Post-roll

Early posts by Mariano Akerman



A Tribute to Carl Linnaeus, http://akermariano.blogspot.com/2007/07/tribute-to-carl-linnaeus_17.html - 17.07.07

Aguas Profundas, 1989, http://www.flogup.com/akermariano/69077 - 31.03.07


Akermariano: Artworks, 2006 - http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=14047119&uid=7347071 - 2006

Akermariano - Blogspot, http://akermariano.blogspot.com/ - 2005

Akermariano - Blogster, http://akermariano.blogster.com/ - 2006

Akermariano - Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/akermariano/ - 2006

Akermariano - Picturetrail Gallery, http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?uid=7347071 - 2006

Akermariano - Wooloo, http://www1.wooloo.org/new/s2/s2Home.php?site=akermariano - 2005

Amsterdam, Afternoon, http://akermariano.blogster.com/amsterdam-afternoon - 21.08.07

Aparador (Buffet; Sideboard), http://www.flickr.com/photos/akermariano/1823057266/ - 02.11.07

Árbol de la Vida (Arbre de la Vie; Tree of Life), http://www.flickr.com/photos/akermariano/2045579261/ - 18.11.07

Arquitectura transmigratoria (Transmigratory Architecture), http://www.flickr.com/photos/akermariano/2038145784/ - 16.11.07

Arte Lucífero, http://www.flickr.com/photos/akermariano/2166456284/ - 04.01.08

Beaucoup en commun, http://fr.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-DwjSIsAwcKMurr0NylMADEDzFw--?cq=1&p=9 - 28.11.07

Bien Complejo y Bien Porteño, http://www.flogup.com/akermariano/728863 - 31.01.08

Breed Ravens, http://akermariano.blogster.com/breed-ravens - 03.12.07

Colección Mariano Akerman: Un dragón bien complejo y bien porteño, http://www.flickr.com/photos/akermariano/2217599165/ - 24.01.08

Conejos con tigres (Rabbits with Tiggers), http://www.flickr.com/photos/akermariano/2049827547/ - 20.11.07

Criollito & Cia. (Little Creole & Co.), http://www.flickr.com/photos/akermariano/2051154515/ - 20.11.07

De misterios y profundidades, http://www.flogup.com/akermariano/690423 - 15.01.08

Día Feliz (Happy Day), http://akermariano.blogster.com/dia-feliz-happy-day - 26.07.07

Digitalis, 2006, http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=14164500&uid=7347071

Kiosque de chimères, http://fr.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-DwjSIsAwcKMurr0NylMADEDzFw--?cq=1&p=14 - 01.12.07

L'Extraordinaire Tango Rosa de Jacques Brel, http://fr.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-DwjSIsAwcKMurr0NylMADEDzFw--?cq=1&p=4 - 26.11.07

Les Sabots d'une Reine, http://fr.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-DwjSIsAwcKMurr0NylMADEDzFw--?cq=1&p=11 - 30.11.07

Ligeramente disonante, http://www.flogup.com/akermariano/892984 - 07.04.08

Linnaeus - Blogster, http://linnaeus.blogster.com/ - 13.11.06

Mariano Akerman - Artelista (Castellano),
http://www.artelista.com/autor/5513515359324870-akerman.html - 03.11.07

Mariano Akerman - Artelista (English), http://www.artelista.com/id-english/autor.php?a=5513515359324870 - 03.11.07

Mariano Akerman - Artelista (Français), http://www.artelista.com/id-francais/autor.php?a=5513515359324870 - 03.11.07

My Linnaeus, http://linnaeus.blogster.com/akermariano-my-linnaeus - 17.07.07

Myosotis (Vergismeinnicht, Ne m'oubliez pas - Herbe d'Amour, Nomeolvides), http://akermariano.blogspot.com/2007/05/myosotis-europaea-vergissmeinnicht-ne.html - 07.05.07

No aclares que oscurece: A buen entendedor… (To someone that understands well... ; À quelqu'un qui bien comprendre... ), http://www.flogup.com/akermariano/695034 - 17.01.08

Non au snobisme linguistique: Tu est ta langue, http://fr.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-DwjSIsAwcKMurr0NylMADEDzFw--?cq=1&p=7 - 27.11.07

