Art History Archives – Page 14 of 16

Georges Braque: 1882-1963

May 13, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

Born on May 13, 1882 in Argenteuil-sur-Seine, France, Georges Braque was a major painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor of the 20th century. Along with Pablo Picasso, Braque was a key figure in the development of Cubism. He was also responsible for the introduction of many collage techniques including stenciling and combed false wood-grain effects.

Braque grew up in Le Havre and, following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, trained to be a house painter and decorator. He studied in Paris under a master decorator and received his craftsman certificate in 1901. In the evenings, he studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts from 1897-1899. He studied painting at the Académie Humbert in Paris from 1902-04.

Braque’s first works were Impressionist but by 1906 was painting in a Fauvist style, successfully exhibiting that year in the Salon des Indépendants. Braque met Pablo Picasso in 1907. Both artists were influenced by Paul Cézanne’s use of geometry in depicting his subjects in his work . Cézanne’s paintings greatly impacted the direction of the Paris avant-garde, and soon after, Cubism.

From 1909 Braque and Picasso worked together daily to develop Cubism. By 1911 their styles were extremely similar and during this time, it was virtually impossible to distinguish one from the other. In 1912, the duo began to incorporate elements of collage into their paintings and to experiment with the papier collé (pasted paper) technique.

From about 1911, Braque began experimenting with other media and techniques, as well as new canvas shapes. He began mixing paint with sand used a house-painter’s comb to introduce areas of imitation wood-grain into his paintings. In 1912, Braque married Marcelle Lapre and rented a house at Sorgues, near Avignon. There, he and Picasso began using pre-existing objects and materials in their paintings.

Braque and Picasso’s artistic collaboration lasted until 1914 when Braque served in the French Army during World War I. He was wounded in the war and temporarily blinded in 1915, but resumed painting in 1916. During his recovery in 1917, Braque began a close friendship with the Spanish artist Juan Gris who was also closely associated with the Cubist movement.

In the 1920s, Braque returned to a more “realistic interpretation of nature, although certain aspects of Cubism always remained present in his work.” He painted landscapes and reintroduced the figure into his work which was characterized by bold color and textured surfaces. In the mid-1920s Braque also designed the decor for two Sergei Diaghilev ballets.

In 1931 Braque made his first engraved plasters and began to portray mythological subjects. His first retrospective was held in 1933 at the Kunsthalle Basel. In 1937, he won first prize at the Carnegie International, in Pittsburgh.

From about 1936, Braque’s paintings shifted again from the still-life to wider interior views. “Into ornately decorated rooms he introduced impersonal, flattened figures, such as in Woman with Mandolin or The Duet. The new mood suggested by his use of brighter colours was offset, however, by a series of macabre vanitas still-lifes, linked to the theme of the artist’s studio, that he began in 1938, possibly in despair at the approach of World War II. He also built a sculpture studio near his house at Varengeville and began experimenting with sculpture about this time, producing simple and playful, if rather two-dimensional works.

During World War II Braque remained in Paris. He painted mainly still lifes and interiors that were stark and sombre in colour. During this time, Braque also made lithographs, engravings, and sculptures.

In 1954, Braque designed stained-glass windows for the church of Varengeville. During the last few years of his life, Braque’s poor health prevented him taking on any large-scale work, but he continued to paint, make lithographs, and design jewelry.

Georges Braque died on August 31, 1963, in Paris. He is buried in the church cemetery in Saint-Marguerite-sur-Mer, Normandy, France.

Sources: Guggenheim, MoMA

5 Women Artists You Should Know: Vol. 5

April 8, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

1. Catherina van Hemessen – Born in 1528 in Antwerp, Belgium. Van Hemessen trained under her father Jan Sanders van Hemessen and eventually helped him with his commissions as well as receiving her own. Her 1548 painting “Girl at the Spinet” is thought to be the earliest surviving self-portrait of an artist at work.

Creating mainly portraits, Van Hemessen’s subjects were often seated and were usually set against a dark or neutral background. There are no known works after 1554 after her marriage to Cathedral organist Chrétien de Morien. Van Hemessen died in Antwerp around 1587.

