vince’s ear

The world lost a great American painter early Friday morning. Andrew Wyeth, who was 91, died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

Wyeth was a Realist painter, using the surroundings of his lifetime homes in Chadds Ford and Cushing, Maine as inspiration. Besides the farms and landscapes of rural Pennsylvania, he also painted the figure. The most famous was the Helga series depicting in somber settings the Prussian immigrant whom Wyeth knew. This somberness often described his paintings, with their muted colors and bleak subjects.

His main medium was tempera, an egg-based paint rarely used by artists in favor of oils any more. This paint was better suited to his style as it creates a matte finish. Sometimes he would mix dirt with his paints to get just the right gray or dull colors. The paintings were highly detailed: each blade of grass, each strand of hair painstakingly portrayed. His second medium of choice was dry-brush watercolor, producing an entirely different effect- less detailed forest scenes or a creek with waterfall.

Wyeth enjoyed a long and successful career, though not without criticism as any prominent artist would know. Critics have called his art verging on illustration, and he has even been called a “Naive artist.” During his climb to fame in the mid-20th century, he forged his own way and shunned the ever-popular abstract styles his contemporaries preferred. Major museums around the country house Wyeth’s work, with the Brandywine River Museum in Chester County, PA housing one of the largest, along with his father N.C. Wyeth, and son Jamie Wyeth. He was awarded numerous awards, most recently being the National Medal of Arts in 2007.

 
“Christina’s World.”

“Helga Testorf.”

“Winter 1946.”

“Wind From The Sea.”

It may shock you to know the quietest, seemingly most banal people are amazing writers and artists incognito. Before you write off that old man next door, stop and realize you may be living next to a treasure trove of knowledge and imagination. You may be looking at the next Henry Darger…

Great Artist In Disguise

Henry Darger lived a troubled life and had a very harsh childhood. Few people knew the recluse and fewer had any contact with him on any regularity except for his landlord. He had been quiet, keep odd jobs, and kept to himself. He died a poor and lonely man. That was when the world first caught a glimpse of the secret Henry Darger. The glimpse would open a fantasy world which today is by far the most prominent and prolific example of outsider art in art history.

When Darger died in a Catholic mission, his landlord went in to retrieve Darger’s personal effects and was astonished by what he saw. In the cluttered apartment of the old shut-in, filled with odds and ends and horded objects,  was a buried wealth of art and literature which Henry had created over the last six decades of his life.

A 15,145 page book called “In The Realms of the Unreal,” which was typed and profusely illustrated by Henry, must be one of the largest examples of fantasy fiction, and shows the same magnitude of the imagination of its author. The book spreads across 15 volumes about a war of abused children against an evil army. Much of the book was influenced by Henry’s early childhood living in orphanages and asylums. Several hundred illustrations include drawings and watercolor scrolls.

An 8 volume 5,084 page autobiography was found,  “The History of My Life,” which described his life on the first 200 or so pages, and then blended into a fantastical account of a tornado called, “Sweetie Pie.” Darger also kept a faithful recording of the weather in a journal which spanned a decade. 10,000 pages of yet another book called, “Crazy Horse” was completely hand-written.

For decades the man wrote and drew illustrations for these works which meant the world to him. He was deeply upset about the abuses of children and found the books as a way to vent his frustration. After he failed to adopt a child he found a pseudo-replacement in a photograph of a murdered young girl. When he lost the photograph, Henry was distraught and could take it no longer. That was when he began “In The Realms of the Unreal,” and vowed that the loses of these two children “shall be avenged to the uttermost limit.”

This amazing secret aspect about Henry Darger’s life could never have been guessed in a hundred years by the people who knew him or happened to come across him. After he passed away, his landlords took care of his estate with all his artworks and helped to immortalize Darger by recognizing the true artist that he was.

