1970s Concretist Sculpture
Category: Art
It's taller than I am, a sturdy climbable aluminium structure as was en vogue in the 70s.
Posted by Martin R at 7:26 AM • 3 Comments •
Aardvarchaeology
Martin Rundkvist's blog. Archaeology, skepticism, Sweden. And books and music and stuff.
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Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Society, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
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Blogroll
Art:
Poke War
Category: Art
Junior made this with his drawing tablet and Photoshop. It's him and his buddy poking each other....
Posted by Martin R at 10:19 AM • 5 Comments •
The Winged Man of Uppåkra
Category: Archaeology
Norse mythology offers two immediate interpretations: either a god wearing Freya's magic falcon cloak, or Wayland the Smith wearing the feathered cloak he made to escape from his captivity with King Niðhad.
Posted by Martin R at 2:34 PM • 45 Comments •
Hot Troll/Cow Action in Big One Magazine
Category: Children
Bamse magazine is one of Sweden's most beloved childrens' publications, with a readership mainly about age 10. Its title character's name does mean "The Big One". But still, I must say that I was as surprised as Bamse himself...
Posted by Martin R at 9:23 AM • 2 Comments •
Sun Horses
Category: Archaeology
Scandinavian Bronze Age art features a number of motifs having to do with the movement of the sun through the heavens during the day and the underworld during the night.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 7 Comments •
Joe's Aard T-shirt Design
Category: Blogging
Joseph Hewitt of Ataraxia Theatre is the artist who rendered almost the entire ScienceBlogs stable as zombies last summer. He has submitted the third t-shirt design, and when I saw it I thought, "Screw the reader's poll, this is...
Posted by Martin R at 12:46 PM • 8 Comments •
Stacy's Aard T-shirt Design
Category: Art
Here's the second t-shirt design suggestion, from Stacy Mason! Compare the first one from Jim Allen/Sweeney. And Barn Owl has volunteered to distribute the shirts! So unless a third design comes my way soon, I'll set up an on-line...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 1 Comments •
Antique Collectors In China Don't Care About Provenance Either
Category: Archaeology
The Chinese have had an established tradition of their own for collecting fine art for millennia. As a rigorous discipline, archaeology is barely 200 years old.
Posted by Martin R at 12:01 PM • 12 Comments •
Birds of Paradise Pecking the Carolingian Lion
Category: Archaeology
Both the birds and the gripping beasts enter Scandy art in the mid-8th century from Continental Christian sources, with missionaries as intermediaries.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 12 Comments •
Freshly Found Bronze Age Rock Art
Category: Archaeology
These years will be remembered as a time when the Swedish rock art map was redrawn in a dramatic fashion.
Posted by Martin R at 8:45 AM • 6 Comments •
Is Child Porn In the Eye of the Beholder?
Category: Art
In issue 2011:1 of the journal of the Swedish Photographer's Association is a fine essay by Jens Liljestrand. Here's a translation.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 26 Comments •
Classical Cult Figurines or Early Modern Cutlery Handles?
Category: Archaeology
I don't know Classical Mediterranean sculpture, and I don't know neo-Classical 17th century sculpture either, but that bearded praying guy definitely looks post-Reformation to me.
Posted by Martin R at 2:45 PM • 21 Comments •
Two Museums in Minneapolis
Category: Archaeology
I was appalled to see how much recently looted archaeology the Minneapolis Institute of Arts shows.
Posted by Martin R at 3:52 AM • 14 Comments •
New Archaeopottery by Pablo Zalama
Category: Archaeology
If only Swedish pottery had been this good prior to the High Middle Ages!
Posted by Martin R at 3:00 AM • 1 Comments •
Viking Arm Ring Re-Imagined
Category: Archaeology
Here's another artisan taking inspiration from archaeology.
Posted by Martin R at 10:18 AM • 7 Comments •
Valsgärde Shield Re-Created by Grzegorz Kulig
Category: Archaeology
Archaeological museums should make a habit of commissioning replicas to display along with the rusted originals, showing visitors what the handicraft of the past was really like.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 19 Comments •
Berlin Excavation Unearths Modernist Art Buried by Nazis
Category: Archaeology
During an excavation for an extension of Berlin's subway in Rathausstraße, archaeologists have found a cache of bronze and ceramic sculptures from the Entartete Kunst exhibition.
Posted by Martin R at 10:34 AM • 19 Comments •
Swedish Populists Want Folksy Art
Category: Art
Anyone with some knowledge about the issues at hand will recognise the whole thing from senator Jesse Helms's attacks 20 years ago against Robert Mapplethorpe, Andres Serrano and other Entartete artists. It's a breathtakingly naïve move.
Posted by Martin R at 11:59 AM • 34 Comments •
Dinosaur Fountain Sculptures
Category: Biology
To either side of the main sculpture are smaller lizard-like beasts, clearly modelled after late-19th century palaeontology's ideas about dinosaurs.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 11 Comments •
Anders Larsson's Strange Vision
Category: Art
I met this nice guy at the gaming convention this last weekend. Anders Larsson is a talented artist and graphic designer who works in paint and pixels. Check out his site!...
