A performance by Kseniya Simonova on Ukraine’s Got Talent has become a viral hit on the internet, receiving more than 6 million views. We’ve scrounged up some background information on the 24-year-old artist and her performance…

1. Kseniya Simonova wasn’t trained as an artist and hasn’t been practicing for very long, either. Her business was one of many to fall apart with the credit crunch, and she used her newfound time to begin drawing in sand. She started out drawing in the sand at the beach and had only been experimenting with the medium for about a year when she appeared on Ukraine’s Got Talent.

2. Simonova’s sand animation—a series of evolving images drawn in a sand-filled lightbox projected onto a screen—brought the audience and judges to tears with its depiction of the “Great Patriotic War” (as Ukrainians call the USSR’s fight against the Nazis during WWII). Simonova received a standing ovation and was named the inaugural winner of the television competition, netting approximately $120,000.
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At the request of readers Melanie & Johnny, today’s “Feel Art Again” features Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). The Austrian artist overcame poverty in his youth to create paintings decorated with gold leaf, such as “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” (above left) and “The Kiss”(above right).

1. Adele Bloch-Bauer, depicted in the painting above left, was the only person to be the subject of more than one Gustav Klimt portrait. His first painting of Bloch-Bauer, which measures 138 cm x 138 cm, took 3 years to complete and is considered the Austrian Mona Lisa. It was acquired in 2006 by Ronald Lauder, of the Estee Lauder fortune, for $135 million after a protracted legal dispute, which stemmed, in part, from the Nazi seizure of the portrait during WWII. The painting is featured in 3 documentaries: The Rape of Europa (2006), Stealing Klimt (2007), and Adele’s Wish (2008).

2. Klimt, who never painted a self-portrait, stated, “I am less interested in myself as a subject for a painting than I am in other people, above all women…” The artist was renowned for his womanizing and fathered at least 14 children.
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Mary Moser (1744-1819) was “one of the most celebrated women artists of 18th-century Britain,” yet today she’s mostly overlooked. In honor of the 265th anniversary of her birth, we’ve rounded up some of the most interesting facts about Moser.

1. Mary Moser received training from George III’s own drawing master—her father, George Michael Moser, an artist and enameller. Thanks to her inherent skill and her father’s tutelage, Moser was an accomplished artist by her teens, winning her first Royal Society of Arts medal at age 14.

2. In 1786, Moser was one of the 36 founding members of the Royal Academy. (Her father was also a founder.) Angelica Kauffmann was the only other female founding member. More than 115 years passed after Moser’s death before another woman (Dame Laura Knight) would be elected a full member of the Royal Academy.
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”Feel Art Again” has gotten a little off schedule due to the plethora of information available about Ernie Barnes and Maurice Sendak. We’ll be working this coming week to get back on track.

In honor of last weekend’s big screen premiere of the classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are, today’s “Feel Art Again” post features on the artwork of the man behind the masterpiece, Maurice Sendak.

Where the Wild Things Are (1963)

Arguably Maurice Sendak’s most popular work, Where the Wild Things Are was originally titled Where the Wild Horses Are, with none of the monsters for which Sendak is now known. Sendak had picked the title first, because it sounded “poetic,” but changed course when, as he says, “it became very plain that I couldn’t draw horses, nor would I ever be able to draw horses. And a whole book of horses was hopeless.” Instead, Sendak created a book full of monsters inspired by his “detested Brooklyn relatives,” the type who would “lean way over with their bad teeth and hairy noses, and say something threatening like, ‘You’re so cute I could eat you up.’”

Although the book has received some criticism for perhaps being too frightening for children, it has clearly hit home with readers: since Where the Wild Things Are was first published, more than 2 million copies have sold and it has been translated into 15 different languages. It was even brought to the stage as an opera by Sendak himself in 1979.

Purchase from HarperCollins here.

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By the time Ernest “Ernie” Barnes, Jr. (1938-2009) passed away this past April, he had truly achieved the American dream. He went from being a “fat” and “introverted” child who wasn’t allowed into art museums because he was black to a renowned artist with exhibitions in prestigious galleries. Along the way, he was also an accomplished athlete.