Today, Darger is the most famous Outside Artist with works going for upwards of $80,000. At the American Folk Museum in New York, the Henry Darger Study Center was opened in 2001. In 2004, a documentary was filmed “In The Realms of the Unreal,” detailing the artist’s life and works.

This delightful Cheshire-looking cat is a detail of Portrait of Pierre Loti, by 19th century French painter Henri Rousseau. Note the painterly brush strokes and simple palette. The strong contrast of the cat’s stripes, ears, and eyes against the man’s black suit make it seem to glow. The rest of the portrait is a composition with simplified shapes with few tones, and show’s the artist’s complete disregard of academic fundamentals. These traits are representative of what is known as Naïve Art.

When looking at the cat in the picture, you get the impression of a childlike art. “Simplicity” is the main word we’re looking for here: just enough lines and colors necessary. There is no worry of perspective, anatomical correctness, or true natural depiction. Only the most elementary techniques are used. Each leaf of the tree, and every window of the buildings are painstakingly painted, with no indication of the buidlings receeding as they would across a real landscape.

This style allows the artist to express imaginary, dream-like settings without having to consider scientific and natural accuracy. It’s no surprise that Henri Rousseau painted wild jungle scenes and parts of dreams from memory and imagination. There is a surreal quality to works like The Dream and The Snake Charmer.

Naïve Art is often overlapped with terms like Primitive Art and folk art. One of the most famous and beloved 19th century American folk artist is Anna Mary Robertson, known as Grandma Moses. Her charming portrayals of country life are still very popular today. Another Naïve painter is Horace Pippin, a 19th century painter from Pennsylvania, known for his folksy depictions of lower class African-American life.

The general idea is that artists classified as such have no formal training. This is not necessarily etched in stone, and moreso in recent years an artist can have training and choose to belong to Naïve Art as a school. However many of the early Naïve artists such as Rousseau were self-taught.

Also, Naïve art shouldn’t necessarily be confused with Outsider Art as it is a generally accepted style today. It is not anti-art, or anything like that but rather a charmingly simple painting style, which doesn’t have to be by the books to be good.

Here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas and the hopes that you can sit around a nice and delicious holiday meal with your family like the one in the painting above.

This painting is actually part of a series from American illustrator Norman Rockwell, called the Four Freedoms, with this one being the Freedom From Want. The title comes from the State of the Union address of FDR in 1941 in which the president explains the four essential human rights: the freedom of speech, the freedom from fear, the freedom of worship, and the freedom from want. The rights were emphasized as motivation to continue the support of the fight in WWII.

Rockwell, as a major contributor to the Saturday Evening Post covers, used the “freedoms” as a four week theme to coincide with essays and articles from major thinkers of the day with the underlying message: “In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.” Later the original oil paintings highlighted a touring exhibition which would raise money for war bonds.

Norman Rockwell, along with his predecessor J. C. Leyendecker, painted in oils with a distinctive realist style to portray early 20th century America. Like Leyendecker before him, Rockwell enjoyed a long and prolific career as Saturday Evening Post illustrator. He helped to spread ideas and messages to the public using the vehicle of one of the most popular weekly magazines. The message was sometimes one of unity and family, and others one of tolerance and peace. Often the illustrations were playful and humorous.

The covers, of course, also went along with the seasons and holidays with the best of all being the warm and jolly covers of the most popular holiday season. The Rockwell santas, in part inspired by the Leyendecker Saint Nicks, were always a favorite among among Rockwell fans. He always made sure to remind people of the origin of Christmas by being sure to include a little halo of the jolly elf to show that he is in fact still a saint.

Even fans of the most modern abstract art can appreciate the warmth you get when looking at classic Rockwell holiday paintings. Maybe the realist style is unfortunately gone and real oil paintings done for magazine covers almost obsolete, but the family values, “Peace on Earth,” friendliness and happiness that Rockwell art represented is still alive and well.

hello.

is the lone inscription on the drawing.

