On September 13, 2023 the world lost a well known and well loved artist from Columbia named Fernando Botero.
Fernando Botero in Tuscany Photo Credit Gabriel Bouys AFP
Botero depicted politicians, animals, saints, and scenes from his childhood in an inflated and colorful way that was instantly recognizable. His paintings were exhibited in leading museums, while his bronze sculptures can be found in European and Latin American capitals.
With a pinch of irony and ingenuity, in each of his paintings, Botero explodes shapes, thighs, arms, and cheeks.
Characters swell, dresses swell, instruments lose their sense of proportion. Botero seduces with the shimmering colors and the playful, oversized shapes of his works. He insisted that he never painted fat people, saying he wished simply to glorify the sensuality of life.
The Street by Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero “La Ballerina” (Dancers at the Bar 2001)
Picnic, 2001 by Fernando Bolero
His painting “The Musicians” (1979) was sold for a record USD $2.03 million at an auction in New York in 2006, confirming him as Latin Americas most sought after artist.
Botero’s sculpture of a cat shown in BarcelonaReclining Woman in Cartagena by Fernando Botero
Blown Glass by Lino Tagliapietra Courtesy of Heller Gallery
Mandara, 2005 by Lino Tagliapietra
Born in 1934 on the island of Murano, neighboring Venice in the Venetian Lagoon, Lino Tagliapietra started working as an apprentice at the island’s glass furnaces and factories at age 11.
He was soon regarded as a Maestro – master glass blower in his early twenties. During the 1960’s Lino started expressing his own forms of creativity through the design and execution of models with high technical and aesthetic quality, which earned him commercial success.
Angel Tear, Blown Glass by Lino Tagliapietra, 2011
Since 1990 Lino has become a free practicing artist of glass without any contractual binds or obligations, and he is now fully dedicated to creating his unique pieces that are present in some of the most prestigious museums throughout the world, including the De Young Museum of San Franscisco, the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, as well as numerous galleries and private collections.
In 1979, Lino visited Seattle for the first time and introduced students at the Pilchuck School to the traditions of Venetian glassblowing. This cross-cultural collaboration helped shape the identity of American glassblowing and offered Lino an opportunity to expand his horizons internationally.
Described as having impeccable craftsmanship, a strong work ethic, and a talent for ingenuity, Tagliapietra’s pieces are beautiful, very creative and very inventive.
Now in his 80s, with over 70 years of experience, the Maestro splits his time between Murano and Seattle. He continues to exercise his prodigious technical skill and creative experimentation, producing works that both inspire and amaze.
Borboleta, 2011 by Lino Tagiapietra Photo by Francesco Allegretto
A new exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum highlights the women of Mesopotamia and their roles in religion as goddesses, priestesses, and worshippers as well as in social, economic and political spheres as mothers, workers, and rulers.
One remarkable woman of the period was the priestess and poet Enheduanna (ca. 2300 B.C.)
Disc of Enheduanna White calcite Calcite disk, Ur, circa 2300 BCE, found in a 1927 archaeological excavation that uncovered a temple complex dedicated to the moon god, Nanna. The inscription on the back of the disk identifies the central figure as Enheduanna, daughter of King Sargon.
Not much is known about the early life of Enheduanna. As the daughter of Sargon the Great she was given the best education available. She could read and write in both Sumerian and Akkadian. She was also trained to do mathematical calculations.
Enheduanna’s father, perhaps because of her brilliant and creative genius, appointed her the high priestess at the temple of the moon god, Inanna, in the city of Ur.
Cylinder seal (modern impression) with goddesses Ninishkun and Ishtar, Mesopotamia, Akkadian period (ca. 2334–2154 BC) Limestone. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, acquired 1947; A27903. This ancient Akkadian cylinder seal shows goddess Inanna crushing a lion.
As the high priestess in the city of Ur, Enheduanna not only presided over religious festivals and interpreted sacred dreams, but she also supervised construction projects. In this position, she would also have traveled to other cities in the empire.
Enheduanna was also charged with the task of reconciling the gods of the Akkadians with the gods of the Sumerians so that the important city of Ur would acquiesce to Sargon’s rule. Not only did she succeed in that difficult task, but she also established standards of poetry and prayer that would profoundly influence the Hebrew Bible.
