If a movie was made today of the life of Jane Peterson, it would probably star Julia Roberts (who is 52, around the age that Jane Peterson married for the first time and settled down to a life of domesticity for four or five years) and a cast of international actors to play her teachers, patrons and friends. The film would be billed as, "small town girl becomes successful artist, travels the world and finally settles down with millionaire husband."
The sale of yeast in the U.S. increased by 647% at the end of March and is still on the rise. Baking, during this shelter-in-place time has been one of the things that many people are using as a distraction, a family activity and a comfort.
Many artists spend each day alone in their studio or in a natural setting, not so different than the lives some of us find ourselves leading today. The difference is that artists choose solitude and it's not forced upon them by a pandemic.
Wolf Kahn, one of America's most lyrical landscape painters, died of congestive heart failure in his Manhattan home on March 15. He was 92.
The world, as we knew it, has been going through radical changes during these past few weeks. Our personal and professional lives have been disrupted and we have had to modify many of our activities of daily living. With many museums and galleries closed to the public, and offering virtual tours online, it stands to reason that more people than ever have been seeking comfort and solace by surfing for art. One of the unexpected consequences of people staying at home is that many are beginning to educate themselves and learning to appreciate works of art.
With museums and galleries temporarily closed, in the U.S. and around the world, we've become increasingly dependent on technology, especially with stay-at-home restrictions, to fill the need we have to socialize and find solace in creativity. Many of the artists whose works are in our gallery live and work in New York, which has been hard hit by the Corona virus.
For many of us, the order to stay at home and shelter in place has left us wistful for a trip to a museum or gallery. Thanks to modern technology, virtual tours of some of the most magnificent museums and galleries in the world can be taken without getting off the couch.
Eye to I at the Boca Museum Before there was the selfie, there was the self portrait. Eye to I, the current exhibit at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, explores the way in which twentieth-century American artists portrayed themselves through painting, drawing, photography, and film. Unlike selfies, which can be instantly gratifying and, often, very candid, self-portraits [...]
The National Portrait Gallery of London is currently holding an exhibit of Hockney's drawings, the first major exhibit of the artist's drawings in more than twenty years. Although there are more than 150 works on display, done from 1950 to the present, only five subjects are represented in the works: his friend Celia Birtwell, his mother, Laura Hockney, curator and friend Gregory Evans, master printer and friend Maurice Payne and Hockney himself.
This weekend art lovers are celebrating Art on Paper at Pier 36 in Manhattan. Nearly one hundred galleries have been invited to this annual event, that showcases works of art which are done on paper or constructed with paper.
The streets of New York became a canvas for Jean-Michel Basquiat, the subways a canvas for Keith Haring. Both artists had recognition in underground art venues and clubs, but did not gain immediate entrance to established galleries and museums. The art, and club, scene in the 1980s was wild and frenzied. Haring and Basquiat both worked and partied with abandon and, as it turned out, the streets and subways gave them access to wide audiences. Their art eventually crossed the threshold from street art to high art, paving the way for graffiti artists who came after them to gain acceptance in galleries and museums around the world.
Frank Stella in Tampa Beginning in April, the Tampa Museum of Art will be holding two concurrent exhibits of works by Frank Stella. The first exhibit, titled Frank Stella: Illustrations After El Lissitzky’s Had Gadya, consists of a portfolio of twelve prints that Stella created in 1984, after a visit to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The inspiration [...]
A painting by Keith Haring sold for £3,206,000 ($4,181,630) at Phillips London auction on February 13th. The 96 x 96 inch Untitled painting was included in the groundbreaking 1982 show organized by art dealer Tony Shafrazi. The work was purchased by an anonymous collector, who held on to it until this auction, although it was shown at a Haring retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1997 and the retrospective Keith Haring: The Political Line at the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris in 2013.
Maria Oakey Dewing is one of the women included in the Smithsonian's archives, and whose works are part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's art collection. Dewing began her career around the turn of the twentieth century. Her abstract, impressionist style was considered avant-garde, and way ahead of other artists of her generation.
Marc Chagall's poetic images made him one of the most celebrated artists of the twentieth century. He was a painter, printmaker, set designer and created extraordinary stained glass windows for the United Nations, an incredible ceiling mural at the Paris Opera House and wondrous murals at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Jacob Lawrence was one of the most unique and masterful American artists of the twentieth century. He was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1917, and moved with his mother and siblings to Harlem in 1930, where he studied art at Utopia Children's House, a program designed to meet the needs of families in the city.
