Artist Notes: August 2010

Friday, August 27, 2010

(Social) Realism: Panama Art

Roberto Lewis (1874-1949)
(b Panama City, 30 Sept 1874; d Panama City, 22 Sept 1949). Panamanian painter and teacher. He studied painting in Paris at the Acadamie des Beaux-Arts and in the studio of Leon Bonnat, combining the influence of academic and Post-Impressionist art. On his return to Panama in 1912 he was commissioned to paint the interiors of several new public buildings, among them the Teatro Nacional and the Palacio de Gobierno, which he decorated in the official Neo-classical style. He was an accomplished portraitist and numbered among his sitters many political figures, including numerous Panamanian governors and all the presidents of Panama from 1904 to 1948.

http://www.answers.com/topic/roberto-ger-nimo-lewis
http://nblinks.blogspot.com/
http://www.iadb.org/idbamerica/index.cfm?thisid=2513

Humberto Ivaldi (1909-1947)
(b Panama City, 24 Dec 1909; d Panama City, 10 March 1947). Panamanian painter and teacher. He studied under Roberto Lewis and in 1930 won a scholarship to the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, where he spent five years. On his return to Panama, Ivaldi taught at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, later becoming its director, a post he held until his death. His academic background was apparent in the careful and detailed rendering of his traditional still-lifes and many portraits, for example Mitzi Arias de Saint Malo (c. 1947; Panama City, Guillermo Saint Malo priv. col., see Wolfschoon, p. 444). His particular contribution within a Post-Impressionist idiom was most evident in genre paintings and in landscapes, such as Wind on the Hill (1945; Panama City, Jorge Angelini priv. col., see Wolfschoon, p. 443), which were often characterized by dynamic diagonal compositions, free brushwork and great sensitivity to the atmospheric quality of colours.
http://www.museum.oas.org/permanent/artists/ivaldi.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/humberto-ivaldi

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

Suggestions for appropriate artists from around the world welcome to caoimhghin@yahoo.com.

(Social) Realism: Madagascar Art

A. Ramiandrasoa

http://www.madagascar-library.com/c/Art/Malagasy/Painting.html

(Social) Realism: Maldives Art

Hussein Ali Manik

http://artgallery.gov.mv/artists/32/

Egan Mohamed Badeeu

http://artgallery.gov.mv/artists/34/
http://asli.hilath.com/

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

(Social) Realism: Malta Art

Edward Caruana Dingli (1876-1950)
Edward Caruana Dingli, had what it takes to make him one of the best artists Malta has ever produced. His paintings captured the spirit of a country and its people. In his temperament there was a strain of romanticism, such as many great artists have possessed, a quality that enabled him to see beauty in everyday life. Along with this, went an extreme sophistication in everything that concerned painting or matters of taste. From the rich and powerful, to the poor and free spirited, all that was appealing about early 20th century Malta, is immortalised on his canvases.

Primarily a portrait painter, his sitters included clerics and prelates, royalty and Maltese society figures, wearing their most lavish clothing and jewellery. His folkloristic themes on the other hand, celebrate the spirit of the Maltese countryside, the coast, and village squares. Farmers and peasants on donkey drawn carts, fish vendors at the market, and children playing traditional games in the street. Regardless of the subject, his works are characterised by a prominent personality, verve and charm. His eye for beauty was unfaltering, and his technique replete, his colour rich and brilliant always remaining deliciously fresh.
http://ksu.org.mt/en/news/492-edward-caruana-dingli-portraits-views-and-folkloristic-scenes.html
http://www.phoeniciamalta.com/hotelphoenicia/content.aspx?id=167218
http://www.maltainsideout.com/tag/art/
http://www.il-gensillum.com/news.asp?newscat=2&news=4446
http://malta.mydestinationinfo.com/es/events/edward-caruana-dingli-%281876-1950%29-portraits-view-8-may-2010
http://s671.photobucket.com/albums/vv75/josephmeilak/miscellaneous/?action=view&current=StradaSanPatrizio.jpg&newest=1
http://gozonews.com/3618/last-week-of-the-views-of-gozo-exhibition/
http://muticaria.blogspot.com/
http://www.il-pjazza.com/forum/index.php?topic=9522.0