Some things you might not know about Ernie Barnes…

1. He was paid a football salary to spend 6 months painting.

After six seasons of professional football (including a stint in Canada), Ernie Barnes had to retire from the game at the age of 26 due to an injury. The next year, the owner of the New York Jets, Sonny Werblin, contracted Barnes “to just paint” for six months at $14,500, about $1,000 more than Barnes’ football salary the previous year. The contract culminated with Barnes’ first solo exhibition, held at the prestigious Manhattan gallery founded by John Singer Sargent, the Grand Central Art Galleries, at which all 30 of Barnes’ paintings sold.

2. Singers loved his artwork for their album covers.

Barnes’ most famous painting, “The Sugar Shack,” was used by Marvin Gaye for his album I Want You. Other cover artwork includes “Late Night DJ” for Curtis Mayfield’s Something to Believe In, an untitled painting for Donald Byrd’s Donald Byrd and 125th Street, NYC, “Head Over Heels” for The Crusaders’ The Good and Bad Times, and “In Rapture” for B.B. King’s Making Love is Good for You.

3. Even as a pro athlete, he was devoted to his art.

“Big Rembrandt,” as his teammates called him, often spent team meetings, review sessions, and his time on the bench drawing, even though he was fined $50 each time his coach caught him. Playing for the San Diego Chargers, Barnes sketched the portraits of his teammates that appeared in the game programs. Those portraits spiraled into an appearance on Regis Philbin’s first talk show and an assignment to write and illustrate an article for a magazine. With the Denver Broncos, Barnes was asked to show his work at a team party. Six of the 11 works he displayed sold, and Barnes’ reluctance to sell his favorite painting, “The Bench,” resulted in a Sports Illustrated article, his first real national exposure as an artist.
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Reader Paul A. lives in Bahrain, part of a region whose artists have not yet been covered in “Feel Art Again.” While much less information is available (especially in English) on Bahraini artists (and artists from other small countries), I focused on Bahraini artists today because it’s important for us to remember that there are accomplished artists in regions other than America and Europe.

Today’s post features two talented Bahraini artists, Abbas Yousif and Adnan AlAhmed, who were both born in 1960.

Although Abbas Yousif received a BA in Arabic Literature, not art, from Qatar University, he has made a name for himself in the art world. His works have been included in exhibits in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Syria, UAE, Ukraine, USA, and Yugoslavia. In addition to his work as an artist, Yousif writes about fine arts for local news.

Adnan AlAhmed is not as widely known as Yousif, but his works are still quite traveled. He has exhibited in Bahrain, Egypt, France, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Taiwain, UAE, and UK. AlAhmed graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in 1986. He works as a décor designer for the Bahrain Broadcasting and Television Corporation.

Larger versions of the two works pictured (the titles are unknown) are available. Just click on the images themselves for the larger versions.

Fans should check out the Yousif and AlAhmed galleries from the Bahrain Arts Society; Yousif’s works at the Zara Gallery; and Yousif’s web site.

For more information about Bahraini artists, check out the Bahrain Arts Society.

* Distance in title calculated from the center of New York City (where our online operations are based) to the center of Bahrain.

“Feel Art Again” appears three times a week. Looking for a particular artist? Visit our archive for a complete listing of all 250+ artists that have been featured. You can e-mail us at feelartagain@gmail.com with details of current exhibitions, for sources or further reading, or to suggest artists. Or you can head to our Facebook page, where you can do everything in one place.

With the introduction of the “Feel Art Again” Facebook page, we held a contest to find our farthest fan. Reader Kelly Deaton in Russia easily beat the competition, winning a week of “Feel Art Again” posts on Russian artists.

The last of our series of Russian artists is Anna Golubkina (1864-1927), who is considered the first female Russian sculptor of note.

1. Anna Golubkina never attended primary school, but she was literate and she taught herself to draw and model clay. When she was 25, she sat for the entrance exams to Otto Gunst’s Classes for Elegant Arts (an architecture school). She failed some of the exams due to her lack of prior schooling, but she was so artistically skilled that one examiner convinced the others to admit her anyway and even go so far as to waive her tuition. He apparently challenged them to name any other sculptor who could produce works like Golubkina’s “Praying Old Woman.”

