Broken Finger CrewPrints on PaperMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Introduction [1]
Founded in 2001, multidisciplinary art collective Broken Fingaz, namely, Broken Finger (i.e., Kip, Unga, Tant and Deso) are regarded as one of the first graffiti crews to emerge from Haifa, Israel, and their name is now at the forefront of contemporary street art. With their independent approach and shared appreciation of illustration BFC's success has been unprecedented on the international scene.

Title (Year): DESO - DOD (2013).
Technique: Screen print.

In more than a decade of working together, they are renowned for their unique style, inspired by the peaks and troughs of life, everyday ephemera, old comic books, 1980s skateboard graphics and neo-psychedelia - among many other things. They started out painting on the street and designing posters and graphics for local venues, but the BFC's work now encompasses graphic design, painting, film and installation. Underlining the importance of their contributions to the shape of the contemporary scene, their work has been presented at exhibitions at Israel's most important visual arts institutes, the Tel Aviv Museum (2011) and the Haifa Museum of Art (2010). Since then they have exhibited widely outside of Istael: in 2012 they presented their debut international solo exhibition in London (Old Truman Brewery, 2012), with shows following in Vienna (Inoperable, 2012), Paris (Lebenson Gallery, 2012), Amsterdam (Battalion Gallery, 2013) and Berlin (Urban Spree, 2013). In 2013 they were also invited to participate at the Cut Out Festival, Queretaro, Mexico, where they produced a new stop-motion graffiti film. Their public murals can be seen on the streets of cities across China, Japan, Cambodia, Israel, the UK, Germany, Holland, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Mexico and more. In the press, the crew are regularly featured in art magazines, including, Juxtapoz, Complex and VNA.

span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;">Broken Finger Crew [1]

Title (Year): DESO - HABSORA (2013).
Technique: Screen print.

Title (Year): DESO - Part of Nature Color (2013).
Technique: Screen print.

Title (Year): UNGA - HAMAM 3(2013).
Technique: Screen print.

Title (Year): TANT - Life (2013).
Technique: Screen print.

Title (Year): UNGA - Dead Dancers (2013).
Technique: Screen print.

Title (Year): UNGA - Red Dancers (2013).
Technique: Screen print.

Reference:
[1] M.Smith, People of Print, Thames & Hudson, London (2017).

Four Selected European Art Quilters - Part IV [1]Art QuiltsMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
Art Quilts have featured on this blogspot and so for your convenience I have listed below previous posts in this series:
Art Quilts - Part I
Art Quilts - Part II
Art Quilts - Part III
Art Quilts - Part IV
Art Quilts - Part V
Art Quilts - Part VI
Art Quilts - Part VII
Art Quilters of the Netherlands - Part I
Art Quilters of the Netherlands - Part II
Art Quilters of the Netherlands - Part III

Introduction by Olga Prins-Lukowski (Molenschot, the Netherlands)[1]
Being a member of a jury is exciting. This time, everybody on the jury had their own shortlist, having seen all the pieces before actually coming together.

Some works were on everybody's list, but there was also a large diversity. A few works really jumped out at me. I can't always say why. Is it the composition or perhaps the colors. Or is it that some wroks have a message you 'get' on first view?

But everyone had their own experience of the selection process. Every jury member had their own preferences - and that resulted in a long discussion about strengths, composition, use of color etc. Every time I jury I learn from the process.

Another factor is that the exhibition must form a harmonious overview of the "State in the Art" in Europe.

In the end we came to an agreement to select the exhibition you are looking at, and I hope you will enjoy walking through it, whilst moving on the discussion about art, and in particular art quilts/textiles.

Four Selected European Art Quilters - Part IV [1]
Quilter: Lia Flemings (Lommel, Belgium) [1].

