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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

Peggy Guggenheim Immortalized in Orsoni Mosaic to Commemorate 60th Anniversary of the Collection

The Angelo Orsoni mosaic atelier in Venice, Italy, has commemorated Peggy Guggenheim in a portrait created in the glass enamels and 24 k gold tesserae, hand crafted at the 19th century Venetian furnace. The mosaic, by Orsoni maestra Antonella Gallenda, will be presented to the museum on August 26 at the Danilo Rea/Umbria jazz concert, performed in celebration of Guggenheim’s birthday. The concert is part of a series of events commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Inspired by a photograph of Guggenheim wearing her signature Surrealist sunglasses made for her by Edward Melcarth, the portrait is done in the genre of “Modernism.” Speaking from personal memory, Orsoni reflects, “I had the chance to meet Peggy Guggenheim when I was 16. I still remember when she passed on the canals on board a gondola with her beloved dogs. It’s now with great pleasure that we present her portrait to the Guggenheim Collection, realized in the atelier founded by my great grandfather.”

Lucio Orsoni is a well-known mosaic artist in Italy. Just weeks ago, Lucio was awarded the Frenze Donna Prize for the contribution of Orsoni Smalti Veneziani to Italian culture and society. He is great grandson of Orsoni founder Angelo Orsoni, originated this technique specifically to interpret mid-century monochrome photography into mosaic portraiture. By placing the tesserae vertically, the artist intensifies the essential flatness and limited color palette of the image.

Art and Form

Oh, it is not always easy to decide what is art, why art is art, and how art comes about being art.
This article discusses the relationship between art and form.

Defining Art from Form
“Any work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.” – Joseph Conrad

When you finally decide on a course of action, all the usual psychological blocks are bound to occur. Where shall I begin? Have I a right to make a choice, based on any sensible guides? Is a piece of ceramics a work of art? Is a piece of Tiffany glass? Is a rug designed by Matisse? Should I buy a painting… a print… a drawing?

There is no crystal-clear answer. As I have tried to indicate in foregoing chapters, you are dealing with your own personal reactions, as well as with certain rules and laws which are vague, at best.

One of the first muddles that need clarifying is the sharp line often drawn to set off arts from crafts. I cannot see why these two should be so summarily opposed to each other. How can anybody decide at first blush that a man who has a sense of form, an eye for color, and a definite quest for the beautiful is producing only a vessel – if he spins a lovely pot on his wheel, applies glowing glazes, and fires his work to produce a handsome jar glowing with a jewel-like finish? Yet there are critics and collectors who would dismiss the man’s work with a snobbish shrug that it is a fine example of the potter’s craft… but as a work of art there is no room for it.

Why, I ask, this strange, if fine, distinction? Is it because the jar is intended for functional use and the higherbrows believe such a pragmatic approach precludes it from joining the upper world of “fine arts”?

Let us go back almost 3,000 years to a Greek potter in his workshop as he formed a vessel for oil or wine. The term “vase” is now applied to most of the early Greek ceramic pieces; but their original purpose was functional… for everyday use. On such vases we see indications of an entirely new way of looking at things by the artist. He was no longer hidebound by the old style he had inherited from earlier Egyptian forms. Yet there was still the same regard for a sharp outline and exact symmetry. So vases from this period are not only valuable for their beauty of color, dimension, and proportion; they are esteemed for their obvious role in shaping a new course for the artist to follow as he broke the shackles of a hardened past. Yet it is clear that the objects as originally created had a humble purpose indeed. Such intent has not lessened their artistic validity or value.

Let us go even farther back into history. Museums which own objects from the Sumerian period display them proudly. In the University of Pennsylvania Museum there is a gold cup used by Queen Shu-Bad of Mesopotamia. It has a graceful form, a delicate gold color, and intricate decorative fluting. Obviously it was designed to provide the queen with a drinking vessel. Is it therefore less beautiful than it would have been had it lacked practical purpose?

