L42art Home
(1901-1980). Italian sculptor and painter. born at Pistoia. He studied painting and
sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts. Florence, under Domenico Trentacoste (1859-1933)
and until c. 1928 applied himself mainly to the graphic arts. In 1929 he succeeded Arturo
MARTINI as teacher at the Scuola d'Arte di Villa Reale. Monza. and taught there until
1940. when he became Professor of Sculpture at the Accademia di Brera. Milan During the
1930s he traveled frequently in Europe and also visited the U.S.A. But he did not ally
himself either with the FUTURIST tradition in Italy or with any of the avante-garde
movements elsewhere in Europe, remaining essentially isolated in his artistic aims.
In 1935 he was awarded the First Prize for Sculpture at the Pome Quadriennale and in 1937
obtained a prize for sculpture at the Exposition Universelle. Paris. From 1942 to 1946 he
lived in the Ticino. Switzerland. and afterwards mainly in Milan. He obtained a prize in
1952 at the Venice Biennale and in 1954 the Grand Prize at the Accademia dei Lincei. Rome.
His work was represented at the Brussels Fair of 1958 and at DOCUMENTA II. Kassel. in
1955. Marini assimilated the archaic and combined a suggestion of the primitive with a
dynamic vitality which has been hailed as an essential feature of the present age.
His favourite theme, and that for which he is most widely known, was the horse and rider.
He represented not in motion but imbued with inner energy. These equestrian statues. with
their realistic grasp of essential form and attitude. have been interpreted as carrying an
obscure tragic symbolism. which Marini himself has described as a kind of 'Twilight of
Mankind'. Examples of his Horse and Rider compositions are in the Nationalmus.. Stockholm
(I937). the Kunstmus.. Gothenburg (1945). the Kunstmus.. Diisseldorf (1949)). the
Rijksmus. Kroller-Muller. Otterlo. and in many private collections. The Miracle, versions
of which are in Middelheim Park. Antwerp. the Kunsthalle. Mannheim. and the Kunstmus..
Winterthur. carries to the extreme of sculptural possibility the dramatic situation of a
rider on the point of falling from his rearing horse In the Monumental Rider (1957-8).
commissioned for the Bouwgelust estate at The Hague. Marini converted the theme to a
dramatic interplay ol block-like abstract shapes. A bronze study for this monumental
figure is at the Shell Building. London.
Marini also represented the female figure with the strength and vigour of a Magna Mater or
with the hieratic intensity of a temple priestess. The former is exemplified by his
Pomonu. versions of which are in the Ciemeentemus. Marini has also been recognized. with
his fellow national MANZU. as one of the more sensitive portraitists since DESPIAU.
Outstanding among his portraits are CURT VALENTIN (Kunsthalle. Hamburg. 1954) and
particularly IGOR STRAVINSKY (Institute of Art. Minneapolis. 1951). Like many contemporary
sculptors Marini in terested himself in polychrome. recognizing no essential difference
between painting and sculpture in this regard. He would combine several sculptural
techniques in one figure and would often work on a bronze cast with chisel or corrosive
dyes. as in the polychrome bronze DANCER (1949- 54) in the Stadt Mus.Duisbure. and the
bronze Bull (1953) in the Mus.. de Arte Moderna. Rio de Janeiro. Although. like Manzu.
Marini held himself aloof from contemporary groups and movements. since the Second World
War he has been widely recognized internationally as one of the outstanding creative
figures in contemporary sculpture.
Go to Artist Index.
(1869 - 1954), Le Cateau, Picardy, France - The artist often regarded as the most
important French painter of the 20th century. The leader of the Fauvist movement around
1900, Matisse pursued the expressiveness of colour throughout his career. His subjects
were largely domestic or figurative, and a distinct Mediterranean flavor.
The art of our century has been dominated by two men: Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.
They are artists of classical greatness, and their visionary forays into new art have
changed our understanding of the world. Matisse was the elder of the two, but he was a
slower and more methodical man by temperament and it was Picasso who initially made the
greater splash. Matisse, like Raphael, was a born leader and taught and encouraged other
painters, while Picasso, like Michelangelo, inhibited them with his power: he was a
natural czar.
Matisse's artistic career was long and varied, covering many different styles of painting
from Impressionism to near Abstraction. Early on in his career Matisse was viewed as a
Fauvist, and his celebration of bright colors reached its peak in 1917 when he began to
spend time on the French Riviera at Nice and Vence. Here he concentrated on reflecting the
sensual color of his surroundings and completed some of his most exciting paintings. In
1941 Matisse was diagnosed as having duodenal cancer and was permanently confined to a
wheelchair. It was in this condition that he completed the magnificent Chapel of the
Rosary in Vence. Matisse's art has an astonishing force and lives by innate right in a
paradise world into which Matisse draws all his viewers. He gravitated to the beautiful
and produced some of the most powerful beauty ever painted. He was a man of anxious
temperament, just as Picasso, who saw him as his only rival, was a man of peasant fears,
well concealed. Both artists, in their own fashion, dealt with these disturbances through
the sublimation of painting: Picasso destroyed his fear of women in his art, while Matisse
coaxed his nervous tension into serenity. He spoke of his art as being like ``a good
armchair''-- a ludicrously inept comparison for such a brilliant man-- but his art was a
respite, a reprieve, a comfort to him. Matisse initially became famous as the ``King of
the Fauves'', an inappropriate name for this gentlemanly intellectual: there was no
wildness in him, though there was much passion. He is an awesomely controlled artist, and
his spirit, his mind, always had the upper hand over the ``beast'' of Fauvism.
Go to Artist Index.
Peter Max is one of the most important artists of our time. He evolved from a visionary
pop artist of the 1960s to a master of neo-expressionism, and his techniques of vibrant
color have become a part of the contemporary American culture. In his global causes, Max
is a passionate environmentalist and defender of human and animal rights. Max often uses
American symbols in his artwork and has done paintings and projects for Presidents Ford,
Carter, Reagan, and Bush. Recently he created his "100 Clintons", a multiple
portrait installation whose images were used through the four days of the Presidential
inauguration. More recently, Max completed his fourth Grammy Award poster, re-designed NBC
television's symbolic peacock, was appointed as the official artist for World Cup USA '94
and created a "Peace Accord" painting for the White House to commemorate the
historic signing.
Go to Artist Index.
(1893-1983). Spanish printer - born at Barcelona. From 1912 he studied at the Barcelona
Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Academie Gali. where he learnt to draw objects which he knew
only by touch. At his first exhibition. in the Dalmau Gal, in 1918. he showed pictures
which combined suggestions of Catalan folklore with a FAUVIST technique. In 1919, he
visited Paris, became a friend of PICASSO and was for a while influenced by CUBISM.
combining it with a sophisticated Primitivism On a second visit to Paris in 1920 he made
contact with avant-garde writers and with the Paris DADAISTS. but in the split which
occurred he went along with the SURREALISTS. signed their manifesto in 1924 and joined the
movement in 1925. His picture Terre Labouree completed in 1924, inaugurated his genuinely
personal style. In it angular and spiky forms. still figurative. emerge from a smooth
background and create the hallucinatory impression of a strange but undisturbing dream.
Throughout his life. whether his work was purely abstract or whether it retained
figurative suggestions. Mir6 remained true to the basic Surrealistic principle of
releasing the creative forces of the unconscious mind from control by logic and reason.
rejecting traditional devices of pictorial representation and composition. and fusing the
spontaneous expressions of a-logical fantasy with the reality of experience into a higher
reality of pictorial creation. In his mature work he used none of the superficial devices
beloved by the Surrealists and he stood apart from the several stylistic categories of
Surrealism: yet he was the greatest of all Surrealist abstract artists and can be compared
in stature only to KANDINSKY among the forerunners of expressive abstraction. In 1940 he
returned to Spain to avoid the German invasion and remained in Spain until 1948. His late
period was inaugurated by the series of Constellations luminous gouaches with small forms
scattered In a magical space creating a dreamlike image of the earth and the cosmos. From
1944 he turned to ceramics in collaboration with the potter Llorens Artigas and also took
up terracotta. which absorbed the major part of his energies in the 1950s. He visited the
USA in 1947 and did a mural at Cincinnati. followed by a large mural for Harvard
University in 1950 From then until 1958 he worked on two immense ceramic wall decorations.
Mur du Soleil and Mur de in Lune for the UNESCO building. Paris During this time he was
also very actively engaged on etchings and lithographs and in 1954 received the Grand Prix
for graphic art at the Venice Biennale. Although it had its source in the attitudes
encouraged by the Surrealist movement. Miró`s work was of a stature which precluded its
being brought within the classification of Surrealism It contains elements of Primitivism.
a personal myihulogy and magic and innovations in the field of abstraction which take it
outside all classitication His fame was world-wide Among his retrospective exhibitions
were: The Mus of Modern Art. New York. 1941 and 1959: Barcelona and Berne. 1949: Mus.
National d'Art Moderne, Paris. 1962 the Arts Council of Gireat Bntain. 1964. The
Foundation Joan Miro was opened in 1975 on the heights of Montjuic overlooking Barcelona
Built by Jose Luis Sert. it is designed both as a memorial museum housing the collection
of Miró`s works and as a centre of artistic activity In 1978 a comprehensive
retrospective exhibition was staged at the Mus de Arte Contemporaneo. Madrid.
Go to Artist Index.
HENRY MOORE (1898-1986). British sculptor. Son of a Yorkshire mining engineer, he was trained in art, after service in the British Armed Forces, at Leeds School of Art and from there obtained a scholarship to the Royal College of Art (1919-23). He taught at the Royal College 1923-32 and at Chelsea School of Art 1932-9. In 1940, after the bombing of his studio, he moved to Much Hadham in Hertfordshire. From c. 1930 he was one of the most important figures in British art. His international reputation became established in the 1940s, helped partly by an illustrated record of his work published in 1944. In 194-7 he had one-man shows in The Mus. of Modern Art, New York, the Philips Memorial Gal., Washington, the Art Institute, Chicago, the Mus. of Modern Art, San Francisco; and an exhibition toured Australia in 1947. Since that time his works have been continuously exhibited in most major countries. He represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1948 and took the International Sculpture Prize. He also won the International Sculpture Prize at the Sao Paulo Bienale in 1953 and at Tokyo in 1959, the Sculpture Prize of the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh in 1958 and the Feltrinelli Prize, Rome, in 1963. He was made a Companion of Honour in 1953 and received the Order of Merit in 1963.
