Art Center Information

The Louvre: All The Paintings

Art Center Information has gave away this fabulous book on July 16, 2012 please enter to win a different book (see upper right). But it is a great book that I highly recommend, so see highlights below. Available through internet bookstores.

Imagine this: Wouldn’t it be great to hop on a plane and fly to Paris to visit the Louvre? My goodness! There are 3022 paintings to view. How long would that take? Well, for us artists, it would take longer than the non-artists because we don’t view a great work of art, we absorb it. We envision the artist making every brush strokes. It almost takes our breath away.

The next best thing to actually visiting The Louvre’s galleries is having the fabulous book, The Louvre: All The Paintings, at your fingertips as a wonderful coffee table book. This is something your family and friends will enjoy for a lifetime. Definitely, it is the first collection to showcase the permanent paintings of a museum of The Louvre’s stature.

The book takes the four distinct schools of painting: Italian, Northern, Spanish and French. It organizes them and makes up what you might call a mini-course representing each of the school’s best works.

The paintings are chronologically presented by the artists’ birth dates. The sizes of the photographs vary from full-page plates to six or more on a page.

This book, several years in the making, is an international collaboration and an official publication of the museum. With nearly 800 book pages and a supportive DVD-ROM, it is the only complete collection of masterpiece paintings from the world’s most famous museum.

The Louvre: All The Paintings is prefaced By Henri Loyrette (General Director of The Louvre); Photography by Erich Lessing; Edited and Introductions by Vincent Pomerede (General Curator of Paintings at The Louvre); text by Anja Grebe (Professor of Art History, University of Bamberg, Germany).

Posted in ART COFFEE TABLE BOOK, Eric Lessing, THE LOUVRE: ALL THE PAINTINGS, Vincent Pomarede | Tagged art center information, art coffee table book, Eric Lessing, The Louvre: All the Paintings, Vincent Pomarede | Comments Off

Maria Howard Weeden Portrayed the Era of Her Time With Watercolors

The Civil War left Maria Howard Weeden impoverished. However being talented and accomplished at drawing, Howard (the professional name she used), made a unique contribution to an era in the history of the South with her watercolor portraits.

In 1893, Weeden traveled to Chicago for the World’s Columbian Exposition and saw the works of other artists. She disliked the common portrayal of the African-American such as A. B. Frost’s Illustrations for Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus tales and it inspired her to paint the people she had known all her life.

In the introduction to Bandanna Ballads (one of her published illustrated books of poetry), Joel Chandler Harris wrote: The art with which the facts are set forth is so felicitous in its touch, so faithful and so informing that it goes deeper than character and individuality; it revives and resurrects the period; in some mysterious way, it restores the atmosphere and color of the time. And each portrait stands out as a little masterpiece, harmonious, powerful, charged with feeling, and illuminated by the imagination that makes its creations more real than life itself.

She spent many years portraying servants, gardeners, cooks, nannies, and children. Her portraits were often devoid of background, but the subjects were given a sense of formality and dignity.

Posted in Artist, Maria Howar Weeden, Portraits, water color | Tagged art information, artist, Maria Howard Weeden, watercolor | Comments Off

When Art Meets Social and Political Conditions: Social Realists

During the 1930s, there were many groups of art styles and “isms” working in varied ways. The Stieglitz group, abstract artists, regionalists, social realists, and Expressionists were captivating the art world. Social conscious art persisted for several decades. The Great Depression era screamed of the need for writers, visual artists, and other intellectuals to respond. Many artists documented and dramatized personal struggles, issues and the condition of life. The art of Ben Shahn particularly stood out among the social artists of his day.

Ben Shahn: "The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti"(1932)

Although Shahn painted the world about him, exploring themes of modern urban life, organized labor, immigration and injustices, he did so with compassion, proposing a close relationship between himself and his audience.

He chose pictorial realities, instead of abstract forms, after spending time in Europe studying great artists such as Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Paul Klee. Even as Norman Rockwell had, he eventually outgrew his pursuit of European modern art, feeling that painting reality reaffirmed the significance of life.

Although he chose reality over the Modern Art coming out of Europe, his studies under the great artists of Europe did have an effect on his work. He is noted for his unique symbolism, which many critics compare to the imagery of Paul Klee. He intentionally paired contrasting colors and images together to create tension.

Most all of his noted works represented something political or highly charged happening around him such as The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti.

Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted of murdering two men in a 1920 armed robbery. Their trial was very controversial losing a series of appeals. The two men were executed August 23, 1927. There was a greatly politicized dispute over whether they were guilty or innocent. Many argued the trials were unfair, focusing on contradictory evidence.

