Nicolas de Staël was a French painter of Russian origin known for his use of a thick impasto and his highly abstract landscape painting. He also worked with collage, illustration and textiles.
After suffering from depression, in the wake of a disappointing meeting with a disparaging art critic on March 16, 1955 he committed suicide. He leapt to his death from his eleventh story studio terrace, in Antibes. He was 41 years old.
In the US, his name is rarely cited as an influence. The first reason for his relative absence is simply bad timing. As Eliza Rathbone explained in 1997: “The very fact that [de Staël] began to achieve fame and recognition during the same years as the New York School was establishing its reputation on native soil, made a challenging environment for the work of an artist steeped in artistic culture and traditions of France.”The romantic image of the New York School remains powerful today. Struggling inwardly in a studio on 10th Street continues to capture the imagination of young American painters more than painting light and heat on a beach in Antibes.
PAINTINGS
IN MUSEUMS
On screen these compositions look small, but look at the size of these works in context.
Born on this day, September 2 1911, Romare Bearden was an African-American artist who worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils and collages. Read more about Bearden on Wiki.
I’m in NY, doing a figurative sculpture marathon with Bruce Gagnier at the NY Studio School. I’m three days into a two week intensive, and I’m loving it. One of the topics my instructor presses is contrapposto. I learned about contrapposto at WWU, but I’m understanding the real value of it now. Bruce Gagnier showed me …
R. B. Kitaj 1932 – 2007 Edited from https://artbios.net/5-en.html R.B. Kitaj was an American artist who championed figuration in the aftermath of expressionism. Kitaj was an influential figure in the London art scene and was intimate with Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, coining the term “London School” for this group. His art was unabashedly erudite and often accompanied …
This collection is from an Artsy editorial by Casey Lesser from June 10th, 2016, originally titled “These 20 Female Artists are Pushing Figurative Art Forward.” Casey’s full writing is below. Personally, I’m less interested in continuing the very legitimate fight to acknowledge female artists, and more engaged by the subject matter, with respect to the artist’s life, …
Nicolas de Staël
Nicolas de Staël was a French painter of Russian origin known for his use of a thick impasto and his highly abstract landscape painting. He also worked with collage, illustration and textiles.
After suffering from depression, in the wake of a disappointing meeting with a disparaging art critic on March 16, 1955 he committed suicide. He leapt to his death from his eleventh story studio terrace, in Antibes. He was 41 years old.
In the US, his name is rarely cited as an influence. The first reason for his relative absence is simply bad timing. As Eliza Rathbone explained in 1997: “The very fact that [de Staël] began to achieve fame and recognition during the same years as the New York School was establishing its reputation on native soil, made a challenging environment for the work of an artist steeped in artistic culture and traditions of France.” The romantic image of the New York School remains powerful today. Struggling inwardly in a studio on 10th Street continues to capture the imagination of young American painters more than painting light and heat on a beach in Antibes.
PAINTINGS
On screen these compositions look small, but look at the size of these works in context.
Related Posts
Romare Bearden
Born on this day, September 2 1911, Romare Bearden was an African-American artist who worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils and collages. Read more about Bearden on Wiki.
The Dynamic Dance of Contrapposto
I’m in NY, doing a figurative sculpture marathon with Bruce Gagnier at the NY Studio School. I’m three days into a two week intensive, and I’m loving it. One of the topics my instructor presses is contrapposto. I learned about contrapposto at WWU, but I’m understanding the real value of it now. Bruce Gagnier showed me …
R. B. Kitaj
R. B. Kitaj 1932 – 2007 Edited from https://artbios.net/5-en.html R.B. Kitaj was an American artist who championed figuration in the aftermath of expressionism. Kitaj was an influential figure in the London art scene and was intimate with Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, coining the term “London School” for this group. His art was unabashedly erudite and often accompanied …
Contemporary figurative artworks that push me out of my comfort zone
This collection is from an Artsy editorial by Casey Lesser from June 10th, 2016, originally titled “These 20 Female Artists are Pushing Figurative Art Forward.” Casey’s full writing is below. Personally, I’m less interested in continuing the very legitimate fight to acknowledge female artists, and more engaged by the subject matter, with respect to the artist’s life, …