A Rear-End View!

MEXICO CITY.- View of a Volkswagen Beetle vehicle that two families of Mexican natives from Huichol ethnic group transformed into a work of art, Mexico City, Mexico, on 09 December 2010 . Named Vochol, a combination of the popular Vocho used in Mexico to name the Beetle model and the word Huichol. The car was unveiled at the Museum of Popular Art in Mexico City, initiator of the project. EPA/Sashenka Gutierrez.

The Side View!

MEXICO CITY.- A Huichol Indigenous man poses inside a Volkswagen Beetle vehicle, that two families of Mexican natives from this ethnic group transformed into a work of art, Mexico City, Mexico, on 09 December 2010 . Named Vochol, a combination of the popular Vocho used in Mexico to name the Beetle model and the word Huichol. The car was unveiled at the Museum of Popular Art in Mexico City, initiator of the project. EPA/Sashenka Gutierrez.

A Unique Creation! This spans several posts

MEXICO CITY.- Vochol® represents a first in the history of popular arts in Mexico and the world, in which two Huichol families from the States of Nayarit and Jalisco, took the car´s structure as a canvas to paint an original design. The Society of Friends of the Museo de Arte Popular along with the Governments of the States of Nayarit and Jalisco as well as prívate and public institutions have worked on this project for more than a year. Photo: Alejandro Piedra Buena.

Expert Says Michelangelo Drew Inspiration from Brothels to Paint Frescoes in Sistine Chapel

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City. AP Photo.

ROME.- The Renaissance genius artist Michelangelo Buonarroti drew inspiration from various Italian brothels to paint some of the figures that form part of the frescoed panels of the Sistine Chapel, assured specialist Elena Lazzarini in an article published today in “Corriere della Sera”.

One of the frescoed panels of the Sistine Chapel was inspired by brothels according to the expert. Italian renaissance artists frequently went to what’s called “stufa”, public bathrooms similar to a brothel where prostitution was practiced often, to study models that would later be represented in their work.

One fountain of inspiration present in the production of many artists of this era, from Leonardo to Bronzino, down to Michelangelo. According to Lazzarini, Many of the blessed and condemned that make up part of the frescoed panels of the Sistine Chapel are shown in obscene situations.

A condemned is dragged to hell by the testicles
“A condemned, for example, is dragged to hell by the testicles and between the blessed they would produce ambiguous hugs and kisses, clearly of homosexual nature”, explains the specialist.

Lazzarini adds “The male bodies, very virile, that make up the painting of the Final Judgment corresponds to the physical appearance of farmers and carriers shown during labor, with tense muscles, tiredness and effort reflected on their faces.”

The impotent scene of the Final Judgment, measuring 3.7 by 12.2 meters, was painted by Michelangelo between 1536 and 1541 to decorate the wall that was located near the Chapel altar.

According to the Italian specialist, it was in the public bathrooms in the Italian capital where Michelangelo was inspired to decorate the Vatican jewels.

Promiscuous Places
There were many places during the XVI century in Italy and particularly in Rome, Lazzarini explains, and in them, besides doing beauty treatments and hydrotherapy, “there were stations with more separation, places of promiscuity and male and female prostitution.” References found in other work of renaissance artist like Leonardo or Bronzino, according to the specialist. “It was a very common opinion at that era to consider that physiognomy corresponded to an emotional and physical ideal. And these models weren’t just Michelangelo´s, we found they started from Leonardo in various works and they are also present in the work of Bronzino”, added Lazzarini. - Reprinted from ArtDaily.org

Staggering Picasso trove turns up in France

This photo provided Monday Nov.29, 2010 by the Succession Picasso shows an artwork 'Papier colle pipe et bouteille' (Copy paste pipe and bottle) by Picasso. A retired French electrician and his wife have come forward with 271 undocumented, never-before-seen works by Pablo Picasso estimated to be worth at least euro 60 million ($79.35 million), an administrator of the artist's estate said Monday.(AP Photo/Succession Picasso) NO SALES - EDITORIAL USE ONLY - MANDATORY CREDIT: SUCCESSION PICASSO

By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press – Mon Nov 29, 6:20 pm ET = PARIS – Pablo Picasso almost never stopped creating, leaving thousands of drawings, paintings and sculptures that lure crowds to museums and mansions worldwide. Now, a retired electrician says that 271 of the master's creations have been sitting for decades in his garage. Picasso's heirs are claiming theft, the art world is savoring what appears to be an authentic find, and the workman, who installed burglar alarms for Picasso, is defending what he calls a gift from the most renowned artist of the 20th century. Picasso's son and other heirs say they were approached by electrician Pierre Le Guennec in September to authenticate the undocumented art from Picasso's signature Cubist period. Instead, they filed a suit for illegal possession of the works — all but alleging theft by a man not known to be among the artist's friends. Police raided the electrician's French Riviera home last month, questioned him and his wife and confiscated the disputed artworks. Le Guennec and his wife say Picasso's second wife gave them a trunk full of art that they kept virtually untouched until they decided to put their affairs in order for their children. The Picasso estate describes that account as ridiculous. "When Picasso made just a little drawing on a metro ticket, he would keep it," said Jean-Jacques Neuer, a lawyer for Picasso's estate. "To think he could have given 271 works of art to somebody who isn't even known among his friends is of course absurd." The pieces, which include lithographs, portraits, a watercolor and sketches, were created between 1900 and 1932, an intensely creative period for Picasso after he moved from Barcelona to Paris. Among them are a richly colored hand study; a sketch of his first wife, Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, resting an elbow in a seated pose; and a collage of a pipe and bottle. The collage and eight others in the stash are worth 40 million euros on their own, Picasso's estate says. All of the art is now held by the French agency charged with battling illegal traffic in cultural items. Le Guennec, 71, claims to have worked at three of Picasso's properties in southern France: a Cannes villa, a chateau in Vauvenarges, and a farmhouse in Mougins, the town where Picasso died in 1973. The French daily Liberation, which broke the story Monday, said Le Guennec had installed a security alarm system for Picasso at the farmhouse.

