Art News Articles by Asbjorn Lonvig

For Children and Grandparents - for Dogs Fans - for Fans of Dog Breed Beagle

2011-10-07T12:03:00.001-07:00

Renowned Danish author Orla Nygaard and World of Art Award Winning Danish Artist Asbjorn Lonvig have so far published 3 children's books on LuluPress.com who administers print on demand publishing.

Two Books have been published in English. They are about a family who buys a dog (a Beagle).
The father is skeptical because he does not think he has time enough to look after the dog.
However, he becomes so fond of the dog that he decides to bring up and train the dog himself.
Unfortunately, things do not turn out the way he thinks and hopes. Time after time things go wrong
and very far from what he had expected, which results in a number of comical and bizarre situations.
You can see comprehensive previews on LuluPress of the books: Preview "The World's Best Beagy"
and preview of "Beagy will be Beagy".

You can order these 2 books by clicking on the motifs shown above - you will be navigated directly to the books on the LuluPress markedplace.

The 2 books mentioned above have been combined and published in Danish.
The book title is: "Biggi Verdens bedste Hund".

Nygaard & Lonvig, Denmark is very satisfied about feedbacks.
One of the most positive is this:

Dear Asbjorn.
I wrote to you when I received the books that I thought they are beautiful.
I liked the titles of the books. Very memorable. Children and parents can relate easily to the titles and
chapter titles. The colors of the covers and the art on the covers is very appealing for children as well as parents.
I love your geometric art and think it goes really well with the story contents.The inside of the books are very nicely done.
The page layouts are very clean and the art and story go really well with each other.
One can follow the story easily by looking at the pictures.

I liked the stories very much. Each had humor and a strong concept of family values.
The stories are lessons as well, but these lessons do not distract from the fun aspect of the book.
For very young children, each chapter could be made into its own book.
The books are WONDERFUL!
All my best,
Ellen Fisch *

*) Ellen Fisch lives on Long Island, New York.
Ellen Fisch has a BA in Art from Brooklyn College and a MA in Art from New York University.
Ellen Fisch is a fellow artist to Asbjorn Lonvig, she teatchesis.
Ellen Fisch's general judgments are second to none.

21 Pictures inspired by The Tour de France. 21 inspired by Paris.

2011-08-25T01:50:00.001-07:00

Introduction of 21 + 21 motifs

Today I introduce to you the motifs of the Tour de France 2011 stage 1 to 21.
And the 21 "boost"-motifs inspired by Paris.
The 21 "boost"-motifs inspired by Paris, shows the famous buildings and places in Paris.
If you during stage 21 spots famous buildings and places that the field actual did not pass.
Just take it easy.
It is not a figment of imagination on your side.
it is a figment of imagination on my side.

Stage 1 to 21 - motifs
inspired by each stage
Please click on an image below and you will be guided to my AbsoluteArt's Portfolio.
In my AbsoluteArts Portfolio you can see description, size, price, media, enlargement etc.

Stage21 "extra"-motifs
inspired by Stage 21 and by Paris
Please click on an image below and you will be guided to my
AbsoluteArt's Portfolio.
In my AbsoluteArts Portfolio you can see description, size, price, media, enlargement etc.

Sincerely,
Asbjorn Lonvig, Artist
"Lille Fejringhus"
8722 Hedensted
Denmark
lonvig@mail.dk

"South African Joy" by Asbjorn Lonvig, DK - Official Licenced Product of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™

2010-06-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

"South African Joy"

2010, Inks on canvas/Archival Inks on cotton, 84 x 59,4 cm (33.1” x 23.4”), edition 210
Click on "South African Joy" below
and download a high resolution image for press coverage.

A South African Art Publisher MMX Art in Cape Town contacted me.
MMX Art alias 2010 International Fine Art is licensed to use the phrase “Official Licensed Products of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™” by FIFA.
5 artists from each of the 32 qualifying countries to 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™
were selected to participate in the 2010 International Fine Art project and form the 2010 International Fine Art Collection.
After signing a contract I got the “Artistic Brief” from 2010 International Fine Art:

“The world is coming home to Africa, the cradle of humankind, the site where the story of our species started. It is – in essence – the home of all humanity.
It is also the location for the greatest sporting event in the world – the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM – the first time in its history that the tournament has been staged in Africa.
The artwork must bring together the elements of this African heritage and fuse it with the energy and excitement of the World Cup, the heights of athletic excellence, the favor of football enthusiasts, and pride of your country’s participation in the tournament.
The original must incorporate at least an element of football in order to celebrate this extraordinary event being brought to African soil.”

The symbolism of "South African Joy" by Asbjorn Lonvig

The Acacia tree and the Baobab Tree are significant trees in South Africa.

I am looking for my inner eye giraffes eating the leaves of an Acacia tree.

The South African Savannah in the East, the bush and dessert in the West are the domicile of a lot of exotic animals such as Zebras, Flamingos, Elephants, Lions, Penguins, and Giraffes.
To me the most outstanding of them is the Giraffe.
In “South African Joy” symbolized by a giraffe skin.

The sun is important to all of us.
In most of South Africa there is subtropical climate witch has an impact on everything.
On nature as well as on people’s conduct and behavior.

From maps we know the shape of the African Continent.
From the name we can guess where South Africa is, but I did not know exact shape of South Africa on beforehand.

FIFA World Cup stadiums in South Africa are scattered around the country:
The stadiums are in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, Nelspruit, Polokwane, Rustenburg, and Pretoria.

In a very short time – when the FIFA World Cup has started - the world will recognize the shape and the colors of the Republic of South Africa's flag:
Red symbolizes the struggle for freedom.
Black and White the different peoples of South Africa.
Yellow the country's mineral wealth.
And green and blue symbolize the country’s fertility and its magnificent scenery and wildlife.

Desmond Tutu – you know, the former archbishop who is always talking and always smiling – called South Africa’s people the Rainbow Nation.
That was because of the country's wonderfully diverse, colourful, and utterly unique society.
Furthermore, South Africa’s National Motto is "Unity in Diversity".

I know about an explorer that drew in his car down through the African continent from the Strait of Gibraltar to South Africa. He told that everywhere kids were playing soccer.To accommodate all the soccer playing children the soccer field is a double field. Double Soccer is the name of the game.There are 4 goals. Two balls in different colors.I have established a Facebook group to form the exact rules. “Help making the Double Soccer rules: As a point of departure I have mentioned a few keywords to the Facebook group members: Fun, fast, exhausting, tactics, strategy, chess, exciting to look at, appealing to electronic medias”.

The imaginative kids of Africa will probably some day amuse themselves by playing double soccer. You may percept many different run patterns in “South African Joy” – run patterns of players’ movements as you will see them on the stadiums of South Africa. Zigzag, forth and back etc. Stepping up the stairs – maybe reaching fame.
Some day an African nation might win the FIFA World Cup™.

Sales - the 2010 International Fine Art Collection
The 2010 International Fine Art Collection consists of 160 motifs.
All of them are fore sale – as you might have calculated there are only 210 of each motif.
The art prints are printed on Hahnemühle Museum Etching 350gsm Fine Art paper using pigment based archival inks.
They are sold on a first come first served principle – so, HURRY UP!!!!

Please contact:
Asbjorn Lonvig, artist
Lille Fejringhus
43 Fejringhusvej
8722 Hedensted
Denmark
+45 75890477
lonvig@mail.dk

If you are a citizen in Germany or South Africa you must contact the authorized sellers in Germany or South Africa.

The 2010 International Fine Art Collection
Click on a thumbnail below and see a larger image and a description.
Till "under construction" below has been removed look at the 2010 International Fine Art Collection web site
- however, still contact: Asbjorn Lonvig.

Algeria
Noureddine Zekara
Rachid Djemai
Layachi Hamidouche
Tahar Ouamane
Hocine Ziani

Argentina
Pablo Di Masso
Juan Carlos Stekelman
Horacio Sanchez Fantino
Mirta Kupfer
Mariano Molina

Australia
Richard Birmingham
Anthony Lister
Chris Wake
Charles Billich
Aaron Kinnane

Brazil
Cybele Varela
Gustavo Rosa
Luiz Cavalli
Marcelo Ferreira
Rogério Dias

Cameroon
William Kayo
Florence Béal-Nénakwé
Hervé Momo

Denmark
Jonna Pedersen
Bjorn Eriksen
Asbjorn Lonvig
Canuto Kallan
Frodo Mikkelsen

England
Peter Phillips
James Faure Walker
Ed Gray
Belinda Eaton
Blaize Simon

France
Régis Rigaux
Yann Couedor
Jacques Ridereau
Dtone
Alexis Peskine

Germany
Tanja Maria Ernst
Patrick Lemke
Hella de Santarossa
Albert Münch
Marc C. Woehr
Mores Rabenstern

Ghana
George Hughes
Kofi Agorsor
Wiz Kudowor
Larry Otoo
Frank Asomani
Tafa

Greece
Giannis Diamandis
Eleni Economo
Vassiliki
Anastasiou
Eleni Pechlivani
Dimitrios Loumiotis

Honduras
Miguel Ruiz Matutte
Santos Arzu Quioto
Wilmer Castro Sandres
Ivan Fiallos
Maury Flores Gomez
Irazema Ríos

Italy
Giancarlo Impiglia
Guido Boletti
Lola Scarpitta
Monica Marioni
Andrea Chiesi
Anna Maria Pugliese

Japan
Kimi Sakaki
Yoko Kitagawa
Tomoko Seyama
Hiroyuki Matsuda
Tatsuya Matsushita

Mexico
Byron Galvez
Verónica Ruiz de Velasco
Pedro Friedeberg
Abraham Jiménez
Alejandro Mondria Hiber

Netherlands
Marianne Naerebout
Giovanni Dalessi
Hans van Horck
Arie van Geest
Clemens Briels

Slovakia
Michal Czinege
Igor Cvacho
Erik Sille
Mira Gáberová
Rastislav Sedlacik

South Africa
Esther Mahlangu
Sfiso ka Mkame
Zamani Makhanya
Andrew Verster
Selwyn Pekeur

Spain
Pep Guerrero
Sergio Mora
Eleazar
Oscar Seco
Luis Pérez

USA
Paul Goodnight
Marcus Antonius Jansen
James Gemmill
Robert Sturman
James Fiorentino
Burton Morris
Michael Kupka

World of Art Award winning Danish artist Asbjorn Lonvig's EXCLUSIVE selection of his phenomenal Paris motifs.

2010-04-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

World of Art Award winning Danish artist Asbjorn Lonvig's EXCLUSIVE selection of his phenomenal Paris motifs.

World of Art Award winning Danish artist Asbjorn Lonvig's EXCLUSIVE selection of his phenomenal Paris motifs.
Asbjorn Lonvig has collected inspiration:
By strolling up and down the streets of Paris.
By drinking lots of cups of espresso at the all too welcoming Parisian cafes.
By attending all the museums.
By watching any French TV event possible - especially the Tour de France and the Le Mans.
By Googling Paris with the new street facility, which means
that you literally can walk in the streets of Paris as if you were there.
Now Asbjorn Lonvig's own words:
Recently I was working on a motif of the Old Town Clock in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Of course I would very much like to go there - that was the only option in ancient times (ancient times in internet terminology is one month ago). By using the street facility of Google I went for a walk in Halifax, around the Old Town Clock! - I got all the inspiration I needed.
By clicking on a motif my great partners in Palo Alto (Zazzle.com) will help you.
You will see a much more comprehensive description.
You will see art prints in different sizes from small (16" x 11") to large (78" x 52").
My Palo Alto friends even can print the motifs for you, print it and send it to you.
I work with several art print on demand partners but the Palo Alto people are the best.
You probably need a little more from my CV.
In 2010 the art publisher World of Art in London, UK publishes the art book "Creative GENIUS".
100 Contemporary artists are selected from all over the world.
Believe it or not, one of them is ME!!!.

Art’s vital importance in communicating “unusual” corporate values

2010-01-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

It is the 12^th time.
The 12^th time that I made a motif for a award winning company.
The award is the Danish Industry Initiative Award 2009.
The company is the Fittings Specialist in Fredericia, Denmark.
It was a couple of months ago.
As always I initiate the job by talking to the CEO. His name is Finn Roy, and he thoroughly informed me about products, organisation, etc.
We managed to drink three cups of coffee.
The chemistry between us was right.

Now you must see the robot, Finn Roy said.
The robot???
First I thought of Gyro Gearloose' Little Helper in the Disney Comic series Donald Duck by Disney and then of Lego Robots by Lego in Denmark.

I recently heard about robots that could create 3D prints - but these have just been invented and they are not yet tested properly.
Then there are CNC robots that I have seen in different companies.
But.
It was none of the above.
I was without a clue.

In plain English the robot collects items from stock for delivery.
Technically speaking the robot was a LOGIA WMS - an internal logistics- and warehouse management robot, which was integrated in Concorde C5 - the administrative computer system.

You might wonder that The Fittings Specialist can handle 35.000 items.
The robot is the secret.
It collects fittings from 88.000 boxes on two rows of shelves in a height of 7 meters (23 feet).
The robot rushes along among the 88.000 boxes - up and down, back and forth- all day with 25 miles per hour.
Without sweating.
The robot is computerized and it optimizes itself all the time. Among other things it places items with a high frequency together.
It doesn't use its full capacity - it runs at nearly only half power (60%).
The Fittings Specialist is increasing the number of item numbers due to world wide expansion.

The motif, which was granted to The Fittings Specialist - winner of Danish Industry's InitiativeAwardCompetition. To the left tubes with fittings. In the middle the fairy tale about Robert Robot and to the right Robert Robot himself. Robert Robot is constructed from fittings in the Fittings Specialist's catalog.