Liberation, one of Ben Shahn’s war paintings of Europe. Although it shows in the foreground the sense and exhilaration of being liberated, in the background is the rubble of war.

Posted in Artist, Ben Shahn, Social Realists | Tagged art, artist, Ben Shahn, Social Realists | Comments Off

Art Center Information Presents Two More Artists From the Hudson River School

Art Center Information presents two more great landscape artists from the Hudson River School. The artwork below represents Jasper Francis Cropsey and Sanford Robinson Gifford.

Jasper Francis Cropsey: "The Spirit of War" (1851)

Jasper Francis Cropsey was trained as an architect but eventually became a noted artist colleague of the Hudson River School. His autumn landscapes were painted with boldness. He (as many of the group) believed landscapes were the highest form of art.

Sanford Gifford: "October in the Catskills" 1880

Sanford Robinson Gifford was a second generation Hudson River School colleague. These were the luminary artists that basically believed in the philosophy of the school that nature was a direct manifestation of God and that landscapes were the highest art form.

Looking over October in the Catskills, I do see that the Gifford tried hard to present this concept. The painting was his last landscape. He painted in excess of 700 paintings during his career.

Posted in art center information, Artist, Hudson River School | Tagged art information, artist, Hudson River School | Comments Off

Frederick Edwin Church: For a Period, the Highest Paid Living American Artist

In 1909, Frederic Church’s painting, The Heart of the Andes, sold to Margaret Dows, widow of David Dows, for $10,000.00. At that time it was the highest amount ever paid a living American artist.

In 1859, Church introduced the huge painting (661/8″X1191/4″) at the Tenth Street Studio in New York City. The art work was a spectacular display with the fan fare of a world event, having a significant effect on its viewers. Both men and women succumbed to what they described as a dizziness when viewing it, feeling a sense of vertigo that some described as almost sublime. It was said that it was so overwhelming that many women were prone to fainting.

Mark Twain in a description of the painting, said: You’ll never get tired of looking at the picture, but your reflections-your efforts to grasp an intelligible Something-you hardly know what-will grow so painful that you’ll have to go away from the thing, in order to obtain relief. It is in my mind now- that the smallest feature could not be removed without my detecting it.

Between the time of the first showing and fifty years later when sold to Margeret Dows, the painting traveled and was exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. In many cases, there was a cost of 25cents for the public to view the art work. Upon her death in February 1909, Margeret Dows bequeathed it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Frederick Edwin Church: The Heart of the Andes (1859)

Church was a well off student of Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School of landscape painters (see previous blog post). As many of the colleagues of the school were, he was concerned with including a spiritual dimension in his art works.

From spring to autumn of each year the artist would travel and sketch, usually walking. It was as though he was gobbling up the world. In the winter, he would return to paint and sell his works.

Frederick Edwin Church: Aurora Borealis (1865)

Church drew and sketched in oil everything in his path-trees, rocks, flowers, mountains, clouds, waterfalls, icebergs- as he traveled the Hemispheres from the Catskills to Connecticut , Maine, South America, Labrador, Jamaica, Europe, and the Near East.

I personally am attracted to the color work in Aurora Borealis (pictured at the left), another large oil on canvas (561/2″X831/2″).

Posted in Artist, Frederick Edwin Church, Hudson River School | Tagged artist, Frederick Edwin Church, Hudson River School, Paintings | Comments Off

Art Center Information Shines Light on the Hudson River School Artists

The discussion at Art Center Information centers on light as used by the Hudson River School artists, often termed the Luminists.

Many of the colleagues at the Hudson River School began painting scenes of New England and the Hudson River Valley, but expanded their portrayals across the American continent. Wherever they painted their landscapes, they painted with a luminous effect that created excitement, characterized by their realistic, detailed and idealized portrayal of nature.

Thomas Cole: The Oxbow, View form Mount Holyoke, Northhampton, Massachusetts

The artist Thomas Cole receives acknowledgement as founder of the school. He believed nature in the American landscape was a manifestation of God. He shared a reverence for America’s beauty with writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Many of the artists from the school would travel to extraordinary and extreme, dangerous environs that was not conducive for making a painting. The painting would be produced later from memories and sketches.

In 1863, student of the Hudson River School, Albert Bierstadt, ventured west passing through Yosemite. He spent two months taking notes and making sketches before leaving for the west coast. Many of the oil sketches he made took him as much as eight hours to create. His dedication to accurately record the mise-en-scene of a landscape was considered to have no equal in America.

Although Bierstadt had many great fans, he also had ardent detractors objecting to his innacurate color schemes, altering geographic elements to enhance viewers emotions , his excessive use of light, and pandering to the popular love of excitement. However, Bierstadt had traveled to these places and seen the dreamlike, wondrous landscapes with his own eyes, and his critics had not.

