| Artists
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Kirsten Petersen
© 2008
All Rights Reserved
onstamps@yahoo.dk |
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Vandercam, Serge (1924). Photographer and self-taught painter. He
was born
in Copenhagen, he lives near Brussels. Vandercam
began his artistic career as freelance photographer, he experimented with photography
and discovered the abstract motifs from his immediate surroundings. In
1949, in Cobrahuis, Rue de Marais in
Brussels, the headquarters of
Cobra, he met
Dotremont,
Alechinsky and other young artists exploring new ways to
express their ideas through visual art. Vandercam's early paintings were
powerfully expressive compositions, later they became more
lyrical. Subject of his
paintings was the tragic of a bird trying to rise up like a phenix, but
staying on earth by the laws of gravitation. In 1949 Vandercam took part
in all Cobra activities and he was Cobrahuis' photographer. From
1961-63 he lived in Albisola in Italy, where he, together with
Asger Jorn,
executed ceramic works, and he met and made friends |
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"My Beautiful One",
1994. Stamp used with permission of Eugeen
Weyn, Belgium
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"La fleur
unique ou les oiseaux émerveillés", the metro station
"Josephine Charlotte", Brussels
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with artists such as
Wilfredo
Lam, Piero Manzoni and the sculptor
Angenore Fabbri. In 1962 Vandercam visited
Denmark and also the
prehistoric collection at Silkeborg Museum, where he
saw and became fascinated by the peat bog corpse "The Man from Tollund" (350 BC, found in
1950) which became a recurring subject in his work.
In 1979 Vandercam created the art installation "La fleur
unique ou les oiseaux émerveillés" for the metro station
"Josephine Charlotte" in Brussels. In 1986 a retrospective of
his works was held at Musée communal des Beaux-Arts d'Ixelles
(Brussels), and in 1991 a retrospective photo exhibition "Espace Photographique Contretype"
was showed in Brussels. In 1994 Vandercam designed the stamp "My Beautiful One"
for the Belgian Post ("De Post-La Poste").
In 1995 he was selected member of the
The Royal Belgian Academy of Science, Literature and
Fine Arts (L'Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres |
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et des Beaux-Arts de
Belgique), and in 1997 he was selected president of the Royal Belgian Academy. In 1995 a solo exhibition of his works was held at The Cobra Fine Art Gallery,
San Francisco, and in 1998 his Cobra photos was exhibited at Musée de
la photographie à Charleroi in Belgium. To commemorate his 75th birthday a
retrospective was held at The Museum of Modern Art "PMMK",
(Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst), Ostende.
Vandercam has received many awards for his works including the First price at
"Jeune
Peinture Belge" in 1956, the following
year the gold medal at the Milan Triennial,
in 1958 the "Prize of the Belgian Critic"
and in 1997 he was awarded the SABAM prize, together with Bram
Bogart, for the best
Belgian artists - SABAM (Société d'Auteurs Belge) the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers,
the society also include graphic art.
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Eugeen
Weyn for information about the artist.
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Van der
Weyden (born about 1400 in
Tournai France (now Belgium) - died 1464 in Brussels). Dutch
painter. Very little is known about his artistic career, he was
not always the painter of the works ascribed to him - signatures or contemporary
documentation did not exist. In 1427 a painter called
Rogelet de la Pâture was apprenticed in the workshop of Robert Campin/The
Master of Flémalle in Tournai and left the workshop in 1432 as Master
Rogier - in generally accepted that this was Rogier van der Weyden. In
1436 Van der Weyden went to Brussels and settled there permanently apart
from making a pilgrimage to Rome on the occasion of the Jubilee
year 1450. He was appointed
official painter to the city of Brussels from 1436. His work for the
city included secular work e.g. four large panels for the court room of
the town hall (destroyed in 1695). His surviving paintings were either
religious pictures or portraits.
Selected works:
"The Adoration of the Kings", Alte Pinakothek, Munich,
Germany.
"Visitation", Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig,
Germany.
"Deposition", Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.
"Madonna in Red", Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.
"Portrait of Jean de Gros", The Art Institute of Chicago, USA.
"Medici Madonna", Stadelschen Kunstinstitut Frankfurt am
Main, Germany.
