Source: http://www.infinitearttournament.com/2016/03/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 09:03:42+00:00

Document:
The Infinite Art Tournament, Left Bracket Second Round: Nash v. Master of Moulins!
Lost at the last second to Murillo in Round 1. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
Tied with Edvard Munch in First Round Elimination.
Defeated Sir Jacob Epstein in First Round Elimination Tiebreak.
Defeated Robert Motherwell in Round 1.
Skunked by Norman Rockwell in Round 2.
Element of the Month: Erbium!
It's been a few years since we mentioned the Ytterby Element-Discovery Juggernaut, so let's briefly rehearse it here. Ytterby is a small village on one of the islands around Stockholm. It had a little quarry.
The humble Ytterby quarry, today.
Erbium is one of the lanthanide elements, the ones we're not supposed to call "rare earths," and like most of them it is not so much incredibly rare as incredibly hard to isolate. It reacts amiably with almost every substance in nature -- air, water, and the like -- so it is never found in a pure state. In fact, it took more than 90 years between the "discovery" by Carl Gustaf Mosander in 1843 and the first time anybody could really cook up a chunk of pure Erbium, in 1934.
Once you get it good and pure, Erbium is a silvery metal like most of the other elements. Many of its chemical compounds, however, are a fetching pink, or violet. That means that one of its modern uses is as a colorant in extremely expensive art glass.
Erbium is also useful in dental surgical lasers, which can perform many of the tasks usually done with dental drills, except better, and at twenty times the expense!
Throw in a few specialized metallurgical uses -- Erbium can alloy Vanadium to make it more workable, for instance -- and you are well on your way to knowing your way around Erbium's place in the modern human economy. Which means you're better off then you were before you read this little precis.
Dale Chihuly, Erbium Chandelier with Gilded Putto, 1993. Corning Museum of Glass.
The Infinite Art Tournament, Round Two: Prud'hon v. Raeburn!
Drubbed Francesco Primaticcio in Round 1.
It's only been four months since I did a "Songs" post on Missouri, but last week I had an opportunity to spend a few days kicking around the state, which I hadn't visited since 1999. Missouri from the freeway is, alas, pretty awful: glimpses of farmland peeking out from behind huge signs, most of which tell you either that you should purchase a huge sign or that the signowner's beliefs and values are better than yours. Once off the freeway, it's a mixed bag of pleasant town and rural landscapes and grim town and rural landscapes, depending on local conditions.
The final score for the road trip, incidentally, was: 19 new counties in Missouri, 2 in Illinois, 2 in Arkansas, and 2 in Tennessee. Also, 4 in Kentucky, which had been the state that I hadn't visited in the longest time; Florida takes over that spot now.
Thomas Hart Benton, Truman Library Murals, Independence.
Art Mecca: Last November, I wrote about how the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art was the museum where I really became interested in art for the first time. I thought that the Nelson Atkins must be the coolest museum in the world, I said, and I suppose for me, at the time, it was.... I wonder if I'd still love it now that I've seen a lot more museums, or if I'd be all jaded. So, knowing I would be back in Missouri, I made it a priority to revisit the Nelson-Atkins.
Unfortunately, and replicating a mistake that I made in 1999, I forgot that it's closed on Tuesdays.
Fortunately, I was able to try again and pull off a short visit on Saturday, before my flight home.
Bottom line: If you have the chance, visit the Nelson-Atkins! It's free, even! But closed Tuesdays!
Now, in the comments last time Christine M. volunteered that "St. Louis also has a lovely art museum, and it's free, too." I was a little underwhelmed with the St. Louis show when I visited in 1999, but what the hell did I know? So, I gave serious thought to remedying the situation this time in order to give you a fair and balanced treatment of the Art Meccas of the Show-Me State. Unfortunately, the lure of randomly exploring rural backroads was too much for me.
It will probably be quite a few years before I return to Missouri.
The Infinite Art Tournament, Round One: Ribera v. Richter!
The Infinite Art Tournament, Round 3: Patenier v. Picasso!
Skunked German Expressionist Max Hermann Pechstein in Round 1.
Beat Francis Picabia in Round 2.
Beat Piero di Cosimo in Round 2.
Art Tournament content only for the next little while.
The Infinite Art Tournament, Round Two: Popova v. Poussin!
We had a First Round tie today, which as always had shuffled up the ol' brackets a bit. It was the Leighton/Modersohn-Becker bout, which now has the distinction of being the only First Round tiebreaker (so far) to itself end up in a tie; those two are having a really, really tough time getting into the swing of the Tournament.
Defeated American sculptor Hiram Powers in Round 1.
The Infinite Art Tournament, Round One: Renoir v. Reynolds!
Lost to Pisanello in Round 1.
Lost to Camille Pissarro in Round 1.
Lost to Sigmar Polke in Round 1.
Lost to Jackson Pollock in Round 1.
The Semi-Finals: Chardin v. Cassatt!

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