Today’s “Feel Art Again” is a double-header. First up was a post on the German-English artist Johann Zoffany (1733-1810); now this post delves into his painting “The Tribuna of the Uffizi.” Read both to get the full story on this talented artist.

In the summer of 1772, Johann Zoffany was sent by Queen Charlotte to Florence with £300 and a letter of introduction. He was to paint highlights of the Grand Duke of Tuscany’s collection as they were displayed in the Uffizi Palace’s Tribuna. The result: “The Tribuna of the Uffizi.”

1. In Italian, tribuna refers to the semi-circular or semi-polygonal domed end of a basilica. The Tribuna at the Uffizi is an octagonal domed room that was intended as “a sort of Holy of Holies within the palace.” Designed for Francesco I de’Medici in the late 1580s, the Tribuna is the display room for the most important of the Medici collection of antiquities and paintings.

2. Zoffany’s painting may have been inspired by Jacob de Formentrou’s “Cabinet of Paintings” (at the time attributed to Gonzales Coques), which hung in Queen Charlotte’s workroom. “The Tribuna of the Uffizi” takes “Cabinet of Paintings” to the next level with almost twice as many paintings and people, plus the addition of sculptures.

3. Although Zoffany has been praised for his accurate reproduction of the Tribuna, he actually brought in art from elsewhere in the Medici collection, re-arranged works, and adjusted the perspective of the interior. Zoffany arranged the paintings and sculptures in his depiction of the Tribuna so that the stylistic, historical, and thematic relationships between artists could be appreciated. The perspective—which may not have been exactly intentional, but of which Zoffany was aware—is more like that of a cut-away model or a stage viewed from the back theater. The altered perspective enabled Zoffany to fit more of the works of art and the people, and to better group them.

4. The people interspersed throughout the room are art connoisseurs, diplomats, travelers, and Zoffany himself. (See the painting’s silhouette key or zoom key for the name of each person.) The painting was said to be “too much crowded with (for the most part) uninteresting portraits of English travelers” by Horace Mann, who was himself depicted in the painting. Zoffany was warned of the “impropriety” of filling the Queen’s painting with “a flock of travelling boys.”

5. “The Tribuna of the Uffizi” serves as a gallery of sorts, but also as an advertisement. George, the 3rd Earl of Cowper, and Sir Horace Mann assisted Zoffany in gaining access to many of the works that were not normally displayed in the Tribuna. Zoffany thanked the men by painting their portraits into the scene. Cowper is shown viewing Raphael’s “Niccolini-Cowper Madonna,” which he had recently acquired and hoped to sell to George III. (Zoffany is shown holding the painting for Cowper.) Sources are unclear as to whether this product placement resulted in King George’s acquisition of the painting.

6. Zoffany spent 5 years in Italy working on “The Tribuna of the Uffizi” and was paid well by Queen Charlotte, but the royal family wasn’t exactly pleased with their final product. According to Joseph Farington, “The King…expressed wonder at Zoffany having done so improper a thing as to introduce the portraits of Sir Horace Mann… & others.” He also wrote that “The Queen wd. not suffer the picture to be placed in any of her apartments.” Zoffany never again worked for the royal family.

A larger version of “The Tribuna of the Uffizi” is available here.

Fans should check out the collections of Zoffany’s works in the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Collection, the Norfolk Museums, and the Art Renewal Center; and his biography by Lady Victoria Manners and Dr. G.C. Williamson.

“Feel Art Again” usually 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.

Today’s “Feel Art Again” is a double-header. First up is this post on Johann Zoffany, followed by a post delving into his painting “The Tribuna of the Uffizi.” Read both to get the full story on this talented artist.

Johann Zoffany (1733-1810) was a German-born English painter and favored portraitist of King George III and Queen Charlotte. It was said that when Zoffany was given a paintbrush, magic was created.

1. Johann Zoffany, who ran away from home at age 13 to study in Rome, was only able to move to England 12 years later due to the dowry he received upon marrying his wife. Once in England, though, he was well paid as the portraitist of the royal family. He painted George III, Charlotte, and their children in “charmingly informal scenes,” making him the first artist to depict the king’s family so informally. (While portraits such as “Queen Charlotte with her two eldest sons,” shown above, may appear formal to us today, at the time it was considered less formal than the standard royal portrait.)