Through my talks with the CEO, by attending the presentation and listening to Finn Roy, John Damkjær, chairman of Danish Industry Region and Uffe Steiner, the mayor of Fredericia and not least by talking to the staff and guests, I had sure a feeling, that this was something special.
Why - I know a lot of companies - why is this particular company something special.
I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
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And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
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And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
And I wondered.
Oh!!!!
I see!!!!
They use - consciously or unconsciously - a very special set of corporate values.
I'll use ART to make this fact visible to the staff, to management, to customers, to suppliers, to the surrounding organizations, to the surrounding society, to......
I constructed 6 keywords that matched the special set of corporate values.
Here are the keywords:

Interplay/Decency - Interplay among colleagues, customers, suppliers and others - in a decent way...
Meticulosity - Means care, precision, solicitude, be careful. Quality at all levels...
Respecting Recharging - Employees have the right and an obligation to recharge...
Changeability/IT-Readiness - The company as a whole needs to be ready for change...
Think Globally - In the near future the company intend to approach international markets so employees must think globally.
Strict Financially Management/Strict Equity Control - Strict financial management ends up in strict equity control.

Inspired by these keywords I have designed 6 artworks, size: 132,1 x 132,1 cm (52 x 52") primarily for a permanent exhibition in the headquarters, but as well for promoting the special corporate values in general:

Interplay/Decency
An employee in the Fittings Specialist communicates on a daily basis with management, colleagues, customers, suppliers, people in different fields of service etc. etc.
All communication and any agreement, deal etc. is based on decency.

Meticulosity
Means care, precision, solicitude, be careful.
Every process in the company needs to live up to the highest standards concerning quality.
Meticulosity or Meticulousness even means
Extremely careful and precise or extremely or excessively concerned with details.

Respecting Recharging
Employees have the right and an obligation to recharge.
As a ground rule we do not do overtime.
It's important that our most valuable resource is fit at any time during work time. This can only be accomplished by insisting on that the employees have a fruitful leisure time, a fruitful family life etc.

Changeability/IT-Readiness
There is a rapid change in how to operate a company.
The company as a whole needs to be ready for change, the employees need to be ready, customers need to be ready and even suppliers need to be ready.
Especially the field of Information Technology (IT) sees changes every day. New opportunities.
It's important to be constantly aware of what happens in the IT field.

Think Globally
In the near future we intend to approach international markets so we must think globally. We can reach every spot in the world by the internet.
We can offer our products and we can accept orders via phone or internet.
Hereafter the main issue is to observe developments in logistic possibilities.
Improving your English is another issue.

Strict Financially Management/Strict Equity Control
Strict financial management ends up in strict equity control.
This is extremely important in our company as we want to increase our number of items and want to approach international markets.
The value motifs and the adjacent texts were presented to the CEO: Bulls Eye, he said.

The employees were introduced to the special corporate values in a folder in English and a meeting with me.
In order to underline and distribute the value motifs much more than usual I have designed a Fittings Specialist e-shop in which the company, employees etc.
can buy posters, postcards and merchandise like T-shirts, shoes, mugs, mouse pads etc. - all of them based on the 6 motifs.
You can see the contents of the e-shop at www.zazzle.com/fittings. The e-shop is based on the concept "Manufacturing on Demand", which means, that the products are manufactured and shipped AFTER ordering. No stock needed, you can buy only one piece, if you like.
Fittings Specialist's e-shop is run by a team of computer nerds in PaloAlto, CA in USA. Nerds that I have worked together with for some time.
They are crazy.
The most crazy thing they have introduced so far - as nothing is impossible - is an agreement with US- Postal, meaning that I as a PRO-Contributor to Zazzle can design US-Postal stamps for any company I like.

Sincerely,
Asbjorn Lonvig, Artist
"Lille Fejringhus"
43 Fejringhusvej
8722 Hedensted
Denmark

Reading out loud my fairy tales - signing "9 Bernhards" posters - showing www.LONVIG-by-MINYMO.com

2008-09-08T03:08:00.000-07:00

New kids' clothing brand LONVIG by MINYMO - Autumn 2008 Collection

In Aarhus, Denmark at Café Slabberas on 6 September 2008.

Today my destination was Aarhus. At Café Slabberas, 26 Frederiksgade in Aarhus at 10 a.m.

It was early in the morning.

I was preparing myself for the event.

My wife rushed into the gallery where I was - she had heard some "voices".

Calm down, calm down - it is nothing but me practicing - reading out loud the fairy tale "Lucca and Sam in the Zoo...".

After a couple of rehearsals I was confident.

At Café Slabberas I was welcomed by beautiful ladies.

A computer with fast internet was ready.

Everything was ready.

Depending on what happened, I had 3 possibilities.

Reading out loud, signing the mini poster "9 Bernhards" and showing www.LONVIG-by-MINYMO.com on the internet.

Signing of mini poster "9 Bernhards" was a hit. This was what I spent most of the time doing this 6 September 2008 in Aarhus.

I contacted the parents, wrote the name of their child down at the left and signed down to the right.

This was the perfect way to enter a conversation, and when I told that the new kids' clothing brand LONVIG by MINYMO was based on my fairy tales and fairy tale character - a very positive contact was established. And I probably talked, and talked, and talked...

For a start the computer was used - but it was not necessary to pass the message.

I talked to a Chinese, I talked to a German, I talked to one from Greenland and one from my home city Hedensted. I talked to one from Frederikshavn and a lot from Aarhus. Among the people from Aarhus there was one from a kindergarten.

I asked all of them to take a closer look at the wonderful kids' clothing in the LONVIG by MINYMO line.

I asked them to go home and read out loud my fairy tales on the web site.

I asked them to take a closer look at the web site with its book shop, shoe shop, poster shops, clock shop, fairy tale theatre, jigsaw puzzle games etc.

For a star I talked to people entering the second floor.

Later I went down into the outdoor Café Slabberas to ensure that all visitors got a poster for their children.

I talked to a granddad - he was an IT nerd - I showed the fairy tale theatre to him. This granddad had 3 grand kids and there is no doubt that he soon has built fairy tale theatres for them.

A young lady, she was called Karin, she owned a poster store at Sct. Clemens Torv not far away. She loved Bernhard. I have sent an e-mail to her and we will see what happens.

Only one "9 Bernhards" mini poster was left at closing time. At 4 p.m.

The last poster was dedicated Tristan and his parents. But they did not show up.

I'll see to that Tristan gets his poster.

I had talked to people since 10 a.m. - interrupted only by a wonderful brunch, which Café Slabberas served.

And then an unknown number of espressos and café americanos during the day.

I was tired but very happy, that my message was passed so very easily.

When you do such things - and especially if you are a little aggressive - you might have a negative response from some.

Not one responded negatively - everybody was happy and thanked me for doing it...

Super!

Sincerely,

Asbjorn Lonvig

Lille Fejringhus

43 Fejringhusvej

8722 Hedensted

Denmark

+45 7589 0477

lonvig@mail.dk

And now I am very excited to hear the response from the 58 image projector show with Beatles music on church organ which started on 29 August 2008.

It has been shown every night at 9 p.m. during the Aarhus Festival. The Aarhus Festival ends 7 September 2008.

Click on icon to download in high resolution

Synergetic Effects

2008-08-26T13:56:00.001-07:00

I am an International commercial counselor writing on behalf of the World of Art Award* winning artist, designer and fairy tale writer Asbjorn Lonvig.

Lonvig has a very unique background as an IBM trained software engineer and is world renowned for his determined use of IT and Internet in art, design and writing.

Lonvig works in simple shapes and bright colours, and his artist statement is:
“Colourful Simplicity in Art as in Life.” He is dedicated to use his art, design and fairy tale characters commercially, in close cooperation with skilful designers from various businesses who are experts within their fields.

The tremendous synergetic effects that his art generates, is exactly what sparks Lonvig's greatest desire! A great example is the kids clothing brand
LONVIG by MINYMO.

Are you up for the challenge to create LONVIG by [YOUR COMPANY]?

Please see selection of images!

Sincerely,

Flemming Martin, MSc.

International Commercial Counselors

Praestehaven 4

DK-8722 Hedensted

Denmark

+45 2666 3330

FlemmingMartin@InternationalCommercialCounselors.com

*) The World of Art Award:

The World of Art Award (WAA) is granted to artists, galleries and museums that are pursuing "best practices" in art and culture. This competition seeks to attract artists, galleries, museums who are redefining standards of art excellence challenging existing trends and tendencies

in art and culture.

100 % organicl kids' fairy tale inspired clothing now in the stores in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Germany...

2008-08-26T09:20:00.001-07:00

New organic kids' clothing brand LONVIG by MINYMO,

based on Danish fairy tale writer and illustrator Asbjorn Lonvig's

fairy tales and fairy tale characters, is now in stores and internet stores. Size 74 to 110.

The autumn 2008 line introduces the fairy tale character Bernhard, a whimsical monkey.

See more about it on www.LONVIG-by-MINYMO.com.

Among other things you can read and download the fairy tales.

See where you can buy the kids' clothing - in stores or internet stores - click here.

If you are a store, an internet store or an agent please contact LONVIG by MINYMO (Export Manager Jesper Maansson's e-mail address) for authorization to sell the brand.

Below you can see photos of wonderful kids in the amazing kids' clothing:

LONVIG by MINYMO

2008-03-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

A new kids' clothing brand was launched at the Copenhagen International Fashion Fair this spring.
The brand is based on Asbjorn Lonvig's fairy tales. The name of the brand is LONVIG by MINYMO. MINYMO is an existing very successful brand in kids' clothing.
LONVIG by MINYMO is a high quality ecological kids' clothing brand.

This collection is built on the fairy tale character Bernhard form the fairy tale "Sam and Lucca in the Zoo...". Bernhard is a monkey.
You can read more about this new concept on www.lonvig-by-minymo.com. You even can read the fairy tales and download your own book.

Logo 2008 launched to Hans Christian Andersen Festival Plays

2008-03-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

Every year Asbjorn Lonvig designs a new logo to Hans Chrsitian Andersen Festival Plays. This year the Musical is based on the fairy tale "The Tinderbox".

The logo is an interpretation of "The Tinderbox".
Click on the logo and see a lager image.

Storytelling Art Event....

2008-03-24T04:16:00.001-07:00

Vejle is a City in Denmark.
Vejle has a soccer team.
This soccer team is called Vejle Boldklub.
Vejle Boldklub has had many famous soccer players over the years.
In order to pass on the great history of Vejle Boldklub to sponsors, the fan club, the crowd, the public a new initiative has been started.
This new initiative is called Vejle Boldklub Storytelling.
Each and every time the Vejle soccer team plays at home there are 2 exhibitions of 15 plates each in the 2 VIP lounges. The exihibition shows newspaper pages and pages from the club annual telling a story on a particular tema.
A brand new wonderful stadion was opened on 20. March 2008 by famous soccer player Allan Simonsen. Originally he was from Vejle, but now he lives in Barcelona, Spain, where he celebrated huge achievements with his team Barcelona FC on the renowned and huge stadium in Barcelona - Nuo Camp.
If you are a tourist in Barcelona, and you tell people in Barcelona, you are from Denmark, they spontanously say SIMONSEN.
On the opening day the tema of Vejle Boldklub Storytelling was of course Allan Simonsen.
He looked at the exhibition and he obviously enjoyed it.
You can see these exhibitions on the internet as well.
The web address is www.vejle-boldklub-storytelling.dk.
The web site uses Zmags simplified e-publishing software to present the newspaper pages and the club annual pages.

In the hall of this brand new stadium in Vejle, there is a sculpture by Asbjorn Lonvig. The sculpture is in red - it is the club color - and it symbolizes the two main sources of the storytelling. There is a newspaper bike with samples of the newpaper Vejle Amts Folkeblad and there is a sach truck with samples of the club annual.
The slogan of the storytelling is written on the sculpture:...with NO PAST - you have no future (in Danish: ...uden FORTID - ingen fremtid).
Click on the sculpture image to see a larger image.

In the hall there is a portrait of the tema soccer player as well. It is placed at the entrance on an aisle. This portrait is 91,5 x 91,5 cm, print on canvas, one of a kind and it is done by Asbjorn Lonvig. The portrait is for announcing the tema and after the Storytelling Art Event the portrait is placed in a "Wall of Fame". You can download the portrait at no charge at www.vejle-boldklub-storytelling.dk).
Click on the portrait image to see a larger image.
After the Art Event the plates are stored in the archives of the Vejle Boldklub Museum.

Vejle Boldklub Storytelling is a non-profit initiative made by the newspaper Vejle Amts Folkeblad, Vejle Boldklub, Vejle Boldklub Museum and the Vejlelibraries.

An Art Exhibition on the church tower and an Organ Concert with Beatles music.