In her writing Enheduanna identifies herself and speaks in the first person. She produced a number of timeless epic poems and three famous religious hymns which translate as The Great-Hearted Mistress, The Exaltation of Inanna, and Goddess of the Fearsome Powers, all three powerful hymns to the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna.
While there were previous instances of poems and stories written down, Enheduanna was the first to sign a name to her work. She certainly deserves the honor as the world’s first known poet and first known author.
The Swedish artist Hilma af Klint is considered the forerunner of abstract art with her magnificent works, created between 1906 – 1920, which only in the 21st century were understood and valued in all their dimensions.
Recently, the Guggenheim Museum in New York exhibited a unique and impressive exhibition called “Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future,” a remarkable recognition for the work of the artist whose transcendence is still controversial. The exhibition was organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, with the collaboration of the Hilma af Klint Foundation in Stockholm.
Group IX-UW-No. 25 The Dove No. 1 by Hilma af Klint Credit: (c) Stiftelsen Hilma af Klints Verk
Born in 1862 as the fourth child of Captain Victor af Klint, a Swedish naval commander, and Mathilda at Klint. From her family Hilma af Klint inherited a great interest for mathematics and botany. She showed an early ability in visual art, and after the family moved to Stockholm she graduated with honors from the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. She began by expressing herself through portrait, landscape and botanical paintings. Her conventional paintings became the source of financial income.
Self Portrait by Hilma af KlingArtist Hilma af Klint in her studio at Hamngatan, Stockholm, circa 1895. Photograph: Courtesy of Stiftelsen Hilma af Klints Verk
Family events and influences of spiritual movements such as theosophy and anthroposophy led Hilma af Klint to channel her creativity in works that are currently considered precursors of abstract art, an artistic expression which was developed later by Kandinsky and Mondrian.
The loss of her sister Hermina in 1880 kindled her interest in religion and spiritualism. Later, in 1896, she joined a small group of women called “De Fem,” a group of friends who shared her interests. During seances Hilma af Klint claimed to be able to commune with spirits. She told people she was assigned by the “High Masters” to create the paintings for the “Temple” – however she never understood what this “Temple” referred to. Hilma af Klint felt she was being directed by a force that would literally guide her hand. She wrote in her notebook.
“The pictures were painted directly through me, without any preliminary drawings, and with great force. I had no idea what the paintings were supposed to depict; nevertheless I worked swiftly and surely, without changing a single brush stroke.”
In total Hilma af Klint produced 193 Temple paintings between 1907 and 1908,
A series called The Ten Largest, describes the different phases in life, from early childhood to old age. She included symbols, letters and words. Some depict opposites: up and down, in and out, male and female, good and evil. These pictures, oils and tempera on paper, are more than 10 feet tall: free-wheeling, psychedelic, animated with fat snail shells, perky inverted commas, unspooling threads, against orange, rose and dusky blue.
Group-I-No.-7-Primordial-Chaos-cortesía (c) Stiftelsen Hilma af Klints Verk.The Swan No. 1 by Hilma af Klint.
She invited famed philosopher Rudolf Steiner to see her paintings. She had hoped he would interpret the work. Instead he advised: “No one must see this for 50 years.” For four years after this verdict she gave up painting and looked after her sightless mother.
Hilma af Klint may have been among the first artists in Europe to create abstract painting. And why are we only hearing about her now? Hilma af Klint must partly answer – or answer for – this herself. When she died, aged 81, in 1944, she stipulated in her will that her work – 1,200 paintings, 100 texts and 26,000 pages of notes – should not be shown until 20 years after her death.
She left all her abstract paintings to her nephew, vice-admiral in the Swedish Royal Navy. When the boxes were opened at the end of the 1960’s, very few persons had knowledge of what would be revealed.
A new documentary by Zeitgeist Films present an extraordinary review of her life’s work. You can watch a Youtube trailer at this URL:
Trailer for Beyong the Visible: Hilma af Klint by Zeitgeist Films
Archaeologists have unearthed at least 59 sealed sarcophagi, with mummies inside most of them, at a vast necropolis south of Cairo. Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Minister, Khaled el-Anany, said Saturday that they had been buried in three wells more than 2,600 years ago.
