Tag Archives: portraits

Day 352- Alice Neel- “Art is Art”

It’s Day 352 and it was fun painting today’s piece.  I’m not sure if I got the artist’s style quite right, but I did choose quite the awkward photo to paint…so hopefully I captured the artist’s spirit.  Please join me in honoring Alice Neel today.  She was such a great artist.  I love the subjects of her pieces and in my opinion I thought she was way ahead of her time with her style and content.

Alice Neel

Alice Neel

Geoffrey Hendricks and Brian, 1978- Alice Neel

Geoffrey Hendricks and Brian, 1978- Alice Neel

Alice Neel (January 28, 1900 – October 13, 1984) was an American visual artist, who was particularly well known for oil painting and for her portraits depicting friends, family, lovers, poets, artists and strangers. Her paintings are notable for their expressionistic use of line and color, psychological acumen, and emotional intensity. Neel was called “one of the greatest portrait artists of the 20th century” by Barry Walker, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, which organized a retrospective of her work in 2010.

Alice Neel was born on January 28, 1900 in Merion Square, Pennsylvania to George Washington Neel, an accountant for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and Alice Concross Hartley Neel. In mid-1900, her family moved to the rural town of Colwyn, Pennsylvania. She was the third of four children. She was raised into a straight-laced middle-class family during a time when there were limited expectations and opportunities for women. Her mother had said to her, “I don’t know what you expect to do in the world, you’re only a girl.“

In 1918, after graduating High School, she took the Civil Service exam and got a high-paying clerical position in order to help support her parents. After three years of work, taking art classes by night in Philadelphia, Neel enrolled in the Fine Art program at the Philadelphia School of Design for

Self-Portrait- Alice Neel

Self-Portrait- Alice Neel

Women (now Moore College of Art) in 1921. She graduated in 1925.  Neel often said that she chose to attend an all-girls school so as not to be distracted from her art by the temptations of the opposite sex.

She met an upper-class Cuban painter in 1924 named Carlos Enríquez at the Chester Springs summer school run by PAFA. They were wed on 1 June 1925 in Colwyn, Pennsylvania. After marrying Neel eventually moved to Havana to live with Enríquez’s family. In Havana, Neel was embraced by the burgeoning Cuban avant-garde, a set of young writers, artists and musicians. In this environment Neel developed the foundations of her lifelong political consciousness and commitment to equality.  During this time, she had 7 servants and lived in a mansion.

Nancy And Olivia- Alice Neel

Nancy And Olivia- Alice Neel

Neel’s daughter, Santillana, was born on 26 December 1926 in Havana. In 1927, though, the couple returned to the United States to live in New York. Just a month before Santillana’s first birthday, she died of diphtheria. The trauma caused by Santillana’s death infused the content of Neel’s paintings, setting a precedent for the themes of motherhood, loss, and anxiety that permeated her work for the duration of her career.

Shortly following Santillana’s death, Neel became pregnant with her second child. On 24 November 1928, Isabella Lillian (called Isabetta) was born in New York City. Isabetta’s birth was the inspiration for Neel’s “Well Baby Clinic”, a bleak portrait of mothers and babies in a maternity clinic more reminiscent of an insane asylum than a nursery.

In the spring of 1930, Carlos had given the impression that he was going overseas to look for a place to life in

Andy Warhol- Alice Neel

Andy Warhol- Alice Neel

Paris. Instead, he returned to Cuba, taking Isabetta with him. Mourning the loss of her husband and daughter, Neel suffered a massive nervous breakdown, was hospitalized, and attempted suicide. She was placed in the suicide ward of the Philadelphia General Hospital.

Even in the insane asylum, she painted. Alice loved a wretch. She loved the wretch in the hero and the hero in the wretch. She saw that in

all of us, I think.

— Ginny Neel, Alice’s daughter-in-law

Abe's Grandchildren- Alice Neel

Abe’s Grandchildren- Alice Neel

Deemed stable almost a year later, Neel was released from the sanatorium in 1931 and returned to her parents’ home. Following an extended visit with her close friend and frequent subject, Nadya Olyanova, Neel returned to New York.

There Neel painted the local characters, including Joe Gould, whom she famously depicted in 1933 with multiple penises, which represented his inflated ego and “self-deception” about who he was and his unfulfilled ambitions. The painting, a rare survivor of her early works, has been shown at Tate Modern.

During the Depression, Neel was one of the first artists to work for the Works Progress Administration. At the end of 1933, Neel was hired to make a painting every six weeks. She had been living in poverty. She had an affair with a man named Kenneth Doolittle who was a heroin addict and a sailor. In 1934, he set afire 350 of her watercolors, paintings and drawings.  At this time, her husband Carlos proposed to reunite, although in the end the couple neither reunited nor officially filed for divorce.

Her world was composed of artists, intellectuals, and political leaders of the Communist Party, all of whom became

The De Vegh Twins, 1975- Alice Neel

The De Vegh Twins, 1975- Alice Neel

subjects for her paintings.  Her work glorified subversion and sexuality, depicting whimsical scenes of lovers and nudes, like a watercolor she made in 1935, Alice Neel And John Rothschild In The Bathroom, which showed the naked pair peeing. In the 1930s Neel gained a degree of notoriety as an artist, and established a good standing within her circle of downtown intellectuals and Communist Party leaders. While Neel was never an official Communist Party member, her affiliation and sympathy with the ideals of Communism remained constant.

Babies- Alice Neel

Babies- Alice Neel

In 1939 Neel gave birth to her first son, Richard, the child of Jose Santiago, a Puerto Rican night-club singer whom Neel met in 1935. Neel moved to Spanish Harlem.  She began painting her neighbors, particularly women and children. José left Neel in 1940.

Neel’s second son, Hartley, was born in 1941 to Neel and her lover, the communist intellectual Sam Brody. During this Forties, Neel made illustrations for the Communist publication, Masses & Mainstream, and continued to paint portraits from her uptown home. However, in 1943 the Works Progress Administration ceased working with Neel

, which made it harder for the artist to support her two sons. During this time Neel would shoplift and was on welfare to help make ends meet. Between 1940 and 1950, Neel’s art virtually disappeared from galleries, save for one solo show in 1944. In the 1950s, Neel’s friendship with Mike Goldand his admiration for her social realist work garnered her a show at the Communist-inspired New Playwrights Theatre. In 1959, Neel even made a film appearance after the director Robert Frank asked her to appear alongside a young Allen Ginsberg in his classic Beatnik film, Pull My Daisy. The following year, her work was first reproduced in ARTnews magazine.

Toward the end of the 1960s, interest in Neel’s work intensified. The momentum of the women’s movement led to increased attention, and Neel became an icon for feminists. In 1970, she was commissioned to paint the feminist activist Kate Millett for the cover of Time magazine. Millett refused

White Chapel- Alice Neel

White Chapel- Alice Neel

to sit for Neel; consequently, the magazine cover was based off a photograph.

By the mid-1970s, Neel had gained celebrity and stature as an important American artist. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter presented her with a National Women’s Caucus for Artaward for outstanding achievement. Neel’s reputation was at its height at the time of her death in 1984.

Neel’s life and works are featured in the documentary Alice Neel, which premiered at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival and was directed by her grandson, Andrew Neel. The film was given a New York theatrical release in April of that year.

In 1974, Neel’s work was given a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and posthumously, in the summer of 2000, also at the Whitney. The first exhibition dedicated to Neel’s works

Alice Neel

Alice Neel

in Europe was held in London in 2004 at the Victoria Miro Gallery. Jeremy Lewison, who had worked at the Tate, was the curator of the collection. In 2001 the Philadelphia Museum of Art organized a retrospective of her art entitled Alice Neel. She was the subject of a retrospective entitled Alice Neel: Painted Truths organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in Texas, which was on view from March 21-June 15, 2010. The exhibition traveled to Whitechapel Gallery, London, and Moderna Museet Malmö, Malmö, Sweden. In 2013, the first major presentation of the artist’s watercolors and drawings was on view at Nordiska Akvarellmuseet in Skärhamn, Sweden.