Oro y Cenizas (Or et Cendres; Gold and Ashes), 2001, http://www.flickr.com/photos/akermariano/2043087122/ - 18.11.07

Peliagudo: Lobotomía (Lobotomy ; Lobotomie), http://www.flogup.com/akermariano/698121 - 18.01.08

Plenilunio - Wooloo, http://www1.wooloo.org/plenilunio/ - 2005

Preñada extravagancia, http://www.flogup.com/akermariano/888344 - 05.04.08

Qui est Akermariano ?, http://fr.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-DwjSIsAwcKMurr0NylMADEDzFw--?cq=1&p=1 - 25.11.07

Quitasueños ilustrado, http://www.flogup.com/akermariano/876523 - 18.12.07

Reflexiones Ultramarinas, http://akermariano.blogster.com/reflexiones-ultramarinas - 27.10.07

Renacimiento Pleno, http://www.flogup.com/akermariano/817290 - 19.01.08

Sarah Bernhardt, http://akermariano.blogster.com/sarah-bernhardt - http://www.flickr.com/photos/akermariano/2150270657/ - 30.12.07

Ser transmigratorio (Être trans-migratoire; Transmigratory Being), http://www.flickr.com/photos/akermariano/2045579257/ - 18.11.07

Siargao: A Beauty in The Philippines - http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=13994784&uid=7347071 - 2006

Subió la Carne, http://www.flogup.com/akermariano/733259 - 02.02.08

Terra Incognita - Descubrir, http://www.flogup.com/akermariano/702243 - 20.01.08

The Painted Bird, http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery.fcgi?p=999&gid=14044350 - 2006

The Same Order, http://akermariano.blogster.com/the-same-order - 25.12.07

The Wall of Thorns, http://akermariano.blogster.com/the-wall-of-thorns - 31.08.07

Trinidad asiática (Trinité asiatique; Asiatic Trinity), http://www.flickr.com/photos/akermariano/2045579265/ - 18.11.07

Tú eres tu lengua (Volver a lo Nuestro: No al esnobismo lingüístico), http://www.flickr.com/photos/akermariano/1854343809/ - 04.11.07

« Quand même » ... elle reste toujours brillante, http://fr.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-DwjSIsAwcKMurr0NylMADEDzFw--?cq=1&p=16 - 30.12.07

What a Century!, http://linnaeus.blogster.com/century - 19.01.07

Zapatitos que aprietan, http://www.flogup.com/akermariano/878716 - 21.10.07

Mariano Akerman: Bridging Cultures

Sara Mahmood, "Mariano Akerman: Bridging Cultures," Blue Chip Magazine, issue 87, vol. 8, Islamabad, Pakistan, January-February 2012, pp. 20-24.

Blue Chip Magazine. Launched in 2004, Blue Chip has emerged as Pakistan’s premiere business magazine. Featuring the latest economic data as well as regular telecommunications, energy, capital markets and industry updates, Blue Chip has become an indispensable decision making tool within all levels of the private and public sectors. The magazine currently has a circulation of 6,000 copies a month primarily to Pakistan’s private sector including all levels of the financial sector from junior executives to senior management, all levels of industry including the telecommunications, energy, textiles and IT sectors. Blue Chip is also widely circulated in Pakistani government departments including the Ministry of Finance, the Board of Investment, the Securities & Exchange Commission, the Competition Commission, the State Bank of Pakistan, the Ministry of Health and the Planning Commission. It is circulated among all the embassies in bulk, particularly the Saudi, UAE, Chinese, US, UK and Argentine embassies which are then sent on to the various ministries abroad. Blue Chip is currently available on all PIA, Etihad and Cathay Pacific international business class flights originating from Pakistan.

Mariano Akerman, Innerscape, watercolour detail, 2005

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan. As the last slide vanished from the screen, the sizeable crowd gathered at the German Embassy auditorium on the evening of May 12th, 2010, broke into animated applause. Had they checked their watches, members of the audience would have found to their astonishment that they had been held spellbound for an improbable two hours and fifteen minutes. Not many lecturers on German art could have inspired such rapt attention.

"German Art" was the first lecture of a series ten Mariano Akerman devoted to the topic in Pakistan.

