Gertrude Käsebier: Born May 18, 1852

Gertrude Käsebier was a leading member of the pioneering photographic known as Pictorialism, which emphasized a subjective, painterly approach to photography rather than a documentary one.

Though she had long been interested in art, Käsebier only began her formal training at the Pratt Institute after her children entered high school. She planned to be a painter, but eventually switched to photography. Following classes in Paris and apprenticeships with a German photographic chemist, and a Brooklyn portrait photographer, Käsebier opened her own portrait studio in 1897.
FROM https://nmwa.org/art/artists/gertrude-kasebier/

Stieglitz included Käsebier as a founding member of the Photo-Secession, a group that argued for a more natural, less manipulated photograph. In 1899, he published five of her photos, declaring her “beyond dispute, the leading artistic portrait photographer of the day.”
FROM http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2012/05/12/nearly-forgotten-mother-of-modern-american-photography-gertrude-kaeseb

Library of Congress Biographical Essay: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/womphotoj/kasebieressay.html
Library of Congress Online Catalog: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?fi=name&q=K%C3%A4sebier%2C%20Gertrude%2C%201852-1934
Shorpy Photo Gallery: http://www.shorpy.com/gertrude-kasebier-photographs

16May2016

Tamara de Lempicka~ Born May 16, 1898(?)

Posted in Artists Born Today Include:, Women Artists by Christy

Who was she? De Lempicka shuffled the facts of her biography much as she meddled with her birth date.
…
Her time was the 1920s: a period of transition, an era in which functionalism merged with fantasy and formal social structures lurched into the frenetic. In essence, De Lempicka was a classicist, having admired Renaissance painting since her adolescent travels in Italy. But she astutely combined traditional portraiture with advertising techniques, photographic lighting, vistas of the tower architecture of great cities.
…
In 1939, urged by Tamara, who was partly Jewish, Kuffner sold his estates in Hungary and they moved to the US. In New York, she tried abstract expressionism unsuccessfully, and was reduced to the role of a chic curiosity, “the painting baroness”.
FROM https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2004/may/15/art

http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/10/24/reviews/991024.24vincent.html
http://culture.pl/en/artist/tamara-lempicka-tamara-de-lempicka

15May2016

Richard Avedon: May 15, 1923-Oct 1, 2004

Posted in Artists Born Today Include: by Christy

Mr. Avedon revolutionized the 20th-century art of fashion photography, imbuing it with touches of both gritty realism and outrageous fantasy and instilling it with a relentlessly experimental drive. So great a hold did Mr. Avedon’s fashion photography come to have on the public imagination that when he was in his 30’s he was the inspiration for Dick Avery, the fashion photographer played by Fred Astaire in the 1957 film “Funny Face.” In 1978 he appeared on the cover of Newsweek while a retrospective exhibition of his work was on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/02/obituaries/richard-avedon-the-eye-of-fashion-dies-at-81.html

MoMA Collection~ http://www.moma.org/collection/artists/248?=undefined&page=1
International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum~ http://www.iphf.org/hall-of-fame/richard-avedon/

American Masters~ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/richard-avedon-about-the-photographer/467/
The Richard Avedon Foundation~ http://www.theavedonfoundation.net/

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4May2016

Keith Haring: May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990

Posted in Artists Born Today Include: by Christy

Renowned street artist Keith Haring…was born on May 4, 1958, in Pennsylvania, and died in New York in 1990. His eponymous foundation was established a year before his death, and provides grants to those affected by AIDS.
FROM 2016 https://news.artnet.com/people/keith-haring-birthday-2016-485381

After graduating high school, he enrolled in the Ivy School of Professional Art, Pittsburgh but quickly discovered he had no desire to become a commercial graphic artist. He dropped out and in 1978 moved to New York where he joined the School of Visual Arts as a scholarship student.
FROM https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/keith-haring-biography/16012/

When not torn or cut from their locations by admirers, they would eventually be covered with new ads. The routine disappearance of these works, in fact, became an incentive for their replenishment and a catalyst for constant reinvention. While many were documented by photographer Tseng Kwong Chi…most of the drawings went unrecorded, thus creating one of the most epic and ephemeral projects in the history of the city.
FROM http://publicdelivery.org/keith-harings-subway-drawings/

By the mid-1980’s, Mr. Haring was also doing oil and acrylic paintings, as well as wall sculptures and free-standing constructions. He had 42 one-man exhibitions, and was represented in group shows like the 1983 Sao Paulo Bienal, the 1984 Venice Biennale and exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His works are also in the permanent collections of museums like the Stedelijk in Amsterdam, the Whitney in New York and the Beaubourg at the Pompidou Center in Paris.
FROM http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/17/obituaries/keith-haring-artist-dies-at-31-career-began-in-subway-graffiti.html

Haring Kids~ http://www.haringkids.com/
The Keith Haring Foundation~ http://www.haring.com/

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27Apr2016

Andrew John Henry Way: Born April 27, 1826

Posted in Artists Born Today Include: by Christy

In 1860, Way came to the attention of visiting history painter Emanuel Leutze who encouraged him to pursue still life subject matter in the Düsseldorf style. Taking this advice to heart, Way began to paint fruit, primarily grapes, executed with great detail to form, a particular brilliance of light and typically staged against a dark background.…Despite the market demand and critical preference for vast panoramic landscapes and historic scenes, Way prospered, becoming the most important still life painter in the mid-Atlantic area during the late nineteenth century.

