whataboutart

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” - Edgar Degas

Warhol Themes: The Cult of Celebrity and Death

Andy Warhol, Gold Marilyn Monroe, 1962, synthetic polymer paint, silkscreened, and oil on canvas, 6 feet 11 1/4 inches x 57 inches (211.4 x 144.7 cm) - Museum of Modern Art, NY (click photo for larger image)Marilyn Monroe died in August 1962. In the following four months, Andy Warhol (1928-1987) made more than twenty silkscreen paintings of her, all based on the same publicity photograph from the 1953 film, Niagara. Warhol found in Monroe a fusion of two of his consistent themes: death and the cult of celebrity. Even as Warhol canonizes Monroe, he reveals her public image as a carefully structured illusion. Redolent of 1950s glamour, the face in Gold Marilyn Monroe is much like the star was herself—high gloss, yet transient; bold, yet vulnerable; compelling, yet elusive. Surrounded by a void, it is like the fadeout at the end of a movie.

Rosa Bonheur: Defying Convention

 Rosa Bonheur - Lion at Rest - 1877-80 - Oil on canvas, 33 x 38 cm - Private collection (click photo for larger image)French painter and sculptor Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) is best known for her paintings of animals. She received her training from her father, Raymond Bonheur (1796-1849), an artist and ardent Saint-Simonian who encouraged her artistic career and independence. Precocious and talented, she began making copies in the Louvre at the age of 14 and first exhibited at the Salon in 1841. Her sympathetic portrayal of animals was influenced by prevailing trends in natural history and her deep affinity for animals, especially horses. Bonheur's art, as part of the Realist current that emerged in the 1840s, was grounded in direct observation of nature and meticulous draughtsmanship. She kept a small menagerie, frequented slaughterhouses and dissected animals to gain anatomical knowledge. In 1865 Bonheur was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'Honneur, the first woman so honored. An early Bohemian and feminist, Bonheur defied female convention of the day by dressing in pants and smoking cigarettes. 

Cecilia Beaux: An Important American Female Painter

Cecilia Beaux - Man with a Cat (Henry Sturgis Drinker) - 1898 - Oil on canvas, 122 x 88 cm - Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington (click photo for larger image)Cecilia Beaux (1855-1942) studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia (1877-78), and privately with William Sartain (1881-83). Under Sartain's guidance, she truly learned how to paint. She completed her art training in Paris at the Académie Julian and the Académie Colorossi. In 1890 she exhibited at the Paris Exposition. Returning to Philadelphia, she obtained, in 1893, the gold medal of the Philadelphia Art Club, the Dodge prize at the New York National Academy, and later various other distinctions. Henry Sturgis Drinker (the subject of this portrait) was a mechanical engineer who used his skills to help engineer the two mile long Musconetcong Tunnel, which made railroad travel between Easton, Pennsylvania and New York City possible. He was also the president of Lehigh University from 1905 to 1920. Drinker was Cecilia Beaux's brother-in-law.

Theophanes the Greek

Theophanes - Icon from the Deësis Tier - c. 1399 - Egg tempera on wood, height 210 cm - Cathedral of the Annunciation, Kremlin, MoscowTheophanes the Greek (in Russian Feofan Grek) (ca. 1340 - ca. 1410) was a painter from Constantinople, active mainly in Russia. He is said to have been a prolific decorator of churches, but only one fresco cycle survives that is certainly from his own hand, in the church of the Transfiguration at Novgorod (1378). His is one of the outstanding monuments of Russian medieval art, showing the highly personal version of the Byzantine style that Theophanes brought to Russia; his figures are vigorous and strongly characterized, and his brushwork has an almost impressionistic freedom and dash. Deësis (Greek, "entreaty") in Eastern Orthodox art is the representation of Christ flanked by the intercessory figures of the Virgin and Saint John the Baptist and other saints. The icon represented in the painting featured here is the Archangel Michael.