Posts Tagged ‘czech’

Artist of the moment……..František Kupka

{ January 28, 2015 @ 10:02 am } · { Uncategorized }
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František or Frank Kupka was an painter renown for his abstract style. Athough he is best known for his abstract style, Kupka also painted in a realist style. Frank Kupka was born in Bohemia in the year 1871. This area is now the Czech Republic.

Kupka attended the Academy of Fine Arts located in Prague. Kupka also attended the Academy of Fine Arts located in Vienna, Austria. In addition the artist also lived in Paris and briefly attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Academy Julien.

Kupka began his art career as an illustrator of books and a poster artist. Around 1910 the artist began working in an abstract style.

The artist helped to found a movement of abstract artists in Paris called the Abstract-Creation group.

The artist served in World War One and this surprised many people as he was nearly three decades older than most of his teammates.

Below a montage of works by Frantisek Kupka. Realist works are in the beginning of the clip and abstract works towards the latter:

Frank Kupka passed away in 1957 at the age of 85 years of age.

Price range information: Works range from $10,000 to $900,000. The artist worked in many mediums including ink, charcoal, watercolor, gouache, pastels, crayons, and oils. No pricing available for posters or etchings.

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Artist of the moment…..Alphonse Mucha

{ September 24, 2013 @ 2:55 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Alphonse Mucha was one of the founding figures of the Art Nouveau movement in France. Born in 1860 in the city  of Ivancice, Morovia. For his artistic education Mucha attended the Academy of Fine Art located in Munich, Germany.

A brief demo from a longer documentary Alphonse Mucha.

The artist remained in Germany for two years before heading to Paris, France to further his career. The artist was asked to design a poster for a theater. After this work was seen the artist was offered a contract to design theater sets and costumes. Mucha was also signed to a lucrative contract and became well known and wealthy.

A large part of his life’s work was toward a project called the Slav Epic. This project ended up to cover 20 paintings and is a history of his people. This work is on permanent display.

A montage of works by Alphonse Mucha set to music:

The artist moved briefly to the United States, but didn’t adapt as well as he  hoped and went back to Bohemia, where he spent the remainder of his life. He passed away in 1939 after a bout of pneumonia.

price range information:  The artist was quite prolific and produced posters, prints, and originals ranging from $2,000 to $250,000.

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Artist of the moment……Jan Matulka

{ June 8, 2013 @ 10:08 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Jan Matulka was a fantastic artist born in what is now Bohemia in 1890. Matulka painted in many genres, sometimes abstract, realism, cubism, but he is associated most with the modernist  movement. When the artist was only seventeen years old his family came to the United States and settled in the Bronx part of  New York city.

For his collegiate studies Matulka attended the National Academy of  Design.

Price range information: For gouache and watercolour the price range is $1,000 to $10,000. Oils range from $1,000 to $35,000. Lithographs range $1,000 to $13,000.

He would marry Lida Jirouskova who was a public library employee and very involved with the foreign community in New York.

Winner of the Pulitzer National Traveling Scholarship which allowed him to travel the world and paint it.

Over his career helped write and illustrate several children’s books.

Kept studios in Paris, France and New York city throughout his career.

Was added to the teaching faculty at the Art Students League and was the only Modernist painter there. As it was the time for realism in the art world, he was pushed out of his position. Matulka still taught privately as his students loved his classes.

Participated in the Public Works Art Projects and the Federal Art Projects during the 1930s. This would help him to work on designing very large works.

The artist lived most of his life as a recluse especially as he aged. Matulka passed away in 1972 at the age of 81 years old.

Below a great clip from a show featuring Jan Matulka.

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