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Lam,
Wi(l)fredo (1902-1982).
Cuban artist. Wifredo Oscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla was
born in Sagua le grande, Cuba, as
the son of a Chinese father and a mother of mixed African, Indian and
European descent. Lam died in Paris.
Lam's own multicultural heritage and his involvement with
Santería, a religion rooted in African culture, became integral
themes in his work, he brought together many elements - Latin
American, African and Oceanic, his work often used voodoo,
folklore, totems and jungle scenes to provide a brooding sense of
forbidden fruits.
In 1916 his family moved to Havana, where he attended the Escuela
de Bellas Artes. During the early 1920s, he exhibited at the
Salón de la Asociación de Pintores y Escultores in Havana. In
1923 Lam moved to Madrid, where he studied at the studio of
Fernando Alvarez de Sotomayor, the Director of the Museo del Prado
and a teacher of
Salvador
Dali.
In 1929 Lam married Eva Piriz, who died of tuberculosis two years
later, as did their young son. This tragic event may have contributed
to the dark and brooding appearance of much of Lam's
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First Day
Cover used with permission of Eugeen
Weyn, Belgium
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In the early 1930s, the effects of Surrealism
were evident in Lam's work, as was the influence of Henri
Matisse
and possibly Joaquín Torres-García. In 1936 a traveling exhibition
of the work of Pablo
Picasso
shown in Barcelona, Bilbao and Madrid proved inspirational to Lam both
artistically and politically. He moved to Paris in 1938, where Picasso
took him under his wing and encouraged his interest in African art and
primitive masks. During that year he also traveled to Mexico, where he
stayed with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. He had his first solo show at
the Galerie Pierre Loeb in Paris in 1939, and his work was exhibited with
Picasso's at the Perls Galleries, New York. During World War II, Lam spent
most of his time in the Caribbean along with Claude Lévi-Strauus, André
Masson,
and André Breton, whose poem "Fata Morgana" Lam
illustrated in 1940. Lam eventually made his way back to
Havana in 1941. His first year in Cuba marked a watershed in
his artistic development, he was introduced to the theories
of Carl Jung, and by the end of 1942 he had begun his
powerful painting "Jungle".
Lam's exploration of mythic images paralleled that of his
contemporaries in New York, the Abstract Expressionists,
though Lam used specific subject matter. Lam created his own
style by fusing Surrealism and Cubism with the spirit and
forms of the Caribbean. Between 1942 and 1950 he exhibited
regularly at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York. His
second marriage, to Helena Holzer in 1944, ended in divorce
in 1950. In 1946, after a four-month stay in Haiti,
Lam
returned to France via New York. In 1948 he met Asger
Jorn,
who was a friend for many years. He traveled extensively
until 1952, then settled for three years in Paris before
resuming his travels again in 1955. In 1960 Lam established
a studio in Albisola Mare on the Italian coast. The winter
of that year he married the Swedish painter Lou Laurin. In
1964 he received the Guggenheim International Award, and in
1966–67 there were multiple retrospectives of Lam's work
at the Kunsthalle Basel, the Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover,
the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Moderna Museet,
Stockholm and the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.
Lam is considered one of the foremost Cuban artists and his
work can be found in many major collections, both private
and public.
Eugeen
Weyn for detailed information about the artist.
Lowery Stokes Sims: "University
of Texas Press, 2002.
(Cubism,
Surrealism)
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Larsen,
Joern
(1926-2004). Danish artist.
Born
in Naestved, South Zealand. Trained as painter and decorator,
1941-46. He received drawing instruction at the Technical Society’s
school in Copenhagen, 1948-50, and was in 1951 a single-semester
student at similar lessons at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art
in Copenhagen. In the period 1952-54 he was traveling in France,
Greece, Spain and Turkey. In 1955 he exhibited for the first time
at the "Autum Exhibition" in The Free Exhibition
Building, Copenhagen. In 1960 he began his "kutdleg
Suite" painting series, few years later he painted his first achromatic
paintings. He became a member of "Groenningen" in 1970,
an artist's association, founded in 1915, a refuge for radical and
experimental art. (Abstract,
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"Pisninel",
1999,
Aarhus Music House
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Some
of his decorating tasks and awards:
"The Black Suite" in polished Swedish
granite, 1976.
Nine granite objects, University of Southern Denmark, Odense,
1979.
Floor decoration at The Royal Danish Theatre, 1992.
Logo for the Art Centre Silkeborg Bad, 1994.
Altarpiece made of black Swedish granite for the church at
Udlejre, 1996.
Labyrinthine floor mosaic in white Italian marble and black
Swedish granite, Copenhagen Airports, 1998.
Decoration of the church of Jelling, 2000. The pattern for
the church floor is similar to the stamp motif.
