Recent art that you liked

[stlukesguild]

The installation in the surrounding architecture is way more impressive to me than the sculpture itself.

Yes... in many ways the work is more effective as an installation. It reminds me of Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa:

Bernini's installation... and the figurative sculptural grouping are both far superior to Julien's... but then... outside of Michelangelo and a few others... how many sculptors can rival Bernini?

 

[Trier]

Truly magnificent !

 

[stlukesguild]

This is the most recent painting by Leonard Koscianski entitled Vespers. Koscianski is a graduate of my alma mater, The Cleveland Institute of Art, and studied under my painting mentor at the school. I came across his work years ago while still in school in a big book on Post-Modernism and since then I've followed him on Facebook and spoken with him there every now and then. As I've mentioned before, his paintings exhibit elements suggestive of Magic Realism and well a of American Social Realism... especially George Tooker and Grant Wood.

 

[brianvds]

Posted recently on Gandalf's Gallery:

Ivan Choultsé (1874 - 1939) - Wisteria in Dappled Sunlight. Oil on canvas, 46 x 38 cm.

My first thought was "Kinkade," but of course, if so it must have been the latter who stole from the former.

 

[stlukesguild]

I was thinking Kinkade as well.

 

[Claude J Greengrass]

Franz Marc

 

[stlukesguild]

-Carl Larsson; Model Writing Postcards

Because who doesn't write postcards in the nude? Then again... since the computer, email, Facebook, and Instagram have replaced the postcard for many... this might just have been prophetic of all those sitting at their computers nude or in their underwear.

 

[brianvds]

View attachment 3079
-Carl Larsson; Model Writing Postcards

Because who doesn't write postcards in the nude? Then again... since the computer, email, Facebook, and Instagram have replaced the postcard for many... this might just have been prophetic of all those sitting at their computers nude or in their underwear.

And here I thought Larsson was this squeaky clean painter of cutesy pics of his family.

 

[stlukesguild]

Well... she is rather cute/innocent looking... like a nude Snow White. But I'm trying to make out what is going on in that painting on the easel.

 

[brianvds]

Well... she is rather cute/innocent looking... like a nude Snow White. But I'm trying to make out what is going on in that painting on the easel.

There's no such thing as a nude Snow White - fairy tale characters are always dressed.

 

[stlukesguild]

 

[JohnEmmett]

Mark Rothko

 

[stlukesguild]

Somehow I doubt those are paintings you only recently discovered.

 

[stlukesguild]

One of the weaknesses of Rothko is that the paintings are truly uninspiring in reproduction. They must be seen in person.

 

[JohnEmmett]

well that's his intention

 

[stlukesguild]

I stumbled on Shaun Downey some years ago either online or in an art periodical. His work at that time didn't really grab me, but I recognized this one looking through a website of his paintings:

It is Downey's more recent work that really interests me:

Downey was born and schooled in Canada. He was rejected from the animation program at Sheridan College and subsequently found a small animation school opening up in Toronto. When he arrived at the school he was amazed to see rows of charcoal cast drawings, highly rendered figure drawings and classically inspired paintings. The animation classes were a new addition to the already thriving classical drawing and painting school called "Angel Studios", which was headed by painter Michael John Angel., a student of the great Italian painter Pietro Annigoni. Michael John Angel was running two schools at the time, one in Toronto and one in Florence Italy. Once Shaun saw the level of quality in the student's work, he immediately switched his focus from animation to figurative drawing and painting.

Shaun Downey’s paintings draw on influences as varied as comics and animation, Norman Rockwell, Hollywood film noir and Dutch masters, especially Vermeer. He clearly embraces the centuries-long tradition of figure painting firmly in the present. Like Edward Hopper and Vermeer, Downey works small, employs a strong sense of geometric structure to his images, and focuses upon figures... usually women (and often his wife) in a domestic setting with their attention and gaze addressed away from the audience.

 

[xie-kitchin]

Shaun Downey’s paintings draw on influences as varied as comics and animation, Norman Rockwell, Hollywood film noir and Dutch masters, especially Vermeer. He clearly embraces the centuries-long tradition of figure painting firmly in the present. Like Edward Hopper and Vermeer, Downey works small, employs a strong sense of geometric structure to his images, and focuses upon figures...

I was going to say, several of these evoke Hopper more than anything. Especially the long shots. The modeling, brushstrokes, use of light are obviously very influenced by Vermeer/Dutch technique, tho. Nice paintings.

 

[brianvds]

Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (1886-1957) - Extensive Landscape with Farmlands Oil on canvas, 90 x 120 cm

Pierneef developed a quite distinctive and recognizable style. During the late 1990s his work went out of vogue a bit, because it became associated with apartheid, but nowadays auction prices are back up - art survives politics.

 

[Artyczar]

Thank you for posting that Brian. I LOVE his work!!!

 

[Enyaw]

Alexi Zaitsev .. Russian Artist