Posts Tagged ‘russian empire’

Artist of the moment…….Alexander Bogomazov

{ May 10, 2015 @ 1:26 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Alexander Bogomazov was a Russian painter renown for his own style which combined elements of Cubist and Futurism. Alexander Bogomazov was born in Yampil, Russian Empire in the year 1880. The first picture in the gallery is a self portrait by the artist.

Bogomazov attended school in Russia at the Art Academy of Kiev. The artist also knew world renown painter Alexander Archipenko ( I have already done a post on this artist!) One of the first exhibitions he had was with Archipenko.

Below a great selection of works by Bogomazov:

The artist also taught at the collegiate level in Russia. Also in Russia he taught at school for the deaf and mute.

Alexander Bogomazov passed away in 1930, at the age of 50 years old.

Price range information: Charcoal works start at $40,000. His record price for an oil painting is $1.4 million.

With his emphasis on labor and the common man Bogomazov reminds me of Jacob Lawrence with his compositions and bold use of color.

D

Artist of the moment…….Ossip Zadkine

{ April 19, 2015 @ 4:09 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Ossip Zadkine was an artist associated with the Cubist and Art Deco movements. Ossip Zadkine was born in Vitsebsk, Russian Empire in the year 1890. This area is now called Belarus. Zadkine was a painter, sculptor, and print maker.

Zadkine briefly attended the Ecole des Beaux Artes located in Paris, France.

In this clip we visit the studio of Ossip Zadkine in 1965:

The artist’s wife was also an a painter, Valentine Prix.

Ossip Zadkine passed away in 1967.

In this clip we take a closer look at Cubist sculpture titled ” The Accordian Player.” :

Price range information: Watercolors and gouache works range start at $10,000. Bronzes are his highest prices works sometimes bringing in $500,000.

I enjoy the high level of abstraction found in Zadkine’s figure works.

 

D

 

Artist of the moment………..Lyubov Popova

{ February 5, 2015 @ 8:53 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Lyubov or Liubov Popova was a Russian artist who was part of the Constructivist and Cubist movements. Lyubov Popova was born in the Russian Empire in the year 1889. Her family was wealthy and owned a textile factory. Popova was a painter and collage artist. Popova emphasized geometric shapes and colour in her work.

Popova studied privately with artists Stanislav Zhukovsky and Konstantin Yuon. Another influence was artist Vladimir Taitlin.

Popova also worked as a commercial artist producing posters during her country’s Civil War.

The artist also spent a great deal of time teaching contemporary artistic theory and practice. She also designed textiles for production in her own factory. These textiles replaced the normal floral and botanical fabric with her signature style of design using bold colour and geometric shapes.

Below a wonderful montage of works by Liubov Popova:

Popova’s painting output severely slowed as the 1920s began. Popova had a son and from her child contracted scarlet fever and died in 1924.

Price range information: Works range from $20,000 to $1 million. Popova worked in oils, crayons, and watercolors.

 

 

 

 

Artist of the moment…….Chaim Soutine

{ May 6, 2014 @ 3:06 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Chaim Soutine was born in Smilavichy, Russian Empire in the year 1893. Soutine painted landscapes but is better known for his very expressive style of painting portraits. This area is now Minsk, Belarus.

A great montage of works by Chaim Soutine shown here:

Soutine attended the Academy of Fine Arts located in Vilnius, which is now part of Lithuania. After his studies there he moved abroad to Paris, France where he would attend the Ecole Des Beaux Arts.

In this clip we visit a show featuring the works of Chaim Soutine with our dear art loving amigo James Kalm!:

The painter Modigliani was a close friend and painted Chaim Soutine often.

Soutine also loved to paint animal carcasses. On many occasions neighbors complained of the smell of decaying animals and would call upon the police to remove the smell of their neighbor the artist! Soutine was inspired to paint these works based on the famous work Rembrandt completed of decaying meat.

