Contemporary Master of the Week

[joe1It]

I wasn't on istangam until the beginning of the year. Enrolled To follow one of my absolute favorite artists, artist who creates, placed on the figure and portrait
Kevinwueste (maybe you follow him, he's extraordinary)
For a few weeks I followed only him and then 2 other artists. After a few months I reached 100
Now I have 100 other artists especially of the figure or portrait in various media or styles but all favorite on Istagram
(then I saw close friends function, to facilitate research, so I added KW and 60 others there).
I didn't know before that fenerov (who knows if you like them two) who is now another of my favorite artists of all time.
He also draws on books, always extraordinary works. I love to see his works
One thing I wondered, if it was possible to draw even in a realistic way in small sheets, maybe not a3, A2 or larger, he draws anywhere and in the style he wants.

 

[Artyczar]

I follow 700+ people on Instagram, but I'll be damned if I actually "follow" any of them. I can look at the first 30 posts of the day in my feed and I'm pretty done for the day, then I post my own work for the day and that's all for Instagram.

 

[stlukesguild]

Kevin Wueste was a long-term member over on Wet Canvas. He joined while he was still an art student. While I am a figurative artist and employ a good deal of "realism"... I don't tend to really like the work of all that many contemporary artists who work in a style that might be termed "academic realism"... often rooted in the look of 19th century academic painters. Kevin, however, is an exception. There is something about his drawings that grabs me. Among the artists actively working in a manner one might term "realism" who I quite admire would include the young Italian, Marco Grassi:

The Italian, Nicola Verlato:

Bo Bartlett:

Will Cotton:

The Mexican painter, Omar Ortiz:

The Neo-Mannerist, Jamie Adams:

Margaret Bowland:

Alex Gross:

Gottfried Helnwein:

[Hi. No Nazis. Thanks.]

F. Scott Hess:

continued...

 

[Artyczar]

While I think Helwein is a good artist, he is controversial for the sake of being controversial. You've posted that painting on WC before and I never understood with all their censorship on nudity how they allowed that image over everything else when it is so incredibly offensive and painful for some people to look at. There are far better examples of his work, that one isn't even that technically as good as many of his others, so I don't know why you pick that one. It's like that other photograph you picked (that was deleted) that doesn't really do anything for anyone anywhere.

I knew him personally, so I know what I am saying about his purposes.

 

[stlukesguild]

Boris Koller:

David M. Lenz:

David Ligare:

Serge Marshennikov:

Adam Miller:

John Nava:

Scott Prior:

Daniel Sprick:

Will Wilson:

Mary Jane Ansell:

As technically astonishing as a good many of these paintings are, my own personal taste leans more toward paintings that are figurative... and yet stress the abstract elements of line, shape, pattern, etc... more than they do the illusion of visual reality. Again, don't get me wrong... I like all of these paintings... but not as much as I like some others that are not as focused on the illusion of real form and space.

 

[stlukesguild]

Arty... I think the power of the Helnwein comes from the artist's own Austrian heritage... the same as that of der Führer. To me, the painting mocks the Nazi ideas of the "Master Race" that were often tied to Greco-Roman ideals of "beauty" as well as to religion... ideas that must have continued to fester under the surface after the fall of the Third Reich. The "Virgin"... a stunningly beautiful Aryan blonde... presents the most horrific child "Messiah" imaginable in an abominable mockery of the Adoration of the Magi.

Max Beckmann brilliantly mocked the Nazis employing his style of Expressionism:

Helnwein's painting strikes me as so disturbing due to the style. It makes these horrific ideas that are not too long gone to history... and still exist in our politics today... appear as if a document of reality... a historical photograph. If Helnwein's true intention was merely to shock... and I believe a lot of his work suggests such is true... in this instance, his work strikes me as achieving more than his intention. It disturbs as the ideas of the Nazis should disturb. No "good people on both sides."

 

[stlukesguild]

Actually I like this painting by Helnwein far more:

 

[joe1It]

stlukesguild thank you very much for this gallery, many of them I did not know, they are very beautiful works.
yes, yes, Kevin's works I saw them right on the forum, then I saw that lke new things were on istangram and I looked for them there.
I like it so much that in practice it can do everything, I really like the drawing of the figure and the portraits (I really like realism but I like it just as much or more Schiele for example, I like comics, animation, early Disney classics, I like them various or opposite things, in short, even the tastes I have are chaotic as an idea of what I would be able to learn).

However I wanted to say about Kevin that I think is incredible and that in practice he can do everything, that is, he can use construction or classic method or invent his own way to create.
fast jobs, long jobs always very remarkable.


yes stlukesguild, yes, I think I understand what you say about preferences for works with lements of line, shape, pattern, etc.

and then it is very right and beautiful that everyone can be attracted specifically to different genres, elements.

