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JessNess Kees van Dongen- my new favorite artist Mar 3, 2008 11:54 PM As someone who paints and hasn't done it in awhile (damn you college!) Im EXTREMELY influenced by artists such as Matisse and now van Dongen for their use of colors. So now that van Dongen is my new influence I bring you his life and work (really look at the variety of techniques he has). Enjoy! Cornelis Theodorus Maria van Dongen (January 26, 1877 – May 28, 1968) born in Delfshaven, in the suburbs of Rotterdam. In 1892, at age 16, Kees van Dongen started his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam. During this period from 1892 to 1897, van Dongen frequented the Red Quarter seaport area, where he drew scenes of sailors and prostitutes. He began to exhibit in Paris, including the controversial 1905 exhibition Salon d'Automne, in a room featuring Henri Matisse amongst others. The bright colours of this group of artists led to them being called Fauves ('Wild Beasts'). (He was also briefly a member of the German Expressionist group Die Brücke.) In addition to selling his paintings, van Dongen also gained an income by selling satirical sketches to the newspaper 'Revue Blanche' and organising very successful costume balls in Montparnasse to gain extra income. Under the influence of Jasmy Jacob, amongst others, Kees van Dongen developed the lush colours of his Fauvist style. This gained him a solid reputation with the French bourgeoisie and a resultant profitable lifestyle. died in his home in Monte Carlo in 1968. Source Her are some of my favorite paintings of his (I left out the booby photos to keep the site friendly ;)) The Corn Poppy Soprano Singer Woman at the Banister
JessNess Have $30 million just laying around? Feb 29, 2008 9:26 PM Then you could own one of Vincent Van Gogh's last paintings "L'Enfant a l'Orange - or The Child With An Orange - will go on sale next month at the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The painting was created in 1890, a month before Van Gogh shot himself at the age of 37. The joyful portrait contrasts with his other angst-ridden paintings. The Child With An Orange was one of several works Van Gogh painted after spending time with his baby nephew and godson, named Vincent after the artist. Van Gogh's happiness at seeing his young nephew sparked an explosion of artistic energy in the last few weeks of his life. The subject of the portrait is of two-year-old Raoul Levert, the son of a carpenter in the French village of Auvers, 25 miles north of Paris, where the artist spent some time before he died. New York and London-based dealers Dickinson are organising next month's sale. In November, Van Gogh's last ever work failed to sell at a New York auction. The Wheat Fields did not reach its undisclosed reserve or attract a bid over $25m (£11.9m) at the time of sale."
JessNess Stolen Paintings Returned in Brazil Jan 15, 2008 12:04 AM ....I'm trying to keep up with the latest news bits in the art world Stolen paintings by Pablo Picasso and Candido Portinari returned home to applause on Wednesday while police tried to find out who masterminded the robbery. The paintings, worth millions of dollars, were recovered Tuesday when a suspect led police to a house on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, said chief police inspector Mauricio Lemos Freire. A helicopter and more than a dozen police vehicles escorted the small truck carrying Picasso's "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" by Picasso and "O Lavrador de Cafe" by Portinari, an influential Brazilian artist, back to the Sao Paulo Museum of Art. Museum employees and onlookers applauded when the paintings arrived. Two suspects are in custody, one of them an escaped convict, Freire said. Officials said it was unclear if either knew much about art. The Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported that the suspects had been promised a total of $2.8 million for the heist. The newspaper also said museum officials received two ransom requests for the paintings, including a letter asking for $10 million. Freire and museum president Julio Neves said they would not comment on the newspaper reports. Neves confirmed the works, which were found covered in plastic leaning against a wall inside the house, were in perfect condition and will be on exhibition in their old locations when the museum reopens on Friday with improved security. Eventually, the museum will install security and surveillance equipment equivalent to that at Paris' Louvre museum, Neves said. The museum has never before used alarms or movement sensors, museum spokesman Eduardo Cosomano said Wednesday. "Our directors have always felt that unarmed guards patrolling the interior of the museum 24 hours a day were sufficient to protect the building and the art collection it houses," Cosomano said. Three robbers armed only with a crowbar and a car jack seized the paintings on Dec. 