"Mention spéciale du Jury", IXe Festival
Internationale de Peinture, Cagnes-sur-mer, 1977.
"The Academy Eckersberg Medal", 1978.
Was awarded a Civil List pension 1985.
"The Thorvaldsen Medal", 1989.
Denmark's representative at the Venice Biennale, 1993. |
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Water
Basin, Bertel Thorvaldsens
Plads, Copenhagen.
Photo: Kirsten Petersen |
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Léger,
Fernand (1881-1955).
French painter born in Argentan in Normandy, died in
Gif-Sur-Yvette near Paris. As a young
man he worked at a drawing office in Caen, and moved to Paris in 1898,
where he made a living by retouching photos, and got permanently employed as draughtsman
at a drawing office. In 1903 he had begun studying art at Ecole des Beaux-Arts,
where he became influenced by the Impressionists, first and foremost
Signac, later by the Fauvists particularly Matisse. In 1911 he joined the
Cubists. In 1918 he painted "La
Ville," (Philadelphia Museum of Art), which placed him among the most significant
Cubist like Picasso,
Braque and
Juan Gris. However Léger
did it in his own way,
he created, in few and pure colours, a simple and decorative style, and
from about 1910-20 he mainly painted the machine forms, some of
his paintings were described as machine aesthetic,
he used the cylinder, and the silver-grey and black colours
showed his enthusiasm for the machine - a thoroughgoing Cubism (Purism).
From 1920 the human figure became an element in his art. In 1910 he met Le
Corbusier, and his art found a natural place in the
room-decoration of
the functionalistic architecture, e.g. the house "La Roche"
designed by Le Corbusier. In the years of World War II, he stayed in the United
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"Leisure
Homage to Louis David" (Les Loisirs, hommage a David),
1948-49, Centre Pompidou, Paris |
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"Three
Women (Le Grand Déjeuner)", 1921,
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Photo: Kirsten Petersen
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where he taught at Yale University and painted murals for the UN Building
in New York. He returned to Paris after the war.
Besides the paintings, he designed sketches for hangings, painted
decorations for theatres and designed costumes for ballets and operas, and
he was the creator of the film "Ballet
Mécanique", 1924. The Musée Fernand Léger was inaugurated in 1960 in
Biot in France. (Cubism,
Purism) |
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| Lehmbruck,
Wilhelm
(1881-1919). German sculptor. |
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Kneeling
Woman, 1911, Museum of Moderne Art, New York. Photo:
Kirsten Petersen
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LeWitt,
Sol
(1928). American artist born in Hartford, Connecticut.
He resides in New York.
LeWitt is a creator of two-dimensional works (photos, graphic
pictures, murals) and three-dimensional works (simple
constructions), as basic structures he uses geometric forms -
cylinders, pyramids, cubes and (color-)circles.
In 1949 LeWitt received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree (BFA)
at the
Syracuse University (SU), a private university
located in Central New York, after receiving his degree, he traveled to
Europe, and there he saw paintings by the old masters. He served in the
Korean War (1950-53) as a graphic artist, and in 1953 he moved to New
York, where he got a job as photographer and designer at the teen fashion
magazine "Seventeen Magazine", later he worked at the
Chinese-born American architect Ieoh Ming Pei's drawing office - about
that time he became fascinated and influenced by the movement sequences of
"the father of the motion pictures" the English-born Eadweard
Muybridge's (1830–1904). In 1960 he worked for MoMA, The Museum of
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Modern Art, New York, where
he met other young artists e.g. Dan Flavin, Robert Ryman, Robert Magold
and Scott Burton. In 1965 his first solo show was held at John Daniels
Gallery in New York. In
the 1960s, LeWitt created
open modular white cubes,
preferring as the basic element in Minimalism - he used mathematical
systems, and with it he was in opposition to the abstract-expressionistic
painters. In the late 1960s and the early 1970s he participated in several
important group exhibition of Minimalistic Art and Conceptual
Art/Idea Art, and in 1966 he took part in the exhibition "Primary
Structures" at the Jewish Museum in New York - other participating
artists were Larry Bell, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, John McCracken and
Robert Morris.
In 1967 he published the essay "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art":
"I will refer to the kind of art in which I am involved with as
conceptual art. In conceptual art the idea of concept is the most
important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of
art, it means that all the planning and decisions are made beforehand and
the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that
makes the art" - Lewitt was the first to use the term Conceptual Art.
The same year he participated in the exhibition "When Attitude
Becomes Form", Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland. In the 1970s he began
painting monumental murals. In 1977 and 1982 he participated in Documenta
6 and 7 in Kassel, Germany. In 1978 his first retrospective was held at The
Museum of Modern Art, New York. In the 1980s his murals became more
expressive. In 1989 he took part in the 2nd Istanbul Biennale.
