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Jean (Hans) Arp: 1886 – 1966

September 16, 2012 By Wendy Campbell

Born on September 16, 1886 in Strasbourg (then part of Germany), Jean (Hans) Arp was a pioneer of abstract art and a founding member of the Dada movement.  After studying at the Kunstschule, Weimar from 1905 to 1907, Arp attended the Académie Julian in Paris.

In 1909, Arp moved to Switzerland where in 1911 he was a founder of and exhibited with the Moderne Bund group. One year later, he began creating collages using paper and fabric and influenced by Cubist and Futurist art. Arp then traveled to Paris and Munich where he became aquainted with Robert and Sonia Delaunay Vasily Kandinsky, Amadeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, and others.

In 1915, with the onset of World War I, Arp moved to Zurich, feigning mental instability to avoid military service. It is here where he met and collaborated with Sophie Taeuber, creating tapestries and collages, and whom he married in 1922.

In 1916, Arp became part of the founding group of the Zurich Dada artists. Their aim was to encourage spontaneous and chaotic creation, free from prejudice and the academic conventions that many believed were the root causes of war. For Arp, Dada represented the “reconciliation of man with nature and the integration of art into life.” At the end of the war, Arp continued his involvement with Dada promoting it in Cologne, Berlin, Hannover, and Paris.

Although Arp was committed to Dada, he also aligned himself somewhat with the Surrealists, exhibiting with the group in Paris exhibitions in the mid 1920′s. He shared their notion of unfettered creativity, spontaneity, and anti-rational position.

Arp and his wife also had close ties to Constructivist groups such as De Stijl, Cercle et carré, Art Concret and Abstraction–Création, all of which aimed to create a counterbalance to Surrealism as well as to change society for a better future.

In the early 1930′s, Arp developed the principle of the “constellation,” and used it in both his writings and artworks. While creating his reliefs, Arp would identify a theme, such as five white shapes and two smaller black ones on a white ground, and then reassemble these shapes into different configurations.

In the 1930′s, Arp began creating free-standing sculpture. Just as his reliefs were unframed, Arp’s sculptures were not mounted on a base, enabling them to simply take their place in nature. Instead of the term abstract art, he and other artists, referred to their work as Concrete Art, stating that their aim was not to reproduce, but simply to produce more directly. Arp’s goal was to concentrate on form to increase the sculpture’s domination of space and its impact on the viewer.

From the 1930′s onward, Arp also wrote and published poetry and essays. As well, he was a pioneer of  automatic writing and drawing that were important to the Surrealist movement.

With the fall of Paris in 1942, Arp fled the war for Zurich where he remained, returning to Paris in 1946. In 1949, he traveled to New York where he had a solo show at Curt Valentin’s Buchholz Gallery. In 1950, Harvard University in Cambridge, MA invited him to create a relief for their Graduate Center. In 1954, Arp was awarded the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale. Retrospectives of his work were held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in 1958 and at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, in 1962.

Jean Arp died June 7, 1966, in Basel, Switzerland at the age of 80. His works are in major museums around the world including a large collection at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg.




Sources: Guggenheim Museum, MoMA

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Collage, Painting, Sculpture Tagged With: abstract-art, Dada, German Art, Jean Arp, Surrealism

5 Women Artists You Should Know: Vol. 7

September 12, 2012 By Wendy Campbell

Figure-With-Ribbons-Edith-Branson1. Edith Branson (1891 – 1976) – “Edith Branson was an American modernist painter who created her own interpretation of the multitude of avant-garde movements that blossomed in Europe and New York City in the early 20th century. She was a significant contributor to the New York art scene both through her numerous exhibitions and in the roles she served as a director of the Society of Independent Artists (1934-1940) and as one of the officers of Emily Francis’ Contemporary Arts Gallery. Branson exhibited nearly every year from 1921-1941 with the Society of Independent Artists, as well as with the Municipal Art Galleries (1938).

Most of Branson’s work is reflective of her personal life as a young woman living in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Though not autobiographical, her surrealistic works introduce a woman’s introspection into the many social changes of the day.

