Posts Tagged ‘Salvador Dali’

Artist of the moment….Rene Magritte….

{ February 10, 2013 @ 6:53 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Rene Magritte was born in Belgium in the year 1898. He went on to become a master at Surrealist painting. I am sure you are familiar with some of his images even if you didn’t know he was the artist. Most everyone has seen the image with a man in a suit who has a green apple as a substitute for a face.

Magritte’s father was a tailor. His mother took her own life when Magritte was a young teen. His mother fought depression her adult life and tried on many occasions to take her own life. For a brief period his father even locked her in her own room. This is supposedly the idea behind a theme of a woman appearing wrapped or draped in a cloth. When her body was found the face was slightly covered by her dress.

Magritte began taking drawing lessons at the age of twelve.

He would join the armed forces, get married, have an exhibition that received awful reviews, and then relocate to Paris where he became involved in the Surrealist style of painting.

He worked in the advertising industry for others and then with his own firm he set up with his brother.

He had two successful exhibitions in the States in the 1930s.

Whilst starting off his young career he lived rent free at the house of James Edwards. Edwards was a well known Surrealist painter.

He was most popular during the 1960s in the art world.

 

Matisse passed away in 1967 at the age of 68 from pancreatic cancer. He was living in Brussels, Belgium at the time.

Here we see a wonderful collection of artworks by Magritte set to music.

If you enjoy this artist be sure and check out some other Surrealist painters I have profiled such a Salvador Dali, who was obsessed with painting time and clocks. He did many drawings, paintings, and sculptures with this as his theme. The Surrealist painters are all incredible draughtsman as you must be to incorporate items that aren’t usually seen side by side.

Here we have a clip from the series of Andy Warhol screen tests featuring Salvador Dali, I wanted to make sure you remembered his face and his flamboyant personality.

And an example of one of his signature time paintings.

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Other than Dali my other favorite Surrealist painter is Hughie Lee Smith. Smith was one of few African-American artists working in the genre. I enjoy looking at his works because like Magritte and Dali they explore the universal themes such as the passage of time. Below is a fantastic example of Hughie Lee Smith’s style of Surrealist painting.

smith

I was able to find a piece dealing with time made by Magritte. Its titled Time Tranfixed.

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Price range information: Lithographs range from $3,ooo to $20,000. Etchings range from $1500 to $5,000 for most works. Watercolors start at $2,000. Bronzes range from $5,000 to $10,000.

One last thing to remember about the Surrealist artists, is that Dali has the coolest house I have ever seen! Here is a clip about it. 

 

 

Create!

D

Artist of the moment…..Wifredo Lam…

{ January 17, 2013 @ 9:13 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Wifred Lam is considered by many to be the most popular painter from Cuba in history.

In Havana City, Cuba there is a musuem named after Lam. Here is a quick clip of the building.

When thinking of this artist it is important to remember that he was trying to push his own culture forward in his painting. A mixture of African and Cuban figures. Lam was born in 1902 in Sagua La Grande, Cuba. Yam had a variety of cultures and influences in his life and it showed in his paintings and sculptures. His father was a Chinese immigrant living in Cuba. His mother was born to a family sharing African and Cuban ancestry. His godmother was seen as a healer in  this society.

As a college aged student Lam hoped to take up law and moved to the urban city of Havana, Cuba. He studied plants and then studied painting and drawing at Escuela de Belle Art.  Young Lam didn’t appreciate the academic style of painting and drawing, he yearned for a more expressive way to execute his drawing. He went off to study in Madrid, Spain.

In Madrid the artist had great fortune to come across the former teacher to Salvador Dali, his name was Fernando Alvarez de Sotomayor Zaragoza.

Lam was married when he was twenty seven years old. Sadly his wife and their infant both died from tuberculosis only two years after they were married. Many historians believe this event caused the artist to develop such a dark side.

After the death of his family members Lam took off and explored the countryside of  Spain and lived in Madrid and Barcelona before embarking on a move to Paris.

