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Sun, 01 Jul 2007 |
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Thu, 24 May 2007 |
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Claudia Schiffer
The Golden Girl
Claudia Schiffer is talking tough. There's a
problem in the world of fashion these days, she
says--the fact that too often models have to look
like junkies just to be cool. "I think fashion
should be promoting beauty and health," she
says. "That doesn't happen if the model looks
anorexic, unhealthy, tired, if the photography
makes her look as if she's on drugs or been out
partying all night. That kind of thing can end up
hurting young women or girls who feel they have
to imitate the models they see in the magazines.
That's not what fashion is about. For me, fashion
is about beauty."
When Claudia Schiffer is the subject, that's what
it's always about. The 26-year-old German-born
supermodel has been called, by GQ magazine and
countless others, the most beautiful woman in the
world. Her face and body have graced the covers
of more than 500 magazines, among them Elle,
Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair
and Time. She was the first model to make the
cover of Rolling Stone. She has walked down
runways for all the major designers and appeared
in ad campaigns for Revlon, Chanel, Versace,
Valentino and Ralph Lauren. Her image, on
billboards for Kenar, has loomed above the
millions of tourists in Times Square. She danced
in a Fanta ad with Mickey Mouse for a reported $2
million. Last fall, she appeared on the cover of
the Victoria's Secret catalogue wearing a diamond-
encrusted brassiere worth $1 million. She also
has a contract to do Pepsi commercials with Space
Jam co- director Joe Pytka and has appeared in a
TV commercial for cotton "Underware," which was
censored in the United States.
John Fairchild, the publisher of Women's Wear
Daily, once said that Schiffer "looks better in
jeans than any model ever looked in Chanel." And
on this rainy early spring day, as she exits the
elevator at the Four Seasons Hotel on East 57th
Street in Manhat-tan, it is clear that Fairchild
knows whereof he speaks. She is clad all in black-
-simple, tight black Gucci jeans and a black wool
V-neck Prada sweater--and she is radiant. Her
long, glistening blonde hair glides gently and
gracefully down her back. Her magnetic blue eyes
twinkle; her soft, high cheekbones personify the
blush of youth.
Her body, all 5-feet-11 and 127 pounds, sparkles
with an unself-conscious sensuality that,
combined with her still-present air of youthful
innocence, is--there's no other word for it but
the cliché--breathtaking. And yet, inside this
tall, willowy body beautiful, this perfect
mannequin for haute couture, there lies the mind
of an experienced, tough and highly expert
businesswoman, the very model of a modern major
female entrepreneur at the turn of the twenty-
first century. A profile by Nathaniel Nash last
year in The New York Times called her "focused"
and "no-nonsense," a "combination that may be the
reason she is considered by many to be the best
businesswoman in modeling."
Designer Karl Lagerfeld has explained her success
by saying that underneath the glamour she is "all
work, very serious, essentially a smooth-running
German business machine." While that may be a bit
of an exaggeration, it is clear that she loves to
work, loves her business, and has risen to great
heights in the worlds of fashion and commerce.
She won't discuss her finances, but there is no
doubt she is the world's highest-paid supermodel.
That title was attained in 1992, Nash wrote, when
she inked an exclusive global deal with Revlon
for a reported $6 million a year for 10 years and
surpassed the previous titleholder, Cindy
Crawford. According to the Times, fashion
insiders estimate her yearly income at as much as
$14 million--or more. She has put out a yearly
swimsuit calendar since 1990; she designs it
herself, and industry estimates put her annual
earnings from it at $500,000 (this year her
royalties are going to the Pediatric AIDS
Foundation). Her series of four exercise
videos, "Claudia Schiffer's Perfectly Fit," for
CBS/Fox, has made the best-seller list. She has
published two books, Memories, a pictorial for
young people about a fashion shoot, and Claudia
Schiffer by Karl Lagerfeld, a black-and-white
coffee table book she designed with photos by
Lagerfeld.
In 1995, she and two of her fellow supermodels--
Naomi Campbell and Elle MacPherson--and Tommaso
Buti, an Italian restaurateur, opened the Fashion
Cafe in Rockefeller Center. It was so successful
that there are now Fashion Cafes in New Orleans,
London, Jakarta and Barcelona; another
supermodel, Christy Turlington, has joined the
crew, and there are plans to open in 10 more
cities this year, among them Mexico City, Manila,
Paris, Singapore and Madrid. Last October she
switched from the Metropolitan modeling agency--
where she had been since her career began--to
Elite, and, she says, things have gotten even
busier.
Sitting in a lounge at the Four Seasons this
Saturday morning, there is about Schiffer a clear
and imaginative intelligence, a disarming
friendliness. With Claudia Schiffer, in life and
on a magazine cover, what you see is what you
get.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about her this
April day is that she is not exhausted. It is the
end of Fashion Week in New York. She has
completed two all-day shoots posing for two
magazine covers--Cigar Aficionado and
Cosmopolitan.
