Otto Storch is a well-recognized photographer and Art Director who has received well over 300 awards for his work in the advertising industry. Otto helped bring a modern flavour to American editorials. He first stepped foot into the design industry as a photo retoucher for Dell publishing House and soon after became Art Director.

Otto had such a successful career because of his exploration in design. He craved excitement for new projects and liked having the freedom to push his creative limits. At Dell, Otto felt as if his work was being forced out of quantity rather than quality. This was where he went back to learning, first by taking classes taught by Harper Bazaar’s Art Director Alexey Brodovitch and then eventually studying at the New School. 17 years later, Otto joined McCall’s magazine where he began to feel his spark of creativity come back while discovering his new love for photography.

Otto’s experimentation with typography and photography broke the barriers of design. For me, Otto helped make reading interesting by changing the way type was used. Type was no longer looked at as a way of communicating information, but a way of visually evoking feeling as an image. Although Otto is no longer with us today, I feel that his body of works will continue to live on and inspire many other artists to work outside of their comfort zone.

Sources:

LISA YUSKAVAGE (1962-PRESENT)

Lisa Yuskavage is a female conventional painter who enjoys painting nude female figures. Her painting style is best described as a combination of both realism and abstract. Yuskavage was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she graduated from Temple University with a BFA. She then moved to New York City where she now exhibits her paintings. Yuskavage’s paintings provocative paintings take inspiration from a blend of soft porn magazines such as “Penthouse” and artworks by Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens.  

Lisa Yuskavage’s paintings are really amazing in my opinion. She is very good at capturing the mood she wants to convey in her paintings. I think what helps her with that is how she is able to include artificial lighting in each painted scene to make it look realistic. What is interesting about this technique is that the hues Yuskavage uses in her paintings feel fanciful, almost as if it were straight out of an “Avatar” movie. My favourite painting by Yuskavage is her “Self Portrait” (2017). At first when I saw this painting I thought she drew herself with three legs, but as I looked closer, I realized there is a man standing behind her, almost ghost- like grabbing her by the waist. It is a very different approach to a self portrait like the ones I’ve seen from different art periods. I admire Yuskavage’s careless attitude as she is not afraid to paint herself in such a revealing manner. She does not dwell on the critics opinions as she continues to draw women in a strong yet erotic way. I am glad that not all art history was dominated by the male gender painting nude women. I like how I get to see the shift in female erotica, how Yuskavage’s paintings feel more genuine knowing that it was painted by a female herself.

Sources:

https://brooklynrail.org/2009/03/art/in-conversation-lisa-yuskavage-with-phong-bui

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Yuskavage

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/yuskavage-lisa/

https://www.yuskavage.com/artwork/4565

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)

American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein was best known for his comic style parodies. Lichtenstein’s early life consisted of him going to the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, where he would draw life drawings of musicians playing their music. Lichtenstein continued his art studies at the Ohio State University where he graduated and became an art instructor. Lichtenstein also taught at Rutgers University where he was first introduced to pop imagery by his colleague Allan Karpov. 

As a fan of comic books, I really enjoy Roy Lichtenstein’s work. I have been a fan of his work for some time as I dressed up as the “Crying Girl” for Halloween in grade nine. I think the reason why I wanted to dress up like one of Liechtenstein’s screen prints is for the way Lichtenstein is able to capture the beauty of women. Screenprints such as “Crying Girl” 1963 is a simple headshot of a girl crying. However, what I find so captivating about this piece is for the girl’s expression on her face. The girl is model like- similar to Marilyn Monroe and her red lipstick, yet she is expressing sadness. I think Lichtenstein was trying to convey a message of emotion, how even the most beautiful girls in the world can be sad too. Overall I enjoy his style of using flat colours with thick strokes. It helps exemplify the drama Lichtenstein likes to add to his work.

YVES TANGUY (1900-1955)

Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy was highly recognized for his surrealist paintings. Tanguy’s subject matter for his paintings include dreams, childhood memory, hallucinations, and psychotic episodes. Yves Tanguy did not only have a unique style of painting, he was a unique individual who enjoyed eating living spiders. 

Tanguy was a self-taught painter whose precision and skill disguised his lack of training. His lack of experience for being quite a young painter did not seem to affect people’s judgment of him. It rather surprised many to see how such a young artist could have such a mature sense of style to his painting. Tanguy was one of the first surrealist painters who was capable of capturing his unconscious thoughts into an atmosphere.

Early on in his career, Tanguy met Andre Breton. This was his lead way into meeting the group of surrealists at the time, including Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, and Andre Masson. In 1928, Tanguy joined this group of painters to exhibited his work at Paris’ “Galerie au Sacre du Printemps”. Tanguy soon after would exhibit his pieces across the world, he had exhibits in New York, Brussels, Paris, and London.

