John Pavlicek is an American abstract artist renown for paintings and prints.
John Pavlicek was born in Lubbock, Texas in the year 1946.
Pavlicek attended the University of Dallas, Texas.
Most works employ multiple mediums including painting, collage, and gold leaf. Some artists that inspire Pavlicek are George Braque, Pablo Picasso, and Kurt Schwitters.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
I enjoy the work of this abstract artist because of the shapes he creates. The shapes are so interesting even a work done with little color has wonderful movement throughout the picture.
Georges Braque was an amazing artistic who along with Picasso helped invent Cubism. Georges Braque was born in Argenteuil, France in the year 1882. His father was a painter of houses, so Braque had many opportunities to paint and draw as a child. Braque was a painter, collage master, and prolific printmaker.
Braque attended the Academy of Art in Le Havre, where he grew up in France. Le Havre means ” the harbor” and many of Braque’s work from this period deal with the seascape as a main subject.
The artist gave up painting due to health problems. Braque was enlisted in the French army and suffered an awful head injury that required him to have a hole drilled in his skull and the artist spent much time in hospital recuperating from this incident. He was even blind for a period of time.
Price range information: Works range from $10,000 for a lithograph or woodcut, to $10 million for an original oil.
A great selection of works by Georges Braque that features many landscapes and still life works:
Braque was renowned for his paintings of interiors and the still life executed in his flat Cubist style.
In this clip we view a great exhibition featuring the work of Georges Braque that were made in the 1930s and 1940s:
Here we view a work from Georges Braque that was sold for more than 9 million dollars at auction in 2014 at Christie’s auction house:
George Braque passed away in 1963.
I love the still life works of the artist. His collage work also is inspiring.
Lucien Clergue is one of the foremost photographers in all of France. Clergue was born in Arles, France in the year 1934. Clergue has illustrated books in addition to his photography works.
Clergue was a life long friend and associate of Pablo Picasso. Clergue even penned a book on the knowledge and meetings he had with the master of all mediums, Pablo Picasso.
Clergue was knighted in 2003.
Clergue has had many successful series including ones of gypsies, nudes, and entertainers. In this clip we view his “zebra works” with the nude. The female body’s sensational curves are shown with many patterns of lines. These works remind of Dale Chihuly glass vase, all of the lines of the female form and the lines appearing for the “zebra pattern” are so elegant and well tapered:
Clergue has had a show at the Museum of Modern Art located in New York City and is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
Price range information: Works range from $2,000 to $20,000. The zebra nudes are heavy demand.
Irving Norman was born in Vilna, Russian Empire in the year 1906. After World War 2 this area became the country of Poland. Norman was a Surrealist painter and was adept and painting large groupings of people. His family came to the United States in 1923. The family lived in New York City and he became a barber.
For his artistic education Norman attended the California School of Fine Arts. Norman studied at the Art Students League of New York City where he mentored under Robert Beverly Hale, a master at painting and drawing the figure.
Norman was influenced by Pablo Picasso and the great Mexican muralist painters including Diego Rivera and more so Jose Orozco. Norman worked in watercolors, oils, and was an excellent draftsman.
Norman was under surveillance by the F.B.I. for his political beliefs.
Norman has been part of the shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the San Francisco Museum of Art.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
If you enjoy this type of Surrealism be sure and check out painter Hillary Harkness, already profiled here. Harkness paints in great detail large groups of women at sea and on boats. A true woman’s world. Below is an example of Hilary Harkness, she enjoys painting large groups of women on boats much of the time:
In this clip we view a show by Irving Norman:
In this clip curators speak about the art of Irving Norman:
Man Ray was born Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the year 1890. He was associated with the Surrealist painters. He grew up in Brooklyn and spent much of his youth visiting the wonderful museums of the area. Man Ray worked in many different mediums including painting, printmaking, collage, assemblage, and film.
He began his career in New York City and then moved to Paris, France.
In this clip a great selection of photographs of Man Ray:
Man Ray began to explore the medium of photography in 1915. His most famous series were called “Rayographs” These were camera shots taken when objects were placed on light sensitive paper. The artist was also a well respected portrait photographer. He took photographs of many artists including Pablo Picasso.
Ray is thought of as a leading American Modernist painter.
Spent much of his career based out of Paris and Los Angeles, California.
Ray is part of many internationally renowned collections including the Art Insitutute of Chicago, the Getty Musuem located in Los Angeles, Califonia, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art located in New York City, and the Tate Museum of London.
Man Ray passed away in 1976 at the age of 86 years old.
Price range information: Lithographs and etchings can be found for $5,000. Photographs sell between $5,oo0 and $400,000. Oil paintings sell for as much as $5 million.
Jean Metzinger was born in Nantes, France in the year 1883. He moved to Paris when he was twenty years old. Metzinger painted a wide variety of subjects in a Cubist style. The artist was a leader in the Cubist style of painting and along with fellow Cubist Albert Gleizes published a book documenting the theories behind their style of painting.
Metzinger had many influences in his work including George Seurat, Pablo Picasso, and Raoul Dufy.
In this clip a great selection of works by Jean Metzinger:
He joined the Section D’or Group. This was a collection of Cubist artists who gained international renown after a group show in 1911.
One main theme of Cubism and of Metzinger was that the only way to truly see an object, was to paint it from different viewpoints.
Jean Metzinger passed away in 1956.
