Mary Heilmann is an American artist born in San Fransisco, California in the year 1940. Heilmann is known for her bright colored and sometimes combined canvases and panels, these surfaces are two square shapes joined together. The artist usually starts by looking for a shape that really does exist. An air vent, a piece of highway, or even a windows. In addition to painting Heilmann produces ceramics and furniture.
price range information: Works range from $3,000 to $200,000. The artist works in both acrylics and oils.
Here we visit our dear artist friend James Kalm for a show featuring Mary Heilmann from 2010.
During a slow recession time some of the magazines began to have artists write about their work, but for free. The artists didn’t get paid. But as a result people were certainly more interested in Heilmann’s work once they found out more about certain images. Heilmann burst upon the national scene after appearing in national art magazine ArtForum in 2007. This was for a show that was traveling about the country from California to its end location the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
For her collegiate education the artist studied literature and ceramics at the University of California at Berkeley and San Fransisco State University for her bachelors degree. In addition Heilmann attended the University California at Santa Barbara earning a masters degree.
From the Art 21 series a quick visit to the home and studio of Mary Heilmann.
Based out of New York City.
Its great to see an artist become so successful later in their lifetimes. Another similar story is Grandma Moses, who learned to paint after arthritis forced her to give up knitting and crochet. She became famous after age 70!
Sarah Morris is an artist known for her use of geometric shapes and bold explosive color. Sarah Morris was born in Sevenoaks, Kent located in England in the year 1967.
For her collegiate studies the artist attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. As all artists know, being an artist means growing constantly! Morris takes this to heart and went to study in London at Jesus College, Cambridge University in London. She also has taken courses at the Whitney Museum in New York city. Morris graduated magna cum laude.
Morris splits her time between London and New York.
She paints with super glossy house paint on most of her works.
In college she had a double major for her course of study. Morris studied political science and also semiotics. Semiotics will be your word of the day, its the study of signs and symbols. One artist who understood this point very well an who incorporated symbols and sign language in his graffiti style works was Martin Wong. Wong died in 1999 but he was important for bringing graffiti art to the galleries and he had a very large collections of graffiti art that he donated to the city of New York. Below is a great example of semiotics or symbols used in Wong’s style of painting.
Morris also enjoys making films. Some themes in the past of been celebrity life in Los Angeles and another was life in the city of Chicago, before and after President Barack Obama. In this clip we see some moments from her tenth film, the aforementioned Chicago. Her films are great for dissecting not only way a city is laid out and its architecture, but also the power players and prominent citizens involved.
In this clip titled AM/PM also by Sarah Morris, we are taken above and throughout the city of Las Vegas! Very exciting and set to good music!
Well its impossible to talk about film and art without mentioning my favorite artist, ANDY WARHOL! In this brief interview we here why Warhol himself made the move from printmaking and painting to film. Andy talks about his love of films and the underground film scene. Andy loves cameras!
Morris named her studio Parallax. Parallax refers to an optical illusion that happens when the position or direction of an object appears to change if the viewer changes position.
You know I enjoy reading artists that have done public commissioned works, and Morris has done many works in prominent locations. She has works at the Big Ben in London and Lincoln Center in New York.
In 2012 Morris did a feature film on the city of Rio De Janiero, Brazil.
Price range information: For paintings in oils and acrylics they both range from $20,000 to $160,000. Digital prints can be found starting around $1,000.
Mark Grotjahn was born in 1968 in Pasadena, California. He is best known in the art world for his abstract style. He sometimes paints in a manner in which shapes radiate from the center. The shapes are usually long triangles and the paintings are either done in black and white (this is the case for the butterfly series) or using bold and explosive color. In the latter stages of his career he has moved onto installations and sculpture works.
Price range info: Grotjahn has worked in graphite and colored pencil works that can range from $20,000 to $1.37 million for a work from his butterfly series. Paintings in oils can be found from $1.43 million for a work from the butterfly series, down to $20,000. Grotjahn has occasionally worked in acrylics and gouache but not enough works have been made to get a consistent price list in these mediums.
In this clip we go along with our great art lover friend James Kalm to view a show by Grotjahn.
In this clip you can view a show given by the artist at Gagosian Gallery in New York. The theme of the show was masks, the artist created a variety of masks using found and recycled materials.
Below is a clip from another Gagosian Gallery show with theme being black butterflies. The show was given in 2008.
In this clip visit the artist in his own studio as he works on some “mask” style art.
Grotjahn now lives and works out of Los Angeles, California.
For his artistic education Grotjahn attended the University of Boulder in Colorado earning a bachelor’s degree. He went on to the University of California at Berkeley earning a MFA. After this he became artist in residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Art in Maine. Grotjahn moved from Maine to Los Angeles and opened up a gallery with a partner. The gallery showed his own works as well as other artist’s.
The artist got into graphic design by making art out of the signs he saw in storefront windows. He then would exchange his artwork with the owners of the store for the original signage.
In his current method the artist doesn’t map all the colors out at first. He does make a drawing in black pencil. Grotjahn then lays the colored pencils out on floor and he starts working on filling the paper with colors.
When I think of Grotjahn I think of a spiral or radial form. A spirograph base, but a more modern and contemporary finish.
In this last clip let us smile and relax and sit back as we see the artist dance in front of one of his own paintings.
For your art homework today how about cutting a rug, (dancing), in front of your favorite painting.
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