Entering its 90th week on mentalfloss.com,
“Feel Art Again” has featured more than 250 artists.

It can be a little hard to remember all 250 artists, so we decided to make it easier on you. Check out the new “Feel Art Again: Artists” spreadsheet, which lists each artist we’ve covered in alphabetical order, along with their nationalities, years of birth and death, and the link to each “Feel Art Again” post.

You can also scroll back through the “Feel Art Again” category at http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/category/feel-art-again.

Once you’ve checked out our shiny new spreadsheet and caught up on any posts you’ve missed, swing back here and let us know what you think, or suggest an artist we haven’t featured yet. (Which you can also do by e-mailing feelartagain@gmail.com.)

This month, we’re featuring at least one artist from a different country in each post. We’ve already covered Candido Portinari from Brazil and George Lilanga from Tanzania… check back on Tuesday for the next artist and country!

“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.

In our quest to feature a different artist from a different country in each installment of “Feel Art Again” this month, today’s post highlights George Lilanga (1934-2005). Known as “the Picasso of Africa,” Tanzania’s best-known artist comes at the suggestion of reader Christina W.

1. George Lilanga’s paintings and sculptures are full of colorful, playful figures. The figures, known as shetani, have been described as a kind of “devil” from African mythology” and as “heirs to the unruly spirits of Makonde cosmology.” (Makonde is Lilanga’s tribe.) The titles of Lilanga’s paintings are just as playful as the figures in them: “There’s a word but I’ve forgotten it,” “Wait a minute, my neck is itchy,” and “When children play they jump here and there” are a few examples.

2. Lilanga first began sculpting as a teen, working in the Makonde tradition. In the 1970s, Lilanga switched to painting, a change that was considered by some of his fellow artists to be a betrayal to the Makonde sculpture tradition. Lilanga returned to sculpture in the 1990s, during which time he produced works carved in soft wood and painted with vivid oil-based enamels.

3. In 1978, Lilanga got his big break. An exhibition of African artists was mounted in Washington, D.C. with 280 works of art, of which approximately 100 were by Lilanga. He received international exposure and became one of the most well-known African artists of the time.

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In our quest to feature a different artist from a different country in each installment of “Feel Art Again” this month, today’s post highlights “the greatest artist Brazil has ever produced,” Candido Portinari (1903-1962). Reader Mateus Fonseca suggested Portinari, whose life—and death—was “fascinating.”

1. In 1948, Candido Portinari painted panels for a church in Batatais. The paints he used were an “extremely toxic composition” that contained arsenic, which caused a hemorrhage that sent Portinari to the hospital. His regular paints, especially the yellow and white, also contained high quantities of lead. Doctors advised the artist to stop using the paints, but Portinari stubbornly continued to paint. He died from lead poisoning in 1962.

2. Brazil’s government commissioned Portinari in 1952 to interpret the United Nations’ objective “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” as two giant panels: a “war” one and a “peace” one. Portinari created the two 14 meters by 10 meters panels in four years, after making more than 150 studies in preparation. The murals were presented to the UN as gifts from Brazil on September 6, 1957, and installed in two prominent locations. “War” greets new arrivals to the UN building, while “Peace” is passed on the way out; the idea being that countries may enter the UN at odds, but leave reconciled.

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For the month of June, “Feel Art Again” will feature an artist (or artists) from a different country for each day the series appears. (That’s at least 13 artists from 13 countries for 13 days.) To do so, we need YOUR help.

Submit your requests for artists from around the world today!

Comment on this post, or send an e-mail to feelartagain@gmail.com, naming the artist(s) you recommend and what countries they’re from.

In the past, “Feel Art Again” has featured artists from America, Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Thailand. The majority of the artists featured on “Feel Art Again,” though, have been American, English, French, and Russian. We’re looking to bring some diversity to the series and expose readers to art from other parts of the world. (We’re especially lacking on African art.)

Let’s get those submissions rolling in!

And don’t worry, we’re still plugging away at all the past recommendations, too.

“Feel Art Again” appears every Tuesday and Thursday and once on the weekend. You can e-mail us at feelartagain@gmail.com with details of current exhibitions, for sources or further reading, or to suggest artists.

Saturday marks the 117th anniversary of the birth of Fernando Amorsolo y Cueto (1892-1972). Amorsolo, who is described as “one of the most important artists in the history of painting in the Philippines,” was and continues to be one of the most popular Filipino artists.

1. Fernando Amorsolo was a highly prolific artist. He began selling watercolor postcards as a child and continued to create art for the rest of his life. His work appeared in novels, school textbooks, commercial designs, and periodicals. For at least 15 years, Amorsolo averaged about 10 paintings a month.

2. When Amorsolo designed the logo for Ginebra San Miguel, a beverage company, the owner was so impressed by his skill that he offered to fund Amorsolo’s further education. Amorsolo took the entrance exam for the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, but wasn’t accepted as a student—based on the results, the school informed him that they would accept him as a professor instead.

