In almost every significant work of art there is a mystery, a double bottom or a secret story that you want to uncover.
Music on the buttocks
Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1500-1510.
Fragment of a triptych
Disputes about the meanings and hidden meanings of the most famous work of the Dutch artist have not subsided since its appearance. On the right wing of the triptych called "Musical Hell" sinners are depicted who are tortured in the underworld with the help of musical instruments. One of them has notes imprinted on his buttocks. Oklahoma Christian University student Amelia Hamrick, who studied the painting, transposed the notation of the 16th century into a modern twist and recorded "a 500-year-old ass song from hell."
Nude Mona Lisa
The famous "Gioconda" exists in two versions: the nude version is called "Monna Vanna", it was painted by the little-known artist Salai, who was a student and sitter of the great Leonardo da Vinci. Many art critics are sure that it was he who was the model for Leonardo's paintings "John the Baptist" and "Bacchus". There are also versions that dressed in a woman's dress, Salai served as the image of the Mona Lisa herself.
Old Fisherman
In 1902, the Hungarian artist Tivadar Kostka Chontvari painted the painting "Old Fisherman". It would seem that there is nothing unusual in the picture, but Tivadar laid a subtext in it, which was never revealed during the life of the artist.
Few people thought of putting a mirror in the middle of the picture. In each person there can be both God (the right shoulder of the Old Man is duplicated) and the Devil (the left shoulder of the old man is duplicated).
Was there a whale?
Hendrik van Antonissen "Scene on the Shore".
It seemed like an ordinary landscape. Boats, people on the shore and the desert sea. And only an X-ray study showed that people gathered on the shore for a reason - in the original, they examined the carcass of a whale washed ashore.
However, the artist decided that no one would want to look at a dead whale and repainted the painting.
Two "Breakfasts on the Grass"
Edouard Manet, Breakfast on the Grass, 1863.
Claude Monet, Breakfast on the Grass, 1865.
Artists Edouard Manet and Claude Monet are sometimes confused - after all, they were both French, lived at the same time and worked in the style of impressionism. Even the name of one of Manet's most famous paintings, "Breakfast on the Grass", Monet borrowed and wrote his "Breakfast on the Grass".
Twins at the Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1495-1498.
When Leonardo da Vinci wrote The Last Supper, he attached particular importance to two figures: Christ and Judas. He was looking for sitters for them for a very long time. Finally, he managed to find a model for the image of Christ among the young singers. Leonardo failed to find a sitter for Judas for three years. But one day he came across a drunkard lying in the gutter on the street. He was a young man who had been aged by heavy drinking. Leonardo invited him to a tavern, where he immediately began to write Judas from him. When the drunkard came to his senses, he told the artist that he had already posed for him once. It was a few years ago, when he sang in the church choir, Leonardo wrote Christ from him.
"Night Watch" or "Day Watch"?
Rembrandt, Night Watch, 1642.
One of Rembrandt’s most famous paintings, “The Performance of the Rifle Company of Captain Frans Banning Cock and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenbürg,” hung in different halls for about two hundred years and was discovered by art historians only in the 19th century. Since the figures seemed to stand out against a dark background, it was called the Night Watch, and under this name it entered the treasury of world art.
And only during the restoration, carried out in 1947, it turned out that in the hall the picture had managed to become covered with a layer of soot, which distorted its color. After clearing the original painting, it was finally revealed that the scene presented by Rembrandt actually takes place during the day. The position of the shadow from the left hand of Captain Kok shows that the duration of the action is no more than 14 hours.
capsized boat
Henri Matisse, "The Boat", 1937.
In the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1961, Henri Matisse's painting "The Boat" was exhibited. Only after 47 days did someone notice that the painting was hanging upside down. The canvas depicts 10 purple lines and two blue sails on a white background. The artist painted two sails for a reason, the second sail is a reflection of the first one on the surface of the water.
In order not to be mistaken in how the picture should hang, you need to pay attention to the details. The larger sail should be at the top of the painting, and the peak of the sail of the painting should be directed to the upper right corner.
Deception in a self-portrait
Vincent van Gogh, Self Portrait with a Pipe, 1889.
There are legends that Van Gogh allegedly cut off his own ear. Now the most reliable version is that van Gogh's ear was damaged in a small scuffle with the participation of another artist, Paul Gauguin.
The self-portrait is interesting because it reflects reality in a distorted form: the artist is depicted with a bandaged right ear, because he used a mirror when working. In fact, the left ear was damaged.
alien bears
Ivan Shishkin, "Morning in the Pine Forest", 1889.
The famous painting belongs not only to the brush of Shishkin. Many artists who were friends with each other often resorted to "the help of a friend", and Ivan Ivanovich, who had been painting landscapes all his life, was afraid that touching bears would not turn out the way he needed. Therefore, Shishkin turned to a familiar animal painter Konstantin Savitsky.
Savitsky painted perhaps the best bears in the history of Russian painting, and Tretyakov ordered that his name be washed off the canvas, since everything in the picture “starting from the idea and ending with the execution, everything speaks of the manner of painting, of the creative method peculiar to Shishkin.”
Innocent story "Gothic"
Grant Wood, "American Gothic", 1930.
Grant Wood's work is considered one of the strangest and most depressing in the history of American painting. The picture with a gloomy father and daughter is overflowing with details that indicate the severity, puritanism and retrogradeness of the people depicted.
In fact, the artist did not intend to depict any horrors: during a trip to Iowa, he noticed a small house in the Gothic style and decided to depict those people who, in his opinion, would be ideally suited as inhabitants. Grant's sister and his dentist are immortalized in the form of characters that the people of Iowa were so offended by.
Revenge of Salvador Dali
The painting "Figure at the Window" was painted in 1925, when Dali was 21 years old. Then Gala had not yet entered the life of the artist, and his sister Ana Maria was his muse. The relationship between brother and sister deteriorated when he wrote on one of the paintings "sometimes I spit on a portrait of my own mother, and it gives me pleasure." Ana Maria could not forgive such shocking.
In her 1949 book Salvador Dali Through the Eyes of a Sister, she writes about her brother without any praise. The book infuriated El Salvador. For another ten years after that, he angrily remembered her at every opportunity. And so, in 1954, the picture "A young virgin indulging in Sodomy sin with the help of the horns of her own chastity" appears. The pose of the woman, her curls, the landscape outside the window and the color scheme of the painting clearly echo the Figure at the Window. There is a version that this is how Dali took revenge on his sister for her book.
Two-faced Danae
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Danae, 1636-1647.
Many secrets of one of Rembrandt's most famous paintings were revealed only in the 60s of the twentieth century, when the canvas was illuminated with x-rays. For example, the shooting showed that in the early version, the face of the princess, who entered into a love affair with Zeus, looked like the face of Saskia, the wife of the painter, who died in 1642. In the final version of the painting, it began to resemble the face of Gertier Dirks, Rembrandt's mistress, with whom the artist lived after the death of his wife.
Van Gogh's yellow bedroom
Vincent van Gogh, "Bedroom in Arles", 1888 - 1889.
In May 1888, Van Gogh acquired a small workshop in Arles, in the south of France, where he fled from the Parisian artists and critics who did not understand him. In one of the four rooms, Vincent sets up a bedroom. In October, everything is ready, and he decides to paint Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles. For the artist, the color, the comfort of the room was very important: everything had to suggest thoughts of relaxation. At the same time, the picture is sustained in disturbing yellow tones.
Researchers of Van Gogh's creativity explain this by the fact that the artist took foxglove, a remedy for epilepsy, which causes serious changes in the patient's perception of color: the entire surrounding reality is painted in green-yellow tones.
Toothless perfection
Leonardo da Vinci, "Portrait of Mrs. Lisa del Giocondo", 1503 - 1519.
The generally accepted opinion is that Mona Lisa is perfection and her smile is beautiful in its mysteriousness. However, the American art critic (and part-time dentist) Joseph Borkowski believes that, judging by the expression on her face, the heroine has lost a lot of her teeth. While examining enlarged photographs of the masterpiece, Borkowski also found scars around her mouth. “She smiles so much precisely because of what happened to her,” the expert believes. “Her facial expression is typical of people who have lost their front teeth.”
