Niki de saint Phalle. Creator of monumental joyous female sculptures.

 

Niki de saint Phalle. Creator of monumental joyous female sculptures. 

 

October 29, 1930. Niki de Saint Phalle, born Catherine-Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle (29 October 1930 - 21 May 2002) was a French sculptor, painter, and filmmaker. In this image: French-born artist Niki de Saint Phalle presents her sculpture "L'Ange Protecteur," 'Guardian Angel' in the main hall of the central train station in Zurich, Switzerland on Nov. 14, 1997

She rebelled against her strict upbringing to create these large and joyous sculptures. One of the few women artists who did create sculptures. Her large female figures were known as Nanas. 

 Colorful, patterned, and crafted in a variety of shapes and sizes, these sculpted women embody the feminist spirit of de Saint Phalle’s work. Born Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle on October 29, 1930 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, the self-taught artist first began making art as a form of therapy. She went on to become a part of the Nouveau Réalisme movement that included Christo, Yves Klein, and Jean Tinguely. Early in her career, de Saint Phalle became inspired by the architecture of Antoni Gaudí while on vacation in Spain, and planned to make a piece on par with his famed public park design, Parc Güell. Realized over two decades, de Saint Phalle’s Il Giardino dei Tarocchi (The Tarot Garden) was filled with 22 of her signature monuments and is located in Tuscany. “It's my destiny to make a place where people can come and be happy: a garden of joy,” she once mused. The artist died on May 21, 2002 in La Jolla, CA at the age of 71. Today, her works are held in the collections of the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Musée d’Art Moderne d’Art Contemporain in Nice, among others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_de_Saint_Phalle

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/saint-phalle-niki-de/

Katsushika Hokusai: 36 Views of Mount Fuji

 

Katsushika Hokusai: 36 Views of Mount Fuji

OCTOBER 1, 2019 BY WENDY CAMPBELL

Born in the autumn of 1760, Hokusai was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. As a child, he learned woodblock cutting and was apprenticed to a book-lending shop. At the age of 19, he studied at the school of Katsukawa Shunsho, a leading woodblock artisan of the time, who was known for his portraits of popular actors.

Hokusai studied the techniques of the Kano Yusen, Tsutsumi Torin, and the Sumiyoshi Naikie schools. He was also greatly intrigued by the Western art that entered Japan through Dutch trading.

Beginning in 1814, Hokusai published his Hokusai Manga sketchbooks. The popular books contained thousands of drawings of people, religious figures, and animals.

Hokusai’s “36 views of Mount Fuji” are his best-known prints and are among the most famous of the Japanese woodcuts. He was 69 when he began the project and was already known for his painting, book illustration and surimono (commissioned prints) designs. Hokusai worked on the series for almost ten years before its publication in 1830 and they are considered by many to be his best work. After the original publication, due to their popularity, ten more prints were added.

Hokusai was a prolific artist and in his lifetime produced more than 30,000 print designs. He is said to have been an eccentric man with a restless nature. He changed his artistic name more than thirty times in his career, and changed his residence 93 times. He lived a long and productive life, continuing to produce prints well into his eighties.

Katsushika Hokusai died on April 18, 1849 at the age of 89.  His last words were “If heaven gives me ten more years, or an extension of even five years, I shall surely become a true artist.”

To view the complete series of 36 (plus 10 extra) Views of Mount Fuji, visit Wikipedia.

Hokusai Katsushika Fuji_ seen from the Mishima pass

Hokusai Katsushika Fujimi Fuji view field in the Owari province

Hokusai Katsushika Nihonbashi Bridge in Edo

Hokusai Katsushika Red Fuji Southern Wind Clear Morning

Hokusai Katsushika Senju in the Musachi Province

Hokusai Katsushika Fuji Seen Through the Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa

Hokusai Katsushika Tea House at Koishikawa the Morning After a Snowfall

Hokusai Katsushika Sunset Across the Ryogoku Bridge from the Bank of the Sumida River at Onmagayashi

Katsushika Hokusai - Great Wave Off Kanagawa

Sources: Artelino, Wikipedia, Monash University

Israel, The history that most don't know or ignore

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNf40sBcvKk

Jean-Antoine Watteau.

 

Jean-Antoine Watteau (French: [ʒɑ̃ ɑ̃twan vato]; baptised October 10, 1684 – died July 18, 1721),[2] better known as Antoine Watteau, was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement, as seen in the tradition of Correggio and Rubens. He revitalized the waning Baroque style, shifting it to the less severe, more naturalistic, less formally classical, Rococo. Watteau is credited with inventing the genre of fêtes galantes, scenes of bucolic and idyllic charm, suffused with a theatrical air. Some of his best known subjects were drawn from the world of Italian comedy and ballet. (Wikipedia) 

One of the most brilliant and original artists of the eighteenth century, Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) had an impact on the development of Rococo art in France and throughout Europe lasting well beyond his lifetime. Living only thirty-six years, and plagued by frequent illness, Watteau nonetheless rose from an obscure provincial background to achieve fame in the French capital during the Regency of the duc d’Orléans. His paintings feature figures in aristocratic and theatrical dress in lush imaginary landscapes. Their amorous and wistful encounters create a mood but do not employ narrative in the traditional sense. During Watteau’s lifetime, a new term, fête galante, was coined to describe them. Watteau was also a gifted draftsman whose sparkling chalk sheets capture subtle nuances of deportment and expression. (Met Museum) 

He died young, at just 36, and from contemporary accounts it seems as though he always knew he would not have long. With his eyes he caught at everything that he could, snagged it and kept it, all in skeins of line. 

https://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/hd/watt/hd_watt.htm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-reviews/8390442/Watteau-The-Drawings-Royal-Academy-Seven-magazine-review.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Antoine_Watteau

Simeon Solomon. English Pre-Raphaelite Painter .

 

October 09, 1840. Simeon Solomon (9 October 1840 No. 3 Sandys Street, Bishopsgate, London, England - 14 August 1905 in St. Giles's Workhouse, Endell Street) was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter. Examples of his work are on permanent display at the Victoria and Albert Museum and at Leighton House. In December 2005/January 2006, there was an important retrospective of his work, held at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and in London at the Ben Uri Gallery in October / November 2006. In this image: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, 1863.

 This sensitive drawing is titled ‘Until the day break and the shadows flee away’, and is reminiscent of other Pre-Raphaelite artworks that explore the theme of night and day. A work similar to this appears in Solomon’s poem 'A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep' published in 1871. http://ow.ly/jGX830fFiE

In the Temple of Venus 1863

Love in Autumn, 1866

 His career was blighted by his conviction for sodomy and he no longer was able to display his art. In 1884, he was admitted to the workhouse where he continued to produce work, but his life and talent were blighted by alcoholism. Twenty years later in 1905, he died from complications brought on by his alcoholism. He was buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Willesden.

http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/painting/ssolomon/index.html 
  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_Solomon