2. Paula Modersohn-Becker – Born on February 8, 1876 in Dresden-Friedrichstadt, Germany, Modersohn-Becker was one of the most important representatives of early expressionism. Women, motherhood and nature were frequent themes in Modersohn-Becker’s paintings. Her images consisted of thickly applied paint with forms that were rough and angular with bold outlines.

Sadly, Modersohn-Bercker’s career lasted just seven years. During that time, she produced more than 700 paintings and 1,000 drawings. On November 20, 1907, shortly after the birth of their daughter Mathilde, Modersohn-Becker died from an embolism. She was 31 years old.

3. Jenny Holzer – Born in 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio, Holzer is an American conceptual artist known for LED sculptures. Holzer studied at Ohio University, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Before she began working with text art, Holzer was an abstract artist, focusing on painting and printmaking.

As well as LEDs, Holzer also works with other media including bronze plaques, painted signs, stone benches and footstools, stickers, T-shirts, condoms, paintings, photographs, sound, video, light projection and the Internet. “Her works often speak of violence, oppression, sexuality, feminism, power, war and death. Her main concern is to enlighten, bringing to light something thought in silence and was meant to remain hidden.”

In 1990, Holzer became the first woman to design the American pavilion at the Venice Biennale and won the country prize for her work.

4. Lee Krasner – Born on October 27, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York, Krasner was an influential abstract expressionist painter and the wife of Jackson Pollock. From 1928-32, she studied at The Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design in New York, and worked on the WPA Federal Art Project from 1935 to 1943. In 1937, she took classes with Hans Hofmann, whose influence directed Krasner’s work toward neo-cubist abstraction.

In 1941, Krasner met Jackson Pollock and the couple married four years later. “During their marriage, she neglected her own artistic work, though she never regarded herself as inferior or dependent on Pollock”. From 1946–47, Krasner began to produce her first mature work, the “Little Image” series. “Three groups of Little Images emerged, all-over staccato dabs, thinly skinned, dripped linear networks and rows of tiny runic forms.

From 1953-55, Krasner moved into the medium of collage. She pasted large shapes cut from her own and Pollock’s discarded canvases in her works. Her admiration for Henri Matisse is shown in these and later works.

After Pollock’s death in 1956, Krasner created her most memorable paintings – “large gestural works generated by whole body movement. From 1959 to 1962, she poured out her feelings of loss in explosive bursts of sienna, umber and white. By the mid-1960s, she began painting lushly coloured, sharply focused, emblematic floral forms, taking a more lyrical and decorative Fauvist-inspired approach. During her last period of activity, the mid- to late 1970s, she returned to collage.”

Lee Krasner died in 1984 at the age of 75. Her will established the Pollock–Krasner Foundation whose purpose is to help artists in need.

5. Niki De Saint Phalle – Born on October 29, 1930 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, France, Saint Phalle was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker. After the stock market crash in 1930, the family moved to New York. From 1948-49 de Saint Phalle worked as a model, appearing in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and on the cover of Life Magazine.

“De Saint Phalle is best known for her over-sized figures which embrace contradictory qualities such as good and evil, modern and primitive, sacred and profane, play and terror. Her exaggerated “earth mother” sculptures, the Nanas, playfully explore the ancient of feminine deities while celebrating modern feminism’s efforts to reconsider and revalue the woman’s body. In recent years de Saint Phalle made monsters and beasts into architectural forms for playgrounds and schools. These works demonstrate her deep interest in architects like Antoni Gaudi, who made organic fluid buildings incorporating wild fantasies and everyday objects.”

Near the end of her life, and after more than 20 years of work, De Saint Phalle’s sculpture garden, called Giardino dei Tarocchi, (Tarot Garden) opened in 1998. Niki de Saint Phalle died on May 21, 2002 at the age of 71 in La Jolla, California.

Sources: 50 Women Artists You Should Know, Wikipedia (Becker), Wikipedia (Holzer), Stuart Collection (de Saint Phalle), Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, Wikipedia, MoMA (Krasner),

Joe Mathieu: Sesame Street Illustration

November 10, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Many of you may already know that 40 years ago today, on November 10, 1969, Sesame Street – the longest running children’s program on U.S. television premiered on the Children’s Television Network. For myself and many others, the characters of Sesame Street were like part of the family – we watched every day, had Sesame Street books, stuffed dolls, wall paper, and other paraphernalia. More than that, the show grabbed our attention long enough for us to learn something.

