Author: cparker
-
Ivan Titor
Ivan Titor is a Czech painter whose work floats in that hazy twilight between representational and non-representational painting. He paints objects, but they are often not identifiable. You might fit them into the category of freely imagined or hallucinatory landscapes. As such he puts me in mind of Surrealists and Dadaists like Yves Tanguy and…
-
Count Amadeo Preziosi
In the 19th Century a number of European artists, and many American artists, traveled to destinations in what we in Europe and the U.S. would now call the “Middle East”, staying for months or even years, returning home with paintings of exotic cities, landscapes and costumed figures that were immensely popular (see my post on…
-
William James Aylward
William James Aylward was a student of the great American illustrator Howard Pyle, and carried forth Pyles’ masterful control of tone, color and pictorial drama. Aylward was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin, son of a shipbuilder and Great Lakes ship captain, and had a lifelong fascination with ships and marine subjects, which Pyles’ wonderful pirate ships…
-
Betty Boop: Snow White
A friend of mine recently reminded me of the amazing Fleischer Studios Betty Boop cartoons from the 1930’s (see my posts on Max Fleisher and the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons). Betty Boop, in her original incarnation, was sexy, surreal (in the accurate sense of that word), imaginative, beautifully done and entertaining on several levels. These…
-
Maria Kalman (update)
As I mentioned back in February, illustrator Maria Kalman is continuing her illustrated blogging for the New York Times with her current blog And the Pursuit of Happiness. In her piece for July 30, 2009, Can Do, she focuses on my favorite of the United States’ “founding fathers” — inventor, raconteur, publisher, writer, ambassador, ladies…
-
Brooks Shane Salzwedel
Brooks Shane Salzwedel draws ephemeral landscape images in layers of graphite, tape and resin. His unusual, and painstaking, approach gives his images a delicate feeling of depth and otherworldly mystery. He often juxtaposes artificial constructs, like metal towers, with natural forms, both emphasizing the contrast in form and the odd harmony of their place in…