Biography is from wikipedia.

When I was in my studio I didn’t give a damn what sex I was… I thought art is art. (Alice Neel)

I hope you enjoy my piece today.  It was taken from a real life awkward photo.  I feel like if I had more time I could’ve perfected her style a bit more, but that’s okay.  I enjoyed it and I will see you tomorrow on Day 352.

Best,

Linda

 

Bath Time!- Tribute to Alice Neel Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Bath Time!- Tribute to Alice Neel
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Side-View Bath Time!- Tribute to Alice Neel Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Side-View
Bath Time!- Tribute to Alice Neel
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Close-Up 1 Bath Time!- Tribute to Alice Neel Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Close-Up 1
Bath Time!- Tribute to Alice Neel
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Close-Up 2 Bath Time!- Tribute to Alice Neel Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Close-Up 2
Bath Time!- Tribute to Alice Neel
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Close-Up 3 Bath Time!- Tribute to Alice Neel Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Close-Up 3
Bath Time!- Tribute to Alice Neel
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Day 347- Amedeo Modigliani- “When I know your soul, I will paint your eyes.”

It’s Day 347 and I’m honored to pay tribute to today’s artist.  I love his portrait paintings so of course I had to do another self portrait.  While researching him I kind of got a big crush.  Please join me in honoring Amedeo Modigliani today.

Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani

Portrait of Juan Gris- Amedeo Modigliani

Portrait of Juan Gris- Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (Italian pronunciation: [ameˈdɛo modiʎˈʎani]; July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by elongation of faces and figures. His production is known for its nudes, which were not received well during his lifetime, but later found acceptance. Modigliani spent his youth in Italy, where he studied the art of antiquity and the Renaissance, until he moved to Paris in 1906. There he came into contact with prominent artists such as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuşi.

Modigliani’s oeuvre includes mainly paintings and drawings. From 1909 to 1914, however, he devoted himself mainly to sculpture. The main subject is portraits and full figures of humans, both in the images and in the sculptures. During his

The Beautiful Confectioner- Amedeo Modigliani

The Beautiful Confectioner- Amedeo Modigliani

life, Amedeo Modigliani had little success, but after his death he achieved greater popularity and his works of art achieved high prices. He died at age 35 in Paris of tubercular meningitis.

Modigliani was born into a Jewish family in Livorno, Italy. A port city, Livorno had long served as a refuge for those persecuted for their religion, and was home to a large Jewish community. His maternal great-great-grandfather, Solomon Garsin, had immigrated to Livorno in the 18th century as a refugee.

Modigliani’s mother (Eugénie Garsin), who was born and grew up in Marseille, was descended from an intellectual, scholarly family of Sephardic Jews, generations of whom had resided along the Mediterranean coastline. Her ancestors were learned people, fluent in many languages, known authorities on sacred Jewish texts, and founders of a school of Talmudic studies. Family legend traced the Garsins’ lineage to the 17th-century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The family business was believed to be a credit agency with branches in Livorno, Marseille, Tunis, and London. Their financial fortunes ebbed and flowed.

Reclining Nude from the Back- Amedeo Modigliani

Reclining Nude from the Back- Amedeo Modigliani

Modigliani’s father, Flaminio, hailed from a family of successful businessmen and entrepreneurs. While not as culturally sophisticated as the Garsins, they knew how to invest in and develop thriving business endeavors. When the Garsin and Modigliani families announced the engagement of their children, Flaminio was a wealthy young mining engineer. He managed the mine in Sardinia and also managed the almost 30,000 acres of timberland the family owned. A reversal in fortune occurred to this prosperous family in 1883. An economic downturn in the price of metal plunged the Modiglianis into bankruptcy. Ever resourceful, Modigliani’s mother used her social contacts to establish a school and, along with her two sisters, made the school into a successful enterprise.

Modigliani was the fourth child, whose birth coincided with the disastrous financial collapse of his father’s business interests. Amedeo’s birth saved the family from ruin; according to an ancient law, creditors could not

Portrait of Frans Hellens- Amedeo Modigliani

Portrait of Frans Hellens- Amedeo Modigliani

seize the bed of a pregnant woman or a mother with a newborn child. The bailiffs entered the family’s home just as Eugenia went into labour; the family protected their most valuable assets by piling them on top of her.

Modigliani had a close relationship with his mother, who taught him at home until he was 10. Beset with health problems after an attack of pleurisy when he was about 11, a few years later he developed a case of typhoid fever. When he was 16 he was taken ill again and contracted the tuberculosis which would later claim his life. After Modigliani recovered from the second bout of pleurisy, his mother took him on a tour of southern Italy: Naples, Capri, Rome and Amalfi, then north to Florence and Venice.

Portrait of Woman in Hat - Great Artist Amedeo Modigliani

Portrait of Woman in Hat – Great Artist Amedeo Modigliani

His mother was, in many ways, instrumental in his ability to pursue art as a vocation. When he was 11 years of age, she had noted in her diary: “The child’s character is still so unformed that I cannot say what I think of it. He behaves like a spoiled child, but he does not lack intelligence. We shall have to wait and see what is inside this chrysalis. Perhaps an artist?”

Modigliani is known to have drawn and painted from a very early age, and thought himself “already a painter”, his mother wrote, even before beginning formal studies. Despite her misgivings that launching him on a course of studying art would impinge upon his other studies, his mother indulged the young Modigliani’s passion for the subject.

At the age of fourteen, while sick with typhoid fever, he raved in his delirium that he wanted, above all else, to see the paintings in the Palazzo Pitti and the Uffizi in Florence. As Livorno’s local museum housed only a sparse few paintings by the Italian Renaissance masters, the tales he had heard about the great works held in Florence intrigued him, and it was a source of considerable despair to him, in his sickened state, that he might never get the chance to view them in person. His mother promised that she would take him to Florence herself, the moment he was recovered. Not only did she fulfil this promise, but she also undertook to enroll him with the best painting master in Livorno, Guglielmo Micheli.

Modigliani worked in Micheli’s Art School from 1898 to 1900. Among his colleagues in that studio would have been Llewelyn Lloyd, Giulio Cesare Vinzio, Manlio Martinelli, Gino Romiti, Renato Natali, and Oscar Ghiglia.

Marie Daughter of the People- Amedeo Modigliani

Marie Daughter of the People- Amedeo Modigliani

Here his earliest formal artistic instruction took place in an atmosphere steeped in a study of the styles and themes of 19th-century Italian art. In his earliest Parisian work, traces of this influence, and that of his studies of Renaissance art, can still be seen. His nascent work was shaped as much by such artists as Giovanni Boldini as by Toulouse-Lautrec.

Modigliani showed great promise while with Micheli, and ceased his studies only when he was forced to, by the onset of tuberculosis.

In 1901, whilst in Rome, Modigliani admired the work of Domenico Morelli, a painter of dramatic religious and literary scenes. Morelli had served as an inspiration for a group of iconoclasts who were known by the title “the Macchiaioli” (from macchia —”dash of colour”, or, more derogatively, “stain”), and Modigliani had already been exposed to the influences of the Macchiaioli. This localized landscape movement reacted against the bourgeois stylings of the academic genre painters. While sympathetically connected to (and actually pre-dating) the French Impressionists, the Macchiaioli did not make the same impact upon international art culture as did the contemporaries and followers of Monet, and are today largely forgotten outside Italy.