"Annunciation", Triptych, Louvre, Paris, France. (Gothic)
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"Man
Reading"
c. 1450. National Gallery, London
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Van Dongen,
Kees (Cornelis Theodorus Maria) (1877-1968). Dutch-French painter, fashionable portrait painter, and
illustrator. He was born in Delfshaven
near Rotterdam, and he died in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Van Dongen's earliest works were impressionistic landscapes, later he got
influenced by the Fauvists and developed his own style. He is most famous
for his portraits and sensual paintings showing lightly dressed women and
dancers and his depictions of the bohemian life of Paris - simple shapes and
distortions, strong colors and bold black outlines. He has portrayed
e.g. Prince Aga Khan III (1877-1957), the French writer and recipient of
the
Nobel Prize in Literature 1921 Anatole France (1844-1924) and Brigitte
Bardot, and he illustrated stories from the book of "One
Thousand and One Nights" and executed 17 watercolours for
the great work "À la recherche du temps perdu" ("In Search of Lost
Time") by Marcel Prousts (1871-1922).
From 1892-97 van Dongen studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in
Rotterdam, he often visited the Rotterdam harbour-quarter to paint the sailors and
the prostitutes. In 1897, at the age of 20, van Dongen moved to Montmartre in
Paris, and he became part of the circle around
Picasso.
I 1901 he married Augusta Prettinger (Guus). He worked as house painter
and illustrator for
magazines, he
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"Women
at the Balustrade"
(Femme à la Balustrade), 1910, Musée de l'Annonciade,
Saint-Tropez, France
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satirical
drawings to the literary and artistic journal Revue Blanche,
and he arranged fancy-dress balls at Montparnasse. In his first years in Paris, he met
Matisse
and got influenced by the Fauvists way of painting with bright arbitrary
colors and broad strokes. I 1905 he participated at the Salon d'Automne in
Paris,
where also works by Matisse and other Fauve painters were exhibited.
In 1908 van Dongen was
invited to join the German Expressionist Group Die Brücke, and his
expressionistic portraits enjoyed great popularity in the War Years. Under the influence of e.g.
Jasmy
Alvin (Lea Jacob) van Dongen developed his gaudy style,
which,
among the bourgeoisie, earned him a good reputation and income. From 1918 onwards van Dongen became a popular society painter,
he became the favourite portraitist of the Parisian upper classes. His style
has become more simple and more realistic, though he continued to use lively
colors in his portraits. His later works did not a rouse great enthusiasm
neither by his colleagues, the collectors or the critics. After World War
II van Dongen lived alternately in Paris, Deauville in Normandy and
Monaco. I 1949 an exhibition of his paintings were held at Galerie
Charpentier in Paris, the exhibition became a great success and was also
shown at Museum Boymans in Rotterdam, and in 1967 the Museum once again
exhibited his works. In 1990 a great exhibition was held at
Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, van Dongen's works were rediscovered. (Fauvism)
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Van Dyck
(Antoon/Anthonis) Anthony (1599-1641). Flemish history- and
portrait painter. Van Dyck was born in Antwerp, his father Franz
van Dyck was a merchant/glass painter (?). Van Dyck died in
Blackfriars near London.
At the age of 11 van Dyck became apprenticed to the Flemish
Mannerist painter Hendrick van Balen (c. 1575-1632), and when he
was 14 years of age, he became assistant to Rubens,
and 19 years old he was admitted as master of the painters and
masters guild St. Luke in Antwerp. In 1621, recommended by Rubens,
van Dyck went on a study tour to Italy, he visited Rome and other
Italian cities, first and foremost he showed interest in the
Venetian masters, he studied the techniques of Giorgione, Tizian
and Veronese.
After a stay in Mantua, the viceroy Emmanuel Philibert of Sicily
requested him to visit Palermo, where he received a princely
welcome, before long the plague forced him to leave, and he
returned to Antwerp. From 1632 he lived in England, he was
appointed court painter to King Charles I (1600-1649), he was
knighted by the king in 1633. Van Dyck's melancholy theatrical
portraits embodied the upper classes ideal self-concept.
In 1641 van Dyck went to Paris with the purpose of getting the
commission to decorate the gallery of the Louvre Museum, which
failed, and he returned to England, and he died shortly after his
homecoming and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, a monument to
his memory was erected - it was destroyed during the Great Fire of
London in 1666.
