>color

vincent van gogh

dutch post-impressionist painter, father of expressionism

born march 30, 1853 in groot-zundert, the netherlands. by 27 he had worked as art salesman, french tutor, theological student and belgian evangelist. especially the decreptitute of the miners he preached to influenced his early work including the patato eaters (1885).

by 1886 he moved in with his brother theo in paris. here he was influenced by the impressionists and japanese printmakers, especially taking an interest in more brilliant hues. in 1888 he left for southern france where his work became defined by swirling brushstrokes and intense yellows, greens and blues. while in arles he invited gauguin to come and stay with him and painted his famous sunflowers as decoration for paul's room. later van gogh cut of his ear in remorse for attacking gauguin with a razor. for the following year he worked furiously inbetween spells of madness at an asylum in saint-remy. he then spent three last months with dr. gachet, whose portrait he painted, at auvers. after completing the ominous crows in the wheatfields (1890) he shot himself.

marc chagall

russian-born french surrealist painter and designer

born july 7, 1887 in vitsyebsk, russia. he was educated in art in saint petersburg and paris where he remained. after the russian revolution he was director of the art academy in vitsyebsk and art director of the moscow jewish state theater from 1919 to 1922. in 1923 he moved to france where he spent the rest of his life.

chagall partly derived his distinctive use of color and form russian expressionism and french cubism. he treats subjects in a vein of humor and fantasy drawing deeply on the unconcious. his personal. unique imagery is often suffused with exquisite poetic inspiration. he characteristically respresents vivid scenery from russian-jewish villages and incidents in his provate life. in this way his works combine local folklore and fantasy. one of his greatest works are 12 stained-glass windows (1962) in the hadassah hospital of hadassah-hebrew university medical center in jerusalem.

georg baselitz

modern german painter, sculptor, printmaker and draftsman

born georg kern on january 23, 1938 in deutchbaselitz, upper lausitz, saxony. his art training began in east berlin at the hochscule fur bildende und angewandte kunst, where he spent a year before moving to west berlin. here he changed his name to georg baselitz while continuing his studies and later his own personal portfolio.

baselitz rejected abstration and preferred working in a figurative style, seeking new and aggressive styles. with his paints der wald auf dem kopf (1969) he revolutionised his work by turning it upside down so as to alter the perspective of the work so as to create a fresh view. later in hos career he started working in the medium of sculpting, using roughly-hewn wood as basis.

paul gauguin

french post-impressionist painter

born in paris, france on june 7, 1848. after meeting camille pissarro in 1874 he started collecting impressionist works and procude his own amateur paintings. after leaving his career he moved to brittany, where he was the center of a small group of experimental painters. under influence from emile bernard he turned to a less naturalistic style, which he called synthetism. here he drew inspiration from indigeneous peoples and japanese prints, introduced to him by van gogh with whom he spent two months in arles. this new style was charactirized by the use of large flat areas of nonnaturalistic color.

gauguin spent the biggest part of his latter life in the south seas, living and painting the local inhabitants and their culture. under the influence of the tropical setting his paintings became more powerful, and at the same time more simplified. his masterpiece, where do we come from? what are we? where are we going? (1897), was painted here shortly before his failed suicide attempt.