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Pablo Picasso and Dale Chihuly ---- reading

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Pablo Picasso and Dale Chihuly

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Artists of the Month --- Mary Cassatt and Annie Leibowitz

Mary Casssatt   Self Portrait 1880

Mary Cassatt  was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France. She became good friends with  Edgar Degas, a French  Impressionist and painter and she exhibited often with the French Impressionist.

Mary Stevenson Cassatt  was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania on May 22, 1844.   Mary was one of seven children.

Her parents Robert Simpson Cassatt  and Katherine Kelso Johnston believed in an education for their children that included travel.

As a young woman Mary spent 5 years in Europe visiting capital cities such as Rome, London and Paris.While Mary was aboard, she  learned German and French and had her first lessons in drawing and music.

Mary Cassatt  moved  in 1866 to Paris to live and work as a painter.  Since women were not allowed to study  at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris  Mary  applied to study privately with the French master Jean-Leon Gerome. Cassatt also practiced her skills with daily visits to the Lourve Museum.

Mary Cassatt's paintings are lush with color and brush strokes.  The emphasis in the paintings is generally on the faces of her subjects, the movement , and rhythm of the color  creates an atmosphere around her subjects that is  filled with contrast and energy. and  Her images of women and children are some of her most known works.

Here are some works by Mary Cassatt:

 

What do you suppose is her purpose in creating these paintings ?

What information  do you find interesting  about Mary Cassatt?

Annie Leibovitz   Self Portrait

Annie Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer. Her photographic  style is to have a close collaboration between her and her subject.

Annie -Lou Leibovitz was born in Waterbury County, Connecticut  on October 2,1949. Annie is the third of six children.  Her father Sam Leibovitz was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force. The family moved frequently  with her father's duty assignments. Annie took her first picture when her family was living in the Philippines. 

Annie attend the San Francisco Art Institute  where she studied painting. Later, after working as a painter, she became interested in photography  while living in the Philippines and in Israel.

When she moved back to the United States  Annie began working for Rolling Stone Magazine. While on staff as a photographer at Rolling Stone Annie became aware of other magazines as well as the photographs of Richard Avedon. She found his work to be very influential to her work.This was in the  the way that Avedon composed the story of the person in the photograph.

Annie Leibovitz has taken photographs and portraits for a variety of magazines and companies.Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair Magazine and Walt Disney are some of the pages that Annie Leibovitz has created her photographs.

Here are some of Annie Leibovitz's portrait photographs:

Michael Jordan

Bruce Springstien

Rachel Weisz

What is interesting to you about these portrait photographs?

Do they remind you something ? Some place ?

Can you find the Principles of Design represented in these photographs?

Jose Guadalupe Posada

Posada  was a Mexican engraver, illustrator and artist. His work was very influential  for many Latin American and North American illustrators and artists. Jose Guadalupe Posada was born in Aguascalientes, on February 2,1852.

His education was primarily by is bother  Cirilo,  a country school teacher. Cirilo taught Jose reading, writing as well as drawing.  As a young teenager Posada  went to work in the workshop of Trinidad Pedroso, who taught him lithography( a printmaking process using a grease  crayon on  stone)  and engraving( a printmaking process that uses a metal plate which is carved into with a knife or engraver).

Posada soon  married and moved away. At this time in 1875,Posada started his own illustration and printing  shop. In the print shop the focused their work on commercial and advertising work, book illustrations as well as printing of posters of historical and religious figures.

Later in Jose Guadalupe Posada's life he moved to Mexico City. In Mexico City  Posada  worked for several newspapers and magazines.  His most prolific number of illustrations and prints were created while working at a publishing firm. There he created some of his best known works, the Calaveras.  These are skeletons which often assume clothing,  and  other costumes. Because of these Calaveras,  Posada is widely  associated with the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos, the "Day of the Dead".

Jose Guadalupe Posada's engravings and lithography  was collected by many artists. Mexican muralist Diego Rivera introduced Posada's work to French artist Jean Charlot in the  1920's  who then introduced Posada's work to the world. The muralist Jose Clemente Orozco knew Posada when he was younger, and credits Posada's work as an influence on his own.

Here are some examples of Jose Guadalupe Posada's  works.

Catrina Calavera

Calavera Zapatista

Here are some questions.

What are you thinking or noticing about these images by Posada?

Do these images remind you of anything ?

What information about Posada is interesting and what information is interesting ?