The same will naturally apply to the pottery tomb figures of the Ming dynasty in China… to T’ang glazed pottery… to the heroic bronze cats and baboons of the Egyptians. Recently I saw a cover design for the bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, showing a drawing of an Incan Empire Poncho, made about 1500. It was an almost pure design… with cubes of black and white. At the top was a reverse triangle of deep brown. I have seen many paintings of the abstract school which could have hung side by side with this poncho reproduction.

So I say: judge by the results and forget the notion that one can always erect a false fence to separate the beautiful from the functional. If the object is beautiful to you, then it is worthy of your collector’s eye and instincts. This attitude can open up many new fields to you – for example, the folk arts.

Author Description
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SCOPEBasel June 3-8 2008

Basel – SCOPE, the cutting-edge contemporary art fair, returns for the second year to Basel in a new venue, a 60,000 square foot glass pavilion situated on the Rhine.

Within walking distance of Art Basel 39, SCOPE will present its most international fair yet, showcasing 85 galleries from all over the world.

SCOPE Basel 2008 exhibitors, special events, and curatorial programs amplify the fair’s signal achievement: introducing artists, curators, and cutting-edge galleries to new audiences internationally, making it the most comprehensive destination for emerging art available anywhere.

With SCOPE Basel 2008, the fair solidifies its position as a leading presenter in the global art world. Currently with fairs in New York, London, Miami, Basel, and the Hamptons, SCOPE is expanding into Spain, China, and the United Arab Emirates, where a cultural world’s fair of art, music, and film has been commissioned.

SCOPE’s latest achievements are complimented by long-term, world-class, exhibition venue commitments. For SCOPE Basel 08, an undeniable tipping point has brought Volta and Balelatina into its orbit, creating a fully-serviced “art district on the Rhine.”

SCOPE New York 2008 was held at the culturally iconic Lincoln Center and SCOPE London has proudly made the hallowed Lord’s Cricket Ground its new home.

SCOPE is the brainchild of Alexis Hubshman, who drew upon his experience as an artist and gallerist to start SCOPE in 2002 in a New York hotel.

As the first art fair to bring emerging galleries Peres Projects, Daniel Reich, John Connelly Presents, Taxter & Spengemann and Marella to a wider audience, SCOPE has given many now-prominent emerging artists like Assume Astro Vivid Focus, Scissor Sisters and Black Label their first significant international exposure.

The fair has evolved from an industry niche to an influential global contributor, with ongoing events, educational programs, and the SCOPE Foundation 501(c) 3. With total sales of nearly $100 million, over 250,000 visitors, and wide media attention, SCOPE has helped build a flourishing collector base in the contemporary
art market.

At SCOPE Basel 2008, the new pavilion significantly upgrades the exhibition venue, and is serviced by shuttle, water taxi, and pedicab. This year’s edition of the fair builds on SCOPE’s tradition of one-person and thematic group shows, and museum-quality programming to create a real-time international survey of emerging art.

Materialisation III, 2007
Vincent Kriste

SCOPE is dedicated to supporting local artists in each city it exhibits. SCOPE Basel 2008 will feature the emerging Swiss curator Reto Thüring presenting four Swiss artists,Valentina Pini, Guadalupe Ruiz, Marc Elsener, and Vincent Kriste. SCOPE president Alexis Hubshman introduces Invisible Heroes, four emerging Swiss artists:
Admir Jahic, Pawel Ferus, Comenius Roethlisberger and Smash137.

SCOPE Basel 2008 reflects global reach of cutting-edge contemporary art fair.

Events Schedule
First View
Tuesday June 3 1pm–8pm
Press and all art fair and SCOPE VIP cardholders preview the fair & the premier of Special Programs.
Press Lunch begins at 2pm.

Opening night party
Wednesday June 4 9pm–late
SCOPE and modart invite all for a night of celebration at Das Schiff Westquaistrasse 19–Hafen.

