Claudio Bravo Camus

Claudio Bravo Camus, “Antes del Juego (Before the Game)”, 1983, Oil on Canvas, 199 x 239 cm

Born in 1936, Chilean-born artist Claudio Bravo initially established himself as a society portrait painter in Chile and Spain, but he became better known for his vibrant still lifes of such everyday items as packages, crumpled paper, and draped fabric. Although he lived in Morocco for many years, it was the Spanish classical masters who inspired the provocative style of his hyperrealist paintings.

Though Bravo had some training under Chilean artist Miguel Venegas Cifuentes, he was primarily self-taught. He was only 17 years old when he had his first exhibition in 1954 at Salón 13 in Valparaíso. In the early 1960s Bravo moved to Spain, where he made his living painting portraits on commission, including pictures of Gen. Francisco Franco’s family members.

Bravo had his first New York City show in 1970. Two years later he settled in Tangier, Morocco, where he began to paint landscapes and animals as well as still lifes and portraits. His paintings regularly sold for impressive sums, with his 1967 “White Package” fetching more than $1 million in 2004. Bravo was, although, little known in Chile until a 1994 retrospective exhibition of his work at the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts. He passed away in June of 2011 in Taroudant, Morocco.

A. S. Ryatt: “Moving Out of Time”

Photographers Unknown, (Moving Out of Time)

“So—I went on, on my own—deeper and deeper into the silent Tunnel of the Ride—not so sure of where I was and yet not anxious either, not concerned about my companions nor even about the nearness of—certain friends. The trees were beech, and the buds, just breaking, fiercely brilliant, and the new, the renewed light on them—intermittent diamond—but the depths were dark, a silent Nave. And no birds sang, or I heard none, no woodpecker tapped, no thrush whistled or hopped. And I listened to the increasing Quiet—and my horse went softly on the beech-mast—which was wet after rain—not crackling, a little sodden, not wet enough to plash. And I had the sensation, common enough, at least to me, that I was moving out of time, that the way, narrow and dark-dappled, stretched away indifferently before and behind, and that I was who I had been and what I would become—all at once, all wound in one—and I moved onward indifferently, since it was all one, whether I came or went, or remained still. Now to me such moments are poetry. [Randolph Henry Ash]”

—-A.S. Byatt, Possession

Giulio Aristide Sartorio

Giulio Aristide Sartorio, “Artists Raise Venus” (The Locatelli Diptych), 1906, Oil on Canvas, Milan

Born into a two-generation Roman family of sculptors in February of 1860, Giulio Aristide Sartorio studied art, with emphasis on painting, among his family. In 1876, for a short time, he attended the classes of Romantic painter Francesco Podesti at the Academia di San Luca in Rome.

Sartorio started working for established architects and painters, in particular for the studio of the Spanish-styled painter Álvarez Catalá, whose works were in high demand by the art market. This profitable business enabled Sartorio to open his own studio in 1879 and start a personal career.

In 1923, Sartorio adapted a series of decorative panels, entitled “Artists Raise Venus”, previously displayed at the 1906 Milan Universal Exposition, for the Milanese house of the metallurgical entrepreneur Giovanni Locatelli, making formal changes in its context to align the panels to the atmosphere of the Victory of the Great War. In his customary poetic style, Giulio Sartorio portrayed an ideal classical and symbolic vision of Italy with its people revived to a new life after the achieved reunification.

Upon relocating the two panels to the Locatelli house, Sartorio added to each diptych panel the dates, in Roman numerals, of the entry into the war and of the Victory. On the solar disc supported by the three Graces, he added the legendary names of three decisive victory battles for Italy during the war: Karst, Piave, and Vittorio Veneto.

The new context of Sartorio’s diptych was to give a sense of hope to an Italy that had been able to unite its scattered forces in a grand effort of common rebirth. This was depicted by the dynamic group of young people on the left panel, raising together the statue of the goddess Minerva, a symbol of civil, military, artistic, and intellectual virtues.

Shane Berkery

Paintings by Shane Berkery

Born in April of 1992, Shane Keisuke Berkery is an Irish-Japanese contemporary artist based in Dublin, Ireland. His cultural background is a major influence on his work, appearing as a frequent theme in his paintings. Berkery graduated from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 2015.

Shane Berkery’s paintings are primarily centered around the human figure. He, a photographer as well, currently has several collections of work which are based his photos, including nudes and old family photos from his Japanese side. From the figures in his source material, Berkery seeks to create a sense of realism, giving attention to composition and color, while also including a sense of abstraction in the figure’s surroundings.

