Category Archives: Birthdays

E.E. Cummings: Born October 14, 1894

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selfieFrom his youth, Cummings was fascinated with painting and the fine arts. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1894, he began drawing and writing well before his time at Harvard University. “He drew from childhood just as he wrote poems from childhood. He just knew he wanted to be an artist,” said Cohen.Landscape

“He was an artist first and foremost, and these [writing and painting] were the two forms of expression that were always part of his work,” said Cohen. “It was clear he was good with words, and he was determined he would just stilllifeas good with a pen and paintbrush.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/26/the-secret-art-life-of-e-e-cummings.htmlselfsketch

The Paintings of E.E. Cummings~ http://eecummingsart.com/
“The Agony of the Artist (with a capital A)”~ https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/02/09/e-e-cummings-miscellany-agony-of-the-artist/
“The Rebellion of E.E. Cummings”~ http://harvardmagazine.com/2005/03/the-rebellion-of-ee-cumm.html
Poetry Foundation Biography~ http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/e-e-cummings

Maya Lin: Born October 5, 1959

Posted in Artists Born Today Include: by

Although chiefly known as a sculptor, Lin also has worked on several architectural projects, which often have been noted for their emphasis on sustainability. Some of the high-profile works in this realm include the Langston Hughes Library (1999) and the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City (2009). Never one to fall into artistic complacency, Maya Lin has also created What Is Missing?, a multimedia, multi-location project that focused on bringing awareness to habitat loss.

For her life’s work, Lin was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2009, and a film about the artist, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, won the 1994 Oscar for best documentary. Lin has served as a board member of the National Resources Defense Council and a member of the World Trade Center Site Memorial design jury. In 2016, she was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama.   https://www.biography.com/people/maya-lin-37259

Maya Lin Bio~ http://www.pbs.org/becomingamerican/ap_pjourneys_bio5.html
Maya Lin Studio~ http://www.mayalin.com/
Making the Memorial by Maya Lin~ http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2000/11/02/making-the-memorial/
6 Memorable Designs by Architect Maya Lin~
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/maya-lin-book-topologies

Artist Birthday Quiz for 10/2~

Posted in Artists Born Today Include: by

Which 18th century landscape painter and his brother, two of the many famous painters from the Dutch city of Dordrecht, were pupils of their father?

Which photographer studied painting in college but pursued photography instead, becoming best known for her portraits of VIPs and celebrities?

Answers here~ https://schristywolfe.com/2015/10/02/october-2/

Artist Birthday Quiz for 9/29~

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What 16th century Venetian painter had an inscription in his studio that read “Michelangelo’s design and Titian’s Color”, seeking as he did to produce the compositional methods of Michelangelo while using the coloring of Titian?

What 17th century Italian artist’s practice of painting directly from posed models violated the idealism of Renaissance theory by establishing that painting could be an extension of everyday experience?

Answers here~ https://schristywolfe.com/2015/09/29/september-29/

Artist Birthday Quiz for 9/28~

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Which French academic artist was the most popular portrait painter of his day, exhibiting at the Paris Salon for the first time in 1844 and appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1864, where he taught until his death?

Which painter, who moved to New York in 1950 as he was dissatisfied with the Japanese contemporary art scene, was the first Japanese-American artist working in the abstract-expressionist style to receive international acclaim?

Answers here~ https://schristywolfe.com/2015/09/28/september-28/

Winsor McCay: Born September 26, 1867?

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WinsorMcCayBiography~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winsor_McCayLittleNemo
Winsor McCay: His Life and Art: San Francisco Silent Film Festival~ http://www.silentfilm.org/archive/winsor-mccay-his-life-and-art
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend~ http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-century-old-comic-strip-devoted-to-cheese-fueled-nightmares
Little Nemo in Slumberland~ http://www.gocomics.com/little-nemoTime


9 Films of Winsor McCay~ http://mentalfloss.com/article/54989/beyond-gertie-9-films-winsor-mccay

Esphyr Slobodkina: Born September 22, 1908

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Esphyr Slobodkina~ artist, author, and illustrator

