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The Realist Art of American Artist Andrew Wyeth

The American painter Andrew Newell Wyeth was born July 12, 1917. He is currently one of the more popular artists in the country. Christina’s World (1948; in Museum of Modern Art, New York City), is a most famous 20th century American artwork.

Wyeth is a realist painter producing regional art. Andrew was lucky enough to be born in an artistic lineage. His father, N. C. Wyeth, was illustrator and artist. Other artistic family members include Henriette Wyeth Hurd, Jamie Wyeth and Nicholas Wyeth.

Wyeth’s core subject is the country and the inhabitants in/around his hometown of Chadds Ford, PA, as well as near his summer home in Cushing, Maine.

Despite his love for landscape, it is the ‘Helga Pictures’ that is by far Wyeth’s most famous art series. It entails 247 studies of Wyeth’s neighbor, Helga Testorf, painted over a period of 14 years.

Almost immediately upon completion*, the entire collection was bought in 1986, hereby securing its value. The collection has since been sold, but it continues to tour the world. (* He made one final painting of her in 2002, which has joined the collection).

The extensive study of one subject in differing contexts and emotional states is completely unique in American art. The works are seen as her physical landscape set within Wyeth’s customary landscapes. Wyeth conveys subtle qualities of character and mood while portraying her as unsmiling and passive.

Andrew Wyeth Art Prints for Sale

Christina’s World Andrew Wyeth

Master Bedroom Andrew Wyeth

Pennsylvania Landscape, 1941 Andrew Wyeth

Around the Corner Andrew Wyeth

Easterly Andrew Wyeth

Ides of March Andrew Wyeth

Wishbone Andrew Wyeth

The Complex Simplicity of Henri Rousseau’s Art

By Jessica Cander

A few basic, descriptive words can define a person’s reputation in a mere brush stroke. Naïve, childlike, primitive – words like these have lived on long after the renowned French painter Henri Rousseau has left this world. Yet time and time again they are the tidbits of vocabulary, or the glaring labels that people give to Rousseau.

One has only to stare intently at his works with their bright shades, seemingly simple forms and fantasy like scenarios to see that they do have an unmistakable childlike aura about them, yet surely they show us more upon second glance.

The man Picasso would one day go on to befriend after seeing one of Rousseau’s canvases being sold for reuse, was born in Laval France on the 21st of May, 1844. Never a rich man by any means, Rousseau entered the army as a youngster and later became a toll clerk in Paris. At the somewhat early age of forty nine Henri Rousseau retired from his life in the civil service so he could devote night and day to his dearest passion, painting.

Rousseau belonged to an elite class of artists, though many of his peers and critics were not so quick to see Henri’s career as such. Rousseau was a self-taught artist through and through. Though he obtained the needed permit to sketch inside of the national French museums in 1884, Henri never so much as took a formal art class or apprenticed under any master of the day. Like so many with great loves, he simply had a burning passion for painting embedded in his soul.

The art world was alive in new and fantastic ways in the late nineteenth century; thousands of would-be artists clambered either in the shadows or in the limelight for recognition. This was the era that would produce such legends as Paul Gauguin, Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to name but three. So in this time of artistic explosion Rousseau worked – whether intentionally or not – in a style and manner that was delightfully unique and captivating. Though often grouped under the heading post-impressionism, Henri’s work somehow stands out from the crowd.

It is innovative and subtly provocative, surrealist and dreamy. He favoured animals, real life subject matter (including paintings of many of the people closest to him) and vivid, well-saturated colours. His passion for painting jungle scenery and wild beasts is thought to come from time spent in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, a lush botanical garden that housed a well stocked zoo of exotic creatures.

In his work we do see a sense of childlike innocence, but it may be because that is what Rousseau was attempting to do, rather than a by-product of his creativity. In an epoch of so many social, political, religious and technological – not to mention artistic – changes, living a lower class life (Henri and his wife Clémence had nine children to support on his meagre salary), and without formal training to sway him towards other more traditional or “in vogue” forms of art, perhaps Henri was trying to carve out the sort of life he secretly wished for through his work.

And so, like a child who daydreams incessantly in the face of reality, Henri Rousseau painted the world in a way that showed both its colourful simplicity and its mysterious secrets; a place of ambiguity, a fascinating jungle of fantasy amidst the harsh backdrop of late nineteenth century Paris.

Born is Vancouver, BC Jessica Cander is a professional freelance writer who currently calls the Southern tip of Ireland home. She intensely enjoys writing on all aspects of culture and the arts, and is a fan of Henri Rousseau’s painting.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jessica_Cander

Timeline of Art History: United States & Canada, 1900 ad – present

List of significant American art, artistic events and influences that mark the last century of American art.

ARCHITECTURE
1900 In the design of the Ward W. Willitts House in Highland Park, Illinois, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) creates the “Prairie Style,” a modernist aesthetic for architecture and design that complements the Midwestern landscape.

