Old Masters Academy

Archive for January, 2011

The Women of Pablo Picasso: Françoise Gilot and Picasso (1943-1953)

In 1943 Picasso (age 62) then kept company with young art student Françoise Gilot (born in 1921).  Their two children were Claude (1947) and Paloma (1949) who was named for the dove of peace that Picasso painted in support of the peace movement post World War II. Gilot, frustrated with Picasso’s relationships with other woman and his abusive nature left him in 1953.   Gilot’s book “Life with Picasso” was published 11 years after their separation.  In 1970 she married American physician-researcher Jonas Salk (who later died in 1995).

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KITSCH BIENNALE. Why “kitsch”?

Why “kitsch”? The painters invited to exhibit at The Kitsch Biennale 2010 in Venice have been chosen from their ability to create life on canvas – an idea deeply rooted in European Humanism that presupposes insight into anatomy and human psychology, a mind for pathos and a sense for the archetypical narrative. Yet, these values are rootless in contemporary art, which generally disregards skill and aims to reflect the time. They were not included in the modern concept of art (originally “fine art”), which was born about 250 years ago. Rejecting handcraft and sincerity, art represents a break with the values of the Renaissance and Baroque and not a continuation of them. Because of this situation an alternative to art…

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The Women of Pablo Picass: Dora Maar and Picasso

The Women of Pablo Picass: Dora Maar and Picasso

Dora Maar and Picasso (1936-1944) In 1936 54-year old Picasso met Yugoslavian Dora Maar (1907 -1997), the photographer who documented Picasso’s painting of Guernica, the 1937 painting of Picasso’s depiction of the German’s having bombed the Basque city of Guernica, Spain during the Spanish Civil War. She became Picasso’s constant companion and lover from 1936 through April, 1944.  Maar went back to painting and exhibited in Paris soon after Picasso left her for Françoise.  Picasso referred to Dora as his “private muse”. In later years she became a recluse, dying poor and alone.

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An amateur artist who pulled off the world’s most audacious Art Fraud

An amateur artist who pulled off the world’s most audacious Art Fraud

The true story of the downfall of an amateur artist who pulled off the world’s most audacious art fraud By LANEY SALISBURY The experts gathered at London’s Tate gallery watched in appreciative silence as two white-gloved curators carried the museum’s latest acquisitions into its boardroom. Paintings of birds by a highly regarded but little-known Fifties French artist named Roger Bissiere, they had been donated by Professor John Drewe, a distinguished scientist and businessman. On that April afternoon in 1990, everything about Drewe suggested that he was a gentleman of style and substance, from his pencil-thin moustache to his expensive suit. His bequests, however, were not all they seemed. Far from being the modern masterpieces Drewe claimed, they had, in fact, been…

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