Old Masters Academy

Archive for August, 2010

Art Movements: Superstroke

Superstroke is a term used for an post modern art movement with its origins in South Africa. Superstroke is one of the influential art movements regarding African modernism and abstraction. The word “Superstroke” implies the super expressive brush stroke. The Superstroke art movement was initially founded as a reaction to the impact that the Superflat art movement, founded by Takashi Murakami had on modern contemporary art. Manifesto The manifesto for the Superstroke art movement was written in 2008 by the South African artist Conrad Bo and deals with various forms of how paintings in the movement should be executed. This includes the statement that paintings should be created by using very expressive brush strokes. The manifesto also deals with photography…

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Contemporary Masters: Jonas Burgert

Jonas Burgert (born 1969, Berlin, Germany) is an artist based in Berlin. He has shown work in many exhibitions including Rohkunstbau at Stipendiaten in Berlin, Geschichtenerzähler at Hamburg Kunsthalle and Dis-Positiv at Staatsbank in Berlin. Burgert has exhibited internationally at museums and galleries such as Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Beirut and Villa Manin , Passariano, Italy and was part of the Malerei Biennale in Stockholm in 2003. He is represented by Produzentengalerie  in Hamburg. Source: en.wikipedia.org

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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) The French Post-Impressionism painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was the archetypal bohemian artist. He was also outstanding at drawing, illustration and printmaking. A crippled aristocrat, he lingered around the cafes and brothels of Paris producing some of the most memorable images of Montmartre nightlife. Lautrec’s paintings contain a vivid collection of prostitutes, beggars, impressarios, aristocrats and drunks, whom he portrayed without criticism or disapproval. He also produced some 30 high quality advertising posters, which contributed significantly to the Belle Epoque poster craze. His works have come to symbolize both the gaiety and seediness of fin de siecle Paris. Influenced by Manet and Degas, the great figurative painters of French Impressionism, Lautrec’s key works include Woman Doing her…

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Elegant Art Jokes: FUSELI’S CHANGE FROM LITERATURE TO PAINTING.

Fuseli’s wit, learning, and talents gained him early admission to the company of wealthy and distinguished men. He devoted himself for a considerable time after his arrival in London to the daily toils of literature—translations, essays, and critiques. Among other works, he translated Winckelmann’s book on Painting and Sculpture. One day Bonnycastle said to him, after dinner, “Fuseli, you can write well,—why don’t you write something?” “Something!” exclaimed the other; “you always cry write—Fuseli write!—blastation! what shall I write?” “Write,” said Armstrong, who was present, “write on the Voltaire and Rousseau Row—there is a subject!” He said nothing, but went home and began to write. His enthusiastic temper spurred him on, so that he composed his essay with uncommon rapidity….

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Elegant Art Humour: FUSELI’S “NIGHTMARE.”

Soon after his return to England, Fuseli painted his “Nightmare,” which was exhibited in 1782. It was unquestionably the work of an original mind. “The extraordinary and peculiar genius which it displayed,” says one of his biographers, “was universally felt, and perhaps no single picture ever made a greater impression in this country. A very fine mezzotinto engraving of it was scraped by Raphael Smith, and so popular did the print become, that, although Mr. Fuseli received only twenty guineas for the picture, the publisher made five hundred by his speculation.” This was a subject suitable to the unbridled fancy of the painter, and perhaps to no other imagination has the Fiend which murders our sleep ever appeared in a…

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