What About Art?

Art History at Carter Sexton

2012-01-04T23:32:00.000-08:00

Check out my Art History class on Modern Art at Carter Sexton Artists Materials. Visit www.cartersexton.com for Info and to Register! This is a fun and affordable class--and it begins on Thursday, January 12, 2012.

New Student Works Posted

2011-08-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Please paste the following link in your browser to view the work of some of my students.

http://web.me.com/artsalive/Port-of-Arts,_Ltd./Art/Art.html

These artists are enrolled in the Pasadena City College Extended Learning program--in my Oil Painting for the Complete Novice and Intermediate Oil Painting classes. I'm very proud of their ongoing developments!

Brick Lion from the Neo-Babylonian Period, about 604-662 B.C.

2011-06-12T20:05:00.000-07:00

BRICK LION FROM ca. 604-662 B.C.

CHICAGO.- Martha Roth, dean of humanities at the University of Chicago, and Gil Stein, director of the Oriental Institute at the university, examine one of two glazed molded brick lions from the Neo-Babylonian Period, about 604-662 B.C. in one of the institutes galleries in Chicago. Roth is the editor-in-charge of a project started 90 years ago by the institute to assemble an Assyrian dictionary based on words recorded on tablets unearthed in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey, and written in a language that hadnt been uttered for more that 2,000 years. The massive 21-volume collection is now complete. AP Photo/M. Spencer Green.

Published by ArtDaily

LACMA Launches Image Library Expanding Online Access to Museum's Collection

2011-03-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

Wilshire View. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. ©2008 Museum Associates/LACMA.

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announce that it will provide access to free high-resolution images of the museum’s rich encyclopedic collection through its newly created Image Library. Visitors to the library can download the images free of charge and without any restrictions on use. The Image Library opens with 2,000 public domain images (with more to be added), representing a broad range of LACMA’s collections, including Egyptian, Decorative Arts and Design, Latin American, Chinese and Korean, European Painting and Sculpture, and many more.

The current selection of images presented in the Image Library represents a sampling from LACMA’s permanent collection that is comprised of more than 100,000 artworks. Each work in the Image Library is accompanied by identifying information, along with a link to its listing on LACMA’s Collections Online, where further details about the work and/or collection can be found.

Envisioned as a resource for students, educators, researchers, artists, designers, and media innovators, the Image Library continues the museum’s commitment to expand access to the breadth and depth of its collection to the widest possible audiences. The Image Library follows other online initiatives LACMA has launched in recent years, including the Reading Room, introduced in January 2010, which allows visitors to view a growing collection of rare, out-of-print exhibition catalogues. In addition, the museum’s blog, Unframed (established in September 2008), continues to create open conversation about art and artists represented at LACMA and give a behind-the-scenes look of the inner workings of the museum. - ArtDaily

Nativity

2010-12-24T12:57:00.001-08:00

Duccio, Nativity panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington 1308-11

Restored Renaissance Masterpiece on View in New Installation at Metropolitan Museum

2010-12-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

Filippino Lippi (Italian, Prato 1457?–1504 Florence), Madonna and Child, Ca. 1485. Tempera, oil, and gold on wood, 32 x 23 1/2 in. (81.3 x 59.7 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jules Bache Collection, 1949 49.7.10.

NEW YORK, NY.- Filippino Lippi (1457-1504) is one of the great artists of 15th-century Florence. Among his principal patrons was the wealthy banker Filippo Strozzi (1428–1491), who in 1487 contracted the artist to decorate his funerary chapel in Santa Maria Novella with an outstanding cycle of frescoes. Around the same time, Strozzi also commissioned a Madonna and Child for his villa at Santuccio, west of the city. This work was acquired from the Duveen firm in 1928 by Jules Bache and was bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum in 1949.

In preparation for an exhibition on the artist that will be held in Rome next year, the picture was taken to conservation for examination this fall. A test cleaning revealed that beneath a thick, discolored varnish there was a beautifully preserved, richly colored painting. It emerged that the varnish had been artificially toned to create an almost monochromatic appearance—an amber-colored uniformity that conformed to the idea of how an Old Master should appear. So striking is the transformation that the picture seems a new acquisition.

To celebrate this restoration, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is mounting A Renaissance Masterpiece Revealed: Filippino Lippi’s Madonna and Child, a focused exhibition, beginning January 15, 2011, that will include the picture and a number of objects in the Museum’s permanent collection that can be associated with the Strozzi by their coat of arms, which has three crescent moons.

The objects include a textile, a wooden chair, a cassone, and a column capital from the Palazzo Strozzi—the grandest of all 15th-century palaces in Florence. Filippo Strozzi belonged to one of the great patrician families of the city and played an important role there as an art patron. Although his father was exiled by the Medici in 1434, in 1466 Filippo was able to return to the city of his forebears, having made his fortune in the Strozzi bank in Naples. He set about rehabilitating the family’s prestige, in part by commissioning outstanding works of art such as Madonna and Child by Filippino Lippi. - Reprinted from artdaily.org

Unseen Egon Schiele Work to be Unveiled at the New Richard Nagy Gallery in UK

2010-12-13T11:11:00.001-08:00

Egon Schiele, Kneeling Nude in Coloured Dress, 1911. Gouache, watercolour, and pencil on paper, 56 x 38.4 cm (22 x 15 1/8 in). Private Collection, Courtesy of Richard Nagy Ltd, London.

LONDON.- More than forty-five extraordinary works by Austrian artist Egon Schiele, previously unseen in the UK, will be unveiled at Richard Nagy’s new gallery on Old Bond Street from 07 February – 04 March 2011. Much of the four thousand works Schiele produced during his short lifetime can only be seen in Vienna; at the Belvedere, the Albertina and the Leopold Museum, or New York, primarily at the Neue Galerie.

While Schiele is recognised as one of the greatest draftsmen of the 20th Century, with watercolours making over $11 million at auction, his work is absent from museum collections in the United Kingdom and has been given little public attention in the past twenty years. In 1989, the Royal Academy of Arts staged the first and last museum exhibition in the country, Egon Schiele and his Time. Since then Schiele’s work has only made fleeting appearances in group shows, to which Nagy has loaned pieces. Focusing exclusively on women, this exhibition provides a rare opportunity to discover museum-quality drawings and watercolours from the artist’s most creative ‘Mature Period’ (1910-1918).

Egon Schiele was born in 1890 in the Austrian town Tulln, just outside of Vienna. After his father’s death in 1905, Schiele began studying painting and drawing at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts & Crafts), where Austrian painter Gustav Klimt was once a student, as well as the Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts), both in Vienna. However finding these institutions too conservative, he left in 1907 to seek out Klimt, the leading contemporary artist of the day, becoming the painter’s protégé and friend. In some instances Schiele’s unsettling erotic work gained him unwelcome attention.

He was arrested in 1912 and charged with carnal knowledge and distributing immoral material, for which he was cleared, though he served 24 days in prison. That same year Schiele began a very public affair with Klimt’s model Wally Neuzil, who he later dropped to marry the bourgeois Edith Harms in 1915. Schiele produced little in the two years directly following his marriage as he was called to serve in the army. In 1917 following his participation in the war, Schiele began to exhibit successfully across Europe with shows in Vienna, Zurich, Prague, and Dresden. When Klimt died in 1918, Schiele became Austria’s leading artist, though he died of Spanish influenza at the age of 28, only months after Klimt and three days after his young pregnant wife.

Throughout Schiele’s life, women fascinated him. As the only son in a household of women, his earliest drawings are of his mother and sisters. His closeness to his younger sister Gertrude has raised many metaphorical eyebrows – exemplified by naked drawings of her and in some instances rather provocatively so. It is evident in his early nudes of street girls, that he had a young man’s curiosity for the erotic. Schiele has an unerring genius for scrutinising the human qualities in the women he draws. This interest in women matured with his years and circumstances, and was with him until his death.

Nagy’s exhibition shows the diversity in Schiele’s depiction of women, from the tension and anxiety demonstrated in his 1910-1911 works, to his calmer, softer style of 1917-1918 when he was becoming comfortable and successful as an artist. Schiele, for so long a hidden genius known only to a few, is now one of the acknowledged luminaries of 20th Century art history. Masterpieces on display include Dark Haired Girl (1910), Woman with Infant (1910), Nude in Orange Stockings (1914), and Girl in Underclothes (1917), amongst others. - Reprinted from artdaily.org

A Rear-End View!

