“Sometimes I am commenting on reality. Sometimes I am escaping it. The work is kind of a discourse between those things.” –David Ball

“Ball’s practice evolves from a place of continual change, embracing the to achieve a sense of order. His process begins roughly, with quick, abstract and gestural under paintings that gradually evolve into an elaborate and well-defined composition through the artist’s “call-and-response” style of working. Ball’s personal life greatly informs his process and the themes behind his imagery. Throughout his life, he experienced a series of extreme shifts in his psycho-emotional state of being that took him through periods of emotional highs which inevitably turned to lows that resulted in paranoia, aggression and depression. His willingness to transcend the chaos saved his life and was due in part to being open to taking medication and in part due to his personal resolve to trust in the love and kindness of someone close to him.” (from Minna Gallery)

“Harum Scarum” runs through February 2, 2012.   Check out more work by David Ball at DavidBall.net  as well as video teasers of Harum Scarum by Shaun Roberts.

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Rockwell had an interest in art early in life  and at age 14, he  enrolled at The Chase School of Art (currently The New York School of Art). In 1910, he left high school and studied art at The National Academy of Design and then transferred to The Art Students League of New York.

Rockwell achieved success quickly and while still in his teens, was hired as the art director of  “Boy’s Life” Magazine (Boy Scouts publication). When he was 21, Rockwell and his family moved to New Rochelle, New York where he shared a studio with cartoonist Clyde Forsythe and worked for magazines including Life, Literary Digest, and Country Gentleman.   In 1916, Rockwell created his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post. During his early career, Rockwell was influenced greatly by popular illustrators including  N.C. Wyeth, J.C. Leyendecker, Maxfield Parrish and Howard Pyle.

From the 1920s and 1930s, Rockwell developed further depth and character in his paintings and illustrations. “His use of humor became an important part of his work. It was a technique he used effectively to draw the viewer into the composition to share the magic. Rockwell was constantly seeking new ideas and new faces in his daily life. He painted not only the scenes and people close to him but, in a quest for authenticity, would approach total strangers and ask them to sit for him. His internal art of ‘storytelling’ became integrated with his external skills as an artist. What emerged was what we know today as an incredible facility in judging the perfect moment; when to stop the action, snap the picture…when all the elements that define and embellish a total story are in place.” (NMAI)

The 1930s and 1940s are considered to be the most successful decades of Rockwell’s career. In 1930 he married Mary Barstow, a schoolteacher, with whom he had three sons, Jarvis, Thomas, and Peter. In 1939, the family moved to Arlington, Vermont and Rockwell began to produce full canvas paintings depicting small-town American life.

During World War II, Rockwell became involved in the war effort to help boost the sale of savings bonds.  The result was his extremely popular The Four Freedoms, at first rejected by the US Government but then printed as posters to sell war bonds. “The works toured the United States in an exhibition that was jointly sponsored by the Post and the U.S. Treasury Department and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130 million for the war effort.”

Unfortunately in 1943, a  fire in Rockwell’s Arlington studio, destroyed numerous paintings and his collection of historic costumes and props. Rockwell would spend countless hours searching for the costumes and items to create his scenes, and the loss of this collection was particularly painful for the artist.

In the late 1940s and 1950s Rockwell continued to be one of the most prolific and recognized illustrators in the country. In his 47 years with the Saturday Evening Post, he created 322 covers.  He also produced work for Ladies Home Journal, McCall’s, Literary Digest, and LOOK Magazine.

In 1953, the Rockwell’s moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Six years later, Mary Barstow Rockwell died unexpectedly.

In 1960, Rockwell (in collaboration with his son, Tom),  published his autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator. The Saturday Evening Post published parts of the best-selling book in a series of excerpts.

In 1961, Rockwell married Molly Punderson, a retired teacher. Two years later, he ended his 47-year affiliation with The Saturday Evening Post and began to work for Look magazine. During his 10-year relationship with Look, Rockwell’s work addressed American social issues including civil rights, poverty, and the exploration of space.

In 1962, Rockwell told Esquire magazine: “I call myself an illustrator but I am not an illustrator. Instead, I paint storytelling pictures which are quite popular but unfashionable. No man with a conscience can just bat out illustrations. He’s got to put all of his talent, all of his feeling into them. If illustration is not considered art, then that is something that we have brought upon ourselves by not considering ourselves artists. I believe that we should say, ‘I am not just an illustrator, I am an artist’.” (NMAI)

In 1973 Rockwell established a trust placing his works under the custodianship of Stockbridge’s historic Old Corner House. The trust now forms the core of the permanent collection of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. In 1976, Rockwell added his Stockbridge studio and all its contents to the bequest. In 1977, Rockwell received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his “vivid and affectionate portraits of our country.”

