Category: 131

Vladimir Kush

(The David Hockney Blog post fit better as the 5th blog post so I am making up for the 4th blog post here.)

While I am not certain if I am allowed to do my blog post on this Artist, Vladimir Kush is an extremely witty and talented surrealism artist of our time. Born in Moscow, Russia 1965, at the near end of the Surrealism movement, Kush studied at the Surikov Moscow Art Institute and later immigrated to the United States where he made a name for himself. His work is most known today for their playful and creative juxtapositions of nature and man made items, calming scenes and elegant compositions. I particularly admire his work for the smooth and flawless application of paint and excellent rendering of natural elements such as water, smoke and clouds.

One of the pieces that caught my eye when doing research on this fantastical artist was his painting “Sunrise by the ocean” shown above. Many of Kush’s paintings feature beautiful renderings of sunshine or sunsets, more spectacular than found in any photographs. At first glance, it is easy to decipher a cracked egg with a shining egg yolk and the egg whites pooling out, but upon further inspection this is not an egg but the makings on a man made building and the setting sun. Not only is the painting nice to look at, but also leave the interpretation up to the viewer as to what Kush wanted to say. Is this a picture of mankind building up to cage the sun? Or has the sun broken free? Perhaps the link between the egg yolk and the sun speak to rebirth and life?

Kush draws on inspiration from the great surrealist master, Dali, in his paintings. Like Dali, the subject of the butterfly is often used in his works as a representation of transformation or metamorphosis. In comparison to Dali’s work, Kush’s pieces are much more representational and focus on recognizable objects as the subject of his paintings. This lighthearted and purely aesthetic qualities to his work help to make it that much more accessible to the public, allowing him to open up a studio in Hawaii later in his career.

Although Vladimir Kush is not as old as many of the other surrealist artists we studied, his work takes a mind blowing modern twist on the work of the past. I am very excited to have found an artist such as him and think his work is a great example of learning from the past masters and bringing them to the present by using different techniques or with different presentation. This blog post is much too short to display all of his spectacular works but I hope to share my discovery of this artist with others in the future.

(If this is not a suitable example of a surrealist artist, please let me know Jeff and I can redo/ make a new blog post to fit the requirements better. I just really, really enjoyed his work and wanted to share!)

Cites Used:

https://kushfineart.com/about/

Blog Post #5

This bright and fun pop artist was born in 1937, Bradford. Well known for his colourful depictions of California life, poolsides, and poping landscapes, Hockney’s work conjures feelings of warmth and happiness through his paintings. Early in his career, he was influenced by Picasso, Matisse, and Fragonard and created his version of cubism using photographs and a collage-like technique.

His most famous and memorable work typically features pool scenes like the painting “Pool with Two figures” shown below. His use of bright, vibrant colours and stylization of the water creates a calming and serene piece, also sold for a whopping $80.3 million dollars in 2018, which was at the time the highest price paid for a work by a living artist. While his painting is far from the most photorealistic, or skilfully complicated, Hockney’s skills lie in his ability to simplify a scene and bring out the raw emotion he wants to convey.

In a time when homosexuality was less accepted in the minds of Europeans, the liberty of America helped to nurture Hockney’s work in the previously taboo. He created many paintings like the Pool with Two Figures that touched on scenes of two men partaking in normal activities. Rarely seen in art before, his work portrayed the male figure as more sensual and embraced the relationships of queer couples.

Moving with the times, Hockney has taken his skill in landscape painting into digital painting. He uses a mixture of oil paints, film, charcoal, and the iPad to create natural scenes using the same vivid and punchy colours he is so well known for. These bright paintings look more like fantasy candy land with pink fields and purple trees but always conveying a sense of liveliness and beauty.

Cites used:

https://www.biography.com/artist/david-hockney

https://www.treehugger.com/stunning-english-landscape-paintings-made-with-ipad-photos-4858507

Impressionism and Art Nouveau

A Brazilian born in Italy, Eliseu Visconti was an impressionist painter, cartoonist, and teacher and is credited with bringing the style of impressionism and art deco to Brazil. In 1884, Visconti was allowed to study the arts in Paris after winning a prize for his work, there he went on to win different medals and awards as a Brazilian representative and honed his skills at the École des Beaux-Arts. His work draws inspiration from impressionism, pointillism, realism, and art nouveau, seen in his artwork over the years.

