STILL LIFES AREN'T BORING

When you first start as an artist, or if you are walking through any art museum you see tons and tons of still lifes. Many people imagine it is the basis of all art forms, you know once you've practiced with enough boring things like apples and oranges then you can start to branch out to figures. But, still lifes weren't even apart of the Western Art World until the late 16th Century. Before then almost all paintings were religious or documentary. And so if any still lifes were made they still held religious symbolism.

The first types of still lifes that were created were of course within Egyptian tombs. They would have artists paint any sort of riches from food to items on the walls of the tomb thinking that in the afterlife they would be there for the deceased. Some of the other earliest recounts of still lifes were within Pompeii and were Roman mosaics used for decoration and signs of hospitality. None of the still lifes up until the Dutch and Flemish paintings in the late 16th Century were what you'd think are typical still lifes we see covering museums today. The Dutch and Flemish painters were in a craze for still lifes because of the combination of religious images being banned in the Dutch Reformed Protestant Church (which led to the symbolism within still lifes) and the simple obsession with horticulture that the Dutch had.

Egyptian wall painting of food (http://www.timetrips.co.uk/still_life_history.htm)

uncovered still life found at Herculaneum showing Roman still life (https://sketchesandscratches.wordpress.com/tag/vanitas/)

Willem Kalf, Still Life with Ewer, Vessels and Pomegranate, oil on canvas, mid-1640s, The J. Paul Getty Museum

Jan van Huysum, 1723, oil on panel, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (http://www.essentialvermeer.com/dutch-painters/huysum.html)

Something funny and interesting that I found about still lifes is that there was a genre of still lifes known as "breakfast paintings" which would be the presentation of the upper class breakfasts while also a religious reminder not to be gluttonous.

Willem Claeszoon Heda, Breakfast Table with Blackberry Pie, 1631, Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister

As you can imagine, still lifes evolved along with the many art movements, being the cornerstone of all styles and genres of art. You can find a still life of any genre and style of art you desire and probably by any artist you desire as well. It is the basis of all artists today and a great way to study the aesthetic elements, but it shouldn't be thrown aside as a beginners form of art.

Ori Gersht, Blow Up, photographs and videos, 2007

Still lifes allow the artist to impose any sort of composition and arrangement of elements within the artwork. This sort of freedom allows for many styles and genres of art to take place, which led to how contemporary still lifes will include two-dimensional or three-dimensional mixed media and sometimes even video or sound.

Next time you think Still Lifes are "boring" or "too beginner", think again.

ARTISTS AS PRANKSTERS

It's April Fool's Day so what better to talk about than artists who are known as pranksters. There have been many pranks pulled throughout Art History but here are two artists who stand out the most.

The first is Harvey Stromberg. Now, it's hard to find any actual information about him and his art but we do know that in the early 1970's he got this idea to go to the MoMA and make exact sticker replicas of light switches, air vents, locks, and things like that. So weeks before his "exhibition" he walked around the MoMA and took notes on the structural details to create the realistic looking stickers. When he went to place them he said "When I install a piece, my adrenalin is racing. In fact, its very hard for me to come up with serious reasons why I do it." A lot of his "pieces" stayed up for 2 years before Stromberg held an fake gallery opening with plastic champagne glasses. And that's about all we know about it! A lot of people think it's strictly a prank, others like to think it's art. What's your opinion?

On another hand we have an actual artist who is known for high class pranking, Banksy. Having placed his own work in museums from the British Museum, to the Louvre and the Met, Banksy has done it all and made a statement while doing it.
In 2005 Banksy placed a stone with a cave drawing on it with a caveman pushing a shopping cart in the British Museum's Ancient Artifacts Section. This piece apparently stayed up for 3 days going unnoticed.

Image from British Museum

Again in 2005 Banksy smuggled in his works (all Anti-War related) into museums in New York City. Including a fake Andy Warhol print "Discount Soup Can" in the MoMA, "You Have Beautiful Eyes" in the Met, "Soldier with Spraycan" in the Brooklyn Museum, and "Withus Oragainstus" in New York's Natural History Museum.

