In July we shared high-speed painting with you and now we’ll explore more quickly-made artwork. Check out this video from thespeed painting article:
While you can’t witness today’s artist Alberto Seveso in high-speed action, the result of his speedy photography process is captivating. He only uses two colors to create these fast masterpieces.
Due Colori series by Alberto Seveso, photographed ink in water
Seveso who hails from Milan, Italy began fostering his passion for the arts from the early age of 15. CD covers and skate decks offered inspiration for the young artist. He realized that he could use his computer not only to play games, but also to create art. While he has no formal art training, the artist has seen much success.
In an interview for Abduzeedo, a design blog, Seveso says, “I think this job doesn’t require a degree, even if design schools are very important.”
The artist’s Due Colori body of work captures two colors of ink mixing with water. The high-speed effect is achieved through a combination of high-speed photography that he then combines digitally. His process illustrates the relationship between water and ink.
Due Colori series by Alberto Seveso, photographed ink in water
For me, the work is simple and at the same time beautifully complex. The two colors used in the work mix to create a multitude of color combinations. The artist also focuses on the shapes created when mixing the colors, each of them unique.
Due Colori series by Alberto Seveso, photographed ink in water
With summer nearing its end, what better way to pay tribute to the sunshine season than with an article bursting with the color yellow!
For starters, The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine certainly feels the yellow vibe.
Originally, the song, written by Paul McCartney, told a story about different coloured submarines, but eventually evolved to include only a yellow one!
Impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh couldn’t get enough of yellow hues.
In 1887, Van Gogh began his sunflower series, painting various still lives of the stages of sunflower growth and decay.
However, Van Gogh’s sunflower frenzy could not have happened without the innovations in manufactured pigments in the 19th Century. With the vibrancy of new colors like chrome yellow, Van Gogh achieved the intensity he needed to complete his paintings.
Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh
Want to soak up the sun — indoors?! Head over to the world-renowned Yellow Lounge on Mercer Street to hear the musical beats of great international performers with cutting-edge DJ sets.
You’ll instantly feel at ease in the hip urban setting, with warm yellow lighting illuminating the room!
Yellow Lounge in NYC
Taste the sun with the summer-themed delicacies at the Upper East Side’s Park Avenue Summer.
The restaurant decor draws inspiration from the Galapagos Islands, with hand-cast tortoise shells mounted throughout the space on yellow panels and beautiful yellow lighting fixtures to brighten up the room.
Park Avenue Summer
Summer’s not over yet! Bask in your favorite fun in the sun activities with friends and family and remember to spread some summer love!
- Ava Cotlowitz
[Editor's Note: Did you miss Blue, Red, and Black & White? Enjoy the entire Color Commentary series...Only at The Bare Square!]
The power outage in India left over 600 million people in the dark. While we certainly don’t want to make “light” of the catastrophe…ahem…we couldn’t help but think of the role that darkness plays in the art world.
Traditionally, a valued piece of art is placed in a strategically lit, bright viewing area. But not always- see how these contemporary artists experiment with light in their work.
Born in 1933, renowned artist Dan Flavinwas a key player in the introduction of electric light as fine art.
Dan Flavin, image from LondonSE1
Flavin used commercially available fluorescent lights to create minimalist, colorful installations- one of which is currently on view at the MoMA.
Today, New York City based artist Ryan McGinnesstakes this idea of using light as art one step further. His most recent artwork features geometric-like female figures that, when lit up with black light, makes viewers’ jaws drop.
Ryan McGinness, Women Painting3, 2010 studio view & black light view, image from The Standard’s Tumbler
McGinness uses the unexpected medium of fluorescent paint to create a glowing effect. The result: a painting that transforms with the flip of a switch.
Glenn Friedel, an artist with nAscent Art New York, the publisher of The Bare Square, uses light itself as a medium in his artwork. In a completely dark room, Glenn has models lie down on photo sensitive paper and exposes them to light in new and creative ways. In this way, Glenn is ultimately “painting” with light.
Glenn Friedel, photogram, Mirror Princess, at nAscent Art New York
Yayoi Kusama, Fireflies on the Water, mirror, plexiglass, 150 lights and water, Whitney Museum
Want to become enlightened today? Step inside Yayoi Kusama’s installation, Fireflies on the Water, now being shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art through September 30!
While the power has thankfully been restored in India, artists like Flavin and Friedel will continue to illuminate those willing to experience art in the dark.
Dating back to the Renaissance, male artists have often taken the spotlight over their female contemporaries.