After a decade of working on political caricatures, Larraz knew he wanted to create art that mattered to him, but the art scene in New York in the 1970s and ’80s was transitioning from Abstract Expressionism to Minimalism and Conceptual Art, none of which interested Larraz. “I wasn’t bored of my job. I love drawing and I love politics,” he said in a 2015 interview in Huffpost, “but I knew I wanted to do something that completely filled me with joy. When I started, the type of painting I wanted to create was forbidden. Abstract art was in full force at the time, but I wanted to be a Realist painter, which was considered degenerate art. I remember thinking ‘Terrific. You are not supposed to do this, and this is exactly what I am going to do.’ I had to go there, it was calling me.”
A new record for the work of Alex Katz was set at the Phillips auction house in London last October. His 1972 painting, Blue Umbrella sold for $4.1 million. The painting is just one of the more than 200 that Katz has created of Ada, his wife and muse. The 92-year-old Brooklyn born artist is going to have his first solo exhibit in Spain this fall, at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid. The exhibit will include paintings of flowers, landscapes and portraits, done in the distinctive style and colors that Katz has refined during his long career.
When the Roman Empire declined, around 133 BC, the art of landscape painting also declined. Although artists have been painting landscapes since antiquity, they were used only as background for religious, mythological or historical figure paintings. The word landscape comes from the Dutch word landschap, meaning region or tract of land. The Netherlands was one of the first places where landscapes became a popular subject for paintings and the term landscape came to mean a picture depicting scenery on land.
Contemporary artists Scott Kelley and Walton Ford have much in common. Scott Kelley was born in 1960, Walton Ford in 1963. Kelley was born in Binghamton, New York, Ford was born in Larchmont, New York. They both had traditional art educations, Kelley at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and at Cooper Union in New York, Ford at the Rhode Island School of Design.
The contemporary art market has grown 1,800% in the last 19 years and its Price Index rose 22% in 2018/19, according to artprice.com. Of the top ten artists whose work set auction records in 2019, Claude Monet's Meules topped the list at Sotheby's New York, when it sold at the May 14th auction for $110,747,000. Jeff Koons [...]
This time of year stirs up memories, gives rise to feelings of nostalgia and, hopefully, joy. Great works of art awaken many of the same emotions. Each work at Surovek Gallery has been carefully chosen because of its beauty, its history and the sensation it evokes. We would like to showcase some of the fine works of [...]
David Hockney used to have his suits specially made with large pockets to accommodate a sketch book. In 2010 he got an iPad and discovered that it fit in the same pocket. A masterful artist in many mediums, Hockney has used the iPad to create visually stunning images. In January, 2020, a limited edition book, signed and numbered by David Hockney, will be released. The drawings were done on both his iPhone and iPad between 2009 and 2012, while Hockney was at his former home in Yorkshire.
The holidays bring up many emotions that artists are often able to capture. Many of the paintings by the American artists in our gallery seem to take on a deeper, more nostalgic, heartwarming feeling this time of the year. Here's a look at just a few of the works in the Surovek Gallery that evoke a sense of joy and the extraordinary artists who created them.
Ahead of his time, the first paintings of the sea that Homer exhibited in New York were panned by the critics. Writer and critic Henry James wrote that Homer's paintings were, “almost barbarously simple” with “no imagination.” Although James did add that “there is something one likes about him.” Homer's use of diffuse light and stark narrative was a sharp contrast to the emotional, bucolic work that was popular in the 1870s.
Keith Haring's original, signed works are coveted by museums and collectors, and are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Keith Harring Crack is Wack Mural, 1986 Photo: Stan Wiechers CC BY-SA 4.0 The Mural at Grace House Keith Haring's generous spirit and his desire to share his art and promote art education for young students, led [...]
Considering all the turmoil that Marc Chagall witnessed and experienced throughout his lifetime, it's remarkable to see the optimism, playfulness and joy in his art. Chagall was born in 1887, in Liozna, which was part of the Russian Empire. He was the oldest of nine children in an Orthodox Jewish family at a time when Jewish children were not allowed to attend regular schools or universities.
Chuck Close, May 1, 2009. Author: Sotolux Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 The Who performed at last week's grand opening of giant new Chelsea headquarters of the Pace Gallery. They were chosen for their ability to remain relevant and strong, like the gallery and the art it exhibits, for decades. The new building on West 25th [...]
What is most interesting about Nichols' work is the way he himself executed and perceived it. Nichols was born on a farm in David City, Nebraska in 1904. He did chores, walked two miles to school and, eventually left the rural environment for Chicago to pursue a career in art. He became a very successful illustrator, who was able to create both sophisticated graphics and comforting landscapes.
At 92, Katz is still climbing up onto scaffolds to paint enormous landscapes and, of course, portraits of Ada, his muse and wife of sixty-one years. Alex Katz met Ada at a the opening of his two-person show at the Tanager Gallery in New York in October 1957. They were married four months later. One of the first paintings that he created of her was Ada in Black Sweater, in 1957.
