Poetry, stories and strange odds and ends from the desk of a writer
Rainstorm over the sea1824-28Romanticism, LandscapeOil on paper laid on canvasLocation: Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK Rainstorm over the Sea is an oil sketch of Brighton Beach quickly painted to capture the turbulent feel of the advancing storm. It diverges from the strict documentation and accuracy of Constable’s earlier work and his paint surface is … Continue reading Rainstorm over the Sea by John Constable
Self Portrait as a Young Girl1914Modern PhotographyPhotographic printJersey Heritage, St Helier, Jersey One of the earliest known self-portraits by Cahun, the photograph displays an intensely, penetrating stare. The artist’s head is seemingly disembodied, suggesting an imbalance between head and body as though the head is too heavy making the body redundant. The abundant flowing hair … Continue reading Self Portrait as a Young Girl by Claude Cahun
Bold androgyny doubled by a mirrored- reflection, Cahun presents themself in an image of lush textures and tones. The checked jacket, highlighted hair and sun-kissed skin all make for an image vividly abundant with life...
The young Ingres dedicated himself to historical painting, the most respected genre at the Académie. In accordance to his neoclassical training he selected his subject from Greek mythology...
Like so many of his works, Flags over the Town Hall is based on an image on a postcard representing the village of Maixe, located in Lorraine in eastern France...
According to Gould Madonna dal Collo Longo is Parmigianino’s most characteristic and most extreme work. That a single piece can be most extreme and most characteristic illustrates the visionary artist Parmigianino was...
At the insistence of his teachers in 1817 Michallon was awarded a prize. The honour permitted the young artist to spend the nest two years in Italy, where he painted numerous outdoor sketches such as Goatherd Opposite the Falls of Tivoli...
Corot depicts an Old Testament scene from the Book of Genesis in this painting. Hagar was a servant of Abraham with whom he had a child as his wife Sarah was unable to conceive...
Rich detail and expansive in scope, this painting depicts a procession of people behind various religious shrines. In the right foreground a large and diverse crowd follows the primary religious icon...
This painting is a demonstration of O’Keeffe’s skills in articulating structure and the use of highly realistic yet simplified style of Precisionism. The night backdrop incorporates a play between the structure and light, between straight lines of architectural forms and the ethereal smoke, which is reminiscent of folds of flowers...
A relatively early work by Tanning, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is painted with figurative perfection and a looseness to Surrealists themes. Inspired by the Mozart’s composition of the same title the setting is a hallway of a large house or a hotel. The painting is a dreamy image of two young girls, one who has found a giant sunflower and the other with eyes closed holding one of the petals. Three doors are firmly closed whilst one is cracked to reveal a bright light...
One of Constable’s first major paintings created when he was twenty-six between the end of the French revolutionary wars and the beginning of the Napoleonic wars. The tranquillity of the painting belies the wider political turmoil. Whilst Constable’s techniques were not yet fully developed the painting demonstrates his commitment to the close observation of nature. The viewer’s eye is led across the painting from the foreground along the river to the distant focal point of the distant tower of Dedham church.
Haacke invented modern activism as a political device for conceptual artists. Intervening through the space of a gallery or a museum his work decries the influence of corporations on society and the hypocrisy of liberal institutions that accept sponsorship from aggressive and conservative capitalists. His work challenges artwashing’s diversion from harmful practices of business es engaging in philanthropic engagement with art...
Like the kit of a travelling salesman, the Boite-en-Valise is one of twenty-four editions of a leather case containing sixty-nine miniature reproductions of Duchamp’s work. Each box offered different, hand-coloured art pieces fixed to the inside lid. Sections of the boxes slide out and unfold to show prints mounted on a black board...
Beneath an arched doorway a Spanish woman dressed in brightly patterned traditional shawls balancing a tray of oranges on her head and more fruit in a basket in her hand. The painting appears as a painted collage...
Layered images of this enigmatic painting blend into each other, giving a dreamlike, nightmarish quality...
Considered by Matisse to be one of his most important paintings, Bather’s by a River is certainly one of his most puzzling...
Images of Depression-era America made Lange on of the most acclaimed documentary photographers of the 20th century...
The tiny panoramic picture measuring only 15.4 x31.6 cm is an anamorphic view of the town of Delft...
Possibly the most iconic image of Emperor Napoléon I, this painting by Ingres was initially dismissed as overly gothic, barbaric and archaic...
The definitive lines and natural shape of the Calla lily are enhanced by the subtle graduation of light this photograph...
The ‘Fate of the Animals’ is the imagery of annihilation as seen by the animals. Sharp angles and jagged shapes convey Marc’s jaded view of the relationship between humanity and the natural world...
An early work by Hockney, ‘We two Boys Together clinging’ shows no sign of the slick landscapes and carefully observed characters that he would later develop...
Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q. is an altered postcard reproduction of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. For this assisted readymade, he pencilled a goatee and moustache over the Mona Lisa’s chin and upper lip...
The vertilinear composition of this painting gives it an otherworldly effect. The palm branch at the left of the frame, St. Stephen’s other arm holding one of the stones used to kill him...
Rousseau was for his unconventional nature-based painting. He was regarded as a pioneer of the Barbizon School of landscape art. Rousseau was one of the earliest artists to venture outdoors to observe ...
Titian was a painter and regarded as one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance, combining Mannerist and High Renaissance ideas...
After introducing colour to her work in 1967, Riley expanded her palette to include a range of hues. Cantus Firmus is a repeated pattern of painted straight lines...
