Art-e-Facts Archives – Page 2 of 3

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts XIV

August 19, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

1. Giclée is the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing. The word “giclée” is derived from the French language word “le gicleur” meaning “nozzle”, or more specifically “gicler” meaning “to squirt, spurt, or spray”. It was coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne to represent any inkjet-based digital print used as fine art. The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on Iris printers in a process invented in the early 1990s but has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print and is often used in galleries and print shops to denote such prints.

2. Found Art is art created from the undisguised, but often modified, use of objects that are not normally considered art. Marcel Duchamp coined the term “readymade” to describe his found art in 1915. Since then, found object art has been prevalent in the Dada, Surrealist, and Pop Art movements to name a few. The meaning of found art has expanded over time and now, numerous categories have been defined including assemblage, appropriation, collage, and even Internet based found images that are reworked with computer graphic tools to form new works of art.

3. Six publishers rejected Beatrix Potter’s “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” before she decided to publish her own edition of the story. Having seen the edition, publisher Frederick Warne decided to publish Peter Rabbit, and within a year had already had to produce six editions to meet demand. During her career, Potter wrote and illustrated a total of 28 books, including the 23 Tales, the ‘little books’ that have been translated into more than 35 languages and sold over 100 million copies. Her stories have been retold in numerous formats including a ballet, films, and in animation.

4. Throughout his life, Rembrandt van Rijn was plagued with money problems. At the height of his career in 1639 he bought a large house on the Sint-Anthonisbreestraat that he borrowed heavily to acquire. The artist also liked to spend money, purchasing art and other objects that were beyond his means, a habit that would eventually catch up with him. In 1656, the artist declared bankruptcy and had to sell his house and collections in 1657 – 1658. Upon his death in 1669, there was no money for a tombstone. Rembrandt was buried in an unmarked grave in the Westerkerk, in Amsterdam.

5. Encaustic Painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid/paste is then applied to a surface and metal tools and special brushes are used to shape the paint before it cools. Today, tools such as heat lamps, heat guns, and other methods of applying heat allow artists to extend the amount of time they have to work with the material. This technique was notably used in the Fayum mummy portraits from Egypt around 100-300 AD, in the Blachernitissa and other early icons, as well as in many works of 20th-century American artists, including Jasper Johns.

Sources: Wikipedia (giclee), DAF, Wikipedia (found art), DAF (Beatrix Potter), DAF (Rembrandt), Wikipedia, Poetic Mind, (Encaustics)

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts XIII

June 9, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

1. Art Brut (raw art) is a term created by French artist Jean Dubuffet in 1948 to describe art created outside the boundaries of the art world of art schools, galleries, museums. Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane asylum patients. Outsider Art, coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 is a synonym for art brut but the term is applied more broadly to include numerous artists creating outside the mainstream art world including Naive art, folk art, intuitive/visionary art, and others.

2. Memento Mori is a Latin phrase translated as “Remember you must die”. It names a genre of artistic creations that vary widely from one another, but which all share the same purpose: to remind people of their own mortality. The phrase has a tradition in art that dates back to ancient Rome. Memento Mori can be seen in religious works, funeral art and architecture around the world. A version of Memento Mori in the genre of still life is more often referred to as a vanitas, Latin for “vanity”. These include symbols of mortality, whether obvious ones like skulls, or more subtle ones, like a flower losing its petals.

3. Bokeh is a term in photography used to describe the blur,or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image. Originating from the Japanese word boke (blur), the English spelling bokeh was popularized in 1997 in Photo Techniques magazine. Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions.

4. From 1909 – 1914, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso worked closely together daily to develop Cubism. Both artists produced paintings of monochromatic color and complex patterns now called Analytic Cubism. By 1911 their styles were extremely similar and during this time, it was virtually impossible to distinguish one from the other.

5. Christina’s World is a work by U.S. painter Andrew Wyeth, and one of the best-known American paintings of the middle 20th century. The woman crawling through the grass was the artist’s neighbor Christina Olson. Aged 55, Christina was crippled by polio, and “was limited physically but by no means spiritually.” Wyeth explained, “The challenge was to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider hopeless.” He recorded the arid landscape, rural house, and shacks with great detail, painting minute blades of grass, individual strands of hair, and nuances of light and shadow.

