Kindred Spirits

The Flatiron, 1920 by Alfred Stieglitz, Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe were married in 1924. By this time his career as an innovative photographer had been established and hers as a painter, was beginning.

There is a great photography show at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Lone Tree

Oak Tree Sunset City by Ansel Adams,© The Ansel Adams Gallery.

Ansel Adams is best known for his black and white photographs of sweeping landscapes, however he also did portraits and smaller still lifes.

There is a great Ansel Adams show at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Red Room

The Dinner Table (Harmony in Red) by Henri Matisse, Hermitage Museum.

Matisse is part of the art movement known as the Fauvists. Color is the central focus of the short-lived movement but they also concentrated on movement and primitive form. Matisse continued to use strong color throughout his career while exploring different mediums.

Getting Engaged

The Engagement of Virgin Mary, 1504 by Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael), Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.

This painting is an early work by the famous Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. The work is a study in receding space. Raphael signed his early paintings with his birth name.

Yummy

Various cakes, 1981 by Wayne Thiebaud, Private Collection.

Happy Birthday Lyndon!

Influences

Untitled, 1984 by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

One of the popular artists of the 1980's who rose to prominence and was considered the star of the group that included Julian Schnabel, Keith Haring, Robert Longo, and Mark Kostabi (among others). Basquait died at age 28 of a drug overdose.

Schnabel has been making headlines lately with his building in NYC.

Paradise Revisited

Island Feast, 1940 published 1953 by Eugene Savage, S.S. Lurline, Matson Line.

Savage created a set of nine murals for the Matson ship line in 1940 but they were not used until the early 1950's because the ships had been requisitioned for service in WWII. Savage received awards for his artwork which was so popular among the tourists it was reproduced in a set of prints and as Aloha attire.

Full Moon

The Harvest Moon, c. 1894 -96 by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Glasgow School of Art

My favorite artist. He was also an amazing architect. He was so far ahead of his time and although he was a contemporary of the Art & Crafts and Art Nouveau movements, his take on the aesthetic was really unique.

Happy Father's Day

Peace Concluded, 1856 by John Everett Millais, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

This scene marks the end of the Crimean War and the return home of the soldier to his family. On the mother's lap, four animals from the toy Noah's Ark represent the four belligerents: Britain (lion), Russia (bear), the Ottoman Empire (turkey), and France (rooster). The father holds the newspaper that announces the end of the war.

This post is in honor of all the fathers (and mothers) who sadly cannot celebrate with their families because they are still fighting a war.

Green Dress

Jeune fille en vert, 1930 by Tamara de Lempicka, Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris.

Lempicka has come to represent the Art Deco period in painting because of the fluid lines, rich colors, and sensuousness of her paintings.

Read more about a current exhibition here.

Art Therapy

Flower Beds in Holland, 1889 by Vincent Van Gogh, National Gallery of Art.

One of the 150 paintings the Van Gogh produced while living in the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy. He had converted a cell next to his into a studio so he could continue to work.

Nature in Fabric

Various Indian Textiles

India has created beautiful textiles from the earliest days of their civilization and the tradition continues today. Quite often the designs are based on the natural fauna as are the materials used to create them.

Sand in Your Shoes

Children Playing on the Beach, 1884 by Mary Cassatt, The National Gallery of Art.

Mary Cassatt is well known for her paintings of children where she presents the children naturally as opposed to being idealized or as mini adults.