Collecting Cubism Paintings

What started out as a rather avant-garde art movement has become one of the greatest examples of artistic forms breaking that mold of convention, revolutionizing European painting and sculpture up to the present century, and was first developed between 1908 and 1912 during a collaboration between Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso with influences from the works of Paul Cezanne and Tribal art. Though the movement itself was not long-lived, it began an immense creative explosion that has had long lasting repercussions, and focused on the underlying concept that the essence of an object can only be captured by showing it from multiple points of view simultaneously.

The movement had run its’ course by the end of World War I, and influenced similar ideal qualities in the Precisionism, Futurism, and Expressionistic movements. In the paintings representative of Cubist artworks, objects are broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form, and the artist depicts the subject in a multitude of viewpoints instead of one particular perspective. Surfaces seemingly intersecting at random angles to produce no real sense of depth, with background and object interpenetrating with one another, and creating the shallow space characteristic of Cubism.

French art critic Louis Vauxcelles first used the term cubism, and it was after viewing a piece of artwork produced by Braque, the term was in wide use though the creators kept from using the term for quite some time. The Cubist movement expanded from France during this time, and became such a popular movement so quickly that critics began referring to a Cubist school of artists influenced by Braque and Picasso, many of those artists to Cubism into different directions while the originators went through several distinct phases before 1920.

As Braque and Picasso worked to further to advance their concepts along, they went through a few distinct phases in Cubism, and which culminated in both Analytic and Synthetic Cubism. With Analytic Cubism, a style was created that incorporated densely patterned near-monochrome surfaces of incomplete directional lines and modeled forms that play against each other, the first phases of which came before the full artistic swing of Cubism. Some art historians have also pegged a smaller “Hermetic” phase within this Analytical state, and in which the work produced is characterized by being monochromatic and hard to decipher.

In the case with Synthetic Cubism, which began in 1912 as the second primary phase to Cubism, these works are composed of distinct superimposed parts. These parts, painted or pasted on the canvas, were characterized by brighter colors. Unlike the points of Analytical Cubism, which fragmented objects into composing parts, Synthetic Cubism attempted to bring many different objects to create new forms. This phase of Cubism also contributed to creating the collage and papier colle, Picasso used collage complete a piece of work, and later influenced Braque to first incorporate papier colle into his work.

Similar to collage in practice, but very much a different style, papier colle consists of pasting materials to a canvas with the pasted shapes representing objects themselves. Braque had previously used lettering, but the works of the two artists began to take this idea to new extremes at this point. Letters that had previously hinted at objects became objects as well, newspaper scraps began the exercise, but from wood prints to advertisements were all elements incorporated later as well. Using mixed media and other combinations of techniques to create new works, and Picasso began utilizing pointillism and dot patterns to suggest planes and space.

By the end of the movement, with help from Picasso and Braque, Cubism had influenced more than just visual art. The Russian composer Igor Stravinsky was inspired by Cubism in some examples of his music that reassembled pieces of rhythm from ragtime music with the melodies from his own country’s influence. In literature, Cubism influenced poets and their poetry with elements parallel with Analytical and Synthetic Cubism, and this poetry frequently overlaps other movements such as Surrealism and Dadaism.

Food and Wine Paintings

I’ve been buying paintings of food and wine to resell to restaurants. I make a good profit doing this. I have a real talent for matching the painting of food and wine to the restaurant that should hang it in their dining room. I have purchased over one hundred paintings so far and I’ve sold over eighty of them to restaurant owners.

I sold a painting of food and wine to a martini bar that was opening up in a neighboring city. I took a photo of the Michael Godard painting called Pop Olive and took it straight to the owner in person. He loved the painting and hung it in his bar.

The Michael Godard paintings always seem to resell the best of all of the food and wine paintings that I buy. There was one called Olives Gone Wild that I sold to a martini bar on the East Coast. The restaurant owner thought it was fantastic and looked fun.

I saw an awesome painting in the food and wine section of a local studio. The painting was called Chocolatey. I bought the painting and have approached a couple of candy stores to purchase it. I haven’t gotten a taker, yet, but I’m going to keep trying.