She has spent countless hours on fittings and
taking part in two runway shows, for the
designers Badgley Mishka and Halston
International. Yet she also found the time
recently to take her brother to a Knicks game, do
a day-in-the-life photo shoot for Gala magazine,
attend dozens of business meetings and spend a
weekend with a 13-year-old girl who won a contest
in Europe that allowed her to tag along with
Claudia.
And there is no rest. Immediately after the
interview, she will be off to another cover
shoot, for Fitness magazine. Tomorrow morning,
she will be on a flight to New Orleans to
supervise several changes at that city's Fashion
Cafe.
"I work all year long," she says. "There are no
off seasons. And I travel all year long. I make
sure I can go home"--as with many other European
celebrities, home is Monte Carlo, for tax
purposes--"for a couple of days every few months,
even if it's only to switch things in my suit-
cases. Whenever I leave I pack for at least two
months."
Her schedule in the next two weeks is typical.
After three days in New Orleans, she moves on to
Los Angeles, to shoot a cover for Allure
magazine. "I'll be in L.A. for one day," she
says. "I arrive in the morning, and after the
Allure cover I'm attending a charity event, a
benefit for the Make-a-Wish Foundation," which
helps seriously ill children. (She is also a
spokeswoman for the National Breast Cancer
Coalition Signature Drive and takes part in many
events on behalf of Revlon to help cure the
disease, as well as donating time with other
supermodels in the fight against pediatric
AIDS.) "Then I catch a plane at 1:35 in the
morning and go directly to Lima, Peru. I arrive
at 12:35 p.m., and the next morning I work from 7
a.m. all the way to 9:30 in the evening. The
following day, it's the same hours. And then I
travel to Chile and work for two days from 9 a.m.
to 11 p.m. And then I go to Argentina for one
day. And then, finally, I'm back in Europe."
"It can be crazy," she says, "because when you
don't have time to relax it can be very tiring.
When I go back to the hotel room, there are
always the daily faxes to look at, and the phone
calls to be made if there's something urgent. And
then it's time to sleep. Once in Monaco, I
started work at 9 in the morning and worked all
through the night until 6 a.m. I didn't know in
advance I would be doing that, but if the
photographer decides artistically that he doesn't
have what he needs, you just keep on going until
you have it. And it can take all night. So we
finished at 6, and I had to take a 7 a.m. plane
from Nice to Paris and catch the Concorde to New
York. I didn't get any sleep. And when I arrived
in New York I had to go straight to the studio."
But despite it all, she says, she loves what she
does. "It's so much fun," she says. "Working with
photographers, collaborating on a shoot, you can
create so many different things. You can come in
with one idea of what you're planning to do and
then a couple of hours later you can change the
idea to something completely different. I love
the creative part of it so much."
With such a schedule, one might think she
wouldn't need to exercise and watch her diet to
keep fit. But she does. "I enjoy good food very
much," she says, "and I'm not one of those women
who can eat whatever they want. I have to watch
myself very carefully and think about what I eat
all the time. If I don't it's a disaster."
On a typical morning she will have fruit for
breakfast, along with tea and honey. "For lunch I
try to have salads or vegetables or soups," she
says. "And for dinner, chicken salad or tuna
salad or a bit of regular chicken or vegetables.
I try very hard to eat healthy. And it's not only
for my figure.
Sure, I would like to keep it the way it is. But
it's also for the energy. I have much more energy
when I'm thinner. Sweets make me very tired.
Heavy food, lots of meat, makes me tired."
When it comes to exercise, she tries to work out
in a gym four or five days a week, an hour and a
half or two hours a day, on the stationary
bicycle, the Stairmaster, the treadmill and a new
machine she has fallen in love with, the
Transport, which is a cross between a bike and a
treadmill that puts much less pressure on the
knees. She also uses weights for her upper body,
and sometimes for her lower body. But with all
her travel, she says, "I need to have something I
can do in hotel rooms." So she does a one-hour
workout routine with her private trainer, Kathy
Kaehler, that closely resembles those seen in her
videos. "The tapes were first developed for me,"
she says, "so I could show people what I do."
The rigors of her work schedule and training are
a bit like the rigor she brings to her business
planning. The fashion writer Michael Gross has
called her "the model who doesn't make mistakes."
Schiffer doesn't quite agree, but does admit that
she has "not made the same mistake twice." She
continues: "I can't say I don't make mistakes. I
do make them, but I try to think of mistakes--
even though my first reaction is, 'Oh, my God'--
as an experience I can learn from. I have lists
of things where I remind myself I cannot do it
this way again."
For her determination and her success, she
unhesitatingly credits her upbringing. "The main
structure of the way I think, the logic and the
organization, comes from my parents," she
says. "They are both very strong people. My
father is a very successful lawyer. My mother
helps my father a lot in his business. And she
helps me a lot in my financial business--almost
more than my father does. They are both really
excellent. I admire their work ethic. They are
very straightforward, logical and direct. I think
that's what I've learned from them." To her
parents she also credits what she calls "a very
happy childhood," though it was not without some
of the problems of youth.
