Tag Archives: Art

Newly Released Art Books: “Van Gogh – The Complete Paintings” (Taschen)

This comprehensive study of Vincent van Gogh offers a complete catalogue of his 871 paintings, alongside writings and essays, charting the life and work of a master who continues to tower over art to this day.

TASCHEN

Today, the works of Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) are among the most well known and celebrated in the world. In paintings such as SunflowersThe Starry Night, and Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, we recognize an artist uniquely dexterous in the representation of texture and mood, light and place.

Yet in his lifetime, van Gogh battled not only the disinterest of his contemporary audience but also devastating bouts of mental illness. His episodes of depression and anxiety would eventually claim his life, when, in 1890, he committed suicide shortly after his 37th birthday.

The authors

Ingo F. Walther (1940–2007) was born in Berlin and studied medieval studies, literature, and art history in Frankfurt am Main and Munich. He published numerous books on the art of the Middle Ages and of the 19th and 20th centuries. Walther’s many titles for TASCHEN include Vincent van Gogh, Pablo PicassoArt of the 20th Century, and Codices illustres.

Rainer Metzger studied art history, history, and German literature in Munich and Augsburg. In 1994, he earned his Ph.D. on the subject of Dan Graham, and subsequently worked as a fine arts journalist for the Viennese newspaper Der Standard. He has written numerous books on art, including volumes on van Gogh and Chagall. Since 2004, he has worked as Professor of art history at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe.

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Travels With A Curator: “Honolulu Museum Of Art” (The Frick Video)

In this week’s episode of “Travels with a Curator,” join Curator Aimee Ng as she explores the Honolulu Museum of Art, which lent a portrait of Lady Meux by James McNeill Whistler to the Frick for its 2003 exhibition, “Whistler, Women, and Fashion.” Founded by Anna Rice Cooke, the daughter of a prominent missionary family in Hawaii, the Honolulu Museum of Art was meant to ensure that the children of the islands would have a place to learn not only about their own background and culture but about those of the diverse populations around them.

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Artwork Tours: “Bathers By A River” – Henri Matisse (Art Institute Chicago)

On this episode of Art Institute Essentials Tour, take a closer look at Bathers by a River, started by Henri Matisse in 1909 and completed in 1917. Henri Matisse originally painted this work as a pastoral scene, but over the next decade he transformed it into the cubist-inflected composition seen today. When the painting was acquired by the Art Institute in 1953, Matisse told the museum’s director that he viewed the painting as one of his five most pivotal works.

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Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (1869 -1954) was a French artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter.

Cocktails With A Curator: “Veronese’s ‘Wisdom And Strength'” (Frick Video)

In this week’s episode of “Cocktails with a Curator,” enjoy a traditional Negroni with Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon as he discusses “Wisdom and Strength,” one of two large allegorical paintings by Paolo Veronese that hang in the West Gallery at the Frick. Discover the hidden message behind the two principal figures in this picture: a bearded brute clad in a lion skin and a woman of noble bearing with a miniature sun above her forehead. Tune in next week for a discussion of the painting’s companion work, “Choice Between Virtue and Vice.”

Top Artist Profiles: Brazilian Watercolorist Antonio Giacomin

Antonio Giacomin was born in Serra Gaúcha, where, in 1980, he started in the universe of painting. It was to improve in the United States, Mexico and Europe. In 2007, he launched the book “Poesias em Aquarela”, an inventory of thematic images resulting from trips undertaken in various regions of Rio Grande do Sul.

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In 2012, in partnership with the writer Nivaldo Pereira, he launched the book “Jeitos de Ser Brasil” , in which aspects of Brazilian culture were recorded. In 2014, in partnership with Marcos Fernando Kirst, he launched the work “Serra Gaúcha: O Passado Presente”. He won the contest to choose the design of the Queen’s crown at the 2014 Grape Festival. He lives and works in Caxias do Sul, where he maintains his studio.

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Top Online Exhibitions: “At Sea” At David Zwirner – “Resonates Forcefully”

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Yes! in the sea of life enisled,
With echoing straits between us thrown,
Dotting the shoreless watery wild,
We mortal millions live alone.

—Matthew Arnold, To Marguerite: Continued 

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Whether in the awesome forms of the legendary floods in Gilgamesh and Genesis, or via the more delightful but ultimately crueler torment of Homer’s Mediterranean, the sea is among art’s oldest subjects. For millennia humans have been fascinated and horrified in equal measure by mystery, eternity, and danger of which the sea seems to be a mirror: sometimes enigmatically placid, sometimes jagged with sudden storms.

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Dating from the nineteenth century to the present, these works differ in media and approach, but together, they ask social, political, and environmental questions that resonate forcefully today.

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Artist Profile: Henri Matisse And His ‘Divine Dancer’ (Sotheby’s Video)

Sotheby's logoUnseen since 1949 and set to appear at auction for the first time, this beautiful work is a quintessential example of Henri Matisse’s sensuous odalisques. The elegant model is Italian countess Carla Avogadro, reclining on an extravagant Venetian Rococo armchair that Matisse bought on a whim and, in his own words, became “obsessed” with. ‘Danseuse dans un intérieur, carrelage vert et noir’

Henri Émile Benoît Matisse was a French artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter.

Museum Tours: “The Old Guitarist” By Pablo Picasso (Art Institute, Chicago)

On this episode of Art Institute Essentials Tour, take a closer look at The Old Guitarist, painted by Pablo Picasso between late 1903 and early 1904. In the paintings of Picasso’s Blue Period (1901-04), the artist restricted himself to a cold, monochromatic blue palette, flattened forms, and emotional, psychological themes of human misery and alienation. This painting reflects the then twenty-two-year-old Picasso’s personal struggle and sympathy for the plight of the downtrodden.

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Art History: “Titans Of British Modernism” In Early 20th Century (Video)

Sotheby's logoSotheby’s upcoming cross-category Evening Auction ‘Rembrandt to Richter’ (28 July | London), features many of the key British avant-garde movers and shakers of their day.

In this video, discover titans of British Modernism such as Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth; artists such as Christopher Wood and Marlow Moss who found their inspiration amongst the belle monde of Paris; Stanley Spencer and Cedric Morris whose inspiration remained resolutely closer to home; and a bold new generation of artists including Frank Auerbach who forged their careers in London in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Artist Profile: German Expressionist Painter Lyonel Feininger (Video)

Lyonel Feininger combined influences from different art movements to find a style all his own. In this video, discover how Feininger’s work combines elements of Cubism and Lyonel FeiningerItalian Futurism, abstract form and function from the Bauhaus, and an expressive use of colour from his involvement with Die Brucke and Die Blaue Vier. Feininger’s instantly recognisable style is clearly visible in the dramatic interplay of light and shadow displayed in ‘Zottelstedt II’ from 1927.

Lyonel Charles Feininger (1871 – 1956) was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. He was born and grew up in New York City, traveling to Germany at 16 to study and perfect his art.