Jeanne Hebuterne with Hat and Necklace- Amedeo Modigliani

Jeanne Hebuterne with Hat and Necklace- Amedeo Modigliani

Modigliani’s connection with the movement was through Guglielmo Micheli, his first art teacher. Micheli was not only a Macchiaiolo himself, but had been a pupil of the famous Giovanni Fattori, a founder of the movement. Micheli’s work, however, was so fashionable and the genre so commonplace that the young Modigliani reacted against it, preferring to ignore the obsession with landscape that, as with French Impressionism, characterized the movement. Micheli also tried to encourage his pupils to paint en plein air, but Modigliani never really got a taste for this style of working, sketching in cafés, but preferring to paint indoors, and especially in his own studio. Even when compelled to paint landscapes (three are known to exist), Modigliani chose a proto-Cubist palette more akin to Cézanne than to the Macchiaioli.

While with Micheli, Modigliani studied not only landscape, but also portraiture, still life, and the nude. His fellow students recall that the last was where he displayed his greatest talent, and apparently this was not an entirely academic pursuit for the teenager: when not painting nudes, he was occupied with seducing the household maid.

Despite his rejection of the Macchiaioli approach, Modigliani nonetheless found favour with his teacher, who referred to him as “Superman”, a pet name reflecting the fact that Modigliani was not only quite adept at his art,

Amedeo Modigliani painting: Woman with Black Cravat

Amedeo Modigliani painting: Woman with Black Cravat

but also that he regularly quoted from Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Fattori himself would often visit the studio, and approved of the young artist’s innovations.

In 1902, Modigliani continued what was to be a lifelong infatuation with life drawing, enrolling in the Scuola Libera di Nudo, or “Free School of Nude Studies”, of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. A year later, while still suffering from tuberculosis, he moved to Venice, where he registered to study at the Regia Accademia ed Istituto di Belle Arti.

The Servant- Amedeo Modigliani

The Servant- Amedeo Modigliani

It is in Venice that he first smoked hashish and, rather than studying, began to spend time frequenting disreputable parts of the city. The impact of these lifestyle choices upon his developing artistic style is open to conjecture, although these choices do seem to be more than simple teenage rebellion, or the cliched hedonism and bohemianism that was almost expected of artists of the time; his pursuit of the seedier side of life appears to have roots in his appreciation of radical philosophies, including those of Nietzsche.

Partial biography is from wikipedia.

“When I know your soul, I will paint your eyes”
― Amedeo Modigliani

I hope you enjoy my tribute today!  I was about to take a reference photo of myself and then saw a cloche that I had sitting around and decided to use it for

My reference photo...

My reference photo…

my piece!  I felt that it was appropriate. 🙂  I felt chills while reading Modigliani’s quote above.  And realized that he hardly painted people’s eyes fully.  Just filled them in with blue, black or a solid color.  There’s only a few portraits where he fully painted the eyes.  Fascinating!  I will see you tomorrow on Day 348.  I can’t believe how fast the days are flying by.

Best,

Linda

Self Portrait in a Blue Hat- Tribute to Amedeo Modigliani Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Self Portrait in a Blue Hat- Tribute to Amedeo Modigliani
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View Self Portrait in a Blue Hat- Tribute to Amedeo Modigliani Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View
Self Portrait in a Blue Hat- Tribute to Amedeo Modigliani
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1 Self Portrait in a Blue Hat- Tribute to Amedeo Modigliani Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1
Self Portrait in a Blue Hat- Tribute to Amedeo Modigliani
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2 Self Portrait in a Blue Hat- Tribute to Amedeo Modigliani Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2
Self Portrait in a Blue Hat- Tribute to Amedeo Modigliani
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3 Self Portrait in a Blue Hat- Tribute to Amedeo Modigliani Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3
Self Portrait in a Blue Hat- Tribute to Amedeo Modigliani
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

 

Day 341- Len Jessome- Need To Create

It’s Day 341 and I really had a great time with today’s painting.  I love the style and somewhat therapeutic effect it had on me.  Please join me in honoring Len Jessome today.  I couldn’t find a photo of him online so I decided to use a self portrait.

Autoportrait- Len Jessome

Autoportrait- Len Jessome

Jesus wouldn't like it - Len Jessome

Jesus wouldn’t like it – Len Jessome

Canadian artist , Leonardo Jessome was born in 1963 in Hamilton, where he lives and works. He left his career in 2000 to devote himself full time to his artistic activity.  Its very singular work is already present in many private collections in North America and Europe.

His work is based on the human condition and man’s place in contemporary society . He painted portraits of rare intensity in a unique graphical style .

His inner demons led him naturally to the raging street art but it’s

Almost Happy- Len Jessome

Almost Happy- Len Jessome

not the bomb attack that the artist but his canvases with brushes in a raw style , powerful and free.

Biography is from Galerie Sylvie’s site.

i have a manic need to create—my work is based on the temporality and fragility of life and all the experiences life may encompass. i use whatever medium is available to express an idea. sometimes i use house paint, industrial rust paint and / or mix these with artists paints, each has a unique property and express ideas differently.
 
I Love You- Len Jessome

I Love You- Len Jessome

flowing industrial paint achieves different results than artists oil. as in life not everything mixes as perfectly as one might hope, exceptions are made to the exclusion of others. as a result my work may patina and change over time.

It is the capturing of the idea that is key. the patina records the passage of

Darkness I Wish I Was Yours- Len Jessome

Darkness I Wish I Was Yours- Len Jessome

time. the style of my work changes often, expanding my awareness and perceptions.

i like that my paintings live in many parts of the world. snippets of my thoughts and feelings scattered around this earth that will remain when i am no longer here.
Len Jessome

Len Jessome

Above is from Len Jessome’s blog.

I hope you enjoy my piece for today!  I will see you tomorrow on Day 342!
Best,
Linda
Always Lurking...-Tribute to Len Jessome Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Always Lurking…-Tribute to Len Jessome
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View Always Lurking...-Tribute to Len Jessome Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View
Always Lurking…-Tribute to Len Jessome
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1 Always Lurking...-Tribute to Len Jessome Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1
Always Lurking…-Tribute to Len Jessome
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2 Always Lurking...-Tribute to Len Jessome Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2
Always Lurking…-Tribute to Len Jessome
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3 Always Lurking...-Tribute to Len Jessome Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3
Always Lurking…-Tribute to Len Jessome
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Day 314- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner- Allegories

It’s Day 314 and today’s piece is a little sunnier than yesterday’s but just as fun to create!  I love the style and colors of today’s painting.  Join me in honoring Ernst Ludwig Kirchner today.  Although today’s art is sunny, the artist’s story is still a sad one.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a driving force in the Die Brücke group that flourished in Dresden and Berlin before World War I, and he has come to be seen as one of the most talented and influential of Germany’s Expressionists. Motivated by the same anxieties that gripped the movement as a whole – fears about humanity’s place in the modern world, its lost feelings of spirituality and authenticity – Kirchner had conflicting attitudes to the past and present.

An admirer of Albrecht Dürer, he revived the old art of woodblock printing, and saw himself in the German tradition, yet he rejected academic styles and was inspired by the modern city. After the war, illness drove him to settle in Davos, Switzerland, where he painted many landscapes, and, ultimately, he found himself ostracized from mainstream German art. When the Nazis rose to power in the early 1930s he was also a victim of their campaign against “Degenerate Art.” Depressed and ill, he eventually committed suicide.

The human figure was central to Kirchner’s art. It was vital to the pictures that took his

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

studio as their backdrop – pictures in which he captured models posing as well as aspects of his bohemian life. For Kirchner, the studio was an important nexus where art and life met. But the figure also informed his images of Berlin, in which the demeanor of figures in the street often seemed more important than the surrounding cityscape. And, most commonly, he depicted the figure in movement, since he believed that this better expressed the fullness and vitality of the human body.

Fränzi vor geschnitztem Stuhl- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Fränzi vor geschnitztem Stuhl- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Kirchner’s Expressionistic handling of paint represented a powerful reaction against theImpressionism that was dominant in German painting when he first emerged. For him, it marked a reaction against the staid civility of bourgeois life. He would always deny that he was influenced by other artists, yet Henri Matisse and Edvard Munch were clearly important in shaping his style. Fauvism was particularly significant in directing his palette, encouraging him to use flat areas of unbroken, often unmixed color and simplified forms.