Full View
Title: Catwalk (2014).
Materials: Black and white commercial cotton prints, 'Wonder Under', paper, soft structure, encaustic paint, embroidery thread, plasticised black netting (12 x 12 mm grid).
Technique: Encaustic monoprint on paper using a hot plate, varieties of green. Overprinting, scraping, painting. Fusing cotton on paper. Arashi shibori fabric, setting the pleats. Embroidery red thread. Modelling the dresses. Cutting the supports.
Size: 35 x 80 x 16 cm grid.
Comment [1]: Arashi shibori is my favourite technique and it's searching for 3-D forms. A small discovery in one layer was the base for this work. Searching for multiple layers I combined paper, encaustic printing and fabric. The contrast color for black was green. The back must also have an even interesting aspect. The wax on the paper strengthens the final form. With the making of more forms the idea of a catwalk was born. The entire work gives a cheerful perspective, inviting for you to observe.

Detailed View 1

Detailed View 2

Quilter: Katriina Flensburg (Storvreta, Uppsala, Sweden) [1].

Full View
Title: Purple Waters (2014).
Materials: Hand-dyed, hand-printed and hand-painted cottons, tulle.
Technique: Painting, stamping, monoprinting, piecing, appliqué, machine stitching, machine quilting.
Size: 124 x 127 cm grid.
Comment [1]: This piece was originated by a documentary of a sad and shocking proof of arrogance and rudeness of today's mankind towards our fellow beings: a violent and primitive slaughter of dolphins and dolphin-related mammals in the waters of the Pacific Ocean and North Atlantic.

Detailed View 1

Detailed View 2

Quilter: Alice Fox (Shipley, UK) [1].

Full View
Title: Pavement (2013).
Materials: Silk, cotton, wool felt, tea, rust print, collagraph print, had stitched in silk.
Technique: Rust print with tea using found metal objects. Collagraph print using found objects. Hand stitched.
Size: , 27 x 266 cm.
Comment [1]: 'Pavement' is a collection of marks, textures and patterns from the street. Insignificant found objects are used to make marks, building up a rich patchwork of textures, just like that which lies beneath our feet everyday.

Detailed View 1

Detailed View 2

Quilter: Leslie Gabrielse (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) [1].

Full View
Title: Aerial Dancer (2013).
Materials: Commercial fabrics, acrylic paint.
Technique: Hand stitching and hand paint.
Size: 153 x 206 cm.
Comment [1]: The inspiration of this work was the preformance of a friend who is an aerial dancer. She was preforming at 'The Pink Door' in Seattle, WA, USA, whilst I was there.

Detailed View 1

Detailed View 2

Reference:
[1] European Art Quilt Foundation, Molenschat, Netherlands (2014).

Chinese Clothing: Shenyi and Broad Sleeves - Part II [1]Wearable ArtMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below other posts in this series on Chinese textiles:
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague's Brocade Collection (Part I)
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague's Tapestry Collection (Part I)
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague’s Tapestry Collection (Part II)
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague’s Embroidery Collection (Part I)
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague’s Brocade Collection (Part II)
Chinese Clothing Historical Overview - Part 1
Chinese Clothing: Shenyi and Broad Sleeves - Part I
Chinese Clothing: Shenyi and Broad Sleeves - Part II

Chinese Clothing: Shenyi and Broad Sleeves - Part II[1]
Historical evidence whether in the form of Han tomb paintings, painted rocks or clay and wooden figurines, portrays people wearing long gowns. This style is found most commonly on men, but sometimes on women as well. The name, paofu, also known as pao (袍), literally translates as "robe".

Han Tomb Mural, Luoyang.

Paofu refers to long robes with the following features. First it has a lining. Depending on whether it is padded, the garment can be called jiapao or miaopao. Second, it often comes with wide sleeves cinched at the wrist. Third, it has low-cut cross collars to show the undergarment. And fourth, there is often an embroidered dark band at the collar, the wrists and the fourth hem, often decorated with kui (a Chinese mythical animal) or checked patterns.

Kui.

The paofu differ in length. Some robes reach down to the ankles, often worn by scholarly men or the elderly, while others are only long enough to cover the knees, and were worn mostly by warriors or heavy laborers.

A scholarly paofu.

However, even after the paofu became mainstream attire, shenyi did not disappear, remaining as an item of women's clothing. In a silk painting in the Changsha Mawangdui Tomb of the Han Dynasty, a woman is dressed in a shenyi with a wrapped-around lapel, fully embroidered with a dragon and phoenix.

The inner coffin of Number 1 tomb at the Han Tomb was covered by a colorful silk painting. It is the best preserved painting of its kind of Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) with the highest artistic value in China. This silk painting is in the shape of an English letter “T” and the paintings on it can be divided into three parts. The upper part is about heaven, meaning the end-result for life of the dead; the middle part is about the earth, which shows the wealth and nobility of the dead when alive; the lower part is about the afterlife, displaying the happiness of the dead in the afterworld. The whole painting is symmetrical and colorful with fine depiction, reflecting the lofty painting skill in the Western Han Dynasty.

Sketch drawings of the front and back pieces of Shenyi.

Sketch drawings of the exterior of Qujupao.

By the time of the Wei, Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties (220 - 589), styles of paofu evolved into loose-fitting garments with open sleeves (as opposed to the cinched sleeves of the previous dynasties). These were called bao yi bo dai or "loose robes with long ribbons," exemplifying the carefree style of the wearer. Men's long robes became increasingly casual and simple, while women's long robes became more elaborate and complex. Typical women's clothing can be seen in the painting of Gu Kaizhi (ca. 345 - 409), the great painter of the time. Women wore dresses with decorative cloth on the lower hems. These pieces were triangular and hung like banners with rolled edges and embroidered decorative patterns. When the top of the lapel was wrapped up, these triangles created a layered effect and lent rhythm to the woman's movement. The wide sleeves and long hemline, together with the long silk ribbons tying the decorative cloth around the waist, added to the graceful appearance of the garment.

The style of paofu continually evolved with each dynasty. The Han Dynasty shenyi with wide sleeves, the Tang Dynasty round collar gown and the Ming Dynasty straight gown are all typical changpaos, a kind of long, loose gown preferred by scholars and the ruling class. In time, the changpao became a popular item of leisure wear, as well as being a traditional garment of the Han people.

Reference:
[1] Chinese Clothing, H. Mei, Cambridge University Press (2011).

Oil Painting - Part II [1]Art ResourceMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
This is the nineteenth post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed all the posts in this new series below:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part I
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part II
Selected Fresco Palette for Permanent Frescoes
Properties of Pigments in Common Use
Blue Pigments - Part I
Blue Pigments - Part II
Blue Pigments - Part III

There have been another one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that have focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics;
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio;
(iii) Color theories and color schemes;
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials;
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V;
(vi) Protein fibers;
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers;
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers;
(ix) Fabric construction;
(x) Techniques and woven fibers;
(xi) Basic and figured weaves;
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics;
(xiii) Nainkage, durable press and wash-wear finishes;
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends;
(xv) The general theory of printing.

To access any of the above resources, please click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link will highlight all of the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous a are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely, the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms, Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff, A Fashion Data Base, the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins, the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements, Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms and the Glossary of Scientific Terms. All data bases in the future will be updated from time-to-time.

If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g. click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.

The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember - these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student and so undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and in other parts, it may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). The trade-off between these two extremes will mean that Art Resource posts will be hopefully useful in parts to most, but unfortunately may not be satisfying to all!

Oil Painting - Part II [1]
During the sixteenth century, the materials and technical procedures of oil painting had become sufficiently developed so that masters of Italian painting were able to exploit its effect to good advantage. During the seventeenth century it was in universal use.

Title: Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos (ca. 1553/1555).
Artist: Titian (painter). Venetian (1488/1490 - 1576 AD).
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Dimensions: Overall: 237.6 x 263 cm; Framed: 265.5 x 290.9 x 10.7 cm.
Credit: Samuel H. Kress Collection.

Various individual masters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have been cited as being the first to show the complete adoption of this procedure, but it is hardly reasonable to believe that such definitive statements are accurate when applied to a technique which has had a long gradual development. However, during the seventeenth century, the practice of painting pictures throughout with oils and varnishes increased and finally became common.

