art now

Applications to "Rising Stars In Photography" Now Being Accepted

noreply@blogger.com (Li) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:57:00 +0000

Hub's Rising Stars of Photography project will launch in early November to showcase the talents of emerging photographic artists. As a companion site to Hub's Visionary Photographers, this unique project serves as a central source for viewing the art of tomorrow's photographic luminaries. Designed to provide a "jump start" showcase stage for aspiring photographers whose work is destined to blaze new trails in creative photography, Rising Stars is dedicated to fostering the art form and nurturing the enthusiasm inside tomorrow's Visionary Photographers.

Visitors to the Rising Star site -- from lovers of photography to photographic agents, from students to potential employers -- will experience the visions and youthful wisdom of artists who are pushing the boundaries of photography to make their voices heard in the photographic conversation.

Read the press release HERE

You may also want to see some Visionary Photographers

the power of imagination

noreply@blogger.com (Li) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:51:00 +0000

wonderful clip summarizing some interesting ideas presented at Liverpool Biennial

(La Princesse)

Francis BACON

noreply@blogger.com (Li) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:31:00 +0000

(Dublin, 1909 - Madrid, 1992)

Francis Bacon was the most celebrated English painter of the 20th century. He produced dramatic paintings focused on figure, a distorted figure in order to express isolation, brutality, and terror.

In 1945 he exhibited Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, a horrific triptych depicting half-animal, half-human creatures writhing in anguish.

When this triptych was first exhibited at the end of the war in 1945, it secured Bacon’s reputation. The title relates these horrific beasts to the saints traditionally portrayed at the foot of the cross in religious painting. Bacon even suggested he had intended to paint a larger crucifixion beneath which these would appear.He later related these figures to the Eumenides – the vengeful furies of Greek myth, associating them within a broader mythological tradition. Typically, Bacon drew on a range of sources for these figures, including a photograph purporting to show the materialisation of ectoplasm and the work of Pablo Picasso.

(From the display caption at Tate Museum, May 2007)

By depicting butchered bodies, misshapen figures, and spattered blood, Bacon seems to intend to underline the evils of man, rather than the virtues of Christ.

Most of Bacon's paintings, even his portraits were based on photographs. He smeared and smudged the paint so subjects were often transformed into nightmarish, ill-formed, slug-like creatures. Many of Bacon's figures seem to have their faces turned inside out and many are isolated / trapped by geometric or cage-like constructions.

(Figure in movement, oil on canvas, 1985)

LIFEline

1914: Bacon's family move from Dublin to London
1928: Starts work as an interior decorator in London
1949: Starts Screaming Popes series - a nightmarish version of Velasquez's famous portrait of Pope Innocent X

This is one of the greatest /and most troubling/ British paintings which represents an attempt to reinvent Velasquez's painting in a valid manner for the mid-20th century.

In Velasquez's portrait the Pope comfortably rests his arms on the chair, reflecting his confident, composed bearing. In Bacon's pictures, the Pope's arms are tense and the hands grip the chair with desperation; the face is an image of terror, while the glasses are created with dabs of white paint; the lips and flesh tones are suggested by touches of local colour. Also the paint is smeared and spattered into the canvas and the brushstrokes are free. The yellow immediately catch the eye.

Velasquez potrays the Pope's public image, whereas Bacon seems to delve into Pope's private psychosis. (ART, The Definitive Visual Guide)

1954: Represents Britain at the Venice Biennale
1962-63: Retrospectives at the Tate Gallery, London and Guggenheim, New York
1971: Retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris

Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Triptych 1974-77, signed, titled and dated ‘Triptych May-June 1974 Francis Bacon’, (on the reverse of each canvas), oil, pastel and letraset on canvas, in three parts. Each 78 x 58 ⅛in. (198 x 147.5cm.). Executed in 1974, the central panel was reworked in 1977.

Impressive and detailed material regarding Francis Bacon's art and life can be found here

William Eggleston

noreply@blogger.com (Li) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:03:00 +0000

William Eggleston, Untitled, 1965-68 and 1972-74,
from Los Alamos, 2003,
Dye transfer print, 17-¾ x 12",
Private collection

William Eggleston (b. 1939) is an American photographer, born in Memphis, Tennesse and raised in Sumner, Mississippi. He began to create color photographs in the mid-1960s while in the late 1960s he shifted to color transparency film (color side film). This kind of film is used domestically for photographing family holidays or celebrations, advertising and magazine imagery.

Untitled, c. 1975
Dye transfer print, 16 x 20",
Cheim & Read, New York

Most surprising about these photographs was their compositional intrigue and sensitive transformation of a slight subject or observation into a truly compelling form.

American, Tennessee, Negative, about 1965 - 1968; Print, 1980
Dye transfer print
11 7/8 x 17 7/16 in.
98.XM.232.1

However this adoption of the color range of the common photography was considered outside the fine art photography.

American, Memphis, Tennessee, about 1965 - 1970
Gelatin silver print
Image: 9 1/2 x 6 1/4 in.
2002.38.8

In 1976, some of the photographs he created between 1969 and 1971 was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This moment represented THE FIRST SOLO SHOW OF A PHOTOGRAPHER WORKING PREDOMINANTLY IN COLOR.

Morton, Mississippi, c. 1969-70,
from William Eggleston’s Guide, 1976,
Dye transfer print, 20-9/16 x 13-3/8",
Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung,
Hannover

Is is true that it cannot be asserted that one exhibition could change the directions of art photography, yet this exhibition was a proof of the importance and power of expression that Eggleston's approach would have.

Still considered a 'photographer's photograper', he has been the subject of major books and exhibitions around the world, and he continues to make important contributions to the field.

Untitled, 1965-68 and 1972-74,
from Los Alamos, 2003,
Dye transfer print, 16 x 20,
Collection of Emily Fisher Landau

William Eggleston on Wikipedia

Eggleston's Official Site

Eggleston's photographs in a very nice clip on youtube

Eggleston at Los Alamos

( I read about Eggleston on Wikipedia, Masters of Photography and his official site)

photography as an art form & introduction to ART NOW blog

noreply@blogger.com (Li) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:42:00 +0000

Due to the fact that photographers consider the art galleries, the reviews or even the book the natural "habitat" for their works it must not be a mistake to say that art world embraces photography today as never before.

At this moment in my life this represents the main interest for me. I have created this space for helping me better organizing all the information I gather via various means. I want this space to become a vademecum of my interests, hobbies and possible future projects.

I believe that every man should be interested in contemporary art as it is created even by us everyday. I consider every regular human an undiscovered artist. I think I will write more about photography and paintings, urban art and architecture, design or clothes, and also about literature and novelties from a cultural perspective in UK. I am helped by the books I have, the books I borrow, movies, cultural meetings, Internet pages and different publications.

I hope that I would be able to interact with people who have the same concerns; a blog is useless if it receives no reactions!