Old Masters Academy

Posts Tagged "Figurative Art"

Aimé Morot’s Palette

Aimé Morot’s Palette

Aimé Morot’s Palette Aimé Morot (1850–1913) was a French painter. Morot was born in Nancy, where he studied under a drawing master named Thierry. He later attended the atelier of Alexandre Cabanel in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but left after only two weeks to continue his studies independently. During this period he spent much of his time studying animals in the Jardin des plantes, and was later to become famous for his paintings of horses, lions and bulls. Despite his lack of attendance at the École, he won the Prix de Rome in 1873. The subject given that year was the Babylonian Captivity. The prize-winning painting is currently in the collection of the École des beaux-arts in Paris, and can be viewed on request. Morot married the daughter of Jean-Léon Gérôme….

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Fine Art: Heroic realism

Fine Art: Heroic realism

Heroic realism is a term which has sometimes been used to describe art used as propaganda. Examples include the Socialist realism style associated with Communist regimes, and the very similar art style associated with Fascism. Its characteristics are realism and the depiction of figures as ideal types or symbols, often with explicit rejection of modernism in art (as “bourgeois” or “degenerate”). Purposes Heroic realism designs were used to propagate the revolution in the Soviet Union during Lenin’s time. Lenin doubted that the illiterate population would understand what abstract visual images were intended to communicate. He also thought that artists, such as constructivists and productivists, may have had a hidden agenda against the government. Indeed, such movements as Cubism were denounced as bourgeois and criticized for failure to draw on…

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Art Movements: Visionary art

Visionary art is art that purports to transcend the physical world and portray a wider vision of awareness including spiritual or mysticalthemes, or is based in such experiences. Definition The American Visionary Art Museum defines Visionary art as “….art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself.” It goes on to say that visionary art is a product of an inner process, and may not even be thought of as art by its creator; it also differentiates Visionary art from Folk art. Alexander Beiner, host of Visionary Artists Podcast, has proposed an alternative definition, suggesting that “Visionary Art is any art that seeks to represent or explore mystical experience. As…

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Realistic Schools: Classical Realism and Jean-Léon Gérôme

Jean-Léon Gérôme (May 11, 1824 – January 10, 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax. Life Jean-Léon Gérôme was born at Vesoul (Haute-Saône). He went to Paris in 1840 where he studied under Paul Delaroche, whom he accompanied to Italy (1843–1844). He visited Florence, Rome, the Vatican and Pompeii, but he was more attracted to the world of nature. Taken by a fever, he was forced to return to Paris in 1844. On his return he followed, like many other students of Delaroche, into the atelier ofCharles Gleyre and studied there for a brief…

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Realistic Schools: Vienna School of Fantastic Realism

The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism is a group of artists founded in Vienna in 1946. It includes Ernst Fuchs, Arik Brauer, Rudolf Hausner, Wolfgang Hutter, Anton Lehmden andFritz Janschka, all students of Professor Albert Paris Gütersloh at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. It was Gütersloh’s emphasis on the techniques of the Old Masters that gave the fantastic realist painters a grounding in realism (expressed with a clarity and detail some have compared to early Flemish painting) combined with religious and esoteric symbolism. Books 1974 – Die Wiener Schule des Phantastischen Realisumus (C. Bertelsmann) (Johann Muschik) (German language) 2005 – Fantastic Art (Taschen)(Schurian, Prof. Dr. Walter) (English edition) 2003 – Die Phantasten – Die Wiener Schule des Phantastischen Realisums (Stdtgemeinde Tulln) (German Language) 2007 – Metamorphosis (beinArt) 2008 – Phantastischer Realismus (Belvedere, Wien)…

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What to look for when buying the Artwork

Few things in the United States are as beautiful and breathtaking as the New England coastline, and there is perhaps no better way to portray this shoreline or the oceans dynamic splendor than with an oil painting. In the best seascape art you can feel the breeze, hear the seagulls and see the depth of the water; but it takes an extremely talented and experienced artist to recreate this sense on canvas. Throughout history artists like English J. M. W. Turner and American born Winslow Homer have captured the magical essence of our earth’s oceans and tributaries with their unique abilities, brush stroke techniques and use of color.  For most art lovers, the affordability of original artwork by classic artists…

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