2010-12-10T12:28:00.001-08:00

MEXICO CITY.- View of a Volkswagen Beetle vehicle that two families of Mexican natives from Huichol ethnic group transformed into a work of art, Mexico City, Mexico, on 09 December 2010 . Named Vochol, a combination of the popular Vocho used in Mexico to name the Beetle model and the word Huichol. The car was unveiled at the Museum of Popular Art in Mexico City, initiator of the project. EPA/Sashenka Gutierrez.

The Side View!

2010-12-10T12:26:00.000-08:00

MEXICO CITY.- A Huichol Indigenous man poses inside a Volkswagen Beetle vehicle, that two families of Mexican natives from this ethnic group transformed into a work of art, Mexico City, Mexico, on 09 December 2010 . Named Vochol, a combination of the popular Vocho used in Mexico to name the Beetle model and the word Huichol. The car was unveiled at the Museum of Popular Art in Mexico City, initiator of the project. EPA/Sashenka Gutierrez.

A Unique Creation! This spans several posts

2010-12-10T12:24:00.000-08:00

MEXICO CITY.- Vochol® represents a first in the history of popular arts in Mexico and the world, in which two Huichol families from the States of Nayarit and Jalisco, took the car´s structure as a canvas to paint an original design. The Society of Friends of the Museo de Arte Popular along with the Governments of the States of Nayarit and Jalisco as well as prívate and public institutions have worked on this project for more than a year. Photo: Alejandro Piedra Buena.

Expert Says Michelangelo Drew Inspiration from Brothels to Paint Frescoes in Sistine Chapel

2010-12-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City. AP Photo.

ROME.- The Renaissance genius artist Michelangelo Buonarroti drew inspiration from various Italian brothels to paint some of the figures that form part of the frescoed panels of the Sistine Chapel, assured specialist Elena Lazzarini in an article published today in “Corriere della Sera”.

One of the frescoed panels of the Sistine Chapel was inspired by brothels according to the expert. Italian renaissance artists frequently went to what’s called “stufa”, public bathrooms similar to a brothel where prostitution was practiced often, to study models that would later be represented in their work.

One fountain of inspiration present in the production of many artists of this era, from Leonardo to Bronzino, down to Michelangelo. According to Lazzarini, Many of the blessed and condemned that make up part of the frescoed panels of the Sistine Chapel are shown in obscene situations.

A condemned is dragged to hell by the testicles
“A condemned, for example, is dragged to hell by the testicles and between the blessed they would produce ambiguous hugs and kisses, clearly of homosexual nature”, explains the specialist.

Lazzarini adds “The male bodies, very virile, that make up the painting of the Final Judgment corresponds to the physical appearance of farmers and carriers shown during labor, with tense muscles, tiredness and effort reflected on their faces.”

The impotent scene of the Final Judgment, measuring 3.7 by 12.2 meters, was painted by Michelangelo between 1536 and 1541 to decorate the wall that was located near the Chapel altar.

According to the Italian specialist, it was in the public bathrooms in the Italian capital where Michelangelo was inspired to decorate the Vatican jewels.

Promiscuous Places
There were many places during the XVI century in Italy and particularly in Rome, Lazzarini explains, and in them, besides doing beauty treatments and hydrotherapy, “there were stations with more separation, places of promiscuity and male and female prostitution.” References found in other work of renaissance artist like Leonardo or Bronzino, according to the specialist. “It was a very common opinion at that era to consider that physiognomy corresponded to an emotional and physical ideal. And these models weren’t just Michelangelo´s, we found they started from Leonardo in various works and they are also present in the work of Bronzino”, added Lazzarini. - Reprinted from ArtDaily.org

Staggering Picasso trove turns up in France

2010-12-04T18:22:00.000-08:00

This photo provided Monday Nov.29, 2010 by the Succession Picasso shows an artwork 'Papier colle pipe et bouteille' (Copy paste pipe and bottle) by Picasso. A retired French electrician and his wife have come forward with 271 undocumented, never-before-seen works by Pablo Picasso estimated to be worth at least euro 60 million ($79.35 million), an administrator of the artist's estate said Monday.(AP Photo/Succession Picasso) NO SALES - EDITORIAL USE ONLY - MANDATORY CREDIT: SUCCESSION PICASSO

By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press – Mon Nov 29, 6:20 pm ET = PARIS – Pablo Picasso almost never stopped creating, leaving thousands of drawings, paintings and sculptures that lure crowds to museums and mansions worldwide. Now, a retired electrician says that 271 of the master's creations have been sitting for decades in his garage. Picasso's heirs are claiming theft, the art world is savoring what appears to be an authentic find, and the workman, who installed burglar alarms for Picasso, is defending what he calls a gift from the most renowned artist of the 20th century. Picasso's son and other heirs say they were approached by electrician Pierre Le Guennec in September to authenticate the undocumented art from Picasso's signature Cubist period. Instead, they filed a suit for illegal possession of the works — all but alleging theft by a man not known to be among the artist's friends. Police raided the electrician's French Riviera home last month, questioned him and his wife and confiscated the disputed artworks. Le Guennec and his wife say Picasso's second wife gave them a trunk full of art that they kept virtually untouched until they decided to put their affairs in order for their children. The Picasso estate describes that account as ridiculous. "When Picasso made just a little drawing on a metro ticket, he would keep it," said Jean-Jacques Neuer, a lawyer for Picasso's estate. "To think he could have given 271 works of art to somebody who isn't even known among his friends is of course absurd." The pieces, which include lithographs, portraits, a watercolor and sketches, were created between 1900 and 1932, an intensely creative period for Picasso after he moved from Barcelona to Paris. Among them are a richly colored hand study; a sketch of his first wife, Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, resting an elbow in a seated pose; and a collage of a pipe and bottle. The collage and eight others in the stash are worth 40 million euros on their own, Picasso's estate says. All of the art is now held by the French agency charged with battling illegal traffic in cultural items. Le Guennec, 71, claims to have worked at three of Picasso's properties in southern France: a Cannes villa, a chateau in Vauvenarges, and a farmhouse in Mougins, the town where Picasso died in 1973. The French daily Liberation, which broke the story Monday, said Le Guennec had installed a security alarm system for Picasso at the farmhouse.

Pencil sculptures: miniature masterpieces carved into graphite by Dalton Ghetti

2010-08-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

The alphabet, all carved from 26 pencil tips

Please check out the following link to see these amazing sculptures. The skill, precision, creativity and dedication to produce this work is absolutely amazing!

Archaeologists Find Tunnel Below the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Teotihuacan

2010-08-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

Contextual image of the tunnel found in front of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. Photo: CNMH INAH

Reprinted from ArtDaily - August 4, 2010

MEXICO CITY.- After eight months of excavation, archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have located, 12 meters below , the entrance to the tunnel leading to a series of galleries beneath the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, in the Archaeologcial Area of Teotihuacan, where the remains of rulers of the ancient city could have been deposited.

In a tour made by to site today with the media, archaeologist Sergio Chavez Gomez, director of the Tlalocan Project went below the ground and announced the advances in the systematic exploration undertaken by the INAH of the underground conduit, which was closed for about 1,800 years by the inhabitants of Teotihuacan themselves and where no one has gone in since then.

INAH specialists hope to enter the tunnel in a couple of months and will be the first to enter after hundreds of years since it was closed. This excavation, which represents the most profound that has been done in the pre-Hispanic site, is part of the commemorations for the first 100 years of uninterrupted archaeological explorations (made in 1910) also called the City of Gods.

Gómez Chávez explained that the tunnel passes under the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, the most important building of the Citadel, "and the entry was located a few meters from the pyramid.

Access is by a vertical shaft of about five meters per side down to a depth of 14 meters from the surface, the entrance leads into a long corridor with an estimated length of 100 meters which ends in a series of underground chambers excavated in the rock.

The tunnel was discovered in late 2003 by Sergio Gomez and Julie Gazzola, but its exploration has required several years of planning and managing the financial resources necessary to carry out research at the highest scientific level. The team is composed of more than 30 people and has advisors renowned nationally and internationally.

Before starting the excavations, the archaeologists from INAH had the collaboration of Dr. Victor Manuel Velasco, from the Institute of Geophysics of the UNAM, through a the use of a GPR it was determined that the tunnel has a length of about 100 meters, and has large chambers inside.

Another of the technologies used in the exploration has been the laser scanner, a sophisticated device with high resolution, facilitated by the National Coordination of Historical Monuments (CNMH). INAH made the three-dimensional record of the archaeological finds.

Just a couple of weeks ago, archaeologists corroborated that the tunnel entrance was located in the place they had anticipated, then opened a small hollow hole at the top of the access, and using the scanner took the first images from inside the tunnel to a length of 37 meters, of the 100 it is estimated to have in length.