Moore's public commissions included: the figure of North Wind on the London Underground Railway Headquarters at St. James's, London (1928); Madonna and Child for the church of St.Matthew, Northampton (1943-4); Three Standing Figures for Battersea Park, London (1947-8); Madonna and Child for Claydon church, Suffolk (1949); Reclining Figure commissioned by the Arts Council for the Festival of Britain in 1951 (now at Temple Newsam Gal., Leeds); Screening Wall and Draped Reclining Figure for the Time-Life building, London (19523); Reclining Figure for the UNESCO building, Paris (1957-8).
His primary interest was always research into three-dimensional spatial construction. But with this he combined a sensitive reeling for the material, bringing back the tradition of direct carving so long lost and a romantic sensibility which imparts a moving and telluric character to his figures. Although he produced pure abstract sculptures, he never made the abstract his major concern but throughout his career produced figural sculptures with the emotional impact of natural conformations. Early in his career Moore rejected the classical and Renaissance conception of beauty and put in its place an ideal of vital force and formal vigour which he found exemplified in much ancient sculpture.
Moore was also an outstanding sculptural draughtsman with a style recognizably his own. His drawings done as an official War Artist (1940) 2) of the London Tube shelters are among the most poignant records that exist of the effects of a bombing war on the civilian population.
Go to Artist Index.
Born in Tbilisi, the capital city of Georgia. Ani studied
at Tbilisi State University and with artists well known in Europe to learn to translate
her moods to canvas. She likes to work in abstract art bringing energy and feeling to her
works that you too can feel when you look at them. The use of colors, composition and form
brings her feelings to life. Her work varies from the sad tragic emotions of
"War"
during the civil war in Georgia
to the life and motion of "Dancers".and to later works like
"The Dream" and "Pouting"
Ani now lives in San Diego, California and divides her time between running an online gallery,
writing children's books, being president of a charity for orphanage kids in
Georgia and still trying to find time to pursue her passion to paint.
Go to Artist Index.
In
1935, after studying painting at the French Academies, Marcel Mouly started
exhibiting his work. The great sculptor, Jacques Lipchitz, took Mouly under his
wing and undoubtedly influenced him by approach to Cubism. In 1945 he
participated at the Salon d'Automne, took part in the open art forums of the
Ecole de Boulogne and studied with Leger, Pinon, and Bertin. In 1949, he had his
first one-man show at the Libraire Bergamesque in
Marcel Mouly is
recognized as one of the most outstanding contemporary artists of our century.
His unique style is has been greatly influenced by the work of Picasso, Matisse
and Braque. In fact, he is one of the last living artists to have studied with
Pablo Picasso. His works are in over 20 museums including the
His
works are characterized by deep powerful colors which are used in the manner of
the Fauvist painters Matisse, Dufy and Derain. However, color and the background
architectural structure in his paintings stem from analytic and synthetic
cubism.
Mouly is not only recognized as an important artist of this century but as a master printmaker. In 1957, Mouly was awarded the French National honors of Chevalier de l'order des Artes et Letteres and in 1973, the Premier Prix de Lithographie.
Go to Artist Index.
Jose Clemente Orozco (1883-1949). Orozco born in Zapotian, Jalisco, Mexico. He was educated in the School of Agriculture in San Jacinto and the National University of Mexico. He moved to Mexico City with his family in 1890. While a young man, he was injured in a chemical accident and lost the use of one eye and lost his left hand. Dispite his disability, he began is career as a cartoonist and published in several journals. He first visited the USA in 1919 where he would create several murals in later years. He visited Europe in 1934. He then created some early paintings of prostitutes and schoolgirls in the Post Impressionist style that was popular in Catalonia at the time. He created his first murals in 1923 at the National Preparatory School. In 1932-34 he created “an Epic of American Civilization” at the Baker College, Dartmouth College, USA. In 1939, he painted a fresco called “Prometheus” at Pomona College in California, which was typical of his mature style. He returned to Mexico in 1934 and from then until 1939, painted powerful murals depicting the pre-Hispanic Guadalajara. He painted a famous fresco called “Man of Fire” on the dome of the Hospicio Cabanas depicting mans physical and mystical struggles. He spent the rest of his life between Mexico City and his beloved Guadalajara. His studio has been turned into a museum in his honor.
Go to Artist Index.
Judi was born in 1961 in the Republic of Georgia capital of Tbilisi. (Georgia was
formerly part of the Soviet Union but is now an independent Republic bordering on the
Black Sea.) Following in the tradition of her family, Judi completed formal schooling at
Tbilisi State University as an economist and journalist. Judi's many artistic friends
encouraged her to take the brush and make the first lines on canvas. Surprisingly, at
least to herself, she was deeply moved by the microcosmic world of the canvas where her
characters portray their intimate moods unbound by the constraints of our world. Judi has
a sense that it was her destiny to forever work in this magic environment. Her characters
capture your imagination with the use of colors to convey emotions and personalities. The
essence of her art which is hidden in the characters on the canvas gives one a deep sense
of pleasure and a view into Judi's world. Portraiture as an independent genre appeared in
Judi's work as a novelty in modern Georgian art. They are characterized by lyricism, light
coloring and an intimate solution. She executes such images in a graphic manner; in
decorative low relief or perhaps even stylized form. Judi has studied at the Tbilisi State
Academy of Arts at the design facility because of an inner desire to experience the study
of art according to traditional teaching and to explore her unique talents further.
Go to Artist Index.