2. As “the real creator and master of [the] genre,” Zoffany was well-known for his “theatrical conversation pieces.” The portraits depicted prominent actors in character, often with scenery behind them. It’s fitting, then, that Zoffany is referenced in the theatrical production The Pirates of Penzance, by Gilbert & Sullivan. In it, the Major-General sings of being able to distinguish works by Raphael from works by Zoffany.

3. Zoffany returned to Italy in 1772 and stayed for 5 years. While there, he was commissioned—or “commanded,” as the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica puts it—by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria to paint a portrait of the Tuscan royal family (her son’s family). Apparently, the empress was so impressed with the portrait that she made Zoffany a baron of the Austrian empire in 1778.

4. In William Dalrymple’s 2002 history book White Mughals, he writes:

“The Frankfurt-born Zoffany (1734-1810) lived in Lucknow for two and a half years… On his way back to England… he was shipwrecked off the Andaman Islands. Lots having been drawn among the starving survivors, a young sailor was duly eaten. Zoffany may thus be said with some confidence to have been the first and last Royal Academician to become a cannibal.”

Whether such a cannibalistic incident actually occurred, however, is uncertain – no other Zoffany sources seem to reference the shipwreck and consumption of a sailor.

5. Known to be arrogant about his own art, Zoffany reputedly had “outstanding” arguments with other artists on a regular basis. He would then express his opinions in his art by drawing caricatures of artists who had displeased him or who he didn’t like.

See our October post on Mary Moser for a bonus fact about Zoffany’s painting, “The Academicians of the Royal Academy.”

A larger version of “Queen Charlotte with her two eldest sons” is available here.

Fans should check out the collections of Zoffany’s works in the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Collection, the Norfolk Museums, and the Art Renewal Center; and his biography by Lady Victoria Manners and Dr. G.C. Williamson.

“Feel Art Again” usually 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.

(This post was a week in the making, due to the overabundance of articles, reviews, and critiques on Walker and her art.)

The American artist Kara Walker had achieved “both notoriety and acclaim in the art world while still in her twenties.” Her art—much of which would be considered “not safe for work”—usually sells at prices between $30,000 and $80,000, despite (or perhaps because of) the ire and controversy it causes. Still only 40 years old, Walker is considered one of the most “prominent,” “controversial,” “provocative,” and “prolific” American artists alive today.

1. Kara Walker and her family moved from California to Stone Mountain, GA, (the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan) when she was 13. Walker suddenly “became black in more senses than just the kind of multicultural acceptance” in California. “Blackness became a very loaded subject,” a subject now reflected in Walker’s art. Her artwork addresses racism, sexuality, stereotypes, and violence, resulting in images that have been described as “tableaux that Toni Morrison might construct if possessed by Hieronymous Bosch.”

2. When a show of German Expressionist and Neo-Expressionist art arrived in Atlanta in the mid- or late-1980s, Walker found her calling. It seemed to her that “They hate themselves, they hate the world, and they hate painting.” The paintings were “fraught with urgency and rage, and somewhere underneath all of that, a kind of—it can’t be called love—passion.” She thought to herself, “That’s what I want to do.”

3. Walker, who earned degrees from Atlanta College of Art (BFA) and Rhode Island School of Design (MFA), once received an assignment to complete 100 drawings in one sitting. She has maintained the practice every since. According to Walker, “sometimes the first 75 are the dumbest, most idiotic, nondrawing, moronic stuff. You have to find a rhythm.”

4. In art school, Walker switched from working with paint to X-Acto knives, which she uses to create 19th-century-esque silhouettes. To Walker, “There’s a sweet violence in the act of cutting, of accepting and rejecting cultural stereotypes.” She hasn’t restricted herself to her favored medium, though – she has also used drawing, painting, light projections, writing, shadow puppetry, and film animation for her exhibits.

5. The reactions to Walker’s art hit both extremes of the spectrum. At age 28, she became one of the youngest people to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. She was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2007, one of GLAMOUR magazine’s Women of the Year in 2008, a 2008 USA Fellow, and one of 20 “remarkable visionaries” on Oprah’s “first-ever power list” in 2009. She has also received an honorary doctorate from California College of the Arts. But prominent African-American artist Betye Saar once launched a massive letter-writing campaign against Walker, calling her work “sexist and derogatory” and Walker herself “young and foolish.” Other African-American artists have “deplored her use of racist caricatures.”