2. From 1897 through 1900, Golubkina served as Auguste Rodin’s assistant. She was often called upon to help the sculptor with the hands and legs of his creations. Under his tutelage, Golubkina created “The Old Age,” which used the same model in the same position as Rodin’s “The Thinker,” but 14 years later. Another source reports Rodin’s statuette “Helmet-Maker’s Wife” was the basis for Golubkina’s life-sized “Old Age.”
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The everyman’s art quiz… Even if you haven’t followed the last two years of “Feel Art Again,” you’ll most likely recognize these masterpieces of art.

Take the quiz, and then come back here to let us know how you did.

Be sure to check out our other art quizzes: Feel Art Again: The Exam, A Happy Little Quiz (Bob Ross), and Who’s the Artist?

“Feel Art Again” appears three times a week. Looking for a particular artist? Visit our archive for a complete listing of all 250+ artists that have been featured. You can e-mail us at feelartagain@gmail.com with details of current exhibitions, for sources or further reading, or to suggest artists. Or you can head to our Facebook page, where you can do everything in one place.

With the introduction of the “Feel Art Again” Facebook page, we held a contest to find our farthest fan. Reader Kelly Deaton from Russia easily beat the competition, winning a week of “Feel Art Again” posts on Russian artists.

Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964) and Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962) were lifelong partners in romance and in art. The two were considered to be at the forefront of Russian art in the early 1900s. Although Larionov and Goncharova experimented with the same styles and were active in the same circles, Goncharova is generally accepted to be the better artist.

1. Their Education

Both Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in 1898, when they were 17, with Larionov on the painting track and Goncharova working on the 10-year sculpture curriculum. Larionov, who rarely attended classes, was kicked out of school at least three times, including once for refusing to remove some of his 150 paintings from critique after being told he had submitted too many. Natalia, on the other hand, seems to have been a good student, but she left the school after just three years, once Larionov convinced her to take up painting.

2. Their Romance

Soon after they met at school, Larionov and Goncharova became romantically involved. They lived together for several decades before they eventually married, emigrating to Switzerland and then to France together. Once they finally tied in the knot in 1955, it was only for estate-planning purposes: Larionov and Goncharova wanted to be able to inherit each other’s artwork.

3. Their Exhibitionism

The two artists were known to push boundaries in art, even on their own skin. Larionov was apparently “very interested” in tattooing. Larionov, Goncharova, and some of their other friends would paint on their bodies and then exhibit themselves in public and wealthy parts of Moscow. Goncharova once “painted her face then paraded topless through the streets of Moscow.” In 1910, Goncharova was put on trial for pornography for some nude life studies in one of her exhibitions, but was acquitted.
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With the introduction of the “Feel Art Again” Facebook page, we held a contest to find our farthest fan. Reader Kelly Deaton from Russia easily beat the competition, winning a week of “Feel Art Again” posts on Russian artists.

Vasily Polenov (1844-1927) was the first artist to introduce the plein air techniques of France to Russia. The artist, who was exalted for his historical paintings but personally preferred landscapes, spent much of his career trying to balance the two genres.

1. After simultaneously studying both art (at the Imperial Academy of the Arts) and law (at St. Petersburg University), Vasily Polenov had to choose between the two careers. It wasn’t an easy decision for him to make: in 1871, he won the Grand Gold Medal for “Resurrection of Jairus’s Daughter” and received his law degree. Ultimately, though, he chose art.

2. Along with the Grand Gold Medal, Polenov also won a travel bursary for “Resurrection of Jairus’s Daughter.” He spent a year traveling through Germany and Italy, and then set up shop in France for four years. Polenov later traveled to Greece and the Middle East as well, causing him to be possibly one of the most traveled Russian artists of his generation.

3. The album Tolstoy’s Walk bears evidence that Polenov was also a skilled composer with “the potential to be a career composer of some note.” Three songs written by Polenov appear on the album—a compilation of Romantic-era music written by amateur composers—that also includes songs by Leo Tolstoy and Boris Pasternak (author of Doctor Zhivago).
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