This weekend, Ashwin took me on a surprise trip to Strasbourg. I had been there before as a teenager, with my parents, but Ashwin had never been and with the weather looking good, he decided to book us some last minute train tickets and a hotel room in this very European city. Now, I'll probably tell you all about the rest of the trip on my personal blog, but today I'd like to share with you a review of an exhibition of Tomi Ungerer's work.

Tomi Ungerer is a French illustrator born in Strasbourg, who did most of his work while living in New York (I think he's back in Strasbourg now, not sure). In 2007, the Tomi Ungerer Museum in Strasbourg was opened in honor of this living legend and we decided the pay the museum a visit.

The museum is not very large, but it's an absolutely gorgeous building. Light, white, and with a fun little sculpture garden out front. The works inside were carefully displayed and the accompanying texts were concise and informative. The exhibition on display was called Tomi Ungerer, a Multifaceted Artist, and boy, what an apt title that was.

0) BOOKS, TOYS, AND THE THREE ROBBERS
The ground floor of the museum was dedicated to Ungerer's toy collection and children's books drawings. I loved that the museum showed both the inspiration behind his works, his sketchbooks and the sketches that led up to the final works and published books. I don't believe I've ever owned one of his books as a kid, but his style definitely rang a bell and reminded me of some of the books my dad grew up reading (and passing onto us). Colorful, witty, but with an edge. On this floor, we also saw a selection of tv cartoons that Ungerer made, my favorite being the 'Three Robbers'. LOVE those sound effects.



1) SHARP SATIRE, BUTTS, AND BEANS
The first floor (or second, if you're American) showed some of Ungerer's more commercial and controversial work. Among the brilliantly executed anti-Vietnam war posters and Bonduelle vegetable commercials, we also saw a series of 'erotic' jewelry he designed and a series of designs for playground buildings and public bathrooms (my favorite being a square building with a giant butt on top it).

-1) FROGS AND THE DARK SIDE
It was in the basement (where else?) that we began to understand the true meaning behind the 'multifaceted' aspect of Ungerer's work as we encountered a warning that the images we were about to see weren't suitable for a younger audience. A series of sketchbooks on SM prostitutes, another series of frogs having sex with not only each other but with objects and plants ('the joy of frogs', the series was called - it really was kind of funny) and an entire room full of mangled Barbie dolls being molested by animals and other crazy creatures. Multifaceted, yes, definitely. Personally, if I were a children's book author still alive and publishing, I would have left my molested Barbie dolls hidden in the back of that closet, but perhaps I'm being too prudish. I'm not against some good erotic art every now and then (and the frogs were hilarious), but I suppose the violence of it kind of threw me off after seeing the children's book drawings. That, or I'm clearly still not over the trauma of that one time when the neighborhood bully burnt the face off my favorite Barbie doll.
All in all though, the exhibition and museum were very inspiring! I absolutely loved Ungerer's children's books drawings, the movies, and the whole presentation. I really feel I've learned more about the artist, his inspirations, and the way he works. The museum was a pleasant space to spend some time in, also because people were hanging out everywhere with their sketchbook in hand. Even the guard upstairs was doing a little sketch whilst keeping an eye on us. If you're in Strasbourg, and you're not familiar with Ungerer's work, I'd recommend going, but yeah... keep your little ones out of the crazy Barbie-room, hehe.



Links: Tomi Ungerer's website | Tomi Ungerer Museum


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Yesterday I visited Donna Wilson's exhibit in La Fabrika, Brussels - a lovely design store known for its carefully selected furniture and home accessories. The exhibtition 'Donna Wilson - A British Design Story', opened earlier this month as a part of 'Design September'. I'm glad I got to see it (and buy myself a little something in the process) because I absolutely freaking ADORE Donna Wilson (as I'm sure many of you do, too).


La Fabrika, located on the 'dodgy end' (so-called, it's not too bad really) of the otherwise very trendy Rue Antoine Dansaert here in Brussels, looked immaculate as usual. Donna Wilson's work was displayed in combination with some stunning handmade furniture that Wilson created with British manufacturers Ercol and SCP. The beautiful, light, space really did the entire installation justice.


My only problem whilst visiting was my sickly looking, pretty much, empty wallet. Otherwise: yay!

UPDATE: I just received word that the exhibition has been extended for another week! So go see it!


Links: Donna Wilson | La Fabrika | Design September


All photographs courtesy of La Fabrika
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I don't consider myself a music critic of any kind and I often refrain from posting about music, because I usually end up looking like a very uncool fool. However, I've often had people comment on my music choice in my videos or for workshops I've given, so here goes. Two albums I've been listening to non-stop these past two weeks.

Rachèl Louise - Living in Holland
So no, this is not just a self-promotion matter (because, why yes, I did design that EP cover art, thankyouverymuch). Rachèl Louise is an amazing singer/songwriter from Utrecht who, I'm sure, will become huge any day now. Raised by an American mom and Dutch dad (both successful professional musicians as it happens), this young beauty has a distinct voice, great humor, and insightful autobiographical lyrics. The only thing I do NOT like about her first EP 'Living in Holland' is that it's only got 5 songs on it. I'm a fan.
Links: Website | Buy the EP here | or on iTunes


Rocky and Balls - We like cake and beards and stuff Some of you may know them from their very popular YouTube Channel: Rocky and Balls. This enigmatic duo, Sophie Madeleine (who's music I ADORE!!! with three exclamation points) and Hannah-Rei, write and sing hilariously silly songs about Jessica Fletcher (she's gonna get ya!), online love-affairs, and yes, beards. Although both of their personal projects are a little more serious (and awesome), this album is just too funny to pass up on. These silly songs get stuck in your head and before you know it, you're singing along to 'The Breakup Song'.
Links: Website | Buy the album here


What have you been listening to this week? Anything noteworthy? Let me know!