DANCE
1903 San Francisco–born expatriate Isadora Duncan (1878–1927) delivers a lecture in Berlin entitled “The Dance of the Future” and is soon hailed in the U.S. and Europe as the founder of modern dance.

ART PHOTOGRAPHY
1908 Lewis Hine (1874–1940) becomes staff photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), traveling through the United States documenting child labor in various industries. Designed to evoke the sympathy of viewers and mobilize activism, Hine’s images are circulated by the NCLC via exhibitions and pamphlets. His last large-scale documentary project will be a record of the construction of the Empire State Building in New York (1930–31), in which workers and labor itself share the spotlight with the awe-inspiring structure.

FINE ART PAINTING
1908 A group of eight realist painters of urban life, later known as the Ashcan School or “The Eight,” including William Glackens (1870–1938), Robert Henri (1865–1929), George Luks (1867–1933), and John Sloan (1871–1951), organize an exhibition at Macbeth Gallery in New York.

WRITING
1909 Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) publishes Three Lives, a character study of three women. A native of Pennsylvania, Stein is for many years a prominent member of avant-garde artistic and expatriate circles in Paris.

ART ENVIRONMENT
1910s Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan emerges as an enclave of bohemian and radical culture, home to irreverent small presses, avant-garde art galleries and studios, and experimental theater groups.

ART ENVIRONMENT
1912 New Mexico and Arizona become the forty-seventh and forty-eighth states of the U.S. The unique landscape and culture of the American Southwest will attract many artists, including Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), who will travel to New Mexico for the first time in 1929 and reside there permanently from 1949.

Farbstudie Quadrate, c.1913 Wassily Kandinsky Buy From Art.com

ART MOVEMENT
1913 The International Exposition of Modern Art (the “Armory Show”) is held at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York and introduces Americans to the modernist work of Matisse, Kandinsky, Brancusi, Picasso, Braque, and others on a large scale. Nude Descending a Staircase, a Cubist canvas by Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), creates a public sensation. Theodore Roosevelt labels the Futurist and Cubist artists in the exhibition “the lunatic fringe.” Smaller versions of the show subsequently travel to Chicago and Boston.

CONTROVERSIONAL ART
1917 Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) exhibits his first readymade, Fountain, an upturned and signed urinal, at the Society of Independent Artists in New York. This work questions what it means to be an artist and what constitutes a work of art.

ART MOVEMENT
1920s–early 1930s Literary, visual, and performing arts flourish in Harlem, the African-American enclave of New York City, spurred by the mass migration of blacks from rural areas to northern cities. Poets, novelists, painters, and musicians of the “New Negro Movement“—later called the Harlem Renaissance—search for new forms of expression to convey their racial experiences and celebrate African-American cultural identity. Major figures of the Harlem Renaissance include poets Langston Hughes (1902–1967) and Countee Cullen (1903–1946), novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960), jazz composer Duke Ellington (1899–1974), political activists W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) and Marcus Garvey (1887–1940), photographer James Van Der Zee (1886–1983), and artists Aaron Douglas (1899–1979) and Archibald Motley (1891–1981).

ART SCHOOL
1928–41 The Cranbrook Academy of Art is designed and constructed in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, by Finnish-American modernist Eliel Saarinen (1873–1950), who also serves as president of the Academy.

ART MUSEUM
1929 The Museum of Modern Art, New York, opens.

ART MOVEMENT
1930s The Regionalist movement is embodied in the paintings of Grant Wood (1892–1942), John Steuart Curry (1897–1946), and Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975). Rejecting the tenets of modernist art and theory, the Regionalists depict indigenous American subjects in a realist mode, often in murals commissioned for post offices, schools, libraries, and other public buildings under the auspices of the Federal Art Project, a Depression-era government program.

ART MOVEMENT
1932 The International Style exhibition opens at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Curated by architect Philip Johnson (born 1906) and art historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock (1903–1987), it introduces an American audience to recent developments in European modernist architecture.

ART PHOTOGRAPHY / ART MOVEMENT
1932 Eleven West Coast photographers, including Ansel Adams (1902–1984), Imogen Cunningham (1883–1976), and Edward Weston (1886–1958), hold an exhibition in San Francisco at which they announce the formation of Group f/64, dedicated to a “pure” photography that captures the world “as it is,” and opposed to the aesthetic manipulations of Pictorialism.

ART SCHOOL
1933 A liberal arts college is founded in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and becomes a locus for the dissemination of Bauhaus ideas through its European émigré teaching staff, including the German Josef Albers (1888–1976). Black Mountain College remains a site for the production of experimental multimedia work until it closes in 1957.