FROM http://thejohnsoncollection.org/andrew-way/

http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=5261
https://art.thewalters.org/detail/18788//

23Apr2016

Lee Miller: Born April 23, 1907

Posted in Artists Born Today Include: by Christy

Lee Miller archives: https://bit.ly/3maYfBR

At the age of 19, Lee Miller was prevented from being hit by a truck in NYC by Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue. Condé Nast thought she had the makings of a model, putting her on the cover of the magazine, which launched her modeling career. For a couple of years Miller was in high demand by photographers, until 1929 when a photograph of her taken by Edward Steichen was used to advertise Kotex pads, effectively ending her popularity as a model.

Miller then moved to Paris, with the intention of working with Man Ray. She became his model, muse, collaborator, and lover, thus beginning a new career on the other side of the camera as well as continuing as a model.

Lee Miller returned to New York in 1932, where she set up her own studio. She continued to pursue dual careers as model and photographer, however photography became her primary interest.

Miller was married in 1934 and moved to Cairo. The following years saw a succession of lovers and locations, eventually landing her in London where once again Vogue magazine had a major influence on her life, this time as a photographer: her work for them included being their war correspondent during WWII. She covered many major events including Normandy, the Liberation of Paris, and the death camps of Dachau and Buchenwald. There was a famous photo of her taking a bath in Hitler’s apartment in Munich taken as the war drew to its close.

Miller’s only child was born in 1947, fathered by her lover Sir Roland Penrose, whereupon she divorced her husband and married Penrose. They settled in a farm in England. Miller became a gourmet cook and a hostess for some of the most famous artists and photographers of the time, but her life became colored by her ongoing clinical depression and she started on what her son described as a “downward spiral”. She died of lung cancer in 1977. After her death, 60,000 of her photographic negatives were found in a stash of cardboard boxes.

Lee Miller has such an amazing biography that I haven’t even attempted to cover it all. I recommend using Google to learn more about her life, or following some of the links I’ve posted here:
Victoria and Albert Museum~ http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/l/lee-miller/
Much More Than A Muse: Lee Miller And Man Ray~ http://www.npr.org/2011/08/20/139766533/much-more-than-a-muse-lee-miller-and-man-ray
Lee Miller’s Photographs of the Second World War~
http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/photography/articles/119376.aspx
The Roving Eye~ http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/01/21/the-roving-eye

23Apr2016

Myron Waldman: Born on April 23, 1908

Posted in Artists Born Today Include: by Christy

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/06/arts/television/06waldman.html

Myron Waldman (April 23, 1908-February 4, 2006) was an American animator, best known for his work at Fleischer Studio…He started his first career work in 1930 at Fleischer Studio. At Fleischer he worked on Betty Boop, Raggedy Ann, Gulliver’s Travels, the animated adaptations of Superman, and Popeye. He was head animator on two Academy Award nominated shorts, Educated Fish (1937) and Hunky and Spunky (1939).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myron_Waldman

22Apr2016

John Waters: Born April 22, 1946

Posted in Artists Born Today Include: by Christy

“Beverly Hills John,” 2012, C-Print

The Hollywood Reporter: You made a hilarious, new 74-minute version of your X-rated 1972 cult film Pink Flamingos, rewritten as a “desexualized sequel” — a children’s movie with an all-kid cast. Why did you decide to exhibit the video here, in this way?
John Waters: I don’t think of it as the next movie in my filmography at all.I don’t want it showing in a movie theater where people have to come in and take a seat and have to watch it straight through. You understand what the piece is if you watch it for 20 minutes.
The Hollywood Reporter: Tell me a little bit about how you reconcile your work in the worlds of art and of film, pop and pulp culture?
John Waters: I have gone to great lengths in my career to keep my art career and my film career completely separate. But my art work is as equal to me as making movies.

FROM http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/director-john-waters-has-a-762318

Interview, 2015, The Guardian~
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jun/30/john-waters-art-lassie-justin-bieber-ansel-adams
Interview, 2004, BOMB~ http://bombmagazine.org/article/2628/john-waters
John Waters: Born April 22, 1946~
https://schristywolfe.com/2015/04/22/john-waters-born-april-22-1946/
New John Waters Bathrooms at the BMA~ https://bmoreart.com/2021/10/speeches-champagne-and-lines-for-the-loo-new-john-waters-bathrooms-at-the-bma.html

19Apr2016

Anton Pieck: Born April 19, 1895

Posted in Artists Born Today Include: by Christy

http://www.artistsandart.org/2009/07/art-of-anton-pieck-1001-arabian-nights.html
http://www.artnet.com/artists/anton-pieck/biography
http://linesandcolors.com/2010/01/30/anton-pieck/

16Apr2016

Garth Williams: Born on April 16, 1912

Posted in Artists Born Today Include: by Christy

With the precision of Durer but with his own sense of innocence and wonderment, Mr. Williams created a world of storybook characters. Although the books were written by a diverse range of authors, the drawings all had Mr. Williams’s impeccable, heartwarming touch.

Generations of children picture their favorite fictional characters as drawn by Mr. Williams: that dapper mouse Stuart Little; the kindhearted spider Charlotte and her friend, Wilbur the pig; and bears, dogs, kittens, crickets, elves, fairies, children and grown-ups in books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, George Selden, Charlotte Zolotow, Else H. Minarik and many others. Mr. Williams also wrote the text for seven children’s books, but it is primarily as an illustrator that his work is cherished.

He believed that books “given, or read, to children can have a profound influence.” For that reason, he said, he used his illustrations to try to “awaken something of importance . . . humor, responsibility, respect for others, interest in the world at large.”
FROM http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/10/arts/garth-williams-book-illustrator-dies-at-84.html