Archive for February 10, 2013

Artist of the moment….Rene Magritte….

{ February 10, 2013 @ 6:53 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Rene Magritte was born in Belgium in the year 1898. He went on to become a master at Surrealist painting. I am sure you are familiar with some of his images even if you didn’t know he was the artist. Most everyone has seen the image with a man in a suit who has a green apple as a substitute for a face.

Magritte’s father was a tailor. His mother took her own life when Magritte was a young teen. His mother fought depression her adult life and tried on many occasions to take her own life. For a brief period his father even locked her in her own room. This is supposedly the idea behind a theme of a woman appearing wrapped or draped in a cloth. When her body was found the face was slightly covered by her dress.

Magritte began taking drawing lessons at the age of twelve.

He would join the armed forces, get married, have an exhibition that received awful reviews, and then relocate to Paris where he became involved in the Surrealist style of painting.

He worked in the advertising industry for others and then with his own firm he set up with his brother.

He had two successful exhibitions in the States in the 1930s.

Whilst starting off his young career he lived rent free at the house of James Edwards. Edwards was a well known Surrealist painter.

He was most popular during the 1960s in the art world.

 

Matisse passed away in 1967 at the age of 68 from pancreatic cancer. He was living in Brussels, Belgium at the time.

Here we see a wonderful collection of artworks by Magritte set to music.

If you enjoy this artist be sure and check out some other Surrealist painters I have profiled such a Salvador Dali, who was obsessed with painting time and clocks. He did many drawings, paintings, and sculptures with this as his theme. The Surrealist painters are all incredible draughtsman as you must be to incorporate items that aren’t usually seen side by side.

Here we have a clip from the series of Andy Warhol screen tests featuring Salvador Dali, I wanted to make sure you remembered his face and his flamboyant personality.

And an example of one of his signature time paintings.

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Other than Dali my other favorite Surrealist painter is Hughie Lee Smith. Smith was one of few African-American artists working in the genre. I enjoy looking at his works because like Magritte and Dali they explore the universal themes such as the passage of time. Below is a fantastic example of Hughie Lee Smith’s style of Surrealist painting.

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I was able to find a piece dealing with time made by Magritte. Its titled Time Tranfixed.

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Price range information: Lithographs range from $3,ooo to $20,000. Etchings range from $1500 to $5,000 for most works. Watercolors start at $2,000. Bronzes range from $5,000 to $10,000.

One last thing to remember about the Surrealist artists, is that Dali has the coolest house I have ever seen! Here is a clip about it. 

 

 

Create!

D

Artist of the moment……Brett Murray….

{ February 10, 2013 @ 2:44 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Brett Murray is artist born in 1961 in the city or Pretoria, South Africa. He has made himself famous for portraying life as a white person in South Africa after apartheid has taken place. His most famous work was that of the president of  South Africa the country, he painted the artist with his genitals exposed. This work was vandalized and this gave Murray a shot to stardom in the art world as a political artist and activist.

Below is his most controversial piece, called Hail to the Thief, it features President Zuma.

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For his education Murray attended the University of  South Africa at Capetown and Michaelis School of Art.

Murray was the founder  of the sculpture department at a college based out of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

A link to Brett Murray’s own website: http://www.brettmurray.co.za/

When the statue featuring a female figure alongside the Simpsons was displayed the government thought some public outrage might take place, as some organizations sued the government to prevent the display of Mr. Murray’s work.

Here we see a statue by the artist get covered in yarn. I think its great to see that the public is so excited to interact with a work of art. Just great!

In this clip we see the most controversial incident ever involving the artist with the President Zumba of South Africa. The African National Congress went after Murray with vigor for his not so delightful painting of the President. It is paintings like this that have earned him the nickname of the “Demon of Pop Art. ”

 

If I were to compare his work to other artists that deal with race except from a person of colors point of view and in both artists racism in the United States. One artist that comes to mind would be Kara Walker. Walker is highly sought after by collectors including Oprah Winfrey for her silhouette paper and canvas cutouts. These works take us back to a time when no one wanted to be black and the darker your skin color. Her works emphasize the bad thoughts and ideas that sometimes come from people not only slavery, but also other touchy subjects such as rape. Below is wonderful example of Kara Walker’s signature style.

 

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Now lets take a closer look at Kerry James Marshall’s artwork which features race and also makes political commentary. With this work we see important people in the history of the United States as far as barriers being broken. We see such people as John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and  Martin Luther King given wings, they are angels with their spirits always hanging over us.  Marshall was born in Birmingham, Alabama in the year 1955. This was the height of racism in the south of the United States.

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Its very interesting to see how race is handled in different parts of the globe, sometimes I get tired of the slavery themes used by Kara Walker, so when it comes to race and current political themes its great to compare South Africa to the United States as both have begun to heal the many wounds caused by slavery.

 

My computer is nearly fixed so I will soon be back to daily posts, until then I have to post when I have the opportunity to borrow  a computer.

 

Make sure and set aside some time today to paint or draw to make this a fantastic weekend!

D

Artist of the moment…..Linden Frederick…..

{ February 10, 2013 @ 1:26 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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One of my favorite artists working with the urban scene. When I think of the artwork from this artist I am reminded of where I grew up, middle class suburban America. Occasionally Frederick has worked with mobile houses. For the most part he works with oils on linen.

For his collegiate art studies Frederick attended the Ontario College of Art located in Toronto in Canada. He was also able to study abroad at the Academie de Belle Arte located in Florence, Italy. Frederick also attended Houghton College in New York.

First exhibition was in 1989.

A link to Linden Frederick’s own personal website: http://lindenfrederick.com/

Price range information: None available.

Linden Frederick has been featured on the cover of my favorite artist magazine, American Art Collector.

In this clip from Forum Galley who shows the artist’s work, we actually see him at work on one of his classic urban scenes. We also here him speak about his art.

Another artist working with the mobile home theme is John Salt. Salt hails from the United Kingdom and made his push to fame in the 1960s by painting mobile home parks and old time worn vehicles. When I drive by a mobile home park, I ALWAYS think how would Mr. Salt paint this scene. He is considered a photorealist painter and below is a wonderful example of his style.

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One of my favorite artists working with the urban scene that I featured before is Robert Kipniss. A master printmaker his works exude the stillness that is found in the early morning hours, I speak with direct knowledge as I used to be a paper boy. Very moody and very subdued works with a fantastic example of his style that plays darks against lights.  The artist also does a wonderful job with trees and foliage, this shows in his lithographs.

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I hope you learned some lessons from looking at the works of these masters of traditional Americana scenes. Each does a great job at making the buildings incorporated with the land. I enjoy watching Bob Ross paint, he loves what he does but he has some bad habits of making the trees using basically only one method. Another bad habit is he places houses and cabins in his works that don’t fit in at all to its surroundings. Every edge is very sharp and nothing blends with the foliage.

 

Try drawing an urban scene, using any material, try to build a sense of quiet and mood by building excitement and tension in your darks.