Claudia Schiffer was born on Aug. 25, 1970, in
Rheinberg, Germany, a small town about a half
hour outside of Düsseldorf, to Heinz and Gudrun
Schiffer, in a very upper-middle-class family
that was soon to include two brothers, Stefan and
Andreas, and a sister, Ann Carolin. "We had, and
have, a real family life," says Schiffer. "Even
though my parents are very involved in their
work, both of them were always there for us.
Especially my mother. She became our hero,
because she knew and answered everything. She
would help us with our schoolwork, especially if
we were having difficulty with a subject. She
would sit down with us every afternoon and show
us things, explain them to us."
Her parents would help her and her siblings in
other ways as well. "They didn't want us to be
getting the wrong influences in school or during
the afternoons after school, so they made sure we
were very much involved in other activities," she
says. "I learned to play the piano. I took tennis
lessons, aerobics, jazz, tap dancing, swimming
classes. I think they helped a lot. Because of
them, I don't drink. I don't smoke [cigarettes].
I'm not one of those people who likes to go out
every night and dance until 6 in the morning.
That's part of what they were trying to do. They
wanted to have children they could trust,
children who would come home and tell them the
truth."
In school, she says, she was "kind of" popular,
but not to the degree you would think. "I wasn't
a star," she says. "There were other girls who
were the stars, who were the ones everybody
thought were beautiful, the ones everybody wanted
to go out with. I had my friends, but I was never
100 percent part of them, because I was so
different."
First of all, she says, she was too tall. And too
thin. And too rich.
"Because I was so tall, I was very shy," she
says. "When a teacher would ask me a question, I
would be very embarrassed because I didn't want
anyone to notice me. There was also a lot of
jealousy in school because I come from a family
that is very well known in the area where I grew
up. There are five Schiffer brothers, and each
has a successful business in town. We have a big
house; my parents didn't have to worry about
anything financially, and neither did the other
Schiffer families. I wanted to be like everybody
else, but my father and mother were both driving
Mercedes, and if I came to school in a great
outfit people would be very jealous. So because
of that I never wanted to be the center of
attention. After a while I wouldn't wear new
clothes. My mother would always say, 'You're so
beautiful, why don't you dress that way?' And I
just wanted to be in jeans and tennis shoes.
"That's why a lot of people were so surprised
when I told them I was going to Paris to be a
model. The girls who were the stars would all
talk about going to school to become models. And
I was the one who became a model. That was when
all the disadvantages I thought I had, being so
tall and so skinny, turned out to be advantages."
She was near the top of her class in school,
excelling in languages--she speaks fluent French
and English as well as German--and for a while
she thought of becoming a lawyer like her
father. "I admire him very much," she says. "I
even took Latin in school, because in those days
if you wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer you had
to learn Latin. I went to his law office and
thought about working with him. I went to court
with him many times, sat in the last row, and
watched him and thought, 'Wow, this is what I'm
going to do, too.'"
But one day in October 1987, she and some friends
went to a Düsseldorf discotheque to dance. Aline
Souliers of the Metropolitan modeling agency saw
her, gave her a card and told her she had what it
took to become a model. Claudia told her
parents. "She met my parents the next day and
invited them to come to Paris," Claudia says.
They were hesitant, concerned that she complete
high school.
"When we made the final decision to do it, I
still had to stay to finish high school," she
says. "I didn't tell anybody in school about it
for six months. Even when they were doing the
test photos in Paris and writing up the contract
I didn't tell anyone, not even my best
girlfriend. I thought, 'What if they find out.
Then I'll really be different.' It was all done
very discreetly. It was only the day before I
left that I told my friends."
Once in Paris, the rise was swift. Editors at the
influential Elle magazine saw her, liked what
they saw and put her on their cover. It was
Schiffer's first. Soon she was chosen for the
coveted Guess? jeans campaign, which carried her
face and figure around the world. Within a year,
she modeled at her first fashion show--for
Chanel. It led to work with Versace, Valentino,
Dior and all the other giants of the fashion
industry. Her relationships with Chanel and
Metropolitan's Souliers would last until 1996.
"At first I wasn't sure I was doing the right
thing," Schiffer says of her beginnings in the
business. "I thought they were making a mistake
about me. Why choose me and not these other girls
at school, who I thought were much more
beautiful? I thought I would be there a year,
improve my French and go home. But I was lucky. I
had a good start because my family was behind me.
Some girls just starting out make the wrong
choices because they have to do those things to
make money. I was able to say, let's have fun, do
things I like to do. And they turned out to be
the right things."
In her nine years in the fashion world, Schiffer
has learned that not all in the business do the
right thing. There is, for one, the large drug
subculture.