Sources: Wikipedia (art brut), Wikipedia (memento mori), Silver Based, Wikipedia (bokeh), DAF (Braque), DAF, Christina’s World

Art-E-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts XII

May 7, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

1. Pyrography is the art of decorating wood or other materials with burn marks resulting from the controlled application of a heated object such as a poker. It is also known as pokerwork or wood burning. Pyrography means “writing with fire” and is the traditional art of using a heated tip or wire to burn or scorch designs onto natural materials such as wood, leather, paper, etc. The process has been practiced by a number of cultures including the Egyptians and some African tribes since the dawn of recorded time. Pyrography is also a traditional folk art in many European countries, including Romania, Hungary, as well as countries such as Argentina in South America.

2. Fabergé Eggs are a symbol of luxury and the eggs are regarded as masterpieces of the jeweller’s art. The House of Fabergé made thousands of jeweled eggs from 1885 through 1917. The most famous eggs were the larger Imperial Easter Eggs made for Alexander III and Nicholas II of Russia. Fabergé was given complete creative freedom in creating the eggs. The only stipulations were that each egg must be unique and must contain a surprise. The eggs were made with precious metals or hard stones decorated with combinations of enamel and gem stones.

3. Environmental Art is art that helps improve and create awareness about our relationship with the natural world. It may include the use of recycled/ reclaimed materials and resources in an eco-friendly way to create art. It may also interpret nature and its processes, educate us about environmental problems, and show concern about environmental forces and materials. Artists may create artwork that is powered by wind, water, lightning, earthquakes etc. that re-envisions or propose new ways for us to co-exist with our environment. It may reclaim and remediate damaged environments, restoring ecosystems in artistic and aesthetic ways.

4. Pablo Picasso’s full name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. He was named after various saints and relatives. The “Picasso” is actually from his mother, Maria Picasso y Lopez. His father is named Jose Ruiz Blasco.

5. Early Art Education teaches children: to be more tolerant and open, promotes individuality, and self-confidence, improves academic performance, helps develop basic mental and physical capabilities, and improves interpersonal communications. Young people who participate in the arts every week are more likely to participate and be recognized in academic activities such as math and science.

Sources: Wikipedia (pyrography), DAF (Faberge), DAF (Environmental Art), Neatorama (Picasso), Olney Elementary Visual Arts

Art-E-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts XI

March 28, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

1. Group f/64 was a group of seven 20th century San Francisco photographers including Ansel Adams, and Edward Weston who shared a common photographic style characterized by sharp-focused and carefully framed images seen through a particularly Western (U.S.) viewpoint. The group formed in opposition to the Pictorialist photographic style that had dominated much of the early 1900s, but moreover they wanted to promote a new Modernist aesthetic that was based on precisely exposed images of natural forms and found objects.

2. Kinetic art is art that contains moving parts or depends on motion for its effect. The moving parts are generally powered by wind, a motor or the observer. A pioneer of Kinetic art was Naum Gabo with his motorised Standing Wave of 1919–20. Mobiles were pioneered by Alexander Calder from about 1930. Kinetic art became a major phenomenon of the late 1950s and the 1960s and is still popular today.

3. In 1962 Elaine de Kooning received a commission from the White House to paint a portrait of President John F. Kennedy. De Kooning then spent the much of 1963 fine-tuning the portrait, collecting hundreds of photographs of Kennedy, and drawing short-hand sketches of him whenever he appeared on TV. The resulting portrait remains one of de Kooning’s most well known and celebrated paintings, and easily stands out in the long line of presidential portraits. Kennedy died shortly after on November 22, 1963.

4. Michelangelo was known to be a complicated man. “Arrogant with others and constantly dissatisfied with himself, he nonetheless authored tender poetry. In spite of his legendary impatience and indifference to food and drink, he committed himself to tasks that required years of sustained attention, creating some of the most beautiful human figures ever imagined.”

5. Steampunk Art is an art form based on the sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy. The popularity of steampunk has translated into all genres of the art world but especially in sculpture where various found objects (often brass, iron, and wood) are molded into mechanical “steampunk” sculpture with design elements and craftsmanship consistent with the Victorian era.

