[image_with_animation image_url=”8290″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] On Friday I posted work by Lawrence Carroll. His work reminded me of another artist, a favorite of mine. It reminded me of a Catalonian artist Antoni Tapies, prolific at the time Carroll was born. In addition to what was posted on Friday, here are a few more paintings by Carroll, from 1989-1991, note especially the first one: [image_with_animation image_url=”8275″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]
” load_in_animation=”none And here are some works by Antoni Tàpies, from the mid 1950’s. [image_with_animation image_url=”8288″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]
” load_in_animation=”none In comparison, Carroll’s are quieter, gentler works. I often assume Tapies had a personality almost as bold, passionate, and confident as Picasso (both Spanish painters), while Carroll (a Californian) seems more surfer smooth and meditative. Even with the differences in tone, the elements the two artists are playing with are very similar: surface, texture, mark, composition. They they both sculpt with their paintings.
Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012) was a Spanish painter, sculptor and art theorist, who became one of the most famous European artists of his generation. His works are recognisable for their gestural brush marks, incorporation of found materials such as sand, soil and marble dust as well as the occasional white sock. He also developed a personal lexicon: a combination of backwards script and geometric symbols, frequently including the shape of a cross. His works are associated with Informalism, or Art Informel, a European art movement that paralleled American abstract expressionism.
When I think of Tàpies I think of composition chess. He seems to move quickly, intuitively, but I believe his choices are intelligent, daring, conniving, and sometimes just intellectually humorous. In composition chess, very mark effects every other mark. Shapes and spaces have weight, and implied movement. Color and texture complicate the game. Automatic marks on a surface might seem simple – but try it. Invent a lexicon of marks, place them on a paper. Got one you like? Good. Do another. And another. And another. When I do this, patterns in my composition habits, and patterns in my own internal limits quickly emerge, and it becomes increasingly challenging to keep my compositions engaging, active, and balanced. Sometimes I get on a roll, but at the end of a session of composition chess, I am both invigorated, and exhausted. Composition chess is a brain game. It’s surprising once the marks start interacting, how much there is to think about. Try it! If you’re interested in exploring more unconventional paintings like Lawrence Carroll and Antoni Tapies’, consider signing up for Paul D. McKee’s Unconventional Painting workshop March 3 & 4. Composition chess anyone?
Here the artist uses less glow effect by adding medium tones, but notice how the windows at the top aren’t surrounded by hard straight lines. The texture of the paint makes the light blue spill into the dark a little, making them sparkle. Smooth perfect lines would have killed the sparkle. See it? Would you …
Excerpt from Mitchell Albala’s Book: Simplification and Massing The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. – Hans Hoffman At a recent workshop, several students pointed to a cottonwood tree that was gently swaying in the breeze. “How are we going to paint all those leaves?” they asked. …
Changing a figure’s surrounding transforms its mood and meaning. In “Drawing into Painting: Reconfiguring the Figure,” an online class at Seattle Artist League, Fran O’Neill led students in rethinking figure placement through drawing, collage, and painting. Using historical artworks, Zoom models, and personal photos, students reworked compositions, developed drawings into paintings, and examined how shifts …
You may have heard about Japonisme – the influence Japanese art had on Western art in the 19th century, after Japanese ports reopened in 1854, having been closed to the West for over 200 years. I posted about 8 Great Artists Inspired by Japanese Art a while back. Artists like Van Gogh, Degas, and Toulouse Lautrec …
Lawrence Carroll and Antoni Tàpies
[image_with_animation image_url=”8290″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] On Friday I posted work by Lawrence Carroll. His work reminded me of another artist, a favorite of mine. It reminded me of a Catalonian artist Antoni Tapies, prolific at the time Carroll was born. In addition to what was posted on Friday, here are a few more paintings by Carroll, from 1989-1991, note especially the first one: [image_with_animation image_url=”8275″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]
Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012) was a Spanish painter, sculptor and art theorist, who became one of the most famous European artists of his generation. His works are recognisable for their gestural brush marks, incorporation of found materials such as sand, soil and marble dust as well as the occasional white sock. He also developed a personal lexicon: a combination of backwards script and geometric symbols, frequently including the shape of a cross. His works are associated with Informalism, or Art Informel, a European art movement that paralleled American abstract expressionism.
When I think of Tàpies I think of composition chess. He seems to move quickly, intuitively, but I believe his choices are intelligent, daring, conniving, and sometimes just intellectually humorous. In composition chess, very mark effects every other mark. Shapes and spaces have weight, and implied movement. Color and texture complicate the game. Automatic marks on a surface might seem simple – but try it. Invent a lexicon of marks, place them on a paper. Got one you like? Good. Do another. And another. And another. When I do this, patterns in my composition habits, and patterns in my own internal limits quickly emerge, and it becomes increasingly challenging to keep my compositions engaging, active, and balanced. Sometimes I get on a roll, but at the end of a session of composition chess, I am both invigorated, and exhausted. Composition chess is a brain game. It’s surprising once the marks start interacting, how much there is to think about. Try it! If you’re interested in exploring more unconventional paintings like Lawrence Carroll and Antoni Tapies’, consider signing up for Paul D. McKee’s Unconventional Painting workshop March 3 & 4. Composition chess anyone?
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Here the artist uses less glow effect by adding medium tones, but notice how the windows at the top aren’t surrounded by hard straight lines. The texture of the paint makes the light blue spill into the dark a little, making them sparkle. Smooth perfect lines would have killed the sparkle. See it? Would you …
Mitchell Albala: Simplification and Massing
Excerpt from Mitchell Albala’s Book: Simplification and Massing The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. – Hans Hoffman At a recent workshop, several students pointed to a cottonwood tree that was gently swaying in the breeze. “How are we going to paint all those leaves?” they asked. …
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You may have heard about Japonisme – the influence Japanese art had on Western art in the 19th century, after Japanese ports reopened in 1854, having been closed to the West for over 200 years. I posted about 8 Great Artists Inspired by Japanese Art a while back. Artists like Van Gogh, Degas, and Toulouse Lautrec …