Il Quarto Stato (Fourth estate)

Monday May 1st, 2017 , Artists and Works

Il quarto stato | Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo

Image source: Wikipedia.org

THE FOURTH STATE: WHERE IT IS AND WHAT IT REPRESENTS

The Fourth Estate is the result of a long journey by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, who for the first time in the history of Italian art represents the rise of the labour movement in the social life of the country and does so as if it were inevitable.

The work is kept in Milan and I recommend you go and see it as soon as you can because Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, an exponent of the pointillist movement, presented The Fourth Estate at the Quadriennale in Turin in 1902 and it has since become a symbol of the workers’ struggle.

The work was actually originally entitled The Workers’ Way, but at the last moment the artist decided to change it to what we all know today.

Tuttomondo: The Pisa’s mural in Pisa by Keith Haring

Monday April 24th, 2017 , Artists and Works

Image source: All Around Kaarl.com

TUTTOMONDO: KEITH HARING’S MURAL

On the wall of the Church of Sant’Antonio Abate, in Pisa, there’s the last public work painted by Keith Haring.
It’s a large mural painted in 1989, entitled Tuttomondo (Allworld – The Pisa’s Mural ) and dedicated to universal peace.

You know how much I like Keith Haring.
I visited the exhibition “Keith Haring. About art” in Milan with great enthusiasm, like a child in the playground, and feeling the excitement of going to a rock concert.
Because Keith Haring is the artist who, more than others, can interpret my life and express my desire for happiness.

Paintings by Botero

Saturday April 15th, 2017 , Contemporary Art, Artists and Works

Image source: https://artodyssey1.blogspot.it

PAINTINGS BY BOTERO: THE MOST FAMOUS WORKS BY FERNANDO BOTERO

Fernando Botero is an artist much beloved by the public, but much less by critics.
Artist of Colombian origin, famous and popular all over the world, anyone can recognise his paintings, because he depicts fat men and women.

His painting style is unmistakable, and rejected by several critics, who define his images infantile and commercial.
But others keep claiming the opposite, defining him one of the greatest artists of our time.

But which are the most famous works by Fernando Botero?
In this post I’ll show you an array of his most important paintings.

Impressionist painters

Monday April 10th, 2017 , Artists and Works

Armand Guillaumin, Tramonto ad Ivry, 1873, Museo d’Orsay – iImage source: it.wikipedia.org

IMPRESSIONIST PAINTERS

On April 15^th 1874 in a photographer’s studio at 35 boulevard des Capucines the first Impressionist exhibition was presented.
I wrote the details of the importance and the consequences of that event in a post in which I explained what Impressionism is.

That exhibition was only the beginning for some young artists who painted in a different way from the past.
For centuries artists painted “dal vero” and then finished their works inside their studio. On the contrary, the Impressionists painted in the open air, “en plein air”.

Who are the impressionist painters?
In this post their names and their main works.

Still life Caravaggio: Caravaggio’s Basket of Fruit

Monday April 3rd, 2017 , Artists and Works, Schools & Periods

Image source: ArteWorld.it

STILL LIFE: CARAVAGGIO AND THE BASKET OF FRUIT

Still life Caravaggio. Caravaggio’s Basket of Fruit is considered to be the first Italian still-life painting, a pictorial genre which already existed and had a long tradition behind, and whose undisputed masters were the Flemish painters.
In Italy the use of still life was only a decorative addition, but thanks to Caravaggio at last it became an independent subject.

Caravaggio with his Basket of Fruit gave still life new dignity, by putting it on the same level as figurative painting.
Caravaggio didn’t search for aesthetically pleasing representations, but he searched for reality, because to him painting meant to accept life as it is, without decorations and with all its imperfections.