Collector Lecture Series and Receptions
Wednesday–Friday June 4–6

Collector Lounge
Sip and Think, Sports Lounge, Every day, all day.

New Location
Uferstrasse 80
CH-4057 Basel
Switzerland

Exhibitors Open
Tuesday June 3 1pm–8pm
Wednesday June 4 10am–8pm
Thursday June 5 10am–8pm
Friday June 6 10am–8pm
Saturday June 7 10am–8pm
Sunday June 8 10am–6pm

source: press release scopebasel

History of Surreal Photography

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, as the pure psychic automatism expressed in the real functionality of a person. Surrealistic art forms characteristically differ from the conventional forms in not having specific shape or idea. It can be the expression of basic human instinct and imaginative faculties of the unconscious mind. But, when surrealism comes to photography, the critics did not even imagine such a possibility. However, “Marquise Casati” by Man Ray, made a change to the belief, as it featured multiple eyes for the photograph. Even though, it was an accidental blurring, it proved the chances for the feasibility of surrealistic works.

Man Ray and Lee Miller are considered as legends in surrealistic photography as they were very successful to overcome the limitations of photography to create surrealistic images. Maurice Tabard is another famous surrealist, who had his own technique for surrealistic imaging. Hans Bellmer creatively used mechanical dolls to symbolize sexualized images, where as for Rene Magritte camera was the tool to make photographic equivalents of his paintings.

Surrealist photographs are described as the images, which symbolically represent dreams, night mares, intoxication, sexual ecstasy, hallucination and madness. The difficulty with photography medium is that it imbibes the reality, and often the real images cannot be sufficient to express such unconventional patterns. But, the famous surrealist photographers are able to fulfill the task since they can use the photographic techniques effectively. The ordinary snapshots, body photographs, anthropological photographs, medical photographs, movie stills, and even police photographs are manipulated to create the impression of surrealist images in the photographs.

Surrealism in photography is mainly performed using the different techniques. The differential techniques of light and lenses can itself be the primary technique for surrealism. Photomontage is one of the popular processing techniques, in which the several images are coupled together. In photogram, a photographic paper can be used instead of camera to imprint the image. The images produced by the flush of light can create amazing images that has a surrealistic look.

Multiple exposure is another technique for surrealism, in which the camera is clicked twice or more, without rolling the negative. The second image will be superimposed on the first image and the final product will be an undefined mixture of both. Cliche verre or glass negative is the surrealistic technique that uses negative coated from glass plate.

Anyhow, solarization or Sabattier effect seems to be the most remarkable technique for surrealism. It produces dramatic effect of patterns through the flushing of the light on the photograph, while developing in the darkroom. It was discovered by Lee Miller, which have selective reversal of highlights and shadows. The light and dark areas with the distinct line of reversal make it most appropriate for surrealism.

Surrealism in photography has progressed much from its primitive stages. The new technology and lenses offer immense opportunity to the new generation photographers to portray their mental emotions in the frame of cameras.

By Domen Lombergar

Domen Lombergar is a surrealist artist who runs a surrealism portal trying to bring the idea of surrealism to the public.

History of Mosaics

By Mustafa Ghaddar

Being one of the most beautiful and oldest forms of art in the history of man, one couldn’t help but wonder about how such art has evolved and survived through all these centuries. This type of ornamental arts where small tiles of stones and marbles are used to develop patterns and pictures appeared randomly in totally different cultures and locations. That is why; mosaics can’t be rooted to a particular people or culture. However, there is a clear conformity among historians that this type of art came into life out from the orient. One of the primitive demonstrations that were discovered in the art of mosaics goes back to the oldest civilization in Mesopotamia, the Chaldeans, who date back to 4000BC. The remains were some painted columns covered with mosaics.

By the eighth century BC, there were pebble pavements, using different colored stones to create patterns, though these tended to be unstructured decoration.