Major on face control
Pavel Fedotov, Major's Matchmaking, 1848.
The public, who first saw the painting "Major's Matchmaking", laughed heartily: the artist Fedotov filled it with ironic details that were understandable to viewers of that time. For example, the major is clearly not familiar with the rules of noble etiquette: he appeared without the proper bouquets for the bride and her mother. And the bride herself was discharged by her merchant parents into an evening ball gown, although it was daytime (all the lamps in the room were extinguished). The girl obviously tried on a low-cut dress for the first time, is embarrassed and tries to run away to her room.
Why Freedom is naked
Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix, Liberty at the Barricades, 1830.
According to the art critic Etienne Julie, Delacroix painted the face of a woman from the famous Parisian revolutionary - the laundress Anna-Charlotte, who went to the barricades after the death of her brother at the hands of royal soldiers and killed nine guards. The artist depicted her bare-chested. According to his plan, this is a symbol of fearlessness and selflessness, as well as the triumph of democracy: naked breasts show that Svoboda, like a commoner, does not wear a corset.
non-square square
Kazimir Malevich, Black Suprematist Square, 1915.
In fact, the "Black Square" is not black at all and not square at all: none of the sides of the quadrangle is parallel to any of its other sides, and none of the sides of the square frame that frames the picture. And the dark color is the result of mixing various colors, among which there was no black. It is believed that this was not the negligence of the author, but a principled position, the desire to create a dynamic, mobile form.
Specialists of the Tretyakov Gallery have discovered the author's inscription on a famous painting by Malevich. The inscription reads: "Battle of the Negroes in a dark cave." This phrase refers to the title of a playful painting by the French journalist, writer and artist Alphonse Allais “Battle of Negroes in a dark cave in the dead of night”, which was an absolutely black rectangle.
Melodrama of the Austrian Mona Lisa
Gustav Klimt, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer", 1907.
One of Klimt's most significant paintings depicts the wife of the Austrian sugar magnate Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. All Vienna discussed the stormy romance between Adele and the famous artist. The wounded husband wanted to take revenge on his lovers, but chose a very unusual way: he decided to order a portrait of Adele from Klimt and force him to make hundreds of sketches until the artist starts to turn away from her.
Bloch-Bauer wanted the work to last several years, and the model could see how Klimt's feelings fade away. He made a generous offer to the artist, which he could not refuse, and everything turned out according to the scenario of the deceived husband: the work was completed in 4 years, the lovers had long cooled off towards each other. Adele Bloch-Bauer never found out that her husband was aware of her relationship with Klimt.
The painting that brought Gauguin back to life
Paul Gauguin, "Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?", 1897-1898.
Gauguin's most famous canvas has one feature: it is "read" not from left to right, but from right to left, like Kabbalistic texts that the artist was interested in. It is in this order that the allegory of the spiritual and physical life of a person unfolds: from the birth of the soul (a sleeping child in the lower right corner) to the inevitability of the hour of death (a bird with a lizard in its claws in the lower left corner).
The painting was painted by Gauguin in Tahiti, where the artist fled from civilization several times. But this time life on the island did not work out: total poverty led him to depression. Having finished the canvas, which was to become his spiritual testament, Gauguin took a box of arsenic and went to the mountains to die. However, he did not calculate the dose, and the suicide failed. The next morning, he staggered to his hut and fell asleep, and when he woke up, he felt a forgotten thirst for life. And in 1898, his affairs went uphill, and a brighter period began in his work.
112 proverbs in one picture
Pieter Brueghel the Elder, "Netherlands Proverbs", 1559
Pieter Brueghel the Elder depicted a land inhabited by literal images of the Dutch proverbs of those days. There are approximately 112 recognizable idioms in the painted picture. Some of them are still used today, such as "swim against the current", "bang your head against the wall", "armed to the teeth" and "big fish eats small ones".
Other proverbs reflect human stupidity.
Subjectivity of art
Paul Gauguin, Breton village under the snow, 1894
Gauguin's painting "Breton Village in the Snow" was sold after the death of the author for only seven francs and, moreover, under the name "Niagara Falls". The auctioneer accidentally hung the painting upside down after seeing a waterfall in it.
hidden picture
Pablo Picasso, The Blue Room, 1901
In 2008, infrared showed that another image was hidden under the "Blue Room" - a portrait of a man dressed in a suit with a butterfly and resting his head on his hand. “As soon as Picasso had a new idea, he took up the brush and embodied it. But he did not have the opportunity to buy a new canvas every time the muse visited him, ”art historian Patricia Favero explains the possible reason for this.
Inaccessible Moroccan women
Zinaida Serebryakova, Naked, 1928
One day, Zinaida Serebryakova received a tempting offer - to go on a creative journey to portray the naked figures of oriental maidens. But it turned out that it was simply impossible to find models in those places. An interpreter for Zinaida came to the rescue - he brought his sisters and his bride to her. No one before and after that was able to capture the closed oriental women naked.
Spontaneous insight
Valentin Serov, "Portrait of Nicholas II in a jacket", 1900
For a long time Serov could not paint a portrait of the king. When the artist completely gave up, he apologized to Nikolai. Nikolai was a little upset, sat down at the table, stretching out his hands in front of him ... And then it dawned on the artist - here he is! A simple military man in an officer's jacket with clear and sad eyes. This portrait is considered the best depiction of the last emperor.
Again deuce
© Fedor Reshetnikov
The famous painting "Again deuce" is just the second part of the artistic trilogy.
The first part is "Arrived for the holidays." Obviously a well-to-do family, winter holidays, a joyful excellent student.
The second part is "Again the deuce." A poor family from the outskirts of the working class, the height of the school year, a dull stunner who again grabbed a deuce. In the upper left corner you can see the picture "Arrived for the holidays."
The third part is "Re-examination". Rural house, summer, everyone is walking, one malicious ignoramus who failed the annual exam is forced to sit within four walls and cramming. In the upper left corner you can see the picture "Again deuce".
How masterpieces are born
Joseph Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed, 1844
In 1842, Mrs. Simon traveled by train in England. Suddenly, a heavy downpour began. The elderly gentleman sitting across from her got up, opened the window, stuck his head out, and stared like that for about ten minutes. Unable to contain her curiosity, the woman also opened the window and looked ahead. A year later, she discovered the painting “Rain, Steam and Speed” at an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts and was able to recognize in it the very episode on the train.
Anatomy lesson from Michelangelo
Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, 1511
A couple of American neuroanatomy experts believe that Michelangelo actually left some anatomical illustrations in one of his most famous works. They believe that a huge brain is depicted on the right side of the picture. Surprisingly, even complex components such as the cerebellum, optic nerves, and pituitary gland can be found. And the catchy green ribbon perfectly matches the location of the vertebral artery.
The Last Supper by Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh, Café Terrace at Night, 1888
Researcher Jared Baxter believes that Van Gogh's Café Terrace at Night contains a dedication to Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. In the center of the picture is a waiter with long hair and in a white tunic, reminiscent of the clothes of Christ, and around him exactly 12 cafe visitors. Baxter also draws attention to the cross, located directly behind the back of the waiter in white.
Dali's image of memory
Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931
It is no secret that the thoughts that visited Dali during the creation of his masterpieces were always in the form of very realistic images, which the artist then transferred to the canvas. So, according to the author himself, the painting “The Persistence of Memory” was painted as a result of associations that arose at the sight of processed cheese.
What is Munch shouting about
Edvard Munch, "The Scream", 1893.
Munch spoke about the idea of one of the most mysterious paintings in world painting: "I was walking along the path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red, I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence - I looked at blood and flames over the bluish-black fjord and the city - my friends went on, and I stood, trembling with excitement, feeling the endless scream piercing nature. But what kind of sunset could scare the artist so?
There is a version that the idea of "Scream" was born by Munch in 1883, when there were several strongest eruptions of the Krakatau volcano - so powerful that they changed the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere by one degree. A copious amount of dust and ash spread across the globe, reaching even as far as Norway. For several evenings in a row, the sunsets looked as if the apocalypse was about to come - one of them became a source of inspiration for the artist.