Artist: Samuel van Hoogsraten (1627 - 1678). Self portrait.
Size: Panel: 82cm x 62cm; Frame: 108cm x 89cm.
Comment: Van Hoogsraten was a Dutch painter, printmaker, and writer on art. He painted genre scenes in the style of de Hooch and Metsu, and also portraits. He is best known, however, as a specialist in perspective effects, notably in his peep-show boxes, which show a painted toy world viewed through a small opening. Only in his early works can it be detected that he was a pupil of Rembrandt. Hoogsraten visited London, Rome, and Vienna, worked in Amsterdam and The Hague as well as his native Dordrecht, and was a man of many parts. He was an etcher, poet, director of the mint at Dordrecht, and art theorist.

At first the gesso grounds of tempera were used, and, according to most modern investigators, resinous varnishes such as are classified as glaze mediums, were largely mixed with and used in alternate layers with oil paints. After 1600 AD, oil grounds and straight oil colors were almost in universal use. Some painters, believing in the superior luminosity of gesso as a ground for oils, have continued to use it to the present day.

Title: Fiftieth Street Toward Salmon Bay, Ballard.
Artist: Mitchell Albala.
Material: Oil on paper with gold gesso ground.
Size: 8 x 10 inches.

Although one of the advantages of the oil technique is that it can be used on oil-primed canvases of light weight, the more cumbersome wood panels were never entirely discarded; some artists have always preferred their smooth surfaces or superior rigidity.

Title: Woman's head and flowers.
Artist: Goyo Dominguez Acuarela.
Materials: Mixed media on wood panel painting.

The early linseed oil referred to in the previous post on tempera was pressed from flaxseed and purified by heating and sometimes by the action of sunlight. The two principle improvements of the fifteenth century are generally considered to have been the adoption of methods of purification by mixing crude oil with water, which removes the impurities and produces raw oil, and the wider availability and use of volatile thinners.

Linseed oil is pressed from the seeds of the flax plant which is grown in all temperate or cold climates. The seed from each flax-growing region has its own characteristics and is rated in quality accordingly. The impurity which is principally responsible for variations in quality is foreign or weed seed. This is true of any commercial vegetable oil. Sometimes foreign seeds are added deliberately.

Drying oils of the early type had been used from early times as occasional minor additions to painting techniques and for protective and simple decorative purposes. They are mentioned by Galen, a medical writer in the second century, and on through the medieval receipe books and treatise as well as in records and accounts of various decorative projects, but at none of these times were there established standard methods of oil painting as applied to purely artistic work. Standard methods of oil painting has a long history and it is believed by most investigators that it was widely used by artists of the Dutch school during the seventeenth century.

An 18th century engraving of Galen by Georg P. Busch.
Born: AD 129 Pergamon, Asia Minor (now Bergama, İzmir, Turkey).
Died: ca. AD 216 (aged ca. 87).
Fields: Anatomy, Medicine and Philosophy.

Some of the successful and durable effects produced by the great painters of the early days of oil painting have been attributed to the use of mixed resins mixed into oil paint. When resins and resin varnishes were used, the most successful examples probably employed the simple solution or liquid balsam type, rather than the type of resin that rquires cooking in oil with driers and other chemicals.

Though the ancient Mediterranean civilizations of Greece, Rome, and Egypt used vegetable oils, there is little evidence to indicate their use as media in painting. Indeed, linseed oil was not used as a medium because of its tendency to dry very slowly, darken, and crack, unlike mastic and wax (the latter of which was used in encaustic painting).

Most of the early recipes for the use of resins that will not dissolve without being cooked in oil will generally produce solutions which are inferior in permanence to the modern cooked oil and resin varnishes, none of which is considered permanent enough for use in artistic painting.

In general, the experience of the past have been that any considerable additions of resinous materials to oil paints increases their brittleness and that coatings which contain large amounts are definitely inferior to straight oil paints in this respect.

"Madonna con Bambino e Angeli” by Antonello da Messina (XV century; Uffizi Gallery, Florence); (b): layer from which the sample was taken. A modern scientific investigation showed this painting contained presence of the markers of the diterpenic resin of the pinacea family, Venice turpentine: methyl dehydroabietate and methyl 7-oxodehydroabietate.

Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).