"There are a lot of drugs around," she
says. "Especially lately, because drugs have
become fashionable again. When I began in the
late '80s, the drug world of those days was
essentially over. People were more health
conscious. But it's back again. Some people have
nothing to do with it because of their education
and beliefs, and some think it's cool. In the
beginning I didn't even notice. I came from such
a clean home. I was so naive. People would tell
me afterward that everybody in the studio was
stoned except me, and I had no idea. Now I
notice. But it's not something I would ever do. I
don't like to lose control over myself. I don't
like the feeling of not controlling what I'm
saying or thinking."
Now, of course, Claudia Schiffer is recognized
everywhere she goes--by the media, the paparrazzi
and her many fans, all of whom constantly seek
her out, taking photographs, asking for
interviews and autographs. At times, she admits,
it can be a little much.
"When I'm working, I consider it part of my
work," she says. "If I'm attending a public
event, or even if I'm on the street going to
work, it's not a problem for me. But on vacation
it has bothered me a lot. I understand logically
that people have a need to see a celebrity, to
know what's going on in their lives. But after a
while it became so bad it was affecting the rest
of my family, too."
Her family vacations on Majorca, where they owned
a house. "There was no big wall," she
says. "There was the house and the pool and the
view and a little wall. And we had 20
photographers out on the wall every day. So I
would stay inside all day. I didn't want to go
out until the evening, when they would be gone.
Then my sister and my mother started to do the
same thing. We felt awkward going out in bikinis
with everybody watching, or sunbathing topless on
a boat, which in Europe everybody does. We
couldn't do it. It was very uncomfortable being
watched all the time. So we sold the house, and
we're building a new one with a wall around it so
we can have our private family life. I feel I
have the right to take a vacation. There are many
advantages of being well known, but that's the
major disadvantage."
Schiffer refuses to pose nude, and many
paparrazzi have gone to great lengths to catch
her topless. A group of photographers, she says,
once rented a boat and masqueraded as a
vacationing family, then suddenly turned with
their cameras and caught her relaxing far out at
sea. Another photographer cut a hole in a tent at
a fashion show in New York to benefit AIDS
research and took shots of her changing costumes.
Even the store on Majorca where she has photos
developed, she says, made copies of shots a
friend took of her topless in the Bahamas eight
years ago, kept them and recently sold them. She
says she has been talking with her lawyers about
keeping the photos from being circulated more
widely.
Another area in which she insists on some
semblance of privacy is her personal life. She
and the magician David Copperfield have been
engaged for more than three years. He reportedly
gave her a five-carat engagement ring, but so far
there have been no wedding bells. She will talk
about their relationship, but only a little. "I
don't want to talk about my private life too
much," she says. There are as yet, she says, "no
official plans for marriage," but they are still
very close. "We're just really great friends,"
she says. "We share a lot of things--hobbies,
passions, interests. We have a lot of fun
together." And yes, he does share with her the
secrets of his astounding prestidigitations. "I'm
there when he invents something, when he
rehearses it, so naturally I know," she says.
Schiffer has many hobbies she enjoys pursuing in
the little spare time she has, with or without
Copperfield. She enjoys contemporary art and
collects paintings and drawings she has found in
her travels, particularly the (former Soviet)
Georgian painter Kako, who creates figurative
art. She enjoys skiing and playing tennis, and
likes to curl up with a good book at night. One
of her favorite relaxations is painting--
watercolors or acrylics of animals and people.
But what this woman of beauty considers one of
the most beautiful things in life, she says, is
singing; not her own, but that of others. "I have
a real passion for singing," she
says, "especially Broadway musicals. The dancing,
the acting, it all makes the performers
beautiful. I saw the revival of Chicago last week
and thought the dancers and singers were
marvelous."
And she really appreciates good cigars. "I love
the smell of a good cigar, the elegance, the
feel. I enjoy the camaraderie of being with
people smoking cigars, the friendship, the good
feeling, the laughter." She most often
experiences cigars with her fashion friends,
among them Steven Florio, the president of Conde-
Nast Publications. "I like being part of the
mood, the excitement of the occasion," she says.
For five hours on the day of her Cigar Aficionado
photo shoot, clad first in a light blue Armani
dress, then a navy Ralph Lauren halter dress, and
surrounded by a garland of hydrangeas, she puffed
away contentedly at a passel of the finest Cubans-
-Cohiba Robustos and Siglo IVs, Montecristos No.
1 and 2. The elegance of the cigars seemed a
perfect accompaniment to the grace of her slender
hands; the smile on her face enhanced her
pervasive sensuality, and the aromatic smoke
drifting gently overhead added just a touch of
mystery to her magical beauty. One look made it
clear that handmade Havanas and haute couture go
well together.