Writer among the people
Alexander Ivanov, "The Appearance of Christ to the People", 1837-1857.
Dozens of sitters posed for Alexander Ivanov for his main picture. One of them is known no less than the artist himself. In the background, among travelers and Roman horsemen who have not yet heard the sermon of John the Baptist, one can notice a character in a brown tunic. His Ivanov wrote with Nikolai Gogol. The writer closely communicated with the artist in Italy, in particular on religious issues, and gave him advice in the process of painting. Gogol believed that Ivanov "had long since died for the whole world, except for his work."
Michelangelo's gout
Raphael Santi, The School of Athens, 1511.
Creating the famous fresco "The School of Athens", Raphael immortalized his friends and acquaintances in the images of ancient Greek philosophers. One of them was Michelangelo Buonarroti "in the role" of Heraclitus. For several centuries, the fresco kept the secrets of Michelangelo's personal life, and modern researchers have suggested that the artist's strangely angular knee indicates that he has a joint disease.
This is quite likely, given the peculiarities of the lifestyle and working conditions of Renaissance artists and Michelangelo's chronic workaholism.
Mirror of the Arnolfinis
Jan van Eyck, "Portrait of the Arnolfinis", 1434
In the mirror behind the Arnolfinis, you can see the reflection of two more people in the room. Most likely, these are witnesses present at the conclusion of the contract. One of them is van Eyck, as evidenced by the Latin inscription placed, contrary to tradition, above the mirror in the center of the composition: "Jan van Eyck was here." This is how the contracts were usually sealed.
How a flaw turned into a talent
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Self-portrait at the age of 63, 1669.
The researcher Margaret Livingston studied all Rembrandt's self-portraits and found that the artist suffered from strabismus: in the images his eyes look in different directions, which is not observed in the portraits of other people by the master. The disease led to the fact that the artist could better perceive reality in two dimensions than people with normal vision. This phenomenon is called "stereo blindness" - the inability to see the world in 3D. But since the painter has to work with a two-dimensional image, it was precisely this shortcoming of Rembrandt that could be one of the explanations for his phenomenal talent.
Sinless Venus
Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1482-1486.
Before the advent of The Birth of Venus, the image of a naked female body in painting symbolized only the idea of original sin. Sandro Botticelli was the first European painter not to find anything sinful in him. Moreover, art historians are sure that the pagan goddess of love symbolizes the Christian image on the fresco: her appearance is an allegory of the rebirth of the soul that has undergone the rite of baptism.
Lute player or lute player?
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Lute Player, 1596.
For a long time, the painting was exhibited in the Hermitage under the title "Lute Player". Only at the beginning of the 20th century, art historians agreed that the canvas still depicts a young man (probably, Caravaggio was posed by his friend artist Mario Minniti): on the notes in front of the musician, a recording of the bass part of the madrigal by Jacob Arcadelt “You know that I love you” is visible . A woman could hardly make such a choice - it's just hard for the throat. In addition, the lute, like the violin at the very edge of the picture, was considered a male instrument in the era of Caravaggio.
*Russian painting is just as fundamentally different from European art as is literature. The point of view of our artists - whether writers or painters - on the world is preeminently tendentious. Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy
*Painting lasts in its own way. Martin Heidegger
*Painting is the knowledge of the world, accessible only to a long human experience. Dream and memory at the same time. And the penetration into the science of caresses, which the ardor of a young lover neglects. Louis Aragon
* In painting, as in other genres of art, there is not a single technique that could be adjusted to a verbal formulation. Auguste Renoir
*Humanity has always cherished those works of art where the drama of the human heart or simply the inner character of a person is expressed with the fullest possible extent. Often the image of one character alone is enough for the name of the artist to remain in the history of art. Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy
*It's not about learning to draw, it's about learning to think. Stendhal (Henri-Marie Bayle)
*The world is ultimately around us, not in front of us. The depth of the pictorial image comes from nowhere, settling down, growing on the canvas. Maurice Merleau-Ponty
*Successive actions cannot, as such, become objects of painting; it must be content with simultaneous actions, or bodies which, by their position, imply action. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
* If a picture excites rumors, and even animated ones, it means that there is something in it; therefore, art can play a role of a somewhat higher order than the decoration and entertainment of life. Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy
*Each picture should be one of a kind and should be a new image in a series of representations of the human mind about the world. Henri Matisse
* "And then I saw a crow in the snow. A crow sits in the snow and puts out one wing, it sits like a black spot in the snow. So I couldn’t forget this spot for many years. Then I wrote to boyar Morozova"
"The essence of a historical picture is guessing" Vasily Ivanovich Surikov.
* About the progress of Repin's work on the painting: "He will suddenly become angry, inflamed with all his soul, grab a palette and brushes and begin to write on the canvas as if in some kind of rage"
"What is art? Or more closely: what are artists? A part of a nation that freely and spontaneously set itself the task of satisfying the aesthetic needs of its people."
"..the highest judicial authority for the artist has always been and will be the impression that thousands of viewers endure from the picture." Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy.
* "Each student in the summer should write sketches and study from all sides what he has chosen as his specialty; in addition, both in winter and in summer, he should have a notebook and an album with him in order to learn to draw in them everything that will stop his attention on himself, and not rely on his memory and imagination ... "
"The landscape should be not only national, but further local. All that has been said will be guaranteed by my many years of experience and all my desire to serve my native landscape, and I hope that the time will come when all Russian nature, living and spiritualized, will look from the canvases of Russian artists." AND. Shishkin
* "I want to be like this - carefree, in this century they write everything difficult, nothing encouraging. I want something encouraging and I will write only encouraging" Valentin Alexandrovich Serov.
"They say: art is not science, not mathematics, that it is art, moods and that nothing can be explained in art - look and admire. In my opinion, this is not so. Art is explainable and very logical, you need and can know about it, it is mathematical "In this case, it can be explained. It is possible to prove exactly why the picture is good and why it is bad" Nikolai Petrovich Krymov
* "A painter who studies the diversity of things in nature, thereby comprehends their relationship, determines the location of a thing in the world, i.e. the being of a thing" Kuzma
"Colors are annoying and soothing, screaming, arguing with each other and living affectionately one next to the other. In their struggle or agreement, there is an effect of color on a person through the sense of sight." Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin
* "Time takes the trouble to finish my works."
"Color complements the painting with decorations, but she is no more than a court lady from her retinue"
"Drawing does not mean just making contours; drawing does not consist only of lines. Drawing is also expressiveness, internal form, plan, modeling."
"In every head, the first thing to do is to make the eyes speak."
"Only in nature can one find beauty, which is the great object of painting; there one must look for it and nowhere else."
"No remorse if you copy the ancients. Their works are a common property, from where everyone can take what they like. They become our property when we know how to use them, Raphael, tirelessly imitating them, remained himself."
"More decisiveness in the use of colors, more flexibility in tones. More confusion in the poses of the pages; they are too calculated. The gilding is lighter in the shadows and more delicate. In general, less symmetry."
"The outer contours should never be deepened ... they are convex ... To achieve a perfect form, one should not resort to square and angular volumes: one must create a rounded shape and without protruding internal details. When there is only one figure in the picture, it must be modeled in relief and thus look for a painterly effect."
"I have been reproached, and perhaps rightly so, that I repeat my compositions too often, instead of creating new works. Here are my thoughts on this matter: most of the works I loved in the plot seemed to me worthy of labor and they are even better, repeating or finishing them better, as often happened with my first paintings and, by the way, with the Sistine Chapel. When an artist, by virtue of his love of art and the efforts expended by him, has the right to hope to leave his name to future generations, he will tirelessly try to make his works more beautiful, or at least less imperfect. An example for me is the great Poussin, who often repeated the same plots.
