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Tag Archives: modern art

A Closer Look: Katharina Grosse

This week, I wanted to share the work of Katharina Grosse, a prolific German painter and installation artist.

She is known for the vibrant palette and exuberant gestures of her large-scale canvases and raucous installations which merge painting, sculpture, and architecture.

Wielding a spray gun instead of a brush, Grosse often paints directly on the walls, floors, or facades of her exhibition sites, altering the logic and scale of architecture itself.

In an effort to liberate her works from the Euclidian space of wall and floor, Grosse also incorporates into her multidimensional paintings a variety of unexpected objects, including beds, clothes, balloons, shaped canvases, and soil.

I saw her installation at the University of Chicago’s Renaissance Society in 2007 titled Atoms inside Balloons. It was a tribute of sorts to the world’s first nuclear reaction, and featured huge balloons that deflated or popped throughout the exhibition.

 

-Robert

 

images: katharina grosse

some text: Mass MOCA

A Closer Look: Modern Art in Traditional Spaces

Opposites attract.  Believe it or not, this can also be true when choosing art for your home.  Modern art can look fantastic in a traditional home.  The key is to carefully place the artwork, making the juxtaposition of styles look intentional and well-considered.   Here are some excellent examples to inspire you:

1. A painting by Joseph Albers hangs above the mantle in a dining room.  I love the pop of color.  Albers was a famous colorist and once taught at North Carolina’s Black Mountain College.

2. A painting by Joan Mitchell, one of my favorite artists, hangs above the couch in a room designed by Peter Marino. 

3.  In this example, a painting by Fernand Leger hangs in a traditional room.

4. Here’s a great example, which was taken from the set of the movie Meet Joe Black – a beautiful Marc Rothko painiting hangs on a paneled wall.  Somehow, it works beautifully!

 

5. And finally, a cozy scene from a house with a giant canvas on the wall (by Egon Schiele?).

Where can you see modern art in your home?

-Robert

image 1: Apartment Therapy

image 2, 3: Architectural Digest

image 4: Sweet Sunday Mornings

image 5: Traditional Home



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