One hobby Schiffer most emphatically does not
have is collecting, or wearing, jewelry. "I'm not
a jewelry person," she says--an unexpected
declaration from one who travels in a world where
gold and diamonds are de rigueur. A glance
reveals that she practices what she preaches--she
is wearing a wristwatch with a plain black band,
and a small jeweled crucifix on a thin gold chain
around her neck. "I think it's because my mother
has never been a jewelry person," she says. "I
don't have holes in my ears, so I couldn't even
wear earrings. It bothers me when I have a lot of
things on. It's not me. I'm more simple and
practical. Jewelry doesn't reflect my
personality."
What her personality does reflect is the desire
to continue to branch out from modeling. "In the
beginning, modeling was very exciting. It
fulfilled me. It was very satisfying, because
everything was new, and you have all these dreams
and goals, and you're hoping to achieve them. I
wanted to be on certain covers, work with certain
photographers and designers. And that's what
happened. I fulfilled them. But now that I'm a
little older, I think to myself that I've done
this. Now I want to be more involved, more
creative, make more decisions myself, come up
with my own ideas and have them carried out."
She has appeared on television in Europe, hosting
the French Fashion Awards and the World Music
Awards in Monaco. She has completed her first
major movie, a drama called The Blackout,
directed by Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant, The
Funeral). Scheduled for release this year, the
movie costars Matthew Modine and Dennis
Hopper. "I loved it," she says. "I didn't want to
leave. We all became friends, we became a team,
and I enjoyed acting so much. Ferrara is so great
with actors. He takes the time to help you, to
explain, to allow you to come up with your own
ideas. He is so open to them."
She would like to return to the screen, but only
with the right script and the right role. "I
don't want the main role," she says. "I want to
start first with small things, to get my feet
wet, to see what I can do. I'm just a beginner."
Last year, the House of Chanel ended its
relationship with Schiffer and replaced her with
the very skinny British model Stella Tennant--
after Tennant removed rings in her nose and
navel. Some in the fashion press, which is, by
definition, trendy and fickle, began saying that
perhaps the era of Claudia was over, that the
public was getting tired of her, that she was not
as much in demand on the runways of Paris and New
York, that she was really more a look than a
model.
Such talk, Schiffer says, does not surprise or
trouble her. "It would concern me if it was
true," she says. "But it's not. I work as much as
I've always worked. I make the same amount of
money. I see my schedule in front of me and I
know how busy it is. I still have my contracts,
and if I lose one I get another. What I think is
happening is simply that the more well known you
get, the more you are criticized, the more people
try to bring you down. I see it all the time with
other celebrities, so why shouldn't it happen to
me, too?"
Eventually, though, she says, the era of Claudia
will be over. Last year she said that because she
was financially secure, she no longer had to
think about what she would be doing when she was
30 or 35. But she has thought about what she
would like to be involved in a decade from now--
and it is unlikely to include modeling.
"In 10 years, I think I will probably not model
anymore," she declares. "Lauren Hutton and
Christie Brinkley are great examples of those who
fight the image of successful models only being
there for a certain period of time, but I think
that what they do is not for me. I would still
need to be active. I can't sit still for long
periods. I need always to be doing something. So
I'd love to develop book or television projects,
or make a movie. And I'd like to be involved in a
charity to which I can give a lot of time.
Because I'll have a lot of time."
She has always been a fan of Audrey Hepburn, she
says. "I really admire her very much. And I love
that when she didn't do that many movies anymore,
because she was older and didn't get enough good
roles, she gave all that time to Unicef. I'd love
when I'm older to have her grace and charisma.
Which is not something you can have when you're
young, because it's the experience of life that
gives it to you. But that's what I'd like for my
future."
Another goal is being more comfortable with
herself. "I've never liked myself too much," she
says. "I've always thought I was too shy, too
reserved, that I should be more open, more this,
more that. But I've learned to say to myself that
I am the way I am, and the more I am myself the
better I'll be. Of course you want to work to be
a good person, but first you have to learn to
accept yourself."
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CRISTIANO RONALDO: Biografía
Fecha de nacimiento: 5 de febrero de 1985
Lugar de nacimiento: Funchal (Madeira)
Estatura: 1.84
Peso: 78
Club: Manchester United
Posición: Delantero
Procedencia: Sporting de Lisboa
Palmarés: 1 F.A. Cup y 1 Supertaça
Selección nacional
Internacional con Portugal sub-18 y sub-21,
Cristiano Ronaldo hizo su debut como
internacional absoluto en agosto de 2003,
entrando desde el banquillo durante la segunda
parte en la victoria por 1-0 de su combinado ante
Kazajstán.
Clubes
Nacido en Madeira en agosto de 1985, Ronaldo
fichó por el Sporting Clube de Portugal
procedente del CD Nacional en 1997.
2002/03: Debutó con el conjunto lisboeta ante el
Internazionale FC en la tercera ronda de
clasificación de la UEFA Champions League, y
terminó jugando 25 partidos, siendo titular en
siete, en la que ha sido su única temporada en el
Sporting. Fichó por el Manchester el 13 de agosto
de 2003, el mismo día que lo hizo Kleberson, por
17.5 millones de euros, cifra récord por el
fichaje de un adolescente.