(Baroque) |
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"Charles
I of England", c. 1635, Musée du Louvre,
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"Les
Iris", 1890, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York |
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"The
Afternoon Siesta", 1890, Musée d’Orsay,
Paris |
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"Cypresses",
1889, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York
Photo:
Kirsten Petersen
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"Sunflowers",
1888,
National Gallery,
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"The
Church in Auvers" (France), 1890, Musée
d'Orsay, Paris
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Van
Gogh,
Vincent Willem, (1853-1890), Dutch painter,
born in Groot-Zundert in the Netherlands as the son of a pastor in
the Dutch Reformed Community Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Cornelia
Carbentus.
Van Gogh's first exposure to art was when he worked at the Hague
gallery of the French art dealers Goupil & Co. - founded by
his uncle Vincent, his brother the art dealer Théo (Theodorus) van Gogh later worked for the same company. As an
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van Gogh
worked in its branches in Brussels, London and
Paris. In August 1872, from the Hague, Vincent begun writing
letters to Theo, their correspondence continued for almost 18
years.Van Gogh wished to become a clergyman like his father, so he tried
to enroll in a theology school, but was refused admittance. From
1878-80 he was a preacher in the Borinage, a coal mining district
in Belgium, during this period he decided to become an artist.
Van Gogh was influenced by the works of Jean
François Millet and
Honoré
Daumier, and his
early subjects were primarily peasants
depicted in dark colors.
He lived in Brussels and in various parts
of the Netherlands before moving to Paris
in 1886 to live with his brother Théo.
Van Gogh worked briefly at Fernand Cormon’s
atelier, where he met
Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec and in Paris his also met Emile
Bernard, Edgar
Degas, Paul
Gauguin, Camille
Pissaro, and Paul Signac.
In 1888 he moved to Arles, where he depicted the Provençal
landscape and people.
Paul Gauguin joined him, and the two artists
worked together, they begun to have violent disagreements, van
Gogh threatened Gauguin with a razor, the same night, in deep
remorse he cut off a part of his left ear.
In 1888 Van Gogh suffered the first of a numerous mental
breakdowns - nevertheless he continued to paint.
In 1890, van Gogh was invited to exhibit with Les Vingt in
Brussels, where he sold his first painting, the same year he was
represented at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. Van Gogh committed suicide at the age of 37, he shot
himself on July 27, 1890, and
died two days later on July 29 in
Auvers-sur-Oise, France.
The Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh was
opened in Amsterdam in 1973. (Postimpressionism,
Symbolism)
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Self-Portrait,
1889
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"Self-Portrait",
1887, Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
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"Arnolfini's
Wedding",
1434, National Gallery, London. The
dog symbolizes faith. "... take
your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you
are standing is holy ground", Exodus 3:5
Johannes
de eyck fuit hic, 1434 (Johannes [Jan] de eyck was
here 1434) |
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Van
Eyck, Jan (c. 1395-1441)
(Late
Gothic)
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"The
Madonna and Child with Canon Joris van der Paele",
1436, Groeninge Museum, Bruges, Belgium
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Varming,
Hanne (1939). Danish sculptor born in Copenhagen. She has
executed portrait busts, bronze relief, figure groups in monumental simplified
forms in naturalistic style and portraits for the Danish Royal
Mint (Crown Prince Frederik's 18th birthday, 1986, and HM
Queen Margrethe II, 1988-89). As child Varming made plasticine
figures. After graduation (the Danish Public School) she was
employed at the Danish Royal Porcelain factory in Copenhagen,
where she created porcelain flowers for Flora
Danica porcelain - the sculptor Knud Broendsted
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"Girls
at the Airport", bronze, 1999,
Terminal 3, balcony, Copenhagen
Airport
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From 1958-65
Varming was trained as a sculptor under Gottfred Eickhoff
and Mogens Boeggild at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine
Arts in Copenhagen. From 1962-86 she was married to the
sculptor Erik Varming, they became parents to four
children - Varming modeled many portrait busts of her
children. In 1963 she exhibited for the first time at
the Autumn Exhibition at Charlottenborg. From 1981-85
she taught at the Jutlandic Academy of Fine Arts in
Aarhus. Her works have been the subject of several
one-person exhibitions. She has received many honors
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Vasarely,
Victor (1908-1997).
