Paul Haim’s Secret Garden and Art News of the Week 20 – 26 July
The life of an art historian has never been easy. Employment opportunities are almost insignificant in a market of falling demand, low salaries, and limited possibilities. Even under normal conditions, this career is a tough one, with long years of research and training.
A Portrait of David Bradley
David Bradley’s art tells you stories about his commitment to social and political issues, especially those affecting first nation Americans. His paintings tell tales about American commercialism and the Indian tourist culture. But his love of native Americans doesn’t stop him from some gentle ridicule.
Betty Woodman – Contemporary American Artist
Betty Woodman, the 86-year-old ceramicist who overcame art world prejudice just to brighten the world. The doyenne of the domestic aesthetic leading the way for over 60 years.
Takashi Murakami – Mr Super Flat Strikes Again
Murakami is a geek in his own words; influenced by Japanese animation and American Sci-fi, in particular, Star Wars, manga, anime and a nod to the Edo period and painter Jyakucyu Ito creating the term ‘Super Flat”. 1962 was a great year for art: several artists were born that year, including Murakami, who was born in Tokyo, Japan on the 1st February. He works in fine art but also in commercial art, fashion and merchandise and, of course, animation.
Hans Hofmann, A Life Consecrated to Art
Hans Hofmann was a German painter and professor. In his work, the influences of Fauvism, Cubism, and German Expressionism can be seen. He influenced Abstract Expressionism and was a painter and theoretician of special attraction to other artists such as the American painter Walter Darby Bannard and British artist John Hoyland.
The Louvre Reopens and Art News of the Week 22 – 28 June
The Louvre Museum in Paris, will open for the first time in almost four months. Christie’s will offer seminal paintings by Adrian Ghenie and Cecily Brown as part of ONE: A Global Sale of the 20th Century on 10th July 2020. Recently, the largest ceremonial site in the UK has been discovered buried right next to Stonehenge.
Tracey Emin, Enfant Terrible of British Contemporary Art
Tracey Emin is a British conceptual artist born on July 3, 1963, in Croydon near London. She works with different techniques to achieve works with high autobiographical content. Tracey was part of the Young British Artists group and she was known as the "enfant terrible" of British contemporary art during the 1980s.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, from street graffiti to a millionaire skull
Jean-Michel possessed a great intellectual curiosity and was truly fascinated by abstract expressionism. He was strongly attracted to the early works of Jackson Pollock, the figure paintings of De Kooning and Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly's large-format works, based on freely drawn strokes, calligraphy and graffiti on solid fields.
Mary Sibande – Post Apartheid Art
Mary Sibande is a multi-talented artist from Johannesburg. Born in 1982. The South African artist’s art consists of sculptures, photography, paintings, and design. With her creations, she depicts black South Africans in a postcolonial context. Her work often focuses on her own personal experiences and black women during apartheid.
Julian Opie – Trying Out for World Domination
Filmmaker and digital artist, born in 1958 in London, Julian Opie’s artwork is typically English but in a contemporary pop art way; famous for the cover of Blur’s Best of Album and his portrait of Sir James Dyson, the vacuum cleaner magnate for the National Portrait Gallery.