“Art is not entertainment. Art is not luxury goods. Art is culture. It is you

and me.” - Paige Bradley

Maut ka Kuan

Questions set by:Angshuman Biswas

Siddhanth PurkayasthaSandipan Goswami

“Barbara Ann” is a song written by Fred Fassert and first recorded in1961 by The Regents. The most famous cover version of the song is bythe Beach Boys, which was released as a single in 1965. The song wasparodied as “Bomb Iran” by various musicians, including Vince Vanceand the Valiants, during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.

Where, in recent times, might you have heard another parody of thesong?

Answer

The Banana Song (from the teaser trailer of

Despicable Me 2)

X, or X-ism, was an art movement of the European avant-garde in theearly 20th century. It began in Zurich in 1916, spreading to Berlin shortlythereafter, but the height of the movement in New York was the yearbefore, in 1915. The term anti-art, a precursor to X, was coinedby Marcel Duchamp around 1913 when he created his first readymades.In addition to being anti-war, the movement had political affinities withthe radical left and was also anti-bourgeois.

The origin of the word X is unclear; some believe that it is a nonsensicalword. Others maintain that it originates from the Romanian artistsTristan Tzara's and Marcel Janco's frequent use of the words “__, __,"meaning "yes, yes" in the Romanian language. Another theory says thatthe name came during a meeting of the group when a paper knife stuckinto a French-German dictionary happened to point to ‘X', a Frenchword for 'hobbyhorse'.

X?

Answer

Dada / Dadaism

X (acronym of the Russian for “Death to Spies”) was an umbrella name forthree independent counter-intelligence agencies in the Red Army formed inlate 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on 14 April 1943. The name Xwas coined by Joseph Stalin. The main reason for its creation was to subvertthe attempts by German forces to infiltrate the Red Army. It served as theinspiration for a fictional organization having the same name, although thenovels portray X as a massive Soviet counterintelligence organization, muchmore resembling the real-life KGB, which aims its operatives abroad insubversion of the West, with the additional goal of killing Western spies.

In the film series, X is usually replaced by Y. Y began in the novels as a smallgroup of criminals but became a vast international organization with its ownisland training base in the films. Y is not aligned to any nation or politicalideology, enabling the later books and films to be regarded assomewhat apolitical though the former Gestapo members are a clear sign ofthe author’s warning of the Nazi fascists surviving after WWII.

X and Y?

Answer

X – SMERSH

Y – SPRECTRE

The cover art of Miles Davis’s major label debut album and that of JohnColtrane’s second studio album, as well as their titles, are directlyinfluenced by the paintings produced by a painter between 1901 and1904, usually defined by the term X, which is also the title of the formeralbum. What is the term and who is the painter? (pic in next slide)

Answer

Picasso’s Blue Period

Orson Welles has done three of these, in 1948, in 1942 and in 1965.

Akira Kurosawa did two of these, in 1957 and in 1985.

Kenneth Branagh has done six of these, in 1989, in 1993, in 1996, in 2000 and in 2006.

X has done three of these, in 2003, in 2006 and in 2014, completing his trilogy.

What are we talking about, and who is X?

Answer

Shakespeare adaptations; Vishal Bhardwaj

The album art for Cheap Thrills, the second album from Big Brothrt andthe Holding Company, their last with Janis Joplin as primary lead vocalistwas drawn by X after the band's original cover idea, a picture of thegroup naked in bed together, was dropped by the record company.

The back story behind the album cover is as follows: “Yeah, I’ll do youralbum cover,” X once told the band’s roadie. “But the only thing is, whenI meet Janis, I want to be able to pinch her tit.” That he did, eventually,after the album came out in 1968, at a party. She said, “Oh, honey.”

Who is X? (pic in next slide)

Answer

Robert Crumb

X was inspired to make the film after reading L.A. Quartet, a sequence offour crime fiction novels by James Ellroy, set in the late 1940s throughthe late 1950s in Los Angeles. The novels inspired him to "dig into thedark trenches of the history of Bombay", where he "found a treasuretrove that was never-ending”.

Which film?

Answer

Mel McGinnis is a 45-year-old cardiologist married to Teresa, also knownas Terri. They live together in Albuquerque. The narrator describes Melas tall and rangy with curly soft hair and Teresa (who is Mel's secondwife) as bone-thin with a pretty face, dark eyes, and brown hair. Mel andTerri have two friends named Nick and Laura. Nick is 38 years old and isthe narrator of the story. Laura is 35, married to Nick, and works as alegal secretary. The setting is Mel's house, around a table with a bucketof ice in the middle. A bottle of gin is inside it. They soon start to talkabout love.

Connect this short story, part of an eponymous collection of shortstories published in 1981, to a recent film.

Answer

Birdman depicts the mounting of a Broadway production of"What We Talk About When We Talk About Love“ byRaymond Carver as its central storyline.

The following are the descriptions of the four versions of which composition, all having the same title?

A pastel from 1893 which is the first completed version, now located at a museum in Oslo dedicated to the artist.

An 1895 lithograph that the artist translated the painting into.

An 1895 version executed in pastel on cardboard, sold for more than $ 120 million in 2012.

A 1910 version executed in tempera on cardboard, stolen in 2006 and recovered in 2010.

The poster of which 1990 film was inspired by this composition?

Answer

The Scream by Edvard Munch; Home Alone

A Slight Trick of the Mind is the seventh book by American author MitchCullin. The tale is that of Sherlock Holmes, now elderly and unable towalk without a cane, as his memory begins to fail. He lives with ahousekeeper and her son, and talks to the son about his life before heforgets it entirely.

