After the early death of Rufin Sudkovsky in 1885, his widow, the former Elena Petrovna Besnard, a prolific Russian illustrator, later married another Ukrainian artist, Mykola Samokish (1860–1944), a selection of whose paintings I show today. Samokish is remarkable for having remained popular and successful in Ukraine and Russia from the 1880s into the Second World War, a period during which so many artists fell foul of one regime or another.

Samokish was born into a Cossack family in Nizhyn, Ukraine, and spent his youth in the town of Nosivka near Chernihiv, in the north-east of the country. He studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg between 1879 and 1885.

Mykola Samokish (1860–1944), Hunters (1885), oil, dimensions not known, National Gallery of Art, Lviv, Ukraine. Wikimedia Commons.

In his early career, he painted several hunting scenes, including the painterly Hunters from 1885.

The same year, Samokish travelled…

“Associated with the Symbolist movement, the art of Odilon Redon demonstrates a superb mastery of the pastel technique which draws it source from French 18th century art. The Impressionist painters such as Manet or Degas revived this medium, but Redon then developed a particular style which evoked a world inhabited by a deep sense of spirituality…The use of a arched window-like frame emphasises this space of transition between the physical and the spiritual world. The composition is completed by a majestic invasion of evanescent flowers. Flowers, as Redon described in his diary “…come from the convergence of two shores, that of representation, that of memory”. (A Soi-même. Journal (1867-1915), Paris, 1922, p.115).”

READ FULL ESSAY: Sotheby’s

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Odilon…

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Louis Valtat at wikiwand

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Louis Valtat at Artnet

Louis Valtat at Sotheby’s

Louis Valtat at Christie’s

Thanks for Visiting 🙂

~Sunnyside

Strong experience, a disturbing and surreal one.


Before the movie started, I had a look around me. EVERYONE was holding huge packs of chips, popcorn and drinks. It was noisy.


I thought, it will stop as the movie starts. It didn’t.


The guy close to me, in order to pack as many chips as possible in his mouth, was moving his harm toward me as if it was perfectly choreographed (to disappoint).

It was not beautiful. Not a sign of caring either.


Despite (or thanks to…) these distractions, and eating practices of my fellow neighbors… (as if there was no tomorrow), I could sense the power of buried emotions.

In others, Charlie, and myself.

The last scenes of the movie have been therapeutic.

This movie made me cry.

“Unexpressed emotions will never die.They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.”

Freud

“I am interested in every tangle of thread and rope and every possibility of transformation … I am not interested in the practical usefulness of my work”

Magdalena Abakanowicz’s woven installations have been on display at Tate Modern since November, and the exhibition runs until May. I’ve seen the exhibition three times over the past month: once dropping in to a private view with my membership after a slightly boozy work do nearby, then again on a day doing the galleries with my mum, and finally with my son and daughter during half term, a day out that also fulfilled a GCSE art homework requirement. I’m definitely getting my money’s worth from the membership at the moment.

Abakanowicz was born into an aristocratic Tatar family, but her family exited the war in much weakened position. Nevertheless, and despite the strictures of communism, living and working after the War in Poland…

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The Peasant Wedding at wikiwand

The Peasant Wedding at Google Arts and Culture

If, like me, you can’t keep all these Brueghels straight, go to Brueghel Family Tree

Thanks for Visiting 🙂

~Sunnyside

“Unfolding Buds” by Willard Metcalf. This painting hangs at the Detroit Institute of Arts

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Willard Leroy Metcalf at Florence Griswold Museum

Willard Leroy Metcalf at wikiwand

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Willard Leroy Metcalf at Artcyclopedia

Willard Leroy Metcalf at Christie’s

Willard Leroy Metcalf at Sotheby’s

Willard Leroy Metcalf at wikimedia

Willard Leroy Metcalf at Google Arts and Culture

Willard Leroy Metcalf at Art Renewal Center

Thanks for Visiting 🙂

~Sunnyside