• HOME
  • ABOUT
  • ARTIST BIRTHDAY CALENDAR
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • CONTACT
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Daily Art Fixx

visual arts blog, painting, drawing, sculpture, illustration and more!

  • Art History
  • Drawing
  • Illustration
  • Mixed Media
  • Painting
  • Photography
  • Sculpture
  • Video
  • ART QUOTES
  • MORE CATEGORIES
    • 5 Women Artists Series
    • Architecture
    • Art & Technology
    • Art-e-Facts
    • Body Art
    • Collage
    • Cover Art
    • Crafts
    • Design
    • Digital
    • E-Learning
    • Eco-Art
    • Group Feature
    • Mixed Media
    • Nature
    • Street Art
    • Weird Art
    • Women in Visual Arts

Lillian Bassman: 1917 – 2012

June 15, 2020 By Wendy Campbell

Lillian BassmanBorn on June 15, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York, Lillian Bassman is considered one of the most important fashion photographers of the 20th century.

Bassman studied at the Textile High School in Manhattan, NY in 1933 and became an assistant painter at the WPA (Works Progress Administration) in 1934. In the 1940s, Bassman was working as a graphic designer when photographer Richard Avedon, a friend of her’s and her husband (Paul Himmel), encouraged her to pursue a career in photography.

Bassman’s most well-known photos were taken from the late 1940s to the early 1960s and most were published in Harper’s Bazaar. During this time she also worked as an art director for Junior Bazaar and later for Harper’s Bazaar. At Harper’s Bazaar, “Bassman brought a sophisticated, new aesthetic to fashion photography with her elegant, moody, and often abstract images. Her work diverged from classic fashion photography in that she did not rely on beautiful models and clothes as the sole essence of her photographs.”

“Bassman’s experimental and romantic visions revolutionized fashion photography. Vanity Fair magazine singled her out as one of photography’s “grand masters”. Full of mystery, sensuality, and expressionistic glamour, Bassman’s dramatic black and white photographs capture secret moments and dream memories. Her work is elegant, graceful and totally original. Bassman achieved her unique images through darkroom manipulation, specifically by blurring and bleaching areas of the photographs.’”

By the 1970s, Bassman’s interest in “pure form” photography was at odds with the changing fashion industry. She abandoned photography and turned back to painting, closing her studio for the next two decades. She returned to photography in the early 1990s after a friend found a bag of Bassman’s negatives in storage. Bassman, who had always had an interest in the manipulation of photographs, began altering the pictures and bleaching out backgrounds, creating  dramatic effects.

At the age of 87, Bassman discovered PhotoShop and began working in her studio “toying and reconfiguring” her photographs. “She claimed a proud proficiency with her computer. It is a skill however that [did] not extend to the use of e-mail or Google.” “I’m not interested,” she said, “in any of that.” (New York Times)

Lillian Bassman died in her home on February 13, 2012. Her work has been published in “Lillian Bassman” (1997), “Lillian Bassman: Women” (2009), and more recently,  “Lillian Bassman: Lingerie,”  in March 2012.

Lillian Bassman
Lillian Bassman
The Bird Lady Kasia Lillian Bassman. 1999
Lillian Bassman
Lillian Bassman
Lillian Bassman
Lillian Bassman
Lillian Bassman
Lillian Bassman
Lillian Bassman
Lillian Bassman
Lillian Bassman

Sources: Farmani Gallery, New York Times, New York Times (obituary), Facebook

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Photography, Women in Visual Arts Tagged With: American Art, Lillian Bassman

Mother’s Day: Portraits of Artists’ Mothers

May 10, 2020 By Wendy Campbell


Happy Mother’s Day all you moms out there! In honour of this special day, DAF presents a selection of well known portraits of artists’ mothers. Throughout history, many artists have painted their mothers for a variety reasons; “as a loving tribute, to capture a memorable face, to work through conflicting emotions, as a family legacy, or the simple availability of a model.”