Banksy, Discount Soup Can, 2005, Museum of Modern Art

Banksy, You Have Beautiful Eyes, 2005, Metropolitan Museum of Art

"You Have Beautiful Eyes" in place in the Met

Banksy, Soldier with Spraycan, 2005, Brooklyn Museum

Banksy, Withus Oragainstus, 2005, Museum of Natural History

In 2006 Banksy put a life-sized replica of a Guantanamo Bay detainee in Disneyland inside Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride. It remained there for 90 minutes before the ride was closed down and they removed the statue.

Image from www.woostercollective.com and BBC News

And possibly his biggest hoax of all, in 2010 he created a movie "Exit Through the Gift Shop" which was a documentary about Banksy and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary. But there is a lot of debate over whether the documentary is authentic or all fake.

Whether you think it is disrespectful or hilarious, it's great to see someone in the Art World with a sense of humor. Especially on a day like today!!

References/Articles:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/01/the-10-best-art-pranks_n_1388512.html
http://pranksters.com/historical-pranks/
http://www.complex.com/style/2014/04/banksy-hoaxes/#!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5335400.stm
http://www.woostercollective.com/post/a-wooster-exclusive-banksy-hits-new-yorks-most-famous-museums-all-of

WOMEN IN ART: ELAINE DE KOONING

Many of you have heard of Willem de Kooning, the widely known Abstract Expressionist Painter. But not many of you have heard of his wife, Elaine de Kooning, Figurative Expressionist Painter. Being very active in the Abstract Expressionist movement in the early 20th Century, Elaine de Kooning was a member of the Eighth Street Club in New York City, which rarely gave memberships to women. Especially during the Abstract Expressionist movement, women were not valued as much as their male counterparts. Which led Elaine de Kooning to sign her works with her initials, to prevent being labeled as feminine.

Elaine de Kooning, Fairfield Porter, 1954, oil on canvas

So a little about Elaine de Kooning's art career: As a figurative artist, de Kooning often painted portraits. Her subjects were mainly fellow artists from poets to choreographers, however she did paint John F. Kennedy as well. In fact, Elaine de Kooning kept painting JFK and made an entire series of portraits of him, one of which is in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. "Portraiture always fascinated me because I love the particular gesture of a particular expression or stance... Working on the figure, I wanted paint to sweep through as feelings sweep through..." You can tell in her work as well that there is a lot of color and heavy influence from other abstract expressionist artists at this time including her husband Willem.

Elaine de Kooning, Thomas B. Hess, 1956, oil on canvas

Elaine de Kooning in her Manhattan studio in 1964. She is with her John F. Kennedy series of paintings

Later in her life Elaine de Kooning was inspired by paleolithic cave paintings of Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. Which really shows her knowledge of color, movement, and line through abstract representative imagery.

Elaine de Kooning, Bull, 1958, oil on canvas, New York University Art Collection

Besides being a painter, Elaine de Kooning was also a writer and wrote from Art News magazine, writing many articles about famous artists. She also taught in many colleges later on in her life. Truly an intelligent and iconic female artist, Elaine de Kooning sadly gets overshadowed by her husband Willem de Kooning. But her work is very crucial to the Abstract Expressionist movement and Art History and should not be ignored.

WOMEN IN ART: ANNA ATKINS

Some of you may have noticed that the other day (March 16th) Google had a Doodle celebrating Anna Atkin's 216th Birthday. She was a botanist and a photographer using her photographic techniques to document and study many different plants.
First learning of photogenic drawing and calotypes through the inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot and her husband's friend. Herself and Constance Talbot, William Henry Fox Talbot's wife, are known as the first women photographers. She was able to learn about cyanotypes through her husbands friendship with Sir John Herschel, who invented the cyanotype in 1842. After learning the process, Atkins created many photograms of dried algae and then created a book of her studies and photograms in 1843. This book is known to be the first book to have photographic images, even though it was privately published and not many copies were made. Less than a year later Talbot created his book "The Pencil of Nature" which is the first commercially published book to be illustrated with  photographs.

