Kandinsky the artist (1866 – 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in Odessa, where he graduated at Grekov Odessa Art school. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics. … Continued
David Hockney photography has a particular unique style. In the 1980s, he began making photograph collages and he use to call them, joiners. He used Polaroid photos and soon 35mm prints in color. Hockney cleverly composed a patchwork of images. The first subject of such work was his mother and since the photos were taken … Continued
A selection of Helen Frankenthaler quotes about art, her art and being an artist. “There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about.” “I’d rather risk an ugly surprise than rely on things I know I can … Continued
Minimalist artists emerged in New York in the early 1960s, their art setting out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts. Artists themselves have sometimes reacted against the label due to the negative implication of the work being simplistic. Minimalism is often interpreted as … Continued
Richard Diebenkorn began to have a measure of success with his artwork during the mid to late 1950s. He was included in several group shows and had several solo exhibits. In 1960, a mid-career retrospective was presented by the Pasadena Art Museum (now the Norton Simon Museum). That autumn, a variation of the show moved … Continued
Basquiat Quotes A selection of poignant Basquiat quotes about making art, painting, being an artist and being a famous artist: “I am not a black artist, I am an artist.” “I had some money, I made the best paintings ever. I was completely reclusive, worked a lot, took a lot of drugs. I was … Continued
In 764 the Empress Kōken commissioned one million small wooden pagodas, each containing a small woodblock scroll printed with a Buddhist text (Hyakumantō Darani). These were distributed to temples around the country as thanks for the suppression of the Emi Rebellion of 764. These are the earliest examples of woodblock prints known, or documented, from … Continued
Gerhard Richter created various painting pictures from black-and-white photographs during the 1960s and early 1970s. From his writings, the following refer to quotations regarding photography, its relationship with painting, and the “blur”: “The photograph is the most perfect picture. It does not change; it is absolute, and therefore autonomous, unconditional, devoid of style. … Continued
David Hockney experimented with printmaking as early as a lithograph Self-Portrait in 1954 and worked in etchings during his time at RCA. In 1965, the print workshop Gemini G.E.L. approached him to create a series of lithographs with a Los Angeles theme. Hockney responded by creating The Hollywood Collection, a series of lithographs recreating the … Continued
The surrealist artist Roberto Matta introduced Robert Motherwell to the concept of automatic drawing or automatism, after a trip to Mexico in 1941, which the Surrealists used to tap into their unconscious. This concept had a lasting effect on Motherwell. Surrealist automatism is a method of art-making in which the artist suppresses conscious control over … Continued
Linocut prints is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised (uncarved) areas representing a reversal (mirror image) of … Continued
Neo-expressionism is a style of late modernist or early-postmodern developed as a reaction against conceptual art and minimal art of the 1970s. Neo-expressionists returned to portraying recognisable objects, such as the human body, in a rough and violently emotional way, often using vivid colours. Neo-expressionism dominated the art market until the mid-1980s. It … Continued
Robert Indiana Love Print is Indiana’s most well known image – arranged in a square with a tilted letter “O”. The image first appeared in a series of poems originally written in 1958, in which Indiana stacked LO and VE on top of one another, then in paintings such as 4-STAR LOVE (1961) and “Love is God” … Continued
Chilean Roberto Matta artist and printmaker met artists such as Arshile Gorky, René Magritte, Salvador Dalí, André Breton, and Le Corbusier whilst travelling in Europe in the mid 1930s, . It was actually André Breton who provided the influence on Matta’s art, encouraging his work and introducing him to the leading members of the Paris … Continued
The origins of Pop art prints started in the UK in the late 1950s. However it was in America, following World War II, where Pop art really established itself during an unprecedented period of economic and political growth. The middle classes moved to the suburbs, helped by the availability of affordable, mass-produced homes. Rock ‘n … Continued
Expressionism art is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists have sought to express the … Continued
Throughout the 19th century, most French painters produced work that adhered to the traditional tastes of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, a Paris-based organisation that held annual salons. Showcasing a selection of hand-picked artwork, the salons tended to favour conventional subject matter – including historical, mythological, and allegorical scenes – rendered in a realistic style. Tired … Continued