6. In the end, those opposite reactions might be just what Walker expects. Her artistic goal is “to make the viewer gasp and laugh at the same time… to provoke the audience in the most enjoyable way possible.” Walker views her art as “a kind of melodrama, producing a certain giddiness that entertains but also empowers.” She has also explained that her artwork is “intended to function like Harlequin romance novels, which veil themselves in history and encourage women to participate in stories that are not in their best interests.”

A larger version of Walker’s 2001 “Trilogy” is available here.

Fans should check out Walker’s work at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., the Barbara Krakow Gallery, the Walker Art Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the online sites for past exhibitions at the Walker Art Center, the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, and the Hammer Museum; Walker’s appearance on Art:21 on PBS; and the Modern Blog’s posts on the installation and removal of a Walker exhibition.

“Feel Art Again” usually 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.

“Feel Art Again” returns with our first ever Icelandic artist. Einar Hákonarson, who celebrated his 64th birthday yesterday, is “one of Iceland’s best known artists.” Considered to be the artist who “brought the figure back into Icelandic painting,” Hákonarson has created art that spans from pop to figurative to expressionistic.

1. Einar Hákonarson began attending The National Art School of Iceland, where he studied for 4 years, at the young age of 15. After a stint at Sweden’s Valand Art University, Hákonarson returned to The National Art School, this time as a 21-year-old instructor. Younger than many of his students, Hákonarson grew a beard to look more the part of an instructor. He’s worn the beard ever since.

2. Hákonarson is a leader in the Icelandic arts world. He was the driving force behind the formation of the Icelandic Printmakers Association in 1969 and served as its first president. The following year, he co-founded an art school, Myndsyn, a colleague. When Hákonarson became the director of The National Art School in 1978, he founded the printmaking department and the sculpture department and reconstructed the ceramics department.

3. In the 1990s, Icelandic painters became frustrated with the state of the Icelandic art world, which they felt neglected painting and focused only on conceptual art. Hákonarson became “Iceland’s most energetic crusader of the painting and its right of existence.” Iceland’s first privately owned cultural center, The Art Center, was built by Hákonarson in 1997 to serve as an exhibition space for painters and artists. The center flourished, but went under after only 2 years due to financial strain and politics. Hákonarson lost everything when the Center went under, even his house. He didn’t let the failure get him down, though – in 2002, he founded a non-profit exhibition place, The Painters House.

4. “In the Grass Root,” a “cultural night” exhibition in Reykjavik in 2005, consisted of tents in the city center’s parks displaying 90 paintings. The exhibition attracted an unprecedented 3,000 people – one percent of the country’s entire population – in just one day. No other art exhibition in Iceland has been as successful.

5. Hákonarson is one of Iceland’s principal portraitists, painting some of the most influential people, from politicians to national poets. Other artistic ventures include printmaking, sculpting, and working in stained glass and mosaic.

A larger version of “Around the Golden Calf,” a 2005 triptych, is available here.

Fans should check out Einar Hákonarson’s official site, which includes an extensive gallery.

“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.

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.

3. The story in Simonova’s winning animation travels through the German invasion of the Ukraine, from a couple under a starry sky through warplanes and chaos to the Ukrainian monument to their Unknown Soldier and ending with a mother and child saying goodbye to a soldier. WWII was an especially sorrowful time in Ukraine’s history—the country lost between 8 and 11 million people, approximately 25 percent of its population. They suffered the largest loss of any country and attributed for about 20 percent of the total deaths during WWII.

4. Since the show, Simonova has returned to her hometown of Evpatoria, where she has stated she’ll stay. She has no interest in traveling or growing her fame. According to Simonova, “I only entered because there was a child I know who needed an operation and I wanted to help. I did not mean to make the whole country cry.” She used her prize money to set up a children’s charity and buy “a modest home” for herself.

5. After videos of Simonova’s performances appeared on YouTube, the praises for the young artist began rolling in. With her “brilliant display of a hitherto unknown art form,” Simonova is “well on the way to becoming an international sensation.” Freddy Nager at Jawbone.TV went so far as to say Simonova “has become the most popular artist in any genre or medium to emerge from the Ukraine since poet-painter Taras Shevchenko in 1840.”

The image at top, which reads “You are always near” in Ukrainian, is the final image from Simonova’s winning performance on Ukraine’s Got Talent, shown in the YouTube video directly above. (If that player doesn’t work, you can view it here.)

