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5 Random Art Facts: XXIV

August 9, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Composition-avec-bleu-rouge-jaune-et-noir-Piet-Mondrian-1922 - art facts1. The De Stijl Art Movement was a Dutch movement founded in 1917 in Amsterdam. Originally a publication, De Stijl (meaning “style” in Dutch), was created by two pioneers of abstract art, Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. The magazine De Stijl became a vehicle for Mondrian’s ideas on art, and in a series of articles in the first year’s issues he defined his aims and used, perhaps for the first time, the term neo-plasticism. This became the name for the type of abstract art that he and the De Stijl circle practiced. Proponents of De Stijl advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and colour. They simplified visual compositions to vertical and horizontal, using only black, white and primary colours. The movement had a profound influence on the development both of abstract art and modern architecture and design.

Other members of the group included Bart van der Leck, Vantongerloo and Vordemberge-Gildewart, as well as the architects Gerrit Rietveld and JJP Oud. Mondrian withdrew from De Stijl in 1923 following Van Doesburg’s adoption of diagonal elements in his work. Van Doesburg continued the publication until 1931.  (Tate)

wabi sabi pottery - art facts2. Wabi-Sabi is a term used to describe a type of Japanese aesthetics and has been associated with Zen Buddhism as it exemplifies many of Zen’s core spiritual and philosophical tenets. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. Emerging in the 15th century in Japan as a reaction to the prevailing aesthetic of lavishness, ornamentation, and rich materials, wabi-sabi is the art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in earthiness, of revering authenticity above all.  An example of this can be seen in certain styles of Japanese pottery. In the Japanese tea ceremony, the pottery items used are often rustic and simple-looking. Hagi ware pottery for example have shapes that are not quite symmetrical, and colours or textures that appear to emphasize an unrefined or simple style. Other examples of wabi-sabi include Honkyoku (traditional shakuhachi music of wandering Zen monks), Ikebana (the art of flower arrangement), Japanese gardens, Zen and bonsai (tray) gardens and Japanese poetry.  (Wikipedia, Utne Reader)

Georgia Okeeffe-Music-Pink and Blue ii-1919 - art facts3. Women and the Arts: In 1976, at the peak of her career, Georgia O’Keeffe refused to lend her work to a pivotal exhibition in Los Angeles, Women Artists: 1550 to 1950. It was one of a wave of all-female shows that decade — some 150 — to spotlight artists largely ignored by major museums and galleries. But O’Keeffe, the most famous female artist of her day, saw herself in a different category — “one of the best painters,” period.

The feminist art historian Linda Nochlin borrowed an O’Keeffe painting elsewhere and put her in the show anyway. Yet despite these exhibitions, neither O’Keeffe nor any other woman would break into Janson’s History of Art, the leading textbook, until 1987, and equality remained elusive. (New York Times)

The-Starry-Night---Vincent-van-Gogh - art facts4. The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh was painted in June 1889, one year before his death. It depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence where he voluntarily admitted himself after the self-mutilation of his ear.  The painting is a combination of van Gogh’s direct observations as well as his imagination, memories, and emotions. The steeple of the church, for example, resembles those common in his native Holland, rather than those in France. The whirling forms in the sky, on the other hand, match published astronomical observations of clouds of dust and gas known as nebulae. (Moma, Wikipedia)

5. Fluxus – Founded in 1960 by  Lithuanian/American artist George Maciunas, Fluxus was a small international network of artists and composers who challenged accepted ideas about what art is. Rooted in experimental music, it was named after a magazine which featured the work of musicians and artists centred around avant-garde composer John Cage.

George-Brecht's-Octet-for-Winds-–-Fluxorchestra-realisation-rehearsal-tate --art facts

Almost every avant-garde artist of the time took part in Fluxus, including Joseph Beuys, Dick Higgins, Alice Hutchins, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Ben Vautier, Robert Watts, Benjamin Patterson and Emmett Williams.