I think the most beautiful thing about art is its variety, a thousand completely different ways to express something or to portray a figure, an animal or anything.

there are worlds in the worlds and it is so beautiful, at least, many times this is beautiful, that is, it is beautiful where creativity can go (maybe especially if there is something that is instinctive or thought, that is, I find it good that there is everything, let's say any different from being one of 20 names (which usually do not create them but delegate ideas) decided by someone so that each work is worth billions just to launder money or invest it, perhaps they are paranoid but the only art that attracts me less and the one that makes me think it exists above all for this but it will only be because I don't understand it).

then sometimes I think that my thinking often varies (like graphite photographic realism, sometimes I like it, sometimes maybe I like it less, sometimes I would like to learn a shading that really comes close to this, other times I think today that there are photos sometimes I think I prefer something opposite from this or different. but in reality if I talk about looking at the graphite works that look like photos there are actually exceptional artists who go beyond the photos, images of people or animals of artists like the moderate reSparrow seem alive, come to life) at the same time there are works that do not concern the figure or anyway more abstract that maybe have color or something that kidnaps in the same way. I think that's what I really like art for.

I probably have not written anything sensible, anyway thank you very much for your wonderful posts, for explanations and information and for the many beauty that you share with the images you choose, places.

 

[Artyczar]

Actually I like this painting by Helnwein far more:

Me too.

 

[Artyczar]

Arty... I think the power of the Helnwein comes from the artist's own Austrian heritage... the same as that of der Führer. To me, the painting mocks the Nazi ideas of the "Master Race" that were often tied to Greco-Roman ideals of "beauty" as well as to religion... ideas that must have continued to fester under the surface after the fall of the Third Reich. The "Virgin"... a stunningly beautiful Aryan blonde... presents the most horrific child "Messiah" imaginable in an abominable mockery of the Adoration of the Magi.

Max Beckmann brilliantly mocked the Nazis employing his style of Expressionism:

View attachment 818

Helnwein's painting strikes me as so disturbing due to the style. It makes these horrific ideas that are not too long gone to history... and still exist in our politics today... appear as if a document of reality... a historical photograph. If Helnwein's true intention was merely to shock... and I believe a lot of his work suggests such is true... in this instance, his work strikes me as achieving more than his intention. It disturbs as the ideas of the Nazis should disturb. No "good people on both sides."

I understand what you're saying. It is purely the familiarity of the imagery and symbolism that is a sore spot with many people: the swastika, the SS tags, etc, or seeing Hitler as a grown man in uniform, the sieg heil salute... These things are not "shocking," but hurtful to many people and don't do anything but stir up shit. And the painting you posted reminds me of bad airbrush, but that's not my point. Bad art is more welcome here than SS tags!

 

[Hannah]

To me, the painting mocks the Nazi ideas of the "Master Race"

It doesn't matter what it means to you.

You've been told it's hurtful, so trying to defend it just makes you look like an asshole.

Your preoccupation with inserting Hitler into a post once a week isn't edgy or controversial. I'm deleting the image in this thread, and I'll continue to delete any "art" featuring Hitler. So maybe you can save me the trouble and resist the temptation to fly that particular flag around here.

Thanks, I knew you'd understand.

 

[stlukesguild]

...I wanted to say about Kevin that I think is incredible and that in practice he can do everything...

Joe... I agree with you here, for certain. I never accepted the idea that mastering the skills employed in the visual arts would somehow be detrimental. Rather, I always thought that the greater your skills, the more options were open to you. The majority of the great Modernists of the first generation (Matisse, Picasso, Max Beckmann, etc...) had definite mastery of traditional academic skills. Even DeKooning... which quite surprised me when I saw his early drawings. And DeKooning, when he taught at Black Mountain College, famously would not allow his students to jump right into gestural abstraction. Rather, he insisted they begin with accurate still life drawings made from direct observation.

But this doesn't mean that I imagine that artists lacking traditional academic training cannot achieve art of the highest level. I imagine we all develop our visual language as a result of our skills and our limitations. Honestly, one of my favorite artists of the 20th century couldn't draw, paint, or sculpt... but he created one of the most marvelous and poetic bodies of work. I am speaking of Joseph Cornell:

 

[stlukesguild]

I understand what you're saying. It is purely the familiarity of the imagery and symbolism that is a sore spot with many people: the swastika, the SS tags, etc, or seeing Hitler as a grown man in uniform, the sieg heil salute... These things are not "shocking," but hurtful to many people and don't do anything but stir up shit. And the painting you posted reminds me of bad airbrush, but that's not my point. Bad art is more welcome here than SS tags!