Minimalist artists in 1960s and early 1970s distanced themselves from the Abstract Expressionists by removing suggestions of biography from their art or, indeed, metaphors of any kind. This denial of expression coupled with an interest in making objects that avoided the appearance of fine art led to the creation of sleek, geometric works that purposefully … Continued
Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall, two of the greatest artists of the 20th century, were friends until a dinner at Chagall’s place in 1964. “When are you going back to Russia?” Picasso asked his host. They were both ex-patriots living in France. Chagall was Russian and Picasso was Spanish. “After you,” said Chagall with a smile. … Continued
Even though Alexander Calder is best known for his wire mobiles, he was also a prolific printmaker from the mid 1920s. As Calder’s professional reputation expanded in the late 1940s and 1950s, so did his production of prints. Masses of lithographs based on his gouache paintings were marketed. Deluxe editions of plays, poems, and short … Continued
Monotype printmaking is a printing technique but with one major difference from other printmaking techniques – the artist creates exactly one print, instead of multiples (or editions). This is due to the way a monotype is made. Monotypes are prints made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was … Continued
Buying art prints can be a formidable task, for there are numerous issues to be addressed: authenticity, paper, quality of impression, edition size, re-strikes, signatures, states, watermarks, condition, provenance, etc. Here I’ll discuss a few of the many issues that I get lots of questions about; I strongly recommend that anyone with any questions on … Continued
Picasso and Jacqueline Roque moved to Notre-Dame-de-Vie outside of Mougins in 1960, and in the process discovered a cache of unprinted plates in the artist’s atelier in Cannes. Picasso went through the plates—created over the last few decades with Jacques Frélaut and carefully selected approximately fifty to be published retroactively. A portfolio in an edition … Continued
This interview is part of a series of interviews which we are conducting with contemporary artists represented by Emanuel von Baeyer – Cabinet, who use printmaking in their work. Each interview focuses on a particular printmaking technique for which the artist is known. It explores the challenges, experiences and sources of inspiration associated with working … Continued
1. Scottish-born Paolozzi’s Italian parents ran a small ice cream parlour in Leith. 2. Paolozzi had always shown a talent for drawing and pursued this by attending Edinburgh College of Art in 1943. He then moved to London and feigned madness to secure his release from army duties in order that he could study sculpture … Continued
Albrecht Dürer Facts 1. Dürer showed talent at an early age Albrecht Dürer was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1471, one of 18 children born to Albrecht and Barbara Dürer (only three of whom survived to adulthood). His father was a successful goldsmith of Hungarian heritage, and young Albrecht apprenticed with him before deciding on … Continued
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) is of course most famous for his enduringly popular paintings. His career was impressive, having started creating prints in 1899 as a teenager. He then continued his works right up to his very last one 1972 at the age of 90. Picasso had a multi-disciplinary approach to moulding his images. He spend … Continued
The four plates in Picasso’s Suite Vollard that include images of Rembrandt, though small in number, have stimulated a great deal of speculation. Though the Dutch artist’s unkempt and wild appearance may at first seem to be out of place in this serene world of classical beauty and order, his presence is easily accounted for … Continued
Born in Aberdeen, Washington in January 1915, Robert Motherwell was an American artist who had a huge impact on the Abstract Expressionism movement during his active years. The first child of Margaret Hogan Motherwell and Robert Burns Motherwell, his family later relocated to San Francisco so that Motherwell’s father could take up the position of … Continued
David Hockney (b.1937) is perhaps one of the most famed and influential British artists to exist within the 20th and 21st century. Born in Bradford, Hockney attended the Bradford School of Art from 1953 to 1957 and subsequently The Royal College of Art from 1959 to 1962, which provided him with the foundations for his … Continued
Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) was an artist engaged in American Pop Art and was born in New York to an upper-middle class Jewish family. During the 1960s, alongside Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and James Rosenquist, Lichtenstein became a prominent figurehead in this new art movement and his work served to define the premise of Pop Art … Continued