"Although we need to excavate two more meters to reach the floor of the tunnel, having the first images of the inside will allow us to better plan how to enter. Even so, we will have to withdraw a large amount of soil and a heavy block of stone that blocks the access.

"The whole process could take two more months of work, as we continue with the same systematic exploration that we have done from the start to avoid losing important information that lets us know what activities the citizens of Teotihuacan performed thousands of years ago and why they decided to close it, "said archaeologist Sergio Gomez.

So far, 200 tons of earth have been withdrawn, he said, while doing this we have found about 60,000 pieces of artifacts and pottery.

Angel Mora, who belongs to the Technology Support Unit of the CNMH, and engineer Juan Carlos Garcia, who operates the scanner, said that by introducing the laser, which has a range of 300 meters, through the small hollow opening the archaeologists made, there was only a length of 37 meters. Mora noted that this reading is because the laser beam "runs into something, maybe with some collapsed stones or because the tunnel has a gap."

Sergio Gomez reported that it has not yet been precisely determined the time of construction of the tunnel, however it he has a better idea of when it was closed by the people from Teotihuacan. "Several indications suggest that access to the underground passage was closed between 200 and 250 AD, probably after depositing something inside. One of the hypotheses postulate that, within the large chamber detected by the GPR, we could locate the remains of important people in the city. "

The investigations have led to know with certainty that this tunnel was made prior to the construction of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent and the Citadel. The tunnel is contemporary with a large architectural structure, which could be a ball game court, according to theform of the ground, said the archaeologist.

Unfortunately, the INAH researcher said, when the tunnel was closed, large stones were thrown which blocked access, "and the court was also destroyed and razed by the people of Teotihuacan, only small remnants remain.

"Locating the entrance to the tunnel fulfills one of the most important objectives of the Project Tlalocan, to precisely confirm that the main entrance was located in the exact spot where the excavation is planned. We must continue the excavation of the vertical shaft until it reaches the floor level to thereby start scanning the tunnel towards the East. "

According to the hypothesis about the meaning and symbolism of the tunnel, archaeologist Sergio Gomez, said the tunnel had to be linked to concepts related to the underworld, hence it is possible that in this place were carried out initiation rituals and the divine investiture of Teotihuacan rulers, since the power was acquired in these sacred spaces.

Also, it is known that rulers were buried in the holiest places. "For a long time local and foreign archaeologists have attempted to locate the graves of the rulers of the ancient city, but the search has been fruitless.

"That's why every day our expectations are increasing, as there are many chances that they are sitting inside a large tomb or offering. However, it is not something we are obsessed wih, the discovery and systematic exploration of the tunnel is something of great significance for archaeological research and a unique opportunity to approach the cosmogonic and religious thought of ancient Teotihuacan. "

Experts: AnselAdams photos found at garage sale worth $200 million

2010-08-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from article by By Alan Duke, CNN

July 27, 2010 9:01 p.m. EDT - From CNN Entertainment

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Rick Norsigian kept two boxes he bought at a garage sale under his pool table for four years before realizing they may be too valuable to store at home.The Fresno, California, commercial painter learned this week that what was in those boxes he paid $45 dollars for a decade ago could be worth more than $200 million. "When I heard that $200 million, I got a little weak," Norsigian said at a Beverly Hills art gallery Tuesday. Art, forensic, handwriting and weather experts teamed up to conclude the 65 glass plates in the boxes were photographic negatives created more than 80 years ago by Ansel Adams, the iconic American photographer whose images of the West inspired the country. Cut and paste the following link to read the entire article:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/07/27/ansel.adams.discovery/index.html?hpt=P1&iref=NS1

'Oldest' images of Christ's apostles found in Rome

2010-07-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

Restorers used new laser technology to uncover the images

Reprinted from 22 June 2010 - BBC Mobile News Europe

Art restorers in Italy have discovered what are believed to be the oldest paintings of some of Jesus Christ's apostles.

The faces of Apostles Andrew, John, Peter and Paul were uncovered using new laser technology in a catacomb in Rome.

The paintings date from the second half of the 4th Century or the early 5th Century, the restorers and Vatican officials believe.

The images may have influenced later depictions of Christ's early followers.

'Very emotional'

"These are the first images that we know of the faces of these four apostles," said Fabrizio Bisconti, head of archaeology for Rome's numerous Vatican-owned catacombs.

“Start Quote

It was very, very emotional to discover this”

Barbara MazzeiProject leader

The frescoes in a tomb of a Roman noblewoman in the Santa Tecla catacomb were known about but their details came to light during a two-year restoration project funded by the Vatican.

The images were uncovered using new laser technology that allowed the restorers to burn off thick white calcium carbonate deposits caused by extreme humidity and lack of air.

"The laser created a sort of mini-explosion of steam when it interacted with the calcium carbonate to make it detach from the surface," said Barbara Mazzei, who was in charge of the project.

"It was very, very emotional to discover this," she added.

Andrew, Peter and John were among Jesus' original 12 apostles.

Paul was an influential early Christian who travelled widely in the Mediterranean area in the 1st Century. His letters to the early churches, found in the Bible's New Testament, are arguably some of the most influential on Christian thinking.

I KNEW IT! Vatican Reverses Itself, "The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence" Not a Caravaggio

2010-07-26T20:03:00.000-07:00

FROM ART DAILY - 26 JULY 2010

VATICAN CITY (AP).- The Vatican's top art historian on Monday shot down a report in its own newspaper that suggested a recently discovered painting was a Caravaggio.

The head of the Vatican Museums, Antonio Paolucci, wrote in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the work was most likely a copy of an original by a Caravaggio-influence artist.

It was L'Osservatore itself that set the art world aflutter last week with a front-page article headlined "A New Caravaggio," detailing the artistry behind the "Martyrdom of St. Lawrence," which had been discovered in the sacristy of a Jesuit church in Rome.

The author of the article, art historian Lydia Salviucci Insolera, had made clear that she was not making any conclusions about the authenticity of the work and that more diagnostic tests were required.

But the impression given by the newspaper was that the painting was indeed a never-before-seen Caravaggio: The definitive-sounding headline appeared above the fold alongside a color photograph of the dramatic painting — on the 400th anniversary to the day of the master's death.

The Vatican has in the past announced such art-world news in L'Osservatore, such as when it revealed last year that the earliest known icon of St. Paul had been discovered in a Roman catacomb just in time for the saint's feast day.

The original Caravaggio article published June 18 pointed out that the "The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence" presented features typical of the artist's style, such as the use of chiaroscuro for dramatic effect and the unique perspective from which the subject is seen. The report also highlighted similarities with other Caravaggio's paintings, for example in the saint's hand and body movement.

But on Monday, after a week of "Caravaggiomania" that ensued amid the already frenzied Caravaggio anniversary celebrations in Italy, Vatican Museum chief Paolucci, a former Italian Culture Minister, issued the equivalent of a Holy See mea culpa and reversal.

In a front-page article entitled "A New Caravaggio? Not really" Paolucci wrote that the work was not of Caravaggio's quality and termed it "modest" at best, pointing out in particular that the hands were completely out of perspective.

The painting depicts a semi-naked young man, his mouth open in desperation, one arm stretched out as he leans over amid flames. St. Lawrence was burned to death in 258.

Paolucci said that while the idea of putting St. Lawrence on the grill where he became a martyr was dramatically beautiful, and the thugs perpetrating his martyrdom are suggestive of Caravaggio's themes, a closer look reveals stylistic shortcomings.

He said that the hands are "wrong in their perspective," that the subjects' anatomies were "awkward" and that — in the case of nudes in the background — "disjointedPaolucci also noted that the painting technique was "inadequate."

"The quality isn't there, whereas in a Caravaggio it always is, and it's high even when ... he uses maximum carelessness and a minimum of his expressive resources," Paolucci wrote.

He stressed that he wasn't criticizing Insolera and noted that she had correctly made clear that further analysis and documentation would be required to provide definitive answers as to whether the work was a Caravaggio.

The painting is to be unveiled to the public on Tuesday by Italy's Culture Ministry.

At the time of the discovery, Maurizio Marini, a leading Caravaggio scholar, expressed doubts about the authenticity of the work in an interview with The Associated Press. He concurred with Insonlera who noted that St. Lawrence was not a known Caravaggio subject. And he said the stylistic similarities were inconclusive and that claims of new Caravaggios often surface but seldom hold up.

Caravaggio died in the Tuscan coast town of Porto Ercole in 1610 at age 39 under mysterious circumstances. He had been hugely influential and famous, but had also led a dissolute life of street brawls and alcohol.