Berkery received the National University of Ireland’s Art and Design Award in 2015 and both the Hennessy-Craig and Whyte’s Awards at the Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition in 2016. His work was shown in a solo exhibition at the 2018 Start Art Fair in London. Berkery exhibited in a solo show at New York’s Contra Galleries in September of 2019.

Shane Berkery is represented by the Molesworth Gallery located in Dublin and the Chimera Gallery located in County Westmeath, Ireland. His painting “A Light” was placed in the Irish State Art Collection in February of 2016.

“I want the viewer to viscerally feel that the figure is real, like in dreams and memories where the details fade but recognition is there nonetheless.” —Shane Keisuke Berkery

The artist’s website can be found at: https://www.shaneberkery.com

Walt Whitman: “A Glimpse”

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Photographers and Artists Unknown, (A Glimpse), Gay Film Gifs

“A glimpse through an interstice caught,

Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark’d seated in a corner,

Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand,

A long while amid the noises of coming and going, of drinking and oath and smutty jest,

There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word.”

—-Walt Whitman, A Glimpse, Leaves of Grass

Louis Fratino

The Artwork of Louis Fratino

Born in 1993, near Annapolis, Maryland, Louis Fratino received his BFA in Painting. with an emphasis on illustration, from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2015. He is a recipient of a Yale Norfolk Painting Fellowship in 2014 and a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Painting, studying in Berlin from 2015 to 2016. When he returned to the United States, Fratino settled in New York City, working part-time as an art handler and selling tickets at the Guggenheim.

Living and working in Brooklyn, New York, Fratino’s first gallery show was at Manhattan’s Siklema Jenkins & Co in 2019 and his first institutional solo exhibition was at the Des Moines Art Center in November of 2021. He has exhibited in group shows at the Yossi Milo and the D.C. Moore galleries and in solo shows at Thierry Goldberg, Antoine Levi, and Monya Rowe. Fratino has also done residency studies at Pioneer Works, the Artha Project, and the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program.

Known primarily for his graphic but tender representations of queer intimacy, Fratino draws upon his own intimate experiences, memories, and fantasies to portray the everyday lives of gay men in New York City, often using historical art references in his work. His paintings often embody the visual style of early 20th century modernists like Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse.

Top Insert Image: Martin Zad, “Louis Fratino”, 2020, Color Print, Whitewall Magazine January 2022

Bottom Insert Image: Louis Fratino, “Anemones and Shells”, 2021, Etching with Aquatint and Drypoint on Hahnemuble White Paper, Edition of 25, Image Size 60 x 45.1 cm

Lucian Freud

Lucian Freud, “Two Men”, 1967-1968, Oil on Canvas, 75 x 106.7 cm, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK

Insert: Lucien Freud, “Reflection with Two Children (Self Portrait)”, 1965, Oil on Canvas, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Born in December of 1922 in Berlin, Germany, Lucian Michael Freud belonged to the School of London, a group of artists dedicated to figurative painting, a controversial group when abstraction, at that time, dominated the art world . Compared to other painters in the London School, such as Francis Bacon, Freud’s work was viewed more conventional. His figures were painted without idealization, but with emphasis on the body’s imperfections and sexual features. The figures in Freud’s work, typically done in a limited tonal range of creamy tans and browns, often exhibited an unease or a disturbance at their current condition.

Lucian Freud’s wide textured brush strokes were influenced by the early Expressionist movement, particularly the work of Austrian painter Egon Schiele and Norwegian painter Edward Munch. By the end of the 1960s, Freud’s brush strokes became more layered and heavier, lending more texture to his expressive portraits portraying naked deformed or unpleasant bodies. During the 1980s and 1990s as he gain popularity, Freud began painting the portraits of many famous people, including, most notably, his portrait of the British Queen Elizabeth II.

Lucian Freud is famous for his series of self-portraits which he painted persistently over period of six decades. The self-portraits are intense, intimate and visceral, and chart his artistic development. While they are all recognizable as Freud, his approach to self-portraiture and painting from life shifted throughout his career. As an artist, Freud was always looking to extend his exploration of painting as a method of capturing not only the likeness or appearance of himself and his sitters, but also a sense of their emotional and psychological makeup.

Freud’s self-portraits are not always straightforward. There is a degree of transience as he appears in a drawn mirrored reflection, in fragments of unfinished works, or glimpsed in the margins of others’ portraits. He placed himself in a mythological guise in his 1949 “Actaeon (Self-Portrait with Antlers)” and as a partial face contained within his 1947 drawing “Flyda and Arvid”. Freud also placed his face partly peeking around a corner in his 1947 painting “Still Life with Green Lemon”. In this painting, although the green lemon is given a prominent central position on the canvas, Freud gave his peeking face equal weight, drawing the attention of the viewer.

