It’s interesting to note that Japanese artist Takashi Murakami was the only visual artist included on Time magazine’s 2008 “100 Most Influential People” list. Not that I put that much stock in such lists, but it’s a glimpse of the wide ranging notice Murakami is receiving.

Muuakami’s style covers a wide range as well, with influences from traditional Japanese art, which he studied at Tokyo national University of Fine Arts and Music, combined with 20th century Modernist notions and contemporary pop culture streams from manga, anime, and “otaku” culture, in a kind of glorious art mash-up explosion of brightly colored graphic patterns and iconic imagery; as if Peter Max was channeling Utagawa school artists by way of Masamune Shirow in an exhibit put together by Andy Warhol.

Murakami seems to have the ability to slip back and forth at will through cultural layers as well, passing from gallery art to pop culture to outright commercialism, with his name appearing on designer goods along with Louis Vuittom.

There is a major show of his work currently at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, from now until May 31, 2009.

The show has previously traveled to MOCA in California, which has videos of the exhibit and interviews the the artist; and The Brooklyn Museum in NY.

Murakami doesn’t have a web site per se as an artist, but rather an art production company, Kaikai, Kiki (roughly meaning “oddly fascinating”), devoted to art related merchandise, animation and art promotion, of which his art is a part.

[Via Art Knowledge News]

There have traditionally been only two images accepted as true portraits of the man who is generally acknowledged as the greatest writer in the English language, William Shakespeare.

One is his monument bust in the Holy Trinity Church in Statford-upon-Avon (left, 4th down), and the other is the famous engraving by Martin Droeshout (left, bottom) that was used as the cover piece of the First Folio of Shakespeare’s work (and has been repurposed in a gigazillion ways since). Both of them were done after his death in 1616.

On Monday, the chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stanley Wells, unveiled a painting that has been in the house of the Cobbe family outside of Dublin for centuries, that is now suggested to be the only image of the bard painted from life (image at left, top).

This status was previously held, but always in question, for the painting called the Chandos Portrait, attributed to artist John Taylor (left, third down), but that claim has been discredited to a large extent.

The painting from the Cobbe family shows an energetic and bright eyed man, younger than the portrayals we commonly see, most of which have been based on Droeshout’s engraving.

In this portrait, Shakespeare would have been 46 at the time, six years before his death.

The painting bears a resemblance to a painting once thought to be of Shakespeare and attributed to Flemish painter Charles Janssen, that is in the National Gallery in London (left, second down).

Though this painting has been established to have been of another person, and to have been altered sometime before 1770 to make it resemble Shakespeare, it is what prompted the Alec Cobbe to begin inquires among Shakespeare scholars and art experts to see if his family’s painting was, indeed, of the great playwright.

Though the jury is not in, sophisticated dating techniques and the opinions of the experts in both camps suggest that this may, in fact, be the only portrait we have of Shakespeare painted during his lifetime.

Unfortunately, in all of the media attention the painting has received, I can find no mention of an attribution, or even a suggestion of a probable artist’s name. I suppose that may remain a mystery, like much about the bard himself.

Though out of context (and though by “paintings”, Hamlet is referring to Opheila’s makeup), the issue of identifying portraits brings to mind:

“I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God has given you one face and you make yourselves another,…”

[Thanks to Larry Roibal]

In a painting blog variation that combines her interest in both beer and painting, Cat Scott has chosen as her subject a variety of beer bottles. Their different shapes, colors and label designs give a seemingly limited subject more diversity than one might think.

She also employs a variety of media in the works she post on her aptly named blog, 99 Paintings of Beer on the Wall, from pen and gouache or pen and highlighter on bristol or in sketchbooks to acrylic and oil on canvas.

Scott is a graphic designer full time and paints when she can, and maintains another, more general, sketchblog, as well as an illustration portfolio (images above, bottom row). She is also a participant in the Girls Who Draw group sketchblog.

Her portfolio site includes portfolios for illustration and design, as well as a sketchbook section. There is also a profile with some additional images on Imagekind.

Though most of her “99 paintings of Beer on the Wall” are sold or not for sale at the moment, in addition to offering prints, she does apparently put many of them up for sale; in case you’re inclined to take one down, and perhaps, pass it around.

Margaret Morrison’s recent works are yummy, both in terms of their frequent subject matter of sweets and candies, and the sumptuous color with which she portrays those treats.

Morrison’s canvases are relatively large, often 4’x4′ (122x122cm) or larger, and put their small scale subjects into large scale relief, sometimes at eye level or above, giving our a glimpse of them a delicious feeling or intimacy.

She takes delight in the surfaces of gummy candies, smooth chocolates and shiny hard candies. The objects themselves are often strongly lit, adding to the impact of their color and the dimensionality of their forms.

Along with the candies, cupcakes and brightly colored Pez dispensers, you’ll find florals, colorful arrangements of fruit and other foods, and, if you go back far enough, a range of figurative work in a more muted palette and with a very different emotional tone.

Morrison has a solo show at the Woodward Gallery in New York that runs from March 7 to May 6th, 2009. There is a selection of her work on the gallery’s site.

There also also a portfolio of her work on the site of the Lamar Dodd School of Art, where Morrison is a Senior Lecturer.

[Via Art Knowledge News]