ArtCorner

Claude Monet traveled Europe and made it to London in 1902-03. During his stay in London Claude Monet painted a series of paintings of the British Parliament.

The paintings have all the same size and viewpoint, from Monet’s window overlooking the Thames. They are however painted at different times of the day and at different weather circumstances.

David Rockefeller, the famous philanthropist, decided to sell his first Abstract Expressionist painting, an influential work by Mark Rothko for an estimated $40 million.

With prices of Abstract Expressionist works going through the roof, Rockefeller has decided to auction off “White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose),” a 1950 Rothko oil painting canvas. The painting is a particularly sensuous example of Rothko’s abstract work during his most important years. It will be the star of the sale at Sotheby’s.

Rockefeller has owned the painting since 1960, when he bought it for less than $10,000.  Rockefeller was urged to acquire the Rothko — with its luminous horizontal bands of color – the famous Mark Rothko style. The painting is now worth 4,000 times more then he first bought it, not a bad investment…

Rockefeller doesn’t really need the money, he has always been a great donator of many paintings especially for the Museum of Modern Art. Including but not limited to works by Monet, Cezanne, Gauguin and Matisse.

You often see many paintings from the Renaissance as Nude paintings. Many Nude paintings are a direct result of the artist of the time’s experimentation. The artists tried to understand perspective and realistic forms. They were also trying to understand and map the human body on all its forms.

Most artists of the Neoclassicism found beauty in the idealized thoughts and artworks of ancient Romans and Greeks and wanted to recreate this.

Nude paintings came to the forefront in the Renaissance largely because the unclothed human figure represents a timeless ideal of humanity. That, at least, was the overarching rationale.

There were also great advances made in anatomical science at the time, so the understanding of how the body works mechanically was better understood and celebrated.

Once you get past these high-minded reasons, the final reason is that patrons, in other words people who buy paintings, are just like other people: They like to look at nudes; especially beautifully done nudes.

Chagall is considered one the greatest artists of the 20th century. His work is all but impossible to categorize. Some say Fauvism some say Cubism. He was an artist capable of such originality that to try to fit his work into a specific genre would demean the value and power of what he was able to achieve.

To celebrate the wonderful works of Chagall I have comprised a list of objects found in his works. Every one of these objects holds symbolic and spiritual meanings.

See for yourself what Chagall tried to convey in his great oil paintings.

• Cow: life par excellence – milk, meat, leather, horn, power.
• Tree: another symbol of life.
• Rooster: fertility, often painted together with lovers.
• Bosom: fertility of life – Chagall had great respect for Women and it is shown in his art.
• Fiddler: In Chagall’s village Vitebsk the fiddler made music at major events such as weddings and holidays.
• Herring – a flying fish: Commemorates Chagall’s father who worked in a fish factory.
• Pendulum Clock: time, and modest life.
• Candlestick: two candles symbolize the Shabbat and the life of devout Jews.
• Windows: Chagall’s Love of Freedom.
• Houses of Vitebsk: Feelings for his homeland as most of these paintings were done during his years in Paris.
• Scenes of the Circus: Creativity and Joy.
• Horses: Freedom.
• The Eiffel Tower: Up in the sky, another symbolic metaphor for freedom.

After I researched Chagall symbolism it was cool to look back at his paintings and try and guess what was going through his mind when he painted them. Truly marvelous, truly glorious Marc Chagall paintings.

War has led to many artistic conceptions over the past few centuries, and war artists still paint today’s conflicts. But did you know that there’s a link between the art form of Cubism and the development of military camouflage?

It turns out that the first camouflage unit was set up by the French army in World War I, 1915 and comprised mainly of artists, who used Cubist techniques to hide equipment and to make uniforms less visible.

It “tells the story of how cubism inspired a new approach to military designs and uniforms in the 20th century,” says Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones.
The Cubism style appeared in European art just before World War I. Pablo Picasso destroyed perspective and turned appearances inside-out with this new style.

When war broke out, this new art gave birth to a military invention that still shapes our visual culture today. Soldiers who had been artists before the war started to experiment with fragmented patterns on field guns and uniforms. The patterns and colors were partially done for military purposes and partially served as an artistic retreat for the artists in the trenches as they faced death.

OverstockArt.com has teamed up with PowerReviews to offer customers the ability to post firsthand accounts and impressions of the handmade oil paintings they bought online.These reviews allow customers to share their experiences on particular paintings with other potential buyers. The benefit to shoppers is that they receive a first-hand account of another customer’s experience with the product. OverstockArt also uses the reviews to improve their offering by improving quality of service to meet expectations.

“We wanted a way for our customers to share their thoughts on the oil paintings they purchased from us. We wanted to go beyond the simple 1 to 5 star rating in order to show our prospective customers that our products are solid. The new system allows the customer to post constructive criticism and gives other clients who are looking at the paintings a first hand un-biased look,” said David Sasson, CEO of OverstockArt.com.

The new product review platform allows buyers to post images and videos of the paintings in their home. This is an outstanding way for OverstockArt customers to gage how the oil painting will look in a real home. “There is no better way to exhibit our handmade oil paintings then to see them on an actual wall,” says Sasson “Hopefully the pictures and videos that people will submit will encourage our clients and help them visualize the painting in their own homes.”

Images and Videos can really make the buying process an enjoyable and unique experience. It exhibits the quality and aesthetic value of OverstockArt’s real-oil paintings in a real-world setting.