Branson’s early paintings were influenced by Cubism and Synchromism but expanded to include Surrealism in the 1930’s. Previously kept in family hands over the last 70 years, Edith Branson’s paintings are currently being reintroduced to American collectors. It is hoped that the reputation she acquired while active will be recaptured and that her position among many other important women artists of that era can be reestablished.” (Blue Heron Fine Art)

Metamorphosis-of-a-Butterfly-Maria-Sibylla-Merian2. Maria Sibylla Merian (April 2, 1647 – January 13, 1717, Frankfurt, Germany) – was a naturalist, scientific illustrator, businesswoman, and publisher who made a significant contribution to the understanding of insects and flowers in the 17th century. Merian was encouraged to paint at a young age by her stepfather and still life painter Jacob Marrel. In 1665, Merian married Marrell’s apprentice, Johann Andreas Graff, had a child, and moved to Nuremberg where she continued to paint, created designs for embroidery patterns, and had many students from wealthy families.  It was in the gardens of the elite that she first began her study of insects and took note of the transformations, and illustrated all the stages of their development in her sketch book.

In 1675, at the age of 28, Merian published her first book “Neues Blumenbuch — New book of flowers”. One year later, she published “The Caterpillar, Marvelous Transformation and Strange Floral Food.”   In 1690, Merian moved to Amsterdam where her work attracted the attention of various contemporary scientists. In 1699 the city of Amsterdam sponsored Merian to travel to Surinam along with her younger daughter, Dorothea Maria. Merian worked in Surinam for two years, travelling around the colony and sketching local animals and plants. She also criticized the way Dutch planters treated Amerindian and black slaves. In 1705 she published a book “Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium” about the insects of Surinam.

In 1715, Merian suffered a stroke and was partially paralysed but she continued to work.  She died in Amsterdam on January 13, 1717. Her daughter Dorothea published “Erucarum Ortus Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis”, a collection of Merian’s work, posthumously.

Untitled1992-Cindy-Sherman3. Cindy Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is aNew York based photographer and film director, best known for her conceptual portraits.

“Sherman’s photographs are portraits of herself in various scenarios that parody stereotypes of woman. A panoply of characters and settings is drawn from sources of popular culture: old movies, television soaps and pulp magazines. Sherman rapidly rose to celebrity status in the international art world during the early 1980s with the presentation of a series of untitled ‘film stills’ in various group and solo exhibitions across America and Europe. While the mood of Sherman’s early works ranges from quiet introspection to provocative sensuality, there are elements of horror and decay in the series from 1988–9. Studies from the early 1990s make pointed caricatures of characters depicted through art history, with Sherman appearing as a grotesque creature in period costume. Her approach forms an ironic message that creation is impossible without the use of prototypes; identity lies in appearance, not in reality.” (MoMA)

In 1995, Sherman was the recipient of one of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowships, popularly known as the “Genius Awards.” This fellowship grants $500,000 over five years, no strings attached, to important scholars in a wide range of fields, to encourage their future creative work. Sherman’s works are in the collections of major galleries and museums around the world including MoMA, New York, Tate (London), Museum Ludwig (Germany), Guggenheim (New York), and others.

Barbara_Hepworth_Winged_Figure_19634. Barbara Hepworth (January 10, 1903 – May 20, 1975) – born in West Riding of Yorkshire, Hepworth won a scholarship to the Leeds School of Art at age sixteen where she studied with Henry Moore, and completed the two-year program in half the time. Her formal art education continued for a three-year period at the Royal College of Art under the honor of a senior scholarship. Hepworth trained in Rome  in sculpture with master stone carvers and by 1924, she was a finalist in the Prix de Rome.

Hepworth returned to England in 1926 to exhibit her work with her husband John Skeaping in their shared studio, and then in a solo exhibition at the Beaux Arts Gallery in 1928. She joined a small group of pioneer sculptors who were committed to abstraction, with whom she developed her more mature style marked by organic abstraction and innovative use of various media including string, wire and colored paint.

In 1931, Hepworth divorced and two years later married the avant-garde painter Ben Nicholson, beginning a personal and professional relationship that lasted 20 years. By the 1950’s Hepworth’s reputation grew tremendously. Her work was featured at the Venice Biennial and won the top prize at the Sao Paulo Biennial. Additionally, she held her first major retrospective exhibition, which contributed to the honor of Commander of the Order of the British Empire, receiving the rank of Dame in 1965.

In the later part of her life, Hepworth was diagnosed with cancer which left her confined to a wheelchair. Hepworth died in her studio in 1975 as a result of a fire. The studio was later rehabilitated and opened as a museum in 1976.

Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany-Hannah Hoch-19195. Hannah Höch (November 1, 1889 Gotha Germany– May 31, 1978) was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. From 1912 to 1914, Höch studied glass design and graphic arts at the College of Arts and Crafts in Berlin under  Harold Bergen. In 1915, she studied graphics at the National Institute of the Museum of Arts and Crafts. In that same year, Höch began an influential friendship with Raoul Hausmann, a member of the Berlin Dada movement.  Upon completion of her studies, she worked in the handicrafts department for Ullstein Verlang (The Ullstein Press), designing dress and embroidery patterns for Die Dame (The Lady]) and Die Praktische Berlinerin (The Practical Berlin Woman). The influence of this early work and training can be seen in her later work involving references to dress patterns and textiles.

Höch’s work at Verlang working with magazines targeted to women, made her keenly aware of the difference between women in media and reality.  Many of her pieces critique the mass culture beauty industry. Her works from 1926 to 1935 often depicted same sex couples, and women were  a central theme  from 1963 to 1973. Höch also made strong statements on racial discrimination. Her most famous piece “Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser DADA durch die letzte weimarer Bierbauchkulturepoche Deutschlands” (“Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany”), is a critique of Weimar Germany in 1919 and combines images from newspapers of the time re-created to make a new statement about life and art in the Dada movement.

Höch spent the years of the Third Reich in Germany quietly in the background. Although her work was not as acclaimed after the war as it had been before, she continued to produce her photomontages and exhibit them internationally until her death in 1978, in Berlin.

Sources: Blue Heron Fine Art (Branson), Wikipedia (Merian), MoMA (Sherman), Leslie Sacks Fine Art (Hepworth), Wikipedia (Höch)

Filed Under: 5 Women Artists Series, ART, Art History, Painting, Photography Tagged With: abstract-art, American Art, Barbara Hepworth, Cindy Sherman, Edith Branson, English Art, German Art, German Dada, Hannah Höch, Maria Sibylla Merian, Surrealism

James Whitlam: Painting/Illustration

August 12, 2012 By Wendy Campbell

Today’s images are by Manchester, United Kingdom based artist James Whitlam, aka Rubens Oscroft. It appears that Mr. Whitlam prefers to keep a low profile as I couldn’t find out much about him online.  He lists Hogarth, Wyndham Lewis, Goya as artistic influences.  To see more of this intriguing work, visit Rubens Oscroft’s profile on Deviant Art.

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Filed Under: ART, Deviant Art, Illustration, Painting Tagged With: James Whitlam, Rubens Oscroft, Surrealism

Jung Yeon Min: Painting

June 29, 2012 By Wendy Campbell

Born in 1979 in Gwang ju, South Korea,  Jung Yeon Min currently lives and works in Paris, France. Min began her art education at an arts high school in Korea, followed by  four years at Hong Ik University in Seoul, and then three years at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris.

Influenced by Hieronymous Bosch, an early Netherlandish painter famous for his apocalyptic fantasies, Min denies any easy affiliation with the more recent influence of Surrealism, although she admits, “Bosch… put so much imagination in his works, it became a kind of pre-Surrealism.”

“Min’s works are highly imaginative and rich. One finds multiple worlds, the extraordinary and the realistic, notions of micro and macro, and manipulations of space and time in her work.”

To see more of Min’s work, visit Kashya Hildebrand Gallery.




Sources: Jolaine Frizell, Jonathan Goodman

Filed Under: ART, Painting, Women in Visual Arts Tagged With: Jung Yeon Min, Korean Art, Paris Artists, Surrealism

Xooang Choi: Sculpture

June 22, 2012 By Wendy Campbell

Born in 1975 in Seoul, Korea,  Xooang Choi has a BFA and an MFA from Seoul National University –  College of Art, Sculpture Department.  In his latest body of work entitled  “Islets of Aspergers” Xooang sculpts concrete bodies to convey a “state of impairment in social interactions”.

“Choi visualizes the properties of each individual through one spreading rumor, one who has a huge head too heavy to stand up, one who begs for money with huge hands, one who has an extraordinary sense of smell, and one who has huge feet. In this series, Choi employs a partly hyper-realistic technique as well as other methods of exaggeration, abbreviation, and modification, using his own formative language.”  (Ki Hye-kyung, Curator of National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea)

For more information, visit DOOSAN Gallery.