Hungarian-French artists. The founder of Op Art - the style's leading theorist
and its most inventive practician. Vasarely was born i Pécs in Hungary,
and he died in Paris. From 1925-27 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest,
and after that he studied under Sándor Bortnyik
at Mühely (the Bauhaus of Budapest) - at Mühely he became acquainted with
the abstract geometric art of Klee and
Kandinsky and Wilhelm
Ostwald colour system.
Vasarely settled in Paris in the early 1930s, and he married Claire
Spinner, they became parents of two sons. In Paris Vasarely worked as graphics artist
and created his first and the first Op Art painting
"Zebra",
the following years he explored optical effects in his graphic works, and
in the next two decades he
developed his own (scientific) abstract
geometric style - paintings, drawings and designs in black and
white. In the 1950s he introduced new materials in his paintings e.g.
glass and aluminium. In 1955 he published his "Manifeste jaune" ("Yellow Manifesto")
- he was aware of that the easel painting was outdated and suggested the necessity of
a homogeneity in plastic art. When he invented Op Art in 1957, he imagined
a new function of art, he concluded that a work of art was not a
reflection of the inner world of the artist more like objects, a result of a work - the
only justification of art was to give beauty and joy to human beings and
to create
peace and harmony. The painting "Vega"
from 1957, looks like a twisted chessboard, was named after the brightest
star in the constellation Lyra.
In the late 1960s he achieved great success in the Op Art exhibition
"Lumière et mouvement" at Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris.
In 1970 Vasarely inaugurated his own Museum - Musée Vasarely in
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Gourdes in Vaucluse Southern France.
Vasarely's works is represented at major museum all over the world. He
received many artistic awards and honorary awards, e.g. he was awarded the
rank of Officer in the French Legion of Honor and honorary citizen of New York,
he received the Guggenheim Prize and the Art Critics Prize in Brussels, and
he won a gold medal at the Milan Triennale.
A French astronaut brought along 157 prints made by Vasarely at the Soviet
Russian spacecraft Salyut 7 in 1982.
In 1987 the Vasarely Museum in Budapest in Hungary was inaugurated, the
museum houses a great collection of his works and works by other Hungarian
artists, who worked outside the country. (Op
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Velazquez, Diego
(1599-1660). The Spanish Baroque painter and court
painter of King Philip 4. Diego Velàzquez became at the age of
eleven apprenticed to the Spanish Mannerist painter Francisco
Pacheco (1564-1643). After end of the apprenticeship he began to
paint in a naturalistic style focusing on portraits, still-lifes and
religious motifs. In 1623 moved to Madrid. In 1629 he portrayed the
young King Philip 4. - a commission which evoked such a great royal
enthusiasm that he was appointed court painter, a post he retained
throughout his life. During a study visit in Italy he became
acquainted with the Venetian masters such as Tizian (Renaissance)
and Tintoretto (Mannerism). He adopted the Venetian School's
(1450-1600) sumptuousness of colours and vigorous Realism. Velàzquez
included himself in several of his especially later works to show
his feeling of belonging to his works of art, and hinted at the same
time that he himself was an important figure and not a humble
painter. Interesting in studying the human figure his royal
portraits differed from the traditional formal presentations, he
portrayed among others court jesters and dwarfs. Velàzquez was first
of all a portrait painter and the final culmination of the genre was
the masterpiece "Las Meninas".
(Baroque)
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"The Family of Philip IV", or
"Las Meninas" (The Ladies-in-waiting),
1656, by Diego Velázquez,
The Prado Museum.
The painting's colour scheme, the contrast between light
and dark, clair-obscur, and the realistic details are
inspired by the Italian Baroque painter
Caravaggio. The
scene is a high ceilinged room in the Alcázar (citadel)
of Madrid, presumably Velázquez's studio. The room is
unfurnished. The walls are decorated with paintings, of
which the two on the rear wall are identified as
Velázquez's reproduction of
Peter Paul Rubens' paintings
"Minerva Punishing Arachne" to the left, and "Apollo's
Victory over Marsyas" to the right. At first glance the
painting can be seen as a genre painting in Baroque
style, as a scene of everyday life at the Spanish Court.