Kirchner believed that powerful forces – enlivening yet also destructive – dwelt beneath the veneer of Western civilization, and he believed that creativity offered a means of harnessing them. This outlook shaped the way in which he depicted men and women in his pictures, as people who often seem at war with themselves or their environment. It also encouraged his interest in Primitive art, in particular that of the Pacific Islands, for he considered that this work offered a more direct picture of those elemental energies. Primitive art was also important in directing Kirchner to a more simplified treatment of form. Primitive sculpture undoubtedly inspired his own approach to the medium and his love of rough-hewn, partially painted surfaces.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was born on May 6, 1880 in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, and began studying architecture at the Dresden Technical

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

High School in 1901 at the encouragement of his parents. While attending classes, he became close friends with Fritz Bleyl, who shared his radical outlook on art and nature. During this time, Kirchner chose to dedicate himself to fine art rather than architecture.

In 1905, Kirchner and Bleyl, along with fellow architecture students Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Erich Heckel, founded the artist group Die Brücke (“The Bridge.”) The aim was to eschew traditional academic styles and to create a new mode of artistic expression, forming a “bridge” between classical motifs of the past and the present avant-garde. Die Brücke expressed extreme emotion through crude lines and a vibrant, unnatural color palette.

Do Do with Large Fan- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Do Do with Large Fan- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

The group would meet in an old butcher’s shop that served as Kirchner’s studio to practice figure drawing. (Studio meetings, however, would often devolve into casual lovemaking and general nudity.) Much of the artwork created by Die Brücke was a direct response to the graphic work of Albrecht Dürer and the bold color palette of the Neo-Impressionists. Kirchner held a particular interest in the woodcarvings of Dürer, and sought to modernize them with his own unique style of pared-down lines and dynamic compositions.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a leading force behind the Expressionist movement in Germany. Since 1913, his work has gained international recognition, extending its popularity into America. His art captures German culture at a critical point in pre-World War I history. Although his work speaks to a specific culture, his expressive skill as a painter and printmaker has influenced generations. Many attempt to emulate Kirchner’s distorted sense of perspective. The graphic, agitated lines and highly-keyed color palette are timeless and distinct to the artist. Kirchner’s work continues to be exhibited and sold around the world. It has also been a significant influence on new generations of Expressionists, including artists such as Georg Baselitz and Jörg Immendorf.

Quotes

“My paintings are allegories not portraits.”

“The heaviest burden of all is the pressure of the war and the increasing superficiality. It gives me incessantly the impression of a bloody carnival. I feel as though the outcome is in the air and everything is topsy-turvy.. All the same, I keep on trying to get some order in my

Self-portrait as a Soldier- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Self-portrait as a Soldier- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

thoughts and to create a picture of the age out of confusion, which is after all my function.”

“It seems as though the goal of my work has always been to dissolve myself completely into the sensations of the surroundings in order to then integrate this into a coherent painterly form.”

“All art needs this visible world and will always need it. Quite simply because, being accessible to all, it is the key to all other worlds.”

Biography is from www.theartstory.org.

I hope you enjoy my painting today!  I love painting with these colors and there’s this kind of abandon with painting such bold strokes and colors.  I will see you tomorrow on Day 315!  Then it’s only 50 paintings to go.  Whew.

Best,

Linda

Mädchen in Einem Grünen Zimmer- Tribute to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Acrylic on Canvas

Mädchen in Einem Grünen Zimmer- Tribute to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View Mädchen in Einem Grünen Zimmer- Tribute to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View
Mädchen in Einem Grünen Zimmer- Tribute to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1 Mädchen in Einem Grünen Zimmer- Tribute to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1
Mädchen in Einem Grünen Zimmer- Tribute to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2 Mädchen in Einem Grünen Zimmer- Tribute to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2
Mädchen in Einem Grünen Zimmer- Tribute to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3 Mädchen in Einem Grünen Zimmer- Tribute to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3
Mädchen in Einem Grünen Zimmer- Tribute to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Acrylic on Canvas

Day 293- Valentin Serov- Carried Away by the Human Face

It’s Day 293 and I fell in love with today’s artist.  I started it last night because I knew it would take a little longer.  My piece didn’t turn out exactly like the artist’s work, but I think I captured his style and I did use his paintings as constant inspiration. 🙂  Join me in honoring Valentin Serov today! PS He has a planet named after him, a minor one…but still!

Valentin Serov

Valentin Serov

Portrait of Anna Benois- Valentin Serov

Portrait of Anna Benois- Valentin Serov

Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (Russian: Валенти́н Алекса́ндрович Серо́в; January 19, 1865 – December 5, 1911) was a Russian painter, and one of the premier portrait artists of his era.

Serov was born in St. Petersburg, son of the Russian composer Alexander Serov, and his wife Valentina Bergman, a composer of German-Jewish background. In his childhood he studied in

Portrait of Ida Rubinstein- Valentin Serov

Portrait of Ida Rubinstein- Valentin Serov

Paris and Moscow under Ilya Repin and in the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1880–1885) under Pavel Chistyakov. Serov’s early creativity was sparked by the realistic art of Repin and strict pedagogical system of Chistyakov.

Further influences on Serov were the old master paintings he viewed in the museums of Russia and Western Europe, friendships with Mikhail Vrubel and (later) Konstantin Korovin, and the creative atmosphere of theAbramtsevo Colony, to which he was closely connected.

The greatest works of Serov’s early period were portraits: The Girl with Peaches (1887), and The Girl Covered by the Sun (1888), both in the Tretyakov Gallery. In these paintings Serov concentrated on spontaneity of perception of the model and nature. In the development of light and color, the complex harmony of reflections, the sense of atmospheric saturation, and the fresh picturesque perception of the world, there appeared the features of early Russian impressionism.

Portrait of Helena Ivanovna Roerich- Valentin Serov

Portrait of Helena Ivanovna Roerich- Valentin Serov

From 1890 on, the portrait became the basic genre in Serov’s art. It was in this field that his early style would become apparent, the paintings notable for the psychologically pointed characteristics of his subjects. Serov’s favorite models were actors, artists, and writers (Konstantin Korovin, 1891, Isaac Levitan, 1893, Nikolai Leskov, 1894, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, 1898, – all in the Tretyakov gallery).

Initially abstaining from the polychromatic, brightly colored painting style of the 1880s, Serov often preferred a dominant scale of black-grey or brown tones. Impressionistic features appeared sometimes in composite construction of a portrait, or to capture a sense of spontaneous movement.

As in the work of his contemporaries John Singer Sargent and Anders Zorn, the impressionism is

Portrait of Pobedonostsev- Valentin Serov

Portrait of Pobedonostsev- Valentin Serov

not doctrinaire, but derives as much from the study of Hals and Velázquez as from modern theory. Receiving wide popularity, in 1894 Serov joined with the Peredvizhniki (The Itinerants), and took on important commissions, among them portraits of grand duke Pavel Alexandrovich, (1897, Tretyakov Gallery), S.M. Botkin, 1899, and F.F. Yusupova, 1903 as well as Princess Olga Orlova (these in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg).

In these truthful, compositionally skillful, and picturesque executions in the grand manner, Serov consistently used linear-rhythmic drawing coupled with decorative color combinations.

Child Portrait- Valentin Serov

Child Portrait- Valentin Serov

At the same time, he developed a contrasting direction: he frequently produced intimate, heartfelt, chamber portraits, mainly of children and women. In portraits of children Serov aspired to capture pose and gesture, to reveal and emphasize a spontaneity of internal movement, sincere cleanliness and clearness of attitude of the child (Children, 1899, Russian Museum; Mika Morozov, 1901, Tretyakov gallery).

