How did you get started? Johanne Mangi: I always had some drawing utensil in my hand whether it was crayon, pencil, pastels, whatever. Didn’t matter that I couldn’t draw either. I was young and naïve, but I just knew I had to do something creative. Painting, other than paint by numbers, came later in life. I had a friend who dragged me to a class that basically did wall art. We used tints with BIN, a house paint. It was then that I decided to take drawing seriously so that maybe I could learn how to paint better. First and foremost, I wasn’t afraid to try things and experiment.
How do you describe success? Johanne Mangi: Success is more internal for me. Yes, I love awards but frankly I know when I’ve painted something really good and when I haven’t. When it’s really good you don’t need to be told. You feel it. I paint whatever excites me, but my biggest inspiration comes from my animals and surrounding wildlife. I have endless subject matter. So much to paint and so little time!
Cesar Santos (b. 1982), Santa Clara, Cuba, Untitled in Progress, oil on linen, 200 x 300 cm
Cesar Santos: InFormal
September 22 – October 27, 2023
Robilant+Voena, Milan robilantvoena.com
From the gallery:
This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Europe, and marks a pivotal moment in his career, launching a new body of work in an innovative, highly unique style that the artist has developed over the past year.
Moving beyond the representational portraiture that has been the core of his oeuvre until recently, the works in this exhibition demonstrate Santos’s personal spirit unleashed through his creations. The paintings and drawings appear simultaneously familiar, evoking the aesthetics of the Old Masters, and unrecognizable, comprised of intangible forms that appear to shift and coalesce throughout each composition.
Cesar Santos, “Corridor,” 2022, oil on linen, 96 x 140 cm
In creating these works, the artist begins by approaching the blank canvas with broad expressive brushstrokes, filling large areas with paint in monochrome shades; after this initial spontaneous stage, Santos refines the work using his intuition and artistic experience, giving order and coherence to the component parts. Each work is as much a surprise to the artist as to his audience; he does not embark on a work with a set idea of the outcome, rather the process is a journey of discovery, with the individual marks and gestures imbuing each piece with a unique atmosphere.
In the artist’s own words: “The materiality of the paint and the canvas becomes an eco-system of relationships, representing colors, space, and solidity with their potentiality in motion. I make new objects communicate in their environment, becoming stories of the visual system with open possibilities.”
Cesar Santos, “One’s Message,” 2022, oil on linen, 140 x 100 cm
Santos’ inspirations are drawn from the more awkward or subversive corners of art history, such as Old Masters who were the eccentrics of their era, such as Giuseppe Arcimboldo, or those whose style was at odds with conventional beauty, such as El Greco or Francisco Goya. Further, his paintings take influence from the fleshy forms of Peter Paul Rubens and the expressive grandeur of Michelangelo and Raphael.
Alongside his European Old Master models, in these artworks, the artist incorporates elements from the cultures of his native Cuba, and the United States, infused with his own interest in psychology. Santos synthesizes these diverse experiences with a rigorous understanding of design, color, and the structure of his materials, giving birth to his art.
Cesar Santos, “H Major,” 2022, charcoal on paper, 77 x 56 cm
The artworks presented in this exhibition suggest the notion that even though a painting is a static, abstract message of nature, it can appear fluid in its meaning, in a visual state of motion. Santos purposefully leaves ambiguity and openness in the finished work, allowing the viewer to comprehend it through their individual faculties.
Cesar Santos is a Cuban-American artist, born in Santa Clara, Cuba, and brought up in Miami, Florida. He studied at the New World School of the Arts in Florida, followed by a period of training in Florence. Subsequently, Santos moved to New York City, immersing himself in the vibrant art scene. While in New York, he received first prize in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s photography competition, ‘It’s Time We Met’.
Santos’s work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia, including at the Museum of Art and Design, Miami; Palazzo Cipolla, Rome; the Villa Bardini Museum, Florence; National Gallery, Costa Rica; and the Beijing World Art Museum, China. His work features in the collections of significant institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sicily, the New Salem Museum and the Academy of Fine Art in Massachusetts, and the Museum of Design in Miami.
Santos currently lives and works in Florence.
Cesar Santos, “Open House,” 2023, oil on linen, 200 x 142 cmCesar Santos, “Special Period,” 2023, oil on linen, 200 x 142 cm
Cesar Santos has a variety of art video workshops available through PaintTube.tv, including:
Secrets of Portrait Painting (in English and Spanish)
As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
Heather, C.M. Cooper, oil on panel, 16 x 12 in; 2nd Place Award AIS Small Works; C.M. Cooper
Sarah in the Summertime, 2023, Patricia Schappler, oil on cradled board, 36 × 24 in; 33 Contemporary
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Lilacs in Vase, 1970, Boris Mikhailovich Lavrenko (1920-2001), oil on canvas, 24 x 20 in; American Legacy Fine Arts
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
"Mother and Son, Prince of Ireland" by Odd Nerdrum
“Big Stories” presents a diverse array of artists whose large-scale figurative works capture the essence of storytelling in striking visual form. Curated by figurative painters Bo Bartlett, Noah Buchanan, and Carl Dobsky, the 18-piece exhibit explores the boundless possibilities of large-scale contemporary figurative painting, deeply rooted in the rich tradition of storytelling.
“Big Stories” Through December 16, 2023
Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus State University
Columbus, Georgia bartlettcenter.columbusstate.edu
Noah Buchanan, “Jacob’s Ladder,” 2023, oil on linen, 108 x 80 in.
