Dear Sophie -
Although born in Paris, SONIA DELAUNAY traveled to Paris when she was 20 years old, and apart from some stints in Portugal and Madrid, spent most of her life there.
She was a fantastic colorist and worked as a painter, fashion designer and created costumes for the theater.
With love,
Dear Sophie -
GEORGE BRAQUE and Pablo Picasso worked so closely together, that at times it is almost impossible to distinguish among their works.
Braque stood by CUBISM and systems of fragmentation over the course of his career while Picasso continued to explore other painting methodologies.
With love,
Mom
JIM DINE'S career is a suite of iconography featuring hearts, bathrobes and everyday household items.
With love,
Mom
While a masterful painter, WAYNE THIEBAUD is associated with pop art.
I'm glad he didn't deny himself the good things in life :)
With love,
Mom
"Popular culture isn't a freeze-frame; it is images zapping by in rapid-fire succession, which is why collage is such an effective way of representing contemporary life," he writes. "The blur between images creates a kind of motion in the mind. If, for example you take a walk through midtown Manhattan, you might in quick succession see a street vendor, the back of a girl's legs, [and] a taxi as it comes close to hitting you. You see parts of things and you rationalize them into a scenario."
The collaged images of JAMES ROSENQUIST are almost cinematic as the viewer tries to construct meaning from the sum of its contrasting parts.
His use of scale and chromatic palette were informed by his experience as an advertising billboard painter.
With love,
Mom
Dear Sophie -
ROY LICHTENSTEIN - Appropriated content and the dot patterns themselves from comics and advertising imagery, becoming a central figure in the POP ART movement.
With love.
Mom
Dear Sophie
When FRANK STELLA produced these minimal works, it must have been radical after the prominence of abstract expressionism.
What I love most about FRANK STELLA is that he continued to challenge himself with new forms and investigations throughout his career.
When he boldly transitioned to these cut, curvy forms, the relationship to FRANK GEHRY struck.
Mom
As a contemporary and friend of ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG, one often speaks of JASPER JOHNS in the same breath.
In his works you not only see the beginnings of POP ART, but by incorporating language, the seeds of the CONCEPTUAL movement that was to follow.
Obama just awarded Johns the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an exclusive award presented to only a few.
With love,
Mom
The career of painter/sculptor ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG was pivotal, bridging the New York expressionists while foreshadowing the pop art that was to follow. He collected debris from the streets and assembled it in his studio, often merging newsprint and photographic materials.
With love,
Mom
Dear Sophie -
This is the luminous California based painter RICHARD DIEBENKORN.
Like a breath of fresh air.
Look at the artist LENORE GOLUB in relation to Diebenkorn. A strong abstract painter with a beautiful palette who is developing a formidable body of work.
With love,
Mom
Dear Sophie -
It's all about the gesture with these guys.
With love,
Mom
Dear Sophie -
These beautiful paintings are by ADOLF GOTTLIEB.
A true New Yorker, he lived for a while on east 10th street (and didn't change his name...).
With love,
Mom
Dear Sophie -
BARNETT NEWMAN often titled his paintings with biblical themes. He tells epic tales by reducing them to their essence.
Mom
Dear Sophie -
Fiercely private, the Abstract Expressionist CLYFFORD STILL removed himself from the center of the art world and worked privately at his studio in Maryland.
A museum in Denver opened only recently with a cache of his works that had been sealed from view for 25 years.
With love,
Mom
"the ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak".
Dear Sophie -
HANS HOFFMAN was a dedicated teacher as well as an artist with his own practice. His influence was a catalyst for a range of students including JOAN MITCHELL, LEE KRASNER, HELEN FRANKENTHALER and RAY EAMES.
Dear Sophie -
FRANZ KLINE was a friend of De Kooning, who recommended that he project his smaller drawings. The result was large bold forms where the stroke became the narrative. His thesis and career launched from that point forward.
The Cedar Tavern in the west village of Manhattan was where the the Abstract Expressionists met for storied drunken evenings, and the myth of the macho artist was born.
With love,
Mom
Dear Sophie -
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM was all about the power of the gesture. No one personified this more that JACKSON POLLACK and his drip paintings.
Pollack lived and worked in East hampton New York, was a friend of De Kooning and was married to the artist LEE KRASNER. He laid out his raw canvas on the floor and used sticks, house paints and his whole body for his "Action Painting". Alcohol ended his tumultuous life.
With love,
Mom
Dear Sophie -
Wow, can this guy paint.
WILLEM DE KOONING was at the forefront of the NEW YORK SCHOOL and the ABSTRACT EXPESSIONISTS, although he was quoted as saying: "It is disastrous to name ourselves". He and his artist/wife ELAINE DE KOONING lived and worked in Easthampton, New York.
With love,
Mom
Dear Sophie -
ALFRED JENSEN had a completely individualistic mind blending learnings from mathematics and physics along with ancient Greek, Mayan and Eastern thought in his quest for spirituality.
CHRIS MARTIN paid homage to the cool dude.
Dear Sophie -
Mark Rothko leaves me speechless.
With love,
Mom