Artist Painting

asdadada

2011-08-03T07:17:00.001-07:00

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Anjolie Ela Menon

2010-05-20T22:33:00.000-07:00

She is a female contemporary artist her name is Anjolie Ela Menon was born in 1940, has made her name in one of the India's leading artist, her paintings speak for herself, in the year she came out with her most recent work called "Yatra", her work was acquired and appreciated by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, California.

Anjolie Ela Menon works on oil on masonite along with that she has worked with another media like water colour. and glass work that includes (pictures of glass sculptures.

This leading artist was born in West Bengal she belongs to a mixed Bengali as well as American parentage, she did her schooling from Lawrence School, Lovedale in the Nilgiri Hills, in Tamil Nadu, she started doing paintings at an age of 15, then she studied from Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai after that she hold a degree in English Literature from Delhi University, the famous college of Delhi Miranda House.She is really inspired from the works of Indian painters M F Husain and Amrita Shergil.

Her talent speaks for her a the age of 18, she herself held a solo exhibition where she kept fifty-three paintings of various types of styles, she is very creative her brilliance brought her a French Government scholarship to carry out her studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris,: Anjolie Ela Menon has travelled in West Asia
and Europe, she tied a knot with her childhood love,an Indian Navy officer,Raja Menon, she has proudly represented India in several shows outside, she has been entitled with The Padma Shree, the fourth highest civilian award in India.

Mangal Gogte

2010-04-28T03:10:00.000-07:00

Like we need oxygen to breathe same as an artist needs his brush to give expressions to his feelings, he cant imagine his life without paintings. Like wise an artist who takes nature as her inspiration, and she finds utmost peace with its beauty her name is Mangal Gogte, she believes that things happen only when you least expect them them, ya this i true and this happened in the case of this artist.

Mangal Gogte commenced painting from her college days, she took a long gap and the height of her passion towards paintings is that she concentrated wholly on the paintings and she continued it after her marriage and gave here ideas a new surface. Her inspiration is Nature, during a winter vacation she went to ooty and visited botanical gardens there.

That beautiful sight made her filled with joy and she wanted to capture the magic in her paintings, and that's how she begun. Ever since where ever she goes she always carries her papers, paintings and brush and she has been appreciated for her work in all over India as well as in abroad.

You would be wondered to know that she didn't get any formal education in arts, she just everything practically and the things moved on, she is also a writer as well as a member of Road Safety Advisory Committee, with Mumbai Traffic Police around 20 years, a lecturer of Economics well she is versatile, Mangal Gogte has been to Finland and Switzerland, along with Alibag, Gangtok.Ooty and Kashmir.

Vaibhav Jain

2010-04-26T02:48:00.000-07:00

An artist speaks through his painting, he express all his feelings and desires through his paintings. in fact his brush give him a language to speak and communicate. A Well known artist named Vaibhav Jain who really speaks through her paintings, she born in Lucknow(Uttar Pradesh) in the year 1964, and done her Bachelors and Masters of fine arts in painting, she did it from Kala Bhavan , in 1986 to 1988.

Her university was Shantiniketan Vishwa Bharti University ,Vaibhav Jain has participated in so many shows and exhibitions and made her work known to common person, her exhibition and shows got the place at Woman Artist in Rajasthan at Jawahar Kala Kendra in the year 2006, very well known Lalit Kala Akadami, Rajasthan, she was also a part of Rajasthan Sculptures Exhibition at Jawahar Kala Kendra in the year 2005.

Vaibhav Jain also participated international exhibition in the year 2005 at Nadine Le Prince Haveli, in Rajasthan , year 2001 bring her with All India Exhibition this exhibition was organized by All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society Exhibition that was in New Delhi, there is a long chain exhibitions she participated like in the year 1995 she was a part of The Exhibition of Woman Artist of India, Jawahar Kala Kendra Jaipur.

Her work was so acclaimed and she got so many awards and scholarships, she got 2nd All India Biennale Award in the year 1999 that was organized by Rajasthan Lalit Kala Akadami, Jaipur.In the year 1986-87 she got Major Cheppundira Ponuappa Rajaram Memorial Scholarship, that was given to her by by Govt. Museum, Bangalore.

Neo Rauch

2010-04-23T00:19:00.000-07:00

Neo Rauch's style is simply different , it s paintings has drama, suspense, menace and moreover so vibrant colours it has narratives that can be defined even mock. Neo Rauch has some figures in his paintings some of them resurface more than more merely one work , this year he celebrates his 50th birthday has got double retrospective opening in Munich and Leipzig he identifies himself with his colours, even he wants the viewer to do this also.

Neo Rauch makes so intense creations in his paintings and this intensity directly relates to the observer to take part in their destinies,this companion ship turns and create a magical impact on the canvas. Neo Rauch is a German painter he born and brought near Leipzig in communist East Germany, in 2007 he work was exhibited in an exhibition called Metropololitan Mueseum of Art and work.

His works in Munich exhibition named Begleiter portrays the works from past sixteen years, it also included some new pieces. His very recent canvases portray theatrical tableaux along with anachronistic attire of characters , the paintings give the view that the scenes are really taken from any dreams.

Neo Rauch paintings have colorful streamers, Christmas- card fir tree with snow-covered roofs with convivial atmosphere. Neo Rauch is seen as a very senior figure named “New Leipzig School, it is a term that is applied for generation of artists whose work has been really acclaimed by highly prized by international collectors, and those who studied the painting at city's art academy.

Nandlal Bose

2010-04-21T00:10:00.000-07:00

An artist speaks through his paintings, they have their own thoughts and feelings . Their paintings are a way of their expression another name in this chain of expression is Nandlal Bose, he was born in December 1882 in Bihar. Nandlal Bose is regarded as very prominent artist of modern India. From 1905 to 1910 he attended Government College of Art. He was guided by Harinarayan Basu when he got into Abanindranath's Art School. Iswari Prasad also guided him.

Then he got the only guidance of Abanindranath until five years, it has been rightly said that behind every successful man there is a woman. Nandlal Bose was quite fortunate as he got great support of his sister, he is rightly called as leading lights of the renaissance of art. Rabindranath Tagore called Nandlal to join Kala Bhavan in Santiniketan, he worked as principal at Kala Bhavan from 1922 and 1951.

Talent rightly speaks, Nandlal Bose also got an offer to join Government Art School but he refused and began with helping Abanindranath to prepare a catalogue of art work in his house , he passed away on 16th April 1966. His paintings really reflects the true Indian Art and its contemporary practices. In the year 1911 for the very first time his paintings exhibited.

Nandlal Bose's outstanding work has got the place in several National and International exhibitions like Societe des Peintres Orientalistes Francais at Grand Palais in Paris, Indian School of Oriental Art, Crystal Palace of England, The Netherlands

Prabha Shah

2010-04-19T02:09:00.000-07:00

Art itself has own language and it cannot be separated from life , she is the one who lives her life through her art the modern art practitioner Prabha Shah. With a broad imaginative perspective, deprived of hearing Prabha Shah has given an utmost example to live life and fill it with the colours of art. She is from Rajasthan which is the place of temples, shrines and the state that proudly preserves its culture and heritage. Prabha Shah has given a blend of modern as well as traditional art in her paintings, her style is unique.

Prabha Speaks through her brush, she is deprived of hearing but this is not a barrier for her she observes the things very minutely and tries to figure out the actual thought , she has an equal perception of observing people as well as things.She gives a perfect and harmonious balance of abstract and natural art with a strong sense of imagination, all the creations are the outcome of her creative mind. Her paintings are the manifestations of her affection to the world.

Prabha Shah is not confined to any obligation, she keeps on refining her art to transform the original version to a convicting fiction thats all is the creation of her imaginative mind and skill. She doesn't works on extreme contentlessness, she believes in the objectivity of the real rather particularly going for locale. She use to take extracts from the past and try to mould it in her own style.Her paintings manifests her love and affection to the world. Prabha also believes in experimentation. Even she keeps on reinventing her old paintings year after year.

Rajendra Tikoo

2010-04-15T03:21:00.000-07:00

When someone asks what is an art , then answer would be that art is human creativity and way of expression of his feelings and emotions. It is a tool though which an artist can communicate easily whatever he wants to convey, it is a medium of showing one's thinking and how it reflects and changes other's way of thinking. Here one name would be essential to add he is Rajendra Tikoo, an artist who lives his paintings.

Rajendra Tikoo was born in 1953, since 1979 he has been teaching and practising sculpture. He has gained vast experience through his continuous work of 28 years . At National and International level he has gained so much of recognition, as he has explored new ways of local possibilities of material, his work is really recognised and reviewed publicly. His different thoughts and ideas are appreciated among masses. In appreciation he has got so many awards and honours. Rajendra Tikoo got so many awards like Pollock Krasner Foundation (New York 2005).

He got distinction of an eminent artist from Lalit Kala Akademi, in 1999, to make his work more reachable, to make his work world known, he was also a part of numerous symposiums in so many countries like Switzerland, Japan and Israel. In fact he also participated in so many group and solo shows like Sarah India organized Exhibition, the Feuersinne Erden in Germany 2001 and UNDP. Rajendra Tikoo a very brilliant artist who gives new ideas and explored new ways.

Laxman Aelay

2010-04-13T04:10:00.000-07:00

Some people choose art as their profession, some people choose art to express their feelings. Laxman Aelay who has made his profession his life. For an artist his art is like a true and divine way to express his feelings. These feelings and expressions form their place in subconscious of an artist, and when he gets brush in his hands he just portrays whatever he thinks and wants other people think and understand.

Laxman Aelay was born in 1964 Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh, he has done Bachelors in Commerce after that he wanted to get into completely different path of life, a totally different step he went to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University College of Fine Arts of Hyderabad, and undertake the studies of Arts, he did B.A in painting and turned out to be a professional artist. Laxman Aelay was also a part of so many exhibitions.

Some of his important exhibitions are “Contemporary Deccan – A New Generation of Artists” in 1999 and in 2000 “7th Group Show” at the Surya Art Gallery they both took place in Hyderabad. He has been entitled with so many Awards as well as gold medals for his work. In 1995 he got an award from the Hyderabad Art Society, it encouraged him to come out with new and innovative work. Laxman Aelay also represented India that was an exposition. It was organised by TAANA in Chicago and scored international fame.

Laxman Aelay's paintings are based on rural people, currently he is working as a freelance artist.

Niren Sen Gupta

2010-04-12T01:49:00.000-07:00

An artist's life can't be separated from art, it is as essential as we need oxygen to breathe. Here is the another name in the chain of wonderful artists, very versatile Niren Sen Gupta. Some artists speaks through their paintings as they are the perfect tool of their expression and communication. Niren Sen Gupta was born in 1940 in Bengal, he did his graduation from Calcutta University, he also teaches along with painting as he sees himself as professional painter.

Niren Sen Gupta is an ex-principal of College of Art New Delhi. Having so many responsibilities on him, he came out holding so many honorary positions like Executive Member of Academy of Visual Media (New Delhi), Founder member of Gallery 26, all just because of his talent he got the place of Art Advisor to various Art Organizations along with that membership of Habitat Centre (Delhi). To communicate in more frequent way he exhibited so many solo shows.

Niren Sen Gupta participated inn various group exhibitions as well National exhibition and AIFACS annual exhibition since 1969,he was also a part of group shows done by painters of Calcutta in New Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. Some of other shows were in aid of Bangladesh in Kolkata, New Delhi and Mumbai in 1971, along with Shantiniketan in 1972. His art got its place at Gallery 26 in New Delhi in 1976, in 1977, in 1980 Chandigarh , Vadehra Gallery (New Delhi) 1990, All India Drawing Exhibition, in 1988 Biennale (Bhopal). Since 1990 Niren Sen Gupta also appeared in Dhoomi Mal gallery Ravi memorial show.

Hari Sadhan Dey

2010-04-09T03:21:00.000-07:00

Art and painting is somehow a kind of instinct and feeling. It gives you a new outlook towards life, it opens up you to explore new things and brings new ideas to live and recreate, really paintings are best mode of expression, an artist can fully express himself through his paintings. Art itself is a life for an artist it becomes his life line as he speaks through his paintings. in this chain of feelings and expressions one more name is Hari Sadhan Dey. An artist who has made his paintings his language.

Hari Sadhan Dey has given his whole heart to his paintings. His all the creations are unique in him and most of them are restricted mainly to single figure. Hari Sadhan Dey has portrayed a female face that has got a central stage in fact it creates a wave of mystery as well in the mind of the viewer.

Hari Sadhan Dey's portarits and paintings have visual harmony, he concentrates especially on women characters, they have their secret passions and a perfect visual of their unfulfilled desires, it perfectly expresses the emotions of women what do they feel under different circumstances. His portraits are a clear picture of intense feelings and desires that a woman probably can not explains .

Her happiness, stress, traumas, innocence and her feelings of Joy, all these emotions are very well portrayed by him in utmost true sense.

Chippa Sudhakar

2010-04-07T02:37:00.000-07:00

Life looses its meaning without colors, it becomes dull when there are no colours. For an artist his art, his paintings, his colors are his lifeline. In fact it is as essential as we breathe to survive. One more has added in the chain of Talented artists of India he is Chippa Sudhakar, who lives his life through his paintings. This talented artist born in 1965, he is a graduate in Fine Arts from J.N.T. University, Hyderabad.

After doing graduation from hyderabad Chippa Sudhakar pursued his post diploma in Graphics from the M.S. University, in 1990 Baroda. He has got various recognitions for his ultimate work that makes him different from all. He has received so many honours, with awards like Chitrakala Parishath Award, Bangalore, 1993 same year come out with Bombay Art Society Award,1993. To encouarge his outstanding art he got Hyderabad Art Society Award in 1994.

Chippa Sudhakar exhibited in several cities to make his work in the reach of the people and to make them aware about his works.He visited the Drawing Exhibition and the National Print Exhibition in London at the bank side. He showed his feelings and expressions through oil on canvas, interestingly he portrayed very immensely his relationship with rural India on wood, as well as on paper and other media.

Chippa Sudhakar has spnt his life in rural area so he cn connect himself very easily, presently he is living and works in a farm house studio of Andhra Pradesh.

B.Devraj

2010-04-05T00:03:00.000-07:00

For an artist his paintings are his lifeline, what ever he wants to communicate he can do it through his paintings, they are the main source of his expression and feelings, B.Devraj an artist who speaks through his paintings. He was born on 9th April 1966 in Chanenahalli Bangalore, an artist who lives his life through his paintings, he chose the medium of paintings to show his expression and he is far successful in that. His paintings have their own language.

B.Devraj has done Bachelors in Fine Arts and Masters in Fine Arts in painting from college of Fine Arts in Bangalore, to honour his expertise he got awards in 1992 from Karnataka Lalitkala Academy Award, in fact their is a series of Awards in 1993 he received All India Exhibition Award by Karantaka Chitrakala Parishat in Bangalore. Followed by Young Artist Award in 2001 by H.K.Kejriwal Trust.

Year 2004 came out with National Award which is very notable. B.Devraj also made his strong appearance in so many group shows like Karnataka Lalitkala Academy Award from 1991 to 1995. In 1993 -94 he particiapted in All India Fine Arts Exhibitions, Bangalore, in 1996 Artist Camp and Exhibition, Andaman

Haren Thakur

2010-04-02T02:02:00.000-07:00

Art itself is a language, it needs strong emotions to feel and live. Art itself is a life it need a sensible mind and soul to feel each and every colour of it. In this wave of art Haren Thakur is a name that can not be forgotten, for him art and his life are synonyms they cannot be separated from each other.

Haren Thakur painter Of West Bengal, did his graduation from Kala Bhavan (Shantiniketan) in 1975, after that he took participation in various camps and exhibitions, he was also a part of major groups as well as in solo shows in different cities Mumbai, Kolkata and Ranchi. As these activities proved as a platform for him to express himself ina better way. Haren has his own distinctive medium he uses animals to portray political situation in India .

Haren thakur made , a collage of Nepali rice paper on canvas, his paintings are satires on political system. His work always has a hidden message, he always tries to animate the viewer’s thoughts that somehow disclose the hidden secrets also. Haren Thakur follows a very simple style to portray satires that directly touches the hearts and minds off masses in a very straight forward manner! His paintings are really impressive.

Haren Thakur always tries to capture and hold viewer’s attention by adopting very simple themes followed by very simple philosophy. He always believes not to create much hype which is a trend now a days and comes out with paintings of serene and simple philosophical attachment. With a blend of modern and ethnical art which has a real impact over masses.

Dhiraj Choudhary

2010-03-30T23:51:00.000-07:00

Art and culture cannot be separated from life, they make our roots very strong. Infact art brings us very close to ourselves in this chain of emotions and expressions one name should not be forgotten he is Dhiraj Choudhary. Dhiraj Choudhary was born in Bangladesh in 1936, as every artist has his particular line of work, Dhiraj Choudhary is a politically motivated artist chose the lives of poor as his subject of art.

Dhiraj Choudhary always believe to portray how a common and poor man go through different phases of life. For him art is not merely an exercise to get technical expertise and he has never persued art for art's sake, his belief is to show the bitter realities of life. Dhiraj Choudhary found no other better way than painting to show his expression.

Dhiraj Choudhary has come out with the portraits like hungry and tortured people who are still striving for their lives. A clear picture of our society that is untouched still, he adds “the pictures I paint may not be pretty, but they portray a real expression of my love for humanity”. It is his struggle of 50 years.

Balaji Theertham

2010-03-25T04:09:00.000-07:00

India is a land full of talented people. There have been many artists in history who created some masterpieces. Now a days India is blooming with some great talents. The art of painting is flourishing at a high scale in India. Every Indian painter has got a unique style of his own. Some of these painters follow the traditional schools of art and painting while others opt for the modern art. Here we will talk about a painter who created such a masterpiece that won him a president award. He is Balaji Theertham. This painter hails from Andhra Pradesh. He was born on a very special day, that is, August 15, 1967.

Sometimes the destiny lets us study something else and we shape our career in an entirely new direction. The same thing happened with Balaji. He obtained his Ph.D in Physics subject but he was good with paints and brushes. So finally this person stepped into the world of paintings. He got his first award for painting in 1986. After this award the stars favoured him so much that he got a whole trail of awards behind him. He also received the National award from the Indian President in 1994. He painted the Sampoorna Ramayan in his characteristic Kalamkari style .

Balaji has given extensive demonstrations of style within the country and outside like in UK and France . As this painter is very attached to his art teacher and love and respect him a lot so he founded the Kalamkari Hastha Kala Kendram in the memory of his art teacher.

Biplab Dalai - From sufferings to celebration!

2010-03-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

Biplab Dalai is among those talented Indian artists who have to struggle a lot for bringing their talent in front of the world. He was born in 1976. He is a self taught artist. Sometimes we realise our talent and skills a little later in life and same happened with Biplab. Before finally deciding his career as a painter he used to do a lot of diverse works to earn his bread. He was unable to continue his higher studies because of his financial conditions. He sold chickens, tried his hands into the mechanical tasks and several other things like that. But Biplab was not at all happy and content with these jobs as often used to dream of a better and more pleasant life.

Life was going on in a slow and dull phase for Biplab till he came across the autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh. It proved to be a turning point and a source of inspiration for this struggler. Vincent himself was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter. He suffered from some mental illness and finally died at the age of 37 from a self inflicted gunshot wound. He was lesses known and appreciated during his life but the world recognized his artistic talent after his death.

This autobiography inspired Biplab a lot and his whole perspective for the life changed all of a sudden. Earlier he sketched a portrait of Mother Teresa and then his never ending journey of paint, brushes and colour began. He painted landscapes, scenaries, people and many things more.

Spritiual painter – Anuja Agrawal

2010-03-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

India is a beautiful country which has got various artists in various fields. The Indian history witnesses that there have been great painters even in the past. Since that time the artists are continuously developing their artistic skills. Here we talk about a young Indian artist who is yet not so much known but of course she is talented. She hails from a city that is popular for it's unique colourful culture and is better known as the Pink City. Yes ! This Indian painter is from Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. Her name is Anuja Agrawal.

Anuja was born in Jaipur in 1982. She had an artistic bend of mind and a vision that wanted her to explore and experiment with colours and brush. That is why she decided to pursue her Masters degree in Fine Arts. She studied at Rajasthan University. Apart from this she also holds a diploma in interior designing from NIFD.

With her rising painting talent and excitement, Anuja soon started participating in several art exhibitions and various art fairs. She also participated in the annual Kala Mela of 2006 at Allahbad University. The significant fact about Anuja's paintings is that they are full of enlightenment, inner strength and spirituality. She describes it by saying that the inner strength and the enlightenment are never stagnant, they keep on moving and overtakes darkness. She uses the images of various objects to express her philosophy through colourful acrylic on board works.

Animesh Roy – The artistic Papillon

2010-03-16T03:26:00.000-07:00

Animesh Roy is a famous Indian painter. He is an artist who has got blend of feelings like the passion of Van Gogh, the thrill in Papillon, the freedom and spirituality of mountains and the serenity, simplicity and greatness of Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi. The artist has been basically a rebel and a traveller.

