3D Cartoon Sculptures - Luke O'Sullivan

Have you ever daydreamed about living in a cartoon universe? You know, where you're high-fiving Bugs Bunny, giving some pyrotechnic pointers to Yosemite Sam or scheming up an ingenious idea with Bart Simpson? Then, you must see the work of Luke O'Sullivan. The Boston-based artist applies screen-printed drawings on wood and steel to create sculptures that look like they belong on your Saturday morning cartoon.

We love how O'Sullivan incorporates drawing, printmaking and 3D in constructing everything from a briefcase of cash to old school ghetto blasters. We caught up with the artist to ask him what inspired him to start this kind of art.

You've said in a previous interview that you like the 'the moments where cartoons/fiction collide with something from our world.' Can you elaborate?
I always thought it was amazing when cartoons clash with 'real life.' For example, when Roger Rabbit interacted with people or when Homer was in that 3-D land in a Treehouse of Horror episode, and was transported into a 'real' New York City. It was a very curious and fascinating thing for me when I was younger; those scenarios left a big impression on me.

The Phantom Tollbooth film was another example of that. It's pretty simple, but hard to pull off. I saw a preview for that new alien movie Paul, and it’s the same principle, but based on the preview I wasn't really convinced… it just seems like displacement tactic, kind of gimmicky, you know? I think some of my sculptures can be seen as foreign objects or artifacts. Familiar, but embellished or exaggerated versions of everyday objects.   

How do you choose what you'll 'cartoon' up next?
Sometimes found objects have produced ideas, but usually drawings and current projects will lead into the next piece. I like the idea of continuity through that method. Even though each project usually fluctuates in scale and between 2D and 3D, the overarching body of work feels very linear. I find a lot of inspiration through the building process. Sometimes ideas come when I’m sketching out my current project, when I’m on a table saw, or screen-printing, I think more clearly when I’m not staring at a wall or a sheet of paper asking myself questions.

I like how your work incorporates multiple disciplines - sculpture, drawing, and painting. When did you realize that you could bring it all together in your art?
One of the lessons I keep learning is that even though I love drawing and printmaking, it doesn't mean every idea should employ those tools. Often times my work generates meaning from the process and materials, but it is really important not to force a technique on a piece. Sometimes a simple pencil drawing is all you need, but, on the other hand, getting carried away with color and all-over drawings can be important too. The idea to screen-print on wood and start building things like the boomboxes and houses was all based on a random drawing I was doing when I was bored. It was something like a 9 color screen-prints with pencil and I just stenciled out a bunch of shapes and started drawing… then I got carried away screen-printing everything. 


Who are some other artists that you admire? Who's pushing boundaries?
Giovanni Piranesi, Sidney Hurwitz, Rembrandt, Lee Bontecou, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude are some of my all-time favorites. The Faile boys always kill it, and Nicola Lopez is making some incredible stuff. But yeah, there’s a ton of great art that I see online every day, and I was lucky enough to go to school with a ton of great artists, too. It's a hustle though, it feels like everyone is pushing boundaries.

Andy Warhol Photographs

"Death means a lot of money, honey. Death can really make you look like a star." - Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame has lasted twenty five years. The name "Andy Warhol" is synonymous with "Pop Art." It just wouldn't be the same... without him. He left a huge collection of art behind when he sadly passed away February 22, 1987, after a routine gall bladder surgery procedure. From drawings, paintings and prints to videography, publishing and performance - this man was responsible for producing more than art. He was essentially his own brand.  Warhol said, “A picture means I know where I was every minute. That’s why I take pictures. It’s a visual diary.” From haunting black and white self-portraits to Polaroid snapshots of celebrities, many of the photos in the collection later became the inspiration for Warhol’s most well-known Pop Art works. Warhol’s importance was not just as a painter, but as a multi-disciplinarian of the art world.

Girl with the Pearl Earing

Johannes ‘Jan’ Vermeer (1632-1675), one of the most admired of all Dutch artists, was born in Delft and baptized there on October 31, 1632 -- the exact date of his birth is unknown. Public records afford historians what little facts are known about Vermeer’s life – in many ways, Vermeer is as mysterious and enigmatic as the subject of one of his best known works: “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, sometimes called ‘the Dutch Mona Lisa’.

