Category Archives: Art

August 12

Elizabeth Murray: Modernism Changing Shape

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On the 12th of August 2007, American artist Elizabeth Murray died of cancer aged 66 in Washington county, N.Y. She was a painter, printmaker and draughtswoman and her works can be found in many major public collections, including those of the Guggenheim, the Hirshhorn, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, the Art Institute of Chicago […]

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August 11

Hans Memling: Flemish Painting and Optical Geometry

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On the 11th of August 1494, German-born Flemish painter Hans Memling died in Bruges, the Netherlands, now Belgium. He was apparently first schooled in art in Cologne and then travelled to the Netherlands (c. 1455-60), where he supposedly trained in the workshop of the painter Rogier van der Weyden. He settled in Bruges in 1465, where he […]

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August 09

Jan Sawka: Political Posters and the Polish Solidarity Movement

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On the 9th of August 2012, Polish painter, printmaker, graphic artist, set designer and architect Jan Sawka died in his home in High Falls, New York. Jan Sawka was the son of an architect father and linguist mother.  His childhood was overshadowed by his father’s Stalin-era political imprisonment.  Sawka completed two Master degrees:  in Painting and Printmaking, from […]

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August 08

James Tissot – Visual Notes of a Victorian Dandy

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On the 8th of August 1902, French Victorian portrait painter, engraver, and enameler, James Tissot, died in Buillon Abbey, near Besançon, France. “After receiving a religious education, Tissot went to Paris at age 19 to study art. In 1859 he exhibited at the Salon. Turning from his rather anguished early works to modern genre paintings […]

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August 06

Vajda Lajos: A Hungarian Modernist

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On the 6th of August 1908, artist Lajos Vajda was born in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary. He was the youngest child born into a poor Jewish family of five. In 1916, his father moved the family to Serbia in search of a better life. Here the young Lajos came into contact with religious Byzantine-Orthodox art for the […]

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August 04

Hedda Sterne: Against the Abstract Expressionist Tide

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On the 4th of August 1910, Romanian-Jewish artist Hedda Sterne was born as Hedwig Lindenberg in Bucharest. Sterne is remembered as the only woman present in the Life magazine “Irascibles” photograph taken by Nina Leen in New York on the 24th of November 1950. The article in which the picture appeared documented the Abstract Expressionists’ […]

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August 02

Thomas Gainsborough’s ‘Showbox’ Paintings

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On the 2nd of August 1788, English painter Thomas Gainsborough died in London at the age of 61. One of the most unusual artworks created by the artist, now on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, is his experimental showbox with his back-lit landscapes painted in oils on glass, which allowed them to be […]

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July 28

Beatrix Potter: Nature as First and Last Resort

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On the 28th of July 1866, Helen Beatrix Potter, English author of the Peter Rabbit children’s books, was born in Kensington, London. Less known is her career as a naturalist and realist artist. Botany and nature study were passions of most Victorians and Potter tried her hand at various naturalist pursuits from an early age: […]

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July 26

George Grosz: War→Madness→Dada

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On the 26th of July 1893, German artist George Grosz was born in Berlin. From an early age, Grosz had passionate ideological views. In January 1919, he was arrested during the Spartakus uprising in Berlin, a general strike accompanied by armed battles, which was being suppressed by the Weimar government, marking the end of the […]

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July 24

The Forgotten Abstractions of Ana-Eva Bergman

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On the 24th of July 1987, Norwegian painter Ana-Eva Bergman, wife of Tachiste abstract artist Hans Hartung, died in Grasse, on the French Riviera. Whilst Bergman’s talent was recognized during her lifetime, she held a marginal position in the European avant-garde during her life. Anna-Eva Bergman had a turbulent and difficult childhood. Shortly after she […]

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