Recently, a team of Italian researchers said they had identified Caravaggio's remains after a year of digging up bones in Porto Ercole and conducting carbon dating, DNA testing and other analyses.

Italy has been marking the anniversary with a variety of events, and an exhibit in Rome earlier this year drew over half a million visitors.

___

Associated Press reporter Alessandra Rizzo contributed to this report.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

400 years after his death, Caravaggio work is found

2010-07-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

The martyrdom of St Lawrence in a newly discovered painting thought to be by Caravaggio

By Michael Day in Milan

Monday, 19 July 2010

Art experts in Rome are analysing what they believe is a previously unknown painting by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio.

As his homeland marked the 400th anniversary of his death this weekend, the Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano published the newly discovered work on its front page. Depicting the martyrdom of St Lawrence, it was found recently among the possessions of the Society of Jesuits in Rome. It shows a semi-naked young man, his mouth open in desperation with one arm stretched out as he leans over flames. If the suspected provenance is confirmed, it would be the first painting by the Baroque genius to emerge since The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew, which went on display two years ago.

"What is certain is that we're dealing with a stylistically impeccable, beautiful painting," said the art historian Lydia Salviucci Insolera. "Particularly notable is the light that leaps from the areas of darkness to reveal the surface volume in sudden flashes."

Caravaggio, born Michelangelo Merisi, is celebrated for his revolutionary use of contrasting light and dark -– chiaroscuro – which anticipated the work of later Baroque giants including Rembrandt and Velázquez.

The art historian cautioned that experts should be careful to avoid the trap of labelling it a Caravaggio "at all costs" at a time when interest in the revolutionary painter was at an all-time high, saying that further analysis and research would be needed.

Another Caravaggio expert, Maurizio Marini, was sceptical about the provenance of the painting in question, noting that St Lawrence, a martyr burned to death during Roman persecutions in 258AD, was not a known Caravaggio subject.

Ms Salviucci Insolera noted, however, there was evidence that Caravaggio came into contact with powerful Crescenzi family, the patrons of Jesuit art in Rome during the period. And she added: "That the painting is truly beautiful is unarguable. And that it is at the very least a Caravaggio-esque work of the highest order is quite obvious."

The Vatican newspaper did not reveal where the painting is being analysed or by whom. But the news added to the Caravaggio fever gripping Italy this weekend, with galleries and churches staying open all night to let as many aficionados as possible admire his works.

"This is a fitting event for someone whose works used night as a backdrop," said Rossella Vodret, the museums superintendent in Rome, where fans flocked to the Borghese Gallery and three churches on Saturday night, despite the sweltering conditions. The five famous Caravaggio paintings in the Borghese have been joined for a current hit show by four masterpieces from three other top Roman galleries: Judith Beheading Holofernes; Narcissus; and two of his eight John the Baptist paintings.

Caravaggio festivities kicked off in February with a blockbuster show of 24 of his greatest paintings at the Scuderie Del Quirinale in Rome. The event drew more than half a million visitors.

Interest in the mercurial artist has been raised by recent attempts to shed light on the mystery surrounding his death on 18 July 1619 at the age of 38. The investigation, involving DNA tests and comparisons with living relatives, concluded that the painter was probably buried in Porto Ercole, in Tuscany, after suffering an illness, thereby bringing centuries of speculation, including assassination theories, to an end.

Caravaggio was active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily. But he often had to flee cities and leave works because of his tempestuous nature, which led him to kill at least one man.

*******

JILL'S NOTE: It's impossible to evaluate whether or not this is a genuine Caravaggio without seeing the original painting, reviewing the testing done on the work, reading the scholarship devoted to the painting, and analyzing any other documentation related to the provenance of the work. My gut reaction is that I do not find the photograph at all convincing. To my eyes, this appears to be the work of a follower of Caravaggio, rather than by the artist himself. The lighting and tone transitions are harsh and imitative. Caravaggio was a master of subtle lighting and of tenebrism (a style he developed). Nevertheless, this painting is an exciting discovery.

French scientists crack secrets of Mona Lisa

2010-07-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

AP – This recent undated photo provided Friday July 23, 2010, by the CNRS (National Center of Scientific Research) …

By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press Writer

PARIS – The enigmatic smile remains a mystery, but French scientists say they have cracked a few secrets of the "Mona Lisa."

French researchers studied seven of the Louvre Museum's Leonardo da Vinci paintings, including the "Mona Lisa," to analyze the master's use of successive ultrathin layers of paint and glaze — a technique that gave his works their dreamy quality.

Specialists from the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France found that da Vinci painted up to 30 layers of paint on his works to meet his standards of subtlety. Added up, all the layers are less than 40 micrometers, or about half the thickness of a human hair, researcher Philippe Walter said Friday

The technique, called "sfumato," allowed da Vinci to give outlines and contours a hazy quality and create an illusion of depth and shadow. His use of the technique is well-known, but scientific study on it has been limited because tests often required samples from the paintings.

The French researchers used a noninvasive technique called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to study the paint layers and their chemical composition.

They brought their specially developed high-tech tool into the museum when it was closed and studied the portraits' faces, which are emblematic of sfumato. The project was developed in collaboration with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble.

The tool is so precise that "now we can find out the mix of pigments used by the artist for each coat of paint," Walter told The Associated Press. "And that's very, very important for understanding the technique."

The analysis of the various paintings also shows da Vinci was constantly trying out new methods, Walter said. In the "Mona Lisa," da Vinci used manganese oxide in his shadings. In others, he used copper. Often he used glazes, but not always.

The results were published Wednesday in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, a chemistry journal.

Tradition holds that the "Mona Lisa" is a painting of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo, and that da Vinci started painting it in 1503. Giorgio Vasari, a 16th-century painter and biographer of da Vinci and other artists, wrote that the perfectionist da Vinci worked on it for four years.

Restored Leonardo Masterpiece Goes Back on Display at the National Gallery in London

2010-07-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

The Virgin Mary is seen from the artwork "The Virgin on the Rocks" by Leonardo da Vinci (1491-1508), at the National Gallery in London July 14, 2010. An 18-month project to restore Leonardo da Vinci's "Virgin of the Rocks" revealed the Renaissance artist likely painted the entire work himself rather than, as previously thought, with the help of his assistants. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett.

LONDON.- Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks is to go back on display in the National Gallery (afternoon of 14th July) after an 18-month restoration project which started in November 2008.

The decision to restore the painting came after several years of intensive study of Leonardo’s work and that of his Milanese associates and assistants – the so-called leonardeschi – from within the Gallery’s collection. The experience gained from examining these pictures reinforced the view that 'The Virgin of the Rocks' could not be appreciated as originally intended. The cleaning process began because some varnish that was applied in 1948–9 was particularly unstable and prone to yellowing. Fine cracking in that varnish, and atmospheric dirt which had become absorbed in its waxy surface, meant that the ability of the varnish to fully saturate the picture had become seriously compromised. As a result the subtlety of shading and the sense of space were markedly reduced, and the impact of this great work significantly lessened.

The conservation involved removing much of the badly degraded varnish from the painting, though leaving a very thin layer over most of the picture surface. While the cleaning did not effect a dramatic shift of colour, it produced a significant improvement in saturation which has allowed a much greater appreciation of the painting’s full tonal range, especially in the darker areas. This has in turn given a much clearer sense of the unified lighting, three-dimensional modelling and the intended spatial recession through the rocky landscape.

The restoration was undertaken by Larry Keith, the new Director of Conservation, working in collaboration with the picture’s curator, Luke Syson, and the Scientific Department, under the direction of Ashok Roy. There were also discussions and exchanges with colleagues from several other institutions in Europe and America, including the Louvre, which has an extensive Leonardo collection that includes the earlier version of 'The Virgin of the Rocks'.

The conservation and associated technical research has reaffirmed the sense that the picture is not finished in the traditional sense, and instead shows a range of completion from the level of the barely sketched hand of the angel to the fully realised heads of the principal figures. The associated study of materials and techniques has also been an important element of a more comprehensive reappraisal of the picture’s genesis and authorship. In the past, Gallery curators, like many scholars of Renaissance painting elsewhere, have explained the different levels of finish and resolution in the picture by arguing that Leonardo was helped by assistants in realising this second version of the composition; it now seems possible that Leonardo painted all the picture himself, leaving some parts just sketched or yet to be completely resolved, and others (such as the angel’s head) fully worked up.