A recent exhibit at the Whitney Museum focused on the exuberant colors that pivotal artists used during the psychedelic 1960s. Included in the show was Frank Stella's Gran Cairo, part of the Whitney's permanent collection, one of the first paintings that Stella did after the Black Series that brought him instant acclaim in the art world when he was barely twenty-five. The exhibit, called Spilling Over: Painting Color in the 1960s magnified the varied styles and focus of the mid-century artists.
In 1930, Grant Wood entered his now iconic painting, American Gothic, in an exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood had attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1913. The painting won a $300 prize and gave Wood instant recognition, across America, as a Regional Artist. Tim Roby, left and Chris Shepherd [...]
Neil Welliver began life in 1929, in the small town of Millville, Pennsylvania, a village fueled by sawmills and gristmills. He went on to receive his MFA from Yale in 1955, where he stayed on to teach for the next ten years, before becoming chairman of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Art.
William Glackens was one of the best reporter-artist-illustrators of his time, rendering fast, accurate and compassionate drawings for the Philadelphia Record, and the New York Herald. When the half-tone printing process was finally successfully engineered, so that it was good enough for commercial use (around 1898), illustrators, like Glackens, were replaced by photographers.
Wolf Kahn will be turning 92 in October. He is dealing with macular degeneration, and can no longer read or drive, but he can still paint and work with pastels. "The older I get," he says, "the more yellow a yellow becomes, the bluer a blue becomes, and that gives me hope for the future." Kahn still paints almost every day. He and his wife, artist Emily Mason, divide their time between their home in New York and their summer-through-fall studios in Vermont.
Mary Cassatt is an American treasure, although it was not until after her death, in 1926, that she received the recognition that she deserved. She was born into a wealthy banking family in Philadelphia, and went on family trips to Europe, where she was exposed to great art and culture and could speak both French and German. [...]
Frank Stella changed the way in which art was viewed and created in post-war America. His minimalist Black Painting Series, which debuted at the Museum of Modern Art's Sixteen Americans show in 1959, ushered in the Minimalist movement and led to Stella's renown in the art world.
Richard Diebenkorn's painting, Ocean Park #126, sold at Christie's last year for $22,587,500, making it one of the top fifty artworks sold at auction in 2018. Richard DiebenkornOcean Park #126, 1984 The Ocean Park Series of paintings were inspired by his move from a dark, windowless studio to a bright, light-filled studio that had belonged to painter [...]
Pierre-Auguste RenoirSelf portrait, 1876 In 1875, Pierre-Auguste Renoir was 34 years old, and beginning to have some success as a painter. The year before, in Paris, he had teamed up with fellow impressionists, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and Frederic Bazille to present the first Impressionist exhibition. The exhibit was not popular with art critics of [...]
George Bellows painted his final masterpiece, Dempsey and Firpo, in 1924. On January 8, 1925, Bellows died from a ruptured appendix. He was just 42 years old. Writer Sherwood Anderson said that Bellows's last paintings "keep telling you things. They are telling you that Mr. George Bellows died too young. They are telling you that he was after something, that he was always after it.”
The Museum of Modern Art is closing for a few months in order to expand and create new galleries and new spaces for performance art. MoMA was founded in 1929, and has been evolving with the times. The final exhibit, before the temporary closing, was Joan Miro: Birth of the World, symbolizing a new beginning.
The elegance and variety of galleries, shops and restaurants along Worth Avenue and the surrounding streets and lanes, gives visitors a feeling of old world elegance. Please stop by Surovek Gallery, or call if you would like more information about the art galleries of Palm Beach.
Thieme was born in Rotterdam, Holland in 1888. According to notes and letters to and from his wife, Becky, which are part of the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, Thieme began drawing as early as age 8. "He drew everything in sight," she wrote, "including famous Dutch master drawings."
Thomas Hart Benton's work had a profound effect on American art. Born in 1889, he lived through World War l, World War ll and the Depression. Although he called himself an enemy of modernism, his teaching at the New York Art Students League, from 1925 to 1935, impacted the progression of Abstract Expressionism and modern art.
The world looked to Spain. The Spanish Civil War had begun in 1936 when Francisco Franco and the fascists attempted to overthrow the Republic under Manuel Azaña. Spain’s great artists collected in Paris in 1937 to display solidarity behind Azaña and the Republicans. Joan Miró, till then a mostly apolitical spectator, put The Reaper on the wall of the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World Fair, publicly declaring his loyalty to the Republican cause.
The talent, determination and perseverance of Mary Cassatt led to her becoming one of the world's leading Impressionist painters and a major influence on American collectors during the twentieth century.
