piet dieleman atelier

04/12/2022

….monotype, Herbarium, Judaspenning

04/12/2022

This third and final MWW gallery devoted to the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) takes a look at his work during the final thirty years of his life -- the period after his breakdown and recovery when his work took on a brighter, less depressive look, featuring broad, loose brushstrokes of vibrant color with a frequent use of white space and rare use of black.

During these years Munch also began to gain critical recognition and he received the only public commission of his career. In 1914 the University of Oslo asked Munch to decorate their new assembly hall. The eleven monumental paintings he completed for it in 1916 marked a stunning departure from the type of work upon which his reputation had been built. A survey of some of the titles tells all: "New Rays," "Women turned towards the Sun," "Awakening Men in the Lightstream," "Geniuses in the Lightstream," "Men turned towards the Sun," "Harvesting Women," "Alma Mater." A large canvas of a radiant sun was the centerpiece. The ensemble was a celebration, according to Munch, of the "perpetual forces of life" ... on the "bright side." He had begun to move "towards the light at the end of the tunnel."

Munch's new-found commercial success allowed him in 1916 to purchase the estate Ekely, a former plant nursery near Skøyen on the western outskirts of Oslo. There he would build several studios and spend most of his last two decades in solitude and near self-sufficiency. This change in lifestyle also had a profound impact on his work, which, as this gallery illustrates, now abounds in landscapes and pictures that celebrate farm life and scenes of people at work and play. Even the paintings in which he reprises the motifs of his "dark period" -- alienation, death, jealousy, murder, and the like -- are rendered in his new optimistic style and bright palette.

Though the final decade of Munch's life was not without its vicissitudes -- in 1937 the N***s labeled his work "degenerate art" and removed 82 works of his from German museums; in 1940 they invaded and occupied Norway -- he continued to work in the same manner until his death on the 23rd of January 1944, shortly after he had turned eighty. As a final act of grace, he bequeathed the works in his possession -- a collection of approximately 1100 paintings, 4500 drawings, and 18000 prints -- to the city of Oslo, which built a museum in his honor to house them.

The 408 works in this gallery are arranged in the the probable chronological order of their completion. As is MWW custom many of the works are accompanied by commentary, either original or from authoritative sources, that should enhance the viewer's appreciation of the work. (Click "See More" in the box to the right of the full-screen image to read these.) Biographical information on the artist also accompanies several of the many self-portraits.

SEE ALSO these other MWW Munch galleries, which together with this one present over 1100 of his works:
* Edvard Munch Explores the Dark Side (1880-1900)
* Edvard Munch II: Breakdown and Recovery (1901-1912)

24/11/2022

The social and cultural phenomenon known as the Renaissance may have originated in Italy, but by the middle of the fifteenth century it had spread northward along the trade route that linked the Italian mercantile centers with those of the Low Countries. If the new invention of the printing press helped spread its humanist credo, direct contact between the artists of north and south ensured that its aesthetic and revolutionary artistic techniques would find new places in which to flourish. The Italian and Flemish artists of this period have had several MWW galleries devoted to them. We now dedicate this "Northern Lights" series to their German counterparts.

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was the giant among Northern Renaissance artists -- Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael all rolled into one. He was the greatest printmaker of his time, setting the standard for the next two centuries in that art. He revolutionized the woodcut by endowing it with the linear subtleties of engraving. He was the first European to work successfully with watercolors, using the medium to become the first artist outside of the Far East to paint landscapes. A true "Renaissance Man," with many intellectual interests, he wrote several theoretical treatises dealing with perspective, human proportions and mathematics. Like Leonardo, he also was fond of making sketches for new "inventions," including a device for correctly rendering perspective that led to the "camera oscura" and formulated the basic principles that would ultimately lead to the invention of photography.

If Antonello da Messina introduced the Italians to the virtues of Northern art, Dürer was the apostle for the Italian Renaissance north of the Alps. Born into a large artisan family recently relocated from Hungary, Dürer left his native Nuremberg after completing his apprenticeship in printmaking, wandering for several years through Germany, the Netherlands and, finally, Italy, where in Venice he encountered the art of Bellini and Mantegna. At that time in Germany the wild fantasy of Matthias Grünewald was still in vogue. Upon his return to Nuremberg, Dürer revolted against this, infusing his paintings and prints with the more objective, disciplined approach of the Italians. The new style won approval quickly: by his late twenties he was famous and regarded as Germany's leading artist, a position he would never relinquish.

Along with all works in oil attributed to Dürer, we have included in this gallery the 67 extant works he did in watercolor, a medium he was among the very first to master. For the more complex of the oil paintings, we've provided "close-up" images showing detail. Nearly all the entries in this gallery include commentary (in English) from authoritative sources, which you can read if you click on "See More" under the picture's identifying information (artist, title, medium, dimensions, location) to the right of the full-screen image. Biographical information about the artist accompanies his self-portraits.

An exhaustive selection of Dürer's prints and drawings will be presented in a companion gallery to this one.