The Saqqara plateau hosts at least 11 pyramids, including the Step Pyramid, along with hundreds of tombs of ancient officials and other sites that range from the 1st Dynasty (2920 BCE-2770 BCE) to the Coptic period (395-642).
Khaled el-Anany spoke at a news conference at the famed Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara where the coffins were found. The sarcophagi have been displayed and one of them was opened before reporters to show the mummy inside. Several foreign diplomats attended the announcement ceremony.
Several sarcophagi are displayed inside a tomb at the Saqqara archaeological site, 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Cairo, Egypt Credi: APPhoto/Mahmoud KhaledMostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities showing mummy inside sarcophagi Credit: AP Photo Credit: AP Photo
Waziri explained the team had uncovered the three shafts where the coffins were laid in “perfect condition” due to a protective seal that preserved them from chemical reactions.
Viewers of sarcophai at Saqqara necropolis Credit: Khaled Desouki/AFP Photo
Waziri said archaeologists also found a total of 28 statuettes of Ptah-Soker the main god of the Saqqara necropolis, and a beautifully carved 35 cm tall bronze statuette of God Nefertum inlaid with valuable precious stones: red agate, turquoise, and lapis lazuli.
Statue of Nefertum Photo Courtesy, Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities
This new discovery is the latest in a series of archeological finds that Egypt has sought to publicize in an effort to boast tourism.
Austrian photographer Stefan Draschan always keeps himself entertained at famous art galleries with his creative photography ideas.
One of those projects is “People Matching Artworks”. Although at first Draschan’s cool pictures seem perfectly staged, the secret behind them is patience. The photographer enjoys visiting different museums mostly in Paris, Vienna, and Berlin where he waits for visitors to suddenly match with a piece of classical art in a funny way. The result of his bright idea is these humorous and unique pictures of unexpected harmony between people and the classical paintings they’re facing. It’s usually the outfits that match the art, but there are also people who match with the paintings because of their hairstyles and colors, or even beards.
Fluorescent Clothing Matching Art Photo by Stefan DraschanWearing cool clothing to museum Photo by Stefan DraschanSubject come alive looking at his own portrait Photo by Stefan DraschanMatching colors and mood Photo by Stefan Draschan Photo by Stefan DraschanMatching green color Photo by Stefan DraschanPhoto by Stefan Draschan
Draschan’s project depicts the quiet beauty of looking, demonstrating how getting dressed is an expression of your own work of art.
Most people are unaware of several talented women who worked in the field of botany as early as the 18thcentury.
Consider Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) Maria was an extremely enterprising and independent German woman. In 1699, along with her daughter, she travelled to Surinam to carry out research into the reproduction and development of insects. She is now regarded as both a highly gifted artist and an exceptional empirical scientist, one of the first to demolish the prevailing notion of the spontaneous generation of insects from mud.
Portrait of Maria Sibylla Merian
Since women were not allowed to sell paintings in oils in many German cities, Maria became skilled at watercolor and gouache. She was the first to portray caterpillars and butterflies with the plants that nourished them. Maria’a book, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium,was published in 1705 in both Latin and Dutch with colored engravings. Marian paid the production costs her self and acted as the publisher.
Maria’a book, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium,was published in 1705 in both Latin and Dutch with colored engravings. Marian paid the production costs her self and acted as the publisher. Two folio editions of 254 aquarelles by Marian were taken to Saint Petersburg for Peter the Great’s personal physician.
Ananas mit Kakerlake (Pineapple with cockroach) by Merian (c. between 1701 and 1705) Hand coloured copper engraving
Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft (October 29, 1791 – May 16, 1828) was an American botanist who devoted herself to creating richly detailed illustrations and descriptions of the botanical specimens she found on Cuba. Her work culminating in a remarkable three-volume manuscript entitled, Specimens of the Plants & Fruit of the Island of Cuba. This book was never published and went missing for 190 years. It was recently discovered at Cornell Library’s division of rare manuscripts. The book includes 121 watercolor plants with detailed notes.