CONTROVERSIAL ART
1933 Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886–1957) is commissioned by Nelson Rockefeller (1908–1979) to create a mural for the RCA Building in New York’s Rockefeller Center. Because the painting, entitled Man at the Crossroads, contains a portrait of Lenin, Rivera is prevented from completing it, and Rockefeller later has it destroyed. The leftist politics and social content of Rivera’s work, along with that of his compatriots José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949) and David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1975), who also spend time in the U.S. during the 1930s executing various public commissions, influence many American artists employed in government-sponsored New Deal projects during the Depression.

ART SUPPORT
1935 The federal government launches the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which, like other New Deal programs, provides employment for artists. Ben Shahn (1898–1969), Stuart Davis (1892–1964), and Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), among thousands of other artists, produce murals, sculptures, posters, and other graphic materials for public buildings and for exhibitions held in dozens of community art centers established across the country by the Federal Art Project. Photographers document the living and working conditions of Americans during the Depression with the support of the Resettlement Administration (later called the Farm Security Administration). Among the photographers is Dorothea Lange (1895–1965), whose images of the Dust Bowl exodus become symbols of the migrant experience.

CONTROVERSIAL ART – ART PHOTOGRAPHY
1936 The Photo League, committed to a documentary photography allied to progressive political and social movements, establishes a school in New York under the directorship of Sid Grossman (1913–1955) and begins publication of its provocative journal Photo Notes. Among the League’s projects is Harlem Document, supervised by Aaron Siskind (1903–1991), which records life in New York’s African-American community. In the late 1940s, the League is declared a “subversive” organization by the U.S. Attorney General and many of its members are blacklisted.

LANDMARK ART
1942 Edward Hopper (1882–1967) paints Nighthawks (Art Institute, Chicago), an iconic depiction of loneliness and isolation in contemporary American life. Hopper maintains allegiance to a harsh realist mode throughout his life, creating stark urban and rural scenes scored by bright artificial light and deep shadows.

ART MUSEUM
1942 Peggy Guggenheim (1898–1979) opens the gallery Art of This Century in New York. Romanian-Austrian architect Frederick Kiesler (1890–1965) designed the interiors that were intended to complement the Surrealist and abstract art on display.

ART & DESIGN
1944 The American Society of Industrial Designers is founded to advocate high-quality design of industrial products, a larger concern at mid-century. Among the most advanced designers of the period is Norman Bel Geddes (1893–1958), whose work encompasses the practical design of everyday commodities such as typewriters and radios, and large-scale visionary projects such as the Futurama exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

ART MOVEMENT/ ART GENRES
1945 The conclusion of World War II begins a prolonged period of economic expansion in the U.S. Among the postwar American art movements that receive popular and critical attention worldwide is Abstract Expressionism, which includes two subgenres: action or gesture painting, associated with the work of Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), Lee Krasner (1908–1984), Willem de Kooning (1904–1997), Franz Kline (1910–1962), and others, and color field painting, represented by the work of Mark Rothko (1903–1970), Barnett Newman (1905–1970), and Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967). Although Abstract Expressionism is mostly thought of as a movement in painting, it has some correlation to the sculpture of David Smith (1906–1965).

PRINT MAKING
1957 Tatyana Grosman (1904–1982) establishes Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), a printmaking workshop, in West Islip, New York. ULAE sets the standards for a postwar printmaking renaissance in the United States.

ART MUSEUM
1958 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959), opens in New York. Wright had begun working on the commission for a building to house the Guggenheim’s collection of modernist art in 1943. The museum represents a sculpturally and spatially rich use of concrete.

ART HAPPENING
1959 The first public “happening” is produced by Allan Kaprow (born 1927) at the Reuben Gallery in New York. Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg are among the performers. Influenced by Jackson Pollock’s process of action painting, the teachings of John Cage on chance and indeterminacy in art, and ultimately Dadaism, Kaprow defines a happening as a choreographed event that facilitates spontaneous interactions between objects—which include performers—and visitors.

ART MOVEMENT
1960 The Minimalist movement begins and maintains an important place in the art world for about a decade. Practitioners include Carl Andre (born 1935), Robert Morris (born 1931), Dan Flavin (1933–1996), Brice Marden (born 1938), Robert Ryman (born 1930), and others.

ART MOVEMENT
1961 The phrase “concept art” is first used by Henry Flynt (born 1940). It comes to have a more general application to the work of artists Sol LeWitt (born 1928), Joseph Kosuth (born 1945), and others. During the following decade, Conceptual and performance art demonstrate the possibilities of making art without producing saleable objects.

ART MOVEMENT
1962 Andy Warhol (1928–1987) paints Campbell’s Soup Cans, a key work of the Pop Art movement. Warhol and other artists associated with the movement, including Claes Oldenburg (born 1929) and Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997), satirize Americans’ voracious consumption of manufactured products in the postwar period.

