Alush Shima, 1942

Small Territories of Freedom under communism

Alush Shima was born in Tirana, Albania. He painted in secret under Albania’s communist regime for almost two decades, being a former Parliament member.

Alush Shima’s most perilous moment was in 1973, when the Sigurimi secret police seized his closest friend, fellow artist Ali Oseku, for letting slip praise of such bourgeois painters as Picasso and Matisse.

He worked as a set painter in Albania’s only film studio, Kinostudio.

Isabel Miramontes, 1962 | Abstract surrealist sculptor

Born in in Santiago de Compostella (Spain) and influenced by the Celtic Origins of her village, the bronze works of Isabel Miramontes have both a primitive and essential quality to them.

Her recognizable androgynous figures express a narrative of quiet certitude and the inevitable struggle of everyday man, his obstacles and triumphs.

Ferdinand Heilbuth | Academic painter

Ferdinand Heilbuth (1826-1889) was a German*-born French painter*.

He was born in Hamburg in 1826, and died in Paris in 1889, having become a French citizen in 1876.

The son of a rabbi, Ferdinand Heilbuth lived and studied in Antwerp, Munich, Düsseldorf and Rome before settling in Paris.

He entered the studio of Paul Delaroche*, remaining there after it was taken over by Charles Gleyre. He made his debut at the Salon in 1853, and his early work consisted of genre pictures and historical paintings, the latter often depicting episodes from the lives of earlier artists.

Miroslaw Scheib, 1963 | Romantic Cityscape painter

Mirosław Szeib was born in Międzyzdroje lives in Świnoujście. He graduated from Fine Arts High School in Szczecin.

For many years, the author treated the painting as a hobby and great passion, later painting became a way of life.

In the 90s he became interested in seascape painting. Sea battles started coming into existence.

Jacques Carabain | Romantic Realism painter

Jacques François Joseph Carabain, or Jacob Frans Jozef Carabain (23 February 1834, Amsterdam - 2 January 1933, Schaerbeek) was a Dutch-Belgian painter, known primarily for his scenes of cities and buildings in the Romantic-Realist style.

He was especially interested in Medieval and Baroque structures, and was often attracted to busy market places.

Valentin Gubarev, 1948 | Naïf / Minimalist painter

Valentin Gubarev /Валентин Губарев was born in the city of Gorky, now Nizhny Novgorod, Belarus.

Since 1975 he has been living in Minsk. He is a member of the Belarusian Artists` Union.

Since 1991 he has been a participant of Republican and International exhibitions of paintings.

Aykut Aydogdu, 1986 | Surrealist painter

Aykut Aydoğdu was born in Ankara and started his college education in Marmara University - Graphic Design Department after finishing high school in Ankara Anatolian Fine Arts High School.

He transferred to Hacettepe University - Graphic Design Department after one semester, and graduated from here. Prior to starting his career as an illustrator, he worked as an Art Director for advertising agencies for four years.

Today, the artist continues to work as an illustrator for domestic and foreign publishers and global advertising agencies.

Luigi Monteverde | Genre painter

Luigi Monteverde (detto il Raffaello dell'uva) (1843-1923) was a Swiss painter born in Lugano.

He became famous as a genre painter of fashionably dressed women shown in various scenes of everyday life.

Luigi Monteverde is known also for figure and still life painting.

Johann Georg Meyer | Genre painter

Johann Georg Meyer von Bremen (28 October 1813 Bremen, Germany - 4 December 1886 Berlin), commonly known as Meyer von Bremen, was a German painter who specialized in Biblical, peasant and family scenes.

In his 2lst year, he went to Düsseldorf and began his studies at the Academy of Art there, which was led by Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, the son of sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow.

He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.

Schubert: "Chi potrà fare di più dopo Beethoven.."

"Chi potrà fare di più dopo Beethoven"...

"Who can ever do anything after Beethoven?"...

Peter Franz Schubert (1797-1828), compositore Austriaco.

"Beethoven è la retorica della nostra anima, Wagner il suo sentire, Schumann forse il pensiero: Mozart è di più, è la forma..." -

Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929), poeta, scrittore e drammaturgo austriaco.

