Medieval More Art

Christ Pantocrator after a Russian icon of the 15th Century. Tempera and gold leaf on gesso over a wooden board. Measurements in centimeters: 38 x 29.5 x 3 cm. / In inches: 14.96 x 11.8 x 1.18 " This is how the artist sums up the technique used by him to create the icon: “The aim of these steps is to create a durable painting. The icon is eternal. The first step is to choose a support, traditionally made of wood, from the center of the trunk to avoid warping it. For this purpose, two hardwood bolts were often used on the back to give the picture panel additional stability. Often a frame is milled out. Then the image carrier is sanded smooth and now 12 or 14 thin layers of gesso are applied and sanded smooth as well. Then the preliminary drawing is applied and the drawing board is prepared with a special preparation called bolus. This bolus can be polished to a high gloss. Afterwards, the gold leaf is "shot" with special brushes. It dries up within a few hours and can now be polished with agate. Gold leaf is real 24-carat gold. Now does the actual process of painting begins. Egg tempera is made fresh from egg yolk, water, and a little vinegar. This is used to prepare the color pigments. Tempera painting is done in numerous layers from dark to light. When the icon is finished, it is left to dry for a few months and varnished with a special varnish called Olifa made from boiled linseed oil and other ingredients”. ABOUT THE ARTIST Oliver Samsinger (Vienna, 1968) began to take an interest in icons in 1990. He undertakes several trips to Bulgaria, Greece, and Cyprus to see in situ the original works treasured in these three countries. This experience will be crucial in his life since the studies carried out in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, and his stay on Mount Athos...

Limited edition of 999 With this book, Jaume Plensa pays tribute to the poet Vicent Andrés Estellés and artistically reads L'Hotel París, a work that had ...

Inspired by amateur archaeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann who discovered Troy and by past elaborate hoaxes like that of the Piltdown Man, Joshua travels the world performing sta...

The Evangelist Mathew after a Russian Icon. School of Moscow, 15th century. Egg tempera, gold leaf, and gesso, over a wooden board. Dimensions: (H) 52 x (W) 36 x (D) 3 cm. Saint Matthew, the Evangelist, is represented at his own desk, a true artisan laboratory. THE THECHNIQUE This is how the artist sums up the technique used by him to create the icon: “The aim of these steps is to create a durable painting. The icon is eternal. The first step is to choose a support, traditionally made of wood, from the center of the trunk to avoid warping it. For this purpose, two hardwood bolts were often used on the back to give the picture panel additional stability. Often a frame is milled out. Then the image carrier is sanded smooth and now 12 or 14 thin layers of gesso are applied and sanded smooth as well. Then the preliminary drawing is applied and the drawing board is prepared with a special preparation called bolus. This bolus can be polished to a high gloss. Afterwards, the gold leaf is "shot" with special brushes. It dries up within a few hours and can now be polished with an agate. Gold leaf is real 24 carat gold . Now does the actual process of painting begin. Egg tempera is made fresh from egg yolk, water and a little vinegar. This is used to prepare the color pigments. Tempera painting is done in numerous layers from dark to light. When the icon is finished, it is left to dry for a few months and varnished with a special varnish called Olifa made from boiled linseed oil and other ingredients”. ABOUT THE ARTIST Oliver Samsinger...

Saint John, The Forerunner, after a Russian Icon from the 16th Century. Tempera and gold leave on gesso over a wooden board. Dimensions: (H) 33 x (W) 25,5 x (D) 4 cm. John, The Forerunner, is depicted as an ascetic desert saint with a tousled beard and a coat made from camel hair. The expression that transmits his beautiful face is very intense. This is how the artist sums up the technique used by him to create the icon: “The aim of these steps is to create a durable painting. The icon is eternal. The first step is to choose a support, traditionally made of wood, from the center of the trunk to avoid warping it. For this purpose, two hardwood bolts were often used on the back to give the picture panel additional stability. Often a frame is milled out. Then the image carrier is sanded smooth and now 12 or 14 thin layers of gesso are applied and sanded smooth as well. Then the preliminary drawing is applied and the drawing board is prepared with a special preparation called bolus. This bolus can be polished to a high gloss. Afterward, the gold leaf is "shot" with special brushes. It dries up within a few hours and can now be polished with agate. Gold leaf is real 24-carat gold . Now does the actual process of painting begins. Egg tempera is made fresh from egg yolk, water, and a little vinegar. This is used to prepare the color pigments. Tempera painting is done in numerous layers from dark to light. When the icon is finished, it is left to dry for a few months and varnished with a special varnish called Olifa made from boiled linseed oil and other ingredients”. ABOUT THE ARTIST Oliver Samsinger...

