Posted on 11/08/2014 8:08:29 AM PST by Fenhalls555
It’s rare that any piece of art – let alone modern art – captures the imagination, and the hearts, of the entire nation.
In my near 50 years on the planet I can’t think of anything that has come close to the impact of the sea of poppies at the Tower of london.
Earlier this week I saw for myself the astonishing spectacle of another sea – the sea of men, women, boys and girls who have queued up in vast numbers to see the poppies with their own eyes.
But even the majority of us who have seen the poppies only on TV and in the newspapers are awed by the majesty and the beauty.
Tom Piper, the theatrical set designer behind the genius idea – it’s an over- used word but surely merited – has managed something astonishing. He has created an artwork that is both breathtakingly beautiful and redolent with meaning.
So much modern art – defined even its loosest sense – is ugly. Many of today’s artists appear to think they are worthy of the label only if they shock the rest of us or create something that appals our innate sense of beauty.
(Excerpt) Read more at express.co.uk ...
The US has to wait until April 6, 2017, for our 100 year anniversary of our entry into World War I.
But hey at least the poppies move people to tears.
Brits should weep over the freedom that they have lost and are losing.
I saw it this summer it was impressive.
Oooooooooooooo. I gotta swipe this photo.
No need to mock their remembrance of the dead.
This is what I think of when I think of art and genius. Or the Pieta.
It looks pre-Raphaelite. Rossetti? Millais?
Pretty, but mawkish, in a “Let’s all have a good cry” kind of way. A lot like the 9/11 commemorations. The Brits are turning American.
My point was not to mock, my point is that if those men died for freedom, then they died in vain because Britain is not free. They live under an illusion of freedom. And the remembrance is just a ploy to yoke the passions of the people to continue to support the body politic.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
Written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. According to legend, fellow soldiers retrieved the poem after McCrae, initially dissatisfied with his work, discarded it. "In Flanders Fields" was first published on December 8 of that year in the London-based magazine Punch.
I am moved by this art. A wonderful tribute to the men and women who were killed defending freedom.
Nearly an entire generation of young Englishmen were erased in this war and it is a fitting tribute to their dedication and sacrifice.
Upon seeing photos of it for the first time yesterday, my screen went inexplicably misty.
The concept is elegant in its simplicity, the symbolism is very moving, and the execution is stunning.
Thanks for posting.
Is it the flowers? Or are they “pod people” at heart?
It's yet another step down the long spiral of the feminization of society. Whatever happened to "stiff upper lip" and "never let 'em see you sweat" (let alone cry)?
Absolutely beautiful and deeply moving.
Mawkishness was just about the most un-British thing ever. Now it's practically a badge of honor. I blame Diana.
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