20 as guards changed shifts. "It's obvious the two did not steal the paintings for themselves," Freire said. "They did it for someone else. The focus of the investigation now is to find out for whom." Neves said the museum is upgrading its security system. Art experts estimate the value of the Picasso at about $50 million and the Portinari at $5 million to $6 million. Picasso painted "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" in 1904 during his Blue Period. "O Lavrador de Cafe," which depicts a coffee picker, was painted in 1939 and is one of Portinari's most renowned works. The thieves ignored other important works in the Sao Paulo museum, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Bather with a Griffon Dog," Vincent Van Gogh's "L'Arlesienne" and Henri Matisse's "Plaster Torso and Bouquet of Flowers." Last year, a gang used a carnival street parade to cover the theft of four paintings from a Rio de Janeiro museum. Those works, valued at around $40 million, have never been recovered. Source
JessNess True Identity of Mona Lisa Discovered? Jan 14, 2008 3:29 PM German academics believe they have solved the centuries-old mystery behind the identity of the "Mona Lisa" in Leonardo da Vinci's famous portrait. Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, has long been seen as the most likely model for the sixteenth-century painting. But art historians have often wondered whether the smiling woman may actually have been da Vinci's lover, his mother or the artist himself. Now experts at the Heidelberg University library say dated notes scribbled in the margins of a book by its owner in October 1503 confirm once and for all that Lisa del Giocondo was indeed the model for one of the most famous portraits in the world. "All doubts about the identity of the Mona Lisa have been eliminated by a discovery by Dr. Armin Schlechter," a manuscript expert, the library said in a statement on Monday. Until then, only "scant evidence" from sixteenth-century documents had been available. "This left lots of room for interpretation and there were many different identities put forward," the library said. The notes were made by a Florentine city official Agostino Vespucci, an acquaintance of the artist, in a collection of letters by the Roman orator Cicero. The comments compare Leonardo to the ancient Greek artist Apelles and say he was working on three paintings at the time, one of them a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. Art experts, who have already dated the painting to this time, say the Heidelberg discovery is a breakthrough and the earliest mention linking the merchant's wife to the portrait. "There is no reason for any lingering doubts that this is another woman," Leipzig University art historian Frank Zoellner told German radio. "One could even say that books written about all this in the past few years were unnecessary, had we known." The woman was first linked to the painting in around 1550 by Italian official Giorgio Vasari, the library said, but added there had been doubts about Vasari's reliability and had made the comments five decades after the portrait had been painted. The Heidelberg notes were actually discovered over two years ago in the library by Schlechter, a spokeswoman said. Although the findings had been printed in the library's public catalogue they had not been widely publicized and had been received little attention until a German broadcaster decided to do some recording at the library, she said. The painting, which hangs in the Louvre in Paris, is also known as "La Gioconda" meaning the happy or joyful woman in Italian, a title which also suggests the woman's married name. Source
MotoLinz The Photography of Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli Jun 21, 2007 8:16 PM I don't remember how, but I stumbled upon his website a few years ago, and I've kept up with his work since. He's based in the PNW, but he travels all over the world. I would love to make one of his shows, but they're all clear across the country from me. At any rate, I love his use of color and light, and although some are played with, he's definitely got the eye. He's also really good at capturing the place and its people, which I appreciate. Here are a few of my favorites (color and B&W), and you can view a large collection of his work (organized by location) at his website: www.azfoto.com.

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Kees van Dongen- my new favorite artist Have $30 million just laying around? Stolen Paintings Returned in Brazil True Identity of Mona Lisa Discovered?

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Pictures Of Walls - A Gallery Of Walls With Stuff Written On Amazon.com: Wall and Piece - Banksy

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"The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself. If he sees nothing within, then he should stop painting what is in front of him." -Caspar David Friedrich.