Vermeer was a respected member of the painters' guild in Delft, but he left no journals, nor was much written about him during his life, and he produced relatively few works for a small circle of patrons. He remained in relative obscurity until the latter part of the nineteenth century, and it is the 35 or 36 paintings generally attributed to him that reveal most of what is known about the artist himself. Many of his works portray figures in interiors, often with the same furniture and decorations appearing in various arrangements; he favored bright colors and sometimes used expensive pigments, with a preference for blue and yellow. His application of paint reveals extraordinary technical ability and time consuming care, and his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. Since the rediscovery of his work Vermeer has inspired not only other painters, but books, movies, and songs. 

 Girl with a Pearl Earring (detail)
Art Print
By Jan Vermeer
 

Rothko painting defaced at Tate Modern

Man inscribes words in black ink in corner of 1958 canvas Black on Maroon before quickly leaving room.

A photo posted on Twitter of the defaced corner of Rothko's Black on Maroon




A man has defaced a multimillion-pound Mark Rothko mural hanging in the Tate Modern gallery in front of onlookers. A police investigation is now under way into the vandalism of the US artist's work.


A visitor to the museum said he raised the alarm after a man inscribed some words in black ink in a corner of Rothko's 1958 canvas Black on Maroon, before quickly leaving the room.


Tim Wright, who posted a picture on Twitter of the canvas after it was defaced, said that he saw the man sitting quietly in front of the painting beforehand.


"Then we heard the sound of a pen, but by the time we turned around he was pretty much finished with his tag," said Wright, who was with his girlfriend on a weekend visit to London from Bristol. "The pen ink then just dripped down the painting. Once we realised what had happened, we went to find a member of staff. They were really shocked when they came and saw what he had done."


The museum said in a statement: "Tate can confirm that at 15.25 this afternoon there was an incident at Tate Modern in which a visitor defaced one of Rothko's Seagram murals by applying a small area of black paint with a brush to the painting. The police are currently investigating the incident."


The gallery was closed for a short time after the incident.


The canvas, one of a number by Rothko owned by the Tate, was in a room with several other works painted by the Russian-born artist, who emigrated to the US at the age of 10 and went on to become one of America's most important postwar artists.


His work commands huge prices. In May, his Orange, Red, Yellow was sold in New York for $86.9m (£53.8m) – the highest price ever fetched by a piece of contemporary art at auction.


The Seagram murals were painted by Rothko in 1958 for Manhattan's Four Seasons restaurant, but they were never installed. He presented a number of them to the Tate gallery shortly before he died in 1970. This year, Tate Modern opened a new Rothko Room as part of its rehung permanent galleries.


Art lovers made their feelings known on Twitter, scrutinising the image of the defacement, which appeared to include the word "Vladimir".


"I am a naturally peaceful person, but I wouldn't be that upset if 'Vladimir' accidentally met with a baseball bat," said one.


The graffiti on the painting appears to read "a potential piece of yellowism." According to an online manifesto, Yellowism is an artistic movement run by two people named Vladimir Umanets and Marcin Lodyga.

Rothko painting vandalised in Tate Modern

A vandal defaced a Mark Rothko painting worth tens of millions of pounds in the worst security breach ever to hit Tate Modern.

Mark Rothko's 'Black On Maroon' painting was defaced Photo: JANE MINGAY

By Anita Singh

Astonished witnesses saw the culprit, described as a man in his late 20s, calmly walk up to Black On Maroon (1958) and scrawl a graffiti message in black marker pen or paint.

Police were called but the man could not be located and last night no arrest had been made. The Tate’s conservationists are currently assessing the damage.

The painting was one of a series, known as the Seagram murals, gifted to the Tate by the artist in 1969. The last Rothko work to sell fetched £53.8 million at Christie’s in New York earlier this year, a new record for contemporary art.

The graffiti read: “Vladimir Umanets, A Potential Piece of Yellowism.”

It appears to be a reference to a website, www.thisisyellowism.com, run by two individuals called Vladimir Umanets and Marcin Lodyga and described as a “superficial blog” on conceptual art.

The website declares that it is a “Manifesto of Yellowism”, saying: “Yellowism is not art or anti-art. Examples of Yellowism can look like works of art but are not works of art.”

One of the witnesses to the attack, Tim Wright, posted a picture of the defaced painting on Twitter. He said: “This guy calmly walked up, took out a marker pen and tagged it. Surreal.

“We gave a description to the gallery. Very bizarre, he sat there for a while then just went for it and made a quick exit.”

Mr Wright, 23, described the culprit as a "trendy" man in his late 20s with facial hair and a tattoo on his neck.

Mr Wright, a marketing executive from Bath, said: “He was sitting down in the middle of the room and we were all looking at the paintings.