Esphyr Slobodkina was born in Chelyabinsk, Russia in 1908. The youngest of five children, Slobidkina’s family left there home in 1919 and moved to Vladisvastok to avoid the Russian Revolution.
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Slobodkina immigrated to New York in 1928 using a student visa and began attending the National Academy of Design…Over time, she grew to enjoy a composition class taught by muralist Arthur Sinclair Covey (1877-1960). Through his teachings, she met painter and fellow student Ilya Bolotowsky (1907-1981), whom she married in 1933…Bolotowsky encouraged Slobodkina to evolve her Impressionist style toward abstraction, which would become her primary genre…Slobodkina and her husband amicably divorced in 1938.
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She had a significant career change after meeting children’s author Margaret Wise Brown. The two women became fast friends, and Slobodkina began illustrating Brown’s books, beginning with her Big and Little series and continuing until Brown’s death in 1952. In 1940, Slobodkina published her most famous children’s book, Caps for Sale, which “pioneered the use of contemporary abstract forms in children’s books”…Slobodkina [also] maintained an active painting and sculptural career.
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The Slobodkina Foundation, an organization designed to promote free programs, scholarships, readings and performances of Slobodkina’s children’s books was created in 2000…Slobodkina died in 2002 in Glen Head, New York at the age of 93.

ALL QUOTES FROM
http://origin.www.sullivangoss.com/artists/esphyr-slobodkina-1908-2002

Slobodkina Foundation: Honoring the Life and Work of Esphyr Slobodkina

Esphyr Slobodkina’s books

Arthur Rackham: Born September 19, 1867

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Arthur Rackham was born September 19, 1867, in London, England. He studied at the Lambeth School of Art, was elected to membership in The Royal Watercolour Society and the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, and became Master of the Art Workers’ Guild. Books he illustrated include Rip Van Winkle (1905), Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906), Alice in Wonderland (1907), and many other children’s books and classics throughout the years until his death in 1939. His last work, The Wind in the Willows, was published posthumously. He won gold medals at Milan (1906) and Barcelona (1911), and his books and original art are now collected worldwide.
FROM The Arthur Rackham Society~ http://arthur-rackham-society.org/

arthurrackhamwithcats

Biography~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_RackhamPigAlice

The Golden Age of Illustration: Arthur Rackham~ http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/blog/the-golden-age-of-illustration-arthur-rackham/

Arthur Rackham Illustrated Books Art Gallery~ https://www.nocloo.com/arthur-rackham-illustrations-archive/

H. A. Rey: Born September 16, 1898

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ReyArt

ha_monkeyHans Augusto Reyersbach was born on September 16, 1898, in Hamburg, Germany.  As a child he liked to draw and spent much of his free time at the nearby zoo…Rey also devoted many moments of class time sketching in his notebooks…By the war’s end, Hamburg’s economic state suffered and without steady employment Rey discovered he couldn’t afford to enroll in an art school…By lithographing circus posters, Rey scraped by and studied at the University of Hamburg and the University of Munich…Rey ventured across the ocean to sell bathtubs for an import business.  He didn’t like the work, and taking the advice of another Hamburg resident living in Brazil, Rey partnered together with her to make an advertising agency.Margret&Rey

The couple found they worked well as a team and soon married. Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein blended her education in art, photography, and writing with Rey’s drawing ability…From Lisbon to Brazil and onto the United States, the Reys then settled in New York.  Within a month the publishers Houghton Mifflin bought four manuscripts, including the extremely successful Curious George.  In all, the Reys developed seven adventures for the monkey.  Rey also contributed to the advancement of astronomy by creating new diagrams of constellations seen by the naked eye in a suburban setting.reyReading

Rey took up teaching astronomy at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.  He didn’t publish many books after 1963 but the books the Reys did create have remained popular and in print.  On August 26, 1977, H. A. Rey passed away, after spending over thirty years of his life as an illustrator and author.
FROM http://www.exodusbooks.com/author.aspx?id=502

george“The Great Escape: a harrowing wartime escape and journey to the United States”~
http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/marchapril/statement/the-great-escape
Curious George~ http://www.curiousgeorge.com/#/books
Margret and H.A. Rey Center~ http://thereycenter.org/about-us.html
“The Stars: A New Way to See Them”~ http://www.codex99.com/illustration/26.html

circus