In the 4th century BC, it was the Greeks who transformed it into an art form through making intricate and well-defined geometric patterns with meticulous scenes of people and animals. With the Romans, the mosaic field was further upgraded even though the level of artistry and skill were slightly diminished. Their works included brilliant geometric displays, celebration of the gods scenes and domestic themes that were used mostly on floors.

Moving to the 5th century AD, the Byzantine Empire and civilization took hold of the mosaic art. New characteristics were injected in this form of art. Eastern influences were clearly reflected in the style and the use of glass tesserae. Mosaics in the Byzantine Era were utilized to cover mainly walls and ceilings. Themes mostly included religion and the portraits of emperors and empresses.

Today, the sheer beauty and magnificence of mosaics are sought by art lovers and people from all over the world. The mosaic art that we’re experiencing nowadays have surpassed the thousands of years that went by. This art beholds the greatness of every civilization and captures the secrets and the artistic spirit of each and every culture that it existed in. Holding on to our precious heritage, Phoenician Arts connects this art with the modern world by blending the secret techniques of our ancestors along with the expertise and knowledge of our passionate artists to bring forth the very best in the timeless world of mosaics. Mosaics add a touch of inspiration and a feeling of warmth to any setting. They are an admirable breath of class & sophistication!

http://www.mozaico.net

Mozaico, is your Fine Mosaic Home Place where you can find your perfect mosaic pattern. Our mosaics are handmade and are made from natural decorative tiles. They are wonderful for your wall murals, kitchen backsplash, bath decor, marble floor, mosaic table or any setting you want to beautify. Our customized services are a sure thing for you to find exactly what you desire.
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Tiffany And His Stained Glass

By Tracy Crowe

When I think of stained glass windows, or stained glass lampshades, I think of Louis Comfort Tiffany. What is his story? How did he come to create such magnificent pieces of art?

Louis Comfort Tiffany lived from 1848 to 1933. His father was the founder and main owner of a highly successful New York City jewelry and fancy goods store. This business provided Tiffany with both “know-how” and financial backing. Although he was a competent painter and a skilled colorist, Tiffany turned most of his attention and creative energies to the design, manufacture and retail of decorative arts objects. His first business became the premiere “artistic” interior decoration business in New York in the 1880s. He was especially interested in glass, and began experimenting with it to give his sophisticated clientele the living environments that they expected from him.

At that time artists applied tints and painted on glass, which Tiffany considered “dull and artificial” compared to the method of coloring molten glass with metals and other chemicals that was used by medieval artists. He, with other artists, experimented and developed a new method of making “opalescent” glass which simulated the effects of painting on glass.

Tiffany’s firm eventually offered more than 5,000 colors and varieties of stained glass, and this allowed him to give his glass color and light effects that were previously unknown. Tiffany used several innovations in his work. He layered (or plated) multiple pieces of glass to add depth or to create a misty, ethereal quality, created “drapery glass” by pouring, gathering, twisting, pulling, and folding glass to simulate garment folds, melded tiny colored glass chips with solid sheets to produce a shimmering “confetti” effect often used on clear or colored backgrounds to render foliage, and studded glass with jewel-like fragments. He also wrapped glass in copper foil to depict the organic lines of flowers and foliage, and used lead came to highlight architectural lines.

In 1883 Tiffany established the first of several New York City based firms devoted mostly to the manufacture and sale of glass objects. Initially, they made religious and figural windows for churches and landscape and floral windows for private and business clients. He hired the best creative talents of the era to provide ideas, concepts, and designs for his windows. His firms made four types of windows. One was the landscape window which was rare among religious commissions but is considered his greatest achievement in stained glass. A more common religious commission was figurative windows, in which he followed theological standards of imagery and depicted faces, hands, and feet using paint. The other two types, floral and ornamental (often mosaic) were less expensive and were common in domestic interiors.