Animesh was born at Krishnagar in Bengal. The place itself is famous for it's artistic taste. It is mainly famous for it's clay sculptures. As his parents were in transferable job so this popular artist got the chance of travelling to various places. He got the pure experience of thrill and adventure in his life when he visited the places like Himalayas etc. As a child also, he used to get absorbed in the beauty of surroundings, “Walking down to Saat Taal and getting lost on the way back in the darkness”.

For the artists, especially for the painters the inspiration comes from whatever they see or do. The same thing happened with Animesh while travelling, meeting various people, visiting the old villages and relegious peaceful places like mosques, churches, temples or graveyards. Although this artist prepares most of his works in the studio but the original source of inspiration lies in his wandering of the world. For him the college Art degree was just meaningless and he participated in two solo shows just out of college in 1992. This Indian artist is growing constantly.

Mola Ram – A Name Less Heard Yet Significant!

2010-03-12T23:34:00.000-08:00

Mola Ram was a famous Indian painter during 1743 to 1833. He belonged to Srinagar. He kept on working for the kingdom called Garhwal until it was annexed in 1803. Besides being a painter he was also a poet, historian and a diplomat. It is said that Sulaman Shikoh, a Mughal Prince, took refuge in Garhwal. The Prince brought along with him an artist and his son who were his court painters. These painters developed the Garhwal style of miniature painting. It is said that Mola Ram was one of their descendants.

Mola Ram was famous for his unique style of painting which balanced the romantic charm only by few other styles of painting. The female characters from the Garhwal School include beautiful women with thin waist line, soft oval shaped force and sharp features.

Mola Ram used to create harmonies among the various vibrant colours through his exclusive style of painting. Initially the artist used to paint in the Mughal style. For example his painting called Mastani has been done in Mughal idiom. The painting called Vasakasajja Nayika is one more painting from him and it has been painted in the Garhwal style.

Krishna Khanna- Contemporary Artist

2010-01-14T22:51:00.000-08:00

Krishna Khanna is one the the prominent contemporary artist in Indian art field, he has started painting as his profession when art and artist are not in glamour. He was born in pre-partition on India in 1925 in the Lyallpur district (now in Pakistan). From the childhood Krishana was devoted towards painting, so he started attending evening classes at Mayo School of Art.

From his hard work and dedication in paointing Krishna Khanna has stated give success in this field, he sold his first painting in a leading exhibition in to Dr. Homi Bhabha from the Tata Institue of Fundamental Research. He got good support from his family to pursue his carrer in paintings. He has shown his admirable painting in many exhibition across the country. He invited upcoming artists to join the "Progressive Artists Group" in which he remained involeved all his life.

By his incredible work, he was awarded the "Rockfeller Fellowship", in 1963-64 he was the Artist in Residence at the American University, apart from that he has participated in many group and solo shows like 'Sao Paulo Biennale', The Venice Biennale and many more. Khanna relocates his observation onto the canvas with naturalness and enthusiasm that enhances his subject matter. Krishna Kahnna lives and working in New Delhi.

Father of modern art- Abanindranath Tagore

2010-01-11T22:01:00.000-08:00

Abanindranath Tagore was an famous Indian painter, he is regarded as a father of modern art in India. Abanindranath was born on 7 August, 1871 and died on 5 December,1951. He is the leader of Renaissance movement of Indian Painting as he contribute a lot in the Indian paintings.

He was born in famous Tagore Bengali family, which was full of culture and tradition, he grew up in art, culture and creativity environment, where his painting creativity start growing and he got the name and fame in art field. He is famous for his oil paintings and portraits. For many year he has taken lesson from Italian artist Signor Gilhardi and learnt foilage painting, pastel and life study.

The famous book of Rabindranath Tagore Gitanjali brought Tagore family international renown, and which help Abanindranath 's artistic projects also. He has contributed to the Bengali Literature with his devotion towards paintings and he taught painting in his own style

Manjeet Bawa

2010-01-02T01:28:00.000-08:00

Manjeet Bawa is one of the famous Indian painter in the country, he was born in 1941 in the Punjab, he has studied at the Art School of Art in New Delhi, after that he went to London School of painting for doing diplomain art. Manjeet Bawa was fond of art and paintings. Manjeet canvases are distinguishable in their colors-the green paddy leaves , the red of the sun, the blue of the mountain sky and lot more.

Bawa had rome around all over the country like Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and many more, he has drawn all those beautiful scene on the canvases. Bawa has received and renowned with many awards like Baddhadeb Dasgupta Award, Bharat Bhawan Biennale Award, Lalit Kala Akademi Awards for his awesome work in paintings.

He has spent his most of life time in Dalhousie and established studio also. He died on 29 December 2008 , because of sever health problem.

Tyeb Mehta

2009-12-31T04:05:00.000-08:00

In 1959 he left for London, there he stayed for a long time and he received Rockfeller Fellowship Award in 1968, Mehta's atyle influenced by the expressionist works of Francis Bacon. He had made three minute movie ,Kooda, which was shooted in Mumbai and won beat critics awardin 1970. He worke din famous school in West Bengal 'Shantiniketan'.

Tyeb held the recordd of highest price of Indian Paintings, it was sold in $317,500USD for Celebration, in 2005 his Kali painting was sold worth Rs. 10 million like this he has sold many of his paintings. He received many awards also Kalidas Samman from Madhya Pradesh Government, Padma Bhusan in 2007 an d many more. Tyeb Mehta died on 2 July 2009 from heart attack.

Francis Newton Souza

2009-12-28T04:19:00.000-08:00

A famous Indian artist Francis Newton Souza was born on 12 April, 1924 in Saligo, Goa. From childhood only he suffer a lot, his father died when he was young and after that he was bloged from serious disease. But after having so much problem in his life, he never loose hope and his creativity. He took admission on Sir J.J. of Art School of Mumbai, with this he has paticipated in Quit India Movement. Thereafter his progess start, he started Progressive Artist's Movement in 1947.

F.N. Souza went to London and there also he strugglw for his life, but after all these he got the success and got the recognition in 1950, with his solo- exhibition at the 'Gallery One' in London. And on the same time his auto-biography was published and in 1959 'Words and Lines ' was published and got the recognition.

The style of F.N. Souza comprise of still life, landscape, nudes, iconsof Christianity and many more. One of the most recurring painting of F.N. Souza was conflict between man and woman. At the same time, there is a visiable of the folk art of Goa, the Renaissance painting and 18th and 19th Century painting.

Rameshwar Broota

2009-12-23T23:13:00.000-08:00

Rameshwar Broota was born in New Delhi in 1941, completed his graduation from College of Art, New Delhi. From the beginning Broota was involve in in the contemporary human situation that degrades individuals and pollutes the relationship between them on the social plane. He is basically interested in oil paintings, showing Humanizes gorillas.

On the canvas surface, usually painted in matle black, he works with sharp , thin blade to bright the light shades. His painting have been shown in many solo and prestigious groups also, namely 'Pictorial Space' presented by Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 'India : Myth and Reality Oxford, Modern Indian Painting in Tokyo and Dhaka. He was awarded with National Awards three times. Rameshwar Broota was born and lives in New Delhi, India.

S. H. Raza

2009-12-23T02:21:00.000-08:00

Syed Haider Raza is an eminent and prominent painter of India, Raza settle down in France since 1950. But he ties a strong knot with India. Raza have been done mainly in oil or acrylic colors. Raza received his formal training for painting from Painting School of Nagpur and Sir J.J School of Art Mumbai, after that with his dedication he got success in this field get famous in all over the world.

The painting of S H Raza revolves around nature and its forms. He is basically concentrate on landscape, beauty of nature, he believes the centre of creation and existence and it reflects in his paintings. From his awesome and attractive painting with the vibrant color any one can impress with the beautiful artistic paintings.

The main achievent for S H Raza is his painting was sold for US $ 1.4 million at an auction held in Decmber 2006. Raza has awarded by prestigious Padma Shree by the Government of Indiaand Kalidas Samman by Madhya Pradesh India.

M.F. Husain- Prominent Painter in the World

2009-12-21T01:10:00.000-08:00

Maqbool Fida Husain is a very well Indian artist, he was born in Maharastra on 1915, popularly known as M.F. Husain. M.F. Husain is one of the world's best artist, his work sells at astonishing price. Husain comes from Bohra Indian family, his mother died when he was one and half year and his father remarried and moved to Indore.

Husain became well known artist in 1940s , in 1947 Husain joined the Progressive Artist's Group founded by Francis Newton Souza. In 1955 M.F. Husain received Padma Bhusan Award by the Government of India. In the year, 1967 he made his first debut movie Through the Eyes of Painter and it was shown in Berlin Film Festival, won Golden Bear. Again he in 1973 he received Padma Bhushan Award and nominated for Rajya Sabha and he was awarded the Padma Bhushan Award.

Husain went on to become the highest paid painter in India. His single canvases have fetched up to $2 million at a recent Christie's auction. He has also worked , produced and directed few movies like Gaja Gamini with prominent bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit. His biography is being made into a movie tentatively titled "The Making of the Painter" starred by Shreyas Talpade. At the age of 92 he was awarded prestigious award 'Raja Ravi Verma' by the Government of Kerela.

Jamini Roy

2009-12-15T23:34:00.000-08:00

Jamini Roy was a famous artist, he was born on 11 April, 1887 in middle class family in Bengal. When he was 16 year old he studied in government art school in Calcutta. He studied tradition painting Classical nudes and oil paintings and received Diploma Degree in 1908.

His new style of painting was both reaction and against the Bengal School and Western tradition. He basically focuses on three parts - capture essence of simplicity of folk people, to make accessible to a wider section of the society and to give worth to Indian Art. Jamini Roy was received Padmabhushan Award in the year 1995 for he excellent and beautiful painting and for contribution to the Indian society by the Government of India. In 1934he received Viceroy's gold medal in an all India exhibition for his creative work.

His work has been exhibited extensively in international exhibitions and can be found in many private paces and public collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum.

He has spent his most of the time of his life in Calcutta and he died in 1972

Classical Artist of Kerela- Raja Ravi Verma

2009-12-11T00:20:00.000-08:00

Raja Ravi Verma was born in Killmanoor Place on 29 April , 1848. He has achieved recognition for his depiction of scenes from the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, he painting are considered as the best among European academic art. From childhood he started painting on the palace walls . Raja Ravi Verma has won award in Vienna in 1873. He travel throughout the county in the search of subject , he is basically famous for his oil paintings.
In 1904 , Viceroy Lord Curzon, given him the title of Raja and from that time his name was mentioned as 'Raja Ravi Verma'. Ravi Verma was a received systematic training art in European art. His painting are classified in three categories
Portraits
Portraits- based Compositions
Theatrical Compositions, based on Myths and legends

There are some notable work of Raja Ravi Verma

A Family Beggar
Arjuna and Subhadra
Lady Lost in the Thought
Lord Rama Conquers Varuna
Romancing Couple and many more.

He died in 1906 at the age of 58, he is considered the most prominent Indian Artist.

Amrita Shergill

2009-12-06T23:00:00.000-08:00

India has produced many talented painter who has influenced the world through their paintings.Amrita Shergill is among one of them she is renowned Indian painter. In her paintings the is charisma power which attracts viewer eyes. Most of her paintings reflects love for country and response towards society and people.

Amrita was born in Hungary in 1913. From childhood Amrita was a good painter because her both the parents were inclined towards art. Her father, Umaro Singh Majitha, was a Sanskrit Scholar and her mother Marie Antoinette was a pianist. In the year 1921, her family moved to India and they settle down in Shimla, from there Amrita painting interest start cultivating and she got the admission in Italy where she learned Italian Sculpture.

She painted quite freely with originality and prograssive nature in he art. She propounded a new style of painting with the combination of Western and Indian art. She has explored many parts of the world and learned different types of painting, sculpture which inspires latest style of art and culture. The main style was of Gauguin and Cezanne art of imperialistic style. She learned Cezanne style but Gauguin taught her how to use Indian Colors and give different shape.

She was selected the youngest as well as the only Asian artist as an Associate of the Grand Salon in Paris. Her work work reflects the the deep passion toward color and understanding towards Indian subjects. When she was returning to India because of health deteriorated, Amrita died on 6 December, 1941.

Satish Gujral

2009-10-26T00:24:00.000-07:00

Satish Gujral is among the few artist who have constantly dominated the Indian art scene and internationally acclaimed for his multi-talent in paintings, graphics, mural, sculpture, architecture and interior design.

Satish Gujral was born in Jhelum in 1925 in pre-partition West Punjab.At the age of eight, a sickness terminally impaired his hearing.During his early years of sickness, `entombed in silence` as described by him, he passed his time reading Urdu literature and doodling with a
pencil on paper.

In 1939, he was enrolled to the Mayo School of Art in Lahore to study Applied Arts.After passing from Mayo School Satish Gujral joined Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay in 1944 for further study of painting.During the year 1944-47 he came into contact of many artists of progressive groups namely S.H. Raza, EN. Souza, P.N. Mago, Jehangir Sabavala, M.F. Husain and others. In 1947 he had to leave his study at J.J.School due to resurgence of his illness.

The school taught various techniques of stone and woodcarving, metal smothery, clay modeling, drawing and design. He also had to perform scale drawing and copying of the ground plans and elevations of old buildings.

Satish Gujral left for Mexico on a scholarship for an apprenticeship with Diego Rivera and David Sequeiros His paintings and graphics are mainly dominated by the social content.

The pain and anguish of homeless during the partition of the country took shape in his artwork and his brush sweeps with quick strokes to reveal the anger. His sculptures were made with industrial materials like still, copper, glass and are often painted in strong enamel colors. Be it painting, be it sculpture or mural, Satish Gujral`s search always went on for what was living and life giving to the traditional arts and crafts of India. Later he tried out junk sculptures, introducing light and sound to them.

Exhibitions
From 1952 to 1974, Satish Gujral had numerous solo exhibitions of his sculptures, paintings and graphics in Mexico City, New York, New Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Montreal, Rome, Berlin, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and Stockholm. Since the late `80s up to the recent years, Satish Gujral`s paintings and sculptures further diversified both in terms of materials and content. His sculptures with burnt wood have a kind of slimily with the visceral forms of human and otherwise. Satish Gujral formed committees to make large murals, mostly in mosaic and ceramic tiles and later he took interest in machined steel elements as immediate architectural context.

Murals made by Satish Gujral

Satish Gujral had made many murals for Punjab University, Chandigarh, Odeon Cinema, New Delhi (1962), World Trade Fair, New York (1963), Oberoi Hotel, New Delhi (1964), Northern Railway, New Delhi (1966), Ministry of Education, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi (1968), Agricultural
University, Hissar (1970, `73, `86), Oberoi Towers, Bombay (1971-72), The Palace of the Sultan of Muscat (1975), Delhi High Court (1976), Gandhi Institute, Mauritius (1977) and World Trade Centre, New York (1980).

Design & Architect Work
The year 1977 is important because in this year Satish Gujral started exploring the elusive vocabulary of International Style in modem architecture. He designed the Daryani House, New Delhi (1977), Modi House (1978),Gandhi Institute (1978-79), Datwani House (1979- 90), Modi House (1980-82), Belgian Embassy, New Delhi (1980-83), and Dass House, New Delhi (1983-85). In 1986 Satish Gujral designed the Goa University and the CMC, Hyderabad, Palace AI-Bwordy, Dubai, and the Indian Ambassador`s house in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Honours
The National Award for Painting (1956, 1957), National Award for Sculpture (1972), State Honour from the Government of Punjab (1979), and the Order of the Crown, Belgium, for Architecture (1983) are some honours bestowed upon Satish Gujral from early days.

Citizens of Delhi had honoured Gujral as one of its twenty-five most honorable citizens. In the year 1999 he was awarded by the highest accolade of Indian Government, the `Padma Vibhushan`.

He is the subject for many documentary films. Four books on his works have been published which also includes his autobiography `A Brush with Life`.

VASUDEV KAMATH, ‘I belong to my art and my art belongs to my heart’

2009-10-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

Kamath, born on 27 April, 1956, is an internationally acclaimed artist and in 2006 he became the first Indian to win the Grand Prize from the Portrait Society Of America for his painting entitled ‘My wife’. This has given him worldwide recognition. More than a hundred countries participated in this competition. He is a master painter of immeasurable originality and vision.

For this extraordinary artist ‘ brush became my tool and canvas my stage’ at a very early age. His genius became apparent after he completed studies at J J School of Art in Mumbai with distinction. Since then he has been inundated with awards, success and acclaim.

He has been involved with our project from its inception and shown creativity, imagination and talent which is rare to find. His vast knowledge and interest in the history of India has contributed immensely towards the whole project. He is a very disciplined person who sketches and draws daily without fail. This discipline has helped him produce the majority of the paintings for us. Each of his painting is a masterpiece. Not only that he has acted as a guide and inspiration for Vishal Wadaye, Sakale Manoj kumar and the Sawant brothers. He has enjoyed working for us as the project resonates with what he believes in and stands for.

He has won many awards and honours in India and abroad and his paintings have been exhibited and sold worldwide.

Here are enlisted some of his well known paintings
1) Adi Shankaracharya
2) Chhatrapati Shri Shivaji Maharaj
3) Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar
4) Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar
5) Hari Singh Nalwa
6) Veer Sarvarkar
7) Raj Kapoor - India’s greatest showman
8) Pioneers opening up Africa
9) Swami Dayanand Saraswati
10) Apna Punjab
11) Nothing can burn my resolve for my beloved India
12) Know thy ownself
13) The Sheikh of both worlds
14) Liberty or Bondage
15) Moksha or Nirvana
16) Aum Is Past, Present and Future
17) Aum Is The Supreme Name Of God
18) Fabric of life
19) Radha pines for her Krishna
20) The Surrender
21) Prithviraj Chauhan
22) Offering
23) The fall of the Giant
24) Jallianwala Bagh
25) Ek Onkar
26) The Iron Monk Of India
27) Hakka Bukka
28) Nirvana
29) The Greatest Treasure
30) Shirdi Sai Baba

The three important steps of good painting according to him are "Observation, contemplation and perfect technique of painting". These are the basic mantras of good painting and an artist should be able to visualise and master it with constant practice.

It was a mesmerizing experience for painters and art students to watch ace portrait artist Vasudeo Kamath giving live demonstration of portrait painting at Thane Kala Bhavan at the event organised by Konkan Kala Academy on October 2 recently.

The vibrancy of his masterpiece paintings uplift, delight, engage and ultimately reach out to the people. In his words ‘I belong to my art. And my art belongs to my heart.’

Kalamkari Paintings

2009-09-04T20:58:00.000-07:00

Kalamkari is an ancient art form native of Andhra Pradesh and this exquisite art work of painted and printed fabrics literally means pen work. This art form is hand painted and block printed with the use of vegetable dyes. This Indian art has evolved in the last 3000 years and this legacy has been handed down from generation to generation. In Andhra Pradesh, the art of kalamkari is synonymous with two ancient cities like Masulipatnam and Srikalahasti.

Masulipatnam style of Kalamkari features Persian influence with intricate and delicate forms and motifs commonly used were trees, flowers, creepers and leaf designs. With the Dutch influence, kalamkari art was started on bed covers, curtains and garments.Most of the indoor home décor items are usually placed according to colour schemes and even themes such as animal theme, nature theme, floral theme, spirituality theme, etc.

Srikalahasti Style of kalamkari painting is influenced by Indian temples. Scrolls and wall hangings with narratives and figurines from epics such as Mahabharata, Ramayana, Puranas, etc. deities such as Krishna, Brahma, Ganesha, Durga, Kiratavinyaarjuna, Lakshmi, Rama, Shiva and Parvathi were the main subjects.

The kalamkari goes through a vigorous process of resist – dyeing and hand printing. Kalamkari painting goes through a lot of treatment before and after the painting is done on the fabric. The colours change depending on the treatment of cloth and quality of the mordant.Every step in the process is painstakingly done and with perfection.

Kalamkari paintings have a big demand in the market even outside India. The kalamkari art for sale is available in leading exhibitions that showcase and promote Indian handicrafts.

'Indian elements' dominate India Art Summit

2009-08-26T02:26:00.000-07:00

At Delhi's main venue for large trade exhibitions, Pragati Maidan, there's a buzz in the air. Stylish young women flashing designer bags and sunglasses mingle with bearded artists and men wearing conservative business suits.Welcome to the India Art Summit, the country's largest contemporary arts exhibition showcasing collections from 54 galleries from around the world.

But although there are works from several internationally renowned artists, including Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, the focus is unmistakeably on Indian art.Vast canvases of oil paintings from some of India most renowned painters share space with a variety of art forms from younger, more contemporary artists including sculptures, video and digital art installations.

At the entrance is the showpiece - three giant sculptures by one of the country's leading contemporary artists, Subodh Gupta, depicting three monkeys made of bronze, steel and old utensils.

One of the artists exhibiting her work here is Arpana Caur. In her 50s, she's one of India's most celebrated painters and is often described as one of the "Great Indian Modernists".

Renu Mody displayed her work internationally and is currently exhibiting at the Bradford Museum in the UK, alongside David Hockney and Damien Hirst but believes that however contemporary Indian art may be, it must stay faithful to its roots.

