Saturday, January 21, 2023

The Year of the Rabbit


For those who celebrate Lunar New Year (including our family and friends in Shanghai and Singapore): Happy New Year! Today (twelve hours from this post) is the start of the Year of the Rabbit (or Hare). I made the image above based based on a photograph that is in the public domain.

To keep things in the spirit of my blog, I am adding a number of items with a rabbit or hare theme, in line with some typical subjects of Art for Art's Sake - three paintings, three album covers, three movie posters, and three music clips, so I can list today's post under Anything Goes.
 
 
Young Hare by Albrecht Durer
 
A piece of nostalgia - when I was a young teenager, I had a print of this art work on the wall of my room.


Field with Two Rabbits by Vincent van Gogh 
 
I don't think I saw this work by the Dutch grandmaster before it came up in a search for suitable material for today's post....


The Fear of the Rabbit by Franz Marc
 
This is a real find for me. A relatively unknown work by my favourite expressionist painter.


Presto by Rush
 
Switching to album covers. This is one of the more famous ones featuring rabbits.
 
 
White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity by Swans
 
Less famous, but an intriguing cover - and the band is classified as Art Rock...
 
 
Hello Young Lovers by Sparks
 
The band is famous for a number of hit singles in the seventies, this album is from three decades later.
 
 
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
 
Switching to movie posters, this is an obvious choice. Loved the movie, with its blend of reality and cartoons, and love the poster.


Bugs Bunny in Concert
 
It was of course unavoidable that Bugs would make an appearance today.


Watership Down
 
And of course, the same holds for the animated movie based on the novel by Richard Adams.


Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkel
 
A logical next selection, as we enter the groups of videos - Art Garfunkel's theme from Watership Down with images form the movie in the clip (YouTube link).
 
 
Rabbit Heart by Florence + The Machine
 
A hit for the English indie rock band in 2009 (YouTube link). 

 
White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane

Nothing else could be the final pick. Inspired by Lewis Carroll's books, this song from the late sixties is a classic in every sense, and also one of my all-time favourites (YouTube link).
 
 
Copyright statement: images of the paintings are all three in public domain, lower quality album covers and movie posters, and screen shots from videos are deemed fair use.