The pioneering Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi painted a world of rich, decadent and warm tones like MARSALA, which she coupled with dramatic, heightened chiaroscuro. Her paintings draw us into private worlds where theatrical, sometimes terrifying stories play out, or melancholic heroines are overcome with strong emotion. As the most successful female painter of her day,…
All posts by Rosie Lesso
From canopies made of recycled t-shirts and architectural wall-hangings to vast garments made for multiple wearers, Mexican artist Pia Camil is constantly experimenting with the boundaries of textile art, pushing it in a series of exciting and unexpected directions. She is particularly interested in breaking down the pretensions of the art world, namely the utopian…
British 19th century painter John Constable painted the British landscape as a place of wild and unspoilt wonder, revelling in its curling old trees, mud-soaked ground and billowing, cloud-filled skies. He was fascinated by nature in all its grubby, dirty reality and often honed in on details other might choose to ignore or omit, like…
London-based, contemporary textile artist Richard McVetis makes intricate, minimalist objects that take hours of dedication and patience. His works of art, which range from wall hangings to sculptural cubes, feature tiny, hand-woven grey and black marks built up slowly over time onto woolen fabric grounds, each stitch recording the methodical, repetitive movements of his hand…
In 1891, at the age of 43 years, French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin left his life in Europe for Tahiti, in search of a mystical paradise untainted by the trappings of modernity. The paintings he made here are arguably the most celebrated of his entire career, reflecting the abundant landscape of Tahiti with a rich…
There is a sensorial quality to the work of the award-winning, London-based textile artist Alice Burnhope, tapping in to our primal needs for touch, comfort, warmth, and a connection to the natural world. Burnhope creates experimental forms of wearable art and sustainable textiles made from recycled fabrics in soft, ambient tones and hues, coloured with…
French painter Gustave Courbet is best-known as the father of Realism, who painted stirring portrayals of ordinary life and real working people with great pathos and understanding. As such, rustic, naturalistic browns like BROWN STONE were a vital ingredient in his storytelling capacities, allowing him to convey the earthy, rugged realism of life as it…
The life of American textile artist Judith Scott is a remarkable story – one of struggle, survival, and strength found through the power of creativity. Born with Down’s Syndrome and diagnosed as deaf, Scott spent much of her early life in a care home. Years later, through the encouragement of her sister Joyce, Judith uncovered…
Soft, dusty and muted pinks like SAHARA ROSE were a mainstay in the art of American minimalist artist Agnes Martin, painted in modulated, uneven textures to suggest faded memories and nostalgic longing. Martin was adept at combining simple geometric patterns like stripes, bands and grids with these muted, romantic colours – this was her way…
German, early 20th century artist Josef Albers spent his lifetime exploring the ambient properties of colour, and how their interactions could alter perceptions in the human eye. He experimented with just about every chromatic relationship possible, in a language of stark, simple geometric abstraction, allowing the radiance of his stacked colours to take centre stage….
Henry Moore is best-known today as an esteemed sculptor who made a significant contribution to post-war British art. Through his world-renowned sculptures and drawings, he opened up a daring new language of abstraction, one influenced by the nuanced shapes and forms of the human body, and the way one person relates to another. But perhaps…
Carrie Mae Weems is one of the most radical photographers to emerge out of contemporary America. In her deeply emotive imagery, she examines how our social relationships define who we are, and give us a sense of belonging in an increasingly uncertain world. Perhaps it’s no surprise then, that Weems became a mother at a…
FIERY RED was a red-hot tool in the hands of Spanish painter and printmaker Joan Miro, adding flashes of intense, blazing heat to his daring Surrealist designs. He developed a deeply personal language that was playful and child-like, made up of swirling biomorphic forms and scattered geometric shapes coupled with brilliant dashes of black calligraphic…
Abstract Expressionist painter Willem De Kooning was obsessed with pink, making it a defining feature in many of his most renowned works of art. These include his formative paintings of women, caught up in great tangles and ribbons of expressive colour. While De Kooning eventually abandoned these figurative references for a language of pure abstraction,…
Portuguese textile artist Vanessa Barragão makes vast, richly textured and all-encompassing textile creations resembling the flora and fauna of coral reefs, rendered with the traditional crafts of crochet, hand-tufting, felting, embroidery and macrame. On one hand, she draws our attention to the unfathomably complex wonder of coral reef systems, which she calls “cities at the…
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