Over the past few years, the Indian art market has boomed. Last year Christie's sold a painting by the Indian artist, Francis Newton Souza, for a record £1.2 million (about $2m).

Indian art draws on a rich tradition that goes back thousands of years but what we are seeing here is its commercial and artistic evolution. This summit was put together by people in their 20s and one of the art panels was curated by a young girl of 17. So an entire new generation
of artists and art lovers is driving Indian art and pushing its boundaries.

Mona Rai

2009-08-12T23:17:00.000-07:00

MONA Rai, contemporary Indian artist who was born in Delhi in 1947 studied M.A. Psychology, Delhi University and attended art classes for a couple of years at Triveni Kala Sangam. She lives and works in Delhi.

The space of painting is often thought to be one of quite contemplation, of refuge, seclusion and withdrawal from the world. For Mona Rai it is exactly the opposite: it is a space for experimentation and risk – taking, where danger can be courted and limits exceeded.

For Mona, painting is a space which allows things that are excluded from daily life to happen with passion, rigor and even rage. Her looming, square works epitomize her artistic attitude. Textures fascinate Rai; dots, dashes, slashes, directional strokes and streaks create her particular style. Square canvases are seldom used infigurative or narrative art, since dramatic distortions are hard to
accommodate.

The quality of tension and striving in Mona Rai's canvasses is indeed intriguing. The constant repetition of see what first appears to be randomness unified by the demands of color, gives way to a feel of stillness, and tranquility.

Her work also evokes deep meditativeness. Her work mostly relates to the cosmic mystery of open space, light and time, that is intangible and cannot be easily 'boxed or compartmentalized.

During her long and distinguished career, she has had many solo and group shows. Her work has also been been exhibited internationally and features in several prestigious collections such as National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Lalit Kala Akademi; Air India; Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal, Punjab University Museum, Chandigarh and in other private collections in India and internationally.

Araceli Limcaco-Dans - Muse with paintings

2009-07-23T00:09:00.000-07:00

Of the many Filipina women artists, it is probably Araceli Limcaco-Dans who has had the longest and most consistent career as an artist and teacher. Her parents, with roots in the artistic town of Paete in Laguna, were among the most encouraging in art. She recalls that her father Eleuterio Limcaco enrolled her as a very young girl under Angela Fernandez at Santa Rosa College for the rudiments of art.

Araceli Limcaco-Dans is a still life painter and is well known for using the medium, watercolor. She paints and draws in life. Her paintings combine beauty and poetry in a way that makes the paintings realistic. Just like her, my professor, Prof. Dans-Lee is an artist-educator too. And oh, not only are they good artists and educators, but both of them are beautiful women, so are my professor's siblings too!

She came in as a special student in the University of the Philippines’ School of Fine Arts on Padre Faura. Even as a young girl, her career as an artist had already such auspicious and exciting beginnings.

Dans gained fame for her calado series, but she has also worked in many genres in oil and watercolor.

She has painted the miniaturists Justiniano Asuncion, Simon Flores, Antonio Malantic alike by other portraitists two centuries ago. They were called “miniaturists” because of their meticulous attention to detail using an exceedingly fine brush to render details of embroidery and accessories, and not because they did paintings of small dimensions, for many of them were full-sized works.

Aside from portraits, Dans also did paintings related to her household, as in a charming woven basket filled willy-nilly with children’s shoes and sandals, referring to her own household of 10 children that she feeds with chicken noodle soup and chocolate cake recipes too probably.

Under these circumstances, it is indeed a wonder that she was able to maintain her art, bravely and intensely, to be sure. But her life as wife and mother with its multiple roles was, however, intricately interwoven with her art.

Indian Art Shines at Sotheby's London

2009-07-21T02:01:00.000-07:00

It was celebration of Indian Art away from India, in the city of London. At the occasion of this prestigious sale, a fine assortment of works by leading Modern and Contemporary Indian artists as well as rare and important Indian Miniatures was established. Francis Newton Souza’s Orange Head and Jogen Chowdhury’s Day Dreaming sparked the most spirited bidding-battles of the day and were the top-selling lots of the sale.Highlights of Sotheby's annual sale of Indian Art in London, which took place on 28 June recently-

Orange Head by Francis Newton Souza
Orange Head by Francis Newton Souza (lot 62) saw strong competition from a number of buyers before selling to a US Private Collector for £403,250 / $658,628 – more than three times the presale high estimate (est: £80,000-120,000). This price represents the highest price of the
summer auction series of Indian Art at any auction house.

Day Dreaming by Jogen Chowdhury
Jogen Chowdhury’s ink and pastel composition Day Dreaming graced the cover of the sale catalogue and was greatly admired during its pre-sale exhibition. The picture was eventually purchased by a US Private Collector for £373,250 / US$609,629, establishing a new record for the Post-Independence Indian artist. It is one of the largest works of its kind by Chowdhury to ever come to the market.

Untitled by Manjit Bawa
An Untitled painting by Manjit Bawa, which featured on the front cover of the first ever issue of Art India in 1996 was sold to an Indian Private Collector for £85,250 / $139,239.

Maqbool Fida Husain
Works by Maqbool Fida Husain were also highly sought-after with five of the seven works offered achieving prices in excess of their pre-sale high estimates. The solid results highlight the particularly strong demand for Husain works from the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.

What a show...indeed!

Jatin Das Contemporary Indian Painter

2009-07-21T01:25:00.000-07:00

Jatin Das born in 1941 in Mayurbhanj, Orissa. Jatin studied painting at Sir J J School of Art in Bombay (1957-62). Since he finished his art educated he has been participating in all important national and international art exhibitions, namely the Biennales in Paris (1971),and in Venice (1978) and the Documenta in Kessel (1975).

An innovative explorer of dynamic human figures in terms of linear caricaturization and breezy brushwork, Jatin Das focuses mainly on man-woman relationships in varying moments of crisis, contacts,revelation, and emotional tension.

There is a sentimentality in his treatment of human forms, which is retained even when the forms are energized by way of rhythmic discontinuities of color-planes and rushing lines. A sensitive
colorist who refuses to treat his imagery in 3-D volumes, Jatin charges his palette with emotional nuances.

Between 1965 and 1991, he participated in 37 solo shows, national and international, presenting a revealing retrospective sponsored by the ITC at the Lalit Kala Gallery in 1991. He attended 12 artists' camps (1974-89), four workshops and offered his works at 14 charity shows all over India. Fourteen limited editions of his theme-based graphics and conte drawings have been published in India, Germany and U.K.

Besides being the most prolific figurative painters, is also a graphic
artist, sculptor, muralist and a poet.

Syed Haider Raza

2009-06-27T02:30:00.000-07:00

Syed Haider Raza, born in 1922 in Babaria (MP) studied painting in the Nagpur School of Art and the J. J. School of Art, Bombay. A founder member of the Progressive Artists Group, he presented several exhibitions of his paintings in India before leaving for France on a French government scholarship in 1950. Raza studied painting at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1950 to 1953.

In 1956, S.H Raza was awarded the Prix de la Critique in Paris. He has put on numerous individual exhibitions of his paintings and has participated in group shows including the International Biennales at Venice, Sao Paolo and Menton, and in the Triennale at New Delhi. In 1959, he married the French artist Janine Mongillat. Three years later, in 1962, he visited the University of California at Berkeley asa visiting lecturer in the art department. He revisited India several times between 1959 and 1985. Since then he has visited India every
year to establish a tangible relationship with Indian concepts, contemporary art and life.

Raza's "Cityscape" (1946) and "Baramulla in Ruins" (1948) show his sorrow and anguish over the partition of Hindustan and the suffering of Muslims in Mumbai during the riots.

In December 1978, the government of Madhya Pradesh invited him to his native state for a homage and an exhibition of his works in Bhopal. S.H.Raza was awarded the Padma Shri by the President of India in 1981, and was elected a Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, in 1983. Since then he has received the Kalidas Samman from the government of Madhya Pradesh and a retrospective of his paintings has been presented at the Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal.

S.H. Raza lives and works in Paris and Gorbio, in Southern France.

Satish Gupta - Modern Indian Artist

2009-06-06T00:55:00.000-07:00

Satish Gupta, artist, sculptor and poet, has exhibited his work in numerous one-man shows at galleries within India and abroad. Born in 1947 in New Delhi, Satish Gupta studied art for five years at the College of Art, New Delhi.

He moved to Paris on a scholarship to study graphics and stayed there for two formative years, from 1970 to 1972. At present, he lives in New Delhi and works from his studio Zazen, in Gurgaon. He writes a regular column “Zen Black, Zen White” for the First City magazine, published from Delhi.

In over 30 solo shows in India, his works have been displayed in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pondicherry, Bangalore and Calcutta. His works are in important private collections and museums including the National Gallery of Modern Art, and a 260 ft. long mural at the International airport at New Delhi.

Group Shows of Satish Gupta-

Tao of Shiva curated by Kalpana Shah & Vimla Patil, Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai, March 2004 Indian Art Unleashed curated by Nitin and Anjali Bhalla for Nitanjali Art Gallery, London, June 2004 Art For Vision curated by Sushma Bahl at Gallerie Nvya, October 2004 Sacred Space curated by Anupa Mehta at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, October 2004 ‘Chivas Art Alive’ curated by Poonam Sarin, New Delhi, December 2004,Mumbai, December 2004 and Bangalore, January 2005 Ardhanareshwara, curated by Dr. Alka Pande at Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai, March 2005 Rattnottama Sen Gupta, Rangroop – The Many Faces of Colour at the Visual Arts Gallery, April 2005 Indian Art Unleashed, Dubai curated by Elizabeth Rogers, September 2005

Group Shows (Abroad)
Galerie Espace Pont-Neuf in Paris
The Wraxall Gallery and the Nehru Centre in London
The Ufundi Gallery in Ottawa
The Viridian Gallery and Bose-Pacia Modern in New York
Atlantic Gallery, Washington D.C.
The East & West Art Gallery, Melbourne
Galeria El Sol, Spain

Awards & Achievements
The Sanskriti award was presented to him in 1981. He was invited to deliver a lecture on his works by the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia. Satish Gupta has given several lectures at various places. Some of the recent ones are The Rotary Club at Amritsar and Sanskriti workshop in New Delhi and a presentation and lecture by ‘Drishti’ at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, 2007.

Poems & Books
‘I am the dewdrop, I am the ocean’, his book of Zen stories, haikus and reflections was published in 2005. Inspired by Zen, his book of haiku poems “The Broken Wave” was
published in 1985. His poems have been translated in different languages and published in prestigious magazines. In 1986, he published a portfolio of charcoal drawings, ‘Vibrations’, based on hymns from the Rig-Veda.
‘La Lluna Fugissera’, a book of his haiku poems was translated into Catalan and was published by Bromera Poesia in 2001. A book on his works “The Eyes of the Thar” published by Mapin publications was released in Delhi, Mumbai and London in 2000.
In 1990, he designed the stage for a concert by Pandit Ravi Shankar at Siri Fort auditorium, New Delhi, with nine suspended canvases of the moon and clouds.

He calligraphed his poems on large scrolls at the International poetry Festivals in Spain “La costa Poetica” in Altea, 1995 and at “Ardentissima” in Murcia, 1996. In 1997, Satish Gupta exhibited his Zen sculptures at Art Today in New Delhi. He did a limited edition book for an auction for ‘Asiatic Society’, Mumbai, January, 2004.

Films
In 1987, he also acted in a film “Panchvati”, directed by Basu Bhattacharya, based on a story written by Kusum Ansal. The film featured Deepti Naval & Suresh Oberoi.

Sculptures
In 1998, he created a group of five metal sculptures ranging in height from about 10 feet to 33 feet and weighing over 10 tons. They were inspired by the Five Primal Elements and are displayed permanently at the Jindal Centre in New Delhi.

Satish created an installation with a 9 feet high sculpture of Buddha in copper for the show ‘The Sacred Space’ organized by RPG which was displayed at the Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai in 2004.

Painting
He has been painting the Thar desert over the last ten years and has travelled extensively in Western Rajasthan and Kutch. He has had several exhibitions of his desert paintings in Delhi, Mumbai, New York, London and Dubai.

Exhibitions
‘Transformation’, a series inspired by his encounters with Zen, was exhibited in Delhi and Mumbai in 2003. These works were based on the physical and spiritual forces, portraying cosmic consciousness.

Other Notable Works of Satish Gupta
Satish Gupta has also participated in art camps at The Oberoi, Mumbai, June 1998, Taj Bengal, Kolkata, Febraury 2001, JW Mariott, Mumbai, September 2004, Harsh Goenka’s art camp at Marvel, Mumbai, January 2005, Turkey and Egypt organised by Popular Prakashan, 2005 and Sitaaray Art Camp, London , 2006, to name a few.

One of Satish’s works was gifted for an auction organized by ‘Give India’ in aid of Tsunami victims curated by Anupa Mehta at Mumbai in the year 2005.He had a show of his paintings and sculptures “A Floating World” at Tamarai Art Space in London recently in October, 2006 and also participated in an auction for WWF. His two works were auctioned at the ‘Khushii Auction’, 2006. He did an installation for ‘Digressing Domains’, a mega show curated by Sushma Bahl for Nitanjali Art Gallery at Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhawan, Delhi, 2006. ‘Buddha’s Awakening’, a large suspended installation, composed of 18 works on canvas was displayed in Mumbai, 2006. The event was curated by Anupa Mehta. His recent show Cosmic Matrix II, was exhibited at
Jehangir, Mumbai, January, 2007. The show was sponsored by Gallery Art & Soul. After Bombay it was Cosmic Matrix-III at Birla Art and Culture Academi, Kolkata, in February, 2007.

S.H. Raja

2009-06-05T22:48:00.001-07:00

S.H. Raza was born as Syed Haider Raza on February 22, 1922, in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

One of the most distinguished artists of the Indian sub-continent, Raza has been settled in France since 1950. However, his ties with India remain as strong as ever. The paintings of Syed Haider Raza have been done mainly in oil or acrylic and have a very heavy usage of color. His wife is a French artist, Janine Mongillat. Know more about the biography and life history of S.H. Raza with this article:

Raza received his formal training in painting at the Nagpur School of Art (Nagpur) and Sir J. J. School of Art (Mumbai). During his stay at the Sir J.J. School, he became a member of Progressive Artist Group. At that time, S.H. Raza experimented with the Western Modernism, which was moving away from expressionism and towards abstraction. Thereafter, he shifted to France to pursue his studies at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts of Paris. The paintings of Syed Haider Raza in the 1940s and 1950s revolved mainly around landscapes.

His Style

The paintings of S.H. Raza revolve mainly around nature and its various faucets. His paintings have evolved from being purely expressionist landscapes to abstract ones. He believes the Bindu (dot) to be the center of creation and existence and his works reflect this particular thinking. Even though the vibrancy of his paintings has become subtle, the dynamism remains as alive as ever.
Achievement

A painting by S.H. Raza was reportedly sold for US $1.4 million at an auction held in December 2006. In Feb 2007, his works were exhibited in The Arts Trust - Institute of Contemporary Indian Art (Mumbai).
Recognition
S.H. Raza was awarded the prestigious Padma Shree by the Government of India in the year 1981. He is also a Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi of New Delhi. The government of Madhya Pradesh has awarded him the Kalidas Samman.

Tyeb Mehta "India's Pride"

2009-05-29T23:55:00.000-07:00

Tyeb Mehta was born in Gujrat in 1925 and spent his earlier years working as a film editor in a cinema laboratory.

His deep interest in arts & painting, however, took him to the Sir J.J. School of Art from where he received his diploma in 1952.

A close friend of the Progressive Artists Group with considerable stylistic affiliation he left for London where he lived and worked between 1959 and 1964. He visited USA on a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1968. His film Koodal, a powerful depiction of the ordinary man's dilemma won the Film fare Critic's Award in 1970.

As an artist residing in Santiniketan between 1984-85, he returned to Mumbai with significant transformation in his work.

Exhibitions

Apart from several solo exhibitions, Mehta has also participated in international shows.

International Platforms

Ten Contemporary Indian Painters at Trenton in the U.S. in 1965 Deuxieme Biennial Internationale de Menton, 1974 Festival Intemationale de la Peinture, Cagnes- -Sur-Mer, France 1974 Modem Indian Paintings at Hirschhom Museum, Washington 1982 Seven Indian Painters at Gallerie Le Monde de U art, Paris 1994.

Mehta's pre-occupation with formalist means of expression have led to matt surfaces, broken with diagonals and imagery which while expressing a deep anguish is specifically painterly. In recent years, there has been a vivid articulation of mythological figures like Kali in a mode mist, symbolic manner. Increasingly, his work uses imagery which is ancient yet powerfully modern.

Records on Tyeb Mehta's Name

Tyeb Mehta holds the record for the highest prices at which Indian paintings have ever been sold which aptly makes him India's pride.

In May 2005, his painting "Kali" sold for 10 million Indian rupees (approximately equal to 230,000 US dollars) at Indian auction house Saffronart's online auction.

A reinterpretation of the tale of "Mahishasura" by Mehta showing Durga locked in an embrace with Mahisha sold for $1.584 million.

In December 2005, Mehta's painting "Gesture" was sold for 31 million Indian rupees to Ranjit Malkani, chairman of Kuomi Travel, at the Osian’s auction. This makes it the highest price paid by an Indian for Indian contemporary art at an auction in India.

Awards Bestowed on Tyeb Mehta

He was awarded the Kalidas Samman by the Madhya Pradesh Government in 1988. He also received Padma Bhushan award in 2007.

Mehta is alive and works in Mumbai, India.

F.N Souza Painter, Writer and Visionary

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Indian art has always entangled in itself history, religion and philosophy. India can boast of many a great artiste of the century. Francis Newton Souza was one such artist. He was the first experimental artist from India to achieve wide spread fame in the west.

Birth and Education

He was born on April 12, 1928 in Goa and was Christian by religion.

He studied Art at the J.J. School of Arts in Mumbai but was expelled from the school for his participation in the Quit India Movement way back in 1942.

Souza’a career went steady and he started participating in a lot of exhibitions and shows. Souza was the founder of the Bombay Progressive Artist’s Group. He encouraged all painters to participate in the avant-garde movement. Souza moved to England in the 1950’s.

Souza Paintings

F N Souza’s painting appeared ephemeral with his incensed brushstrokes, criss-cross lines and glossy borders. His paintings seemed grave and futile, pressing and mocking at you. Souza reasserted the intensity of impressions with utmost desperation. Souza’s painting
seemed to attack the canvas. It was as if he waged a war against it. Souza combined the art of ex-pressionism of Rouault and Soutine, fortitude of Cubism and ancient Indian classical sculptures to paint beautiful landscapes, crucifixes, popes and priests etc. Lines were
Souza’s forte. Souza always painted and still left something in his paintings which made them mysterious and captivating.
Souza Writings

What threw Souza into fame was his autobiographical essay ‘Nirvana of a Maggot’ which appeared in 1955 in a magazine edited by Stephen Spender. ‘Words and Lines’ was his other great book which was published in London in 1959. In 1967, Souza settled in New York.

Awards

Soon after independence, he left for Britain, and then for New York, where he received the Guggenheim International Award.
Exhibitions

His works are in the collections of the Tate Gallery, London and the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. His works were exhibited at the Gallery Creuze, Paris in 1954, at Arts 38, in London, in 1975 and 1976, and at the Bose Pacia Modern, in New York, in 1998.Souza has
also been a part of the Commonwealth Artists of Fame exhibition which was held in London in 1977. He has also participated in several other exhibitions which include one-man shows in Paris in 1954 and 1960 and in Detroit in 1968. In 1987, his retrospectives were held in New Delhi
and Mumbai. He also exhibited his work at the Indus Gallery in Karachi in 1988. In 1996, his paintings were displayed at New Delhi again. In 2005, as part of their British Art Collection, the Tate Britain devoted an area to Souza’s works so that Britain art lovers could
appreciate his work time and now.

Last Days

In his last days, Souza painted many pictures under the title “Goa portfolio” where he added inspiring quotes. Souza was always viewed as a brilliant painter, a good writer, a visionary and a pathfinder. Although Souza lived in the west; first England then New York, he remained a through Indian at heart.

Death
Souza returned to India shortly before his death, Souza was laid to
rest in Sewri cemetery in Mumbai, in a quiet funeral after his death
on March 28, 2002.

Souza was one of the early modernist in the true sense of the term.
Souza’s work had hints of ex-pressionism and British neo-romanticism.
F. N. Souza also received positive appreciation from John Peter
Berger, an art critique. Berger also said that Souza’s style was
deliberately eclectic.

M.F. Hussain "Piccasso of India"

2009-05-12T23:26:00.000-07:00

India’s most maverick, modern artist, M F Husain, 94+ years, who single-handedly broke the cordons of exclusivity and took his art mainstream to the masses. From travelling around the world to creating a show of crumpled newspapers, he has mocked critics, courted moneyed buyers yet reached out to people, a bond he built as a hoarding artist painting posters for Bollywood film hoardings.

Some of the most iconic images in Indian art have been his imagination — Mother Teresa, Indira Gandhi, the Lady with the Lamp, vignettes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and of course, his horses.This multi-faceted artist has made significant contributions in other fields also- as a director, photographer and member of the Indian Parliament.