Title Page of Anna Atkins "Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions", 1843, cyanotype photogram, Spencer Collection/ Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, NY Public Library

Introduction of Anna Atkins "Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions", 1843, cyanotype photogram, Spencer Collection/ Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, NY Public Library

Cystoseria granulata, Anna Atkins "Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions", 1843, cyanotype photogram, Spencer Collection/ Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, NY Public Library

Atkins went on to create two more volumes of "Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions" and in the 1850s collaborated with Anne Dixon to create more cyanotype books: "Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns" (1853), "Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns" (1854). In addition to the photographic books she also wrote many books, without photograms, of her studies.

Poppy, Anna Atkins "Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns", about 1854, cyanotype photogra, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

I've written a previous post about Dark Room Photography and how important it is, so check it out if you're curious: link here. But I never fully described what cyanotypes are. So here's a detailed description:
-First you mix together equal volumes of a photosensitive solution of 8.1% potassium ferricyanide and 20% ferric ammonium citrate.
-Then you brush it evenly on a natural fibered cloth/paper. And set to dry in a dark room.
-A positive image will be produced when the emulsion covered paper is shown to UV light (sunlight or UV fluorescent lights) with a negative image laying straight on the emulsion. This is called a contact print because the negative and the emulsion must be in flat contact to avoid any blurriness.
-Once the image is a steely blue/gray then you take it out from under the light and wash it in a water bath washing off the yellow iron that was reduced by the UV.
-After you wash off the iron you can wash the print in another bath of water and a splash of 3% hydrogen peroxide which darkens the blues of the print.
-These prints can also be toned after they're dried through tea, bleach, and wine among other things.

You can find many scans of her cyanotypes online and the actual pages and scans across London.

WOMEN IN ART: ALICE NEEL

Throughout my education and while visiting various museums and shows I've had a chance to see many paintings by Alice Neel. Yet, up until now I haven't actually learned about her as an artist. To start, Alice Neel was an American Portrait Painter. But her life wasn't easy, she struggled and broke barriers as a female artist.
Born in 1900, Neel was taught that she wouldn't make an impact in the world because she was a woman. But she went on to pursue her art career and she took classes in art and eventually enrolled in Art School. While in school she met her husband Carlos Enriquez and she moved to Hanava with him learning more about Cuban avant-garde arts. When in this situation Alice Neel began to take her stance in political consciousness and equality for women.

Alice Neel in her studio in Harlem, 1944

A year later Alice and Carlos had a daughter, Santillana, who died a year later from diphtheria. The lose of her daughter was so strong that she portrayed themes of lose, motherhood, and anxiety in her paintings. Not long after the loss of Santillana, Neel had a second child, Isabella Lillian, in New York City. After her birth, Neel painted "Well Baby Clinic" which more resembles mothers and babies in an insane asylum than in a maternity ward. And a few year after that Carlos took Isabetta back to Cuba and in reaction to the lose of her husband and daughter, Neel broke down and was hospitalized and attempted suicide.

Alice Neel, Well Baby Clinic, 1928, oil on canvas, Private Collection

At about this time it was the Depression Era, Alice was lucky to work for the Works Progress Administration and was hired to make paintings. During this time she was seeing heroin addict and sailor, Kenneth Doolittle who set fire to 350 of her watercolors, paintings and drawings a few years later.

Alice Neel, Kenneth Dolittle, 1931, oil on canvas, Tate Modern, London

She then began to surround herself with artists, intellectuals, and political leaders for the Communist Party, who she also painted. This allowed her to become a well known and respected artist. She gave birth to another child, Richard, of her lover Jose Santiago moving to Spanish Harlem and painting her neighbors.

Alice Neel, The Spanish Family, 1943, oil on canvas, Private Collection

After Jose left she gave birth to another son, Hartley, of her lover community intellectual, Sam Brody. As for her art career, she was illustrating for Masses & Mainstream but her work for the Works Progress Administration stopped soon after leading to Alice Neel having to struggle to make ends meet. In the end of the 1960s, Neel's work gained interest because of the Women's Movement which led to Neel becoming an icon for many feminists. She became of celebrity status when she was awarded with a National Women's Caucus for Art award by President Jimmy Carter.

