Henri Matisse, Dance, 1909, oil on canvas, 8' 6 1/2" x 12' 9 1/2", Museum of Modern Art, New York, Photo by Troels Myrup via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution License.
“I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have the light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me.” Henri Matisse
Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande), 1909, bronze, 16 ¼” x 9 ¾” 10 ½”, Museum of Modern Art, New York, photo by opacity via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution License.
This is a sculpture of Picasso’s girlfriend from 1904 through 1911, Fernande Olivier, a complicated woman who entered into a tempestuous seven-year relationship with the womanizing Picasso. Picasso created dozens of portraits of Fernande during their time together. Their relationship … Continue reading
Richard Serra, Torqued Ellipses, 1998, steel, nearest sculpture: 11' 9
“I was in analysis and I told my analyst I wanted to be the best sculptor in the world and he said, ‘Richard, calm down.’” Richard Serra
© 2012 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Jasper Johns’ paintings made reference to popular or commercially produced imagery and then pulled it into the realm of high art. Johns created an American flag using an expressionistic application of paint, which signified high art in the 1950’s when Abstract … Continue reading
Paul Strand, Wall Street, platinum print, 9 15/16" x 12 5/8", Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
“The artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.” Paul Strand
Vincent van Gogh, Sower at Sunset, 1888, oil on canvas, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Jean-François Millet’s The Sower was Van Gogh’s favorite painting. He loved the way the French artist from the Barbizon School painted the peasant in such a way that he is ennobled, yet the scene is unemotional; his face is largely concealed. Millet presented the laborer as … Continue reading
Georgia O'Keeffe, Oriental Poppies, 1928, oil on canvas, 30" x 40", Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Photo by 6-3-2, Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution License.
“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” Georgia O’Keeffe
Paul Gauguin, The Spirit of the Dead Watching (Manao Tupapau), 1892, oil on canvas, 28½” x 36½”, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Paul Gauguin’s brightly colored paintings of the tropics represent a paradise that dis not necessarily exist. A leader of the Synthetist movement in painting in which artists used colors freely to express their personal feelings about a subject, Gauguin represented … Continue reading
John Baldessari, I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art, 1971, lithograph, 22 3/8
It will take you a little more than five minutes to view this terrific video on the artist John Baldessari. Happy Friday.
Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893, crayon and tempera on cardboard, 35⅞” x 29”, Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, Public Domain via Wikipedia.
Tomorrow, one of four versions of Edvard Munch’s iconic The Scream will be for sale at the Impressionist and Modern Art auction at Sotheby’s in New York. If you’re interested, it will run you about $80 million. No image of … Continue reading
Wassily Kandinsky, Composition No. 4, 1911, oil on canvas, 62 ⅞
“Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammer, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual … Continue reading
Gerrit Rietveld, Schröder House, Utrecht, Holland, 1924, Photo by HB, Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution License.
In 1917, Gerrit Rietveld joined Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg to form De Stijl, a utopian art movement. For these artists, the goal of art was perfect balance and harmony and the means was abstraction. They wanted to create … Continue reading