Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Top 5 Highest Selling Living Artists Who Are WOMEN !
Cady Noland for one. She holds the record for the highest price paid for an artwork by a living woman. 6.6 million for her work titled Oozewald pictured above. This from Wikipedia: "Cady Noland (born 1956 in Washington, DC.) is a postmodern conceptual sculptor and an internationally exhibited installation artist, whose work deals with the failed promise of the American Dream and the divide between fame and anonymity, among other themes. Her work has been exhibited in museums and expositions including the Whitney Biennial in 1991 and Documenta in Kassel, Germany. She attended Sarah Lawrence College and is the daughter of the Color Field painter Kenneth Noland (1924-2010)."
Would you pay 6.6 million dollars for this much to think about? Hey. Just asking. I say good for Cady. Very good.
Next up. Marlene Dumas. Marlene's work The Teacher sold for 3.3 million. Here it is:
Here is Marlene's Wikipedia artists statement. Good piece of writing I might add. :)
Marlene Dumas (born 3 August 1953) is a South African born artist and painter who lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In the past Dumas produced paintings, collages, drawings, prints and installations. She now works mainly with oil on canvas and ink on paper. Stressing both the physical reality of the human body and its psychological value, Dumas tends to paint her subjects at the extreme fringes of life’s cycle, from birth to death, with a continual emphasis on classical modes of representation in Western art, such as the nude or the funerary portrait. By working within and also transgressing these traditional historical antecedents, Dumas uses the human figure as a means to critique contemporary ideas of racial, sexual, and social identity.
And tomorrow? I will let you know who 3, 4, and 5 are.
Til then -
~Alex
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Beatrice Wood
My life is full of mistakes. They're like pebbles that make a good road.
-Beatrice Wood
Very few people know how to work. Inspiration, everybody has inspiration, that's just hot air. -Beatrice Wood
"And I have exposed myself to art so that my work has something beyond just the usual potter."
-Beatrice Wood
"I happen to believe that there is an afterlife."
-Beatrice Wood
Wishing you a good tomorrow!
Until then -
~Alex
Monday, July 7, 2014
Velazquez and his paintings Part 3
and a closer look at the girl to the left of Margarita (and thanking the Museo del Prado for the image):
So amazing. Describing his work are words such as "mastery of expression, penetration into character and rendering the life of his sitter to the quick."
Here is a photo of an earlier work of his, El Aquador. He hasn't mastered all his technique at this point and this is just so wondrous...red, yellow and brown. The detail is stunning but this is not abject realism but perfection of realism blended with a painterly painting. Check out the detailed photos after. And I will go to sleep tonight and dream of being even 1/16th as good at any art I create....ever.
...talk about painting what you see and not just what you think you see...
'Til tomorrow.
~Alex
Sunday, July 6, 2014
"The Culminating Work of Universal Painting"
Pretty amazing don't you think?
Painting and sculpture were thought of as a craft in Spain during this time because the work was done by hand. In Italy during this same period, painting was considered to be a liberal art.
Velazquez wanted the profession of painter in Spain to be at least equal to that of a musician. Of course, at the time, if you were actually paid for what you created you would be involved in a "trade" which essentially meant you were a craftsman.
According to Michener in his book Iberia, The curators of the Museo del Prado have referred to Las Meninas as "the culminating work of universal painting".
Robert M. Underwood Jr. writes in his Critical Analysis of Diego Velazquez's Las Meninas, "It certainly does hold all of the best things that can be said about a masterpiece with which so many mysteries are associated. It is ethereal, atmospheric, and elegant. As a portrayal of humanity, it indicates a depth of understanding through its power of execution."
We'll talk more about it tomorrow and see some more close-ups of this work.
Hope you had a fun filled 4th of July weekend!
~Alex
Saturday, July 5, 2014
The Painter's Painter
He began an art apprenticeship at the age of 11. And I wonder how sad it is these days that public education is structured the way it is and how many children with special talents are not giving many opportunities to develop them. Perhaps the subject of another blog entry?
