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Demon Art by Russian Painter Mikhail Vrubel (The Demon Seated, Head of the Demon & Tamara and Demon)

2009-09-09T13:05:52Z

Mikhail Vrubel | Seated Demon | (Click to Enlarge)

1890, Oil on Canvas, 114 x 211 cm, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Vrubel, Mikhail (b Omsk, 5 Mar. 1856; d St Petersburg, 1 Apr. 1910). Russian painter and designer, the outstanding exponent of Symbolism in his country… In 1890 he began to produce interpretations of Mikhail Lermontov’s poem “The Demon” and the theme became central to his work.

: M.Vrubel | Seated Demon | (Click to Enlarge)

1890-91, Black Watercolor & Whitening on Paper, 23 x 36 cm, Kiev State Museum of Russian Art

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In treating it he passed from fairly naturalistic depictions to highly idiosyncratic anguish-ridden images rendered in brilliant fragmented brushwork that recalls the effects of medieval mosaics. The obsessive treatment of the theme reflected his own emotional instability; in 1902 the first symptoms of approaching insanity became apparent, in 1906 he went blind, and he died in a lunatic asylum. Although he was little appreciated for most of his career, he had become well known by the time of his death and had great influence on Russian painting in the early 20th century.

: Mikhail Vrubel | Tamara and the Demon

1890-91, Black Watercolor & Whitening on Paper, 66.5 x 50 cm, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Famous Women Artists of the 20th C.

2009-09-08T20:03:27Z

Some of the most famous and notable women artists from the Twentieth Century are included below (click each artist’s name below for a sample of their work)…

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Mary Cassat | Tea | (Click to Enlarge)

Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeois, Romaine Brooks, Leonora Carrington, Mary Cassatt (above), Elizabeth Catlett, Camille Claudel, Sonia Delaunay, Dulah Marie Evans, Helen Frankenthaler, Elisabeth Frink, Françoise Gilot, Natalia Goncharova, Grace Hartigan, Barbara Hepworth,

Renowned Swedish Fauvist | Sigrid Hjerten (below)

Eva Hesse, Sigrid Hjertén (above), Malvina Hoffman, Gwen John, Käthe Kollwitz, Lee Krasner, Frida Kahlo, Dame Laura Knight (below), Barbara Kruger, Marie Laurencin, Tamara de Lempicka, Séraphine Louis, Dora Maar, Maruja Mallo, Agnes Martin, Ana Mendieta, Joan Mitchell,

Dame Laura Knight | Great Parade (1928)

Paula Modersohn-Becker, Gabriele Münter, Alice Neel, Louise Nevelson, Georgia O’Keeffe, Bridget Riley, Verónica Ruiz de Velasco, Anne Ryan, Charlotte Salomon, Augusta Savage, Zinaida Serebriakova, Henrietta Shore, Sr. Maria Stanisia, Suzanne Valadon (below), Remedios Varo, Nellie Walker and Marianne von Werefkin.

: Suzanne Valadon | The Blue Room 1923

Oriental Poppies - Georgia O’Keeffe - 1928

Adam and Eve, 1932 - Tamara de Lempicka

Tamara de Lempicka - Auto Portrait - Self-portrait in Green Bugatti, 1925

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Red Canna | One of the Most Famous Works by Georgia O’Keeffe

2009-09-08T13:23:44Z

Red Canna (1923) | Georgia O'Keeffe | (Click to Enlarge)

Georgia O’Keeffe felt people in cities overlooked the beauty of flowers and began to paint them in the early 20s. She was quoted, “Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.” Her Red Canna, from 1923 achieves the sensuality she expertly conveys.

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Guernica | Pablo Picasso’s Most Famous Painting (Mural)

2009-09-08T12:43:46Z

Guernica | Pablo Picasso (Click to Enlarge)

Pablo Picasso painted the mural Guernica to represent the devastation of the town of Guernica, Spain, which was bombed by Nazi planes April 27, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. Fires in the town raged for several days, and more than 1,600 people either died or were seriously injured.

There is a tapestry reproduction donated by the estate of Norman D. Rockefeller in 1957 hanging outside of the U.N. Security Council. The original hangs in the National Museum of Modern Art in Spain.

Pablo Picasso - Weeping Woman 1937

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René Magritte | Les Amants (The Lovers)

2009-09-08T06:40:20Z

René Magritte | Les Amants

This is one of a small group of pictures painted by Magritte in Paris in 1927-28, in which the identity of the figures is mysteriously shrouded in white cloth. The group of paintings includes L’histoire centrale (The central story) 1927 (collection Isy Brachot, Brussels); L’invention de la vie( The invention of life) 1927-28 (private collection, Brussels); The lovers 1928 in the Australian National Gallery; and the similarly titled, similarly dated and similarly sized painting in the collection of Richard S. Zeisler, New York, in which the same shrouded heads of a man and a woman that appear in the Gallery’s painting attempt to kiss each other through their grey cloth integuments (Image Below).

