Wassily Kandinsky | VIII - Art and Artists

Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1910

Part II: About painting

In an obscure and puzzling way, the artist develops a work of art. As it gains a life of its own, it becomes an entity, an independent spiritual life, which as a being, leads the life of material realism.

It is, therefore, not simply a phenomenon created casually and Inconsequentially indifferent to spiritual life.

Instead as a living being, it possesses creative active forces. It lives, has power, and actively forms the above-mentioned spiritual atmosphere.

From an innermost point of view, the question finally should be answered as to whether creation is strong or weak. If too weak in its form, it is impotent to cause any kind of spiritual vibration.

Wassily Kandinsky | Succession, 1935

André Lhote | Pittore Cubista

André Lhote (1885-1962) was a French Cubist painter of figure subjects, portraits, landscapes and still life. He was also very active and influential as a teacher and writer on art.

Early life and education

Lhote was born 5 July 1885 in Bordeaux, France and learned wood carving and sculpture from the age of 12, when his father apprenticed him to a local furniture maker to be trained as a sculptor in wood.

He enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux in 1898 and studied decorative sculpture until 1904.

Whilst there, he began to paint in his spare time and he left home in 1905, moving into his own studio to devote himself to painting.

He was influenced by Gauguin and Cézanne and held his first one-man exhibition at the Galerie Druet in 1910, four years after he had moved to Paris.

Paul Verlaine | Poichè l'alba si accende.. / Puisque l'aube grandit..

Poiché l'alba si accende, ed ecco l'aurora,

poiché, dopo avermi a lungo fuggito, la speranza consente

a ritornare a me che la chiamo e l'imploro,

poiché questa felicità consente ad esser mia,

facciamola finita coi pensieri funesti,

basta con i cattivi sogni, ah! Soprattutto

basta con l'ironia e le labbra strette

e parole in cui uno spirito senz'anima trionfava.

Lionel Noel Royer (French painter, 1852-1926) | Jeune Femme en Bord de Mer, 1928

Salvatore Quasimodo | Anno Domini MCMXLVII

Avete finito di battere i tamburi

a cadenza di morte su tutti gli orizzonti

dietro le bare strette alle bandiere,

di rendere piaghe e lacrime a pietà

nelle città distrutte, rovina su rovina.

Mikhail Y. Kugach / Михаил Юрьевич Кугач (Russian painter, 1939) | The Return

Sir George Clausen RA (1852-1944)

Landscape and mural painter in oil and watercolour, etcher, mezzotinter and occasional lithographer.

Born April 1852 in London, son of a Danish interior decorator.

1867-73 apprenticed in the drawing office of Messrs Trollope - a London firm of decorators - attending evening classes at the National Art Training Schools, South Kensington, London.

Worked in the studio of Edwin Long, classical painter (1829-91), visited Holland and Belgium in 1878.

Bruno Cerboni, 1948

Bruno Cerboni is an Italian artist who uses third millennium techniques and Artificial Intelligence to create his works.

Cerboni was born in Castel del Piano (GR) Italy.

Graduated in Engineering at "La Sapienza" - University of Rome, he has a 30-year career as manager of large companies and entrepreneur.

He has always been committed to the themes of innovation and information technology, and has been awarded the Italian National Innovation Award and the Red Herring 100 Europe.

Csaba Markus, 1953

Csaba Markus is a Hungarian-American artist, painter, sculptor and publisher. As an artist, he primarily works in the field of printmaking, with a particular focus on etching and serigraphy.

His work also includes oil painting, drawing, glass art, photography and sculpture. Markus's painting titled "Pure Love" has been selected as one of the World's 10 most sensual paintings by Toronto Sun newspaper.

Life and work

Markus was born in Budapest, Hungary.

His mother is Szőllős Erzsébet and father Károly Márkus. His childhood in Hungary, where he frequented museums, is an influence on his work.

He is also influenced by avant-garde art and abstraction.

Markus began his career as a sculptor. At the age of fourteen, he and his work were featured on international public television. He became increasingly frustrated with teachers and the confines of communism, realizing his Renaissance-inspired emphasis on the individual conflicted with Hungarian communist beliefs.