Marta Palau was born in Albesa, county of Merida, Spain, but she has since gotten
Mexican nationality. She began her formation in 1955, when entered the Escuela de Artes
Plçsticas La Esmeralda, in Mexico City. Later on she studied at The San Diego State
University and at the workshop of Grau Garrica in Barcelona, Spain. She has had solo
exhibitions in Mexico City and Los Angeles, California along with numerous commissioned
works. For her work, she has been awarded with the Premio Instalaciùn of the Daienal de
la Habana (1986), with the Bergerpreis at the 5th. Fellbach Triennial Germany, 1992), and
with the prize Creador Art Estico, that confers the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las
Artes (Mexico City, 1993).
Go to Artist Index.
(1911-1994 ) Master printmaker, born in Marseille, he learned the techniques of classic engraving in 1936 in Paris. In 1960, he added to the classic processes the technique of etching with carborundum invented by his friend Henri Goetz. In the years 1969-73 Papart taught printmaking at the University of Paris VIII-Vincennes. He continues to make his own plates and to supervise the hand printing of his prints.
One of the most intriguing intellectual concepts which Papart achieves in his two-dimensional, semi-cubistic style is a "window" through which the viewer senses the past or future, or even another time or place. This development has become more pronounced since 1981 and in recent years it is seen even more graphically in such works as Circle, Indian Summer, Dreams, and Silent Woman. It has been said the Papart does not "paint," he "composes." His compositions come together in a symphony of line, shape and color.
Papart contends that he never attributes any specific meaning to his work. He feels that each painting has its own meaning and needs no interpretation from him. Papart's paintings, in his own words, "force the viewer to think, and it is for the viewer to respond to the art based on his own personal experiences."
Excerpted from "The Artist" by Kenneth Nahan, in "Max Papart, Master Prints and Other Works on Paper" published by the New Orleans Museum of Art
Go to Artist Index.
(Pablo Ruiz y Picasso), 1881-1973, French painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and
ceramicist who worked in France; the foremost figure in 20th-cent. art. Leader of the
SCHOOL OF PARIS, he was remarkable for his technical virtuosity, incredible originality,
and prolificacy. Admitted to the Royal Academy of Barcelona at 15, he later moved to
Paris, where he remained until 1947, then moving to the South of France. His early works,
e.g., Old Woman (1901; Philadelphia Mus. Art), show the influence of TOULOUSE-LAUTREC. His
production is usually described in series of overlapping periods. In his melancholy blue
period such works as The Old Guitarist (1903; Art Inst., Chicago) depicted, in blue tones,
the world of the poor. His rose period is characterized by a lighter palette and subjects
from the circus. In 1907, Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (Mus. Mod. Art,
N.Y.C.), the most significant work in the development of CUBISM and abstraction, and a
herald of analytic cubism.
In the synthetic phase of cubism (after 1912), his forms became larger and more
representational, e.g., The Three Musicians (1921; Mus. Mod. Art, N.Y.C.). In the 1920s he
also introduced COLLAGE. His second landmark work was Guernica (Reina Sof'a, MadridCentro
de Arte Reina Sof'a), an impassioned condemnation of war and fascism. In his later years,
Picasso turned to creations of fantasy and comic invention. Working consistently in
sculpture, ceramics, and the graphic arts, he continued to explore his personal vision
until his death at 91.
Go to Artist Index.
Abraham Rattner was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1895. His parents immigrated to the United States to escape antisemitism in Czarist Russia. He was the second of six children, including his eldest brother Louis, younger brothers Manuel (Manny) and Harry, and his younger sisters Rose and Jennie. Rattner's parents encouraged him to paint at a young age, and as he grew up, painting became a part of his daily life. He graduated from Poughkeepsie High School in 1912 and left to study architecture at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. At night, he took art courses at the Corcoran School of Art. He soon became a full-time art student, and applied for a scholarship to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He was accepted in 1919 and supported himself by doing illustrations for Philadelphia newspapers. In 1917, World War I interrupted his studies. Rattner entered the United States Army in France where he became Sergeant of camouflage section, 40th Engineers. Camouflage, reflecting aspects of modern art in its form and pattern, made use of Rattner's artistic skills. During the second battle of the Marne, Rattner injured his back and returned to the States with an ailment that would affect him for the rest of his life. Rattner returned to the Pennsylvania Academy and was awarded the Cresson scholarship to study art in Europe. He traveled for one year, then settled in Paris for the next twenty years. Those twenty years in Paris became the most formative for Rattner because he was able to study and experiment with Futurism, Cubism, and Expressionism. Post World War I Paris was the center of modern culture for Americans disillusioned by the destruction of the war. Expatriate writers, poets, and artists were searching for a culture that shunned the traditions of the past and exchanged ideas with one another at the lively Paris cafes and salons. In 1924, Abraham Rattner married Bettina Bedwell, an American art student and fashion illustrator. Bettina became the Paris fashion correspondent for the New York News-Chicago Tribune Syndicate. In 1927, Rattner was a member of the Minotaure group, along with Picasso, Miro, Giacometti, Le Corbusier, Braque, Dali, and Reverdy. He also illustrated an article