6 Things I Learned About Painting From the Met's Blockbuster Matisse Show Last week, I finally visited the Met’s stellar exhibition, “Matisse: In Search of True Painting.” The show was, as I hoped, a refreshingly engaging experience that breaks down Henri Matisse’s meticulous and academic painting process into sections, addressing recurring themes that are applicable to both modern painters and art students today. In a recent article, New York Times art critic Roberta Smith aptly called the show “one of the most thrillingly instructive exhibitions about this painter, or painting in general, that you may ever see.” “Matisse: In Search of True Painting,” is ordered chronologically, and each gallery is separated into at least two critical stages of Matisse’s ever-evolving studio process, explained through the succinct and careful wall text that corresponds with each set of works. Here are six things that every art student will learn if they go see this show, which I can guarantee will make you a better painter. When to Use True Black Do Multiple Studies
Incredible Living Painting With Realistic Body Paint Usually, we admire that the artists can create characters vividly, while this time, we will introduce a different artist who turns living, breathing people into characters in oil painting. That is Alexa Meade. Alexa Meade is a 23-year-old artist based in Washington, DC area. She applies acrylic paint to the surfaces of people, objects, and walls in a broad brushstroke that mimics the appearance of brushwork in a painting in a technique that she innovated.
Naples Sailor Paints Haze Gray Masterpiece Better than the Mona Lisa. GAETA, ITALY – Raphael. Michelangelo. Giovanni Bellini. In its long history, Italy has incited many artists to greatness. “This is what I’ve been working towards my entire life,” Miller said of the ship’s fresh coat of paint. The 23-year-old artist was tasked with repainting his Naples-based ship last month when the Whitney ’s leaders ran out of anything better for the crew to do. “I found that I had come to regard that old, metal cage as an empty chapel ceiling and my paint roller as a tool for truth and beauty,” said the young prodigio. Haze gray is the color tone the US Navy uses on all of its surface ships – and the medium that Miller reportedly slaved over to make his vision of the perfect paint job a reality. “We were worried sick about him,” said Hospital Corpsman First Class Larry Perkins, who serves in the Whitney ’s infirmary. Indeed, Miller estimates he slept only ten hours and lost upwards of twenty pounds in the three-week production period.
Japanese Erotic Art Goes On View At Sotheby's In 'Beyond The Paper Screen' (NSFW PHOTOS) If you've ever wanted to get into the sexual mindset of a 17th century Japanese artist, it's time to head to Hong Kong and feast your eyes upon a deliciously naughty exhibit of traditional erotic art. Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), Kinoe no komatsu (Detail), 1814, Woodblock colour print book, 22.0 x 26.0 cm Coyly titled "Beyond the Paper Screen," the Sotheby's showcase features a collection of over 60 blush-worthy prints by recognizable artists like Katsushika Hokusai and Kitagawa Utamaro. Taken together, the works explore the Edo period of Japanese art making (roughly the period between 1603 and 1868), in which pre-Modern artists delved into their sensual psyches to portray a plethora of taboo themes from polygamy to zoophilia. The various ukiyo-e artworks on display -- including Hokusai's famous portrait of a woman being pleasured by an octopus -- are sourced from the collection of well-known antique dealer Mitsuru Uragami.
George W. Bush Is Planning A New Painting Series And We Can't Wait Former U.S. president and current watercolor enthusiast George W. Bush is back at the easel. "Finally!" shouted no one everyone who's been obsessed with Dubya's not-so-secret love of painting dogs, cats and bizarre self-portraits. In a recent exit interview with the former director of Bush's public policy institute, James K. The New York Times reports: After early self-portraits in the shower and then dozens of paintings of dogs and cats, Mr. Bush has wowed us with his contemplative, personal-hygiene-themed works of art, first revealed to the world thanks to a hacker named Guccifer. While we all mull over the idea that GWB is quickly becoming one of our favorite outsider artists (Men Who Have Once Commanded Our Nation's Military category), it can't hurt to venture a guess as to which international allies Bush will choose to paint. 1. 2. If Bush can get over Mr. 3. 4. 5. Remember that time Bush gave German Chancellor Merkel a neck massage? 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
These 20+ Street Art Images Testify Uncomfortable Truths | CSGlobe The catharsis that comes from awakening to the world’s happenings is often eclipsed by the realization of what we – as humans – have caused destruction-wise upon the Earth. In case you’re not aware, the global temperature has increased 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, the global average sea level has increased 7″ over the past 100 years due to melting ice caps, and now carbon dioxide levels are at their highest they’ve ever been in over 650,000 years. One way to slow bring awareness to those who may live in the shadow of delusion – ignorant of the effects their actions have and sustainable alternatives they might employ – is to creatively share messages in high-populated urban areas. And in the dense thicket of apartment buildings, skyscrapers, and public plazas, exterior walls of concrete buildings become the perfect canvas to display such messages. As the world moves to cities, so does art. See also: Banksy Sneaks Into Gaza To Create Controversial Street Art
Review: 40 Years of Sylvester Stallone’s Paintings in France Hollywood screen legend Sylvester Stallone has opened a retrospective of his paintings at the Galerie Contemporaine du Musée de Nice. Titled “Real Love: Paintings 1975-2015,” the exhibition spans four decades of the film star’s painting practice from his earliest figurative works to his most recent large abstract canvases. Although Stallone is best known for his iconic roles in films such as Rocky and Rambo, as the title of his Nice retrospective suggests, it is fair to say that his first and “real” love is painting. Since childhood he has identified his true calling as a visual artist and has even stated that if he had a choice, he would spend his life painting and sculpting instead of starring in action movies. The success of Stallone’s painting practice, as exposed in “Real Love,” lies in its authenticity, vulnerability, and immediacy. Stallone’s retrospective in Nice follows his critically acclaimed 2013 retrospective at the State Russian Museum in St.