Fluxus had no single unifying style. Its artists used a range of media and processes adopting a ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude to creative activity, often staging random performances and using whatever materials were at hand to make art. Seeing themselves as an alternative to academic art and music, Fluxus was a democratic form of creativity open to anyone. Collaborations were encouraged between artists and across art forms, and also with the audience or spectator. It valued simplicity and anti-commercialism, with chance and humour playing a big part in the creation of works.   The fluxus network still continues today. (Tate)

Filed Under: ART, Art-e-Facts, Painting, Women in Visual Arts Tagged With: art movements, avant-garde art, fluxus, Georgia O'keeffe, pottery, The Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh, Wabi Sabi

Art Quotes — #9

April 12, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Your weekly Art Quote! Share by clicking the social buttons on the left.  See more Art Quotes here.

There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. —Vincent van Gogh

There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.
—Vincent van Gogh

Image: Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait (detail), 1889
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Art Quotes, Painting Tagged With: Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh: 1853-1890

March 30, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

The-Starry-Night-Vincent-van-Gogh-1889Born on March 30, 1853 in Zundert, Brabant, in the south of the Netherlands, Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Post Impressionist painter and  one of history’s most famous artists. An active artist for only ten years, Van Gogh produced approximately 1000 watercolours, drawings and sketches and about 1250 paintings.

At age 16, Van Gogh worked as an apprentice for the art dealer Goupil & Cie in Hague at a gallery run by his uncle.  Between 1873 and 1876, Van Gogh moved between the London and Paris branches of Goupil. During this time,  he learned a great deal about Old Master and contemporary painting.  While in England he began collecting illustrations. In 1876, Van Gogh was dismissed from his position, at which point, he decided to become a minister.

In 1877, Van Gogh moved to Amsterdam where he attempted to enroll in theology school.  After giving up his preparatory studies, Van Gogh moved to the coal mining town Borinage in Belgium where he worked as a lay preacher. Living like a pauper among the miners, Van Gogh slept on the floor and gave away his belongings. His obsessive commitment was frowned upon by the church and he was dismissed.

In 1880, Van Gogh decided finally that he would become an artist. He moved to Brussels  and studied independently,  and occasionally with  Dutch artist Anthon van Rappard. Van Gogh’s brother Theo, who worked at Goupil’s Paris branch, sent him money during this time and would continue to support him regularly until the end of Van Gogh’s life. Van Gogh also studied briefly in The Hague with Anton Mauve, where he  was introduced to watercolour and oil technique, and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp in 1886, but withdrew after two months.

Van Gogh moved to Paris in 1886 where he lived with his brother Theo in the artists’ quarter of Montmartre. As a manager at the Montmartre branch of Goupil’s, Theo introduced Van Gogh to the works of Claude Monet and other Impressionists. Van Gogh studied for four months at the studio of Fernand Cormon where he met other artists including Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Emile Bernard, and Camille Pissarro.

Van Gogh began painting in brighter colours and his brushwork became more broken. Like the Impressionists, he chose his subjects from the city’s cafés and streets, as well as the countryside along the Seine River. During this time, Van Gogh dreamed of creating an artistic community in which they lived and worked together in harmony.

In February 1888, Van Gogh left Paris and traveled to Provence in the south of France.  Still hoping to establish his artists’ cooperative, Van Gogh rented a studio (The Yellow House) in Arles and invited Gauguin to join him. Gauguin finally agreed and from October 1888 spent nine weeks working and discussing art with Van Gogh. However, tension began to grow between the two artists. In December, an argument occurred resulting with the infamous “cutting off his own ear” story.