In honour of my childhood nostalgia and, since this is an art blog, I am pleased to present the artist behind many of the Sesame Street illustrations, Joe Mathieu. Mathieu has been a freelance illustrator since his graduation from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1971. He worked with Houghton Mifflin in Boston and McGraw Hill in New York illustrating books and stories, as well as for advertising agencies. In 1972, he began working with Random House when the company had begun publishing books for Sesame Street.

Mathieu has illustrated numerous books and has created thousands of illustrations for Sesame Street products such as clothing, and interactive toys. He has also illustrated hundreds of features for Sesame Street Magazine. As well as Sesame Street, Mathieu has illustrated over 100 children’s books written by well known writers including Laura Numeroff, Marlo Thomas and Dr. Seuss. The book “Don’t Be Silly Mrs. Millie!”, was one listed as one of TIME magazine’s top ten best children’s books of 2005.

For most of his career, Mathieu worked with the traditional pencils, inks, and paper to create his illustrations. In 2002, however, he began painting digitally and now makes most of his works with a computer. Mathieu’s working relationships with Random House and Sesame Workshop continue to this day.

For more information about Joe Mathieu, visit JoeMathieu.com. For more information about the history of Sesame Street visit SesameStreet.org or Wikipedia.

Jan Matulka: 1890-1972

November 7, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Born on November 7, 1890 in Vlachovo Brezi, Bohemia (now Czech Republic), Jan Matulka worked in a variety of styles including Realism, Post-Impressionism, Abstract Impressionism, Surrealism, and Abstraction. In 1907, Matulka’s family immigrated to New York where he studied at the National Academy of Design for nine years.

In 1917 Matulka received the Joseph Pulitzer National Traveling Scholarship allowing him to travel to New Mexico, Arizona, and Florida. During this time, he created paintings as he went, including recording his time with the Hopi Indians. He was one of the first modern artists to depict the Hopi Snake Rain Dance.

Matulka married Lida Jirouskovamade in 1918 and traveled to Paris in 1919, spending much of the years between 1920 and 1924 abroad. From 1924 to 1934, Matulka split his time between Paris and New York City. His paintings ranged from landscapes, still-lifes, interior scenes, and portraits. His oil paintings and watercolors in the late 1920s, are considered his most sophisticated cubist works.

As well as painting, Matulka created a series of etchings of scenes of New York and illustrations for the socialist magazine “New Masses”. From 1929 to 1932, he was a teacher at the Art Students League of New York where he became associated with Arshile Gorky, Stuart Davis, John Graham and his most famous student, David Smith. He was also employed as a muralist by the Public Works of Art Project and the Federal Art Project from 1935 to 1939.

Despite his accomplishments as an artist, Matulka did not achieve a great deal of fame, and he virtually disappeared from the art world in the 1940’s. His work however, gained renewed interest in 1970 when New York dealer Robert Schoelkopf began representing him and gave him a solo exhibition. The Whitney Museum of Art held a retrospective of his work in 1979 and in 1982, an exhibition was organized at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 1995, an exhibition was organized by the McCormick Gallery and from 2004 to 2006, The Global Modernist Exhibition traveled to six venues.

Matulka continued to paint and exhibit throughout his life. His works are in the collections of the the Smithsonian, the Whitney Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Carnegie Institute, and others. Jan Matulka died in New York on June 25, 1972.

Sources: McCormick Gallery, Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York Times, Wikipedia, Blue Heron Fine Art

5 Women Artists You Should Know: Vol. 3

September 10, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

1. Artemisia Gentileschi – July 8, 1593–ca. 1656: Born in Rome, Italy, and influenced by Caravaggio, Gentileschi is considered to be one of the most accomplished painters of the early Baroque period. She was trained by her father and well known artist Orazio Gentileschi as well as artist Agostino Tassi. Tassi raped the 18 year old Artemisia and promised to marry her but was eventually arrested. Tassi’s trial received a great deal of attention, and negatively affected her reputation, prompting her to move to Florence where she had a successful career.