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Yesterday evening I dropped by the opening vernissage of Caterine Pellin's exhibition at my favorite little boutique Little Circus on Rue du Page in Brussels.
I was very much looking forward to this opening, and neither Pellin nor Teheux disappoint. Little Circus looked impeccable as usual and I was nicely surprised by Pellin's work. Her drawings are delicate, seemingly simple but on second look show you a world of imagination. Pellin brings her figures alive with a 'loving' stroke of her pen and colors are used rarely but effectively.

If you have a chance to drop by Little Circus one of these days I can very much recommend a visit. Both for the boutique as for Caterine Pellin's work (which is for sale as well).

(Photo's courtesy of Morgane Teheux, owner of Little Circus, and Caterine Pellin) Links: Caterine Pellin's Website | Blog | Little Circus Website | Blog


LITTLE CIRCUS
rue du page, n° 92
1050 Ixelles (Brussels, Belgium)
Tuesday - Saturday
11:00 - 18:00 h



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I know, I know. I've read the complaints too... But I have to admit, I'm pretty darn excited about Google's Art Project. If you haven't heard about it yet, let me enlighten you. And no, I was not paid by Google to feature this new service - my enthusiasm is genuine.

STROLL, ZOOM, AND COLLECT

Google has decided to team up with some of the world most renowned art museums to create a new experience of the museums and its collection online. The project is threefold. First, you'll be able to take a digital stroll through the museum and its interactive platforms through street view technology. Secondly, you'll be able to check out some of the museum's featured artworks online and zoom into the paintings. The high definition scans allow you to really get superclose and see tons of detail otherwise difficult to see. And thirdly, you can browse over 1000+ artworks and build your own personalised collection.

SO WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT THIS?

What's not great about it, I would ask. Hundreds of millions of internet users will now for the first time have access to a huge and growing database of high quality and detailed art works from art history. Many of whom would never actually see most of the art works in person. I read an article today in one of our national news papers that bitched about the project, saying it ripped the works out of context and was not in line with the artists' intentions. First of all, I think this is a very silly statement to make, given that most artists who lived before the 18th century probably never intended their (religious? private? commissioned?) pieces to be in a 'museum' (especially not the whitewashed modern museums of today) - yet we regard the museum environment as something close to sacred. We cannot just assume we know the artists' intentions. What were Van Gogh intentions? He probably wanted to create good art, make a living, become famous perhaps (the latter two of which never happened during his lifetime)? Such detailed reproductions didn't exist during his lifetime, and it's safe to assume that Van Gogh had not anticipated his work being reproduced digitally, let alone shared via 64-bit servers, over broadband internet connections to LCD screens in hundreds of millions of homes.

NO WORKS OF ART WERE HURT

The second complaint I've heard about the Google Art Project is that putting the work online removes an essential, physical component from the experience. This is true. I will be the first one to argue that seeing a beautiful work of art in a museum with your own eyes is a million times more magical than it is seeing it online. I don't think anyone actually thinks the two experiences are equal, or you would wonder why so many people go stand in line for hours to see the Sixtine Chapel in person while there are plenty of beautiful reproductions for sale in the gift shop outside (that won't hurt your neck). And yes, some people will just buy the reproduction and just have pizza instead, but they were probably more hungry than curious to begin with.

And you know... having been an art history student, pouring over poorly printed reproductions (or worse, b/w copies of poorly printed reproductions), I cannot see Google's Art Project than anything but a blessing. Not everyone can travel anywhere in the world to see the amazing detail that went into a Memling painting. Or the broad, emotional brushstrokes and layers of paint that Van Gogh stacked onto his paintings. But Google's Art Project gives you a BIT (or byte) of that. I would even say that the quality of the scans is so high that I wouldn't be surprised if many an art historian will come to use this professionally. In fact, should you want to move this close to paintings in the museum, you would probably kindly be asked to leave premises. And, well, that's a whole lot more than we had before. Despite all that, visiting a website will never replace a museum visit and the participating museums know this as well. Fear not, even the copyrights have been properly dealt with. No works of art were hurt in the production of the website. Oh, and did I mention the site provides tons of information on each piece of art? Oh yeah, it does. As I said... what's NOT to love?

Link: Google Art Project

Anyways. I will stop this rant right here and focus on playing online curator. La la la... Ciao!


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I'll admit it. I am one of those annoying Apple-victims. I have an iPhone, iPad, Macbook and my hands start to tremble at the thought of going without any of those. Don't ask me to rationalize it, but I especially love being able to look at pretty things on pretty things so try to imagine my high-pitched shriek when I found Poolga this morning. Link: Rain Man and Woman by Luciano Lozano, aka ilustrista

Poolga is an amazing website offering free art and wallpapers for your iPhone, iPad and yes, also other mobile devices created by selected illustrators and designers. It was started in 2007 by Juan Carlos Cammaert out of frustration with the meagre supply of cool backgrounds, and now I am not sure how I have lived without it for so long. How did I miss this? Did you know about this and just never told me? If so and I find out, I am so de-friending you on Facebook. BAM!

Anyways, here are some of my favorite backgrounds offered on Poolga (every artist creates two), by some artists whose name you might recognize!

Links: The Gentle Fall by Ece Gökalp | Clouds by Kyu Hwang

Links: Ice Cream Boy by Wayne Brezinka | Pinocchio + Hansel and Gretel by Simone Massoni

Links: I Love Books! by Mogu Takahashi | Wood Day by Sandra Dieckmann


And there's lots more, so don't forget to check it out. Even if you don't have an iPhone or whatever. It's too full of illustrated goodness to miss.


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