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

Gauguin left Arles, and Van Gogh, while being treated for his ear in the hospital, experienced  the first serious onset of insanity. After Van Gogh was discharged from the hospital, he was unable to set up a new studio or organize his life.  In May 1889, he admitted himself into a psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy, near Arles. Van Gogh continued to paint and converted a cell into a studio where he produced 150 paintings over the course of one year. Van Gogh sent his paintings to Theo in Paris. During this time and despite his illness, Van Gogh continued to produce one masterpiece after another including Irises, Cypresses, and The Starry Night.

Van Gogh’s work began to receive some recognition. In 1890, the Belgian artist group Les Vingt included six of his paintings in their exhibition. As well, the critic Albert Aurier published a favorable review of Van Gogh’s paintings in January 1890, linking his work to the Symbolists. It was at this time that he sold his painting the Red Vineyard to the painter Anna Boch. It was the only painting he would ever sell.

In 1890, Van Gogh left the hospital and moved Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris. While there, he placed himself under the care of the homeopathic physician Paul Gachet. Gachet had previously treated several artists and was an amateur artist himself. Van Gogh became prolific in his work producing nearly one painting a day for two months.

In June, 1890, Van Gogh visited Theo, who expressed his desire to go into business for himself which would mean a tightening of finances, including his support of his brother. Van Gogh was deeply troubled by Theo’s dissatisfaction and became very worried: “…but my life too is threatened at its very root, and my step is unsteady too.”

On 27 July 1890, Vincent Van Gogh walked into a wheat field and shot himself in the chest. He died two days later, on July 29.  “He was buried in Auvers the next day. Among the mourners were Lucien Pissarro, Emile Bernard and Père Tanguy. Bernard later described Van Gogh’s coffin, covered with yellow flowers, and his easel and brushes lying on the ground next to the casket. Van Gogh’s paintings were left to Theo who died six months later.”

In 1914 the two brothers were re-interred next to each other at the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise.

“Part of van Gogh’s fame is based on his extraordinary personal letters, the most numerous of which were to Theo. From France he also wrote a series of letters to his sister Wilhelmina, in which he regularly included explanations of artistic concepts that he considered superfluous in his letters to Theo. In addition, two other sets of letters have been preserved: those to Anthon van Rappard from 1881 to 1885, and those to Emile Bernard. He also corresponded and exchanged paintings with Gauguin. The abundance of biographical data and the diary-like character of the letters were important contributory factors in the making of van Gogh’s reputation. Due to the existence of the letters, many of the works are provided with the interpretation and commentary of van Gogh himself, to a far greater extent than with his predecessors and contemporaries.” (from MoMA)

Starry Night Over the Rhone-Vincent van Gogh-1888
rp_portrait-of-the-artists-mother-vincent-van-gogh-1888.jpg
Woman-Miners-Carrying-Coal-Vincent-van-Gogh-1882
Three-Pairs-of-Shoes-Vincent-van-Gogh-1886
The-Starry-Night---Vincent-van-Gogh---1889
The-Potato-Eaters-Vincent-van-Gogh-1885
Still Life- Vase with Twelve Sunflowers -Vincent van Gogh-1888
Skull with a Burning Cigarette-Vincent van Gogh-1885-86
Self Portrait-Vincent van Gogh-1887
Self Portrait - Vincent van Gogh - 1889
Portrait-of-Dr.-Gachet-Vincent-van-Gogh-1890
Peasant Woman Digging-Vincent van Gogh-1885
Le-Moulin-de-la-Galette-Vincent-van-Gogh-1886
Irises---Vincent-van-Gogh-1889
Cottage-with-Woman-Digging-Vincent-van-Gogh-1885
Café Terrace at Night-Vincent van Gogh-1888
Bedroom in Arles - Vincent van Gogh-1888
At Eternity's Gate-Vincent van Gogh-1890
A-Girl-in-White-in-the-Woods-Vincent-van-Gogh-1882
The Red Vineyard - Vincent van Gogh

 

Sources: Van Gogh Musem, MoMA

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Painting Tagged With: Dutch Art, Netherlands Art, Post Impressionism, Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh

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