Shadow Dancing with Mind: Painting

Showing posts with label Painting. Show all posts

Jun 22, 2012

Up Close & Personal: Joan Miro – The most surrealist painter of all

Etoile Bleue (Blue Star) painting smashes auction record - BBC News 20th June, 2012

Joan Miro's 1927 work Peinture (Etoile Bleue) has sold for more than £23.5 million (nearly 37 Million US$) in London, setting a new auction record for the Spanish painter

Etoile Bleue sold at Soothby's to anonymous buyer
on 20th June, 2012 for 23.5 Million pounds
Img Curtsy Joan-Miro.info

I had to put the painting ‘Blue Star’ image here, since I know, after seeing it, everyone will think... I could have painted this too... But before you go and smirk with your own interesting critic, here is what Miro thought about critics.

"...they (Critics) are more concerned with being philosophers than anything else. They form a preconceived opinion, then they look at the work of art. Painting merely serves as a cloak in which to wrap their emaciated philosophical systems."

Blue III c1961 Img Curtsy Joan-Miro.info

"The spectacle of the sky overwhelms me. I'm overwhelmed when I see, in an immense sky, the crescent of the moon, or the sun. There, in my pictures, tiny forms in huge empty spaces. Empty spaces, empty horizons, empty plains - everything which is bare has always greatly impressed me." - Joan Miró, 1958, quoted in Twentieth-Century Artists on Art.

Swallow love c1933 Image Curtsy Joan-miro.info

Now a little bit about the painter and his thoughts...

Joan Miró i Ferrà (April 20, 1893 – December 25, 1983) was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his birth city in 1975. Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miró expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeois society, and famously declared an "assassination of painting" in favour of upsetting the visual elements of established painting. In 1979 Miró received a doctorate honoris causa from the University of Barcelona. Miró, who suffered from heart disease,[20] died in his home in Palma (Majorca) on December 25, 1983

The Lark s Wing, Encircled with Golden Blue,
Rejoins the Heart of the Poppy
Sleeping on a Diamond-Studded Meadow
c1967

Joan Miró was among the first artists to develop automatic drawing as a way to undo previous established techniques in painting, and thus, with André Masson, represented the beginning of Surrealism as an art movement

The Farm c1921
The first well known work which was bought by Earnest Hemmingway for 5000 Franks

Miró's oft-quoted interest in the assassination of painting is derived from a dislike of bourgeois art, which he believed was used as a way to promote propaganda and cultural identity among the wealthy. He is quoted as saying "I will break their guitar," referring to Picasso's paintings, with the intent to attack the popularity and appropriation of Picasso's art by politics.

André Breton described him as "the most Surrealist of us all." Miró confessed to creating one of his most famous works, Harlequin's Carnival, under similar circumstances:

"How did I think up my drawings and my ideas for painting? Well I'd come home to my Paris studio in Rue Blomet at night, I'd go to bed, and sometimes I hadn't any supper. I saw things, and I jotted them down in a notebook. I saw shapes on the ceiling..."

Woman in Front of the Sun c1950

Miró has been a significant influence on late 20th-century art, in particular the American abstract expressionist artists such as Motherwell, Calder, Gorky, Pollock, Matta and Rothko, while his lyrical abstractions and color field paintings were precursors of that style by artists such as Frankenthaler, Olitski and Louis and others. His work has also influenced modern designers, including Paul Rand and Lucienne Day, and influenced recent painters such as Julian Hatton.

Woman c1976

And finally leaving you with my favorite of his paintings... known as "Photo: This is the Color of My Dreams"

c1925

TEXT Curtsy Wikipedia Click here to read more…

All the Images Curtsy Website www.Joan-Miro.info

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ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Vladimir Kush - Another Salvador Dali?

Oct 27, 2011

UP CLOSE & PERSONAL : Vladimir Kush - Another Salvador Dali?

Recently I came across an artist, whose paintings made me think about Salvador Dali. Vladimir Kush’s painting style hits you with a new vision, color and ideas about the things he paints about... just like the Dali...

