Art Miami 2016 - Part 3

Roy Lichtenstein.  "Landscape Mobile."  1991  Pop Art

Lichtenstein here combines several styles - cartoon drawing, a Calder mobile, landscape,

and abstraction.  It is simple and yet sophisticated.

Morris Louis "Omega."  Manuel Neri "Woman."  Joan Mitchell "Then and Now."

The two paintings are abstract expressionism; the Mitchell was asking $6.8 million.

Manuel Neri.  "Standing Woman." plaster 1995
Manuel Neri (b. 1930) is an American sculptor who is recognized for his life-size
figurative sculptures in plaster, bronze, and marble, as well as for his
association with the Bay Area Figurative Movement during the 1960s.
He lives and works in San Francisco.

Henri Matisse.  "Swimmer,"  1947  One page in the book "Jazz."

Matisse was commissioned to illustrate a book of poems.  His physical condition was

deteriorating, and he could not hold a pen or brush.  So he used a shears to cut forms

out of construction paper and had an assistant arrange them on the floor.

The forms are wonderfully sinuous, like seaweed wafting in the ocean.

Henri Matisse.  "Trapeze."  from "Jazz"  1947.

More cut-out forms showing a trapese, the net below, shadows from the spotlights

drifting over the audience.  One page was selling for $50,000.

Keith Haring.  "Toreador."

Keith Haring was an American graffiti artist who worked with strong outlines,

simple forms, bright colors.  The image is derived ultimately from Picasso.

David Drebin.  "Don't Ever Call Me Again"   Neon

Drebin is one the artists who uses words both as colored images and also

for the intellectual content they bear.  These neon signs are highly decorative

and skilfully made, yet I can't get away from the meanings as well.

Lionel Scocciamaro.  "Four Objects."  Fiberglass  2016

I chatted with Lionel in the booth.  These are four of twelve objects on display.

He began by putting a piece of tree trunk on a wood lathe and creating this form.

He then made a mold of it.  Then he put three layers of resin inside.  When they dried and

hardened, he painted them with enamels, then coated them with  three coats of acrylic.

They are about 14 inches high.

Robert Indiana.  "Hope."  Steel  2004.  Pop Art.

This sculpture is about 3 feet high.  It is an intricate sculpture of curving lines,

solid masses, voids, colors and shadows.  It is also a word from which I cannot

separate myself.  It has become highly popular all over the world.

Al Held.  "F12-87 R."
Al Held was an American Abstract Expressionist painter.  He was
particularly well known for his large scale Hard Edge paintings
depicting infinite and often confusing space.  He taught art
at Yale University.

Thomas Downing.  "Eight by Eight."  8x8 feet

Thomas Downing (1928–1985) was an American painter, associated with the 

Washington Color Field Movement, along with Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis.

Hans Hofmann.  "Red, Yellow, Black."  Hofmann was from Germany,

but fled to the U.S. and became a highly influential teacher.  In paintings such

as this he explored how areas of color affected each other so that some seem to

come forward and others to recede to the back of the space.

Friedel Dzubas.  "Summer 1972."   4 x 4 feet

Dzubas was a German born abstract artist who fled Nazi Germany and

came to live in New York.  His paintings are part of the Color Field

and Lyrical Abstraction movements.  This wonderful work

radiates the warmth and glow of a summer afternoon.

Jules Olitsky.  "Patutsky Passion."  1963

Olitsky was another of the Color Field painters who worked

on a very large scale with large fields of color.

Lucio Fontana.  "Concetto Spaziale - Pink."

Fontana one day accidentally pierced a canvas he was working on with 

a knife.  He found the result intriguing.  Notice the many subtle variations

in the rose and pink color, which look like space receding.  And then the

hole actually recedes and opens up.

Speedy Graphito.  "Art Trouble."  2016  8x8 feet

Speedy is actually a French artist in Paris who is extremely popular,

working both in fine arts and also advertising, using a Pop Art and

Graffiti Art style.  Here he juxtaposes Pinocchio with famous Pop

paintings by Lichtenstein, Warhol, and Wesselmann.

Speedy Graphito.  "Bankable."  2016

Speedy combines popular and valuable Pop images by artists and the Disney Studios.

Any one of these images would provide an income for life.

Keith Haring.  "Head."  1978

Keith Haring playfully works with a Picasso-like head and

turns it into a cartoon figure.  He died at 32.

Keith Haring.  "Poster for Nuclear Disarmament."  1982

Haring created posters for many social issues and meetings; the simple

cartoon-like figures could be "read" and understood in any country.

Jonone.  "Walking through Darkness."  2016   8 feet x 12 feet
Jonone was born in Harlem to parents from the Dominican Republic.  His introduction to
street art began when he would see graffiti and tags on subway cars and city walls.  When 
he was 17, he began painting graffiti on the walls and trains in his neighborhood.
He said "The subway is a museum that runs through the city."  He lives in Paris.

Jonone.  "Pointing Finger."  2016

The blue color here is known as French blue and can be found

in many areas of French life, like the smocks workers or

students wear.  It is a wonderful color.

Louise Nevelson.  "Wall Piece."  1968

Nevelson was a Russian-American sculptor who used found pieces

of wood to construct walls / screens / iconostasis.  Each piece has a

story, about its background and use.  It looks like a screen in a

Russian Orthodox church.

