Guggenheim Bilbao

Situated alongside the Nervion River in this northern Spanish city, the first thing that strikes you about the museum is its astonishing architecture and indeed, many will feel their visit is 50% complete just walking around the building’s perimeter.  It was of course designed by Frank Gehry.  Gehry designed the structure with elements of this port city in mind; from a distance one can make out the shape of a ship while from closer angles it’s hard not to appreciate the aquatic forms contained in the curved, reflective surfaces.  It cost around $50 million in 1997 but it is said to have instantly put Bilbao on the tourist map, providing the city with a reason to visit for those who would not normally have done so.

Mark Rothko Untitled (Black on Grey) 1970

Once inside, the expansive surfaces make an ideal space for exhibitions and paintings of any size.  During my visit, enormous Liechtenstein canvasses were displayed prominently alongside some of Andy Warhol’s most notable works of art.  On the upper floors, pieces by Mark Rothko covered much of the exhibition space, tracing the artists life through his work until his 1970 suicide.

Richard Serra - The Matter of Time

The Guggenheim museum’s permanent collection contains only 20th century work and in fact only one exhibit is constantly on show; that is The Matter of Time, a set of curved steel sculptures which is housed in the Arcelor Gallery.

If you get the chance, the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao is a sight to behold – both inside and out.

Born in 1923, Lichtenstein was brought up by relatively wealthy Jewish parents and doesn’t seem to have shown much artistic inclination until he had graduated from high school.  He enrolled at the Art Students League of New York and was taught by Reginald Marsh, an artist who was known for his Paintings of New York and Coney Island.

Roy Lichtenstein

This period seems to have sparked his enthusiasm as he then enrolled at Ohio State University for a degree in fine arts.  He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943 and, following the cessation of conflict, completed his degree at Ohio, partly under the supervision of Hoyt L. Sherman.  It was Sherman’s ‘flash room’ technique (flashing an image onto a screen briefly and asking his student to copy it) which is thought to have influenced Lichtenstein’s future work.

After graduation Lichtenstein stayed on at Ohio to take part in the graduation programme and become an art instructor.  While he was working at Ohio he held his first exhibition 1951 at the Carlebach Gallery in New York.  This was a relatively impoverished period for Lichtenstein and it lasted until the early 1960s.  He took a number of different non-painting jobs to make ends meet while back in the studio he was experimenting with Expressionism and Cubism.

Drowning Girl (1963)

New Jersey’s Rutgers University was where he took a teaching job in 1960 and also where he met Allan Kaprow, a pioneer of Performance Art and another heavy influence on Lichtenstein’s work.  It was in 1961 that Lichtenstein began to produce the work with which we are now familiar;  cartoon prints and commercially-influenced work.  The critiques of consumerism in his work at this stage unmistakably overlaps that of his contemporary, Andy Warhol.  Drowning Girl (1963) is one of the best known pieces of art from this period.

Lichtenstein’s star rose incredibly quickly in 1961 and his work began to be featured at New York’s Castelli Gallery.  A one-man exhibition followed in 1962 at which every piece of work was bought before it even opened.  As his domestic and international fame grew in the early 1960s, Lichtenstein packed in his teaching job at Rutgers and moved to New York to paint full time.

Whaam (1963)

Perhaps his most famous work is one that now hangs in the Tate Modern in London.  Whaam (1963) is taken from a DC Comics strip called American Men of War and uses the Magna acrylic resin paint which Lichtenstein favoured.  Whaam is also a good example of why Lichtenstein courted some controversy for this type of work.  To all intents and purposes these comic strip panels just appeared to be copies of the originals and by 1965 he had pretty much finished with this phase of his work.  Jack Cowart, of the Liechtenstein Foundation, defends the work as follows: “Roy’s work was a wonderment of the graphic formulae and the codification of sentiment that had been worked out by others. The panels were changed in scale, color, treatment, and in their implications. There is no exact copy.”  Most importantly, Lichtenstein saw the creative process in his own process – he seemed unconcerned whether or not anyone else saw it that way.

His first artistic education took place at Bradford College of Art following which he enrolled at the Royal College of Art in London, spending some time studying under the influential American Pop Artist, Ronald Brooks Kitaj (R. B. Kitaj).  It’s here that his Pop Art education began but his first exhibited works owed more to expressionism that anything else, his most famous work from this period being the stunning We Two Boys Clinging Together (1961).