You'd really hate my former studio partner's work (Yeah... that same guy). He spent about 5 years making huge ugly installations dealing with the Holocaust. Lots of swastikas. He imagined that the theme would help him get shows with various Jewish museums & gallery dealers (He's Jewish albeit non-practicing). He couldn't understand why the work was never exhibited or sold. Last December he sent out fliers and personalized invitations to visit our studio as part of an open studio "holiday sale". The title for his exhibition was Meditations on Genocide dealing not only with the Holocaust of WWII, but also the Armenian Genocide, the Native Americans, American Slavery, etc... He didn't get a single visitor. He couldn't grasp that the theme was not likely to be popular with those shopping for the holidays. I tried to explain to him that I loved the film Schindler's List but I can't watch it repeatedly like I might watch Sunset Boulevard or Casablanca. It is simply too emotionally draining. I also love Anselm Kiefer's paintings and those of Francis Bacon... but I don't think... even if I had the room... I'd want them hanging in my home. I just wouldn't want to look at such depressing art every day. Even a lot of paintings and prints by Goya would be overly harrowing. I had a professor in art school who visited France and Germany and got to see Matthias Grünewald's great multi-panel Crucifixion. He said the experience of seeing that painting in persona almost made him physically sick... although he admits it might have been the bratwurst and sauerkraut he ate earlier that day.

 

[Artyczar]

He couldn't grasp that the theme was not likely to be popular with those shopping for the holidays.

Ha ha ha! Okay, that's funny. Some people don't understand why they aren't the greatest thing on the face of the earth. Haven't you seen American Idol?

Some amount of my work is considered Judiaca, but I don't consider myself a "practicing" Jew. (Practicing is relative, actually.) I mean, every Jew is different in how they identify themselves or how they incorporate Jewish life into their own. It's become the way of Olam Tikkun to at least be mindful of these things. I have no idea what this guy is like, but he does sound like a douche. Either way, who knows how he honors his heritage. Maybe it's the work he does, but that doesn't mean people will buy it. I'm amazed people buy mine.

 

[stlukesguild]

Our buddy is pretty much antagonistic toward any religion where I would say the others of us are more along the line of agnostics. He truly shocked us when he was rejected by a number of galleries... and he always sent to the biggest galleries assuming he was a genius: Gagosian, Marlborough, Hauser & Wirth, Pace. Nothing less was worthy of him. When he received his rejections he planned on sending them all packages filled with ashes of burnt paper with a note reading: "May the ashes of the dead Jews be upon you." We talked him out of it because it was beyond offensive and suggested he was using the Holocaust simply to promote his art... but also because we realized that there was a very real chance that the galleries might alert the Postal Inspectors and FBI.

Honestly, his real passion was baseball. His love of the game went back to his childhood and attending games with his father. He made endless works based upon his favorite players and sold a good many of these. Unfortunately, he had the misguided notion that you could not make great art upon the theme of baseball. Great art could only be made from great and tragic themes. When I pointed out that Cezanne made great paintings of apples, Morandi from dusty old bottles, and Monet from the landscape in his back yard... he dismissed all of these argument. I feel sorry for him now. Whatever disagreements we had in the past, he always had a good sense of often self-deprecating humor. Now he has grown increasingly bitter and burnt all the bridges between himself and his friends.

 

[stlukesguild]

Boy... the tangents our threads take here! On WC we'd have Jon jumping on us all to stay on topic. Of course we know how well artists like coloring within the lines.

 

[Artyczar]

I feel bad for this guy now too. We all have our stories though. Glad he didn't send ashes through the mail, that's just offensive and stupid, and ignorant. I know a guy here, an art critic, who might be interested in his baseball art though.

It kind of reminds me of those Raymond Pettibone drawings.

 

[stlukesguild]

I thought the fact that he knew of no artist who had really made a name for himself/herself meant that the field was wide open for him. Of course there are many works about sports going back to the ancient Greeks such as these wrestlers:

Of course, it's not surprising that there isn't a lot of works of art on the theme of baseball. The game is almost exclusively an American sport and it's not much more than a hundred years old. If you consider American art of the last 100+ years it is largely dominated by Modernism and Abstraction. making a quick look through Google Images all I could find so far as baseball paintings by famous artists were a few works: one by Thomas Eakins, a couple by R.B. Kitaj, a couple by Norman Rockwell, and a painting on football by Thomas Hart Benton. I could easily imagine any number of artists making baseball paintings if they had been born in the right time and place. Considering Degas' paintings of laundry workers, ballerinas, and horse races and his avowed passion for painting the human figure in motion I could certainly imagine him painting baseball players. But again, it seems to me that a theme that hasn't been explored to death gives the artist a lot of advantages.

 

[JohnEmmett]

But again, it seems to me that a theme that hasn't been explored to death gives the artist a lot of advantages.

Abstraction is recent.

 

[stlukesguild]

Not all that recent, it would appear.