2007-08-20T04:51:00.000-07:00

On 24 August 2007 during ”Hedensted by Night” artist Asbjorn Lonvig and organist Carsten Thomsen performs an ART EVENT.
It starts shortly after sunset at 9.05 p.m. and it is ended by a firework at 11 p.m.
By means of a projector and a computer Asbjorn Lonvig shows his recent art works in size 6 x 9 meters, that is 20 x 30 feet on the top of the crystal white Hedensted Church Tower. At the same time organist Carsten Thomsen does an organ concert.
Beatles music of course.
A brand new composition af 18 Beatles tunes is done for this purpose.
This composition is done with the point of departure in Asbjorn Lonvig’s art which represent “Colorful Simplicity”.
Never before Beatles has been interpreted in this way. “Colorful Simplicity”.
The Beatles music is played very true to Beatles without any errands on the way, without that the organist focuses on showing his own the organ’s aibilities. The interpretation is light and melodic.
Very colse to the fundamental ideas of the Beatles’ music. Asbjorn Lonvig got the idea of this Art Event and the parochial church council of Hedensted Church has supported the idea financialy. The council’s intention is to signalise the roomy church, the roomy Christianity. To signalise that the church is a cultural centre on many levels.
140 art works in 7 categories are shown on the church tower:

Christ and Christianity: ”Christ”, Christ – Blue”, ”San Francesco”, ”Adam and God” inspired by Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam on the ceiling of The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in Rome, “Sagrada Familia” by Gaudi etc.
New Hedensted Motifs: Interpretation of the huge metallic sculpture by the motorway (by Asbjorn Lonvig), ”The Mayor’s wife’s golf hat”, ”The TV2 antenna at Kragelund common, ”The windmill at Agersboel Manor House”, ”Agersboel Manor House”, “Hedensted Church” “The Priest’s Tie”, “The Sexton’s Mug”, “Postcard to Arnt Oda”, US Postal stamp with Hedensted Church, “Oester Snede Church”, “Sindbjerg Church”, “Williamsborg Manor House”, “Korning Church”, inspiration from Gl. Sole etc.
Motfs from the surrounding area: Vejle, Haderslev, Aarhus etc...”Vejle Inlet Bridge”, ”Niels Kjeldsen’s Helmet”, ”The Egtved Girl’s Belt”, Boerkop Watermill”, ”Hadeslev Cathedral”, ”Cafe Faust”, ”22 North Street” (Jyske Bank), ”7 North Street” (Kreditforeningen Danmark), ”Aros Aarhus Art Museum”, The City Hall Tower in Aarhus, ”Aarhus Teatre”, ”Thee Mansard House” in The Old Town in Aarhus, ”Marselisborg Palace”, ”Aahus Cathedral”, ”St. Clemens Courtyard”, ”1 Cathedral Place” (Nykredit)
Beautiful houses in the surrounding area: Churches, Palaces, Manor Houses....”Oerumgaard Manor House”, “Rohden Manor House”, “Ussinggaard Manor House”, “Loendal Manor House” etc.
Denmark: “Christiansborg Palace”, “Erich Erichsen’s Mansion” at the Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen (Den Danske Bank), “2 Guardsmen”, “The Ugly Duckling”, Post Denmark’s “Post Box”, “Tranekaer Palace”, “Koldinghus Castle Ruin” etc.
The world: ”Guggenheim?” in New York, Victorian house in San Francisco, Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay Area, Killer Wales in The Pacific Ocean, Grand Canyon seen from a helicopter, Chicago’s Gangster Past in 1920s, Canadian Maple Leaves, “Toronto Skyline”, “Thunderbird” from British Columbia, Mona from Paris, Champs Elysees in Paris, Septumus Severus Arch in Roman Forum, Rome, “Spanish Bull”, Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtnis Kirche in Berlin etc.
The Mysteri of The Orient: Is the theme of ”Hedensted by Night”...motifs from Fujiyama, Tokyo, The Wall of China, Shanghai, Mount Everest, Mediterrania etc.
As a spectator you see these motifs quietly slide across the church tower while the Beatles music is sent out from the tower windows via professional concert loudspeakers from Nordic Rentals A/S. Nordic Rentals has been fair with prices and is kind of sponser of the Art Event as well.

Here you have the Beatles music that is performed:
1) Yesterday
2) All My loving
3) A Hard Day's Night
4) Norwegian Wood
5) Blackbird
6) Eleanor Rigby
7) Penny Lane
8) With A Little Help from My Friends
9) Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
10) Leaving Home
11) A Day in the Life
12) Lady Madonna
13) All You Need is Love
14) The Fool on the Hill
15) Hey Jude
16) Let it Be
17) Imagine
18) When I'm 64 + Yesterday

There is a 5 minute brake every 40 minutes.
The organist needs some rest.
I’l show my fairy tale character in the brake: Octo-Pus the Cuttlefish, Crab-Mac-Claw the Crab, Frederic The Frog, Elias the Elephant, Farmer Jack etc.

Asbjorn Lonvig and Carsten Thomsen intend to explore the results of synergy between Asbjorn’s art and Carsten’s music in the near future. They plan more Art Events, music based on Asbjorn’s art work, a children’s song book etc.

Samples of art works shownon the church Tower:

Largest Art Event Ever...

2007-01-13T02:38:00.000-08:00

By Asbjorn Lonvig

A new Michelangelo has been born?
A new Rembrandt?
A new Van Gogh?
A new Picasso?
No.
Larger.

The internet revolutionized computer business.
By accident.
Art has not been revolutionized by the internet.
Yet.
For the last month I have eagerly tested ImageKind.com.
In the Beta test and after the launch some months ago.
I knew ImageKind.com was right for me.
You create your piece, you load it up, you set price, that's it.
I have created 500 new peaces in 25 Galleries.
People around me are sure I'm in sane.
I was pleased about ImageKind's ambitions: To build the largest and best platform for buying, creating, and selling art.
Easy to say.
But.
Very, very hard to accomplice.
This morning, however, I knew the Art world would be revolutionized.
The revolution is around the corner.
Talks are going on between ImageKind and Amazon.com.
Amazon.com has what ImageKind doesn't have.
And what ImageKind probably never will have.
A brand.
The place you go when you want to buy online.
And a dream comes through.
I create my pieces, I load it up, I set the price and a customer looks at it a few moments after.
No Mr. 25 %, no Mr. 10 %, no Mr. 50 %.
No galleries, no curators, no museums.
No intervention.

Just me, the artist and the customer.

My User Portal Concept...

2006-12-11T01:58:00.000-08:00

A user portal is a portal for one specific user,
a country, a city, a municipality, a museum, a company etc.
It shows and it has links to those art works that might be relevant to that specific user.
The User Portal logo is the arch of Septimus Severus in Forum Romanum, Rome.

Why User Portals?
The short and simple answer is to serve my customers better and to seve customers that are not familiar with computers, with internet etc.

I'll show you a User Portal.
I am building the Aarhus City Portal right now.
Aarhus City is the second largest city in Denmark.
Aarhus City has 225.000 inhabitants.
So, this user portal intends to serve 225.000 users.

The first thing to do is to create motifs that describe Aarhus City.
I went to Aarhus and found buildings and landmarks of Aarhus, that I could use.
The new museum, the city hall tower, the queen's summer residence, the Theater, a house in the Old Town, the cathedral and finally the old cathedral office in St. Clemen's Courtyard.

Today I finished these motifs:

I load large files of all the images to print on demand contracting parties in Salt Lake City, Seattle, and San Francisco Bay Area. The images are approved at once in Salt Lake City and Seattle. In San Francisco the images might wait for approval.

First of all I use a User Portal logo.

The logo is of course a portal. In a matter of fact it is a very specific portal. It is the Arch of Septimus Severus, which was erected in the Roman Forum in A.D. 203 by the Roman Emperor Septimus Severus.
You can't study Roman history without visiting the Roman Forum once.
You can't visit the Roman Forum without passing through the Arch of Septimus Severus.
In this logo a BETA will shown in the big arch. That is because the 40 different User Portals, that have been launched so far are being tested.
The Aarhus City Portal is marked with a BETA, too.

See the Aarhus City Portal.
The motifs are presented. Here 7 motifs. You might see an enlargement by clicking on an image.
Then there are 3 sections. 1, 2 and 3.

1. The user must have some free titbit. So I give him the possibility to download three Word documents of each motif. Word documents that can be printed on the user's own printer.
I have to be aware of different formats in European and American standards. The European standard is A format and the American standard it is Letter format. The Aarhus City Portal probably will only be used by Europeans - therefore the A format is offered.

2. Here I guide the user to order print at print on demand contracting parties. One in Salt Lake City, one in Seattle and one in San Francisco Bay area.
By guiding to 3 print on demand contracting parties the users are offered a variety of sizes, prices, qualities and surfaces.
At the same time I keep track of what happens in this market.

The prices are kept low - the user only pays the base print price and internet costs. The user can order prints in sizes from 3.5 x 5” to 40 x 60” on paper and canvas – and some other funny surfaces like T-shirts, mugs, tote bags etc. etc. The print contracting party handles ordering and payment. The printing of course and the prints are sent directly to the user.

If the user wants to see some of the my other 750 images for print there is a link to the main pages in Salt Lake City, Seattle, and San Francisco Bay Area.

3. If the user wants something special. A painting. Limited edition prints. Signed prints. A huge print on canvas larger than 40 x 60" - no problem, he just has to contact me.

A brochure is available to each User Portal.
The brochure is of course used for initial presentation of the portal.
You can download the brochure Aarhus City Portal from the portal.

Thoughts.
Now what is the most important to succeed with these User Portals.
Is it to do excellent motifs? No!
Is it to simplify the User Portal? No!
Is it to make an extremely eye catching brochure? No!

It is to communicate the User Portal Concept to people that are not familiar with computers, with internet etc.
I can not do it myself.
I know too much.
Or!!!!
You might as well say I know much too little.

But.
Journalists know how to present this kind of stuff to their readers.
This week Ny Hedensted Portal and Ny Vejle Portal will have press coverage.
Tomorrow I'll translate the Aarhus City Portal into Danish and find a jounalist at the Aarhus newspaper Aarhus Stiftstidende.

New Article: Racing Cars - The Art Dimension...

2006-11-12T11:53:00.000-08:00

The newly opened art museum ARoS Denmark presents a large, artistic total installation on Formula One and Le Mans racing cars. With this world premiere of the unique meeting between art and racing cars, ARoS focuses on the sculptural and aesthetic dimensions of the cars – dimensions which will be emphasized in the artistic presentation.
The exhibition covers all of 1,400 square meters of the museum's special exhibition space and foyer.

Sculpture on wheels.
The exhibition aims to give the audience an experience of the dynamics and strength latent in the form language of these cars. By regarding racing cars not just as functional items, but also as pure form – as sculpture on wheels – the exhibition creates a symbiosis between two widely differing worlds: between the ultimate motor sport, and art.
The exhibition presents highlights of design history in the Formula One and Le Mans cars from 1932, and through almost three quarters of a century.
The exhibited racing cars are not only unique in their design forms; they have also seen active service on racetracks the world over, with such legendary drivers as Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart.

Total installation.
In a ground-breaking presentation, guests are introduced to a unique universe.
The walls have been painted black.
The floor covered by reflecting steel plates.
The gallery columns have become red, metallic pistons.
The lights have been turned into giant piston rings.
The racing cars are presented on steel podiums in an installation of light, sound and moving images.
On the black walls hang relief showing the contours of the world's Formula One racetracks, while the big screens in the exhibition rooms show sequences from races, relating the exhibition to the reality for which the cars were created.

Soundtrack.
The many visual impressions are supported by an acoustic soundscape which lends an extra dimension to the exhibition's varied and intense experiences.

Among the exhibited cars are: Ferrari, McLaren, Tyrell, Lotus, Panoz, Jaguar, Vanhall, Maserati, Jaguar, Audi and Alfa Romeo.

Let's take a closer look at some of the most spectacular cars.
I am little boy.
Like nearly ever other grown up male when it comes to Racing Cars.
I have enjoyed the battle between Fernando Alonso from Spain and renowned German Michael Schumacher this year in the Formula One World Championship.
Fernando Alonso drives a Renault F1 and he has won the recent World Championship.
Schumacher drives, as you might know, a red Ferrari.
On 21 October this year the final race took place at the Interlagos Circuit in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
The race was quite exciting.
The odds were stacked against the Ferrari star from the outset after technical problems in qualifying left him only tenth on the grid.
Michael Schumacher however was flying.
Slamming in fastest sector times and slicing his way past back markers.
Smoke, oh no smoke.
Smoke from the engine of the Ferrari.

I was excited to see Michael Schumacher's red Ferrari at AROS Denmark on it's own steel podium.
I touched the Ferrari and knocked on it.
I was a little disappointed that it was all made of fiber.
I pushed it - it moved.
Amazing that anybody dears sit in these fragile light plastic boxes at speeds of up to 350 km per hour, that is 220 miles per hour.
In sane.
However the down force ensures they do not fly.
A curious fact is: At 160 km per hour, aerodynamically generated down force is equal to the weight of the car. In principle these Formula One monsters are capable of driving on the ceiling.

5 times Tom Kristensen from my country - Denmark won Le Mans in this Audi R8. Tom Kristensen has won Le Mans 6 times.
Other great Le Mans winners are Derek Bell and Jacky Ickx.
Le Mans is a 24 hour race once a year.
Danes that are not present at Le Mans in France are watching TV.
24 hours.
Enthusiastically.
This year the male population of Denmark expected a 7th Le Mans victory by Tom Kristensen.
Unfortunately another Audi won.

On the 4 pictures above you can see some of the other cars.
Williams BMW, Jaguar R3, Tyrell 006 and Lotus 72.
Williams was the most successful team of the 1990s, it all ended when their engine partner Renault withdrew from the sport.
The Ford group's luxury mark Jaguar enjoys the Formula One glory. So far the Americans only have achieved sporadic success.
Tyrell emerged as one of the leading Formula One teams of the late 1960s. Team owner Ken Tyrell created cars more functional than elegant.
Emerson Fittipaldi from Sao Poulo, Brazil is a legend in Formula One Racing. In this black Lotus 72 he won the Formula One Championship.

And.
The cars are beautiful and this beauty inspired me to some racing car motifs

Michael Schumacher's red Ferrari and Tom Kristensen's grey Audi R8.

The heart of any engine, the sparking plug - the goal of any race, the checkered flag.

Thoughts.
The little boy inside me is extremely happy. Any racing car enthusiast wants to see and touch the real thing.
The open minded art enthusiast says: How refreshing to see sports cars in an art museum. A welcome provocation. Fascinating presentation of sculptures on wheels!!! Interesting surroundings!!!
However.
My inner old boring and grumpy philosopher says: And so what? Now art museums have totally prostituted themselves and entered the entertainment industry!!! And then he wisely refers to Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Emperor's New Clothes"!!!

Letter to European Parliament...what about a similar project in YOUR country???

2006-07-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

Margrete Auken, MEP - Member of the European
Parliament
Bât. Altiero Spinelli
08H165
60, rue Wiertz / Wiertzstraat 60
B-1047 Bruxelles/Brussel

Dear Margrete Auken,

I was very pleased, as I found out that you were a member of
”Committee on Transport and Tourism” in European Parliament.

I'm an artist from Denmark.
The reason why this letter is in English is that it is my monthly contribution to WWAR Art News - WWAR is World Wide Art Resources in Columbus, Ohio - I hope you don't mind this.

It's all about a baby and it's all about children's safety in traffic.

This baby was born at the St. Mary Hospital years ago. The baby became a kind of logo and it was used as a sign, too.
A Drive Carefully sign.
As a Drive Carefully sign the baby proved to communicate, and it is used in several cities.
To supplement the sign I wrote and illustrated af small story called "Happy Traffic" with the theme children's safety in traffic and with the Drive Carefull sign in several languages.