As a result of her experiences, the heroines in Gentileschi’s paintings, depict powerful women enacting revenge on malicious males. Her style was influenced by dramatic realism and strong contrast of light and dark.

At a time of a male dominated art world, Gentileschi was the first female painter to be accepted as a member of the Acadamia di Arte del Disengo in Florence, Italy. She was also one of the first female artists to paint historical and religious themes, a skill thought to be beyond the intellectual abilities of women.

2. Judy Chicago – July 20, 1939: Born Judy Cohen, Judy Chicago is an American artist (sculpture, drawings, paintings), author, feminist, and educator, whose work and life are “models for an enlarged definition of art, an expanded role for the artist, and a woman’s right to freedom of expression”.

Between 1974 and 1979, with the participation of hundreds of volunteers, Chicago created her most well-known work, “The Dinner Party“. The multimedia project, a symbolic history of women in Western Civilization, has been seen by more than one million viewers during its 16 exhibitions held at venues in six countries.

Chicago has a Bachelor and Masters of Art from the University of California Los Angeles. She has received numerous awards, and has honorary doctorates from Duke University, Lehigh University, Smith College, and Russell Sage College. Chicago’s work is housed in the collections of major museums including: The British Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Getty Trust, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

3. Julia Margaret Cameron – June 11 1815 – January 26, 1879: Born in Calcutta, India to a British official of the East India Company and the daughter of French aristocrats, Cameron was educated in France but returned to India in 1838 and married jurist Charles Hay Cameron. The couple moved to London in 1848 where they were aligned with the elite circles of Victorian society.

Cameron did not take up photography until the age of 48, when her daughter gave her a camera as a gift. She enlisted friends and family for her photographs and used an artistic approach that differed from the commercial studios of the time – an approach for which she was often criticized.

Known for her closely framed portraits and illustrative allegories based on religious and literary works, some of Cameron’s subjects include Charles Darwin, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, and others.

Cameron’s photographs, particularly her closely cropped portraits, had a significant impact on the evolution of modern photography. As well, her portraits of major historical figures, are often the only remaining photographs and record of the time. She was meticulous in registering her photographs with the copyright office and kept detailed records which is why many of her works survive today.

4. Elizabeth Catlett Mora – April 15, 1915 -April 2, 2012: Born in Washington, D.C., Catlett graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C.in 1935, where she studied design, printmaking and drawing. In 1940, she studied under painter Grant Wood and sculptor Henry Stinson and became the first student to receive an M.F.A. in sculpture from the State University of Iowa .

In 1947, Catlett married Mexican artist Francisco Mora, and made Mexico her permanent home. In 1958, she became the first female professor of sculpture and head of the sculpture department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, School of Fine Arts, San Carlos, in Mexico City where she continued to teach until her retirement in 1975.

Catlett is best known for her abstract wood and stone sculptures of archetypal African American women. She is also an accomplished printmaker and has produced lithographs and linocuts that celebrate the heroic lives of African American women.

Catlett’s work reflects a social and political concern that she shares with the Mexican muralists. Using her art to bring awareness to causes including the African-American experience and the plight of the lower classes, many of her works illustrate the diverse roles of women as mothers, workers, and activists.

Catlett received many awards including the Women’s Caucus For Art and has an honorary Doctorate from Pace University, in New York. She is represented in numerous collections throughout the world including the Institute of Fine Arts, Mexico, the Museum of Modern Art, NY, Museum of Modern Art, Mexico, National Museum of Prague, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum, NY.

Catlett remained an active artist until her death on April 2, 2012 at the age of 96.

5. Berthe Morisot – January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895: Born to a prosperous family in Bourges, Cher, France, Berthe Morisot was encouraged at an early age to become an artist and studied with neoclassical painter Geoffroy-Alphonse Chocarne.

Characteristic of Impressionist art, Morisot painted her daily experiences and reflected 19th century cultural expectations of her gender and class. Her works include landscapes, family and domestic life, portraits, garden settings and boating scenes.

Morisot worked with pastels and watercolors and oil, and experimented with lithography and drypoint etching in her later years. She first exhibited at the Salon de Paris in 1864 at the age of 23 and continued to show there regularly until 1873, just prior the first Impressionist exhibition.

