March 21st - "Finding the Past in the Present" at the Burbank Art Association

I will be speaking at the March 21st Meeting of the Burbank Art Association with a presentation entitled  "Finding the Past in the Present":

The artists of the Modern Era were determined to shake off the dust of the Renaissance—and the canons of classical approaches that had “ruled” them for over 400 years. It is perhaps ironic that many of the primary resources for the Moderns came from the Medievals! Modern Art draws heavily upon medieval art—in its approaches to color, line, surface imagery, abstraction and subject matter. In addition, art forms invented in the Middle Ages—such as woodcuts, wood carvings, and everyday items elevated to the status of art—were revived during the Modern period. We will explore the influence of medieval art on Modern Art—to identify medieval modernism, with all of its character and innovation. Modern artists examined will include (but not be limited to) Romare Bearden, Francis Bacon, Henri Matisse, Emil Nolde, Marc Chagall, Georges Rouault, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.

The Presentation begins at 7:30 PM, 301 E. Olive Ave, Rm. 102, Burbank, CA. Park and enter at the rear of the building. Guests are welcome! Members are admitted for free--guests are asked to pay a $3 fee.

Staggering Picasso Trove Turns Up In France

This photo provided Monday Nov.29, 2010 by the Succession Picasso shows an artwork 'Papier colle pipe et bouteille' (Copy paste pipe and bottle) by Picasso. A retired French electrician and his wife have come forward with 271 undocumented, never-before-seen works by Pablo Picasso estimated to be worth at least euro 60 million ($79.35 million), an administrator of the artist's estate said Monday.(AP Photo/Succession Picasso)By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press – Mon Nov 29, 6:20 pm ET.  PARIS

Pablo Picasso almost never stopped creating, leaving thousands of drawings, paintings and sculptures that lure crowds to museums and mansions worldwide. Now, a retired electrician says that 271 of the master's creations have been sitting for decades in his garage.

Picasso's heirs are claiming theft, the art world is savoring what appears to be an authentic find, and the workman, who installed burglar alarms for Picasso, is defending what he calls a gift from the most renowned artist of the 20th century.

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The Magic of Miró

Joan Miró - Spanish, 1893 - 1983 - Shooting Star - 1938 - oil on canvas - Overall: 65.2 x 54.4 cm (25 11/16 x 21 7/16 in.) framed: 87 x 77.4 x 5.7 cm (34 1/4 x 30 1/2 x 2 1/4 in.) Gift of Joseph H. Hazen - National Gallery of Art - Washington, D.C.

Joan Miró was a Catalan painter who combined abstract art with Surrealist fantasy. His mature style evolved from the tension between his fanciful, poetic impulse and his vision of the harshness of modern life. He worked extensively in lithography and produced numerous murals, tapestries, and sculptures for public spaces.

"He was never closely aligned with any movement and was too retiring in his manner to be the object of a personality cult, like his compatriot Picasso, but the formal and technical innovations that he sustained over a very long career guaranteed his influence on 20th-century art. A pre-eminent figure in the history of abstraction and an important example to several generations of artists around the world, he remained profoundly attached to the specific circumstances and environment that shaped his art in his early years. An acute balance of sophistication and innocence and a deeply rooted conviction about the relationship between art and nature lie behind all his work and account in good measure for the wide appeal that his art has continued to exercise across many of the usual barriers of style." (SOURCE: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS)

"Nude, Green Leaves and Bust"

Pablo Picasso's 1932 'Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust' is seen at Christie's auction house in New York.

From ArtDaily.org

NEW YORK - A 1932 Pablo Picasso painting of his mistress has sold for $106.5 million, a world record price for any work of art at auction...

The striking work of Picasso's muse and mistress Marie-Therese Walter has been exhibited in the United States only once, in 1961 in Los Angeles to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Picasso's birth. The painting, which measures more than 5 feet by 4 feet, shows a reclining nude figure with an image of Picasso in the background looking over her. 

Read the entire article here...

"Foghorns" by the Fantastic Arthur Dove

Arthur Dove - Foghorns - 1929 - Oil on canvas - 18 x 26 in. (45.7 x 66 cm) Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado

Arthur Dove (1889-1946) was an American painter who was one of the earliest nonobjective artists. Dove’s art reflects his belief that color and form are instruments with which to express the essence beneath the physical exterior of things; his shapes are typically amorphous, his colors muted. In his wonderful "Foghorns" (1929), for example, he used size-graduated shapes and gradations of hue to visually express the sound of foghorns. Despite their nonobjective character, his paintings often suggest the undulating qualities of landscape and the forms of nature.

Dove had a profound influence on Georgia O'Keeffe. From the start of her career, O’Keeffe credited a reproduction of a Dove pastel as her introduction to modernism. Dove’s use of sensual, abstract forms to evoke the flowing rhythms and patterns of nature had already put him at the forefront of the American modernist movement by the time O’Keeffe entered the scene around 1916. Dove had been featured at the renowned photographer Alfred Stieglitz’s New York gallery “291″ in 1912, and O’Keeffe’s work was first shown there in 1916. O'Keeffe seriously considered giving up painting entirely early on in her career. Although she was an award winning art student--she wasn't particularly interested in painting those subjects for which she was lauded. She also didn't want to paint in the manner of one her most famous teachers--William Merritt Chase--but at the same time didn't want to follow the paths of the European modernists. Seeing Dove's work helped O'Keeffe to find her own visual voice. When she was in her 70s, O'Keeffe recalled that, “It was Arthur Dove who affected my start, who helped me to find something of my own.” By all means, explore the paintings of Arthur Dove. It will be well worth the journey.