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Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

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“Thrift Store Wood Engraving Print Turns Out To Be Salvador Dalí Artwork”

March 11, 2020 By lsanchez

“It’s pretty much the thrift store dream; to find a rare, long lost treasure on a crowded tchotchke shelf, on sale for a bargain price. That’s what happened at the Hotline Pink Thrift Shop in Kitty Hawk, N.C., when Wendy Hawkins came across an otherwise ignored piece of art.

[. . .]

The item turned out to be a 1950s woodcut print that was created and signed by Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. It is part of a series of 100 illustrations depicting Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, a 14th century Italian poem about the writer’s fictional journey from the deepest circles of hell, up the mountain of purgatory and finally to paradise.

[. . .]

Dalí was initially commissioned by the Italian government to make the series in honor Dante’s birthday celebration but outrage over a Spaniard taking on an Italian poet’s work led officials to drop it. However, the artist had become so taken by the project that he couldn’t let it go. In the end he created a series of 100 watercolor paintings — one for each chapter of Dante’s book — that were reproduced as wood engravings. Each of those required about 35 separate blocks to complete the image

[. . .]

It’s called Purgatory Canto 32 and it shows a woman in blue next to a man in red.”    –Vanessa Romo, NPR, March 10, 2020

Categories: Visual Art & Architecture
Tagged with: 2020, Art, Artists, Divine Comedy, Hell, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Paradise, Purgatory

In Dante Veritas, Vasily Klyukin

February 5, 2020 By lsanchez

“In Dante Veritas is a large scale, immersive multimedia exhibition by Russian sculptor Vasily Klyukin. It represents a narrative that recreates the nine circles of hell, and includes over 100 multimedia elements, such as sculpture, installation, digital art, audio and light boxes. The exhibitions includes sculptural works, most of which represent negative human traits such as Anger, Gluttony and Betrayal.

“The most prominent sculptural pieces are the Four Horsemen of the Modern Apocalypse. The artist has translated the traditional Horsemen (plague, war, hunger and death) into a modern day version: Overpopulation, Misinformation, Extermination and Pollution.

[. . .]

“The immersive exhibition encourages visitors to examine the sculptures with an audio guide narrated in the style of Dante’s poems. The sculptures of human sins also portray the punishment that comes with the sin. For instance, Gluttony is incredibly obese and Temptation has no limbs.

“The exhibition also includes a ‘prison’ room, further embodying the topic of sin. Famous criminals such as Stalin, Pablo Escobar and Bokassa are imprisoned here. The prison has a dungeon room – Betrayal – which represents Hell. Visitors are encouraged to leave notes on the wall, allowing them to name people who have betrayed them, or to write a message of forgiveness.

“The exhibition ends on a positive note. The Heart of Hope is a large sculpture of a heart at the centre of the exhibition, which was also displayed at the Burning Man festival in 2017. It symbolises the ability to stop all the negative traits and sins. Visitors are given a bracelet which transmits a signal to the statue, which then beats in the rhythm of the bracelet wearer’s heartbeat.”    —Elucid Magazine

Categories: Image Mosaic, Visual Art & Architecture, Written Word
Tagged with: 2020, Art, Betrayal, Digital Arts, Gluttony, Hell, Hope, Inferno, Installation Art, Multimedia, Russia, Sculptures, Sins, Temptation

Dante’s Inferno Inspired Coffee Mug

January 24, 2020 By lsanchez

A wide-bottomed coffee mug that will keep your beverage infernally hot.

Check out this mug for sale on Wayfair here.

Categories: Consumer Goods, Visual Art & Architecture
Tagged with: 2020, Art, Hell, Inferno

“It’s Art: Resuscitated CPR Dolls & Dante’s Divine Comedy“

January 18, 2020 By lsanchez

“Today, we present German artist Thomas Zipp’s September 5, 2014 performance / exhibition, Effects of Stimulus-Range and Anchor Value on Psychophysical Judgement (The Laerdal Rehearsals). In it, Resusci Anne CPR dolls were brought “back to life” to the recorded sounds of a performance of Dante’s Divine Comedy.”    –Emerson Rosenthal, Vice, October 17, 2014

Categories: Performing Arts
Tagged with: 2014, Art, Divine Comedy, Performance Art

Apparitions from the Inferno

January 17, 2020 By lsanchez

“A series of Black and White photographs produced using alternative manual processes, featuring scenes from Dante’s Divine Comedy.

[. . .]

Many of my previous works have referenced classical literature and mythology (Hamlet, Maenads, etc). The subject of this project involves creating intimate portraits of characters referenced in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Specifically, I will be illustrating a number of souls from the first book in the series: The Inferno. I have had a long standing interest in the graphic quality and descriptiveness that Dante dictates in this work, and I believe that my photographic style and choice of medium will do great justice in giving life to these characters. I greatly admire the works of the Great Illustrator/Printmaker Gustave Dore, and my favorite contemporary Artist/Printmaker Barry Moser, who have both produced amazing images inspired by Dante. In the works of the aforementioned artists, high contrast renderings of often graphic and disturbing images are manifested through their respective mediums to present a dark underworld and its inhabitants as described by Dante. My intention is to bring Dante’s characters out of the realm of illustration and breath life into them through photographic realization, thereby actualizing their spirits (in a very surreal and ethereal manner) as real people.”    –John Ransom, Kickstarter, August 3, 2013

Categories: Odds & Ends
Tagged with: 2013, Art, Divine Comedy, Inferno, Kickstarter, Photography

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How to Cite

Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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