One of the good things about life in Islamabad these days is the sparkling presence of Mariano Akerman. Combining a formidable knowledge of the art canon with his exceptional skills as a teacher, the Argentinean painter and art historian Mariano Akerman has an unusual capacity to enthral his audience. One of a rare breed, he is a scholar who delights as much as he informs. Presenting German art to a lay audience and holding them spellbound for two hours is one proof. Another is the enthusiastic response of Pakistani student audiences to the opportunity Mariano provides for them to probe their own artistic heritage and its relationship to the art of other civilizations. Building bridges between cultures — between east and west, between scholar and layman — he describes as his vocation.

Mariano Akerman lecturing on the French imagery and that in his works, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, April 20th, 2010

Earlier this year in Islamabad, Mariano delivered a series of thirty-five lectures to a group of adult enthusiasts eager to deepen their understanding of the visual arts. Beginning at the beginning with how to appreciate a work of art, the series moved on to trace unexpected themes and linkages that brought the art canon to life in new ways. Here is the testimony of one participant to Mariano’s teaching style and breadth of perspective:

“Some of the topics are quirky areas of art appreciation I had never considered, but all are stimulating. It is particularly interesting to be drawn into discussions during these lectures rather than simply taking part in a dry question and answer formula.”

Videoconference: Mariano Akerman giving his lecture "Creativity in French Art" from the National College of Arts in Lahore, April 2010

Communicating his ideas about art to those interested in learning is described by Mariano as fulfilling his need to balance the independent views of the scholar with the human impulse to share. Not that giving is entirely one-way traffic. As well as enriching the audience, the teacher in the course of teaching engages in a dialogue with himself, which in turn helps to deepen his own understanding.

"German Art: Its Peculiarities and Transformations," lecture by Mariano Akerman, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Islamabad, 12 May 2010

As a child growing up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mariano recalls the perplexing experience of discovering Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland in a quaint encyclopaedia. It was his earliest conscious exposure to the influence of the imaginary. During his teenage years, he spent a good deal of time with his aunt Moroca, herself a painter. It was she who first taught him how to paint, while sharing ideas such as the potential of automatism and free association. Mariano benefited too from Moroca’s extensive art library, which introduced him to the fantastic world of Hieronymus Bosch and the work of the Surrealists, Salvador Dalí, René Magritte and especially Yves Tanguy.

Akerman, Rococo soirée at a Medieval Princess' House, gouache, 1979-80

As a student at the School of Architecture in Buenos Aires, the young scholar chose visual communication as one of his elective subjects: his graduation project focused on the relationship between boundaries and space. Mariano's work was deeply informed by Lao-Tsu’s observation that clay is shaped into a jar, but it is “the emptiness inside” that holds whatever one wants. Several critics have pointed to the strong connection between Mariano’s architectural training and the style he developed as a painter in the eighties, when he became a highly acclaimed exhibitor in the art galleries of Buenos Aires. The critic Monique Sasegur noted “his theoretical formation rests on his architectural career; the rest is lived experience.”

Akerman, Memory, mixed media collage, 2009 

Another critic, Bernardo Graiver, reviewing Mariano’s first one-man exhibition, wrote: “He distances himself from banal preoccupations, suggesting and evoking not disorderly experiences, but unexpected ones—those that belong to the empiric-meditative creator. Submarine jungles of arched stems and smooth leaves, beings that sing with a growing audacity, and warm soft organisms awake in an ample harmony of composition.”

Akerman, Crystalline, First Movement, gouache, 1986

The work of this period features organic designs that enclose and soften the “unexpected” subject matter: Alice in a group of figures standing before a window, the recurring egg motif, majestic birds emerging from natural forms. These pictures seem to portend the change that is about to happen. In 1991, Mariano leaves Argentina and since then has returned only for short visits. The portrait of the “authentic lady” that he paints shortly before his departure depicts a society woman exuberantly attired in zany hat and striking neckwear. Yet, the odd thing about the painting is that her armless egg-shaped torso comes to a stop at the hip. The egg motif suggests hatching and giving birth to life. It may point to the fact that the painter is about to embark on the adventure of life outside the nest.

