Visual Art Archive

  • Living and dying close to the edge in the 1980s Manhattan world of art and culture, Jean-Michel Basquiat moved from guerrilla street artist to producing innumerable works worth millions, until his drug-induced end in 1988.

    Jean-Michel Basquiat: Poverty and Power, Scrawled on Walls

    Posted on July 11, 2017 | 2 Comments
    Living and dying close to the edge in the 1980s Manhattan world of art and culture, Jean-Michel Basquiat moved from guerrilla street artist to producing innumerable works worth millions, until his drug-induced end in 1988.

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  • Matthew Anthony Stokes solo show Camouflage opened in Los Angeles, which illustrates his unique multi-disciplinary background in performance, corporeal dramaturgy, dance, sculpture, assemblage, film, photography, and poetry. Multiple videos from the experimental MAQUETTE Theatre, which he co-founded, create a visionary alternative universe replete with silent dances and visual poems that "unveil" ephemeral sculpture, including costumes, sets and masks.

    Visual Poems, Silent Dances of the Maquette Theatre

    Posted on May 22, 2017 | 1 Comment
    Matthew Anthony Stokes solo show Camouflage opened in Los Angeles, which illustrates his unique multi-disciplinary background in performance, corporeal dramaturgy, dance, sculpture, assemblage, film, photography, and poetry. Multiple videos from the experimental MAQUETTE Theatre, which he co-founded, create a visionary alternative universe replete with silent dances and visual poems that "unveil" ephemeral sculpture, including costumes, sets and masks.

    Continue Reading...

  • The Irish-British Francis Bacon was both reviled and revered throughout his life for his raw, grotesque and confronting figurative painting. This documentary explores the life of one of modern art’s most intriguing artists.

    The Real Imagination of Artist Francis Bacon

    Posted on October 25, 2016 | 1 Comment
    The Irish-British Francis Bacon was both reviled and revered throughout his life for his raw, grotesque and confronting figurative painting. This documentary explores the life of one of modern art’s most intriguing artists.

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  • Prehistoric paintings on vertical rock faces in an Amazonian wilderness in Colombia were recently photographed and filmed for western eyes. The pretense of this British filmmaker as the "discoverer" of the paintings is of course ludicrous. The once populous Karijona Tribe most likely painted these masterpieces, and continue to live uncontacted in the vast rainforest, and anthropologists and explorers have studied the region for hundreds of years.

    Colombia: Stunning Indigenous Rock Art from Amazonia

    Posted on September 2, 2015 | 3 Comments
    Prehistoric paintings on vertical rock faces in an Amazonian wilderness in Colombia were recently photographed and filmed for western eyes. The pretense of this British filmmaker as the "discoverer" of the paintings is of course ludicrous. The once populous Karijona Tribe most likely painted these masterpieces, and continue to live uncontacted in the vast rainforest, and anthropologists and explorers have studied the region for hundreds of years.

    Continue Reading...

  • This is the first post in a series where I present the case for Geo-Fauvism, a growing movement of wild earth inspiration in art, literature, music and design. Taking off from the early 20th Century French art "Fauvists" or "Wild Beasts," these cross-disciplinary creations respond to and react against the collapse of global environmental systems, the destruction of indigenous earth-based societies, and a narrowing of cultural opportunities in the mainstream corporatized media. Geo-Fauvists create to reconnect with the wild and heal humanity's rift with the landscape, building a new community based on integration with the ecosystem.

    Geo-Fauvism: Waking to the Wild Earth Through Visual Art

    Posted on June 5, 2015 | 7 Comments
    This is the first post in a series where I present the case for Geo-Fauvism, a growing movement of wild earth inspiration in art, literature, music and design. Taking off from the early 20th Century French art "Fauvists" or "Wild Beasts," these cross-disciplinary creations respond to and react against the collapse of global environmental systems, the destruction of indigenous earth-based societies, and a narrowing of cultural opportunities in the mainstream corporatized media. Geo-Fauvists create to reconnect with the wild and heal humanity's rift with the landscape, building a new community based on integration with the ecosystem.

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  • In the sobering aftermath of World War I in Zurich, Dada preached a radical-yet-whimsical philosophy of creativity, a self-styled anti-art. Random and meaningless by definition, calculatedly irrational by design, for a short time the movement spread like revolt to the US and across Europe, voicing the bizarre protest of a brave new community of artists and writers.

    Dada as the Antidote to War and Capitalism

    Posted on April 25, 2015 | 2 Comments
    In the sobering aftermath of World War I in Zurich, Dada preached a radical-yet-whimsical philosophy of creativity, a self-styled anti-art. Random and meaningless by definition, calculatedly irrational by design, for a short time the movement spread like revolt to the US and across Europe, voicing the bizarre protest of a brave new community of artists and writers.

    Continue Reading...

  • One of the 20th Century's most influential composers, Paul Hindemith created the neo-classical-folk-inspired symphony Mathis der Maler, based on the life of the mysterious 16th Century painter Matthias Grunewald, whose masterpiece associated Saint Anthony and the Virgin Mary with the miraculous cure of the epidemic skin disease called St. Anthony's Fire.

    German Composer’s Paean to a Healing Work of Renaissance Art

    Posted on March 18, 2015 | 1 Comment
    One of the 20th Century's most influential composers, Paul Hindemith created the neo-classical-folk-inspired symphony Mathis der Maler, based on the life of the mysterious 16th Century painter Matthias Grunewald, whose masterpiece associated Saint Anthony and the Virgin Mary with the miraculous cure of the epidemic skin disease called St. Anthony's Fire.

    Continue Reading...

  • "Art is never chaste," said Pablo Picasso. "Art is dangerous." One of the 20th century’s greatest painters was born in Málaga, Spain, but Jonathan Jones argues he came into his own amid the sleaze and bohemianism of Paris – the only city that could have matched his peerless imagination.

    Pablo Picasso: Dangerous Art and Political Posturing in Paris

    Posted on February 25, 2015 | 3 Comments
    "Art is never chaste," said Pablo Picasso. "Art is dangerous." One of the 20th century’s greatest painters was born in Málaga, Spain, but Jonathan Jones argues he came into his own amid the sleaze and bohemianism of Paris – the only city that could have matched his peerless imagination.

    Continue Reading...

  • Paul Gauguin, the bourgeois-turned-bohemian artist who left France for Tahiti, reveals a darker, almost menacing mythological vision, in contrast to his exploitative picture-postcard fantasy-native Polynesian paintings for which he is known. The exhibition continues at MoMA in New York until June.

    Paul Gauguin: Nature and Primitivism as Mythical Notions

    Posted on April 14, 2014 | 5 Comments
    Paul Gauguin, the bourgeois-turned-bohemian artist who left France for Tahiti, reveals a darker, almost menacing mythological vision, in contrast to his exploitative picture-postcard fantasy-native Polynesian paintings for which he is known. The exhibition continues at MoMA in New York until June.

    Continue Reading...

  • Francis Bacon, Irish born British painter, whose work recently auctioned for a record $142 million, in his own words in a 1985 documentary for British television, gambling, drinking, and talking about his influences.

    Francis Bacon About Town: Surrealist Painter, Worth Multi-Millions

    Posted on December 2, 2013 | 3 Comments
    Francis Bacon, Irish born British painter, whose work recently auctioned for a record $142 million, in his own words in a 1985 documentary for British television, gambling, drinking, and talking about his influences.

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