George Luks: Realities

American artist George Luks (1867-1933) was associated with the New York Realists, also known as the Ashcan School. 

Known for its gritty urban subject matter, dark palette, and gestural brushwork, the Ashcan School was a loosely knit group of artists based in New York City who were inspired by the painter Robert Henri. The group believed in the worthiness of immigrant and working-class life as artistic subject matter and in an art that depicted the real rather than an elitist ideal, so offered featured in the work of the American Impressionists.

Born in a coal-mining region of north-central Pennsylvania, Luks studied first at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and later in Germany, London, and Paris. Returning to the United States in 1894, he became an illustrator for the Philadelphia Press and, at that time, met Robert Henri.

In 1908, with Henri, John Sloan, William Glackens, and four other painters, Luks formed a group called The Eight, whose exhibition in New York that year marked a key event in the history of modern painting in the United States. 

After this event, Luks received the support of art dealers and patrons. He and the other members of The Eight were eventually absorbed into the larger Ashcan school, which continued the exploration of modern, urban realities.

Quote of the Day

In 1565, the first pencil was invented in England.

Caravaggio: Intense Expression

Caravaggio - The Incredulity of Saint Thomas - 1601-02 - Oil on canvas - 42 1/8 x 57 1/2 in. - Neues Palais, Potsdam (click photo for larger image)After a lackluster apprenticeship, Italian painter Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) (c. 1572-1610) went to Rome. By 1592, he was causing scandals, not only because of his volatile character and temper, but because of his controversial painting methods.

Caravaggio rejected the lengthy preparations traditional in central Italy at the time, preferring instead to work in oils directly from the subject—half-length figures and still life—as practiced by the Venetians. He aimed to make paintings that depicted the truth and he was critically condemned for being a naturalist.

The heightened emotions of his narratives are given intense expression with dramatic chiaroscuro and powerful foreshortening.

Simone Martini: A Forerunner of Artistic Movements

Simone Martini - The Miracle of the Child Attacked and Rescued from the Blessed Agostino Novello Triptych, c. 1328 - Tempera on wood -Height: 82 cm (32.2 in); Width: 67 cm (26.3 in) - Church of St. Augustine Novello, Siena, Italy (click photo for larger image)Simone Martini (c. 1284 – 1344) was an important exponent of Gothic painting who did more than any other artist to spread the influence of Sienese painting. His work is also often identified as Proto-Renaissance.

He was very possibly a pupil of Duccio di Buoninsegna, from whom he probably inherited his love of harmonious, pure colors and most of his early figural types. To these he added a gracefulness of line and delicacy of interpretation that were inspired by works  based on the French Gothic style, which the young artist studied in Italy. 

Martini would have an enormous influence on the later International Gothic Style, as well as on the Renaissance and modern art.

Quote of the Day

"Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colours flowers, so does art colour life." - John Lubbock