"The drawing contains more than three-quarters of what painting is. If I had to put a sign over my door, I would write:" Drawing School ", and I'm sure I would create painters." Ingres
* "It is difficult to take two or three tones exactly together, five is even more difficult, and to take everything exactly as you feel with your eye is incredibly difficult. Educate the eye a little at first; then open the eye wider, and in the end everything that enters the canvas must see together, and then what is not exactly taken will be out of tune, like a wrong note in an orchestra. An experienced artist sees everything at the same time, just as a good conductor hears the violin, the flute, the bassoon, and other instruments at the same time"
"I like to start from the thickest dark places. This does not allow me to get into whitishness. The color will be rich, thick." Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin
* "The use of the entire range of light intensity, the maximum allowed by the entire palette, and the use of the entire register of colors and color shades is possible only on the basis of knowledge of various techniques of technology.
These shades and saturation with color strength and luminosity in painting are highly dependent on texture preparation at each stage of work.
Painting that does not breathe in each of its colors with a thousand shades that enrich it, is dead painting.
The energy of colors, as well as the energy of form and expression, also carries the energy of impact.
Student, timid, though sincere, but protocol work is only the ABC of art. Only when the painter, as a result of long searches, reaches two or three decisive strokes of the brush, simply and clearly solving the problem of form and color, does the necessary degree of persuasiveness appear. Laconism in painting, as in speech, is often desirable as the shortest path to exhaustive clarity: it banishes everything doubtful, confusing and overloading on its straightforward path. "K. Yuon
* "Painting is life itself. In it, nature appears before the soul without intermediaries, without covers, without conventions. Poetry is intangible. Music is intangible. Sculpture is conditional. But painting, especially in landscape, is something real. Poets, musicians, sculptors "I don't want to belittle your glory. Your lot is also beautiful. But let everyone be rewarded with justice!"
If we cast a glance at the surroundings, whether it be a landscape or an interior, we will notice that between the things that appear to our eyes, there is a kind of connection created by the atmosphere enveloping them and various reflections of light, which, so to speak, involve each object in a certain general harmony"
"What a miracle - to admire in painting what you don't admire in reality."
"Painting is a non-talkative art, and this, in my opinion, is its considerable merit."
“The most stubborn realist is nevertheless forced, when conveying nature, to resort to certain conventions of composition or manner. If we talk about composition, he cannot simply take a single piece or even several pieces and make a picture out of it. We must put an idea into it in order to present to the viewer something more than a random connection of unrelated parts, without this there would be no art.When a photographer shoots a landscape, you always see only one part cut out from the whole; the edge of the picture here is as interesting as the central part; you you can only imagine the whole landscape - you see only a piece that seems to be chosen at random. The secondary here claims the same attention as the main one; more often than not, this secondary is the first thing that catches the eye and offends them. More indulgence is required for the imperfection of reproduction in a photographic image rather than in the creation of a creative imagination.The photographs that make the most impression are those in which In some cases, due to the imperfection of the very method of accurate transmission, certain gaps are left, resting places for the eye, which allow it to focus attention only on a small number of objects. If the eye had the power of a magnifying glass, photography would be unbearable: we would notice all the leaves on a tree, all the tiles on the roof, and all the moss on the tiles, all the insects, etc. And what to say about the unpleasant views that a real perspective gives rise to , - they are perhaps less unpleasant in the landscape, where the parts protruding forward can be enlarged, even beyond measure, without offending the eye in the way that happens with human figures! The most stubborn realist must correct in the picture this inflexibility of perspective, which distorts the appearance of objects precisely because of its accuracy.
"Artists who are not colorists are engaged in coloring, not painting. Painting, in the proper sense of the word, if we are not talking about monochrome paintings, contains the idea of color as one of its necessary foundations, along with chiaroscuro, proportion and perspective." Eugene Delacroix
* "Technique is the language of the artist; develop it tirelessly, to virtuosity. Without it, you will never be able to tell people your dreams, your experiences, the beauty you have seen." Pavel Petrovich Chistyakov
* "God is the Immeasurable, and I feel Him in me. Only in him I believe. I do not believe in what I touch, nor in what I see. My brain, my mind seems to me only a brief doubtful reality. Only I consider my inner feeling to be eternal and definite.
"Contact the great masters. They teach us not to create poor art...."
"Color must be thought out, inspired, dreamed out."
"The whole value of my works lies in the fact that I opened for them the door leading to the sacrament. I composed the images, and now they should develop themselves"
"The sky through the branches, it's pearls and gems"
"Painting is passionate silence." Gustave Moreau
* "The whole secret is in the general luminosity. The light comes, as it were, from inside the canvas itself. Look at the Venetians, everything is flooded with one light, and it’s as if the artist paints with one paint. Why, after all, inside a single golden color there is a feeling of red draperies or green foliage? Titian only saturates the shadow with color, and the light in the whole picture writes with almost the same color, one tone. The plane of the picture, the depth and the play of light are preserved at the same time! "Nikolai Mikhailovich Romadin
*"When you try to conscientiously follow the great masters, you see that at certain moments they all plunge deeply into reality. I mean that the so-called creations of the great masters can be seen in reality itself, if you look at it with the same eyes and with the same feelings that they ... Reality - this is the eternal basis of genuine poetry, which can be found if you search hard and dig the soil deep enough ... "Van Gogh
*"Everyone is trying to understand painting. Why don't they try to understand birdsong?"
"Painting is an occupation for the blind. An artist paints not what he sees, but what he feels."
"Why try to understand art? You don't try to understand what a bird sings about..."
A millionaire came to Picasso's studio. 3a was interested in a picture painted in a cubic manner:
- What is shown here?
- Two hundred thousand dollars - the artist answered.
When Picasso was asked why he didn't decorate his house
with his own paintings, he replied: "I can't afford them!"
I am finishing your portrait,” Picasso said to the man he was painting. Now try to be like him.
Picasso leads guests through his exhibition.
- This is my self-portrait. This is a portrait of my wife.
- I hope you don't have children?
"An artist is a person who writes what can be sold. And a good artist is a person who sells what he writes"
"There are artists who turn the sun into a yellow spot. But there are also those who, using their art and mind, turn the yellow spot into the sun"
"And among the people there are more copies than originals." Pablo Picasso
"If my husband ever met a woman on the street who looked like the women in his paintings, he would immediately faint and lose consciousness." Mrs. Picasso
*"The difference between surrealists and me is that I am a surrealist"
"Painting a picture is either easy or impossible"
"When I paint pictures, I feel crazy. The only difference between me and crazy is that I'm not crazy." Dali
* The illustrator Favorsky, when he made illustrations for books, drew a dog in the corner. When the editor began to resent why the dog was here, he proved every time that the dog was simply necessary for this illustration. But in the end, having finished with the disputes, he agreed to remove the dog from the picture. When asked why you draw this dog every time, he replied: "And if there was no dog, he would have found fault with something else" Favorsky
* "In essence, there is no beautiful style, no beautiful line, no beautiful color, the only beauty is the truth that becomes visible." Oh. Rodin
* "A landscape painter can work calmly - nature never insists on similarity." R. G. de la Serna
* "The significance of an artist is measured by the number of new signs that he introduces into the plastic language." A. Matisse
* "The light of art will influence numerous hearts, illuminate them with new love. At first this feeling will be unconscious, but then it will purify the human consciousness." Roerich
* "Drawing is not a form, but a way of seeing it." Degas
* A work of art - fog sculpted into an image.
