Friday, August 30, 2013

WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY ART?

        Contemporary Art to me is any painter or painting that has been created within our generation.  That would go as far back as the 60's or 70's.

        I have personally lived through those years to witness what I call a transformation in the art world.  I have always felt that the rise of social consciousness and feelings of helplessness after the assassination of President Kennedy, the struggles of the Civil Rights movement and the beginning of the Vietnam war in the 1960's, led to what we call our generation of Contemporary Art.

        Pop art which was a more care free and fun, had its influence in the 1960's with Andy Warhol and Peter Max to name a few.


Peter Max

Peter Max

Andy Warhol


        There was also art that depicted hardship and struggle.





        Also art that expressed tragedy. 







        That generation of art continues to this day with many new causes and social injustices to paint about and today's artists haven't let me down.


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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

WHAT IS MODERN ART?

        Modern Art as we know it began around the 1880's at the end of the Impressionists period.  At that time Post Impressionism began with the work of Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Seurat, and what beautiful work it was.

Vincent Van Gogh

Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin

George Seurat

        Post Impressionism greatly influenced the 20th century abstraction of painters like Matisse, Picasso and Kandinsky, and they took it to the next level.

Henri Matisse













Pablo Picasso

Wassily Kandinsky













        And so it began, brilliant artists were unleashed, creative talent was permitted to think out of the box and we have been the beneficiaries.  The possibilities are endless.


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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

WHAT IS ABSTRACT ART?


        Abstract art to me is a collage of sights and sounds, memories of ones emotions, thoughts and experiences frozen in time on one canvas.

        Back when I began painting, we just called it modern art, but for me the abstract art style became my passion.

        Abstract art is a type of painting and sculpture that was actually developed in the early part of the twentieth century.  It is essentially a departure from reality or realism, yet in the eye of the artist it expresses something  very real.

        I view abstract as art work that alters form and space using shapes, lines, movement and color to relay a particular message.  I find the work of other abstract artists most intriguing, I enjoy the challenge of trying to imagine what they were trying to convey.

       There are many types of abstract art, but the following are two of my favorite;

        Cubism, was the first style of abstract art, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and George Braque, which  challenged conventional forms of representation.  Instead of painting a fixed object on canvas, Cubists gave you a view of that object from many angles all at once.


George Braque, Harbour in Normandy


        Fauvism, developed by French painters Henri Matisse and Andre Derain, who earned the nickname 'Les Fauves' which means wild beasts, used outrageously bold and sometimes distorted forms of vibrant and vivid colors.


Henri Matisse, The Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia, 1905

Henri Matisse, The Snail, 1954

        So abstract art was and continues to be an exiting and wonderful journey, so climb aboard.


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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

AMERICAN BANDSTAND-BLACK AND WHITE WORLD



        In the early years when I was growing up there was no color TV, everything was black and white, even when I look at early photos of my family and myself, our cloths were not as colorful as they are today.  


         When I was fourteen years old we were in Philadelphia for a convention my dad attended and they took all of the teenagers to Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Television dance show.






When you were on American
Bandstand you didn't just sit and watch, everyone had to dance.  It was live TV in those days and black
and white, the set had no color, it didn't have to, no one who was watching could see it.  Even the kids who were there dancing, did not wear cloths as colorful as today.  Pretty drab I must say.  Can you see me in there?


       Then several years later, sometime in the sixty’s everyone got color TV.  It changed my world, I think it is what inspired me to use color as a main tool in expressing myself on canvas.


ENJOY THE JOURNEY MY FRIENDS...ZMAKEY

ZMAKEY ART STUDIO AND GALLERY
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AND
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