Louise Nevelson.  "Wall Piece."  close-up.

Look at each box which Nevelson has made and the various forms

within the box - frames, balustrades, chair parts.  They sometimes

look like a reliquary  or tabernacle.

Ann Weber.  "Three Personages."  2013  Plaster

Weber works with large sculptural forms, first in cardboard and plaster, like these,

and then she casts them in bronze to be placed outdoors,

Carlos Cruz-Diez.  "Physiochromie."  1962  Venezuela

Cruz-Diez is one of the most influential and famous of the Kinetic and Op Art

artists from South America.  He was interested only in line, color, and perception.

What you see as lines here are actually thin strips of aluminum painted on both sides.

As you walk along and look, the painting changes color and composition .

Wifredo Lam is perhaps Cuba's most famous artist.  He sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by and in contact with some of the most renowned artists of the 20th century, Lam melded his influences and created a unique style, which was ultimately characterized by the prominence of hybrid figures.   His father was a Chinese immigrant and his mother was born to a Congolese former slave mother and a Cuban mulatto father. In his hometown, Lam was surrounded by many people of African descent; his family, like many others, practiced Catholicism alongside their African traditions. Through his godmother,  a Santería priestess locally celebrated as a healer and sorceress, he was exposed to rites of the African orishas. His contact with African celebrations and spiritual practices proved to be his largest artistic influence.

Wifredo Lam.  "Figures in Space."  1956

Damien Hirst.  "Psalm 52."  English.  2010     4x4 feet

This "painting" is made up of brightly colored butterflies which are glued to the surface

and then sometimes overpainted,  They come to look like a stained-glass window

in a cathedral.

Damien Hirst.  "Butterfly Tondo."  2013  Butterflies and acrylic.

Exotic butterflies and painted background make a gorgeous pattern.

It was then covered with acrylic.

Damien Hirst.  Butterfly paintings in back.  "Legend" porcelain horse in foreground.

Hirst is an enormously prolific artist with a studio of more than 30 assistants.  Before

becoming an artist, he studied anatomy for a career in medicine.  Part of this horse has

skin, and part is flayed, so that you can see the precise musculature below.  Hirst is

fascinated by the interplay of beautiful surfaces and underlying structure.  He made

25 of these horses, and you can have one for $49,000, or two for $89,000.

Rene Portocarrero.  "Bouquet."
Portocarrero is one of Cuba's most famous artists.  He was a painter,
sculptor. ceramicist, and muralist.  He did many pubic commissions.
These Cuban paintings were in the booth of Cernuda Gallery, a
wonderful art gallery in South Miami for Cuban art. 

Frank Stella.  "The Mat Maker."  Corrugated Aluminum.  2010

Stella began as a Hard-Edge painter but gradually became interested in

combining painting and sculpture.  He calls this a painting, but it is a large 3-D

piece hanging from, but projecting far out from the wall.  He treats

metal as if it were paper.

Tom Wesselmann.  "Bedroom Series.  #127"  Pop Art

Adolph Gottlieb.  "Asterisk on brown."  1967.

Gottlieb was one of the artists after World War II who was influenced by

exposure to Asian art and philosophy.  This large painting has a quiet

meditative spirit and looks something like Japanese calligraphy.

Clara Martini.  "Hummingbirds."  2002

Martini had several works with birds and hybrid creatures

and exotic flowers.

John Stephan.  "Untitled."  1962  Hard Edge

Stephan's works usually present a simple large geometric shape completely

understood in one glance, but with colors shading gradually.

Paul Rousso.  "New York Times Sunday Style 9 11 16."  4x7 feet

This large sculptural piece, which looks like a crumpled newspaper, is made of a sheet of
acrylic, which is imprinted with an enlarged image, in this case the newspaper.  Rousso 
then uses a blow torch to heat and soften the acrylic, so he can bend and fold it.
He has made a large number of these large pieces of paper dollars.

Jacob Hashimoto.  "Another Cautionary Tale."  Mixographia

The artist is a young Japanese-American with an international reputation.  His works
are a combination of painting and sculpture.  This piece is actually made completely
of embossed handmade paper; the "threads" are painted.  He seems to call on his
Japanese heritage for inspiration.  It was fascinating.

Jacob Hashimoto.  "Nevertheless."  Mixographia.

A printer from the studio in California which produces these works explained the

process to me; it is extremely difficult and rare and expensive, but beautiful.

A gallery of Latin American art, sculpture in steel and marble and wood.
The white marble piece is by Uruguayan Pablo Atchugarry and the large wood
sculpture and assemblage "Woman with Flowers on Hat"  is by Manolo Valdes of Spain.
The yellow arch is by William Barbosa of Colombia and Venezuela.

Mercedes Pardo.  "First Light of Morning."  1999  Venezuela
Pardo worked with absrtraction often based on landscape.

Pablo Atchugarry.  "Untitled,"  White Marble.  Uruguay
Fernando de Szyszlo  "Ritual Ceremonies."  Peru paintings
Archugarry treats marble as if it were soft muslin, which he drapes gentl;, his technical
skill is amazing.  De Szyszlo is Peru's greatest artist and works with the subconscious
mind and ancient artifacts of Peruvian cultures.  The paintings are fascinating.

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