Serov frequently called upon various graphic techniques – watercolors, pastels, lithographs and so forth. Figures in Serov’s portraits gradually became more and more graphically refined and economical, particularly during the late period (Vasily Kachalov, 1908, Tamara Karsavina, 1909; numerous figures from Ivan Krylov’s fables, 1895–1911). From 1890 to 1900 Serov produced many landscape compositions on country themes, in which the artistic direction took a romantic turn.

Serov married Olga Trubnikova in 1887. His wife and his children were the subject of many of

Portrait of Maria Botkina- Valentin Serov

Portrait of Maria Botkina- Valentin Serov

his works. Notably, his painting “Children” was of his sons Yura and Sasha.

During his late period, which began in 1900, Serov was a member of “The World of art”, an influential Russian art association and magazine which grew, in part, out of dissatisfaction with the Itinerants movement. At the start of the 20th century, Serov was at a stylistic turning point: features of impressionism disappeared from his work, and his modernistic style developed, but the characteristic truthful and realistic comprehension of the nature of his subjects remained constant. In the early 20th century Serov created heroic portrait images; within the genre of the fashionable portrait, Serov focused on the dramatic depiction of creative artists, writers, actors, and musicians of import:Maxim Gorki’s portraits (1904), A.M. Gorki’s museum, Moscow; Maria Yermolova (1905), Feodor Chaliapin (charcoal, 1905) – both in the Tretyakov Gallery.

Self-Portrait- Valentin Serov

Self-Portrait- Valentin Serov

Serov’s democratic beliefs were clearly shown during the Revolution from 1905 to 1907: he depicted a number of satirical figures exposing chastisers. A full member of theSt.Petersburg Academy of Arts since 1903, in 1905 he resigned as a gesture of protest against the execution of striking workers and their families on January 9, Bloody Sunday. His late creativity found expression in historical painting (Peter II departure and Empress Elizabeth Petrovna on hunting, 1900, Russian Museum), and depth of comprehension of the historical maintenance of an epoch (Peter I, distemper, 1907, Tretyakov Gallery).

The last years of Serov’s life were marked by works on themes from classical mythology. While addressing images from the ancient tradition, Serov endowed classical subject matter with a personal interpretation.

Valentin died in Moscow on December 5, 1911. He is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

The best works of Serov are among the greatest of Russian realistic art. He taught in the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture from 1897 to 1909), and among his students were Pavel Kuznetsov, N. N. Sapunov, Martiros Saryan, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, N.P. Ulyanov, and Konstantin Yuon.

A minor planet 3547 Serov, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravlyova in 1978 is named after him.

Biography is from wikipedia.

Any human face is so complex and so unique that you can always find in it traits worthy of portrayal be they good or bad. For my part, each time I appraise a person’s face I am inspired, you might even say carried away, not by his or her outer aspect which is trivial, but by the characterization it can be given on canvas.~ Valentin Serov

I hope you like my self portrait I did in tribute to Serov today!  I love his style.  I did my best with the time I had!  I will see you tomorrow on Day 294.

Best,

Linda

Self-Portrait- Tribute to Valentin Servo Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Self-Portrait- Tribute to Valentin Serov
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View Self-Portrait- Tribute to Valentin Servo Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View
Self-Portrait- Tribute to Valentin Serov
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1 Self-Portrait- Tribute to Valentin Servo Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1
Self-Portrait- Tribute to Valentin Serov
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2 Self-Portrait- Tribute to Valentin Servo Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2
Self-Portrait- Tribute to Valentin Serov
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3 Self-Portrait- Tribute to Valentin Servo Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3
Self-Portrait- Tribute to Valentin Serov
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

 

 

Day 287- Henri Matisse- “Creativity Takes Courage”

It’s Day 287 and I cannot believe that I haven’t done today’s artist yet.  I could’ve sworn I had done him and I had to search my blog a few times just to make sure!  Join me in honoring Henri Matisse today.

Henri Matisse 1933

Henri Matisse 1933

Woman with a Hat- Henri Matisse

Woman with a Hat- Henri Matisse

Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse (French: [ɑ̃ʁi matis]; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the twentieth century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture.

Although he was initially labelled a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.

Matisse was born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, in the Nord department in northern France, the oldest son of a prosperous grain merchant. He grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, Picardie, France. In 1887 he went to Paris to study law, working as a court administrator in Le Cateau-Cambrésis after gaining his qualification. He first started to paint in 1889, after his mother brought him art

Henri Matisse- Portrait of Lydia

Henri Matisse- Portrait of Lydia

supplies during a period of convalescence following an attack of appendicitis. He discovered “a kind of paradise” as he later described it, and decided to become an artist, deeply disappointing his father. In 1891 he returned to Paris to study art at the Académie Julian and became a student of William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Gustave Moreau. Initially he painted still lifes and landscapes in a traditional style, at which he achieved reasonable proficiency. Matisse was influenced by the works of earlier masters such as Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Nicolas Poussin, and Antoine Watteau, as well as by modern artists, such as Édouard Manet, and by Japanese art. Chardin was one of the painters Matisse most admired; as an art student he made copies of four of Chardin’s paintings in the Louvre.

Algerian Woman- Matisse

Algerian Woman- Matisse

In 1896 and 1897, Matisse visited the Australian painter John Peter Russell on the island Belle Île off the coast of Brittany. Russell introduced him to Impressionism and to the work of van Gogh, who had been a friend of Russell but was completely unknown at the time. Matisse’s style changed completely. He would later say “Russell was my teacher, and Russell explained colour theory to me.” In 1896 Matisse exhibited five paintings in the salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, two of which were purchased by the state.

With the model Caroline Joblau, he had a daughter, Marguerite, born in 1894. In 1898 he married Amélie Noellie Parayre; the two raised Marguerite together and had two sons, Jean (born 1899) and Pierre (born 1900). Marguerite and Amélie often served as models for Matisse.

In 1898, on the advice of Camille Pissarro, he went to London to study the paintings of J. M. W. Turner and then went on a trip to Corsica. Upon his return to Paris in February 1899, he worked beside Albert Marquet and met André Derain, Jean Puy, and Jules Flandrin. Matisse

Harmony in Red- Henri Matisse

Harmony in Red- Henri Matisse

immersed himself in the work of others and went into debt from buying work from painters he admired. The work he hung and displayed in his home included a plaster bust by Rodin, a painting by Gauguin, a drawing by van Gogh, and Cézanne’s Three Bathers. In Cézanne’s sense of pictorial structure and colour, Matisse found his main inspiration.

Many of Matisse’s paintings from 1898 to 1901 make use of a Divisionist technique he adopted after reading Paul Signac’s essay, “D’Eugène Delacroix au Néo-impressionisme”. His paintings of 1902–03, a period of material hardship for the artist, are comparatively somber and reveal a preoccupation with form. Having made his first attempt at sculpture, a copy after Antoine-Louis Barye, in 1899, he devoted much of his energy to working in clay, completing The Slave in 1903.

Gipsy Woman- Henri Matisse

Gipsy Woman- Henri Matisse

Fauvism as a style began around 1900 and continued beyond 1910. The movement as such lasted only a few years, 1904–1908, and had three exhibitions. The leaders of the movement were Matisse and André Derain. Matisse’s first solo exhibition was at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery in 1904, without much success. His fondness for bright and expressive colour became more pronounced after he spent the summer of 1904 painting in St. Tropez with the neo-Impressionists Signac and Henri-Edmond Cross.[15] In that year he painted the most important of his works in the neo-Impressionist style, Luxe, Calme et Volupté.[15] In 1905 he travelled southwards again to work with André Derain at Collioure. His paintings of this period are characterised by flat shapes and controlled lines, using pointillism in a less rigorous way than before.

