Guggenheim Museum Bilbao — Spain

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art, designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. The museum was inaugurated on 18 October 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Spain.

It is built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Cantabrian Sea. The Guggenheim is one of several museums belonging to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The museum features permanent and visiting exhibits of works by Spanish and international artists

One of the most admired works of contemporary architecture, the building has been hailed as a "signal moment in the architectural culture", because it represents "one of those rare moments when critics, academics, and the general public were all completely united about something." The museum was the building most frequently named as one of the most important works completed since 1980 in the 2010 World Architecture Survey among architecture experts.

History — In 1991, the Basque government suggested to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation that it would fund a Guggenheim museum to be built in Bilbao's decrepit port area, once the city's main source of income. The Basque government agreed to cover the US$100 million construction cost, to create a US$50 million acquisitions fund, to pay a one-time US$20 million fee to the Guggenheim and to subsidize the museum's US$12 million annual budget. In exchange, the Foundation agreed to manage the institution, rotate parts of its permanent collection through the Bilbao museum and organize temporary exhibitions.

The museum was built by Ferrovial,[8] at a cost of US$89 million. About 5,000 residents of Bilbao attended a preopening extravaganza outside the museum on the night preceding the official opening, featuring an outdoor light show and concerts. On October 18, 1997, the museum was opened by Juan Carlos I of Spain.

Liechtensteinklamm — The Most Beautiful Gorge

Liechtensteinklamm or Liechtenstein Gorge, is a particularly narrow gorge with walls up to 300m high, located in the Austrian Alps 50km south of Salzburg. It is around 4km long and named after Johann II of Liechtenstein who had the walkways installed in 1875.

One of the deepest and longest ravines in the Alps, the Liechtensteinklamm is off the beaten track but well worth the detour. The jaw-dropping chasm was carved out during the last Ice Age and takes its name from Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein, who poured plenty of money into making the gorge accessible in the 19th century. Following raging waters flanked by vertical 300m-high cliffs, the footpath crosses bridges and passes through tunnels gouged into slate cliffs veined with white granite. The mossy boulders and crags glisten with spray from the water, which is at its most striking in the late afternoon when the sunlight turns it opal blue. The trail culminates at a spectacular 50m waterfall. Allow at least an hour to walk the gorge.

Hyper Realistic Watercolor Art by Thierry Duval

Talented artist Thierry Duval was born in Paris, France in 1968. His watercolors are amazingly hyperrealistic, like photographs. By using glazing technique he works in several steps up to get the final, very realistic result. Thierry Duval is a sensitive and accurate observer of nature and the city. Paris is painted in depth streets, buildings, cats, bridges, all you can imagine about this wonderful city. Thierry has exhibited in France and abroad, and he was awarded several times.

A graduate of Decorative Arts in 1982, illustrator, and creative in a large advertising agency in Paris, Thierry Duval drew and painted since childhood. He will make his first creations using the concept of narrative comic strips from 1980, initially to a few fanzines, and in various magazines. In 1990, a great Italian restaurant in Paris on «Raffaelo», commissioned the making of copies of pastel paintings of the Renaissance Raffael, maybe then it will taste for the great masters of academic painting. In preparing the entrance of Decorative Arts in Paris he discovered the work of the painter Delacroix, and that he will his passion for watercolor. This technique will give a great freedom of expression. But his way of approaching watercolor is not common, in fact, his record, unlike the traditional watercolors, a force emerges in unusual colors and lights. Its purpose is to evoke a «impressionism» of dawn or dusk depending on the themes, all supported by a drawing of a high accuracy. All these criteria give aquarelles Thierry Duval evocative power, a realism uncommon in the usual expression of watercolor.

East and Paris are to important sources of inspiration — For the East, it draws, as Delacroix in his books trips to Morocco, multiple subjects: men and their lifestyles Berbère, the magic of the journey, but the harsh landscape bathed in warm light. His watercolors are similar Orientalistes also part of the realism of the scenes, the painter Majorelle.

Regarding the theme of his work on Paris, he enjoys photographing the Seine in the early morning, he likes to filter light below decks, roofs gleaming in the rain, the silhouettes of majestic monuments that arose at the turn of an alley, the sounds of Paris, barges, markets, cafes. He likes to observe these lonely passers on the Pont des Arts, he likes to soak up the fall in Paris. This photographic work, nourishes and inspires him in his painting: This leads to the realism of a Paris dreamlike, poetic, nostalgic and timeless.

The singularity of his work rests on this dichotomy between a high tech modernism, (due to digital technology and its various applications), and conversely, a pictorial record which references s'impreignent rather large watercolorists classics of the last century.

Worthy heir of the great British tradition of watercolor as William Turner, Thomas Shotter Boys, William Callow, James Holland, but also the work of Thierry Duval is a clever mix of hyperrealism, poetry and refinement. Thierry Duval is a sensitive and accurate observer of nature and the city, pay attention to the slightest variations of light. His watercolors of urban scenes recreate the beauty of historic Paris, but also the unusual and mysterious side.

Since 2007 he exhibited in the United States in California in Palo Alto, and recently participated in numerous exhibitions in France and abroad. Selected for the 11th Biennale de Namur in 2009, the largest European exhibition of watercolor.