'The Virgin of the Rocks' will be displayed in a new frame made by Peter Schade, Head of Framing at the Gallery. This incorporates parts – the pilasters and cornice – of a north Italian frame of about 1500, purchased specially in Italy in 2009. Schade has added the missing elements, referring to carved frames executed by Giacomo Del Maino who carved the altarpiece into which 'The Virgin of the Rocks' was originally set. This new frame will therefore evoke the gilded setting of Leonardo’s masterpiece, accentuating its muted colour scheme, the artist’s revolutionary system of shadowing and the elements of his pictorial ‘relief’, already made so much more evident by the restoration. Newly cleaned and framed in this way, the Virgin’s left hand, for example, now seems to project into the viewer’s space.

The restoration process has provided the opportunity for a comprehensive study of 'The Virgin of the Rocks' by the National Gallery’s Scientific, Conservation and Curatorial departments, with the findings being published online in the National Gallery’s Technical Bulletin in September 2011. The Gallery will expand its initial research on Leonardo himself to include the systematic investigation of Leonardo’s Milanese pupils, collaborators and followers. (Reprinted from ArtDaily.org - July 15, 2010)

The Magic of Miró

2010-07-11T17:34:00.000-07:00

Joan Miró - Spanish, 1893 - 1983 - Shooting Star - 1938 - oil on canvas - Overall: 65.2 x 54.4 cm (25 11/16 x 21 7/16 in.) framed: 87 x 77.4 x 5.7 cm (34 1/4 x 30 1/2 x 2 1/4 in.) Gift of Joseph H. Hazen - National Gallery of Art - Washington, D.C.

Catalan painter who combined abstract art with Surrealist fantasy. His mature style evolved from the tension between his fanciful, poetic impulse and his vision of the harshness of modern life. He worked extensively in lithography and produced numerous murals, tapestries, and sculptures for public spaces.

"He was never closely aligned with any movement and was too retiring in his manner to be the object of a personality cult, like his compatriot Picasso, but the formal and technical innovations that he sustained over a very long career guaranteed his influence on 20th-century art. A pre-eminent figure in the history of abstraction and an important example to several generations of artists around the world, he remained profoundly attached to the specific circumstances and environment that shaped his art in his early years. An acute balance of sophistication and innocence and a deeply rooted conviction about the relationship between art and nature lie behind all his work and account in good measure for the wide appeal that his art has continued to exercise across many of the usual barriers of style." (SOURCE: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS)

Egyptian Archaeologists Unveil Discovery of 4,300-Year-Old Tombs with Vivid Wall Paintings

2010-07-08T20:59:00.000-07:00

TOP - Egyptian Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass shows to the media the false door of the unearthed 4,300 year old tomb that belongs to Khonsu the son of Shendwas, both served as heads of the royal scribes during the Old Kingdom, in Saqqara near Cairo, Egypt Thursday, July 8, 2010. Egyptian archaeologists have unveiled their latest discovery, two 4,300-year-old tombs carved out of stone and unearthed in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara near Cairo. AP Photo/Nasser Nasser.

BOTTOM - View of one of two rock-hewn painted Old Kingdom tombs recently discovered at Saqqara necropolis, c. 50 km south of Cairo, Egypt, 08 July 2010. According to Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and head of the excavation mission, the tombs which date to the Sixth Dynasty (2374-2191 BC), belong to a father, Shendwa, and his son, Khonsu who served as heads of the royal scribes. The burial shaft of the father's tomb is located directly beneath a false door that bears the different titles of the tomb's owner, 20 meters below the ground level. Shendwa's tomb was found intact and had not been looted but his wooden sarcophagus had disintegrated due to humidity and erosion. Among his funerary relics were found a collection of limestone jars including five offering vessels carved in the shape of a duck. EPA/KHALED EL FIQI.

By: Maggie Michael, Associated Press Writer

SAQQARA (AP).- Egyptian archaeologists on Thursday unveiled a newly-unearthed double tomb with vivid wall paintings in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara near Cairo, saying it could be the start for uncovering a vast cemetery in the area.

The tomb includes two false doors with colorful paintings depicting the two people buried there, a father and a son who served as heads of the royal scribes, said Abdel-Hakim Karar, a top archaeologist at Saqqara.

"The colors of the false door are fresh as if it was painted yesterday," Karar told reporters.

Humidity had destroyed the sarcophagus of the father, Shendwas, while the tomb of the son, Khonsu, was robbed in antiquity, he said.

Also insribed on the father's false door was the name of Pepi II, whose 90-year reign is believed to be the longest of the pharaohs. The inscription dates the double tomb to the 6th dynasty, which marked the beginning of the decline of the Old Kingdom, also known as the age of pyramids.

Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, said the new finds were "the most distinguished tombs ever found from the Old Kingdom," because of their "amazing colors." He said the area, if excavated, could unveil the largest cemetery of ancient Egypt.

The paintings on the false doors identified Shendwas and Khonsu as royal scribes and "supervisors of the mission," meaning they were in charge of delegations overseeing the supply of materials used for pyramids construction.

A single shaft from the surface led down to the father's tomb, from which a side passage led to that of the son, with the false door with paintings of Khonsu in front of an offering table.

Hawass pointed to a handful of duck-shaped artifacts and a small obelisk made of limestone. Such obelisks were often buried with the dead in the 5th and 6th dynasties to show their veneration for the sun god, Ra. "These artifacts were found at the end of the burial shaft, at 18 meters (yards) depth, but we covered it up," Hawass told reporters.

Karar said that so far six tombs dating back to the end of the Old Kingdom have been unearthed since digging in the area three began three years ago. Work started on the double tomb five weeks ago.

The tombs lie just west of Saqqara's most famed pyramid, the Step Pyramid of King Djoser, which is surrounded by a large burial ground, contain tombs from Egypt's earliest history up through Roman times.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

Celebrating an American Artist - Edward Hopper

2010-07-04T12:34:00.000-07:00

Edward Hopper - House by the Railroad - 1925 - Oil on canvas - 24 x 29 in. (60.9 x 73.6 cm.)

Edward Hopper, the best-known American realist of the inter-war period, once said: 'The man's the work. Something doesn't come out of nothing.' This offers a clue to interpreting the work of an artist who was not only intensely private, but who made solitude and introspection important themes in his painting. Among the subjects he painted were hotels, motels, trains and highways. He also liked to paint the public and semi-public places where people gathered: restaurants, theatres, cinemas and offices. But even in these paintings he stressed the theme of loneliness - his theatres are often semideserted, with a few patrons waiting for the curtain to go up or the performers isolated in the fierce light of the stage. Hopper was a frequent movie-goer, and there is often a cinematic quality in his work. He transformed the concrete 'public real' into something far more personal and emotional.

"Hopper frequently used a straight. horizontal motif, usually a road or railroad track. to construct the space within the picture and to emphasize the division between the picture space and the viewer's world. Indeed, the more the viewer tries to penetrate the depths of a Hopper painting, the more impenetrable it becomes. What holds the viewer is that the artist's vision seems under control and yet, on closer inspection, the viewer realizes that the visible surface is a tissue of improbabilities and unreadable shifts in space. Hopper's view that nature and the contemporary world were incoherent contributed to his artistic vision." - From "Techniques of the Great Masters of Art"

Manet Sets $33.1 Million Record

2010-06-23T00:08:00.000-07:00

View of French Impressionist Edouard Manet's Self Portrait , 1878-1879, which sold at auction at Sotheby's in London, for $33.1 Million Tuesday June 22, 2010. AP Photo/Max Nash.

LONDON (REUTERS).- Sotheby's sold an Edouard Manet self-portrait for 22.4 million pounds ($33.1 million) on Tuesday, a record for the artist but toward the lower end of pre-sale expectations of 20-30 million pounds. The painting, one of only two self-portraits by the artist and the only one in private hands, was the centerpiece of the auctioneer's main impressionist and modern art sale in London this summer. (Excerpted from eporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Charles Dick) Reprinted from ArtDaily - 23 June 2010

Edouard Manet broke new ground by defying traditional techniques of representation and by choosing subjects from the events and circumstances of his own time. His Déjeuner sur l’herbe (“Luncheon on the Grass”), exhibited in 1863 at the Salon des Refusés, aroused the hostility of critics and the enthusiasm of the young painters who later formed the nucleus of the Impressionist group. Manet’s debut as a painter met with a critical resistance that did not abate until near the end of his career. Although the success of his memorial exhibition and the eventual critical acceptance of the Impressionists—with whom he was loosely affiliated—raised his profile by the end of the 19th century, it was not until the 20th century that his reputation was secured by art historians and critics. Manet’s disregard for traditional modeling and perspective made a critical break with academic painting’s historical emphasis on illusionism. This flaunting of tradition and the official art establishment paved the way for the revolutionary work of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Manet also influenced the path of much 19th- and 20th-century art through his choice of subject matter. His focus on modern, urban subjects—which he presented in a straightforward, almost detached manner—distinguished him still more from the standards of the Salon, which generally favored narrative and avoided the gritty realities of everyday life. Manet’s daring, unflinching approach to his painting and to the art world assured both him and his work a pivotal place in the history of modern art. Even the recognition he has finally received does not do him justice. He was a remarkable painter.