As the internet was introduced everything went crazy.
The story was translated into English, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese etc.
Just now Yochanan Dvir from Lehavot Habashan in Israel is translating the Hebrew and Zahra Esmaeil Pour fra Lahijan-Gilan in Iran is translating the Persian version.

Now - to the point.
Yesterday a brainstorming took place - you always can discuss the abilities of the brains as well as the intensity of wind force.
But we got this idea:

We'll make a campaign on traffic safety.
Especially children's safety in traffic.

We'll start with the motor way number E45 which starts in Sweden and ends up in Gela on Sicily in Italy.
In a safe place, that might be in the right side of every motor way bridge we hang a large banner.

A banner with the baby and with the story "Happy Traffic".
Visible to everybody but of course without jeopardizing the safety of the traffic.
The stories are made available to EU citizens on the internet in their own language.
The stories are made available to EU citizens as children's books for free download.
The design of the traffic sign is made available to EU citizens for free download.

And all kinds of merchandise of corse must be available to EU citizens for online ordering on the
internet:
Posters in 17 sizes are available for online ordering right now.
From 12 July 2006 Child and Adult T-Shirts, Mouse pads, Coffee Mugs, Tote Bags, Puzzles, Coasters, Key Chains, Ceramic Tiles, Buttons, Aprons and even posters on canvas available to order online.

You name it.

I juni/juli/august 2007?

Thoughts
There are 1000 other possibilities with the baby as logo in children's safety in traffic
campaign as point of departure.
If you like the idea in any way I'll proceed in any direction you might point.

Sincerely,
Asbjorn Lonvig
Lille Fejringhus
8722 Hedensted
Denmark
75890477
lonvig@mail.dk

Sample of an Italian banner in Gela, Sicily?
Click on picture for enlargement.

Banner samples in Dansih, English, German, French and Italian.

Click on the posters above to see sizes etc.
Stories and children's books and even coloring books are available
at http://www.lonvig.dk/lucca.htm

Fairy Tales in a new Medium - Fairy Tale Posters...

2006-05-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

The concept is quite simple.
One language at a time.
One main fairy tale character.
The text of the fairy tale with illustrations.
That's it.

The Fairy Tale Poster lives side by side with the internet version
of the written fairy tale, which can be downloaded in a Word document and
form a tiny children's book.

I'll show you 5 samples of Fairy Tale Posters:

Tall Charlie is the name in English of the yellow giraffe.
Céline Maeder, Paris has done the translation into French.
Céline Maeder has made new French names to all my fairy tale characters.
Tall Charlie is called Sophie Moyenne.
Sophie Moyenne is a fairy tale character in "Au zoo avec Sam et Lucca",
"In the Zoo with Sam and Lucca".
See it ready to print on demand at ArtWanted.com.
See this Fairy Tale Poster enlarged.
See the written fairy tale on the internet.

The fairy tale "Happy Traffic" is about children's safety in traffic.
This Fairy Tale Poster is in English.
A baby is the main character.
He is on 12 traffic signs in 12 different languages.
The traffic signs have the text "HI - Drive Carefully".
The traffic sign in Danish "Hej - Kør Forsigtigt" has been tested
in 3 cities on more than 20 streets.
People have told me that they work according to the intention.
I write the fairy tales in English. My English is checked by Ann Watson, Florida and others.
See it ready to print on demand at ArtWanted.com.
See this Fairy Tale Poster enlarged.
See the written fairy tale on the internet.

This is the Hebrew translation of "Octo-Pus the Cuttlefish and
Crab-Mac-Claw the Crab".
The Hebrew translation is done by Yochanan Dvir, who lives in the kibitz Lehavot Habashan in Northern Israel near the Lebanese border.
Yochanan Dvir translates the fairy tales and put them on his own site in Hebrew www.sefer-li.net.
See it ready to print on demand at ArtWanted.com.
See this Fairy Tale Poster enlarged.
See the written fairy tale on the internet.

Francesca Fancini from Milan, Italy has translated
"Octo-Pus the Cuttlefish and Crab-Mac-Claw the Crab" into Italian.
The story is called "La Seppia e il Granchio" in Italian.
Green, white and red are the Italian colors.
See it ready to print on demand at ArtWanted.com.
See this Fairy Tale Poster enlarged.
See the written fairy tale on the internet.

The fairy tales are translated into Chinese by Ni Duan, Hangzhou, China.
Hangzhou is the capital of China's Zhejiang Province 120 miles south west of Shanghai.
A small Chinese city of 7 million people!!!
Ni Duan and Jan Engberg, Shanghai are helping me to find a Chinese publisher.
See it ready to print on demand at ArtWanted.com.
See this Fairy Tale Poster enlarged.
See the written fairy tale on the internet.

Translation into Japanese and Danish has been finished.
Translation into Spanish, Persian and Hebrew is in progress.
When this project is finished I think there are 50 Fairy Tale Posters.

Thoughts
Fairy Tale Posters.
Why?
Any use?

Digital Prints on Canvas???

2006-05-24T05:10:00.000-07:00

I would like to ask your opinion.
Once an art work has been digitized you can print it.
Usually you print on paper.
Or cloth.
Or plastic.
Or....

On this huge printer I can print in nearly any size.
On several surfaces.
One of them is canvas.

One day I printed the motif "1 Cathedral Square" on canvas.
It seamed unreal, it seamed unfair, I felt as if I violated some basic rules.
Unreal because a canvas usually takes hours and hours to paint.
Unfair because all the troubles you have during the painting process had disappeared.

But it was amazing.
The quality of the print was that of a serigraph.
The paint layer was thick giving you the color depth and not least the color fastness of the serigraph.
And I felt this smell of quality serigraph colors drying......
The smell in the room was like when you print silk screen prints.
Another thing is that canvas is much more durable than paper.

I would never be able to paint this motif so perfectly.
My son Morten paints much better than I do.
He might be able to do it.

This tiny close up photo of the print on canvas tells the whole story.
The close up is of a basement window.
And as you can see the texture of the canvas sure is there.

The visual differences between a painting and the print on canvas are:
In the painting you can see the brushstrokes.
You can see the painter's shaking hand.
From a technical point of view you might prefer the print?
From an artistic point of view you might prefer the painting?
Of course there is a difference in price.
A unique painting is more expensive than a print.

I was lucky to win The World of Art Award 2006 competition.
This competition seeks to attract artists, galleries, museums who are redefining standards of art excellence challenging existing trends
and tendencies in art and culture.
To celebrate this I'll market editions of 100 prints on canvas knowing that it might be controversial.

See my efforts.
And - if you like - you might visit my new web site lonvig.biz with vision and prices.

I'll continue my investigations, just now we are printing huge canvases for Lauritz.com auctions.
And then one large "Blue Sky - Guggenheim" to a North Atlantic customer.

Thoughts
I think people who like to have a print on canvas and not a painting on canvas should be offered the possibility
as long as there is no doubt what so ever which ones are printed and which one is painted.
For instance by writing number/edition in the lower left corner and by printing "Digital Art Laboratory" in the lower right corner below the signature.

And
I can't resist this opportunity to show you my work from last week - text posters:

Two genuine Rembrandt paintings found in Copenhagen...

2006-02-26T23:47:00.000-08:00

A few years ago I rushed out of a room in Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.
Gesticulating to my family, there are three Rembrandts - hanging side by side inside that room!!
Come, come, come.
"Who is Rembradt?", one said.
I believe it was in order to joke about my enthusiasm.

At an exhibition at the National Gallery in Denmark - in Danish it's called Statens Museum for Kunst - there is an exhibition titled "Rembrandt? The Master and his Workshop".
It takes place 4 February - 14 May 2006.

At this exhibition there are 100 Rembrandts!
There are 19 paintings and then prints and drawings by Rembrandt.
As I entered into the dark room with one spotlight on each Rembradt my enthusiasm was transformed into thankfulness and humility.
Thankfulness and humility due to the fact that I was blessed to experience this.
Contributions and loans from the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the Mauritshuis in the Hague, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the National Gallery in London, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and more made this unique event possible.
An experience of a lifetime.
The bare presence of 100 Rembrandts in one museum was far from the only highlight.

2 genuine Rembrandts found in Copenhagen.
The National Gallery in Copenhagen found two genuine Rembrandt paintings by the master himself in their archives.
Two paintings that have lived a life of obscurity in the collections at the National Gallery after having been rejected as genuine Rembrandts at different points during the 20th century.

As soon as I came home from the exhibition I took a close look at my own archives.
But unfortunately I found no Rembrandts.

The 2 paintings are now reattributed to Rembrandt. After three years of studies conducted in close co-operation with international experts, The National Gallery is in a position to conclude that in addition to a rich collection of prints and drawings by Rembrandt, the museum also owns two genuine paintings by the master himself.

Below you can study the two reattributed Rembrandts.

Study of an Old Man in Profile, c. 1630
approximately 20 x 25 cm - that's 8" x 10"
oil on canvas
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69)

You must click on the painting. I have made a large image available, so that you can enjoy it yourself.

The small Study of an Old Man in Profile is find made by Karl Madsen at Fredensborg Castle, where he discovered the painting in a storage in 1899. However, Rembrandt scholars doubted this attribution from as far back as 1933 onwards. Their doubts were mainly caused by the coarse style of painting. The scholars of the time found it difficult to reconcile this coarseness with what they thought of as the typically very meticulous and carefully finished style of Rembrandt's early works. Recent art history has, however, pointed out that even during the earliest stage of his career - the years spent painting in his native town of Leiden - Rembrandt experimented with broader and more varied brushstrokes. Like other works by the young Rembrandt, this small painting appears to be a practice piece. X-ray studies bear out this theory by showing us that the old man's head was painted on top of another head that appears in several of Rembrandt's paintings from those years. At the same time, studies of the wooden panel show that the wood can be traced back to Rembrandt in terms of both geography and time.

The Crusader, c.1659-61
approximately 60 x 80 cm - that's 23" x 31"
oil on canvas
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69)

You must click on the painting. I have made a large image available, so that you can enjoy it yourself.

In 1911 the Rembrandt connoisseur and then director of The National Gallery, Karl Madsen, found The Crusader in a remote corner of Fredensborg Castle where it had been placed in temporary storage. Despite Karl Madsen's evident enthusiasm for the painting, its status was soon called into question, and in 1969 it was rejected as a Rembrandt. The most recent studies now tell us that the painting is a sketch for The Knight with the Falcon (Göteborgs Konstmuseum). X-rays support this assumption by demonstrating that the underlying layers of paint are built up in a manner typical of Rembrandt. The piece presumably depicts the Dutch Saint Bavo, and the painting has the convincing oscillation between the precise and the spontaneous that is so typical of Rembrandt. At the same time it exemplifies the pastose manner of painting characteristic of the artist's late work. There are, however, some signs to suggest that parts of the painting were done by one of Rembrandt's students, a common practice at the master's workshop.

The studies took place in co-operation with an international panel of experts comprising the head of the Rembrandt Research Project, professor dr. Ernst van de Wetering, research technician with the Rembrandt Research Project Karin Groen, senior conservator David Bomford from the National Gallery in London, and head of conservation at the National Gallery Jørgen Wadum.
Based on the latest knowledge about Rembrandt and the artists in the circle around him - and technical studies such as x-rays, infrared reflectography, dendrochronology (the science of dating wood), studies of the canvas thread count, ground, layers of paint, etc. - the National Gallery has obtained much more knowledge about the works in question. For example, the two reattributed works have been placed at either end of Rembrandt's life's work. The studies are documented in a comprehensive book published in connection with the exhibition.

The National Gallery - Statens Museum for Kunst.
The Old Building.
A National Gallery with Rembrandts you would probably expect to look like this:

The museum building dates back to 1896 and was designed in ornamental
historicism by the architect Wilhelm Dahlerup. This building reflects the exuberant joy -
so typical of the period - taken in mixing several historical styles.
This is most clearly evident from the richly decorated facade and the imposing entrance,
which makes for a solemn transition from the outside world into the museum collections.

And the interior?
You might expect it to look like this.
Wouldn't you?

The National Gallery - Statens Museum for Kunst.
The New Building.
You would NOT expect the architecture to look like this:

In the huge stage room there was a projector and a screen.
Wonderful surroundings for an interactive lecture.

The National Gallery has two faces.
The new facade.
And the old facade.
One that depicts care for contemporary and modernistic trends.
And another that depicts care for the past.

The first highlight was 100 Rembrandts in one place,
the second highlight was the two genuine Rembrandt paintings
and the third highlight is an exhibition called...HIGHLIGHTS.

HIGHLIGHTS - an exhibition.
The most outstanding works in the collections of the National Gallery are presented in a new, challenging way.
In connection with an extensive fireproofing of the old building a plentiful selection of 700 years of art - ranging from contemporary artist Baselitz via Jorn, Picasso, Braque, Matisse to Eckersberg, El Greco, Cranach, Mantegna, Lorenzetti - and many others.
I must not forget Rubens.
The presentation is in some ways like the compact floor-to-ceiling hanging of the past, as experienced by the first guests to the National Gallery when it opened in 1896.

The works are hung from floor to ceiling and arranged chronologically.
However, the surroundings are changed, and the old paintings presents themselves quite differently in the white,
spacious rooms of the new building, just as the juxtaposition of the works show new analogies.