However the work is more complex than is generally
believed, and it consists of a higher degree of delicacy,
balance and refined brush strokes than the contemporary
Dutch genre paintings. The figures in Velázquez'
painting act unnaturally in the setting and are
unnaturally lighted. The essential differences between
the Baroque painting and the genre painting are the new
intensity and an increased psychological
characterization of persons. On the one hand the
painting is a snapshot; on the other, a scene setting
planned in careful detail. The group portrait shows the
royal family and its staff. At the same time the most
important portrayals are that of the Infanta,
Velázquez' self-portrait and the portrait of the dwarf
wearing a dark blue court dress. The other figures are
staffage and fellow players rather than portraits. The
scene is observed by King Philip IV (1605-1665)
and Queen Mariana of Austria (1634-1696) depicted
in the mirror. In all eleven figures and a dog form part
of the painting, some of them look at the viewer, others
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The central figure in the painting is the five year old
Infanta Margarita Teresa (1651-1673), daughter of Philip
IV. Her left cheek is restored, because it was injured
when the castle burned down in 1734. At the age of
fifteen she married Leopold I, the Holy Roman Emperor,
and died at the age of twenty-one weakened by
childbirths and miscarriages. Margarita Teresa's long
blond hair is decorated with a light orange bow, which
is similar to the decoration of her dress. The light
orange colour is repeated in the sleeve bows. The
Infanta is served by her ladies-in-waiting, to the left
María Agustina de Sarmiento handing her a
golden salver with an orange red jug. María Agustina
looks at the Infanta, who pays no attention to her, but
seems to be in a world of her own. To the left is the
maid-in-waiting Isabel de Velasco, who
absent-mindedly curtsies to the Infanta. Among the
figures in the foreground are two court jesters, they
are dwarfs, the German María Bárbola, and the
Italian Nicolasito Pertusato, who tries to wake
the sleeping dog with his left foot. The dog is a kind
of Mastiff. Behind the curtseying maid is Margarita's
chaperone, and next to her an uindentified man,
presumably a bodyguard. In the doorway stands the
private secretary to the Queen José Nieto. It is
not possible to say if Nieto is leaving or coming, both
can be the case looking at the position of his legs on
the steps. With his left hand he is pulling a curtain
aside. Behind the curtain is a sharp light, a depth, an
eternity, a vanishing point. Only the King and Queen can
see him, they are looking at the setting from the
spectator's point of view. to the left
Velázquez has portrayed himself working on a large
canvas. The emblem of the Order of Santiago (St. James)
decorates his dress. He was awarded the honor in 1659,
three years after completing the painting. An anecdote
says that the king himself added the emblem after
Velázquez's death. From his belt hang keys symbolizing
his title of Lord-in-Waiting. He holds his palette and
paint-brushes in his left hand. The colours on the
palette, orange, white and black, are the colours used
in the painting. In his left hand he holds the brush
which he is using. The huge canvas supported by an easel
creates intimacy with its oblique placement. Five
persons, the painter, the Infanta, Nieto, the curtseying
waiting-maid and the dwarf are looking at the royal
couple in front of them. The painting is a portrait in a portrait. The arranged scenery, the group around the
Infanta is one portrait, the other is under construction.
Velázquez portrays what is going on in front of the King and
Queen, who stand outside the painting posing for the
artist. The theory of the American art historian Horst
Waldemar Janson (1913-1982) is that the reflection of
the royal couple comes from the canvas Velázquez
is working on. Other observations of the painting
are e.g. that the canvas size is too big compared to
other portraits by Velázquez, therefore it is not the
royal double portrait which is under construction. "Las
Meninas" contains the only known double portrait of the
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Warhol,
Andy (1928-1987).
