Tag: expressionism

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.”

Christian Schad

Christian Schad, “Sirius”, 1915, Swiss Stone Lithograph

Christian Schad was a painter and printmaker who was preoccupied with Futurism, Cubism, and later, Expressionism. In 1915, Schad, along with his friend Walter Serner, published “Sirius: A Monthly Magazine for Literature and Art,” in Zurich. The magazine was forced to close after only seven issues. Schad designed the advertising posters and a full page woodcut for each issue.

Schad’s works of 1915–1916 show the influence of Cubism and Futurism. During his stay in Italy in the years between 1920 and 1925, he developed a smooth, realistic style that recalls the clarity he admired in the paintings of Rapael. Upon returning to Berlin in 1927 he painted some of the most significant works of the New Objectivity movement.

In 1918 Schad began experimenting with cameraless photographic images inspired by Cubism. This process had been first used, in the years 1834 and 1835, by William Henry Talbot who made cameraless images, that is, prints made by placing objects onto photosensitive paper and then exposing the paper to sunlight. By 1919 Schad was creating photograms from random arrangements of discarded objects he had collected such as torn tickets, receipts and rags. He is probably the first to do so strictly as an art form, preceding Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagyby at least a year or two.

Xoloti Polo

 

Xolotl Polo, Unknown Title, Acrylic on Canvas

Polo Xolotl is a Mexican artist born in 1964. Polo first expressed an interest in painting during early childhood by absorbing as much of his artist parent’s knowledge as possible. He studied graphic design at the Iberoamicana AC University and took part in workshops on painting at the regional Fine-Arts institute in Morelos, Mexico.

For years, Xolotl found himself influenced by the history and environment of his country. His progressive transformation led to canvases in which he plays with light and dynamic images, combining abstraction and figuration to portray seemingly torn silhouettes. His work has been exposed during numerous collective and personal exhibits in Mexico. The artist’s paintings also figure in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico, the Javier de la Rosa Museum in the Canary Islands, as well as in the Mexican Embassy in Washington D.C.

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.

Wenzel Hablik

Wenzel Hablik, “Gewitter an der Stör”, 1910, Oil on Canvas, Dimensions Unknown, Wenzel Hablik Museum, Itzehoe, Germany

Wenzel August Hablik was a graphic artist, painter architect, designer and craftsman associated with the German Expressionism movement. He was trained as a master cabinetmaker in Vienna and Prague; however, when he settled in Itzehoe he pursued architectual and interior design projects. He produced designs for furniture, textiles, jewelry and wallpapers.

He is best known for his etchings and paintings and his links with the major German Expressionist movements and figures, including the Arbeitsrat fur Kunst and The Glass Chain. In 1909 he published his “Schaffende Kräfte” (Creative Forces), a portfolio of twenty etchings of crystaline structures.  His visual art is known for its highly imaginative aspects.

Rick Bartow

Paintings by Rick Bartow

Richard Elmer “Rick” Bartow was a Vietnam Veteran, a life-long musician and song-writer, a widower, an enrolled member of the Wiyot Indians, and is considered one of the most important leaders in contemporary Native American art. His art was subject of over 100 solo exhibitions at museums and galleries, including the retrospective “Things You Know But Can Not Explain”, organized by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at University of Oregon, and accompanied with a fully illustrated monograph.

He created pastel, graphite and mixed media drawings, wood sculpture, acrylic paintings, drypoint etchings, monotypes and a small number of ceramic works.  His passion was working in the studio and engaging with peers in the ancient and current worlds of self expression. As influences, Bartow cited Marc Chagall, Francis Bacon, Odilon Redon and Horst Janssen.in addition to his Native American heritage and his work with the Māori. These artists also worked in the style of expressionism with human and animal forms in their art.

Rainer Fetting

Rainer Fetting, “Wolf”, 1984

 

Rainer Fetting, a painter and sculptor, was one of the co-founders and main protagonists of the Galerie am Moritzplatz in Berlin, founded in the late 1970s by a group of young artists (mainly painters) from the class of Karl Horst Hodicke at the former Berliner Hochschule für Bildende Künste (Berlin Art Academy, today known as  Universitat der Kunste). This group of artists, known as the “Moritzboys” and including, among others, Salome, Bernd Zimmer, and Helmut Middendorf, subsequently achieved international acclaim as the “Junge Wilde” or “Neue Wilde” in the early 1980s.

Fetting is now one of the internationally best known contemporary German artists, having created a large oeuvre of expressive figurative paintings covering many different kinds of subject-matter, as well as many bronze sculptures.

Guy Denning

Guy Denning, “Halabja”, Oil on Canvas Panel, 2009

Denning’s early work included an interest in the work of Franz Kline and was characterised by powerful, expressive brushstrokes in mainly abstract paintings. Since the early 90s he has combined earlier influences with an increasingly figurative style of painting. The human figure features strongly in his latest work and he uses this subject matter to convey powerful emotions, often with political overtones.

Structurally his work is very dynamic showing a concern for strong draughtsmanship with a spontaneous application of colour. He does not always work to set motifs, but sometimes makes paintings and drawings from observation and photographic reference

Charles Demuth

Charles Demuth, “Turkish Bath with Self-Portrait”, 1918, Graphite and Watercolor on Paper, Private Collection

This watercolor sketch offers an illuminating depiction of the gay subculture in postwar New York. The setting is likely the Lafayette Baths, a Turkish bathhouse in the East Village. The artist, with dark hair and mustache, appears nude in the center of the frame. He talks with two other men: a blonde man swaddled in a towel, who faces away from the camera, and a fully undressed red-headed man who strikes a confident pose. Behind the trio, a man with indistinct features stands in a pool, water waist high, while a duo in the upper right corner of the canvas seem to be caught up in an intimate moment.

Demuth was likely open about his sexuality with his friends, and frankly depicted the evolving, underground gay scenes in New York and Paris. This image is striking in its open, candid depiction of desire and attraction between men. It was not intended for public exhibition during Demuth’s lifetime and historically it has great significance, visualizing the emergence of a sexual subculture organized along very different lines than male/female courtship. Since his death, Demuth’s watercolors of early twentieth-century gay life have proven to be sources of inspiration and fellowship to later generations of American artists, including Andy Warhol, another Pennsylvania native.

Concha Flores Vay

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Paintings by Concha Flores Vay

Concha Flores Vay is a self-taught artist from a small village in the province of Valladolid , Spain. She now lives in works in Alicante’s Province on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Her work can be found in private collections in Spain, Germany, Holland and Norway.

“I express myself through my fantasy and creativity. My art-style is very childlike, I love colour, I like to create something different, I don’t follow any trend, I do what I like and the best I can without going out of my art-style, my work is spontaneous.” -Concha Flores Vay

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.