Agnes Denes is a contemporary conceptual artist renown for her works which have an emphasis on the environment. Agnes Denes was born in Budapest, Hungary in the year 1931.
Denes attended the New School College and Columbia University located in New York City.
The artist has worked and experimented in many mediums including land art, computer art, poetry, music, painting, printmaking and sculpture. Her largest land art work was a two acre field of golden wheat the artist planted in downtown New York City.
Over her career Denes has pubished six books.
Below we view a work by Denes that is a called a living pyramid:
Mara De Luca is a contemporary American abstract artist. The artist has developed a unique working process that combines painting with collage.
De Luca attended Columbia University located in New York City where she earned a B.F.A. The artist went on to earn a M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts located in Valencia, California.
The artist has been included in exhibitions in the United States and Europe.
Price range information: Sorry none available
De Luca first pours a thin layer of acrylic paint onto raw unprimed canvas. She then puts a layer of fabric on top of this. Depending upon the mood she wishes to create, the artist uses either transparent or opaque fabric. The artist credits Duchamp for inspiring her unique approach.
In this clip a brief interview with the De Luca as artist in residence in Irvine, California. De Luca was the first official artist in residence at the Irvine Fine Arts Center. Her printmaking process is quite detailed.:
De Luca also gives credit for inspiration to the daily life she lives in Los Angeles, California. A wonderful mix of digital technology and natural beauty.
Ad (Adolf Frederick) Reinhardt was one of the first American abstract painters. Ad Reinhardt was born in Buffalo, New York in the year 1913. At the beginning of his career the artist started working in a monochrome style working with using red. This was followed by period of all blue paintings, and then black. The black paintings were produced during the 1960s, at the height of his art career.
From the Museum of Modern Art located in New York City, a closer look at the painting techniques employed by Ad Reinhardt:
Reindhardt was very well schooled having attended Columbia University, the National Academy of Design, the Institute of Fine Arts of New York, and the American Artists School.
Reinhardt taught at the Brooklyn College of art. One famous student of his was modernist sculptor Anne Truitt.
Reinhardt was part of the Works Progress Administration. For these works he painted in a realist style.
Ad Reinhardt passed away in 1967.
Below we catch up with our favorite art amigo, James Kalm, and visit a show celebrating the 100th birthday of Ad Reinhardt:
The artist worked in oils and watercolors.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Reinhardt was awesome at creating unique shapes in abstract works. When combined with his fantastic use of color the results are spectacular.
Garry Winogrand was an American photographer best known for his images of daily American life and New York City in the 1960s. Garry Winogrand was born in the year 1928.
The artist grew up in the Bronx and both of his parents worked in the apparel industry. Winogrand served in the United States Air Force and then attended college studying painting at the City College of New York. Winogrand also studied photography at Columbia University.
Winogrand also took a class from a previous post, Alexey Brodovitch.
In this clip we view some great photographs of people who at the time are as emotional as humans can be:
The artist was the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and also the National Endowment for the Arts. He was also a highly sought after teacher and served as a professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Winogrand enjoyed shooting street images and spent most of his career in New York City, although he did shoot images of Los Angeles.
Garry Winogrand passed away in 1984.
Price range information: Works range from $10,000 to $150,000.
The artist had a great knack for capturing the moment, WITHOUT PHOTOSHOP or any other digital technlogy. The lack of color gives the viewer a raw sense of emotion from the subjects.
If you enjoy street photography especially that of New York City be sure and read my previous posts on Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander.
Max Yavno was an American photography who is renown for his images of life in the Western region of the United States and Los Angeles and San Francisco in particular.
Max Yavno was born in New York in the year 1911. Yavno attended the City College of New York. The artist went on to earn a masters degree from Columbia University where he studied finance and political science.
In this clip a montage of works by Max Yavno:
Yavno is known for his street scenes of Los Angeles. Yavno documented the West coast in a similar manner that Paul Strand captured New York City not only with photographs, but with his 1920 movie titled “Manhatta.”
Yavno did was employed by the Works Progress Administration.
The artist served in the United States Army during World War 2. After the war he opened up his own shop where he specialized in landscape photography.
Max Yavno passed away in 1985 from complications he got from falling whilst taking a shower.
Price range information: Most works available from $4,000 to $50,000.
Yavno was known for his images of San Francisco, which include a street car being turned around manually, and for his images of the famed Muscle Beach. These images remind me of another New York City photographer who captured many of the unique people of the Big Apple, Diane Arbus.
Leon Polk Smith was an American painter born near Chickasha, Oklahoma in the year 1906. Smith was raised on an Indian reservation and was renown for his abstract paintings.
