Tag Archives: Artists

INTERVIEW: Argentinian Artist Tomás Saraceno – “The Art of Noticing”

Join us – if you dare – as we follow the acclaimed Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno into his installations of intricate spider webs inhabited by solitary, social and semi-social spiders, bridging the architectures of each other’s webs.

In the video, Saraceno talks about how spiders mirror human beings and help us understand ourselves and the way we live. “Every day, I try to enter territories, or thoughts, or ways of working, which might challenge ourselves and might challenge how we see the world.”

Observing a spider in its web for more than twenty minutes, Saraceno argues, can completely change your life and way of noticing things, revealing an unseen world. In connection to this, he feels that art and science – as well as other forms of knowledge – combined, can help us “form new alliances between disciplines and lose our comfort zone of operating and seeing and perceiving and being in the world. To try to find new ways to work and to be.”

Tomás Saraceno (b. 1973) is an Argentinian artist. Saraceno is particularly known for his large-scale, interactive installations and floating sculptures, as well as his interdisciplinary approach to art. With his practice, he explores new sustainable ways of inhabiting the environment.

His work has been exhibited at prominent venues all over the world, including the 58th La Biennale di Venezia in Venice, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires. Saraceno’s work is also part of international collection such as Bauhaus Museum in Weimar, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and SFMoMA in San Francisco.

In 2015, he launched the Aerocene Foundation – an open-source community project for artistic and scientific exploration of environmental issues. Relating to arachnology research, Saraceno is the first person to have scanned, reconstructed and re-imagined spiders’ woven spatial habitats.

For more see: https://studiotomassaraceno.org/about/ Tomás Saraceno was interviewed by Helle Fagralid at his studio in Berlin in November 2019. Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard Edited by Klaus Elmer Produced by Helle Fagralid Cover photo: Tomás Saraceno. ‘Social… Quasi Social… Solitary… Spiders… On Hybrid Cosmic Webs’, 2013. Installation view. Detail. Courtesy of the artist and Esther Schipper Gallery, Berlin Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2020

Artist Profiles: Canadian Painter Sophia Morrison

In the field of painting, Sophia Morrison explores composition and design in inks, watercolour, acrylics and mixed media.  Her experimental approach allows for elements of surprise and discovery.  Each of her paintings is an adventure and any subject may become part of the process.

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Top Artists Profiles: Illustrator Gabriella Marsh – “Sublime Lines”

Gabriella Marsh is a freelance designer, illustrator and animator based in London. She loves drawing, painting and all things hand rendered so all work begins on paper before being set on the computer, tidied up and make to move. She is currently at the Royal College of Art doing an MA in experimental animation.

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Artist Profile Videos: German Painter Georg Baselitz (Gagosian)

Richard Calvocoressi narrates a tour of an exhibition of new paintings by Georg Baselitz in San Francisco, describing the visual effect of these luminous compositions and explaining their relationship to earlier works by the artist: http://on.gagosian.com/4lzd0i9

Georg Baselitz (born 23 January 1938) is a German painter, sculptor and graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his subjects upside down in an effort to overcome the representational, content-driven character of his earlier work and stress the artifice of painting. Drawing from myriad influences, including art of Soviet era illustration art, the Mannerist period and African sculptures, he developed his own, distinct artistic language.

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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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.

World’s Top Artists: Japanese GIF Illustrator Maori Sakai – “The Sublime Simplicity Of Movement”

Maori Sakai logoJapanese artist Maori Sakai creates humorous drawings with pen on paper, that are often animated. Each gif is rendered largely in pastels and captures simple movements: a record spinning on a turntable, rain falling outside a window, and butterflies hovering around hydrangeas. Many of Sakai’s short animations, in addition to glimpses into her process, can be found on Instagram and Tumblr. 

 

 

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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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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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Artist Profile: Scottish Painter David Roberts Masterpieces Of “Seville Cathedral” In 1833 (Video)

Sotheby's logoThese two magnificent paintings by Scottish artist David Roberts exquisitely capture the essence of life in Seville in the 1800s. Hear how Roberts, one of the most widely travelled artist explorers of the 19th century, executed these resplendent views of the Cathedral – one capturing the ceremony of the Corpus Christi festival, the other displaying the bustle of life outside. ‘Interior of the Cathedral of Seville’ and ‘The Moorish Tower at Seville’.