The development of photography in the 19th century however, had a significant impact on portrait painting. Many turned to photography studios to have their portraits made as a cheaper alternative. Some artists found photography to be a useful aid to composition and from the Impressionists onward, artists have found numerous ways to expand their techniques and reinterpret the portrait to compete effectively with photography:

“Henri Matisse produced powerful portraits using non-naturalistic, even garish, colours for skin tones. Cézanne relied on highly simplified forms in his portraits, avoiding detail while emphasizing colour juxtapositions. Gustav Klimt‘s unique style applied Byzantine motifs and gold paint to his memorable portraits. Picasso painted many portraits, including several cubist renderings of his mistresses, in which the likeness of the subject is grossly distorted to achieve an emotional statement well beyond the bounds of normal caricature.”

As a result of an increased interest in abstract and non-figurative art, portrait painting in Europe and the Americas declined in the 1940s and 50s. In the 1960s and 70s, however, a revival of portraiture began. Artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, and other contemporary artists have made the human face a focal point of their work. As well, photographic portraiture has become fully accepted in the art world and photo portraits are exhibited alongside painters in galleries and museum.

Whether a portrait of one’s mother or family member, friend or a stranger on the street; in our era of mass-media and the web, where images can be exchanged in seconds, our desire to create and commission unique images of ourselves lives on.

The Artist's Mother-James McNeill Whistler
Rembrandt-van-Rijn---The-Artist's-Mother-Seated,-in-an-Oriental-Headdress---1631
Artist's Mother - David Hockney
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
ALBRECHT DÜRER portrait-of-the-artist-s-mother-albrecht-durer
Pablo Picasso. Portrait of the Artist's Mother. 1896
Portrait of the Artist's Mother-Vincent van Gogh-1888
Portrait of the Artists Mother - Mary Cassatt - 1889-1890
The Painter's Mother-Lucian Freud
Portrait of the Artists Mother- Hyacinthe Rigaud
Berthe-Morisot-The-reading.-1869.-Portrait-of-the-mather-and-the-sister-of-the-artist
Portrait-of-the-Artist's-Mother-Juan Gris
portrait-of-the-artist-s-mother-GUIDO RENI
PortraitOfArtistsMother-Salvador Dali-1920
The Artist's Mother Paul Gauguin
The-Artists-Mother-Paul-Cezanne-1866-1867
The Artists Mother Edouard Manet
The Artists Mother-Arshille Gorky
The-Artist's-Mother-Pierre-Auguste-Renoir-1860
The Artist's Mother Sleeping-Egon Schiele - 1911

 

Sources: Wikipedia, National Portrait Gallery

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Collage, Drawing, Painting, Photography Tagged With: Mother, Mother's Day, portraits

Images of Lovers in Art: 50 Ways to Paint Your Lover

February 14, 2020 By Wendy Campbell

“The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.”  —Auguste Rodin

How many ways can you paint a kiss, an embrace, a loving encounter?  One has to only sift through the thousands of images on the internet to see that the depiction of love and affection between lovers through painting, sculpture and photography has been taking place throughout the ages. Below is a small sampling of some famous, and not so famous, interpretations of passion, romance, and the many facets of love.