In recent times, it seems to be trendy to dismiss Husain’s prodigious talent, but make no mistake: Husain is India’s tour de force of art.

He has cosmopolitan existence, he has homes in Dubai and London.At home in Dubai, he is creating a series on the Arabic civilisation, and in London, where he has a home, Husain has shielded away from returning to India fearing for his life from Hindu fundamentalists who
have objected to some of his paintings.

His prices have fallen recently, though he has struck the biggest deals for the largest sums of money that any Indian artist has commanded: a whopping Rs 100 crore for one such series in India, and an undisclosed sum for his work on the Arab civilisation, making him without a doubt India’s richest living artist.

In his early years, Maqbool Fida Husain's mother, Zunaib, died when he was an infant and his father, Fida, remarried and moved to Indore, where Husain went to school. He moved to Mumbai at age of 20 when he was admitted to the J. J. School of Arts. He married Fazila in the
year 1941 and they had two daughters Raisa and Aqueela and three sons, Mustafa, a restaurateur and Shamshad and Owais, both painters themselves. During his early days in Mumbai he earned money painting cinema hoarding--- one of the often-told stories about his early days. And except the New Theatre distributor, the others did not pay us at
all. As soon as he earned a little bit he used to take off for Surat, Baroda and Ahmedabad to paint landscapes.

Given this bad pay, Husain tried other jobs as well. One of the best paying was a toy factory, where he designed and built fretwork toys.

His career has now spanned several decades and here below we are taking an insight into his significant works in time span between 1940-1965, particularly and then later. The time when he reached out to masses and won a place in their hearts.

Hussain's popularity grew as an artist in the late 1940s. In 1947, he joined the Progressive Artists' Group, founded by Francis Newton Souza. This was a clique of young artists who wished to break with the nationalist traditions established by the Bengal school of art and to encourage an Indian avant-garde, engaged at an international level. In 1952, his first solo exhibition was held at Zürich and over the next few years, his work was widely seen in Europe and U.S..

In 1955, he was awarded the prestigious Padma Shree prize by the Government of India.

In the 1947 annual exhibition of the Bombay Art Society, his painting Sunhera Sansaar was shown. This was his first exhibition. After the Partition later that year, Husain decided to stay in India. Soon the Progressive Artists' Group was formed. Through it, Husain was exposed to, and strongly influenced by, the work of Emil Nolde and Oskar Kokoschka. From 1948 to 1950 a series of exhibitions all over India brought Husain's work to the notice of the public.

His work was exhibited at the Salon de Mai in Paris (1951), the Venice biennales (1953, 1955), Tokyo Biennale (1959 where he won the International Biennale Award), the São Paulo biennales in1959 and in 1971 where he was invited to exhibit alongside Pablo Picasso. His work was first shown in the USA at India House, New York, in 1964.

Besides painting, he has also made a film 'Through the Eyes of a Painter' in 1967 which went on to win the Golden Bear Award in Berlin Film Festival. He has made several short films since then.He has been awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1973 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1991.

A big mural of his, around 40 feet high called the Portrait of the 20th Century depicts all the major personalities of arts, science, dance, literature, politics etc.

Husain's most interesting paintings of the 90's is the series named after Madhuri Dixit, a well known cine artist in Hindi cinema. He saw her film 'Hum Aapke Hai Kaun.' 67 times and painted a whole series of paintings on her, and even directed her in a film 'Gaja Gamini'. Hussain became the talk of the town for his open fascination with Madhuri Dixit. Subsequently, he made another film 'Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities' with Tabu, another cine artist.

Described by Forbes magazine as 'the Picasso of India', Hussain, the immensely popular and controversial artist, remains a central figure in the contemporary Indian art scene.

Exhibition of Kandinsky Work in Paris

2009-05-09T00:06:00.000-07:00

An exhibition displaying more than 90 works of the Russian painter, Kandinsky is running from April 8,2009 at the Georges Pompidou Center and will run until August 10 before heading to New York, where the exhibition will be hosted by the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum this
fall.

The exhibition is jointly organized by the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich, the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris and the Guggenheim in New York, features the works of the artist in chronological order, divided into the five major periods of his artistic career, which were marked by the three countries he resided in: Russia, Germany and France.

Starting with pieces from his years as a student in Munich and his travels through Europe (1896-1907), the exhibition debuts with paintings of folklore and legends from his country of birth, Russia. Whether painted in Munich or Paris, these first works show the
influence from his natal city Moscow. At this stage his paintings deal with concrete subjects, such as Russian Scene, painted in 1903.

The second period, Munich (1908 to 1914), marks a turning point in the artist’s work, where he moves away from limited forms and towards abstract art. The use of strong colors becomes more prevalent.

During this period even the titles of his paintings changed, from detailed descriptions such as, Landscape near Murnau with Locomotive, 1909, to the use of terms like “improvisations.” The improvisations, apart from being a reference to music and it’s relation with color,
are what the artist described as “visual translations of strong spiritual moments.”

In 1914, after the declaration of the War, Kandinsky was forced to return to Russia where he spent six years. Leaving Germany, following the breakup of his relationship with Gabrielle Münter, led Kandinsky to a somber unproductive period. The few pieces produced during this time show a return to the naivety that characterized the first years of his career. Paintings such as, Moscow, 1916, show tangible forms and concrete subjects; Moscow again became his principle subject.

Regrettably, the first three compositions were destroyed during World War II. The highlight of the exhibition (and probably of Kandinsky’s career) is the fourth room or fourth period of works dating from the time the artist left the Soviet Union and settled in Germany in 1921.
This was a time of intense creativity, painting, teaching and writing, which gave birth to some of the most representative art of Kandinsky, including Composition VIII and Several circles.

Kandinsky had always expressed a strong dislike for the color black and it is significant that he chose it as the dominating color of his last major artistic statement.Because of Nazi persecution, Kandinsky left Germany in 1933, and settled in Neuilly Sur Seine, in France,
where he died in 1944 as a French citizen.

Noted Paintings of Raja Ravi Verma

2009-05-07T02:05:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Varma’s skills first came to light when he painted the portrait of the
governor of Madras. Later, his Nair Woman with Jasmine Flowers in her Hair won him a gold medal at the Madras show and an art competition in Vienna in 1887.

The medium of oil allowed him to sensuously model his women as
full-bodied presences. A distinctive feature of a work like Malabar
Beauty, for instance, was that it transcended its settings to become a
national emblem.

This painting was part of a repertoire of 10 works which represented
India at the World Columbian Order of 1893 and went on to win an award.

It was, however, his historical paintings which won him widespread
recognition. The epic tales from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranic
texts became fodder for this new art. His lyrical works like
Hansa-Damayanti or Rama Vanquishing the Sea became prototypes of
innumerable printed images.

He brought about these by using the vocabulary of western academic
tradition, blended with his influence of the Tanjore paintings and a lustrous sheen which was entirely his own.

Some of his noted paintings are Village Belle,Lady Lost in Though,
Damayanti Talking to a Swan, The Orchestra,Arjuna and Subhadra,Lady
with lemon,The Heartbroken, Swarbat Player, Shakuntala,Lord Krishna as
Ambassador,Jatayu, a bird devotee of Lord Rama is mauled by Rawana,
Victory of Indrajit,A Family of Beggars, A Lady Playing Swarbat, Lady
Giving Alms at the Temple,Lord Rama Conquers Varuna,Nair
Woman,Romancing Couple, Draupadi Dreading to Meet Kichaka, Shantanu
and Matsyagandha, Shakuntala Composing a Love Letter to King Dushyanta
and Girl in Sage Kanwa's Hermitage (Rishi-

Image via Wikipedia

Kanya)

Raja Ravi Verma- Blended Indian Art with Western

2009-04-30T04:37:00.000-07:00

Raja Ravi Varma was born on April 29, 1848 at Kilimanoor, a small town in Kerala. As a boy of five, he filled the walls of his house with pictures of animals and illustrations from everyday life.

His uncle also an artist, Raja Raja Varma, recognized his talents and gave him elementary art lessons. He was taken to Thiruvananthapuram in his fourteenth year to stay in the royal palace and learn oil painting. During these formative years the young Ravi Varma had many opportunities to discover and learn new techniques and media in the field of painting. His later years spent in Mysore, Baroda ad other parts of the country enabled him to sharpen and expand his skills and blossom into a mature and complete painter. He travelled a lot in search of subjects all his life.

The glittering career of Raja Ravi Varma is a striking case study of academic art in India. He was undoubtedly the greatest artist of modern India, a national builder who showed the moral courage of a gifted 'high-born' in taking up the 'degrading profession of painting'. He was courted assiduously by the British Empire as well as by the Indian Maharajas. His less expensive prints of his Hindu deities hung in every home.

Raja Ravi Varma owed his success to a systematic training, first in the traditional art of Thanjavoor, and then in European art.

His paintings can be broadly classified into
1.Portraits,
2.Portrait-based compositions,
3.Theatrical compositions based on myths and legends.

He often modeled Hindu Goddesses on South Indian women, whom he considered beautiful. Ravi Varma is particularly noted for his paintings depicting episodes from the story of Dushyanta and Shakuntala, and le="Nala" rel="wikipedia">Nala and Damayanti, from the Mahabharata. Ravi Varma's representation of mythological characters has become a part of the Indian imagination of the epics.

Though the artist's immense popularity lay in the third category, the first two types of works prove his merit as an exceedingly sensitive and competent artist. No other painter till today has been able to supersede Ravi Varma in portraiture in the oil medium.

Ravi Varma is considered as modern among traditionalists and a rationalist among moderns. He provided a vital link between the traditional Indian art and the contemporary, between the Thanjavoor School and Western Academic realism.

He brought Indian painting to the attention of the larger world.Considering his vast contribution to Indian art, the Government of Kerala has instituted an award called Raja Ravi Varma Puraskaram, which is awarded every year to people who show excellence in the field of art and culture.

Raja Ravi Varma demised creating a void in the art arena of India on 2nd October 1906.

Amrita Shergill- Art Work

2009-04-28T00:39:00.000-07:00

Amrita Shergill, one of the most renowned female painters of India, was born on 30th January 1913 in Budapest city of Hungary. Her father, Umrao Singh Shergill Majithia was a Sikh aristocrat, who was a scholar in Sanskrit. Her mother was a Hungarian singer, Marie Antoinette Gottesmann.

She is referred to as India's Frida Kahlo.

Though she was already painting since the age of five she formally started learning painting at age of eight.

Her early paintings display a significant influence of the Western modes of painting as she drew inspiration from painters, Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin, especially as being practised in the Bohemian circles of Paris in the early 1930s.

In 1932, she made her first important work, Young Girls, which led to her election as an Associate of the Grand Salon in Paris in 1933, making her the youngest ever and the only Asian to have received this recognition.

The Government of India has declared her works as National Art Treasures and most of them are housed in the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, and a postage stamp depicting her painting 'Hill Women' was released in 1978 in India and a road in Lutyen's Delhi, was named after her, Amrita Shergill Marg.

Amrita Shergill is such a celebrated painter that her painting Village scene was sold in 2006 at a whopping price of Rs 6,90,00,000.

Describing herself as a "sensualist of the eyes", Sher-Gil became preoccupied with painting the rural Indian poor - storytellers, camel drivers, villagers, farmhands - in a robust, earthy palette. So were named some of her paintings Camels, Two Elephants and Tribal Women.

She was also fascinated with Mughal miniatures and the ancient cave-paintings at Ajanta.

"Europe belongs to Picasso, Matisse and Braque and many others. India belongs only to me. So wrote the glamorous Indian modernist Amrita Sher-Gil, who died in 1941, aged only 28.

Salvador Dali

2009-02-02T04:20:00.000-08:00

Salvador Dalí was born in the town of Figueres, in the Empordà region, close to the French border in Catalonia, Spain. His 2 years elder brother died 9 months before Salvador's birth, because of gastroenteritis. His brother, who was also named Salvador, died on August 1, 1903. Salvador Dali's father whose name was Salvador Dalí i Cusí, was a middle-class lawyer and notary. He had a strict disciplinary approach which Dali's mother Felipa Domenech Ferrés did not like at all. Dali's mother encouraged her son's artistic streaks.

At the age of five Dali's parents took him to his brothers grave and told him that he was his brother's reincarnation, which Dali also believed in. Dali once even said that "…[we] resembled each other like two drops of water, but we had different reflections." He "was probably a first version of myself but conceived too much in the absolute." Salvador Dalí also had a younger sister who was three years younger to him. Dali's sister became an author in 1949 when she published a book on her brother, named Dali As Seen By His Sister.

Salvador Dali's Childhood friends who used to play football with him, included future FC Barcelona footballers Sagibarbá and Josep Samitier. During holidays at the Catalan resort of Cadaqués, the trio played football together. Salvador Dalí also attended a drawing school. It was during the summer of 1916, while Dali was on a vacation to Cadaques with the family of Ramon Pichot, that he discovered modern painting. Ramon Pichot was a local artist who made regular trips to Paris.

The very next year Salvador Dali's father organized a small exhibition at his family home, that exhibited the drawings of Dali. Dali's first public exhibition was organized in 1919, at the Municipal Theater in Figueres. In February 1921, Salvador Dalí's mother died of breast cancer, when he was only sixteen years old. Dali loved his mother a lot and once said about his mother's death that "[it] was the greatest blow I had experienced in my life. I worshiped her… I could not resign myself to the loss of a being on whom I counted to make invisible the unavoidable blemishes of my soul."

After the death of his mother, Salvador Dali's father married his aunt, his mother's sister. This marriage was not resented by him because he had great love and respect for his aunt. In 1922, Salvador Dali went to a student's residence known as Residencia de Estudiantes, in Madrid to study at the Academia de San Fernando (School of Fine Arts). Dali was then a lean 1.72 m tall boy and Dalí had already drew attention as an eccentric and dandy. He kept long hair and side burns and wore coat, stockings, and knee breeches just in the same style as English aesthetes of the late 19th century.

But it was not his attire but his paintings and the experiments he did with cubism that earned him the maximum attention of his fellow students. But at this time though Dali experimented with cubism but he could not completely understand Cubist Art. He only got information on the Cubist Art from magazine articles and a catalogs which was given to him by Pichot because there were no Cubist artists in Madrid at that time.

In 1924 when Salvador Dali was still unknown he illustrated a book for the first time. It was a publication of the Catalan poem "Les bruixes de Llers" ("The Witches of Llers") by his friend and schoolmate, poet Carles Fages de Climent. Salvador Dalí even experimented with Dada, which influenced his work for the rest of his life. While at the Residencia, he made close friends including Pepín Bello, Luis Buñuel, and poet Federico García Lorca. The friendship with Gracia Lorca had a strong element of mutual passion, but Dalí fearfully rejected the erotic advances of the poet.

Salvador Dali Paintings

2009-02-01T13:15:00.000-08:00

Salvador Dali whose birth name is Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, was the 1st Marquis of Púbol and was born on May 11, 1904. Salvador was a Spanish Catalan surrealist painter who was born in Figueres. He died on January 23, 1989. Salvador was famous for his surrealist work in which Salvador made striking and bizzare images. Dalí was a skilled draftsman too. He was very much influenced by the Renaissance masters and all his painting skill can be attributed too these masters. The Painting known as The Persistence of Memory which got completed in 1931, is Salvador's best known work.

Salvador's works include films, sculptures and photography which he did in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of mediums. Salvador Dalí had an excessive and gilded love for everything he had, from the luxury and oriental clothes to the self styled Arab Lineage. He also claimed that his ancestors had descended from the Moors. Dali was considered to be highly imaginative and had the habit of seeking attention behaving in an unusual manner. This behavior of his sometimes irritated those who liked his art because his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork.

In Carlos Lozano's biography, Sex, Surrealism, Dalí, and Me, produced with the collaboration of Clifford Thurlow, Lozano says that Dalí never stopped being a surrealist. As Dalí himself said "the only difference between me and the surrealists is that I am a surrealist." Salvador Dalí produced over 1,500 paintings in addition to illustrations for books, lithographs, designs for theater sets and costumes, a great number of drawings, dozens of sculptures, and various other projects, including an animated cartoon for Disney. Salvador even collaborated to make a movie named Dali in New York in 1965, with director Jack Bond.

The largest amount of work done by Dali can be found at the Dalí Theatre and Museum in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain and the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, which contains the collection of A. Reynolds Morse & Eleanor R. Morse. The latter one exhibits over 1,500 works by Dalí. Other museums where Dali's works can be found include the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and the Salvador Dalí Gallery in Pacific Palisades, California. Espace Dalí in Montmartre, Paris, France, as well as the Dalí Universe in London, England, also contain a large collection of Dali's drawings and sculptures.

Dali's work can also be found in the most unlikeliest venue the Rikers Island jail in New York City. The sketch of the Crucifixion that he donated to the jail hung in the inmate dining room for 16 years before it was moved to the prison lobby for safekeeping. But the drawing got stolen in March 2003 and has not been recovered till now. Some of Salvador's Paintings include Landscape Near Figueras,The Artist's Father at Llane Beach and View of Portdogué (Port Aluger), L'Âge d'Or film (1930), The Slave Market with Disappearing Bust of Voltaire, Christ of St. John of the Cross, the Assistant to Velázquez, La Toile Daligram and The Swallow's Tail(his last and final painting).

Picasso-Political Views

2009-01-31T21:07:00.000-08:00

Pablo Picasso did not take up arms against any country during World War I, Spanish Civil War and World War II. He just remained neutral and refused to fight from any side. This attitude or expression of Picasso was termed as cowardliness by many of his contemporaries. In an article in The New Yorker he was called “a coward, who sat out two world wars while his friends were suffering and dying”. But the reasons were different. During the World War I and II Picasso was in no compulsion to fight the German because he was a Spanish living in France.

During the Spanish Civil War, the service for Spanish people living outside the country was optional and involved a voluntary return to the country to join either side. So, Picasso did not take part. But, Picasso expressed anger and condemnation of Francisco Franco and fascists through his art rather than taking up arms against them. He also remained aloof from the Catalan independence movement during his youth despite expressing general support and being friendly with activists within it.

In 1944 Pablo Picasso joined the French Communist Party and attended an international peace conference in Poland.In 1950 he received the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet government. But his interest in communist politics soon ended because of party criticism of a portrait of Stalin as insufficiently realistic. But, he remained a loyal member of the Communist Party until his death. In a 1945 in an interview with Jerome Seckler, Picasso stated that “I am a Communist and my painting is Communist painting. … But if I were a shoemaker, Royalist or Communist or anything else, I would not necessarily hammer my shoes in a special way to show my politics.”

Picasso's communist Militancy became a long term subject for controversy because it was not uncommon among intellectuals and artists at the time although it was officially banned in Francoist Spain. He was against the intervention of the United Nations and the United States in the Korean civil war and he depicted it in Massacre in Korea. In 1962, he received the International Lenin Peace Prize.

For Picasso's Commemorations and legacies Click Here!

Picasso-Facts

2009-01-31T11:56:00.000-08:00

Pablo Picasso was exceptionally productive throughout his long life. He produces an estimated total of 50,000 artworks, comprising of 1,885 paintings; 1,228 sculptures; 2,880 ceramics, roughly 12,000 drawings, many thousands of prints, and numerous tapestries and rugs. At the time of Picasso's death he had many paintings in his possession because he had kept all the art which hw didn't need to sell, with him. In addition to his own paintings, Picasso also had a collection of the work of other famous artists, some his contemporaries, such as Henri Matisse, with whom he had exchanged works.

Pablo Picasso left no will after him and his death duties i.e the estate tax to the French state were all paid in the form of his works and others form his collection. All of these works are a part of the collection of the Musée Picasso in Paris. In 2003, Picasso's relatives inaugurated a museum dedicated to him in his birthplace, Málaga, Spain, the Museo Picasso Málaga. The Museu Picasso in Barcelona exhibits many of Picasso’s early works, created while he was living in Spain, including many rarely seen works which reveal Picasso’s firm grounding in classical techniques. The museum also holds many precise and detailed figure studies done in his youth under his father’s tutelage, as well as the extensive collection of Jaime Sabartés, Picasso’s close friend and personal secretary.

Many of the paintings by Picasso rank among the most expensive paintings in the world. The Garçon à la pipe painting was sold for USD $104 million at Sotheby's on 4 May 2004 and it established a new price record. Dora Maar au Chat painting was sold for USD $95.2 million at Sotheby’s on 3 May 2006. In 2004 Picasso remained the top ranked artist according to the sales of his works at auctions according to the Art Market Trends report. More of his paintings have been stolen than those by any other artist. The Picasso Administration functions as his official Estate. The U.S. copyright representative for the Picasso Administration is the Artists Rights Society.

Picasso-Women

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Pablo Picasso was involved with many women in his whole lifetime. He married only twice but had many mistresses and had four children from three women. In 1904, he met Fernande Olivier who was a Bohemian artist and later became his mistress. Olivier was the main inspiration for many of Picasso's paintings and can be seen mainly in his Rose period paintings. After acquiring fame and some fortune, Picasso left Olivier for Marcelle Humbert, whom he called Eva Gouel. Picasso expressed his love for Eva in many of his Cubist Paintings but was devastated on her sudden demise due to illness at the age of 30 in 1915.

