Foujita and his Cats

Watching Antiques Roadshow this week (part 3, Eugene, OR) got me thinking about Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968) because someone waltzed in with two Foujita drawings (not the ones pictured above, but these). One was purchased from the artist himself for $100. in the 1930s and the other was bought from a bellhop of the hotel where he lived for $5. (it had been a tip). 

Foujita moved to Paris from Japan around 1913 and knew Picasso, Kiki, Modigliani, Matisse and others. He drew and painted a lot of female nudes and cats. He did very well for himself as an artist. I found these cool photos of Foujita with his round glasses, bowl haircut and various cats.  READ about Foujita. 

More images: LINK

The Art of Amy Crehore

A Strolling Pierrot Under a Full Moon

"Carnival Evening" was painted in 1886 by Henri Rousseau (Philadelphia Museum of Art). Early last evening, while driving in my car, I saw a sky that looked exactly like this with the winter trees in silhouette. Rousseau painted a pierrot strolling with his girlfriend under a full moon. This is one of my favorite paintings, although Rousseau created many pictures that I could easily call favorites. 

The Art of Amy Crehore

Rare Monkey Jazz Cartoon from 1930s

Dorothea Tanning RIP

"Primitive Seating" sculpture by Dorothea Tanning 1982

Surrealist painter Dorothea Tanning (1910- 2012) died peacefully yesterday at age 101. She's the one who was married to Max Ernst. LINK to article by Jerry Saltz

LINK to decades of images

Maurice Sendak on Colbert Report

This almost made me wet my pants:

The Colbert Report
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"Fake Death Picture"

"Fake Death Picture" by Yinka Shonibare (digital print) 2011 

from upcoming Exhibit: Addio del Passato (so closes my sad story)

Feb 16- March 24, 2012

533 w.26th St. NYC, James Cohan Gallery 

Interview with artist Yinka Shonibare - Whitehot Magazine

Mystery of a Masterpiece

Last night, there was a fascinating NOVA show on PBS. Experts were investigating whether a portrait of a girl on vellum (shown above) is really a Leonardo Da Vinci. They think it was cut from an old book of the period (they found the book in a museum in Poland).

Link to article about the story in the Guardian.

Here's the link to the show which you can watch online if you missed it.

NOVA -Mystery of a Masterpiece

I blogged about this picture earlier and said I thought it looked to me like it might be authentic. That was just my gut feeling based on the style of the face and execution of the drawing.