Gustave Jacquet | Portrait / Genre painter

During the 19th century, particularly in France, people developed a vivid fascination with the past and paintings of the bygone eras were in demand.

Jacquet specialised in painting figures, portraits and genre subjects in which he evoked the elegance of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. These works were exquisitely painted with every attention paid to detail; his use of colour is rich and vibrant and his rendition of luxurious cloth is outstanding.

Alfred Eberling (1872-1951)

Alfred Rudolfovich Eberling, was a successful painter and photographer in the early 20th century.

A pupil of Ilya Repin, he never deviated from realism (in the broad sense of the word) and left a number of striking works executed in the painterly two-dimensional manner typical of that time.

Eberling’s portraits, entirely in the spirit of salon art in terms of imagery and not devoid of a chocolate-box prettiness, were always marked by refined, often unexpected combinations of colors.

Alfred Eberling | Portrait of Ballerina Tamara Karsavina, 1911

Charles William Wyllie (1853-1923)

Charles William Wyllie was a British painter of landscape and marinescape.

Born in London he was the son of William Morison Wyllie and brother of William Lionel Wyllie (1851-1931).

While his brother William established a strong reputation as a marine painter and etcher, Charles moved away from straightforward representations of the British coastline and developed an interest in painting allegorical and mythological subjects beside the sea.

Edgar Allan Poe | To Helen / Ad Elena, 1848

Ti vidi una volta, una sola volta - anni fa:

non voglio dir quanti – non molti, tuttavia.

Era notte, di Luglio; e dalla grande luna piena

che, come la tua anima, ricercava, elevandosi,

un suo erto sentiero per l'arco del cielo,

piovve un serico argenteo velo di luce,

con sé recando requie, grave afa e sopore,

sui sollevati visi d'almeno mille rose

che s'affollavano in un incantato giardino,

che nessun vento – se non in punta di piedi - osava agitare.

Charles William Wyllie, RBA (British, 1859-1923) The Backwater

Titian | The Venus of Urbino, 1538 | Uffizi Gallery

Toward the beginning of his career Titian had brought to completion Giorgione's unfinished canvas of Venus asleep in a landscape; some twenty-five years later he adapted the central motif of the recumbent figure to a new setting and transformed its meaning by domesticating that pastoral deity. Giorgione's Venus - withdrawn in a private dream of love that we can share, to a degree, only by an effort of the imagination - has been brought indoors; fully awake now and aware of her audience, she displays her charms in a deliberately public proclamation of love.

Michail Lermontov | Il Demone, 1829 | Seconda parte

Capitolo I

"Padre, padre non minacciarmi più,

la tua Tamara non rimproverare;

vedi che piango, vedi queste lacrime

che già non sono più le prime. Invano

s'affollano, venuti da lontano,

i pretendenti per cercarmi in sposa...

Non sono poche in Gruzia le fanciulle!

Ma io non sarò sposa di nessuno!...

Mihaly von Zichy (1827-1906) Tamara and Demon

Berit Hildre, 1964 | Figurative sculptor

Berit Hildre is a self-taught artist, born in Aalesund, in Norway.

For Berit Hildre, the vocation is late, it is born from his meeting with the painter Louis Tresseras with whom she lives today in France.

- "I'm a Norwegian. Twenty years ago, I left my country to travel. I met Louis on Crete. I began to model the earth, just to try. I continued for pleasure" - Bérit

This exceptional sculptor offers us all the innocence of childhood.

Her delicate and graceful little girls and girls embody the state of grace that is childhood, but also its fragility.

Mikhail Lermontov | Demon, 1829 | Chapter I

Demon / Демон is a poem by Mikhail Lermontov, written in several versions in the years 1829-1839.

It is considered a masterpiece of European Romantic poetry.

Lermontov began work on the poem when he was just 14 or 15, but completed it only during his Caucasus exile. Lermontov wrote six major variations of the poem, and the final version was not published until 1842, after his death.

