You come across artists sometimes who you just can’t get enough of. Who you find you have to share with as many friends as you can… of course to those that will appreciate it.
Ruslan Lobanov (500px) from Kyiv, Ukraine is one of those artists.
Ruslan takes photos of women, nude, usually in public situations, in black and white. What I like most about the work is how passive the models seem to be of their nudity. Some of his photos speak more to me than others in this way.
The Sick Child , or Det Syke Barn in Norwegian, by Edvard Munch (1863-1944) is a painting with an interesting story. Munch created a number of lithographs, drypoints, etchings, and of course paintings with this same name from 1885 to 1926. The paintings represent Munchs sister, Johanne Sophie, the moment before she passed from tuberculosis at the age of 15.
The grieving woman is reportedly their aunt Karen, and typically in the various works Johanne Sophie is propped up by large pillows, a look of agony upon her face. It is also interesting to note the looming curtain drawn slightly on the right; perhaps the symbol of death itself, and the covered mirror behind the pillows.
Art critic Patricia Donahue had a very interesting observation: “It is almost as though the child, knowing that nothing more can be done, is comforting a person who has reached the end of her endurance” [Donahue, Patricia. “Nursing, the Finest Art: An Illustrated History”. St. Louis, MO: Mosby, 1996. 433.]
The paintings themselves have a very strong expression. The greens and yellows represent sickness, reds the dramatic (and coughed up blood from late stages of tuberculosis). You can notice strong vertical strokes from the brush, built up on layers of impasto paint [it is reported that these thick layers of paint are because of repeated reworking of the image, rather than a unique technique]. This style expresses emotive power, as if blurry eyed and hazy.
Munch has wrote that the 1885–86 painting was such a difficult struggle that its completion marked a major breakthrough in his art: “I started as an Impressionist, but during the violent mental and vital convulsions of the Bohême period Impressionism gave me insufficient expression—I had to find an expression for what stirred my mind … The first break with Impressionism was the Sick Child—I was looking for expression (Expressionism).” [Eggum, 46]
Interesting factual note that the Nazis felt Munch’s paintings were degenerate art and forcibly removed from all German museums.
This is the second of the six paintings completed by Munch, painted in 1896 when Munch was living in Paris.
The Sick Child by Edvard Munch in 1896
More reading: Edvard Munch
The wikipedia page on The Sick Child is heavily referenced in this article.
Marika Sviķe is a photographer based in Riga, Latvia. She’s a creative animal, working in fashion (check out her new fashion line Gatavs Valkāšanai which means ‘ready to wear’), design, digital manipulations, she models and well…
I recently re-fell in love with Marika’s work when I saw her Lina + Madara | March 2013 shoot. I think what attracts me most to this shoot is her flamboyant use of the painted on, semi transparent brush strokes. Also, she easily and effortlessly captures elegant sensuality, not only in her Lina + Madara work, but in all her work. I find in every photograph of hers there is a feeling of character, of personality, of purpose. There’s emotion, and style, and above all else there’s little bits of quirky!
Marika Sviķe | Lina + Madara | March 2013
Ambrogiotto di Bondone (1266 – 1336), known to all as Giotto, is perhaps the single most influential figure in art. He was the light that emerged from the Middle Ages. He was the single man to bring painting from dark and dingy corners hidden in the medieval times, into the lofty spaces of churches and noble walls. Giotto was of the Florentine school of art.
Giotto was a religious painter, and was the first to connect dramatic stories with living people. He was also the first to give movement to figures, the first to make the sacred matter of art incontrovertibly real and true, believing in the miracle of life and through observing the effect of the miracle of his fellow men.
The majority of Giotto’s work was done in frescoes: watercolor on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling, so that the colors penetrate the plaster and become fixed. Because of the solidity of this method, his paintings till exist today though some undoubtedly have flaked off.
Lamentation is located inside of The Arena Chapel. A rectangular shaped box with Gothic windows on one side, and a barrel vault shaped ceiling. There is speculation that Giotto had directed it’s building, for the wall surfaces make an unhindered canvas for his works. Giotto divided the walls into even squares, depicting 36 scenes of the life of Christ. Lamentation is scene 20. It is said it took him a total of 4 years to complete all the paintings.