* Beauty is not a need, but an ecstasy. It is not an image that you would like to see, and not a song that you would like to hear, but an image that you see even if you close your eyes, and a song that you hear even if you close your ears. D.H. Gibran
* An artist is a person who turns away from reality because he is unable to reconcile himself to the refusal to satisfy his instincts that it demands; he opens up space for his selfish and ambitious designs in the realm of fantasy. Freud Sigmund
*Good artists create, great artists steal, and good artists deliver on time... Steve Jobs
*Every child is an artist. The difficulty is to remain an artist beyond childhood. Picasso Pablo
*Everyone has the right to change, even artists. Picasso Pablo
*When will you realize
That you are not a son of the earth,
But the traveler through the universes,
When you understand that a person is born,
To melt out of the world
Necessities and reason -
Universe of Freedom and Love, -
Then only You will become a Master. Maximilian Voloshin
* The artist is a liar, but art is true. Andre Maurois
*It was neither fun nor sad - it was beautiful...Vincent van Gogh
* An artist is a focus of consciousness of things and phenomena reflected in him. M.A. Voloshin
* Autobiographies of artists in those places where it is told about how they achieved fame are usually drawn out. Ulrich Erkenbrecht
* Anti-classical art, if it can be called art at all, just the art of lazy people. It is the doctrine of those who want to create without labor and learn without study. French painter of the 19th century Jean Ingres
* God is just another artist. He invented a giraffe, an elephant, a cat. He has no established handwriting. It just keeps trying to create things. Pablo Picasso
* At twenty-five, anyone can be talented. The whole point is to be talented at fifty. Edgar Degas, French painter
* In our age, newspapers try to make the public judge a sculptor not by his sculptures, but by how he treats his wife; about an artist by the size of his income, and about a poet by the color of his tie. Oscar Wilde
* I have enough of an artist in me to draw freely in my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination embraces the world. A. Einstein
* Each social stratum is curious in its own way, and the artist can depict with equal interest the manners of the queen and the habits of the dressmaker. M. Proust
* The highest praise for an artist is when you forget about praise before his work. Gotthold Lessing
* Yes, madam, Nature [in the paintings - D.D.] creeps in. The answer of the artist J.A. McNeill Whistler "a, to the phrase of one lady that a certain landscape reminds her of his paintings
* For an artist of the fifteenth century, the description of the deathbed was as sure a means of gaining popularity as for the artist of the twentieth century - the description of the bed of love. Aldous Huxley
* The only praise that should be given to an artist is to buy his work. French Impressionist painter Pierre Renoir
* If you take a closer look at his work, it is noticeable that they look like a carefully drawn flight path of a shell-shocked fly. Marina Rodna about the paintings of the American abstract artist Jackson Pollock
* If there is absolutely nothing beautiful in the appearance of a woman, they say that she has beautiful eyes. If an artist is defiantly untalented - that he is sincerely devoted to his work. Critic Stanislav Zelvensky about Stas Namin's photo exhibition
* If you look good and are well dressed, you do not need a goal in life. Robert Pant, American fashion designer
* Thirst for profit has not yet created a single artist, but killed many. Alston
* Painting is the profession of the blind. The artist paints not what he sees, but what he feels, what what he sees means to him. Pablo Picasso
* We care about the creative dissatisfaction of artists! Stanislav Jerzy Lec
* INTELLECTUAL - a person who speaks complexly about simple things; An ARTIST is a person who simply talks about complex things. Charles Bukowski
* A true artist creates the next work because he is not satisfied with the previous one. Dmitry Shostakovich
* Every artist who depicts the sky as green and the grass as blue must be sterilized. Adolf Gitler
* When I have to make fun of nature, the first thing I try to do is forget that I have seen even one picture. English landscape painter John Constable
* When I was a child, my mother told me: "If you become a soldier, you will be a general; if you become a monk, you will be the Pope." Instead, I became an artist and slid down to Picasso. Pablo Picasso
* When [artist] Diego Rivera protested changes to his mural at the Rockefeller Center, Nelson Rockefeller allegedly convinced him simply by saying, "This is my wall." Eugene McCarthy
* COLLAGE - a clever way of transferring to the canvas a variety of household items, which the artist does not want to depict in the usual way. Marina Rodna
* CONCEPTUAL ART - the art of artists who seem to express deep philosophical ideas in absolutely everything they do, even if everyone else does not see any ideas in it at all. Marina Rodna
* Only in failure does the artist recognize his true attitude to creativity, only after the defeat does the commander see his mistakes. S. Zweig
* Any portrait drawn from the heart is a portrait of the artist, not the one who posed for him. Oscar Wilde
* Any good artist who strives to create true masterpieces must first be able to take my wife away. Salvador Dali
* Memoirs are the best source of information. Reading them is a pleasure; besides, a pleasant surprise awaits you: it turns out that a great artist is not only endowed with skillful hands, but is also able to think quite reasonably without the prompting of a critic. Marina Dana Rodna
* I've always been suspicious of artists who achieve success before they die. John Murray Fitzgibbon
* A real artist is a tuning fork, he can only strike one note - his own. Olga Muravieva
* A real expert, wanting to maintain his reputation, immediately after the death of a famous artist tries to publish a complete catalog of his works as soon as possible, after which their prices begin to rise uncontrollably. If any of the artist's works is not included in this capital document, then it will subsequently be very difficult to prove not only the authenticity, but also its very existence. Marina Rodna
* One should not be especially afraid to attribute to the artists of the past an ideal that they never had. Admiration is impossible without an admixture of illusion, and to understand a perfect work of art means, in general, to re-create it in your inner world. The same works are reflected differently in the soul of contemplators. Each generation is looking for new emotions in the creations of the old masters. The most gifted spectator is the one who finds, at the cost of several successful false interpretations, the most tender and strongest emotion. Therefore, humanity has a passionate attachment mainly to such works of art and poetry, which contain dark places that allow for the possibility of different understanding. A. France
* Some become critics because they are incapable of being artists, in the same way that a man becomes an informer because he is incapable of being a soldier. Gustave Flaubert
* Some artists paint flowers. I draw what the flowers think. Sylvester Stallone
* Education is disastrous for anyone who has the makings of an artist. Education should be left to officials, and even they are tempted to drink. George Moore
* You see, three-quarters of humanity thinks more about what they are shown than about how it is done. English landscape artist John Sell Cotman
* Why shouldn't art be beautiful? The world is already full of trouble. French Impressionist painter Pierre Renoir
* The truth is always there, you have to invent only lies. Georges Braque, French artist
* Vocation can be recognized and proved only by the sacrifice that a scientist or artist brings to their peace and well-being. L.N. Tolstoy
* Spent an unhappy morning comparing himself to Raphael. Benjamin Haydon, English painter, diary entry
* Raphael was commissioned to paint the Vatican not because he was a great artist, but because his uncle was a papal architect. Lord Melbourne, British Prime Minister
* REALISM - scrupulous reproduction of all the details of the depicted object. It is undertaken so that each viewer understands what exactly the artist wanted to portray. Marina Rodna
* Today, as you know, I am famous and very rich. But when I am left alone with myself, I lack the courage to consider myself an artist, in the great, ancient sense of the word ... I am just an entertainer who understands the needs of his time. Pablo Picasso in 1971
* The situation here is ideal: bankers only talk about paintings, artists only talk about money. Unknown appraiser about art auctions
* Only bad artists write too much. A. Matisse
* Good painting is like good cuisine: you can feel the taste, but you can’t explain it. French artist and writer Maurice de Vlaminck
* A good artist does not need to name a picture, a bad one must. Polish proverb
* Whether the artist wants it or not, the apple will still fall to the ground. Film director Andrey Konchalovsky
* ART SCHOOL - a place where young girls pass the time between college and marriage. American artist Thomas Hart Benton
* ARTIST - one who makes things that people do not need. Andy Warhole
* An artist is a synthesis of theorist and practice. Novalis
* ARTIST -professional exhibitionist. Vincent Van Gogh
* An artist can even sometimes discover with amazement - as happened to Miro in a certain American gallery - that all the works exhibited there under his name are fakes. Even worse, he had to endure an even greater shock when he was dragged to court, where he had to prove that he was the same Miro. Marina Rodna
* The artist must be worthy of high society, and stay away from him. John Ruskin
* The artist must draw his plan with fire, but execute it with composure. Johann Winckelmann
* The artist thinks with a drawing. S. Dali
* An artist can even hang his paintings, but a writer can only hang himself. Eduard Dahlberg (full name John Emerich Eduard Dahlberg-Acton)
* The artist never abandons art, but it happens that art abandons the artist. G. Kozintsev