Albert Bierstadt: Yosemity Valley, Yellowstone Park 1868

Albert Bierstadt: Storm in the Mountains

For your art information, “School”, in this sense refers to a group of painters whose outlook, style and inspiration demonstrate a common thread rather than a learning institution.

Others notably belonging to the school:

John William Casilear; Frederic Edwin Church; Samuel Colman; Jasper Cropsey; Thomas Doughty; Asher Brown Durand;Robert Duncanson; Sanford Robinson gifford; James McDougal Hart;

William Hart; William Stanly Haseltine; Martin Johnson Heade; Hermann Ottmar Herzog; Thomas Hill; David Johnson; John Frederick Kensett; jervis McEntee; Thomas Moran; Robert Walter Weir; Worthington Whittredge

Posted in art center information, Artist, Hudson River School, Luminist | Tagged art information, artist, Hudson River School, Luminist | Comments Off

The First Time I Saw a Giclee Print

The first time I ever saw a giclee print I was in a very upscale art gallery in Miami, Florida. The least expensive one was selling for $17,000.00 and some went up as high as in the $30,000.00 range.

I’d never heard of giclee and thought it was a different type of medium. The paintings exhibited were great and I was in awe of the many talented works that I observed. I didn’t want to show my ignorance, so I asked no question about them. However, I stared at the paintings trying to see if there was some special something about them that would make giclee a better medium than I was using. I found it odd that this magic medium appeared as oil, acrylic, and watercolor, depending on the painting. Again not to appear as ignorant as I obviously was, I asked no questions.

As soon as I got back to my hotel, I called my brother long distance. “What is the medium, giclee?” I immediately asked.

“It’s zzzzsssshhhh(pause)klaaaaeee” He responded, drawling out the word. “Not a painting medium. It’s a print.” I was baffled. I couldn’t believe it. Could prints no matter how limited sell for that much money?

The next day I returned back to the gallery and talked to the owner. He was very helpful, and explained the signed and numbered giclee prints in his gallery were much more than a print. The original artists had gone in and touched up their prints, making each print in its own way an original.

It turned out that these were very popular, known, and demanded artists that sold their original paintings for much more than the giclee prints. He said in the case of some of the artists his gallery featured that the giclees sold for roughly ten percent of the originals.

I was impressed.

I’ll talk more about the process of giclee printing in a future blog.

Posted in giclee, Prints | Tagged artists, Giclee, Prints | Comments Off

Art Center Information Visits Still Life Artists of the 19th Century

Life’s transient reminders of things past such as, worn out objects, rough and scrumbled surfaces, cut flowers on a table, a broken wine cork, fruit in a basket and more makeup the models of still life. With origins in the Middle Ages and Ancient Greek and Roman art, still life paintings give the artist more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition than do paintings of other types of subjects.

From the time artists began laying paint on a substrate, most all artist at one time or another have painted a still life. I’ve selected a handful to present here from the early 19th century.

William Harnett: "Music and Literature" (1878)

William Harnett: "The Faithful Colt" 1890

Artist, William Harnett, emigrated to the United States during the Irish potato famine. He made his living as a silver engraver while taking night classes in art.

His still life oil paintings were inspired by the 17th century Dutch Masters.

Raphaelle Peale: "Strawberries, Nuts, and Citrus (1822)

You can’t talk about Still Life artist without talking about Raphaelle Peale. He set the pattern for American Still Life artists, inspired by the still life work he saw in his travels to Mexico as a young man.

He was the son of Charles Wilson Peale who was best known for his portraits of the leading figures of the American Revolution.

Severin Roesen: "Still Life With a Basket of Fruit" (undated)

Not a lot is known about Severin Roesen except he painted at least three hundred paintings of which twelve were known to have been dated.

It is known that he emigrated to the United States in 1848. He lived in New York, exhibiting his paintings there, until he left his family and moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania 1857.

The Williamsport Sun and Banner had an article on him in 1895, writing about his art and studio. It is unknown where he went to when he left Williamsport, and the date and place of his death is unknown. He simply went away.

Posted in art center information, Artist, Raphaelle Peale, Severin Roesen, Still Life, William Harnett | Tagged art information, artist, Raphaelle Peale, Severin Roesen, William Harnett | Comments Off

Art Center Information Posts More of Lynn Burton’s Murals

I’ve mentioned in former posts that my brother, Lynn Burton, has been painting murals throughout Texas and Oklahoma for years. He’s become known for his mural’s as well as his fine art. I’m posting a few more that have never been shown on this blog sight before.

Scroll through the Art Center Blog to see others. Enjoy: