Malaga was Picasso’s birthplace (although he left there as a teenager) and he himself was keen to have a showcase for his work there. In 1953 he had discussions about the idea of a museum dedicated to his work with the Provincial Delegate for Fine Arts in Malaga. But it wasn’t until many years after his death and due to the dedication of his eldest son’s widow and his grandson, Christine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, that the museum finally came into being in 2001.

The core of the museums collection has been donated by Christine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso and there are over 200 works showing Picasso’s revolutionary innovations, as well as the wide range of styles, materials and techniques he mastered, including his experiments in ceramics.

The individual galleries are not, as I had expected, organised chronologically but by theme. In practise this makes it easier to appreciate Picasso’s range of artistic skill. Themes include his relationship with Malaga and his sense of origins, his close circle of family and friends and everyday objects.

Quotes by the artist are shown on some of the gallery walls to give a better insight into the inspirations behind his paintings.

It was interesting for me to discover that a familiar work of his, “Female Acrobat” from 1930, was painted in such a way that it could be hung with any of its four sides at the top, which explains the curious position of the figure.

"Female Acrobate" by Picasso

He was born in Ronda (hence the museum there) in 1898 where he studied until the age of 25 when he moved permanently to Paris, where he died in 1975.

Nearly 200 of his artworks are exhibited in the museum, grouped in different rooms by themes such as Landscapes, Animals, Portraits and Nudes. There is also a room dedicated to the works he created during his travels in Mexico in 1954. The collection also includes drawings from the artist’s private portfolio, which have never been shown before.

My personal favourites were “Don Quixote de la Mancha”, which Peinado painted in 1947 and “Female Nude” (1940).

"Don Quixote de la Mancha" by Joaquin Peinado

"Female Nude" by Joaquin Peinado

It was during the 1940s, more than 20 years after his arrival in Paris, that his career really started to take off and he gained international recognition. He began to hold regular solo and group exhibitions following on from the popularity of his works shown at the exhibition The Art of Republican Spain in Prague.

So if you happen to be in Ronda visiting some of its many other delights (such as the amazing bridge across the gorge and the beautiful Arab Baths) take some time to discover the work of Joaquin Peinado.

The Versatility of Acrylics

Acrylic paint is a very versatile medium, it can be thinned with water making it appear like watercolour paint or it can be applied in thick layers to provide a similar appearance to an oil painting. It can be painted on a wide range of different surfaces including canvas, watercolour paper and wood. Acrylic paint can appear so similar to other mediums that it sometimes may be very difficult to figure out exactly what medium the finished art work had been painted with. There are a high number of different creative possibilities available to the artist as acrylic paint lends itself to a wider range of painting techniques and styles. It can be used for time-consuming detailed paintings or a more simplified painting style.

Fast Drying Time

Acrylic has the advantage of drying very quickly (Usually within 15 minutes to half an hour), so there is no need to spend a long time waiting for one area of paint to dry before painting another area with a different colour next to it. The alternative, oil paint, can take an incredibly long time to dry which can impede the progress of the artist. The drying time of acrylics can also be extended by using acrylic polymer spray and/or a stay-wet pallet, allowing for techniques which are similar to traditional oil painting to be used.

Durability of The Finished Artwork

Acrylic paint is a very lightfast medium, which means that the colour of the paint does not fade very much as time passes. Acrylics also have a very tough finish enabling the finished artwork to be left unframed. Oil paintings are often framed behind glass to protect them because the paint can remain soft for many years. Many artists prefer not to frame their paintings and to paint them on deep-edge canvases to give the finished art-work a contemporary appearance. This is also an advantage as there is no extra expense necessary for paying for the painting to be framed.

Crack Resistance

As acrylic paint is a thermoplastic it becomes flexible when it becomes warm. The advantage of having this flexibility means that it is much less likely to crack when it becomes dry. However, this quality also means that there is a risk of the paint becoming soft and tacky if it is kept in a warm place. This is especially the case with paintings which have a thick application of paint. If an acrylic painting has become tacky it can be made firm again by placing it in a room with a lower temperature.

Whether you would like to become a full-time artist or simply begin a new hobby, acrylic painting is an ideal way for you to discover the world of art. This cheap, versatile and tough medium provides a limitless number of artistic possibilities to the artist.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com

Born in Lexington, Virginia in 1928, Edwin Parker Twombly was nicknamed Cy by his father. He studied art at Black Mountain College in North Carolina in the 1950s where he met Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, with whom he later travelled to South America, Spain and Italy.

At the end of the 1950s, he made Italy his home, settling in the town of Gaeta between Rome and Naples, and exhibiting his paintings and sculptures throughout Europe. Among his signature styles were the use of the colour white, his graffiti-like scribblings and in his photographs, the play of light.

Cy Twombly was the link between the radical US post-war art and complex European painting. An exposition of his photographs opened last month at the Lambert collection in Avignon.

1. The Man Who Became Caravaggio by Peter Robb. A stylish and violent artist biography in which the author describes every known canvas throughout the pages and crams more about the artist than any previous work. Caravaggio was a violent man who fuelled the passionate intensity of his painting with his professional and emotional frustrations.
2. de Kooning: An American Master by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan. Probably the best artist biography this century; fabulously illustrated and incredibly revealing,  it describes how the Dutchman de Kooning escaped from an abusive mother as a stowaway on a freighter to New York. His dazzling abstract expressionist canvases were inspired by cubism, surrealism and jazz but he also created the quasi-figurative Woman paintings.
3. The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren by Jonathan Lopez. A tale of paintings, fakes and Nazis; a story that made Dutch painter Han van Meegeren famous worldwide when it broke at the end of World War II. A lifetime of disappointment drove him to forge Vermeers, one of which he sold to Hermann Goering in mockery of the Nazis.
4. A Deceptive Clarity by Aaron Elkins. An art history mystery featuring museum curator and Renaissance art expert Chris Norgren. Art, travel and murder all rolled into one page-turner.
5. The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr. Four hundred years ago Caravaggio  drank and brawled in the taverns and streets of Rome, all the while painting powerful art works. After commiting murder he died in mysterious circumstances. Many of the artists works have been lost over time and this is a spellbinding journey to discover the long-lost painting known as The Taking of Christ.

Happy Summer Reading!

He also produces exciting and innovative chemically-plated works on which silver, in particular, is applied to the canvas over broad brushstrokes of colour.

The resulting mirror-like surface highlights the texture of the paint and reveals occasional patches of colour whilst the unpainted canvas at the edges is scorched dark by the plating process in a play on the idea of reflection and revelation.

The popularity of these unique art works reveals that the art market is still hungry for work by young artists on the part of both collectors and highly competitive galleries. Read more about Kassay’s silver-plated artworks and their rise to fame and recent auction triumphs here.

The Glasgow exhibition runs until 21 August 2011 at the Gallery of Modern Art, Tramway and The Centre for Contemporary Arts. It features works by 39 artists created over the past 5 years and a number of artists in the show have strong links with Glasgow, including Karla Black, Duncan Campbell, Luke Fowler and Alasdair Gray.

Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Tel: 0117 973 5129

Until 31 August 2011

Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Tel 0117 973 5129
Until 31 August 2011

Artists, film-makers and studios whose work is represented also include: Studio Ghibli, Fleischer Studios, Hanna-Barbera, Eadward Muybridge, Lumière Brothers, Stan Brakhage, Len Lye, William Kentridge, Christian Boltanski and Kara Walker amongst others.

Barbican Art Gallery
Until 11 September 2011

(FREE for the under 12s)