Pablo Picasso's first marriage was with Olga Khokhlova in the summer of 1918. Olga Khokhlova was a ballerina with Sergei Diaghilev’s troupe, for whom Picasso was designing a ballet, Parade, in Rome. Both of them spent their honeymoon in the villa near Biarritz of the glamorous Chilean art patron Eugenia Errázuriz. Khokhlova was the one who introduced Picasso to high society, formal dinner parties, and all the social niceties attendant on the life of the rich in 1920s Paris. The two had a son, Paulo, who would grew up to be a motorcycle racer and chauffeur to his father.

But it was not long when Khokhlova’s insistence on social propriety clashed with Picasso’s free tendencies and the two had constant conflict between them. During the same period Pablo Picasso joined the Diaghilev’s troup. In 1920 he and Igor Stravinsky agreed on Pulcinella. Pablo Picasso made several sketches of the composer. Picasso, in 1927 met 17 year old Marie-Thérèse Walter and fell in love with her. They had a secret affair. Soon, Picasso’s marriage to Khokhlova ended in separation rather than divorce because according to French law an even division of property in the case of divorce was necessary and Picasso did not want Khokhlova to have half his wealth. The two remained legally married until Khokhlova’s death in 1955.

Pablo Picasso had a long-standing affair with Marie-Thérèse Walter and they both also had a daughter, Maia. Marie-Thérèse lived in the hope of marrying Picasso and one day but hanged herself four years after Picasso’s death. During the late 1930's and early 1940's Picasso came close to the photographer and painter Dora Maar. She became a constant companion and Picasso's lover. Maar documented the painting of Guernica. After the liberation of Paris from the Germans in 1944, Picasso kept company with a young art student, Françoise Gilot.

Gilot and Picasso fell in love, and had two children together, Claude and Paloma. But unlike other woman, Gilot left Picasso in 1953, because of abusive treatment and infidelities. This was a severe setback to Picasso. He felt depressed after Gilot’s departure. He started feeling that due to his advancing age he was no longer attractive to young women. A number of his ink drawings from this period explore this theme, including several from a six-week affair with Geneviève Laporte, who in June 2005 auctioned off the drawings Picasso made of her.

Pablo Picasso soon found another lover Jacqueline Roque who worked worked at the Madoura Pottery in Vallauris on the French Riviera, where Picasso made and painted ceramics. The two of them remained together for the rest of Picasso’s life and married in 1961. Their marriage seemed to be a sort of revenge against Gilot. That time Gilot had been looking for some legal means to legitimize her children with Picasso. Picasso even encouraged her to divorce her then husband, Luc Simon which she did just to marry Picasso to secure her children’s rights. But Picasso secretly married Roque after Gilot had filed for divorce in order to exact his revenge for her leaving him.

Picasso-Personal Life

2009-01-17T21:52:00.000-08:00

Pablo Picasso made his first trip to Paris in 1900, after studying art at Madrid, which was then known as the art capital of Europe. There he met his first Parasian friend Max Jacob. Max Jacob was a journalist and a poet and he helped Picasso in learning the language and the literature. Picasso and Max Jacob stayed together in an apartment where Jacob slept at night while Picasso slept in the day and worked all through the night. Both lived in severe severe poverty, cold, and desperation and much of Picasso's work was utilized as wood to burn to keep their small room warm.

In 1901 during the first five months Picasso lived in Madrid and along with his friend anarchist Francisco de Asis Soler founded the magazine Arte Joven meaning Young Art, which published five issues. Soler collected/obtained the articles and Picasso decorated the journal, mostly contributing grim cartoons depicting and sympathizing with the state of the poor. The first issue of the book was published on march 31st 1901. By this time Picasso had started signing his work simply Picasso, rather than Pablo Ruiz y Picasso.

Picasso then divided his time between Barcelona and Paris during the early 20th century. By 1905 Picasso became famous and a favorite among the American art collectors Leo and Gertrude Stein and their older brother Michael Stein and his wife Sarah. Picasso painted portraits of both Gertrude Stein and her nephew Allan Stein. Gertrude Stein began acquiring his drawings and paintings and exhibiting them in her informal Salon at her home in Paris.

In 1905, at one such gatherings, Picasso met Henri Matisse who became his lifelong friend and rival. The Steins also introduced him to Claribel Cone and her sister Etta who were American art collectors. The two sisters also began to acquire Picasso and Matisse's paintings. Eventually Leo Stein moved to Italy, and Michael and Sarah Stein became patrons of Matisse. Gertrude Stein continued to collect Picasso.

Pablo Picasso, In 1907 joined Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler's newly opened art gallery, in Paris. Kahnweiler was a German art historian and art collector who became one of the premier French Art dealers of the 20th century. He earned popularity in Paris in the beginning of 1907 due to the reason that he was among the first champions of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Cubism. Kahnweiler championed burgeoning artists such as André Derain, Kees Van Dongen, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Maurice de Vlaminck and several others who had come from all over the globe to live and work in Montparnasse at that time.

In Paris, Pablo Picasso earned the company of a distinguished coterie of friends in the Montmartre and Montparnasse quarters. His friends included André Breton, poet Guillaume Apollinaire, writer Alfred Jarry, and Gertrude Stein. Apollinaire was once arrested on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. But he pointed to his friend Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning, but both were later released.

During the Second World War, Pablo Picasso stayed in Paris while the Germans occupied the city. Germans were not fond of Picasso’s artistic style, so he was not able to show his works during this time. But, retreating to his studio, he continued to paint all this while. The Germans Banned bronze casting in Paris, but Picasso continued it, using the bronze smuggled to him by the French resistance.

By 1950s Pablo Picasso earned a lot of money and had large villas in the south of France, at Notre-dame-de-vie on the outskirts of Mougins, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. He had a celebrity status. In addition to his artistic expertise Picasso also had a film career. He made cameo appearance in Jean Cocteau’s Testament of Orpheus and many other films. He always played himself in his film appearances. In 1955 he helped make the film Le Mystère Picasso directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.

Pablo Picasso died on 8 April 1973 in Mougins, France, while he and his wife Jacqueline entertained friends for dinner. His final words were “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink any more.” He was buried at Castle Vauvenargues’ park, in Vauvenargues, Bouches-du-Rhône. Jacqueline Roque prevented his children Claude and Paloma from attending the funeral. Devastated and lonely after the death of Picasso, Jacqueline Roque took her own life by gunshot in 1986 when she was 60 years old.

To know about the women in Picasso's life Click Here!

Picasso-Biography

2009-01-17T21:05:00.000-08:00

Pablo Picasso was baptized as Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Clito which is a series of names that honor various saints and relatives. Added to this series of names were the names Ruíz and Picasso, the names of his father and mother, according to Spanish custom. Picasso was born in the city of Málaga in the Andalusian region of Spain. He was the first child of Don José Ruiz y Blasco and María Picasso y López. His family was a middle-class family, his father being a painter who specialized in naturalistic depictions of birds and other game. For most of his life his father Ruiz was a professor of art at the School of Crafts and a curator of a local museum. The ancestors of his father Ruiz were minor aristocrats.

From a very early age Pablo Picasso had interest, passion and skill for drawing. According to his mother Pablo Picasso's first words were "piz, piz", a shortening of lápiz meaning ‘pencil’ in Spanish. From the age of seven he got formal artistic training from his father Ruiz, in figure drawing and oil painting. His father was a traditional, academic artist and instructor according to whom a proper training involved disciplined copying of the masters, and drawing the human body from plaster casts and live models. But an disadvantage of this training was that Pablo Picasso was always preoccupied with art always.

In 1891 Picasso's family moved to La Coruña, so that his father could join the School of Fine Arts as a professor. The family stayed in La Coruña for almost four years. Once Pablo Picasso's father found Pablo painting over his unfinished sketch of a pigeon with full dedication and precision. Ruiz felt that the thirteen-year-old Picasso had surpassed him, and vowed to give up painting. An unfortunate, traumatic event in Picasso's life was when his seven years old sister Conchita died of diphtheria in 1895. After Conchita's death, the entire family moved to Barcelona, with Ruiz transferring to its School of Fine Arts.

Pablo Picasso missed his original home in the city of Barcelona, especially in times of sadness or nostalgia. His father persuaded the officials at the academy to allow his son to take an entrance exam for the advanced class. Picasso was so enthusiastic that he completed this test in a week, for which people took a month. The jury got impressed by this and immediately admitted Picasso who was still 13. Picasso was not disciplined but was fast at making friendships that would affect him in later life. His father rented him a small room close to their home so that he could work alone, yet Ruiz checked up on him numerous times a day, judging his son’s drawings and the two argued frequently.

Picasso’s father and uncle decided to send Picasso to Madrid’s Royal Academy of San Fernando which was the foremost art school in the country. At the age of 16, in 1897, Picasso, set off for the first time on his own. But Picasso's difficulties in accepting formal instructions led him to stop attending classes soon after enrollment. There were other things that caught Picasso's attention, and encouraged him to stay in Madrid. These things included the Prado housed paintings by the venerable Diego Velázquez, Francisco Goya, and Francisco Zurbarán. Picasso admired the works of El Greco. Picasso's later echoed their elements, like elongated limbs, arresting colors, and mystical visages in his painting, œuvre.

For More on Picasso's Personal Life Click Here!

Picasso-Classicism and Surrealism

2009-01-16T04:45:00.000-08:00

After the World War I, the society was going through a violent change, and so did Pablo Picasso's style of painting. He started painting in a neoclassical style. This "return to order" can also be seen in the works of many European artists in the 1920s, including André Derain, Giorgio de Chirico, and the artists of the New Objectivity movement. Picasso’s paintings and drawings from this period frequently recall the work of Ingres. During the 1930s, some more changes were incorporated in Picasso's paintings the major one being the replacement of the harlequin with the minotaur as a common motif. Picasso was greatly influenced to use minotaur from his contact with the surrealists, who were known for using it often as their symbol. This acquired quality of Picasso is evident in Picasso’s Guernica.

Pablo Picasso's most fine and famous work is his depiction of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War—Guernica. This large painting This large canvas exhibits for many the inhumanity, brutality and hopelessness of war. Picasso, while explaining the symbolism of the painting, once said, "It isn’t up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words! The public who look at the picture must interpret the symbols as they understand them." For many years Guernica was kept in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. In 1981 it was returned to Spain and exhibited at the Casón del Buen Retiro. In 1992 the painting was sent for display at Madrid’s Reina Sofía Museum when it opened.

Pablo Picasso was one of lucky 250 sculptors who got the chance to exhibit in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949. In the 1950s, his syle of painting once again changed and he produced reinterpretations of the art of the great masters like the Velazquez’s painting of Las Meninas. He also made paintings based on the art of Goya, Poussin, Manet, Courbet and Delacroix.

Pablo Picasso was commissioned to make a Marquette for the Chicago Picasso which is a huge 50-foot high public sculpture. It was to be built in Chicago. Picasso did this project with great zeal and enthusiasm but ended up designing a sculpture which was ambiguous and somewhat controversial because no one could understand what the figure represents. The figure in the painting could be a bird, a horse, a woman or a totally abstract shape. One of the most recognizable landmarks, The sculpture was unveiled in 1967. Picasso refused to be paid $100,000 for it, donating it to the people of the city.

Picasso's work in his final days was a sort of mixture of all the styles and his means of expression were going through a constant change until the end of his life. He did his works with full fledged energy, which made him more daring and his works more colorful and expressive. Picasso produced a number of paintings and hundreds of copperplate etchings for the time period between 1968 to 1971. At this time his works were not accepted by most and were considered as pornographic fantasies of an impotent man or the clumsy works of an artist who was quite old now. It was only after Picasso's death that the rest of the art world moved on from abstract expressionism, and the critical community discovered that Picasso had already found out neo-expressionism and that too ahead of his time.

Synthetic Cubism

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During the time period between 1912 to 1919 Pablo Picasso, Braque, Juan Gris and others developed the second main branch of Cubism called Synthetic Cubism. They made collage as a fine art work. The first painting of such type was Pablo Picasso's Still Life with Chair-caning (1911–1912). This painting includes oil cloth pasted on the canvas. Picasso also painted the letters "JOU" on the upper left. "JOU" are the letters which are included in many cubist paintings and might refer to the popular Parisian daily newspaper Le Journal. newspaper cuttings were quite often used in this style of cubism while physical pieces of newspaper, sheet music, and the like were included in the collages.

But JOU might also be a pun on the French words jeu (game) or jouer (to play). This is because Picasso and Braque often had a friendly competition with each other and these words were the indication of existence of such a competition. Unlike Analytic Cubism, in which analysis of the subjects was done by pulling them apart into planes, in Synthetic Cubism more of a pushing of several objects together is done. Picasso, through this movement, was the first painter to use text in his artwork to flatten the space, and to use mixed media—using more than one type of medium in the same piece. Synthetic Cubism has fewer planar shifts, and less shading, creating flatter space as compared to Analytic Cubism.

Another technique used was called papier collé, or stuck paper, which Braque used in his collage Fruit Dish and Glass (1913).

Analytic Cubism

2009-01-15T00:42:00.000-08:00

Analytic Cubism is the style of painting that was developed by Picasso and Georges Braque. This painting was developed between the period 1909 to 1912. Picasso and his partner used monochrome brownish and neutral colors. Both artists took apart objects and “analyzed” them in terms of their shapes. The paintings made by Picasso and Braque’s paintings during this time have many stylistic similarities.

Analytic Cubism is one of the two major branches of the artistic movement of Cubism. In contrast to Synthetic cubism, in Analytic Cubism cubists analyzed natural forms and then reduced these forms into basic geometric parts on the two-dimensional picture plane. No color was used in this style of painting except for the use of a monochromatic scheme that included grey, blue and ochre. Analytic cubists focused on forms like the cylinder, sphere and cone to represent the natural world rather than focusing on colors.

During this period Picasso and Georges Braque painted the paintings Ma Jolie (1911) and The Portuguese (1911) respectively and showed the world the existence of a balance between the outside world and the painting within the frame. In 1907 in Paris a major museum retrospective exhibition was organized. The exhibition mainly focused on the work of Paul Cezanne shortly after his death. The exhibition was strongly influential in establishing Cézanne as an important painter whose ideas were particularly resonant especially to young artists in Paris.

Both Picasso and Braque got the inspiration for Cubism from Paul Cézanne. Paul Cézanne believed in observing and learning to see and treating nature as if it was composed of basic shapes like cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones. Although Picasso was the one who excelled in Analystic Cubism but Braque was also prominent. Braque abandoned Fauvism to work with Picasso in developing the Cubist lexicon.

Picasso African Influenced Period

2009-01-15T00:39:00.000-08:00

Picasso's African period is the period from 1907 to 1909 when Pablo Picasso painted in a style that was highly influenced by African Sculpture. This period has also occasionally been called as the Negro Period or Black Period. After painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Picasso began painting in a style influenced by the two figures on the right side of this painting, which were based on African art. Although this painting is seen as the first Cubist work, before beginning the Cubist phase of his painting, Picasso spent several years exploring African art at first.

It was during this time that the French empire was expanding into Africa, and African artifacts were being brought back to Paris museums. The press was full with exaggerated stories of cannibalism and exotic tales about the African kingdom of Dahomey. Also the mistreatment of Africans in the Belgian Congo was a hot topic of discussion with Joseph Conrad's popular book Heart of Darkness. It was natural therefore in this climate of African interest that Picasso looked towards African artifacts as inspiration for some of his work.

Picasso's African influenced period was followed with the style of painting known as Analytic Cubism, which was also derived from Les Mademoiselle Mignonne's. Picasso 's interest was developed by Henri Matisse who showed him a mask from the Dan region of Africa.

Picasso Rose Period

2009-01-14T23:56:00.000-08:00

Pablo Picasso's Rose Period signifies the time when Picasso's style of painting included the use of cheerful orange and pink colors in contrast to cool and somber tones used in the Blue Period. The Rose Period lasted from 1904 to 1906. The vast change in colors is attributed to the fact that Picasso was happy in his relationship with Fernande Olivier whom he had met in 1904. During this period Picasso painted Harlequins, circus performers and clowns. The harlequin, a comedic character usually depicted in checkered patterned clothing, became a personal symbol for Picasso during this period as well as for his whole lifetime.

The Rose Period is considered to be influenced by French lifestyle while the Blue Period was considered to be influenced by Spanish lifestyle, although both styles emerged while Picasso was living in Paris. Picasso's highest selling painting, Garçon à la pipe was painted during this period. Other Rose Period paintings include: Woman in a Chemise (Madeleine) (1904-05), Lady with a Fan (1905), Two Youths (1905), Harlequin Family (1905), Harlequin's Family With an Ape (1905), La famille de saltimbanques (1905), Boy with a Dog (1905), Nude Boy (1906), and The Girl with a Goat (1906).

The Rose Period was followed by the lesser known African influenced period where his cubism took form.

Picasso Blue Period

2009-01-12T09:09:00.000-08:00

The Blue Period is the period between 1900 and 1904. During this period Picasso painted essentially monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and blue-green and rarely used other colors. These somber works were inspired by Spain but were painted in Paris and are now some of Picasso's most popular works. But do you believe he had difficulty selling them at that time. The starting of the Blue Period is not certain and the period is believed to have begun in Spain in the spring of 1901, or in Paris in the second half of the year.

For choosing colors and subjects, Picasso was very influenced by a journey through Spain and also by the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas. Carlos Casagemas took his life on February 17, 1901, at the L'Hippodrome Cafe in Paris, France, by shooting himself in the the right temple. Picasso once recalled, "I started painting in blue when I learned of Casagemas's death". According to Helene Seckel Picasso was not even present when his friend committed suicide and his painting depicting this dramatic event emerged in autumn that year along with several other portraits of his friend.

From 1901 Picasso painted several paintings depicting his friend Casagemas, ending in 1903 with the gloomy painting Le Vie. Le Vie is now kept in the Cleveland Museum of Art. A similar mood is shown in his well-known painting The Frugal Repast which he painted in 1904. The Frugal Repast depicts a blind man and a sighted woman, both of them seem to be emaciated and are seated at a nearly bare table. Picasso during this period painted many paintings representing the theme blindness, like The Blindman's Meal painted in 1903 which is now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the portrait of Celestina painted in 1903. Other frequent subjects were female nudes and mothers with children.

Pablo Picasso's most well known work from the Blue period include The Old Guitarist, Portrait of Soler (1903), Las dos hermanas (1904) and Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904). Portrait of Suzanne Bloch was one of the final works of Pablo Picasso from Blue period and was stolen from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art on December 20th, 2007. The painting was retrieved one year later on January 8th 2008. The Blue Period of Pablo Picasso was followed by his Rose Period.

Pablo Picasso-Art

2009-01-08T06:12:00.000-08:00

Pablo Picasso's art can be categorized according to the the work periods. The work periods are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1905–1907), the African-influenced Period (1908–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919). His work before the Blue Period is listed below and his work after the period of Synthetic Cubism is stated under the topic Picasso's Classicism and Surrealism.

Pablo Picasso's work before 1901

Pablo Picasso began training under his father even before he was 9 years old(before 1890). The paintings that reflect records of Picasso's beginnings is still held by the Museum Picasso in Barcelona. From this collection held by the museum Picasso's growth as an artist can be very well traced. During 1893 his work started becoming more mature and lost its naive quality. By 1894 it can be said that his career as a full fledged painter started. The academic realism apparent in the works of the mid-1890s is well displayed in the painting. The First Communion painted in 1896, which is a large composition that depicts his sister, Lola. In 1896 itself Picasso painted Portrait of Aunt Pepa. The portrait is a vigorous and dramatic one and has been called “without a doubt one of the greatest in the whole history of Spanish painting.” by Juan-Eduardo Cirlot.

In 1897 Picasso got influenced with Symbolist kind of painting, which is reflected in a series of landscape paintings rendered in non naturalistic violet and green tones by Picasso. Then his Modernist Period followed from 1899 to 1900. He made his own version of modernism in his work. He was influenced to do so, by the work of Rossetti, Steinlen, Toulouse-Lautrec and Edvard Munch, combined with his admiration for favorite old masters such as El Greco.

To know about Picasso's work periods check out the following:
Picasso's Blue Period
Picasso's Rose Period
Picasso's African-influenced Period
Picasso's Analytic Cubism
Picasso's Synthetic Cubism
Picasso's Classicism and Surrealism

Picasso Paintings

2009-01-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

Pablo Picasso's birth name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. He was born on 25th October 1881. He was an Andalusian-Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. Pablo Picasso is one of the most recognized figures in twentieth-century art and is best known as a co-founder of the Cubist movement. He is also known for a wide variety of styles he embodied in his work. His most famous works include the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and his depiction of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, Guernica (1937).

Pablo Picasso’s work can be categorized into periods like the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1905–1907), the African-influenced Period (1908–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919). In 1939–40 the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, held a major and highly successful exhibition of Picasso's works until that time. This exhibition was held under the direction of then Director of the museum, Alfred Barr who himself was a Picasso enthusiast. This exhibition idolized the artist. It brought the scope of Picasso's artistry into full public view in America, and resulted in a reinterpretation of his work which was done by contemporary art historians and scholars.