Sources: Wikipedia (Group f/64), Wikipedia (kinetic art), The Art Story (de Kooning), DAF (Michelangelo), Wikipedia (Steampunk)

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts X

February 26, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

1. Reverse Graffiti (aka clean tagging, dust tagging, grime writing), is a method of creating art in public spaces by removing the dirt from its surface. Early forms of reverse graffiti include writing and pictures drawn on the dirty windows of cars and shops. In the last several years, a more advanced method has emerged where art is created by cleaning dirty surfaces with stencils, detergent, and a high powered pressure washer. The interesting thing about reverse graffiti is it can be applied to so many different mediums with ink. Old t-shirts with peeling logos, vintage promotional mugs, maps…he possibilities are endless.

2. At the age of twelve Ansel Adams taught himself to play the piano and read music. Soon after, he began lessons and for the next twelve years he studied piano, intending to make his living as a concert pianist. Adams ultimately gave up piano for photography but these early studies ” brought substance, discipline, and structure to his frustrating and erratic youth. Moreover, the careful training and exacting craft required of a musician profoundly informed his visual artistry, as well as his influential writings and teachings on photography.”

3. “American Gothic” by Grant Wood depicts a farmer and his spinster daughter posing before their house, whose gabled window and tracery, in the American gothic style, inspired the painting’s title. The models were actually Grant’s sister Nan and their dentist. Wood was accused of creating this work as a satire on the intolerance and rigidity that the insular nature of rural life can produce; he denied the accusation. American Gothic is an image that epitomizes the Puritan ethic and virtues that he believed dignified the Midwestern character.”

4. Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high resolution photograph. It is a fully-recognized school of art and is considered to be an advancement of Photorealism by the methods used to create the resulting photorealistic paintings or sculptures. The term is primarily applied to an independent art movement and art style in the United States and Europe that has developed since the early 2000s.

5. The Salon des Refusés, French for “exhibition of rejects” was officially sponsored by the French Government in 1863 and was an exhibition of works rejected by the jury of the Paris Salon. Any artist who wanted to be recognized, at that time, was required to have exhibited in a Salon, or to have gone to school in France. Being accepted into these Salons was a matter of survival for some artists and reputations and careers could be started or broken based upon acceptance into the Salon. Today, the term refers to any exhibition of works rejected from a juried art show.

Sources: Wikipedia (hyperrealism), DAF (items 1-4)

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts IX

January 12, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

1. Nocturne painting depicts scenes evocative of night or subjects as they appear in a veil of light, in twilight, or in the absence of direct light. Nocturnes usually include landscapes and the technique has been employed by artists from the Baroque period of the early 17th century to the present. Artists use various methods to depict nocturnes: washes of color, impasto, and linear treatments. The first artist to paint scenes on a regular basis in the nocturne mode was Rembrandt van Rijn

2. Exquisite corpse (also known as “exquisite cadaver” or “rotating corpse”) is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled, the result being known as the exquisite corpse or cadavre exquis in French. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence by following a rule. For example, the artist being allowed to see only a small portion of what the previous person contributed.

3. There are two schools of thought about how Vincent van Gogh lost part of his left ear on December 23, 1888. Some believe that Paul Gauguin cut off van Gogh’s ear in self-defense during a quarrel. Others think that he slashed his own left ear lobe after learning that his brother, Theo, was getting married. Whether the wound was self-inflicted or not, there is no doubt that Van Gogh, bleeding from his wound, staggered into a bordello and gave a prostitute friend named Rachel his severed ear, telling her to ‘keep this object carefully’.

4. William Blake is ranked among the greatest English poets but less known is that Blake is considered to be one of the most original visual artists of the Romantic era. Blake studied art as a boy at the drawing academy of Henry Pars, apprenticed with the commercial engraver James Basire, and entered the Royal Academy Schools as an engraver. Blake also developed a method of etching in relief that enabled him to combine illustrations and text on the same page and to print them himself.

5. A collage (From the French: coller, to glue) is a work of art made from an assemblage of different forms that create a whole. Collage materials may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of paper, portions of other artwork, photographs, and other found objects that are attached to a variety of surfaces. The origins of collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but this technique made a reappearance in the early 20th century as an art form of novelty. The term was coined by both Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso at the start of the 20th century when collage re-emerged.