The poem is set in Lermontov's beloved Caucasus Mountains. It opens with the eponymous protagonist wandering the earth, hopeless and troubled. He dwells in infinite isolation, his immortality and unlimited power a worthless burden. Then he spies the beautiful Georgian Princess Tamara, dancing for her wedding, and in the desert of his soul wells an indescribable emotion.

The Demon, acting as a brutal and powerful tyrant, destroys his rival: at his instigation, robbers come to despoil the wedding and kill Tamara's betrothed. The Demon courts Tamara, and Tamara knows fear, yet in him she sees not a demon nor an angel but a tortured soul.

Eventually she yields to his embrace, but his kiss is fatal.

And though she is taken to Heaven, the Demon is left again "Alone in all the universe, Abandoned, without love or hope!..."

Tamara and the Demon | Konstantin Makovsky, 1889

Salvatore Quasimodo | Lament for the South / Lamento per il Sud

La luna rossa, il vento, il tuo colore

di donna del Nord, la distesa di neve...

Il mio cuore è ormai su queste praterie,

in queste acque annuvolate dalle nebbie.

Ho dimenticato il mare, la grave

conchiglia soffiata dai pastori siciliani,

le cantilene dei carri lungo le strade

dove il carrubo trema nel fumo delle stoppie,

Baldassarre Longoni (1876-1956) | Terre dorate d'Italia, Mietitura, 1940

Wassily Kandinsky | VII - Painting Theory

Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1910

Part II: About painting

From the nature of modern harmony, it results that never has there been a time when it was more difficult than it is today to formulate a complete theory, or to lay down a firm artistic basis.

All attempts to do so would have one result, namely, that already cited in the case of Leonardo and his system of little spoons. It would, however, be precipitate to say that there are no basic principles nor firm rules in painting, or that a search for them leads inevitably to academism. Even music has a grammar, which, although modified from time to time, is of continual help and value as a kind of dictionary.

Pablo Neruda | Per tanto amore la mia vita.. / De tanto amor mi vida..

Per tanto amore la mia vita si tinse di viola

e andai di rotta in rotta come gli uccelli ciechi

fino a raggiungere la tua finestra, amica mia:

tu sentisti un rumore di cuore infranto

e lì dalle tenebre mi sollevai al tuo petto,

senz'essere e senza sapere andai alla torre del frumento,

sorsi per vivere tra le tue mani,

mi sollevai dal mare alla tua gioia.

Leonid Afremov (1955-2019) | Romantic Impressionist painter

Walt Whitman | Non lasciare che finisca il giorno senza essere cresciuto un po'..

Non lasciare che finisca il giorno senza essere cresciuto un po',

senza essere stato felice, senza avere aumentato i tuoi sogni.

Non lasciarti vincere dallo scoraggiamento.

Non permettere che nessuno ti tolga il diritto ad esprimerti,

che e' quasi un dovere.

Non lasciar cadere la tensione di fare della tua vita

qualcosa di straordinario.

Jon Bøe Paulsen, 1958 | The Blue Hour

Martha Walter (1875-1976) | Impressionist painter

Martha Walter was an American impressionist painter.

Education

A Philadelphia native, Walter attended Girls High School.

She studied art at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts College of Art and Design) from 1895-98 and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.

She was taught by William Merritt Chase. She won the school's Toppan Prize (1902) and Cresson Traveling Scholarship (1908).

In 1909 she also won the school's Mary Smith Prize for the best painting by a resident female artist.

Giuseppe Faraone, 1954 | Impressionist painter

Born in Picerno (Potenza), Giuseppe Faraone attended the Art School of Potenza, before moving to San Donato Milanese on the outskirts of Milan, where he still lives and works.

Here he started his relentless pursuit of a variety of drawing techniques and the use of colors.

He understands the art of painting, having perfected his talent in Italy and abroad.

Faraone fined tuned his skills in the Impressionist style by painting in the same places where French Impressionism was born.

Theodore Wores | Impressionist painter

Theodore Wores (August 1, 1859 - September 11, 1939) was an American painter born in San Francisco, son of Joseph Wores and Gertrude Liebke.