Smith attended college at East Central University located in Ada, Oklahoma earning a B.A. Smith went on to postgraduate studies at Columbia University where he earned a M.F.A.
Past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
In this clip we view a show featuring Leon Polk Smith and other hard edge abstract painters from 2013 at the Anne Taylor Gallery. Smith is shown at the 1:10 part of the clip:
Leon Polk Smith passed away in 1996.
Like many abstract artists, including Tom Wesselmann, Smith was fond of using round or uniquely shaped canvases for his painting support.
Price range information: Prints start at $2,000 and originals can reach as high as $100,000 for a work in oils and acrylics.
Charles Alston was one of few African American painters working in an abstract manner. Charles Alston was born in the year 1907 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Alston was well diversified as an artist working as a painter, muralist, illustrator, and sculptor. For his artistic education Charles Alston attended Columbia University located in New York City earning a BFA and MFA.
Price range information: The artist worked in lithography, pastels, oils, watercolor, and gouache paints. Works range from $5,000 to $30,000.
The artist participated in the WPA program, and was the first African American to be given a supervisor position.
A wonderful mix here! Miles Davis plays in the background whilst we get to view many works by Charles Alston:
The first image of an African American man displayed at the White House was a bust of Martin Luther King done by the artist.
The artist came from a very unique background. His father was born into slavery but after the Civil War took it upon himself to help bring up the African American race to that of other people. His dad passed away when he was three from a sudden brain hemorrhage. His mother enjoyed the art of embroidery and his father was a competent draftsman.
As a child he enjoyed playing with clay and making sculptures.
With the passing of his father Alston and his family moved to New City. Alston was revered as a very gifted artistic student at his school.
For his collegiate education at Columbia he tried architecture first and then medicine before choosing fine arts as his major.
The artist served in the Army during World War 2. The artist also was named staff artist of the Office of War and Information and Public Relations in 1940. His drawings of people of color were printed and well known throughout the country.
Whilst teaching at the Harlem Arts Workshop Charles Alston taught the ten year old Jacob Lawrence. What a great connection! Alston was also the first African American instructor at the famed Art Students League of New York City. Alston also taught at City University located in New York City.
Charles Alston passed away in from cancer complications in 1977.
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.
Anne Chu is an American artist born in New York City in the year 1959. Chu works in a variety of mediums including sculpture and printmaking. For her artistic education Chu attended the Philadelphia College of Art earning a bachelors of fine arts degree. Chu also earned an MFA from Columbia University located in New York City.
Price range information: Works range from $10,000 to $50,000.
First solo exhibition took place in 1991.
Has shown her work at several locales abroad including the Saatchi Gallery.
Her sculptures include a wide variety of mixed media. The work in the gallery, the sculpture of a person wearing a robe the 2nd from the bottom, includes wood, rope, fabric, cardboard, and a metal armature.
Anne Chu has won a John Guggenheim Fellowship.
Below a brief clip about a book Anne Chu recently produced:
Joyce Kozloff was born in Somerville, New Jersey in the year 1942. Kozloff was a founding member of the Pattern and Decoration movement that flourished back in the 1970s in the United States. Her work since that time period has focused on cartography, the study of maps, to which she will include biographical or more local information about the culture. I found this type of work to remind of the Saar family of artists who include their own backgrounds as part of their finished work.
For her collegiate studies Kozloff attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She then went on to earn a masters degree from Columbia University.
The masks in the gallery are made of cast paper and then painted with acrylics.
Below a great example of Kozloff and her study and use of maps (cartography!)
In this clip we visit a series by the artist focusing on some of the Hawaiian Islands. She enjoyed working with the shapes of the islands themselves and also learning about the history of the islands.
In this clip from the Brooklyn Museum of Art we listen to Joyce Kozloff talk about the Feminist Movement.
Price range information: Many works priced between $2,000 and $6,000.
In addition to the Feminist cause Kozloff also likes to pursue activities promoting world peace.
Over her long career the Kozloff has created many public works over a two decade time period. Each commission was done to have a local feel and use of local materials and/ or ideas. An example would be Bay Area Victorian. Kozloff would use mixed media to complete these mosaics.
Started using the map as a main source for her creative outputs in the 1990s. Here is a unique idea to get people to see how destructive war can be. Kozloff made a large walk in map of the globe and on it were locations where the United States has bombed from 1945 until 2000. Its great to get people to understand the process only repeats itself over and over without fail.
Produced a series of watercolors in the 1980s. This book dealt with decoration and pornography.
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