Beethoven, 1820 | Joseph Karl Stieler (1781-1858)

Emilio Giunchi - Zenone, 1936 | Naif painter

Zenone - Emilio Giunchi - Naive painter well known in Italy and abroad, was born in Arezzo (Italy) and is known in the art as Zenone.

The artist explains the reason for the name:

"In art I chose this name because it links me to an important memory, in fact celebrated Zenone is the holy day in which I performed my first painting".

Bruno Mondot, 1964 | Surrealist / Trompe l’oeil painter

Born in France, Bruno Mondot has won numerous prestigious acknowledgments and awards*. His work is collected worldwide and may be found in distinguished collections both public and private.

The work of Bruno Mondot is both fascinating and titillating in its effect.

This highly skilled and technically proficient artist creates a deep and refined allegory of amusements.

With artistic and mythical references embedded within his canvases, Mondot contrives and reveals alter dimensional realities.

Paul Sérusier | Pittore post-impressionista

Paul Sérusier (Parigi, 9 novembre 1864 - Morlaix, 7 ottobre 1927) è stato un pittore francese post-impressionista, associato al movimento dei Nabis.

Nacque da una famiglia benestante di ceto medio e suo padre, un uomo d'affari che lavorava nell'industria del profumo, si assicurò che ricevesse un'educazione classica. Nel 1875, Sérusier fu ammesso al liceo Condorcet dove studiò filosofia classica, greco, latino e scienze. Ricevette i suoi due diplomi nel 1883, di filosofia e di scienze.

Nel 1885, dopo aver lavorato per un breve periodo nella società di un amico del padre, entrò alla prestigiosa Académie Julian per studiare arte.

Di carattere gentile, simpatico, fece subito amicizia sia con gli studenti sia con i professori.

La sua amicizia con Maurice Denis data da quest'epoca. Il primo successo giunse nel 1888 con Le Tisserand (Il Tessitore) ispirato al naturalismo fotografico e per questa opera ricevette una menzione al Salon des Indépendants.

David Adickes, 1927 | Figurative sculptor /painter

Born in Huntsville, Texas, David Adickes earned his undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics from Sam Houston State College (now University).

The summer after graduation, he attended the Kansas City Art Institute and realized that art was what he really wanted to do.

Adickes used his G.I. Bill to study painting in Paris with modern master, Fernand Leger.

He returned to Houston and began painting full-time.

Toshio Ebine / 海老根俊雄, 1978 | Romantic Fantasy painter

Toshio Ebine** / 海老根俊雄 is an Japanese artist** based in the Kanagawa Prefecture.

Started painting when he was 20.

His main medium is a gouache-watercolor mix, works, soft colors, full of romantic fantasy.

His work combines childlike wonder with the vastness of the universe in a calming aesthetic, that’s unique and beautiful.

Benvenuto Cellini | Baroque / Mannerist sculptor

Benvenuto Cellini, (born Nov. 1, 1500, Florence-died Feb. 13, 1571, Florence), Florentine sculptor, goldsmith, and writer, one of the most important Mannerist artists and, because of the lively account of himself and his period in his autobiography, one of the most picturesque figures of the Renaissance.

Early career

Cellini, resisting the efforts of his father to train him as a musician, was apprenticed as a metalworker in the studio of the Florentine goldsmith Andrea di Sandro Marcone. Banished to Siena as a result of a brawl in 1516, he returned to Florence during 1517-19 and then moved to Rome.

Prosecuted for fighting in Florence in 1523 and condemned to death, he fled again to Rome, where he worked for the bishop of Salamanca, Sigismondo Chigi, and Pope Clement VII.

Hatshepsut | The first woman Pharoah / La prima donna Faraone

Hatshepsut (Hat-shep-soot) (1507–1458 BCE), the first important female ruler known to history, lived a thousand years after the pyramids were built and seventeen centuries after the Egyptians had begun writing their language in hieroglyphs.

She ruled Egypt for two decades (ca. 1473-1458 B.C.) during Egypt's Dynasty 18. Although less familiar to modern audiences than her much later successor, the notorious Cleopatra (51–30 B.C.), Hatshepsut's achievements were far more significant.