2004 - 1905 Contemporary and Modern Art
I have selected some of the art works from HIGHLIGHTS. They are shown in reverse chronological order:

Georg Baselitz (f. 1938), Crema, 2004, oil on canvas
Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973), Naked Woman lying by Window, 1971, pencil, red and blue chalk
Asger Jorn (1914 - 1973), Vision Rouge (Red Visions), 1944, oil on canvas
Amedeo Modigliani (1884 - 1920), Alice, 1918, oil on canvas
Georges Braque (1882 - 1963), Arbres (The Trees at l'Estaque), 1908, oil on canvas
André Derain (1880 - 1954), La danseuse ou la femme en chemise (woman in chemise), 1906, oil on canvas
Henri Matisse (1869 - 1954), Portrait of Madame Matisse. The Green Line, 1905, oil on canvas

1820 - 1337 Older Art.
Shown in reverse chronological order:

C.W. Eckersberg (1783 - 1853), Bella and Hanna. The Eldest Daughters of M.L. Nathanson, 1820, oil on canvas
El Greco (1541 - 1614), Portrait of a Man, 1570-1575, oil on canvas
Nicolas Poussin (1594 - 1665), The Testament of Eudamidas, 1644-1648, oil on canvas
Jan Gossaert (1478 - 1532), Portrait of a Man, 1493-1532, oil on wood
Lucas Cranach d. Æ. (1472 - 1553), Venus with Cupid stealing honey, 1530, oil on wood
Parmigianino (1503 - 1540), Portrait of Lorenza Cybo, 1523, oil on wood
Andrea Mantegna (1430 - 1506), Christ as the suffering Redeemer, 1495-1500, tempera on panel
Ambrogio Lorenzetti (1317 - 1348), St. John the Baptist, 1337-42, tempera on panel

After HIGHLIGHT.
The hanging is sure challenging. The art works do not have the space they usually have.
The juxtaposition of the works is challenging.
Old paintings side by side with new.
Styles are mixed.
Old paintings in the new building.
Sure new analogies are exposed.

But I have as a spectator a unique opportunity to explore.
I myself had paid no attention to Gijsbrects before.
The Flemish Cornelius Nobertus Gijsbrects.
He was a painter at the Danish Royal Court for some years.
He painted kind of photo realistic.
He had a wonderful twisted brain, he painted the backside of a framed painting.
A painting from 1675 seamed contemporary to me.
I know a contemporary guy who paints in exactly the same way.
I admire the craftsmanship.

Last time I had this feeling that a deceased artist lives right now was in Chicago.
In Oak Park I saw several of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses.
One from 1909 seamed built yesterday.

Two more exhibitions:
Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen: EgoShow, the x-room 18 February - 14 May 2006 and Danish Sculpture 1850-2000 in The Sculpture Street between the old and the new building.
It's not fair to either Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen or Danish sculptures to say anything about these exhibitions.
I saw them.
But my perception tools had been shut down due to mental exhaustion.

Thoughts.
Doing something challenging in the art world that forms a synthesis without deriving focus from the art - that's a branch of art itself.
With the exhibitions
"Rembrandt? The Master and his Workshop" and
SMK HIGHLIGHTS
the Notional Gallery has succeeded in this branch of art.

Once I saw something challenging in the art world that formed a synthesis without deriving focus from the art.
It was back in 1993.
Koldinghus Castle Ruin in Kolding, Denmark is most delicately restored and renewed by the architects Inger and Johannes Exner 1972-92.
The combination of this extraordinary historical atmosphere, the contemporary architecture and Miró's sculptures formed a synthesis.

The presence of the name Allis Helleland in both cases, at the National Gallery and at Koldinghus Castle Ruin might be coincidental?
It is not.

Photos: By SMK Foto

New Article: Two genuine Rembrandt paintings found in Copenhagen.

2006-02-25T01:53:00.000-08:00

The National Gallery in Copenhagen found two genuine Rembrandt paintings by the master himself in their archives.
Two paintings that have lived a life of obscurity in the collections at the National Gallery after having been rejected as genuine Rembrandts at different points during the 20th century.

Below you can study the two reattributed Rembrandts.

Study of an Old Man in Profile, c. 1630
approximately 20 x 25 cm - that's 8" x 10"
oil on canvas
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69)

You must click on the painting. I have made a large image available, so that you can enjoy it yourself.
The small Study of an Old Man in Profile is find made by Karl Madsen at Fredensborg Castle, where he discovered the painting in a storage in 1899. However, Rembrandt scholars doubted this attribution from as far back as 1933 onwards. Their doubts were mainly caused by the coarse style of painting. The scholars of the time found it difficult to reconcile this coarseness with what they thought of as the typically very meticulous and carefully finished style of Rembrandt's early works. Recent art history has, however, pointed out that even during the earliest stage of his career - the years spent painting in his native town of Leiden - Rembrandt experimented with broader and more varied brushstrokes. Like other works by the young Rembrandt, this small painting appears to be a practice piece. X-ray studies bear out this theory by showing us that the old man's head was painted on top of another head that appears in several of Rembrandt's paintings from those years. At the same time, studies of the wooden panel show that the wood can be traced back to Rembrandt in terms of both geography and time.

The Crusader, c.1659-61
approximately 60 x 80 cm - that's 23" x 31"
oil on canvas
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69)

You must click on the painting. I have made a large image available, so that you can enjoy it yourself.
In 1911 the Rembrandt connoisseur and then director of The National Gallery, Karl Madsen, found The Crusader in a remote corner of Fredensborg Castle where it had been placed in temporary storage. Despite Karl Madsen's evident enthusiasm for the painting, its status was soon called into question, and in 1969 it was rejected as a Rembrandt. The most recent studies now tell us that the painting is a sketch for The Knight with the Falcon (Göteborgs Konstmuseum). X-rays support this assumption by demonstrating that the underlying layers of paint are built up in a manner typical of Rembrandt. The piece presumably depicts the Dutch Saint Bavo, and the painting has the convincing oscillation between the precise and the spontaneous that is so typical of Rembrandt. At the same time it exemplifies the pastose manner of painting characteristic of the artist's late work. There are, however, some signs to suggest that parts of the painting were done by one of Rembrandt's students, a common practice at the master's workshop.

See my Article on this.

Sincerely,
Asbjorn Lonvig
Lille Fejringhus
43 Fejringhusvej
8722 Hedensted
Denmark
lonvig@mail.dk
www.lonvig.dk on art, design etc.
www.lonvig.org on writing, lecturing etc.

Photos: By SMK Foto

New Article: Search Engine Strategies for Success: 2006

2006-02-03T01:43:00.000-08:00

by John Wooton Author and Creator, The SEO Journal Blog and Asbjorn Lonvig.

Readers of my latest Art News Artblog have asked me to write about how I got a relatively good presence on the internet. Yesterday's statistics: 150,000 hits on Google.com and 100,000 hits on Yahoo.com on the search term "lonvig" and 64,708 hits and 1,176,552,123 bytes transferred per day on my web site http://www.lonvig.dk/.

John Wooton: As you know, every year is always rocked by a plethora of changes in the search engine marketing world. The acquisition of smaller companies by the Big 3 changes the marketing landscape as we know it every month and with every update to the index that is made, we hold our breath and hope that we come out better (if not, the same) in the end. So when it comes to the new year, there are many things that we should look out for to stay on top of the rankings.

1. Quality Content: I say this so often and I cannot overemphasize this enough: Content is KING! Search engine spiders, crawl the net to find what? Content! Your site has information (hopefully) that you want the spiders to see and include in their index. By the creation and publication of quality content, you give the search engines more reason to return. You are feeding them what they want. In 2006, you should be finding creative ways to get your content noticed and viewed as well as finding creative ways to publish fresh content on a regular basis. A very good way this is done is through the use of message boards (hosted on your site) and by blogs (enabling you to publish more frequently).

Asbjorn Lonvig:

Tell a story. Every time I enter something on the internet, on my own website or another web site like an online gallery I tell a story. Like what Jose Dali said about my fairy tale character Crab-Mac-Claw or Alice Garibaldi's view of my computer drafts of sculptures in Rome. For search engine optimization and submission to selected search engines I use the software IBP Internet Business Promoter by Axandra, Germany. For check of meta tags I use the free Meta Tag Analyzer from Submitexpress.com. This is to ensure 100 % title relevancy to page content, 100 % description relevancy to page content and 100 % keyword relevancy to page content.

Don't focus on your web main page (index page) - focus on every page, only 1.56 % of my visitors enter through the web main page.

__________________

John Wooton:

2. Don't Overextend Your Link Exchange Structure: Backlinks were a popular way to increase your rankings fast in the search engines. The tradition holds: find a PR7 website and trade backlinks and you'll be indexed in Google within 24 hours. That strategy still holds true and is beneficial for new web sites. But in my opinion the days of tremendous link swapping are coming to an end. Many website have been founded with the purpose of allowing you to exchange links with other web sites. This has caused a massive influx of web masters who want to exchange a ton of links with the hope that it will help them in the search engines. But what really matters when it comes to links is the amount of quality one way backlinks that direct users to your website. You want the balance of links to be in your favor, that is what leads to success. Also, there has been talk of search engines taking notice of these "link farms" and penalizing those who take part in them. So if you do take part in link exchanges, please be moderate in respect to the number of exchanges you take part in.

Asbjorn Lonvig:

I do not concentrate upon links any more. I only make links that are relevant to my content. If I am asked to link to a Kangaroo farm in Canberra, New South Wales, Australia, I sure will do it. Now and then I run a Link Popularity Check on my online galleries to check their degree of presence on the internet. The Link Popularity Check program is free and it is from Axandra, Germany. Absolutearts.com has the highest link popularity of all online galleries.

__________________

John Wooton:

3. RSS and XML: Two new technologies that have begun to take center stage especially in 2005 include a programming language that has been around for several years called XML. XML is short for extensible markup language and is a derivative from HTML. The main difference is your ability to create descriptive tags for your data. This has led to the advent of RSS or real simple syndication. RSS is a way for you to publish your data to an XML file hosted on your site. Users subscribe to your RSS feed via the XML file and whenever you make a changes to your XML file they are notified. It's become a major technology used by news agencies and bloggers alike as a simple method of publishing your information across a wide variety of platforms. XML has also proved useful with the Google Site maps program, newly released in 2005. The optional tags available with the XML site map allow you to be descriptive about the individual pages on your site including dates the individual pages were modified. There are some small things you need to pay attention to when creating this: namely you have to follow the Google xml schema, and you have to be diligent about tracking and fixing errors in the code. But if used correctly, it is a great way to help Google index the hidden pages of your website due to javascript or flash.

Asbjorn Lonvig:

I have made an RSS to all main pages on my web site and an RSS to every online gallery. I use the FeedForAll RSS feed creation tool to built my own RSSs. This way I have built 73 "hand made" RSSs. I use the following blogging systems for posting a lot of news and for automatic building of RSSs, ATOM feeds and RDFs: Blogger.com, Blogger.dk, Blog.com, Bloglines.com, Spaces.msn.com, Squarespace.com, Angelfire.com and Artday.org. Artday.org is Japanese. It is from Tokyo. And so is the image to the left. It's the Tokyo skyline with Tokyo Tower. The title is "Tokyo Moonlight". All of the above RSSs, ATOM feeds and RDFs - both my own "hand made" RSSs and the RSSs, ATOM feeds and RDFs generated automatically by blogging systems - are submitted to selected directories and search engines with the software RSS FEEDS Submit from rssfeedssubmit.com - if you need an introduction to RSS news feeds, you'll find it on rssfeedssubmit.com. I have built one site map in English and one in Danish.

___________________

John Wooton:

4. Stay away from Flash and Javascript for the time being: Flash and Javascript are very powerful tools for creating dynamic and eye catching web sites. The most prominent problem with the two technologies is that the spiders can't index through them (at least not yet). This limits your ability to have the search engines index portions of your site. Many have speculated that the Big 3 are working on solving this problem, but for the time being, avoid or limit your use of these technologies.

5. Avoid Unethical SEO: There are a lot of programs out there that help you to achieve maximum link back ratios in a very short amount of time. Some of them are good; some are bad. In fact, some of them will waste your effort trying to post trivial comments on blogs or trying to maximize your link exchanges. In my opinion, you should seek success in SEM the right, ethical way. Seek out honest web companies to exchange a moderate amount of links with. Post only relevant comments to forums and blogs because that behavior leads to lasting link backs. Also, don't try to manipulate your website to make it appear to have a higher PR than you really do. Google sees that one!

Asbjorn Lonvig:

I stay away from Flash and.....
I stay away from unethical SEO.

_____________________

John Wooton:

6. Last, but not least, Articles: There is a little bit of controversial talk about whether it is right to post articles for free use in directories. In my opinion, you are providing a well needed service to web masters and I don't see this one as a potential loss for 2006. Information is valuable. And web sites that need content (especially fresh content) desire what you do to make their efforts a success. So it is natural for your web site rankings to benefit through backlinks from those articles. It's a win win situation. One other thought on this subject. Right now, the search engines can punish web sites for having duplicate content, and that is an argument that many will propose. But, the search engines will usually only punish you if the html format of a web site is similar, not a couple of articles. So posting articles is safe for now. But be cautious. Many lucrative methods of ethical SEO can be turned into a problem when too many people attempt to abuse the technology. So that's it. Short, but informative. SEO is both an art and a technology that we have to use correctly for the right type of success. Who knows what the year ahead may bring, but playing your cards right, you can achieve success and avoid any pitfalls that may come.

Asbjorn Lonvig:

This Art News Artblog article is an example of Articles. I write articles to as you know WWAR/Absolutearts, to Editorial Qroquis - a printed art magazine in Buenos Aires (translated into Spanish) and ADN World ArtNews in Tokyo. Furthermore my articles are published on selected RSSes of my own, on all the blogging systems mentioned above and on the online gallery ArtCad.com in Paris. To keep track of the effect of my efforts to have a relatively good internet presence I use a server based statistic system on my web hotel called InSite. I use Google Alerts to continuously inform me what new things of mine have been indexed. Occasionally I check presence on Yahoo.com. And then I check the online galleries. January 2006 WWAR/Absolutearts topped with 73,000 hits followed by ArtWanted in Salt Lake City with 21,000 hits. Other online galleries like Yessy.com in Denver Colorado had 17,000 hits and a new online galley in Paris - ArtPourTous - had reached 4000 visitors. "Grand Maitre" to the right - that is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - is of course exhibited in Paris. I'm working hard to produce decent traffic on all online galleries.

__________________

Asbjorn Lonvig:

Thoughts. Your sales has nothing to do with your artistic talent, with your exhibition at Chicago Athenaeum or with nice words written about your art in a French book on "How to communicate through pictures". It's all about your internet presence???

Thanks. I want to thank John Wooton Author and Creator, The SEO Journal Blog for permitting me to use his article "Search Engine Strategies for Success: 2006", which I read 5 January 2006 in Entireweb Newsletter.

Questions. Ask all the questions you like in comments to this entry.

2006 - a happy new year...