Morisot grew to be a key member of the group of Impressionists. Her home was a meeting place for painters and writers including Renoir, Degas, Mary Cassatt, and Stéphane Mallarmé. She participated in the Drouot sale of 1875, where the artists were greatly criticized. Her paintings, however, were purchased at slightly higher prices than those of Renoir, Monet, and Sisley.

Undervalued for over a century, she is now considered among the finest of the Impressionist painters.

Sources:Artemisia Gentileschi.com, Met Museum, Wikipedia, Judy Chicago.com, Met Museum, MoMA, Wikipedia, Cleveland Museum of Art, Wikipedia

Read more 5 Women Artist You Should Know posts.

Kenzo Tange: Architecture

August 20, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Once in a while, I take the scenic train out to Odaiba – an artificial island originally constructed in the 1850’s in Tokyo for defensive purposes. Today the island is a major tourist attraction for sightseeing and shopping. While some mock the island for being the “United States of Odaiba” (Statue of Liberty included), one can’t deny that the area is home to some of the most interesting architecture in Tokyo.

My favourite building on the island is the Fuji TV headquarters designed by architect Kenzo Tange. One of the most significant architects of the 20th century, Tange was born in Osaka in 1913. He completed his undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in Architecture at the University of Tokyo. In 1946 he became an assistant professor and opened the Tange laboratory at the University.

Tange is known for combining traditional Japanese styles with modernism, and has designed major buildings in Japan and around the world including the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (1949), the Yoyogi National Gymnasium (1964), the AMA Building in Chicago (1987), the University of Bahrain (1998), and others.

An influential architect in the Structuralist movement, Tange’s designs have won him international acclaim and numerous awards including the Pritzker Prize for the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, designed for the 1964 Summer Olympics, the AIA Gold Medal (1966), the Order of Culture (1980), the Order of the Sacred Treasures (1994), and France’s Order of the Legion of Honor (1996).

Kenzo Tange died on March 22, 2005. His funeral was held in the Tokyo Cathedral, one of his most stunning creations.

For more information visit the Kenzo Tange Associates website.

Sources: Kenzo Tange Associates, Wikipedia

5 Women Artists You Should Know: Vol. 2

August 5, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

1. Laura Wheeler Waring – May 16, 1887 – Feb. 3, 1948: Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Waring attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1914. Waring was awarded the Cresson Traveling Scholarship and studied Expressionism and Romanticism at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris.

Much of Waring’s work was focused on portraiture though she also painted still life and landscapes. She was among the first artists displayed in the United State’s first all African American art exhibit that was held in 1927 by the Harmon Foundation – an organization that promoted the work of African American artists, writers, educators and scientists. In 1943, the Harmon Foundation commissioned Waring to paint the series “Portraits of Outstanding American Citizens of Negro Origin”, which included W.E.B. DuBois, George Washington Carver, Marian Anderson, and James Weldon Johnson.

From the late 1920’s until her death in 1948, Warren worked as an art instructor and director of the art and music departments at Pennsylvania’s Cheyney State Teachers College (now Cheyney University).

2. Georgia O’keeffe – Nov 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986: Considered to be a pioneer of American modernism, O’keeffe was born in Wisconsin and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1905 and at the Art Students League in New York in 1907.

From 1908-1910, O’keeffe worked as a commercial artist in Chicago for a few years and then moved to Charlottesville in 1910 with her family, where she studied drawing at the University of Virginia. In the following eight years, O’Keeffe studied art and art education, taught art, traveled, and worked on developing her unique style – a blend of symbolism, abstraction, and photography with subjects including cityscapes, landscapes, figure studies, and flower paintings.

After 1929, O’keeffe she spent most summers painting in New Mexico and moved there permanently in 1949. She worked in pencil and watercolor until 1982 and then in clay from the mid-1970s to 1984 due to her failed eyesight. O’keeffe received numerous awards, including the American Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Arts.

3. Elaine Fried de Kooning – March 12, 1918 – Feb. 1, 1989: Born in Brooklyn, NY, de Kooning was a successful painter, sculptor, draughtswoman, printmaker, writer, and wife of fellow artist Willem de Kooning. She studied in New York at the Leonardo da Vinci Art School, the American Art School, the Academy school, and with Willem de Kooning.