Ruling first as regent for, then as co-ruler with, her nephew Thutmose III (who ruled for another thirty-three years after her death), Hatshepsut enjoyed a relatively peaceful reign, at the beginning of the New Kingdom.

Howard Rogers, 1932 | Sculptures

Howard Rogers began his fine art career as a highly successful illustrator on the East Coast, working on projects for national magazines and book publishers. He eventually moved west to paint full time, greatly inspired by the landscapes and cowboy lifestyle.

Today, he is nationally recognized for his western paintings, although his subjects include figuratives, florals and wildlife.

He is also highly sought after for his lyrical figurative bronzes.

Ana Mutavdzic | Abstract Cityscape painter

Ana Mutavdzic is an Serbian painter, known for working in the Abstract style*.

Mutavdzic was born in Kragujevac, Serbia - Yugoslavia.

I am driven by the feeling that with my brush I can convey my own understanding of the world to the canvas, the colours of my soul, my feelings and the way of life. It's one of the things which make me paint all over again.

Istvan Sàndorfi | Drawing

István Sándorfi was born in Budapest in 1948 and died in 2007. His father was director of the American company, IBM, in Hungary.

Because of this association he served five years in Stalinist prisons during the Communist regime and his family was deported to an isolated Hungarian village.

At the time of the 1956 uprising the Sandorfi family fled the country and became expatriates, first in Germany, then in France.

Greatly affected by the violence of the revolution and by the aberration of political systems in general, Istvan took refuge in drawing, and then, at the age of 12, in oil painting.

Jorge Luis Borges | A Poem to Friends | L'Amicizia

Pablo Picasso* - Friendship, 1908

I cannot give you solutions to all life’s problems,

Nor do I have answers to your doubts or fears

But I can listen to you and share it with you

I cannot change neither your past nor your future.

But when you need me I’ll be by your side.

I cannot prevent you from stumbling

I can only offer you my hand to hold on to you so you won’t fall.

Anita Magsaysay-Ho | Cubist painter

Anita Magsaysay-Ho (May 25, 1914 - May 5, 2012) was a Filipino painter. She was the only female member of the Thirteen Moderns, a standing group of Filipino modernist artists and in 1958 was chosen by a panel of experts at the six major painters of the country. The most famous work of Magsaysay-Ho are subject to the beauty of Filipino women dealing with everyday issues.

Vally Nomidou / Βαλλυ Νομιδου, 1959 | Figurative sculptor

G reek artist* Vally Nomidou / Βαλλυ Νομιδου was born in Thessaloniki. She graduate of the Athens School of Fine Arts, and of the Saint Martin’s School of Art of London.

Recipient of scholarship for the Greek graduate program of IKY.

Vally Nomidou makes life-size sculptures of human figures using only paper and cardboard.

The construction of her paper sculptures is a labour of layering newspaper, paper towel, and other recycled papers by cutting, sewing and rubbing to produce beautiful forms.

Jesus Navarro, 1952 | Hyperrealist painter

Jesús Navarro was born in Jerez, Cadiz, located in southern Spain.

By the age of twelve his artistic talents led him to the local school of arts and crafts -Escuela de Artes y Oficios de Jerez- where he studied painting and sculpture.

At this time He also became the apprentice of locally renowned painter, Ramírez Toro, under which Navarro learned the complex techniques of classical painting.

In 1971, Navarro moved to Barcelona where he began a phase of self-teaching, focusing on combining classical techniques along with his newly discovered self interests in detailed formation of compositions.

George Grie / Джордж Грие, 1962 | Neo-Surrealist painter

George Grie / Джордж Грие or Юрий Грибановский is a Russian-Canadian artist.

One of the first digital surrealism artists, Grie is known for numerous 3D, 2D, and matte painting images. Born in the USSR during the Soviet regime he did not adopt the conventional and politically correct socialist realism art style.

• Style

Grie's artistic style has been heavily influenced by famous surrealists such as René Magritte and Salvador Dalí, fantastic realists Zdzisław Beksiński and Wojciech Siudmak, and surreal photomanipulation artist Jerry Uelsmann. His neo-surrealist artwork is a combination of classic surrealist symbolism with modern fantasy, gothic and visionary arttendencies.