* The artist is obliged to be vain, but has the right to modesty. Karl Kraus
* ARTIST - a creature driven by demons. William Faulkner
* Everyone can offend an artist, but an artist can offend everyone at once! Unknown
* Artists are the only people in the world who truly live. The rest can only hope to go to heaven. American artist John French Sloan
* Artists have a duty to show us how good life is. Otherwise, we would have doubts. Anatole France
* Pop art artists insistently depict everything that everyone knows well, constantly sees, and would only be glad to forget. Marina Rodna
* Artists, drowning in ... a stream of verbiage about their work, in turn begin to come up with their own aesthetic theories. At the same time, a completely logical pattern is observed: the more philosophical and abstruse their speech becomes, the more ordinary and flat works they create. No wonder Matisse said that the artist "must cut out the tongue in order to express himself only with the help of a brush." Marina Rodna
* The goal of every artist is to stop the flow of life itself [in the picture] by artistic means and fix it in such a way that even after a hundred years, if someone casts a glance, the action would again continue there, as in life. William Faulkner
* A person can be born a poet, but he is forced to make himself an artist. English poet Siegfried Sasson
* Man reveals himself in his works. In secular communication, he shows himself as he wants to appear, and you can correctly judge him only by his petty and unconscious actions and involuntarily changing facial expressions. Having appropriated this or that mask, a person eventually gets so used to it that he really becomes what he first wanted to seem. But in his book or in his picture he is naked and defenseless. His pretensions only emphasize his emptiness... No attempts at originality can hide mediocrity. A sharp-sighted connoisseur even sees in a sketch the innermost spiritual depths of the artist who created it. S. Maugham
* What is the difference between an artist and an amateur? Only the pain that I feel. The amateur seeks only pleasure in art. French symbolist painter Redon Odilon
* It takes a lot of imagination to become a photographer. Even the artist of imagination needs less, because he can invent. And in photography everything is so ordinary; you have to peer for a long time before you learn to see the ordinary. David Bailey
* I will write you more similar than you are. Max Liebermann, German artist
* I followed the rules until I hated them all. American abstract artist Helen Frankenthaler
* I go to the studio every day because one day I might meet an angel there. What if he comes and I don't? Philip Gaston, Canadian-born American artist
* [Michelangelo] Buonarotti praised them [Titian's paintings], saying that he liked the manner and coloring of Titian very much, but it is a shame that [artists] in Venice are not taught to draw well from the very beginning. Giorgio Vasari
* Thank God that I always want more than I can achieve. Michelangelo Buonarroti
* IMPROVEMENT - improvement is a trifle, but perfection is not a trifle. Michelangelo Buonarotti
* Creation can survive the creator: The Creator will leave, defeated by nature, However, the image imprinted by him will warm hearts for centuries. Michelangelo Buonarroti
* I am still studying. Michelangelo Buonarotti, favorite saying
* I finished the chapel that I painted. Dad is happy. Michelangelo Buonarotti, in a letter to his father about the famous Sistine Chapel in the Vatican
* I live in the hearts of thousands of souls
All those who love, and, therefore, I am not dust,
And mortal corruption will not touch me. Michelangelo Buonarroti
*Painting a good picture is no easier than finding a pearl or a diamond. It is difficult and life-threatening. Vincent van Gogh, in a letter to his brother in 1888
* Despite all the explanations, your paintings have such an effect, as if you treated us to gasoline instead of wine. Georges Braque, impression from the first cubist paintings by Pablo Picasso
* She is older than the rocks among which she sits; like a vampire, she has died many times, and knows the secrets of graves. Walter Pater on the Mona Lisa
* Rembrandt painted about three hundred paintings, of which almost a thousand are in America.
* Only a Russian person, looking at a beautiful picture, can swear with admiration.
* A good picture among the screaming bad becomes bad; bad among good - good. Pablo Picasso
* I wanted to copy nature, but I couldn't. But I was pleased when I realized that although [in the picture] it is impossible to reproduce the sun, its radiance can be depicted with the color [of the whole picture]. Paul Cezanne
* Doing painting without having an innate talent is the same as throwing a seed into the waves. Paolo Veronese
* To depict an object means to master it. Painting is an act that gives a deeper knowledge and a more complete possession than sex, only sleep or death can compare with it. Modigliani
* Drawing is only a necessary evil, because proportions are easy to determine. Color is the goal, the beginning and the end of painting. German art critic Wilhelm Heinse
* Accuracy is not yet true. Henri Matisse on painting
These artists amaze with their talent and the way they create their hyper-realistic paintings. It's hard to believe, but these are not photos, but real paintings drawn with a pencil, paints and even ballpoint pens. We don't understand how they do it?! Just enjoy their creativity.
Omar Ortiz is a hyperrealist artist from Mexico with a Bachelor of Graphic Design. The main subject of his paintings are human figures, mostly naked women. In the picture, the artist distinguishes three elements: the figure of a man, draped fabrics, white color. A feature of Omar's work is a minimalist style, laconicism in the transfer of subtle curves and lines of the body, oil work.
Paul Cadden is a world-class contemporary artist from Scotland. For his work, Paul uses only white chalk and graphite, with which he can recreate almost any photograph, paying attention to imperceptible small details. As the artist himself admits, he does not come up with new details, but only emphasizes them, thereby creating the illusion of a new reality, which is often not visible in the original photographs.
Kamalky Laureano- the artist was born in the Dominican Republic in 1983, currently lives and works in Mexico City. Kamalki graduated from the School of Design and Art, specializing in creating hyper-realistic portraits. The scenes are difficult to distinguish from real photos, although they are painted with acrylics on canvas. For the author of his work - not just an imitation of photographs, but a whole life embodied on canvas.
Gregory Thielker- Born in New Jersey in 1979, studied art history and painting at the University of Washington. Moving to Boston became the starting point for his work on hyper-realistic cityscapes, which made him famous all over the world. Tilker's paintings are a journey by car on a cold rainy day. Inspired by the works of artists of the 70s, the author creates his realistic paintings using watercolors and oil paints.
Lee Price- an artist from New York, graduated from the university with a degree in painting, is engaged in figurative painting. The main plot of Lee's work is the difficult attitude of women to food. The viewer, as if from the outside, is watching women who secretly eat something tasty, but harmful. The artist herself says that in her works she is trying to show the fact that women endow food with qualities that are not inherent in it, they seek solace in an inappropriate source. The pictures convey the absurdity of the situation, an attempt to escape from reality, to alleviate discomfort.
Ben Weiner born November 10, 1980 in Burlington, Vermont, graduated from the University of the Arts, paints in oils on canvas. The peculiarity of the artist's work is an unusual plot. Ben paints! First, the artist applies paints to the work surface, photographs them, and then paints a picture on canvas from the finished photo.
Born in 1950 in Northern California, he is known for his realistic acrylic paintings on canvas. As a child, the author shared a love of drawing with success in sports, but a back injury determined Ray's main occupation. As the artist admitted, drawing distracted him from constant back pain. Even in his youth, the master received wide recognition and many awards at art competitions.
Alyssa Monks lives and creates her paintings in Brooklyn, has become widely known for her realistic "wet" paintings. The artist uses filters such as water, glass or steam to create abstract designs. For her work, Alyssa often uses photographs from the personal archives of her family and friends. Women's faces and figures in the paintings are similar to each other - the artist often draws self-portraits, as she claims that it is "easier" for her to create the necessary plot.
Pedro Campos- hyperrealist from Madrid, began to paint in oils only at the age of 30 years. The artist creates his realistic still lifes using oil paint. Campos has worked as an interior designer, illustrator, art restorer of furniture, sculptures and paintings. The artist believes that it was his work as a restorer that helped him hone his skills.
Dirk Dzimirsky- an artist from Germany, born in 1969, received an art education, works in pencil technique. The artist draws pictures from photographs, without going into the smallest details, improvises a lot. Dirk says that when working on a painting, he represents a live model, so he uses the photo only for a thorough transfer of predetermined proportions. The author considers his main task to create a sense of the presence of the subject in the picture.
Thomas Arvid- American hyperrealist artist from New Orleans, who was born and raised in Detroit, has no formal education, a master of the so-called "oversized" still life. His series of realistic paintings "Wine Cellar" are corks, bottles, glasses with sparkling or deep red drinks. Authoritative critics and publications have noted more than 70 works of the artist. The master's paintings adorn not only the walls of wineries and prestigious wine salons, but also private collections and galleries.