for Jon Dos Passos in Verve magazine in 1931. Rattner's first one-man show was in 1935 at the Galerie Bonjean in Paris, which was followed by one-man shows at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, the Arts Club of Chicago, and the Courvoisier Gallery in San Francisco. The threat of Hitler and Nazism forced Rattner and his wife to flee Paris in 1939. Arriving in New York in early 1940, Rattner agreed to take a trip by car with the writer Henry Miller. Their route took them from New York to New Iberia, Louisiana via the East coast and Southern states. Their mission was to rediscover America, with Henry Miller writing about their experiences and Rattner sketching the scenery. Rattner's friendship with Henry Miller was an important one that lasted throughout his life. During the 1940s, Rattner's art was widely exhibited. In 1941, he joined the Rosenberg Gallery in New York, and remained with the gallery for fourteen years. He won awards for his work such as the Temple Gold Medal in 1945 and second prize in the Pepsi-Cola Fourth Annual Art Competition in 1946. In 1947, Bettina Bedwell suddenly died due to a kidney infection, sending Rattner into a spiral of grief and depression. To escape depression, from 1947-1949, he taught at the New School for Social Research in New York. In 1949, Rattner married Esther Gentle, an artist and business woman who ran an art reproductions business. In 1951, the Rattners moved to Rome where he worked as Artist in Residence at the American Academy. The next year, they moved to Illinois where he was the Artist in Residence at the University of Illinois. Ratter was awarded first prize in 1953 at the 23rd Corcoran Biennial Exhibition and also served as Vice-President of Artists' Equity. In 1956, Rattner was the Distinguished Visiting Professor at Michigan State University, and along with his stepson, Allen Leepa, established an art school on Long Island. In 1957, Rattner left the Rosenberg Gallery to join the Downtown Gallery. He felt he would professionally profit from representation by the well-known Edith Halpert; however, the next twelve years reflected a tumultuous relationship between the artist and the gallery owner. In 1957, Rattner reached out to other forms of art and design. He experimented with mosaic, tapestry and stained-glass. He designed mosaic columns and tapestries for the Fairmont Temple Anche Chesed in Cleveland and a mosaic for a friary and college in Centerville, Ohio. His stained-glass designs were highly celebrated and respected. His most famous stained-glass piece was the window for the Chicago Loop Synagogue. For this piece, Rattner spent two years traveling to Paris to design and supervise every process involved in the design and installation of the window. Rattner felt that while his paintings during the 1940s and 1950s were romantic and self-reflective, the 1960s marked a new inspirational period in his work. His painting reflected religious comment, bringing Rattner back in touch with his Jewish heritage, as well as reflecting a sense of social protest. In 1968, Rattner exhibited his painting Victory--Jerusalem the Golden to honor the celebration of Israel's twentieth anniversary of independence. It was also in 1968 that Rattner left the Downtown Gallery for the Kennedy Gallery. In 1969, he painted The Gallows of Baghdad series as a protest to the hanging of nine Jews by Iraqi authorities. The 1970s marked a time of many exhibitions. In 1976, the National Collection of Fine Arts in Washington, D.C. sponsored an exhibition of his designs for stained-glass entitled "...and let there be light". Also, from 1976 through 1977, "Our America" exhibited Rattner's drawings from his 1940 U.S.A. trip with Henry Miller in England and in the United States. In 1977, Michigan State University bestowed upon him the Honorary Degree for Humanity. On February 14, 1978, Abraham Rattner died due to heart failure.
Go to Artist Index.
Artist, painter born in 1953 at Aix-en-Provence, France.
After his studies in Marseille at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Luminy (1971-72)
and at Rietveld Academy of Amsterdam, Netherlands (1973-78), he began his career
in 1978. Since then, he's had numerous exhibits, both group and individual, in
France.
Engraving has always been his passion. In 1992, he started his initial training on the technique of engraving, "on Carborundum", his specificity.
Bernard REMUSAT's work (mixed media, engravings) is like the work of masonry, using scrap & old materials. Old walls, weathered by wind, cold, faded by the sun, colored by rain, marked by illegible graffitis, ancient provincial walls which use to be even concrete, screens of old walls all new where our nostalgia is projected. This is what is offered to us in the engravings of Bernard Remusat along with rigorous balance and harmony.Go to Artist Index.
Mexican painter, noted especially for his large mural paintings. Born in Guanajuato. Began to study at the San Carlos Academy in Mexico City while still at school. Also influenced by Posada, an engraver of popular broadsheets. Awarded a scholarship and went to Spain in 1907, studying in Madrid under Chicharro y Agüera and working in the tradition of Zuloaga. Visited Paris in 1909, settled there 1911-20. Friendship with Picasso, Gris, Modigliani, Lipchitz and painted 1913-17 in a Cubist style. Visited Italy 1920-1 to study the mural paintings of the Renaissance, then returned to Mexico eager to be of service to the Mexican Revolution and make a monumental art accessible to all. His first mural paintings there in 1922-3 stimulated a revival of mural painting. Executed frescoes for the headquarters of the Ministry of Education 1923-7 and for other public buildings in Mexico; also carried out frescoes in the USA 1930-3, where the Communist bias of his work provoked violent controversy. Died in Mexico City.
Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than
Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.634
Go to Artist Index.