Akerman, Your Honour, pencil, ink and watercolour, 1989

One critic of this period decried a “decorative” aspect in Mariano’s work. However, the critic Sasegur assigned this aspect its own importance; in a memorable phrase she summed up the artist’s work as “ornamental, expressive and powerfully hoped.” In this respect Mariano was influenced by the thinking of architect Robert Venturi, whose Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture he read in the mid eighties. By championing the eclectic approach of postmodernist architecture, Venturi sought to mitigate the exclusivist “either-or” approach of modernist architects such as Mies van der Rohe. “Less is more” was the mantra that encapsulated the modernist movement’s devotion to the principle establishing that form follows function. “Less is a bore” was Venturi’s spirited riposte to the pared down modernist approach.

Venturi also emphasized the fact that contemporary designers are heirs to a wide diversity of artistic influences. While Mariano criticizes much of postmodernist architecture for connecting with the past in a superficial fashion, he nevertheless admires the work of the postmodernist architect Louis I. Kahn, whose powerful designs draw on diverse historical sources. The Hurva, which is one of Kahn’s most daring and celebrated projects, wraps ancient ruins around a modern sanctuary.

Louis Kahn, Hurva Project, cross-section, 1968. Computer graphic by Kent Larson, MIT

Post Argentina, Mariano’s artwork includes both figuration and abstraction. He explores a variety of techniques, especially watercolour and collage. His work, developed over many years in Asia, shows his mastery of line, colour and texture in relatively small, intimate panels, strikingly grouped and beautifully framed.

Akerman, Inner Constellation, watercolour, 2005

It is also after leaving Argentina that Mariano expanded his work as scholar, communicator and teacher of the History of Art and Architecture. In Pakistan, he has targeted students in a wide range of educational institutions. Among them are Fatima Jinnah University, The National College of Art, Quaid-i-Azam University, The National University of Modern Languages and COMSATS. Mariano is particularly enthusiastic about his interaction with young Pakistani audiences. “Young Pakistanis are very curious about their pre-British past and how to connect with it. There is a freshness in the way they engage. Exposure to information and ideas helps them formulate the right questions to help them uncover the richness of their past.”

Akerman, Tell Me about It, collage, 2010

It is the combination of his intoxicating enthusiasm with his breadth of interest as an independent scholar that enthrals Mariano’s listeners. As noted by the student quoted earlier, he brings unfamiliar “quirky” areas of the art canon into focus. One of these areas is “the art of the Grotesque.” Defined by Mariano as an aesthetic category comprising double-edged configurations, the Grotesque has a long tradition in the visual arts, beginning with the fantastic hybrids found in the artificial caves or grottoes of Nero’s Domus Aurea in Rome. This style of ornamentation was studied and copied by Renaissance artists such as Ghirlandaio and Michelangelo. In the early sixteenth century, Raphael and Giovanni da Udine developed it into a complete system in the loggias of the Vatican Palace. In this context, the grotesque is ornamental; it is only later that it becomes prevalently deformed and visceral, even hideous.

Akerman, Renaissance Grotesques, educational plate

Tracing the development of the Grotesque in the visual arts, Mariano’s research on the art of what Freud called “The Uncanny” highlights new connections while making evident the subtle transformation of Grotesque Art throughout the ages. “The Grotesque,” as he explains, “is neither attractive nor repulsive, but both at once. It is a problematic, double-edged realm where the one aspect always goes hand in hand with the incompatible other thus creating a visual paradox.” Central to Mariano's examination of the Grotesque is the work of Francis Bacon, one of the most important painters of the last century, whose shockingly brutal pictures also contain the extraordinary power to exhilarate and set free.

Francis Bacon, Lying Figure in a Mirror, oil, 1971
Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao

As an artist, Mariano continues painting and holding art shows. He has received more than twelve prizes in both art and education. Mariano likes to remind one that his priorities include his work as scholar and teacher. Anyone who navigates his site at http://akermariano.blogspot.com will be surprised by the originality of his ideas and the variety of links on offer, each with a wealth of illustration from the scholar’s always expanding archives. Moreover, each link brings a different piece of the jigsaw into focus. New connections emerge bridging cultures in unexpected ways. A visit cannot be highly enough recommended.

