Artist Notes

Monday, May 24, 2010

(Social) Realism: Trinidad and Tobago

Jean Michael Cazabon (1813 – 1888)
Jean Michael Cazabon (September 20, 1813 – November 20, 1888) is regarded as the first great Trinidadian Painter and is Trinidad's first internationally known artist. He is also known as the layman painter. He is renowned for his paintings of Trinidad scenery and for his portraits of planters, merchants and their family in the 19th century. Cazabon's paintings are to be cherished not only for their beauty but also their historical importance: his painting has left us with a clear picture of the many aspects of life in Trinidad through much of the nineteenth century. Cazabon’s greatness was not in developing a new style of painting but recording life and events with a virtuoso's magic touch. His importance not only as a West Indian artist, but also as an historian, has for too long been ignored.

Cazabon relied on nature to expose the vistas which the plains of the Caroni and the tropical forests at Chagaramas are idyllic in spender. His portraits of the mulattoes, indenture Indians and Negroes where the bases of debate, and whether the painter immortalized these people because he felt a personal bond with them rather less than the European Creoles which no stately portraits were ever recorded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel-Jean_Cazabon
http://www.bestoftrinidad.com/profiles/cazabon.html
http://thebookmann.blogspot.com/2008/09/paint-my-people-jean-michel-cazabon.html
http://www.vincentlecuyer.com/peintures/display/Michel%20Jean%20CAZABON.jpg.jpg

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.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

(Social) Realism: Dominican Republic

Yoryi Morel (1906–1979)
Yoryi Morel (1906–1979) was a painter from the Dominican Republic. A native of Santiago de los Caballeros, he spent most of his career in Santiago Province. He held his first exhibition in Santo Domingo in 1932. Later he founded the School of Fine Arts in his native city. As a painter he was primarily self-taught; he created mostly landscapes and figure paintings, with a few portraits as well. He was mostly recognized for his typical Dominican paintings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoryi_Morel
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioEhIqHy9uPrwiBZBCN6Iu0PjPcXxe7KYZWcDVuTF5jDtMKRvu2I-G9yVuF2AFB7Gtm_uySuKSC7y-_OF8kUbN72z7p-iN6XkL6zJm9XGXDx_J3rnZAV4hu7SHKNgC-P4G6uViLaMaHjw/s320/YORYI_MOREL.JPG
http://www.dominican-rep.com/pintores/images/yoryi_morelampl6.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9YSTmQlDfwLfycBBEh3J5ciiEQiDMwlPKumNU_PYHQgf-Ydo7sQcTUmtkl0bKfDrq-txziGcZXxcj_b6_Xy8_RI7GJPCNAaonlIHlS-i7Q5jJBjf5ipeJln3uH9RlHHxS4BxofeB7uTg/s1600-h/Yoryi%2520MorelOP.jpg
http://www.artelista.com/obra/6999116681422135-platanales.html
http://www.latinartmuseum.com/images/YORYI%20MOREL.jpg

(Social) Realism: Guatamala

Antonio Coché Ixtamer (1968)
San Juan's first painter, Antonio Coché Mendoza, trained by Mariano González Chavajay, arose in 1985. Since then ten additional painters have appeared in San Juan. Outstanding among them is the first painter's cousin, Antonio Coché Ixtamer (b. 1968), a pupil of Pedro Rafael González Chavajay, who works as a bilingual instructor in San Juan's primary school. Pedro Rafael also teaches an art class one afternoon a week in San Juan for students in the third year of post-primary básico. Attending this art class ignited Ixtamer's interest in painting.

After studying with Pedro Rafael intermittently over the course of two years, Ixtamer began painting on his own, selling his canvases to galleries in Santiago Atitlán. They paid very little because they only wanted small quickly-produced pictures to sell to tourists. An American woman named Lianna Ward, who had started a women's weaving co-operative in San Juan, liked Ixtamer's paintings and showed his work to Jim Bell, an American who had a gallery in Antigua. Bell recognized Ixtamer's talent and began selling his paintings.
http://www.artemaya.com/ixt.html

(Social) Realism: El Salvador

José Mejía Vides (1903 - 1993)
José Mejía Vides fue un pintor, escultor y grabador salvadoreño.Nació en San Salvador el 19 de marzo de 1903, fue pintor, escultor y grabador y primero de seis hijos de don José Mejía y doña Jesús Vides Navarro. Vivió la mayor parte de su vida en los Planes de Renderos, muy cerca de Panchimalco. Estuvo casado con Clementina Suárez, poeta hondureña. Le sobreviven dos hijas.
José Mejía Vides, es un icono de la transformación pictórica salvadoreña. Su formación temprana, y luego, su estadía en México, país que ese momento estaba viviendo una transformación en el campo de las artes, lo pone en contacto con muchas de las experiencias que se dieron al aire libre.
Esta nueva forma de hacer arte lo embrujó tanto que, cuando él regresó a El Salvador, implementó esa metodología usada en México, consiguiendo romper muchos de los esquemas que se mantenían vigentes.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mej%C3%ADa_Vides
http://www.cuscatla.com/mejiavides.htm

(Social) Realism: Bolivia

Roberto Berdecio (1910 – 1996)
Roberto Berdecio (1910 – 1996) was a Bolivian-born artist. A significant contributor to the important political and cultural art movement in Mexico during the 1950s and 1960s.[citation needed] He was born in Sucre, Bolivia. He married Marion Davis Berdecio. Berdecio worked in New York City in the 1940s with David Alfaro Siqueiros, then moved to Mexico in the late 1940s where he continued his career in art. He painted murals and portraits, created lithographs and artistic explorations into the fourth dimension. He died in La Paz, Bolivia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Berdecio
http://thm-a01.yimg.com/image/5f86aab2d29e2dda
http://www.artnet.com/artist/631903/roberto-berdecio.html

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

(Social) Realism: Ghana

Ablade Glover
http://www.contempafricanart.com/artist.asp?artistid=AbladeGlover
http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/images/760x570/glover_lorry_station.jpg
http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/images/760x570/glover_red_market2.jpg
http://www.africaserver.nl/ghana/report/scansghana/groot/art.jpg

(Social) Realism: Nigeria

Stanley Osaheni Agbontaen
Stanley Osaheni Agbontaen grew up on Benin City Edo state, South-south Nigeria. Stanley studied at The Creative Art Academy but before finishing his two year training, he gained admission to acquire a national diploma in General & Fine Art in Auchi Polytechnic. He stood out as one of the best sculpting students in his time, though to much surprise, he majored in painting. He had developed a strong passion for colors, and just seeing the colors of his works gave him inner joy & fulfillment. Agbontaen using a palette knife and oil paint achieves amazing action packed sceneries, similar to what Ghanian artists, Ablade Glover is known for.
http://www.inter-visions.com/SAgbontean.asp