Norman Rockwell died at his home in Stockbridge on November 8, 1978, at the age of 84.

Sources: Norman Rockwell Museum, Saturday Evening Post, PBS, National Museum of American Illustration

Norman Rockwell on Amazon

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“With a wide array of discipline, medium, style and cultural influence, work by the six artists in this exhibition is thematically cohesive in its related subject matter—through figurative pairings of human and animal elements, the artists explore concepts of instinct, identity and metamorphoses. In the curators’ words: “Hybrid Thinking refers to the current zeitgeist of our time: disparate cultures coming together to create something completely new. Though from distinctly different cultural backgrounds, these artists share an understanding of our cities, of the human condition and our complex relationship with nature.”

“Hybrid Thinking” runs through February 11, 2012. To see more, visit JonathanLevineGallery.com.

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The son of portrait artist Abraham Ginsburg, Max was exposed to art as an infant and began painting at an early age. He attended Syracuse University on an art scholarship and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1953. His interest in the human condition led Ginsburg to painting realistically, even in at a time when the “art establishment” was hostile to traditional approaches in painting.

In 1960, Ginsburg began teaching at the High School of Art and Design and earned a Master’s Degree from City College of New York in 1963. From 1980 to 2000, he gained success as an illustrator, painting book covers and editorial illustrations for leading publications including The New York Times, New York Magazine, Harper Collins, and others. During this time, he also taught illustration at the prestigious New York School of Visual Arts.

In 2004, Ginsburg decided to leave illustration and devote himself to fine art. He currently teaches a “Painting From Life” class and workshops at the Art Students League of New York, and occasionally in schools throughout the United States and Canada.

Of his work, Ginsburg says:  “I have lived and worked in New York all my life. As a New Yorker, I feel a personal and deep connection to this rich, energetic and beautiful city with its amazingly diverse population. My objective is to paint about the people of New York, realistically and with compassion.

“I have expressed my strongly held feelings about peace and justice; deep outrage to war, injustice and torture are conveyed in some of my paintings. With regard to these themes, I have been inspired by Old Masters such as Caravaggio, Goya, Kollwitz and Picasso.”

“I choose to paint realistically because I believe realism is truth and truth is beauty. I derive an aesthetic pleasure in skillfully done realistic drawings and paintings. I believe that realism can communicate ideas strongly and it is this communication that is extremely important to me.”

Ginsburg’s recent book “Retrospective” presents for the first time, a collection of his paintings from 1956 to 2010. This beautifully presented book gives us a closer look at Ginsburg’s  “detailed observation, eye-catching compositions, richness of color, and enormous sensitivity to nuance and situation.”

Ginsburg currently lives in Manhattan with his wife Miryam and has a studio in Long Island. To learn more, visit MaxGinsburg.com.  Enter below to win a copy of Retrospective.

Win A Copy of Retrospective!

We here at DAF appreciated “Retrospective” so much that we thought you might like to have a copy as well. DAF, (through the generosity of Max Ginsburg) is giving the book to two lucky readers. Here’s how to enter:

On the entry form below, please include your first and last name,  email address, and location only. Winners will be contacted for shipping information. One entry per person only. Contest closes on February 7, 2012. Winners will be drawn randomly and announced on February 8, 2012. Good luck everyone!

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Didn’t win the contest?  Order you copy of “Retrospective” today!

(Note: Daily Art Fixx received a copy of Retrospective for review but does not receive commissions or payment of any kind for promoting this book. We only write about artists we really like!)

© All images are under strict copyright of Max Ginsburg and may not be reproduced in any form.

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Pollock’s paintings during this time were inspired by Navajo sand painting, Asian calligraphy, and personal revelations stemming from four months of Jungian psychotherapy to treat his alcoholism. “This resulted in an obsessive exploration of his unconscious symbolism, mediated through the stylistic influence of Picasso, Orozco, Joan Miró and the theories of John Graham. The works he created parallel to his psychotherapy contain the elements of what became a personal iconography.”

By 1947, Pollock was creating densely layered compositions that brought both praise and criticism. Some critics viewed them as “meaningless and chaotic”, while others saw them as “superbly organized, visually fascinating and psychologically compelling.”

Pollock’s first solo show was held in 1943 at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century gallery in New York. Guggenheim gave him a contract that lasted through 1947, allowing him to devote all his time to painting. Prior to 1947 Pollock’s work was influenced by Pablo Picasso and Surrealism, and in the early 1940′s, he participated in several Surrealist and Abstract art exhibitions.