Akerman, Idyll, water-soluble pencil and collage, 2011

_____
Sara Mahmood is from Wales and has lived in Pakistan for over 20 years. Apart from being a regular contributor to Blue Chip Magazine, Sara drafts reports and teaches analytical writing skills. She also writes book reviews for the Dawn Books & Authors and for Libas. Her chief interest is reading widely in poetry and fiction, particularly modern developments in writing around the world.

A group of students contemplating Akerman's collages after his lecture "Vers l'art libre et moderne," National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, March 18th, 2010

Details from Mariano Akerman's paintings. As Van der Rohe once put it, “God is in the details.”

Further references on Mariano Akerman
Artwork
Lectures, Seminars and Workshops, 2005-2010
The German Contribution to the Visual Arts
Pakistan Drawing and Painting Workshop
Educational Activities

Knol: A Unit of Knowledge

Author: Mariano Akerman
Articles online from 21/04/2009 to 01/05/2012

The Grotesque in Bacon's Instinctive Paintings
Francis Bacon, British painter, self-taught artist, 1909-1992

SER Y NO SER
Bacon: naturaleza y significados de su arte
Ciclo de conferencias
Universidad de Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Agosto 1999
1. Francis Bacon y lo Grotesco
2. Aspectos grotescos del arte de Bacon
3. El juego de Bacon

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Argentina
Historia, ubicación y colecciones del MNBA

Arte Argentino
Conferencia, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines, 2006

Raisons d'être
Cycle de conférences éducatives : art, liberté et modernité
Educational lectures series: art, freedom and modernity
Ciclo de conferencias educativas: arte, libertad y modernidad
Pakistan, 2010

7.3.2012

Premios Knol al autor más visitado y al autor más seleccionado

Those Were the Days

Konstantin Podrevskii and Boris Fomin: Dorogoi dlinnoyu (Дорогой длинною, "By the Long Way"), by 1925


Elisa Akerman, Figures in a terrace, gouache, c. 1968

Once upon a time there was a tavern,
Where we used to raise a glass or two.
Remember how we laughed away the hours,
think of all the great things we would do.

Those were the days my friend,
We thought they'd never end,
We'd sing and dance forever and a day,
We'd live the life we choose,
We'd fight and never lose,
For we were young and sure to have our way.
Lalala lah lala, lalala lah lala

Then the busy years went rushing by us.
We lost our starry notions on the way.
If by chance I'd see you in the tavern,
We'd smile at one another and we'd say...

Those were the days my friend,
We thought they'd never end,
We'd sing and dance forever and a day,
We'd live the life we choose,
We'd fight and never lose,
For we were young and sure to have our way.
Lalala lah lala, lalala lah lala

Just tonight I stood before the tavern,
Nothing seemed the way it used to be.
In the glass I saw a strange reflection,
Was that lonely soldier/woman really me?

Those were the days my friend,
We thought they'd never end,
We'd sing and dance for-ever and a day,
We'd live the life we choose,
We'd fight and never lose,
For we were young and sure to have our way.
Lalala lah lala, lalala lah lala

Through the door there came familiar laughter.
I saw your face and heard you call my name.
Oh, my friend, we're older but no wiser,
For in our hearts the dreams are still the same.

Those were the days my friend,
We thought they'd never end,
We'd sing and dance forever and a day,
We'd live the life we choose,
We'd fight and never lose,
For we were young and sure to have our way.
Lalala lah lala, lalala lah lala



Resources
Sources and details

...Qué tiempo tan feliz

...Le temps des fleurs

Blue Chip Magazine

by Mariano Akerman

The last issue of Blue Chip Magazine includes two articles about my experience with the visual arts in Argentina and Asia, and the cultural activities which I have been developing for Pakistan during the last five years.

Mariano Akerman, Idyll, Islamabad, 2011

Two articles have been written by Ilona Yusuf and Sara Mahmood. Each of them is a gem. Both articles comprise a total of nine pages and are profusely illustrated, with a number of remarkable collages made in Pakistan for the competition organized two months ago and some assorted examples of my own artwork, 1979-2011.

