Horace Pippin was an African- American artist who worked with the figure. Pippin was self taught and often created images that included slavery, racism, and prejudice.
Horace Pippin was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania in the year 1888. The artist served in World War 1 and after being shot by a sniper lost the use of his right arm. He took up painting to rebuild strength in his right arm.
Pippin created notebooks showing sketches he did whilst on the battlefield. In this clip we view some of Pippin’s artwork made during World War One:
As a young child the Pippin won his first box of crayons by winning a contest that was sponsored by an art supply company.
Below a wonderful montage of works by Pippin:
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Horace Pippin passed away in 1946 at the age of 58 years of age.
Pippin is included in prominent collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Pippin was an excellent story teller. His works of interior scenes and landscapes remind me of the self taught American artist Grandma Moses.
David Cooley is an American artist renown for his unique blend of geometric abstraction and realism. David Cooley was born in Hollywood, California in the year 1978.
Cooley is a very skilled artist whose artwork is a patchwork of mediums. The artist uses a dental tool to make his unique shapes on his canvas. Most works are made of acrylic paint, resin, fabric, and spray paint.
In this clip we view a show featuring many gallery artists including David Cooley:
The artist is now based out of Santa Barbara, California.
I enjoy the levels of realism and abstraction found in the work of this artist. If you enjoy this time of organized abstraction be sure and check out the work of Fred Tomasseli, another artist who enjoys blending many mediums in his art.
SatOne is a street artist and illustrator originally from Venezuela now living in Germany. SatOne was born in La Victoria, Venezuela in the year 1977. He began working with graffiti when he was fifteen years old.
SatOne’s official government name is Rafael Gerlach.
The artist is very successful as a commercial artist and has worked with international brands including Adidas shoes and Ford Motor Company.
In this clip we view a time lapse of SatOne at work on a new piece:
Price range information: Sorry none available.
SatOne does a great job at developing very unique forms, shapes, and colors in his work. It always looks like its supposed to be there which is a great tribute to his high level of design.
Maurice Estève was a French artist renown for his abstract paintings. Maurice Estève was born in Culan, France in the year 1904. In addition to painting Estève worked as a textile designer, collage artist, and mural designer.
The artist was mainly self taught. He did attend free classes at the Academy Colarossi. His style of painting has echoes of both Cubism and Fauvism.
In this clip a great montage of works by Maurice Estève:
Estève was most influenced by the art of Paul Cézanne.
The artist was a participant in the Venice Biennial of 1954.
Estève passed away in 2001 at the age of 97 years of age.
Price range information: The artist worked in many mediums including oils, watercolors, and pastels. He also was a prolific printmaker. Prints can be found starting at $5,000. Original oils can reach the $250,000 mark.
Francis Horne Sr. is a self taught first nations artist renown for his work with masks and totem poles. Francis Horne was born in Mount Vernon, Washington in the year 1954.
Horne represents is a member of the First Nations family the Coast Salish.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
The artist began carving in 1973.
Horne, in a similar manner of the Inuit people, sometimes uses items in his work that cannot be removed from Canada such as whalebone. Make sure to review your mask or totem from this artist to make sure it can be shipped to your house!
I enjoy the animated qualities and sense of life that comes through the masks and totem poles of this artist.
The artist is now based out of Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Canada.
Herbert (Andy) Anderson was an American artist renown his wood carvings of the classic American West. Andy Anderson was born in Chicago, Illinois in the year 1893.
Andy Anderson left home and began to earn a living working as a cowboy at the young age of sixteen. Bored on the ranch he found a very homily cowboy who visited the ranch and thought this cowboy would make a great wood carving. Anderson carved it and it turned out great, an artist was born!
Anderson moved back to California in the late 1920s and the artist flourished producing many new caricatures and was able to earn a full time living from his carvings.
Anderson’s most popular figure is a carving named Sad Eyed Joe. The artist is pictured below with this carving which can be found at Knotts Berry Farm.
A former cabinet member even presented American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a carving by Andy Anderson.
Andy Anderson passed away in 1960.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
In this clip a brief biography on the back ground of Sad Eyed Joe and interview with an owner of Knott’s Berry Farm:
Morris Cole Graves was a wonderful painter of abstract and floral imagery. The artist dropped out of high school and worked on the seas. Graves went back to school and graduated at the age of 22 years old.
Price range information: The artist worked in many mediums including bronzes, gouache, charcoal, tempera, oils, acrylics, and printmaking. Prices range from $5,000 to $150,000.
Graves worked on the Federal Arts Project.
The artist also painted insects and animals but is more known for his abstract and botanical works.
One repeated image the artist liked to repeat was that of a bird singing or in pain. These are realist works but I can also see some Cubist sense of design in these works as well.
Graves was drafted to serve in World War 2. He called himself a pacifist and spent 11 months in a guardhouse.
Morris Cole Graves passed away in 2001 at the age of 90 years old.
Below is Cornell’s work “Pharmacy” which sold for $3.7 million dollars.
Joseph Cornell was born in Nyack, New York in the year 1903. He was quite a versatile artist enjoying the process of painting, sculpting, and film. His father worked in the textile industry.His mother a teacher. Cornell was one of four kids. Cornell was only fourteen years old when his father passed away. The artist lived with his mother and brother for much of his life in Flushing,New York. His brother was handicapped by cerebral palsy. Cornell lived as a recluse for much of his life as he was quite shy and always had to help his siblings.
Working as a fabric salesman was sufficient to pay the family bills until the Depression hit. Via some connections through his mother he landed jobs designing fabrics and page layouts for leading magazines such as Bazaar. As far as the art world goes, Cornell’s assemblage and shadow box works are highly sought after by collectors. Some shadowboxes are even meant to be touched, handled, and played with.
Was a huge fan of the writer Mary Baker Eddy and was devotee to the Christian Science religion.
Price range information: The artist has had some works break the million dollar mark. Collages can range from $50,000 to $ 120,000. Paintings done in oil reach up to $50,000. Acrylics paintings broke the $200,000 barrier. Screenprints are the most affordable with many less than $10,000. A shadow box titled “pharmacy” sold for more than $3 million dollars.
His big break through was after an exhibition in 1949. Sadly the health of his mom and brother started to get worse. Cornell had to hire assistants to help him and even still he could hardly satisfy demand.
Like the great Andy Warhol, Cornell explored film as a medium of expression. These films are very whimsical and sometimes seem as if a shadow box has been brought to life. In this clip view a great clip that features some puppets brought to life. Very similar to the claymation techniques.
In this clip see some of the artists famed shadowboxes.
The artist reminds me of Kurt Schwitters. Schwitters made very impressive collage and assemblages using found materials and include photographs and newspaper articles of the 30s and 40s including some great works that tell about the horrors of the Nazi party. I have blogged about Schwitters before as I love his style.
Another artist working with shadowboxes would be Tom Mosley. Rather than use images of people, Mosley used no colors and basic geometric shapes in much of his shadow box work. Below is a fantastic shadow box made by Mosley.
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