More than 30 solo exhibitions have been held of LeWitt's works, and is
represented at Museums and collections worldwide.
(Minimal
Art, Conceptual Art) |
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Limbourg
Brothers, Flemish brothers, Paul, Jean and
Herman, the sons of the sculptor Arnold van Limbourg, were the
most famous of all late gothic illuminators. About 1400 the
brothers were apprenticed to a goldsmith in Paris, and from
1402-04 Paul and Jean were illustrating a Bible for the Duke of
Burgundy in Paris. After the duke's death the brothers entered the
service of his brother, the Duke of Berry, illustrating
"books of hours".
"Les très riches heures du Duc de Berry" (The
Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry), painted between 1412-16, (Musée
Condé, Chantilly) is a classic example of a medieval "book
of hours", a collection of the text for each liturgical hour
of the day, a calendar with illustrations, considered their
greatest work, a milestone of book illuminations in a court style,
elegant and sophisticated, combining naturalism of detail with
overall decorative effect. "Les très riches heures du Duc de
Berry" was left unfinished in 1416, it was completed about
1485 by Jean Colombe. (International
Style) |
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"August",
The
Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry |
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Lippi,
Fra Filippo (Filippo di Tommaso di Lippo),
(1406-1469). Lippi was born in Florence as
an unwanted child, and grew up in the Carmelite Monastery, Santa
Maria del Carmine in Florence, he took
religious vow as a monk in 1421. From 1442 he became rector of
the church of San Quirico at Legnaia, he was discharged for
falsification of documents and for living a dissipated life. From
1452 he lived in Prato, and in 1456 he became the curate of the
monastery S. Margherita, where he used the nun Lucrezia Buti as
model for a Madonna painting executed for the monastery. Lippi and
Lucrezia begun a love affair, she gave birth to their two children
Filippino and Alessandra. Lucrezia returned to the monastery and
left it again in 1465, she and Lippi |
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were released from their
religious vows at the request of Cosimo dei Medici, and they got
married, Lippi still called himself "Frater Philippus". Lippi executed series of frescoes and easel paintings. He
popularized the works by leading artists, added them atmosphere of
optimism, richness of details and narrative elements. He was
influenced by Flemish art of paintings. Lippi's perspective was
not scientifically correct. (Early Renaissance) |
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Lundbye,
Johan Thomas (1818-1848). Danish "Golden Age
Painter", his motifs was particular landscapes. He realized the ideas of the first Danish art historian and
professor
at The Royal Danish Academi of Art Niels Laurits Høyen
(1798-1870) on painting national, Nordic mythology, the history of
the country, scenes from everyday life and landscapes.
Lundby volunteered for service in the Three Year War
(1848-50), and was killed by a stray shot before
he ever engaged in battle. (Romanticism,
Realism) |
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Lundstroem, Vilhelm (1893-1950).
Danish painter. Educated at The
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In 1944 he became
professor at the Academy.
In 1916 he exhibited for the first time at The
Autumn Exhibition for Painters in Copenhagen - his cubistic
paintings were influenced by Juan
Gris, Picasso
and Braque.
He got knowledge of cubism
from foreign art magazines and by visiting Tetzen-Lunds Collection
in Copenhagen, where a composition
from the Cubist years of Picasso
(1907-16) were exhibited. As
the first Danish artist Lundstroem
exhibited cubistic collages, and
introduced abstract elements into
Danish art. In 1918 he exhibited his
"packing case paintings"
(pictures composed of painted
woodpieces), which caused great
scandal, the critics called his
works art swindle, and Lundstroem
suffered from a infectious mental
disorder according to the
psychiatrist, professor Carl Julius
Salomonsen, a statement which led to
the so-called "dysmorphism
debate", a debate about
paintings executed by Cubists and
Expressionists, whether the works
were conscious deformed or results
of sick minds. Later in his
"Curly Period" (paintings
executed in fat curly brushstrokes)
he created figure compositions,
self-portraits and still-lives.
About 1923 his style became
"Simplified Classicism".
Lundstroem was co-founder of the
group "The Four" including
his artist colleagues
Axel Salto, Karl Larsen, Svend
Johansen and Lundstroem himself, the
group was greatly influenced by Cézanne.
In his latest period he mainly
painted Cubist/Purist
still-lives.
For the Swimming Baths in
Frederiksberg, Copenhagen,
Lundstroem executed large mosaics of
bathers. (Cubism)
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1.
Packing case painting, Aalborg
Art Museum, Denmark. 2.
Aalborg Art Museum (Nordjyllands kunstmuseum), Denmark.
3.
"Still Life", 1929, ARoS Aarhus Museum of
Art, Denmark.
4.-8.
Lundstroem at The Danish National Gallery,
Copenhagen. Photos: Kirsten Petersen
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