The articles incorporate material concerning several programs which I have developed for the Embassies of Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland in Pakistan, between 2007 and 2012. One of the articles is mostly devoted to the Gestalt Educational Program 2011. Referring to it, the article also reports the active participation of students and teachers from Islamabad College for Girls, COMSATS University, Postgraduate College for Women Rawalpindi, National University of Modern Languages, Alliance Française d'Islamabad, Lahore Grammar School, and International School of Islamabad.

Enhancing Perception: The Gestalt Lectures and Collage Competition
by Ilona Yusuf
Blue Chip Magazine, Issue 87, Volume 8, Islamabad, January-February 2012, pp. 16-19, ill.

Mariano Akerman: Bridging Cultures
by Sara Mahmood
Blue Chip Magazine, Issue 87, Volume 8, Islamabad, January-February 2012, pp. 20-24, ill.

Blue Chip Magazine can be found in several places in Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore.

Activities' general background. A passage from an article that appeared in the previous issue of BCM: "Pakistan is made up of four provinces, Sindh, Punjab, Baluchistan, and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (KP) – formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Although English is the national language and Urdu is the common language, each of these provinces also has a regional dialect, and people from each province are distinctive and possess different cultures. Pakistan has come into international notice post 9/11 as a country that is on the main front line in the "War on Terror" – while internationally Pakistan’s actions have earned mixed reviews, the fact remains that in the years from 2003–2011, over 33,000 people have been fatalities to terrorist violence in Pakistan ("Pakistan Assessment," 2011). This position has affected the country’s stability, economy, and security deeply" (Maliha Shaikh, "Pakistan, Home of the Ajrak," January 2012).

Shazia Afridi
Inspiration and Expression Collage and Letters Competition
Pakistan 2010

According to the Pakistan Assessment, 33,213 is the number of fatalities until February 20, 2011 (South Asia Terrorism Portal). But by the end of 2011, this becomes 38,765; and up to now the total fatalities in terrorist violence in Pakistan equals 39,209 victims (Fatalities in Terrorist Violence in Pakistan 2003-2012, SATP Database, 5.2.2012). This means more than 1,000 dead persons per year. From 1948 to 2012, all the casualties of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict together were between 14,500 and 20,000 (List of Ongoing Military Conflicts). The war between Israelis and Palestinians would have claimed 20,000 victims in sixty-four years. The war in North-West Pakistan has claimed so far 40,000 victims, which means the double of victims, but in eight years.

André Maurois once said that art will give man what the world refuses to him: the union of contemplation and peace.

"Vers l'art libre et moderne," National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, 18.3.2010

Saba Malik
Inspiration and Expression Collage and Letters Competition
Pakistan 2010

Akerman, "Art from Belgium," lecture, Belgian Residence, Islamabad, 29.6.2010. Paintings from the exhibition Les raisons d'être can be seen in the background.

Shankar (eight-years old), The Hindukushi Elephant, Islamabad, 2011
Wax crayons and watercolor on paper

A most inspired young painter
Pakistan Drawing and Painting Workshop
by Mariano Akerman
International School of Islamabad, 10.3.2011

A remarkable collage made in Pakistan by a local student
Prized in the Gestalt Collage Competition
German Embassy, Islamabad, November 2011

Young Pakistanis are very curious about their pre-British past and how to connect with it. There is a freshness in the way they engage.

Gestalt Educational Program
Mariano Akerman lecturing at COMSATS University
Pakistan, 28.10.2011

Artwork: The Pakistani Period

Mariano Akerman, Tell Me about It, 2010
Collage, 45 x 45 cm

Akerman, Prickly Matters I, 2009
Collage, 27.5 x 19 cm.

Akerman, The Things I tell You, 2010
Collage, 45 x 45 cm
Sidra Khan Collection, San Francisco

Akerman, Memory, collage, 2009

Akerman, Hindu Kushi Garden, 2011
Collage, 45 x 25.5 cm
Hosai Rahimi Collection, Islamabad

Akerman, Some Questions, (2000) 2011
Watercolor, 36 x 15.5 cm
Dr Jenny Naseem, Islamabad

Online Information
Educational activities 2005-10
Educational activities 2011
The Gestalt Program
Seminaire des arts 2009-12

