Rene Magritte, La Magie Noir (Black Magic), 1935
First post of the day for Magritte.
This has long been my favorite Magritte. In my opinion, it’s his most emotion-filled piece. The model was his wife, Georgette Berger, whom he first met when he was very young. This melancholy, aquatic-themed painting might reference a tragic event in Magritte’s own life, when he was 14 he walked in on his mother’s dead body. She had drowned herself.
Anonymous asked: Can you do more Magritte posts (like the ones you did the other day) for tomorrow?
Yes!! Great idea!
Chuck Close, Mark, 1978
This took fourteen months to complete, and used a layered paint technique that mimicked computer design programs.
This man is so eager.
Chuck Close, Frank, 1969 lol, I see hipsters wearing those glasses all the time. Photorealism. No computer. Sheer talent, bitches.
Chuck Close, Bill Clinton, 2007
Close was partially paralyzed in 1988, and lost the use of his fingers. He had to paint with a brush strapped onto his wrist, and so this portrait took him four months. As with all his work, he never used a computer, instead “mapping” this onto a canvas using a complex grid system.
Up close, this painting is very abstract and doesn’t look like much of anything. But when you back away, all of those silly little dots and squiggles transform into a very recognizable Bill Clinton. Close called Clinton’s gaze “very seductive” while he was doing the photography for this project.
Chuck Close, Leslie, 1973
Another example of Close’s amazing photorealism. This is not a photograph, people.
Chuck Close, Kate Moss Series, 2003
Part of the photographic series using the daguerreotype method. You can read more about it in my last post.
Chuck Close, Kate Moss, 2003
This incredible photographic portrait was taken using the daguerreotype process of photography,possibly the oldest way of taking photographs. The daguerrotype process involves long exposure, harmful chemicals and an incredibly sensitive metal plate for imprinting the images. In this way, the subject’s flaws and character are highlighted.
By the way, Chuck Close was face-blind, meaning he couldn’t recognize faces. And he still made these incredible portraits.
Chuck Close, Big Self-Portrait, 1968
AS PER REQUEST, I am doing Chuck Close today!! Yay!
Close focuses exclusively on portraiture, in a style called photorealism, because it’s so fucking lifelike. Seriously. Look at this. It looks like a photograph at first! To make this, he had to take like five billion pictures of himself, then drew a grid and transferred every single little detail onto the canvas. It took him four months.
Anonymous asked: Please do some posts on Chuck Close. Thank you :)
Will do! Stay tuned :)
Frida Kahlo, Girl With Death Mask (She Plays Alone), 1938
Thought to be a young Frida, the girl wears a Mexican “Day of the Dead” mask and holds a yellow flower. Art historians have officially classified this painting as “Fucking Creepy,” (citation needed).
Frida Kahlo, The Wounded Deer, 1946
This incredibly surreal painting references both her personal injuries and her inner turmoil and suffering. Though she is calm, gazing out at the viewer, her deer body also has been shot in the leg.
People often label Frida as a “surrealist,” and with a painting like this, it’s pretty easy to see why. She, however, objected to this, stating that she “painted her own reality.”
Yeah, girl, you go.
Frida Kahlo, Me and My Parrots, 1941
In the Hindu tradition of symbolism, the four parrots symbolize the love god Kama, or erotic love. So yeah, I mean, she’s pretty sexy.
