Chanukah Menorah!

Chanukah is the Jewish Festival of Lights which takes place every December and lasts for 8 days and nights. Chanukah celebrates the recapture and rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem by Judas Maccabaeus in 164 BC.

According to the Book of Maccabae once the Temple had been reclaimed a lamp was lit; this lamp according to Jewish law had to be kept lit and never put out! The only problem was that there was only enough oil to keep the lamp lit for one day. This of course is where the miracle comes in; the oil in the lamp lasted eight days, just enough time to aquire more oil.

To commemorate this miracle a lamp is lit during every night of Chanukah and placed in an eight-branched candlestick called a menorah. Here are some menorah examples:

Now this is an interesting Menorah, it is seems to be made out of nails!

Although this next one may not be religious none the less it is fairly interesting….especially if you are a cat lover like Fred is…

This one is very nice, I especially like the flame effects,

This one is also quite interesting,

And here I will leave you with what a typical Menorah may look like all lit up on Chanukah!

I hope you have all enjoyed this little menorah show. Hopefully you may have learned a little something about this Festive and fun holiday!

Happy Chanukah!

Today, as many of you might know, is René Magritte’s birthday; he was born November 21, 1898. His paintings both witty and thought-provoking are known all throughout the world.  René Magritte was an extrodinary surrealist painter, although like many artists, it wasn’t until the near end of his life that his art was truly recognized.

Many of the paintings in this event come from the massive collection stored in Belgium’s Musees Royaux des Beaux Arts, the exhibition will host  Magritte’s best-known works from the 1950s onwards.

The Son of Man by Rene Magritte

Magritte is great in the way he uses the  contrast between day and night for realistic objects in odd settings, unlike other surrealist artists, who twisted the objects themselves. In addition to his famous paintings, this event will  “explore the role of nature in Magritte’s lesser-known earliest pieces, when he toyed with futurist ideas, as well as forgotten works from the inter-war period.”

Many of the great modern and contemporary artist of today have been influence by Rene Magritte. Some of these artists include John Baldessari, Sherrie Levine, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Marcel Broodthaers and Martin Kippenberger. Many of these artist either include direct references to Magritte or clearly show many surrealistic representations that were used by him.

As said before the exhibition will contain hundreds of great paintings, if you happen to be passing through Milan, it will definitely be worth a visit.

When questioned about the exhibiton the shows curator Michael Draguet had this to say:

”Nature is omnipresent in Magritte’s artistic voyage, on the one hand it provides a myriad of themes, which the artist explores and combines at will, while on the other it is a framework for everything, a container that shapes every form of understanding.”

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