Jasper Johns

Art Appreciation

Americans will be celebrating Independence Day this week, and what better way to celebrate the American spirit than with a portrait of Old Glory.

Flag (1960-66) via Wikipedia

This encaustic painting, which was painted in 1954, is by influential contemporary American artist , Jasper Johns. The idea to paint this iconic image came to him in a dream.

Johns, who was born on May 15, 1930 in Augusta, Georgia, primarily worked in painting and printmaking, and is also known for his close relationship with Robert Rauschenberg.

You can read more about the artist HERE.


Sources: 

Miles, Frank J., "Partners in Love & Art," LstyleGstyle Magazine, September / October 2012, Page 27 

http://www.jasper-johns.org/index.jsp 

http://artsnapper.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/jasper-johns-birthday/

The Driskill Hotel in Austin

Designed by Jasper N. Preston & Son in 1886, Col. James Driskill's hotel is perhaps the finest in Texas.

The Romanesque style building, which is located on the infamous 6th Street in downtown Austin, is considered a political landmark where politicians congregate for events.

It's also said to be haunted by Col. James Driskill, who lost the hotel in a poker game to his brother-in-law, Jim Day.  George Littlefield purchased the hotel soon after.

Sources: 

http://www.driskillhotel.com/

Wikipedia

Wayne Thiebaud

Art Appreciation

Wayne Thiebaud was born Morton Wayne Thiebaud on November 15, 1920, in Mesa, Arizona, though his family moved when he was just a baby—settling in Southern California, mainly Long Beach, with interludes on an uncle’s ranch in Utah. 

He grew up in a Mormon household; his father held various jobs—mechanic, real-estate, etc.—while young Wayne developed early interests in illustration, cartoons, and commercial art. In high school he worked odd jobs and spent summers apprenticing in animation at Walt Disney. 

In his early career, Thiebaud studied at San José State and Sacramento State, finishing his BA in 1951 and MA in 1952. He taught art at Sacramento City College, and in 1956-57 took a leave and went to New York City. While there, he met artists like Willem de Kooning and saw the work of proto-Pop artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. That time sharpened his ideas about form, color, and subject matter, especially how everyday objects might be portrayed with new visual weight. 

Thiebaud’s style is notable for its heavy pigment, exaggerated or sharp color contrasts, strong shadows, and a sense of both realism and heightened formality. He often isolates commonplace items—cakes, pies, pastries, lipstick tubes, etc.—presented in neat rows or with rhythmic spacing. Over time he expanded beyond those still life and “confection” motifs to include figure painting and landscapes, including cityscapes, street scenes, hills, mountains, and California’s varied terrain. 

His later works often explore space, distorted perspective, and color planes, yet retain that core attention to surface, texture, and the everyday. Among Thiebaud’s best known works are many of the still lifes: Cakes (1963), Bakery Counter (1962), Pies, Pies, Pies (1961), Drink Syrups (1961), Eight Lipsticks (1964), Three Strawberry Shakes (1964). In the landscape and street-scene vein, works such as Sunset Streets (1985) and Flatland River (1997) are often mentioned. Also later paintings of mountains (e.g. his Sierra Nevada series) and city views sustain his recognition. 

Cakes (1963)

Bakery Counter (1962)

Pies, Pies, Pies (1961)

Sunset Streets (1985)

Sources:

Wikipedia

https://www.acquavellagalleries.com/exhibitions/wayne-thiebaud3

https://journalpanorama.org/article/wayne-thiebauds-california

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/thiebaud-wayne/

https://mymodernmet.com/wayne-thiebaud-paintings/

https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Wayne_Thiebaud/

https://brooklynrail.org/2014/11/artseen/wayne-thiebaud-nov

https://pastimesinc.com/art-history-101-wayne-thiebaud/

https://www.gratzgallery.com/artists/wayne-thiebaud

https://www.artnews.com/list/art-news/artists/who-was-wayne-thiebaud-bay-area-figurative-art-cakes-1234665954

https://www.lesliesacks.com/artists/wayne-thiebaud/biography

https://www.berggruen.com/artists/wayne-thiebaud

https://vec.crockerart.org/blogs/24-facts-about-wayne-thiebauds-early-life

https://ccplonline.org/blogs/childrens/14211-2/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wayne-Thiebaud

https://achievement.org/achiever/wayne-thiebaud

#FavTweets 2017 August Paintings, Drawings, and Digital Art

New #painting: "#Sunset in the Bayou" - oil on canvas, 12"x6" - #art #fineart #landscape pic.twitter.com/cpcT5q1gV4

— Dimitrina Kutriansky (@EnaKutriansky) August 5, 2017

New Jasper Johns monograph offers a full overview of the artist's 60-year career: https://t.co/YqtHJTsWki pic.twitter.com/s5B1OgYBMu

— artnet (@artnet) August 28, 2017

久しぶりに屋外で風景など描いてみた。楽しい。#油絵 #油彩 #風景画 #美術 #絵画 #アート #art #painting #oil #landscape pic.twitter.com/ZpXufSipV6

— 青木薫 (@iperuipe) September 1, 2017

Cy Twombly

Art Appreciation

Born in Lexington, Virginia on April 25, 1928, Cy Twombly is best known for large-scale, freely-scribbled, calligraphic and graffiti-like works on mostly gray, tan, and off-white colors.

Twombly began taking private art lessons at the age of 12 from the Catalan artist Pierre Daura. After attending art schools and universities, he studied at the Art Students League of New York. There he met Robert Rauschenberg.

Rauschenberg encouraged him to attend Black Mountain College. There he met other artists who had influence in his work.

His first solo exhibition was held at the Samuel M. Kootz Gallery in New York City in 1951. 

In 1957, Twombly moved to Rome and married Italian artist Baroness Tatiana Franchetti. They had a son, Cyrus Alessandro Twombly, a couple years later. 

From 1955 to 1959, he worked along side Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.  Around that time, Twombly developed the technique of gestural drawing characterized by thin white lines on dark canvas, appearing as if the surface had scratches.

In the 1960s and 70s, Twombly would inscribe names of mythological figures in his paintings. In 1978, Twombly's Fifty Days at Ilium incorporated cryptic pictorial metaphors.

Untitled (1957)

Leda and the Swan (1962)

Victory (1984)

Source: Wikipedia, Wikiart

Weekend in Houston Art

My parents and I have a non-traditional way of celebrating Thanksgiving. Perhaps it's more due to the fact that I'm the only child, so there isn't a reason to congregate at mom and pop's. Rather, we spend our day in Houston at the Galleria Mall--my mom loves to shop.

While in Houston, we did visit the Menil Collection. The museum houses the private collection of philanthropists and art patrons John and Dominique de Menil.

Their collection included works by John Chamberlain, Andy Warhol, Rene Magritte, Mark Rothko, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Victor Brauner, James Rosenquist, and Robert Rauschenberg.

We also visited the Francis Alys' The Fabiola Project and The Rothko Chapel, which are steps away the museum.

The following day, I visited the Contemporary Art Museum. There I saw the ceramics works by Annabeth Rosen and a visual exhibition by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz titled Telepathic Improvisation.

I then found myself at the Silver Street Flea Market. A few artists were showing their works, such as Lindsay Burck and Sarah Rimboch.

Next to the market was the Fotofest. There I saw the photography by Kalee Appleton, Rachel Cox, Joe Harjo, Peter Leighton, Emily Peacock, and Molly Shigemoto.