Michael Malm, 1972 | Figurative painter

"The human figure, in my mind is the most beautiful of God’s creations. So much can be communicated through the tilt of the head, or the gesture of the hand. I strive to capture subtle things such as these in hopes of creating something emotional and moving"- Michael Malm.

Well versed in a variety of painting styles, from still lifes to landscapes, Michael Malm is perhaps best known for his impressionistic paintings of figures.

A native of Utah, Michael Malm is a painter of figurative subjects, especially females in western landscape, often with horses.

Vladimir Davidenko, 1966 | Genre / Landscape painter

Владимир Давыденко / Vladimir Davydenko is an Russian painter, born in Lipetsk.

Member of the Artists Trade Union of Russia.

Member of the Petrovsky Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The paintings of Davydenko are in private collections in England, Germany, Japan, Hungary.

Vladimir Davydenko is a realist artist.

Susan Lyon, 1969 | Realist/Impressionist painter

Susan Lyon grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. Her initial interest in art was sparked by a PBS television show on Georgia O’Keeffe🎨 that inspired her to take drawing classes.

Lyon studied art at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and was an active participant in Chicago's Palette and Chisel Club. It is there she first began exhibiting and selling her work; at twenty-three she was the youngest winner of the prestigious Gold Medal🎨 which she won two consecutive years in the annual Oil Painting show plus a third place in the Silver Medal show. Medal Watercolor show.

She entered the Oil Painters of America show once and got 7th place. In 1998 and 2000 she won an artist choice award🎨 in the Northwest Rendezvous Show.

Alessandro Granata | Genre painter

Neapolitan artist🎨 Alessandro Granata was born in Salerno. He showed a strong passion for painting from an early age. He graduated at the Art High School in Naples.

He was awarded the "Alfonso Gatto" award🎨 the graphic and painting section, by the Province of Salerno.

The artist made large-scale sacred-themed paintings.

In 2020 he participated in the collective exhibition "Le Madonna di Raffaello" at the diocesan museum of Salerno, where he received the "Special Jury" award.

Mark Kostabi, 1960 | Pop Symbolism painter

Painter and Composer Mark Kostabi was born in Los Angeles to Estonian immigrants. Raised in Whittier, California, he studied drawing and painting at California State University, Fullerton.

Kostabi moved to New York in 1982, and by 1984, emerged as a leading figure in the East Village art scene where he cultivated a provocative media persona by publishing self-interviews reflecting on the commodification of contemporary art.

By 1987, his work was widely exhibited in New York galleries as well as prominently throughout the United States, Japan, Germany and Australia.

He inspired extensive international press coverage in 1988 when he founded Kostabi World, his Manhattan art studio, which employs numerous painting assistants and idea people.

Beginning in the early 1990s Kostabi's work has been widely exhibited throughout Italy. Kostabi established a second home in Rome in 1996. Dividing his time between Rome and New York enabled him to dramatically enhance his presence in the Italian art scene.

Antonietta Varallo, 1954 | Landscape painter

Born in Talsamo (Taranto province, Southern Italy) and a livornese adoptee, Antonietta Varallo approaches painting when she was just fifteen. Varallo, for one year, attended at the Free Academy "Trossi-Uberti" directed by Voltolino Fontani, then the maestro Luciano Torsi has been her guide up to her artistic maturity after eighteen years of teaching.

On 1976 Varallo won the first prize🎨 "Chimera" held in the city of Arezzo (Tuscany).

Nowadays she’s still a honorary professor of the Academy of "Machiavello" in Florence as well as in the Academy "G. Marconi" in Bologna.

Angelo Morbelli | For 80 cents!, 1895

Angelo Morbelli's work, one of the masterpieces of the Burgundy Museum, was purchased in 1912 at the Art Exhibition of the irrigated countryside held in Vercelli, a few years after the Museum opened to the public.

The painting, signed and dated 1895, underwent a long and tormented elaboration, as evidenced by the correspondence between the artist and his colleague Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo: begun in 1893, it was resumed before being exhibited in 1895 at the Venice Biennale.

The canvas assumes an important role for the collection, not only for its belonging to the pictorial current of Divisionism, but above all for the subject strongly connected to the Vercelli area.

Franz Liszt: "Truth is a great flirt"

• Music embodies feeling without forcing it to contend and combine with thought, as it is forced in most arts and especially in the art of words.
• I conclude that the Wagnerian operas which are already in the repertoire, and other master works as well, stand in no further need of my services.
• I did not compose my work as one might put on a church vestment… rather it sprung from the truly fervent faith of my heart, such as I have felt it since my childhood.
• I find little in the works of Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner and others when they are led by a conductor who functions like a windmill.
• I foster a sorrowful conception of affection. Make no sacrifices.
• In Hungary all native music, in its origin, is divided naturally into melody destined for song or melody for the dance.
• Inspiration is enough to give expression to the tone in singing, especially when the song is without words.
• It is impossible to imagine a more complete fusion with nature than that of the Gypsy.
• It is my fervent wish and my greatest ambition to leave a work with a few useful instructions for the pianists after me.

Franz Liszt Fantasizing at the Piano, 1840 (detail) by Josef Danhauser ▪ Alte Nationalgalerie ▪