Fans should check out Kseniya Simonova’s Facebook page; Russia Today’s coverage of Simonova; and one of Simonova’s other performances for Ukraine’s Got Talent.

“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.

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.

3. Klimt and his brother, Ernst, inherited their artistic abilities from their father, who was a gold engraver. The two brothers attended the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts and, with their friend Franz Matsch, took commissions as the “Company of Artists.” After the death of both his brother and his father in 1892, Klimt assumed financial responsibility for his siblings and his brother’s family, but was unable to paint for almost 6 years.

4. In 1894, Klimt was commissioned for three paintings for the ceiling of the Great Hall at the University of Vienna. The paintings—titled “Philosophy,” “Medicine,” and “Jurisprudence”—caused an uproar, with some critics declaring them “pornographic.” In total, 87 faculty members protested the paintings. The controversy even became the first cultural debate to land in front of the Parliament of Austria; only the education minister stood in Klimt’s defense. In the end, no action was taken and the paintings remained, although they were later destroyed by retreating SS forces in May 1945.

5. Klimt helped found the Wiener Sezession (Vienna Secession), of which he became the first president. Their basic principle: “We do not recognize any difference between great and minor art, between the art of the rich and that of the poor. Art belongs to all.” Supported in their efforts by the government, they were able to lease public land to erect an exhibition hall.

Larger versions of “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” (above left), “The Kiss” (above right), and “Wasserschlangen (Freundinnen) II” (below) are available.

Fans should check out the iKlimt and Klimt Gallery web sites; the Klimt collections on Zeno and Wikimedia Commons; the Tate’s 2008 Klimt exhibition; the Klimt portfolio, One Hundred Drawings; the books Gustav Klimt: 1862-1918 and Gustav Klimt: Art Nouveau Visionary; the movie Klimt (2006), starring John Malkovich; and the photo series “La esencia de Klimt.”

---

“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.

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.

3. Moser “was notoriously marginalized,” according to the National Portrait Gallery, in Johann Zoffany’s “The Academicians of the Royal Academy” (1772). The painting depicts the founding members of the Academy surrounding a nude model but, since women weren’t allowed to participate in such training, Moser and Kauffmann are only shown in portraits hanging on the wall. A later painting by Henry Singleton, “The Royal Academicians in General Assembly” (1795), devoid of nude models, places Moser and Kauffmann directly behind the president of the Academy.

4. Due in part to her father’s royal connections, Moser received several commissions from King George and Queen Charlotte. The most prestigious and famous of those commissions was a floral decorative scheme for the Frogmore House in the 1790s. The “prestigious and lucrative commission”—Moser was paid £900—made Moser “the envy of her male colleagues.” It was also one of her last professional works, as she retired upon her marriage in 1793.

5. In 1793, shortly after she married Hugh Lloyd, Moser embarked on a six month sketching tour with the miniaturist Richard Cosway. Cosway, who was separated from his wife Maria (also a painter), made “lascivious statements” in his notebook about his sexual activities with Moser, directly comparing Moser’s skills in bed to those of his wife. Apparently, Moser was “more sexually responsive,” even though she was 50 and Maria was only 33.

Larger versions of the two Moser paintings shown, both titled “A Vase of Flowers,” are available here.

Fans should check out Moser’s paintings in the Royal Collection; the Moser works on artnet; the Mary Moser Room at the Frogmore House; and the paintings of Moser in the National Portrait Gallery.

“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.

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.

In the Night Kitchen (1970)

In the Night Kitchen is the second book in Sendak’s loose trilogy—which also includes Where the Wild Things Are and Outside Over There—that explores “how children master various feelings… and manage to come into grips with the realities of their lives.” Sendak wrote and illustrated the book around the time he moved to Connecticut from New York, right after he suffered a heart attack; the book was a way for him to “say goodbye to New York” and his parents, and to “tell a little bit about the narrow squeak [he] had just been through.”

Like many of Sendak’s books, In the Night Kitchen references Sendak’s own childhood fears. Sendak, who lost the majority of his European relatives in the Holocaust when he was a child, drew the chefs of the night kitchen with Hitler-esque mustaches. Their attempt to bake Mickey into a cake alludes to the gas chambers of Hitler’s death camps. The book was the 21st most frequently challenged book of the ‘90s, according to the American Library Association, not because of the Holocaust references, but instead due to the main character’s nudity for most of the book. Some librarians have gone so far as to draw diapers onto the boy, Mickey.