Page from Specimens of the Plants & Fruits of the Island of Cuba by Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft. Credit: Cornell University. Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft Credit: Cornell Division of Rare Manuscripts
Just as remarkable was Mary Delany (May 14, 1700- April 15, 1788), an English woman whose collection of intricate paper collages of plant life are now in the British Museum. Mary Delany created dramatic and precise collages, made from colored paper, much of which she had dyed herself. The works were then mounted on black backgrounds. Describing her method in a letter to her niece dated October 4th, 1772, she wrote: “I have invented a new way of imitating flowers”. She was then 72. In ten years times Mary Delaney completed nearly 1,000 cut-paper botanicals so accurate that botanists still refer to them – each one so energetically dramatic that it seems to leap out from the dark as on to a lit stage.
Beatrix Potter (July 28, 1866 –December 22, 1943), famous for The Tale of Peter Rabbitand other children’s books, has been underappreciated for her contribution to science and natural history. In her early twenties, Beatrix developed a keen interest in mycology and began producing incredibly beautiful drawings of fungi. She taught herself the proper technique for accurate botanical illustration.
When she wanted to present her scientific work to London’s Linnean Society she needed to have her uncle do the presentation because women were barred from membership. The paper never got peer-review and was dismissed as not worthy of consideration. A century later the Linnean Society apologized for its historic sexism.
Beatrix Potter’s drawing of Hygrophorus puniceus Credit: Armitt Museum and LibraryBeatrix Potter’s drawing of Lepiota friesii Credit: Armitt Museum and Library
The female amateur botanists and naturalists of earlier eras didn’t just reproduce knowledge. They took what they learned and used the traditionally feminine skills they already had—along with their keen powers of observation—to create something better, and new.
Kurt Wenner attended Rhode Island School of Design and Art Center College before working for NASA as an advanced scientific space illustrator. In 1982 he left the NASA to pursue his passion for classical art and moved to Rome where he learned and experienced from the masterpieces first hand.
While in Itlay, Wenner saw an artist who explained the tradition of street painting in Europe. Working with chalks came natural to Wenner and so began his new career creating a unique form of pavement art.
Wenner’s compositions appear to rise from, or fall into the ground. Onlookers are encouraged to “walk” into the design.
In addition to teaching, Wenner has lectured at corporate events and conducted seminars and workshops for organizations ranging from the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Institution to Disney Studios, Warner Bros. Studios, Toyota, and General Motors.
Being a firm believer in arts education, Wenner has taught more than a hundred thousand students over a 10-year period for which he received the Kennedy Center Medallion in recognition of his outstanding contribution to arts educations.
Wenner teaching 3D chalk art at Science Festival in Leominster Massachusetts Credit: Facebook Photo Courtesy Denise Kowal
Wenner is now working on several new projects, which will have unusual geometry. He enjoys using multiple surfaces to create single illusions and is currently moving in the direction of creating illusions as permanent installations for interior spaces.
A native of Protection, Kansas, Stan Herd nourished a love of art as a young man and was awarded an art scholarship to Wichita State University in 1969.
After working in New York for a number of years he returned to his heritage in rural Kansas and began developing a large quantity of artwork including paintings and large murals with mostly western imagery. A few years into his career as an established western artist, Herd had a thought.
“I was on a flight back from Dodge City in 1976 after painting a mural on a bank when I was looking down at a field and saw a tractor traversing a field corner to corner when the idea came to me to create a design on the ground,” he explained. “
Herd’s first Earthwork was of Chief Satanta, a Kiowa leader. It was several years in the making before it was unveiled in 1981. The 160-acre portrait would become the first of many Earthworks.
Chief Satanta Earthwork and photo by Stan Herd
To date Herd has created about 40 commissioned commercial pieces and 40 art pieces of his own. The commercial works afford him the freedom to do the work that means the most to him.
He has used combines, tractors, Roto tillers, drills, and many hand-held tools combining new and existing vegetation to carve out an image. His work sometimes includes mulch, rocks and stones as well. Herd said he usually has a dozen people assist on an average Earthwork project, sometimes family, friends, locals, students and agriculturists who know the area and its crops.
Stan Herd Amelia Earhart as seen from the air. Photographer: TALIS BERGMANIS Credit: THE STAR Keyword: ART
An example of Stan Herd’s commercial work for Shock Top Belgian Ale. This one is in Austin Texas. It is made with two ingredients in the ale: wheat and oranges.
