Author: artistvenu

Vibrant Abstractions

October 22, 2022 (updated October 22, 2022) Published by

What defines a ‘Bauhaus photograph’? In The Spirit of the Bauhaus (Thames & Hudson, 2018), curator Louise Curtis writes that, in the early-to-mid-1920s, cameras were used “to uncover previously unimagined scales and forms of reality.” One of the most famous pioneers of this approach was László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), interested in abstraction, space and the possibilities of the lens. “He insisted above all upon its capacity to extend human vision beyond standard habits of perception,” says Curtis.

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Rosa Bonheur Was One of the Most Influential Artists of Her Time. Two Centuries Later, Museums Are Giving Her Remarkable Animal Portraits New Life

October 19, 2022 (updated October 20, 2022) Published by

Rosa Bonheur, Cheval de face avec son palefrenier (ca. 1892). Château de Rosa Bonheur. Photo © musée d’Orsay /Sophie Crépy.

It’s been 200 years since French artist Rosa Bonheur was born and people are still talking about what she was wearing when she painted live lions and tigers and cows. 

Bonheur was one of a handful of mid-19th century women issued a police permit allowing them to wear men’s clothes. Yes, it’s true: the accomplished Bonheur—who audaciously used the monumental scale typically reserved for history painting to depict livestock, and was likely the most commercially successful woman artist of her time—wore pants.

But fascination with Bonheur’s persona has detracted from a closer look at her work, which portrayed animals with psychological presence and meticulous anatomical detail. 

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Impeccably Precise Geometries Are Baked into Dinara Kasko’s Bold Cakes and Tarts

October 15, 2022 (updated October 15, 2022) Published by

Ukrainian pastry chef Dinara Kasko (previously) brings a healthy dose of geometry to her meticulously designed cakes. Candy-colored spheres line a four-tier tower of layered sponge and cream, triangles connect to create an angular apple skin, and small pearls cloak a round form in a hypnotizing spectrum of pigments. Other patterns are more organic, like the shimmering petal-like confection that tops a strawberry tart. Many of the edible artworks are created by pouring mousse into silicone molds and then spraying the shapes in vibrant gradients or pastels.

Based in Ukraine before the war began in February, Kasko left her home and studios in Kharkiv following Russia’s invasion. She worked as a volunteer and fundraiser for a few months as she traveled around Europe before settling in a small space near Liverpool in recent weeks. “I lost everything in one day,” she says, sharing that many of her friends and family are still living in the country.

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Digital Art Entrepreneur May Xue Tells Us About Her Routines for Success and the Artists She Thinks Are Set to Break Big

October 15, 2022 (updated February 25, 2023) Published by

Ian Cheng, 3FACE, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.

So much of the art world orbits around questions of value, not only in term of appraisals and price tags, but also the more fundamental question: What is even worthy of your time, energy, and attention at all?

What is the personal math that you do to determine something’s meaning and worth? What moves you? What enriches your life? In this new series, we’re asking individuals from the art world and beyond about the valuations that they make at a personal level, in art and in life.

For May Xue—the co-founder of the digital art platform Outland (she is also its artistic director for Asia) as well as the co-founder and chief executive director of Horizon, a Los Angeles-based residency for early- to mid-career artists from the U.S. and abroad—such questions come down to an appreciation for exploring the unknown (and a rigid daily workout routine).

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Should We Cancel David Smith? An Epic New Biography Takes Up the Famed Sculptor’s Violent Side

October 6, 2022 (updated October 6, 2022) Published by

David Smith, Fish, 1950–51, in the artist’s 2006 Tate Modern retrospective.PHOTO CATHAL MCNAUGHTON/PA IMAGES VIA GETTY IMAGES

You can’t judge an artist biography by its cover, but based on its size, you can tell a lot about who’s being profiled before you even read the first page.

Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan wrote a truly great biography of the Abstract Expressionist painter Willem de Kooning (732 pages), as well as another, more recent one about Francis Bacon (880 pages). Steven Naifeh penned the ultimate book on Jackson Pollock (934 pages), and Blake Gopnik recently wrote the life story of the Pop artist Andy Warhol (976 pages). The late art historian John Richardson has been celebrated for his Pablo Picasso biography, which spans four volumes, each of which is far longer than the average novel. One common denominator among them all is outsized art-historical impact; another is their race and gender.

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Sun-Kissed Memories of Ipanema Beach

October 6, 2022 (updated October 6, 2022) Published by

From Sandra Cattaneo Adorno, Águas de Ouro, Radius Books

As someone who was raised in the Caribbean, I seldom think about the beach. Perhaps because I’m surrounded by concrete at every corner of New York City, I’d rather take in what’s in front of me than daydream about my past. But if I daydream, I’m confronted by the gap between this image that reminds me of home and narrow outside perceptions of what that place is — my own life experiences are at odds with the idealized images propagated by the tourism industry. The perfectly retouched photos of shorelines I often recognize, which I encounter digitally, aren’t what I long for, what I recall in the splashes of my memory. I can’t feel the heat from these photographs.

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Vintage Cameras Focus on the Surveillance of Modern Life in Jeff Bartels’s Uncanny Paintings

October 6, 2022 (updated October 6, 2022) Published by

“Surveillance Electric Eye” (2021), oil on linen, 30 x 20 inches

“I’m not sure it’s possible to walk down a city street these days and not be caught on a camera somewhere, either by choice or not even knowing about it.” This idea grounds Surveillance, a series of uncanny paintings in oil by Canadian artist Jeff Bartels. Situated in urban settings with a distinctly retro flair, the works nestle vintage cameras among architecture and infrastructural elements. Oversized lenses, knobs, and levers echo the shapes of windows and doorways with branding imitating signs for shops and restaurants.

Sandwiching the devices between cafes and storefronts or subway stairs, Bartels explores the ubiquity of cameras and how they’re embedded into modern life.

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The Fake Art Industry Is Booming Online

September 29, 2022 (updated September 29, 2022) Published by

If you are in the business of selling fake art online, this is truly a golden age.

It’s especially true if you are selling images attributed to famous artists such as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, or Jean-Michel Basquiat, because in 2012, both the Basquiat Estate and the Keith Haring Foundation stopped authenticating works. To make matters more complicated, the Andy Warhol Foundation’s long-standing policy, according to a spokesperson, is that it “[does not] offer opinions on works of art purported to be by Andy Warhol.”

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Paul Nicklen Photographs the Colorado River as It Etches Itself Like Veiny Branches into the Landscape

September 29, 2022 (updated September 29, 2022) Published by

“Arterial Poetry”

It is a common understanding in writing studies that to recount a disastrous event in literal and graphic detail may damper the purpose of the story by pushing the reader away. In order to elicit experiential feelings, writers often learn to employ tools and strategies such as metaphor, poeticism, and structure. This could also be understood as an exercise in empathy because rather than force the reader to feel by summarizing the experience for them, the writer creates an environment where one can reach for closeness and camaraderie in their own ways.

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Explosive Photos by Ray Collins Capture the Ocean’s Mercurial Nature As It Erupts in Extravagant Bursts

September 29, 2022 (updated September 29, 2022) Published by

“Matter”

Ever fickle, the ocean and all its excitable energy provide endless fodder for Ray Collins (previously). The Australian photographer, who is based in Wollongong, is known for his dramatic images that capture the diversity of textures and forms that emerge from the water. Waves undulate into scaly walls, fine mists erupt in the air, and surges turn in on themselves, creating eerie, patterned tunnels. Each image emphasizes the capricious nature of the water, which Collins shares as the impetus for his practice. “I’m fortunate that my subject, the ocean, is never the same.

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