“Death of Marat” a 1793 painting in the Neoclassical style by Jacques-Louis David
My Top 5 most favorite paintings in the whole world:
Russian Cubo- Futurism: Kasimir Malevich’s “Morning in the Village after Snowstorm” 1912
Caravaggio, St. Catherine at the Wheel 1595. It was rumored that Caravaggio used a prostitute for his model of St. Catherine, I can see it in her eyes….
Arshile Gorky The Artist and His Mother (ca. 1926-1936)
Arshile Gorky was an Armenian-born American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. In 1915 Gorky fled Lake Van duuring the Armenian Genocide and escaped with his mother and his three sisters into Russian-controlled territory. In the aftermath of the genocide, Gorky’s mother died of starvation in Yerevan in 1919.
When Gorky showed his new work to André Breton in the 1940s, after seeing the new paintings and in particular The Liver is the Cock’s Comb, Breton declared the painting to be “one of the most important paintings made in America” and he stated that Gorky was a Surrealist, which was Breton’s highest compliment
This peak period of Gorky’s work was cut short. His final years were filled with immense pain and heartbreak. His studio barn burned down, he underwent a colostomy for cancer, his neck was broken and his painting arm temporarily paralyzed in a car accident, and his wife of seven years left him, taking their children with her. Gorky hanged himself in Sherman, Connecticut, in 1948, at the age of 44.
Test you skills at 900 years of art history, play the Art History Game now! Click on The Man to play and good luck!
True or False: This painting was rejected by the church because it showed a dead Virgin Mary modeled after a a corpse of a prostitute. Hint: it was also painted by a convicted murderer!
Find the answer and test your mad skills on the Art History Game:
http://bit.ly/jS30F7
Melting Building Optical Illusion: Believe it or not, this isn’t a Photoshop job. This surreal building actually exists at 39 Avenue George V, Paris
Check out this optical illusion, the shapes and colors give a startling impression of movement, even though this is actually a still image! The movement always seems to be occurring where your eyes aren’t focusing.
Celebration on Wall Street upon the news of Germany’s surrender in World War I.
November 1918 (W.L. Drummond)
(via cwnerd12)
Giorgio de Chirico. L’Angoisse du départ. 1914
pre-Surrealism, Metaphysical art
“Psychologically speaking, to discover something mysterious in objects is a symptom of cerebral abnormality related to certain kinds of insanity.” Giorgio de Chirico quote
What I like most about De Chirico is the essence of silence envoked in each of his early empty city street paintings. Silence and Emptiness….
Sharon
Giorgio de Chirico Delights of the Poet, 1913
“Mystery” is the most familiar word of De Chirico. He wrote the following: “there is much more mystery in the shadow of a man walking on a sunny day, than in all religions of the world”.
Giorgio de Chirico. The Enigma of the Hour. 1911
Metaphysical art sprang from the urge to explore the imagined inner life of familiar objects when represented out of their explanatory contexts: their solidity, their separateness in the space allotted to them, the secret dialogue that may take place between them.
Giorgio de Chirico. Mystery and Melancholy of a Street 1914.
De Chirico was a pre-Surrealist painter who started a movement called Metaphysical art
His dream-like paintings of squares typical of idealized Italian cities, as well as apparently casual juxtapositions of objects, represented a visionary world which engaged most immediately with the unconscious mind, beyond physical reality, hence the name. The metaphysical movement provided significant impetus for the development of Dada and Surrealism.
Nevisian Underground
(digital print)
Artist: James Casebere
My new favorite photographer. I stumbled upon him while researching empty rooms (I’m thinking of doing a series of empty/close to empty rooms).
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