In 2018 Herd received an email from a tobacco executive in China inviting him to visit Yunnan province and see if he wanted to participate in the construction of a public park. After a bit of consideration and recovering from the surprise of the invitation, Herd jumped at the chance. This would be a four-acre earthwork on a hillside in the center of the 800-acre Taiping Lake Park.
Thus began an epic undertaking that found Herd traveling to China 15 times in 15 months. He insisted on creating the design outline without a GPS – laying every single line by himself.” The work was interrupted by several rainy seasons.
Herd used more than 15,000 bricks chipped out of locally quarried rock. These were placed to create beds for flowering plants and medicinals native to the region. Together the stone and vegetation formed the patterns of the subject’s face and clothing.
Construction Young Woman of China in Yunnan Stan Herd
Herd’s comment about the finished art: “It beautifully represents the elegance of the (women) of China. … And this artwork also (embodies) communication in culture and art areas between China and America.”
Show above is Stan Herd’s Young Woman of China.
Stan Herd’s most recent project is a 1.2-acre recreation of Van Gogh’s famous artwork, Olive Trees, which he “planted” in Minneapolis. The piece was commissioned by the Minneapolis Institute of Art and involved weeks of mowing, digging, planting, and earthscaping to create the piece viewable from the air near the Minneapolis airport. The field location was specifically chosen so that flight passengers can easily see the land art.
Olive Trees by Stan Herd. Van Gogh’s signature dazzling painted sky was recreated using a field of oats mowed in concentric circles.
Olive Trees by Stan Herd as seen from a plane.
Like many of his artworks, Herd’s rendition of Van Gogh’s painting will disappear over time as the crops grow out and the elements wear down the design.
Young Woman of China might not be big enough to be seen from space, however, it does have one advantage over the Great Wall of China. As Herd explains: “It’s so deep and embedded in the ground, and so massively created on that hillside, it will be here hundreds of years from now.”
Stan Herd has certainly created a niche in the art world. Dan Rather reporting on CBS News called him the Father of Crop Art.
Fog Sculpture rendering in Olmsted Park over an island on Leverett Pond, Brookline, Massachusetts
To celebrate the 20thanniversary of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya will exhibit five fog works along the historic urban parks that link more than a dozen Boston neighborhoods.
Fujiko Nakaya. Photo courtesy of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy
Nakaya is the daughter of the physicist and science essayist Ukichiro Nakaya, renowned for his work in glaciology and snow crystal photography. Like her father, Ms. Nakaya’s lifelong artistic investigation engages the element of water and instills a sense of wonder in everyday weather phenomena.
Working as part of the legendary group Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), she first enshrouded the Pepsi Pavilion at the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka in vaporous fog, becoming the first artist to create a sculptural fog environment.
Pepsi Pavilion Osada Japan Photo by Fujiko Nakaya
For the last forty years Nakaya has been partnering with Thomas Mee, a Los Angeles-based engineer. Mee figured out a system for generating water-based artificial fog. To make it work the installation uses a special fog system that included high-pressure pumps and specifically designed fog nozzles. Several outside factors, like wind conditions, temperature and relative humidity in the environment, determined how intense or thick the fog would be at any given time.
Nakaya has established many other fog installations at galleries worldwide, including the Australian National Gallery, Canberra and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain.
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Photo by Phillip Maiwald
Here are two views of the Cloud Parking by Nakaya located in Linz, Australia – by day and at night:
Daytime photo of Cloud Parking by Fujiko Nakaya
Night View of Cloud Parking
Veil: The Glass House fog installation by Fujiko Nakaya in New Canaan, Connecticut Photo: theglasshouse.org
In Veil – shown above, Nakaya has wrapped the Glass House or Johnson House in a veil of dense mist that comes and goes. For approximately 10 to 15 minutes each hour, the Glass House will appear to vanish, only to return as the fog dissipates. Inside the structure, the sense of being outdoors will be temporarily suspended during the misty spells.
The 85-year-old artist describes her work as a “conversation with nature,” creating shape-shifting, cloud-like, pure water forms that rhythmically appear and dissipate, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the art while experiencing the landscape anew.
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