Les Amants - Rene Magritte

The origin of this disturbing image has been attributed to various sources in Magritte’s imagination. Like many of his Surrealist associates, Magritte was fascinated by ‘Fantômas’, the shadowy hero of the thriller series which first appeared in novel form in 1913, and shortly after in films made by Louis Feuillade. The identity of ‘Fantômas’ is never revealed; he appears in the films disguised with a cloth or stocking over his head. Another source for the shrouded heads in Magritte’s paintings has been suggested in the memory of his mother’s apparent suicide. In 1912, when Magritte was only thirteen years of age, his mother was found drowned in the river Sambre; when her body was recovered from the river, her nightdress was supposedly wrapped around her head.

Magritte himself disliked explanations which diffused the mystery of his images. His matter-of-fact style deliberately eschewed the assumption that these images were simply the expression of personal fantasy or private neurosis. They are images calculated to unlock the darker side of the mind. In The lovers, a man and a woman press their together in a fond gesture, almost as if they were having their photograph taken. It could be a holiday snapshot, with glimpses of the green verdure of the Normandy coast and the sea beyond. But through the simple device of the shrouds that cover the lovers’ heads, tug back against their faces and curl like ropes across their shoulders, the spontaneous intimacy of this ‘holiday snapshot’ becomes a spectre of alienation, suffocation, even death. Outwardly so ordinary, even absurd, this image becomes chillingly real in the mind’s eye.

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Salvador Dali - The Persistence of Memory (La persistencia de la memoria) 1931

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Richard Phillips’ “Spectrum” Painting Featured on Gossip Girl

2009-09-08T06:17:47Z

Richard Phillips - Spectrum (1998)

Modern painter Richard Phillips had the honor of teen television soap Gossip Girl use his painting “Spectrum” (pictured above) in recurring episodes. The character Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford) is shown discussing art with a specialist who recommends the piece. It is prominently featured in subsequent episodes as the backdrop to the staircase in her Manhattan penthouse.

Do you think the painting resembles the character GG character Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester)?

Gossip Girl Leighton Meester Glows in Self Magazine

Martha Stewart and Gossip Girl Blake Lively Camp It Up for Halloween

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John William Waterhouse - Destiny (1900)

2009-09-02T09:34:32Z

John William Waterhouse - Destiny

In Destiny, John William Waterhouse uses a familiar Pre-Raphaelite figure, the contemplative female, as the center of an ambiguous allegorical scene. A beautiful woman stands with a cup of wine to her lips, staring into the distance. In front of her, a book is lies open. Behind her, a large circular mirror dominates, reflecting her face and a view of the sea. The mirror has an interesting compositional effect. It drastically limits the depth of the scene and blocks the view of the room and of the natural space outside. However, it simultaneously serves as a sort of window because it shows a view of the world outside.

At first, this scene seems straightforward. However, it is filled with inconsistencies and impossibilities. To start with, various details reflect an ambiguous attitude towards time. The round and shallow drinking cup looks Greek, and resembles similar cups in Waterhouse’s Circe images. The architectural details include what appear to be Corinthian columns, which could be consistent with a classical Greek scene. However, the presence of a bound book implies a much later date. The ships and globe of the mirror-image also appear to be more modern than classical. The woman’s clothing and hair style resemble those of Millais’s Mariana, and they do not represent any clear historical period (certainly not a classical one).

Furthermore, there are many spatial discrepancies. The woman is clearly indoors, in a dimly-lit space. The windows to the outside are behind her, beyond the mirror. How then would her mirror reflect the ocean? The top of a castle-like structure appears in the mirror, viewed from a height, but the landscape visible through the real portal to the outside shows that the structure is on ground level, in what appears to be a marshy area. Also, a globe that is reflected in the mirror does not appear in the actual room. It is clear the image in the mirror is not realistic. It represents either an unknown future or more likely a vision experienced by the woman with the cup. The title of the work, “Destiny,” supports this reading.

Waterhouse experiments with the use of circular mirrors in at least two of his other works, Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses (1892) and “I am Half Sick of Shadows” said the Lady of Shallott (1911). In the Lady of Shallott image, the mirror acts very similarly, acting as a backdrop for a contemplative woman. It reflects parts of the interior scene, such as the lady’s weaving, and also shows an impossible view of the outside. In the Circe painting, the composition is strikingly different. The central female, more active than contemplative, sits directly in front of the mirror.

