Archive for October 28, 2013

Artist of the moment……Charmion Von Wiegand

Charmion Von Wiegand was an American painter born in the year 1896 in Chicago, Illinois. For her collegiate education Wiegand attended first Barnard College( a private womens only liberal arts college) and then graduated from Columbia University located in New York City where she studied theater and art history. Von Wiegand is associated most with the ” De Stijl” movement. Her father was a professional journalist.

When the famous leader of the De Stijl movement, Piet Mondrian came to the United States, Von Wiegand had the opportunity to meet the artist. She enjoyed his method of painting and changed her process to include many of his concepts.

Charmion Von Wiegand was an avid Buddhist in her later years and this influenced her style. Von Wiegand began to employ symbols more often in her work.

Von Wiegand was first an art critic before becoming known as an artist. She wrote for many magazines including ARTnews.

Charmion Von Wiegand passed away in 1983.

The artist is included in many prominent collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern both located in New York City.

Price range information:  Works range from $5,000 to $50,000.  Von Wiegand worked in graphite, gouache, oils, and collage.

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Artist of the moment…….Rolph Scarlett

Rolph Scarlett was a fantastic geometric abstract painter born in Guelph, Canada in the year 1889.  Rolph Scarlett began taking lessons at  the Loretto Academy also located in Guelph, Canada in 1901 when he was 12 years old. As a child the artist learned to paint from his grandmother.

One inspiration for Scarlett was the Russian abstract master painter Wassily Kandinsky.

In 1924 the artist moved to New York City. He began a successful career as a theater set designer and worked in the industry for three decades. Scarlett worked on both the East and West coast, in Hollywood and New York City.

Winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Price range information: Gouache works range from $1,000 to $10,000. Oils range from $5,000 to $100,000.

In 1965 Rolph Scarlett became an American citizen.

Rolph Scarlett passed away in 1984.

In this clip we view a show featuring Rolph Scarlett that took place in 2011:

Scarlett is included in many prominent collections including the Whitney Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art.

An interesting note is that Scarlett had a habit of not signing his artwork.

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Artist of the moment…..Hiroshi Yoshida

Hiroshi Yoshida was a renowned Japanese artist who spent the first forty years of his life concentrating on painting before finding his love of printmaking. Hiroshi Yoshida was born in the year 1876 in Kurume, Japan. The artist started his career by practicing the classical Western style of painting and specialized in landscapes. For his artistic education he apprenticed under two world renown painters Tamura Shoryu and Koyama Shotaro.

Price range information: The artist produced prints and original watercolor paintings ranging from $1,000 to $10,000.

The Yoshida family includes 8 professional artists including Fujio Yoshida, the artist’s wife, also a renown woodblock artist.

His printmaking style reminds me of Warhol in that he makes many versions of the same image and by varying the colors used ends up with very different moods in each piece.

In this clip a wonderful collection of prints by Hiroshi Yoshida:

What I enjoy most about this artist is that he loved to travel so you may recognize some work of his as he has probably painted a location in your country. For instance in the gallery you may recognize a print of the Grand Canyon of the United States. One famous image is of the Taj Mahal, and the artist produced 6 different prints each with a different mood.

Hiroshi Yoshida passed away in 1950.

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