ART STYLE / MOVEMENT
1962 Yale University’s Art and Architecture Building, designed by Paul Rudolph (1918–1997), opens. It is an important monument of New Brutalism, a style that—in contrast to the trim and sleek aesthetic of 1920s modernism—emphasizes the tactility and roughness of its materials, often poured-in-place concrete.

ART MOVEMENT
1964 The term “optical art” is coined in Time magazine to describe painting and sculpture that makes use of optical effects to evoke physiological responses in the viewer. Proponents of Op Art include Bridget Riley (born 1931), Larry Poons (born 1937), and long-time practitioner Victor Vasarely (1908–1997).

ART MOVEMENT
1969 A group exhibition devoted to Conceptual art, entitled January 1–31: 0 Objects, 0 Paintings, 0 Sculptures, is mounted by New York dealer Seth Siegelaub and features the work of four artists: Joseph Kosuth (born 1945), Lawrence Weiner (born 1940), Robert Barry (born 1936), and Douglas Huebler (1924–1997). As a movement, Conceptualism critiques the political and economic structures that sustain Western art forms, and Conceptual artists produce works intended to convey ideas—often through the use of text alone—rather than to be appreciated as precious commodities.

ART MOVEMENT
1970 Environmental awareness spawns earthworks, sculptural projects on the scale of the landscape itself. Perhaps the best-known example is Robert Smithson’s (1938–1973) large-scale Spiral Jetty, built out of rock and earth in the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

ART MOVEMENT
1971 The term “Post-Minimalism” is used by critic Robert Pincus-Witten (born 1935) to describe the contemporary work of Richard Serra (born 1939) and Eva Hesse (1936–1970).

LANDMARK ART
1976 The avant-garde opera Einstein on the Beach, by Robert Wilson (born 1941) and composer Philip Glass (born 1937), premieres.

ART INSTALLATION
1977 Walter De Maria (born 1935) installs The Lightning Field near Quemada, New Mexico. In the same year, he re-creates his 1968 Earth Room, a gallery filled with dirt, at the Heiner Friedrich Gallery in New York. With the latter work, De Maria becomes prominently associated with the earthworks movement.

CONTROVERSIAL ART
1979 Artist Sherrie Levine (born 1947) rephotographs images by Walker Evans as a means of making art that questions the notion of originality. Over the next decade, Levine, Dana Birnbaum (born 1946), Barbara Kruger (born 1945), and others will become prominent in the Appropriation Art movement.

ART MUSEUM
1985 The Los Angeles County Museum of Art organizes an exhibition of works by Barbara Kruger (born 1945), which combine found photography and succinct, humorous slogans deconstructing the representations of power inherent in mass-media imagery. Kruger is one of many artists of the 1980s, sometimes dubbed the “pictures generation,” who explore the coercive and seductive dynamics of the media.

ART MOVEMENT
1991 The “grunge” style, originating in Seattle, Washington, becomes nationally fashionable and has an impact on popular music and clothing.

source:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/11/na/ht11na.htm

Los Angeles Contemporary Art Museum Shows Broad Collection

Through September 2008, BCAM at LACMA will show its inaugural installation.

The newly opened Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA holds some of the most iconic artworks from the last four decades—most from the famed Broad Collections. Reflecting Eli and Edythe Broad’s practice of collecting artists in depth, BCAM’s 60,000 sq ft gallery space (about twice the size of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City) is primarily devoted to groupings of works by single artists.

BCAM provides rich representations of some of the most important artists of the last forty years, including Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Ellsworth Kelly, Cindy Sherman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Baldessari, Jeff Koons, Chris Burden, Mike Kelley, and Richard Serra.


The New York Times, reported “Underscoring the Broads’ profound commitment to public museums and to the city of Los Angeles, Eli and Edythe Broad and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in 2003 announced the Broads’ $60 million donation to create the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) at LACMA.”

“For years Eli Broad, the billionaire philanthropist whose influence seems to waft into so many corners of this city’s cultural scene, has promised that Los Angeles will take its place among the world’s great arts capitals. So the art world was taken aback last month when, on the eve of the opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, a $56 million addition to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for which he chose the architect and paid the bill, Mr. Broad abruptly seemed to undermine his own cause.”

Completely unexpected, Mr. Broad decided instead to keep the artwork in his private foundation for the time being. He argued that it would be better to lend his collection of 2,000+ works to various museums around the world, than to relegate most to storage in the Los Angeles museum.” This decision has given the art world the sense that perhaps Los Angeles was not up to rivaling New York and London as the center of contemporary art, in his opinion. However, Mr. Broad disagrees.

No Name For Art Carnival #3

The History of Airbrushing

Since World War I, many artists and painters have implemented modern technology into their art form. Airbrushes and the development of their use began its popularity almost literally at the same time in Europe and the United States. These movements were started by both Man Ray (New York City) and Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus School in Germany.