Pablo Picasso - The Kiss 1969
William Blake - Paolo and Francesca in the Whirlwind of Lovers - c.1824-27
A jubilant Amer sailor clutching a white-uniformed nurse in
SuzukiHaranobu-Lovers-in-the-Snow-under-an-Umbrella-1766-68
The Kiss Gustav Klimt 1907
roy-lichtenstein-Kiss II
Regis Bossu, The Fraternal Kiss,October 7, 1979
Rayograph (The Kiss) by Man Ray, 1922
Théodore Jacques Ralli, The Kiss, 1887. Private collection.
RADHA AND KRISHNA IN THE GROVE. Kangra, c. 1785. Victoria and Albert Museum
Pompeii - Nymph and Satyr - c.70 AD
The Embrace Egon Schiele 1917
PierrePaulPrudhon-Venus-and-Adonis-c1810
Palma Vecchio - Jacob and Rachel - c.1525
Pablo Picasso - The Lovers 1923
Pablo Picasso - The Kiss (The Embrace) 1925
Nishikawa Sukenobu, Sexual Dalliance between man and geisha, 1711-16
Marc Chagall Green Lovers-1915
Marc Chagall - Lovers in Green 1916-17)
Lovers in the upstairs room of a teahouse from Poem of the Pillow 1788 by Kitagawa Utamaro
Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville (1950) by Robert Doisneau
John Lennon and Yoko Ono by Annie Leibovitz, 1980
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Desired Moment, 1755-1760. Oil on canvas. Private collection
Jean Dubuffet The Little Kiss 1943
Jacque-Louis David 1748-1825
India-Mithuna c1250
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, In Bed the Kiss, 1892
Frida Kahlo The Love Embrace of The Universe The Earth Mexico Myself Diego And senor Xolotl, 1949
Frank Bernard - Romeo & Juliet 1884
Francois Boucher-Venus-and-Mars-Surprised-by-Vulcan-1754
François Pascal Simon Gérard 1770-1837
Francois Boucher-Hercules-and-Omphale-c1730
Francesco Hayez The Kiss 1859
Francesco Hayez 1791-1882
Edvard_Munch - The_Kiss - 1897
David Hockney - We Two Boys Together Clinging
Constantin Brancusi, The Kiss, 1907-08
Bronzino - Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time - c.1545
Bartholomous Spranger - Vulcan-Maia-c1590
Banquet scene with Amenhotep, brother of Ramose, with his wife May. c.1370BC
Banksy - Kissing Coppers 2004
Auguste Rodin, The Kiss, 1889
Antonio Canova - Cupid & Psyche - 1787-93
ANDY WARHOL, Kiss, 1964 - film still
Afzal al-Husayni, Two Lovers, practicing burn marks, Safavid era, 1648
PABLO PICASSO, Figures By The Sea The Kiss, 1931
Man Ray, Lee Miller Kissing a Woman. Gelatin silver print. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
The Lovers II, 1928 by Rene Magritte
The Kiss, Tamara De Lempicka

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Drawing, Illustration, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography, Sculpture Tagged With: lovers in art, valentine's day art

ART-O-MAT: Pocket Art

February 17, 2018 By Wendy Campbell

buck cellar101

Many art lovers simply don’t have the budget to purchase original works of art.  Enter the Art-O-Mat – re-purposed cigarette vending machines that have been converted to sell pocket size original works of art.

North Carolina artist Clark Whittington created the first Art-O-Mat in 1997 which he showed along side his paintings at a solo show at a local cafe. The machine sold his black & white photographs for $1.00 each. The art show was scheduled to close, however, the owner of the Penny Universitie Gallery, Cynthia Giles, loved the Art-O-Mat and asked that it stay.  It remains in its original location to this day. Following the show, the involvement of other artists was necessary for the project to continue. Giles introduced Whittington to other local artists and the group “Artists in Cellophane” was formed.

“Artists in Cellophane (A.I.C.), the sponsoring organization of Art-O-Mat is based on the concept of taking art and “repackaging” it to make it part of our daily lives. The mission of A.I.C. is to encourage art consumption by combining the worlds of art and commerce in an innovative form. A.I.C believes that art should be progressive, yet personal and approachable.”

The Art-O-Mat dispenses original art-works and may include paintings, photographs, sculpture, collage, illustration, handmade jewellery, textile arts, and more. There are 82 machines in at least 28 American States, one in Quebec, Canada, and one in Vienna, Austria. There are around 400 contributing artists from 10 different countries currently involved in the Art-o-mat project.