There is a pie shop in my town that I sold an original oil painting of an oversized apple. There are always a lot of food and wine paintings at the galleries I frequent. I liked the apple painting and also bought a sunflower painting by the same artist.

I bought an acrylic painting from an artist in North Hollywood. His painting called Passion Splash is categorized as a food and wine painting because the woman in the painting is drinking red wine. I sold it to a wine bar in Miami. I was sad to see that huge eyed woman go.

I bought several food and wine paintings from him on that trip. One of the paintings was entitled For a Perfect Cherry and I decided to keep that one and hang it in my dining room. The red in the painting is fantastic and so beautiful. I liked to display this food and wine painting with a spotlight on it.

I was able to resell a food and wine painting to a fish shop in New York City. The fish shop had an upscale clientele and they wanted to put some artwork on the walls of the lobby. I found an original oil painting by Marie M. Vlasic of a lobster. It was such a good food and wine painting and it looked at home in the fish shop.

There was a dessert shop owner in Denver that contacted me and asked me to keep an eye out for food and wine paintings that featured pears. She had developed several pear recipes that were fast becoming her signature dishes and she wanted to address that with the art hanging in her establishment.

I found a lovely oil on wood food and wine painting of four pears on a glass table. The artist paints a new painting every day. I commissioned him to make me six more paintings of pears and then I sold all seven to the dessert shop owner that had contacted me. She was thrilled with the pieces and invited me to visit sometime.

I have a friend that owns a local beer joint. I immediately thought of him when I was on a buying trip for food and wine paintings. I saw an oil painting on stretched canvas that featured a close-up of an unopened bottle of beer. It was perfect for him. I bought it and it still hangs at the end of his bar.

My little sister was redecorating her shop and I found a great original oil food and wine painting. The artist’s subject was a large spoon and strawberry jam. The piece looked delicious! I gave it to her shop and she hung it in the area that she sells gourmet jams.

Watercolor Paintings

I’ve been buying watercolor paintings for decorating jobs. I’ve found some really nice pieces on eBay. I recently bought a watercolor painting by an artist named Y. Gianni. The painting was produced in 1890 and depicted an Italian village. It was very vivid and pleasing to look at.

I was trying to find just the right watercolor painting for a client when I came across one by an artist named William B. Gillette. The colors were pastel, ranging from soft greens, browns, blues, purples and peach. The scene was that of a pebble beach and crashing waves. The hills on one side gave the beach a feeling of privacy. It really spoke to me and my client loved it.

There was a cabin that I was decorating for a discerning client that needed one more piece of art to complete the look I was going for. I found a wonderful watercolor painting that fit just right. It had a lot of mossy green colors and there was a lake with a lake house. The artist turned out to be Charles Dickens Wader. He is a well known artist from New York.

I have a client that collects art from Romeo Tabuena. I was fortunate to find two watercolors that the owners had purchased directly from Tabuena in the fifties when they lived in San Miguel. The owner settled with me for an even thousand dollars. My client was thrilled.

A lawyer friend of mine hired me to redecorate his office. I had a lot of fun putting in things that reflected his interests and tastes. He loves polo and I found a wonderful watercolor painting of two polo players on horses. My friend liked the paintings and they have become a conversation piece in the new office.

My friend’s dad liked the office I decorated so much that he commissioned me to redecorate his office. He is a hunter and I found a really nice watercolor painting of several mallard ducks flying above a marsh. The painting was done by Jim Killen and he has painted for Ducks Unlimited. His work is well known and respected. My friend’s father really liked the find and proudly hung it in his reception area.

I was really unsure where I was going to find suitable art for the program director’s office at a local radio station. When I went to visit with him for a consultation, his office was absolutely stark. I like watercolor paintings and that is my first choice for buying art. I found a fantastic watercolor painting of Bob Marley surrounded by sunflowers. It was awesome and perfect for this job.

