Funderberg.com

The Art of Henry Ossawa Tanner

The most distinguished African-American artist of the nineteenth century, Henry Ossawa Tanner was also the first artist of his race to achieve international acclaim. Tanner was born on June 21, 1859, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , to Benjamin Tucker and Sarah Miller Tanner. Tanner’s father was a college-educated teacher and minister who later became a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopalian Church. Sarah Tanner was a former slave whose mother had sent her north to Pittsburgh through the Underground Railroad. Tanner’s family moved frequently during his early years when his father was assigned to various churches and schools. In 1864 Tanner’s family settled in Philadelphia where his early artistic interests were developed. At age thirteen, Tanner decided to become an artist when he saw a painter at work during a walk in Fairmount Park near his home. Throughout his teens, Tanner painted and drew constantly in his spare time and tried to look at art as much as possible in Philadelphia art galleries. He also studied briefly with two of the city’s minor painters. More at the National Archives website

Henry Ossawa Tanner at the National Archives
http://clinton2.nara.gov/WH/EOP/First_Lady/html/hot-bio.html

The Art of Kris Lewis

Kris Lewis began dreaming and flailing atop this lovely carnival ride in 1978, in the great surround of the Jersey shore. Growing up in a family that included 7 brothers and 1 sister provided ample fodder for his creative appetite, weaving an existence replete with love, conflict, beauty, tradition and classic Jersey brawls.

Website
http://krislewisart.com/

Palettes of Famous Painters

Lucy Davies of the Telegraph writes, “Why preserve an artist’s palette? The daubs of raw pigment or the mixes left in position can be an intriguing index to the working method and the mind of the artist. And most, once the status of art had been elevated above the realms of mere craft, would paint themselves palette in hand.”

Why preserve Van Gogh’s palette?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/lucydavies/100007607/why-preserve-van-goghs-palette/

The Art of Brian Rego

Brian says, “My ambition is to tap into something that is profoundly human, a reality both estranged and familiar.”

Brian Rego’s Website
http://www.brianrego.com/

The Art of Gaston Bussiere

The Art Tribune: A student of Alexandre Cabanel, Bussière often produced this type of work which combines the Symbolist approach, the art of the English pre-Raphaelites and that of historical painting by artists such as Jean-Paul Laurens. He interprets the latter’s universe (the figure of Siegmund for instance, seems to come directly from a Laurens painting) in aphantasmagorical style, with flickering colours and affected forms which also evoke Jean Delville. The backgrounds in his landscapes (the case for the one acquired here by Cherbourg) recalls Puvis de Chavanne (with whom he worked) or Alphonse Osbert.

The artist’s style evolved later in a manner that can only be qualified as being more and more “kitsch” arriving in the 1920’s at a point which even the most ardent supporters of art history find hard to defend. Nonetheless, his early works should not be forgotten, among them very fine examples such as the beautiful Death of Roland (Mâcon, Musée des Ursulines). Let us point out that Mâcon where his father, Victor Bussière, painter and decorator, settled in 1862 when Gaston was five years old, is preparing two exhibitions devoted to this family of artists the first of which, Les Bussière, peintres et décorateurs (), will open 18 October 2008 and run through 1st February 2009.

The Art Tribune Website
http://www.thearttribune.com/A-large-format-by-Gaston-Bussiere.html

Wikimedia Media Files on Gaston Bussiere
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Gaston_Bussiere