2006-01-02T00:44:00.000-08:00

Good morning - it's 1 January 2006. Yesterday I performed all traditional Danish rituals in order to enter 2006 in a happy way. In order to make 2006 a Happy New Year. A splendid seafood dinner, serpentines, table bombs, funny hats, lots of rockets etc. Except one traditional Danish ritual. I was not drunk. No beer. No vine. No drinks. No champagne. Lots of mineral water. My entrance to 2006 was vertical. Not horizontal as it often was. I have no hangovers. I have cleaned up my domestic domaine and I am ready to write.

I have decided that 2006 is a happy new year... A wise man - a philosopher from Copenhagen - said at the end of 2005: Don't put your life into an account. Live your life now - passionately. Don't commit yourself to any New Year Resolutions. Don't exercise. Don't loose weight. Don't quit smoking. Don't... Don't put your life into an account. Live your life now - passionately. The wise man of course said this with a smile. But I sure see his point.

Here is how I'll try to live my artist life - now - passionately:
- Weekly domestic art initiatives.
- The World Wide Days project.
- The revival of the poster project.
- The Auctions project. - Monthly interactive lecture in Lille Fejringhus Gallery.
- Monthly article to online and printed Art Magazines.
- Fairy Tales.
- The book Museums of the world.
- Education, education and education.

Weekly domestic art initiatives.
Is about continuously being in touch with the domestic market.
By personally presenting new art works to potential buyers.
It's about earning a living. ¨

World Wide Days.
Is about continue building a network of online galleries worldwide.
It's about optimizing existing exhibitions.
It's about adding new art works to the exhibitions.
It's about monitoring new exhibition possibilities.

Revival of the poster.
It's about marketing the print on demand of my art works.
Print on demand ordered online at my print partners in Salt Lake City, UT and Raleigh, NC.
Print on demand - prints on paper or canvas - ordered at Asbjorn Lonvig Digital Art Laboratory.

Auctions.
Is about auctioning art works on ebay.com, kunstverket.se and other auctions.
It's about maintaining skills about how to do it.
It's about optimising use of online auctions.

Monthly interactive lecture in Lille Fejringhus Gallery.
Is about deciding myself where and when to do interactive lectures.
Lille Fejringhus Gallery is the perfect place.
An interactive lecture is mentally exhausting, so only once a month would be nice.

Monthly article to online and printed Art Magazines.
Is about being on the move, about telling the stories, that an artist must tell.
It is about a kind of relaxation.
A visual artist relaxes when he expresses himself literally.

Fairy Tales.
Inuit Circumpolar Area culture and especially Greenlandish culture are the inspiration to a series of new fairy tales in children's books.
The Laura-project it is called.
I'll visit Greenland in 2006.
The fairy tale series the Lucca-project has been translated from English into Dansih, German, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese.
In 2006 a bilingual edition in English and Persian (Arabic) will be published.

Museums of the world.
Is about Editorial Croquis, which is a printed art magazine and a publishing company in Buenos Aires that has run some of my articles about art museums in Spanish.
The director and editor of Editorial Croquis Martin Enriques Gil has recently asked me to write a book "The Museums of the World by Asbjorn Lonvig", published by Editorial Croquis in Danish, Portuguese, Spanish and English.
And I have answered: I'll do it, I'll find out how. In 2006 I'll do something about it. Layout. Edition sizes. Sponsor contracts. The first visits to museums etc.

Education, education and finally education.
Is about using computer and internet in art and art marketing.
I have to continuously improve my skills in this area - even if I originally was a trained IBM software specialist.
In 2006 my skills concerning using Adobe Illustrator CS2 must be raised to a professional level.

Thoughts.
Some years Artprice.com - the leading art information company in the market - pronounced that the art market would increase to 3,5 times the existing art market because of computers and internet.
Since then I have concentrated 100 % on using computer and internet.
During this period of time I have got a lot of condescending response.
I believe the whole art market now is realizing that Artprice.com was right.

In 2006 condescension will be replaced by acceptance???

The article "Matisse and Louisiana..." by Asbjorn Lonvig published in Spanish

2005-12-25T23:16:00.000-08:00

The article "Matisse and Louisiana..."
by Asbjorn Lonvig published in Spanish in the Art Magazine Croquis,
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
See the Spanish translation by Editorial Croquis.

New Article: Revival of the Art Poster...by Asbjorn Lonvig

2005-12-01T21:55:00.000-08:00

The art poster is dead.
The director of the Hans Christian Andersen Festival Plays, said to me.
Too bad.
I am a poster designer.
It is a fact that the art poster is dead when it comes to advertising.
Only major cultural events still use posters for advertising.
Other media have ousted the poster as an advertising media.

Publishing posters traditionally is very complicated.
First you choose a relevant art work.
Then you prepare it for print.
Then you print it.
To decide edition sizes concerning posters is the hard part.
Then you distribute the poster.
Preparing, printing and distribution are costly.
Nearly nothing is left for the artist.

Print on demand is the answer.
You can work with print on demand in at least 3 ways.

1. Print on Demand at ArtWanted.com
ArtWanted is a .com that can handle ordering, online payment, quality print and shipment.
And as an interesting feature at ArtWanted the artist himself can decide the prices on the prints of his art works!!!!!
I have tested ArtWanted.com in Bountiful, Salt Lake City, Utah.
ArtWanted can handle sizes up to 30 x 40 inches, that is 76 x 101.6 cm.
I have submitted a number of art works in huge print files to ArtWanted.
See the print on demand introduction page.
This means that anybody in the world, who likes my style, can have a poster.
The prices are from US$ 1.95 to US$ 79.95 depending on size and surface.
Then you add some US$ for shipment depending on where you live.
ArtWanted.com informs you about the shipment costs before you pay.
This means that at the exact same moment I have finished an art work it is available for poster printing world wide.
Nice feeling.

2. Print on Demand at the customer's own computer.
This Monday I finished a job for a large financial institution in Denmark.
I have placed the Word (.doc) files with the art works for print on the customer's computer.
And the customer prints on demand.
This means that any company, any organization, any person in numerous of situations can skip traditional printing.
They can relieve.
And skip the impossible task of deciding edition sizes.

3. Print on Demand at our Digital Art Laboratory.
All other Digital Art matters are taken care of by the Asbjorn Lonvig Digital Art Laboratory.
The staff is:
Ole Aaen, AD from 2A, Vejle, Denmark
Erik Adriansen, AD from 2A, Vejle, Denmark
Asbjorn Lonvig, Artist, Hedensted, Denmark
To the right you can see Ole Aaen and Erik Adriansen work with "1080 Haight Street" - a Victorian House from my San Francisco selection.
This laboratory uses the newest technology when it comes to
Mac computers, PCs,
Graphics Editing Equipment,
Small format printers,
Large format high quality printers,
Print surfaces,
Film, TV, Video Editing Equipment,
Projection Equipment and
Photo Equipment.
See more details on the Asbjorn Lonvig Digital Art Laboratory.

We can present art works in any size print in serigraph quality offering
state of the art color fastness.
We can print on paper, canvas etc.
We can offer posters and prints with printed signature.
As a point of departure editions are open.
However, we can do limited edition prints, numbered and signed, as well.
Or one of a kind signed prints.
Sizes are: Height is unlimited. Width is up to about 5 feet, depending on the surface.
To print a 1:1 print of one of my canvases size 79.2 x 54.8 inches, that is 201 x 139 cm on paper is a piece of cake. In this department we work with prices up to about US$ 2500.
One day we printed on canvas.
Amazing.
This means that anybody can create exactly the art work reproduction, that they like.
OK. I have to like it, too.

Technical remark:
The posters are drawn in Adobe Illustrator. That means that they are vectorized and scalable.
That's the reason that we can present pure, pure colors on all prints.
There are no photographing and scanning involved.
This week we will do some tests photographing my "sad days" paintings and Morten Lonvig's portrait paintings.
We are not satisfied until you can see every stroke of every hair in the brush. Or every stroke from my wooden block and filling knife, which I have used in some of them. Or that you clearly can see, that the paint has been thrown temperamentally in some of them.
A KODAK dcs pro 14ns digital camera will probably do the job, we'll see.
If we succeed you'll be presented to a series of brand new posters soon.

Thoughts:
If you use the Danish definition of poster, which is any kind of reproduction of art works, you sure can announce that computers and the internet have caused a "Revival of the Art Poster..." in the sense that they have made print on demand posters a major tool in future distribution of reproductions of art works world wide.

_________________________________________________

Try out ArtWanted.com in Salt Lake City
click on a poster

Smaller prints - coming soon as large prints:

A whole playground of playhouses

2005-10-23T02:07:00.000-07:00

Last time I wrote to you it was about a playhouse inspired by Gaudi.
I asked why not build a Picasso playhouse?
A Miro playhouse?
A Matisse playhouse?
Do you know the Austrian painter Hunderdwasser?
A Hundredwasser playhouse would be great fun.
And a Salvador Dali playhouse?

Ed Baron from Baron Conservancy in Wonder Valley near desert oasis city of Twenty Nine Palms, a few miles east of Los Angeles wrote:
"Can't you just see a whole playground of Playhouses? What a wonderful art project. It would certainly tie in with our purpose of preserving Art and Human Nature. Perhaps volunteers will agree to come erect them at the Baron Conservancy?"

First I asked Ed Baron if he was serious?
He answered: OF COURSE I AM SERIOUS.

In order to describe this project to sponsors I have designed a number of new playhouses inspired by the great masters.

Pablo Picasso
I do love very many of Picasso's works.
Once I visited New York I was at MOMA.
In my photo album there is this amazing photo of one of my sons and the Picasso She Goat.
The She Goat is a fairy tale character in the fairy tale "The Baby Carriage and the Sleep Sheep", too.
A staircase up to the door and two windows.
The playhouse you can see to the left.

Leonardo da Vinci
Everybody knows Leonardo da Vinci. Everybody knows da Vinci's masterpiece at le Louvre in Paris.
I have been in Paris a couple of times, last time to see Biblioteque Forney, where they have a collection of my posters.
But I have to visit Mona each time.
This time you were allowed to photo her.
As I returned home I made the Colorful Mona Collection.
You can have Mona in a canvas, in a paper cut-out and now in a playhouse version.
The height is supposed to be 15 feet.

Andy Warhol
I have seen Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans here and there. At AROS Museum of modern art in Aarhus, Denmark I saw an original.
The height is supposed to be 18 feet.

Michelangelo
I saw his renaissance fresco "Creation of Adam" (1508-1512), which is a part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling decoration in the Vatican Museums in Rome. In my opinion God's right hand and Adam's left hand are the essentials of the fresco motif.
I have worked with these two hands in various contexts.
Now these two hands have become a playhouse design.
The height is supposed to be 15 feet.

Salvador Dali
Since I saw Dali's soft watches for the first time I have been fascinated by them.
He was crazy. Really crazy.
I met his son in Rome, we exhibited at the same place, he was a nice, humorous fellow painting nice aqua color motifs from his home city Venice, Italy.
"Like father like son" proved wrong.
The soft watch became the roof of a playhouse.
Height 9 feet.

Christo
Christo Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude de Guillebon are famous for wrapping buildings.
Here a playhouse is wrapped in green and with a blue string.
Height: 10 feet.

Vincent van Gogh
Playhouse inspired by Vincent's chair.
Height: 21 feet.

Joan Miró
I sent all the above designs and a design of a Miró playhouse to Copy-Dan to clear intellectual rights (Copyrights).
All the above have been cleared, but my Miró playhouse was made with a gable painting that was too close to Miró.

______________________________________________________

A question to the blog readers about something else:
Editorial Croquis, which is a printed art magazine and a publishing company in Buenos Aires has run some of my articles about art museums in Spanish.
The director and editor of Editorial Croquis Martin Enriques Gil has asked me to write a book "The Museums of the World by Asbjorn Lonvig", published by Editorial Croquis in Danish, Portuguese, Spanish and English.
And I have answered: I'll do it, I'll find out how.
We need a sponsor for this project.
Do you have any suggestions??
______________________________________________________

Asbjorn, you are the ultimate artist!

2005-09-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

On "Playhouse inspired by Gaudi..."
Asbjorn, you are the ultimate artist!
Making the world more beautiful and fun by creating our inner most expressions into reality! The child's wonderfully basic yet sophisticated view of life translates into the most amazing house!

Ellen Fisch
Long Island
New York
BA in art from Brooklyn College
MA in art from New York University

Article: "Playhouse inspired by Gaudi..."

2005-09-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

In my family you do not buy a playhouse.
You design it and you build it yourself.
This one is for Morten's daughters, Lucca and Laura.
Originally our plans were a playhouse with 6 walls - a hexagon.
And a tower, from which you have a wide view.
A gazebo.
Morten and I were a little relieved when some strong female influence made the plans less ambitious:

A four sided house with a chimney.

Morten and I decided, that the playhouse design should be based on the fantastic Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi's characteristically warped form - see about Gaudi below.
We have seen his work in Barcelona.
And.
Newly we had seen playhouses in Legoland,
see the article "Hi sculptor...I mean you!!!" for more about Legoland.

Lucca has decided the color scheme.
Yellow walls.
Red windows and door.
Green roof.
Her mother has decided the overall design criteria: No spiders.

Action
I collected all the plates I had in stock in and around Lille Fejringhus and went to Hinnerup in Denmark, where Morten and his family live.

Hello, granddad.
Would you like some coffee?
Yes.
And we started drawing.
Four pressure-creosoted posts in the corners.
Tilting walls.

A floor that is elevated from the ground. Remember, no spiders.
Spade.
2 hammers
4 kinds of saws.
And many more tools.

Blood.
Sweat.
And very few tears.
Some days later the house was ready to paint.

The shape of the windows are organic.
The windows are red.

There is a shop in the playhouse.
There is a counter in one window.
You can buy a cup of excellent coffee,
candy and much more.
And take a look at the small house
on a post to the left of
the playhouse.

It's a birdhouse.
Built by Morten's baby brother Jakob.
There is a triangular hole in the birdhouse.
A circular hole would have been
a non-Gaudi hole.
There is a perch with a bulb at the end.
That's sure a Gaudi-bulp and a Gaudi-perch.