French painter, etcher, lithographer and illustrator. Born in Paris during the bombardment of the city by government troops. Son of a Breton cabinet-maker. Apprenticed to a stained-glass painter 1885-90 and helped to repair medieval stained glass; attended the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in the evenings. Entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1890 to study painting, studying 1891-5 under Gustave Moreau; Matisse and Marquet were among his fellow-students. After Moreau's death, was appointed curator of the Musée Gustave Moreau (opened 1903). His early paintings were influenced by Rembrandt and Moreau, but the influence of the Catholic novelist Leon Bloy from 1904 precipitated a religious crisis: paintings of prostitutes, clowns, judges, themes of sin and redemption. Exhibited at the Salon d'Automne with the Fauves in 1905; first one-man exhibition at the Galerie Druet, Paris, 1910. Commissioned by Vollard to make prints to illustrate several books c.1916-39, in particular etchings for Miserere et Guerre with a text by André Suarès. Paintings of religious subjects, the Passion, in brighter colours. Designed sets and costumes for Diaghilev's ballet The Prodigal Son 1929. Died in Paris.
Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than
Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.663
Go to Artist Index.
Lenore Simon is currently a resident of San Diego California where she has lived and worked for many years. She is a master printmaker working in Drypoints and Aquatints as well as other media. She is passionate about the feeling that her work conveys. She has many awards and achievements including 2 dozen prizes for printmaking and a Bronze Medal commemorating New Jersey’s Tercentenary. She is featured in over two hundred private and corporate collections and has many exhibitions in San Diego and New Jersey as well as others. She occasionally does commissioned work for selected clients.
Go to Artist Index.
SIQUEIROS, DAVID ALFARO (1896-1974). Mexican painter born at Chihuahua. He studied at the Academy of San Carlos and the Escuela al Aire Libre of Santa Anita. In 1914 he enlisted in General Venustiano Carranza's revolutionary faction and later joined the forces of General Manuel Diegez, in which he became a captain. He collaborated with Dr. Atl on the Carranzista journal La vanguardia in 1914 and 1915. and in 1919 he was sent to Europe for diplomatic and artistic activities under Carranza and met Diego RIVERA in Paris, where they discussed the need for a new monumental art that would reflect Mexico's current situation. In Barcelona he published an issue of the review Vicia Americana which included three appeals directed to the artists of America. He returned to Mexico in 1922 to join the Communist party and organize the Syndicate of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors. He also formulated a new Muralist manifesto defining the revolutionary ideology of the artists who initiated the Muralist movement. His first mural was an encaustic called The Elements painted in a stairwell in the National Preparatory School in Mexico City in 1923. With a new shift in government the mural remained unfinished and he left Mexico City to devote himself to syndical and committee activities, organizing labor unions in Guadalajara and traveling between 1925 and 1930. In 1930 he was given one of many prison terms for political activities and he remained under house arrest in Taxco in 1931. During this period he met the film director Sergei Eisenstein. As a result of conversations Siqueiros began developing his mural theories on (he use of PHOTO MONTAGE and illusory devices through distortion and corrective multiple perspectives that would take into account several angles of vision in order to dramatize ideological meanings and increase the impact of the message. These techniques culminated in his mural of 1939. Portrait of the Bourgeoisie, at the Electrical Workers' Union in Mexico City. He did two murals in Los Angeles in 1932 at the Chouinard School of Art and the Plaza Art Center, which were destroyed for political reasons and recently restored. In 1933 he traveled to Uruguay and Argentina. where he lectured and painted a mural, Plastic Exercise near Buenos Aires with the collaboration of Argentine artists. In 1935-6 he opened an Experimental Workshop in New York, where he demonstrated the use of new synthetic and industrial materials, photo montage and drip techniques. Jackson Pollock was a member of the workshop. In 1937 he went to Spain to join the Spanish Republican army and was made a Colonel. His painting El Coronelazo (The Great Colonel) of 1945 celebrates this episode. In 1940, because of his implication in the Trotsky assassination, he left Mexico and went to Chillan. Chile. where in 1941 he painted Death to the Invader at the Exuela Mexico with another Mexican painter, Xavier Guerrero. The mural represented the liberation of Chile and Mexico. It has since been destroyed by the military Junta. Siqueiros painted murals of ever increasing size with the help of assistants. using multiple points of view which sometimes created vertiginous vistas. One of these is the mural in the vestibule of the Hospital of the Mexican Institute of Social Security of Zone 1 in Mexico City. He contributed cement and mosaic murals to University City between 1952 and 1956 and painted a continuous mural at the Mus. of National History, Del Porfirismo a la Revolucion. depicting the events that led to the overthrow of Porfirio Diaz. His most ambitious work was March of Humanity in Latin America in the Parque de la Lama in Mexico City, begun in 1965 and completed in 1969, where he covered over 49.000 sq. ft (4552 M2) of wall space with paint and sculptured forms. The dodecagonal structure which encloses it, caller the Poliforum Cultural Siqueiros, is also painted on its exterior surface.
Although Siqueiros himself insisted that his easel paintings were subordinate to his murals, they and his woodcuts proved a major factor contributing to his international fame as an artist. Their monumental tragedy summed up the sorrow of the Mexican peasantry at a new level of artistic simplicity. From the 1930s he enjoyed constantly increasing recognition as a master and by the 1950s he was the acknowledged leader of the artistic Left in Mexico and his country's most illustrious artist both as a muralist and as an easel painter. He was the most individual of the Mexican muralists and the most spectacular personality of the movement. In contrast with the sense of disillusionment and foreboding which was sometimes apparent in Orozco's work, that of Siqueiros always expressed the dynamic urge to struggle. If it showed less profundity than Orozco's philosophical conceptions, it surpassed him in fiery impetuosity. The seal was set on his international standing at the Venice Biennale of 1950. where he was awarded the prize donated by the Mus. of Sao Paulo, the leading honors going to the veteran MATISSE.