Spain's Cultural Ministry to Reopen Caves of Altamira Despite Scientists' Warnings

2010-06-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

Spain's Cultural Minister Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde said Tuesday June 8, 2010 that Spain has decided to reopen a cave complex with prized prehistoric paintings after 8 years of closure, despite scientists warnings' that heat from human visitors damages the art. AP Photo/Pedro A. Saura.

MADRID (AP).- A cave complex boasting prized prehistoric paintings will reopen after eight years of closure, despite scientists' warnings that heat and moisture from human visitors damage the site known as the Sistine Chapel of Paleolithic Art. The Culture Ministry and the site's board of directors said Tuesday that visits to the Caves of Altamira in the northern Cantabria region will resume next year, although on a still-unspecified, restricted basis. The main chamber at Altamira features 21 bison painted in red and black, which appear to be charging against a low, limestone ceiling. The site was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1985. The paintings are estimated to be 14,000 to 20,000 years old. Discovered in 1868, the cave complex became a tourist magnet and by the 1970s received 3,000 visitors a day. Body heat and moisture from people's breath were blamed for a gradual deterioration of the images, and from 1982-2002 only a handul of visits were allowed each day. The cave was completely shut off to most visitors after scientists detected green mold stains on the paintings in the main chamber. A replica of the caves was built in a museum in 2001. In April of this year, the government's main scientific research body, called the CSIC, recommended that the caves remain closed. "The people who go in the cave have the bad habit of moving, breathing and perspiring," CSIC researcher Mariona Hernandez-Marine wrote then. The site's board voted to reopen, however, calling the caves too valuable to keep closed. "Altamira is an asset we cannot do without," the Cantabria region's president, Miguel Angel Revilla, said.

Columbian Artist Fernando Botero is Welcomed in Istanbul

2010-05-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

Colombian artist Fernando Botero poses in front of his paintings "La Fornarina, After Raphael" (L) and "After Velazquez" at the Pera Museum in Istanbul, during a preview one day before the opening of his first exhibition in Turkey.

ISTANBUL.- "Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum welcomed one of the most exceptional artists of the 21st century, Fernando Botero in İstanbul for the very first time with an exhibition comprising a selection of 64 works. Botero’s art is not exclusively a narration or a representation, but brings with it the force of an inner vision, of his knocking on life’s door. Protecting his Latin and Colombian identity, Botero has succeeded forming his own style nourished not only by folkloric elements but also by the works of grand masters, and has poured his rich inner world into his works with a sophisticated, humorous and wise approach." - Excerpted from REUTERS/Murad Sezer.

"Nude, Green Leaves and Bust"

2010-05-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

Pablo Picasso's 1932 'Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust' is seen at Christie's auction house in New York.

NEW YORK - "A 1932 Pablo Picasso painting of his mistress has sold for $106.5 million, a world record price for any work of art at auction. The striking work of Picasso's muse and mistress Marie-Therese Walter has been exhibited in the United States only once, in 1961 in Los Angeles to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Picasso's birth. The painting, which measures more than 5 feet by 4 feet, shows a reclining nude figure with an image of Picasso in the background looking over her. The painting had belonged to the late California art patron Frances Lasker Brody, who bought it in the 1950s. It had been kept in her family since then. Part of the sale proceeds will benefit the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, Calif., where Brody was on the board. The previous record for a work of art at auction was $104.3 million for "Walking Man I," a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti sold on Feb. 3 at Sotheby's in London. The previous high price for a Picasso work was $104.2 million for "Boy With a Pipe (The Young Apprentice)," attained in 2004 at Sotheby's New York." - Excerpted from 'Art Daily'/'AP' -

"Foghorns" by the fantastic Arthur Dove

2010-04-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

Arthur Dove - Foghorns - 1929 - Oil on canvas - 18 x 26 in. (45.7 x 66 cm)
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado

Arthur Dove (1889-1946) was an American painter who was one of the earliest nonobjective artists. Dove’s art reflects his belief that color and form are instruments with which to express the essence beneath the physical exterior of things; his shapes are typically amorphous, his colors muted. In his wonderful "Foghorns" (1929), for example, he used size-graduated shapes and gradations of hue to visually express the sound of foghorns. Despite their nonobjective character, his paintings often suggest the undulating qualities of landscape and the forms of nature.

Dove had a profound influence on Georgia O'Keeffe. From the start of her career, O’Keeffe credited a reproduction of a Dove pastel as her introduction to modernism. Dove’s use of sensual, abstract forms to evoke the flowing rhythms and patterns of nature had already put him at the forefront of the American modernist movement by the time O’Keeffe entered the scene around 1916. Dove had been featured at the renowned photographer Alfred Stieglitz’s New York gallery “291″ in 1912, and O’Keeffe’s work was first shown there in 1916. O'Keeffe seriously considered giving up painting entirely early on in her career. Although she was an award winning art student--she wasn't particularly interested in painting those subjects for which she was lauded. She also didn't want to paint in the manner of one her most famous teachers--William Merritt Chase--but at the same time didn't want to follow the paths of the European modernists. Seeing Dove's work helped O'Keeffe to find her own visual voice. When she was in her 70s, O'Keeffe recalled that, “It was Arthur Dove who affected my start, who helped me to find something of my own.” By all means, explore the paintings of Arthur Dove. It will be well worth the journey.

Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture: Inspiration and Invention

2010-03-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

Preaching of St John the Baptist
1506-11
Bronze, height: 265 cm (with base)
Baptistry, Florence

I highly recommend visiting the Getty Center to catch the current Leonardo exhibit. In addition to seeing incredible drawings (and the Vatican Saint Jerome) by the great master--there is a newly restored "Bearded Prophet" by the great Early Renaissance sculptor, Donatello also featured. In addition, there are elegant works by Giovan Franceso Rustici, who--mentored by Leonardo--produced works that come as close as possible to the way in which Leonardo might have sculpted them--and which refer to paintings created by Leonardo. Seeing the drawings of da Vinci gives viewers a unique opportunity to witness his thought (and work) process. It is also a delight to discover when and where Leonardo's mind would wander! Don't miss this event!

Architect Frank Gehry in Front of His New Building

2010-03-21T22:47:00.000-07:00

Architect Frank Gehry is seen in front of his latest creation, the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken

LAS VEGAS (AP).- Architect Frank Gehry says he wanted a swirling stainless steel structure he designed for Las Vegas to be unique — to stand out from what he called "the cacophony" of high-rise casinos and condos forming the spine of Sin City's sprawl.

Getting his first look at the nearly complete Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, he declared himself satisfied.

Architect Frank Gehry is seen in front of his latest creation, the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken

"It took my breath away," he said. "I like the way it fits. I wasn't trying to compete with the chaos around it."

"I mean, some people may think it's over the top," he added. "I don't think so."

Gehry, now 81, has built his career on shapes and angles all around the world: Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles; the Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago's Millennium Park; Seattle's Experience Music Project; the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

His philosophy?

"You deliver a unique building that creates a sense of pride, that works, that keeps the rain out, is uplifting, and makes you happy to go to work and live in," he told The Associated Press during an interview and walk around the building this week.

Excerpted from "Art Daily" - 21 March 2010

Quote of the Week

2010-03-21T18:11:00.001-07:00

"Truth and reality in art do not arise until you no longer understand what you are doing and are capable of but nevertheless sense a power that grows in proportion to your resistance." - Henri Matisse

Bathers with a Turtle - Matisse

2010-03-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

Henri Matisse
French, 1869-1954
Bathers with a Turtle, 1908
oil on canvas
70 1/2 x 86 3/4 inches
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. 24:1964

CHICAGO (AP).- A new exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago takes a close — sometimes even microscopic — look at one short and enigmatic phase in the 65-year-long artistic career of France's Henri Matisse.

Matisse, who lived from 1869 to 1954, is often seen as the least controversial and the most serene of the great 20th century modernists. Though his occasional early sculptures are darker, Matisse's paintings and prints seem to live in a sunny place outside of time. Their tone of bright calm makes their reproductions favored decor for hospital corridors.

Looking at them, you would not know that Matisse lived through both world wars and the Great Depression, or that Paris fell to enemy troops twice in his lifetime — in 1871 and 1940.

