Archive for October 12, 2013

Artist of the moment…..Catherine Murphy

{ October 12, 2013 @ 9:20 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Catherine Murphy  was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the year 1946. Murphy is a renown for her oil paintings of the urban landscape. For me visually her art reminds me of the painter Burton Silverman. Both do a great job of using a wide variety of greys in their work, they control the color as a master painter should. Below an example of a work by Burton Silverman.

 

burt

Catherine Murphy attended the Pratt Institute of Art earning a bachelors degree. She took additional classes at Skowhegen School of Painting for a year in the mid 1960s.

Winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Two time participant in the Venice Biennale.

Her husband is an artist Harry Roseman. I wrote about this gentleman two days ago. He is also a professor at Vassar College in upstate New York.

The artist works strictly from life, never from photographic references.

price range information: Sorry none available.

Murphy is concerned with every detail in her work. She might work more than one year on one painting. Murphy is part of many collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.

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Artist of the moment…….Jacques Villon

{ October 12, 2013 @ 6:57 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Jacques Villon was born in Damville, Eure, France in the year 1875. He was encouraged to practice art by his grandfather. His name at birth was Gaston Emile Duchamp. The artist came from a family full of artistic output and he was the brother to Marcel Duchamp, famous for his sculpture and paintings. Suzanne Duchamp-Crott who was a renown painter was a sister. And another brother was Raymond Duchamp-Crotti.  Not only was Villon a fantastic painter, but he was a tremendous draftsman and printmaker. For his artistic education took art in college in addition to law studies. Villon briefly attended the Academie Julien located in Paris, France.

In addition I must add that the point of Cubism was to take something, and make it more abstract. When I first came to the art world I didn’t have as much respect for this type of work, but now find it spectacular. In a traditional still life you just put a vase of flowers in front of you and just paint it. But in “Cubist” style you draw the same vase and flowers, but from multiple viewpoints. Once you see the meaning behind a technique, it becomes much more brilliant.

Jacques Villon moved to Paris to attend college and enrolled as a law student. His father allowed him to study art in college, but he had to continue to study law as well.

The artist changed his name to separate him siblings. He chose the name Villon as it refers to the French poet named Francois Villon.

In this clip below we see many works by Gaston Emile Duchamp also known as Jacques Villon. A large selection of prints are included:

He started his career by drawing and illustrating for newspapers and magazines and also working on posters.

Villon worked for the army during World War 1 as a cartographer, a person who draws maps.

Villion and his brothers started their own group, the Puteaux Group. The group dealt with artists of all mediums who worked in a Cubist or Orphism style.

At auction works by Villon have broken the one million dollar barrier.

Jacques Villon passed away in 1963 at the age of 87 years old.

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Artist of the moment….Stephen Westfall

{ October 12, 2013 @ 12:25 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Stephen Westfall is an American painter born in Schenectady, New York in the year 1953. For his artistic education he attended the University of California at Santa Barbara earning a bachelors and masters degree from the institution.

In his art he takes influence froma  variety of places for his grids including cityscapes of New York City and even Native American Indian rugs and pottery from the New Mexico area. Westfall started working with a symmetrical grid, but then took his grid one further twisting and turning it so the shapes were uneven.

The artist works in a variety of mediums including gouache, oils, alkyds.

price range information: Sorry none available.

Winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007.

Westfall is based out of New York City.

The artist has worked as a critic and a professor. He was a teacher at Bard College and the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Westfall works in a grid pattern that he was inspired to create after seeing the work of Agnes Martin. Below an example of Martin’s style. She worked in a grid format and also more colorful compositions.

agnes

In this clip we visit our dear friend James Kalm and go to a show curated by Stephen Westfall. Westfall is also included in the exhibition and his work appears at 4:30 in to the clip:

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