He is considered to be one of the most influential artists in European history. This is his most famous masterpiece, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour) which you can see first hand today in Madrid's Museo del Prado.
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This photo from the Wikipedia entry about the painting itself. There is a lot going on in this amazing work of art. The little girl in it is simply watching Velazquez paint her royal mom and dad while her handmaidens are tending her...along with some little people.
You can see a reflection of the people he's painting in the mirror behind him. And check out the huge canvas he's painting on! I am going to see if I can find some close ups of some of his work tomorrow so we can check out the brush strokes and get a better idea of his technique.
Hope you all are enjoying your 4th of July weekend and are making some time for looking at art. If any of you are in Jackson Hole, Tubac, Fredericksburg, Texas or Estes Park, Colorado (special showing) go check out my sculpture! The galleries are a beautiful AND air conditioned place to visit.
Talk with you tomorrow!
~Alex
Friday, July 4, 2014
Nice Clouds !
John Constable Hampstead Heath painted in 1820
Looking around today (as Friday is Art History day) at some work by Jasper Johns (well, you know...in honor of today being the 4th of July) I came across a wonderful website called Artspace. The article there by Noelle Bodick called How to Understand Jasper Johns's Haunting "Regrets" at MoMA a show that opened last March.
"Where did the photo of John Constable come from if I started with Johns?"
You may wonder. ..
The "Regrets" exhibit is of Johns' works based on a photograph he became fascinated with. It is a photo of another artist named Lucian Freud.
Who is Lucian Freud? A grandchild of Sigmund Freud, Lucian Freud was a British artist who was quite famous for his portrait paintings. For many years he was very good friends with Francis Bacon who is considered to have been one of the greatest figurative painters of the 20th century. This photo was found in Bacon's studio.
Another article by in The Spectator mentions that Freud and Bacon were "the Turner and Constable of their age." And that's when I looked up Constable's art and found a photo of the painting above. Nice Clouds!
There you go. Our art history lesson for today.
Thanks for going along with me.
And Happy 4th of July!
~Alex
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Oh My Gosh! I Hate that Color!
Van Gogh - master colorist?
Color is, of course complicated by sight. And not all of the visual signals that are absorbed by our eyes to the visual center of our brains. Some evidence suggests that the light of different colors enters the eye and indirectly affects the hypothalamus, which in turn affects the pituitary gland.
Our pituitary gland receives about 20% of our visual signals. And, since the pituitary gland controls our hormone levels is makes sense that it would affect our moods.
Experiments have shown that in rooms colored in red light, time was overestimated while in green or blue light, time was underestimated. Workers lifting black boxes had the thought that they were very heavy; but when the same boxes were painted green they felt lighter.
Blackfriars Bridge in London, was painted black sometime back in history. A huge number of people committed suicide leaping from the bridge until it was painted bright green.
Whatever we see is assessed by our brains which relates the current visual data with information stored in our memory. We all have rods and cones in our retina which responds to light (in subtle ways unique to each individual) and various receptors in our brain are sensitive to certain vibrations.
When painting it is important to remember that the human eye sees warm colors before cool colors. - which is why warm colors advance and cool colors recede. We see highly saturated colors as appearing closer than colors of low saturation.
What were the impressionist artists trying communicate and achieve with their prolific use of color?
Hope you all have a colorful, fun, and safe 4th of July tomorrow!
'Til then :)
~Alex
Whatever we see is assessed by our brains which relates the current visual data with information stored in our memory. We all have rods and cones in our retina which responds to light (in subtle ways unique to each individual) and various receptors in our brain are sensitive to certain vibrations.
When painting it is important to remember that the human eye sees warm colors before cool colors. - which is why warm colors advance and cool colors recede. We see highly saturated colors as appearing closer than colors of low saturation.
What were the impressionist artists trying communicate and achieve with their prolific use of color?
Hope you all have a colorful, fun, and safe 4th of July tomorrow!
'Til then :)
~Alex
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