Sources: Wikipedia (nocturne painting), DAF (exquisite corpse), DAF (Van Gogh’s Ear), DAF (William Blake), Wikipedia (collage)

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts VIII

November 19, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

1. Fore Edge Painting is a scene painted on the edges of the pages of a book such that the painting is not visible when the book is closed. In order to view the painting, the leaves of the book must be fanned, exposing the edges of the pages and thereby the painting. The earliest signed and dated fore-edge painting dates to 1653: a family coat of arms painted on a 1651 Bible.

2. “The Bronze Age”, Rodin’s first recognized masterpiece sculpture was was exhibited in Brussels and Paris in 1877. The life-sized male nude was such a departure from academic sculpture that Rodin was accused of casting from a live model – a charge that was disproved by photographs the artist kept on which the sculpture was based.

3. Francis Bacon preferred painting on the reverse (unprimed) side of his canvas which he found more absorbent and suited his technique and the matt effect of paint sinking into the weave of the canvas. He discovered this method by chance after he had run out of materials and was compelled to use the back of an already painted canvas.

4. E.E. Cummings was very popular throughout the 20th century and received tremendous critical acclaim for his poetry and writing. Less well-known is his accomplishments as a visual artist. Cummings considered himself as much a painter as a poet and he devoted a tremendous amount of time to his art. He also produced thousands of pages of notes concerning his own opinions about painting, colour theory, the human form, the “intelligence” of painting, and his thoughts about the Masters.

5. Lampworking is a type of glasswork that uses a gas fueled torch to melt rods and tubes of clear and colored glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the modern practice no longer uses oil-fueled lamps. Although the art form has been practiced since ancient Syrian (1 Century B.C., B. Dunham) times, it became widely practiced in Murano, Italy in the 14th century.

Sources: Wikipedia-Fore Edge, DAF-Rodin, DAF-Bacon, DAF-Cummings, Wikipedia-Lampworking

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts VII

September 4, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

1. Stendhal syndrome is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art that is particularly beautiful or a large amount of art in a single place. The term can also be used to describe a similar reaction when a person is affected from beauty in the natural world.

2. The first movie poster was created in 1890 by French painter and lithographer Jules Cheret for a short film called “Projections Artistiques”. Most of the early film posters were signs with block text announcing the title, producer, and director. As the movie industry began to grow, studios realized the marketing value of creating colourful artwork that depicted scenes from their movies to promote the films and bring in more viewers.

3. Mount Rushmore was sculpted by artist Gutzon Borglum. Starting in October 1927, he and his team of about 400 men blasted away about 450,000 tons of granite, 90% by dynamite and 10% with jackhammers. Borglum died suddenly in March 1941, with the sculpture almost finished. His son, Lincoln continued working for seven months until funding ran out just before the U.S. entry into the World War II.

4. Neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David was a key figure in the politics of the French Revolution of the 1790’s. He painted portraits that glorified the government’s leaders, and designed its festivals and funerals. He was a member of the Jacobin Club and was closely allied with Robespierre. When the government fell, David formed a new alliance with Napoléon Bonaparte who appointed him first painter to the Emperor.

5. Pop Surrealism and Low Brow is a wide spread art movement with origins in underground comix, punk music, hotrod street culture, Kustum culture, Street Art, Graffiti, Graphic Design, Tattoo, Surf Culture, Tiki Culture and other California sub-cultures. Well-known Lowbrow artists include Mark Ryden, Robert Williams (Juxtapoz magazine), Manuel Ocampo, Georganne Deen, and the Clayton Brothers.

Sources: Wikipedia, DAF, Wall Street Journal,DAF, Newbrow The Movie

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts VI

August 11, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

1. The term Trompe-l’œil, (French for “that which deceives the eye”), is an art technique where the artist reproduces realistic images that fools the viewers’ eye into perceiving an image as three-dimensional. Artists have been creating Trompe l’oeil art since the discovery of perspective techniques dating as far back as 400 B. C. and it was part of the culture of the Greek and Roman Empires.

