#todayspainting

My favourite paintings, no.62 Harmonia Rosales, The Harvest (1984) Like many artists of African decent, Afro-Cuban Harmonia Rosales has been exploring the absence (or marginalisation) of black people from paintings across centuries of art history. This has led her to reinterpret classic art subjects substituting people from different ethnicities for the usual white subjects. This example is a powerful reimagining of a common renaissance composition. Wonderful. #art #TodaysPainting #racism

My favourite paintings, no.58 Lavinia Fontana, Portrait of a Pregnant Woman (no date, late C16th). Lavinia Fontana is generally regarded as the first woman to earn her living as a professional painter. This possible self-portrait therefore may have been a statement about her pregnancy not being an impediment to her ongoing production of paintings. Pregnant self-portraits are also rare & so this may also be the first. A female artist taking command of her own image?! #art #TodaysPainting

My favourite paintings, no.57 Stanley Spencer, Swan Upping at Cookham (no date) Stanley Spencer painted Cookham a lot (setting biblical scenes there as well as painting everyday life), but this painting is one of the best, offering a narrative (of swan upping, whatever that might be?), as well as a strong sense of pattern & colour. The slightly mysterious subject is part of its charm, and the tension between stillness and movement is just lovely. Something to savour. #art #TodaysPainting

My favourite paintings no.56 Beryl Cook, Shopping Mall (1995) The art world has long dismissed Beryl Cook, although recently she has been 'rediscovered'. One of the UK's most popular painters her work offers both entertainment but often also subtle social commentary. Here the everyday life of a shopping mall is depicted as also saying something about our everyday interactions *and* distances. There is a strong sense of consumerism as an isolating social practice. #art #TodaysPainting

My favourite paintings No.52 Leonora Carrington, Portrait of the Late Mrs Partridge (1947) Leonora Carrington's work was often surreal, but what I like about this particular[painting is how it merges the requirements of portraiture with Carrington's other worldly surrealism. It exists on the cusp of dreams & life, and is both compelling and discomforting in its effects. Not sure I'd want it hanging on my walls, but is a fascinating painting to closely read. #art #TodaysPainting #surrealism

My favourite paintings No.37 Henri Matisse, The Dessert: Harmony in Red (The Red Room) (1908) I love Henri Matisse's work & the Red Room typifies his embrace of pattern & unashamed decorative ambience, while also being very modern in its flatness of perspective & strident (almost unnatural) colour choices. Once again its a painting that flirts with abstraction without sacrificing subject (a theme of these posts as you'll have noticed). A master at work; just fab! #art #TodaysPainting

My favourite paintings, No.25 Patrick Caulfield, After Lunch (1975) Another picture from my youthful forays into Tate Britain (the Tate as it was then); I recall the first time I came across this being intrigued by the graphic method & the contrast with the realism of the fish-tank's internal scene. That juxtaposition focusses the mind on method & depiction while also highlighting the strength of Caulfield's cool & sparse pictorial style. I'd have this at home if I could #art #TodaysPainting

My favourite paintings, No.9 Gabriele Münter. Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin (1909) Gabriele Münter is a (sadly) lesser known German Expressionist, but a fabulous painter nonetheless. This portrait oscillates between representation & abstraction, offering both a depiction of a close friend & a pleasing abstract collision of colours. The vibrancy is typical of an expressionistic approach & what I like most is it resolves into a portrait through pattern. #art #TodaysPainting #expressionism

My favourite paintings, No.7 Mary Cassatt. In the Loge (At the Opera)(1878) Mary Cassatt's paining has often been used by feminist art historians discussing the male gaze & its female counterpart (see the man gazing at the subject from a distant opera box). But it also demonstrates her command of the moment; a women (albeit a bourgeois woman) seemingly in command of her surroundings. Her focus on the life of women told stories seldom seen in the art of her time. #art #TodaysPainting #paris

My favourite paintings, No.3 Artemisia Gentileschi. Judith Beheading Holofenes (1620) Artemisia Gentileschi painted two similar versions of this subject (this one's in the Uffizi). I used to use this in lectures, contrasting it with Carravagio's more static composition, to argue a women painting this subject came to it with a different view of female agency (feminist standpoint). Its shockingly visceral painting, but actually that's what the subject demands! #art #TodaysPainting #feminism

My favourite paintings, No.2 Walter Sickert. Ennui (1914) Walter Sickert's classic Ennui is a lot larger than you might think; its almost life size, not the chamber picture reproductions might lead you to believe. This portrait of a couple lost in their own world's of banal disengagement from each other, sums up something about the human condition; often we are not being active nor engaged but rather taken up with our own thoughts (even without smartphones!) #art #TodaysPainting #London

My favourite paintings, No.1 Suzanne Valadon. The Blue Room (1923) Suzanne Valadon fought to become an artist, having honed her skills as a painter watching the Parisian artists she modelled for. This signature painting is a fabulous critique of the genre of the reeling nude favoured by male artists across the centuries. The model is dressed causally, smokes & refuses to engage with the viewer. While not strictly s self portrait the sentiment is all Valdon's! #art #feminism #TodaysPainting