Except for the academic interiors and still lifes he painted as a student after abandoning the law for art at age 20, Matisse's enduring trademarks were bright colors and a deceptively simple approach to form. Those aspects were present from the oils Matisse presented in 1905 as leader of the fauvists to the vast paper cutouts he created late in his life when arthritis made painting impossible.

But they disappeared suddenly when he returned to Paris from a trip to Morocco in 1913 and did not fully reappear until after the end of World War I. During that time, Matisse's paintings were dominated by blacks and grays, and there was an uncharacteristic density to his composition. Some critics attribute the change to war pressures and the challenge of a younger generation of painters, particularly the cubism championed by Matisse's younger friend and rival, Pablo Picasso. But Stephanie D'Alessandro of the Art Institute and John Elderfield of New York's MoMa believe Matisse decided to reinvent himself artistically and develop new methods of art construction.

D'Alessandro noted that when the Art Institute acquired the work a year before Matisse's death, the artist told the museum it was one of the five most pivotal works of his career. She also said he had kept it in his studio for years as an object for study.

Matisse began "Bathers by a River" in 1909 and revised it several times over the next year. He reworked it again several times in 1913, and again in 1916-1917. "We have learned that the canvas experienced more than 20 states (of composition) over the years, and that Matisse deliberately left traces of some of the older versions visible in its final form," D'Alessandro said. It was a practice he continued when he returned to a brighter palette and lighter forms in the 1920s and 1930s.

"He said once that the greatest works were those in which you had to start over from scratch to rework them," she added.

Quote of the Week

2010-02-20T15:25:00.000-08:00

"All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life." - Oscar Wilde

2010-02-20T15:09:00.000-08:00

The Peasant, Portrait of Patience Escalier - Vincent van Gogh - 1888 - Private collection Oil on canvas Height: 69 cm (27.17 in.), Width: 56 cm (22.05 in.)

The striking color, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms of Vincent's work are as evident in his portraits as they are in his landscapes and still life works. He had a gift for looking into the human soul--but he clearly looked into it with sad eyes. There is always a visible touch of Vincent in his portraits--regardless of the identify of the sitter. Rather than this being a critical observation, however, I see it as part of this wonderful artist's signature style.

Quote of the Day

2010-01-30T10:37:00.001-08:00

"It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing." - Mark Rothko

2010-01-30T10:06:00.000-08:00

Sir Anthony van Dyck, Two Studies of a Bearded Man.

Art Daily reports that Sotheby's New York just sold the painting featured here for a grand $7,250,500. Van Dyck (1599-1641) was the most prominent Flemish painter of the 17th century, after Peter Paul Rubens. Indeed, there are some who believe that younger Flemish painters owe far more to Van Dyck than to Rubens. An excerpt from Sotheby's catalogue notes that, "In Two Studies of a Bearded Man Van Dyck paints the same man in bust-length from two slightly different positions: one in three-quarter view looking down and the other full face, glaring out at the viewer. The sitter is an unidentified model whose domed forehead, deep-set eyes and full beard and hair make him an ideal type for a variety of figures in Van Dyck's early religious and mythological paintings, as well as for Rubens's studio compositions.... One of the most remarkable aspects of the present work is the way Van Dyck created two distinct personalities from a single model."

Quote of the Day

2010-01-29T12:03:00.000-08:00

"Art is made to disturb. Science reassures. There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain." - Georges Braque

A Work of Futurism...PLUS!

2010-01-29T11:17:00.000-08:00

Gino Severini, Abstract Rhythm of Madame M.S., c. 1915, oil on canvas, 83x65 cm, Mizne-Blumental Collection, Tel Aviv Museum of Art

The museum of Tel Aviv holds numerous works by important Italian artists, several of which are presently on exhibit there. Gino Severini is represented by one of his famous Futurist paintings from c. 1915, featured here. Severini (1883-1996) was an Italian painter, born in Cortona. In 1901 he moved to Rome, where he met painters Umberto Boccioni and Giacomo Balla (who gave him lessons in Divisionism). Severini moved to Paris in 1906, and forged friendships with such figures as Picasso, Apollinaire, and Max Jacob. While living in Paris, however, he remained in close contact with his Italian associates, and joined the Futurist movement in 1910 . Although much of his Futurist work remains influenced by Divisionism, from c. 1912 forward his work also shows a strong awareness of Cubism, a movement he highly recommended to his fellow Futurists. Futurism developed primarily in Italy, in around 1910. Its objective was to express the energy and values of the machine age.

Quote of the Day

2010-01-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

"At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since." - Salvador Dali

Quote of the Day

2010-01-18T20:52:00.000-08:00

"Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels." - Francisco Goya

Hieronymus Bosch

2010-01-18T20:12:00.000-08:00

Hieronymus Bosch. Temptation of St. Anthony. Central panel. 1500. Oil on panel. Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, Portugal.

Bosch was a brilliant and highly original Flemish painter of the late Middle Ages. His work is characterized by unusual, fantastic, iconography--and embodies a complex and wholly individual style. Bosch was regarded as a highly imaginative “creator of devils” and a powerful inventor of seeming nonsense full of satirical meaning--which in and of itself is quite a feat. Closer scrutiny also reveals a demonstrated insight into the depths of the human mind and spirit. Hieronymous Bosch is most definitely one of my greatest mentors--and a powerful source of inspiration for me, as a painter. When examining such creations as his--and of other medieval painters, like Ambrogio Lorenzetti, I cannot help but wonder what all the fuss is about with regard to the characters in James Cameron's film, Avatar. Frankly--they cannot hold a torch to these guys!

Ambrogio Lorenzetti

2010-01-17T22:54:00.000-08:00

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory of Bad Government (detail) c. 1338-39 - Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

Ambrogio Lorenzetti is one of my all-time favorite painters! His genius was cut short by the Black Death--and one can only wonder at where his skill and imagination would have taken him. He ranks among the greatest of the Italian Sienese painters. Although his style was influenced by Duccio, by his older brother, Pietro, and by the great proto-Renaissance master, Giotto--a fierce individualism and unique inventive powers--as well as a stellar understanding of composition and form--are embedded in Ambrogio's works.

2010-01-17T22:44:00.000-08:00

"I often think the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." - Vincent van Gogh

Quote of the Day

2010-01-15T19:30:00.000-08:00

"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home." - Twyla Tharp

2010-01-11T19:42:00.000-08:00

"One day seven years ago I found myself saying to myself -- I can't live where I want to -- I can't go where I want to go--I can't do what I want to -- I can't even say what I want to --....I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to." - Georgia O'Keeffe

Quote of the Day

2010-01-10T12:02:00.000-08:00

"It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child." - Pablo Picasso

(Jill's Note: It would take me a lot longer than four years to be able to paint like Raphael--but then, I am not Picasso!)

The Movement of Picasso

2010-01-10T11:46:00.001-08:00

Pablo Picasso

The Old Fisherman (Salmereon) 1895, Museu de Montserrat, Barcelona

Whenever I revisit the works of Pablo Picasso I discover new aspects and elements to his art and am in awe of his perpetual evolution. In surveys of Modern Art, I tell students that the broadest, most well-known movements within the period are Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism, Dada, Surrealism, and Picasso. He cannot be categorized--and he influenced virtually all of his contemporaries, as well as the artists of later generations. His influence continues to be felt today One of my favorite class exercises is to show slides of 8 or 10 paintings--none of them with captions underneath--and ask students to try and name the artists who created these works. They come up with all kinds of answers. But...the answer is that all of the paintings I show were created by Picasso. Who would have thought--for example--that the painting shown here is a Picasso?

Quote of the Day

2010-01-09T13:22:00.000-08:00

"Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing." - Camille Pissarro

Welcoming a New Term!

2010-01-09T10:18:00.001-08:00

Bradshaw Period - Nine Tassel Bradshaw Figures - detail - 390mm (15ins) to 730mm (29ins) - possibly engaged in a ceremonial dance. Notice the bangle bracelets!