Su destino
Su padre le metió con pocos años en un club
popular en la isla, en el Andorinha. De allí
saltó al Nacional de Madeira. Los técnicos de
la “fábrica” del Sporting de Lisboa, la mejor
cantera portuguesa, no tardaron en saber de él y
se lo llevaron a Lisboa con 12 años.
El fichaje de Cristiano Ronaldo el verano del
2003 por el Manchester United se fraguó en un par
de días. Al regreso de la gira por Estados
Unidos, donde el Manchester que entrena Alex
Ferguson se enfrentó al Barcelona, el club inglés
participó en la inauguración del estadio José
Alvalade XXI frente al Sporting.
El delantero portugués protagonizó una exhibición
en ese encuentro y su destino iba a cambiar de la
noche a la mañana. En el vuelo de regreso, Roy
Keane, capitán del equipo, le puso la cabeza como
una hormigonera a Ferguson para que fichara a ese
delgado futbolista que les había vuelto locos
durante el encuentro. El técnico decidió
contratar al jugador, costara lo que costara. Su
precio fue 17.5 millones de euros.
La vida de Cristiano cambió de forma radical.
Pasó en un día de cobrar un sueldo de mil 500
euros al mes a 150 mil euros en Inglaterra.
Cristiano Ronaldo, como los grandes vinos de su
Madeira natal, mejoran con el tiempo y Portugal
le ha elegido como su nueva estrella. Su perla
más preciada, con permiso de Figo ( y sin permiso
también).
Su historia paso por paso.
Nació el 5 de febrero de 1985 en Funchal, Isla de
Madeira (Portugal). Su padre Dinis Aviero, le
colocó el nombre de Ronaldo por Ronald Reegan,
político al que profesaba una profunda
admiración.
El Sporting de Lisboa lo descubrió con 10 años,
Cristiano jugaba en el modesto Andorinha, club de
su Funchal natal y en el que su padre trabajaba
como utillero. De ahí pasó a Nacional, pero 6
meses después el segundo club más importante de
la Isla de Madeira entró en litigio con el
Sporting a causa de la marcha de uno de sus
canteranos, Franco, al cuadro isleño. El Nacional
se negó a pagar los 10.000 euros que pedía el
cuadro lisboeta, pero aceptó condonar la deuda
con la cesión de los derechos del por enonces
prometedor Cristiano Ronaldo que ya ofrecía en
infantiles una muestra de lo que podía llegar a
ser.
En el 2001, el técnico del primer equipo Laszlo
Boloni se dio cuenta de que en el filial había un
futbolista que superaba a muchos de los
futbolistas de la primera plantilla. El técnico
rumano pretendió hacerlo debutar ese mismo año,
pero un test físico desaconsejó el salto por no
estar lo suficientemente trabajado.
Era tan solo cuestión de tiempo, un año después
el rumano lo hacía debutar en la previa de la
Champions, nada menos ante el Inter. Ronaldo no
desaprovechó la oportunidad y se ganó un lugar en
el primer equipo, donde con su velocidad y su
técnica ha llamado la atención de los grandes del
fútbol europeo.
Su técnico en el Sporting de Lisboa, Boloni en
declaraciones a LEquipe ha llegado a compararlo
con Eusebio, algo que en Portugal son palabras
mayores. En Portugal ya le llaman el Ronaldo
portugués, aunque aún le falta mucho por
aprender. Por ello Cristiano ya se ha apresurado
en asegurar que se siente bien jugando en
Alvalade y que por el momento no quiere
precipitarse, para que cuando dé el salto
definitivo a un grande del fútbol europeo esté lo
suficientemente preparado.
Crsitiano Ronaldo es un gran futbolista, no es un
nueve y sí un centrocampista muy ofensivo, quizá
mediapunta. Tiene buena técnica y arranca muy
bien. Destaca por su inteligencia y su gran
físico (1,84). Sus controles recibiendo el balón
en carrera son muy buenos, y sus aceleraciones
para encarar a portería le convierten en un
jugador muy peligroso para la defensa rival.
Con la selección de Portugal, formó el devastador
ataque junto a Quaresma, Helder Postiga y Hugo
Viana que en la selección sub-21 noquearon a
Inglaterra y que les dejaron a las puerats del
Europeo, clasificatorio para el 2004. En junio
fue junto a Hugo Almeida y Dani, la estrella del
combinado sub-20 que conquistó el prestigioso
torneo de Touloun batiendo en la final a Italia
por 3-1.
Felipe Scolari no ha tardado en reaccionar y lo
ha hecho debutar el 20 de agosto de 2003 ante
Kazakhstan con la absoluta, a sus 18 años saltó
al campo en sustitución de toda una institución
del fútbol luso, Luis Figo.
