artists

Young Indian artists respond to farmers’ protests in their new works

By Debra A. Gilbert 1 month ago


a close up of a knife: Art and Dissent: Young Indian artists respond to farmers' protests in their new works

© Arun Sreenivasan
Art and Dissent: Young Indian artists respond to farmers’ protests in their new works

Late November last year, Dharmendra Prasad spent a whole day in a field in Buxar, Bihar collecting leaves and crushing them to create paint for an artwork that called for attention to nature. “It is about caring in the time of the pandemic,” says Prasad, who went on to paint the vast expanse of a farm on a large raw canvas.

Part of his new art project titled Carebiosphere, Prasad’s painting analyses the ascent of human beings as a small participant in ecological balance to that of its controller. The painting, completed in a day with the help of his fellow villagers, questions the notion of development while opening up possibilities of finding new partners from the natural environment.

The Nadaon village in Buxar district, about 100km from Patna, has been a theatre

… Read More

Art exhibition in Aiken supports wildlife conservation; artists will paint live at opening reception | Entertainment

By Debra A. Gilbert 2 months ago

Art is the common thread through which Robert Campbell, Camryn Finnan and Whitney Kurlan contribute to the larger cause of wildlife awareness and conservation efforts. These artists channel their passions through creativity to build a body of work grounded in purpose. In the words of Rick Warren, “Knowing your purpose motivates your life. Purpose always produces passion, and nothing energizes like a clear purpose.”

The exhibits, titled “Going…Going…Gone” will run Feb. 4 through March 19 at the Aiken Center for the Arts, 122 Laurens St. S.W. At the exhibition’s opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 4, Campbell and Kurlan will be painting live from Finnan’s photographs. 

Campbell’s passion for the celebration of nature through art has led him to work closely with the International Conservation Community. He utilizes fundamentals of artistic skill to draw attention and evoke emotion in those who view his work, focusing on shapes, values,

… Read More

How an artist’s lost prison painting found its way to a museum | Nation

By Debra A. Gilbert 2 months ago

LOS ANGELES – Fulton Leroy Washington knows, all too well, the rules around making art in prison, those strict regulations for inmates working in the well-guarded hobby shop: no sharp-edged tools, no oil paints with chemicals that could be used for tattoos and no canvases larger than the storage locker lest the works get stolen or vandalized at night.

Washington, who goes by Mr. Wash, spent more than 20 years behind bars for three nonviolent drug offenses he said he did not commit. Over those two dark decades in various correctional institutions, Mr. Wash painted photo-realistic portraits of other inmates — up to 75 works a year, he said, factoring in his other drawings and tattoo designs — and gained attention in the media along the way.

The Los Angeles native’s story is well known in art circles: He was arrested in 1996, convicted in 1997 and, because of prior

… Read More

Sandro Botticelli painting sells for $92M shattering artist’s previous record

By Debra A. Gilbert 2 months ago

Jan. 28 (UPI) — A rare portrait by Italian painter Sandro Botticelli sold for a record $92.2 million Thursday, about nine times the previous high price for the Old Master, Sotheby’s said.

The 1480-era painting — Young Man Holding a Roundel — came up for sale as part of Sotheby’s New York auction of Old Master artworks.

“This is not only an exceptional painting, it is also the epitome of beauty, and of a moment when so much of our Western civilization began. Today’s result is a fitting tribute, both to the painting itself and all that it represents,” said Christopher Apostle, the head of Sotheby’s Old Masters painting department in New York.

Botticelli was mostly known for his large, mythological paintings, including The Birth of Venus and Primavera, both of which are housed at the Uffizi gallery in Florence, Italy. He also created dozens of religious paintings.

Secular

… Read More