Giotto’s revolutionary technique is probably most recognized in how he animated figures. What was once always flat perspectives suddenly, with Giotto’s invention, became animated and 3D. Clothing upon the subjects had volume and wrinkles and rolled off shoulders in folds.
In Lamentation, or The Deposition, there is no background or landscape. The scene takes place in a rocky space of land, where men and women surround Christ, lamenting – note emotionally – the loss of his life. Every line of the painting, every gesture of the painting directs the viewers eyes towards Christ resting on the knees of the Virgin. Mary Magdalen holds his feet, St. John leans forwards, Joseph stands behind Magdalen, and grief-stricken angels float above.
The Deposition by Giotto – 1305
In 1632, Rembrandt created The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. In this creation, Rembrandt captured Dr. Tulp in the middle of explaining to fellow Dr.s and patrons the musculature of the arm.
Some say this may be the first time Rembrandt ever signed a painting with his surname, which can be seen in the upper left hand corner. His signature had previously just been RHL (Rembrandt Harmenszoon of Leiden).
It is interesting to note that the official City Anatomist of the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons permitted only one public dissection a year. This body had to be the body of an executed criminal. So, experts have thus dated this event to be January 16, 1632, a day designated for this to be undertaken. With this information, historians are also able to identify the corpse to that of the criminal Aris Kindt (aka. Adriaan Adriaanszoon), a man convicted of armed robbery, sentenced to death by hanging.
It’s fascinating to know some little facts about this painting, and the authenticity of the scene. For instance, typically a Preparator would be involved in the dissection, who would prepare the cadaver for the dissection. This person is not present in the painting. Also, because Dr. Tulp was the Official City Anatomist, he wouldn’t be involved in menial – and bloody – tasks like dissection. This is indicated by the fact that there are no cutting instruments shown in the image, and also by the presence of the giant medical book in the lower right of the painting.
Rembrant himself is a very interesting man. He rose from very humble beginnings to surpass most others in portraiture painting, only to renounce fame in order to liberate himself from moneygrubbing. He was a sorrow filled man, especially in his later years. Three of his children died in infancy, and his wife wasted away while Dutch musketeers were haggling over The Night Watch, another of Rembrants works. He spent the last years of his life bankrupt in the Amsterdam ghetto, tended by his loyal housekeeper. But, historians say he died full of peace, knowing that he was his own man.
Rembrandt was a master of light and dark. The luminosity of his images were like no other before, and like very few since. Truly a master. I love the rosy red tinge to the faces of all those present, which might be accounted to it being mid January. I find it interesting the clothing of all of those present. What I like to illuminate is what’s not illuminated in the painting, the background. It shows us how much Rembrandt focused on shading, which also amplified the magnificence of the subjects.
The painting is located in Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp by Rembrandt
I fell in love with Emily Soto on 500px – as I think a lot of people have. Her work is elegant beauty draped about lush tropical foliage with random blur and beautiful women relaxed, yet in elegant fashions. I really enjoy her work as it feels like it’s a fairy tale, not necessarily a land where there are little Tinkerbelles floating around with magic wands, but one where the snakes and rabbits and trees talk back to you, and are your friends.
One thing I notice in all of her work is that the faces have emotion, expressive, and she plays around with that a lot. Well, she also has unbeatable fashions and vision. I really dig how she adds a lot of variety to her images, how she puts them on spreads, or combines two together un-symmetrically.
Emily is a international fashion, celebrity, and lifestyle photographer based in southern California. It’s hard to believe that her photography career has only been going since 2010-2011. It is obvious that she has been working at it for many years just not as a professional though… but still, it’s pretty amazing considering that amount of attention she’s had, and continues to have. She is sought after to grace magazine covers around the world by many, many magazines.
All of the images you see here were taken from here blog.
Source: www.emilysotoblog.com
Pieter Brueghel the Elder ( 1525? – 1569 ) was a Flemish painter fascinated with the idea of making peasant life into artistic scenes of poetry and drama. He thrived on intimate peasant habits, industrial conflicts, and spiritual practices of the time.