Barça y Juve lo tuvieron en un lugar preferencial
en su agenda pero finalmente el Machester se hizo
con sus servicios en el verano de 2003 tras pagar
17,5 millones de euros en concepto e traspaso. En
el United tendrá a su disposición el nº7 para
certificar todo lo bueno que ha apuntado en el
Sporting de Lisboa.
Su fichaje por el conjunto de Manchester se
fraguó tras la magnífica actuación que realizó
ante los reds, en pretemporada de 2003. Cristiano
desquició a la defensa del Manchester y realizó
un extraordinario partido. Se comenta que en el
avión, en el viaje de vuelta, los pesos pesados
de la plantilla del United, terminaron por
convencer a Ferguson, que venía siguiéndolo desde
tiempo atrás pero que no acababa de decantarse
por su fichaje. Según parece al acabar el partido
todos hablaban del joven jugador luso e incluso
algunos jugadores como Keane o Van Nistelrooy, le
pidieron a Ferguson que lo fichase.
Todo ello le ha llevado al Manchester, donde
además del número siete, durante los próximos
cinco años, cobrará 133 veces más de lo que
cobraba en el Sporting.
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Biografia de
Antoni Tápies
Fue un artista de diversas facetas ya que no sólo
se dedicó a la pintura y a la escultora sino que
además realizó cerámicas y tapices. Es de
formación autodidacta y representante de la
corriente informalista, iniciándose en el arte a
sus jóvenes 22 años.
Influencias
Antoni Tápies nació el 13 de diciembre de 1923 en
Barcelona, y se ha convertido a lo largo de los
años y a fuerza de talento, es de formación
autodidacta, en uno de los mejores pintores
abstractos con los que cuenta España. Este pintor
y escultor, representante de la corriente
informalista, procede de una familia de libreros
y políticos catalanes, quienes lo hicieron vivir
en un ambiente cultural muy abierto. Se inició en
su trayectoria artística a los 22 años; por aquel
entonces cursaba la carrera de Derecho que
abandonó para inmiscuirse en el mundo de la
pintura. Además, en esa época empezó a leer a
Nietszche, Miguel de Unamuno, Edgar Allan Poe;
descubrió la pintura de Van Gogh y de Picasso.
Pero el pensador que marcó su trayectoria vital y
artística fue Jean Paul Sartre con su
existencialismo.
Adentrado en el surrealismo Tápies fundó, junto a
un grupo de artistas catalanes, el grupo Dau al
Set. Este grupo apareció en 1948 para brindar un
lugar a las corrientes más vanguardistas,
logrando así dar el primer paso que rompió con
las corrientes convencionales que se
desarrollaban por entonces en España. En 1949
participó en la exposición organizada por el
Instituto Francés de Barcelona y también exhibió
alguna de sus obras en el salón de los Once de
Madrid que fue organizado por Eugenio d´Ors.
Su obra y los cambios en ella
En 1950 consiguió una beca para cursar estudios
en París, época en la que se vinculó con la
pintura abstracta y con la ideología de la
izquierda. Un año más tarde abandonó el grupo Dau
al Set para iniciar sus investigaciones por el
lado de la materia pictórica frente al dominio
existente de la forma. Empezó así a realizar
collages con materiales residuales, alternando la
abstracción con el primitivismo. También a veces
rascaba diversas superficies para conseguir una
pintura con relieves que diera la sensación de
textura rugosa.
Asimismo, utilizó otra técnica en la que mezclaba
la pintura al óleo con polvo de mármol o con cola
para dar más sensación de materia a su
composición.
Fue así como al abandonar el surrealismo, retornó
a las investigaciones sobre la materia, iniciadas
ocho años antes, trabajando con tierras,
grattages, collages, incisiones; empezando de
esta manera a desarrollar su lenguaje personal.
Realmente se puede decir que fue un artista que a
lo largo de su trayectoria utilizó diversos
procedimientos. Coincidiendo con este cambio
expuso en la XXIV Bienal de Venecia (1952), en la
Galería Martha Jackson de Nueva York y obtuvo el
gran premio de Pintura de la Bienal de Sao Paulo
en 1953.
El objetivo de este cambio fue lograr una pintura
de relieves, orográfica, recreándose en la
presentación de texturas rugosas, porosas o
granulosas (matéricas en definitiva) que
contrastasen con superficies lisas.
En cuanto a la temática de sus obras aparecen
diversos símbolos pertenecientes al campo de la
sexualidad, del universo o de la muerte. Tápies
tiene una trayectoria artística muy amplia y muy
reconocida -son muchos los premios que este
pintor catalán recibió- por lo que tiene una
inmensa y destacada obra.
