Did You Know?

Andy Warhol created the Rolling Stone’s emblem depicting the big tongue. It first appeared on the cover of the Sticky Fingers album.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Elevating Advertising to Fine Art

TOULOUSE-LAUTREC: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Moulin Rouge: La Goulue Poster - 1891 0 Height: 191 cm (75.1 in); Width: 117 cm (46 in) (click photo for larger image)Post-Impressionist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) was the first artist to elevate advertising to the status of fine art. 

This represented an extraordinary shift in the history of art, obliterating the boundaries between high (painting, drawing, sculpture) and low (posters, logos and other forms of visual culture) art. Acknowledging that some of his greatest masterpieces were posters for nightclubs does not in any way diminish their value. On the contrary, it set the gold standard for great commercial artists.

But Toulouse-Lautrec went far beyond being a brilliant advertiser. He was also a great documentarian of urban life in Belle Epoque Paris. “One further aspect of Toulouse-Lautrec's achievement deserves special attention. Despite the celebrated freedom and individualism of modern art, few artists of any period have been able to overcome social prejudice. While rubbing elbows with the riffraff was an acceptable, even encouraged rite-of-passage among avant-garde artists, Degas, Manet and Van Gogh [for example] maintained a certain aloofness from their working-class subjects. Toulouse-Lautrec was able to develop true friendships that transcended the rigid class structure of 19th-century Paris. His brilliant insights into the glitter and desperation of Paris nightlife, a study in contrasts, were not only more brilliant but more humane than any that had come before him, setting the bar high for future artists.” (The ArtStory).

Dr. Jill will be delivering a single-session program on this crazy character—and brilliant artist—on Friday, October 29th at 11 AM. Register HERE so you don’t miss this presentation.

You can also read more about Toulouse-Lautrec right HERE on What About Art?

Edvard Munch: The Expression of Obsessions

Edvard Munch - Night in St. Cloud - 1908 - Oil on canvas - The National Gallery, Oslo (click photo for larger image)Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) “was a prolific yet perpetually troubled artist preoccupied with matters of human mortality such as chronic illness, sexual liberation, and religious aspiration. He expressed these obsessions through works of intense color, semi-abstraction, and mysterious subject matter.” (The ArtStory)Although the Symbolist style became dated after WWI,  pioneering German Expressionists were nevertheless heavily influenced by Munch’s psychological concerns, intense color, and semi-abstraction—as well as by the somber and melancholic mood of his art. Munch bequeathed all of his remaining work to the city of Oslo, upon his death. Numbering about 1,100 paintings, 4,500 drawings, and 18,000 prints, the collection was provided its own museum in 1963, where it serves as a testament to Munch's lasting legacy.  The work featured here is a “memorial to the artist's father who had died the previous year….Munch’s tribute to his father is composed of a darkened, seemingly hallowed room bathed in crepuscular light, indeed a space occupied only by shadows and stillness. The rendition is befitting of their tense relationship.” (The ArtStory) 

Dr. Jill will be presenting “Edvard Munch: Symbols of Significance” ONLINE, on Wed., Oct. 20th, from 11:00am-12:00 PM. Click HERE for More Info and to REGISTER!

You can also read more about Munch right HERE on What About Art?

Quote of the Day

"Time is a vindictive bandit to steal the beauty of our former selves.” - Raphael

Gustav Klimt: The Old and the New

Gustave Klimt - The Beethoven Frieze (detail) - 1902 - Casein paint on stucco, inlaid with various materials - The Secession Building, Vienna (click photo for larger image)

Austrian painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) never claimed to be revolutionizing art in any way. With the groundbreaking Secession (which he founded), Klimt's primary aim was to call attention to contemporary Viennese artists and in turn to call their attention to the much broader world of modern art beyond Austria's borders. Thus, Klimt is responsible for helping to transform Vienna into a leading center for culture and the arts at the turn of the century.

While some critics and historians contend that Klimt's work should not be included in the canon of “modern art” his oeuvre remains striking for its visual combinations of the old and the new, the real and the abstract.

Klimt produced his greatest work during a time of economic expansion, social change, and the introduction of radical ideas. These trends are clearly evident in his paintings. Klimt created a highly personal style, based on discreet intimate experiences, and will probably never be fully comprehended. What we do recognize, is that Klimt was an outstanding exponent of the equality between the fine and decorative arts. He never painted a self-portrait. He found his means of expression not in projecting his own image, but in the erotic power of his sensual nudes, his femme fatales. He was, he said, more interested in “painting other people, above all women.”

The Beethoven Frieze (detail shown here) was painted by Klimt for the 14th Secession exhibition in 1902 (the group’s most famous show). It is a monumental work, measuring some 7 feet tall by 112 feet long. The frieze's narrative tracks the narrative of three female figures, called Genii, that represent humanity seeking fulfillment. 

Dr. Jill will be presenting “Gustav Klimt: Decorative and Provocative” ONLINE, on Friday, Oct. 15th from11:00 AM-12:00 PM. Click HERE for More Info and to REGISTER! 

You can also read more about Gustav Klimt right HERE on What About Art?