Posted by Martin R at 2:17 PM • 3 Comments •
The Wee Folk Under the Cairn
Category: Archaeology
Joakim Goldhahn is investigating a burial cairn sitting on top of a rock-art panel full of child-size footprints.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 33 Comments •
Chariot of the Sun
Category: Archaeology
Bronze Age Scandinavians believed that the sun was pulled across the sky in a chariot by a horse. They built models depicting this out of cast bronze.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 7 Comments •
Peter Köhler Show
Category: Art
My brother-in-law Peter Köhler is not only a very nice guy, but also a successful artist. He regularly exhibits his work at Magnus Karlsson's gallery, one of Stockholm's most prestigious venues. Peter's next show there is scheduled for 9...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 0 Comments •
Medieval Genius Sculptor Vaporised
Category: History
There are few named Medieval artists. And they have acted as magnets for attribution of anonymous masterpieces.
Posted by Martin R at 10:10 AM • 6 Comments •
5th Century Regional Brooch Design
Category: Archaeology
Here's a piece of fragmentology. In the 19th century a brooch (inset) was found at Vistena in Allhelgona parish, Östergötland. It's a copper-alloy piece decorated with embossed silver sheet panels in the Nydam style, approx. AD 375-450. In 2008...
Posted by Martin R at 9:05 AM • 0 Comments •
Phobos-bound Tardigrades Portrayed
Category: Space
Stacy L. Mason is an Aard regular and a talented artist. Check out his awesome interpretation of the Swedish tardigrades that are going to Phobos! In other news, I have issues with the lyrics of the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas...
Posted by Martin R at 2:33 AM • 8 Comments •
Office Boredom Art Video
Category: Film
From Birmingham art students Tanya Mircheva and Mihaela Calin, a clip about office-job boredom....
Posted by Martin R at 3:39 PM • 0 Comments •
Baroque Lion Mask from the Peerless Palace
Category: History
North European Baroque is such a weird and lovely style. The wreck of the Vasa is a prime example, and there's a lot of it on the facades of houses in the Old Town too.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 2 Comments •
Pipe Smoking, Tango Listening Auteur
Category: Art
We've all had the same realisation: sooner or later somebody just has to make a series of several thousand short films of themselves smoking various tobacco pipes and listening to tango music, and put them all on YouTube. Well,...
Posted by Martin R at 5:03 PM • 0 Comments •
Djurhamn Sword Artwork
Category: Archaeology
They've stuck the Djurhamn sword point first into a vintage map of Djurö!
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 4 Comments •
Tåby Figurine
Category: Archaeology
When was it made? Where? For what purpose?
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 7 Comments •
Royal Medals Copied
Category: Archaeology
I wonder if these clay copies may have been made by the sculptor, as a kind of backup copies?
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 9 Comments •
Arabic Brass Folding Tables
Category: History
My granddad told lots of stories of his years in India, the greatest adventure of his life.
Posted by Martin R at 2:53 PM • 8 Comments •
Notice Board Screed
Category: Poetry
For decades, Stockholm has been the turf of photocopy artist Renate Bauer. She paints too, but her main mode of expression is hand-written prose-poetic screeds covering every square centimeter of the paper. These she photocopies and fixes with sticky...
Posted by Martin R at 4:00 AM • 5 Comments •
Rental Sculpture
Category: Art
Most artists have a large backlog of unsold work sitting around their homes and studios.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 12 Comments •
Surrealist Love Story
Category: Humour
Over at Podcastle, I just heard an amazing reading/performance of an amazing surrealist love story, "Fourteen Experiments in Postal Delivery". It was written by John Schoffstall, first published as text two years ago, and read by Heather Lindsley at Random...
Posted by Martin R at 1:32 PM • 1 Comments •
New Mircheva Photograph Subverts Beauty
Category: Photography
My talented on-line buddy, Birmingham-based design student Tatyana Mircheva, has a new photo blog where she puts up some really interesting stuff. This series is a feminist commentary on the superficiality and narcissism of the beauty industry. The young...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 0 Comments •
Bike Crash Glamour Shot
Category: Photography
Shot at home with the aid of a bedroom lamp and a blanket from Ikea!
Posted by Martin R at 5:47 AM • 3 Comments •
With the Varnishing Ahead, I'm at My Shavings a Lot
Category: Language
Almost all Swedish words for civilised matters have recently been borrowed from Continental languages.
Posted by Martin R at 3:18 PM • 2 Comments •
Norwegians Dig Rock Art
Category: Archaeology
People before have quit digging when they reached the edge of the carved panel.
Posted by Martin R at 8:50 AM • 0 Comments •
Karl Hauck 1916-2007
Category: Archaeology
An old sorcerer has passed away.
Posted by Martin R at 8:50 AM • 0 Comments •
David Nessle
Category: Blogging
His blog is without any serious competition the wittiest one I've encountered in the Swedish language.
Posted by Martin R at 4:21 AM • 3 Comments •
Fornvännen's Spring Issue
Category: Archaeology
Originally strict facial expressions re-carved into cute Late Medieval grins.
Posted by Martin R at 9:05 AM • 2 Comments •
Antiquity's Spring Issue (With Polish Flint Babes)
Category: Archaeology
These finds constitute solid precedent to settle the boobs vs buns debate.
Posted by Martin R at 5:33 AM • 9 Comments •
Peter Köhler on Broadway
Category: Sweden
"Mr. Köhler is very aware of the brutal yet comic nature of the world around us."
Posted by Martin R at 9:05 AM • 2 Comments •
Strung-Up Purple Imp
Category: Art
This trussed purple imp could be named Strung Up or Well Hung.
Posted by Martin R at 9:05 AM • 3 Comments •
Stockholm Art Shows
Category: Photography
Work by Sally Mann, Henrik Saxgren and Alphonse Mucha is on display in Stockholm, Sweden.
Posted by Martin R at 9:05 AM • 0 Comments •