De Kooning was interested in both figurative and abstract art, acknowledging the influence of her husband and of the Abstract Expressionists of the New York School. Her first solo exhibition occurred at the Stable Gallery in New York in 1952 and she presented almost annually at numerous institutional and commercial galleries throughout the United States.

Portraits were an important part of De Kooning’s output, though she never considered them to her main focus as a painter. When producing portraits, she worked on several canvases at the same time, creating three or more versions of the same portrait.

While her artistic reputation was somewhat overshadowed by her husband’s fame, de Kooning was able to establish a name as an artist and as an art critic. As well, she taught at numerous institutions including Bard College, University of Georgia, University of Pennsylvania, University of California at Davis, in New York at the Cooper Union, Parsons School of Design, and Pratt Institute, and others.

4. Louise Bourgeois – December 25, 1911: Born in Paris, Bourgeois is perhaps best known for her spider sculptures titled “Maman”. She initially studied mathematics at the Sorbonne in 1932 but left to study art instead. In the mid to late 1930s, she studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, École du Louvre, Atelier Fernand Léger, and other schools in Paris.

Bourgeois married American art historian Robert Goldwater, and in 1938, moved to New York where she studied for two years at the Art Students League. Bourgeois began her career as a painter and engraver, turning to wood sculpture in the late 1940’s.

In the mid 1950’s Bourgeois’ artwork explored issues such as internal distress, fear, vulnerability, and loss of control. She worked with bronze, plaster, and marble, and her previous rigid, upright sculptures evolved into smooth, organic shapes. In the 1960’s Bourgeois’ works became larger and were executed in bronze, carved stone, and rubber latex. During this time, she explored relationships between men and women in her artwork which became more sexually explicit.

Bourgeois’s achievements have been recognized with numerous honours and awards including National Medal of Arts and a grand prize in sculpture from the French Ministry Culture. She died on May 31, 2010 – creating artwork until her death.

5. Sonia Delaunay – Nov. 14, 1885 – Dec. 5, 1979: Born Sarah Stern (nicknamed Sonia), in the Ukraine, Delaunay moved to St. Petersburg at the age of five to live with a wealthy uncle, taking his surname, Terk. She studied art in Karlsruhe, Germany and in Paris in 1905, where she would live most of her life.

Delaunay married French painter Robert Delaunay with whom she had a son, Charles. Both Sonia and Robert developed an offshoot of cubism known as Orphism (aka Simultaneism). Orphism was similar to cubism in its abstraction but was based on the real world and used bright colours and repeating patterns similar in some aspects to Russian folk art.

Delaunay was a prolific artist working in many mediums. Throughout her career, she created paintings as well as public murals, theatrical, graphic, fashion, and interior designs, and designs for playing cards, ceramics, mosaics, and stained glass.

Delaunay received numerous awards for her work and in 1964 became the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre. In 1975 she was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor.

***Read the first installment of 5 Women Artists You Should Know***

Sources: PBS, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, Guggenheim, National Museum of Women in the Arts

Barrack Obama Inspired Art

August 4, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

In honour of Barack Obama’s birthday today, I’m dedicating this post to the artwork that was and still is inspired by this U.S. President.

Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign was well known for inspiring art, including the now famous “Hope” poster by Shepard Fairey which currently has a home in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. Now, months after his historic win, production of “Obama art” is still going strong. Professional and amateur artists alike can be found showing and selling their works on websites such as Ebay, obamaartreport.com, artofobama.com, badpaintingsofbarackobama.com, and others.

As well, in the fall of 2009, Abrams Image will publish “Art for Obama: Designing Manifest Hope and the Campaign for Change”. The 184 page book will feature 150 illustrations by artists including Ron English, David Choe, and Maya Hayuk. The book will be edited by Shepard Fairey and Jennifer Gross and all profits will benefit the nonprofit organization Americans for the Arts.