And a chimney.
Not a tall slim one.
I was drawing a draft of
a tall slim chimney.
Morten saw my draft and said,
No, no, no, no,
a small fat chimney.
A Gaudi-chimney.
Morten knows Gaudi better
than I do.
There is a huge metallic sculpture by the
motoway, just at the entrance to the city,
where I live.
Lucca calls this sculpture grandad's chimney.
After having struggled with building the
Gaudi-chimny, grandad's chimney has got a new meaning.

The roof has the characteristically warped shape.

And the window in the gable
has a an exact Gaudi shape.
A shape Morten found in a book on
some of Gaudi's architecture.

The house is number "5".
Lucca has painted this number herself.
Morten had a long discussion with Lucca
about where the number should be placed.
I agreed with Morten that it ought to be
placed on a post at the entrance to the
playhouse.
But Lucca insisted: On the gable
to the left of the door.

The door is a red ghost
with two eyes.
When your walls are tilted
and the door must be a Gaudi-door........

Many have asked Morten and I if we consider
to enter the business of designing, building and selling playhouses?
Of course not.
And.
Of course.....

Thoughts
How could Barcelona accept Gaudi's architecture and his characteristically warped form?
How could anyone?
Was his style les controversial in those days - Gothic Revival?

If Morten and I entered the "playhouse business" - it might be fun to let one particular great master's style be the point of departure, be the inspiration.
Why not build a Picasso-playhouse?
A Miro-playhouse?
A Matisse-playhouse?

Do you know the Austrian painter Hunderdwasser?
A Hundredwasser-playhous would be great fun.

And a Salvador Dali-playhouse?

__________________

*) Antoni Gaudi
Was born in Reus in Spain 1852.
The son of a coppersmith.
Antoni Gaudi was born in Reus, Spain in 1852.
Reus is not very far from Barcelona. In Barcelona you find his major art works.
He studied at the "Escola Superior d'Arquitectura" in Barcelona and designed his first major work for the Casa Vincens in Barcelona using a Gothic Revival style that he never left. Over the course of his career, Gaudi developed a sensuous, curving, almost surreal design style which established him as the innovative leader of the Spanish Art Nouveau movement. With little regard for formal order, he juxtaposed unrelated systems and altered established visual order. Gaudi's characteristically warped form of Gothic architecture drew admiration from other avant-garde artists.
Although categorized with the Art Nouveau, Gaudi created an entirely original style.
He died in Barcelona in 1926.

Photos: By Asbjorn Lonvig

My article about the New Carlsberg Glyptotek now in Spanish

2005-09-02T01:18:00.000-07:00

Art magazine Editorial Croquis in Buenos Aires has run my article about New Carlsberg Glyptotek in Spanish.
See the article "Nuevo Carlsberg Glyptotek".
To the right one of several Gaugin paintings and a photo from the wintergarden.

Article: "Matisse and Louisiana..."

2005-08-29T04:58:00.000-07:00

La Gerbe, 1953
The Spray UCLA Collection, Hammer Museum.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Sydney F. Brody
© Succession H. Matisse / CopyDan, 2005
Press photo from http://press.louisiana.dk/

See the article in WWAR Art News, Columbus Ohio. About this famous artist in the wonderful Art Museum called Louisiana. It is in Denmark, Scandinavia. You know of course Louisiana in the United States, but you probably don't know this Louisiana, a Museum of Modern Art.

"But the photos might give you a hint of what my friend in Chicago meant".

See about the Louisiana Architecture and the Louisiana Collection at the Louisiana web site.

The Exhitition "Matisse - a second life"

Louisiana and Museé de Luxembourg in Paris have made a joined venture.
One day the Danish curator and Matisse expert Hanne Finsen asked the director of Louisiana for a cup of coffee.
Later the director offered Hanne Finsen numerous cups of coffee.
The director liked to know more about her idea.
The director is Poul Erik Tojner.

See the article

New Carlsberg Glyptotek...support the arts, but do it with caution

2005-08-08T03:20:00.000-07:00

This Friday I visited the New Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark known for the statue of the Little Mermaid. I came to Copenhagen very early in the morning.

I had dropped my son off at Copenhagen Airport for a transatlantic flight. Copenhagen was still asleep.

Baresso, my favorite coffee shop, opened at 7.30 a.m. So. I spent some time sightseeing before breakfast.

The Royal Castle, Amalienborg was wrapped.

The Parliament, Christiansborg was wrapped.

The City Hall was wrapped.

Christo???

The National Bank, The Tivoli Concert Hall and the New Carlsberg Glyptotek was kind of wrapped, too. Might it be an art work by Christo accomplished over night? What a surprise! What an excellent idea! Excellent.
Or?

Was it nothing but prosaic reconstruction, rebuilding, restoration, renovation.
I have decided not to ask.

I was stuck in an elevator in the parking house. I totally panicked. Baresso was not far away. A double espresso and a focaccia bread. And a double americano. Was what it took to recover.

Carlsberg

Carlsberg's slogan is "Probably the Best Bear in the World".

If it is the Best?

Try it out.

I found Carlsberg's web site, and the title was: Carlsberg.com - Probably the Best Website in the World.

Try it out.

The World?

You might have seen these Carlsberg advertisements....

I asked friends in New York, in Paris, and in Tokyo.

What is Carlsberg?

All of them answered : "A bear".

In 1847 Carlsberg's founder I.C. Jacobsen started the beer production in the first Carlsberg brewery plant, know as the Old Carlsberg.

In 1880 - as part of a fatiguing family drama - Carl Jacobsen, the son of the founder, established his own brewery, New Carlsberg. This fatiguing family drama is documented in books and has been the theme of a very spell-binding TV serial.

In 1887 I.C. Jacobsen died and Old Carlsberg and New Carlsberg were united in the Carlsberg Foundation.

And the Carlsberg Foundation made
over the years
an awful lot of money.

New Carlsberg Glyptotek

However.

In one area I.C. Jacobsen and Carl Jacobsen were united.

They were both passionate art collectors.

The New Carlsberg Glyptotek was founded 1897 by Carl Jacobsen who created one of the largest private art collections of his time. It was named after his brewery, New Carlsberg, with the addition of "Glyptotek", meaning collection of sculpture. He was interested in contemporary French and Danish art, as well as ancient art from the cultures surrounding the Mediterranean. To secure the future of the collection, Carl Jacobsen and his wife Ottilia donated it to the public in two deeds of gift from 1888 and 1899. The Museum's buildings were created to house these works of art.

Collection of ancient art

Today, the museum houses the largest collection of ancient art in Northern Europe, primarily sculpture, from Egypt, the Near East, Greece and Italy.

Egypt Statue, 1403 B.C. - 1365 B.C. Diorite, H. 160 cm.

Greece Vase, Apulian Amphora, Trozzella 500 BC.- 475 B.C. Clay, H. 33.3 cm

Etruria Statue, from Chiusi, 500 - 330 B.C. H. 100 cm

Etruria Vase, Archaic 700 - 500 B.C. Clay, H: 47.5 cm

Rome Pompey the Great, 106 BC.- 48 BC. Marble, H. 25 cm

Rome Aphrodite, Roman Imperial Period, 30 B.C.- 500 A.D. Marble, H. 92 cm

Rome Alexander the Great, Roman copy (2. cent. AD) of Greek original (2. cent. BC). Marble, H. 36 cm

Collection of European, French and Danish art

But during the more than one hundred years of its existence, the museum has also expanded the collection of French and Danish art from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I was at New Carlsberg Glyptotek for the first time decades ago. I was there together with my art teacher Jes Dueholm Jessen - a great art teacher. It took my breath away. Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Heni de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir...

Click on the above pictures to see New Carlsberg Glyptotek's comprehensive collection notes.

...and Auguste Rodin, Camille Pissarro, Édouard Manet, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Carot, Gustave Courbet... And then a Van Gogh, I never had seen a Van Gogh before.

Thoughts

At this visit at New Carlsberg Glyptotek the collection even had a Pablo Picasso. Some years ago I saw the collection of European Paintings at Art Institute of Chicago. Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Picasso, Gauguin, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Monet, Renoir, Chagall... and a thought popped up in my mind: "These masters don't belong here".

Before that I saw the same artists at Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands - no thoughts of that kind popped up. Wandering around among the sculptures, vases, mosaics etc. from ancient Mediterranean cultures at the New Carlsberg Glyptotek this thought popped up again: "These sculptures, vases, mosaics etc. from the ancient Mediterranean cultures don't belong here".

Last summer I visited Rome and I wandered around among sculptures, vases, mosaics from ancient Mediterranean cultures at Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo Alle Terme - no thoughts of that kind popped up.

My common sense tells me to brutally neutralize these thoughts.

Of course citizens in US must have the possibility to see a van Gogh.

Of course citizens in Denmark must have the possibility to see sculptures, vases, mosaics etc. from ancient Mediterranean cultures.

But...

Photos:

Photos of Amalienborg, Christiansborg, Copenhagen City Hall and New Carlsberg Glyptotek outside are by Asbjorn Lonvig

Photo of New Carlsberg Glyptotek inside is from Photo Archives at http://www.glyptoteket.dk/

Photos of sculptures, vases, mosaics etc. from ancient Mediterranean cultures are from Collections at www.glyptoteket.dk Photos of Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Heni de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Vincent van Gogh art works are from Collections at http://www.glyptoteket.dk/

Photos of Carlsberg bear bottle and 3 photos of Carlsberg advertisements are from Media, Image Library at www.carlsberg.com.

Support the art with caution...

The article "Who is Aros - who is Bill..." now in Spanish - printout of the art magazine Croquis, Buenos Aires.

2005-07-04T02:34:00.000-07:00

Editorial Croquis, Buenos Aires has printed the article "Who is Aros - who is Bill..." in Spanish about the art museum Aros in Denmark and about Bill Violas exhibition at Aros.
See the article.

By Asbjorn Lonvig

Asbjorn Lonvig, artist from Denmark has debuted as correspondent for the art magazine Croquis, Buenos Aires.

2005-06-27T01:37:00.000-07:00

Asbjorn Lonvig, artist from Denmark has debuted as correspondent for the art magazine Croquis, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The article "Who is Aros - who is bill" is on the front page of Croquis.
In Spanish.
See the front cover to the left.

Below you see Croquis covers for the recent 18 issues.

See the Croquis web page.

Hi sculptor...I mean you!!!

2005-06-24T03:11:00.000-07:00

I visited Legoland in Billund, Denmark this weekend. As I do every year. A family tradition. Any in our family, who wants to go join us. This year one worked at Greenland Home Rule. One was busy writing a term paper at the University. One was at work making sure Telia survives in the cell phone market. The rest of the family joined our Legoland tour. Grandma paid. I go to Legoland for numerous of reasons. My children and their children love it. My children's spouses have to love it. I love it. My spouse has to love it.

I had just talked to someone in Minneapolis about a sculpture. The "M" in Minneapolis.

And I had talked to someone in Denmark about a sculpture in Kolding. The sailing sculpture "4K" in Kolding Castle Lake.

And it struck me that what I saw in Legoland were nothing but sculptures. And after that I really did photo. Photo-Fat-Dad, my family calls me. A name I got in China by my sons - because of my photo enthusiasm. Never mind. I got my 150 digital photos to choose from. I just had to join the laughter that arose as we saw "Photo-Fat-Dad" as we entered Legoland. My family had no doubt in their minds, that I had posed for the LEGO designers and builders. Photo-Fat-Dad really went crazy. You might believe he was a Japanese. Japanese are known as enthusiastic photographs, too. And little story from my travel in Australia springs up: On a guided tour inside The Arts Centre in Melbourne, which is kind of Melbourne's Sydney Opera House, a Japanese tourist was accidentally trapped in one of the many huge rooms. He was stuck for several hours. As he was found, we asked him very caring: Weren't you afraid? Weren't you thirsty? Weren't you hungry? But you needed to go to the bathroom? No, my only problem was, I was run out of film...

Here are some of Photo-Fat-Dad's photos from Legoland:

...and all of this is built out of small bricks size 31 x 15,5 x 9,5 mm, that is 1.22 x 0.61 x 0.37 inches. Millions and millions of bricks. For the Bergen, Norway landscape there has been used 2.347.000 bricks.

Children's needs - and good old Marslow

I hear a lot about children's needs. And the problems that arise if children's needs are ignored. Some have problems concerning self esteem. Some have problems concerning creativity. Some have problems concerning learning. Some have problems concerning social behavior. Some have problems concerning stimulation from grown ups. It's lack of psychological balance we talk about. Good old Maslow - Abraham Maslow - is known for establishing the theory of a hierarchy of needs. He says that the basic needs are physiological needs such as air, water, food, sleep etc. My theory is that Marslow forgot one basic need. LEGO. When children build with LEGO under the guidance of grown ups many of the above problems are avoided. Building with LEGO is building self esteem and self confidence. Their creativity is trained. They exercise playful learning. Building together with other children and grown ups improves their social skills. Building with LEGO bricks brings peace in the children's minds - at least for a while.

How does LEGO built all those sculptures

One brick alone is...a brick. Two bricks combined in some way - you have created a sculpture. I'll show you how LEGO creates sculptures. They have an idea. They research. They design. They built. They exhibit. Like the creation of every other sculpture. I was invited to see the LEGO Studios. To the right you see Fredensborg Castle in the LEGO Studios. Ready to be placed in the Legoland park. Ready to be revealed by the Crown Princess Mary and the Crown Prince Frederik. Fredensborg Castle is the Crown Prince Couple's residence. The most amazing about the building of LEGO sculptures was a computer system, that transforms drawings into layers of LEGO bricks. This system makes everything much easier to the builders.

The most disappointing thing was that inside the huge LEGO sculptures there were metal skeletons. Of course from an engineering point of view the skeletons have to be there. But. I have deleted this knowledge from my memory. It distracts my perception and fascination of the giraffe. Never ever tell this to the children. It's like telling them, that Santa Claus is just grandpa.

Hi sculptor...I mean you!!!

You might be a parent, you might be a grandparent, or you might be a child. Let us build sculptures. Build a model of a sculpture. Build whatever you would like with LEGO bricks in the colors you prefer. Photo the model. Send the photo attached to an e-mail to sculpture@mail.dk and I'll exhibit it on the world's largest online gallery, which is AbsoluteArts/WWAR - World Wide Arts Resources in Columbus, Ohio in USA.

