Ryan McGinness is an American artist born in blank city in 1972. He makes wonderful absbract works using acrylics but also mixes in well known corporate icons and symbols . He also paints very unique figure paintings of women. He sometimes paints on circular surfaces. These round works take me back to the 1980s when I was a young boy and I used to spend many hours looking through my kaleidoscope. These were tube shaped toys that looked like telescopes. On the inside were many fun shapes and designs that were made of glass pieces, mirrors, and beads. My moving the kaleidoscope around the viewer could make new designs instantly! Below is an example of the sights seen in a kaleidoscope and why it reminds me of Ryan McGinness and his artwork.
In this clip we visit a show given by the artist at a LaJolla Museum of Art.
Price range information: Works in acrylics range from $2,000 to $60,000. Screenprints range from $1,000 to $10,000.
For McGinness’ collegiate education he attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Same university as Andy Warhol, only when Warhol attended it used to be called Carnegie Institute of Technology. During his collegiate years McGinness interned at the Andy Warhol Museum and was an assistant curator.
Here is a great interview brought to us with Ryan McGinness and Walrus TV.
The artist reminds me of several artists. When looking at his paintings of women I am reminded of Pablo Picasso. If you didn’t know by the title what you were looking at, would the viewer even know he was looking at body parts? A breast, a leg, a bare foot, I love the simplicity of his design. Below is an example of Picasso and his cubist style of painting women. The piece is titled Les Demoiselles and was made of five prostitutes in a brothel.
For his flatness and concentration on the silhouette of the female figure the artist reminds me Julien Opie. Opie is a wonderful contemporary artist from Britain who employs digital mediums in his work with the simplified form of the female figure. This work was part of a commission for the National Theater in Prague.
McGinness has a fantastic sense of design and that is apparent in his abstract paintings. He uses organic shapes varying them slightly in these works. I love his works with chains. With his use of shapes and color it reminds of the Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes. Milhazes has had a very successful career having works sell at auction for more than one million U.S. dollar$! Here is a wonderful example of Milhazes style of art.
McGinness is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Ryan McGinness currently lives and works out of Manhattan, New York.
I hope this artist inspires you try experiment with some simplified figure works in the future!
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