My oil painting, Man on Fire, is both a metaphor for our times and an artwork based upon real world events. The blazing man could be said to represent suffering humanity engulfed by war and conflict—alluding to the current catastrophes in the Middle East and beyond.
Years ago I visited the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy. Built in the mid-1700s and located in the Piazza di Trevi square, it is a breathtaking structure bursting with history and glorious art. Like most tourists, I tossed a coin into the fountain pool… legend says those who do so will visit Rome again. I’m infuriated to get the news…
Art and China’s Revolution is the latest exhibition at the Asia Society Museum in New York City. Running until Jan. 11, 2009, the exhibit focuses on the propaganda art produced in China during the so-called Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution period of 1966-1976. The exhibit displays some 250 large-scale oil paintings, sculptures, woodblock prints, ink paintings, drawings, posters, and other art…
In 1925 the famed English author Aldous Huxley wrote “The Best Picture in the World,” an essay about a fresco mural by one of the great masters of the early Italian Renaissance, Piero della Francesca (1412-1492). Piero’s mural titled The Resurrection, is recognized as one of the finest religious paintings in all of Christendom. With careful examination it becomes clear that…
In the early 1970’s I came under the influence of those artists now known as the New Realists, or Photo-Realists. At the time I was a student in art school, and there was actually very little training in the traditions of drawing, perspective, color theory and painting. My teachers were mostly in the abstract expressionist mold, and they constantly discouraged…
On October 1, 2013, the 70-year-old New York City Opera (NYCO) canceled its 2013-2014 season and announced its disbandment. Faced with crushing financial problems, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing its inability to raise sufficient funds to continue operating. The NYCO’s endowment shriveled from $48 million in 2008 to $5.07 million by the end of 2012. In a…
The posters on the street instantly caught my eye with their bright colors and arresting visuals of zombies, sheep and robots. As I drove by the corner where the broadsides were posted, I could just make out the stabbing headline on the red poster portraying a forlorn looking simian… “Are You A Chimp?” The stomach-turning green poster depicting zombies had…