Our new art galley is called "Children's LEGO sculptures". See our art gallery logo to the right. See the art gallery at http://galleries.absolutearts.com/galleries/lego-sculpture/.

Tell me in the e-mail: What's the title of your sculpture? What's the height of your model in cm or inches? What's your name, address, country, age, gender? Where do you think it would be nice to place you sculpture? More...? At the same moment you send this e-mail you have become a sculptor. Hi sculptor...I mean you!!!

And
if you enjoy working at your computer and if your computer is a sophisticated game computer, you might use LEGO Digital Designer, which allows you to create 3D LEGO models. You can make a virtual version of a real model, and then you can take a digital snapshot of your creation in .jepg and send it to the above e-mail address. Or you can exhibit it yourself. You can download LEGO Digital Designer here.

I don't like PRIZES - but here they are

Everybody who sends an e-mail to sculpture@mail.dk ought to have a prize. But. As it is custom to give prizes to a winner, here they are. The owner of LEGO was Gottfred Kirk Christiansen. His wife, Edith Kirk Christiansen once visited Lille Fejringhus Galley. She saw the two silk-screen prints, 80 x 80 cm, numbered and signed, edition 125 shown above. And she burst out spontaneously: My goodness, that's LEGO colors. Sure, she was right. I had never before thought about, that I consequently use bright colors like LEGO. I made my first LEGO sculpture at an age of 3. Subconscious I might have picked the LEGO colors, when I want to communicate happy feelings. Another proof of LEGO's psychological power of penetration? I'll send these two silk-screen prints, 80 x 80 cm, numbered and signed, edition 125 to the winner. But. Maybe they a mostly for grown ups?

Therefore I'll send 4 signed CIRCUS motifs 42 x 30 cm, edition 300, too. Still in LEGO colors!! The Clown, the Banana, the Parrot and the Clown's Shoe.

I'll ask the present owner of LEGO, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, the son of Edith and Gottfred Kirk Christiansen if he would pick the winner, and I'll ask him if he might have some extra goodies for the winning sculptor. And now the very careful reader thinks I have made a misspelling. Kjeld's "K" in Kristiansen. It's not me, who have made a misspelling, but the misspelling is made by the clergyman, who wrote his birth certificate!!

My theory

Of course children must play computer games, which are not more dangerous than chess. Of course children must have a cell phone, they have to communicate according to the trends of today. Of course children must have all the fancy toys. My theory is, however, that any caring parent and any caring grandparent must give their children and grandchildren a christening gift consisting of a considerable number of LEGO bricks in different colors. Not denying them a healthy psychological growth. Not denying them the joy of becoming a sculptor.

My favorite LEGO photo from the archive

This photo is from Singapore Airport. We landed in Singapore. We waited there for several hours for a delayed flight to Bangkok. Soon my son Jakob made friends with a Japanese boy and a girl.

Their common language was LEGO.

Photos:

Globetrotter - Danish village, Denmark - The Nederlands - Mann's Chinese Theater, Los Angeles - Bergen, Norway Beverly Hills, Los Angeles - Elephant - Ferrari - Düsseldorf, Germany - The Rhine, Germany - Mount Rushmore National Monument, South Dakota, USA - Mule, Western USA - The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, New York - Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen, Denmark - Abu Simbel, Egypt - Japanese Portal - Scottish Castle - Arabic Castle - Singapore Airport

by Asbjorn Lonvig

Fredensborg Castle, Denmark - Giraffe - Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen

by LEGO

Exposure - a never ending visit to the dentist...

2005-05-30T00:36:00.000-07:00

You are an artist.
You want your works to be seen by everybody.
Every artist has his or her own unique style and we want to let people know about this.
At the same time you want to stay anonymous.
You want to have peace in your mind.
You love to do your work in quietness.
This is the artist's dilemma.
You need exposure but you hate it.
You need to earn a living but you disgust the exposure of yourself.
But.
If you want to be in contact with "the real world" you must give up some of your
needs for living and working anonymously, in peace and in quietness.

If you do this in the wrong way.

If you do this in the wrong way, however, if you expose yourself and not your work
you end up as a "4th of July speaker" (in Danish it is called a "grundlovstaler"),
one that lectures for free,
one that newspapers ask for an opinion on anything,
one that is asked for free pictures to associations,
one that supports any charity organization,
one that is constantly asked for sponsorships.
You end up as a celebrity, a fool, a clown (see my self portrait "crying clown" to the right).
You end up as a slave.
Your image becomes a yoke of bondage.

Artist's dilemma.

I feel this artist's dilemma right now.
I feel this never ending visit to the dentist *.
I have to be in contact with "the real world" in order to expose my works.
Not myself.
And I want to get in touch with the society around me.
I have to give up some of my needs for living and working anonymously, in peace and in quietness.

So, no fancy excuses.
I have to advertise.
And be aware of what I do - and why I do it...

Ad in Danish

I want to address all Danes.
There are 5.5 million inhabitants in Denmark.
The Internet can help me along.
But the Internet does not address all Danes.
The strongest media in this sense is the newspaper.
I have to advertise in newspapers.
Next Saturday I publish the ad, that you see to the left in newspapers covering the whole country.

I create the ad as if it was an ordinary newspaper ad.
My goal however is to tell people what is on my web sites
www.lonvig.dk - art, design etc. and www.lonvig.org - writings, lectures etc.

The reader of the ad has to feel that he has the option to look at the internet.
Not an obligation.
A lot of newspaper readers would decline to look at the internet, if it is not optional.

The ad is in one color and one column to keep it simple.

Ad in English

If this way of web site exposure succeeds in Denmark, I'll simply
use the method in areas where I have an exhibition.
The New York Times might be a good start?
1.700.000 on Sundays.
The price?
Several thousand dollars - careful consideration is needed.
In 2 weeks my works are featured at Manhattan Arts International, New York.

In near future I am opening exhibitions in Buenos Aires and Quebec.
If I pass the review tomorrow I'll open an exhibition in Rome, Italy, too.
There are a lot of possibilities!

And.
If I don't succeed?
If the web sites are not exposed this way?

I'll take a deep breath.
A pipe of tobacco.
A cup of coffee.

And then I have to try again.

*) Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretian on the Quebec problem.

Deadlines.

2005-05-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

Jodi Melfi, the editor of World Wide Art Resources' Art News has given me the following deadlines: 30 May 2005 and 24 June 2005.
The article on 30 May will be on Interactive Lecture to small audiences.
The article on 24 June will probably be on Carlsberg and the New Carlsberg Glyptotek (a high quality art museum).

Sincerely,
Asbjorn Lonvig

These articles will also be published on
Artday Network World ArtNews in Tokyo, Japan
Squarespace, Inc., College Park, Maryland University, Washington D.C.
FullDigitalArt.com in Paris and on
blogger.com, blog.com, msn.com and bloglines.com .
The articles are sent to RedTram through Colorful New,
which is an acknowledged news channel to RedTram
News Search Engine.

To moms, to dads, to grannies...

2005-04-26T01:36:00.000-07:00

Today we are celebrating.
Translation of Children's Book Online number 42.
Translation of Children's Coloring Book number 42.
"La Carrozzina e la Pecora Dormigliona".
Number 42 is in Italian.
"The Baby Carriage and Sleep-Sheep", it's called in English.

It's the LUCCA-project.
Lucca is a very special girl. Age 5 - we have the same sirname.
The LUCCA-project Contents:
Children's Books Online to download and print
Children's Coloring Books Online to download and print
Children's Books Online as slide shows
Mini-posters of main characters to download and print
One mini-poster of all the fairy tale characters to download and print
T-shirt transfer motifs to download and print

Take a look in Colorful News about this project, if you like.

OOO

Children's Book Online number 42 and
Children's Coloring Book number 42 are in Italian:

La Carrozzina
e la
Pecora Dormigliona.

da Asbjorn Lonvig, artista
Tradotto da Inter-Set

Questa carrozzina era stata lasciata in Piazza della Rotonda a Roma.
Il bambino non piangeva.
Nessun rumore.

Nel 1950, Pablo Picasso realizzò la capra di bronzo.
La capra passò di lì e guardò nella carrozzina.
La capra sorrise.
Che cosa avrebbe potuto esserci nella carrozzina se non un bambino?

Forse uno dei simpatici fantasmini del grande Pantheon?
No, non sarebbero mai rimasti in silenzio.

OOO

My favorite spot in Rome is Piazza della Rotondo.
With Pantheon, the fountain, McDonald's, the restaurants, the houses, the people.
I love to sit there.
Drinking expresso.
In the morning.
At noon.
In the afternoon.
And especially in the evenings.
Dreaming of a penthouse studio in the ochre yellow building to the left of Pantheon.

I saw Pablo Picasso's She Goat on MOMA in New York years ago.
Originally it was created in scrap that Picasso collected in the streets of Paris.

This story is best in Italian.
I think Italian is a beautiful language - even if I don't understand one word.
For us, who don't understand one word of Italian we'll start all over - in English.
Or.
See the story in Italian, if you like.

OOO

The Baby Carriage
and
Sleep-Sheep

by Asbjorn Lonvig, artist
Translation by Ann Watson, Boca Raton, Florida

This baby carriage has been placed at Piazza della Rotondo in Rome.
The baby doesn't cry.
Not a sound.

In 1950 Pablo Picasso made the She-Goat in bronze.
She passed by and looked into the baby carriage.
The She-Goat laughed.
What might be in the baby carriage when it was not a baby?

Might it be one of the happy ghosts from the
huge Pantheon Church?
No, they could not stay that calm.

A Bedouin from Arabia
was sure it was a snake.

The Bedouin's camel and dromedary
talked about it, and they were sure
it was a snake, too.

However, a snake would have made some noise.
Rattling or so.

The Bedouin took a closer look.
A pair of legs?
He laughed.

A pair of sheep-legs.
Sleep-Sheep put on his coat.

And here is Sleep-Sheep on Piazza della Rotondo
in the middle of Rome
recovering from his nap number 7 this morning.

Sleep-Sheep has this rug
with 80 pictures of himself.
When he has counted 57 of them
he falls asleep
anywhere.

Even in a baby carriage.

OOO

You can download this story in a Word document by clicking here
When Lucca visits me and she runs out of energy.
And she wants to sit down quietly.
Then she asks for a coloring book.
Next time she asks for a coloring book I'll give her the new one in Italian:

OOO

Libro da Colorara

La Carrozzina
e la
Pecora Dormigliona.

da Asbjorn Lonvig, artista
Tradotto da Inter-Set

Questa carrozzina era stata lasciata in Piazza della Rotonda a Roma.
Il bambino non piangeva.
Nessun rumore.

Nel 1950, Pablo Picasso realizzò la capra di bronzo.
La capra passò di lì e guardò nella carrozzina.
La capra sorrise.
Che cosa avrebbe potuto esserci nella carrozzina se non un bambino?

Forse uno dei simpatici fantasmini del grande Pantheon?
No, non sarebbero mai rimasti in silenzio.

Un beduino del deserto era
sicuro che ci fosse un serpente.

Il cammello e il dromedario del beduino
ne parlarono, e anche loro erano sicuri
che ci fosse un serpente.

Ma un serpente avrebbe fatto qualche rumore.
Almeno un sibilo.

Il beduino diede un’occhiata da vicino.
Un paio di zampe?
Il beduino sorrise.

Un paio di zampe di pecora.
La Pecora Dormigliona indossò la sua lana.

Ecco la Pecora Dormigliona in Piazza della Rotonda
nel centro di Roma.
Si è appena svegliata dal sonnellino numero 7 della mattina.

La Pecora Dormigliona ha questo tappeto
con 64 immagini di se stessa.
Quando arriva alla numero 57,
smette di contare e
si addormenta ovunque.

Anche nella carrozzina di un bambino.

OOO

You can download this coloring book in a Word document by clicking here
Or.
You can download the English version here.

When Lucca has sat down for an hour or so, she has finished coloring.
Her energy is back.
She asks if we can go to the playground.
And off we go.

While Lucca and I are playing at the playground,
you might take a tour with your
child or grandchild
on other fairy tales.
An hour or so......

First of all, thanks for submitting another fantastic article, the editor of ADN Network, World ArtNews Tokyo, Japan wrote.

2005-04-14T02:45:00.000-07:00

Illustration from the article - "challenge SOFUS"

Article on how to implement corporate values in companies using a very special storytelling concept. The Asbjorn Lonvig Storytelling Concept.

The editor of ADN Network, World ArtNews Tokyo, Japan is Seiji Ueoka. The general web address of ADN Network is www.artday.org.

See article.

Bravo Asbjorn for your wonderful take, in pictures and words, on the corporate world in which we live!!

2005-04-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, April 12th, Ellen Fisch said:

All of art is storytelling. From the caveman to da Vinci to Picasso and on, the images that artists create reflect not only their vision and skills, but the times in which they live. Bravo Asbjorn for your wonderful take, in pictures and words, on the corporate world in which we live!!

See Artblog at World Wide Art Resources Art News.

Great blog....would that we all communicated with each other and our work...or through each other and through our art.

2005-04-12T03:25:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, April 12th, Ellen Fisch said:

There is a time when an artist must speak up for him/herself. While promoting an excellent book by Alain Joanes, Abjorn Lonvig has included some of himself. Why not!! And writing in multiple languages adds texture and stimulation!! Loved the image, too! Great blog....would that we all communicated with each other and our work...or through each other and through our art.

See Artblog at World Wide Art Resources Art News.

8 Asbjorn Lonvig articles published today on the award winning publishing platform Squarespace, Inc. Maryland University, Washington D.C.

2005-04-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

"How to communicate through pictures..."
"Colorful News..."
"Interactive Lecture..."
"Improving my English"
"Cerebral Thrombosis"
"Once upon a time..."
"Beijing...Cambridge...Dallas"
"Who is Aros - who is Bill..."

See the 8 Asbjorn Lonvig articles published today on the award winning publishing platform Squarespace, Inc., Maryland University, Washington D.C.

See Colorful News about this.