Blue Chip Magazine. Launched in 2004, Blue Chip has emerged as Pakistan’s premiere business magazine. Featuring the latest economic data as well as regular telecommunications, energy, capital markets and industry updates, Blue Chip has become an indispensable decision making tool within all levels of the private and public sectors. The magazine currently has a circulation of 6,000 copies a month primarily to Pakistan’s private sector including all levels of the financial sector from junior executives to senior management, all levels of industry including the telecommunications, energy, textiles and IT sectors. Blue Chip is also widely circulated in Pakistani government departments including the Ministry of Finance, the Board of Investment, the Securities & Exchange Commission, the Competition Commission, the State Bank of Pakistan, the Ministry of Health and the Planning Commission. It is circulated among all the embassies in bulk, particularly the Saudi, UAE, Chinese, US, UK and Argentine embassies which are then sent on to the various ministries abroad. Blue Chip is currently available on all PIA, Etihad and Cathay Pacific international business class flights originating from Pakistan.

Three Dozen Lectures

by Mariano Akerman

Seminaire des Arts: Three Dozen Lectures Given
1. Argentinean Art
2. Art as Shape and Contents
3. The Imaginary in the Visual Arts
4. Bible-inspired Art
5. The Long Road from Representation to Abstraction
6. Image and Prejudice
7. Art Boundaries: Some Kind of Fluid Matter?
8. Tradition and Innovation
9. Art as Intention in Context
10. Power in the Picture
11. Fine Arts in the Nineteenth Century
12. Nineteenth-Century Architecture
13. Six European Masters: Chardin, Goya, Géricault, Turner, Corot, Daumier
14. Fin-de-Siècle: Symbolism and Art Nouveau
15. Modernist Attitudes towards Ornament: Art Nouveau and Art Deco
16. Avant-garde Art
17. Modern Architecture in the Machine Age
18. Late-Modern and Post-Modern Trends in Architecture
19. Art as Paradox: Transcategorical Disorder, Caprice and Ordered Chaos
20. Of Purpose in 20th-Century Art
21. Art as Development
22. Modernity, Modernism, Modern Art
23. Fauvism
24. Die Goldenen Zwanziger
25. Why was Henri Matisse a great artist?
26. Picasso and the Genesis of Cubism
27. The Cubist Constellation
28. Argentinean Visual Art: European Influences?
29. Paris Avant-Garde: Jawlensky, Modigliani, Brancusi, Soutine, and Chagall
30. Art and Ethics
31. Influential Moderns: Gauguin and Picasso
32. New Figuration: Francis Bacon's Case as a Detective Story
33. Totem, Mask, and Other Pagan Expressions of Excess
34. Transformations in Christian Art
35. From Abraham and the Idols to the Mosaic Experience with the Visual Arts
36. "O afflicted one..."



Mariano Akerman, Triad, watercolor, 1999

See also: The 12 Additional Lectures

Comments and Feedback
Jenny Naseem
Sara Mahmood
Ilona Yusuf

Letter to a ISOI Teacher

Dear Joan Lewin,

Congratulations on being recognized and prized as a Chosen Teacher of the Year as part of the Gestalt Educational Program as given by me. Your participation, enthusiasm, and ability to integrate your grade three curriculum with the concepts to which my workshop and lecture pertained are evidence of your integrity and the level of excellence that characterizes your work.

The atmosphere in your classroom and among your students and their parents was a pleasure for me to experience. Their responses to a theme such as Gestalt showed they were focused and able to make the connections from my words to the visual and to the creative.

Throughout the years that we have known each other and in which I have participated in a variety of in-class workshops with your students, I have been impressed with the way in which you have organized each session with me: taking into account your students’ varying levels of ability, developmental instructional practices or strategies, and the most appropriate arrangement of the classroom.

I look forward to our working together as we explore with your students the world of visual arts.


Thank you for inviting me to develop the Gestalt activities into your classroom and work with this year’s students and their parents as part of my fifteen lecture series as sponsored by the Embassy of Switzerland and Embassy of Germany.

Regards,
Mariano Akerman



Reference. Activities developed together at ISOI between 2010 and 2011:
1. Exploring Pictures is Cool, 16.3.2010
2. Argentinean Art, 25.10.2010
3. Pakistan Art Workshop, 10.3.2011
4. Gestalt in the Collage, 26.10.2011