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Dorothea Lange: Migrant Mother

May 26, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Born on May 26, 1895, Dorothea Lange was an influential American documentary photographer best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration. Lange’s photographs humanized the consequences of the Great Depression and influenced the development of documentary photography.

Dorothea Lange - Migrant Mother 1936One of the most iconic photographs of the Depression and in American history is Lange’s Migrant Mother, photographed in 1936 in Nipomo, California at a campsite of out-of-work pea pickers.  Lange approached one of the pickers, Florence Owens Thompson (1903 – 1983) and her seven children and asked to take their photo.

“I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was 32. She said that (she and her children) had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food.”  –Dorothea Lange

During this period, known as the Dust Bowl,  severe dust storms greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the US and Canadian prairies. Poverty stricken families like Florence’s, were common. “Their poverty was total; they had nothing. Where is her husband, the children’s father? She is on her own. There is no help, no protection, and nothing over the horizon but work, want and more wandering. Her worried, vacant expression seems to communicate what we, at our end of history, already know: Things were not going to get better for a long, long time.” (PBS)

For over forty years, the identity of the woman in the photo remained unknown. In 1978, Emmett Corrigan, a reporter from the Modesto Bee tracked down Florence in a trailer park outside Modesto, California. She was 75 at the time. “Lange had promised Thompson that her name would never be published — Thompson wanted to spare her children the embarrassment — but once she was discovered, she revealed her name and told her story.”  A letter Thompson wrote was published in The Modesto Bee and the Associated Press distributed a story headlined “Woman Fighting Mad Over Famous Depression Photo” Florence was quoted as saying “I wish she (Lange) hadn’t taken my picture. I can’t get a penny out of it. She didn’t ask my name. She said she wouldn’t sell the pictures. She said she’d send me a copy. She never did.“

Migrant Mother catapulted Dorothea Lange’s reputation and helped earn her a Guggenheim fellowship for achievement in photography. She was funded by the federal government when the photograph was taken, so the image was in the public domain. Lange never directly received any royalties.  In 1941, Lange gave up her Guggenheim Fellowship to document the forced evacuation of Japanese Americans from the West Coast, on assignment for the War Relocation Authority.

In 1945, Lange accepted a position as faculty at the first fine art photography department at the California School of Fine Arts. In 1952,  she co-founded the photographic magazine Aperture with a consortium of photographers including Ansel Adams. Lange and Pirkle Jones were commissioned in the mid-1950s to shoot a photographic documentary for Life magazine of the death of Monticello, California and of the displacement of its residents by the damming of Putah Creek to form Lake Berryessa. Life did not run the piece, however an entire issue of Aperture was devoted to the work. The photo collection was shown at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1960.

Dorothea Lange died of esophageal cancer on October 11, 1965, in San Francisco, California, at age 70.

Sources: PBS, Wikipedia, C-SPAN

Read Florence Owens Thompson’s story on PBS.
Dorothea Lange:  Grab a Hunk of Lightning premiered on PBS’s American Masters in August 2014. The full episode is available here (USA only)

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Photography, Video, Women in Visual Arts Tagged With: American Depression, Dorothea Lange, Florence Owens Thompson, Migrant Mother, Migrant Workers

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 157

May 24, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Your Weekly Mixx – Enjoy! DAF’s Weekly Mixx is a selection of nine contemporary artworks and/or art related videos chosen from artist and gallery submissions and from our own search for new and interesting works. Visit the Submissions page for information on how to have your art featured in the Weekly Mixx.

Doze Green - facebook.com/doze.green
Alo aloart.org
The Kelpies thehelix.co.uk
Wan Liya wanliya.com
Simen Johan - simenjohan.com
Michael Shapcott - michael-shapcott.com
Tiffany Calder Kingston artbytiffany.com

Filed Under: ART, Group Feature, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Street Art, Video Tagged With: Alo, Doze Green, Michael Shapcott, Simen Johan, The Kelpies, Tiffany Calder Kingston, Wan Liya

In the Studio with Flameworker Brad Jesson

May 19, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

DAF recently had the opportunity to visit flameworker Brad Jesson at his studio in Stratford, Ontario.  Watch the video below to see Brad’s work in glass marble and pendant making.

Brad began working with flameworked glass in January of 2008, and has practiced his art on a full-time basis since February of 2010.  A self-taught artist, Brad learned flameworking techiques through books, videos, internet glass forums, and at the Art Glass Invitational (an annual week-long conference held in Pennsylvania, with daily seminars for flameworkers).

Brad creates a wide variety of both functional and non-functional glass art objects, including marbles, vases, pendants, and sculptures.  He is especially passionate about marbles; of interest is the juxtaposition of organic forms and patterns with the perfect geometry of a sphere, and the overall challenge, both physical and mental, of mastering the wide array of known techniques that can be used to create them in conjunction with the development of new techniques and designs.  A large part of Brad’s attraction to borosilicate flameworking is the fact that this type of glass, and therefore the medium in general, is still very much in its’ infancy, leaving considerable room for growth and exploration.

To see more of Brad Jesson’s work, visit bradjessonglassart.com. His beautiful pendants can be purchased online at the DAF Shop and at select festivals, markets, and shows in Ontario.

Filed Under: ART, Artisans, Crafts, Sculpture, Video Tagged With: borosilicate flameworking, Brad Jesson, Flameworking, Glass Blowing, jewellery, jewlery, Lampworking

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 156

May 17, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Your Weekly Mixx – Enjoy! DAF’s Weekly Mixx is a selection of nine contemporary artworks and/or art related videos chosen from artist and gallery submissions and from our own search for new and interesting works. Visit the Submissions page for information on how to have your art featured in the Weekly Mixx.

Tina Newlove tinanewlove.com
Pantónio facebook.com/pantonioo
Kent Williams kentwilliams.com
Alexey Bednij - 500px.com/alexey_bednij
Katie Paterson with Zeller & Moye Commissioned by the University of Bristol hollow.org.uk
Ana-Teresa-Barboza - anateresabarboza.blogspot
John Wilhelm - Toilet paper harvest www.johnwilhelm.c

Filed Under: ART, Body Art, Design, Fibre Art, Group Feature, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography, Street Art, Video Tagged With: Alexey Bednij, Ana Teresa Barboza, John Wilhelm, Katie Paterson, Kent Williams, Kip Fulbeck, Pantónio, Tina Newlove, Zeller & Moye

Video: How to Recognize Baroque Art

May 12, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

An excellent short video from SmartHistory on how to recognize Baroque art with comparisons to Renaissance art. Hosted by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.

Artists featured in this video include Michaelangelo, Bernini, Carravagio, Raphael and Vermeer.

Baroque Art vs Renaissance-ArtSmarthistory is a non profit organization and a collaboration of more than 200 art historians, archaeologists, curators and other specialists who want to make the highest-quality art history learning content freely available to a global audience.

Dr. Beth Harris is co-founder and executive editor for Smarthistory and faculty emeritus at Khan Academy.
Dr. Steven Zucker is co-founder and executive editor for Smarthistory and faculty emeritus at Khan Academy.

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Painting, Sculpture, Video Tagged With: Baroque Art, Bernini, Carravagio, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Renaissance Art, Vermeer

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 154

May 3, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Your Weekly Mixx – Enjoy! DAF’s Weekly Mixx is a selection of nine contemporary artworks and/or art related videos chosen from artist and gallery submissions and from our own search for new and interesting works. Visit the Submissions page for information on how to have your art featured in the Weekly Mixx.

Synthetic Nature Part 1 from Andy Thomas on Vimeo.

The latest visual sound art piece from Andy Thomas has been inspired by Australian flora and fauna.
It is nature digitized. Sounds recorded in nature have been run through computers and electronically manipulated.
Computer generated 3D imagery swirls and contorts to the sounds creating semi-abstract interpretations of native plants.

Jen Starwalt jenstarwalt.com
Ekaterina Belinska - ekaterinabelinskaya.com
Isabel Miramontes modus-gallery.com/artists/isabel-miramontes-2
Steve-McCurry stevemccurry.com
Thom Sokoloski Colour-of-the-River-Running Through Us - thomsokoloski.com
Jem Mitchell jemmitchell.co.uk
Smug One instagram.com/smugone
Robert-Steven-Connett - grotesque.com

Filed Under: Body Art, Group Feature, Installation, Mixed Media, Nature, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Street Art, Video Tagged With: Ekaterina Belinskaya, Isabel Miramontes, Jem Mitchell, Jen Starwalt, Robert Steven Connett, Smug One, Steve McCurry, Thom Sokoloski

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 152

April 19, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Your Weekly Mixx – Enjoy! DAF’s Weekly Mixx is a selection of nine contemporary artworks and/or art related videos chosen from artist and gallery submissions and from our own search for new and interesting works. Visit the Submissions page for information on how to have your art featured in the Weekly Mixx.

Strength from Jesse Brass on Vimeo.

Romina Ressiaph - rominaressiaph.com
Chris Theiss - christheissprocess.blogspot.com
Alessandro_Gallo_angler_fly_fishing_osprey_ceramic alessandrogallo.net
Alfred Basha - alfredbasha.com
Hiroshi-Hirakawa - hiroshihirakawa.com
Stefan Giftthaler - stefangiftthaler.com
Super A with Collin van der Sluijs - Photo by Nika Kramer - super-a.nl
David Gray - davidgrayart.com

Filed Under: ART, Drawing, Group Feature, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Street Art, Video, Women in Visual Arts Tagged With: Alessandro Gallo, Alfred Basha, Chris Theiss, Collin van der Sluijs, David Gray, Hiroshi Hirakawa, Romina Ressiaph, Stefan Giftthaler, Super A

Leonardo da Vinci: 1452 – 1519 – Mini Bio

April 15, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Leonardo-da-VinciIn honour of Leonardo da Vinci‘s birthday today, DAF is featuring a mini-bio from Biography.com.

“Born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Italy, Leonardo da Vinci was the epitome of a “Renaissance man.” Possessor of a curious mind and keen intellect, da Vinci studied the laws of science and nature, which greatly informed his work as a painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, military engineer and draftsman. His ideas and body of work—which includes “Virgin of the Rocks,” “The Last Supper” and “Mona Lisa”—have influenced countless artists and made da Vinci a leading light of the Italian Renaissance.”

Image source (Italymag.co.uk)

Filed Under: ART, Painting, Video Tagged With: Fresco Painting, Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, Renaissance Art

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 151

April 11, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Your Weekly Mixx – Enjoy! DAF’s Weekly Mixx is a selection of nine contemporary artworks chosen from artist and gallery submissions and from our own search for new and interesting works. Visit the Submissions page for information on how to have your art featured in the Weekly Mixx.

Terry-Turrell---On-Your-Feet-rovzargallery
artist unknown Body Paint
Nielly-Francoise-francoise-nielly.com
Julian Gutierrez behance.net-juliangutierrez
Richard-Burlet
Leigh-Dyer incurva.co.uk
Judith-and-Joyce-Scott judithandjoycescott.com Jud
Doris-Salcedo - Istanbul-2010
Bordalo II - Bordalo Segundo facebook.com/BORDALOII

Filed Under: ART, Body Art, Group Feature, Installation, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Street Art, Video Tagged With: Bordalo II - Bordalo Segundo, Doris Salcedo, Judith and Joyce Scott, Julian Gutierrez, Leigh Dyer, Nielly Francoise, Pencil Art, Richard Burlet, Terry-Turrell

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts – XXIII

March 29, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

cover-of-Der-Blaue-Reiter-almanac,-c.19121. Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) art movement lasting from 1911 to 1914, fundamental to Expressionism, along with Die Brücke. The group was founded by a number of Russian emigrants, including Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, and native German artists, such as Franz Marc, August Macke and Gabriele Münter. The name Blaue Reiter (“blue rider”) refers to a key motif in Kandinsky’s work: the horse and rider, which was for him a symbol for moving beyond realistic representation. The horse was also a prominent subject in Marc’s work, which centered on animals as symbols of rebirth.   An extensive collection of paintings by Der Blaue Reiter is exhibited in the Städtische Galerie in the Lenbachhaus in Munich. Der Blaue Reiter dissolved with the outbreak of World War I in August 1914. Kandinsky, a Russian citizen, was forced to return to his homeland, and Marc and another Blaue Reiter artist, August Macke, were killed in action.  (Moma)

Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters---David-Hockney2. The Hockney–Falco thesis is a theory of art history, advanced by artist David Hockney and physicist Charles M. Falco. Both claimed that advances in realism and accuracy in the history of Western art since the Renaissance were primarily the result of optical instruments such as the camera obscura, camera lucida, and curved mirrors, rather than solely due to the development of artistic technique and skill. Nineteenth-century artists’ use of photography had been well documented.  In a 2001 book, Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, Hockney analyzed the work of the Old Masters and argued that the level of accuracy represented in their work is impossible to create by “eyeballing it”.  Since then, Hockney and Falco have produced a number of publications on positive evidence of the use of optical aids, and the historical plausibility of such methods. The hypothesis led to a variety of conferences and heated discussions.

The hypothesis that technology was used in the production of Renaissance Art was not much in dispute in early studies and literature. The 1929 Encyclopedia Britannica contained an extensive article on the camera obscura and cited Leon Battista Alberti as the first documented user of the device as early as 1437.  Art historians and others have criticized the argument on the grounds that the use of optical aids, though well-established in individual cases, has little value for explaining the overall development of Western art, and that historical records and paintings and photographs of art studios (without optical devices), as well as present-day realist artists, demonstrate that high levels of realism are possible without optical aids. (Wikipedia)

3. The Ugly Duchess (also known as A Grotesque Old Woman) is a satirical portrait painted by the Flemish artist Quentin Matsys around 1513. The painting is in oil on an oak panel, and measures 62.4 by 45.5 cm. It shows a grotesque old woman with wrinkled skin and withered breasts wearing the aristocratic horned headdress of her youth, out of fashion by the time of the painting. She holds in her right hand a red flower, then a symbol of engagement, indicating that she is trying to attract a suitor.  The work is Matsys’ best-known painting.

The painting was long thought to have been derived from a putative lost work by Leonardo da Vinci, on the basis of its striking resemblance to two caricature drawings of heads commonly attributed to the Italian artist. However the caricatures are now thought to be based on the work of Matsys, who is known to have exchanged drawings with Leonardo. (Wikipedia, National Gallery)

fragment-of-the-shroud-in-which-the-Emperor-Charlemagne-was-buried-in-814.-It-was-made-of-gold-and-Tyrian-purple-from-Constantinople4. Tyrian Purple:In ancient Rome, purple was the color of royalty, a designator of status. And while purple is flashy and pretty, it was more important at the time that purple was expensive. Purple was expensive, because purple dye came from snails. The pigment got its name from the best of the marine shellfish used to make the pigment being found off the shore of Phoenicia’s Tyre.  The snail-made purple remained in use until chemists learned to make synthetic dyes. Perkin’s purple, otherwise known as aniline purple, or mauveine, was the first synthetic dye and was created by accident by an eighteen year old chemist named William Perkin in 1856. (Smithsonian)

Andy Warhol - Time Capsule no. 262 - Andy Warhol Museum5. Andy Warhol Time Capsules: During his lifetime, Andy Warhol consigned 300,000 of his everyday possessions to 610 sealed cardboard boxes or “Time Capsules”. The boxes contain everything from gallery flyers, junk-mail, fan-letters, gallery-invitation cards, unopened letters, solicitations for work, freebie LPs, a lump of concrete, eccentric pornographic assemblages, used postage stamps, packets of sweets and unopened Campbell’s soup tins. In some capsules, toenail clippings, dead ants, a mummified foot and used condoms were found.

Warhol began the project when he was moving the Factory, as his studio was called. But “the artist didn’t hire a moving company”, says Warhol Museum’s chief archivist, Matt Wrbican. Warhol asked his staff to clean up the mess, and one of his assistants suggested that they start putting everything in these boxes, and they could call them ‘time capsules’.  Warhol intended for the Time Capsules to eventually be sold as art, but they never went on the market. (NPR, BBC)

 

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Art-e-Facts, Painting, Video Tagged With: Andy Warhol, Der Blaue Reiter, Hockney-Falco Thesis, The Blue Rider, The Ugly Dutchess, Tyrian Purple

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