Matisse and a group of artists now known as “Fauves” exhibited together in a room at the Salon d’Automne in 1905. The paintings expressed emotion with wild, often dissonant colours, without regard for the subject’s natural colours. Matisse showed Open Window and Woman with the Hat at the Salon. Critic Louis Vauxcelles described the work with the phrase “Donatello parmi les fauves!” (Donatello among the wild beasts), referring to a Renaissance-type sculpture that shared the room with them.

His comment was printed on 17 October 1905 in Gil Blas, a daily newspaper, and passed into popular usage. The exhibition garnered

Portrait of Madame Matisse (Green Stripe), 1905- Henri Matisse

Portrait of Madame Matisse (Green Stripe), 1905- Henri Matisse

harsh criticism—”A pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public”, said the critic Camille Mauclair—but also some favourable attention. When the painting that was singled out for special condemnation, Matisse’s Woman with a Hat, was bought by Gertrude and Leo Stein, the embattled artist’s morale improved considerably.

Matisse was recognised as a leader of the Fauves, along with André Derain; the two were friendly rivals, each with his own followers. Other members were Georges Braque, Raoul Dufy, and Maurice de Vlaminck. The Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau (1826–1898) was the movement’s inspirational teacher. As a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he pushed his students to think outside of the lines of formality and to follow their visions.

Joy of Life- Henri Matisse

Joy of Life- Henri Matisse

In 1907 Guillaume Apollinaire, commenting about Matisse in an article published in La Falange, wrote, “We are not here in the presence of an extravagant or an extremist undertaking: Matisse’s art is eminently reasonable.” But Matisse’s work of the time also encountered vehement criticism, and it was difficult for him to provide for his family. His painting Nu bleu (1907) was burned in effigy at the Armory Show in Chicago in 1913.

The decline of the Fauvist movement after 1906 did not affect the career of Matisse; many of his finest works were created between 1906 and 1917, when he was an active part of the great gathering of artistic talent in Montparnasse, even though he did not quite fit in, with his conservative appearance and strict bourgeois work habits.

He continued to absorb new influences. He travelled to Algeria in 1906 studying African art and Primitivism. After viewing a large exhibition of Islamic art in Munich in 1910, he spent two months in Spain studying Moorish art. He visited Morocco in 1912 and again in

Marguerite - Henri Matisse

Marguerite – Henri Matisse

1913 and while painting in Tangiers he made several changes to his work, including his use of black as a colour. The effect on Matisse’s art was a new boldness in the use of intense, unmodulated colour, as in L’Atelier Rouge (1911).

Self-Portrait in Striped Shirt- Henri Matisse

Self-Portrait in Striped Shirt- Henri Matisse

Matisse had a long association with the Russian art collector Sergei Shchukin. He created one of his major works La Danse specially for Shchukin as part of a two painting commission, the other painting being Music, 1910. An earlier version of La Danse (1909) is in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Biography is from wikipedia.

I decided to do a self-portrait (of course!) in the Fauvism style…which is one of my favorite styles.  It was very difficult and I spent most of my morning tweaking and laying more layers down.  The shadowing was challenging and you have to experience painting a piece like this to fully appreciate his work!  It’s much harder than it looks!

I hope you enjoy it and I will see you tomorrow on Day 288!  Another great master artist done.

Best,

Linda

Self-Portrait (Green Stripe)- Tribute to Henri Matisse Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Self-Portrait (Green Stripe)- Tribute to Henri Matisse
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View Self-Portrait (Green Stripe)- Tribute to Henri Matisse Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View
Self-Portrait (Green Stripe)- Tribute to Henri Matisse
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1 Self-Portrait (Green Stripe)- Tribute to Henri Matisse Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1
Self-Portrait (Green Stripe)- Tribute to Henri Matisse
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2 Self-Portrait (Green Stripe)- Tribute to Henri Matisse Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2
Self-Portrait (Green Stripe)- Tribute to Henri Matisse
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3 Self-Portrait (Green Stripe)- Tribute to Henri Matisse Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3
Self-Portrait (Green Stripe)- Tribute to Henri Matisse
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

 

Day 282- Jim Nutt- Expectations of Faces

It’s Day 282 and my in-laws in are town so I got my painting done early and going to finish my blog before heading out.  Today’s painting was fun.  Join me in honoring Jim Nutt today.

Jim Nutt

Jim Nutt

Miss Sue Port- Jim Nutt

Miss Sue Port- Jim Nutt

James T “Jim” Nutt (born November 28, 1938) is an American artist who was a founding member of the Chicago surrealist art movement known as the Chicago Imagists, or the Hairy Who. Though his work is inspired by the same pop culture that inspired Pop Art, journalist Web Behrens says Nutt’s “paintings, particularly his later works, are more accomplished than those of the more celebrated Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.” According to Museum of Contemporary Art curator Lynne Warren, Nutt is “the premier artist of his generation”.  Nutt attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in Chicago, Illinois. He is married to fellow-artist and Hairy Who member Gladys Nilsson.

Jim Nutt was born in 1938 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He attended college at the University of Kansas,

Jim Nutt

Jim Nutt

then the University of Pennsylvania, then Washington University in St. Louis, then the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he met his future wife, fellow artist Gladys Nilsson.

In 1963 Nilsson and Nutt were introduced to School of the Art Institute of Chicago art history professor Whitney Halstead, who became a teacher, mentor, and friend. He introduced them in turn to Don Baum, exhibition director at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. In 1964 Nilsson and Nutt became youth instructors at the Hyde Park Art Center.

She's Hit- Jim Nutt

She’s Hit- Jim Nutt

In 1964, Jim Nutt and Gladys Nilsson began to teach children’s classes at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. They and James Falconer approached the center’s exhibitions director, Don Baum, with the idea of a group show consisting of the three of them and Art Green and Suellen Rocca. Baum agreed, and also suggested they include Karl Wirsum.

The name of the group show, “Hairy Who?”, became the name of the group. It was coined by Karl Wirsum as a reference to WFMT art critic Harry Bouras. There were exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center in 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969. The 1968 exhibition traveled to the San Francisco Art Institute, and the last show, in 1969, traveled to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

In 1969, the influential Chicago gallery owner Phyllis Kind agreed to represent Nutt and Gladys Nilsson. In that same year Nutt and Nilsson moved to Sacramento, California, where he was an

Jim Nutt

Jim Nutt

assistant professor of art at Sacramento State College.

In 1972 Walter Hopps, director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, chose Nutt along with other artists to represent the United States at the 1972 Venice Biennial, and he was also included, along with a number of his Chicago colleagues, in the 1973 São Paulo Art Biennial.

In 1974 Nutt and his family returned to Chicago. They have lived in Wilmette since 1976.

Jim Nutt had his first solo show in 1974 at the Museum of Contemporary Art; it then traveled to the Walker Art Center and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Nutt’s current art dealer is the David Nolan Gallery, New York.

Jim Nutt exhibited a retrospective of his paintings, “Jim Nutt: Coming Into Character” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago from January 29 – May 29, 2011. In a catalogue essay accompanying this exhibition, painter Alexi Worth suggests that “what matters to Nutt are not real faces but our expectations of faces.”

In 1960, while attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he met fellow student Gladys Nilsson. Nutt and Nilsson married in July 1961 in a chapel on the grounds ofNorthwestern University, and their son Claude was born in 1962.

Biography is from wikipedia.

Self-Portrait- Tribute to Jim Nutt Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Self-Portrait- Tribute to Jim Nutt
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View Self-Portrait- Tribute to Jim Nutt Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View
Self-Portrait- Tribute to Jim Nutt
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1 Self-Portrait- Tribute to Jim Nutt Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1
Self-Portrait- Tribute to Jim Nutt
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2 Self-Portrait- Tribute to Jim Nutt Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2
Self-Portrait- Tribute to Jim Nutt
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3 Self-Portrait- Tribute to Jim Nutt Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3
Self-Portrait- Tribute to Jim Nutt
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

 

Day 234- Bobby Mathieson- Strongly Visceral

It’s Day 234 and I’m kind of rushing around to get stuff done before heading to improv rehearsal…we have a show tomorrow night so I’m excited. 🙂  I had so much fun and learned a bunch painting today’s piece today.  I really fell in love with this artist’s style.  It trained me to let go and just paint with feeling, which is what I’m trying to apply to almost everything in my life…stop being so analytical! 😉  Join me in honoring Bobby Mathieson today.