3. In addition to his paintings, Amorsolo also drew comic strips. He is credited with having created at least two comic strips, Kiko at Angge and Ganito Pala sa Maynila. These strips may have been the first comic strips to be published in the Philippines at all.

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Earlier this month marked the 78th anniversary of the death of Thomas Cooper Gotch (1853-1931). The once-prominent English artist is little-known today, despite the presence of his paintings in major collections such as the Tate. Shown above is his painting, “The Mother Enthroned.”

1. Thomas “Tom” Gotch’s main model was Phyllis, his only child. Phyllis reportedly possessed “extreme beauty and intelligence,” which caused the Gotch home to be “a place of pilgrimage to the youth of the neighborhood.” Phyllis and her friends, in addition to acting as muses for Gotch, also inspired the stories of H.D. Lowry. Phyllis grew up to be a writer and teacher.

2. Most articles about Gotch mention that he was born into a family in the shoe business. Gotch’s father—who had gone bankrupt when Gotch was 3 and then rebuilt the family’s finances—brought Gotch into the “boot and shoe trade” after the younger Gotch completed his schooling. Tom Gotch spent three years working in the family business before attending art school.

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At the request of reader Becci, this weekend’s edition of “Feel Art Again” features Tokihiro Satō. The contemporary Japanese photographer is known for his black and white Photo-Respiration series, including the 1993 triptych “#171 Monflanquin (South)” shown above. His recent work, such as 2005’s “Brooklyn Bridge” shown below, is much more colorful.

1. The works in Tokihiro Satō’s Photo-Respiration series are created with a large-format (8×10) camera. Satō mounts the camera on a tripod for anywhere from 1 to 3 hours while he moves through the space—sometimes running, hiking, or climbing—with a flashlight or mirror creating points of light or illuminated lines.

2. Satō’s photographs have been likened to sculptures of light. Interestingly enough, Satō was originally trained as a sculptor. He received both his BFA (1981) and his MFA (1983) in sculpture from the Tokyo University of the Arts. His first forays in photography were simply to document his sculptures.

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On Friday, Jasper Johns celebrated his 79th birthday. Readers Molly and Corrine both requested a post on the renowned American artist who is best known for his works featuring targets, maps, and American flags. Shown above are his famous “False Start” (1959) and “Winter” (1986).

1. As a child, Jasper Johns was shuffled around among relatives in South Carolina. One constant in his life was drawing, which he began to do at the age of 3. Regarding why he always wanted to be an artist, Johns said, “…I knew there were such things as artists, and I knew there were none where I lived. So I knew that to be an artist you had to be somewhere else. And I very much wanted to be somewhere else.” After graduating valedictorian of his high school class, Johns went on to 3 semesters at the University of South Carolina before finally moving to New York City.

2. Johns, who has remarked, “I don’t want my work to be an exposure of my feelings,” is a notoriously private artist and rarely grants interviews. As one friend told Vanity Fair, Johns is “terrified he might let slip something personal.” When an acquaintance of 30+ years wrote a biography of Johns in 1996, Johns was “amazed” by her interpretations, which he considered both “inaccurate” and “presumptuous.” He forbade the publisher reproduced any of his paintings for the book.

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Honoré Sharrer (1920-2009) passed away at age 88 a month ago, on April 17, but her death was only announced by her family last week. The American artist is best known for her “Tribute to the American Working People” polyptych. Her style has been described as “magic realism.”

1. Honoré Sharrer was born at West Point, NY, where her Army officer father was stationed. Twenty-four years later, in 1944, Sharrer returned to West Point to paint a mural in the Thayer Hotel.

2. At age 18, Sharrer took first place in the graphic-arts category of nationwide contest sponsored by The American. The following year, she became the youngest artist to participate in the Golden Gate Exposition, which also included Thomas Hart Benton and Edward Hopper. By 1951, when her first solo exhibition was mounted at Knoedler Gallery, she was widely heralded as an “art-world prodigy.”

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At the request of reader Corrine, today’s “Feel Art Again” features Frank Stella, who celebrates his 73rd birthday today. The American artist is both a painter and a sculptor whose works include “The Duel (Der Zweikampf) F (N#8),” a 2001 painting (above).

“I’ve had so many children and wives.”

Frank Stella has fathered five children with two wives and a girlfriend. Stella married his first wife, Barbara Rose, a well-known art critic, in 1961, but they separated just 8 years later. Harriet McGurk, his second wife, is a pediatrician.

“Theoretically it’s like a painting on a shaped canvas.”

Back in 1976, Stella was asked to participate in the second installment of the BMW Art Car Project, painting a BMW 3.0 CSL. Despite his long and varied career, the BMW art car is one of his works for which he is most well known. According to Stella, “The idea for mine was that it’s from a drawing on graph paper. The graph paper is what it is, a graph, but when it’s morphed over the car’s forms it becomes interesting…”
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