Category: expressionism

Kjell Nupen

Three Paintings by Kjell Nupen

Kjell Nupen was a Norwegian contemporary artist who had his professional breakthrough very early. He studied at the Statens Kunstakademi. Nupen experienced success early on, and at the age of just 19, his art was bought by Riksgalleriet, Nasjonalgalleriet and Norsk Kulturråd. His younger artistic years were coloured by radical political expressions influenced by the turbulent political times that existed in Europe.

During his time in Düsseldorf, Kjell Nupen embraced the idea, so present at the academy, that art should mean something. This has resulted in a few symbols he has immersed himself in over the years, such as: the boat (endless journey), car wrecks (nature morte), eagle in flight, tree trunks (homestead),  and the lighthouse (sentimental journey).

During the 1980s human figures were no longer prominent in Nupen’s work,  replaced by motifs from nature. Nupen’s references to Edvard Munch, Matisse, and Eadweard Muybridge can be seen in many of his paintings such as “Flygende over Vann”. Nupen was especially known for his use of the color blue.

Karl Hofer

Karl Hofer, “Jüngling am Fenster (Youth at the Window)”, 1933, Oil on Canvas, Museum Wiesbaden, Germany

Born in 1878 in Karlsruhe, Germany, Karl Hofer was a painter notable for his extensive contributions to the German Expressionist movement. Figurative, conservatively rendered working-class Germans most often adorn his canvases, with his subjects and style varied over the course of his career. The classical portraits of his early years gave way to politically charged Expressionist figures, which, during the Nazi regime, were denounced as “degenerate art”. These finally morphed into his Cubist-inspired compositions of post-war life.

Hofer received little recognition during his early career, and never joined an Expressionist painting group like Die Brücke. By the end of his life, however, Hofer was considered one of the greatest German painters of his time, and his works can now be found in many collections around the world, including the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Kunsthalle Mannheim in Germany.

Source: artqueer

Raoul Dufy

Raoul Dufy, “Le Marché aux Poissons à Marseille”, 1905, Oil on Canvas, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain

Raoul Dufy was a French fauvist painter, who developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for the designs of ceramics and textiles. He is also noted for scenes of open-air social events. Dufy was also a printmaker, book illustrator, designer of stage scenery and furniture, and a planner of public spaces.

Dick Goody

Dick Goody, “Haberman Cutting the Grass”, 2017, Oil on Canvas, 54 x36 Inches, Broad Museum, Michigan State University

Professor of Art Dick Goody is an expressionist painter whose work depicts figures, landscapes and still lifes that at times feel to be autobiographical. He earned a master of Fine Arts Degree from the Slade School of Fine Art in London.

The oil on Goody’s canvas works are flat, nuanced, ambiguous and reflect a somewhat consistent color palate, especially his use of the color of red.  On his previous work, Goody used direct words and writing passages which would often dominate the composition. In “Haberman Cutting the Grass”, there is an economy of form and colors in this figure-centered composition and a lack of any graphics..

Edward Munch

Edward Munch, “Bathing Men”, 1907, Oil on Canvas, 81 x 90 Inches, Ateneum, Helsinki, Finland

“Bathing Men” is one of the later works of expressionist artist and printer Edward Munch. Born in Norway in 1863, Munch played a major role in German Expressionism and the art form that later followed; namely because of the strong mental anquish that was displayed in many of his works.

Many of Munch’s works depict life and death scenes, love, and terror. The patterns in his work would often focus on the feeling of loneliness. These emotions were depicted by the contrasting lines, the darker colors, blocks of color, somber tones, and a concise and exaggerated form, which depicted the darker side of the art which he was designing. Munch, a close contemporary of Sigmund Freud, is often and rightly compared with Van Gogh, who was one of the first artists to paint what the French artist called “the mysterious centers of the mind.”

Albert Weisgerber

Albert Weisgerber, “Garçon nu Assis dans un Bois”, 1912, Oil on Board

Albert Weisgerber was a German painter whose work forms a bridge between the Impressionist and early Expressionist movements. He studied at the Munich Art Academy and became friends with Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Karl Arnold. Weisgerber is known today for his cartoons, illustrations, as well as his paintings. He joined the German army in World War I, was promoted to the rank of major and was killed at the age of 37 while participating in the Battle of Fromellles in France.

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Ed Paschke

Ed Paschke, “Gypsy Blue”, 2001, Oil on Linen, 36 x 40 Inches

Ed Paschke was born in Chicago where he spent most of his life as an important painter. He was initially associated in the late 1960s with the second generation of Chicago Imagists who called themselves The Hairy Who. He received his B.F.A. from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 1961 and his M.F.A. in 1970.

Between 1961 and 1970, Paschke lived for a time in New York where he easily came under the influence of the Pop Art movement, in part, because of his interests as a child in animation and cartoons. His fascination with the print media of popular culture led to a portrait-based art of cultural icons. Paschke used the celebrity figure, real or imagined, as a vehicle for explorations of personal and public identity with social and political implications.

Although his style is representational, with a loose affiliation to Photorealism, Paschke’s art plays heavily upon expressionist distortion and abstract form. The often grotesque cast to his paintings suggests an affiliation in spirit with Surrealism, a movement that has historically interested Chicago artists and collectors.

In the 1970s, Paschke’s figures, now presented primarily as headshots in extreme close-ups, began to wear masks and unusual headgear. Colors became electric; forms were increasingly distorted by video-like disturbances; facial features of mouth, eyes, and nose were hollowed out or veiled with aggressive color shapes. These features became standard elements of Paschke’s disquieting and compelling art.