In 1945, Pollock married artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy. In the fall of that year, the couple moved to what is now known as the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Long Island, New York.

From 1947 to 1952 Pollock created his most famous “action paintings“. “Pollock’s technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term action painting. With this technique, Pollock was able to achieve a more immediate means of creating art, the paint now literally flowing from his chosen tool onto the canvas. By defying the convention of painting on an upright surface, he added a new dimension, literally by being able to view and apply paint to his canvases from all directions.” These works were also larger in scale and were given numbers instead of titles.

A profile in the 8 August 1949 issue of Life magazine introduced Pollock’s  art to Americans and secured his growing reputation as one of the foremost modern painters of the time. During this intensely creative time, Pollock was treated by a doctor who substituted his drinking with tranquillizers. In 1951, he began drinking heavily again.

In 1952, Pollock’s first solo show in Paris opened at the Studio Paul Facchetti and his first retrospective was organized by Clement Greenberg at Bennington College in Vermont. His work was shown in many group exhibitions, including the Whitney Annuals, the Museum of American Art, New York, from 1946 and the Venice Biennale in 1950. Although his paintings were widely known and exhibited internationally, Pollock never traveled outside the United States.

By 1955, Pollock’s alcoholism and depression had overtaken his life and he stopped painting altogether. He was also becoming increasingly estranged from his wife and in the summer of 1956 she traveled to Europe to re-evaluate their relationship.

On August 11, 1956, Jackson Pollock  died in an automobile accident. Driving drunk, he overturned his convertible, killing himself and an acquaintance, and seriously injuring his other passenger. After Pollock’s death, Krasner, managed his estate and ensured that his reputation remained strong. They are buried together at Green River Cemetery in Springs, Long Island.

Sources: Ciudad de la Pintura (images), Wikipedia, Guggenheim Collection, MoMA, Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center

Jackson Pollock on Amazon

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Of his work Flores says; “The way people internalize what happens in the world is unique to the individual. My work shows how this can lead a person to different internal extremes. My aim is to reflect the resulting consciousness and anxiousness through a series of questions related to one’s state of being.  My current body of work depicts the inner debate that confronts the ego as a mediator for the demands of individuality and as a self-energy that keeps fanatical vigilance over its survival.  The fundamental quest for turning individuality into a delusional existence. A series of characters immerse in a non-stop battle of energy. Positive against destructive.

“Let Me In” runs through March 4, 2012. To see more from this exhibition, visit Artishopix. Check out BAYO’s other work at Artwork.Bayo.Me.com and Behance.

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Born on January 23, 1832, Édouard Manet was a French painter and a key figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.

Manet’s father wanted him to attend law school however Manet wanted to study art. His father’s rejection of this idea led Manet to apply for the naval college but he failed the entrance exam. In  1848, Manet worked as an apprentice pilot on a transport vessel and upon his return to France in June 1849, he failed the naval examination a second time. At this time, his parents gave him permission to study painting.

Manet studied with the classical painter Thomas Couture from 1850 – 1856. He then set up and shared  a studio with Albert de Balleroy, a painter of military subjects.

Manet was accepted at the Salon in 1861 with his painting “Spanish Singer” and from 1862-1865, he participated in exhibitions at the Martinet Gallery.

In 1863 Manet married his long-time companion Suzanne Leenhoff -  a Dutch piano teacher and mother of their eleven year old son Leon Koella Leenhoff.

Manet’s painting “Déjeuner sur l’herbe” was rejected in 1863 so instead he exhibited it a the Salon des Refusés. At the Salon of 1865, his painting “Olympia”, also created in 1863, caused a scandal. “The painting’s reclining female nude gazes brazenly at the viewer and is depicted in a harsh, brilliant light that obliterates interior modeling and turns her into an almost two-dimensional figure.”

A large number of his works were rejected once again for the Universal Exposition of 1867. In imitation of Realist painter Gustave Courbet, Manet had a stall erected at the corner of the Place de l’Alma and the Avenue Montaigne to exhibit his paintings.

In 1869 Manet painted a portrait of the artist Berthe Morisot, whom he had met at the Louvre. Morisot, who would become one of the leading female French Impressionists, visited Manet’s studio often after that and he continued to paint portraits of her until her marriage to his brother Eugène Manet in 1874.

From 1870-1871, during the Franco-German War, Manet served as a staff lieutenant in the National Guard and witnessed the siege of Paris. In February 1871 he returned to Paris shortly before the Commune. Half of his studio was destroyed, but he had stored his canvases in a safe place and found them undamaged. The art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel purchased almost all of Manet’s work for 50,000 francs.