For more information, to get involved, or to find an Art-O-Mat near you, visit Art-O-Mat.org.

took ashevilleartworks

Filed Under: ART, Contemporary Art, Eco-Art, Illustration, Mixed Media, Photography, Sculpture Tagged With: art vending machine, art-o-mat, pocket art

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 182

January 6, 2018 By Wendy Campbell

Your Weekly Mixx! DAF’s Weekly Mixx is a selection of contemporary art and/or art related videos chosen from artist and gallery submissions and from our own search for new and interesting works. This week, we feature the work of Herakut, Christopher David White, Wendy Campbell, John Wilhelm, Francois Nielly, Annalu Boeretto, DZIA, and Julie Veenstra.

"Crowned" Christopher David White christopherdavidwhite.com
John Wilhelm johnwilhelm.chJohn Wilhelm johnwilhelm.ch
"Birds on a Branch" - Wendy-Campbell wendycampbell.art
"The Eye Travels" Francois Nielly francoise-nielly.com
UPNORTH Norway - DZIA KRANK - dzia.beUPNORTH Norway - DZIA KRANK - dzia.be
"Les Fleur du Mal" Annalu Boeretto annalu.it"Les Fleur du Mal" Annalu Boeretto annalu.it
"Into the Woods" - JulieVeenstra juliaveenstra.com"Into the Woods" - JulieVeenstra juliaveenstra.com

Filed Under: ART, Contemporary Art, Group Feature, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Street Art, Video

Ansel Adams: 1902-1984

February 20, 2017 By Wendy Campbell

Born in San Francisco, California on February 20, 1902, Ansel Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist known for his technical expertise and his stunning black-and-white photographs of the American Southwest, Yosemite National Park, and the California coast.

Considered a hyperactive child, Adams was  unsuccessful in the schools he had attended and as a result, his father and aunt tutored him at home.  Leading a somewhat solitary childhood, Adams spent much of his time in nature, exploring the beaches and the heights facing San Francisco Bay.

At the age of twelve 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.”

In 1916, Adams visited Yosemite National Park with his family. His father gave him a Kodak Brownie box camera with which he took his first photographs. The next year, Adams returned to Yosemite with a better camera and a tripod. That winter, he worked part-time for a San Francisco photo finisher where he learned basic darkroom techniques. Adams explored the High Sierra, in summer and winter, developing the stamina and skill needed to photograph at high altitudes and in difficult weather.

When he was 17, Adams joined the Sierra Club, a group dedicated to “preserving the natural world’s wonders and resources”. He was the custodian of the organization’s headquarters at Yosemite, for four years. Adams retained his membership throughout his lifetime and served on the board for 37 years.

Adams’ first photographs were published in 1921 and Best’s Studio in Yosemite Valley began selling his prints in 1922. In the mid-1920s, he experimented with soft-focus, etching, Bromoil Process, and other techniques of the pictorial photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz who attempted to produce photography on an equal artistic plane with painting by trying to mimic it.  Adams eventually rejected the pictorial method for a more realist approach which relied on sharp focus, heightened contrast, precise exposure, and darkroom craftsmanship.

In the late 1920s, with the promotion of an arts-connected businessman Albert Bender, Adams’ first portfolio was a success and he began receiving commercial assignments to photograph the wealthy patrons who had purchased his portfolio. In 1928, Adams began working as an official photographer for the Sierra Club.

In 1930, Taos Pueblo, Adams’ second portfolio, was published with text by writer Mary Austin. Through a friend with Washington connections, Adams was able to hold his first solo museum exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in 1931.

In 1932, Adams and other photographers, including Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston, founded the group f64, (a very small aperture setting that gives great depth of field), which maintained an interest in the technically perfect photographic print.

Adams developed the “zone system” as a way to explain exposure and development control and published his first book on how to master photographic technique in 1935. Over the next several years, Adams published a number of books and articles including “The Camera and the Lens” (1948), “The Negative” (1948), “The Print” (1950), “Natural Light Photography” (1952), and “Artificial Light Photography” (1956).