Homage to the square is the signature series of over a thousand related works, which Albers began in 1949 and developed until his death in 1976...
After attending a lecture by Russian Futurists, Rodchenko abandoned Art Nouveau and began to fragment his forms...
Hockney began photographing the Grand Canyon, with the intent of photographing the Impossible, space...
Mapplethorpe was a photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. Featuring an array of subjects...
A tendency of the late 1950s and 1960s, Hard-edge Painting is closely related to Post-painterly abstraction and Colour Field Painting...
Constable, along with JMW Turner, revolutionized landscape painting of the 19th century. His paintings had a profound and far-reaching effect on European art...
Installed in Greenwich Village in 1992, gay Liberation celebrates the historic even that took place in 1969 across the street. On 28th June 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar frequented by LGBT folks....
In 37 prolific years, Raphael’s passionate style blazed a trail of painting throughout the Italian high Renaissance. His skill in presenting his lust for life on to canvas translated into ideals of beauty were breathtakingly new. Raphael is considered to one of the holy trinity of master artists of the Renaissance, along with Da Vinci and Michelangelo...
Rembrandt’s life and work were fuelled by an intense psychological study of people, objects, and their surroundings and a strong Christian devotion. Incredibly gifted, Rembrandt became a master of portraiture, historical, mythological, and biblical sense from a very young age. His techniques and use of materials was sensitive and spontaneous. His everchanging approach to colour, composition, and shadow produced powerfully moving and natural moments of the human existence. His mastery of light and texture emphasized emotional depth weaved a common theme through all his work confirming his status as one of art’s greatest and innovative masters...
Art permeates through Tanning’s life; not only has her work become worthwhile art, her presence transformed photographs to make them more artistic. The spirals of energy that followed her as a person is also found in her brushstrokes. Her work evolved into abstraction and sculpture. The fold lines of fabric, linking the different phases, as cloth transforms depiction to media. In later years, she emerged as poet...
Maar was a talented photographer and made work that developed quickly from an acute poetic realism to Surrealist manipulations. She made images out of her own emotional interior and her desire to escape from it. Maar abandoned photography because Picasso insisted photographers were painters waiting to be released. Between 1935-45 she was in love with Picasso and became a muse for other artists as well as practicing painter herself. Maar suffered a breakdown after separating from Picasso and recovered through the help of Jacques Lacan, the famous psychiatrist. She moved from Paris to rural Provence and in later life painted abstract landscapes and melancholic still life. A recluse, she became a devoted Catholic. Living in the shadow of Picasso she never returned to photography, the medium which exulted her exquisite and unusual talent...
Sérusier studied at the Académie Julian instead of the elite and conservative École des Beaux-Arts. Sérusier was a pioneer of Post-Impressionism and founded Les Nabis, named after the Hebrew word for ‘prophet.’ He sought to paint what he felt as well as what he saw, seeking unity between decorative and fine art...
Vasarely’s work provides some of the most distinctive images and optical effects of the 20th century. He steered a unique course, combining virtuosic technical precision and geometrical effects. His work speaks quintessential with the concern of what is the difference between what we can see and what is really there...
Calder was a sculptor who redefined sculpture by introducing movement, through performances of his mechanical Calder’s Circus, motorizes works, and his mobiles. He also created static sculptures he called ‘stabiles’ as well as paintings, jewellery, theatre sets and costumes...
Unique amongst the avant-garde painters of the late 19th century, Denis combined commitment to formal and stylistic innovation with an equally profound sense of tradition in art, culture, and religion. His bright and vibrant paintings express a commitment to abstraction and a reliance on the inner life of the soul. Unlike his peers Denis a soul shaped by his faith which would also lead to activities such as church renovation and altarpiece design...
One of the foremost advocates of naturalistic representation from any artistic era Repin defined essence of Russian Realism. From the humble beginnings of his birth he became an artist of bedazzling skill and insight, creating technically skilled work which conveyed a deep sensitivity to human emotion and suffering, and to historical and political events. Repin was committed to the spirit of the peasant class of his roots which allowed his art to be a humane social commentary. Despite being highly critical of Tsarist oppression his work brought him fame within state institutions. It is perhaps ironic that as an adopted patriarch of drab Social Realism the power of his work resonates much further than that milieu or any narrow context....
Sage was a Surrealist artist and poet. She was a member of the Golden Age and Post-War periods of surrealism. Sage is best known for her artistic works of an architectural nature...
Maholy-Nagy was a painter, photographer, and a professor at the Bauhaus school. He was influenced by constructivism and an advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts. He collaborated works with other artists, including Lucia Maholy (his first wife), Marcek Breuer, Herbert Bayer, and Walter Gropius. However, his greatest accomplishment is the School of Design in Chicago, which is now part of the Illinois Institute of Technology...
It is from Calder’s desire in the 1930’s to create abstract paintings that travel through space that works such as A Universe, in which two spherical shapes move at different rates during 40-minute cycle, came into being...
Hadid was an architect and the first woman to receive the acclaimed Pritzker Architecture Award. She received the prestigious Stirling Prize for Architecture in 2010 and 2011. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2012 for services to architecture. Hadid is the only woman to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects...
Gauguin was Post-Impressionist artist, unappreciated until after his death, he is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style. Towards the end of his life he lived in French Polynesia and his paintings from that time in his life depict people and landscapes from the region...
Titian was a painter and regarded as one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance, combining Mannerist and High Renaissance ideas to develop a style that is remarkably ahead of his time...
