August Strindberg - Wave VII

Wave VII by August Strindberg

The famous Swedish dramatist August Strindberg started to express himself through painting in 1873, and did so more intensively after 1892. But his best period as a painter, and as a writer, was when he was in Stockholm, his home from 1899.

At that point, he devoted himself to landscapes, mainly seascapes and coastal scenes. In the 1900s, he developed the theme of the wave in a number of different versions, all with a particular composition. The sea and the clouds almost merge, and threaten to overwhelm the thin band of light separating them. Wague VII is a good illustration of Strindberg's idea of the process whereby wild forces produce natural shapes, allowing for randomness. It is the ideal of an artist seeking to "imitate the way the natural world is created".

His abstract, cosmic vision bears little resemblance to the waves of the Romantic painter Paul Huet, to those by Courbet and Monet, or to the symbolist waves of artists like the Nabi Georges Lacombe.

The artist threw his colors on to the canvas in a very spontaneous way – a range of light greys and grey-blacks, spread in blocks, using a palette knife.

Strindberg himself wrote in 1894: "I select a medium-sized canvas, or preferably a board, so that I can complete the painting in two or three hours, while my inspiration lasts. [...] I distribute the colours around the board, and mix them there so as to achieve a rough sketch".

This powerful, sombre work, "a confusion of the conscious and the unconscious", appears to be a precursor of "Tachisme" and Chance Art. It clearly reveals the troubled, anxious character of the man and the artist.

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Antoni Tàpies

Antoni Tàpies (born in Barcelona, December 13, 1923) is a Spanish Catalan painter. He is considered a great master artist of the 20th century [citation needed]. After studying law for 3 years, he devoted himself from 1943 onwards only to his painting. He is perhaps the best-known Catalan artist to emerge in the period since the Second World War.

In 1950 he held his first solo exhibition, at Galeries Laietanes, Barcelona. In the early 50s he lived in Paris, to where he has often returned. Both in Europe and beyond, the highly influential French critic and curator Michel Tapié (no relation, despite the similar name) enthusiastically promoted the work of Antoni Tàpies.

In 1948, Tàpies helped co-found the first Post-War Movement in Spain known as Dau-al-Set which was connected to the Surrealist and Dadaist Movements. The main leader and founder of Dau-al-Set was the poet Joan Brossa. The movement also had a publication of the same name, Dau-al-Set. Tàpies started as a surrealist painter, his early works were influenced by Paul Klee and Joan Miró; but soon become an abstract expressionist, working in a style known as "Arte Povera", in which non artistic materials are incorporated into the paintings. In 1953 he began working in mixed media; this is considered his most original contribution to art. One of the first to create serious art in this way, he added clay and marble dust to his paint and used waste paper, string, and rags (Grey and Green Painting, Tate Gallery, London, 1957).

His international reputation was well established by the end of the 50s. From the late 50's to early 60's, Tàpies worked with Enrique Tábara, Antonio Saura, Manolo Millares and many other Spanish Informalist artists. From about 1970 (influenced by Pop art) he began incorporating more substantial objects into his paintings, such as parts of furniture. Tàpies's ideas have had worldwide influence on art, especially in the realms paintings, sculpture, etchings and lithography. Examples of his work are found in numerous major international collections.

Fundació Tàpies, in Barcelona, is a museum dedicated to his life and work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Tapies...