Month: January 2016

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky, “Arabs (Cemetery)”, Oil on Cardboard, 1909, 28 x 39 Inches, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany

“Arabs (Cemetery)” was created by Wassily Kandinsky in 1909 and represents the artist’s experimentation with Expressionist concepts. The painting is oil on cardboard and is part of the modern art collection at the Hamburger Kunsthalle art museum in Germany.

It is among Kandinsky’s earlier works which do not yet incorporate the more severe angular forms of his later compositions. However, within this painting we witness Kandinsky’s move toward more geometric form and linear planes. The orange, green and blue hues of “Arabs (Cemetery)” emanate a tranquil feel. However, the blues contrast notably with the green and orange giving this oil painting a cool edge.

Expressionism was a volatile approach to art simply because it was relative and personal to the artist. Kandinsky, along with Franz Marc and Gabriele Münter, was one of the theoretical centers of the Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Riders), one of the pioneering movements of German Expressionism. Though Der Blaue Reiter had no official manifesto, Kandinsky’s treatise “Concerning the Spiritual in Art” of 1910 laid out several of its guiding principles. This treatise crystallized the group’s pursuit of non-objective or abstract painting and was widely read in avant-garde artistic circles across Europe and beyond.

Richard Diebenkorn

Four Landscape Paintings by Richard Diebenkorn

A highly influential mid-century American artist, Richard Diebenkorn is known for his abstract landscape paintings, in particular the “Ocean Park” series, which he exhibited when representing America at the 1978 Venice Biennale. Diebenkorn’s work is often highly gestural and layered, his use of the medium comparable to that of contemporaries like the Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning, an artist he greatly admired. Diebenkorn, however, preferred California to the competitive New York art scene, and became a leading artist among the Bay Area Figurative painters.

Even at its most abstract, Diebenkorn’s work remains rooted in the outside world, and he is celebrated for capturing his surroundings on canvas without representing them literally. Moving between New Mexico, Illinois, and, ultimately, California, his work progresses in tune with the changing architecture and landscape. Diebenkorn also painted portraits, expertly combining figurative and abstract styles in the same picture.

Eloi Biosca

Eloi Biosca, (The Grape Harvest)

Eloi Biosca is a Catalan photographer, filmmaker and sculptor. His work focuses on the male nude in all artistic forms and mediums. In his current  series, he intends to show the beauty of the male body when it appears completely naked and in motion.

“I believe it’s important to create sequences in slow motion which the contemplation of a nude man moving can generate a strong visual attraction capable of seducing the spectator by the beauty of the images, and that from the aesthetic pleasure that they can provoke, if possible, caressing one’s sensuality. I think it’s a shame that these days we cannot watch athletes acting and competing in the nude, as was normal in ancient Greece. Clothing obstructs and hides the view of muscles, tendons, nerves, and veins in action, and it impedes the contemplation of all those elements in a fascinating concert as the player makes movements and gestures endowed with great beauty.”

— Eloi Biosca

Dan Hiller

Engravings by Dan Hillier

Dan Hillier is a professional artist based in Stoke Newington, England. He produces his own pictures as well as making commissioned artworks for various clients including Neil Gaiman. Most of his work is made from collaging found Victoriana with his own ink drawing, as well as producing original ink drawings using dip-nib pen and ink.

Dan is acclaimed for his black line engravings that embody the ‘Steampunk’ aesthetic, combining Victorian sensibilities with a fascination for animal attributes. His work is characterized by depictions of fantastical human/animal hybrids, spliced together from late-1800s imagery. These beautiful, classically rooted images find their power in their unsettling effect, as they seamlessly blur distinctions normally implied by reality.

Visit his site if you get a chance: http://www.danhillier.com