Caravaggio

In this brilliant review on exhibition of Caravaggio's painting at the National Gallery, Paul Bond explains his greatness. Caravaggio painted The Supper at Emmaus twice, in 1601 and in 1606 after exile. Paul Bond writes about the contrast between them and the change of style:

The two paintings are displayed side by side, and the contrast could not be more striking. The earlier painting is brightly lit from the left foreground, casting shadows of the standing figure onto the wall behind the table. The brightness lights up the table with its abundant feast, a still life in its own right. The moment of revelation is an expansive one: Christ’s arm is stretched forward, the disciple to his right has his arms flung wide, the seated disciple to the left of the picture is pushing his chair back. This is revelation as a physical moment.

In the 1606 painting, the mood is altogether different. The resurrected Christ is not the young man of the earlier painting, but an older figure of calm based on experience, offering a much smaller hand gesture. The painting is lit from behind, so that there is a large dark space unlit in the top left corner of the canvas. This dark empty space is a recurrent element in these later paintings. Where the earlier disciples are expanding outwards, the later figures are moving in, almost eavesdropping on an intimate moment. The faces are worldly, more experienced. Even the meal before them has shrunk to basic fare. What is most striking, seeing them together, is the way the composition of the later piece almost directly mirrors the composition of its predecessor. This is a new way of understanding the same theme, so that the revelation now becomes a psychological event, rather than a physical one.

Do see these paintings at Web Gallery of Art and reread the above paragraphs.

Outsourcing is good

In a new article The McKinsey Quarterly explores and then explodes the myths of Outsourcing. After all the hue and cry in US about outsourcing I am sure this special collection on Outsourcing will help people understand the benefits of Outsourcing. Here are few quotes:

Call-center agents, data processors, medical technicians, and software programmers could all find their jobs at risk from the nation's growing trade in services with emerging markets. In fact, offshoring is frequently blamed for the agonizingly slow pace of job growth in the United States, despite a recovering economy.

Critics warn that millions of people in the United States will become jobless.

The current debate is misplaced, however, because the problem is neither trade itself nor globalization more broadly but rather the question of how the country should allocate the benefits of global trade. Trade in services, like other forms of international trade, benefits the United States as a whole by making the economic pie bigger and raising the standard of living. Outsourcing jobs abroad can help keep companies profitable, thereby preserving other US jobs. The cost savings can be used to lower prices and to offer consumers new and better types of services. By raising productivity, offshoring enables companies to invest more in the next-generation technologies and business ideas that create new jobs. And with the world's most flexible and innovative economy, the United States is uniquely positioned to benefit from the trend.

Laloo on the rampage

One Article at The Indian Express takes aim at Laloo Yadav. This paragraph explains my point of view:

The allegations(on EC) themselves are serious, but shifty. What began on Day 1 mainly as a charge that two election commissioners — one of them the CEC-to-be — had decided to countermand the Chapra polls last year because of ‘‘their allegiance to BJP, RSS and other communal alliances’’, narrowed on Day 2 to mainly a slur on the ECs’ ‘‘casteism’’. There are the coincidences that need explaining. The two bureaucrats on the offensive are both serving in a ministry presided over by a Laloo lieutenant; one of them was superceded and is presently on the verge of retirement and approval of a post-retirement sinecure. Even if these are convincingly explained away, there still remains the manner in which the EC’s credibility is sought to be questioned. A constitutional body cannot be dragged through a public harangue like this. A case against the EC, if there is one to be made at all, must be substantiated and pursued with rigour and respect for due process. A Union minister should know this.

Well Said, Mr Prime Minister

It was heartening to read Dr. Manmohan Singh's statement over EC controversy. Finally somebody from UPA said something meaningful. I was shocked to hear reaction from Left and RJD. Indian Express reports

Talking to journalists on way from his three-day visit to Russia, he said the Election Commission is a constitutional body, which played a ‘critical and positive’ role in the successful functioning of democracy in the country.

Here is the statement read out to journalists:

It is incumbent on all to ensure that essential institutions of the democratic framework are respected, their sanctity maintained and their autonomy preserved in a manner which will ensure that they continue to contribute to our democratic life. This responsibility vests fully on those within the institution and those outside. It is in this perspective that all issues should be examined and nothing should be done which could lead to an unintended weakening of the democratic institutional fabric.

What is Art

John Carey, emeritus professor of English Literature at Oxford university, is publishing next month a book named "What Good Are the Arts?". The title certainly raises the basic question: What is art? To answer the question, The Observer talks to many people. Read the article.

Ibtida

And hence it begins...my first post.