Summer Art

With spring coming to a close, and the first day of summer coming next Wednesday, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite summer themed artworks. Happy summer!

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ABOVE: David Hockney, A Bigger Splash, 1967, acrylic on canvas, 95.5 x 96 x 1 inches, Tate, London

 

ABOVE: Edward Hopper, Ground Swell, 1939, oil on canvas, 36 x 50 inches, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

ABOVE: Vincent van Gogh, Fishing Boats on the Beach at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1888, oil on canvas, 25.6 x 32 inches, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

ABOVE: Claude Monet, Poppy Fields near Argenteuil, 1875, oil on canvas, 211 x 29 inches, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

ABOVE: Pablo Picasso, On the Beach, 1937, oil, conté crayon and chalk on canvas, 50.7 x 76.4 inches, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

 

Ten Iconic Artworks in the USA

Of all the worlds great art treasures, many can be seen in the United States of America. Here are ten of the most iconic artworks to be found in the land of liberty.

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Row 1:

Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night (Museum of Modern Art, New York City)

Row 2:

Katsushika Hokusai, Great Wave Off Kanagawa (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City)

Grant Wood, American Gothic (Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party (The Phillips Collection, Washington DC)

Row 3:

Georges-Pierre Seurat, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago)

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (Museum of Modern Art, New York City)

Rene Magritte, The Treachery of Images (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles)

Row 4:

Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory (Museum of Modern Art, New York City)

J.M.W. Turner, The Slave Ship (Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Edward Hopper, Nighthawks (Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago)

Arts Unsolved Mysteries

Whether it be Edgar Allan Poe or Vincent van Gogh, an artists life is often full of mystery. In some cases, their deaths are too.

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ABOVE: Tom Thomson, The Jack Pine, 1916-17, oil on canvas, 50.4 x 54.7 inches, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Life is inherently mysterious. For the following artists, so too was death:

Edgar Allan Poe

In 1849, at the age of 40, a delirious Poe was found on the streets of Baltimore. Incoherent, and wearing someone else’s clothes, he was unable to tell anyone what happened, and he died 4 days after being found.

Vincent van Gogh

In 1890, at the age of 37, van Gogh stumbled into town with a gunshot wound to the chest. It is believed he shot himself, but no gun was ever found, and there were no witnesses. Despite being in good spirits, he died 29 hours after arriving home.

Tom Thomson

In 1917, at the age of 39, Thomson disappeared on a canoeing trip in Algonquin Park – his body was found 8 days later, floating alone in Canoe Lake. While some theories suggest murder, others suicide, the official cause of death was listed as accidental drowning. No one knows exactly when he died.

Caravaggio

In 1610, at the age of 38, Caravaggio died in Tuscany – his death has been shrouded in mystery ever since. While Syphilis or murder have long been suspected, another recent theory has been lead poisoning. Like Thomson, no one knows exactly how, or when he died.