“It was quite strange, we kind of heard before we saw that sound of a pen scratching on canvas.

“We looked around and he was finishing a tag and was off like a shot.”

He and the other gallery-goers who had seen what had happened rushed to inform staff.

“They were shocked but I think the overwhelming feeling was disappointment because the damage had been done by that point,” he said.

Tate Modern is the world’s most-visited art gallery and was packed with visitors yesterday afternoon when the vandal struck in the ‘Rothko Room’.

The gallery is covered by CCTV and police are studying the footage. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We were alerted at 3.35pm to a report of criminal damage at Tate Modern.

“The suspect was a white male, believed to be in his late 20s. No arrest has been made at this time.”
The Tate said a visitor had defaced one of the Seagram murals “by applying a small area of black paint with a brush to the painting”.

Questions will be asked about security at the gallery, where the Rothkos are not protected by glass and are separated from visitors only be a low-level barrier that can easily be stepped over.

Typically, each room is monitored by a single gallery attendant.

It was Rothko himself who stipulated how his work should be displayed at the Tate.
The defaced painting was one of a series commissioned from Rothko in 1958 for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York’s Seagram Building, but never installed.

In 1969, the artist donated nine of the paintings to the Tate on the proviso that they be displayed “as an immersive environment”. He died the following year.

Last year, the National Gallery also fell victim to vandalism when two 17th century masterpieces were defaced. A man sprayed red paint from an aerosol can over Nicolas Poussin’s The Adoration of the Golden Calf and The Adoration of the Shepherds. On that occasion, the culprit was swiftly arrested.

“Some say they see poetry in my paintings; I see only science.” –Georges Seurat

The father of Pointillism, Seurat put great effort into his paintings, taking care to place colored dots in a way that would achieve optical unification. If yo...u live in Chicago, you could see the “science” of his masterpiece, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” in person—if you have an iPad 3, you can see the details using SuperZoom in the artCircles™ for iPad app.

Seurat (1859 – 1891) was born in Paris to a wealthy family, and studied painting and sculpture from a young age. Like many of his famous French contemporaries, his initial works were rejected by the prestigious Paris Salon; Seurat and some friends formed the Society of Independent Artists in 1884, and it was in that environment that he developed pointillism. Many treatises on color, optical effects, and color perception were published during the 19th century, and Seurat internalized these readings and applied them to his art. One of the era’s crucial discoveries was that two colors juxtaposed, when adjacent or overlapping slightly, would have the effect of another color when seen from a distance. Applying these theories to painting was a painstaking (but worthwhile) process, and it took Seurat more than two years to paint “Sunday Afternoon,” which is approximately 6’ x 10’ in size!

Edgar Degas

“People call me the painter of dancing girls. It has never occurred to them that my chief interest in dancers lies in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes.” -- Edgar Degas

Generally recognized as a master of drawing the human figure in motion, Edgar Degas (1834–1917) is especially identified with the subject of the dance. Degas’ ballerinas remain among the most popular images in 19th-century art. 

 There are many great paintings to remind us that the artists of the Impressionist age were sensitively aware of contemporary life. Degas’s choice of subject matter reflects his modern approach. He favored scenes of ballet dancers, laundresses, milliners , and denizens of Parisian low life.

His interest in ballet dancers intensified in the 1870s, and eventually he produced approximately Over half Degas’ works – approximately 1,500 paintings, drawings, prints, and the only sculpture exhibited during his lifetime – depict dancers. These are not traditional portraits, but studies that address the movement of the human body, exploring the physicality and discipline of the dancers through the use of contorted postures and unexpected vantage points.  Many of his portrayals of dancers are not during a performance, but behind the scenes images

Degas experimented with an array of techniques, breaking up surface textures with hatching, contrasting dry pastel with wet, and using gouache and watercolors to soften the contours of his figures.

By the late 1880s, Degas’s eyesight had begun to fail, perhaps as a result of an injury suffered during his service in defending Paris during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. After that time he focused almost exclusively on dancers and nudes, increasingly turning to sculpture as his eyesight weakened. In his later years, he was concerned chiefly with showing women bathing, entirely without self-consciousness and emphatically not posed.

Degas continued working as late as 1912, when he was forced to leave the studio in Montmartre in which he had labored for more than twenty years. He died five years later in 1917, at the age of eighty-three.

Salvador Dalí

“…it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums.”

A birthday salute to Salvador Dalí (born May 11, 1904, died 1989), the innovative and eccentric artist who created some of the most arresting and memorable images of the 20th century! "Swans Reflecting Elephants" is one of his now classic works in which he employed his critical-paranoiac method to give artistic expression to his personal desires and obsessions. 
 
