DAILY ART FIX: For this Surrealist art couple, love was an alien landscape

Art world links which my eye…

Yves Tanguy “I Await You (Je vous attends),” 1934

Happy St. Valentine’s Day!

In honor of romantic love, a story of how two painters found each other.

We typically associate romance with images of sunsets on the beach and candlelit dinners. Not alien landscapes.

But in 1936, it was a mysterious landscape painting that left American artist Kay Sage lovestruck. Created by French surrealist Yves Tanguy, the canvas was filled with odd, organic shapes, rendered with striking intricacy and uncanny realism. Sage recalled later that she “could not tear herself away.”

And in four years, Sage (1898-1963) and Tanguy (1900-1955) would be married, living out the Surrealist belief that there is no such thing as coincidence: That mysterious painting’s title was “I Await You.”

Kay Sage “Ring of Iron, Ring of Wool”

Read the full article here: WASHINGTON POST – For this Surrealist art couple, love was an alien landscape

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DAILY ART FIX: Avant-Garde Carpets Look Like They’re Melting Into Viscous Puddles

Art world links which caught my eye…

“Yahya al-Shirvani al-Bakuvi” by Faig Ahmed

A surprising variation on tradition by textile artist Faig Ahmed.

Entitled Shams Tabrizi, Yahya al-Shirvani al-Bakuvi, and Nizami Ganjavi, the three textile works of PIR appear almost liquid. Each piece descends the walls of the gallery, pooling on the floor like rivers of paint. The gallery describes the pieces as “sites of [Ahmed’s] own cultural geography, a tapestry of cultural and political history, language, spiritual values, and art.” Viewers are all at once entranced by color, history, and mysticism.

Faig Ahmed “Gautama”

Read the full article here: MY MODERN MET – Avant-Garde Carpets Look Like They’re Melting Into Viscous Puddles

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: Tim Klein Mixes Up Puzzle Pieces And The Results Are Surreal

Art world links which caught my eye…

Tim Klein ““Pig Jaw Suzzle #2”

Surrealism uses puzzling presentations to trigger unexpected insights into the nature of reality. One artist is literally using puzzles to accomplish this.

Puzzle enthusiast Washington-based artist Tim Klein has been creating montages out of jigsaw puzzles for 25 years. For his work, Klein uses vintage puzzles from the 1970s-90s, the selection of which can take years: “It’s an obsessive but enjoyable treasure hunt,” he says…

But it’s not as simple as throwing some pieces together, as Klein notes:

“Over the years I’ve developed an intuitive feel for spotting [puzzles] that are likely to be useful to me, based on their imagery, brand, age, piece count, etc. But even so, matching up vintage puzzles takes luck, patience, and the tenacity of a treasure hunter! I own stacks and stacks of puzzles that I call my “art supplies”, some of which have been waiting years for a suitable mate to appear.”

Tim Klein “King of the Road”

Read the full article here: ART SHEEP – Tim Klein Mixes Up Puzzle Pieces And The Results Are Surreal

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: William Baziotes, Painter

Art world links which caught my eye…

William Baziotes

America painter (June 11, 1912 – June 6, 1963)

“It is the mysterious that I love in painting. It is the stillness and the silence. I want my pictures to take effect very slowly, to obsess and to haunt.” – William Baziotes

William Baziotes “Amorphous Forms”

William Baziotes “Night”

William Baziotes “The Butterflies of Leonardo da Vinci”

William Baziotes “Desert Animal”

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: Man Ray: 5 Facts on The American Artist Who Defined an Era

Art world links which caught my eye…

Man Ray “The Kiss” 1935

Photographer and painter Man Ray ( August 27, 1890- November 18, 1976) left quite a legacy.

Man Ray was instrumental to the Dada and Surrealism art movements that took over the 20th century. Remembered for his unique approaches to photography and his ability to explore the unconscious with everyday items, Ray is celebrated as a pioneer…

As a child, Ray excelled in skills like freehand drawing. His ability to draft made him a prime candidate for architecture and engineering trades and was offered a scholarship to study architecture.

But, he was also a star in his art classes at school. Although he apparently hated the attention he received from his art teacher, he decided to pursue a career as an artist instead of taking the scholarship he was offered. He studied art on his own by visiting museums and continuing to practice outside of an academic syllabus.

In art, he was heavily influenced by the 1913 Army show as well as European contemporary art and in 1915, Ray had his first solo show. His first significant photographs were created in 1918 and he continued to build a unique style and aesthetic throughout his career.

Read the full article here: THE COLLECTOR – Man Ray: 5 Facts on The American Artist Who Defined an Era

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: Frida Kahlo’s freak bus accident which changed the life of a national icon

Art world links which caught my eye…

Mexican Painter Frida Kahlo in 1945

One of the most notable artists of the twentieth century had her life permanently altered by a missing umbrella.

