luís soares

The Reader

John Koch (American, 1909–1978) - The Reader (c.1955)

From the moment they were printed, the series of woodcuts with the title Intimités was considered to be a prestigious project. When the avant-garde publication La Revue blanche printed the series in an exclusive edition of 25 in 1898, the modern art of printmaking was more popular than ever in the Paris art world. Among his fellow printmakers, Félix Vallotton was one of the most renowned artists. He was recognized as an innovator of the medium of the woodcut and his prints dating from 1896 to 1898 are the culmination of his career.

Intimités has always been recognized as his most impressive work and even in his own time they were already more appreciated than his paintings. With these ten dark woodcuts, their black surfaces cut through by a few white lines, Vallotton probed the emotional lives of the Paris bourgeoisie. He portrayed the eternal struggle between man and woman by means of theatrical scenes and suggestive titles, such as The Lie, The Money and The Irreparable. Vallotton brought to the surface his cynical view on love. Women are portrayed as superficial, calculating creatures: cruel, insatiable and triumphing.

Repose

John White Alexander - Repose,1895

Alexander, who lived in Paris during the 1890s, achieved international success with his studies of female figures gracefully posed in elegant interiors. In this example, the provocative facial expression and supple curves reflect the contemporary French taste for sensual images of women as well as the undulating linear rhythms of Art Nouveau. With its model decoratively attired in a sweep of white fabric, "Repose" was lampooned in a French magazine as a portrayal of Loïe Fuller (1862–1928), the American dancer famous for manipulating swirling folds of silk in her performances at the Folies Bergère in Paris.

Dahye Choi

From "It's Nice That":

For a lot of artists, the first brush with paint usually comes at an early age. This was not too dissimilar for Seoul-based artist Dahye Choi, who graduated from art college and “rarely thought about anything other than art.” At this time, 2009, she was exhibiting her first solo show and worked across both illustration and painting. She thought that “without a doubt” painting was the best thing she could do – but little did she know that she would come to regret it.

Concerning Pollock

The Nerdwriter - How Art Arrived At Jackson Pollock

There’s an overlooked reason for Pollock’s fame. Even if you love him, you might not know the name of the man who made him famous.

Jackson Pollock is one of the 20th century’s most famous artists. But do you know the critic who made his reputation?

Clement Greenberg is a well-known name in the art world, but not necessarily to art fans. However, he earned a reputation as one of the most influential art critics in the 20th century, whose legacy included the canonization of Jackson Pollock.

Abstract expressionist art needed vocal champions to support challenging, unique work, and Greenberg was the most powerful and vocal in his defense of the art and, in particular, Jackson Pollock. Greenberg went from tie salesman to intellectual in less than a decade, thanks to strongly worded arguments for a new artform. Jackson Pollock was one of his favorite artists, and the two spent time together socially as they simultaneously climbed in the art world.

Is Clement Greenberg the reason that Jackson Pollock is so famous? He’s definitely a part of it — and understanding the role of Greenberg and critics like him can be a useful tool to understanding art in the 20th century.

Overrated is a series that takes a look at the things we all know — the books, the trends, and the ideas that have become iconic — and answers the question: “Why is this so famous"?

Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.

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Jarvis Cocker on Monet and Feist on Bruegel

Claude Monet - La Gare Saint Lazare, hosted at The National Gallery, London narrated by Jarvis Cocker

Discover why Cocker compares Claude Monet’s La Gare Saint Lazare (The National Gallery, London) to an 80’s horror movie and an ACDC concert, and listen to him explain why Impressionism is called what it is.

Find out more on https://g.co/ArtZoom Listen and keep your eyes peeled as iconic music figures take you on a tour of some of the greatest masterpieces of the world in Art Zoom. Zoom into La Gare Saint-Lazare here: http://bit.ly/2XiMBsN

Listen to more from Pulp: https://www.youtube.com/user/PulpVEVO

Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Tower of Babel, hosted at Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien narrated by Feist

As well as telling us the story behind Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Babel Tower (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien), discover why Feist compares the renaissance artist and his contemporaries to the indie folk-pop duo Kings of Convenience and singer, songwriter and activist, Chance the Rapper.

Listen to more from Feist here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmZIr7Mf7kek8tFQOddI5DA

Jonathan Wateridge

Jonathan Wateridge's paintings are elaborately crafted 'non-events' that have the trappings of a real occurrence but for the most part are entirely fabricated.

A significant part of his work over recent years has been to reconfigure or re-make a given scenario or found image. This involves building full-scale sets and using performers to enact roles, within the context of the studio, in order to set up questions about the way we frame and understand notions of the real.

His work initially employed painterly realism as a 'default setting' by which to view the world, curbing any excesses of style to emphasise not only the often fleeting, banal and everyday quality of the scenes depicted but also the nature of their construction.

More recently, this has given way to an increasingly lyrical use of paint which explores the tension between the social dimension of the figuration and the more formal and expressive qualities of the work.

Shadow Head

Jenny Saville - Shadow Head (2007-13)

Human perception of the body is so acute and knowledgeable that the smallest hint of a body can trigger recognition.
—Jenny Saville

Tarifa

Daniel Richter, Tarifa, 2001

Clyfford Styll - 1953 (1953)

‘My paintings have no titles because I do not wish them to be considered illustrations or pictorial puzzles’, Still wrote. ‘If properly made visible they speak for themselves.’ In a letter discussing this work, he explained that the red at the lower edge was intended to contrast with and therefore emphasise the depths of the blue. He saw the yellow wedge at the top as ‘a reassertion of the human context - a gesture of rejection of any authoritarian rationale or system of politico-dialectical dogma.’

Gallery label, November 2005