His father worked as a hat manufacturer in San Francisco. Wores began his art training at age twelve in the studio of Joseph Harrington, who taught him color, composition, drawing and perspective.

When the San Francisco School of Design opened in 1874, Wores was one of the first pupils to enroll.

Frank Myers Boggs (1855-1926)

American-born French painter Frank Myers Boggs was born in Ohio and raised in New York City, where he began his career as an engraver for "Harper's" magazine.

He went to Paris in 1876 and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts with Jean Léon Gérôme, who encouraged him to practice landscape painting rather than figure painting in the academic tradition. Two years later he returned to New York City and set up a studio on Shelter Island.

Vincent van Gogh | The Olive Trees series

Vincent van Gogh painted at least 15 paintings of olive trees, mostly in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in 1889. At his own request, he lived at an asylum there from May 1889 through May 1890 painting the gardens of the asylum and, when he had permission to venture outside its walls, nearby olive trees, cypresses and wheat fields.

One painting, "Olive Trees in a Mountainous Landscape", was a complement to "The Starry Night".

The olive tree paintings had special significance for van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh | Couple Walking among Olive Trees in a Mountainous Landscape with Crescent Moon 1890 | Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo

Wassily Kandinsky | VI. The language of Form and Color

Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1910

Part II: About painting

The man that hath no music in himself,

Or is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,

Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;

The motions of his spirit are dull as night;

And his affections dark as Erebus;

Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

(The Merchant of Venice, Act v, Scene I.)

"Musical sound acts directly on the soul and finds an echo there because, though to varying extents, music is innate in man".

"Everyone knows that yellow, orange, and red suggest ideas of joy and plenty" (Delacroix).

Roelof Rossouw, 1957 | Romantic Impressionist painter

Roelof Rossouw was born and grew up in Benoni, near Johannesburg. As a child he had a passion for comic heroes like Tarzan, Cisco Kid, Flash Gordon and Tintin which, with the artists of the sixties, inspired him to draw his own comics. Already at the age of fourteen Roelof started making oil paintings of landscapes and portraits.

When he was seventeen, a European art tour opened the doors for his vision to pursue art and travel. He gained a National Diploma in Arts and Design at Wits Technicon that taught him the value of training and not only relying on his raw talent.

In April 1882, whilst working for Medusa as a graphic artist and medical illustrator, he discovered modern impressionistic artists such as Ken Howard, Bernard Dunstan, Max Agostini and admired their loose style in painting.

Ken Howard OBE RA, 1932 | Impressionist painter

Ken Howard OBE RA is an British artist and painter. He was President of the New English Art Club from 1998-2003.

Life and art

Ken Howard was born in London. He studied at the Hornsey College of Art (1949-53) and the Royal College of Art (1955-58). In 1958 he won a British Council Scholarship to Florence.

He spent his National Service in the Royal Marines (1953-55). In 1973 and 1978 he was the Official War Artist to Northern Ireland, and 1973-80 worked in various locations, including Hong Kong, Cyprus and Canada with the British Army.

In 1983 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA).

August Macke | Expressionist painter

August Macke, (born January 3, 1887, Meschede, Germany-died September 26, 1914, Perthes-les-Hurlus, France) German painter who was a leader of Der Blaue Reiter (“The Blue Rider”), an influential group of Expressionist artists.

Macke studied at the Düsseldorf Academy from 1904-1906. During his first trip to Paris in 1907 he was profoundly influenced by the work of the Impressionist painters, and he began to emulate their style, painting portraits in subtly dappled colours.

Thomas Seddon (1821-1856) | Pre-Raphaelite painter

Thomas Seddon was an British landscape painter associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who painted colourful and highly detailed scenes of Brittany, Egypt and Jerusalem.

Seddon was born in Aldersgate Street in the City of London, the son of a well-known cabinet-maker of the same name.

He was educated at a school conducted on the Pestalozzian system by the Rev. Joseph Barron at Stanmore, and then worked for his father until 1841, when he was sent to Paris to study ornamental art.