Portraits

Before the advent of the camera, portraits were created to have an historic record of a person or event. A portrait is usually a pictorial representation of an individual. In the hands of a gifted artist it becomes a means to convey something about the person through objects and ideas. At ARTinaClick.com we feature many important portrait artists. Rembrandt was one of the first artist's to capture the inner essence of the sitter. It is in these psychological profiles, particularly his self-portraits, that we begin to understand the artist. Primitive portraits give us a glimpse of life in the early 19th Century. Although we do not know who painted the portraits there is often a record of the date and the sitters. Unlike the traditional portraiture of the day these folk art paintings are of ordinary people. The compositions, most often of children, include favorite objects, costumes of the day and detailed backgrounds. When the camera was invented to record the likeness of an individual, artists sought to use portraiture as a vehicle for expression. French painter Henri Matisse's portraits of his wife are experiments in Fauve. Pablo Picasso's cubist inventions had experiments in portraiture as well. In Girl Before a Mirror, Seated Woman and The Dream we understand the flattening of cubist space as all of the facial features are visible simultaneously. Perhaps one of the best known portrait is Van Gogh Self-Portrait with Bandaged ear. In this painting and in the portait of his friend the postman Roulin, Van Gogh achieves the ultimate goal of portraiture, to teach us about the artist and the sitter and most importantly about ourselves. Today our fascination with celebrities has made images of Elvis, Marilyn and The Beatles icons of popular culture.

An artist's biography will inform the reader about the artist's life and accomplishments in their career. However, to better understand the creative process scholars turn to artists' drawings and sketchbooks. The preparatory drawings of the Belgian-American artist Christo not only give incite to the finished artwork but are essential because the sales from these drawings are used to finance the monumental environmental projects for which Christo is known. When these works are seen they have such impact that the experience stays with the viewer long after the project is over. These detailed drawings such as, Wrapped Reichstag II, show the building before and after wrapping plus notes by the artists Christo and his wife, Jean-Claude, who is actively involved in the conception and creation of all of the artwork. Another artist working on environmental sculpture is Dale Chihuly. Born in Tacoma Washington in 1941, Chihuly was introduced to glass when studying interior design at the University of Washington. Chihuly is perhaps best known for his chandelier constructions made of individually blown shapes of glass and assembled on site in such locations as Venice Italy, Waterford Ireland, and the Sydney Opera House. He also has a series of small-scale sculpture inspired by the art of Japanese flower arranging called, Ikebana and a series of glass baskets. The spontaneity achieved in, Boathouse Ikebana Drawing and Burned Baskets Drawing is translated to the large-scale installations. In actuality it takes much preparation to make the work feel like it was always meant to be in a certain location. Renaissance artist Michelangelo was an accomplished draftsman. In Madonna and Child c. 1512, the artist has modeled the baby as he will be modeled in stone, although, in a reverse process. In drawing the artist plans movement, composition, color and special relationships to be translated in the finished product. Alexander Calder, an American artist best known for his mobiles, has done countless drawings and models. In this case drawing is not only preliminary but becomes part of the piece. For example, in the "Circus" series a piece of wire is "drawn" into a line and forms the finished sculpture. In Hovering Bowies, 1963, he achieves the essence of the mobiles wind blown movement, special relationships and interaction of color

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