Robin Eley Born in Britain, grew up and continues to live and work in Australia, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and has been awarded the Doug Moran National Portrait Award. He creates his hyper-realistic paintings in oil, and considers the plot “people and cellophane” to be the main “horse”. The master works on one picture for about 5 weeks, 90 hours a week, almost every picture depicts people wrapped in cellophane.
Samuel Silva- Portuguese amateur artist without special education, who proves by personal example that you can create a masterpiece from anything. When creating paintings, the artist uses a palette of eight colors of ballpoint pens from Bic. Silva is a lawyer by profession, and considers her passion for drawing nothing more than a hobby. Today, a world-famous self-taught artist masters new painting techniques using paints, chalk, colored pencils, pastels, etc.
Gottfried Helnwein- Austrian artist, author of hyper-realistic paintings on social, political and historical topics, "a master of unexpected recognition", as the writer W. Burroughs called him. The author was educated at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, belongs to the artists of a high professional level. Somewhat controversial subjects, surrealistic compositions brought him fame. Often the master depicted comic book characters in his paintings and admits that he “learned more from Donald Duck than in all the schools he studied in.”
Franco Clun is an Italian self-taught artist who prefers drawing with graphite to all other artistic techniques. His black and white realistic paintings are the result of Franco's independent study of various literature on drawing techniques.
Kelvin Okafor is a hyperrealist artist, born in 1985, lives and works in London. Kelvin graduated with a degree in fine arts from Middlesex University. The author creates his paintings with a simple pencil, the main theme of his work is portraits of celebrities.
Amy Robins is a British artist who uses colored pencils and thick paper for her hyper-realistic works. The artist has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in art and design and lives and works in Bristol. Little is known about the young author, but her works have already become famous all over the world, striking with their realism and technique.
Robert Longo- American painter and sculptor, born in Brooklyn in 1953, awarded the legendary Goslar Kaiser Ring. The artist draws his three-dimensional images of nuclear explosions, tornadoes, hurricanes and sharks with charcoal on paper. Longo is often referred to as the "painter of death". The famous painting Untitled (Skull Island) depicting a wave was sold at Christie's in London for $392,000.
Diego Fazio- self-taught artist, born in 1989 in Italy, has no art education, started with the development of sketches for tattoos, eventually developed his own drawing technique. The young artist was a participant in many international competitions, where he won prizes, was represented at exhibitions around the world. The artist works under the pseudonym DiegoKoi.
Bryan Drury born in 1980 in Salt Lake City, has a diploma from the New York Academy of Art, creates paintings in the genre of realism. The artist paints his paintings with oil paints. As the author admits, in his works he tries to focus on the organic qualities of the skin, its shortcomings.
Steve Mills is an American artist who sold his first painting at the age of 11. The artist creates his paintings with oil paints, focusing on the smallest details of everyday life, which we often do not notice in the eternal rush. The artist notes that he depicts objects as they are in real life, without changing and exaggerating their original form.
Paul Lung born in Hong Kong, draws with an automatic pencil on A2 sheets. A feature of the technique of creating paintings is the fundamental refusal to use an eraser, all works are drawn clean. The main "muses" of the artist are cats, although he also draws people and other animals. For each work, the author takes at least 40 hours.
Roberto Bernardi born in Italy, became interested in hyperrealism at the age of 19, worked as a restorer in the church of San Francesco. She uses oil paints to create paintings. The world fame for the artist was brought by a series of works depicting objects characteristic of the consumer society. Paintings with sweets, vending machines, refrigerator shelves are the artist's calling card, although his arsenal includes landscapes, still lifes and much more.
Juan Francisco Casas- Spanish artist who creates his paintings with a regular Bic ballpoint pen. Casas was a traditional artist who decided to prove to others that it was not the material for the work that mattered, but the way and technique of drawing. The very first exhibition of the creative Spaniard brought him worldwide fame. Most of the paintings of Casas depict his friends.
Teresa Elliott is an American artist who worked successfully as an illustrator for 26 years before creating realistic oil paintings. Teresa has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, having returned to classical art, she became famous all over the world thanks to her portraits, truthful to the smallest detail.
Guys, we put our soul into the site. Thanks for that
for discovering this beauty. Thanks for the inspiration and goosebumps.
Join us at Facebook and In contact with
High art is a complex and incomprehensible thing for many. Renaissance painting with its ideal image attracts many admirers, but it is not easy for everyone to believe that the works of Picasso and Kandinsky can really cost fabulous money. The abundance of naked people in the picture is another mystery, as well as the paradox that good paintings do not have to be beautiful.
website I learned the answers to several curious questions about painting by looking into the works of art critics and culturologists.
1. Is painting really that expensive?
Every now and then we hear about the crazy sums laid out for this or that picture. But in fact, such money is the lot of very few works. Most artists have never seen huge amounts of money. Art historian Jonathan Binstock believes that there are only about 40 authors in the world whose paintings are valued by a sum with many zeros.
Brands rule art
Here is perhaps the most striking example. You've probably heard of the graffiti artist Banksy. The acute social orientation of the works and the biography, covered with a halo of mystery, did their job. Today, Banksy is an artist whose work is valued at multi-digit sums. His painting "Girl with a Balloon" was sold for £ 1.042 million. And the whole world started talking about the performance to destroy it immediately after the sale.
Banksy is a brand and brands sell well. In this way, The cost of a painting is largely determined by the fame of its author.
The successful sale of one painting is the key to the success of others
An artist may be unlucky for a long time, he will vegetate in poverty and obscurity, unable to profitably sell his work. But as soon as he manages to sell one of his paintings for a lot of money, you can be sure that the price of his other works will skyrocket.
Rarity, scarcity, uniqueness
The Dutch artist Jan Vermeer is called priceless today. Not so many paintings belong to his brush - only 36. The artist wrote quite slowly. Lost in 1990, the Dutchman's painting "Concert" is now estimated at about $ 200 million. Rarity and scarcity canvases affects the fact that their prices are simply sky-high.
The legendary Van Gogh is a super brand. There are few paintings by the artist, and it is obvious that he won't do anything anymore. His work is unique.
10 years ago, Malevich's Suprematist Composition was sold for $60 million. Perhaps, if not for the crisis, it would have sold for $100 million. Paintings by Malevich in private collections without exception, and when the next time a thing of this class appears on the market is unknown. Maybe in 10 years, maybe in 100.
In general, it is obvious: buyers are ready to pay fabulous money for extremely rare items.
Innovation is expensive
One of the works of Richard Prince in the direction of "artistic borrowing".
Painting takes on the function of a landmark
Today, the level of cultural tourism is growing, and painting performs the function Attraction. Tourists line up for hours at famous museums. And in order to declare itself and claim world-class fame, the gallery must certainly own the originals of famous and popular painters.
Artificially created centers of cultural tourism are also growing, for example, in the Middle East and in China. Recently the royal family Qatar entered into a private transaction for $ 250 million- all in order for the country to have a picture Cezanne "The Card Players".
When there is everything, art begins to pull
In 2017, billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev sold this painting to Leonardo da Vinci for $450 million. Now this is the most expensive deal in the world of painting.
When you have 4 houses and a G5 plane, what else is there to do? It remains only to invest in painting, because it is one of the strongest currencies».
Painting by Georges Seurat "Canal at Gravelines, Great Fort Philippe".
Fragment of Michelangelo's fresco "Creation of Adam".
Even the ancient Greeks believed that the naked body is incredibly beautiful.
In art, most often nudity - it's a symbol. A symbol of new life, sincerity, the helplessness of a living being, as well as life and death.
Besides, nothing causes such strong emotions the viewer, like nakedness. It could be interest, embarrassment, shame, or admiration.
4. Why is everything so flat and generally unrealistic?
Painting by Czech artist Bohumil Kubishta “The Hypnotist”.
Perhaps one of the most common accusations against modern masters sounds like this: artists have forgotten how to seem to convey reality. Hence the misconception that objects look flat.