 Dalí’s surreal images, masterfully executed, quickly gained him acclaim from critics and art lovers alike, and he thrived on the attention. Eccentric, flamboyant, and often irreverent, Dalí became a shameless self promoter; his fellow Surrealists expelled him from the movement for his commercialism, yet having already set out on his own path, Dalí continued to create art and live his life on his own terms, and is now celebrated as one of the most innovative and influential artists of the 20th Century. 

The Scream’ Is Auctioned for a Record $119.9 Million

The work, a pastel on board, is one of four versions created by Edvard Munch; the other three are in museums in Norway. The buyer bid over the telephone.

It took 12 nail-biting minutes and five eager bidders for Edvard Munch’s famed 1895 pastel of “The Scream” to sell for $119.9 million, becoming the world’s most expensive work of art ever to sell at auction. Bidders could be heard speaking Chinese and English (and, some said, Norwegian), but the mystery winner bid over the phone, through Charles Moffett, Sotheby’s executive vice president and vice chairman of its worldwide Impressionist, modern and contemporary art department. Gasps could be heard as the bidding climbed higher and higher, until there was a pause at $99 million, prompting Tobias Meyer, the evening’s auctioneer, to smile and say, “I have all the time in the world.” When $100 million was bid, the audience began to applaud.

 

The price eclipsed the previous record, made two years ago at Christie’s in New York when Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” brought $106.5 million. 

Munch made four versions of “The Scream.” Three are now in Norwegian museums; the one that sold on Wednesday, a pastel on board from 1895, was the only one still in private hands. It was sold by Petter Olsen, a Norwegian businessman and shipping heir whose father was a friend, neighbor and patron of the artist. 

The image has been reproduced endlessly in popular culture in recent decades, becoming a universal symbol of angst and existential dread and nearly as famous as the Mona Lisa. 

Outside of Sotheby’s, there was excitement of a different kind, as demonstrators protesting the company’s longtime lockout of art handlers waved placards with the image of “The Scream” along with the motto, “Sotheby’s: Bad for Art.” Many in the group — a mix of union members and Occupy Wall Street protesters — even screamed themselves when the Munch went on the block. (Munch’s work was an apt focus for the group, said one protester, Yates McKee: “It exemplifies the ways in which objects of artistic creativity become the exclusive province of the 1 percent.”) 

Inside, the atmosphere generated by the Munch’s record price carried through the rest of the auction, which saw high prices for everything from Picasso paintings to sculptures by Giacometti and Brancusi. 

Of the 76 lots on offer, 15 failed to sell. The evening’s total was $330.56 million, close to its high estimate of $323 million. (Final prices include the buyer’s commission to Sotheby’s: 25 percent of the first $50,000; 20 percent of the next $50,000 to $1 million and 12 percent of the rest. Estimates do not reflect commissions.) 

As is often true of auctions with star attractions, having “The Scream” for sale helped win other business. Its inclusion was a draw, for example, for the estate of Theodore J. Forstmann, the Manhattan financier, who died in November. The top work in his collection was Picasso’s “Femme Assise Dans un Fauteuil,” a 1941 portrait of Dora Maar, the artist’s muse and lover, posed in a chair. The painting went for $26 million, or $29.2 million with fees, within its estimated $20 million to $30 million. 

In 2004, Mr. Forstmann bought Soutine’s “Le Chasseur de chez Maxim’s,” a 1925 portrait of an employee at the celebrated French restaurant, for $6.7 million at a Sotheby’s auction. It had belonged to Wendell Cherry, vice chairman of the Louisville-based health care company Humana, who died in 1991, and his wife, Dorothy. On Wednesday night the painting was up for sale again, this time with a $10 million to $15 million estimate, which turned out to be optimistic. Two bidders went for the Soutine, which ended up selling to a telephone bidder, working through Mr. Moffett, for $8.3 million, or $9.3 million with fees.

More popular, however, was an 1892 Gauguin landscape, “Cabane Sous les Arbres,” which Mr. Forstmann had bought at Christie’s in 2002 for $4.6 million. On Wednesday night it was estimated to sell for $5 million to $7 million, but there were four bidders for the canvas, and it sold for $8.4 million. 

Surrealism has been the rage recently, and Sotheby’s had many examples to sell. Among the best was Dalí’s “Printemps Nécrophilique,” a 1936 painting that once belonged to Elsa Schiaparelli, the Paris couturier closely associated with the Surrealist movement who collaborated on designs with Dalí. Six bidders fought over the painting, which went for $16.3 million, well above its $12 million high estimate. 