We Two Boys Together Clinging, 1961

From 1963, Hockney was represented by the contemporary Pop Art dealer John Kasmin who advised him to go to America.  It was in New York in 1963 that he made contact with Andy Warhol and one can assume he met Warhol’s Pop Art movement contemporaries at the same time.  A follow up trip to California led to a stay of 17 years during which he embarked on one of his most recognisable series of paintings – the set of work featuring swimming pools in realistic and bold colours which defined his Pop Art career of that era.

John Kasmin by David Hockney

In the late 1960s, Hockney began to take an interest in photography which, for a while, threatened to eclipse his love of painting; for a time he even stopped painting to concentrate on this new path but eventually began to paint again.  Stage sets for ballet and opera have been another successful venture for Hockney, as has magazine covers for publications such as Vogue (when the magazine wants something a little different).

Hockney's Vogue cover

David Hockney is still working prolifically today and has continued to utilise new technologies.  Recent years have seen him work with iPhone and iPad applications to create a large amount of portraits.  Hockney is without doubt one of the most influential British Pop Artists of all time.

MOMA building, New York

The original venue for the museum was a rented space in the Heckscher Building on New York’s Fifth Avenue.  John D. Rockefeller’s wife, Abby, and two of her friends, Lillie P. Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan were the driving force behind the museum.  Bliss was an art collector and modern art fan as was Sullivan.  Abby Rockefeller was the philanthropist behind the project as well as an art collector.  Rockefeller asked A. Conger Goodyear, a former president of the board of trustees of the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo to become the new president.

This location first opened its doors to the public on November 7th, 1929, at this point only exhibiting a handful of prints and devoted exclusively to modern art.  With the appointment of Alfred H. Barr as curator, MOMA soon began to exhibit loaned art from Europe, including more traditional work from the Old Masters.

John and Abby Rockefeller

International recognition followed as the museum became known more widely although the location changed several times as funding became a problem – John D. Rockfeller was originally unwilling to bankroll the project.  When he finally did donate some land for a permanent home, the museum was developed permanently on 53rd Street.

The Museum of Modern Art is now the world’s leading exhibitor and collector of modern art.  It is also contains huge archives containing more than a quarter of a million books and periodicals and information on more than 70,000 artists.  Any modern arts, visual arts or even contemporary arts fan should visit The Museum of Modern Art at least once, wherever in the world you begin your journey.

Since I keep this blog also as a creative diary for myself, to keep track of what I do, and what needs to be done, I’m not too worried, because I know I will soon run out of ideas and start simply work on what I have so far.

Discipline is one important character for any artist, and especially important in the digital age. I let you have here two free patterns for download – you can print them and make Christmas decoration with them, paper toys or whatever you want. I love those patterns, my starry patterns, they remind me of cool bright evenings when you know everything is endless.

Click the links below to download the free patterns to your computer:

starry pattern 1

starry pattern 2

This is an a5 print for download. It’s part of a series, I will post here (eventually) the entire collection.
Need to frame the print and then I will also post the picture of it hang on my wall. A friend of mine wanted a copy for her birthday, and she hang it above her bed. Mine is in the hallway.

I’ve decided to offer the print for free download, it’s the beginning of the Jewish year and this work’s title is sin, so it’s kinda makes sense that way.

If you wish to have a larger version of this art print, it’s available for sale.

This print is the result of too much time on Flickr. i found a beautiful picture and it was my inspiration for creating this small drawing. The clouds are photographed items I bought once. Not fluffy!

This print is offered for sale. I work now on opening my own store on Etsy.com, and would post here once it’s ready.

I keep it small. This art postcards book is going to be very similar to those available at museum shops, only instead of Gaugen or Warhol it’s going to be my prints presented there. The above image is a taste of what will be inside. I’ll add more images soon.

But anyways, here are two prints I’ve made last month, blooming explored. Both were done 100% digitally. The top print is titled In Bloom 03, the bottom print is In Bloom 04. If you make an order, make sure you choose the correct print.

I’m having them framed this week, so I hope to post the picture of them framed soon enough – I love flowers in my working room!

Available Print Sizes

A3 €22.00 A5 €16.00 A6 €11.00

Choose Print

In Bloom 03 In Bloom 04 Option 3