Bobby Mathieson

Bobby Mathieson

Bobby Mathieson – Do droids have feelings?

Bobby Mathieson – Do droids have feelings?

Bobby Mathieson attended Vancouver Film School and Emily Carr Institute of Fine Art and Design, and lives and works in Toronto, Ontario. Recently, Mathieson’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in Toronto, New York City, Southampton and Miami.

Below is an interview from Toro Magazine by: Barry Chong

Toronto Painter Bobby Mathieson

By: Barry Chong
After generating a lot of buzz at the Toronto International Art Fair in October, Bobby Mathieson is ready explode, both on the canvas and in the world of fine art. His work is a collision of Pop art subject matter and the gestural exhilaration of Abstract Expressionism. Punctuated by his heavy paint application, Mathieson’s work inhabits the reservoirs of childhood imagination, a world both playful and terrifying.

Beginning January 16, Mathieson’s first solo exhibit Heroes — a collection of atypical celebrity portraits — will be on display at Toronto’s Neubacher Shor Contemporary gallery.

TORO spoke with Mathieson about the pros and cons of art as an institution, how he developed his frenetic style, and his fascination with

Davey, 2012 Oil on Wood 16 x 20

Davey, 2012
Oil on Wood
16 x 20

elves.

What’s your opinion of art school?

I don’t care much for its scholastic side — the dogma of art school can get into people’s minds and ruin the mystery or excitement. And many art schools are decreasing the organic and increasing the digital. As a painter and drawer, that is shocking to me.

A few months ago, we spoke with artist Adrian Williams. He told us, “If you can’t draw, you can’t think in certain ways.” Do you agree?

Bobby Mathieson

Bobby Mathieson

Definitely. I still have a classical animation degree. I studied anatomy and some mathematical skill was involved, and it was all hand drawn. You need that technical background to explore. You can’t abstract from nothing. Picasso’s work goes back to a primal, child-like place, but his early work was photorealistic.

So art for you is about going back?

All children draw. All children are artists. But for whatever reason, they go in other directions and lose that.

How important is humour in your work?

It’s important to not take things too seriously, but having a joke in a painting is not necessary. My art isn’t overtly humourous but I’ll sneak in references through heavy wordplay in the title. If you get the gag, you get the gag. It’s very nerdy in that regard.

Why did you choose paint over other mediums?

I had a paint sponsorship in Amsterdam a few years ago, so my thick paint application style comes

Bobby Mathieson – Eva Hesse as an Elf


Bobby Mathieson – Eva Hesse as an Elf

from actually having a lot of paint! But aesthetically, I really enjoy paintings that look like paintings. Using paint is also a quick way to get to what I want.

Your work blends Pop art vibrancy with a messy, almost violent form.

The application can be violent at times. I think “visceral” is the word. All of my paintings — even the large ones — are painted in one sitting. I don’t ever go back to them to fuss and muss. That’s how that energy is transcribed.

How do you know when to stop painting?

That’s a very tricky question. Jackson Pollock would respond, “How do you know when you’re finished making love?” Being a drummer, I know when not to “add too much.” The painting’s done when I’m comfortable and I don’t feel the need to be with it anymore. It’s like the end of a conversation, or when you finish your lunch.

With Heroes, the portraits are abstracted (perverted, even) but what anchors them are the subjects’ striking eyes. Can you talk about that?

Bobby Mathieson: Venn, 2013

Bobby Mathieson: Venn, 2013

That came about from watching a lot of Scooby Doo — the paintings with moving eyes. I started throwing the eyes in last year and people responded to them. They connect the viewer to the portrait. The eyes are very important, as are the teeth!

Yes, the monster teeth.

Or elf teeth. Some of the figures have elf ears. That’s just me having fun. They give the portraits a sinister, “what the fuck” look. I’ve been playing a lot of LEGO Lord of the Rings for Xbox. That’s what the work’s about — whatever I’m obsessing over in pop culture.

What are the limits of portraiture?

If you go too far, if you hide the origins, then it becomes abstract art and loses its impact. In some

Easy Duz It- Bobby Mathieson

Easy Duz It- Bobby Mathieson

of my paintings like Camelot , a diptych of Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy, you can barely recognize the faces. That’s about as far as I can go. When Goya was a housepainter, his work didn’t progress because he was stuck in that format. It’s hard to put a narrative into portraiture.

So what’s next?

I’m going to take a break for a while. Heroes is my first solo show and basically my arrival. The next step is seeing what the response is.

~

I’m not sure if I fully captured the artist’s essence, but I think I did okay and learned a lot and would like to try a larger piece like this in the future.  I like how it came out regardless!  I hope you enjoy my piece today and I’ll see you tomorrow on Day 235!  Best, Linda

Nevermore- Tribute to Bobby Mathieson Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Nevermore- Tribute to Bobby Mathieson
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View Nevermore- Tribute to Bobby Mathieson Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Side-View
Nevermore- Tribute to Bobby Mathieson
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1 Nevermore- Tribute to Bobby Mathieson Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1
Nevermore- Tribute to Bobby Mathieson
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2 Nevermore- Tribute to Bobby Mathieson Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2
Nevermore- Tribute to Bobby Mathieson
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3 Nevermore- Tribute to Bobby Mathieson Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 3
Nevermore- Tribute to Bobby Mathieson
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

 

Day 222- Francesco Clemente- Many Faces

It’s Day 222 and I loved painting today’s piece.  I was a little intimidated at first because I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do, but once I figured out a concept I got excited.  Please join me in honoring Francesco Clemente today!  I just absolutely love this man’s artwork!

Francesco Clemente 1984

Fire- Francesco Clemente

Fire- Francesco Clemente

Francesco Clemente (born in Naples March 23, 1952) is an Italian contemporary artist. His work is influenced by thinkers as diverse as Gregory Bateson, William Blake, Allen Ginsberg, and J Krishnamurti. Dividing his time between New York and Varanasi, India, Clemente has adopted for his paintings a vast variety of supports and mediums, exploring, discarding, and returning to oil paint, watercolor, pastel, and printmaking. His work develops in a non-linear mode, expanding and contracting in a fragmentary way, not defined by a style, but rather by his recording of the fluctuations of the self.

Clemente’s work spans four decades. His work is stylistically varied, inclusive, erotic,

Silver and Stone- Francesco Clemente

Silver and Stone- Francesco Clemente

and nomadic. It embraces diverse mediums and diverse cultures as well, aiming at finding wholeness through fragmentation and witnessing the survival of contemplation and pleasure in our mechanical age.

Clemente’s work is rooted in political utopia and expresses an anti-materialistic stance. In the 1970s he moved from photography to drawing and anticipated the return to painting of the 1980s.

Self Portrait with Black Gloves- Francesco Clemente

Self Portrait with Black Gloves- Francesco Clemente

Clemente’s work is nomadic. In the 1980s he divided his time between India and New York. While briefly associated with Neo-Expressionism he took an interest in collaborative works both with Indian craftsmen and with painters like Basquiat and Warhol, and poets like Robert Creeley and Ginsberg in New York. In an interview with The Brooklyn Rail, Clemente commented “these poets had been looking at the East for inspiration and I was also anxious to evade the materialism of the West.”

In the 1990s Clemente’s work explored intensely erotic imagery, inspired by the Tantra

Francesco Clemente

Francesco Clemente

traditions both of India and Tibet, and turning contemporary preoccupations with identity and sexuality into an occasion to ask questions about the nature of the self.