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Greatest Posters Ever! Important Works by Belle Époque Master Jules Chéret

2009-08-03T06:43:06Z

Jules Cheret - Fête des fleurs

Jules Chéret (May 31, 1836 – September 23, 1932) was a French painter and lithographer who became a master of Belle Époque poster art. Often called the father of the modern poster. Chéret created vivid poster ads for the cabarets, music halls, and theaters such as the Eldorado, the Olympia, the Folies Bergères, Theatre de l’Opera, the Alcazar d’Été and the Moulin Rouge.

Jules Chéret, Bal du Moulin Rouge, 1889

Jules Chéret, Hippodrome, 1895

Jules Chéret - Vin Mariani

See Jules Chéret’s complete works HERE>>>

Compare Chéret’s works to: Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec’s - Moulin Rouge La Goulue.

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Marcel Duchamp’s Most Famous Painting - Nude Descending a Staircase, Number 2 - 1912

2009-08-02T16:05:09Z

Nude Descending a Staircase, Number 2 - Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), the most influential figure of the ‘Contemporary Art,’ was recognized for his strongly expressed contempt for the field of conventional ‘Fine Arts.’ He was in a way related to ‘Surrealist Movement,’ the descendant of ‘Cubism.’ Duchamp’s methodology and themes however, were not well received by ‘Cubists.’ This led to his inclination towards the ‘Dada Movement.’ “Nu descendant un escalier n° 2 (Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2)” was Marcel’s most famous as well as scandalous ‘Dadaist’ work, which also became a turning point of his life.

Duchamp created “Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2″ work with great enthusiasm, in the year 1912. This path-breaking piece is a large 57.88″ X 35.12″ oil work on canvas and currently hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This monochromic work, mainly in yellow and its shades, is quiet a ‘Cubist’ painting through its geometric representation rather than figurative. What really sets it apart is the spirit of ‘Futuristic Art’ infused in it. This painting hardly has any background, except the allusion to the dark ’staircase.’ Instead of an embodiment of sensuality, this painting is composed of around twenty or so images of a mechanically structured figure, arranged in a sequence over the ’staircase.’

In line with the ‘Cubist’ style, the bright figure, silhouetted against a dark background, is hard to distinguish as either male or female, structurally. The sequence of images exemplifies the changing postures of the figure as it descends the staircase, a concept very similar to the composition of a stroboscopic motion picture, which actually is a sequence of stills. “Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2″ is definitely a result of keen observation and diligence. It carries an element of raw force of energy and futuristic vision.

This revolutionary ‘Futurism’ and unorthodox methodology drew a lot of opposition and negative reviews in its debut show at the Paris Salon des Indépendants, in 1912. Another reason for the poor response and eventually the rejection of the painting was the backdrop of the covert, contemptuous emotions behind this work. Annoyed Duchamp re-presented the painting at the International Exhibition of Modern Art in 1913. It again received criticism because of the common belief that it was a mere caricature of the much-revered subject of nudity, which lacked artistic aesthetics.

Loved or hated, public attention to “Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2″ refused to slacken. It became a subject of many American parodies, including musicals, books, and paintings. This history remarkably justifies the words of William Hazlitt, “When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.”

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Turn Your Pictures and Photos into Andy Warhol Canvas Art, retro pop six panel art

2009-09-08T12:17:00Z

(Above Painting Inspired by Lichtenstein)

A1Reproductions.com, a website primarily selling hand painted oil reproductions from contemporary abstract artists, is now offering custom photo-to-canvas art options to its customers with inspirations from famed pop-artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.

Their oil paintings are masterpieces in and of themselves, made of the highest-quality materials with the most meticulous hands from its stable of in-house artists. The completion of each oil painting is an interactive process, they offer customers unlimited free alternations via email, to make certain they are happy with the final product. Additionally, every piece is hand-painted by an artist who specializes in reproducing the works of the work’s original painter.

Charles Reger, one of the two founders of A1Reproductions.com, states, “Everyone is the star of their own lives and deserves a masterpiece of themselves in the style of Pop Masters Warhol and Lichtenstein. I’d always dreamed as a child of having Warhol paint my portrait like he did of Chairman Mao or Marilyn Monroe - Now I can.”

The paintings carried by the site include masterpieces of works by some of the most famous artists in history. Top sellers include pieces by Munch, Picasso, Van Gogh and Renoir, including many contemporary artists as well. A1Reproduction.com’s paintings begin as low as $99 for a 16 X 20 painting.

“The customer of each oil painting becomes our partner in the creation of their custom work of art,” explains co-founder Jonathan Shih. “We will not ship out their paintings until they’re 100% satisfied.”

For further information, or to order your personalized masterpiece, CLICK HERE.

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