Milton Avery and his family went on a summer vacation every year, even when money was tight and it was difficult to make ends meet. Avery, his wife, Sally, and daughter, March, would leave their home in New York City and head to more scenic sites, like Gloucester, Massachusetts, where the couple met during a summer art program. Sally was twenty-two when they met, Avery nearly twenty years older, and he, initially, lied about his age. They were married in 1926...a marriage that lasted until 1965, when Avery died.
One of the things that set Jasper Johns apart from his contemporaries like Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstien was Johns' lack of art training, and even the absence of exposure to art as a child. Abandoned by his parents after their divorce, he was raised by his Aunt Gladys in rural South Carolina. "In the place where I was a child, there were no artists and there was no art, so I really didn't know what that meant. I think I thought it meant that I would be in a situation different than the one that I was in."
On April 1st, Sotheby's Hong Kong was filled with millennials, many in hoodies, who bought about $28 million dollars worth of KAWS' art. Millennials filled Sotheby's Hong Kong on April 1st. The most astonishing purchase of the April 1st auction was THE KAWS ALBUM, a 40 x 40 inch painting commissioned by Japanese fashion designer, [...]
As the world watched the Notre Dame Cathedral burn last Monday, it evoked memories for those who have visited, or even just passed by, the iconic structure.For Marc Chagall, who first visited Paris in 1910, the city was a captivating place, filled with artists, poets and writers and galleries and museums that fueled his passion for painting.
Young Keith Haring in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. After graduating from high school, Keith Haring left his family home in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, and spent just two semesters at the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh, before dropping out and heading for New York. He was an artist. He'd been drawing from a very early age, taught by his [...]
The wistful paintings of Dale Nichols belie the unique story of the artist himself. He is considered a Regionalist artist. His paintings reflect his nostalgia for the red barn of his childhood home in Nebraska, although he was also able to evoke the same gentle feelings for Arizona, Alaska, Guatemala and the many other places to which he traveled.
Because Richard Diebenkorn’s spare, abstract works are what brought him distinction as an artist, his early works are often overlooked. A traveling exhibit, currently at Pepperdine University’s Frederick R.Weisman Museum of Art, focuses on the Richard Diebenkorn’s early works, most of which have never before been seen in a public exhibit.
At age 82, Stella is ready to part with some of the works he's collected, and some of his own works, which he says are piled up in his Hudson Valley studio in upstate New York. Some of the artwork, his and the work of other artists, are being auctioned at Christie's London and New York, for an expected return of more than $25 million.
I find sometimes I get so excited working, especially when starting new ideas; I get so excited that I get uncomfortable. It almost feels dangerous, like I'm flirting with something dangerous. - Tom Wesselmann Tom Wesselmann's Work at TEFAF Maastricht Tom WesselmanGirl Eating a Banana, 1967-1968Oil on canvas51 1/2 x 75 inchesAlmine Rech Gallery One [...]
Glackens painted scenes of twentieth century New York with the sensibility of the French Impressionist painters he had admired in Paris, and his work helped to popularize American Impressionism and modernize art in America. Through his work with the Ashcan School and the Society of Independent Artists, Glackens helped to plan, and take part in, exhibits that introduced modern American artists to U.S. and European audiences and introduce European audiences to American art.
Clay Surovek of Surovek Gallery organized Thomas Hart Benton: Mechanics of Form in collaboration with Lester-Thompson Fine Art. Behind him is the show’s most prominent painting, the 1926 oil Going West. The exhibition runs through March 31. [Damon Higgins/palmbeachdailynews.com] This article By Jan Sjostrom originally posted on palmbeachdailynews.com In Thomas Hart Benton’s painting “Going West,” [...]
Marc Chagall: Top Lot at Christie's A rare painting by Marc Chagall, that was part of a private Swiss collection, was auctioned at Christie's London on February 28, and sold for more than GBP 671,250 (USD 888,000), above estimated sale price. Marc ChagallL'été, Les moissonneuses (Les quatres saisons), 1974Tempera, gouache, watercolor and pastel on paper29 ¾ x [...]
Like Dr. Seuss, Kelley has written and beautifully illustrated a children's book about the environment. I Am Birch is not just about respect for the natural world, it's also about facing fear. All proceeds from the sale of the book go to the I Am Birch Foundation, which gives mini-grants to traditional Wabanaki artisans, a group of Native American tribes living in and around Maine, for the purchase of materials and supplies to enable them to continue making their art.
The thing about Pollock that excited me, and still does, is accepting the physical fact of the canvas. Acknowledging the physical fact of the canvas. Acknowledging the fact of the painting. Pollock’s aggression about the fact of the painting and so on. I like that. I feel I come much more from that than I do from anywhere else. - Neil Welliver