Pencil sculptures: miniature masterpieces carved into graphite by Dalton Ghetti

The alphabet, all carved from 26 pencil tips

Please check out the following link to see these amazing sculptures. The skill, precision, creativity and dedication to produce this work is absolutely amazing!

Archaeologists Find Tunnel Below the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Teotihuacan

Contextual image of the tunnel found in front of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. Photo: CNMH INAH

Reprinted from ArtDaily - August 4, 2010

MEXICO CITY.- After eight months of excavation, archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have located, 12 meters below , the entrance to the tunnel leading to a series of galleries beneath the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, in the Archaeologcial Area of Teotihuacan, where the remains of rulers of the ancient city could have been deposited.

In a tour made by to site today with the media, archaeologist Sergio Chavez Gomez, director of the Tlalocan Project went below the ground and announced the advances in the systematic exploration undertaken by the INAH of the underground conduit, which was closed for about 1,800 years by the inhabitants of Teotihuacan themselves and where no one has gone in since then.

INAH specialists hope to enter the tunnel in a couple of months and will be the first to enter after hundreds of years since it was closed. This excavation, which represents the most profound that has been done in the pre-Hispanic site, is part of the commemorations for the first 100 years of uninterrupted archaeological explorations (made in 1910) also called the City of Gods.

Gómez Chávez explained that the tunnel passes under the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, the most important building of the Citadel, "and the entry was located a few meters from the pyramid.

Access is by a vertical shaft of about five meters per side down to a depth of 14 meters from the surface, the entrance leads into a long corridor with an estimated length of 100 meters which ends in a series of underground chambers excavated in the rock.

The tunnel was discovered in late 2003 by Sergio Gomez and Julie Gazzola, but its exploration has required several years of planning and managing the financial resources necessary to carry out research at the highest scientific level. The team is composed of more than 30 people and has advisors renowned nationally and internationally.

Before starting the excavations, the archaeologists from INAH had the collaboration of Dr. Victor Manuel Velasco, from the Institute of Geophysics of the UNAM, through a the use of a GPR it was determined that the tunnel has a length of about 100 meters, and has large chambers inside.

Another of the technologies used in the exploration has been the laser scanner, a sophisticated device with high resolution, facilitated by the National Coordination of Historical Monuments (CNMH). INAH made the three-dimensional record of the archaeological finds.

Just a couple of weeks ago, archaeologists corroborated that the tunnel entrance was located in the place they had anticipated, then opened a small hollow hole at the top of the access, and using the scanner took the first images from inside the tunnel to a length of 37 meters, of the 100 it is estimated to have in length.

"Although we need to excavate two more meters to reach the floor of the tunnel, having the first images of the inside will allow us to better plan how to enter. Even so, we will have to withdraw a large amount of soil and a heavy block of stone that blocks the access.

"The whole process could take two more months of work, as we continue with the same systematic exploration that we have done from the start to avoid losing important information that lets us know what activities the citizens of Teotihuacan performed thousands of years ago and why they decided to close it, "said archaeologist Sergio Gomez.

So far, 200 tons of earth have been withdrawn, he said, while doing this we have found about 60,000 pieces of artifacts and pottery.

Angel Mora, who belongs to the Technology Support Unit of the CNMH, and engineer Juan Carlos Garcia, who operates the scanner, said that by introducing the laser, which has a range of 300 meters, through the small hollow opening the archaeologists made, there was only a length of 37 meters. Mora noted that this reading is because the laser beam "runs into something, maybe with some collapsed stones or because the tunnel has a gap."

Sergio Gomez reported that it has not yet been precisely determined the time of construction of the tunnel, however it he has a better idea of when it was closed by the people from Teotihuacan. "Several indications suggest that access to the underground passage was closed between 200 and 250 AD, probably after depositing something inside. One of the hypotheses postulate that, within the large chamber detected by the GPR, we could locate the remains of important people in the city. "

The investigations have led to know with certainty that this tunnel was made prior to the construction of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent and the Citadel. The tunnel is contemporary with a large architectural structure, which could be a ball game court, according to theform of the ground, said the archaeologist.

Unfortunately, the INAH researcher said, when the tunnel was closed, large stones were thrown which blocked access, "and the court was also destroyed and razed by the people of Teotihuacan, only small remnants remain.

"Locating the entrance to the tunnel fulfills one of the most important objectives of the Project Tlalocan, to precisely confirm that the main entrance was located in the exact spot where the excavation is planned. We must continue the excavation of the vertical shaft until it reaches the floor level to thereby start scanning the tunnel towards the East. "

According to the hypothesis about the meaning and symbolism of the tunnel, archaeologist Sergio Gomez, said the tunnel had to be linked to concepts related to the underworld, hence it is possible that in this place were carried out initiation rituals and the divine investiture of Teotihuacan rulers, since the power was acquired in these sacred spaces.

Also, it is known that rulers were buried in the holiest places. "For a long time local and foreign archaeologists have attempted to locate the graves of the rulers of the ancient city, but the search has been fruitless.

"That's why every day our expectations are increasing, as there are many chances that they are sitting inside a large tomb or offering. However, it is not something we are obsessed wih, the discovery and systematic exploration of the tunnel is something of great significance for archaeological research and a unique opportunity to approach the cosmogonic and religious thought of ancient Teotihuacan. "