In 1874  Manet developed a friendship with the Impressionist painter Claude Monet, with whom he painted on the banks of the Seine. Although he maintained friendships with Monet and the other Impressionists, Manet did not participate in the Impressionist exhibitions and continued to submit his paintings to the official Salon.

In 1880 Manet had a solo exhibition at the offices of the periodical “La Vie moderne” (Modern Life), but by this time he had begun to be affected by syphilis. In  April 1883, Manet became bed-ridden. Gangrene developed in his left leg which  had to be  amputated. He died on April 30, 1883 in Paris and was buried in the Cimetière de Passy.

“Manet’s debut as a painter met with a critical resistance that did not abate until near the end of his career. Although the success of his memorial exhibition and the eventual critical acceptance of the Impressionists raised his profile by the end of the 19th century, it was not until the 20th century that his reputation was secured by art historians and critics. Manet’s disregard for traditional modeling and perspective made a critical break with academic painting’s historical emphasis on illusionism. This flaunting of tradition and the official art establishment paved the way for the revolutionary work of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Manet also influenced the path of much 19th and 20th century art through his choice of subject matter. His focus on modern, urban subjects—which he presented in a straightforward, almost detached manner—distinguished him still more from the standards of the Salon, which generally favoured narrative and avoided the gritty realities of everyday life. Manet’s daring, unflinching approach to his painting and to the art world assured both him and his work a pivotal place in the history of modern art.”

Sources: Biography.com, Wikipedia

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Born on January 21, 1955, in York, Pennsylvania, Jeff Koons studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art (BFA 1976), in Baltimore and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

“Since his emergence in the 1980s Jeff Koons has blended the concerns and methods of Pop, Conceptual, and appropriation art with craft-making and popular culture to create his own unique art iconography, often controversial and always engaging. His work explores contemporary obsessions with sex and desire; race and gender; and celebrity, media, commerce, and fame. A self-proclaimed “idea man,” Koons hires artisans and technicians to make the actual works. For him, the hand of the artist is not the important issue: “Art is really just communication of something and the more archetypal it is, the more communicative it is.”"

Koon’s moved to New York in 1977 where he began working at the membership desk of the Museum of Modern Art. He quickly became known for his outrageous hair and clothing, and for his salesmanship. During this time, he created sculptures using inflatable flowers, and rabbits mixed with plastic, plexiglass, and mirrors. In order to finance his “The New” series, Koons left MoMA in 1980 to sell mutual funds and stocks at First Investors Corporation. This series featured vacuum cleaners and shampoo polishers encased in  plexiglass atop fluorescent lights.

In 1985, Koon’s presented his “Equilibrium” series which included sculptures made of basketballs floating in tanks of water, or encased in glass. In 1986, Koons’ 41 inch high stainless steel rabbit gained a great deal of critical attention. His “Luxury and Degradation” series in 1986 depticts “consumerist decadence” and featured images of liquor advertisements and stainless steel renderings of liquor travel bars.  In his “Banality” series of 1988, Koons expanded on the “Luxury and Degradation” series producing sculptures including Michael Jackson and Bubbles the monkey, as well as a series of “ads” where Koons mocks  himself and his own celebrity. His “Made in Heaven” series in 1990 depicts the artist with his wife, Ilona Staller, in a variety of hard-core pornographic poses.

Since the mid 1990′s, Koons has continued to produce sculpture but has also focused on paintings that contain pop-culture references as well more abstract composition.

Criticism of Koons’ work is varied. “Some view his work as pioneering and of major art-historical importance. Others dismiss his work as kitsch: crass and based on cynical self-merchandising”.

Koons’ work has been exhibited around the world and is in numerous public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum, The National Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tate Gallery (London), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Museum Ludwig (Köln, Germany), and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum.

For more information about Jeff Koons, visit JeffKoons.com.

Sources: Guggenheim, Wikipedia, JeffKoons.com, Walker Art Center
Image Sources: TheGirlsNY via Flickr, Artnet

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To see more visit Thinkspace Gallery or AllisonSommers.com.

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In 1862 Cézanne met Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir with whom he formed lasting friendships. In 1863, his paintings were shown in the Salon des Refusés, which exhibited works rejected by the Paris Salon.  The Salon rejected all of Cézanne’s submissions between 1864 to 1869.

With the onset of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Cézanne returned to Aix-en-Provence and then L’Estaque, where he continued painting. In the 1870′s he was influenced by Impressionism, particularly the work of Camille Pissarro.   Like the Impressionists, Cézanne considered the study of nature essential to painting, however, he opposed many aspects of the Impressionist aesthetic. “Believing colour and form to be inseparable, he tried to emphasize structure and solidity in his work, features he thought neglected by Impressionism. For this reason he was a central figure in Post-impressionism.” In 1874, he participated in the first Impressionist Exhibition, as well as the third in 1877.