Sonia Gechtoff

Sonia Gechtoff, Top Image: “Children of Frejus”, 1959, Oil on Canvas, Denver Art Museum    Bottom Image: “Tropics”, 1983, Color Etching with Embrossing, Edition of 50, Antique-White German Etchng Wove

Sonia Gechtoff was a prominent Abstract Expressionist painter who experimented with styles and materials throughout her life. She was born in 1926 in Philadelphia, into a family with art it its genes. Her father was a painter and her mother was a gallery owner. Gechtoff received her BA in Fine Arts from the Philadelphia Museum School of Art in 1950. At that time she abandoned figurative art in favor of the abstract.

Sonia Gechtoff also at this time started working with a palette knife to apply her paint on canvas rather than the traditional brush. Sonia refined her palette knife technique, and by the late 1950s, the slashing marks, often applied in a vortexlike way, were a hallmark of her work. In the 1980s, she expanded that technique with increasingly larger and less-controlled acrylic paintings that had elements of realism, architectural and landscape images. She continued to experiment and produce new work in a range of media throughout her life.

Sonia Gectoff, a mainstay of the New York art scene, passed away in February, 2018, at a hospice center in Bronx, New York at the age of 91.

Asgeer Jorn

Asger Jorn, “Green Ballet”, Oil on Canvas, 1960, Guggenheim Museum, New York

Asger Oluf Jörgensen was born in Vejrum, Denmark, on March 3, 1914. He visited Paris in the fall of 1936, where he studied at Fernand Leger’s Académie Contemporaine. During World WarII, Jorn remained in Denmark, painting canvases that reflected the influence of James Ensor, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Joan Miro, and contributing to the magazine “Helhesten (Ghost Horse)”, working on nine issues from 1941–44.

Jorn traveled to Swedish Lapland in the summer of 1946, met Constant Nieuwenhuys in Paris that fall, and spent six months in Jerba, Tunisia, from 1947–48. His first solo exhibition in Paris took place in 1948 at the Galerie Breteau. At about the same time the group Cobra (an acronym for Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam) was founded by Karel Appel, Constant, Guillaume Cornelis Beverloo, Christian Dotremont, Jorn, and Joseph Noiret. The group’s unifying doctrine was the complete freedom of expression with an emphasis on color and brushwork. Jorn edited monographs of the group’s Bibliothèque Cobra before disassociating himself from the movement.

Jorn’s activities included painting, collage, book illustration, prints, drawings, ceramics, tapestries, commissions for murals, and, in his last years, sculpture. He participated in the movement Internationale Situationniste and worked on a study of early Scandinavian art between 1961 and 1965. His first solo show in New York took place in 1962 at the Lefebre Gallery. From 1966 Jorn concentrated on oil painting and traveled frequently, visiting Cuba, England and Scotland, the United States, and Asia. Jorn died on May 1, 1973, in Aarhus, Denmark.

Charles Seliger

Charles Seliger, “Earthscape”, 2000, Ink and Acrylic Gel and Oil on Pressed Board

Charles Seliger was an American abstract expressionist painter. He was born in Manhattan June 3, 1926, and he died on 1 October 2009, in Westchester County, New York. Seliger was one of the original generation of Abstract expressionist painters connected with the New York School

Seliger began his career in 1945 as one of the youngest artists to exhibit at The Art of This Century Gallery, and as the youngest artist associated with the Abstract expressionist movement. The Art of This Century gallery was opened in New York City during World War II in 1942 by Peggy Guggenheim who was then married to the surrealist painter Max Ernst. In 1943, Seliger met and befriended Jimmy Ernst the son of Max Ernst, and who at the age of 23 years was just a few years older than Seliger.

Seliger was drawn into the circle of the avant-garde through his friendship with Ernst. His paintings attracted the attention of Howard Putzel who worked with Peggy Guggenheim. At 19, Seliger was included in Putzel’s groundbreaking exhibition ‘A Problem for Critics’ at the 67 Gallery. .Also in 1945 he had his first solo show at the Art of This Century Gallery. Seliger showed his paintings there until 1947 when Guggenheim closed the gallery and returned to Europe. At 20 the Museum of Modern Art acquired his painting “Natural History: Form within Rock” for their permanent collection.

Conrad Marca-Relli

Conrad Marca-Relli, “Summer Noon – L – 20”, 1968, Oil , Canvas and Burlap Collage on Canvas, 56 x 72 Inches

Conrad Marca-Relli was an American artist born in Boston who belonged to the early generation of New York School Abstract Expressionism. Along with Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell, Marca-Relli was part of the leading art movement of the postwar era.

In 1930 at the age of seventeen, Marca-Relli studied for one year at the Cooper Union, a private arts and science college. He later worked at the Works Progress Administration (WPA) first as a teacher and then painting murals with the Federal Art Project division. After serving in World War II, he taught at Yale University during 1954 and 1955, later teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, during 1959 and 1960.

Marca-Relli’s early still lives, cityscapes and circus paintings are reminiscent of the surrealist work of Giorgio de Chirico. He created many large scale collages throughout his career, combining oil paint with collage, using intense colors, broken surfaces, and splatters of paint in an expressionistic style. His later works showed a simplicity with black or somber colors and more rectangular shapes with neutral backgrounds.

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.