Abtract Saturday: Robert Motherwell

I've been trying to learn abstract painting this past year, so naturally I spend a lot of time staring at the great Abstract Expressionists who burst forth from obscurity to turn the art world on its head in the 1940s. These are my favorites from Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991).

Wall painting with stripes  1944 -1945, by Robert Motherwell 

Robert Motherwell. Western Air. 1946-47. MoMA, NYC via Renzo Dionigi's flickr

 

Motherwell, Robert. Pancho Villa - 1943. Oil, gouache and paper collage. 71,7 x 9,1 cm

Robert Motherwell. Personage, with Yellow Ochre and White. 1947. MoMA, NY via flickr

Blue with Crosses, 1947 ROBERT MOTHERWELL via opera gallery.com

 

Wall of graffiti 1950 via Allentown Art Museum

Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 34 by Robert Motherwell (1953-54)

ROBERT MOTHERWELL The Little Spanish Prison, 1941 -1944 | Oil on canvas 27 1/4 × 17 1/8 in | 69.2 × 43.5 cm

Robert Motherwell, Provincetown Bay, 1990 via paam.org

This week on my drawing board

I lived in New York City for nearly 10 years, first working as an art director on the now-defunct Ladies Home Journal, and then as a freelance illustrator. I adored the freelance life! Especially wandering the streets while everyone else was working. Footlight Records was a wonderful place in Greenwich Village, a record shop specializing in vintage vinyl — broadway shows, classic jazz, vocals. Nearby I could buy a slice of white pizza. Around the corner, the Strand Book Store.

Footlight Records, Greenwich Village NYC c 1990s. 11x17 Gouache on wood panel.

And here is the sketchbook painting I did for this, a mini-version of the larger painting.

Mid-century modern in San Francisco

Lagoon House is a 1962 A. Quincy Jones home on the San Francisco Bay. Restored by architect Craig Hudson with the help of interior designer Gary Hutton. See more at OneKindDesign.com.

The living room overlooks a lagoon in Belvedere.

I really like the kitchen remodel, which updates yet retains a sleek mid-century feel.

I'm crazy about this idea of the hallway tucked behind the living room fireplace. Matthew Millman Photography

Ludwig Bemelmans

"In an old house in Paris, that was covered with vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines... the smallest one was Madeline." So begin the beloved Madeline children's books of Ludwig Bemelmans, the Austria-Hungary born American writer and illustrator. Here are a few examples of his beautiful work.

Ludwig Bemelmans. Fifi. New York: Simon and Schuster, [1940].

Madeline. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1939. First edition, first printing. 

This is interesting, the dummy Cover for Madeline and the Bad Hat, ca. 1956/57. Pen, ink, watercolor, and gouache
via The Estate of Ludwig Bemelmans via

Original painting "I'm sorry, the horse must go". Sold for over $27,000 on Skinner Auctions

MADELINE AND THE BAD HAT. NY: Viking (Dec. 1956) via

Parsley via 

The New Yorker | August 21, 1943

The Castle No. 9 via Brickbat Books

To the One I Love the Best by Ludwig Bemelmans

The New Yorker, July 3, 1948

Ludwig Bemelmans The New Yorker,  March 21, 1942

Abstract Saturday: Hildegarde Haas woodcuts

German-born American artist Hildegarde Haas (1926-2002) produced 57 of these beautiful woodcuts between the years of 1947 and 1953. Amazingly, these can still be purchased for under a thousand dollars here or here.

Canyon walls, night 1953 

Canyon Walls - Noon 1953

Rocks and Trees 1948

Squash 1947

Fishbowl, 1948

The Mountain 1950

Town in the Hills 1951

Frosty Window, 1951