Monday, February 29, 2016

Boris Chaliapin: Portrait of Thelonious Monk, TIME Cover, February 28,1964

Thelonius Monk by Boris Chaliapin


Thelonius Monk by Boris Chaliapin




A leader of the postwar jazz revolution, Thelonious Monk -- along with Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker -- sparked the "bebop" movement, a jazz style faster and more frenetic than the swing that had held sway since the thirties. Monk's piano style has been called eccentric -- "his melodies were angular, his harmonies full of jarring clusters."

Monk's recording career took off in the mid-1950s, and he won an enthusiastic following, often playing with such other avant-garde musicians as John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. His compositions "Round Midnight," "Blue Monk," and "Epistrophy" are considered classics of modern jazz.

Jim Barber, historian at the National Portrait Gallery, recently discussed this portrait of Thelonious Monk by Boris Chaliapin at a Face-to-Face portrait talk. The portrait was created for Time magazine and appeared on the cover of the February 28, 1964 edition.

Catching Up with "Mr. TIME"
by Harry J. Weil 

The National Portrait Gallery spotlights the work of Boris Chaliapin, who created hundreds of magazine covers in lightning speed.

Sitters for Boris Chaliapin’s portraits recall his friendly demeanor and witty banter. When painting Julia Child for Time magazine, he’d take breaks to buy pickle juice for a Russian soup they prepared during their sessions. In the final piece, which appeared on the November 25, 1966 issue, the chef’s head floats on top of a crimson background surrounded by steaming pots and pans, cake molds, and a fish. One critic described it as resembling “the First Apparition in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.”

Chaliapin was Time’s most prolific artist, creating more than 400 cover images between 1942 and 1970. Twenty-six of his original paintings, most of which eventually appeared on the magazine’s cover, are now the focus of the exhibition “Mr. Time: Portraits by Boris Chaliapin,” opening May 17 at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Historian and curator James Barber selected the pictures from the gallery’s Time Collection of more than 2,000 works, which includes art by Jacob Lawrence and George Segal.

Earning the nickname “Mr. Time, Chaliapin executed likenesses at lightning speed, often in less than 12 hours. His realistic style included every mole and stray hair, and remained much the same throughout his career, even when Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art were all the rage. He did, however, take some artistic liberties in his backdrops, adding details to reflect a subject’s occupation or personality.

Chaliapin came from a family of Russian virtuosos. His father, Feodor Chaliapin, was a renowned operatic basso, and his brother, Feodor, Jr., acted in Hollywood films. Boris had art training in Russia and Paris, and an exhibition in London before he began working for Time. His first commission for the magazine was of Indian independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru in 1942. Many more followed, including politicians (Harry S. Truman, Richard Nixon, Golda Meir) and celebrities (Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Muhammad Ali).

The cover of Time was considered one of the last bastions of portrait painting in the American mainstream. The inclusion in the show of Chaliapin’s undated illustration Crime in the Streets, which depicts a murdered woman on an empty urban street, marks this end. That picture was never published, partly because the growing trend in journalism toward the end of Chaliapin’s career was to “use more photographs, less original art,” Barber says. “And for Time, they began publishing more covers that focused on issues, events, and topics—thus there were fewer portraits.


New Blog: The Art of Don Mangus



Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Michael Cardew: Ceramics by a Master

Michael Cardew


Michael Cardew


Michael Cardew


Michael Cardew


Michael Cardew


Michael Cardew



Michael Cardew


Michael Cardew


Michael Cardew


Michael Cardew


Michael Cardew


Michael Cardew


Michael Cardew


Michael Cardew


Michael Cardew and Maria Martinez


Michael Cardew




Pioneer Pottery is one of the classic texts in ceramic literature. Its author, Michael Cardew, was one of the seminal figures in British ceramics and this book, written partly in response to his time spent in Africa, has influenced generations of potters around the world.

As one of the early and influential figures in British ceramics, Michael Cardew was asked in 1942 by the Crown Agents to go to Nigeria to set up a pottery training center. It was his experiences there, as well as his previous time spent in the Gold Coast, that formed the basis for this book. In addition to discussions about the basics of clay and glaze materials and their properties, Cardew shows how to make pots in the Kwali, Jebba, Vume, Ilorin, and Hausa traditions of Western Africa

This book is the first book to discuss all aspects of the pottery making process from materials through marketing. Michael Cardew found it necessary to find out and do everything for himself, and this is what lies behind this book. The consequence is that it is filled with a sense of discovery and firsthand knowledge.












Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Don Mangus: Recent Sketchbook Drawings

Don Mangus


Don Mangus


Don Mangus


Don Mangus


Don Mangus


Don Mangus


Don Mangus


Don Mangus


Don Mangus


Don Mangus


Don Mangus


Don Mangus


Don Mangus


Don Mangus


Don Mangus























Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Carl Rungius: Master Wildlife Painter

Carl Rungius



Carl Rungius




Carl Rungius


Carl Rungius


Carl Rungius



Carl Rungius


Carl Rungius


Carl Rungius


Carl Rungius


Carl Rungius



Carl Rungius


Carl Rungius


Carl Rungius



Carl Rungius


Carl Rungius


Carl Rungius


Carl Rungius



During his lifetime, artist Carl Rungius (1869-1959) enjoyed a reputation similar to that of well-known western painter Frederic Remington. Though interest in his depictions of the wildlife and awesome landscapes of the West declined after his death, growing fascination with our wilderness heritage is bringing Rungius back into the public eye. Rungius focused on realism in his depiction of wildlife -- he did some commercial illustration work for the magazine Field and Stream and paintings for the New York Zoological Society -- but he also experimented with expressive brushwork. Though his training was European, Rungius worked to develop a palette that would better convey the striking contrasts of light and color unique to the mountains and prairies of North America. Rungius has had several contemporary traveling exhibits created by the Glenbow Museum of Calgary, Alberta.