Jean-Michel Basquiat - Bio & Video: Interview, Paintings, Warhol & Clients
July 14, 2008
American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) gained popularity first as a graffiti artist in New York City. Later, he was recognised as a successful 1980s-era Neo-expressionist artist. Jean-Michel Basquiat grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he initially created graffiti on subways, signing them with SAMO© (standing for “SAMe Old shit”). In 1980 Basquait participated in his first exhibition, the Times Square Show. His fame and friendship with Andy Warhol, began a year later. The artists admired each other, and collaborated in nearly one hundred works. Basquiat’s paintings still... Read more »
The Life of Francisco Goya
July 9, 2008
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born in Fuendetodos in 1740, a town close to Saragossa in the North east of Spain. Shortly after his family moved to nearby Saragossa and this is where he spent the early years of his life. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to José Luzanan, an artist and friend of his father. He later was to continue his studies of art in Italy before returning to Saragossa in 1771 where landed the job of painting frescoes in city’s cathedral. This work, done in the classic Rococo style, established an excellent reputation for Goya as an artist and prepared the foundations... Read more »
Edgar Degas - Biography Of The French Artist Renowned For His Figure Painting
June 5, 2008
The career of Edgar Degas was a long one - about 60 years out of his total 83. And his style, unlike that of most famous artists who worked into their old age, never ceased developing, always seeking out new means of expression and technique.The art dealer Ambroise Vollard one day asked him why he had never married, to which he replied that he would live in constant fear that, whenever he completed a new painting, he would hear my wife say ‘That’s so pretty what you’ve done there!’. In fact, despite today’s almost universal appreciation and popularity of his images,... Read more »
Piet Mondrian’s Abstract Art
May 17, 2008
Piet Mondrian was an influential Dutch Abstract painter of the first half of the 20th Century. When standing in front of one of Mondrian’s later artwork of the 1920s, you might think that his work is derived from a strict ordering of geometric shapes & lines and a scientific balance of colors. Instead, what is illustrated is the harmonious essence of the world around Mondrian, obtained through sensitive and emotional exploration of his soul. In Mondrian’s own words (letter to Bremmer, 1914): I construct lines and color combinations on a flat surface, in order to express general... Read more »
History of Surreal Photography
May 5, 2008
Surrealism in photography was one of the major revolutionary changes in the evolution of photography. Rather than art, photography was reviewed as a copying effort. Surrealism is the introduction of the ‘more than real’ images to the art forms. Surrealism was a movement in the art and intellectual activities, emerged after World War I. Andre Breton, was the founder of the surrealistic concepts and he has gathered the influence from the Dande movement. Surrealism is actually the real expression of mental emotions, without any polishing. Andre Breton describes surrealism in Surrealist Manifesto,... Read more »
Robert Rauschenberg - video
April 28, 2008
This video is an excerpt of Robert Rauschenberg’s orginal footage ‘Linoleum’ It is part of his 1966 art ‘Happening’. Black/white, silent film. Read More →
Klimt: video on ‘The Kiss’ & his love for Women
April 19, 2008
This is a short informational video lecture about the classic impressionist painting ‘The Kiss’ by Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt (1862 – 1918). The video pulls together strands of his background, his passion, his travels, and shows you how these inputs translate into his painting. It comes as no surprise that Klimt’s favorite subject to paint was women. As a prominent member of the Vienna Art Nouveau movement, Gustav Klimt made major artistic contributions in paintings, murals, sketches and objects d’art. Many of his works can be found in the Vienna Secession... Read more »
