"That Was Then, This is Now"

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12 x 9"
oil on panel
sold
The two young men taking in Pablo Picasso's iconic Guernica presumably cannot begin to comprehend the event depicted on the massive canvas.
Guernica is a town in the North of Spain. The Nationalist forces considered it the hub for the Republican resistance which made it a target during the Spanish Civil War.  In April of 1937, under the direction of Adolf Hitler, planes bombed the town of Guernica meant to intimidate the resistance.  Fires spread from building to building, destroyed roads and bridges and effectively trapped the people from escape.
The Spanish government asked Picasso, who was living in Paris during the German occupation of World War II, to complete a mural expressing the historic and horrific event for the Paris Exhibition in the same year.  He had read a reporter's eyewitness account of the attack, published in The New York Times, abandoning his original idea and creating his final painting based on that very detailed description. It received little interest despite the published eyewitness accounts and the Paris Exhibition, until the painting did a tour around the world.  The international community took great notice and raised funds and awareness for the Spanish war relief.
 
This new painting will be included in the upcoming group show Looking Forward, opening July 2nd at the Robert Lange Studios.
 
Please click here for a larger view.
 

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Painting Of Donald Trump Chilling With Other GOP Presidents Gets Scathing Reworking

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Artist Andy Thomas’ piece, titled “The Republican Club,” depicted Trump shooting the breeze with other GOP presidents. Here it is:

Well, New York artist Michael D’Antuono, 62, has reimagined the work in accordance with how he believes the scene would really play out.

And he doesn’t believe Trump will be hanging his painting, titled “Party Pooper,” in the official residence anytime soon:

D’Antuono’s version shows Trump facing the wrath of the other presidents for cheating at cards. Protesters stand outside the window, and the Trump baby blimp also makes a subtle appearance.

“As in life, Trump literally shrugs off the outrage caused by his double-dealing chicanery,” D’Antuono said in a statement sent to HuffPost Thursday.

While the painting highlights Trump’s inability to feel shame, the real message is that the Republican presidents of past generations (and their constituents) would not approve of what Trump represents,” he added. “The protesters in the window suggest the reasons that the majority of Americans feel the same.”



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A Painting Today: “In the Buff”

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6 x 8"

oil on panel

 

 

I broke from my larger painting marathon and loosened up with one of my mom's favorite Picasso pieces - Two Nudes, in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Like my mom, Picasso had a fascination with African sculpture and modeled women's figures similar to the thick bodies and chiseled features found in those sculptures.  Two Nudes hangs next to Picasso's famous Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and noticably the figures on the left of both paintings closely resemble each other.

You may think it never happens, but in 2014, a visitor in MOMA bumped up against the Picasso painting, leaving it unhinged.  No damage done.

 

Please click here to the auction page.  This link will engage at 9 pm ET this evening.

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No One Wanted To Buy These ‘Hitler Paintings’ At Controversial Nuremberg Auction

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Five paintings purportedly made by genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler failed to find any buyers at a weekend auction in Nuremberg, Germany, amid concerns about the artworks’ authenticity and accusations that the sale itself was in “bad taste.”

The high starting prices of the paintings, all of which depicted landscapes, are also believed to have kept potential buyers at bay. The most costly artwork, of a mountain lake scene, had a starting price of $51,000, Deutsche Welle reported.

But Hitler’s artworks have fetched big bucks in the past. In 2015, the Weidler auction house in Nuremberg — the same one that auctioned the five paintings on Saturday — sold 14 watercolors and drawings by the Führer for almost half a million dollars.

Weidler’s recent auction, which took place Saturday, was dogged by forgery accusations. Last week, German police seized dozens of artworks signed by “A. Hitler” from the auction house on suspicion that they were fakes, the BBC reported.

The auction had also been marred by public criticism. Ulrich Maly, the mayor of Nuremberg — where Nazi war criminals were tried in 1945 — had earlier lambasted the sale as being “in bad taste.”

Hitler, who orchestrated the murder of millions of Jews and others during World War II, had aspired to be an artist as a young man. He was rejected twice, however, by Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts and has generally been deemed a mediocre painter by experts.

Asked recently to appraise the alleged Hitler paintings auctioned over the weekend, famed art critic Jerry Saltz described the artworks as “physically and spatially dead.”

″[Hitler] was an adequate draftsman, utterly unimaginative, and made the equivalent [of] greeting cards,” Saltz told NPR’s Scott Simon.

According to Deutsche Welle, Saturday’s Hitler auction wasn’t a total flop. A tablecloth and Meissen vase believed to have been owned by the Nazi dictator were sold for $700 and $6,200, respectively. A wicker chair embellished with a swastika design did not attract a buyer, however.



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A Painting Today: “Sizing Up”

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12 x 12"

oil on panel

When I first saw Jamie Wyeth's life-size Portrait of Pig years ago, it was love at first sight.  From that moment, I wanted to paint a pig.  And one day, I will.

I'll start by saying I worship Jamie Wyeth.  And Andrew Wyeth, his father.  And N. C. Wyeth, his grandfather.  Three generations of artistic brilliance.  Matter of fact, the exhibit "Three Generations" is where I first saw this masterpiece.

Jamie grew up on a farm in both Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania and the Wyeth summer home in Maine. At a 2011 exhibit titled "Farm Work" that included over 70 paintings by Jamie Wyeth, he was asked what inspired him to paint so many scenes of the subject, he said "Had I been born in New York City, I'm sure I would have been painting subways or something, but it's just that this what I was raised around and what was familiar to me."

As for the story behind Portrait of Pig,  Jamie said it was on a neighboring farm where he frequently painted, where the pig had the run of the place.  "The farmer asked me to help him with something, and after an hour I walked back to where I was painting.  And there was a snorting, and her whole snout was covered with cerulean blue and cadmium orange."  She had eaten and swallowed 17 tubes of paint.  "I thought it's curtains for you because oil paint is highly toxic".  The next few days she seemed fine but all around the farm there were rainbow-colored droppings and the farmer kept saying "What's wrong with my hog?".  Jamie couldn't bring himself to tell him what happened.  

Jamie soon learned the farmer was going to send the pig to the butcher and said "Oh no. I've got to take her."  He paid for the pig, brought her to his farm where she lived to a ripe old age.

My painting will be included in the upcoming group show Looking Forward, *opening July 2nd at Robert Lange Studios.
Please click here for a larger view and purchase/contact information.

 

* Robert Lange Studios will welcome walk-ins during normal hours on Friday, July 2nd and Saturday, July 3rd.  Opening night for artists' shows will resume in the fall.

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