Andy Warhol (after) Silver Marilyn, 1990s Handmade Carpet 150 × 150 cm (59.1 × 59.1 in) Certificate of authenticity on label Edition of 20 In excellent condition Published by Modern Master Tapestries, NY The artwork is offered unframed As a golden legend of Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe held particular fascination for Andy Warhol. Her suicide on August 5, 1962 struck a personal chord and precipitated a commemorative series that isolated her beautiful and henceforth elusive visage against variously colored backdrops. In the increasingly secular 1960s, Warhol was quick to recognize that movie stars had replaced the religious figures of his childhood, as the idols which the population at large chose to worship. Andy Wahrol worked with tapestry in his life as works were presented by Charles Slatkin...

Adela Akers (b. 1933, Santiago de Compostela, Spain) is a Spanish-born textile and fiber artist. She is Professor Emeritus (1972 to 1995) at the Tyler Scho...

Virgin of Tijvin, after a Russian icon of the 17th century. Egg tempera, gold leaf on gesso over a wooden board. Measurements in centimeters: 44 x 33 x 3 cm / In inches: 17.32 x 12.99 x 1.18 " Author: Oliver Samsinger...

"Birth of Christ", after a Russian icon of the 15th century. Tempera and gold leaves on gesso, wooden board. Dimensions: (H) 68 x (W) 52 x (D) 4 cm. This icon sums up the events of the birth of Christ. At the top left the three wise men from the Orient approach on horses. ABOUT THE ARTIST Oliver...

"Porter Series: Carte L'Europe (Shower Woman)" is a tapestry by South African artist William Kentridge. It is edition 1 of 5 (plus 2 APs) and signed verso "W. Kentridge". William Kentridge is a South African graphic artist, filmmaker, and theatre arts activist especially noted for a sequence of hand-drawn animated films he produced during the 1990s. The pungent humanism he revealed in these and other works echoed a larger European tradition of artists such as Honoré Daumier, Francisco de Goya, and William Hogarth. Kentridge, whose father was a noted antiapartheid lawyer, attended the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (1973–76) and the now-defunct Johannesburg Art Foundation (1976–78). At various times in the 1970s and ’80s, he worked as an actor, playwright, set designer, and theatrical director, and he studied mime and theatre in Paris in the early 1980s. In 1992 he began an ongoing collaboration involving multimedia performances with Handspring Puppet Theatre (founded 1981) in Cape Town. As is clear from both his early training and his later artistic output, Kentridge’s interest in the visual arts was rooted in its connection with the theatrical arts. The narrative structure and character development in his films reflect this connection. While Kentridge pursued several avenues as an artist, at the centre of his work was a sequence of short animated films. To produce them, he made a rough charcoal drawing, photographed it, altered the drawing slightly, photographed it again, and so on. Kentridge’s original drawings are often completely effaced by their successors. Many of these films—including Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City After Paris (1989) and Felix in Exile (1994)—follow the fortunes of the greedy capitalist Soho Eckstein and his alter ego, the sensitive and artistic Felix Teitelbaum. They present modern South Africa as reflective of the spiritual, ecological, and emotional crises of late capitalism. Kentridge later established himself as a consummate figure in the performing arts, particularly for his innovative stagings of the operas The Nose (2010) and Lulu (2015) at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and Wozzeck (2017) at the Salzburg Festival...

A breezy enigmatic day in South Miami Beach, FL inspired this almost surreal work straddling abstraction and representation. Energetic color fields unify this work found at the inter...

A new dawn for the once great city of Detroit is in the air. This work generates and expands upon the narrative that Detroit is back. With a renaissance energizing and awakening long...