Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass (1888)

Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass (1888)
One of my favorite still life subjects of Van Gogh, the cut branch in a glass, I ran across this one with the book behind creating a complicated compositional element. Note also the use of complementary colors, red and green, creating a vibration in the painting.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Arthur Dove

Happy Birthday Arthur Dove!! American painter born in 1880, Dove traveled to Paris, returning in 1907. Interested in painting moods and emotions, Dove was one of the first to totally eliminate representational elements from his paintings. For this we can think of him as a precursor of Abstract Expressionism of the fifties. The portrait of his Grandmother, below, represents one of the first collages to be created in America. It includes a portion of her needlepoint, a page from her Bible, and some pressed flowers. The work is mounted on a wood shingle.

Picasso was the first to create collage, coining the term collage, meaning to paste in French.

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