The book served as the namesake for Sendak’s theater company, The Night Kitchen, which he co-founded with Arthur Yorinks in 1990. The company aims to produce plays for children that don’t talk down to them.

Purchase from HarperCollins here.

Outside Over There (1981)

Sendak’s most personal work, Outside Over There is an homage to Sendak’s older sister, Natalie, who is the book’s Ida. The book draws inspiration from Sendak’s “babyhood,” when he was cared for by Natalie, and from the Lindbergh kidnapping in 1932. At the time, Sendak was “4 years old, sick in bed, and somehow confusing myself with this baby. I had a superstitious feeling that if he came back I’d be O.K., too.” Sendak had a lasting obsession with the case that ended last year, when he traded one of his drawings for “one of the tiny reproductions of the kidnapper’s ladder that were sold as souvenirs at the New Jersey trial.”

Purchase from HarperCollins here.

Brundibar (2003)

Based on a 1938 opera by Hans Krasa, a Jewish Czech composer, Brundibar was written by playwright Tony Kushner (a good friend of Sendak) and illustrated by Sendak. The opera was first performed in 1942 at a Jewish orphanage in Prague. Soon after, Krasa and the children at the orphanage were taken by the Nazis and placed in the Terezin concentration camp. With the help of other talented artists at Terezin and the permission of the Nazis, they performed the opera 55 times at the camp, including a performance for Red Cross representatives sent to inspect the camp. The Nazis even recorded the children for a propaganda film before they sent the group to their deaths at Auschwitz. For the picture book, Sendak and Kushner wove the opera’s historical background into the original story, adding shades of Hitler and the Nazis to Brundibar, the villain of the story.

For Sendak, Brundibar represents the sadness he felt about losing his family members during the Holocaust. He considers the book his “crowning achievement” and “last great collaboration.”

Purchase from Barnes & Noble here.

For larger versions of the book covers, click on the images.

Fans should check out the Maurice Sendak Gallery at the Rosenbach Museum and their Sendak videos; the collection of Sendak sketches at R. Michelson Galleries; the Maurice Sendak Papers at the University of Southern Mississippi; the envelope featuring original Sendak illustrations; Sendak’s interviews with Paul Vaughan (video) and Hank Nuwer; Rolling Stone’s 1976 profile of Sendak; his “Descent into Limbo” talk at MIT (video); HarperCollins’ “Browse Inside” version of Where the Wild Things Are; the official site for the Warner Brothers production of Where the Wild Things Are; and the Terrible Yellow Eyes blog (artwork inspired by Where the Wild Things Are).

Current Exhibitions:
Where the Wild Things Are: Original Drawings by Maurice Sendak (NYC: through November 1, 2009)
There’s a Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak (San Francisco: through January 19, 2010)

---

“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.

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.

4. Vincent Van Gogh inspired him to call Barron Hilton from a pay phone.

At one point, Barnes was so strapped for cash he was selling his possessions. Selling his books one day, Barnes saw an article about Van Gogh that featured a letter to the artist’s brother about his hardships. The letter gave Barnes “reaffirmation” and courage, and he marched home to pick out his best drawings, write up a proposal, and phone Hilton for a meeting. Lacking money for gas, Barnes walked 6 miles to Hilton’s office, where the hotelier commissioned a painting for $1,000 (of which Barnes received a $500 advance).

5. He’s the only sport artist to be named Sport Artist of the Year twice.

In 1984, Barnes was named the first Sport Artist of the Year by the American Sports Art Museum and Archives. Twenty years later, in 2004, he received the award again. He has received numerous other accolades, including being named America’s Best Painter of Sports, Official Artist of the American Football League, and Official Artist of the 1984 Summer Olympics.

6. He believed “we are blind to each other’s humanity.”

Almost all of the people in Barnes’ paintings are depicted with their faces obscured or their eyes closed. Barnes stated, “I won’t paint people with their eyes open,” explaining “We don’t see each other, we are blind to each other’s humanity.”

Shown above is Barnes’ “Olympic Finish.” (A larger version is not available.)

Fans should check out the official Ernie Barnes web site; From Pads to Palette, his autobiography; his TOPPS card; his brief NY Jets bio (Barnes played for the Jets when they were still the Titans); Ebony’s 1973 article about Barnes’ artwork; and the Americans in Focus vignette on Barnes.

“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.

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.