The Engine

PERFORMANCE AND THE CAMERA AT THE TATE MODERN From the time when photography was in its infancy the tendency towards it evolution into the seventh art was palpable.  This is the topic of the Tate Modern’s latest exhibition Performance and the Camera .  Artists sought to connect individual shots into a performance, an enactment or re-enactment, that somehow also delved into the macabre or esoteric origins of the art form in its vital capture of a single moment in time.  The ephemeral became unique and indivisible, science presents photography, an art form capable of presenting a glimpse into eternity. The exhibition demonstrates that photography is a mediated, conventional form rather than a depiction of reality.  Yves Klein’s (1928-1962) work Saut dans la Vide (Leap into the Void, 1960) which was completed along with his collaborators Harry Shunk (1924-2006) and Janos Kender (1938-2009) shows the artist leaping from a building into fresh air....

EUGENE DELACROIX AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) was a product of the post-revolutionary era in France, glimpsing the bitter end results of Napoleon's campaigns, the restoration of the Bourbons, annotating the upheaval of 1830 which was to lead to 1848 and the era of the second French Republic and then the second French Empire under Napoleon the Third. Delacroix was born on the eve of a new century and his parents were older than is the norm when his mother conceived. His father apparently had a two stone tumor removed from his left testicle at the same time as he was supposedly procreating.  Charles-Francois Delacroix was Minister of Foreign Affairs, his successor in the post was Talleyrand.  Therefore, many believe that Eugene's real father was Talleyrand (1754-1838), a ubiquitous Enlightenment figure simultaneously berating nuns and the like while continuing elicit affairs with scions of the rich.  However, it must be sa...