Famous Artist #14

Robert Motherwell

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Born in 1915 and died 1991

American Abstract Painter.

His school years were in CA where he found his love for spaces and colors, His later work had to do with his health as a child.

Around 1932-37 studied painting at CSFA and received a BA in philosophy from Stanford.

At Stanford he learned about modernism, symbolist and other literature.

His father wanted him to get a more secure career but he wanted to be a painter.

He went to Harvard to study philosophy.

In the 40s he moved to NYC where he went to Columbia and painted and was encouraged by Meyer Schapiro. Meyer introduced him to surrealists. During this time he was influenced a lot.

He also studied under Kurt Seligmann.

Around 1941 he met his future wife and decided to make painting his career while with Roberto Matta in Mexico. Matta helped him with the idea of Automatism or abstract automatic doodling.

He spend a lot of time developing his creative principles based on what he has learned with Matta, Wolfgang Paalen and Yves Tanguy.

In the early 40s Motherwell helped form the movement of Abstract Expressionism.

1942 he started showing his work in NYC, in 44 he had his first solo show at one of Peggy Guggenheim’s galleries.

Through out the 50’s he was a teacher at Hunter College in NY and at Black Mountain College in California.

during the 60’s he was at an art colony in Provincetown MA.

Famous Photographer #21

Bruce Gilden

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Born 1946 (73 years old)

His style of street photography is using a flash and being close to his subjects.

He has received many awards over the years, European Publisher Award for Photography and also a Guggenheim as well as others.

He is also a member of Magnum Photos since 98.

At Penn state, he learned sociology, but was to boring and quite college.

He thought about being an actor but around 67 he bought his first camera.

Taking night classes at SVA in NY.

As you can tell by his work he was fascinated with the people on the street.

He has worked with BW for a large part of his career. When he used the lecia S camera, he was doing some color work as well as digital.

Some of his subjects are everyday people, mobsters, homeless, gang members and many other types of people.

Famous Photographer #20

Dorothea Lange

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Born in 1895 Died in 1965

She was known for her documentary/street photography style.

Her most known work is her Great Depression work. Working with FSA (farm security administrations). A side note is that those photos are in the public domain.

During her HS years she never owned a camera but wanted to be a photographer.

Her photography education started at Columbia University in NYC, Her professor was Clarence H White.

She apprenticed in many studios, one being Arnold Genthe.

She wanted to travel the world but that ended due to being robbed, so she became a photograph finisher at a camera store. Here is where she got to meet other photographers.

She met someone while working as a photograph finisher, who helped her with a successful portrait studio which lasted about 15 years. In her studio most of the portraits were of social elite in San Francisco.

During the Great Depression she left the studio to document the world around her. documenting the homeless and unemployed.

After her divorce she married an economist who went with her to document sharecroppers and other workers.

Around 1941 she got a Guggenheim Fellowship for her photography. After Perl Harbor she gave up her grant to document Japanese Americans. She worked with the WRA (War Relocation Authority). She photographed the camps, her perspective was the uncertainty. Most of the photos during this were taken away by the army but now can be seen.

In 45 Ansel invited her to teach art photography at CSFA/SFAI.

In 54 she helped create the magazine Aperture.

First Model Shoot of 2019

Its been a while since I have done a model shoot and i decided it was time to use the studio. I asked a facebook friend if she would like to model for me. She wanted her sister to come with her, so i asked me friend Josh to see if he wanted to come and photograph as well since he has not done a lot of studio work. It was a lot of firsts for everyone. their first model type shoot, my first time photographing with another photographer.

Famous Artist #13

Keith Haring

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Born 1958 and died in 1990

His style of work is a mix of pop art and graffiti. In his early days he would graffiti ever where he could for the most part trying not to get arrested, Which at times he did. His style became a widely recognized visual language.

In his later work often addressed political and societal themes.

He was an artist from the start, making drawings with his dad.

His influences were the classic cartoonists like Walt Disney, Dr. Seuss, Charles Schulz.

He studied commercial art in the late 70’s at Pittsburgh's Ivy School of Professional Art, but lost interest.

He was inspired to focus on his own art after reading a book by Robert Henri.

He had a maintenance job at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, where he saw work from the greats like Pollock.

He was highly influenced by a show of Pierre Alechinsky work and by a lecture that the sculptor Christo gave.

Moved to NYC in 78 to study painting at the School of Visual Arts.

1980 he organized exhibitions at Club 57, a gallery which hosted performances and exhibitions from emerging artists.

He had a large part in the AIDS movement and creating work and posters for the movement.