Excerpts from the book “Aga Cela – Clowns”
Based on the Commedia dell’ Arte, the Clown theme was taken up by painters including famous artists like Antoine Watteau, James Ensor, Paul Cézanne, Bernard Buffet, and Picasso. Applying her firm grasp of human psychology, Aga Cela pays homage to the subject by masterfully revealing the prankster hidden in the depths of human nature.
Continue reading
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume XII
Editor: Kurt Ries
“Florentia”, “the blossoming one” can also be found in the name of the city of “Florence”. Over time, the city has blossomed into the queen of Tuscany, and continues to be one of the most important art metropoles in the world. The conscious differentiation between a landscape’s significance as an artistic motif and its arability led to a new culture, the blossoming of the “villeggiatura”. Its inhabitants began to reflect deeply, write poetry, make music. Florentine cities like Siena, Lucca, and Pisa have their own architectural charm. Similarly, the walled picture book villages on the hill ranges of Tuscany resemble organic structures.
Clowns and the circus are a recurring subject in the arts. They are equally present in music: Through works like Arnold Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” and the “Circus Days and Nights” by Philip Glass, the clown has made his way into the world’s opera houses, inspiring Aga Cela, an artist with a central focus on portrait painting, to go on a profound creative journey.
After one year they will be shown forever in our German ONLINE GALLERY (archive)
Pictures will be shown for one year in our free German online show (embedded in our meditative color concept).
Information about our free services: German online show, tips and offers, “Enter into Art” bonus video, networking on the Internet.
Continue reading
Editor: Gabriele Walter
The art and gift book introduces 41 selected artists from 20 countries around the globe. The interpretations focus mainly on the visible, specific side of paintings and sculptures. The texts invite art lovers to connect with the artworks themselves. Special art and poetry pages have been incorporated to give artists an opportunity to present their visual work alongside their poetry. The book also deals with the topic “Ludwig van Beethoven in Vienna”: Due to its programmatic character, his Pastoral Symphony is ideally suited to establishing a connection between painting and music.
Excerpts from the book “Excellent Art 2024, vol. 4”
This art and gift book introduces 41 selected artists from 20 countries around the globe. The book invites art lovers to connect with the artworks through philosophical-poetic texts about the images and classical music. Due to its programmatic character, the Symphony No.6 of Ludwig van Beethoven is ideally suited to establishing a connection between painting and music. While the poems in this book were selected based on the musical message of its five movements, the artworks were created independently of it. Rather than making Beethoven’s composition a guiding principle throughout the book, the idea is that listening to it will increase readers’ sense of joy and relaxation while looking through its pages.
Book series LOUNGE 5 – volume 2
Editor: Gabriele Walter
Flowers are a gift for every occasion. With gorgeous blossoms, art, and rainbow colors in panoramic format, this unusual gift book will take you on a soothing trip to deep relaxation. The printed flower bouquet was created with love to bring joy to your loved ones. Consciously experience the colors and shapes of the flowers as you breathe them in through your eyes like healing scents. Every year, eight artists are selected and awarded the Diamond Prize.
The images in the video represent a bonus selection of about 20 images per book that have been published in 2023-24 in the bilingual Enter into Art – gift book series:
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume XI
Editor: Kurt Ries
Visual artists have always traveled because for people who create art, it is essential to unlock new sources of inspiration. In Paul Klee’s artistic career, traveling played an especially large part. Time and again, he went to Italy, France and Switzerland. Both his trips to Tunisia and Egypt had a major impact on his work. On his quest to overcome the limitations of sensual experience and explore the secrets of nature, he encountered progressive European painters’ movements and eventually found his own style, which brought him world success.
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume X
Editor: Kurt Ries
Venice stirs admiration and wonder and exerts a strange power over the imagination. At times its appearance resembles a theater production, at times a mirage from 1001 Nights. Strolling through it feels like sliding into a daydream – shimmering like mother-of-pearl, everything solid dissolves into water and colors. For centuries, the poetic melancholy of the lagoon city has been challenging artists and poets with its magic. Even its name stirs up associations with “Venus” who sprang from the foam of the sea.
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume IX
Editor: Kurt Ries
Giacomo Puccini’s masterpiece “La Bohème” is one of the five most frequently performed operas in the world. Set in Paris, the main reason for its success is that it depicts the actual lives, pains, and loves of artists working without trying to please the public, striving instead to create pure art. Any life governed by such idealistic ambitions is somewhat awe-inspiring. Cherishing the complete creative freedom the bohemians sought, this book predominantly features works unrelated to its title topic.