In 1925, Frida Kahlo as just 18 years old when she was in a horrific traffic accident. She was on the doomed bus because she missed an earlier one, after she gone back to retrieve her forgotten umbrella.

The terrible injuries she sustained were reflected in her art, where she often symbolically depicted her broken body. She began to paint during her recovery:

Kahlo’s parents commissioned a specialty easel to be made so that she could paint while laying in bed. A mirror was fashioned above Kahlo so that she could paint her own portrait, thus sparking an intense passion that carried her throughout her life.

Frida Kahlo used art to transform her pain into beauty.

Read the full article here: YAHOO – Frida Kahlo’s Freak Bus Accident Which Changed the Life of a National Icon

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: Happy Birthday Dorothea Tanning

Art world links which caught my eye…

Dorothea Tanning “Birthday” oil on canvas 40 1/4″ × 25 1/2″ 1942

August 25, 1910, was the birthday of the Surrealist painter Dorothea Tanning. Birthday is also the name of her best known painting.

“I wanted to lead the eye into spaces that hid, revealed, transformed all at once and where there would be some never-before-seen image, as if it had appeared with no help from me,’ wrote Surrealist artist Dorothea Tanning (1910-2012), who mastered the art of seduction through a realm of endless possibility. 

Read the full article here: COUNTRY LIFE – In Focus: Dorothea Tanning’s ‘Birthday’, the paradoxical self-portrait that challenged and redefined Surrealism

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: On Artist Joseph Cornell

Art world links which caught my eye…

A repost of a blog I originally wrote on January 28, 2017

Joseph Cornell “Untitled (Hotel Eden)”

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“Beauty should be shared for it enhances our joys.
To explore its mystery is to venture towards the sublime.”

-Joseph Cornell

After I moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 2000, and spent some time absorbing the local art scene, I noticed something very different than what I was used to. I had come from Richmond, Virginia, where at the time painting was the predominant art form. In Phoenix I saw lots of assemblage. Assemblage Art is like making three dimensional collages, creating composed groupings out of just about any object imaginable. I’ve become a huge fan of this technique, which can be utilized to create such poetry: visual fragments shored against our ruins.

On thinking of assemblage art I think of Joseph Cornell (December 24, 1903 – December 29, 1972), the undisputed master of the genre. Looking at the mysterious little worlds he evoked out of dime store trinkets, you would never imagine the seemingly mundane life the artist lived. He spent his entire adult existence in a tiny suburban home in Flushing, New York, which he shared with his mother and invalid   brother, for as long as they lived. His workshop was in the basement. Here he created the shadow boxes that described his romantic dreams about legendary ballerinas, faded Continental hotels, contemplative aviaries, and the celestial heavens themselves. This painfully shy self taught artist was accepted as a colleague by the Surrealists during their War World II exile in New York City. They recognized true vision when they encountered it.

Joseph Cornell “Tilly Losch”

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Joseph Cornell “Untitled (Celestial Navigation)”

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Joseph Cornell “Naples”

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Joseph Cornell “Observatory – Corona Borealis Casement”

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: $340,000 Surrealist Painting Found in Recycling Bin at German Airport

Art world links which caught my eye...

An Yves Tanguy work almost got recycled.

Read the full article here: SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE – $340,000 Surrealist Painting Found in Recycling Bin at German Airport

A portrait of Surrealist painter Yves Tanguy

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

ARTISTS: Salvador Dali’s Surreal Christmas Cards

Ho Ho Ho my Gosh; ‘Tis the Season for Surrealism 

In 1960, before the visuals arts had withdrawn into their current status of hostile, insular irrelevance, greeting card benchmark Hallmark had an idea to bring people some culture for Christmas. 50 artists were featured on Hallmark Christmas cards, with the noble intention of sharing some Modern masters with the mass market. Along with staples like Norman Rockwell and Currier and Ives, more avant-garde figures like Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Paul Cezanne were presented.

One of the artists recruited was Surrealist Salvador Dali. The choice was not as strange as it might seem. He had already created a Christmas image for the cover of Vogue in 1948.

Dali’s Christmas Vogue Cover

For a flat fee of $15,000.00 and promises of complete artistic control, Dali produced a series of Yuletide images. Unfortunately, the executives at Hallmark decided he went a little TOO cultural for the tastes of the time, and only a few of his tamer paintings were used.

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Two of the Dali Images used: Tame compared to the others

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But now, thanks to the magic of the internet, we can enjoy some surrealism for the season. Here are some of Salvador Dali’s unused Christmas card pictures.

 

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Merry Christmas!

 

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