During the early 1890’s, Tiffany, working with a team of other people, invented “Favrile” iridescent blown glass. This allowed him to make vases, stemware, place settings, and shades for candlesticks and oil lamps. He capitalized on the new Edison electric light bulb to start producing leaded- glass lampshades, for which he used the pieces of opalescent glass too small to make windows with. Seigfried Bing, the inventor of the term “Art Nouveau” called Tiffany’s lampshades “glowing fantasies”. Tiffany Studios’ “Price List of 1906″ lists more than 125 designs for lampshades, and these, along with his Favrile art glass, took top prizes at all the major fairs and expositions between 1900 and 1910.

The Art Noveau movement which was popular at the time, and his lifelong interest in horticulture, inspired Tiffany to favor naturalistic designs for his stained glass. His beautiful and innovative floral motifs for his lampshades were implemented by a team of prize winning designers. Tiffany’s stained glass business lasted 50 years, until the 1920’s, and during the height of their popularity, Tiffany windows were very expensive symbols of prestige. An average three-by-five-foot piece cost $700 at a time when Tiffany’s own artisans were paid $3 a day.
Louis Comfort Tiffany revolutionized and dominated the American stained glass business throughout the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was the best known and most prolific of American stained glass artists. Fortunately, the revival of interest in Tiffany windows has encouraged their restoration, so we can still marvel at them today.

About the Author

Tracy Crowe loves stained glass! For information about stained glass, visit http://yourstainedglassinfosite.com

Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tracy_Crowe

Correctly Displaying Fine Art Photography

By Sam Zaydel

Though most quality prints are printed on Archival papers, such as Fuji Crystal Archive Papers or Kodak Endura Professional Papers, it is essential to consider a few important aspects to maximize the life of any print you are planning to display.

Things to Avoid

* Avoid placing your Fine Art Prints in direct exposure to sunlight.

* Avoid places with high levels of moisture or humidity.

* Close to a source of direct heat, like near a wall heater, or a furnace.

Consider the Sun

If you are going to frame the print, and are planning on hanging it on the wall, you should consider the placement first of all. We recommend placing your print on a wall which does not receive direct sunlight. What’s wrong with sunlight? Well, sunlight is a full spectrum light, which means it packs many different frequencies of light, including UV (ultra-violet). The problem with UV is its effect on photographic papers. UV causes fading, simply put, regardless of the quality of paper used to produce the print. This does not mean that all prints, regardless of the paper, or method used to produce them, fade at the same rate.

Archival papers are meant to last. Special chemicals are used to protect these papers from long-term effects of UV, moisture and other factors. However, even archival prints are not immortal. While Archival papers are meant to last, over time they will also show signs of age. The good news? They will likely outlive you.

Print Comparison

If you were to compare a print produced on a high-end inkjet printer using standard inks to a Fine Art Print produced in a Lab on Archival paper, initially they may appear of equal quality. But many inks are water based, and are not rated for archival usage. Such a print, if displayed properly, will perhaps last 3 to 5 years before any fading becomes visible. On the other hand, an archival print, also displayed properly, will last 50 or more years. Back to Top.

To Summarize

Place your prints into a quality frame, and hang it somewhere out of sun’s direct rays. There’s nothing wrong with light falling on the prints. After all, full spectrum light means your photos are going to shine. Indirect light is best, because it will not accelerate natural aging of your prints, and will provide soft even illumination. In today’s hi-tech world you may be able to purchase a frame with UV shielded glass, which is ideal, if your prints are going to receive quite a bit of direct sun light.

Try to hang you photos away from sources of heat and moisture, because both cause materials such as paper, and glues or tapes used to mount photos into mats to warp. The last thing you want to see is your print rippling in its frame.

Written by Professional Photographer, and an owner of a Photography Selling Service. To learn more about this, and many other general, as well as more specific photography related subjects, or to explore a Fine Art Photography gallery, please consider visiting WorldonPaper.com Contemporary Fine Art Gallery.