Airbrushes were initially used by Man Ray in New York to develop paintings in the year 1917. However, in 1933 in Europe, the fear of Communism was emerging. Because of this fear, the Bauhaus school was closed down by the Nazis.

At this time, most of the leaders in the airbrush movement immigrated to the United States. The New Bauhaus school was eventually started in Chicago; ironically, most often considered the home of the airbrush industry in America.

Since then, the airbrush has been used for a variety of different art forms and projects. From temporary tattooing and commercial art to sunless tanning and cake decorating, airbrush supplies are a fairly large market. Many retailers offer a wide range of kits, compressors, hoses, paints, stencils and tools for your every airbrush need. The popularity of the art movement has taken the consumer industry by storm.

By Sarah Freeland

For more information, tips and reviews on airbrushing and airbrush supplies visit http://www.airbrush-supplies.net

World Art Fair ‘Art 39 Basel’ Successful

Art 39 Basel, the international reunion of the international art world which closed today, attracted 60,000 artists, collectors, curators, and art lovers from around the globe. The participating galleries, Show Management, art connoisseurs, and the media were unanimous in pronouncing this a very good year for the illustrious show.

Art 39 Basel demonstrated the robust health of the international art market, while confirming and enhancing its own unchallenged position as the world’s premier art fair and doing full justice to its reputation as an internationally acclaimed artworld event. The show drew 60,000 visitors, resulting in good to very good sales results for exhibitors.

The 39th edition of the international art show closed on a very high note. The 300 exhibiting galleries considered this year’s Art Basel a great success. The 60,000 visitors to Art 39 Basel included art collectors, museum professionals, art enthusiasts, plus reporters from all over the world. A great many artists were also drawn to the event, among them Ellsworth Kelly, Thomas Ruff, Takashi Murakawi, Tony Oursler, Pipilotti Rist, Ernesto Neto, Andrea Zittel, Isa Genzken, and Dan Graham, to name only a few.

At this year’s Art Basel, the general impression was that only the best of the best is accepted

The Art at the ‘Art 39 Basel’ Fair

Art experts attending the show agreed that the quality and variety of works on display at Art 39 Basel were unparalleled. The participating galleries did their utmost to bring along their most interesting pieces and present them in carefully devised exhibitions. Various booths featured thematic exhibitions and one-person shows.

Known as an important fair for 20th-century classics, Art Basel has meanwhile established itself as the world’s premier platform for contemporary art as well. More galleries of contemporary art exhibit here than at any other art fair. Various galleries presented video works and large installations. Paintings and works on paper experienced a boom, and photography continued to be strongly represented.

The Art Exhibition & Fair Sectors

The results of the Art Unlimited platform, showcasing works that exceed the scope of traditional art-fair exhibition booths and frequently even of gallery and museum spaces, were extremely positive. There were 70 projects on display: installations, video projections, large-scale paintings, and outsize sculptures. Numerous artists created new works specifically for Art Unlimited and installed them themselves.

Enthusiasm was not restricted to the galleries and artists alone: experts and the general public alike judged this year’s edition of Art Unlimited to be one of the best since its inception in the year 2000. The Art Lobby discussion platform gave visitors several opportunities daily for personal encounters with leading members of the international art scene, among them artists such as Jorge Pardo, Patti Smith, AA Bronson, Richard Meier, and many more.

The Art Statements sector, with its 31 one-person shows of young artists, was a further audience magnet. The participants were delighted at the keen interest it aroused, which not only brought in good sales but also provided opportunities to make contact with a host of exhibition makers from all over the world and generated considerable media interest. This year’s Baloise Prize of CHF 25,000 each, donated by the Baloise Group, went to Duncan Campbell (Hotel, London) and Tris Vonna-Michell (T293, Naples).

The ten projects on Exhibition Square, in front of the international art show buildings, surprised and delighted visitors. They were an effective demonstration of the way contemporary artists deal with art in public space.

The Art Edition sector, where international publishers present prints and multiples, also attracted great interest.

The idea of presenting artists in dialogue in the Art Premiere sector earned praise from the public and was described as exhilarating.

The Art Film sector at the Stadtkino Basel, featuring films by and about artists, has meanwhile become a popular institution. The evenings with films by Isaac Julien and Lawrence Weiner attracted particular interest. Never before have there been so many exhibitions and events in the area during Art Basel. The exhibitions at Basel’s museums – but also the cultural program on offer in neighboring cities – are noteworthy complements to the art show and contribute to its appeal.

Art 39 Basel – Visitor Highlights

Art Basel Conversations were a huge success. Attracting several hundred people every day, they featured distinguished experts discussing such subjects as the development of new art institutions in Eastern Europe, the collection and preservation of media art, and the work done by gallerists operating at the margins of the global art market. The premiere of Art Basel Conversations was a discussion between the two artists Lawrence Weiner and Jorge Pardo.