The book is being adapted into an upcoming film titled Mr. Holmesdirected by Bill Condon where the role of Holmes is being played by anactor who has already played a host of iconic characters in his lifetime.

Who?

Answer

The album cover for this album featuring a ______ was designed by theband’s manager and patron X. Early copies of the album invited theowner to "Peel slowly and see"; peeling back the ______ skin revealed aflesh-colored ______ underneath. A special machine was needed tomanufacture these covers (one of the causes of the album's delayedrelease), but MGM paid for costs figuring that any ties to X boost salesof the album. A crafty business scheme, an iconic piece of music history,a historic collaboration — all begat with a fruity dick joke.

The album, and X?

Answer

The Velvet Underground and Nico; Andy Warhol

This song, from the soundtrack of the film X, is sung by Al Martino, who also performed the song in the film and acted in it as the character Y.

X and Y?

Answer

X – The Godfather; Y – Johnny Fontane

Jean-François Millet, famous realist French painter ofthe 19th century painted this masterpiece called X. Itshows two peasant farmers bowing in a field over abasket of potatoes to say a prayer, also called X.However, Y claimed to have been spooked by thepainting and insisted that this was a funeral scenewith a couple mourning over their dead infant. TheLouvre X-rayed the painting upon Y’s request, showinga small coffin over-painted by the basket.Give X and Y.

X = The Angelus (c. 1859)Y = Salvador Dali

X died at the age of 37. Y died just 6 months later but joined Xin the grave only after over 30 years. Identify X,Y on thegravestones located in Auvers, Paris.

Completed when the artist was 27, during 1818-1819, “The Raft ofthe Medusa” has become an icon of French Romanticism. Measuring491 cm × 716 cm, this over life size painting depicts the tragedy ofthe French naval frigate Méduse which ran aground and was reducedto wreckage. The survivors endured starvation and dehydration andpracticed cannibalism , making the event an international scandal ofthe then restored French monarchy. X interviewed two of thesurvivors, and constructed a detailed scale model of the raft. Hisefforts took him to morgues and hospitals where he could view, first-hand, the colour and texture of the flesh of the dying and dead.Eminent French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix is known to havemodelled for the figure in the foreground with the outstretched arm.X ??

The Raft of the Medusa

Theodore Gericault

Andy Warhol innovated this strange technique calledOxidation Painting done by coating canvases with wet copperpaint and spraying them with _____. The ____ oxidises andchanges colour. The Oxidation paintings are sometimes referred

to as Warhol’s ____ paintings. Warhol is reportedly known tohave said, “It's a parody of Jackson Pollock”. One of thepeople that “sprayed” on the 1970s canvases was HalstonFrowick's boyfriend, Victor Hugo.

FITB. (pic in next slide)

Urine; Piss Paintings

Reverse order

Gustave Courbet expert Jean-Jacques Fernier had authenticated apainting of a young woman's head and shoulders (seen above) as theupper section of the painting Y, which was severed from the originalwork. In February 2011, Facebook censored Y after it was posted byCopenhagen-based artist Frode Steinicke, resulting in widespreaduploading of the same, by the masses.

Name this Courbet painting Y (lower half of the above painting).

Gustave CourbetL'Origine du monde ("The Origin of the World")

American painter and sculptor X became a rising starin the 1980s for his "Men in the Cities" series, whichdepicted sharply dressed men and women writhing incontorted emotion. He further rose to prominencewhen his work from the "Men in the Cities" series wasprominently displayed in the apartment of fictionalcharacter Patrick Bateman in the film AmericanPsycho (2000).

Pictures coming up.

Identify X

Robert Longo

The plot of this series follows the US governmentpassing the Superhero Registration Act designed tohave vigilantes under official regulation. Howeverthose opposed to the act led by X find themselves inconflict with Y. Z plays a pivotal role in the series andis the reason for a big shift in the entertainmentindustry.

What am I talking about?

This famous game franchise is set in the eponymouscity shrouded in mystery. The latest installment ofthe game to be released soon is co-directed byHideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid fame andGuillermo del Toro, the mind behind Pan’s labyrinth,Hellboy and Pacific Rim. Which franchise does thishighly awaited game belong to?

Doctor Destiny is the only connect between thejustice league of America and another franchise X.In the JLA he appears as a dream controllingmastermind who had almost the entire JLA underhis spell. However his plans were thwarted byBatman. In X, he steals one of the protagonist’sartifact and becomes insane and powerful at thesame time.

Identify X.

The third novel of X was originally intended to be aDoctor Who story as the author was at that timewriting scripts for the show. The author has beenpraised throughout the universe for his work Xwhich is a benchmark in it’s genre.

Who is Stewie impersonating?

This character has been cursed with the fate that hecan never die. Every time he dies he wakes up thenext day in his bed and nobody remembers hisdeath. This power was bestowed upon him bycthulhu, as his parents were both part of the cult ofcthulhu.

In the cover of the Iron Maiden album a tombstone isvisible with the epitaph

“That is not dead which can eternal lie

yet with strange eons even death may die.”

-X

Identify X.

Connect

James Earl Jones

This band was formed with the name ‘Burn thepriest’. However they changed it to avoid beingconfused for satanic worshippers. The lead vocalistof this groove metal band was charged formanslaughter when he pushed a fan off the stagewho died of injuries. The band’s current name is adirect reference to Jesus. Identify.

Lamb of God

Whose name has been blanked out?

Where do you see this?

The Avengers

What is the most famous role played by the man on the left?

Chewbacca