American multi-artist and film director. He was born in Pennsylvania as Andrew
Warhola. His parents were immigrants from Czechoslovakia (now the
Czech Republic). Already as a child, he became interested in
movies and art. From 1945-49 he studied at the College of Fine
Arts, Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. In 1949 he
moved to New York and made a living by illustrating magazines. In
the 1960s a group of artists founded the Pop Art movement - the
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the public with popular images and
supermarket items as symbols of the society, the mass
production. Warhol made paintings of images from the popular culture such as
comic strips and consumer products e.g. the Pop Art icon the
"Campbell Soup" series, 1968. During the 1960s he
produced portraits of movie stars e.g. Marilyn Monroe and
Elizabeth Taylor (they were no longer human beings but consumer
products) and his famous "S & H Green Stamps", 1965.
Warhol also produced his own look - in the mid-sixties he started
wearing a silver wig, and the wig made him stick out in the art
world.
Famous persons portrayed in Warhol's art: Jackie"
1964, Jaqueline Kennedy. "Elvis", 1964. "Mao" 1972. "Ingrid" 1983, Ingrid Bergman
wearing nun's habit. "Princess Grace of Monaco", 1984.
"Friedrich Der Grosse" 1986. "Beethoven" 1987.
In 1985 Warhol made his "Queen-series".
In his documentary "Sleep", 1963,
was the story, or the absence of story, a man who slept for six
and a half hour - Warhol himself was
not a very vocal person, he answered interview questions with
either a yes or no.
He made record covers e.g. The debut album "Velvet Underground
& Nico", 1967, known as the Banana Cover.
Credits: The royal pictures by courtesy by Mr. A.
Hausmann,
Germany. (Pop
Art)
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"Mao",
Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York Photo:
Kirsten Petersen
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H.M.
Queen Margrethe 2 of Denmark |
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HM Queen Beatrix
of the Netherlands
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HM Elizabeth 2 Queen of the United Kingdom |
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HM Queen Ntombi Twala of Swaziland |
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HM Queen Ntombi Twala of Swaziland |
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Princess
Grace of Monaco, 1984 |
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Warhol:
H.C. Andersen and his papercuttings, exhibited at ARoS,
Aarhus Museum of Art, 2005, photos: Kirsten Petersen.
Warhol compared Andersen's papercuttings with the
papercuttings created by Matisse. |
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"Smoker number 1 (Mouth number 12)",
1967, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Photo: Kirsten Petersen |
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Whistler,
James Abbott McNeill (1834-1903). American painter and graphics artist,
he lived and worked mainly in England and France. He became particularly
well
known for his nearly black white portrait "Arrangement in Gray
and Black, No. 1" aka "Whistler's Mother".
Whistler was born in Lowell Massachusetts, he died in London and was
buried in St. Nicholas's churchyard in Chiswick. His father George Washington
Whistler was a military engineer, he constructed railways in Russia from
1842. In Russia Whistler learned French and enrolled in the Academy of
Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. In 1851 he was sent to West Point, USMA, (The United States
Military Academy) in New York. He was fascinated by the Paris journalist
and writer Henry Murger's novel "La Vie de Bohême" and went
for a study tour to Paris,
where he took art lessons from the Swiss painter
Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre (1806-1874) an
became
interested in the paintings of
Courbet,
Manet and
Velazques. In 1859 he
settled in London, where he got influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites (English
painters, whose role models were painters before the High Renaissance
painter Raphael, whose theatrical art they rebelled
against, they admired
the simplicities and the sincerities of the early Renaissance), and
painted portraits, where his interest for Japanese woodcuts found
expression in his decorative experiments - arrangements, symphonies and nocturnes,
that provoked the audience, who were used to a narrative anecdotic
paintings,
which dominated the Victorian Art in Britain.
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Whistler was the leading figure in Aesthetic
Movement - an English artist movement in the late 19th Century, that
advocated " Art for Art’s Sake" ("L'art
pour l'art") - art was a self-sufficient reality concentration on
beauty and devoid of moral and social messages - besides Whistler Aubrey Beardsley and the
writers Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde were connected to the movement.
"Symphony
in White, No. 1: The White Girl", 1862, National Gallery
of Art, Washington, caused a scandal, when it was exhibited in London
and later at Salon des Refusés in
Paris - contemporary with the sensation about Manet's "Luncheon on the Grass",
the painting reflected Whistlers' ideas about art, he was artistic aesthetic,
prefer beauty and the harmonic colours - unlike the art appreciation of the
British critics John Ruskin, who advocated of the accurate description of
nature. The aesthetic
qualities were expressed through Whistler's etchings, lithographs, pastels and
watercolours.