Note: Lucian Freud began his painting “Two Men” while working on a full=length portrait of the same two men in which the naked figure is seen standing. He became so absorbed in what he was painting that he put the larger full-length project aside to finish his “Two Men”, a peaceful scene with undercurrents of suggestive tension.

Top Insert Image: Lucien Freud, “Reflection with Two Children (Self Portrait)”, 1965, Oil on Canvas, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Bottom Insert Image: Lucian Freud, “Doble Retrato (Double Portrait)”, 1985-1986, Oil on Linen, 78.8 x 88.9 cm, Private Collection

Arthur O’Shaughnessy: “We Are the Dreamers of Dreams”

Photographer Unknown, (Dreamers of Dreams)

“We are the music-makers,

And we are the dreamers of dreams,

Wandering by lone sea-breakers,

And sitting by desolate streams.

World-losers and world-forsakers,

Upon whom the pale moon gleams;

Yet we are the movers and shakers,

Of the world forever, it seems.”

—Arthur O’Shaughnessy, Ode, Poems of Arthur O’Shaughnessy

Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnessy was a British poet, born in March of 1844 in London to Irish parents. In June, 1861, he became a transcriber in the library of the British Museum, reportedly through the influence of English writer and politician Sir Edward Lytton. Two years later, O’Shaughnessy became a herpetologist in the museum’s zoological department.

Always having a true passion for literature, O’Shaughnessy published his first collection of poetry “Epic of Women” in 1870, followed in 1872 by the poetry collection “Lays of France”. In 1873 he married, at the age of thirty, Eleanor Marston, the daughter of author John Westland Marston. After the 1874 publishing of “Music and Moonlight”, his third poetry collection, O’Shaughnessy and his wife wrote and published a volume of children stories entitled “Toyland” in 1875.

After the publishing of “Toyland”, O’Shaughnessy did not produce any more volumes of poetry during the rest of his life. His last collection of poetry ,“Songs of a Worker”, was published posthumously in 1881. Both of the children of the marriage died in infancy; his wife Eleanor died in 1879. Arthur O’Shaughnessy died in London on January 30, 1881, at the age of thirty-seven from a fever. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London.

Arthur O’Shaughnessy was strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite artists and writers, among whom were his friends, painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti and novelist Ford Madox Brown. He was also influenced by the contemporary French poetry translations of Paul Verlaine, the poetry of Sully Prudhomme, and the works of Algarnon Charles Swinburne, known for the use of alliteration in his verse.

Known for his much anthologized poem “Ode”, Arthur O’Shaughnessy is chiefly remembered for his later transcendental work that was influenced by the French Symbolist movement. His “Epic of Women”, with its poems using repetitive initial consonant sounds and rhythmic pace, is considered by many to be his best work.

Image reblogged with thanks to https://thouartadeadthing.tumblr.com

Edward Francis Burney

Edward Francis Burney, “Seated Nude”, 1790-1800, Watercolor, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven,, Conneticutt

Edward Francis Burney, “Self Portrait”, 1785-1800, Watercolor, 18 x 14 cm, National Portrait Gallery, London

Born on September 7th of 1760 in Worcester, England, Edward Francis Burney became a student at the Royal Academy School of Art in 1776, at the age of sixteen. During this time, he made two fine drawings of the Antique School, which are now in the Royal Collection in London. Receiving encouragement from portrait painter Joshua Reynolds, then the president of the school, Burney exhibited several works at the Royal Academy of Art between the years 1780 to 1803.

Though he was a capable portraitist, painting family and friends, and also historical scenes, Burney worked mainly as an illustrator, devoting a greater part of his career to book illustrations. In 1780, he exhibited three illustrations for his cousin, author Fanny Burney’s 1778 coming-of age novel “Evelina”. One of these illustrations was later engraved and used in the 1791 edition of the novel. Burney created a set of thirteen illustrations for a 1799 edition of Milton’s “Paradise Lost”, now in the collection of the Huntington Library in California.

Influenced by the satirical style of painter and social critic William Hogarth, Edward Burney produced a rococo-styled set of four large watercolors, satirizing the contemporary musical and social life. Considered his most important work, these pieces from the 1820s are: “The Waltz”, “The Triumph of Music”, “Amateurs of Tye-Wig Music” and “The Elegant Establishment for Young Ladies”. Burney may have intended to publish prints of the paintings and to sell both originals and prints. There was a substantial market for satirical prints during this period. The four pictures were, however, never published.