Another popular Surrealist image was Ernst’s “Leonora in the Morning Light,” a 1940 painting that depicts his lover, Leonora Carrington, a Mexican artist of English birth, emerging from a lush jungle. It brought $7.9 million, above its $5 million high estimate. 

A gilded bronze head that Brancusi conceived and cast in 1911 was another of the evening’s top sellers, bringing $12.6 million, well above its $6 million to $8 million estimate.

But it was the record price for “The Scream” that captured everyone’s imagination. As soon as the hammer fell, rumors began circulating about who the buyer could be. Among the names floated were the financier Leonard Blavatnik, the Microsoft tycoon Paul Allen and members of the Qatari royal family. 

While some were surprised at the price, one Munch enthusiast was not: “It’s nice to see the centrality of Norway in the mainstream of western culture,” said Ivor Braka, a London dealer. “The scream is more than a painting, it’s a symbol of psychology as it anticipates the 20th-century traumas of mankind.” 

The New York Times: Art and Design Section 

By CAROL VOGEL 

Published: May 2, 2012

Cecil Beaton

"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary." - Cecil Beaton

Cecil Beaton (1904... – 1980) was recognized for his legendary photographs that evoked the glamorous and graceful spirit of his subjects. He covered the best of fashion and society for well-known magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair for the majority of his career. As talented as he was, he was also recognized for his brash and egotistical behavior. Capturing memorable images of icons, like Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth, didn't stop Beaton from ripping them to shreds with snarky commentary behind the scenes. The British Royals funded a large amount of Beaton's success, frequently employing him to take their family portraits. Yet he wasn't shy about his opinions of Princess Margaret, whom he stated wore her hair “scraped back like a seaside landlady.” Maybe if you're that great at what you do, you can get away with just about anything?!

Science and Art

Combining science with art, the X-rayography of Albert Koetsier reveals the beauty in nature we do not see, the hidden beauty that lies within. To create his signature style of nature photography, Koetsier thoughtfully composes his subjects..., then takes the negative image captured by the x-ray and makes a positive, often adding color using the same translucent paints used over a century ago on daguerreotypes and postcards.
 
An x-ray technician with a passion for photography, Koetsier began his career as a museum-quality X-ray artist in earnest in 1995, on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of X-rays, when the University of California’s photo museum hosted an exhibit of his images to celebrate the centennial of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen’s first X-ray experiments. Koetsier’s art has earned several awards since, and his images grace homes across the US. Find our full gallery of his revealing images at

Flower Photographer

Close-Up of Lenten Rose
Photographic Print
By Clive Nichols

“People chuckle sometimes when I tell them I am a flower photographer and that I have just spent the day shooting plant photographs. They seem unaware that to take a great flower photograph requires quite as much skill, passion and commitment as taking portrait photographs of people. Plants are fragile, ephemeral and often not as photogenic as they first appear.” –Clive Nichols

Nichols is an accomplished botanical photographer, and stands at the helm of a thriving photography business in England. He also runs several workshops for the Royal Horticultural Society, and is a judge for the organization’s annual “Garden Photographer of the Year” competition. A great part of Nichols’ success can be attributed to the respect he has for his subjects—he treats each flower as a portrait subject, and always searches for the combination of lighting, wind, and distance that makes for a perfect photo.

Nichols has also stated that he looks for the “personality” and defining characteristic of each plant, and focuses his lens on that. In the case of this hellebore (also known as the “Lenten rose”), Nichols is interested in the bloom’s interestingly-shaped sepals and nectaries. With his close-up photo, Nichols also highlights the color contrast between the pale nectaries and the rosy, almost translucent sepals, and gives the viewer a concentrated look at the beauty found in nature.

Contemporary painter Patty Baker has been an artist all her life “since I could hold a crayon”, and has been painting professionally for the past 18 years: “Art is my joy! I focus on the power of color and color relationships in my work.”

Baker earned a BFA from Colorado State University, and has a background doing interior and exterior murals in homes and schools, graphics work, as well as creating fine art prints and original acrylic paintings. For the past several years Baker has focused on her original paintings, lively still lifes and vibrant landscapes, and has sold over 2000 of her paintings to art lovers around the world. Mostly representative with a touch of the abstract, Baker’s artwork celebrates the power of color and color relationships. Discover her exciting and vibrant compositions in our gallery of her work at

Portfolios Due May 1st!!!