Divine Geometry - Valdimir Kush

For example “Divine Geometry” the artist shows us the boundaries of the Earth's night. Two conical bundles are defined by the illumination of the Moon. This is the viewpoint of an observer, high above the Earth in the Cosmos. A romantic mood is created by the artist conveyed by the night voyage of the sailboat around the globe.

His paintings created a deep impression within and thought of sharing some of his painting images below. But before that, here is brief biography of the immensely talented painter....

Vladimir Kush

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A Brief Biography

Vladimir Kush

Vladimir Kush was born in Russia, in a small one-story wooden house on the northern edge of Moscow, near the forest-park, Sokolniki.

Vladimir Kush entered the Moscow Higher Art and Craft School at age 17, but a year later he was conscripted. After six months of military training the unit commander thought it more appropriate to employ him exclusively for peaceful purposes, namely, painting propagandistic posters. After military service and graduating the Institute of Fine Arts, Vladimir painted portraits on Arbat Street to support his family during the hard times in Russia.

In the year 1987, Vladimir began to take part in exhibitions organized by the Union of Artists. At a show in Coburg, Germany in 1990, nearly all his displayed paintings sold and after closing the Exhibition, he parted ways with the two other Russian artists that had accompanied him. He flew to Los Angeles where 20 of his works were exhibited and began his “American Odyssey.”

In Los Angeles, Kush worked in a small, rented home garage, but was unable to find a place to display his paintings. He earned money by drawing portraits on the Santa Monica pier and eventually was able to purchase a ticket to his “Promised Land,” Hawaii.

In 1993, a dealer from France noticed the originality of Kush’s work and organized an exhibition in Hong Kong at the Schoeni Art Gallery. Success surpassed all expectations. In 1995, a new exhibition in Hong Kong at the Mandarin Fine Art Gallery brought more success. In 2001 Kush opened his first gallery, Kush Fine Art in Lahaina, Hawaii. He now has 4 gallery locations in the USA with future plans to open in Hong Kong.

Text and Images: From his site..

Click here to read more...

Now some of the images that has touched me deeply...

Edge of the world - Vladimir Kush

Breach - Vladimir Kush

Departure of Winged Ship - Vladimir Kush

Family tree - Vladimir Kush

Garden Of Eden - Vladimir Kush

Forgotten Sun Glasses - Vladimir Kush

Stopped Moments - Vladimir Kush

To the Top - Vladimir Kush

The Shot - Vladimir Kush

Hope you have enjoyed this post and if you would like to know more and see more of his paintings, please have a look at his website... Vladimir Kush

Leaving you with a wonderful YouTube Video showcasing his paintings... Enjoy!!!

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ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Purpose of life Damanhur Temples of humankind

Sep 13, 2011

STILL LIFE : Secessionist Movement and my impressions...

This Still life is about my recent visit to Vienna and enjoying some time with the creations of famous artists of early 20^th Century, specially the artists of Secessionist Movement. Below you will see what I found interesting and some of the paintings that touched me deeply. Vienna is famous for its many creative genius, famous museums like Belvedere Museums, Leopold Museum etc. I hope you will enjoy the journey with my stills and little bit of information that I have provided here....

VIENNA - The city of creativity

Gustav Klimt the first president of the Secession wrote that it was ‘necessary for the Viennese are world to develop a more lively relationship with the progressive development of art abroad and to conceive exhibitions purely on artisitic merit, independent of market forces’. In the first ten years, it was thanks to the effort of the secession that contemporary European art could be seen in Vienna.

Joseph Maria Ofbrich: The secession building

shortly before its completion 1898

The secession building: The intention was to exhibit art work by this group of artists in a building that was in keeping with the latest international trends instead of abiding by historical models. The initial reaction to Joseph Maria Olbrich’s building – ranging from ‘a cross between a blast furnace and a glace house’ and an ‘assyrian restroom’ to the grave of Mahdi’ – are an indication of just how exotic this novel concept of art was to the people of Vienna in 1898.