Top Reviewed Galleries at OverstockArt.com

1. Vincent Van Gogh Paintings
2. Claude Monet Paintings
3. Paul Cezanne Paintings
4. Gustav Klimt Paintings

Top Reviewed Oil Paintings at OverstockArt.com

1. Van Gogh – Cafe Terrace at Night Oil Painting
2. Van Gogh – Branches Of An Almond Tree In Blossom
3. Renoir – Luncheon of the Boating Party

Tamara de Lempicka is considered the most famous painter of the art deco period.

De Lempicka was born in Poland and moved to Russia where she lived until the Russian Revolution. She fled to Paris. There she enrolled at the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere and studied art privately.

De Lempicka had a natural talent; by 1923 she was showing her work at major salons. She developed a distinctive and bold style, referred to as “soft cubism”, but is most known as Art Deco – a cool modern movement of the roaring 20’s.

For her first major show, in Milan in 1925, she painted 28 works. She was soon the most fashionable portrait painter of her generation, painting duchesses and dukes.

She acquired a patron, the Baron Raoul Kuffner, who bought dozens of her paintings, and commissioned her to paint his mistress. De Lempicka finished the portrait, and then took the mistress’ place in the Baron’s life.

In the summer of 1939 she and the Baron went on vacation in the United States and eventually relocated to New York; she continued to paint in her trademark style – Art Deco though she expanded her subject matter, painting Still Lifes, and even some Abstracts.

Eventually she adopted a new style, using palette knife instead of brushes. Her heart was broken as her new style was not well received. She then decided to never show her work again, and stopped painting altogether.

Tamara de Lempicka died in her sleep in Mexico, 1980. She lived a long and eventful life. Before she died a new generation discovered her art and greeted it with enthusiasm. At the time of her death, her early Art Deco paintings were being shown and purchased once again. A play about her life was produced in Los Angeles. Many movie stars started collecting her works including Jack Nicholson and Madonna. Madonna has also immortalized De Lempicka in her music videos for “Express Yourself” and “Vogue”.

This is a passage taken from an interview with Bob Dylan. This interview took place in the late summer of 1965.

I thought it would be cool to share this quote by Dylan because it exposes a lot of the principles that I share with him about visible art and how it should be available to the public eye.

Dylan’s remarks reflect why he thinks music is more in tune with “what’s happening” than other art forms of the times. I think it is still true today:

“Great paintings shouldn’t be in museums. Have you ever been in a museum? Museums are cemeteries. Paintings should be on the walls of restaurants, in dime stores, in gas stations, in men’s rooms. Great paintings should be where people hang out. The only thing where it’s happening is on radio and records, that’s where people hang out. You can’t see great paintings. You pay half a million and hang one in your house and one guest sees it. That’s not art. That’s a shame, a crime. Music is the only thing that’s in tune with what’s happening. It’s not in book form; it’s not on the stage. All this art they’ve been talking about is nonexistent. It just remains on the shelf. It doesn’t make anyone happier. Just think how many people would really feel great if they could see a Picasso in their daily diner. It’s not the bomb that has to go, man, it’s the museums.”

Great oil paintings like Picasso, Klimt and Kandinsky need to be a part of our daily lives. It is important that we nurture art and share great art with the world.

The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) was a group of artists fundamental to the rise of Expressionism in the beginning of the 20th century. Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and others founded the group after Kandinsky’s painting Last Judgment was rejected from an exhibition.

The name Blue Rider was derived from Marc’s enthusiasm for horses, and from Kandinsky’s love of the color blue. For Kandinsky, blue is the color of spirituality – “the darker the blue, the more it awakens human desire for the eternal.”

Within the group, the artists shared a common desire to express spiritual thoughts through their art. They believed in the forthcoming of abstract art; the relation of visual art and music; the symbolism of color; and an insightful approach to painting.

This important artist group was short lived and lasted only until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Franz Marc was killed in combat. Wassily Kandinsky was forced to move back to Russia because of his Russian citizenship. There were also differences in opinions within the group. As a result, The blue Rider lasted only three years from 1911 to 1914.

Although this group of Russian and German artists didn’t last very long, their works and ideas are a pivotal point in the modern art era. Kandinsky and Marc oil paintings convey many of the beliefs of The Blue Rider group. They opened the door for abstract artists to convey their inner soul on bear canvas.

Looking to redecorate your home? Wondering which colors are the hippest, coolest most desirable colors you should choose for your walls?

I don’t think there are any colors that aren’t truly out-of-style, except for Harvest Gold and Avocado Green, but even those could work depending on the circumstances/budget.

My suggestion is to go to your local paint store. Pick up color cards that strike your fancy. Lay them on a table where you can see them frequently and at different angles and let them sit there a few days.

You will get a sense of what works for you and what doesn’t. Trash the ones that don’t. When you’ve got your choices narrowed down, buy a quart of each color (some places have sample sizes of paints for a lot less money).

Paint your main color to a board in a large section. Add small swatches of other colors/fabrics onto the same board. Do this for each “main” color you are thinking about using. Lean them up against the wall (but not next to each other) in the room they will go. Leave for a few days to get the “feel”.

This type of thing can be modified of course, but it also allows you to try different things. You can try “masculine” with grays, browns, blacks, with maybe an orange or aqua accent. You can go funky with “hot” colors.

Remember to try on and match the color paints to your wall decor, including artworks, oil paintings and tapestries.

For a great color name tool checkout this color name tool to help you match the color to its name!

Good luck, and let me know if this was helpful.