Edward Francis Burney died, unmarried, in London on December 16th of 1848, at the age of eighty-eight. He was buried in Marylebone, England.

Be Creative

Photographer Unknown, (Be Creative)

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”

—-Jim Jarmusch, MovieMaker Magazine #53-Winter, January 22, 2004

Image reblogged with many thanks to: https://theskywaspunk.tumblr.com

Juan Coderch and Javier Malavia

Bronze Sculptures by Juan Coderch and Javier Malavia

Born in 1959 in Castellar del Vallés, Barcelona, sculptor Juan Coderch graduated from Barcelona’s Faculty of Fine Art in 1984. Sculptor Javier Malavia, born in 1970, in Oñati, Guipúzcoa, graduated from Valencia’s San Carlos Faculty of Fine Art in 1993, Discovering similarities in their sculptural art, they started the common project Coderch & Malavia in 2015, following in the tradition of figurative work by master sculptors such as Rodin, Mailol, and Bourdelle.

Working from their studio and exhibition space in Valencia, Coderch and Malavia both share in the hands-on process of a single piece, each contributing to the creation of the sculpture. The figurative sculpture’s theme is taken from the common interests of both sculptors, particularly the theater, mythology, and the bullfight, with man and his life as the central focus.

Working in clay or wax initially, Coderch and Malavia’s finished works are cast in bronze. They model the human body in a classical tradition, featuring figures full of tension and movement, frozen in time but still depicting the intensity of their lives, and the myths these lives conjure up.

Since the very beginning of their project, Coderch and Malavia have been seen as prominent figurative artists. For their 2017 “Hamlet”, they received the Reina Sofia Painting and Sculpture Prize; and their 2019 “Swan Dance” won First Prize at the 14th ARC International Salon Competition, held at Sotheby’s in New York.

Coderch & Malavia have participated in more than fifteen collective and solo exhibitions in France, the United States, Mexico, Greece, and Italy, among others. Their bronze works are now a part of private collections in various countries of Europe, of Asia and America.

Brenton Parry

Photography by Brenton Parry

Brenton Parry is a graphic designer with over twenty years of experience ranging from logos and stationary to posters and catalogues. Photography, a passion instilled by his father, has over the last fifteen years developed into a major part of his life. Parry’s male figure photography has resulted in two solo gallery exhibitions, work in two group exhibitions, a series of soft-cover male photography books published by Blurb Books, and a continuing series of downloadable male photography booklets.

Residing in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Brenton Parry works in Australia and worldwide. In 2014, he photographed the Sydney Stingers, the city’s LGBTI-inclusive water polo team to promote their annual trivia fundraising night in the Star Observer online magazine. Parry has also done product work for ASICS Sportswear and Footwear, Shimano Fishing Australia, and other companies.

More information, prints for purchase, and downloadable booklets can be found at the artist’s site located at: https://www.brentonparry.com

A. A. Milne: “. . .Caught Up by a Little Eddy”

Photographer Unknown, (Caught Up by a Little Eddy)

“And out floated Eeyore.

“Eeyore!” cried everybody.

Looking very calm, very dignified, with his legs in the air, came Eeyore from beneath the bridge.

“It’s Eeyore!” cried Roo, terribly excited.

“Is that so?” said Eeyore, getting caught up by a little eddy, and turning slowly round three times. “I wondered. . . .”

—-A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

W. Somerset Maugham: “. . .The Sense of Strangeness”

Photographers Unknown, This Sense of Strangeness

“I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not. They are strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history.”

—-W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence

Puck’s Mischief

Photographer Unknown, (Puck’s Mischief)

“I’ll follow you. I’ll lead you about a round,

Through a bog, through bush, through brake, through brier.

Sometime a horse I’ll be, sometime a hound,

A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire,

And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,

Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn”’

—-William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act Three, Scene One

In an early 17th century broadside. Puck, referred to as Robin Goodfellow, was the vassal of the Fairy King Oberon and inspired night-terrors in old women, led travelers astray, took the shape of animals, blew out candles, twitched off bedclothes, tattled people’s secrets, and changed babies in cradles with elfings while the parents slept.

Puck utters the quote above as an aside in Act III of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, after he’s transformed Bottom’s head into that of a donkey and the rest of the craftsmen have run away. Puck indicates he’ll lead the craftsmen in circles through the forest, and that he’ll continue to frighten them by assuming various animal and inanimate forms. Puck’s sing-song wordplay in these lines serves to express his delight in creating mischief.