2. When the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939, Art Nouveau pioneer Alphonse Mucha was one of the first to be arrested by the Gestapo. He was questioned and eventually released, but having suffered from pneumonia shortly beforehand, his health was weakened by the ordeal. He died not long after on July 14, 1939. Over 100,000 Czechs attended the funeral despite a Nazi ban on the event.

3. Marcel Duchamp spent more than eight years creating his masterpiece “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors( aka The Large Glass)”. After an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 1926, the glass was shattered in transit. Duchamp thought of the accident as another part of its design that was determined by chance. He spent weeks carefully reassembling the pieces.

4. Body painting is considered by many to be the most ancient form of art. The discovery of coloured pigments about 75 thousand years ago (many believe even further back) indicates that long before people covered their bodies with clothing, they decorated themselves with paint.

5. On June 3, 1968, Andy Warhol and art critic/curator Mario Amaya, were shot by Valerie Solanas after she was turned away from Warhol’s Factory studio. Warhol’s wound was almost fatal and would affect him physically and mentally for the rest of his life.

Sources: Springville Museum of Art, MoMA, MoMA, Skin, Wikipedia
Related Posts on DAF: Alphonse Mucha, Marcel Duchamp, Body Painting, Andy Warhol

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts V

July 9, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

1. Antoni Gaudi was hit by a tram in 1926 and he looked so ragged and poor, that nobody recognized him or helped him to a hospital. Gaudi was eventually taken to a hospital for the poor, where he wasn’t recognized until his friends found him there the following day. They wanted to move him but Gaudi refused, insisting that, “I belong here amongst the poor.” He died of his injuries three days later.

2. For about as long as humans have created works of art, they’ve also left behind handprints. People began stenciling, painting, or chipping imprints of their hands onto rock walls at least 30,000 years ago. Analyzing hand stencils dating back some 28,000 years in Spain’s El Castillo cave, archaeologist Dean Snow concluded many of El Castillo’s artists had been female. His findings suggest women’s role in prehistoric culture may have been greater than previously thought.

3. The first ready mixed paint was patented by D.R. Averill of Ohio in 1867, but it never caught on. The Sherwin-Williams company spent ten years perfecting the formula where fine paint particles would stay suspended in Linseed oil. In 1880 they succeeded in developing a formula. It was then that emulsions based on similar formulae, were produced and marketed as ‘oil bound distempers’. By 1880 the new paints were readily available in tins, in a wide range of colours, and came to be exported all over the World.

4. The meaning of the word “cartoon” (from the Italian “cartone” and Dutch word “karton”, meaning strong, heavy paper or pasteboard) has evolved over time. Its original use was in fine art, and meant a full size preparatory drawing for a piece of art such as a painting, stained glass, or tapestry. Cartoons were typically used in the production of frescoes, to accurately link the component parts of the composition.

5. Art crime is the third highest grossing criminal enterprise worldwide, behind only drugs and arms trafficking. It brings in $2-6 billion per year, most of which, since the 1960s is perpetrated either by, or on behalf of, international organized crime syndicates. They either use stolen art for resale, or to barter on the black market for an equivalent value of goods or services. Individually instigated art crimes are rare, and art crimes perpetrated for private collectors are rarest of all.

Sources: Barcelona Life, National Geographic, Brenda Semanick, Wikipedia, ARCA

Sources: Wikipedia (giclee), DAF, Wikipedia (found art), DAF (Beatrix Potter), DAF (Rembrandt), Wikipedia, Poetic Mind, (Encaustics)

Sources: Wikipedia (pyrography), DAF (Faberge), DAF (Environmental Art), Neatorama (Picasso), Olney Elementary Visual Arts

Sources: Wikipedia (hyperrealism), DAF (items 1-4)

Sources: Wikipedia (nocturne painting), DAF (exquisite corpse), DAF (Van Gogh’s Ear), DAF (William Blake), Wikipedia (collage)

Sources: Springville Museum of Art, MoMA, MoMA, Skin, Wikipedia Related Posts on DAF: Alphonse Mucha, Marcel Duchamp, Body Painting, Andy Warhol

Sources: Springville Museum of Art, MoMA, MoMA, Skin, Wikipedia
Related Posts on DAF: Alphonse Mucha, Marcel Duchamp, Body Painting, Andy Warhol