The special Artist magazines exhibition was also very popular with visitors. There was also enormous interest in the Art on Stage platform at the Theater Basel, where Elmgreen & Dragset’s performance Drama Queens was presented on Wednesday, June 4.

Professional Day on Friday was well received by its target audience and found some 70 galleries staging special activities at their booths: solo shows of young artists, thematic exhibitions, book premieres, lectures, performances, and guided tours. By the last day of the show, the lavishly illustrated catalog, with its comprehensive survey of what the international art market currently has to offer, was sold out, as was the catalog to the Art Unlimited exhibition.

All the participants in Art 39 Basel considered it a very good year, their responses ranging from satisfied to enthusiastic. Visitor interest was reported to be extraordinarily high. Never before have so many major art collectors from all over the world come to Art Basel. Never before has the show attracted so many famous artists. Representatives of almost all the world’s major museums came. There was a particularly marked increase in collectors and curators of the Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern, and Russian art scenes.

Mathias Rastorfer, director of Galerie Gmurzynska (Zurich):

I was struck by the heightened European purchasing power. There was more demand than in past years for modern classics. There was brisk buying interest from the start. We had good sales in the medium- and high-price sectors, and found new clients as well. Visitors also included institutional collectors from the East and Russia.

Barbara Wien, owner of Galerie Wien (Berlin):

Fantastic. I am very pleased with my location at Art Premiere this year. The format is great – the way a subject can be communicated is like at no other exhibition, it’s not just a matter of selling art. I find that fabulous! We used the opportunity to invite two artists to observe from outside how we muddle about in our culture. Sales were also very good.

Peggy Leboeuf, director of Galerie Perrotin (Paris, Miami):

This has been a great fair. We changed our booth every day, to get the most out of it. We had a lot of visitors, especially in the first three days. Here at the Art Basel we had the opportunity to show Bharti Kehr and Conrad Showcross for the first time, also the Peter Kurfin Prints were a good combination together with our exhibit at Art Unlimited.

Sean Kelly, owner of Sean Kelly Gallery (New York):

For us it was a very successful fair. We had less American collectors, probably because there was no Venice Biannual this year. 75-80% of the sales went to Europe. Through Art Unlimited we got a lot of attention and we had sales to major museums as well as foundations.

What the Press Said

2,300 media representatives from all continents came to see what the international art market has to offer.
“Frieze may have more of a buzz, Art Basel Miami Beach (the US sister fair) may be brasher and have better weather but, without a doubt, Art Basel still packs the biggest punch”, said the Times of London. “At this year’s Art Basel, the general impression was that only the best of the best is accepted”, according to Dagbladet Børsen of Copenhagen. Spain’s El Mundo: “Economic crisis? Not for Art Basel”. Parisian Le Monde declared: “Art Basel has become the world’s best fair and the equivalent, in its field, to what the Cannes Festival is to cinema”.

Edgar Degas – Biography Of The French Artist Renowned For His Figure Painting

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, it was never a conventional sense of beauty that attracted his talents.

Hilaire Germain Edgar de Gas (it was only later that he started to sign his works ‘Degas’) was born in Paris, the eldest of three boys and two girls born to a prosperous banker from a Neapolitan family and his Creole wife from New Orleans. He was actually named after his grandfathers – Hilaire Degas, a banker from Naples, and Germain Musson, a New Orleans merchant. However his mother was to die when he was only 13 years old.

He was educated at the lycee Louis-le-Grand, a famous school for the elite, where he received a classical education and also met his long-time friends Henri Rouart, Paul Valpincon and Ludovic Halevy. Having received his baccalaureat in 1853, he enrolled at the Faculty of Law, although he preferred to spend his time in the print room of the Louvre where he had already made some copies from engravings, and also visiting the painting studios of Felix Barrias and Louis Lamothe. In 1855 he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and began to study officially with Lamothe, a pupil of Ingres.

Not needing to study and compete for the Prix de Rome, in 1856 he set out for Italy, first visiting his family in Naples. In October 1857 he visited Rome where he met Gustave Moreau, already an influential figure eight years his elder. They became close friends and visited Florence together between June and August 1858.

From 1865 to1870 Degas exhibited each year at the Paris Salon. He also became friendly with Berthe Morisot and Edouard Manet and, in the summer of 1869, joined Manet in Boulogne and Saint-Valery-en-Caux where he painted some landscapes. Of all the artists of the time, it is doubtlessly Manet with whom he had the greatest affinity. They were both older than most of the Impressionist circle and both came from prosperous families so they could also meet socially within their family circles.

The tragic events of the Franco-Prussian war and the Paris Commune of the years 1870-71, together with a lengthy stay in Louisiana visiting his family from October 1872 to March 1873, marked both an interruption and a turning point in his career. At the outbreak of the war he joined the national guard together with his friend Manet and many other artists, however the extreme cold during the siege of Paris affected his health badly and at the start of the Paris Commune he went to rest in the Orne with his friends the Valpincon family.