Pablo Picasso's famous works include The First Communion (1896), Portrait of Aunt Pepa, several posthumous portraits of Casagemas (in latter part of 1901), La Vie (1903), The Blindman's Meal (1903), portrait of Celestina (1903), The Frugal Repast (1904), The Old Guitarist, Portrait of Soler (1903), Las dos hermanas (1904), Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), Garçon à la pipe (Boy with a pipe), Woman in a Chemise (Madeleine) (1904-05), Lady with a Fan (1905), Two Youths (1905), Harlequin Family (1905), Harlequin's Family With an Ape (1905), La famille de saltimbanques (1905), Boy with a Dog (1905), Nude Boy (1906), The Girl with a Goat (1906), Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Guernica and many more.

To know about different Periods of Picasso's work Click Here!
For Picasso's Biography and Personal Life Click Here!
For Picasso's Political views and Commemorations and Legacies Click Here!

Mona Lisa-Speculation

2009-01-01T03:34:00.000-08:00

There were many speculations about Mona Lisa. I have only listed a few of them in the following. In 2004 a three dimensional scan was conducted by experts from the National Research Council of Canada. But, the aging of the varnish on the painting made it difficult to understand the details. Data from the scan and infrared were used by Bruno Mottin of the French Museums' "Center for Research and Restoration" to argue that the transparent gauze veil worn by the sitter is a guarnello which was typically used by women who were pregnant or by woman who had just given birth. A similar guarnello was painted by Sandro Botticelli in his Portrait of Smeralda Brandini depicting a pregnant woman which is on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Furthermore, this reflectography cleared the contradiction with the sitters status as a married woman as it revealed that Mona Lisa's hair was not loosely hanging down, but were attached at the back of the head to a bonnet or pinned back into a chignon and covered with a veil, bordered with a sombre rolled hem. In the 16th century, hair hanging loosely down on the shoulders was the customary style of unmarried young women or prostitutes which had actually given birth to the contradiction.

Researchers also used the data to know about the technique used and to come to the conclusion that if the current conservation techniques were used the painting will have a reduced degradation rate. During 2006, Mona Lisa also underwent a major scientific observation. It proved through infrared cameras that Mona Lisa was originally wearing a bonnet and clenching her chair. The portrait is at present displayed in a purpose built, climate controlled enclosure, behind a bullet proof glass after being moved to new location within the museum's Salle des Etats on April 6 2005. About 6 million people view the painting at the Louvre each year.

Mona Lisa-Conservation

2008-12-31T20:09:00.000-08:00

Mona Lisa painting is now almost 500 years old. The applications of varnish which had been made to the painting had darkened even by the end of the 16th century. An aggressive cleaning and re-varnish, removed some of the uppermost portions of the paint layer that gave a washed-out appearance to the face of the portrait. The washing and re-varnishing was done by Jean-Marie Hooghstoel. The work included cleaning with spirits, touch up of color, and re-varnishing the painting. Despite the application of treatments and their side affects, the Mona Lisa has been well-cared for throughout its history, and the 2004-05 conservation team was optimistic about the future of the work.
The conservation steps taken are as follows:

Mona Lisa was removed from its original frame that made a crack near the top of the panel due to wrapping up of the poplar panel with changes in humidity. Then, someone even tried to stabilize the crack by and fixing two butterfly shaped walnut braces at the back of the panel. But, during the robbery of the picture, the upper brace fell that a restorer later glued and lined the resulting socket and crack with cloth.
To prevent the portrait from further damage and to prepare the it for an exhibition to honor the anniversary of Da Vinci's 500th birthday, Mona Lisa was fitted with a flexible oak frame with beech crosspieces and when the beech crosspieces were infested with insects they were switched to maple.
A conservation and study team changed the maple crosspieces with sycamore and added an additional metal crosspiece for scientific measurement of the panel's warp.
The countess of Béarn gave the portrait its current frame which is a Renaissance-era work consistent with the historical period of the Mona Lisa
Water color touches were performed on areas of the paint layer disturbed by the crack in the panel of Mona Lisa, by Louvre restorer Eugène Denizard. Denizard also retouched the edges of the picture with varnish, to mask areas that were initially covered by an older frame.
When the painting was recovered after its theft, Denizard was again directed to clean the picture without solvent, and to lightly touch up several scratches to the painting with watercolor.
Once the varnish layer over the background of the portrait was evened out.
After the second damage restorer Jean-Gabriel Goulinat was directed to touch up the damage to Mona Lisa's left elbow with watercolor.
The back of the portrait was infested by a new insect infestation, due to the crosspieces installed to keep the painting from warping. This was treated on the spot with carbon tetrachloride, and later with an ethylene oxide.

The portrait Mona Lisa is presently kept under strict, climate controlled conditions in its bullet-proof glass case and the humidity is maintained at 50%,±10%. The temperature is also maintained between 18 and 21°C. For fluctuations in relative humidity within the case, a bed of silica gel also provides 55% relative humidity.

Mona Lisa-Robbery,Wrecking and Conservation

2008-12-31T11:37:00.000-08:00

Mona Lisa the famous paintings of the Italian Renaissance again gained popularity when it was robbed from the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France. This incident took place on 21st August 1911. On 22nd when Louis Béroud, a painter, went to the Salon Carré in the Musee du Louvre, he found four iron pegs on the place where the painting was standing from the past five years. Béroud immediately contacted the section head of the guards, who thought that the painting was being photographed for marketing purposes. But a few hours later, it was confirmed that the Mona Lisa was not with the photographers. The Louvre remained closed for an entire week due to the robbery investigation.

Under suspicion a French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be "burnt down," was arrested and put in jail. Then Apollinaire tried to implicate his friend Pablo Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning, but both Apollinaire and Picasso were later released. Two years went by and people were thinking that this remarkable peace of art was lost forever. Just then the real thief was caught. Vincenzo Peruggia, an employee of Louvre, stole the painting by entering the museum during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet and walking out with it, hiding it under his coat, after the museum was closed.

Peruggia stole the painting probably because he was an Italian patriot and believed that Leonardo's painting should be returned to Italy for display in an Italian museum. It is also quite possible that Peruggia was motivated by a friend who sold copies of the painting, whose prices would shoot up after the robbery of the original painting. Peruggia kept the painting at his apartment for two years, and when he grew impatient he attempted to sell it to the directors of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, where he was caught. The painting was then first exhibited all over Italy and then it was returned to the Louvre in 1913. Peruggia was jailed for his patriotism in Italy but only served a few months in jail for the crime.

At the time of World War II, Mona Lisa was removed from the Louvre and taken safely, first to Château d'Amboise, then to Loc-Dieu Abbey and at last to the Ingres Museum in Montauban. The lower part of the painting got severely damaged or wrecked when a vandal doused the painting with acid in 1956. Ugo Ungaza Villegas, a young Bolivian, damaged the painting by throwing a rock at it on 30th December 1956. This resulted in the loss of a speck of pigment near the left elbow, which was later re-painted.

Mona Lisa's popularity and the overwhelming stature, various painters have often produced some modifications and caricatures of the painting. In 1919, Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential Dadaists, created L.H.O.O.Q. which was a Mona Lisa parody made by using a cheap reproduction with a mustache and a goatee, as well as adding the rude inscription which when read out loud in French sounds like "Elle a chaud au cul" that means "she has a hot ass". This is a manner of implying that the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual excitement and availability. This portrait was actually a joke referring to Leonardo's homosexuality. According to Rhonda R. Shearer, the reproduction is a copy which is partly modeled on Duchamp's own face. Salvador Dalí, famous for his pioneering surrealist work, painted Self portrait as Mona Lisa in 1954.

In 1963 Andy Warhol created serigraph prints of the Mona Lisa, in an effort to reduce her gravity to that of a modern icon to a similar cultural stature of the modern celebrities Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley. A later reproduction of the Mona Lisa was discovered painted on a hillside near Newport, Oregon on August 15, 2006. It was created by artist Samuel Clemens using a tarp stencil and water paint. The painting has also been parodied by street artists such as Banksy, Anthony Lister and Dolk.

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Mona Lisa-The Famous Potrait & Oil Painting

2008-12-31T11:30:00.000-08:00

The oil painting Mona Lisa was named after Lisa del Giocondo who was a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany and the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. This oil painting was actually commissioned for the new home of the couple and also to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea. The sitter's identity was discovered at the University of Heidelberg in 2005 by a library expert who discovered a 1503 dated margin note written by Agostino Vespucci.

Scholars were confused before as at least four different oil paintings were identified as Mona Lisa, and several people were identified as its sitter. The sitters identified were Leonardo's mother Caterina, Isabella of Naples or Aragon, Cecilia Gallerani, Costanza d'Avalos, who was also called the "merry one" or La Gioconda, Isabella d'Este, Pacifica Brandano or Brandino, Isabela Gualanda, Caterina Sforza, and Leonardo himself. But today the subject is identified as Lisa, which was always the traditional view.

The title of the painting is derived from a description by Giorgio Vasari in his biography of Leonardo da Vinci that was published in 1550, 31 years after the Leonardo's death. The description is "Prese Lionardo a fare per Francesco del Giocondo il ritratto di mona Lisa sua moglie" which means "Leonardo undertook to paint, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife...."in English.

In Italian, ma donna means my lady which became madonna, and its contraction became Mona. Thus Mona is a polite form of addressing and is similar to Ma’am, Madam, or my lady in English. In modern Italian, the short form of Madonna is spelled Monna, so the title is sometimes Monna Lisa, rarely in English and more commonly in Romance languages such as French and Italian. At the time of Leonardo's death in 1525, Leonardo's assistant Salai owned the portrait. The painting has certain peculiar points to note, that Leonardo followed while making it:-

Leonardo has used a pyramid design to place the woman simply and calmly in the space of the painting.
Mona Lisa's folded hands form the front corner of the pyramid.
Mona Lisa's breast, neck and face glow in the same light that models her hands.
The light gives the variety of living surfaces an underlying geometry of spheres and circles.

Leonardo referred to a simple looking formula for the images of seated Madonna. He effectively modified this formula to create the visual impression of a distance between the sitter and the observer. The armrest of the chair functions as a dividing element between Mona Lisa and the viewer. The woman in the painting sits markedly upright with her arms folded, which is also a sign of her reserved posture. Her gaze is only fixed on the observer and seems to call him to talk to her silently.

The presence of various darker elements like hair, veil and shadows on Mona Lisa's brightly lit face, also attracts a lot of observers. Thus, the composition of the figure evokes an ambiguous effect as if we are attracted to this mysterious woman in the portrait but have to stay at a distance as though she were a divine creature. There is no indication of any intimate dialogue between the woman and the observer as is the case in the Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (Louvre) painted by Raphael about ten years after Mona Lisa which was influenced by Leonardo's portrait.

Mona Lisa was among the first few oil paintings that depict an enigmatic woman seated in an open loggia with dark pillar bases on either sides. Behind her there is a vast landscape that ends into the icy mountains. Winding paths and a distant bridge gives the slightest indications of human presence. The sensuous curves of the woman's hair and clothing, are echoed in the undulating imaginary valleys and rivers behind her.

All the characteristics of Leonardo's style of painting like the blurred outlines, graceful figure, dramatic contrasts of light and dark, and overall feeling of calm can also be seen in this portrait. It is quite arguable that whether Mona Lisa should be considered as a traditional portrait or not because the expressive synthesis achieved by Leonardo between the sitter and the landscape has led to a portrait that represents an ideal woman rather than a real one. Leonardo has very beautifully reflected his idea of a link between the humanity and nature of a person, through the faint smile of the sitter.

In the Mona Lisa painting there is no visible facial hair, not even eyebrows and eyelashes. Some researchers explain that it was common at that time for genteel women to pluck them out, since they were considered to be unsightly. For modern viewers the missing eyebrows add to the slightly semi-abstract quality of the face.

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Mona Lisa Painting

2008-12-31T11:14:00.000-08:00

Mona Lisa Painting which is also known as La Gioconda was painted in oil by the famous painter Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century. This painting was painted on a poplar panel and that too during the Italian Renaissance period. At present the painting is hanging in the Musee du Louvre in Paris and belongs to the French Government. The portrait has the title Lisa Gherardini the wife of Francesco del Giocondo.

Mona Lisa is a half length portrait that depicts a woman whose expression is somewhat mysterious. The main The qualities of the Mona Lisa painting that has made it a fascination for its viewers are the doubtfulness in the model's expression, the heroic scale of the half-figure composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism.

Leonardo started painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 during the Renaissance period. But according to Vasari, Leornardo had left the painting unfinished after lingering with it for four years. But it is also said that Leonardo continued to work on Mona Lisa for three years after he moved to France in 1516, along with the painting from Italy, when King François I invited him to work at the Clos Lucé near the king's castle in Amboise. He had finished the painting just before he died in 1519. Probably the king bought the painting from the heirs of Salai, Leonardo's assistant, for 4,000 écus and kept it at Fontainebleau.

Mona Lisa remained at Fontainebleau until it was given to Louis XIV who shifted the painting to the Palace of Versailles. Soon after the French Revolution, Mona Lisa was moved to the Louvre. Napoleon I during his reign had Mona Lisa moved to his bedroom in the Tuileries Palace, but later it was returned to the Louvre. During the Franco-Prussian War from 1870 to 1871 Mona Lisa was moved from the Louvre to a hiding place elsewhere in France.

Mona Lisa became well famous during the mid-19th century when the artists of the Symbolist movement appreciated it by associating it with their ideas of feminine mystique. Critic Walter Pater expressed the above view by describing the figure in the painting as a kind of mythic embodiment of eternal femininity, who is "older than the rocks among which she sits" and who "has been dead many times and learned the secrets of the grave.", in his essay on Leonardo da Vinci, in his 1867.

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Claude Monet Biography

2008-12-24T01:33:00.000-08:00

On March 17 1878 Claud Monet once again became a father as his wife gave birth to their second son. Then Madame Hoschedé and Madame Monet decided to spend the summer together and rented a house in Vétheuil alongside the Seine with the help opurchases by Manet. At the fourth Impressionist Exhibition in 1879, several paintings of that period were presented.

In 1879 Claud Monet's wife Camille died of tuberculosis at Vetheuil. Alice Hoschede helped Claud Monet by taking care of his two sons along with taking care of her own six children. In 1881 all of them moved to Poissy which Claud Monet hated. In April 1883 they rented a house in Giverny which is between Vernon and Gasny, in Haute-Normandie, from Louis-Joseph Singeot. Claud Monet lived there until his death. The property was almost two and a half acres big and sloped down towards the bottom of the village. At the lower end there is "chemin du Roy", along which a small local railway ran, and at the upper limit was the "rue de Amsicourt", now called the "rue Claude Monet".

Claud Monet did gardening and planted a large garden which he painted for the rest of his life and which provided an idea for his last famous work: The Water Lily Pool. He worked on that series of paintings from 1900 until his death. In the same period he also painted his other groups of paintings which represented the same object: haystacks, poplars, the river Seine, seen in varying light, at different times of the day or seasons of the year.

During 1887 to 1889 Claud Monet exhibited with people like Durand-Ruel in New York, Galerie Georges Petit and Rodin. By 1890 Monet got financially secure to buy a house in Giverny and then he altered the garden: he constructed three greenhouses and dug basin for the water lilies and built the Japanese Bridge which he was finally able built in 1895 after countless administrative difficulties.

From 1888 to 1898 Claud Monet painted series of twenty-five Haystacks (Meules), Rouen Cathedrals, The Houses of Parliament, Mornings on the Seine and Water lilies. Fifteen paintings of the twenty-five Hystacks were exhibited at the Durand-Ruel in 1891 followed by the death of Ernest Hoschede. In 1892 Claud Monet exhibited Poplars (Peupliers) alongside the Epte River at the Durand-Ruel. In July 1892 Claud Monet married Alice Raingo, Ernest Hoschede's widow, with whom he had an affair from the time of his marriage to Camille.

In 1894 Mary Cassatt, Rodin, Clemenceau, Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro, Matisse, John Singer Sergent, the critic Gustave Geffroy and Octave Mirbeau visited Claud Monet at Giverny. Georges Clemenceau took care of him with admiration and affection until his death. In 1900 Claud Monet painted several views of The Japanese bridge, The Water lilies and traveled to London three times between 1899 to 1901 to paint the views of the Thames, views of Parliament and views of Charing Cross Bridge.

In 1904 Claud Monet wnet to Madrid to admire Velasquez paintings. In 1907 Claud Monet faced problems with his eyesight with symptoms of cataract. But,still he went to Venice, Italy, to make an important series of paintings. Between 1883 and 1908 Claud Monet went to the Mediterranean where painted landmarks, landscapes and seascapes, such as Bordighera. In May 1911 his wife Alice died at Giverny. In 1914 Claud Monet's son Jean died and Claud Monet's daughter-in-law, Blanche Hoschede-Monet, came to live near him and to look after him for the rest of his life.

From 1914 to 1915 Claud Monet wanted to build a large studio at Giverny: 23m x 12m, at the top of the garden, on the left side. He wanted to create The Water Lilies. He started this series of paintings in 1916 and had painted them till 1926. Monet worked on twelve large canvases which he in 1918 he donated to France, following the signing of the Armistice. These paintings were installed in an architectural space designed specifically for them at the museum of the Orangerie in Paris. At the beginning of 1926, in February Claud Monet still painted, but was suffering from lung cancer and on December 5, 1926 Claud Monet died at Giverny at the age of 86. He was buried in a simple ceremony in his family grave in Giverny church cemetery. His friend Georges Clemenceau attended his funeral.

Monet and Impressionist Art

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Monet was never interested in the traditional painting style so he never joined the art school in Paris. In 1862 Monet joined the studio of Charles Gleyre a swiss-born painter, in Paris, and worked there for two years where he met Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frederic Bazille and Alfred Sisley. Together all four of them went to forest of Fontainbleau, South-East of Paris and painted the effects of light with broken color and rapid brushstrokes that later came to be known as Impressionism. They used spaces and sunlight instead of subdued colors and dark shadows which were used in the traditional paintings by their superiors. Monet also visited Boudin often when he was not at Fontainbleau.

Monet was a nature lover but at the same time he wanted to be famous. So he painted a number of indoor scenes also, by the traditional painting style. Some of these were successful while most of them were criticized. But Monet continued his efforts and kept on requesting the academy, and finally during 1865-66 he got success in his paintings. In 1866 he painted Camilie or The Woman in the Green Dress in four days, which was his last entry to the Salon. The painting brought him recognition and also brought his mistress named Camilie Doncieux to the fore front. Now Monet wanted to enjoy complete success so he worked hard for his next painting and entry to the Salon for the next year, Women in the Garden. But it was first rejected by the Salon but later accepted as Monet's entry for the next season.

Monet had very little money so his aunt took him to her house, but Camilie who was pregnant with Monet's child was left in Paris, where she gave birth to their son Jean in 1867. At that time Monet had some problems with his eyesight so he had to stop his outdoor work. In 1868 he attempted to suicide because of shortage of money when Mr. Gaudibert gave him pension that enabled Monet to continue with his work and paint in Fecamp and Etretat. During 1869 Monet painted in the company of Renoir in the village of Saint Michel near Bougival.

In 1870 Monet married Camilie and Courbet became the best man. The Franco-Prussian war broke out soon after the marriage due to which they had to leave France and take refuge in England. Monet in London, met with John Constable and Joseph Mallord William Turner who were English landscape painters. They inspired him to do some innovations with colors. He also met Pissarro, Daubigny and also the buyer and exhibitor of his several canvases Mr. Durand Ruel. In 1871, Monet's father died. Monet traveled to Netherlands, Antwerp, Belgium and finally returned to France and settled there from 1871 to 1878 with his family in Argenteuil which is a village on the Seine near Paris. There his friends Renoir, Manet, Caillebotte and Sisley also joined him.

This period was very important as it was the begining of the Impression Movement and some of Monet's best works had been made during this time. One of Monet's famous painting of this period is the Impression, Sunrise that was painted in 1872 or 1873 and gave rise to the Impression Movement. This painting was exhibited in 1874 at the first Impressionist exhibition in the studio of Nadar. The term Impressionism was given by critic Louis Leroy and was very much liked by the Impressionists. Today, the painting is displayed in the Musee Marmottan-Monet in Paris.

That first Impressionist exhibition was organized by Manet, Degas, Cezanne, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley and Monet but was a complete disaster thus creating financial problems again and causing insecurity for Monet's family. His friend Manet's help, enabled Monet to stay in Argenteuil for four years more. Monet, tried selling his paintings at the Hotel Drouot to earn but failed. Despite of all this he never left hope and kept on perfecting his painting style. Monet refined his work during 1870s and 1880s. During this period he also traveled to Scnic area of France like the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, Dieppe, Pourville and Varengeville-sur-Mer to study the brilliant effects of light and color.

In 1876 Monet was invited to the château of Rottembourg in Montgeron by his newly formed friend Ernest Hoschede and his wife Alice. Monet then became their family friend and met Edouard Manet, Carolus-Duran and many others at château of Rottembourg in Montgeron. Ernest Hoschede and his wife bought many of Monet's paintings but an year later bankrupted and were force sell his paintings for a nickel and a dime.

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Monet Biography

2008-12-23T05:03:00.000-08:00

Oscar Claude Monet was a famous French Painter of later 19th century and early 20th century. As mentioned in the earlier blog Monet was born on 14th November 1840 in Paris, France. He was the second son of Claude Adolphe Monet and Louise-Justine Aubree, their elder son being Leon.

Claude Monet was a Parisian by birth as his parents. His grandparents both from his maternal and paternal sides had moved to Paris in 1800. His parents called him Oscar and he became famous as Claude Monet. Claude Monet was baptized at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette on 20th May 1841 and his Godfather was Claude-Pascal Monet who was a merchant from Nancy.

Claude Monet's father was a shop keeper and his mother was a very good singer according to the account of Claude Monet himself. Around 1945 his father was offered a job by Jacques Lecadre, husband of his half-sister, Marie-Jeanne Gaillard who lived in Le Havre. Claude Adolphe and his family moved to Le Havre, the Normandy coastal town, where Oscar-Claude got primary education at private school.

On April 1 1851 he entered the Le Havre college communal. The school provided classical education with Latin and Greek from the first form on. The school also had a school of commerce and municipal drawing school. The school was on Rue de la Maillereaye and was near to the painter's home. Two classes were held at school, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but Monet always spent his time outside his house.

In his opinion that time he was undisciplined and the school always looked like a prison to him and he could not stay in school even for four hours. Claude Monet loved to go to the Le Havre port and beach and also to the Sainte-Adresse cliffs. The port and the beach were a five minutes walk from his school while the cliffs were 3 kms away. He claimed that he left the school at the age of 13 or 14. On 28 January 1857, Monet's mother died and his widowed, childless aunt took him to her home.

At the Le Havre school Monet was under the guidance of Francais-Charles Ochard who was a capable and patient teacher and could easily hold his student's attention. But Monet used to draw with pen or pencil and that too he drew sketches of people, boats, landscapes and, also, caricatures of his masters. But he always made them on a Sunday instead of making them in class. He even wrote dates on them. Claude Monet became popular at school and demanded thanks to his caricatures. He charged for portraits. Claude Monet proudly exhibited his caricatures at Gravier's, stationer, framer and ironmonger shop.

Mr. Gravier had an old friend Monsieur Boudin whom he always wanted to guide Monet. He introduced Monet to Boudin and from that time Monet got a new Mentor who recognized his gift. Boudin taught Monet the use of pastels colors and oil colors to paint the natural beauty. Monet once told Jean Aubry "If I become a painter it is to Eugene Boudin that I owe the fact."

Boudin's guidance helped Monet to learn open air painting. His first landscape was "View from Rouelles" that appeared as number 380 in the Le Havre municipal exhibition of August-September 1858. The painting was also known as "Vue des bords de la Lezarde" as it showed a valley and stream either the Rouelles or the Lezarde, which the Rouelles flowed into. The painting was first thought to be lost but was found after hundred years and was identified.

In April 1859 Claude Monet went to Paris to visit the Salon at the Palais de l' Industrie where he met Amand Gautier, Lhuillier, Troyon and Monginot. Then in winter the same year he shifted to Paris and enrolled himself at the private academy, the Academie Suisse where he met Pissarro and Courbet. At the academy also Claude Monet only drew figures. In June 1961 Claude Monet got a call for National service and joined the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry in Algeria. Algeria was so beautiful and its landscapes were so inspiring that Claude Monet remembered them life long. But Claude Monet after one year of serving the army got ill with contracting typhoid and his aunt forced him to return to Paris and wanted him to complete an art course there. Thus instead of serving for seven years he could serve the army only for an year. But he was never interested in the traditional painting style so he never joined the art school in Paris.

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Monet Paintings

2008-12-19T04:32:00.000-08:00

Monet Paintings are masterpieces made by the famous painter Oscar Claude Monet. Monet paintings are one of the famous paintings of our times. To know about the paintings we should first know something about the painter.

Oscar Claude Monet was born on 14th November 1840 in the city of Eiffel Tower (Paris), France. His mentor/ teacher was Eugène Boudin. Oscar Claude Monet never believed in the traditional style of nature painting what is traditionally called landscape painting. He never liked copying the old masters and was always in a continuous process of learning from his friends and nature. He had five life long best friends Pissarro, Cézanne, Renoir, Sisley and Bazille. But he always remained loyal to nature and kept producing the enchanting masterpieces.

Oscar Claude Monet always displayed his paintings at the Salon, but his first independent painting exhibition was organized by Sisley and Morisot. This was the exhibition that promoted the Impression Movement. The impression movement was named after his famous painting Impression: Sunrise. The exhibition financially failed but Oscar Claude Monet became one of the most popular painter in history of painting.

Monet's first landscape was "View from Rouelles" that appeared in the Le Havre municipal exhibition during August-September 1858 as number 380. This painting was also known as "Vue des bords de la Lezarde". His next painting was "en plain air" which he painted with Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frederic Bazille and Alfred Sisley, which later came to be known as Impressions. Monet's last entry to the Salon was the painting "Camille" or "The Woman in the Green Dress" (La Femme a la Robe Verete) in 1866. The next year he painted "Women in the Garden" which he wanted to exhibit in the Salon but was rejected by the Salon.

Monet's most famous painting was "Impressions:Sunrise" which he painted in 1872 1873 and was exhibited in 1874 at the first Impressionist exhibition in the studio of Nadar. Monet exhibited Poplars (Peupliers) in 1892. Monet also painted Rouen Cathedrals, The Houses of Parliament, Mornings on the Seine and Water lilies from the period 1892 to 1898. His last important work was a series of paintings The Water Lily Pool which he painted from 1900 to his death.

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Michelangelo-Controversies

2008-12-16T04:31:00.000-08:00

In his personal life, Michelangelo as told by Condivi was indifferent to food and drink, eating "more out of necessity than of pleasure" and he "often slept in his clothes and ... boots." These habits made him unpopular among his students and people used to think about him as an absurd man because he "withdrew himself from the company of men."

Michelangelo, was sometimes arrogant with others and was dissatisfied with himself. He beleived that art originated from inner inspiration and culture. Unlike the ideas of his rival, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo saw nature as an enemy that had to be overcome. The sculptures created by him are forceful and dynamic. Michelangelo thought every stone had a sculpture within it, and the work of sculpting was to chip away all that was not a part of the statue.

Michelangelo was in love with male beauty both aesthetically and emotionally which can be seen in his art. Such feelings in him for the male beauty caused him great anguish, and he expressed it in his sculptures, drawings and poetry. Michelangelo was also a great Italian lyric writer of the 16th century.

Michelangelo's expressions of love have been characterized as Neoplatonic and homoerotic but no absolute conclusions can be drawn. Cecchino dei Bracci's death, once inspired him to write forty eight funeral epigrams, which by some accounts relate to a relationship that was not only romantic but physical too. One of the verses are as follows:

La carne terra, e qui l'ossa mia, prive
de' lor begli occhi, e del leggiadro aspetto
fan fede a quel ch'i' fu grazia nel letto,
che abbracciava, e' n che l'anima vive.
which means:
The flesh now earth, and here my bones,
Bereft of handsome eyes, and jaunty air,
Still loyal are to him I joyed in bed,
Whom I embraced, in whom my soul now lives.

The greatest written expression of Michelangelo's love was given to Tommaso dei Cavalieri, who was 23 years old when Michelangelo met him in 1532.

Michelangelo dedicated to him over three hundred sonnets and madrigals, constituting the largest sequence of poems composed by him. Some modern commentators comment that the relationship was only a Platonic affection, and that Michelangelo wanted a surrogate son. But, the homoerotic nature of these poems was recognized and a decorous veil was drawn across them by his grand nephew, Michelangelo the Younger, who published an edition of the poetry in 1623 with the gender of pronouns changed. John Addington Symonds, the early British homosexual activist, translated the original sonnets into English and wrote a two-volume biography that was published in 1893.

Later in life Michelangelo developed a great love for the poet and noble widow Vittoria Colonna, whom he met in Rome in 1536 or 1538. They both wrote sonnets for each other and were in regular contact until she died. It is impossible to know for certain whether Michelangelo had physical relationships, but through his poetry and visual art we may at least have a glimpse of his imagination.

Michelangelo was once described as "inventor delle porcherie" i.e "inventor of obscenities". The infamous "fig-leaf campaign" of the Counter-Reformation aimed at covering all representations of human genitals in paintings and sculptures made by Michelangelo. When he completed the papal chapel the depictions of nakedness were said to be obscene, but the Pope supported him. But after Michelangelo's death Daniele da Volterra, an apprentice of Michelangelo, was appointed to cover with the genitals with perizomas or briefs. In 1993 conservators chose not to remove all the perizomas made by Daniele, leaving some of them as a historical document. An uncensored copy of the original, by Marcello Venusti, can be seen at the Capodimonte Museum of Naples.

The marble statue of Cristo della Minerva (church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome) was covered by added drapery, as it remains today, and the statue of the naked child Jesus in Madonna of Bruges (The Church of Our Lady in Bruges, Belgium) remained covered for several decades. Also, the plaster copy of the David in the Cast Courts (Victoria and Albert Museum) in London, has a fig leaf in a box at the back of the statue. It was there to be placed over the statue's genitals so that they would not upset visiting female royalty.

More on Artist Michelangelo

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Michelangelo returned to Florence from Rome in 1499 when he was asked by the consuls of the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished 40 year old project,a colossal statue portraying David as a symbol of Florentine freedom, started by Agostino di Duccio. It was to be placed in the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. Michelangelo completed this statue in 1504. This masterwork made of a marble block from the quarries at Carrara, popularized him as a sculptor of extraordinary technical skill and strength of symbolic imagination.

While in Florence, Michelangelo also painted the Holy Family and St John, also known as the Doni Tondo or the Holy Family of the Tribune. It was commissioned for the marriage of Angelo Doni and Maddalena Strozzi and in the 17th century was hung in the room known as the Tribune in the Uffizi. He also may have painted the Madonna and Child with John the Baptist, known as the Manchester Madonna and now in the National Gallery, London.

In 1505 Michelangelo was invited back to Rome by the newly elected Pope Julius II, to build the Pope's tomb. But, under the patronage of the Pope, he had to constantly stop work on the tomb, to carry out a number of other tasks. Due to these, the tomb, of which the central feature is Michelangelo's statue of Moses, was never finished to Michelangelo's satisfaction even after 40 years of work. It is located in the Church of S. Pietro in Vincoli in Rome.

The major interruption on the tomb was the commission to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which took approximately four years to complete from 1508–1512. According to Michelangelo, Bramante and Raphael convinced the Pope to commission Michelangelo in a medium not familiar to him, in order to divert him from his preference for sculpture into fresco painting, and thus suffer from unfavorable comparisons with his rival Raphael. Michelangelo was originally commissioned to paint the 12 Apostles, but lobbied for a different and more complex scheme, representing creation, the Downfall of Man and the Promise of Salvation through the prophets and Genealogy of Christ. The work is part of a larger scheme of decoration within the chapel which represents much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church.

The composition eventually contained over 300 figures and had at its center nine episodes from the Book of Genesis, divided into three groups: God's Creation of the Earth; God's Creation of Humankind and their fall from God's grace; and lastly, the state of Humanity as represented by Noah and his family. On the pendentives supporting the ceiling are painted twelve men and women who prophesied the coming of the Jesus. They are seven prophets of Israel and five Sibyls, prophetic women of the Classical world.

Among the most famous paintings on the ceiling are the Creation of Adam, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood, the Prophet Isaiah and the Cumaean Sibyl. Around the windows are painted the ancestors of Christ. In 1513 Pope Julius II died and his successor Pope Leo X, a Medici, commissioned Michelangelo to reconstruct the façade of the basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence and to adorn it with sculptures. Michelangelo reluctantly spent three years in creating drawings and models for the facade, as well as attempting to open a new marble quarry at Pietrasanta specifically for the project. But work was abruptly canceled by his financially-strapped patrons before any real progress had been made,leaving Michelangelo frustrated. The basilica lacks a facade to this day.

The Medici later came back to Michelangelo with another grand proposal for a family funerary chapel in the basilica of San Lorenzo. This project, occupied the artist for much of the 1520s and 1530s and was more fully realized. Though still incomplete, it is the best example we have of the integration of the artist's sculptural and architectural vision, since Michelangelo created both the major sculptures as well as the interior plan. Ironically the most prominent tombs are those of two rather obscure Medici who died young, a son and grandson of Lorenzo. Il Magnifico himself is buried in an unfinished and comparatively unimpressive tomb on one of the side walls of the chapel, not given a free-standing monument, as originally intended.

In 1527, Michelangelo went to the aid of his beloved Florence by working on the city's fortifications from 1528 to 1529. Michelangelo left Florence for good in the mid-1530s, leaving assistants to complete the Medici chapel. Years later his body was brought from Rome for burial at the Basilica di Santa Croce, as the maestro's last request.

The fresco of The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel was commissioned by Pope Clement VII, who died shortly after assigning the commission. Paul III made Michelangelo complete the project. Michelangelo worked on the project from 1534 to October 1541. The work is massive and spans the entire wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel. The Last Judgment is a depiction of the second coming of Christ and the apocalypse where the souls of humanity rise and are assigned to their various fates, as judged by Christ, surrounded by the Saints.

In 1546, Michelangelo was appointed architect of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, and designed its dome. As St. Peter's was progressing there was concern that Michelangelo would pass away before the dome was finished. However, once building commenced on the lower part of the dome, the supporting ring, the completion of the design was inevitable. On December 7, 2007, Michelangelo's red chalk sketch for the dome of St Peter's Basilica, his last before his 1564 death, was discovered in the Vatican archives.

Michelangelo worked on many projects that were started by other men, like his work at St Peter's Basilica, Rome. The Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo during the same period, rationalized the structures and spaces of Rome's Capitoline Hill. Its shape, more a rhomboid than a square, was intended to counteract the effects of perspective. The major Florentine architectural projects by Michelangelo are the unexecuted façade for the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence and the Medici Chapel (Capella Medicea) and Laurentian Library there, and the fortifications of Florence. The major Roman projects are St. Peter's, Palazzo Farnese, San Giovanni de' Fiorentini and the Sforza Chapel (Capella Sforzesca), Porta Pia and Santa Maria degli Angeli.

Around 1530 Michelangelo designed the Laurentian Library in Florence, attached to the church of San Lorenzo. He produced new styles such as pilasters tapering thinner at the bottom, and a staircase with contrasting rectangular and curving forms. Michelangelo designed the Medici Chapel. The Medici Chapel has monuments in it dedicated to certain members of the Medici family. Michelangelo never finished it. Lorenzo the Magnificent was buried at the entrance wall of the Medici Chapel. Sculptures of the "Madonna and Child" and the Medici patron saints Cosmas and Damian were set over his burial. The "madonna and child" was Michelangelo's own work.

Several anecdotes reveal that:

Michelangelo's skill, especially in sculpture, was greatly admired in his own time. Lorenzo de Medici wanted to use Michelangelo to make some money. He had
Michelangelo sculpt a cupid that looked worn and old and paid Michelangelo 30 ducats, but sold the cupid for 200 ducats.
While finishing the Moses (San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome), Michelangelo violently hit the knee of the statue with a hammer, shouting, "Why don't you speak to me?"

For Controversies about Michelangelo's work Click Here!

Michelangelo

2008-12-10T19:15:00.000-08:00

Michelangelo whose full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, was born on 6th March 17 1475, to Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti di Simoni and Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena, in Caprese near Arezzo, Tuscany. His family had for several generations been small-scale bankers in Florence but his father, Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti di Simoni, failed to maintain its status, holding to occasional government jobs. At the time of Michelangelo's birth he was Judicial administrator of small-town Caprese and local administrator of Chiusi.

Several months after Michelangelo's birth his family returned to Florence where Michelangelo was raised. During the prolonged illness and death of his mother, Michelangelo lived with a stone cutter and his wife and family in the town of Settignano where his father owned a marble quarry and a small farm.

Michelangelo's father sent him to study grammar with he humanist Francesco da Urbino in Florence, but he had his own plans. He liked going to the church to copy paintings and seek the company of painters.Michelangelo was apprenticed in painting with Domenico Ghirlandaio when he was thirteen and in sculpture with Bertoldo di Giovanni. So his father persuaded Ghirlandio to guide him.When in 1489 Florence's ruler Lorenzo de' Medici asked Ghirlandaio for his two best pupils, Ghirlandaio sent Michelangelo and Francesco Granacci.

From 1490 to 1492, Michelangelo attended Lorenzo's school and was influenced by many prominent people like Pico della Mirandola, Angelo Poliziano and Marsilio Ficino who modified and expanded his ideas on art, following the dominant Platonic view of that age, and even his feelings about sexuality. Michelangelo finished Madonna of the Steps (1490–1492) and Battle of the Centaurs (1491–1492 which was based on a theme suggested by Poliziano and was commissioned by Lorenzo de Medici.

After Lorenzo's death on April 8, 1492 Michelangelo left the Medici court and returned to his father's house where he made a Wooden crucifix in 1493, as a gift to the prior of the church of Santa Maria del Santo Spirito who had permitted him some studies of anatomy on the corpses of the church's hospital. Between 1493 and 1494 he bought the marble for a larger than life statue of Hercules, which was sent to France and disappeared sometime in the 1700s. He re-entered the court on January 20, 1494, when, the young Piero de Medici commissioned a snow statue from him.

The same year, however, the Medici were expelled from Florence after the rise of Savonarola, while Michelangelo had left the city before the end of the political upheaval, moving to Venice and then to Bologna. Here he was commissioned to finish the carving of the last small figures of the tomb and shrine of St. Dominic, in the church with the same name. He returned to Florence at the end of 1494, as Charles VIII had suffered defeats and Florence was no longer in danger of being sacked by the French.

Michelangelo did not receive any commissions from the new city government under Savonarola, and so linked up with the Medicis. During the half year he spent in Florence he worked on two statuettes: a child St. John the Baptist and a sleeping Cupid. Both Lorenzo and Michelangelo were cheated of the real value of the piece by a middleman. Cardinal Raffaele Riario, to whom Lorenzo had sold it, found out that it was a fraud, but was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture that he invited the artist to Rome, which Michelangelo accepted.

On June 25, 1496 at the age of 21, Michelangelo arrived in Rome. On July 4 Michelangelo started to carve an over-life-size statue of the Roman wine god, Bacchus, commissioned by Cardinal Raffaele Riario, but work was rejected by the cardinal. In November of 1497, the French ambassador in the Holy See commissioned one of his most famous works, the Pietà. The contemporary opinion about this work — was summarized by Vasari: "It is certainly a miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh." Michelangelo's Pietà, was a depiction of the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion and was carved in 1499.

Though he devoted himself mainly to sculpture, during his first stay in Rome Michelangelo never stopped his daily practice of drawing. In Rome, Michelangelo lived near the church of Santa Maria di Loreto: here, according to the legends, he fell in love with Vittoria Colonna, marquise of Pescara and poet.

What happened after Rome, we will tell you in our next blog along with some of his paintings, Sculptures and last days.

Michelangelo Paintings

2008-12-10T09:59:00.000-08:00

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, famously known as Michelangelo was a famous Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. He has made a lot of famous paintings and his work is so much fabulous that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci.

Michelangelo was born on March 6 1475 in Caprese near Arezzo, Tuscany. Michelangelo's father wanted him to study grammer and thus he sent him to study grammar with the humanist Francesco da Urbino in Florence as a young boy. But, the young artist had no interest in school. He instead preferred to copy paintings from churches and seek the company of painters. Michelangelo was apprenticed in painting with Domenico Ghirlandaio when he was thirteen and in sculpture with Bertoldo di Giovanni.

Michelangelo's father managed to persuade Ghirlandaio to pay the 14-year-old artist. When in 1489 Florence's ruler Lorenzo de' Medici asked Ghirlandaio for his two best pupils, Ghirlandaio sent Michelangelo and Francesco Granacci. From 1490 to 1492, Michelangelo attended Lorenzo's school and was influenced by many prominent people who modified and expanded his ideas on art, following the dominant Platonic view of that age, and even his feelings about sexuality.

It was during this period that Michelangelo met literary personalities like Pico della Mirandola, Angelo Poliziano and Marsilio Ficino. Michelangelo finished Madonna of the Steps (1490–1492) and Battle of the Centaurs (1491–1492). The latter was based on a theme suggested by Poliziano and was commissioned by Lorenzo de Medici.This was how he gradually became a refined artist.