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume VIII
Editor: Kurt Ries
While Gauguin and van Gogh were rather different people, they had some things in common. Besides frequently discussing Buddhist subjects, they shared an intense longing for the south, the sun, and the joy of exotic colors. After reading about the Marquesas Islands, Vincent, too, felt drawn towards the “savage”, now wanting to paint childishly simple pictures like those featured in old peasant calendars. Gauguin had only strengthened his convictions when talking about the suggestive expressiveness of colors.
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume VII
Editor: Kurt Ries
When Antoni Gaudí took over as main architect of the Sagrada Familia in 1883, his feelings towards Christianity– not unlike those of Daniel Defoe’s fictional hero Robinson Crusoe – were rather ambiguous. Inspired by his dedicated study of liturgy and the spiritual dialogue between art and nature, Gaudí finally found his faith as an architect. Similarly, Robinson on his lonely island developed a relationship with God through his conversations with nature.
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume V
Editor: Kurt Ries
He believed the “Fountain of Cressida” in Corfu was the place where Nausicaa had washed her laundry, but the island of the Phaeacians remains a dream. The German wholesale merchant Heinrich Schliemann was a cosmopolitan and a genius. Or was he just a dreamer? He sees Homer´s epics mainly as works of art but reads them in his own way. Eventually, he excavates a seafarers´ realm from the Late Helladic period and becomes the father of Mycenaean archeology.
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume III
Editor: Kurt Ries
Don’t we all long to live like flowers, alive with perfect beauty? The work of Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) is a seed that has firmly taken root in the world’s artistic heritage. It was a trip that inspired Monet to create his radiant garden in Giverny. After traveling through the night, the flower fields in Holland appeared before his eyes like a bright sea of colours, in which the blossoming individual flowers simultaneously dissolved and fully unfolded. Flowers unite the light energy of the sun and the mythical spirit of earth and water. Based on this idea, 67 artists from 29 countries came together at the occasion of Claude Monet’s 180th birthday to honor the well-traveled impressionist with contemporary artistic abundance.
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume II
Editor: Kurt Ries
Name a tune you want to listen to again and again, because it goes straight to the heart. Millions on the internet click “Moonlight Sonata” in response to this call. At the same time, both the title and the history of this work have long been subjects of debate. The fact is that Beethoven reversed the conventional sequence of the first and the second movement, thus breaking with the classical sonata form, which may explain this word choice of “fantasy” in the original title. Based on this idea, 69 artists from 26 countries got together at the occasion of Beethoven’s 250th birthday and – with boundless sensitivity – interpreted the “Moonlight Sonata” in visual terms.
The traveling exhibition ‘Fascination of Worldwide Art and Color’ shows small-format artworks from all over the world whose composition emphasizes meditative aspects. The artworks are arranged in ‘color zones’ for attentive viewing and relaxation, giving the idea of intercultural exchange space to flow in. Very different artistic techniques and styles are presented and combined with smaller sculptures, poetry, and sound. The exhibition gives viewers access to a broad spectrum of high-quality art and we would like to thank all artists and contributors for their commitment!
Continue readingThe “Enter into Art” exhibition period 2017-18 features 219 artists from 49 countries on five continents. All images submitted by artists are also presented in folders in our “Atelier Corner” (usually including two further images per artist). In addition, we have integrated the solo exhibitions of the first three award winners from 2017 into the Cologne exhibition. The main exhibition can be visited until March 14 at the Cultural Center in Cologne-Mülheim, while the exhibitions in Weißenthurm and Kobern-Gondorf will continue until May 17, 2018. A total of 20 prizes (and 47 finalists) have been awarded, including 13 jury awards and seven editorial awards.
Continue readingMore insights into the miniprint and mixed media exhibition “Fascination worldwide art and color” 2016 in Cologne: We have photographed all showrooms of the art installation in detail. Thus, we make sure that the images of all participating artists can be seen. Other components of the exhibition are pictures, sculptures, poems, relaxing music, sound (mp3 player with headphones and tone bar), as well objects of art, colored light, and color banners and instructions for relaxation through colors and art. There is also a suitable cultural program with readings, film and music.