It was during the 1870’s that Degas acquired his reputation as a painter of dancers. The reasons for his interest in dance were numerous and diverse but certainly stem from his life-long enthusiasm for music and the opera. The interior of the opera house also had many visual attractions – the possibility of unusual views onto the stage from balconies or the orchestral pit, contrasts between light and darkness, illusion and reality, beauty and banality.

After the theme of dance it was the racecourse that drew most of his attention. Racecourses were a new phenomenon in France, being introduced there from England in the 19th century. The Longchamp stadium opened in 1857 and it was this course which inspired Degas, Manet and, later, Toulouse-Lautrec. The exclusive Jockey Club was inaugurated in 1833 and it naturally attracted the same upper classes who attended the Paris Opera.

His first personal exhibition, which was held at the Durand-Ruel gallery in 1892, consisted of an extraordinary series of semi-abstract monotypes with enhanced colours representing mysterious landscapes. Besides such landscapes his style wasn’t to change dramatically from then on, although his subjects tended to grow in dimension – whereas previously, for example, he would have depicted a whole dance troupe, he now concentrated on perhaps just two or three figures in the foreground. This was undoubtedly to some extend due to his failing eyesight.

Dancer Adjusting Her Shoe, circa 1890 Edgar Degas

Degas himself gave another explanation for the mysterious power of his later works: “It’s one thing to copy what one sees, but it’s much better to draw what can only be seen in one’s memory. It’s a transformation during which the imagination collaborates with the memory … there your recollections and fantasies are freed from the tyranny exerted by nature.”

Degas continued to struggle against his blindness and worked up to about 1912 when he was forced to leave his apartment where he had lived for the past quarter century and move to a more convenient address in the Boulevard de Clichy. But it proved to be an ordeal from which he never fully recovered and, despite the huge international success and high prices commanded by his works from 1900 onwards, he became sad and indifferent to the glory. He died on 27th September 1917 during the wartime, making his death go almost unnoticed by the world – although perhaps a fitting end for the man who had once said “I would like to be famous but unknown”! He was buried in the cemetery of Montmartre.

By Dr Bianca Tavares

Learn more about Edgar Degas and find other biographical writing by Bianca Tavares at Vintage Art.

5 Steps To Art Appreciation

I still remember when I was first invited to an art gallery by my friends and my instinctive reaction was a feeling of apprehension. It was a strange feeling as I have always loved art especially paintings, so why the anxiety. It dawned on me that I was not worried about experiencing the paintings but how to react to them, what to say and how to converse about them so as to not look like a complete moron to my friends.

This very unusual problem led me to explore and find a simple and down-to-earth approach to art appreciation. The idea is to demystify the process and make it easy to enjoy art. Here are some steps that I came up with to make it an easy learning experience

Tip No. 1 Make it a habit to observe and appreciate art

In order to understand your own specific interests and inclinations in art, develop a habit of observing seriously any art object that you come across be it a painting or a sculpture. We often overlook art objects sitting right in front of us. How many of us honestly take some of the free minutes in our office to look at the paintings on our office walls.

If we spend sometime in observing and appreciating art that we are exposed to in everyday life, we will learn a great deal about what things attract and appeal to us the most and also what are the things that you dislike. In a nutshell you will understand more clearly your likes and dislikes in art

Tip No. 2 Develop your own unique art sense

Once you have spent some time in examining your own preferences in art, you can move towards understanding the forms of visual art that connect with you most. For some it is the lifelike representations in sculpture and for others it is the ability of a painter to depict a memory in vivid colors. To many of us all art forms are a treat for the senses and a tribute to the efforts of the artist

As you organize your own reactions to different forms of art, you will learn to recognize small differences and minor variations of colors and shapes that make a painting likeable or not so appealing to you

Tip No. 3 Research the pieces that you like

Now that you have an understanding of the colors, shapes and styles that interest you the most you should research these further to see if they represent a specific art style or a particular form of art, for example in paintings it could be abstracts, figurative or a combination of colors and theme that represent a definite pattern and style of painting

As you progress further, this research will help you to find more and more distinctively the artists and the media that you like the most. Many a times the styles and colors that appeal to us have a special meaning for us and may originate from a specific region of the world or maybe an art form that we were exposed to early in life and has left a significant impression on us. Sometimes it is the art that you experienced on a great vacation that left great memories and gave you a strong liking for it for life, the reasons for liking some art form are endless some thought to it may give you some clues

Tip No. 4 Refine your art sense

You have already explored and created your own art personality and are equipped with the knowledge of the styles of art that appeal to you the most. Your research has provided you with enough information to feel confidant to give reactions to different styles and also decide what appeals to you in different paintings whether it is the artist’s attempt to express his feelings or the emotions the painting evokes in you.