Art Nouveau – A Period of Style & Elegance

The French and the Belgians called it Art Nouveau or the New Art. This period of integrated art may have been short lasting a mere 24 years from 1890 to 1914, however, the influence of that time has continued to this day. The artists who were in vogue then are just as much in demand now: Alphonse Mucha; Gustav Klimt; & Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to name just a few. They were considered ahead of their time then and their art was regarded as exciting and new.

The Paris World’s Fair held in 1900 really was the defining moment for this particular art form as over 50 million people attended. Upon visiting Siegfried Bing’s pavilion, their interest and enthusiasm spread. As art dealer and entrepreneur he had opened a gallery in Paris in 1895 and called it L’Art Nouveau which gave the movement its name. His pavilion was filled with every example of Art Design: wallpaper; fabrics; furniture; jewelry; glassware; and metalwork. Art Nouveau style could be identified by the flowing and curving lines which were apparent in everyday household items as well as architecture and furniture. Even women’s fashions were created to reflect the new look.

Charles Rennie Macintosh as architect and furniture designer made furniture for specific spaces in the homes that he also designed. His architecture was so unique that equally unique furniture was required to fill the spaces. The traditional furniture available at the time would have appeared out of place in his homes.

When Charles and his close friend, Herbie McNair met Margaret Macdonald and her sister, Frances, a very unusual, romantic and artistic liaison developed. All had studied art and would collaborate together on many projects. Together they formed a powerful alliance and were known as the Glasgow Four with far reaching effect. In 1896 they were invited to exhibit at the London Arts and Crafts Society Exhibition. Herbie and Frances married in 1899 and moved to Liverpool. In 1900 Charles and Margaret were married and in the same year Macintosh’s architectural masterpiece, The Glasgow School of Art, was begun.

The great Frank Lloyd Wright is a wonderful example of someone who was influenced by the Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts movements. He designed not only the buildings but also the furniture, stained glass windows and lamps which were an integral part of the overall design. His commercial success not to mention his commercial designs for everything from a gas station, places of worship and the Johnson Wax building to the Guggenheim Museum sealed his fate as America’s favorite architect and icon of style! It is lucky for us that he was so prolific and left a lasting legacy for all to enjoy and draw inspiration from.

Antoni Gaudi of Spain had a limitless imagination and his buildings are a true testament to his creative energy and individual style. At first his undulating walls and fantastical creations were not well received as they were too unorthodox. Today, however, he is considered a genius and the irregular lines and one-of-a-kind architecture have been embraced. Thousands annually visit Barcelona for the sole purpose of seeing Gaudi’s Familia Sagrada, Casa Mila & Park Guere.

Architectural Tours

Today, theme tours are very popular and many of the great cities of Europe have specialty tours with an emphasis placed on Art Nouveau style and architecture. Regarded by the locals as national treasures which they are only too proud to share and show off, Brussels, Prague and Riga in Latvia all have excellent examples of Art Nouveau design. And, as if you needed an excuse to visit these varied and interesting places, in the case of these cities it is like going to an open air museum. Of course, there are many other locations across Europe which, if you had the time, you would not want to miss; Paris, Vienna, and Turin could easily whet your appetite. This wave of creativity made its way around the world with Europe at the center.

Below is a listing of just some of the artists and architects of the Art Nouveau period with the cities where they lived or had commissions shown opposite. These are the places one must go in order to really appreciate their genius:

• Charles Rennie Macintosh, Glasgow & Helensburgh Scotland
• Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, USA
• Antoni Gaudi, Barcelona, Spain
• Victor Horta, Brussels, Belgium
• Hector Guimard, Paris, France
• Henry van de Velde, Netherlands, Germany
• Otto Wagner, Vienna, Austria
• J. M. Olbrich, Vienna, Austria
• C. Harrison Townsend, London, England
• Peter Behrens, Darmstadt, Germany
• Gustav Klimt, Vienna, Austria
• Alphonse Mucha, Prague, Former Czech Republic
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paris, France

About the Author
By Beryl Leavett-Brown.