Joan Miró (1893-1983)
Miró was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1893. After an unhappy period as a clerk, he studied in Paris and Barcelona, and exhibited his work with other surrealists in 1925. In his early years, he had great admiration for primitive Catalán art and the Art Nouveau forms of Gaudi’s architecture. In 1920, he settled in Paris and invented a manner of painting using curvilinear, fantastical forms that suggest dreamlike situations. His paintings are predominantly abstract, and his humorous fantasy makes play with a restricted range of pure colors and dancing shapes. Miró’s work has been described as lively, colorful, and fantastical. His other works include ballet sets, sculptures, murals, and tapestries.
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
Dalí is one of the most recognizable and enigmatic painters of the 20th century. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts, Madrid, he moved to Paris and joined the surrealists (1928), becoming one of the principal figures of the movement. Dalí’s paintings derived from the world of dreams and symbols. His study of abnormal psychology led him to represent objects in landscapes that he remembered from his Spanish boyhood. In 1940, he settled in the United States, became a Catholic, and devoted his art to symbolic religious paintings. He wrote The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí (1942), and collaborated with Luis Buñuel in the surrealist films Un Chien Andalou (1928), and L’Age d’Or (1930). One of his best-known paintings is The Persistence of Memory known as The Limp Watches, 1911.
Showing posts with label Spanish painters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spanish painters. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Spanish Painters: Pablo Picasso & Frida Kahlo
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Picasso is considered by many to be the greatest painter of the 20th century. He is best known as the inventor of a revolutionary art style, Cubism, and for his work as a painter, sculptor, and designer. He was born in Málaga, Spain, and spent most of his life in Paris. It was there that he met writer and art collector Gertrude Stein, who helped support him by purchasing many of his early works. One of the more remarkable qualities of Picasso’s career was the rapidity and ease with which he evolved from one artistic style to the next. His work between 1900 and 1906 was representative of the Impressionist style founded by masters such as Matisse, Monet, and Seurat. At that time he also experimented with a style borrowed from the Art Nouveau movement. The years between 1901 and 1904 are considered as his Blue Period. His work between 1904 and 1906 is known as his Pink Period. In 1907, we see the beginning of Cubism. During the Spanish Civil War, he painted his most historically significant work, Guernica (1937), as a protest of the bombing of the Basque town of the same name.
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
Frida Kahlo is perhaps the most recognizable female painter in the world. She was born in 1907 in Mexico City. Frida began painting while convalescing from a serious road accident at the age of 15. As a young girl, she sent her work to the painter Diego Rivera, whom she later married (1928). Characterized by vibrant imagery, many of her pictures were striking self-portraits. Pain, which followed her all her life, and the suffering of women are recurring and indelible themes in her surrealistic and often shocking pictures. Andrè Breton likened her paintings to ‘a ribbon around a bomb’.
Picasso is considered by many to be the greatest painter of the 20th century. He is best known as the inventor of a revolutionary art style, Cubism, and for his work as a painter, sculptor, and designer. He was born in Málaga, Spain, and spent most of his life in Paris. It was there that he met writer and art collector Gertrude Stein, who helped support him by purchasing many of his early works. One of the more remarkable qualities of Picasso’s career was the rapidity and ease with which he evolved from one artistic style to the next. His work between 1900 and 1906 was representative of the Impressionist style founded by masters such as Matisse, Monet, and Seurat. At that time he also experimented with a style borrowed from the Art Nouveau movement. The years between 1901 and 1904 are considered as his Blue Period. His work between 1904 and 1906 is known as his Pink Period. In 1907, we see the beginning of Cubism. During the Spanish Civil War, he painted his most historically significant work, Guernica (1937), as a protest of the bombing of the Basque town of the same name.
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
Frida Kahlo is perhaps the most recognizable female painter in the world. She was born in 1907 in Mexico City. Frida began painting while convalescing from a serious road accident at the age of 15. As a young girl, she sent her work to the painter Diego Rivera, whom she later married (1928). Characterized by vibrant imagery, many of her pictures were striking self-portraits. Pain, which followed her all her life, and the suffering of women are recurring and indelible themes in her surrealistic and often shocking pictures. Andrè Breton likened her paintings to ‘a ribbon around a bomb’.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)