There is a musician that I was working for a couple of years ago that wanted their studio decorated with paintings from the artist Raoul Dufy. Raoul Dufy made a whole series of paintings called Hommage to Mozart. I was able to purchase three watercolor paintings in this series. I have always been on the lookout for more paintings to purchase for this client.

A friend of mine asked me to find a watercolor painting to give to her mother. I found one by Henry H. Parker that was of cattle in landscape. The frame was what caught my eye at first because it is heavy gilt. It would never hang in my house, but it looked great at my friend’s mother’s house.

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Collecting Paintings: Expressionsim

When speaking on buying paintings of the Expressionist movement, it is always a good idea to review what elements make Expressionism unique, and to gain an understanding of some of the artists representative of this particular artistic movement. The agreed upon intention of Expressionist artwork is not reproduce a subject accurately, but to instead portray the inner state of the artist, with a tendency to distort reality for an emotional effect. The movement is closely associated with its’ beginnings in Germany, and has a few different but overlapping schools of thought within.

The term Expressionism was first used to describe the movement in the magazine produced in 1911 called “Der Sturm”, and was usually linked to paintings and graphic work that challenged academic traditions at the time. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche later helped to define the area of modern expressionism better by clarifying the movement’s links to ancient art before any more modern interpretation had, and applied his own unique philosophy to the movement. He has been quoted stating that disordered and ordered elements are present in all works of art, but that the basic traits of Expressionism lay in the mainly disordered aspects.

The Expressionist point of view was usually conveyed through the use of bold colors, distorted forms, and a lack of perspective. Generally, a piece of expressionistic art is one that is expressive of intense emotion, and much of this kind of artwork occurs during times of social upheaval. Though it can be argued that an artist is expressive by nature, and that all artwork is truly expressionist, there are many who consider the movement particularly communicative of emotion. Later on, artists like Kandinsky changed 20th century Expressionist work through the formation of Abstract Expressionism.

The art historian Antonín Matějček was elemental in coining the term as the opposite to the Impressionist movement as well, and though Expressionism seems well defined as an artistic movement, there have never been a group of artists that called themselves Expressionists. The movement was primarily German and Austrian, and many of the different groups of thought were based around Germany at the time. Another artistic movement that heavily influenced Expressionism was Fauvism. This kind of artwork is characterized by primitive, less naturalistic forms, and includes the works of famed painters Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse.

With this influence firmly in place, Expressionism grew into striking compositions that focused on representing emotional reactions through powerful use of color and dynamic approaches with subject matter, and seemed to counter the qualities centered on by the French Impressionism of the time. Where French Impressionism was to seek rendering the visual appearance of objects, Expressionism became an opposing movement seeking to capture emotions and subjective interpretation, and it was not important to reproduce a visually pleasing interpretation of the matter that the painting represented.

Expressionism has crossed over into many differing fields of artistic vision, with sculpture and filmmaking being primary examples today, and have influenced many people throughout the course of its’ existence as a movement in art. These visions have combined over time to create the comprehensive idea of what Expressionism has become, and many people have found this type of art very appealing and eye-catching. Throughout this century, much Expressionistic artwork has come to be representative of what art can come to be, and many people have been influenced by this very emotional artwork.

The Art Of Malaysian Theater

In the land of Malaysia, theater arts developed in the east Javanese kingdoms. During the eleventh century the capital of Javanese kingdom was shifted from Prambanan located in central Java to Jenggla located in eastern Java. This kingdom was divided into four parts namely Jenggala, Kediri, Ngurawan and Singasari . The four sons of the King Airlangga named King Lembu Amiluhur, King Lembu Amerdadu, King Lembu Mangarang and King Amijaya, respectively, ruled each of them. There are three forms of Malaysian theater arts namely Wayang Orang or performance by human actors, Wayang kulit or shadow puppetry, Wayang golek or three dimentional puppetry and classical court dance known as Karaton. And they flourished separately in each kingdom.

