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This work, a pastel of a Norfolk Terrier is signed with the initials OK but is done by someone otherwise unknown and executed possibly as early as the 19th century. Probably the work of an amateur artist or even the owner of the dog, with an intention to achieve a likeness but with a wonderful […]
Malevich’s Black Square has a certain classical beauty about it. Although black, it doesn’t seem to reference any dark subject matter. It is more about aesthetics; the result of an aesthetic journey by Malevich to take out all trace of the object in painting and leave only “pure feeling”. Running Man is a different story. […]
Today, because of our familiarity with geometric abstraction in art, we kind of expect a painting titled “Black Square” to be square. So why is Malevich’s “Black Square” not a measured and ruled black square, but instead is oddly a little out of shape and probably should be called a “Black Quadrangle”? We are now […]
It is interesting to see how some works of art come about. I usually think of an artist working away, following his or her own emotional impulses to produce their best works. But sometimes an artist is edged in an unusual direction to create a great work of art. I was listening to some French […]
Obviously relaxed and confident at a height of fame and fortune in his career, Miró allowed his execution of this painting to be filmed and the work was completed in one day. It was then given to the filmmaker, an American acquaintance; so it was not destined for an important gallery show. This happened at […]
The trouble with becoming rich and setting up a massive workshop for the contemporary artist is that the artist can now indulge every whim, half-baked idea that crosses his mind. Would Damien Hirst create all those dot paintings if he had to do the manual labour himself? If he was doing all the work, requiring […]
Apart from its obvious attractive qualities, what I find most striking about this painting is the clarity of its art historical reference connecting Pointillism and Post-Impressionism with abstraction, op-art, and just about everything else that came after. At a time when all the modernist art movements were just beginning, the artist is in his early […]
It is great to see a work like this that shows the artist in the aesthetic process, and in Mondrian’s case, producing a work whose subject actually is a concentrated reduction to aesthetics only. The work is labelled “unfinished”, not because the artist suddenly died or was separated from the work. Mondrian had time to […]
Looking at this set of screenprints, especially as presented in this array, highlights the one thing Andy Warhol consistently has going for him, his talent with color and design. I’m not sure the chosen photo always works as meaning, or if the repetition of the image always works as meaning, but I do know what […]
Frederic Remington (1861-1909) – The great beast came crashing to earth
This artwork conveys such strong emotion, and says so much about where man has been and still is with regards this world and its creatures. Like the “domestic” cat there is still this part to our nature that links to attitudes and impulses for survival in more feral circumstances. All creatures have a singular awareness […]