Aristide Maillol | Art Nouveau / Nabi painter /sculptor

Maillol (1861-1944) began his career as a painter and tapestry designer, but after c. 1900 devoted himself to three-dimensional work, becoming one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century.

He concentrated almost exclusively on the female figure in the round, consciously wishing to strip form of all literary associations and architectural context.

Although inspired by the Classical tradition of Greek and Roman sculpture, his figures have all the elemental sensuousness and dignity associated with the Mediterranean peasant.

Pablo Picasso | The figures

Pablo Picasso [1881-1973] was born in Málaga, Spain. The son of an academic painter, José Ruiz Blasco, he began to draw at an early age. In 1895 the family moved to Barcelona, and Picasso studied there at La Lonja, the academy of fine arts.

His visit to Horta de Ebro from 1898-1899 and his association with the group at the café Els Quatre Gats in about 1899 were crucial to his early artistic development. Picasso’s first exhibition took place in Barcelona in 1900, and that fall he went to Paris for the first of several stays during the early years of the century.

Picasso settled in Paris in April 1904, and his circle of friends soon included Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Gertrude and Leo Stein, as well as two dealers, Ambroise Vollard and Berthe Weill.

Vadim Stein, 1967 | Fashion photographer

Вадим Штейн is talented Ukrainian photo art creator based in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Stein was born in Kiev, Ukraine, where he got an education in the sphere of sculpture and restoration.

From 1985-1992 he worked in the Theater of Plastic Drama - as an actor and a lighting designer.

After leaving the theater he got keen on decorative sculpture and graphics.

John Jude Palencar, 1957 | Fantasy illustrator

John Jude Palencar is an American fantasy, science fiction, and horror artist. Over 100 book covers have been adorned by his art, including all four covers of the Inheritance Cycle series by Christopher Paolini. He graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1980.

Work

Palencar has exhibited in numerous group shows in galleries, colleges and universities throughout the United States. Demand for his work extends into Europe and the Pacific rim through sales of his original paintings, second-rights usages and commissions.

He was a featured artist for IDEA Magazine in Japan. Many private and corporate collections throughout the United States and Europe include his paintings.

Palencar has created covers for several novels by Stephen King, who also holds Palencar's work in his private collection.

Sharon Sprung, 1953 | Figurative painter

Sharon Sprung is a Brooklyn based award-winning artist who studied at Cornell, The Art Students League in New York and the National Academy of Design.

Apart from her creative practice, Sprung also teaches painting and drawing at National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts and The Art Students League.

Her work has won numerous awards and is featured in prominent public collections, including the United States House of Representatives, Bell Laboratories, ATandT, Princeton University, Sherman and Sterling and the Chase Manhattan Bank.

Van Gogh: "There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people"

Laura Knight (1877-1970) A Girl Reading, probably Florence Carter Wood (later Mrs Alfred Munnings)

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German writer and statesman, 1749-1832)

La musica lava via dall'anima la polvere della vita di ogni giorno.

- Berthold Auerbach (Poeta e scrittore Tedesco, 1812-1882)

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

- Leonardo da Vinci (Inventore, artista e scienziato Italiano, 1452-1519)

Le idee sono per la letteratura ciò che la luce è per la pittura.

- Paul Bourget - (Scrittore e saggista Francese, 1852-1935)

Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Literature

Literature was integrated into the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's artistic practice from the beginning (including that of Rossetti), with many paintings making direct literary references.

For example, John Everett Millais' early work, Isabella (1849), depicts an episode from John Keats' Isabella, or, the Pot of Basil (1818).

Rossetti was particularly critical of the gaudy ornamentation of Victorian gift books and sought to refine bindings and illustrations to align with the principles of the Aesthetic Movement.

Rossetti's key bindings were designed between 1861-1871.

He collaborated as a designer/illustrator with his sister, poet Christina Rossetti, on the first edition of Goblin Market (1862) and The Prince's Progress (1866).