He was able to meet and learn from his idol, Pablo Picasso.  In fact Picasso became a huge supporter and fan of the artist. Picasso went on to introduce Lam to many other prominent members of the art world such as Joan Miro, Fernand Leger, and Henri Matisse. Picasso and Lam even gave exhibitions together.

The artist continued to travel throughout Europe during the late 1930s and just as World War II was going to start, he was caught and imprisoned and sent back to Cuba. Upon his return to Cuba he became upset and thought the Cuban culture was losing its sense of African pride.

If I were to compare Lam to another artist other than Picasso, because I am sure you know many Picasso works, it would be Manuel Carbonell. I plan to do longer entry on him since he is perhaps the most collected sculptor hailing from Cuba. Carbonell exaggeraed his figures in much the same manner as Picasso. When I first saw this sculture I was reminded of the 3D classic movie Avatar. Here is an example of his style of art.

carbonell

Price range information: The artist has had works painted in oils sell for as much as $4.6 milion dollars. Etchings start around $500 and go to $3,000. Many paintings in gouache and watercolor range from $1,000 to$5,000. Lam has also worked in sculpture but not enough to form a pricing schedule.

 

This last clip does a wonderful job at showing the many races and cultures involved in Lam’s Afro-Cuban style. Poncho Sanchez is a popular jazz musician and band leader whose music we are listening to whilst seeing the Surrealist paintings of Wifredo Lam.

 

Happy painting!

D

Artist of the moment….Chilean realist Claudio Bravo….

{ September 14, 2012 @ 1:22 am } · { Uncategorized }
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The artist was born in Valparaiso, Chile in the year 1936. His father was the owner of a ranch. His mother ran the household and Bravo was one of seven children. The artist was well versed at all aspects of art and even toured a short time as a professional dancer in Chile.

The artist showed signs of potential at an early age. He was not very good at math and science. In order to get better grades in his math and science classes he would offer the teacher a portrait. Bravo went on to study from the ages of eleven to twenty years of age with Miguel Venegas. Chile was heavily influenced by the european style of art and the artist’s main mentor, Venegas, was devoted to realism and not modern flat and cubist art.

The artist had his first solo show at the tender age of seventeen. All the works sold to family and friends and Bravo gained large support throughout the community.

Bravo attended college in Santiago, Chile studying literature and music.

The artist admired Salvadore Dali and the Surrealist movement.  Brave also admired the Renaissance era painters.

Bravo lived around the world in such places as New York City, Morroco, Chile, and Spain.

Bravo worked in a variety of mediums including watercolor, oils, bronzes, crayons, pencil, and pastel.

Like other prominent artists he painted many people belonging to the upper classes. The artist even painted royalty. Among his clients were Imelda Marcos and her husband the famous dictator Ferdinand Marcos and Francisco Franco the dictator from Spain. He also painted the publisher of Forbes magazine.

Bravo started selling portraits in Chile. He did so well he saved enough to sail for Paris. Due to bad weather he stopped off in Barcelona and eventually ended up in Madrid, Spain.  He painted the local well to do crowd and was highly successful.

As with most dictators, they try and control thoughts!  Franco was highly conservative and the artist felt restricted in his paintings. One day his sisters brought home some packages and the artist found a new work in painting packages. He became obsessed with creating trompe textures in his art.

A great collection of the artist’s work. Notice the great use of edges on both the corners of tables and also windows. The artist was able to create tremendous depth in his works. Also notice the many different textures the artist was able to create. His paintings of overlayed fabric are spectacular!

 

High price range:  $1.172 million for a work done in oils.  $216,000 for a work done in pastels.

Low price range:  Pencil works start at $5,000. Charcoals start near $10,000. Lithographs start at $1,000.

The artist passed away in 2011. He was living in Morocco at the time.

I enjoy this artist for his fantastic works with painting fabrics and the still life.  The artist was best at creating depth and by creating many different surface textures from wood to cloth, that kept the viewers eye moving about the picture. Another texture and surface the artist paints very realistically is glass.

 

Its GREAT to create!

D