Georgia O’Keeffe, Evening Star No.III, 1917

Jules Pascin, Interior, n.d.

Georgia O’Keeffe, From the Lake, n.d.

ART TIMELINE: 1936

Frida Kahlo, My Grandparents and I, 1936: Surrealism

Paul Klee, New Harmony, 1936: Expressionism

Georgia O’Keeffe, Jimson Weed, 1936-37: modernism

Georgia O’Keeffe, 1928, Wave, Night

Albert Bloch, 1941, Gulls

Albert Bloch was an American artist associated with the group Der Blaue Reiter, an expressionist group founded in 1905 and consisting mainly of German artists and Russian immigrant artists (Wassily Kandinsky is probably the best known name of the bunch.) I am a huge fan of Bloch, whose work I believe to be pretty understated. There is something haunting about the isolated beach and sharp, angular birds in Gulls. It reminds me of some Romanticist sketches I’ve come across (I’m thinking Samuel Palmer in particular).

NUDE OF THE WEEK: Blue Nude by Henri Matisse, 1907

NUDE OF THE WEEK: Nude Sitting on a Divan by Amedeo Modigliani, 1917

What I like most about this nude, by Italian painter Modigliani, is the way that despite the cartoon-like style of the piece, and the substantial lack of realism, the infamous female ‘gaze’ is still achieved: she watches us, knowing that we can see her and are intrigued by her naked state. She curves her body seductively, with just a hint of an enigmatic smile curling at the edges of her mouth. The deep crimson background matches the shade of her lips, and brings out and emphasises the green of her hooded eyes.

Georgia O’Keeffe, 1941, My Front Yard, Summer

This landscape is most likely a depiction of New Mexico, where O’Keeffe spent most of her time between the years of 1929 and 1949. She bought a house at Ghost Ranch, north of Abiquiu, and you can read more about her time there at ghostranch.org.

Milton Avery, 1958, Green Sea

I love how the simple addition of a few white and black dabs of paint have turned what is essentially a very plain composition of geometric shapes, into a beach scene with two figures strolling along a jade green sea.

Jules Pascin, 1919, Hermine

Hermine David was a French painter, who married the Bulgarian-born painter Pascin in New York City shortly after they moved to the States in 1915.

Fernand Leger, 1917, The Card Players

Staring at this piece by ‘Tubist’ painter Fernand Leger will eventually give you a headache … you have been warned.

Henri Matisse, 1905, Woman with a Hat

Georgia O’Keeffe, c.1918, Blue Flower

ARTIST OF THE WEEK: Emily Carr, 1871-1945

Painter and writer Emily Carr grew up in British Colombia, Canada, and studied at the San Francisco Arts Institute after the death of her parents when she was just a teen. She travelled to Britain and France, where she developed a style with clear fauvist influences. Her work was also highly influenced by indigenous peoples of the northwest coast of Canada and the huge sweeping topography of the land.

Carr later became associated with the Group of Seven, a small group of Canadian landscape painters including Franklin Carmichael and Lawren Harris. Harris and Carr became particularly close, with Harris being a strong influence on the direction of Carr’s work.