The Secessionist Building as it is today

“To each age its art – to art its freedom” was the motto of Secessionists.

This has been written on the main entrance to the building

Yet the secession’s art temple – together with elaborately designed Secessionist’s Magazine ‘Ver Sacrum’ Sacred spring – was also to offer asylum and act as a ‘refuge from the turmoil and hardships of modern life where one can pause for a moment and have a contemplative dialogue with one’s soul’ as it was written.

Gustav Klimt, the first president of Secession, spoke after year of silence on the controversy that his Faculty paintings (which he was commissioned to do in 1895) to adorn the great hall of the University of Vienna created. In 1905, he said, ‘ I want to free myself. I want my freedom back from all these unedifying and ridiculous matters which only keep me from my work. I want to stand up against the cavalier way artistic matters are dealt with by the Ministry of education in the Austrian state. Every opportunity is taken to discourage real art and real artists. Only the weak and the false get sponsored. We need a clearly defined separation. The state has no right to act like a patron of the arts when its hand-outs are paltry, nor does it have the right to act as intermediary and commercial factor; otherwise it is to leave all matters concerning artistic initiatives completely to the artists. The civil servants have no business in the art school...” Klimt words are as timely as ever...

Now lets move on to some paintings that I enjoyed being with.. in Vienna.

The Cardinal and Nun - Egon Schiele c. 1912

The painting of the cardinal and the nun, also entitled by Egon Schiele – Not without sarcasm – as “tenderness” is a paraphrase of Klimt’s painting “the Kiss”, (Posted below) however the effect is a completely different one, Art Nouveau turned Expressionism. Schiele, provocatively breaks through moral confines and in a tight formal structure captures a stirring subject, the carnal primal instinct outside of all conventions and restrictions.

Egon Schiele (June 12, 1890 – October 31, 1918) was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize Schiele's paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism.

The Kiss - Gustav Klimt c. 1907

The Kiss (original Der Kuss) was painted by Gustav Klimt, and is probably his most famous work. He began work on it in 1907 and it is the highpoint of his so-called 'Golden Period'. It depicts a couple, in various shades of gold and symbols, sharing a kiss against a bronze background. In The Kiss, Klimt depicted a couple locked in an embrace. The rest of the painting dissolves into shimmering, extravagant flat patterning. This patterning has clear ties to Art Nouveau and to the Arts and Crafts movement and also evokes the conflict between two- and three-dimensionality intrinsic to the work of Degas and other modernists. Paintings such as The Kiss were visual manifestations of fin-de-siecle spirit because they capture a decadence conveyed by opulent and sensuous images.

Blind Mother - Egon Schiele

"The blind mother" painting by Egon Schiele is placed in front of slightly tilted wooden cradle, in an exceedingly uncomfortable position, a mother nurses her two children. This position was inspired by Rodin’s bronze figure ‘Crouching woman’ from 1880/82. This image symbolizes the hopeless fate of a blind mother.

Adele Bloch-Bauer - Klimt c. 1907

Klimt's paintings have brought some of the highest prices recorded for individual works of art. In November 2003, Klimt's Landhaus am Attersee sold for $ 29,128,000, but that was soon eclipsed by prices paid for other Klimts. In 2006, the 1907 portrait, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, was purchased for the Neue Galerie New York by Ronald Lauder for a reported US $135 million, surpassing Picasso's 1905 Boy With a Pipe (sold May 5, 2004 for $104 million), as the highest reported price ever paid for a painting.

Lovers - Koloman Moser

Koloman Moser (March 30, 1868 – October 18, 1918) was an Austrian artist who exerted considerable influence on twentieth-century graphic art and one of the foremost artists of the Vienna Secession movement and a co-founder of Wiener Werkstätte.

MY IMPRESSIONS...

Now I leave you with some of the paintings that I loved during my roaming around the museums... as well as some of my impressions of the atmosphere there....If you like to have further information on the paintings, let me know...