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1
juin
2010

Artist Louise Bourgeois dies at age 98
Posted by Julia Baron at 14:20

After a long and prolific life and career, the influential artist Louise Bourgeois died in New York City on May 31 at the age of 98.  She worked up until the very end of her life, as her studio director noted that she had just completed pieces last week.

Ms. Bourgeois created sculptures using various materials, including fabric, bronze, rubber, and wood.  Her large bronze spider structures, entitled Maman, are most well-known and have been installed in a range of cities.  Her work is psychological, emotional, and expressive, and often of sexual themes and body based work.

Image of Louise Bourgeois and her sculpture, from the documentary « Louise Bourgeois : l’araignée, la maîtresse et la mandarine »

Her artwork often recalls psychological themes rooted in her childhood.  Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 to parents who owned a gallery for antique tapestries.  Her parents are prevalent in her artwork as she relates some of the pain and suffering that came with her childhood –having an adulterous father whose affair with the children’s nanny implanted deep seated anger and anxiety in Louise.  In her artwork, she bares her psyche, and the result is fascinating.

Ms. Bourgeois was not recognized for her work until later in life, around the age of 70.  The New York Museum of Modern Art mounted an exposition of her work in 1982, making Louise Bourgeois the first woman sculptor featured by the museum.  She participated in the Venice Biennale in 1993, representing the United States, and soon became more renowned as a crucial figure for women in the art world.

Maman, outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

She attended the Sorbonne for mathematics, but later left to pursue art.  Ms. Bourgeois and her husband, American art historian Robert Goldwater, married in 1938 and moved to New York City where she continued to pursue her artistic career.  It was not until after her husband’s death that she became widely acknowledged for her work.  She taught at many New York universities including Columbia, Cooper Union, and Yale where she received an honorary award as Doctor of Fine Arts in 1977.

Louise Bourgeois’ poignant work is strong yet delicate; violent yet vulnerable. Ms. Bourgeois has inspired scores of contemporary artists and she is considered as one of the world’s most important female artists.

25
mai
2010

Colorful Acrylic Paintings by Damien Bérullier Tuccimei
Posted by Julia Baron at 14:39

Damien Bérullier Tuccimei has always been surrounded by art, as he grew up in Paris with an artist for a mother.   As an artist working with acrylic painting, Damien is quite prolific in his original artwork, and creates canvases of many different styles which all fit in to his dynamic oeuvre.

Damien describes his style as “very liberal and spontaneous, I like to see the outcomes of different paintings according to my mood and surrounding.”  Looking through his gallery, one can see that he does not feel tied down to one single technique.  Whether he splatters paint in the manner of action painting or paints more deliberately, his work is always energetic and usually bursting with color.

Damien Bérullier Tuccimei, Acupuncture to Extasy, 450€

Damien Bérullier Tuccimei, Le Spectacle, 450€

Acupuncture to Extasy and Le Spectacle both show examples of his expressive abstract painting with very different styles.  The first contains more subdued colors in an acrylic painting we might imagine was done vigorously, with scribbles and scattered patches of color, while Le Spectacle uses more highly saturated blocks of brilliant color bordered by thick black outlines.

Damien Bérullier Tuccimei, Dessus, Dessous, Dessus, 500€

In Dessus Dessous Dessus, Damien uses only three colors, which he layers « above, below, above » one another in an exciting way.  This abstract acrylic painting shows yet another technique.  In Magrille, we see a playful spin on René Magritte’s classic Surrealist painting The Son of Man.  The acrylic painting is shielded by iron wires which Damien commonly uses in his work.

Damien Bérullier Tuccimei, Magrille, 650€

Damien’s acrylic paintings are lighthearted with an element of seriousness, and he is certainly serious about his work.  As he affirms, “I need to paint and create as there is nothing that makes me feel more passionate and complete,” his statement is clearly evident throughout his fruitful and creative work.

20
avr
2010

Glamorous Art by Amylee
Posted by Julia Baron at 14:09

With a strong interest in fashion, Amylee Emilie Garcia combines fashion and art in her art design.  A multi talented artist working in Paris, Amylee uses painting and drawing, fashion illustration, and collage for her work.  She mixes collage with acrylic painting to create brightly colored canvases with themes of women, film, and portraits, and inspired by vintage fashion with seventies wallpapers and prints.  She is most enthralled by joining plastic art with fashion, and she passionately explores different ways to combine her interests.

Amylee, Norma, 2010

Amylee’s bright color palette changes with the seasons, as if her works of art were part of the fashion world, or perhaps a highly developed fashion illustration for the season.  Her style is influenced by Pop Art, as she integrates pop culture as well as reinterprets vintage textiles.  In Norma, from Amylee’s collection “Rockabilly Circus,” she mixes the three patterns of floral print, checks, and leopard print, which might ordinarily contrast each other negatively, but she employs an intelligent color palette of complementary orange and violet tones along with black and white to create a balanced composition of a stunning, vintage model.

Amylee, Glam Circus, 2010

Amylee enjoys trying new things in her work, and her array of interests play together beautifully as she bounces ideas off of various styles and art forms.  Amylee’s eye for color speaks to her talent in fashion design, and she experiments with colors and patterns to create dazzling canvases.

10
mar
2010

Cedric Blatrie’s Abstract Art
Posted by Julia Baron at 13:18

In the abstract art of Cedric Blatrie, his contemporary style makes use of collage and attention-grabbing shapes and colors.  A self-taught artist with a talent for oil painting, Blatrie creates original artwork with multiple layers, which takes the viewer into vibrant scenes of the art abstract.

Cédric Blatrie is a self-taught artist.  He launched into painting one day, and was quite successful at it.  With Blatrie, we enter a world of sensation, colors, and geometric shapes in his abstract paintings.  In his original artwork, where we see some influence of Staël, Blatrie catches our eye in his deliberate, contemporary style with an interesting display of shapes and a limited color palette.  Blatrie invites us to ponder his mastery of art abstract.

Cedric Blatric, Haute Couture, 810€

Working in Lausanne, Switzerland, Cédric Blatrie gives us a look at abstract paintings in his world constructed by touch, flatness, and powerful geometrical forms.  This abstraction reminds us of the invisible, impalpable world of the unconscious.  His abstract art is characterized by the use of large white canvases on which his work takes place.  Adding material to create thick layers, Blatrie asserts his talent in the act of collage atop oil painting in his NeuroParty works.

Cedric Blatrie, Neuroparty II, 475€

A lover of the big screen and music stars, Blatrie also creates black and white portraits of famous artists in his series entitled “Show Business,” with images of icons from the Beatles to the Godfather.  Gradually straying from figurative art, his current painting style will no doubt delight aficionados of abstract art.

Cedric Blatrie, Beatles, 340€