In 1882 the Salon accepted his work for the first and only time. Beginning in 1883 Cézanne lived in the South of France, returning to Paris occasionally.  Cézanne’s first solo show was held at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery in Paris in 1895. Following that exhibition,  his recognition increased, and in 1899 he participated in the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. In 1900 he participated in the Centennial Exhibition in Paris and, in 1903, the Berlin and Vienna Secessions. In 1904 he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, Paris and had a solo exhibition at the Galerie Cassirer in Berlin.

Between 1883 and 1895, Cézanne’s paintings accented mass and structure, and his composition therefore became more architectural. His move away from Impressionism stemmed from his belief that a painter must interpret as well as record the scene before him. His brushstrokes became broader and thicker, and the use of a palette knife was sometimes evident.

In the final years of Cézanne’s life,  many of his landscapes “emphasized the rough appearance of sites, mixing wild vegetation with rocks in unusual, asymmetric framing. His composition became less serene and his colour more violent.” In several works, parts of the canvas were left bare and were painted with highly diluted oils. His fascination with nature continued but “the objective sought is no longer to describe reality but to express a spiritual concept”.

Cézanne rarely dated and often did not sign his paintings making it difficult to determine the chronology of his works with any precision.  In his last years his work began to influence many younger artists, including the Fauvists and the Cubists. His influence reached well into the 20th century as well.

Paul Cézanne died of pneumonia on October 22, 1906. He was buried in his hometown of Aix-en-Provence.

For a more detailed biography of Cézanne, visit the MoMA website.

Paul Cézanne on Amazon

Sources: Guggenheim Collection, MoMA, Wikipedia

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Ceccoli has made a name for herself illustrating children’s books, including winning the prestigious Italian Anderson Prize for best illustrator of the year in 2001. She recently has been showing paintings in US galleries and has already has already garnered great demand for her allegorical, luminous, dream-like paintings, which usually feature characters in occasionally provocative Alice-In-Wonderland type scenarios. Painted in acrylic on paper, each work is meticulously crafted to the point where brush stokes disappear, and each image seems to float within it’s own hazy light.

“Girls Don’t Cry” runs through February 4, 2012. To see more from this exhibition, visit Roq La Rue Gallery. To see previous works, visit NicolettaCeccoli.com.

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“I’m inspired by the oddities of the world, fables, alchemy, sherbet El Caminos, ships stuffed into bottles and the seductive allure of triangles. With diligence and perspiration I aim to create a harmonious balance utilizing antique techniques, craftsmanship and contemporary ideas to create a world that is melancholy yet enchanting. I enjoy taking long casual strolls through the rolling landscape of my mind to share with folks my snapshots.”

To see more, visit DavidStein-Art.com and his shop on Etsy.

Discovered via: Fecal Face

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About her work, Foard says, “painting has become my tool to reframe thoughts and rewrite memories. I am continually fascinated by the synchronous events in a lifetime: relationships, influences and decisions. My work varies in iconography but is anchored in living in this moment as I seek to move past thought and into a flow of intuitive “knowing” and blind trust. Painting has ultimately become my vehicle to express a spiritual essence in everyday scenes.”

To see more, visit ChristinaFoard.com.

Discovered via Escape Into Life and Artsy Forager

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“The new series of paintings comprising “Nowhere” continue Esao’s haunted and lonely landscapes, portraits and scenes that merge surrealism with real world emotion along with inanimate objects and anthropomorphized animals that constitute their own sense of will and purpose. Many of these paintings are meant to stand alone, but they all suggest a changing of seasons and the anticipation of new beginnings. “Nowhere” refers to a desolate place that stands as a seemingly bleak starting point where time has been passing by unnoticed. These images show signs of hope; that fleeting moment where the subjects have resolved their wait and emerge for their first steps towards a new life. A silent film also plays showcasing time-lapsed details of the work being created and strengthens how they relate to one another.”

“Nowhere” runs through January 28, 2012. To see more visit Thinkspace Gallery and check out Esao.org to see previous works.

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Currently, Art Babble partners with Art 21, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, MOMA, The MET, San Francisco MOMA, Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Van Gogh Museum,  the New York Public Library and others to provide videos on a wide range of topics (aka channels). Browse by Series, Channel, or Artist.

Check out this video from MoMA on the painting techniques of Jackson Pollock and be sure to visit Artbabble.org for more art education resources.

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