In the 1930s, Adams began to use his photographs to promote the cause of wilderness preservation. In 1938, he published “Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail”, with the Sierra Club, in an effort to secure the designation of Sequoia and Kings Canyon as national parks. The book and his testimony before Congress played a vital role in the success of the effort, and Congress designated the area as a National Park in 1940.

In 1940, Adams organized “A Pageant of Photography”, the most important and largest photography show in the West to-date, attended by millions of visitors. Adams completed a children’s book with his wife Virginia Best and the “Illustrated Guide to Yosemite Valley” during 1940 and 1941. Adams also began teaching in 1941 at the Art Center School of Los Angeles and in 1945, he was asked to form the first fine art photography department at the California School of Fine Arts. In 1952, Adams was one of the founders of the magazine “Aperture”, a journal of photography showcasing its best practitioners and newest innovations. In June 1955, Adams began annual workshops, teaching thousands of students right up until 1981.

Until the 1970s, Adams was financially dependent on commercial projects. Some of his clients included Kodak, Fortune magazine, Pacific Gas and Electric, AT&T, and the American Trust Company. In 1974, he had a major retrospective exhibition at the “Metropolitan Museum of Art”. During the 1970s, much of his time was spent curating and re-printing negatives to satisfy the demand of art museums which had created departments of photography. He also spent a lot of his time writing about environmentalism, focusing mainly on the Big Sur coastline of California and the protection of Yosemite. President Jimmy Carter commissioned Adams to make the first official portrait of a president made by a photograph.

Ansel Adams died on April 22, 1984 from heart failure aggravated by cancer.  “Adams’ lasting legacy includes helping to elevate photography to an art comparable with painting and music, and equally capable of expressing emotion and beauty. ” The Minarets Wilderness in the Inyo National Forest was renamed the Ansel Adams Wilderness in 1985 in his honor. Mount Ansel Adams, an 11,760 ft (3,580 m) peak in the Sierra Nevada, was named for him in 1985.


The_Tetons_and_the_Snake_River-Ansel-Adams





Sources: Ansel Adams Gallery, Wikipedia, Museum of Contemporary Photography

Related Books:
Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs
The Negative (Ansel Adams Photography, Book 2)

Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Masters

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Photography Tagged With: American Art, American photography, American southwest, Ansel Adams, Sierra Club

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 181

December 7, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Your Weekly Mixx! DAF’s Weekly Mixx is a selection of contemporary art and/or art related videos chosen from artist and gallery submissions and from our own search for new and interesting works. This week, we feature the work of Alex Janvier, Ernest Zacharevic, Julia Manning, Nadav Kander, Andrew “Mackie” McIntosh, Michihiro Matsuoka, Julia Veenstra and the video “Franz of Prague” This huge, kinetic sculpture, titled “K on Sun”, is by Czech artist David Cerny. It can be found in a business center in Prague, distracting people from the frustrations of dealing with government employees.

Franz of Prague from MEL Films on Vimeo.

Michihiro Matsuoka michihiro-matsuoka.com
Julia Manning juliamanning.co.uk
Andrew McIntosh mackie-art-com
Julia Veenstra juliaveenstra.com
Ernest Zacharevic ernestzacharevic.com
Nadav Kander nadavkander.com
Alex Janvier alexjanvier.com

Filed Under: ART, Contemporary Art, Group Feature, Installation, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Street Art, Video Tagged With: Alex Janvier, Andrew "Mackie" McIntosh, David Cerny, Ernest Zacharevic, Julia Manning, Julia Veenstra, Michihiro Matsuoka, Nadav Kander

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 180

November 17, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Your Weekly Mixx! DAF’s Weekly Mixx is a selection of contemporary art and/or art related videos chosen from artist and gallery submissions and from our own search for new and interesting works. This week, we feature the work of Aurora Robson, DZIA, Adonna Khare, Emilia Dubicki, Hiroshi Watanabe, Nicole Dextras, Darryl Cox, Jr., Lorraine Roy and a video by Istanbul-based new media agency Ouchhh. Inspired by the iconic work of Buckminster Fuller, AVA_V2 / Particle Physics_Scientific_Installation was created by using projection mapping on a hemisphere structure made of semi transparent fabric, requiring the installation to have six projectors. We developed our own technology which enabled the mapping to be projected in all 360 degrees. This installation and its structure were designed with assembly/disassembly in mind, thus allowing the installation to be re-performed anywhere in same conditions.

AVA_V2 / Particle Physics_Scientific_Installation from Ouchhh on Vimeo.

Aurora Robson aurorarobson.com
Emilia Dubicki emiliadubicki.com
DZIA dzia.be
Adonna Khare adonnak.com
Lorraine Roy lroyart.com
Hiroshi Watanabe hiroshiwatanabe.com
Darryl Cox, Jr. fusionframesnw.com
Nicole Dextras nicoledextras.com

Filed Under: ART, Contemporary Art, Drawing, Fibre Art, Group Feature, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Street Art, Video

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 179

November 11, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Your Weekly Mixx! DAF’s Weekly Mixx is a selection of contemporary art and/or art related videos chosen from artist and gallery submissions and from our own search for new and interesting works. This week, we feature the work of Lisa Occhipinti, Aaron Kinnane, Claudio Fuente, Diane Cooper, Henrik Uldalen, Michal Lukasiewi, Crystal Wagner, and Felipe Foncueva.

 
Felipe Foncueva felipefoncueva.com
Crystal Wagner crystalwagner.com
Lisa Occhipinti locchipinti.com
Aaron Kinnane aaronkinnane.com
Diane Cooper dianecooper.org/
Michal Lukasiewicz artsy.net/artist/michal-lukasiewicz
Henrik Uldalen henrikaau.com
Claudio Fuente instagram.com/claudio.fuente/

Filed Under: ART, Contemporary Art, Group Feature, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Street Art Tagged With: Aaron Kinnane, and Felipe Foncueva., Claudio Fuente, Crystal Wagner, Diane Cooper, Henrik Uldalen, Lisa Occhipinti, Michal Lukasiewi

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 178

November 2, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Your Weekly Mixx! DAF’s Weekly Mixx is a selection of contemporary art and/or art related videos chosen from artist and gallery submissions and from our own search for new and interesting works. This week, we feature the work of Claudio Fuente, Coista Magarakis, Pastel, Hector Frank,  Jaqueline Rush Lee, Aida Muluneh, Monique Orsini, Stéphane Halleux, and a video featuring the three-dimensional art objects of  Chie Hitotsuyama whose works use the material of old newspapers that stopped serving their role as an information medium. She breathes artistic life and value into those newspapers and repurposes them into new shapes. (via Vimeo)

Chie Hitotsuyama "Paper Trails" from Ayako Hoshino on Vimeo.

Hector Frank bryanttothfineart.com/hector-frank/
Costa Magarakis costamagarakis.com
Aida Muluneh aidamuluneh.com
Jaqueline Rush Lee jacquelinerushlee.com
Pastel buenos-aires-argentina
Stephane Halleux stephanehalleux.com
Monique Orsini moniqueorsini.com

Filed Under: ART, Contemporary Art, Group Feature, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Street Art, Video Tagged With: Aida Muluneh, Chie Hitotsuyama, Claudio Fuente, Coista Magarakis, Hector Frank, Jaqueline Rush Lee, Monique Orsini, Pastel, Stephane Halleux

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 28
  • Next Page »

GET DAF'S MONTHLY E-NEWS!

Categories

Archives by Date

Privacy Policy ✪ Copyright © 2023 Daily Art Fixx