En sus obras aparecen composiciones con figuras
geométricas, más o menos difuminadas o
distorsionadas, como el óvalo (óvalo blanco,
1957), el círculo, el cuadrado (Puerta gris,
hacia 1958), más tarde el triángulo (Forma
triangular sobre gris, 1961), signos como la
cruz, constante a lo largo de su carrera, que
puede ser griega, latina, en aspa (Gran equis,
1962), en forma de T, ésta última asociada a la
inicial de su apellido, números, letras, entre
otros. En este sentido cabe citar Materia negra
sobre saco (1960) y Cuerdas entrecruzadas sobre
madera (1960).
A partir de 1962 comenzó una etapa en la que
integró en la obra objetos cotidianos como
cuerdas, platos (Montón de platos, 1970), paja,
junto a signos antropomórficos (pie, mano,
dedos), como se pudo observar en Blanco con
pisadas. Su gama cromática osciló entre el
monocromatismo y colorido neutro con predominio
de grises, negros, blancos y ocres, y la
inclusión de un colorido más vivo, con rojos,
naranjas, rosas, amarillos y azules.
A partir de la década de 1970 su obra presentó
heterogeneidad estilística y, si bien siguió
cultivando el informalismo, a veces mostró una
realidad objetual integrada por la presentación
de elementos cotidianos, por ejemplo en Materia
gris en forma de sombrero.
Tápies es el hombre de las diversas facetas ya
que también realizó cerámicas, tapices y
esculturas. Entre ellas se encuentra el mosaico
de la plaza de Sant Boi de Llobregat en Barcelona
y sus esculturas a modo de homenaje a Picasso.
También realizó la escultura Nube y silla y
calcetín de 18 metros de largo.
lo largo de toda su carrera artística realizó
exposiciones en todo el mundo, como por ejemplo:
Nueva York, Venecia, Hannover, Copenhague,
Lisboa, México, Londres y otros países. Asimos
recibió muchos premios, fue nombrado Doctor
Honoris Causa por varias Universidades españolas
y recibió la Medalla de oro de la Generalitat de
Catalunya, ha sido premiado en la Bienal de Sao
Paulo, recogió el primer premio del Instituto
Carnegie de Pittsburgh. También recibió el Premio
de la Unesco y de la Fundación David Bright de
Los ángeles.
Antoni Tápies publicó en 1978 el libro "El arte
contra la estética" y unos años más tarde el
Gobierno francés le concedió el Premio Nacional
de Pintura. En 1990 el gran artista inauguró la
Fundación Tápies en Barcelona con el objetivo de
dar a conocer el arte contemporáneo y exhibir
toda su obra artística. Después de la
inauguración de esta Fundación, recibió el León
de Oro en la Bienal de Venecia en 1993 y el
Premio Herbert Boeckl en 1994; y fue elegido, ese
mismo año, miembro de la Academia Francesa de
Bellas Artes.
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This juried, multi-media exhibition seeks to
bring to public attention the scope and influence
of the African Diaspora on all facets of Bay Area
life and culture using the imagery of art
to “break the ice” in order to stimulate a
dialogue between artists and viewers. Reflecting
the global reach of the African Diaspora, in the
Bay Area a cross-cultural art community has
emerged that extents beyond nationalism and
ethnicity to, instead, focus on ideology and
global impact in order to create works of art
that address contemporary issues of the Diaspora:
politics, war, poverty, famine, disease, AIDS,
religious cosmology, beauty.
Curators: Maggie Malloy, Matt McKinley
Jurors:
Mildred Howard: National and International artist
known for her large scale installations. Awarded
the 2004/05 Joan Mitchell Award. Teaches at San
Francisco Art Institute
Apsara DiQuinizo; Curatorial Associate, SFMOMA
Thelma Fuqua; President of the Board of
Director’s: San Francisco International Arts
Festival Raymond Holbert; Instructor of
Design ,African-American Art History, an
Illustration, City College of San Francisco
TWO LOCATIONS:
ARTworkSF Gallery 49 Geary St. Ste. 215 SF, CA
May 15 – June 3, 2007 Reception Thursday, May 24,
2007 5:30 – 7:30pm
San Francisco Public Library, Main Branch 3rd
Floor
May 12 – June 7, 2007 Reception Saturday, May
19, 2007 1pm – 3pm
Selected Artists:
Rawn McCloud
Kat Flynn
Sherri Cavan
Lois Llewellyn
Marion Coleman
Maxine Solomon
Amanda Wymer
Rives Granade
Lynn Friedman
Vera Costa
Rachel Sager
Colin Harris
Tammy Wilson
Stephanie Anne Johnson
Bayete Ross Smith
Karen Hampton
Suzun Hughes
John Grew Sheridan
Susan Matthews
Kristine Mays
D'Arci Bruno
Matteo Neivert
Holly Wong
Charles H. Stinson
Maggie Malloy
Glodean Champion
Lorraine Bonner
Opal Palmer Adisa
Jeffrey Blankfort
Fan L. Warren
Karen Ruenitz
Angela Hennessy
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Posted 05:07 No comments | Post a comment |