When Brueghel was a young man, he traveled over the Alps to Italy to learn from the Italian masters. However, what he did learn was that he was a Northerner through and through, and didn’t take much from the leads of the Italian masters. However, what he did fall in love with was the landscapes of the Italians. Brueghel effectively snubbed the Italian art that was beginning to so enthuse the other Flemish artists in the North. This mentality of Brueghel was aligned with the elder Flemish artists who had for so long fought to create a unique style.
Pieter Brueghel reportedly had an ironic sense of humor, which translated into his landscapes. The natural backgrounds with such vastness and insight into life are truly breathtaking. Hunters in the Snow takes the viewers eye naturally through the landscape, to observe every nuance of the painting. I personally always start in the foreground, in the front left and sweep my way right and back. Those cliffs are what legends are made of, the distant port in the background, and the frozen canals and creeks that sweep through the landscape provide for my imagination boundless dreams that I would love to walk along and explore.
The thing I am most curious about though, is did they really have skates back then?
This painting was part of a series of landscape paintings started by Brueghel, of which only 5 were finally completed before his death. They all were themed around peasant going about chores and other daily activities. It was done with oil on a wooden panel. Apparently, there are firemen putting out a chimney fire in the background somewhere, which I cannot see..
The painting now resides with a collection in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, located in Vienna, Austria. This painting is an example of the Northern Renaissance movement.
Pieter Brueghel the Elder – Hunters in the Snow – 1565
Mecuro B Cotto creates incredibly moody photographs. He plays with high contrast: little spots from the sun that cast mischievous glances at the shade of midday. And if it’s not this weather, the scene is gloomy, like a fall in rural England gloomy. His models are often casting their eyes down, in deep introspective moments of serenity. His models are also often wearing beautifully elegant and simple floor length dresses, evening gowns, or in either a state of half nude or fully nude.
What strikes me with these images, aside from what I’ve mentioned, is that the scenes rarely look contrived. They are always, it seems, on location. A quick glance of the images below show many scenes inside of homes or along natures tender edges. They are always the perfect balance of calm. Even amongst the rubble of an abandoned building there is serenity. I notice walls are bare, or there is blur in the foreground of the image adding to the calmness of the images. I also feel that this effect adds to the impression that in-spite the external calmness, there is much inner turmoil, at least in some of the images.
The biggest thing I take from Mecuro B Cotto’s work is that it’s not the clarity of the image that is the most important, it’s the mood of the image.
What do you think?
© Mecuro B Cotto
Renee Robyn has the power to take your breath away. In photography she sees her images before she shoots them, and post-produces them into fantasy filled perfectness. She also models with eyes that can swallow your soul. She first attracted my attention by taking awesome photographs. Plain and simple. Renee’s work immediately stands out when seen. It’s my belief that Renee is such a great photographer because she genuinely loves everything about creating an image: modeling, photographing, creating, dreaming, and putting the final touches on the images in Photoshop.
Renee is intelligent and constantly driving herself. Anybody she comes in contact with understands this, and this just works perfectly to keep those creative juices flowing.
Model: Sam Marcellin
Hair: Renato Candia
MUA: Dianne Jane
Robert Arneson was born in Benicia, California in 1930. He received his MFA in 1958 at California College of the Arts: Oakland, California. In his early employed life he was a cartoonist for a local newspaper. He was a professor of ceramics in the Art department at UC Davis for 40 years.
It’s safe to say Robert Arneson was a Californian Artist.
In the 60s, as a lot of radical artistic movements were explored, Arneson developed a new movement in art called the Funk Movement. For Arneson, this meant pushing away traditional ideals for ceramics, in that they must be utilitarian or decorative. This led Arneson into non-functional ceramics like portraits with feeling, humanity, and humor… almost whimsical.
Arneson was influenced by many artists in California and abroad with radical and blunt ideals. This included writers like Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, Tom Robbins and William Burroughs, or artists like Peter Voulkos.
California Artist was created in 1982, and is stoneware with glazes measuring 68 1/4 in. x 27 1/2 in. x 20 1/4 in. It currently sits in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). It was a mocking response to an art critic from New York who felt Arneson was too easily pleased with his own jokes. The critic was not impressed by the cultural life of the Californian artist.
It is interesting to note that if one peers into the eyes of California Artist, they can see into the empty head of the stoneware.
California Artist by Robert Arneson | Source: Richard Pelletier