Alice Neel's painting of Kate Millett for the cover of TIME Magazine, August 31 1970

Alice Neel, Andy Warhol, 1970, oil on canvas, Whitney Museum, New York

Alice Neel's Website has tons of information about her life and her work: www.aliceneel.com

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: KARA WALKER

We've mentioned Kara Walker a bit before when we did a post about Cutting Paper as an art form. But now is the chance to really dive into what her artwork is really about.

The major themes that fill Walker's work with meaning are conversations of race, gender, sexuality, and fantasy. She hits upon the power struggle in these subjects such as what is real or fiction in history, what we desire verse what we shame through her minimalistic narrative scenes.

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/kara-walker

Race: Even though all of her figures are cut out of black paper she purposefully exaggerates features and clothing of a person to make them a certain ethnicity. This only further pushes the sense of humor within her pieces because of the exaggerations, but it also creates a statement of the fact that us as the viewer knows what she is referring to because of stereotype and caricature.

Installation view of Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2007) Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/KaraWalker

Desire and Shame: Walker has described America's national pastime as "loving to hate what we hate to love" (Do You Like Creme in your Coffee or Chocolate In Your Milk? 1997) which perfectly sums up how society has viewed certain situations and events. In reaction, Walker's work leads to controversy over the combination of violence, humor, and sexuality in whether what she is portraying is taboo in relation to theme of history and slavery. Her work also doesn't necessarily portray the characters as right or wrong, leading to viewer to create their own moral decision.

http://www.alanaveryartcompany.com/kara-walker/

Historic? or Fantasy?: Although her characters are depicted in the South pre- Civil War, she never depicts anything specific to history. However, Walker's work is a comment on what we are taught and then twists in fantasy and an exaggerated truth to create her own historic stories. A combination of "southern romance novels, historical fiction, slave narratives, and contemporary novels" creates her version of storytelling.

Kara Walker, The Renaissance Society, 1997  http://gallery400.uic.edu/blog/from-the-archive-kara-walkers-voices-lecture-at-gallery-400-1997

Kara Walker, Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civic War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart, 1994

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: KEHINDE WILEY

Similar to Barkley L. Hendricks, Kehinde Wiley is a contemporary portrait painter. Wiley is a New York based artist whose work is in museums around the world. His work rivals great masters of portraiture from Titian and Ingres to Reynolds and Gainsborough. Wiley combines aspects of traditional portraits which we know well with contemporary twists. On his website is explains that he "engages the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic and the sublime in his representation of urban, black and brown men found throughout the world."

Kehinde Wiley in his Beijing studio in 2012. http://nymag.com/arts/art/rules/kehinde-wiley-2012-4/

Kehinde Wiley's collections are separated into places around the world. He finds his models on the streets of New York. Because his models are always African American, Wiley will use his models to express whatever he has been influenced from travelling ie. when Wiley went to China and was researching historic propaganda posters from China's Cultural Revolution he will use what he has learned and combine it with African American Identity.

Kehinde Wiley, Two Heroic Sisters of the Grassland, 2007, oil and enamel on canvas, 96x72 inches.

A lot of the time he will copy images from history and reenact in his style what is going on. For instance with the painting above he is copying a Chinese propaganda poster printed in 1965.

http://www.maopost.com:8000/wcat=mao&wlan=en&wreq=posterpage&posterid=1239-001M&srcname=c_child&selected=161&total=216&srcreq=http:%2F%2Fwww.maopost.com:8000%2Fwcat=mao%26wlan=en%26wreq=postercat%26catref=c_child%26displistindex=9

His continuing combination of History and Style has made him a truly unique and magnificent artist who should be known and studied by all. Below is more of his work with the pieces they are inspired by.

Kehinde Wiley, The Three Graces, 2012, oil on canvas, 84x111 inches

Raphael, Les Trois Graces, 1504, oil on panel, 6.7x6.7 inches

Kehinde Wiley, Naomi and her Daughters, 2013, oil on canvas, 108x90 inches

George Dawe, Naomi and her Daughters, 1804, oil paint on canvas, Tate Museum

All Kehinde's work and information can be found at kehindewiley.com