04/08/2022

Before the era of photographic and digital reproduction, mass-produced prints -- engravings, etchings, woodcuts, lithographs -- were often the only artwork the average person saw outside of a church or public square. This MWW Special Collection features prints, drawings, indeed any kind of graphic work on paper --scrolls, illuminated manuscript pages, miniatures, sketches, pastels, and watercolors. It was built through installments of 20-50 images that alternated with a companion prints collection of works from the modern period.

The gallery is complete. Here's a list of the sections in the order they appear:

1 - Fifty works by five of the giants of the Italian Renaissance -- Andrea Mantegna, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Raffaelo Sanzio
2 - Twenty-nine by German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
3 - Thirty-nine from six German Renaissance artists
4 - All 50 of Holbein's Danse Macabre woodcuts
5 - Thirty-eight engravings of Pieter Breugel the Elder's drawings
6 - Thirty-six drawings by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69)
7 - Thirty etchings by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69)
8 - Twenty-five prints & drawings from the Spanish Golden Age
9 - Forty prints by William Hogarth (1697-1764)
10 - Thirty-five graphic works by 18th c. French artists
11 - Twenty-five prints by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1788)
12 - Twenty-one prints by Francesco Goya (1746-1828)
13 - Thirty drawings by Francesco Goya (1746-1828)
14 - Thirty prints & watercolors by William Blake (1757-1827)
15 - Twenty-six prints & drawings by Honoré Daumier (1808-1879)
16 - Twenty-five prints & drawings by Gustave Doré (1832-1883)
17 - Thirty three by Winslow Homer & J.MW. Whistler

This gallery is essentially complete. New single images will be on an ad hoc basis.

Several current exhibits are also comprised entirely or in part of graphic works:
* "The Topsy-Turvy World of M.C. Escher"
* Goya's "Los Caprichos" / "Los Desastres de la Guerra" / "Art of Bullfighting & Los Disparates"
* "Blake's Job" & "Songs of Innocence & Experience
* William Blake - The Visionary
* Hokusai's "Views of Mt. Fuji"
* Hiroshige's "53 Stages of the Tokaido"
* The Art of Imperial China
* "Rembrandt's Bible: Old & New Testaments"
* The two-part Ashcan School exhibit
* Kathe Kollwitz: The Art of Empathy

Check out these other MWW Special Sections:
* Prints & Drawings Room, Modern Section
* Sculpture Garden
* Ancient/Medieval Art
* Non-Western Paintings Gallery
* Non-Western Sculpture & Architecture
* Photographic Art Gallery
* Documentary Photo Gallery
* Poster Alley
* Architect's Studio

31/07/2022

This MWW Special Collection presents a sample of the sculptural and architectural accomplishments of the Non-Western world. Here you'll find Hindu temples and temple art, Giant Buddhas, Chinese porcelain, African masks, Islamic mosques and mosaic tiles, and the ceramic figurines from the Mesoamerican and Andean cultures of the New World.

This gallery was constructed through weekly installments -- 20 to 40 works. As with all the MWW galleries, the commentary to each image provides background information on the artist, work, or historical period.

The gallery is now complete. Here's a list of the installments, to help you navigate it:

1 - Sculptural works from the Greco-Buddhist cultures of Central Asia & N. India (30)
2 - Khajuraho temples & sculptures (41)
3 - Hindu Temple Architecture (30)
4 - Hindu sculpture from India (30)
5 - Buddhist sculpture (30)
6 - Islamic Art & Architecture (30)
7 - Chinese ceramics (25)
8 - Khmer sculpture & architecture (24)
9 - Japanese sculpture & decorative arts (25)
10 - Mayan sculpture & ceramic figurines (30)
11 - Olmec & other Mesoamerican sculpture (20)
12 - Pre-Columbian Peru (20)
13 - African masks & sculpture (26)
14 - Native American totem poles (15)

This gallery is essentially complete. New single images will be on an ad hoc basis.

Check out these other current or upcoming MWW Special Collections:

* Sculpture Garden
* Poster Alley
* Non-Western Paintings Gallery
* Ancient/Medieval Art
* Architect's Studio
* Prints & Drawings Room, Classical Section
* Prints & Drawings Room, Modern Section
* Photographic Art Gallery
* Documentary Photo Gallery
* Portrait Photography Gallery
* Cinema Paradiso

31/07/2022

….great

By 1938 Picasso was beyond famous: he was a legend and the living icon for artistic "genius." One of the perks for such geniuses is that they get to indulge themselves with impunity, and that Picasso proceeded to do over the remaining 35 years of his life. This gallery presents merely a small sample of that amazing output.

As is the case with all MWW galleries, the works are presented chronologically and many are accompanied by commentaries giving useful background information about the work or subject depicted. (You will need to click "See More" to the right of the large images to access these.)

For more Picasso, see these recent MWW exhibits:
* Picasso before Cubism: 1893-1906
* Picasso & Braque - Founding Fathers (of Cubism)
* Picasso after Cubism: I - 1917-1938

27/07/2022

Wat een mooie combinatie, onze eigen met !

20/05/2022

….BRUTES, ART Rotterdam 2022

19/05/2022

…..printing monotypes today

19/05/2022

….printing monotypes

19/05/2022

…today printing monotypes