One might wonder why Obama art is so popular, even after the campaign. Well, I’m not American and can’t say for sure, but I do have some thoughts. For voters, perhaps it is that Obama represents a vision of hope, of change, and alternative ideas about democracy and war – a vision of what America could be. For artists, it may also be that Obama actually has a platform in support of the arts and arts education including increased funding for the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts).

Whatever the reasons, it seems Obama inspired art is here to stay. Happy birthday Mr. President!

Sources: Art Culture, American Prospect, NY Times, Platform for the Arts Images: Proteus Magazine

Marcel Duchamp: 1887-1968

July 28, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp was born to a family of artists on July 28, 1887, near Blainville, France. Three of his siblings were successful artists and Duchamp was the grandson of painter and engraver Emile Nicolle.

From 1904-05, Duchamp studied painting at the Académie Julian but by his own admission, preferred playing billiards. His early works were influenced by the Post-Impressionist style however in 1911, Duchamp developed his own form of Cubism that combined earthy colours, mechanical forms and the depiction of repetitive images of objects or bodies in motion. Perhaps the most well known in this style was his 1912 painting “Nude Descending a Staircase” that was shown at the Salon del de la Section d’Or and later created great controversy at the 1913 Armory Show in New York.

After 1912, Duchamp rarely painted, preferring instead to create his own brand of art which he coined “readymades”. Readymades were one or more ordinary everyday objects that were slightly altered then signed by the artist. Duchamp’s earliest readymades included “Bicycle Wheel” (a wheel mounted on a wooden stool), a snow shovel called “In Advance of the Broken Arm”, and a urinal titled “Fountain” that he signed “R. Mutt”. Of his own readymades, Duchamp spoke of how using prefabricated objects freed him from the ‘trap’ of developing a particular style or taste.

In 1915, Duchamp traveled to New York, where he associated with patron and artist Katherine Dreier, and artist Man Ray, with whom he founded the Société Anonyme in 1920, and other avant-garde figures. Between 1915 and 1923, Duchamp created his most complex work “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, (aka The Large Glass)” which was constructed of two panes of glass with materials such as lead foil, fuse wire, and dust.

In 1918, Duchamp took a break from the New York art scene and traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he became fascinated with and played chess for nine months. Duchamp returned to Paris in 1919 and associated with the Dada group. In New York in 1920, he made his first motor-driven constructions and invented Rrose Sélavy, his feminine alter ego.

Duchamp returned to Paris in 1923 and appeared to have abandoned art for chess but did in fact continue his artistic endeavors. From the mid-1930s, he collaborated and exhibited with the Surrealists. In the 1940s, he associated and exhibited with the Surrealists in New York, and in 1946 began “Etant donnés,” a major assemblage piece which he secretly worked on for twenty years. In 1942, Duchamp settled permanently in New York and became a United States citizen in 1955. In 1954, he married Alexina “Teeny” Duchamp whom he had met in Paris in 1923.

Duchamp’s influence on the art scene was relatively small until the 1950’s when young artists such as Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, seeking something beyond Abstract Expressionism, “discovered” his work. Duchamp gained international public recognition in the 1960’s with his first retrospective exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1963, a large exhibit at the Tate Gallery in 1966, and showings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Marcel Duchamp died on October 2, 1968 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, and is buried in the Rouen Cemetery. He is considered by many to be the single most important influence on the formation and direction of Pop Art, Minamalism, and conceptional art of the 1960’s and 70’s. As well, his idea of the “readymade” forever altered our understanding of what constitutes a work of art.

For a complete biography of Marcel Duchamp, see the sources links below.

Sources: MOMA, Guggenheim, Tate Online, Wikipedia

Play Art Loud: Artbabble.org

July 11, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Every once in a while, I like to share outstanding websites I come across in my art-web travels. Recently, I discovered ArtBabble.org, a website dedicated to spreading the word of art through video. Launched by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Art Babble showcases video art content in high quality format from a variety of sources and perspectives.

Currently, Art Babble partners with Art 21, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, MOMA, The MET, San Francisco MOMA, Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, the New York Public Library and others to provide videos on a wide range of topics (aka channels). Browse by Series, Channel, or Artist.

In the short video below, Jenny Holzer discusses the programming of her LED sculptures during the installation of the exhibition PROTECT PROTECT at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Check out this great resource yourself at Art Babble.org