Recent Art Blogs
Events Calendar
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January 25th, 2012 by mbarber
January 19th, 2012 by mbarber
Vivian, 2010 silkscreen 28″ x 40″
While artists like Warhol and Rauschenberg found themselves focusing on the consumer icon during the explosion of pop art in the 1960’s, Alex Katz found inspiration in painting portraits of friends and family. Born in 1946, in Brooklyn New York, Alex Katz started his career in early 1950’s. His work being greatly influenced by woodcuts produced by Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro, which he also used as a medium. Considered a precursor to pop art, Katz’ work stands alone in his relaxed depictions of the human form. As figurative painting started making a comeback in the 80’s and 90’s, Katz also began to increase in popularity. The new generation of artists began to view his portraits with a newly found appreciation. His works are known for their flatness of color, economized use of line, and a cool yet seductive emotional detachment of his characters. All of Katz’ work is uniquely simplistic.
January 5th, 2012 by mbarber
Contentment Island, 2004 screenprint 37″ x 30 1/2″
With the passing of Helen Frankenthaler at 83 years of age, on Dec. 26th, came the loss of a truly great American artist and a Hamilton-Selway favorite. Frankenthaler made a name for herself in the early 1950’s through her distinct style of painting. At the time, she was a pioneer in what is known as color-field painting and believed that a “really good picture looks as if it all happened at once.” Her goal in painting was to arrive at a picture that seized the eye and the mind at the same time. She would achieve this by blurring the line between image and background. Frankenthaler’s prints capture the dream-like atmosphere of her often monumental paintings remarkably well, as you can see with the attached piece, “Contentment Island”. She will be very, very missed.
December 19th, 2011 by mbarber
Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas, 1963 oil on canvas 64 1/2″ x 121 3/4″
Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970 is an exhibition that is currently running at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Co-organized by the Getty Research Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum. The exhibition showcases works and sculpture created by nearly 50 southern California artists from 1940 to 1970. One of the artists that is being featured is our own Ed Ruscha. The exhibition will be running until 2/5/2012 with many different events happening through the run of the show before it goes to the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin in the spring of 2012.
November 23rd, 2011 by mbarber
In the Diamond Dust Shoes series Warhol came full circle from his early roots to his “glitzy” position as a pop art icon. When Warhol first came to New York, he started out as a commercial illustrator for magazines such as Glamour, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and the New Yorker. Sketching jewelry, handbags, clothing and gloves for such publications was his bread and butter. Since he got paid by the shoe, Warhol said that he always knew how much money he had by the amount of shoes he illustrated. One of Warhol’s first exhibitions was his Golden Slipper series, in 1956. It featured gold-leaf collages of shoes. These intricate pieces were dedicated to some of Warhol’s idols such as Mae West and Julie Andrews. It was a glimpse into the celebrity that Warhol himself would later achieve. By 1980, Warhol had achieved the fame that he had been so obsessed with. He celebrated with a Retrospective and Reversal series, which also included the Diamond Dust Shoes series. In this series, Warhol paid homage to his roots, but this time in style, using a new technique of crushed glass called diamond dust. The fanciful, colorful shoes were an exciting tribute to Warhol’s humble beginning and ascention to stardom.
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