It might be this simplicity that makes Kareena Zerefos’ artworks so charming. Or maybe it’s the multi-colored stripes going across a beautiful image of an owl. The illustrations seem to come from some enchanted fantasy: no crowded backgrounds; just the essentials- a single subject in focus, often with an intriguing subtitle.

Sometimes her art makes you think, other times it makes you feel. The colorful owl just said, “hello” to you. Now, don’t you feel better? You see an image of a young girl hugging the leg of a giant dog with the statement, “They defeat the mean giants.” How does that make you feel? His name was Sebastien it says as a young boy holds his pet goldfish, out of water, but in a bubble dripping.

The Australian artist uses colored pencils and gouache to create with now, but started out using anything she could find and on cheaper paper. She’s a self taught illustrator who studies design and printmaking at a university in Canada. She now lives and works in Sydney, and just had her first solo exhibition. She’s just getting started.

I look forward to seeing more of her dreams becoming art.

kareenazerefos.com

John William Waterhouse, the English Pre-Raphaelite painter, was famous for his depictions of beautiful women. Much of these women come from mythology, as in “Hylas and the Nymphs,” seen above, where the son a god falls is seduced by the nymphs. Another famous painting is the Lady of the Shallot, where Elaine of Astolot dies of grief for the lack of Lancelot’s love. Both of these paintings have the recurring settings of the subjects in or around water (see also Echo and Narcissus and Odysseus and the Sirens).

Often Waterhouse painted scenes of women from literature. The weekly magazine Graphic frequently commissioned his portrayals of “ideal beauty” to capture the essence of feminine beauty. One such article was the “Heroines of Shakespeare” which included, among many others, Cleopatra from the play Antony and Cleopatra. Prints were offered from the magazine and were very successful.

The Pre-Raphaelites formed in 1848, with a later wave in the 1860s, with the intention of bringing back the simplicity and moral content of painting before the Renaissance painter Raphael. One of their aims was to paint from nature in high detail, as you can see in some of the above paintings. The water looks so real you feel as if you can jump right in.

I present to you the art of Audrey Kawasaki.

I mentioned that Takato Yamamoto’s style reminded me of Alphonse Mucha with the fantastical moons and sweeping contours. You tend to get the same impression looking at Kawasaki’s works, but much more so. Not surprisingly her website lists the Mucha-era Art Nouveau of the early 20th century as one of her influences. She puts it as a blend between Art Nouveau and Japanese manga comics. Her subjects are portrayed as sensual yet innocent, and eerily erotic.

One interesting thing about this artist is her choice of medium. She paints with oils on wood panels, leaving the grain to complement and influence the composition. The wood grains act in many ways to contribute to the painting: grains can look like hair, or the wind blowing through it. Stems of flowers can rise straight out of the wood to meet some emotional adolescent girl.

Kawasaki, born in 1982, is consider a young rising star in Los Angeles, where she resides. She studies at the Pratt Institute of New York before leaving, siting the lack of academic interest in figurative, and illustrative work in favor of conceptual art that she wants nothing to do with. Kudos to her for leaving modern art academia to give us something truly beautiful.

Audrey keeps a journal at http://i-seldom-do.livejournal.com/ where she updates fairly regularly (don’t let her title fool you). There you can see a wonderful sample of her output.

Her site is http://www.audrey-kawasaki.com/.

Every now and then you see art that’s so good it just knocks your socks off. When I wandered aimlessly through some random Google image search my eyes scanned one of Will Wilson’s oil paintings. Only I didn’t know it at the time. At first glance it looks like a photograph. But then there’s that nagging feeling that what you’re looking at can’t be a photo: this is too good to be a photo.

After clicking on the thumbnail you are directed to Wilson’s studios and find that your gut instinct was in fact right. You find a gallery of beautiful paintings of photo-realism. The paintings are so real, you almost expect to see your own reflection if looking at a shiny silver pot painted on one of his canvases.

Too many times you see photo-realists, so gifted in the art of representing something perfectly, who use their art to portray boring banality. Sometimes you see a street corner, others a pile of dishes in the sink, or maybe a bunch of paper on a desk. If I wanted to see scattered, unorganized note paper I look right in front of me. If I wanted to see the procrastinated pile of dishes piling up I know where to look.

The true painter has much more to give than a mere photograph. A photograph is limited in so many ways such as technical ones like focusing, and deeper ones like the lack of penetration into the sitter’s personality, who, like everyone else, is conditioned to hide the inner self. When you look at Will Wilson’s masterful portraits, you are not only looking at minute detail of the flesh, but are looking into the person’s eyes and deep into their souls.

For more information: visit Will Wilson Studio

I know what you’re thinking. I must be jealous of these young prodigies because they are better at art in youth than I am after a quarter century of practice. Some of these artists are infants for crying out loud, and look what they can do!

You may be right in some respects; I am only human. After several years of putting brush on canvas without coming up with the next Mona Lisa, any artist soon realizes he is not the next Leonardo. This doesn’t discourage the aspiring artist because everyone knows we cannot all be super-genius renaissance men. However, painters (usually for the worse) compare themselves to the next guy or gal and size up their competition.

What happens when your competition still needs their mommy to cut their hot dog in twenty little pieces and gets sent to bed without supper when they spill their milk? Take a look at some of these really young artists.

“The Youngest Artist Ever”

Does anybody really think this isn’t a hoax? This is like one of those UFO or Bigfoot videos where the video is shaking and it’s way too zoomed in. Notice every time the actual painting is done, the camera is so zoomed in you only see the poor kid’s tense hand. Nobody paints like that, especially not kids. They told him to tighten up his hand and let the parents hold his arm and paint the picture.

Every time the camera zooms out the kid just whacks away at the paper. Then at the end they let him “touch up” the finished drawing because he can’t do any harm. If this is just a funny video made for fun then I don’t have a problem with it. However, if these parents are actually going to exploit this kid and use him for a scam “youngest artist ever” hoax for personal gain- then shame on them.

I’ve seen a lot of comments on this video where people say “awww that’s amazing I can’t even paint a Ninja Turtle.” Are people this stupid? Cute kid, fake video.

Akiane Kramarik

This girl is just amazing. In this video the artist is twelve, much older than Turtle boy, but she started painting at six! Her sole inspiration is God and started having visions at the age of four- visits to heaven, images of Jesus, and so on. Her paintings revolve around faith and portray Jesus and other figures as well as landscapes and abstractions. She’s kind of like Wassily Kandinsky, who also painted spiritually. Only, Kandinsky started about four decades later into his life than Ariane did in hers.

This young prodigy is not without controversy herself. When asked if the family would allow a video of her at work, they claimed it would not be a true representation of her work and wouldn’t agree to it. So of course people speculate that the young girl may not be the sole creator of the paintings, and claim she may only complete part of them.

Whoever paints the pictures is very talented, obviously more so if it is indeed the work of this young girl. If her story is true, she is indeed a modern day renaissance girl- she is also a poet, pianist and composer.

Babies With Paint Brushes

There are also many extrememely young artists out there in the spotlight, eager to make their parents fame and fortune. It’s a sad truth that parents sometimes use their own flesh and blood to make money, but that’s neither here nor there and I just hope it isn’t the case with these kids. Either way, they are young and they are exhibiting.

There’s also the question: sure the baby is painting, but is it really any good? Well, that might be just a matter of taste. I can think of many modern abstract painters whose art looks a lot worse than Leonardo (the Ninja Turtle), no matter who was responsible for it.

According to Guinness, the youngest professional artist was Arushi Bhatnagar at a mere 11 months old. There’s also Onarietta Issabella Remet, who gained notoriety by painting at 18 months. People are buying their paintings, so there definitely is a market for these little Michelangelos.

