Recent art that you liked

Ran into the work of Japanese artist Tetsuya Ishida (1973 - 2005). A rather tragically short life - he was hit by a train and I have seen it claimed that it was suicide. But he managed to create a quite striking body of work, expressing urban alienation in a society where people often feel like mere cogs in a machine.

Tetsuya Ishida - Cargo small.jpg

Tetsuya Ishida - Cargo

Tetsuya Ishida - Prisoner, 1999, acrylic on board, 36 × 52 cm.jpg


Tetsuya Ishida - Prisoner, 1999, acrylic on board, 36 × 52 cm

Tetsuya Ishida - Public Property, 1999 Acrylic on canvas 46 x 55 cm.jpg

Tetsuya Ishida - Public Property, 1999 Acrylic on canvas 46 x 55 cm

Tetsuya Ishida - Recalled, 1998, acrylic on board, in 2 parts, overall 146 × 206 cm.jpg

Tetsuya Ishida - Recalled, 1998, acrylic on board, in 2 parts, overall 146 × 206 cm

Tetsuya Ishida - Waiting for a chance.jpg

Tetsuya Ishida - Waiting for a chance

Tetsuya Ishida -, Refuel Meal (1996).jpg

Tetsuya Ishida -, Refuel Meal (1996)
 
bust.jpg


I just came across this marvelous portrait in terra cotta by Antonio Canova. The work cracked during the firing process, leaving us to wonder whether Canova... the ultimate perfectionist... let loose with a stream of profanity. Or did he find it as exquisite as we might today? The piece was recently shown at the National Gallery of Art, Washington and a post on this exhibition is where I first came upon it... but it belongs to the Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova, Possagno, Italy.

study-of-a-boy-2.jpg
 
I have pictures around here from when I went to see Antonio Canova's studio in Italy, which had many of his preliminary works and some of his unfinished finished pieces. I'm trying to remember the town in Northern Italy, but I guess it was in Possagno. He was/is a distant relative of the person I was in a relationship with at the time. We went to all the towns of his ancestors, and Possagno and that surrounding area was one of them.

(His other (direct) ancestor was Arrigo Boito, who co-composed Verde operas.) He had a lot of impressive family connections.

Anyway, the pictures are not on my computer. They are from a regular camera in a box I'd have to fish out.

We also went into the temple, which was overwhelming. My partner (at the time)'s older cousin talked about all the generations of masons who put their blood and sweat into it. He was so proud to show us around that day. It was pretty hard to believe what I was seeing. This was in the 1990s.

I promise to fish these pictures out some time and post them.
 
I have a question about the sculptures that have all the little black dots on them. I'm not schooled in this area so never knew and have been afraid to ask. Most of the sculptures at Canova Museum had them. Here is a page that shows one.
 
All I can think is that it has something to do with reproduction. There's a method where you set an object (or person) inside of a cage like object and pointed measured sticks at measured points are inserted until they contact the surface. If you take a block of material, say marble, the same proportions as the cage and then chip away until the similar insertion reaches the surface at the same proportional distance.
 
Local artist Willem Pretorius did a series a smallish paintings he refers to as "postcards"; they all seem to be painted from virtually random snapshots - I like the way in which he finds beauty in the completely ordinary:

Willem Pretorius - Postcard II Oil on canvas 32 x 25 cm.jpg

Willem Pretorius - Postcard II Oil on canvas 32 x 25 cm

Willem Pretorius - Postcard IV Oil on canvas 32 x 25 cm.jpg

Willem Pretorius - Postcard IV Oil on canvas 32 x 25 cm

Willem Pretorius - Postcard VII Oil on canvas 32 x 25 cm.jpg

Willem Pretorius - Postcard VII Oil on canvas 32 x 25 cm
 
I often find myself really enjoying the work of relatively obscure figures. One such I ran into on the web is Friedrich Kallmorgen (1856 - 1924). I see Wikipedia refers to him as impressionist, which he is and is not. His work is somewhat conservative in general appearance, his classical training apparent, but like the more famous impressionists, one can also see the loose, expressive brushwork and concern with light and shade.

I seem to have a great attraction to this kind of painterly realism. Lots of artists active around 1900 went in this direction, but most fell into obscurity in the shadow of the modernist revolutions taking place at the time. Today, when we think of that sort of style, we mostly think of Sargent and Zorn, but they were by no means the only ones doing it, and the style remains very popular today. Anyway, some samples of Kallmorgen's work:

Friedrich Kallmorgen (1856 - 1924) - Holzsammlerin im Herbstwald, 1893, Öl auf Leinwand, 68 x ...jpg

Friedrich Kallmorgen (1856 - 1924) - Holzsammlerin im Herbstwald, 1893, Öl auf Leinwand, 68 x 53 cm

Friedrich Kallmorgen (1856 - 1924) - Summer afternoon 1893 Oil on canvas 84 x 109 cm.jpg

Friedrich Kallmorgen (1856 - 1924) - Summer afternoon 1893 Oil on canvas 84 x 109 cm

Friedrich Kallmorgen (1856 - 1924) - The Harvest Oil on canvas.jpg

Friedrich Kallmorgen (1856 - 1924) - The Harvest Oil on canvas

EDIT: I see the software here automatically reduces the size of the images. I'm too lazy to upload details from the pictures, but I encourage those who like this sort of thing to go look up the pictures on the web and take a look at full size reproductions. :)
 
I love these Brian. They are so wonderfully painted. Thanks for sharing his work.

The forum auto-shrinks the images only because hosting huge images gets pretty darn expensive! Sorry about that.
 
I love these Brian. They are so wonderfully painted. Thanks for sharing his work.

The forum auto-shrinks the images only because hosting huge images gets pretty darn expensive! Sorry about that.

No problem, lots of forums do that or something like it. In the past I would sometimes add details from images, but I have become too lazy (plus, I have been in almost constant pain for two weeks now after badly spraining my foot, or developing gout, or something like that, which makes it difficult to sit at a desk for long - the blasted foot starts painfully throbbing!).

Anyway, on to the next somewhat obscure figure: Frits Thaulow (1847 - 1906). Obscure or not, I wonder if anyone before or since could paint water quite like this:

Frits Thaulow -  Small town near La Panne, Belgium, 1905.jpg

Frits Thaulow - Small town near La Panne, Belgium, 1905

Frits Thaulow - A stream in spring.jpg

Frits Thaulow - A stream in spring


Frits Thaulow - Bords de la Rivière, Arques-la-Bataille, Brittany Oil on canvas 60 x 74 cm.jpg

Frits Thaulow - Bords de la Rivière, Arques-la-Bataille, Brittany Oil on canvas 60 x 74 cm

Frits Thaulow (1847 - 1906) - Fra Venezia Oil on canvas 65 x 82 cm.jpg

Frits Thaulow (1847 - 1906) - Fra Venezia Oil on canvas 65 x 82 cm

Frits Thaulow (1847 - 1906) - Picquigny Oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm.jpg

Frits Thaulow (1847 - 1906) - Picquigny Oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm
 
Karl Hofer - Children under sunflowers Oil on canvas on panel 100 x 75 cm.jpg


Karl Hofer (1878 - 1955) - Children under sunflowers. Oil on canvas on panel 100 x 75 cm.

Karl Hofer - Cows in a forest, 1912 Oil on canvas, 129 x 103 cm.jpg


Karl Hofer - Cows in a forest, 1912. Oil on canvas, 129 x 103 cm.

Hofer's work is just the kind of expressionism I like: stylized, but not too much, and colors rich but quite subdued, with the "expression" bit more in the line work and brush strokes than in shocking color.
 
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