In this clip we view a work titled the Harbor by Metzinger. This is a signature example of Cubist painting, multiple views of ships from the shoreline:
Price range information: Works by Metzinger seldom come onto the auction marketplace so prices can range from $25,000 to one half million dollars. Metzinger painted in watercolor, gouache, and oils.
although this industry has certainly seen better days, that is why Tobacco Row exists on the eastern part of the United States. Lets take a look at artists who have been inspired by such figures as the Marlboro Man or for such large tobacco companies as Lucky Strike. Lets think back to just a few short decades ago when Virginia Slims sponsored some major tennis tours and it was the Jack Benny Program sponsored by Lucky Strike
Here we have Chinese artist Shi Wei and a series he did titled Skinny lady.
Richard Hambleton is a well known artist from Canada who did a series inspired by the Marlboro Man advertisements. He started out a street artist and works mainly with figure in silhouette form.
In this clip we see the great musician Bob Dylan and good ole Andy Warhol share a smoke. Different times indeed!
Al Hirschfeld was m favorite caricature artist hands down. He was the reason I started drawing figures as a young boy. I enjoyed his clean lines and the clever way he hid his daughters name Nina in every work. I loved the way he made the smoke appear in many circular shapes and patterns. Here we see Humphrey Bogart enjoying a cigarette.
And here we see famous comedian Groucho Marx with his signature cigar. Its fun to see what the artist does with the smoke patterns, they remind me of the pill artist Fred Tomaselli.
Here is a signature work by famed artist Fred Tomaselli, its who I think about when looking at Hirschfeld’s figures that are smoking. Tomaselli uses pills, leaves, and any materials he can find in designing his wonderful works of art.
Here we have artist Keith Haring and some works he did back in the late 1980s with the Lucky Strike logo.
And another Haring offering.
Here we have famed figure artist Mel Ramos working with the Lucky Strike brand.
Its only recently that smoking has come under attack in North America. Companies like Phillip Morris and British American Tobacco are growing at a great pace in overseas markets. Here we see artist Jesus Bubu Negron with two very large and used up cigarettes. This was Art Basel in Miami this past December.
Xu Bing is very innovative artist who brings to use a idea for cigarettes other than smoking them, making art with them. Here is a video clip because the picture is nice, but you need to see something where the view goes back and forth so that you can get an idea as to how much thought went into the design of these Tiger Carpets.
This film clip goes back and forth to give a better idea as to design.
Smoking was so popular in this country that even ashtray design and fashion was a very large market at one time. Here we see famed design duo Georges Jouve and Mathieu Mategot.
Here is a great example of a bear claw style of ashtray.
Another artist working with the rural south would be the great Dean Mitchell. He grew up in Quincy, Florida about twenty miles from Tallahassee, Florida. He worked in these tobacco fields when he was growing up and he enjoys their nostalgic feel, back to a time when cigarette ads featuring celebrities were everywhere. Here we see one of these tobacco farms that the artist enjoys painting. This is a painting of a southern tobacco barn.
And here we have some works by Pablo Picasso.
And finally we have Alex Katz with a great piece of art.
Hope you enjoyed this look into tobacco and art!
After a comment regarding this genre, I recently found a new piece by Julian Opie featuring a woman and a cigarette, that is just wonderful!
Ryan McGinness is an American artist born in blank city in 1972. He makes wonderful absbract works using acrylics but also mixes in well known corporate icons and symbols . He also paints very unique figure paintings of women. He sometimes paints on circular surfaces. These round works take me back to the 1980s when I was a young boy and I used to spend many hours looking through my kaleidoscope. These were tube shaped toys that looked like telescopes. On the inside were many fun shapes and designs that were made of glass pieces, mirrors, and beads. My moving the kaleidoscope around the viewer could make new designs instantly! Below is an example of the sights seen in a kaleidoscope and why it reminds me of Ryan McGinness and his artwork.
In this clip we visit a show given by the artist at a LaJolla Museum of Art.
Price range information: Works in acrylics range from $2,000 to $60,000. Screenprints range from $1,000 to $10,000.
For McGinness’ collegiate education he attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Same university as Andy Warhol, only when Warhol attended it used to be called Carnegie Institute of Technology. During his collegiate years McGinness interned at the Andy Warhol Museum and was an assistant curator.
Here is a great interview brought to us with Ryan McGinness and Walrus TV.
The artist reminds me of several artists. When looking at his paintings of women I am reminded of Pablo Picasso. If you didn’t know by the title what you were looking at, would the viewer even know he was looking at body parts? A breast, a leg, a bare foot, I love the simplicity of his design. Below is an example of Picasso and his cubist style of painting women. The piece is titled Les Demoiselles and was made of five prostitutes in a brothel.
For his flatness and concentration on the silhouette of the female figure the artist reminds me Julien Opie. Opie is a wonderful contemporary artist from Britain who employs digital mediums in his work with the simplified form of the female figure. This work was part of a commission for the National Theater in Prague.
McGinness has a fantastic sense of design and that is apparent in his abstract paintings. He uses organic shapes varying them slightly in these works. I love his works with chains. With his use of shapes and color it reminds of the Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes. Milhazes has had a very successful career having works sell at auction for more than one million U.S. dollar$! Here is a wonderful example of Milhazes style of art.
McGinness is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Ryan McGinness currently lives and works out of Manhattan, New York.
I hope this artist inspires you try experiment with some simplified figure works in the future!
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