British artist Lubaina Himid makes art with an immediately striking impact, featuring riotous displays of clashing pattern and print. Her love of bold, bright textiles is evident throughout the many strands of her practice, which have varied from painting to sculpture, drawing and installation. These dazzling textiles are, on the one hand, a theatrical device…
All posts by Rosie Lesso
Embroidery is deeply entrenched in South American history, spanning from ancient times all the way up to the present day. Its history is fascinatingly diverse, demonstrating the great skill and ingenuity that has been passed on from one generation to the next through the millennia. Over the centuries, South American embroidery has evolved into a…
Drama is at the heart of Pierre Soulages’ art, and he achieves it through stark, theatrical means. A leader in 20th century European Abstract Expressionism, Soulages pioneered a bold, striking language, combining dark, enigmatic shades of indigo like MEDIEVAL BLUE with jet black, ultramarine and cerulean. He swept them in grand gestures across his artworks with…
Grayson Perry is one of today’s most radical contemporary artists, and his practice is as diverse as they come. Moving between painting, ceramics, performance, textiles, tapestries and more, his fluid approach to art and design proves just how borderless the act of making art can be. This seamless approach also bleeds into Perry’s life, as…
ROYAL BLUE linen has the brilliant vibrancy of the Mediterranean Sea as it stretches outwards into an infinite horizon of azure blue. French painter Henri Matisse spent the majority of his life in Nice, where this same limitless blue light filtered into his mind’s eye, to be reimagined on canvas as fields of electrifying ultramarine….
With her psychedelic clothing and bright red wig, Yayoi Kusama is an inimitable icon of the 20th century. Like many before her, including Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe and Andy Warhol, Kusama has recognised the importance of brandishing an unforgettable public image, one that is innately bound with her life and art. Kusama’s public image is…
From Viking Age clothing to Catholic vestments and prestigious royal gowns, European embroidery has a rich history that is closely intertwined with our cultural past. Europe was also a site for embroidery innovation; techniques that were discovered here continue to live on today in the clothes we wear and the ways we decorate our homes….
Wassily Kandinsky lived and breathed colour, letting it infiltrate his entire life. His impassioned, ferocious paintings are a testament to this, with their noisy, clanging clashes of dazzling brilliance that exude a spirit of endless optimism and hope. He was a great leader in the 20th century European avant-garde, taking art into the great and…
The art of adorning clothing with embroidery has been an Indian tradition for more than 5,000 years. Its history is deeply embedded into the history of Indian culture, religion and daily life, and it is a tradition that continues to this day. Throughout Indian history embroidery has been there, adorning the homes of ordinary people…
Cubist painter Georges Braque celebrated the ambient power of warm, naturalistic colours throughout his career, bringing rich and appealing earthy tones like LODEN GREEN into many of his most famous paintings. A pioneering French Cubist alongside Pablo Picasso, Braque’s limited hues initially gave him room to focus on wildly experimental designs without letting bright colours…
Post-war British artist Patrick Heron was a colourist at heart, creating noisy, expressive paintings that seem to fizz and pop with life. He often brought sombre shades of purple, indigo and blue into his abstract paintings, letting it meander in velvety ribbons across white backgrounds, or seep into endless pools of darkness. BLUE ICE’s cool…
Cool, icy greys like VAPOR BLUE are a mainstay in Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s art, capturing the freezing, oceanic air of her native Cornwall. A leading member of the St Ives artists group in Cornwall, England, Barns-Graham was entranced by the steely silver of the ocean and its surrounding rocks. She painted, drew, and printed abstract visions…
The journey of embroidery in the United States is long and complex, with many twists and turns along the way. It begins with the ancient cultures of Native America, and travels through the 17th century New World, flourishing in the American colonies and remaining a popular pastime in the later cities that emerged. Because of…
French artist Raoul Dufy is one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century, known for his brilliantly colourful, spirited artworks that convey a world of eternal optimism. Although he is primarily remembered today as a painter, there is another, less publicised side to Dufy – that of a pioneering textile designer. He produced…
American painter Roland Petersen makes paintings that are streaked with angular slabs of sunlight, slotted together with the appealing playfulness of a tangram puzzle. A leading member of the Bay Area Figurative School in 1960s San Francisco, Petersen was one of a generation who rejected Abstract Expressionism for a return to figuration, combining all the…
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