A very important tool that can help to refine your art sense is to keep an art journal. Before you get put off by this seemingly complex work let me quickly point out that it is the simplest form of keeping a dairy. It is a log of the art pieces that you see and your reactions to each piece, this log can be an important means in refining and enriching your unique art sense. Another important benefit of this art journal is that it can serve as a very effective way of relieving stress. No kidding…keeping an art journal is one of the key activities in art therapy which is a form of therapy that uses creativity and art in the healing process

Tip No. 5 Open up to new experiences in art

The last and most significant tip in the art appreciation process is to keep your mind open and receptive to new art experiences. One of the disadvantages of having developed a definite pattern of likes and dislikes in your art personality is to get trapped in this pattern. Do not cage yourself in this citadel of your own creation but remain open to new and totally different creations and art forms.

The whole purpose of art appreciation is to open your subconscious mind to be receptive to new experiences and creations. You will be amazed when you read your own art log as time passes to see your tastes change over time to different themes and styles. Always remember that the objective of art appreciation is to recognize and understand your own love of art and artistry.

By Anu Darbha

For more info please email the author at anudarbha@paintandcraft.com

If you are an art lover please visit my art related websites http://www.artseden.com and http://www.paintandcraft.com for a unique art experience

Art 39 Basel: THE International Art World Fair

Tomorrow, Art 39 Basel kicks off with a vernissage for invited guests. The 39th edition of Art Basel takes place in the museum-rich city of Basel (Switzerland) from June 4 through June 8, 2008. As the world’s premier art show, Art Basel is the annual meeting place of the international art world. This year’s 300 exhibiting galleries from all over the world were selected out of a record number of over 1,000 applications and will be showing works by over 2,000 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Art Unlimited hall, with its 60 large-scale projects, and Art Basel Conversations, featuring internationally respected panelists, represent further highlights. The Art on Stage platform (presented in association with the Theater Basel) will provide the framework for the performance Drama Queens by artists Michael Elmgreen (Denmark) and Ingar Dragset (Norway). The local museums also have fascinating exhibitions (including Chaim Soutine, Andrea Zittel, Monika Sosnowska, and Fernand Léger) and a broad range of events in store.

This annual reunion of the international art world regularly attracts some 60,000 artists, collectors, gallerists, curators, and art enthusiasts from across the globe, who come to see the largest, most rigorously juried overview of what the international art market has to offer and to meet the stars and insiders of the international art scene.

Presenting Art Galleries

Once again, the world’s leading galleries will be exhibiting at the show, for which 99% of last year’s exhibitors reapplied. This year’s unrivaled roster of participants will be enhanced by a number of distinguished dealers of classical modern art and photography, and diverse young galleries.

Features Art 39 Basel

This art fair is well-known for its many specialty exhibits and happenings:

• Artistic Expression
  Art 39 Basel will be showcasing all forms of artistic expression, the repertoire extending from paintings, drawings, editions, and sculptures to installations, photography, performances, and internet and video art. Works from a few thousand francs by young emerging artists will be on display alongside museum-quality masterpieces priced in the millions.

• Art Premiere
  This year’s special Art Premiere sector will be running under the heading of «Artists in Dialogue». Each of the 16 curated projects showcases a fascinating juxtaposition of works by two artists.

• Art Statements
  This year’s Art Statements sector will expand to include 31 solo exhibitions of young artists. The projects on display are new and often created specifically for presentation in this highly regarded sector for young artists. Since 1999, the Baloise Insurance Group has awarded its annual Baloise Art Prize of CHF 25,000 each to two outstanding Art Statements projects. The company also acquires works by the prizewinning artists and donates them to important museums such as the Kunsthalle in Hamburg and the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation in Vienna.

• Art Unlimited
  Art Unlimited will spotlight approximately 60 unconventional works. The platform enables artists to exhibit works that would ordinarily be subject to spatial, temporal, technical, financial contextual, or conceptual constraints. Art, with the accent on innovation.

• This is just a handful of features and events at the art fair; it has many more: Art magazines, Art Conversations, Public Art …

In Conclusion

Art Basel is the art world’s most important annual marketplace and offers its visitors the most extensive temporary museum of our day. Art experts and enthusiasts alike can come here to find works they have been looking for, discover new talents, compare prices, and scent out trends. For the artists themselves, it is a prestigious platform with worldwide impact. The intimate atmosphere of the beautiful, art-loving city of Basel adds to the appeal of the event.

Special exhibitions and social functions at the local museums provide further attractions and meeting places. And in the evening, the place to go is the Art Club at the Kunsthalle, featuring DJs flown in by Carhartt from all over Europe.

FINE ART FAIR CATALOG

The art fair is accompanied by a lavish catalog, as it was last year.

ART 39 BASEL CATALOG

for more info: ~ see other articles at eArtfair.com/blog

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