One of his most notable achievements is his painting for the Rio Opera House, Theatro Municipal, measuring 6500 square feet and spanned over the wall, ceiling, and curtains. This grand painting shows an elaborate scene with many figures seeming to move throughout the scene.

His more impressionistic work typically features soft colours and depicts natural scenes or women and children as the subjects. Visconti had a masterful technique for capturing the likeness of light, which brought his pieces of art to life. Using the over exposing technique like in cameras, he would wash out facial features in some of his works, creating an illusion of bright light.

Out of all Brazilian Artists, Visconti painted the most number of self portraits in his life, a total of 42. According to his grandson, he was an “energetic and anxious” person who could always rely on himself to be a model for his artwork. In his self portrait below, we can see again his use of soft colours and impressionist brush strokes in the serene and calming painting.

Cites Used:

https://www.newcitybrazil.com/2016/11/07/modern-artist/

The Female Feminist in Rococo Art

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard was born in Paris, 1749 as the youngest out of eight children. While her family never possessed any connections to the arts, Labille-Guiard started her career at the age of 20 when she was admitted into the male-dominated Academie Royale after much determination and persistence. There she studied alongside the more famous Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, whose work would be compared to Labille-Guiard’s, even long after they finished school together. While Vigée-Le Brun was much more socially active and commissioned to do many portraits of Queen Marie Antoinette, Labille-Guiard made her mark as the painter for King Louis XVI’s aunts. Her work is most distinguishable by the matte and solid backgrounds she painted, in contrast to the popular trend of surrounding the subject with objects that flaunted their wealth. Her work is very detailed and has an almost photographic quality to them.

In her painting of the Marquise de Lafayette, Labille-Guiard’s use of a plain and natural background truly brings out the subject. This reminded me of the Mona Lisa by DaVinci and how the figure can work cohesively with the background but still appear as the focal point.

Labille-Guiard was also a prominent figure in supporting women’s rights and female artists. She was a devoted art teacher and supported her female pupils, and hoped of opening an all-girls art academy of her own. Unlike Vigée-Le Brun, she welcomed the French revolution and gave donations to the movement. This support allowed her to stay in Paris even after the French revolution to continue painting.

Here we can see Labille-Guiard’s devotion to her education of female artists. With a lack of extravagant props and her eager pupils in the back, Labille-Guiard appears most radiant and modest in her workspace.

Cites used:

https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-adela-de-labille-guiard-prodigiously-talented-painter-107801

https://nmwa.org/art/artists/adelaide-labille-guiard/ 

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/06/09/adelaide-labille-guiard-a-french-miniaturist-and-portraitist-of-remarkable-talent/

Originally Posted October 5, 2020

Late Gothic and Early Renaissance– Week 5

Giovani Bellini

Giovanni Bellini was born in 1430, Venice, Italy, and was an influential painter who brought the Renaissance style of painting to his hometown. The Bellinis were an artistic family; his father Jacopo, was a painter along with his brother-in-law, Andrea Mantenga, and his older brother, Gentile. This background helped to pave the way for Giovanni as he greatly surpassed his relatives in his artistic career. Bellini’s most notable artwork features masterful use of sensuous colors and his studies in perspective and landscapes. While at the start of his art-making practice, he drew inspiration from the bible and used tempera, he transitioned later in his life to natural scenes in oil paint.

One of his most famous paintings, The Agony In The Garden, depicting Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, clearly shows his mastery of perspective, foreshortening and an incredible sense of colour. 

His painting, the Holy Allegory, caught my attention while I was researching this artist. The depth captured in this landscape is impressive, but even more, the precision of the geometric terrace in the foreground astounded me. The combination made for a piece of artwork that appears to be way before it’s time.

Lastly, the altarpiece he painted in St Giobbe church, attests to his absolute skill in realism and perspective. From the architecture to the rendering of the figures, Bellini’s years of practice and perfection led up to this marvellous painting. 

Cites referenced: