh-9515695

Owen Jones and The Grammar of Ornamentation

Owen Jones is an architect and a designer of welsh descent; who was born from London. He studied at the Royal Academy School and traveled to Italy and then Greece where he met Jules Goury who studied the use of paint and color to enhance architecture and statuary by the ancient Greeks.

Goury and Jones traveled to Egypt and carried out intricate studies of the Alhambra palace, and its Islamic decorations. This was finally finished by Jones and published the works in ‘Plans, elevations, sections and details of the Alhambra’.

The studies of the Alhambra were highly significant in the development of his interest in ornament. Jones and Goury observed the harmony of Moorish decoration was achieved through the use of primary colours with secondary and tertiary colors used in the backgrounds.

Jones was responsible for the interior decoration of Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace and also the arrangement of the exhibits inside for the Great Exhibition of 1851. This brought him attention from the public and also gave him the chance to test out his colour theories. For the interior he based the colour scheme on the primary colors of red, yellow and blue.

Jones presented his theories on decoration, ornament and polychromy in lectures at the Society of Art and the government school of design. Henry Cole, who was the mastermind of the Great Exhibition, encouraged Jones on the publication of his great work, ‘The Grammer of Ornament’.

This book presented in color many examples of ornament from a wide range of counties. The book contains:

·         100 detailed color plates of ornaments drawn from architecture

·         Textiles

·         Tiles

·         Rare books

·         Metalwork

·         Stained glass

·         And other decorative arts.

http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/special-collections/featurejonesgrammar.pdf

http://digitalcommons.ric.edu/book_gallery/1/