The other name for Wayang Orang is Wayang Wong that involves human actors performing live on stage in a musical dance drama. “Wong” or “Orang” means a man or a woman respectively. It was nurtured in the Kingdom of King Lembu Amiluhur. His son Raden Panji Asmarabangun was a renowned artist in himself. He taught this art to all his relatives. The storyline of the play revolved around the Jenggala Kingdom and Hindu mythologies Mahabharata and Ramayana. Another variety of Wayang Orang is Wayang Topeng or Wayang Gedog where the artists wear mask during the performance. Majapahit Kingdom was another kingdom that played a vital role in the recognition of Wayang wong as the King Hayam Wuruk was a performer of this art himself. There are five categories of the pattern of dance according to build and movements. Alus, which involves graceful and soft movements required performers to have a light physique. Gagah had more sportive moves and the artists were expected to have a slim and tall physique. Kasar was meant for actors with huge build and the movements were rough. Gecul had subcategories Ponokawan and Cantrik. Dengklik involved actors playing the role of monkey warrior. The dresses differ with different gods, kings, ksatrias, princesses, begawans and warriors. According to the role being played forty-five accessories are being used.

There were separate dance movements for the female actors. The movements made by the females are known as Nggruda that had nine basic movements known as Joged Pokok and additional twelve movements known as Joged Gubahan. These art forms at first were meant only for the royal families. Many kings and their relatives used to perform plays written on their ancestors in order to honor them. Poor people had no access to these plays.

Under reign of King Airlangga, great encouragement was given to various arts forms and that is when puppet art began evolving. Wayang purwa or Wayang kulit involves two-dimensional puppets made from the skin of goat or buffalo. They are flat and usually round in shape. The shadow of these puppets is cast on a translucent cloth screen with the help of lighted lamps. They are controlled by bamboo sticks attached to their body that are planted in banana stems located underneath the screen.

Wayang golek involves three-dimensional puppets that are controlled by the puppeteers from the top. These puppets are usually made out of wood or leather with some kind of stuffing. UNESCO honored the Wayang puppets in the year 2003 as “The Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” saying that it is one of the unique forms of theater arts and thus should be protected.

Karaton is the classical court dance. Karaton can be performed either in-group known as Yogyakarta or it can be also performed as solo. Some of the dances were performed on a daily basis in the court and some were meant only for special occasions like festivals and functions.

Prambanan Ramayana ballet is the special dance involving around two hundred dancers who dance for two whole hours. It is held under a full moon during the spring season. The eight-century Prambanan temple is painted in the background and gamelan music is played.

Collecting Yellow Paintings

I’ve been watching yellow paintings at an online auction site. I wonder where these yellow paintings will end up hanging. There were twenty bids on a painting of yellow daffodils. It was really pretty.

I really liked the painting titled Red Flowers Yellow Ochre Morning. It came in three panels that were each 20”X16”. The picture online showed the painting above a bed and it just looked so clean and crisp. The medium for this painting was acrylic.

The smallest paintings that I found were on a panel bracelet. The paintings were of Indian and Near Eastern rulers. The paintings were put in an openwork gold frame set with seed pearls. This piece was created in the early twentieth century.

Another yellow painting that I liked was Yellow World by Karen Khachaturov. There were a lot of contrasting yellows in it. I could see yellow lemons and a beautiful yellow flower. The lemons were painted so realistically. This artist has paintings hanging in private galleries in over 40 countries.

I can only imagine that the oil painting of yellow roses by an unknown artist will hang in a lovely home. The painting has a nice quality to it. The petals of the yellow roses in the painting seemed to reach out as if they were still alive

There was a nice painting that had twenty bidders that was of a vase of yellow daffodils. The feel of the painting was that of one of the masters in impressionist art. The artist listed the item herself and she is also a poet and songwriter. I can close my eyes and see that painting hanging in someone’s formal parlor. It is so very elegant.

The future home of the French chic painting of yellow, lavender and pink roses must be that of a very feminine woman. When I was looking at the painting, I could almost smell the roses. I thought that the sale price of two hundred dollars was disappointing. I think it should have sold for more.

