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 Haring posing with his Crack is Wack mural in 1986. 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 to his [...]
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 at last week's opening of the Pace Gallery in Chelsea 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 [...]
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, 1993. (c) Leo Holub 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 [...]
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
The Surovek Gallery in Palm Beach, Florida, is presenting a new exhibition of around 65 works by Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), the famed Regionalist painter known for chronicling the beauty, joys and sorrows of everyday life in America. On view from February 7 to March 15 March 31, 2019, "Thomas Hart Benton: Mechanics of Form," the second [...]
Winslow Homer with “The Gulf Stream” in his studio, ca. 1900, gelatin silver print, by an unidentified photographer. Bowdoin College Museum of Art Winslow Homer began his career as a freelance illustrator for Harper's Weekly and other major publications of the day. His drawings, etchings and lithographs, especially during the Civil War, were the equivalent of [...]
Grant WoodStained glass window for the Veterans Memorial building, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 192723 feet 6 inches high x 20 feet wide Grant Wood eked out a living in his early years. He was born in 1891, to a poor farming family in Iowa. When Wood was ten and his sister, Nan, just two, their father [...]
Although Wiggins preferred to paint in the countryside, he saw the beauty of winter in the city and was able to capture it on canvas. In a 1924 interview, Wiggins told the story of how he painted his first snow scene in 1912. "One cold, blustering, snowy winter day," he said, "I was in my New York studio trying to paint a summer landscape ....
When Frank Stella moved to New York in 1958, at age 22, he had graduated from Princeton and just wanted to to paint. "I wasn’t thinking of becoming an artist." he said, "I just wanted to make things and paint for a while." That "while" has continued for the past sixty years, with Stella's work continually evolving, even today.
Great art is not what one usually thinks of when hearing the word mall, but the Aventura Mall, north of Miami, has a collection of works that equals the collections of many fine galleries and museums. Last month the mall acquired one of Robert Indiana's LOVE sculpture at Christie's for $1.87 million.
Andrew Wyeth's famous illustrator father, N.C. Wyeth, was his first, and only teacher. It was the watercolor paintings of Winslow Homer, that Wyeth saw when he visited Homer's studio as a teenager, that inspired him to master watercolor painting.
There are few human figures in the works of Walton Ford, yet his works reflect the relationship between humans and animals and how, most often, that interaction has been devastating for the animals.
Grant Wood is a hero in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There are tours of Grant Wood's studio and the Grant Wood Trail. His works are housed in the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, an Iowa quarter is engraved in his honor, Midwest travel brochures read, “Welcome to Grant Wood Country!” and now, the Grant Wood Operas.
Stephen Scott Young is one of America's most preeminent watercolor and drypoint artists. His meticulous method of preparing careful studies for each work, and applying colors in layers...often using just primary colors, red, yellow and blue...is labor intensive, resulting in just twenty or so finished works each year.
Keith Haring brought underground urban art into the avant-garde New York art scene and into the mainstream. Just in his twenties, when he moved from Pennsylvania to New York, Haring would do chalk drawings on empty advertisement boards at subway stations, much to the delight of the public and the consternation of the police.
The recent death of Robert Indiana has inspired museums and galleries in New York, Hong Kong, Berlin and other major cities to honor the artist with retrospectives of his work. A current exhibit, in Tampa, Robert Indiana: A Sculpture Retrospective contains many of the artists' early works and work that has never before been in a public exhibit.
William GlackensSelf Portrait, c.1935National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. William Glackens was known as "the American Renoir." After spending a year in Paris in 1895, Glackens became fascinated by the work of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Glackens returned to New York and brought with him an understanding of, and appreciation for, the art of the French Impressionists. His style, [...]
Alex Katz works out every morning before he paints. This has been his routine, seven days a week, for decades, and his body of work is prolific. Not only has Katz not slowed down at age 91, he somehow managed to write a book...in his spare time.
Norman Rockwell was a great story teller. He had the remarkable ability to capture a single moment and make it relatable, poignant and often humorous. His talent for reaching an audience with such clarity has made him a favorite of filmmakers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, just two of Rockwell's most avid collectors.
Alex Katz works out first thing every morning before he begins to paint. “I used to do two hundred sit-ups, three hundred pushups, and a hundred chins,” he said in a recent interview in The New Yorker.“I can’t do as many now.” Katz turned ninety-one in July. Alex Katz in his New York studio standing next to [...]
Portrait of Robert Indiana in Vinalhaven, 2011Courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Daniel Beyer 2015 Morgan Art Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS) New YorkCredit: Joel Greenberg Robert Indiana died on May 19, at age 89, at his home in Vinalhaven, Maine, where he had lived for forty years. The house itself has been neglected, with [...]
For more than fifty years the Museum of Modern Art has been commissioning artists to create designs for its annual Christmas Card. Picasso, Joseph Cornell, Andy Warhol, Robert Indiana and Alexander Calder are among the great modern artists whose designs have graced the cards. This year, MoMA has commissioned artist Brian Donnelly, aka KAWS, to design the 2018 Christmas Card.
Miro and Hemmingway, both in their twenties, became friends. Miro was having difficulty selling his paintings and Hemmingway was piling up rejections slips from publishers. Miro would return from Paris each summer to his family's farm in the village of Montroig, and even took Hemmingway on a visit to the farm.
Dale Nichols 1904-1995 Terence Duren 1907-1968 Just weeks after the U.S. dropped a bomb on Hiroshima, effectively ending the Second World War, TIME Magazine reported on another war going on in Nebraska: War in the Corn. The August 20, 1945 issue of TIME contained articles about the Atomic Age and the end of [...]
Orville Bulman had to put his art career on hold for decades in order to help run the family business in his home town of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He didn't give up painting and, eventually, exhibited at New York's Society of Independent Artists in 1937 and at the Woodstock Art Colony in 1948, but it wasn't until he was in his forties that he discovered his muse and hit his stride.