Francesco Clemente, Grisaille Self-Portait 1998

Francesco Clemente, Grisaille Self-Portait 1998

In the 2000s Clemente’s work went through a darker and grotesque phase, returning in the last years to luminous images of repose and transformation.

Since the 1980s until today Clemente also chronicled New York intellectual and social life through a great number of portraits, contributing to the revival of a genre until then somehow discredited.

Clemente’s art has been presented in solo and group shows internationally. Major

Francesco Clemente

Francesco Clemente

retrospectives have been held in the 1990s at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, at The Royal Academy in London, at the Centre Pompidou, Paris and at the Sezon Museum of Art, Tokyo. Clemente’s art was also featured in 1999-2000 at the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, and at the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao. In the 2000s retrospectives were held at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, at the Museo MADRE, Naples and at the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt. An exhibition of self-portraits and of Clemente’s own version of the Tarot Cards was held at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence in 2011.

Francesco Clemente Virgine, 1995. Pastel on paper

Francesco Clemente Virgine, 1995. Pastel on paper

The artist is currently represented by Bruno Bischofberger in Switzerland and BlainSouthern in London and Mary Boone Gallery in New York.

Clemente’s work is featured in the 1998 movie, Great Expectations_(1998_film).

Francesco Clemente is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Biography is from wikipedia.

I hope you enjoy my piece today and I will see you tomorrow on Day 223!

Best,

Linda

Self-Portrait with Antlers- Tribute to Francesco Clemente Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Self-Portrait with Antlers- Tribute to Francesco Clemente
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Side-View Self-Portrait with Antlers- Tribute to Francesco Clemente Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Side-View
Self-Portrait with Antlers- Tribute to Francesco Clemente
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Close-Up 1 Self-Portrait with Antlers- Tribute to Francesco Clemente Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Close-Up 1
Self-Portrait with Antlers- Tribute to Francesco Clemente
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Close-Up 2 Self-Portrait with Antlers- Tribute to Francesco Clemente Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Close-Up 2
Self-Portrait with Antlers- Tribute to Francesco Clemente
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Close-Up 3 Self-Portrait with Antlers- Tribute to Francesco Clemente Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Close-Up 3
Self-Portrait with Antlers- Tribute to Francesco Clemente
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic & Watercolor on Canvas

Day Fifty-Five- Alexej von Jawlensky- Painting from the Soul

Day 55…third day in my new home.  Love it so far.  Still stressed with dealing with the old place (gotta go clean and get rid of crap) and unpacking etc.  I was grateful that I had to just sit down and paint today!  Join me in celebrating Alexej von Jawlensky today.

Alexej von Jawlensky

Alexej von Jawlensky

ALEXEJ VON JAWLENSKY SCHOKKO (SCHOKKO MIT TELLERHUT)

ALEXEJ VON JAWLENSKY
SCHOKKO (SCHOKKO MIT TELLERHUT)

Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky (13 March 1864 – 15 March 1941) was a Russian expressionist painter active in Germany. He was a key member of the New Munich Artist’s Association (Neue Künstlervereinigung München), Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group and later the Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four).

Alexej von Jawlensky was born in Torzhok, a town in Tver Governorate, Russia, as the

Jawlensky

Jawlensky

fifth child of Georgi von Jawlensky and his wife Alexandra (née Medwedewa). At the age of ten he moved with his family to Moscow. After a few years of military training, he became interested in painting, visiting the Moscow World Exposition c. 1880. Thanks to his good social connections, he managed to get himself posted to St. Petersburg and, from 1889 to 1896, studied at the art academy there, while also discharging his military duties.  Jawlensky gained admittance to the circle of Ilya Repin, where he met Marianne von Werefkin, one of Repin’s former students and a wealthy artist four years Jawlensly’s senior who gave up her career to promote his work and provide him with a comfortable lifestyle.

Jawlensky

Jawlensky

Free to pursue his artistic vision, he moved to Munich in 1894, where he studied in the private school of Anton Ažbe. In 1905 Jawlensky visited Ferdinand Hodler, and two years later he began his long friendship with Jan Verkade and met Paul Sérusier. Together, Verkade and Sérusier transmitted to Jawlensky both practical and theoretical elements of the work of the Nabis, and Synthetist principles of art.

In Munich he met Wassily Kandinsky and various other Russian artists, and he contributed to the Alexej_von_Jawlensky_-_Kopf_einer_Italienerin_mit_schwarzem_Haarformation of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München. His work in this period was lush and richly coloured, but later moved towards abstraction and a simplified, formulaic style. Between 1908 and 1910 Jawlensky and Werefkin spent summers in the Bavarian Alps with Kandinsky and his companion Gabriele Münter. Here, through painting landscapes of their mountainous surroundings, they experimented with one another’s techniques and discussed the theoretical bases of their art.  Following a trip to the Baltic coast, and renewed contact with Henri Matisse in 1911 and Emil Nolde in 1912, Jawlensky turned increasingly to the expressive use of colour and form alone in his portraits.

Jawlensky

Jawlensky

Expelled from Germany in 1914, he moved to Switzerland. He met Emmy Scheyer in 1916 (Jawlensky gave her the affectionate nickname, Galka, a Russian word for crow), another artist who abandoned her own work to champion his in the United States.  After a hiatus in experimentation with the human form, Jawlensky produced perhaps his best-known series, the Mystical Heads (1917–19), and the Saviour’s Faces (1918–20), which are reminiscent of the traditional Russian Orthodox icons of his childhood.

In 1922, after marrying Werefkin’s former maid Hélène Nesnakomoff, the mother of

Jawlensky- Mystical Head

Jawlensky- Mystical Head

his only son, Andreas, born before their marriage, Jawlensky took up residence in Wiesbaden. In 1924 he organized the Blue Four, whose works, thanks to Scheyer’s tireless promotion, were jointly exhibited in Germany and the USA. From 1929 Jawlensky suffered from progressively crippling arthritis, which necessitated a reduced scale and finally forced a cessation in his painting in 1937.  He began to dictate his memoirs in 1938. He died in Wiesbaden, Germany, on 15 March 1941. He and his wife Helene are buried in the cemetery of St. Elizabeth’s Church, Wiesbaden.

Biography is from wikipedia.

Yes, I look bored…but am definitely not. :)

Yes, I look bored…but am definitely not. 🙂

This painting was super fun to delve into today.  I showcased mainly his portraits because I decided to do a self-portrait of myself.  I took a reference photo to work with.

It was an interesting experience to use colors to shade my skin in with that I wouldn’t have normally used.  Well,

Yellow skin? It works!

Yellow skin? It works!

I hope you enjoy my painting for today and I’ll see you tomorrow on Day 56!  I’m going to go unpack my clothes and put them away and then take an epic bath in my new awesome bathtub!

Best, Linda

Painting on my new countertop. I can't wait until my art studio/space is ready. That'll be a while.

Painting on my new countertop. I can’t wait until my art studio/space is ready. That’ll be a while.

Self-Portrait- Tribute to Alexej von Jawlensky Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Self-Portrait- Tribute to Alexej von Jawlensky
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Side- View Self-Portrait- Tribute to Alexej von Jawlensky Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Side- View
Self-Portrait- Tribute to Alexej von Jawlensky
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1 Self-Portrait- Tribute to Alexej von Jawlensky Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 1
Self-Portrait- Tribute to Alexej von Jawlensky
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2 Self-Portrait- Tribute to Alexej von Jawlensky Linda Cleary 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Close-Up 2
Self-Portrait- Tribute to Alexej von Jawlensky
Linda Cleary 2014
Acrylic on Canvas

 

“I knew that I must paint not what I saw, but only what was in me, in my soul. Figuratively speaking, it was like this: In my heart I felt as if there were an organ, which I had to sound. And nature, which I saw before me, only prompted me. And that was a key that unlocked this organ and made it sound… …They are songs without words.”