My search for yellow paintings found a painting entitled Yellow Taking Over. I don’t know why the artist titled his work like that. There was some yellow in this collage, but not much. The painting was done in 1956 by Nicholas Krushenick. It came from the personal collection of a famous photographer that works for the Village Voice. This would look good in someone’s law office.

I wish that I could have purchased the antique oil painting of exotic yellow flowers. The auction said that it was painted in 1897. The pictures made the painting look like it was in great shape for being over one hundred years old. It would look good on the wall of my guest bedroom.

Artist Heidi Vaught had a listing for a painting she titled Ambiance numbered 10. The painting had only one bidder and sold for the opening bid, one hundred dollars. I think the winning bidder got quite a bargain. This painting was abstract with lots of teal and yellow.

Another painting by Heidi Vaught went for sixty five dollars. This was another bargain, if you ask me. The painting was entitled Yellow Squared and it had a really dizzy feeling to it. I liked it at first sight.

I have a friend that would have like the painting I found of a yellow cat. It looked just like her cat. The painting was an original acrylic contemporary painting in yellow ochre. It would have complemented her modern furnishings.

Yellow roses make a wonderful subject. I never tire of paintings of yellow roses. My favorite recently was done by Joan Cobb Mayer. The interpretation was stunning.

There was one other yellow rose oil painting that caught my eye recently. This one was painted by Berniece Meyers. The bloom extended to all sides of the canvas and the center seemed infinite. I felt good after viewing it.

Kabuki - A Traditional Japanese Theater Art

Kabuki is a traditional Japanese theater art. The word Kabuki is derived from the Japanese word kabuki which means avant-garde or bizarre theater. Kabukimono were youngsters who were rebellious and used to dress strangely. Because the kanji characters sing and dance, kabuki also means the art of singing and dancing.

This work has been tampered with over a period of time. The kabuki which we witness now isn’t the same what it used to be before. The founder of this art was Okuni, who was a young lady who served a Shinto shrine named Lzumo Taisha. She gained attention by adapting a completely new dance form at the theaters at the dry river beds of Kyoto in the year 1603. Basically it started with only female artist who even did the role of men. The stories were based on the common people with a comedic twist. After the initial success Okuni was invited to show her performance at the royal court. Out of envy other troupes began adopting the same style of dancing and kabuki became a common style. The women involved in kabuki began entering prostitution so they were banned from performing further and men took over their place. The attention shifted from dance to performance. But the performance by the men also became salacious and they too started prostitution as a side profession and worked for both men and women customers. T his affected the audiences which attended these performance they became ill-mannered and a fight used to break out over a young and handsome actor. This led to the imposing of ban on young male actors too.

Kabuki then became a field of art for matured men. These men put in more effort to bring up the reputation of kabuki. The men who performed the role of women were known as Oyama or Onnagata. Basically there were two types of role named Aragoto or rough style and Wagoto or Sakata tojuro. Yaro kabuki or men’s kabuki was the stylized version and Kyogen comic theater was a very influential factor as it was very popular then.

The kabuki artists wore detailed makeup. Aragoto character or the reckless warrior character has a pompous role with bright clothing and loud makeup. The style too is loud and exaggerated and involves more action. On the contrary Wagoto is a more cultured role with decent dialogue delivery and gestures.

The Genroku period showed more interest in Kabuki arts. It had started to be performed in formal theaters. Chikamatsu Monzaemon was the first known playwright of kabuki and later on produced many other renowned works. His works revolved around tragic-romances where the lovers used to suicide in the end. Many followed this theme which forced the authorities to put a ban on such kinds of plays known as Shinju Mono. After few years of success kabuki was taken over by Bunraku or Puppetry. This was due to the increase in the number of Bunraku playwrights.

But after the defeat of Tokugawa Shogunate Empire in 1868 kabuki arts returned to it full form. Initially a kabuki performance was made in front of the king Meiji. It caught his interest at the first instance. Many kabuki theaters were brought up during that era.

During the World War II many theaters were lost during the bombing and a ban was levied on kabuki. But in 1947, the kabuki performances started again with the lift of the ban and once again began to flourish across the country.

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