AP Studio Art Exam May 7th!

What's Behind The Painting?

What Science can reveal about Art!


The Beach at Trouville — An infrared composite (created using 225 individual infrared images) revealed that Monet had ...originally planned to paint a seascape, considerably larger in scale. His view was directed toward the sea, and he sketched in large sailboats at the center foreground, with more boats in the distance to the left and the right.









 










Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853. His Self-Portrait, 1887 was first X-rayed in 1990, and showed a number of anomalous brush strokes hidden beneath the paint layer that did not correspond to the portrait. When the X-ray was inverted, it became clear that there was an image underneath of a woman wearing a Dutch peasant cap, seated behind a spinning wheel.

Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso)

Michelangelo Buonarroti  (Italian, Caprese 1475–1564 Rome)

Date: ca. 1510-1511

Medium: Red chalk, with small accents of white chalk on the left shoulder of the figure in the main study (recto); soft black chalk, or less probably charcoal

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC — This is the most magnificent drawing by Michelangelo in the United States. A male studio assistant posed for the anatomical study, which was preparatory for the Libyan Sibyl, one of the female seers frescoed on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (Vatican Palace) in 1508-12. In the fresco, the figure is clothed except for her powerful shoulders and arms, and has an elaborately braided coiffure. Michelangelo used the present sheet to explore the elements that were crucial in the elegant resolution of the figure's pose, especially the counterpoint twist of shoulders and hips and the manner of weight-bearing on her toe. Recent research shows that this sheet of studies was owned by the Buonarroti family soon after Michelangelo's death. The "no. 21" inscribed on the verso of the sheet (at lower center) fits precisely into a numerical sequence found on many other drawings by the artist that have this early Buonarroti family provenance.

Warhol vs. Banksy

Warhol and Banksy  share a gift for subversion and Banksy pays tribute to Warhol in many of his graffiti, i.e the Marilyn-vignette style Kate Moss and the famous Campbell-turned-Tesco value-soup print. Using provoking, illustrative imagery to make bold statements about their world, both Warhol and Banksy have a similar  approach to art.

Both engage with popular culture, aim at the iconic and use methods of mass reproduction as their primary expressive tool. Banksy plays up the link in his Marilyn Monroe-esque portrait of Kate Moss and Cambell's Soup vs. Tesco.

Andy Warhol (August 6, 1928 — February 22, 1987) was an American artist who became a central figure in the movement known as pop art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter; an avant-garde filmmaker, a record producer, an author and a public figure known for his presence in wildly diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy aristocrats.

A controversial figure during his lifetime (his work was often derided by critics as a hoax or "put-on"), Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books and documentary films since his death in 1987. He is generally acknowledged as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century
 


Banksy is a well-known yet pseudo-anonymous English graffiti artist, possibly named Robert Banks. It is believed that Banksy is a native of Yate, near Bristol,  who was born in 1974, but there is substantial public uncertainty about his identity and basic personal and biographical details.  The son of a photocopier engineer, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s." His artworks are often satirical pieces of art which encompass topics from politics, culture, and ethics. His street art, which combines graffiti with a distinctive stencilling technique, has appeared in London and in cities around the world.

Critique: January 26, 2012

10 Finished Pieces — Breadth or Concentration

"Tangerine Tango",  Pantone's official Color of the Year for 2012. 

This deep-red orange hue welcomes the warmth and energy we need to make this new year an amazing one!“Flaming June” was a well-loved painting long before Pantone decided that tangerine was the “color of the year,” but we’ll take any excuse to bring this masterpiece back to the fore!

Flaming June, c.1895
By Frederic Leighton

Though the artist, Frederic Leighton, was only loosely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, “Flaming June,” is one of the paintings most often associated with the movement. Leighton (1830 – 1896) was born to a family in the import and export business in Scarborough, England. He was educated in London, studied art in Italy, and then moved to Paris in 1855. While there, he associated with artists like Delacroix, Ingres, and Millet, and adopted romantic and realist touches in his works.

It wasn’t until 1860, when he moved to London, that he became associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. The brotherhood had been founded in 1848, and their aim was to reject the Classical poses and elegant compositions of the Mannerist movement, and to work toward expressing genuine ideas, study nature directly, and depict the things they deemed to be “serious” or “heartfelt.” Leighton’s subjects were mostly historical, biblical, and classical, and the woman in this print alludes to the nymphs and naiads of classical Greek art, while the oleander branch in the top right alludes to the link between sleep and death.