June 2, 2015
A heavily inked and pierced mom arrived early, before anyone else, and waited patiently with her young son while the photographer set up his camera and lights. Getting her first tattoo at 18, the woman had built up quite a collection of body art since then, her favorite being the intricate roses and spider webs…
March 25, 2015
Many of the paintings you’ll find in Van Gogh, Manet, and Matisse: The Art of the Flower are of lavish bouquets bursting with color and beauty. In fact, Vincent van Gogh spent 1886 and 1887 painting two dozen such floral still lifes, several of which are included in this exhibition. However, in the winter of…
March 20, 2015
This blog is courtesy of RVANews‘ Ross Catrow. “See the young flower designer looking to the history painter for inspiration, breadth of treatment, artistic feeling and approach, which he will adopt to his own art to imbue it with an ideal he would never find in the mere study of plants.” —Adrien de Gasparin, 1832…
March 17, 2015
The second in a series of stories about the impact of the VMFA Visual Arts Fellowship program. These stories are in celebration of the 75th anniversary of this valuable program. Please watch this blog for future stories. Most Fellowship recipients feel the impact of their Fellowships for years, perhaps even throughout their careers. However, few…
March 13, 2015
This overblown bouquet of roses by Gustave Caillebotte features a cascade of petals, each one deftly built with just a few brushstrokes of thickly applied paint, scattered across a marble surface. Caillebotte’s choice of a marble tabletop, set against a scumbled, or thinly painted, black ground, may be an homage to Édouard Manet’s final series…
March 3, 2015
As an art lover, there is always the temptation to reach out and touch objects in works of art to confirm what our eyes are telling us. But we resist (even the slightest fingerprint contains destructive chemicals that endanger even the hardest surfaces). However, few artists compel us to go against our better judgment like…
February 23, 2015
Sunday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch commentary helps us see past the snow to the promise of spring. . .and Flowers! http://www.richmond.com/opinion/their-opinion/article_eec04b54-3cde-5ccb-b3a7-ede7bcf5b7c1.html
February 11, 2015
In 1874, French printmaker Félix Bracquemond (1833-1914) submitted more works than any other artist to the inaugural impressionist exhibition. The work Bracquemond displayed—at his friend Edgar Degas’s invitation—included portraits of his artistic contemporaries, naturalistic landscapes, reproductive etchings of historical European paintings, and emblematic images of birds accompanied by poems (such as Margot the Critique, or The…
February 3, 2015
In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the VMFA Visual Arts Fellowship program, we will be running a series of stories about the impact of these Fellowships on select recipients over the past 15 years. Please watch this blog for future stories. Alyssa Salomon: Winning Two Fellowships Took Her Work to New Levels Winning VMFA…
January 23, 2015
Born January 23, 1832, French painter Édouard Manet was one of the first 19th artists to use the modern world as the subject of his art. “I paint what I see and not what others like to see,” he said. While the striking honesty in his subject matter, including prostitution, drinking, and war, scandalized the…