According to theartwolf.com, the fifty most influential artists in history are all men, except for number 49!
Yet, many lesser-known women artists deserve more attention than they’ve received.
As an under-appreciated artist of the 17th century, female artist Lavinia Fontana’sclassical style rivals that of the great Caravaggio, Michelangelo, and Donatello.
Holy Family with Saints Margaret and Francis by Lavinia Fontana
Unfortunately, Fontana’s gender led to insurmountably biased reactions within the fine art world that both stunted her acclaim and limited her painted subject matter.
Like Fontana, American painter and printmaker Mary Cassatt, one of the first more well-known female artists, painted what she, as a woman of the 19th century, knew best — domestic affairs.
Women with their children recurred throughout much of Cassatt’s artwork, depicting impressionistic maternal portraits.
A Kiss for Baby Anne (no. 3) by Mary Cassatt
Following Cassatt, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and American artist Georgia O’Keeffe also explored the truths of womanhood in the early 1900′s, exploiting hardship and femininity.
Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird by Frida Kahlo and Light Iris by Georgia O’Keeffe
But it wasn’t until the late 1960′s and 1970′s that women artists and art historians took full charge of their art influence and founded a feminist art movement, examining the role of women in history and culture.
Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party is a monumental installation, comprised of a triangular table, each side 48 feet long, on which 39 women in history are represented by place settings. Inscribed in the Heritage Floor where the table rests are the names of 999 other historic women.
The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago
Throughout Cindy Sherman’s prolific body of work, she addresses the stereotypes of women in society with self-portrait photographs, representing themes like naivete, self-obsession, and sexuality.
Untitled #360 by Cindy Sherman
Yet, the feminist art movement did not reign the art world for long.
With the 1960′s pop art movement and post-modernism beginning in 1970, male artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, and Anselm Keifer became kings of the court.
And so female artists continued to fall into the shadow of their male peers.
Hopefully the young and talented African American artist Kara Walker, British painter Jenny Saville, and American photographer Zoe Strausswill pave the way for women of the art world to easily shine.
Camptown Ladies by Kara Walker
Hypen by Jenny Saville and Daddy Tattoo by Zoe Strauss
Thirteen-time Grammy winner Michael Jackson belted the hit single “Black or White,” which soared to the top of the music charts in 1991 and became the second best selling single of that year.
See if you can recognize the young Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin jammin’ with MJ in the “Black or White” music video below!
While the King of Pop wrote “Black or White” to address racial tension, famous artists utilized the colors black and white — or shades, values, or gradients as per the ongoing “black-and-white color debate” — as defining styles for bodies of work.
Richard Avedon, renowned American fashion and portrait photographer, developed his photos solely in black and white. Avedon photographed acclaimed subjects like The Beatles, Andy Warhol, and Marilyn Monroe.
You may have seen Avedon’s work in the permanent collections of The MoMa or The Met, or at the Richard Avedon exhibition at Chelsea’s Gagosian Gallery. Catch the last day of the Avedon exhibit and head over to Gagosian on your lunch break today!
Marilyn Monroe by Richard Avedon
Dying for a good black and white read? Just wait a month until Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld release the highly-anticipated The Little Black Jacket.
In June, Chanel opened a one week Little Black Jacket exhibition featuring over a hundred black and white photographs of the rich and famous adorned by custom Chanel jackets.
Sarah Jessica Parker and Uma Thurman in Chanel jackets
You can read it to believe it on August 25th, when The Little Black Jacket becomes available in all its black and white glory. Sporting pages of Lagerfeld’s and Roitfeld’s reinterpretation of Chanel’s iconic black jacket, The Little Black Jacket also includes black and white photos of jacket-bearing celebrities like Kanye West and Yoko Ono.
The Little Black Jacket by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld
Looking for an excellent restaurant filled with black and white decor?
The work of esteemed American caricaturist Al Hirschfeld covers the walls of Rockefeller Center’s Alfredo of Rome.
Audrey Hepburn portrait by Al Hirschfeld
Hirschfeld’s black and white portraits of celebrities and broadway stars hang at six-by-sixteen feet and invite restaurant goers into an atmosphere filled with authentic Italian cuisine and whimsical black and white art.
Al Hirschfeld caricatures lining the walls of NYC’s Alfredo of Rome
[Editor's Note: Have you read our entire Color Commentary series? Please check out Red and Blue and stay tuned for more colors to come...Only at The Bare Square!]
