Tag: abstract expressionism

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Guillo Pérez

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 4 Comments

Guillermo Esteban Pérez Chacón, known artistically as Guillo Pérez, was born in San Víctor, Moca, Dominican Republic.In 1942 Pérez graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Santiago.He was appointed professor at the School of Fine Arts in Santiago and moved to Santo Domingo in 1955, where he began a series of solo and group exhibitions that solidified his reputation in the national art scene.Pérez founded the Guillo Pérez School of Art in Santo Domingo, with the aim of fostering Dominican art and culture, as well as promoting new talent in the visual arts.His distinctive style was characterized by the use of oil on canvas and the application of a palette knife to achieve thick impasto, placing him within the realm of abstract expressionism.Pérez had an extraordinary ability to interpret the Creole environment, encompassing man, landscape, sky, sea and land, establishing himself as one of the most prolific and important canvas artists in the Dominican Republic.

More of Guillo Pérez’s work can be found at https://www.guilloperez.com/artists/guillo-perez.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Norman Lewis

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 14 Comments

Norman Lewis,  an Abstract Expressionist painter and teacher, was born in 1909 in Harlem to Caribbean immigrant parents.

Too Much Aspiration

 

As an artist, Lewis diverged from his native Harlem community of artists in choosing abstraction over representation as his mode of expression.

Jazz Club

 

Lewis studied with sculptor Augusta Savage from 1933 to 1935, at which time he also took art courses at Columbia University.

Baule Mask

 

Those years brought about fruitful encounters with many artists and writers. Lewis joined the 306 group, a salon of artists and writers who met in Harlem and aimed to promote and support the careers of emerging African American artists.

Girl With Yellow Hat

 

In 1935, with members of the 306 group, he became a founding member of the Harlem Artists Guild.

Street Music

 

Lewis moved away from creating social  realism works in the early 1940s because he found the style was not effective to counter racism.

Street Scene

 

Abstraction proved an important means to both artistic freedom and personal discovery, a strategy to distance himself from racial artistic language, as well as the stereotypes of his time.

Cantata

 

Lewis said he struggled to express social conflict in his art, but in his later years, focused on the inherently aesthetic. “The goal of the artist must be aesthetic development,” he told art historian Kellie Jones, “and in a universal sense, to make in his own way some contribution to culture.”

March on Washington

 

In his last 20 years, Lewis created and developed his very own unique blending of abstraction and figuration. His rhythmic lines and shapes now hinted at figures moving through his layers of colors. 

Green Mist

 

More of Norman Lewis‘s timely artwork can be found at https://www.wikiart.org/en/norman-lewis and  http://www.artnet.com/artists/norman-lewis/.