Siqueiros was also a prolific writer and published essays explaining his political and technical theories. The best known are No Hay Mas Ruta que la Nuesrta (There is no Way but Ours) of 1945 and Como Se Pinta Un Mural (How One Paints a Mural) Of 1951. His influence on mural painting in the Americas was great and in Mexico his followers continue to work.
Reprinted from Twentieth Century Art by Harold Osborne
Go to Artist Index.
Group Exhibitions :
1974 French Cultur Center,
Alain Soucasse has done personal exhibitions in about
100 different
countries around the world : Including about 50 exhibitions in
Tamariz was born in Mexico City in 1945. After finishing High School he was admitted to
the National School of Sculpture and Painting "La Esmeralda" where, in 1965, he
was awarded the first prize in sculpture and a Honorific mention in painting . That same
year he also participated in the first collective exposition. In addition to his pictorial
work, he also does work with monumental sculpture participating in the elaboration of
diverse works of art in Mexico. In 1977 Monterrey's Alfa Industrial Group granted him a
scholarship to study in Paris, France. After his return to Mexico, he displayed diverse
individual and collective expositions in both Mexico and the United States. In 1983, he
won the International Prize of Biela Italia.
Go to Artist Index.
Born in 1899, Rufino Tamayo's brilliant career spanned seven decades. The celebrated Mexican painter, along with his notable contemporaries, Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, embodied the spirit of his country's 20th-century art and was the focus of international attention. A native of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico, Rufino Tamayo was born to descendants of Zapotec Indians on August 26, 1899. Orphaned at the age of 12, he was raised by an aunt who owned a wholesale fruit business in Mexico City. His signature vivid palette may in part be based on the tropical fruits and images of his youth.
In 1917, he entered the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts, yet soon left this institution in favor of independent study. Four years later, Tamayo was appointed the head designer of the department of ethnographic drawings at the National Museum of Archaeology in Mexico City. Here he was surrounded by pre-Colombian objects, an aesthetic force that would play a pivotal role in his life. Recognition and celebrity came swiftly. The first exhibitions of Tamayo's artwork were held in 1926 in Mexico City and New York, where a one-man show was held at the Weyhe Gallery. Rufino Tamayo married Olga Flores Rivas, an accomplished concert pianist, in 1934; at the same time, he began to exhibit his work internationally. Expanding his horizons, he spent long stretches in Paris and New York. Tamayo was exposed to the work of major European artists for the first time.
In 1936 Rufino and Olga Tamayo left Mexico for New York. For the next
fifteen years they would only return to Mexico on vacation. These years in New
York were essential for Tamayo's development and consolidation of his distinct
style. Of the many experiences in New York that were to imprint the artist, the
most significant was assuredly the landmark Picasso show of 1940. Cubism would
thus forth have a profound influence on the work he produced as he rapidly moved
away from his surrealist influenced compositions, and incorporated the
structural and thematic refrains of the Cubism. Though Tamayo was already a
recognized Mexican artist, this sojourn would not only establish his
international reputation but allow for real sophistication to develop in his
work.
Tamayo was never a member, nor peer, of the Mexican Muralist movement. His move
away from Mexico facilitated a break with the overwhelming influence and
confines imposed by an environment focused on the Muralist credo. Tamayo was not
interested in being a catalyst for state-building through his art; he was
interested in achieving an enlightenment in his own work. The 1940's represent
what many consider the seminal years of his prolific production, a time when he
synthesized Mexican, Cubist and pre-Columbian themes in taught, emotionally
provocative works.
Critics have extolled the artist's bold and saturated use of color as his most significant contribution to Modern art. the Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City, celebrated Tamayo's twenty-fifth year as a painter with a retrospective exhibition in 1948 (and a fiftieth anniversary show in 1968). Two years later, in 1950, three rooms at the Venice Biennale were devoted to his works. Tamayo won the Grand Prix for painting at the Sao Paulo Biennale in Brazil in 1953. He was made a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur by the French Government in 1957 ( elevated to officiel in 1970 and a Knight Commander of the Order of Merit in 1974), and was elected an honorary member of the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1961.
Some of the world's most prestigious museums, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo honored him with one-man shows. The largest Tamayo exhibition ever held was mounted in 1987. The Palace of Fine Arts and the Tamayo Museum in Mexico City brought together more than 700 paintings. Rufino and Olga Tamayo donated the Museum of Pre-Hispanic Mexican Art to their native State of Oaxaca in 1974. Their personal holdings of more than 1,000 pieces of ceramics and sculpture formed the cornerstone of the collection. The Rufino Tamayo Museum of International Contemporary Art opened in Mexico in 1981. It displays many of the artist's works , as well as paintings, sculpture and drawings from his private collection, by luminaries such as Picasso, Miro, Leger and Dali. At the time, it was the first major museum not run by the Government. Rufino Tamayo died in 1991 at the age of 92 in Mexico City.
Go to Artist Index.
Théo Tobiasse passed away in Cagnes-sur-Mer, South of France on November 5th 2012. Theo Tobiasse was born in 1927 in Palestine and grew up in Paris. He was a commercial artist until 1961 and has since dedicated himself to painting full time. His primitive figures dominate the his art with bold colors and life. He enjoys tremendous popularity in Europe and America with his graphics works on paper as well as his oil work on canvas.
Go to Artist Index.