Soutine found support from an American collector, and did rather well for himself before the onset of World War 2. He was in France and it was invaded by the Germans. As he was Jewish, he fled and spent time sleeping outside and always on the run. He developed an ulcer and tried to seek emergency surgery to fix it, but the surgery didn’t help and he passed away in 1943 at the age of 50 years old.

Price range information: Chaim Soutine is heavily collected and prices for a small oil painting start in the mid six figure range up to $20 million for a larger original oil.

I love the expressiveness of his sitters in the portraits. I enjoy looking at portraits of people who are living and breathing in the painting such as those by the Dutch master Frans Hals.

D

 

 

Artist of the moment…. Nicholas Roerich

{ December 22, 2013 @ 6:22 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Nicholas Roerich was born in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire in the year 1874. He came from a well to do aristocrat family, his father a renown notary public. Roerickhwas a painter, writer, set and costume designer, and even nominated for the Nobel Peace prize on more than one occasion as he fought to preserve art and architecture during times of war and revolution. I was reminded of Iraq and Egypt during their revolutions, and how the museums were among the first locations to be looted. Roerich fought hard to keep this from happening around the globe.

For his collegiate education Roerich attended Saint Petersburg University where he studied law. In addition he studied art at the Imperial Academy. After college he decided to try art for a career and found employment teaching school for eleven years.

The artist visited New York City in 1920 and would spend time in Arizona and Sante Fe working on landscapes. He was famous for his mountain scenes, for me these are the artist at his best. Great representation but at the same time speaking a lot with his artistic voice, MAGNIFICENT!

Roerich traveled the globe and lived in India and China.

Nicholas Roerich passed away in 1947.

price range information: His works are in high demand so even pencil works can cost upwords of $50,000. Oil paintings have sold for more than 1 million dollars at auction.

In this clip a great selection of works from Nicholas Roerich:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT6xbvZJKxY

Artist of the moment…..William Auerbach-Levy

{ December 16, 2013 @ 2:21 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Since I will be posting some caricatures of my favorite tennis players later this week, lets take a look at a great caricature artist and painter named William Auerbach-Levy. William Auerbach Levy was born in the year 1889 in the Russian Empire. This area is now called Belarus. His family moved to the United States in 1894.

For his artistic education the artist attended schools in New York City and Paris, France.

Levy was a professor at the National Academy of Design.

His cartoons appeared in many national magazines including Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. 

William Auerbach-Levy is part of prominent collections including the Library of Congress and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Price range information:  The artist was a prolific etcher and printmaker. These works cost between $300 and $1,000. Oils can reach $5,000.

From an artistic viewpoint what I enjoy most about his caricatures is the very creative viewpoints he chooses to draw from.

William Auerbach-Levy passed away in 1964 at the age of 75 years old.

D

Artist of the moment…..Ben Shahn

{ August 8, 2013 @ 7:50 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Ben Shahn was born in Kovno or Kaunas, Russia in the year 1898. This region is now the country of Lithuania. Shahn was an  artist renown for his printmaking and painting skills. Shahn was a teacher, painter, and photographer. His family came to the Unites States in 1906 after his father was exiled to Siberia and fled the region entirely. As a fifteen year old boy he was able to be an apprentice to an lithographer. For his collegiate studies Shahn attended the National Academy of design briefly and the City College of New York.

Shahn also enjoyed painting his political views. He often made paintings that symbolized his anger at going to war.

price range information: Shahn was a prolific artist making prints and originals found for $500 to $150,000.

Part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

In this clip we visit a fantastic mural painted by Ben Shahn titled “The Meaning of Social Security.” This was a fresco painting done in 1942 at the William Cohan Building in Fairfax, Virginia.

In 1933 worked on murals with famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.

An interview with Ben Shahn produced by CBS news.

And finally in this clip a great montage of works by Ben Shahn. What stood out to myself was his grasp and great use of color to depict mood. Through exaggerated body movements just from a quick glace at his work we can feel the emotion of his characters. Very similar to the last Inuit artist I just posted about Silas Kayakjuak. Some of his elder carvings used the mustache of the characters beard to help express emotion.

Ben Shahn passed away in 1969 at 70 years of age.

D