Arthur Frank Mathews | Tonalist painter

Arthur F. Mathews (1860-1945) was an American* Tonalist painter who was one of the founders of the American Arts and Crafts Movement*.

Trained as an architect and artist, he and his wife Lucia Kleinhans Mathews had a significant effect on the evolution of Californian art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

His students include Granville Redmond, Xavier Martinez, Armin Hansen, Percy Gray, Gottardo Piazzoni, Ralph Stackpole, Mary Colter, Maynard Dixon, Rinaldo Cuneo and Francis McComas.

Pablo Neruda / Duy Huynh | Ode to the Happy Day / Ode al giorno felice

Let me be happy

nothing ha s happened to anybody

I am nowhere special

I am only

happy

through the four chambers

of my heart, I am strolling,

sleeping, or writing.

What canI do? I'm

happy.

Victoria Montesinos, 1944 | Flowers painter

Victoria Montesinos, Mexican painter, was born in Mexico City and has been exhibiting works since 1972 in the U.S., Europe, Mexico and Japan.

In late 1983, Victoria moved from Mexico to New York where she had a contract with one of the largest galleries in the United States to develop lithographic works.

While there, she studied and worked with a complicated technique to produce high-quality lithographs.

Giotto | The allegories of Virtues / Le allegorie delle Virtù, 1303-1305

The bottom tiers of the longer walls feature 14 allegories, in monochrome, symbolising Vices on the North wall and Virtues on the South wall.

The Vices are: Stultitia, Inconstantia, Ira, Iniusticia, Infidelitas, Invidia, Desperatio.

The Virtues are divided as follows: the four Cardinal Virtues: Prudentia, Iustitia, Temperantia, Fortitudo, followed by the three Theological ones: Fides, Karitas, Spes.

Each virtue and vice is embedded within a mirror-like marble frame.

The name of the vice or the virtue is written in Latin on top of each figure, indicating what these figures represent: the seventh day (the day between Jesus’s birth and the Final Judgement).

Temperanza e L'Ira

Paul Verlaine | Kiss! / Bacio! Rosa malva nel giardino delle carezze..

Kiss! Hollyhock in Love's luxuriant close!

Brisk music played on pearly little keys,

In tempo with the witching melodies

Love in the ardent heart repeating goes.

Sonorous, graceful Kiss, hail! Kiss divine!

Unequalled boon, unutterable bliss!

Man, bent o'er thine enthralling chalice, Kiss,

Grows drunken with a rapture only thine!

Jaroslav Seifert / George Grie | To be a Poet / Essere Poeta, 1983

To Be a Poet

Life taught me long ago

that music and poetry

are the most beautiful things on earth

that life can give us.

Except for love, of course.

Tomek Setowski, 1961: "Mind is a characteristic factory of dreams"..

Polish painter Tomek Sętowski was born in Czestochowa, where he is still residing and where his main gallery called Museum of imagination is located.

Extraordinary sensitivity that characterized him as a little boy could be seen as soon as he was only three years old when his first painting was created.

Had been developing his painting techniques for years, taking giant steps from local galleries to the top-rank exhibitions salons, and, at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Częstochowa Pedagogical University he gained knowledge of the history of art.

Kenneth Potter | Watercolor painter

American painter Kenneth Potter [1926-2011] was born in Bakersfield, CA.

Studied: San Francisco Academy of Art, Academie Frochot (Paris), Istituto Statale d'Arte (Florence); Member: Society of Western Artists; American Watercolor Society. Ken Potter is a third generation Californian.

He grew up in Northern California during the depression and began drawing regularly at an early age.

While living in Sacramento, he received art instruction through a W.P.A. sponsored program. As a teenager, he visited the 1939 World’s Fair art exhibit in San Francisco where he viewed works by many of the world’s greatest artists. He was particularly excited about modern works, especially the French modernists.

Gianni Bellini, 1965 | Figurative Mixed media painter

Gianni Bellini, italian painter, was born in Carmignano, Italy.

A self taught and talented painter, at just fifteen years of age, he started to partecipate in important extemporary, personal and collective art exhibitions in several cities always receiving wonderful reviews and many first place awards.