Hungarian artist, Victor Vasarely, born April 9, 1908, is perhaps the
best-known creator of post-World War II geometric painting. He worked as a
graphic designer until 1944. First creating complex black-and-white patterns in
his earliest paintings, He soon added intense contrasts of color. The European
pioneers of the style were Josef Albers and Victor de Vasarely. Vasarely was one
of the most influential op artists. His writings defined the philosophy of Op
Art and explored the science of optical effects and illusions. He was a pioneer
in the development of almost every form of optical device for the creation of a
new art of visual illusion. Typically, the artist arranges a large number of
small, nearly identical geometric shapes in patterns that generate vivid
illusions of depth and, in some cases, motion.For example, Vasarely uses various
devices in his paintings to create the illusion of movement and change
within abstract elements. The pieces appear to be bulging at the top; but in
reality are flat 2-dimensional canvas.
A citizen of France since 1959, Vasarely had some 150 solo exhibitions in the
half-century span 1930-80 and has won many international prizes.
Go to Artist Index.
Andy Warhol (Andrew Warhola) was born on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. He is considered by many as the most influential American artist of the second half of the 20th century. Warhol's signature style used commercial silkscreening techniques to create identical, mass produced images on canvas, then variations in color to give each print of an edition a different look.
Warhol first applied his silkscreen techniques as a commercial artist in the 1950s. Window displays of a Fifth Avenue department store featured his comicbook superhero images. His initial forays into the POP ART came in the early 1960s with his Coca-Cola Bottles (1962) and sculptures of Brillo Boxes (1964), which brought worldwide recognition. Condemned as consumerism by many critics, his work was enthusiastically accepted in Europe, Australia and Japan. Later in the 1960s, Warhol produced a series of motion pictures dealing with such concepts as time, boredom and repetition.
Warhol's generally sunny and upbeat artwork turned to more serious subjects in his images of Jacqueline Kennedy morning the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, and his "Birmingham Race Riot" (1964). His "Endangered Species" prints (1983) including "Pine Barrens Tree Frog," the "Orangutan" and the "Bald Eagle," inspired concern, not at the subjects themselves, but at their possible absence.
Warhol died in New York on February 27, 1987 after a gallbladder operation. He had set, and then stretched the boundaries of POP ART. Warhol's depictions of everything from Campbell Soup Cans to the faces of celebrities provide an often revealing commentary on contemporary American society.
(Copyright © 1995-99 Lucid Interactive. Written by Robin Chew, August 1997)
Go to Artist Index.
Robert Weil was born in St. Louis , Missouri. He worked from his own studio to produce works in lithography, silkscreen, etching, monotype and offset lithography from 1969 - 1981. He has focused on computer graphics, photography, and acrylic painting from 1982 to present. He enjoys tremendous popularity in America with collectors like Diana Ross, Jonathon Frakes, Sally Kirkland, Jerry Seinfeld, Alicia Silverstone, Ray Liotta, Frank Sinatra, Dick Van Dyke and Senator Ted Kennedy being just a few of his collectors. He has had international exhibits in London, Paris, Sidney, and Durban, So. Africa in addition to his numerous shows across the USA. He currently resides in Malibu, CA.
Go to Artist Index.
(b Nanchang, China, 1953). Painter and sculptor. Yang Yang began his formal art training in the early 1970's. He engaged in advanced studies at the Fine Arts - Specialty Art Division, Jiangxi Normal School, in Jiangxi, China in 1981. In 1984, he came to the U.S. and enrolled in Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD, where he earned a M.A. in select studies in art in 1987. From 1987-1991, he taught Chinese art history and art at Augustana College.
In 2004, Yang Yang was invited to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Art in Shannxi, China. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts will present works by Yang Yang in the exhibition "The 3rd Megaton." The show will run from April 7 through July 23, 2006.
Yang Yang creates figurative paintings and sculptures of unconventional forms. . Lui Qi Wei, curator of the Museum of Fine Art in Shaanxi, describes Yang Yang's work as combining the quality of the "Oriental mystics with tragic magnificence." The medium of Yang Yang's works range from works on paper and canvas to sculptural works in fiberglass, ceramic or bronze. His installations, such as "Call of the Crow" (acrylic on canvas drawing and fiberglass sculptures, 80 x 60 x 40 ins), converge his compositional mediums in one body of work.Go to Artist Index.
Francisco Zúñiga (1912-1998) was born in San José, Costa Rica in 1912. As a young man Zúñiga learned to carve and paint polychrome religious imagery while working in the workshop of his father Manuel María Zúñiga. Zúñiga wasn’t satisfied with this kind of work and spent much of his time intensively studying natural subjects. He declined to attend formal art-educational institutions. Zúñiga studied the newly emergent artistic forms and disciplines evolving in Europe and worked for awhile in an Impressionist style. In 1935 Zúñiga executed his sculpture "Maternidad" and this work was awarded first prize for sculpture in the Exposicion de Artes Plásticas Centroamericana. "Maternidad" is now understood as pivotal in Zúñiga’s development as an artist and a transitional work demarking his earlier and later periods. The new work is typified by simplified forms (including simplified line and volume.) In 1936 Zúñiga went to Mexico where he learned methods of sculptural production including metal smelting and stone carving and polishing. He has been interested in and concentrated upon depictions of the female form with an emphasis upon cultures indigenous to Mexico and Mid-America.
You are visiting L42art.com . Please visit often to check out our new additions!