Helen Frankenthaler woodcuts are especially celebrated for her use of woodcut amongst all of the printmaking techniques and media used by the artist. A particularly rigid and difficult artistic medium to use, woodcuts are a far cry from the spontaneous, energetic painting Frankenthaler is also well known for. Her creative process was driven by a … Continued
Jim Dine Prints Born in 1935 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Jim Dine became one of the most prolific of all the printmakers, painters, poets, sculptors and performance artists of the 20th Century. The son of Jewish parents who had fled Eastern Europe in the ‘20s to settle in the US, much of Dine’s artistic works were … Continued
In the first of a series of short essays exploring artistic movements, we look at the definitions of ‘Modern Art’ and ‘Contemporary Art’. Modern Art The term ‘Modern Art’ is generally used to describe work made during the period of extraordinarily rapid change in the world from 1880 to the 1960’s, a time presided over … Continued
Recognition of Neo Dadaism Neo Dadaism certainly holds its own in the art world for many years although perhaps it is not as widely recognised by the general public as more famous movements like Impressionism, Surrealism or Minimalism. The term “Neo Dada” came about in the mid-part of the 20th century and was applied to … Continued
Abstract Expressionism was a broad movement that swept across America in the latter part of the 1940s and became very popular in Western works during the 1950s. Most prominent Abstract Expressionist names include Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler and Jackson Pollock. The majority of such artists lived, worked and exhibited their … Continued
What is a Print? The term “print” is sometimes used to describe just about any picture that is not an original painting or drawing. Photographs, cheap posters, reproductions in art books…. Some people refer to all of these as “prints”. In the art world, the word “print” has a far more specific meaning, and anyone buying prints must … Continued
The Early Bauhaus When founding the Bauhaus in 1919, Walter Gropius strongly associated it with the Middle Ages. His original ambition was to create a new school of artists working together with craftsman on interdisciplinary workshop projects. The horror of WW1 was important for the original founding of the Bauhaus. The machine, which was … Continued
1. Hockney swims every day, staying fit by spending half an hour in the pool each morning. 2. Hockney’s autobiography, A Bigger Book, weighs 35kg. It measures 200cm in width at full spread and is 500 pages long. 3. Hockney has often been voted as ‘the greatest living artist’. … Continued
The Young British Artists (YBAs) are taking a word and running with it, creating a whole other art style that they’ve grown popular with. Sensationalism is the use of something (whether stories or art) to shock someone, regardless of accuracy. This is done to get the public rather excited or interested in them. While the … Continued
In November of 2013, while in New York City for the IFPDA Print Fair, Graphicstudio Director Margaret Miller encountered the work of Sandra Cinto at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. Piece of Silence included cellos and violins painted white and intricately decorated with black ink line drawings, mounted to the gallery walls that had been covered with … Continued
First appearing in New York beginning the early 1960s, Minimalism was a renunciation of the contemporary art which seemed stale and academic in the eyes of young artists. New influences and rediscovered styles motivated these young artists to question and push conventional boundaries, very similar to the social movements of the decade. By the end … Continued
Rembrandt etchings and drypoints, were made working on copper plates, creating ink-holding furrows in these plates either directly (using a drypoint needle) or with etching (drawing through a wax-like substance covering a plate, then bathing the plate in acid to create furrows). At some point in this process he might take an impression to see … Continued
Who can legally issue a certificate of authenticity for a work of art? Well, I can. After all, I founded and directed a graduate program in art connoisseurship, I’ve published lots of articles on print connoisseurship, I have a doctorate from Harvard, I have years of experience dealing in prints… But guess what? So can … Continued
Let’s say that Chagall decides to make a lithograph one day (not likely, since he is dead, but this is just an example). He prepares the stone and delivers it to the printer. The printer prints the edition. Chagall may sign the individual prints in pencil, or he may not: that’s another issue (for more about signatures, see HERE). But … Continued
Without a doubt, the stickiest question when it comes to buying modern prints is the signature. An artist can sign a print in two ways: in the plate or by hand. a. While the artist is preparing the matrix he can inscribe his signature in it. This signature thus becomes part of the image and, … Continued