Nicola Samori Scratches The Surface Of His Dark And Intense Paintings To Unveil Previous Layers Of Work - Beautiful/Decay The work of Nicola Samori depicts dying corpses and mysterious portraits scraped, scratched and torn on the surface, unveiling layers of contrasting paint. Dark and intense paintings, covering layers of existing work, like flesh covering the accumulation of past experiences and traumas. The artist chooses to damage his previous paintings on purpose. Body, death and painting are, for Nicola Samori, subjects of obsession. Nicola Samori’s work will be exhibited at Galerie Eigen+Art Leipzig in Berlin until September 2015.
christian rex van minnen's paintings are brutal, beautiful and bizarre feb 22, 2016 christian rex van minnen's paintings are brutal, beautiful and bizarre christian rex van minnen’s paintings are brutal, beautiful and bizarre(above) duckface | 2015 | oil/linen | 12×16″all images courtesy of christian rex van minnen somewhere at the intersection between the dutch golden age, surrealism, tattoo art, candy culture and the human body lies the playfully wicked paintings of christian rex van minnen. the new york-based creative manages to amalgamate many, if not all, of these seemingly disparate themes, motifs and artistic eras into each of his vividly grotesque works. ‘I enjoy seeing diversity and contrast of imagery and textures that provoke a similarly diverse and contrasting emotional response,’ van minnen tells designboom. still life with meermin and jelly rings | 2015 | oil/linen | 48×72″ well, look what crawled outta the woods | 2015 | oil/linen | 26×20″ you sharpen my knife, I’ll sharpen yours | 2015 | oil/panel | 24×18″ nina azzarello I designboom
A Native American Artist Who Painted Pop and Challenged the Status Quo Installation view, ‘Super Indian: Fritz Scholder, 1967–1980’ at the Phoenix Art Museum (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic) (click to enlarge) PHOENIX, Ariz. — Super Indian: Fritz Scholder, 1967–1980, currently on view at the Phoenix Art Museum (PAM), features over 40 oil paintings and prints by the Luiseño artist. The exhibition celebrates the work, influence, and ethos of Scholder, who left an indelible mark not only on the contemporary Native art world but on the mainstream art world as well. Installation view, ‘Super Indian: Fritz Scholder, 1967–1980’ at the Phoenix Art Museum (click to enlarge) Walking into the exhibition space at PAM, the first thing I noticed — and was pleasantly surprised by — was the amount of real estate the museum devoted to this show. Fritz Scholder, “Super Indian No. 2” (1971), oil canvas, Promised gift from Vicki and Kent Logan to the Collection of Denver Art Museum (© Estate of Fritz Scholder) (click to enlarge) June 17, 2015 September 9, 2015
The Heir To Matisse With A Dose Of California Cool There’s nothing like seeing one of Richard Diebenkorn’s joyful Ocean Park paintings in real life—but a new catalogue of his work comes close. In the new luxe catalogue raisonné from Yale University Press showcasing the work of artist Richard Diebenkorn, there is something for anyone who cares at all for visual art. Painting, drawing, etching, portraiture, landscape, still life, representation, and abstraction—in a long, peripatetic career stretching across the last half of the last century, he did it all and did it well. Although he was exceedingly proficient as a technician, Diebenkorn always wanted you to see the oil paint, the charcoal, the gouache—he never lets you forget that you are staring at a made object, be it painting or drawing. That may sound like a simpleminded thing to say about an artist, but think of the artists, and not just realists, who subvert or disguise the act of putting paint on canvas or charcoal on paper. There is no through line in Diebenkorn’s career.
Alice Neel, Collector of Souls | The Brooklyn Rail Gemeentemuseum den Haag, Netherlands November 5 2016 – February 12, 2017 In the first room of Alice Neel, Collector of Souls at Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, displaying a dozen or so small-sized early paintings from the 1930s, one already can apprehend Neel’s legacy as a portraitist. Her asymmetrical portrait of a woman, Elenka (1936), and the calm and frontal Gerhard Yensch (1935) bring you close to her subjects. The two works, each executed in different styles—the first loose in brushstroke, the second tight and precise—exude a resulting psychological content, and are stronger works among the many portraits that Neel would make in the following decades. In color, Neel’s early works are often dark, navigating stylistically between a Neue Sachlichkeit kind of cool precision and observation, and a more expressionistic, nervous mark making. Moving in 1962 from a small Harlem apartment to a large and light-filled space at 300 West 107th Street possibly contributed to this development.