Source: Slash Paris

Filed Under: ART, Sculpture Tagged With: Aspergers, Islets of Aspergers, Korean Art, Surrealism, Xooang Choi

Jacques Resch: Painting

May 23, 2012 By Wendy Campbell

Born in 1945, Jacques Resch is a French born artist living in Africa.  Influenced by artists including Bosch, Breughel and Dali, Resch’s works are also inspired by modern technology and world politics.  He particularly admires Bosch, because Bosch “uses dreams to adventure into the interior of the human spirit.”  However, while Bosch depicted the temptations of man by the devil, Resch depicts modern day problems that plague the world, such as pollution, poverty and war.

Resch enjoys being spontaneous with his work, because he thinks that “errors show the feebleness of human nature.”  His work is also influenced by technology such as television and the internet which barrage people with images and cause the viewer to become passive. Resch encourages the viewer to become active and to examine for themselves the problems that afflict the work today. (bio from artist’s website)

To see more, visit JacquesResch.com.



Filed Under: ART, Painting Tagged With: French Art, Jacques Resch, Surrealism

Fernando Hereñú: Illustration

May 12, 2012 By Wendy Campbell

More great work from Fernando Hereñú (AKA Pulpo). Born in 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Pulpo is known for his complex composition and a surrealistic style.  Pulpo completed his graphic design studies at the University of Buenos Aires in 2002 and currently works as an illustrator and as the creative director (and partner) of an online games company.

To see more of Pulpo’s work, visit his photostream on Flickr.



Filed Under: ART, Drawing, Illustration Tagged With: Argentina Art, Fernando Hereñú, Pulpo, Surrealism

Ydk Morimoe: Painting

August 21, 2011 By Wendy Campbell

Interesting stuff from Japanese artist Ydk Morimoe (born 1985). See more at Tieba.Baidu.com.



Filed Under: ART, Digital Tagged With: Japanese Art, Surrealism, Ydk Morimoe

David Whitlam: Painting

August 5, 2011 By Wendy Campbell

farmingmyths-david-whitlam

Born in 1977, UK artist David Whitlam showed an interest and talent for drawing at a young age. While studying graphic art at Leeds Metropolitan University, he developed a curiosity for surrealism and the workings of the unconscious.

Whitlam works in three mediums – pencil, oil paint, and Adobe Photoshop.  His goal is to “tap into the desires and anxieties within the subconscious.”  Whitlam does this by using a technique called automatic drawing working only from his imagination. With no planning, he allows his images to evolve into their own identities rather than attempting to capture reality.  “By re-arranging these universal symbols, by dressing them in carnival masks and making them pose amidst absurdities , I create my own visions, whose meanings are often highly personal and esoteric, yet which somehow echo the aesthetic style of past cultures, and relate to more general themes within the collective subconscious”.

Whitlam is a member of the Vernon Mill Artists in Stockport – one of the largest studio-based art groups in the UK. His paintings have been exhibited in venues around Stockport and Manchester and have sold to collectors around the world. To see more of David Whitlam’s strangely fascinating work, visit DavidWhitlam.com or see his profile on Deviant Art.




Sources: The Extra Finger, DavidWhitlam.com

Filed Under: ART, Digital, Drawing Tagged With: David Whitlam, English Art, Photoshop, Surrealism, UK Art

Nick Fedaeff: Mixed Media

July 5, 2011 By Wendy Campbell

Originally from Russia, Nick Fedaeff currently resides in New Zealand with his paintings being exhibited in collections in New Zealand, Australia, Europe and Japan. He is an accomplished musician and writer and has been painting from childhood.

Fedaeff uses a combination of acrylics, oils and mix media to create his work. Often described as a soft-surrealist Nick acknowledges the influence of Da Vinci, Dali, Bosch and Picasso not only for their brilliant work but how they came to create, how they lived and their attitudes to life.

Thematically Nick interprets the relationships and interconnections between men and women and life and death adding humour as tool of engagement. The study of conscious and unconscious leaves the observer with the unsettling feeling that there is more to the stories than meets the eye.

Whether it be historical figures, a commanding colour, a lucid dream or the look of a complete stranger, Nick, in his own words, mixes these objects, environments and observations into a recipe for his next piece.

To see more, visit NickFed.com.



Filed Under: ART, Mixed Media Tagged With: Nick Fedaeff, Surrealism

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