George Fenech (1926)
Born in Mellieha on the 3rd January 1926, son of Philip (1887-1953) and Carmela Sammut (1890-1967), the artist likes to recall his early years from his childhood playing in the family fields in Mellieha , close to nature and the landscapes that he treasures so much. He knows every corner of the village countryside. At a young age, George use to join his mother and help her drying the figs at “l- Irdum tal- Qammieh” which he latter depicted in his beautiful canvases.

http://www.artinmalta.com/?p=148
http://focusonmalteseart.blogspot.com/2009/12/gabriel-pellegrini-george-fenech-b1926.html

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

(Social) Realism: Georgia Art

Giorgi "Gigo" Gabashvili (1862 – 1936)
Giorgi "Gigo" Gabashvili (Georgian: გიორგი [გიგო] გაბაშვილი) (November 9, 1862 – October 28, 1936) was a Georgian painter and educator. His work was particularly influential since he was the first Georgian realistic artist to cover a wide range of subjects, both in oils and watercolor, including portraits, lanscapes and scenes of everyday life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigo_Gabashvili
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_of_Gigo_Gabashvili

Niko Pirosmanashvili (1862-1918)
Niko Pirosmanashvili (generally known internationally as Niko Pirosmani) (Georgian: ნიკო ფიროსმანაშვილი); May 5, 1862-1918) was a Georgian primitivist painter. Pirosmani was born in the Georgian village of Mirzaani to a peasant family in the Kakheti province. His family owned a small vineyard. He was later orphaned and put in the care of his two elder sisters. He move with them to Tbilisi in 1870. In 1872 he worked as a servant for wealthy families and learned to read and write Russian and Georgian. In 1876 he returned to Mirzaani and worked as a herdsman. Pirosmani gradually taught himself to paint. One of his specialties was painting directly into black oilcloth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niko_Pirosmanashvili
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_of_Niko_Pirosmani
http://kakheti.net/sagarejo/museum_niko_firosmani.html

Elene Akhvlediani (1901-1975)
Elene Akhvlediani (1901-1975) (Georgian: ელენე ახვლედიანი) was a 20th century Georgian painter, graphic artist, and theater decorator. Akhvlediani is famous for her depictions of Georgian towns, for her illustrations for the works of Ilia Chavchavadze and Vazha-Pshavela, and for designing plays in the Marjanishvili Theater in Tbilisi, Georgia. [...] The interests of Akhvlediani were diverse and included painting, drawing, stage and costume design, and book illustration. But she has gone down in the history of Georgian art as, above all, a master of genre and lyrical landscape painting. Especially prominent in her artistic legacy are the views of Tbilisi, the city in which she had lived many years, which she loved as her own, and to the preservation of whose historical peculiarities she had given much of her energies.
http://www.actualart.ge/link/printing/postcard.htm
http://www.museum.ge/web_page/?id=87
http://www.parliament.ge/pages/archive_ge/art/PAINT/AKHV/akhv.html

Kukhaashvili Jemal (1952)
Date of Birth 1952, Khoni, Georgia Education 1972 -1978 Tbilisi State Academy of Art, Georgia
http://www.art.gov.ge/Kukhaashvili-Jemal.69

Kartvelishvili Goga (1979)
Date of birth 1979, Tbilisi, Georgia. Education 1996-1994- I. Nikoladze Arts School, Tbilisi, Georgia 1996-2001- Tbilisi State University, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Georgia
http://www.art.gov.ge/Kartvelishvili-Goga.278
http://temmpera.blogspot.com/

(Social) Realism: Ethiopia Art

Mezgebu Tessema (1960)
One of the major stylistic trends - indicating the reality and complexity of the country - flourishing in Addis these days is an art symbolic in nature and realistic in its approach. One of the most important artists most easily identified with this trend is Mezgebu Tessema. His works are singularly original and unprecedented. His subject matter came from contemporary Ethiopia. It is none other than an imitation of Ethiopian reality or nature - an ideal, and a beautiful copy of nature, as a large section of our contemporary urban society thinks of what art is, its creative nature and beauty. His early works in the late 70s while he was still a student, and later an instructor, in the Addis Ababa school of Fine Arts, were marked by persistent experimentation. He painted and did linoleum engraving of portraits, still-lives as well as several pencil drawings and oil painting of genre pieces that treat scenes of everyday life.
http://www.ethiopianart.org/articles/articles.php?id=13

Artist Notes