Michelangelo's famous paintings and statues include : Pietà,David,scenes from Genesis on the ceiling, The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome,the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in the same city, Madonna of the Steps (1490–1492), Battle of the Centaurs (1491–1492),Wooden crucifix (1493) as a gift to the prior of the church of Santa Maria del Santo Spirito, small figures of the tomb and shrine of St. Dominic, in the church with the same name, a child St. John the Baptist and a sleeping Cupid, an over-life-size statue of the Roman wine god, Bacchus, Statue of David, Sistine Chapel ceiling, façade of the basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence(incomplete),The fresco of The Last Judgment,statue of Cristo della Minerva, Madonna of Bruges , St Peter's Basilica, Rome,The Campidoglio, the unexecuted façade for the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence and the Medici Chapel (Capella Medicea) and Laurentian Library there, and the fortifications of Florence. The major Roman projects are St. Peter's, Palazzo Farnese, San Giovanni de' Fiorentini and the Sforza Chapel (Capella Sforzesca), Porta Pia and Santa Maria degli Angeli.
To Know more about the Michelangelo and his paintings keep reading our blogs. In the next posts we will tell you more about Michelangelo's Life and his paintings.

Madonna Child Paintings

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Madonna and Madonna and Child Paintings are two masterpieces of the older times. These are the central icons of Christianity, representing Madonna the mother of Jesus, by herself and along with her son Jesus, respectively in the two paintings.

After some initial resistance and controversy, the formula Theotokos ("Mother of God") was adopted officially by the Christian Church at the Council of Ephesus in 431, beginning the period of over a thousand years when images of Mary were central to Western art.

The earliest representation of the Madonna and Child may be the wall painting in the Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome, in which Madonna is shown seated suckling the Child, who turns his head to gaze at the spectator. The earliest consistent representations of Madonna and Child were developed in the Eastern Empire.

Eastern examples show the Madonna enthroned, even wearing the closed Byzantine pearl-encrusted crown with pendants, with the Christ Child on her lap.
In the West, hieratic Byzantine models were closely followed in the Early Middle Ages, but with the increased importance of the cult of the Virgin in the 12th and 13th centuries a wide variety of types developed to satisfy a flood of more intensely personal forms of piety.

In the usual Gothic and Renaissance formulas the Virgin Mary/Madonna is shown sitting with the Infant Jesus/child on her lap, or enfolded in her arms. In earlier representations Madonna is enthroned, and the Child may be fully aware, raising his hand to offer blessing. In a 15th century Italian variation, a baby John the Baptist looks on.

Late Gothic sculptures of the Madonna and Child may show a standing Madonna with the Child in her arms. Iconography varies between public images and private images supplied on a smaller scale and meant for personal devotion in the chamber lile Madonna suckling the Child is an image largely confined to private devotional icons.

Leonardo Da Vinci Paintings

2008-12-08T04:11:00.000-08:00

Leonardo Da Vinci the great painter of the Renaissance period has a very peculiar thing about his paintings. His paintings were the visual representation of his thoughts. As he said “The first object of the painter is to make a flat plane appear as a body in relief and projecting from that plane.”

Although Leonardo Da Vinci produced a relatively small number of paintings, many of which were unfinished, his experimentation with the form and style influenced the later generations of painters. His handling of compositions is both rhythmic and evocative. He dealt with not only the subject but also with the atmosphere of the compositions. This is what set him apart. The aura of mystery around Mona Lisa and the sense of foreboding in the Christian Painting, “The Last Supper”, can never be recreated.

Leonardo Da Vinci was born in the village of Anchiano, a few miles from the small town of Vinci, in Tuscany, near Florence, to a wealthy Florentine notary and a peasant woman. In the mid-1460s his family moved to Florence, where Leonardo was given the best education available in Florence.

Leonardo Da Vinci was a versatile genius and its very difficult to enumerate his exploits in different field. He conceived many scientific ideas through his paintings, which were way ahead of his time. Some of his notable conceptual inventions are: the helicopter,the tank, solar energy. However this wonderful concepts were not feasible in those times.

Leonardo Da Vinci was also greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy,engineering and optics.

His drawing - Vitruvian Man is a perfect synthesis of his knowledge of art, mathematics, geometry and anatomy.His notebooks and sketches gives us an insight into his great mind.

The two very famous paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci are Mona Lisa and the famous christian painting The Last Super. His other works include famous frescoes and oil paintings.

Two more of his beautiful master pieces are:

The Adoration of Magi (1481)
It is an early oil painting on wood of the Master. It was commissioned by the monks of San Donato a Scopeto. It is in the Christian Painting tradition.

In the painting The Virgin and Child are illustrated in the foreground and form a triangular shape with the Magi kneeling in adoration. Behind them is a semicircle of accompanying figures, including what may be a self-portrait of the young Leonardo (on the far right). In the background on the left is the ruin of a pagan building, on which workmen can be seen, apparently repairing it. On the right are men on horseback fighting, and a sketch of a rocky landscape.
Virgin of the Rocks
This title is used to describe three separte paintings with the same theme. There are separate accounts over which of the paintings are verifiably Da Vinci's. However the one in the Louvere version is generally accredited to Da Vinci.

The paintings is an illustration of the legend of the meeting between of baby Jesus and John the Baptiston on their way to Egypt. Standard interpretation of the paintings says that, they depict the Madonna in the centre ushering John towards Jesus, who is seated with the angel Uriel.

Leonardo Da Vinci the painter is a difficult painter to pin down in a few pages. For a more comprehensive understanding of his paintings visit our pages on the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

Van Gogh Paintings

2008-12-07T08:10:00.000-08:00

Van Gogh's paintings are in a form of a story. A story of a sad, misunderstood and tortured man, who is way ahead of his time. A story, which would have remained untold, had the droopy sunflowers and the swirling clouds not told the tale. The story of Vincent Van Gogh, the painter.Van Gogh Paintings are the treasures of our times.

Vincent Van Gogh was the son of Anna Cornelia Carbentus and Protestant Minister, Theodorus van Gogh. His full name was Vincent Willem Van Gogh. He spent most of his early life in Holland. At one point of time he became a preacher until he was dismissed by the church for his excessive zeal in living a Christ-like life of poverty.

His zeal and lust for life took him through a roller coaster journey which ended tragically when he shot himself on July 27 1890.

Van Gogh worked as a painter for 10 years and in these 10 years he produced 900 paintings and 1100 drawings. He painted his best-known works in the last two years of his life. His earlier works were charcterized by sombre colors and then he discovered the impressionists (the works of Monet). The mature style of his later works is definitely the influence of impressionism. In fact he is classified as a true Post – Impressionist. In his paintings we see the seeds of the school that lead to abstract painting.

Van Gogh took the concept of impressionism a step further in his works. His striking depiction of landscapes, portraiture and still life using often irreverent techniques and style makes his work stand out. His swirling brush strokes and other innovative techniques ensured that his paintings achieved the status of “visual metaphors”.

Van Gogh's painful yet significant friendship with fellow artist Paul Gauguin produced such works such as The Red Vineyard.

Van Gogh was acknowledged as the pioneer of what was later to be called expressionism, a style that had incredible influence on 20 th century art, his works are valued at hundreds of millions today. Ironically, he led a life of virtual penury and died unrecognized and uncelebrated.

Three of the highly acclaimed paintings of Van Gogh are:

The Starry Night (1889)

This Oil Painting on canvas is probably one of the most Famous Paintings of all times. The painting portrays a swirling sky scape filled with yellow glowing stars above a small town and rolling hills. Van Gogh painted it just 13 months before his suicide.
The large black formation in the foreground in this painting is a topic of much speculation. Some claim that it's a tip of a tree and others claim that it is a pointer to the sky. This paintings achieves something very rare, it manages to captures the artist's feeling of agitation with quite effortlessly. Van Gogh's immortal words are inevitably associated with this painting.

"Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star."

Sunflowers (1888-1889)

“Sunflowers” is a series of still life paintings that Van Gogh painted between 1888-1889.
The paintings show sunflowers in all stages of life, from fully in bloom to withering. The paintings were innovative for their use of the yellow spectrum.This series was particularly close to Van Gogh's heart. To his dear brother Theo he wrote-“the sunflower is mine in a way”

Wheat Field with Crows (1890)

Often believed to be his last piece of work, this painting with its disturbing intensity unsettles its viewers.Art interpretors believe that it depicts the artists disturbed state of mind. The dark clouds with black crows create are seen as a sign of foreboding.

Vincent Van Gogh's painful story is beautifully told by Don Mac Lean in his song “Starry Starry Night”-

…for they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you…

Atlanta Painting - Famous Paintings of our time

2008-12-04T22:00:00.001-08:00

Atlanta Painting is a depiction of the Atlanta battle, which was a very heart piercing event in the southern history. The Atlanta painting is better known as Atlanta Cyclorama. It is a circular panoramic painting kept at the museum in Grant Park in Atlanta, Georgia

The Atlanta Painting is quite fascinating as it is cylindrical in shape and is accessed through an entrance in the floor. After entering the room of the Atlanta Painting the visitors are asked to be seated whilst the central cylinder rotates slowly affording a view of the entire painting. The unrolled Atlanta Painting would measure 42 feet high by 358 feet long which makes it the largest oil painting in the world.

The Atlanta Painting tries to capture the fierce battle between confederate defenders and the United States Army during the American Civil War on July 22, 1864. This remarkable piece of art was commissioned by the Vice Presidential candidate John A. Logan who thought it will stir the patriotic feelings of the Atlantans which in turn will translate in votes for him. Obviously the painting emphasized the heroism of Logan and other Union commanders.

The Atlanta Painting painted by a pair of German painters F.W. Heine and August Lohr. These painters did exhaustive research before they started painting. They also took the pains of consulting Civil War artist and witness Theodore Davis, whom they painted into the work. They finally completed the Atlanta Painting in 1887. It was exhibited in Detroi that very year.

Subsequently the Atlanta Painting was sold to a traveling circus. Eventually when this circus came to Atlanta in the late 1800s, it received a lot of flak as few Atlantans wanted to see a Northern-biased painting that glorified the defeat that would lead to the destruction of their city.

Hence the traveling circus’ grand plans of attracting crowds through this painting proved to be quite unsuccessful. With little or no attendance, the circus went bankrupt. The circus manager decided to sell most of the company’s assets including the Atlanta Painting and the animals.

The animals proved to be a grand attraction at the Zoo Atlanta and the Atlanta Painting was housed in a ramshackle wooden structure next to the zoo for a long time. However, thankfully art connoisseurs soon realized the paintings artistic merit and transferred it to a state-of-the art facility specially designed to protect and conserve the delicate painting.

Today the Atlanta Painting is the greatest tourist attraction of Atlanta.

Ajanta Murals-Famous Paintings of our Times

2008-12-04T02:36:00.000-08:00

As we had promised in the last post we are back today with information on Ajanta Murals, the first on the list of the Famous Paintings.

Ajanta Murals are the worlds oldest and most celebrated specimens of frescoes, in the hallowed caves of Ajanta , Maharashtra. These murals arouse interest art historians because they involve the complex procedure of fresco. In fact, India has a rich tradition of paintings since ancient times and murals stand testimony to that very fact.

The word Murals is derived from the Mexican Muralista painting movement. Mural Painting refers to painting done on walls, ceilings or other large permanent surfaces. This style of painting can be traced back to pre-historic times such as the paintings on the Caves of Lascaux in southern France.

The Buddhist Monks started the digging of Ajanta Caves in the 4th Century A.D. These monks dug around 29 caves over the century. So these caves are adorned with sculptures of animals, guards and deities, and paintings of courtly life and Buddhist tales. Amidst these are several sculptures of Buddha.

The walls of these caves are covered with mural paintings suggesting a fair state of preservation from decay. The scenes depicted are mostly didactic, devotional, and ornamental. The themes are from the Jataka stories (the stories of the Buddha's former existences as Boddhisattva), life of the Gautam Buddha, and those of his veneration.

Today the Ajanta caves are one of the greatest tourist attraction of the small Indian town of Aurangabad. However art specialists are concerned about the delicate condition of these fragile paintings. They believe that these paintings are so fragile that they are endangered by even human breath.

The next on the list of Famous Paintings is Atlanta painting which we shall discuss in the next post.

The Famous Paintings of our times

2008-12-03T02:25:00.000-08:00

Famous Paintings are products of artistic expression, which touch our hearts and leave an unforgettable impact. Amongst the thousands of such work it is and will be difficult to select just a few. But we have done an earnest and sincere effort to pick those paintings and creators who have left a long lasting impression on our minds.

Be it Da Vinci's mysterious Mona Lisa, or the melting watches of Dali, we want to discuss those paintings that have redefined the way we perceive ourselves.

The intention of listing these paintings is to not ignore or discourage the works of other deserving masters, but is to understand our perception of the art. The various schools of painting that the list encompasses are really noteworthy. Each one is different from the other; each painter fiercely individualistic, and yet so alike.
Tomorrow when our future generations looks back at us, they will not know us for our foray into the web world, nor for our ability to reach out to each other, anytime, anywhere with the help of mobile phones. They will probably ponder over these very paintings and rue the loss of a way of life.

The Famous Paintings of our times are as follows.

* Ajanta Murals
* Atlanta Painting
* Gogh Paintings
* Leonardo Da Vinci Paintings
* Madonna Child
* Michelangelo Paintings

* Monet Paintings
* Mona Lisa Painting
* Picasso Paintings
* Salvador Dali Paintings
* The Last Supper Painting

We will be back shortly with more updates on each one of these paintings.

List of Some latest Painting Exhibitions

2008-12-02T02:26:00.000-08:00

As promised in the first article of the blog I am providing you with the latest information on the art exhibitions in India. The list is big but if you find time please visit at least one of them:

1.Painting Show By 10 Indian Women Artists Across Globe At Gallery Nvya
Venue : 4/6 Siri Fort Institutional Area, Academy of Fine Arts and Literature , Delhi
Event Schedule : 12-11-2008 to 31-12-2008 (Daily)
The painting show by ten Indian women artists from across the globe is arranged at Gallery Nvya. The artists are Shobha Broota, Saba Hasan, Gina Brezini, Kavita Jaiswal, Sangeeta Gupta, Shanta Pao, Arpana Caur, Jaya Gaguly, Sema Kohli and Pooja Iranna.
Timing:-11:00AM -7:00 PM (Monday to Saturday)
Contact : Gallery Nvya
Mobile : 9818890110
Phone : 011-41326119

2.Painting Show 'Mixed Palette' By Sipra Dattagupta At India International Centre
Venue : 40,Lodhi Road,Max Mueller Marg, Connaught Place , Delhi
Event Schedule : 12-11-2008 to 31-12-2008 (Daily)
The painting show 'Mixed Palette' is organized at India International Centre, Lecture Hall (Annexe). This program will showcase the paintings by Kolkata artist Sipra Dattagupta. Contact : India International Centre
Phone : 011-24619431
website : http://www.iicdelhi.nic.in

3.Painting Exhibition by Ashok Hazara at Gallery Ganesh
Venue : Gallery Ganesh, E - 557, Greater Kailash -2 , Delhi
Event Schedule : 07-11-2008 to 03-12-2008 (Daily)
Gallery Ganesh is organizing "Flute Player", an exhibition of paintings by Ashok Hazara
through which he aspires to meet nature that has been lost due to urbanisation. The Painting Exhibition will be display at Greater Kailash.
Contact : Gallery Ganesh

4.'Frame Figure Field' Painting & Art Exhibition At Delhi Art Gallery
Venue : 11, Hauz Khas Village , Delhi
Event Schedule : 17-11-2008 to 06-12-2008 (Daily)
The exhibition 'Frame Figure Field' of painting is organized at Delhi Art Gallery. There will be display of painting works by the artists like hobha Broota, Avinash Chandra, Amitaya Das, Santi Dave, Jaya Ganguli, Sheela Gowda, Satish Gujural, M F Husain, Vivan Sundaram and others. Visit to wards the painting exhibition having natural style.
Timing:-11:00 AM -7:00 PM(Sunday Closed)
Contact : Delhi Art Gallery
Phone : 011-1146005300
website : http://www.delhiartgallery.com/

5.Painting Exhibition ‘Colour Cadences’ By Kishor Shinde At The Mint
Venue : E-3, West Wing, Defence Colony , Delhi
Event Schedule : 07-11-2008 to 05-12-2008 (Daily)
The painting exhibition ‘Colour Cadences’ is organized at The Mint. The artist Kishor Shinde is carried Colour on a swell of emotion. Surging and receding to an inner rhythm his vibrant, energetic canvases hum with the music that emerges from the artist’s soul. Colour and line are the bearers of this inner expression, of the swings in mood and melody.
Contact : The Mint
Phone : 011-24334494, 24334495
website : http://www.themint.in/

6.Art Exhibition ‘Flute Player’ by Ashok Hazra at Gallery Ganesha
Venue : E-557, Greater Kailash-II , Delhi
Event Schedule : 25-11-2008 to 07-12-2008 (Daily)
The exhibition ‘Flute Player’ of art and painting is to be organized at Gallery Ganesha. This exhibition displays recent artworks by the famous artist Ashok Hazra. Fill real and traditional art works at the place.
Timing:-11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Contact : Gallery Ganesha
Phone : 011-29226043, 29217306
website : http://www.gallerieganesha.com/

7.Painting Exhibition 'Village Vignettes' By Saraswathi. L At Alankritha Art Gallery
Venue : Residence Inn, Amar Coop Hsg.Society, Lane Opp. Madhapur PS, Kavuri Hills, Jubilee Hills , Hyderabad
Event Schedule : 06-12-2008 to 17-12-2008 (Daily)
The exhibition of painting 'Village Vignettes' is arranged at Alankritha Art Gallery. The show will display the painting workshops by the artist Saraswathi. L. This is our pleasure if you visit to our painting show. You can also view the show through online through our website given bellow.
Timing:-11:00 AM -6:00 PM
Contact : Prashanthi Goel
Phone : 040-23113709
website : http://www.alankritha.com

8.Art Exhibition 'The Body Social' By Amitava Das At Delhi Art Gallery
Venue : 11, Hauz Khas Village , Delhi
Event Schedule : 11-12-2008 to 10-01-2009 (Daily)
The art exhibition 'The Body Social' is organized at Delhi Art Gallery. There will be the art works by Amitava Das on the display. You are cordially invited to this painting show.
Contact : Delhi Art Gallery
Phone : 011-46005300
website : http://www.delhiartgallery.com/

Indian Contemporary Art on a High

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Indian Contemporary Art has started getting a lot of attention this year onwards. First it was Chicago and Turin with other places, giving attention to Indian Contemporary Art through major 2008 surveys. Then Delhi's own, first nonprofit exhibition space for contemporary art, Devi Art Foundation, was launched. Now London has also joined the list of attention payers and promoters of Indian Contemporary Art, by launching "Indian Highway" at Serpentine Gallery,London, this month. This event will be co organized by Serpentine's star curatorial duo Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist with Oslo's Gunnar V. Kvaran. An expanded version of "Indian Highway" will also be shown in Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo and at least five other international venues.

"Indian Highway" is actually gives us the information of highways running in India, and also about the information superhighways that are dependent upon the exploding hi-tech industries in cities like Bangalore. Like other exhibitions Obrist has co organized, such as "China Power Station," "Cities on the Move," and "Uncertain States of America," "Indian Highway" is conceived in an aggregate mode, with a Russian-doll-like exhibition-within-an-exhibition created by a different Indian guest curator or artist at each venue.

"Indian Highway" will present some 20 artists, most of whom will be creating new work for the show. Obrist, in the metaphor-laden parlance characteristic of global curators, explains the concept as both "a marathon, not a sprint" and "a group of archipelagoes, not a continent." Main highlights of the show include a mural by the esteemed 93-year-old painter M. F. Husain on a structure around the exterior of the Serpentine, a new performance by Nikhil Chopra, the magnificent photographs of Dayanita Singh, and a large installation by master of the readymade Subodh Gupta,as well as contributions by N. S. Harsha, Amar Kanwar, Sheela Gowda, and Ayisha Abraham. Also included in the program are lectures and readings on Indian poetry, literature, and architecture, as well as a film series.

"Indian Art" originally appeared in the December 2008 / January issue of Modern Painters.

Artist Paintings

2008-11-30T06:50:00.000-08:00

Painting is a very beautiful way of expressing your feelings, your imagination with the help of colors. Paintings can also be used for decoration in homes these days. The history of artist painting reaches back in time to artifacts from pre-historic humans, and spans all cultures. The history of artist painting represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from Antiquity. Across cultures, and spanning continents, the history of painting is an ongoing river of creativity, that continues into the 21st century. Until the early 20th century it relied primarily on representational, religious and classical motifs, after which time more purely abstract and conceptual approaches gained favor.

Example of Pre-historic paintings are:

Lascaux,Horse

Cave Painting

Unicorn

Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka,Rock Painting,Stone Age, India

Depending upon the various places the paintings can be divided into the following categories:

Eastern Paintings

Western Paintings

Paintings in America

Islamic Paintings

Australian Paintings

African Paintings

The some examples of each are as follows:

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt ,The Goddess Isis, wall painting, ca.1360 BC

Bahsoli painting of Maharaja Sital Dev of Mankot in Devotion, c. 1690

A group of women from South India, Hindupur, c. 1540

Bahsoli painting of Radha and Krishna in Discussion, c. 1730

Here on this blog we will provide you with information related to paintings of various artists of India as well as the world. We will keep you informed about information on exhibitions, biddings or any such event where you can find artist paintings of your choice.