But let's look, for example, at the canvases cubists. They break the perspective, but depict objects at the same time from different angles and even at different times. Therefore, it cannot be said that the image on the canvas is two-dimensional.
It is no longer necessary to draw “looks like” - a photograph can do this. Therefore, it is necessary to look for the answer to the question why the artist in this or that picture depicted reality as flat, it is necessary in the very author's idea. Removing some details of the image, the artist focuses on others. By simplifying the image, he makes it more expressive. The artists of naive painting did not have an academic education. Pirosmani and Rousseau were only self-taught, but their paintings attracted those who had already seen everything and who were bored with traditional painting. Such pictures were like a breath of life-giving simplicity.
But professional avant-garde artists of the 19th–20th centuries had an artistic education and a strong base behind them. They are could write any way but at some point decided to do it this way imitating the primitivists. As they say, this was intended, because this is a completely new (and therefore interesting for those who are tired of the old) way of influencing the viewer.
Artists would have done a great job with a painting in the spirit of academic classicism, and that is why it was boring for them. Young Picasso painted touching and rather realistic portraits. But a mature artist has chosen for himself a path that shocks, invigorates the eye, which helps to demonstrate a cool coloristic flair and a sense of form.
Opinion: to say that pictures must certainly be beautiful is the same as saying that a real movie is just a romantic comedy or a melodrama with a happy ending. And psychological dramas, action films, thrillers - this is not a movie at all. Agree, there is logic in this.
Art (including painting) must speak the language of its time. And in order to enjoy any picture, even a realistic one, you need to know what is depicted on it. At exhibitions, we usually read the captions to the canvases and even use the audio guide.
What painting is close to you?
Great artists not only signed their paintings in a sweeping manner, but also painted hidden self-portraits on their creations. Some were so sophisticated that they depicted themselves in a decanter of wine, others simply painted themselves in the crowd, and one of them even painted himself in a female form.
Bacchus by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
The painting "Bacchus", written in 1595 by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, depicts the ancient god of winemaking, inspiration and religious ecstasy. A young guy with leaves and grape berries in his hair languidly holds out a shallow glass of wine to the viewer, as if inviting him to join him. Caravaggio, creating this picture, wanted to get away from the idealized image of the ancient god - in order to lower Bacchus to the ground, the artist depicted dirt under his nails, and also placed a plate of rotting fruit next to him.
But the eternal theme of the earthly and the divine is not the only thing that makes this picture so remarkable. After cleaning the canvas, using reflectography, a self-portrait of Caravaggio was found in the reflection on the glass of the decanter, in the lower left corner. The artist depicted himself working at an easel. Also, after the layers of dust were removed, it became possible to see the reflection of the face of Bacchus on the surface of the wine in the bowl.
Adoration of the Magi by Sandro Botticelli
The painting “The Adoration of the Magi” by Sandro Botticelli was written approximately in 1475 by order of the Florentine banker Gaspare di Zanobe del Lama, a member of the guild of arts and crafts of the city of Florence. The creation of Botticelli was intended for the funeral chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.
For many art historians, this painting is notable for the fact that it can be found the image of a number of historical characters. For example, the artist depicted his client on the right in a blue robe, pointing at himself and looking directly at the viewer. The eldest of the Magi, who knelt before the baby, is Cosimo de' Medici, founder of the dynasty of rulers of Florence and grandfather of Lorenzo the Magnificent. In the very center, with his back to the viewer, is a man in red clothes, Pietro Medici, son of Cosimo and father of Lorenzo. Lorenzo the Magnificent himself is depicted, according to art historians, in profile, in a black and red robe. On the left, in the foreground, with his arms crossed on the hilt of the sword, stands Giuliano Medici, brother of Lorenzo and lover, the girl who posed for Botticelli during the creation of the painting “The Birth of Venus”. And finally, the young man on the far right, who looks you straight in the eye, is a self-portrait of Botticelli himself.
The painting can be seen in Florence, in the Uffizi Gallery.
The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch
The Garden of Earthly Delights is a triptych painted by the grotesque master Hieronymus Bosch (real name Jeroen Antonison van Aken). Some consider the artist a surrealist of the 15th century, others are sure that Bosch wasadherent of the Cathar heresy, and others - that the paintings of the painter reflect the medieval "esoteric disciplines": astrology, black magic, and alchemy. Each canvas is saturated with a huge number of symbols that are hard for our contemporaries to count.
The left wing of the triptych depicts God representing Eve to Adam in serene Paradise. In the middle of the triptych are scenes from the Garden of Delights, where people and fantasy animals indulge in worldly pleasures. Well, on the right side of the picture are complex torture machines, monsters and himself, an artist with a body that looks like a shell, who smiles maliciously at all this Hell.
The painting is kept in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
The Last Judgment by Michelangelo
The Last Judgment by Michelangelo is depicted on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The artist worked on the fresco, the main theme of which was the second coming of Christ and the apocalypse, for four years, from 1537 to 1541. Art critics believe that this work ended the Renaissance and opened a new period of disappointment in the philosophy of anthropocentric humanism.
At the feet of Christ, Michelangelo placed Bartholomew, who can be recognized by the knife in his hand. He holds a flayed skin on which, according to art historians, the artist painted his self-portrait. Some are sure that Bartholomew is very similar to Pietro Aretino, the enemy of Michelangelo, who insulted him. So the artist saw his redemption. Others believe that Michelangelo depicted himself on a flayed skin as a sign that he did not want to finish the fresco and carried out this order of the Pope under special duress.
The fresco can be seen in the Sistine Chapel, in the Vatican Museum.
"Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci
Created by Leonardo da Vinci, "Mona Lisa" is probably the most talked about painting in the whole world. It now hangs under impenetrable glass in the Louvre, and once adorned Napoleon's bathroom. In this creation of da Vinci, there is a secret that art historians cannot unravel in any way: some suggest that the Mona Lisa’s grin is the smile of a pregnant woman who caught the movement of the fetus, others that it is the smile of her beloved Leonardo Giacomo Salai, psychiatrists see schizophrenia in Mona Lisa’s facial expression , and dentists are sure that this is the smile of a toothless woman.
Another hypothesis is that the depicted girl with a smirk— Leonardo da Vinci himself. A computer comparison of the anatomical features of the face of the artist and the model showed that geometrically they match perfectly.You can see for yourself by comparing the Mona Lisa and da Vinci's self-portrait, which the artist made in red pencil.
The painting is in the Louvre, Paris.
"School of Athens" Raphael Santi
Rafael Santi, creating the fresco “The School of Athens”, who just did not depict on it: the aforementioned Leonardo da Vinci in the image of Plato, and Michelangelo in the image of Heraclitus, and Socrates, and Alexander the Great. Santi did not forget to draw himself next to the painter Sodoma, who began work on the fresco before him. There are more than 50 people in the picture.
The main idea of the “School of Athens” fresco is the possibility of harmonic harmony between different areas of philosophy and science. By the way, this concept is one of the most important ideas of the humanists. Raphael Santi, under the vaults of the Vatican Palace, depicted an essentially ideal community of thinkers of the classical era. In the center of the composition are Aristotle and Plato, who personify ancient wisdom and represent two schools of philosophy.
The fresco is in the Vatican Palace.
“Portrait of the Arnolfinis” by Jan van Eyck
“Portrait of the Arnolfinis” by Jan van Eyck is another Renaissance painting that is difficult to interpret - disputes about who is depicted on it continue to this day. The most common version is that the artist painted the merchant Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife on the canvas, presumably in their house in Bruges.
But most of all in this work we are not interested in the characters of the foreground, but who is depicted in the mirror on the wall, which is located on the central axis of the composition, right above the hands of the characters. If you look closely, you will see figures from the back in red and blue suits. Judging by the silhouettes of their clothes, they are a man and a woman. Unfortunately, the features of their faces are impossible to make out. Most art historians are sure that the inscription above the mirror, which reads "Jan van Eyck was here," directly indicates that one of those standing on the threshold of the room is the artist himself.
The painting is inLondon National Gallery.