Helen Frankenthaler, Abstract Painter, Dies at 83

Helen Frankenthaler, the lyrically abstract painter whose technique of staining pigment into raw canvas helped shape an influential art movement in the mid-20th century, and who became one of the most admired artists of her generation, died on Tuesday at her home in Darien, Conn. She was 83.

More at NYTimes.com and Artnet

Miranda July, Artist Slash Retailer

Artist Miranda July has opened a store in NYC named after her book titled It Chooses You. The store sells objects she bought on Craigslist which have been repackaged and have an interview with the seller attached. The NYTimes blog says most of the items have been sold so if you go there looking for a slightly used pair of taxidermy deer hooves you're likely to be out of luck.

Pair of Taxidermy Deer Hooves: Lucky pair of deer hooves given as a gift by a friend.

Aelita Andre, Prodigy of Color

Aelita is only four years old but already has a career that might be the envy of artists 10 times her age. Her work has attracted worldwide attention and her paintings are held in collections in Europe, Asia and Australia.

Read more about Aelita at Agora Art which is hosting an exhibition of her work in June.

Wayne Thiebaud Is Not a Pop Artist

What he does, with astonishing virtuosity, is paint a pie, a river or a girl in a pink hat in a way that such a thing has never been painted before.

Brown River, 2002

Cakes, 1963

Girl with Ice Cream Cone, 1963

Read more at Smithsonian Magazine

Leonora Carrington: Britain's lost surrealist

Click to view video

Leonora Carrington escaped a stultifying Lancashire childhood to run off with Max Ernst and hang out with Picasso and André Breton in 1930s Paris. She fled the Nazis, escaped from a psychiatric hospital in Spain and became a national treasure in Mexico. What happened to one of Britain's finest - and neglected - surrealists?

Guardian

Pinson's Images of Paris

Pinson's artworks at the La Bastille contemporary art fair in Paris.

  Hôtel de Ville, Paris

 

Vélib'

Beaubourg - Centre 

Via

christine sajecki

hugo chavez delivering his devil speech to the UN
36"x48" encaustic, india ink, and oil pastel on birch
2007

christine sajecki is a Savannah artist who has appeared on this blog in the past and whose work really appeals to me. I discovered her at Uncertain Times.

Artists' Homemade Christmas Cards

Click to see the slidehow

A new exhibition of seasonal greetings from artists such as Alexander Calder and Philip Guston celebrates the handmade holiday card. Smithsonian Magazine

In art the big birthday today is that of Francis...

I recently saw a Bacon exhibit at the Met. It gave me an appreciation of the artist that I hadn't experienced before.

Via Ordinary finds

Get some perspective

ArtisanCam - Activities - Canaletto

Via

RIP Dina Vierny, Model And Muse For Art's Masters

Dina Vierny was 15 when she began modeling for Aristide Maillol. A friend of her father's spotted her at a party and told the sculptor, "I have met a girl who is a living Maillol. You must meet her."

NPR interviewed her shortly before her death on January 20 of this year at the age of 89. She was an inspiration to many artists of the time including Matisse and Bonnard. She was instrumental in restoring Maillol's home and studio in the hills of Banyuls-sur-Mer in the south of France and in creating a lovely museum in Paris devoted to his work. She lived above the museum until her death. I am grateful for the legacy she created.

I didn't know much about Aristide Maillol until I visited Banyuls last spring and made the hike up to his beautiful home. I visited the China Gold exhibit at the Maillol Museum in Paris in September. Below are a few photos I took on these trips.