Looking at the work of Yves Tanguy, I can see that his paintings are a self-reflection of himself. As a person and painter, Tanguy has a strange personality that is somewhat admirable. I admire how he does not shy away from the unusual however I do not see myself gravitating towards his art. For me, I like to be able to recognize the subject matter of a painting. When I look at Yves Tanguy, I do not know what I’m looking at. The only thing I know is that this French painter was very good at conveying the depth of field and turning shapes into objects. His paintings almost look sculpture-like. 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Tanguy

https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/yves-tanguy

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/tanguy-yves/

RAOUL DUFY (1877-1953)

Raoul Dufy was a late 18th century french painter who explored different mediums such as woodcuts, ceramics, and tapestries. In 1912, Dufy became the founder of a textile company, where he made textiles out of cotton and silk. What motivated Dufy to pursue art was for his first job working as a junior clerk at a coffee importing firm. This was where Dufy witnessed many boats that he felt ignited to enroll himself at Le Havre’s Ecole des Beaux-Arts shortly after. Dufy’s work is defined as fauvism because Dufy tended to use plenty of bright colours in his paintings. Dufy’s subject matter of choice were horse races, regattas, parades, and concerts. 

Dufy is an artist whose work I can picture on the cover of a magazine or poster. When I look at Dufy’s work, I gain a sense that Dufy was not afraid of taking risks. Not only does Dufy use a wide range of colour in majority of his pieces, the detail on Dufy’s work is quite minimal, yet has enough information that I can gain a sense of what the image is suppose to resemble. My first impression when I saw Dufy’s work was that Dufy was an artist not to be taken seriously. His works such as “The Kessler Family on Horseback” feel playful and lively. This might be because of the painting scenes of his choosing.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raoul-Dufy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Dufy

CAMILLE PISSARRO (1830-1903)

Camille Pissarro was one of the few contributing artists who shaped the impressionist movement. Because Camille Pissarro was a french artist of Portuguese descent, he was often looked at as an outsider. In addition to his disliked origins, Pissarro’s art style was not idealized by the Paris salon. Like Monet and Cezanne, Pissarro’s approach to landscape paintings was much more experimental and modern at the time of realism, pre-impressionism, and pre-raphaelites. By not being able to showcase his artworks like his peers, Pissarro and other artists such as Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir began to create what was known as their own art exhibition. In 1873, Pissarro showcased five of his paintings, some including The Old Road to Ennery, Bourgeois House at L’Hermitage, Pontoise, and his own self-portrait.

When I look at Camille Pissarro’s pieces, I see myself enjoying his earlier works such as Paisaje tropical con casas rurales y palmeras much more compared to his more recent pieces. What I like about Paisaje tropical con casas rurales y palmeras is Pissarro’s choice of a warmer colour palette. Even though it is clear that Pissarro is not painting in a realistic manner, his figures in this piece are well recognizable, which I find it a little more challenging when I look at his later pieces. For instance, Haymaking, Éragny is a painting that I dislike because I find it hard to concentrate on what the main subject is. There appears to be no real subject manner. The painting’s delivery lacks depth and the colours are not my ideal compared to when I look at Paisaje tropical con casas rurales y palmeras.

Sources:

https://www.biography.com/artist/camille-pissarro

http://www.camille-pissarro.org/

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/pissarro-camille/

The Victorian era was well known for its extravagance and decorative touches. England at the time was ruled under Queen Victoria who played a big part in Victorian fashion and art. During her ruling, England’s technological advances from the Industrial Revolution helped fashion spread across the country. As big advocates of the arts, Prince Albert and Queen Victoria created the Great Exhibition, an international art exhibition that stretched eight miles. It was at the exhibition where textile designers were able to showcase their designs to the world. This created a major shift in fashion. Fashion no longer belonged exclusively to the upper class. Due to the great technology at the time, the mass production of fabrics allowed the middle class to become big consumers of these decorated fabrics. The list of fabrics highly consumed by the middle class included patterned cottons and woven silks.

The Great Exhibition in 1851 led to fashion’s role distinguishing people of certain social classes. The dress, for example, was an essential piece found in every woman’s wardrobe, despite their social class.

There were certain types of dresses dedicated for occasions and certain classes. For example, women of the upper class were expected to wear more conservative dresses compared to women of the middle class. These dresses were stiff as “dropped shoulder lines and corsets” were restrictive. Women in the middle class wore petticoats, corsets, or chemises under their gowns and dresses.

The dresses we associate with the Victorian era were actually skirts with a bodice. The skirt itself was what made the Victorian fashion so remarkable. Skirts at this time were shifting away from the traditional dome shape frame to a more flared silhouette. Flared skirts began to overpower the women’s fashion industry because it accentuated the woman’s waist size, creating an hourglass illusion. This illusion was so idealized by fashion designers that crinoline, a thick type of fabric made of horsehair, was used to help add the needed volume for this skirt. Although elegant looking, the “multi layered petticoat” skirt was not the most comfortable piece of clothing to wear. It no longer made sense to create an article of clothing that was not comfortable to wear for long periods of time.  In the 1850’s “hoop skirts” made designers rethink the construction of the skirt. The hoop skirt provided a nice shape without the weight, unlike the crinoline. The hoop skirt consisted of steel rings of various sizes that was held together by fabric tape. This new innovation enabled skirts to eliminate the amounts of fabric that was used before.

Sources:

https://bellatory.com/fashion-industry/Fashion-History-Victorian-Costume-and-Design-Trends-1837-1900-With-Pictures

http://www.gogmsite.net/early_victorian_-_1837_-_18/queen_victoria/1851_dress_worn_by_queen_vi.html

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/txtn/hd_txtn.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_fashion

https://www.royal.uk/queen-victoria

https://sites.google.com/site/thevictorianmiddleclass/clothing-and-fashion