In 1877 in an article about Whistler's "Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket",
1874-77, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Ruskin accused Whistler of "flinging a pot of paint in the public's
face" and called the artist a coxcomb, Whistler sued Ruskin for libel
and was awarded a symbolic compensation - in his book from 1890
"The Gentle Art of Making Enemies", Whistler wrote about the
case "Whistler versus Ruskin".
Whistlers famous interior decoration the "Peacock Room", 1876–77,
a dining room with blue and gold peacocks, was designed for the London residence
of the ship owner
Frederick Leyland, after Layland's death the room was brought to the USA
and permanently installed in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington. (Impressionism)
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"Famous Americans"
James Abbott
McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) |
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1.
stamp: "Arrangement in Flesh Color and Black:
Portrait of Théodore Duret", 1883-84, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
2. stamps: "Arrangement in
White and Black", Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
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"Arrangement
in Grey and Black No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle",
1872, Glasgow
Museums and Art Galleries, Glasgow. |
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"Arrangement
in Gray and Black No. 1:" or "Portrait of the Artist's Mother", 1871,
Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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In
Memory and in Honor of the Mothers of America
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First Day
Cover,
"Mothers of America",
USA, 1934 |
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Wiinblad,
Bjoern (1918-2006). Danish
artist - painter, ceramic artist, designer of porcelain (e.g.Christmas
Plaques),
poster artist, book illustrator and scene painter. Born i Copenhagen. He
was apprenticed
under Aksel Joergensen at The
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen.
From 1946 he was attached to Nymoelle Faience Factory. In 1952 he got his own
ceramic workshop. In
1956 he became designer for Rosenthal, the
world-renowned manufacturer of porcelain tableware and giftware, crystal
and cutlery, founded in Germany in 1897. Decorative, poetic, fantastic and
organic forms and delicate and powerful colors characterize his works,
which were in contrast to the majority of
the Danish design with its pure forms and lines.
"Restaurant Wiinblad" is housed in the classic Hotel
D'Angleterre in Copenhagen. |
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"A
Female Mountaineer",
1912, The Danish National
Gallery, Copenhagen Photo Kirsten
Petersen |
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Willumsen,
Jens Ferdinand
(1863-1958). Danish
painter, ceramic artist, draughtsman, sculptor, graphics artist, architect
and photographer. He was born in Copenhagen, the son of a publican and later
gentlemen's outfitter Hans Willumsen and Ane Kirstine Jensen. In 1890 he
married the sculptor Juliette Meyer, they were divorced in 1902 and in
1903 he married the sculptor Edith Wessel, from the 1930s he lived
together with the French dancer and painter Michelle Bourret.
From 1881-85 he
was apprenticed to
P. S. Kroeyer at The
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen. From 1890-94 he
lived in Paris, and in Pont-Aven in Bretagne he met the French painter Paul
Gauguin. The
starting point for his paintings were Naturalism, later he was influenced by
Gauguin's Symbolism.
Willumsen
was co-founder and member of The
Free Exhibition
(a yearly Copenhagen art exhibition, founded in 1891 as a protest
against the established academic Charlottenborg-exhibition).
As ceramic artist
he mainly designed and executed functional porcelain and stoneware in
the Copenhagen
porcelain factory Bing & Groendahl - he became artistic
leader of the factory from 1897-1900. After 1900 he painted a series of monumental
expressionistic paintings, where he depicted the relation between human
beings and nature. In the late 1910s he traveled
in the Mediterranean countries - his journeys and studies
of the Greek-Spanish artist El Greco
had a great influence on his paintings, the
colors became more powerful and intense, and a series of genre painting
were painted with pure bright colors. During World War I Willumsen
settled down in the South of France where he lived the rest of his life. In the 1930s
he preferred Venice, Italy to France, he painted street life,
buildings and the canals. He died in Cannes,
France and was buried in the park of J. F. Willumsen's Museum in
Frederikssund, Zealand, Denmark.
He had several exhibitions outside Denmark first and foremost in Scandinavia
and France (Paris). (Realism,
Symbolism)
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"Disabled soldiers",
1928, North Jutland Art Museum, Denmark |
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