If these artists are not legitimate then shame on their parents or anybody else preying on people’s gullibility. If these young artists are real, then kudos to them. I only wish them long fame and fortune.

In the meantime I putt along and listen to the adage: “the flame that burns twice as hot, burns half as long,” and know that someday I’ll paint something amazing- I just keep putting it off.

I have often wondered if the characters in Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings haunted his dreams. The nightmarish depictions of evil were painted to serve as warnings, but are they the result of the artist’s personal demons? It’s not easy to think that such horrible monstrocities could have been the creation of a sane and tranquil man.

Troubled Geniuses

It’s no doubt that Bosch’s paintings are the work of a creative genius. The hybrid beasts, the seemingly random pairings of unlikely objects, and occurrences of odd sights in odd places were parts of dreamy landscapes which predated the Surrealism movement by four centuries. This was a man ahead of his time.

With the Christian faith always seeking a visual complement to the pulpits, the masses were served doses of doomsday forewarnings in the form of art to keep them straight and pious. Though never officially commissioned to serve the Church, Bosch was the man for this mission: to not only get his point across to the viewers, but to smack them with it like a bag of hammers and leave mental imagery to stay for a long time to come. The Hell Panel on the Garden of Earthly Delights doesn’t get forgotten quickly. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Scholars have hypothesized that Bosch’s pictures were much deeper than simple apocalyptic forecasts. Some have even interpreted his work in terms of Freudian psychology, with insights into the human subconscious. Either way, I’m willing to wager that anyone capable of producing such fantastical paintings was well in touch with his own subconscious and dreams- or nightmares. Nothing is known about the state of his psychological health.

You’ve heard the adage that there’s a thin line between genius and madness. It never seems to fail. Some of the brightest and most creative artists, musicians, arithmeticians, and strategists have led troubled lives or eventually crack. Often, the status quo is the least comfortable idea for them, and forging ahead with their creations is met with confusion and misunderstanding by the world at large.

Vincent van Gogh turned to drawing and painting relatively late after a failed try at a life of the cloth. Flunking out of seminary school, it was soon apparent to Vincent that his interpersonal awkwardness and short temper would never allow him to be a preacher. Nonetheless, he was filled with spiritual ideas and wanted to shout his sermons to the world. Financial success only meant that he could continue to fund his mission. Painting was his vehicle of choice. The masses would view his creations and share in his energy.

Only the masses and Vincent seemed to live in separate universes. No one understood him but his dear brother Theo, who would eventually be the lone purchaser of his art. Even his promising mission partner Gauguin would not be able to understand. The world was not quite ready to accept the van Gogh philosophy and wasn’t capable of respecting and appreciating his art and ideas. Eventually, after two months of frenzied working, producing a canvas a day, and with the world against him, Vincent painted his last wheat field, went and sat in that wheat field, and shot himself.

Art history is filled with misunderstood, troubled artists. They lived at odds with the world like van Gogh, were reclusive and strange like James Ensor, prone to violence like Michelangelo, or Caravaggio, morbid like Francis Bacon or Edvard Munch, rife with personal hardships like Frida Kahlo and Fransico Goya… The list goes on. In some cases, art and creativity could have been the cause of degenerative health.

Living a hard life seems to be a prerequisite for great artists. Sometimes that hardship comes in the form of mental illness. It’s possible that mental illness is the reason of high levels of creativity in some people. This is common, for instance, with schizophrenics, with high levels of ingenuity and creativity showing as the illness worsens. Mental hospitals have been known to house some highly original artists.

What came first, the chicken or the egg? In either case, some of the greatest art has been made either at high cost, or as the result of adversity. I can only wish and wonder if the tragic lives of artists like Vincent van Gogh had not been cut short, what could have been created. What would his paintings have looked like in 1891 and beyond?

We all live through adversity. It’s a part of life. Whether this is good or bad for art, who is to say? Just promise me you’ll see a therapist the first instant you ponder cutting your ear off.