Cristian Mesa Velazquez

Kiss Me, Besame, oil painting, Realist Art, young Cuban artist in Barcelona

2020

Persephone reexamines portraits of individuals throughout history to illustrate the premise that history flows into the present in an ever-changing state. And, with each new context, we view people and events through a contemporary lens specific to that moment. Persephone appropriates and contextualizes original portrait elements to create reinvented portraits using technique and patterning that brings a contemporary context and perspective to these historically inspired portraits. PERSEPHONE was the goddess queen of the underworld, wife of the god Haides (Hades). She was also the goddess of spring growth, who was worshipped alongside her mother Demeter in the Eleusinian Mysteries. This agricultural-based cult promised its initiates passage to a blessed afterlife. My current body of work, Contemporary Histories, explores this phenomena by re-interpreting historical portraiture using a contemporary visual language. It is my intent to create a modern visual lens through which to view these individuals and their legacies, as they continue to flow into the present in ever-changing states. As a keen example of how history changes and morphs over time, I have selected portraits of women who chose an alternate path from the traditional ones prescribed in their times. Some of these individuals overtly stepped outside the traditional roles prescribed for women to realize their goals. Others astutely maneuvered within the social system they lived in to obtain their aspirations. Whether altruistic or nefarious, these women and their actions altered the future cultural landscape. Through a 21st century lens, we view them as women with minds of their own, who made choices to control their own lives and futures. Often, in stark contrast to how they were viewed and how their actions were recorded in their own times. For a modern visual language, a combination of fine and decorative arts has inspired my approach to this subject. Employing several formal contemporary tenets, most notably, rather than place the figure in a 3-dimensional space, as in the originals, the figures reside in flat graphic picture planes of damask designs, repetitive patterns or botanical grounds as modern settings for their modern legacies. These graphic backgrounds symbolize what was historically considered a woman’s proper domain, in particular, gardening and needle crafts, such as; quilting, embroidery and sewing. Formally, unlike the originals, I am working alla prima, rather than with a base grisaille and delicate layers of glazing. While, the patterned and botanical environments, along with gold leaf applications, contemporary compositions and color palettes are formally influenced by a spectrum of 19th - 21st century artists and artisans; from Gustav Klimt and the Wiener Werkstatte to Henri Rousseau, Tamara de Lempicka and Will Cotton...

Yearning is painted in the style of Classical Realism in Florence Italy. Yearning was mastered in the Realist style while studying at The Florence A...

Virtue of Knowledge reexamines portraits of individuals throughout history to illustrate the premise that history flows into the present in an ever-changing state. And, with each new context, we view people and events through a contemporary lens specific to that moment. Virtue of Knowledge appropriates and contextualizes original portrait elements to create reinvented portraits using technique and patterning that brings a contemporary context and perspective to these historically inspired portraits STATEMENT History flows into the present in an ever-changing state. And, with each new context, we view people and events through a contemporary lens specific to that moment. My current body of work, Contemporary Histories, explores this phenomena by re-interpreting historical portraiture using a contemporary visual language. It is my intent to create a modern visual lens through which to view these individuals and their legacies, as they continue to flow into the present in ever-changing states. As a keen example of how history changes and morphs over time, I have selected portraits of women who chose an alternate path from the traditional ones prescribed in their times. Some of these individuals overtly stepped outside the traditional roles prescribed for women to realize their goals. Others astutely maneuvered within the social system they lived in to obtain their aspirations. Whether altruistic or nefarious, these women and their actions altered the future cultural landscape. Through a 21st century lens, we view them as women with minds of their own, who made choices to control their own lives and futures. Often, in stark contrast to how they were viewed and how their actions were recorded in their own times. For a modern visual language, a combination of fine and decorative arts has inspired my approach to this subject. Employing several formal contemporary tenets, most notably, rather than place the figure in a 3-dimensional space, as in the originals, the figures reside in flat graphic picture planes of damask designs, repetitive patterns or botanical grounds as modern settings for their modern legacies. These graphic backgrounds symbolize what was historically considered a woman’s proper domain, in particular, gardening and needle crafts, such as; quilting, embroidery and sewing. Formally, unlike the originals, I am working alla prima, rather than with a base grisaille and delicate layers of glazing. While, the patterned and botanical environments, along with gold leaf applications, contemporary compositions and color palettes are formally influenced by a spectrum of 19th - 21st century artists and artisans; from Gustav Klimt and the Wiener Werkstatte to Henri Rousseau, Tamara de Lempicka and Will Cotton. BIO Honora Jacob...

Originally offered at $2000. Giovanni Monaco is a realistic portrait of a monastic monk that Angel Ramiro Sanchez know in Florence where he teaches at the Florence Academy...

Description: This painting "Stupendous Beauty 1 " conveys the confidence and the very impressive beauty of a black woman that is painted in bold colors in the style of Realism. It is oil on canvas. Stupendous Beauty 1 is a unique work of art, not a print or other type of copy. Joshua Salami...

Give Me A Smile Close your eyes, Don't say a word; Give me a smile, And stay and weave me your part of tenderness, Give me a little smile while I lie by your side; And give me you...

Portrait of Eugène de Zereso de Cejada. Oil on mahogany panel. Eugène de Zereso de Cejada was a Belgian politician and Baron.

A fine 19th century oil on canvas portrait stated to be Captain Paul John Henry Butler, 5th Royal Lancashire Militia, half length, wearing breast star. Hou...

Portrait of a young man, half length wearing a yellow waistcoat and holding a cane , Circle of Thomas Jones Barker (1815-1882), Oil on canvas, housed in a...

Bruce Adams was a painter, art educator, and writer. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1952, he received a B.S. in 1976 and an M.A. in 1983 from Buffalo State College. Adams’s work is includ...

Bruce Adams was a painter, art educator, and writer. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1952, he received a B.S. in 1976 and an M.A. in 1983 from Buffalo State College. Adams’s work is includ...

Bruce Adams was a painter, art educator, and writer. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1952, he received a B.S. in 1976 and an M.A. in 1983 from Buffalo State College. Adams’s work is includ...