Marco Rossati, 1943 | Metaphysical Realism painter

Marco Rossati was born at Reggio Emilia (Italy) in 1943.

He studied at the "Istituto d’Arte" and at the "Accademia di Belle Arti" in Rome with Mino Maccari, Renato Guttuso, Franco Gentilini, Ferdinando Bologna.

He later taught at the same Academy.

In that time he met Giorgio De Chirico, whose art fascinated him since he was a child and becomes his pupil for several years.

Giuseppe Signorini | Orientalist painter

Giuseppe Signorini (1857-1932) was an Italian painter*, mainly of orientalist subjects.

He was born in Rome. He studied at the Accademia di San Luca, and then worked under Aurelio Tiratelli. He often traveled to the Paris Salon exhibitions, and was influenced by the styles and orientalist themes expressed by painters like Mariano Fortuny, Ernest Meissonier and Gérôme*.

Frederik Hendrik Kaemmerer | Genre / Impressionist painter

Frederik Hendrik Kaemmerer (23 October 1839, The Hague - 4 April 1902, Paris) was a Dutch painter*. He originally worked in the Romantic and Academic styles, but later became an Impressionist*.

He began his artistic studies at the Royal Academy of Art with Salomon Verveer, who taught in the Romantic tradition. His early works were mostly landscapes in the style of the Hague School. His first solo exhibition was in 1861 in Rotterdam.

In 1865, attracted by new trends in art, he went to Paris and enrolled at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, where he studied with Jean-Léon Gérôme* and switched to a more Academic style.

Ettore Aldo Del Vigo, 1952 | Surrealist painter

Ettore Aldo Del Vigo was born in Basel in Switzerland. After graduating in Fine Arts, he worked in a print shop specializing in art books and catalogs, where others could learn from a parent of Surrealism, Max Ernst.

Certainly the most obvious influences in his paintings are classical antiquity and Salvador Dalí.

He later moved to Sardinia where he joined a group of local artists, participating in numerous art competitions. In 1979 states individually.

John White Alexander | Symbolist painter

John White Alexander (1856-1915) was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. He was orphaned at age five and taken in by relatives of limited means. When Alexander left school and began working at a telegraph company, the company's vice-president, former civil war Colonel Edward Jay Allen, took an interest in his welfare.

Allen became his legal guardian, brought him into the Allen household, and saw that he finished Pittsburgh High School.

At eighteen, he moved to New York City and was hired by Harper and Brothers as an office boy in the art department.

He was soon promoted to apprentice illustrator under staff artists such as Edwin A. Abbey and Charles Reinhart.

During his time at Harpers, Alexander was sent out on assignment to illustrate events such as the Philadelphia Centennial celebration in 1876 and the Pittsburgh Railroad Strike in 1877, which erupted in violence.

Daniel F. Gerhartz, 1965 | Ladies and flowers

The Daniel F. Gerhartz’s skillful and technically adept work celebrates the created world, the human form, personal relationships with a connection to landscapes and environments of special importance.

Many of his figures are dressed in dramatic clothing which he often invents for its aesthetic appeal and lyrical quality so as to achieve a sense of other worldliness..

His subjects evoke a timelessness and idealism, yet for the most part Dan has drawn upon his home and community, including family and friends, for subject matter.

Gustave Jean Jacquet | A pupil of Bouguereau

Gustave Jean Jacquet was French painter of portraits, genre and watercolours.

Born in Paris on 25 May 1846 Jacquet lived and worked in Paris. Jacquet was a pupil of Bouguereau and so admiring was he of his tutor that he never sought any other.

Consequently, Jacquet's early work was influenced by that of Bouguereau.

In 1865, Jacquet made his debut at the Salon with an allegory entitled La Rêverie. The following year he submitted paintings detailing life in the 16th, 17th and 18th Century which were small in dimension.

At the same time he began to paint portraits and he sometimes put his subjects in the period costume of the 16th Century as a caprice. Jacquet also painted portraits of children and genre scenes.

In 1875 Jacquet was awarded a medal of excellence and was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1879.

Jacquet's artistic career was very successful and he produced many fine paintings which won him his acclaim.