One of the things I love about my work is the ongoing process of reconnecting with great works of art. Each term there are new classes to develop and teach--and the topic ideas emerge from examining art from different perspectives--and in a variety of contexts. Whenever I teach a group of students, or mentor an individual, I become excited all over again about art and art history--and the astounding vision and talent that goes into artistic creation. I also learn as much from my students as they learn from me--and benefit enormously from keeping up with the latest scholarship in art history--and the newest developments in art materials and techniques. In essence, teaching is an ongoing learning experience--and one that I find inspiring, rewarding and joyful. This term, I'm teaching the second half of a Western art survey, American genre painting, a special program on the sculpture (or designs for it) of Leonardo da Vinci, and the History of Photography. In fine arts, I'm teaching painting, dry pastels, pen & ink, and oil pastels. So I'm a busy person--as usual! Genre painting refers to works about people engaging in everyday activities. When considering how to approach the American genre painting class--I decided to explore just how far back in time genre painting extends. Lo' and behold--I discovered it dates all the way back to pre-history. In the Bradshaw paintings discovered quite by accident in the Northwest corner of Australia (the Kimberleys) in 1891 (by Joseph Bradshaw)--we see human beings (otherwise unheard of in prehistoric art) likely engaged in ceremonial dance. These works are quite sophisticated, and very different from the prehistoric cave paintings of such places as Lascaux and Altamira. These mysterious rock paintings could be anywhere from 17,000 to 50,000 years old. Our knowledge of how humans lived long ago has largely been determined by examining art. Scholars look at numerous works and piece the history together, step-by-step. Much of what we know about ancient Greece, for example, has been determined by the images on vase paintings. A fascinating process--wouldn't you agree?

Quote of the Day

2010-01-07T10:45:00.000-08:00

"Every painting is a voyage into a sacred harbour." - Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267-1337)

The Early Middle Ages

2010-01-07T10:35:00.000-08:00

The Fight between David and Goliath
1123 - Mural, 82 x 75 cm - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

After the fall of the Roman Empire--all knowledge of anatomical structure and examples of sophisticated paintings and sculpture appeared to have been lost. Medieval culture was essentially starting over--in terms of art. Murals such as this--without any sense of composition or anatomical structure--were being created, and they represented a far cry from the astounding works of precision and beauty that characterized antiquity. And yet...despite a complete lack of sophistication in a formal sense, these works possess a charm of their own. More importantly, they served their purpose--which was to tell the stories of the Bible to uneducated masses. Always remember that public works of art to pre-industrial cultures were the equivalent of TV and movies today!

Quote of the Day

2010-01-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

"If I hadn't started painting, I would have raised chickens." - Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson Moses, 1860 – 1961)

Christie's New York Recently Announced Americana Week 2010

2010-01-06T11:01:00.000-08:00

Rare Double Portrait by Ammi Phillips (1788-1865). Art Daily reports that "[t]he lead highlight of the Americana Week sales is an exceedingly rare, full-length double portrait of Theron Simpson Ludington (1850-1922) and His Older Sister Virginia Ludington (1846-1865) by the prominent 19th-century American portrait artist Ammi Phillips (estimate: $300,000-500,000). Unknown among Phillips works until earlier this year, this dynamic, even humorous portrait of two young siblings has been passed down through generations of the Ludington family of Goshen, CT until the present day. Phillips was commissioned sometime around 1852 to paint the family’s members, which included formal portraits of the children’s parents...." Phillips was a naive (self-taught) New England painter--now regarded as one of the most important folk artists of his era. The distinctions between naive art, folk art, and outsider art are often blurred--and the terms are frequently used interchangeably. Naive artists generally refers to painters living in mainstream culture who pursue individualized subjects and themes, such as Henri Rousseau. Folk art typically embodies subjects dealing with a particular culture and/or tells us something about the community or traditions of the artist. Naive painter Grandma Moses is considered a folk artist. Outsider Art refers to works created by individuals living outside or on the fringes of mainstream society--such as homeless people, prisoners, mental patients and the like. One common feature is that all of these forms generally engage artists who have had no formal training--but who pursue their art with the same commitment as professional artists. Although their works were once widely referred to as "primitive" -- and sometimes are still so labeled -- there is a tendency among art historians to avoid that term these days. Some professional (formally trained) artists have chosen to align themselves with the Outsider Art movement--as a way of protesting and challenging what they see as the elitism of the contemporary art world.

Detroit Institute of Arts Looks at 1950s Detroit through the Eyes of Robert Frank

2010-01-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

"Drugstore, Detroit", Robert Frank, 1955. Gelatin silver print, image: (59.1 x 40.0 cm), 23 1/4 x 15 3/4 inches. ©Robert Frank, from 'The Americans'. Detroit Institute of Arts

DETROIT, MI.- "Detroit Experiences: Robert Frank Photographs, 1955" showcases more than 50 rare and many never-before-seen black-and-white photographs taken in Detroit by legendary photographic artist Robert Frank. The exhibition will be on view at the Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA) March 3–July 4, 2010. The exhibition is free with museum admission. In 1955 and 1956 Robert Frank traveled the U.S. taking photographs for his groundbreaking book 'The Americans', published in 1958. He set out to create a large visual record of America, and Detroit was one of his early stops. Inspired by autoworkers, the cars they made, along with local lunch counters, drive-in movies and public parks, Frank transformed everyday experiences of Detroiters into an extraordinary visual statement about American life. The above was excerpted from Art Daily. Jill's Note: In an age when everyone has a camera on hand--it's important to be reminded of the artistry and vision that contributes to a photographic work of art that is a masterpiece.

Quote of the Day

2010-01-05T11:30:00.000-08:00

"I am essentially a painter of the kind of still life composition that communicates a sense of tranquillity and privacy, moods which I have always valued above all else." - M.C. Escher

M.C. Escher - "Drawing Hands" - 1948, lithograph.

2010-01-05T11:24:00.000-08:00

M.C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist, noted for his distinctive prints depicting intricate interlocking patterns and optical illusions. He was especially accomplished in lithography and wood engraving. While Escher’s early work consists mainly of landscapes and townscapes, beginning in 1936 his work became increasingly more concerned with scenes of his own creation, especially with the repeating patterns and spatial illusions for which he is best known. The "Drawing Hands" are a beautiful presentation of the hands of an artist--our hands being one of our most important tools.

Quote of the Day

2010-01-04T10:28:00.000-08:00

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--things I had no words for." - Georgia O'Keeffe

The Abstraction of Georgia O'Keeffe

2010-01-04T10:26:00.000-08:00

Georgia O’Keeffe, "Red, Yellow and Black Streak", 1924. Oil on canvas, (100 × 80.6 cm), 39 3/8 × 31 3/4 inches. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Center Georges Pompidou, Paris.

American painter, best known for her large-format paintings of natural forms, especially flowers and bones, and for her depictions of New York City skyscrapers and architectural and landscape forms unique to northern New Mexico. She remains one of the most important artists in the history of art, in that her works convey the integrity of her Modernist vision, her independent spirit, and, above all, her profound sensitivity to the vitality of natural forces. O’Keeffe also played a key role in challenging the notion that gender was in any way a determinant of artistic competence or creativity. By so doing, she helped to establish a new and significant space for female artists in a realm that continues to be dominated by men.

Quote of the Day

2010-01-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

"A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art." - Paul Cézanne

Pere Borell del Caso, "Escaping Criticism", 1874. Madrid, Banco de España

2010-01-03T09:54:00.000-08:00

One of the goals of this blog is to share with you some of the great works of art that I find fascinating--in the hope that you'll find interest in them, too. This work is a masterful example of trompe-l’œil. The Art Daily notes that "Trompe-l’œil is distinguished not just by its realism – after all, still life, perspective painting and photography can all claim to be realistic – but by its wit. In the best trompe-l’œil the artist deliberately sets out to trick you, and then lets you know you have been tricked." Reprinted from Art Daily - 3 January 2010

Quote of the Day

2010-01-02T14:26:00.001-08:00

"Art is a lie that makes us realize truth." - Pablo Picasso

Thanks for your visits!

2010-01-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for visiting and signing in here! Heather, I'm glad the painting reminded you of Bosch (with whimsy) because that was my intention. Here's another image that seems apt for the incoming year--a time when we reflect back one more time before moving forward with new projects, ideas and goals. A sort of "Double Vision" if you will (done in oil pastels over acrylics and dyes on canvas). Hope you like it. Let me know what projects you all envision for the New Year! Note: Enlarging this Image will blur it! Sorry! I had some technical difficulty with my new camera!

Welcome to my blog - Jill Kiefer - Arts Alive!

2009-12-31T13:09:00.000-08:00

Hello...and Welcome! On the 2009/2010 cusp seems a good point for beginning a new blog. This site will be devoted to sharing works of art (mine and others) and talking about art historical issues, as well. Your participation is encouraged. But for now...have a safe New Year's celebration--and a Happy, Healthy, Productive and CREATIVE 2010. My painting entitled "After Midnight" (featured here) seems an apt choice for a party atmosphere. Hope you enjoy it! Note: Enlarging this Image will blur it! Sorry! I had some technical difficulty with my new camera!