More from the gallery:
“Since the dawn of civilization, narratives have been at the core of our existence,” explained Mike McFalls, director of the Bo Bartlett Center and a professor in Columbus State University’s Department of Art. “From the epic tales of Homer to the immortal works of Shakespeare and the timeless cinematic creations of Spielberg, stories have served as the essence of human experience — portraying heroic journeys that transcend cultures and connect us on a profound level.”
McFalls noted that each of the exhibit’s carefully chosen and thoughtfully presented artwork serves as a testament to the enduring power of storytelling.
“Diana and Acteon” by Adam Miller
“Whether the narratives are overtly portrayed on the canvas or subtly embedded within the layers of paint, the paintings of ‘Big Stories’ will provoke deep introspection — inviting viewers to ponder the meanings and significance of our shared human experience,” he said.
The artists showcased in this in this exhibition include Steven Assael, Bo Bartlett, Margaret Bowland, Noah Buchanan, Aleah Chapin, Alfred Conteh, Vincent Desiderio, Carl Dobsky, Michelle Doll, Najee Dorsey, Zoey Frank, Paul Fenniak, Andrea Kowch, Adam Miller, Odd Nerdrum, Amy Sherald, Tim Short, and Patricia Watwood.
“Evan and Aaron” by Alfred Conteh
“The exhibition and the stories behind each piece that forms ‘Big Stories’ are fascinating,” McFalls continued. “The return of Amy Sherald’s artwork in her hometown of Columbus, Georgia, will undoubtedly pique people’s interest.”
“Talkin’ Across the Table” by Tim Short
The Bo Bartlett Center will host a public reception on Thursday, October 5, 2023 at 6 p.m., where patrons can visit with the exhibition curators and explore the depth and significance of “Big Stories” together.
“This My Baldwin” by Najee Dorsey
The exhibition will run through Saturday, December 16. It is available to visitors at no charge during the center’s operating hours, which are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
How do you find inspiration? Laura Pollak: My clearest memory was of driving up to the overlook of Half Dome at Yosemite! OMG! What majesty!!! Even at 5, I understood that this was well beyond the machinations of any human being. The forces of nature over the millennium were directly in front of me. The summer day was crisp and clear, and the shadows and light were singing.
When we got back home, I started drawing mountains. I’d take a piece of plain white paper, fold it in half and make a tent. Then I would cut out peaks at the fold and voila! I created atmospheric perspective. I fell in love with the magic of distant, craggy pinnacles. I created that mystical moment on a piece of paper.
Now, when hubby and I travel, we go hiking and biking in the National Parks. I have thousands of photos that have been patiently waiting to be painted. They’re ‘speaking to me’.
The Series called ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE is a collection of these dramatic examples of the Earth reaching skyward, and simultaneously down through the depths of fissures. Tectonic plates shifting and moving mountains. Doesn’t everyone hear the groaning of rock sliding on rock?
Laura Pollak, “Ancient Citadel,” pastel, 9 x 12 in., available through artistLaura Pollak, “Ancient Buttresses,” pastel, 14 x 15 in., available through artist
I hope this finds you well and enjoying the season wherever you are.
Fortunately, our plans for autumn are well underway, so today I am writing to update you on Fine Art Connoisseur’s next Fine Art Trip. This October we will explore two extraordinary art capitals — Stockholm (Sweden) and Madrid (Spain). It’s a fun and rewarding combination because both cities are filled with world-class art and are easy to navigate, with lots of historical architecture and delicious food to savor along the way.
Fine Art Connoisseur’s
2023 Fine Art Trip: Stockholm and Madrid
October 20-29 FineArtTrip.com
I want to assure those of you who have seen Stockholm and Madrid with us before (in 2010 and 2014, respectively) that SO much has changed since then. We are particularly excited that the Prado has finally opened its incredible new wing in the historic Hall of Realms, and in Stockholm the National Museum has undergone a massive renovation.
I was just researching a few other sites we will visit and am getting very excited about two in particular. In Stockholm, the Thielska Galleriet (The Thiel Gallery) is a handsome villa on a heavily wooded island (Royal Djurgården) near the center of Stockholm. Inside the mansion are wonderful paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by a range of talented Scandinavian artists, all acquired by the industrialist Ernest Thiel in the years around 1900. Some of the artists represented are internationally famous today (like Edvard Munch), but many are known only in Sweden — and they really are worth discovering!
In Madrid, I am always excited to visit the Museo Sorolla (Portada – Museo Sorolla | Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte), the gorgeous studio-house created by the master painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863–1923) for his family and thriving artistic practice. The sprawling home is filled with outstanding examples of his luminous art, and also with intriguing antiques and props the Sorollas collected during their wide-ranging travels, especially around Spain.
While paging through my files from past Fine Art Trips, I was reminded of how many unique adventures our travelers have enjoyed over the years — from private viewings of the Sistine Chapel and the Basilica San Marco to intimate conversations with Alphonse Mucha’s daughter-in-law in her Prague home and the Baroness Thyssen-Bornemisza at her museum in Málaga. Discovering art with kindred spirits like you has always been a joy, and now I am looking forward to more memorable experiences in Sweden and Spain!
All good wishes, and please feel free to send me a note about particular artworks and sites you would like to see. It’s not too late to tweak our itinerary a bit!
Vlad Duchev (Baltimore, MD), "Together Again," oil, 18 x 24 in.
We’d like to congratulate Vlad Duchev of Baltimore, Maryland for winning Overall First Place in the July 2023 PleinAir Salon, judged by Kevin Macpherson.
“I love painting different subjects, but the landscape is my first and greatest love,” Duchev says. “Instead of glorifying the creation, I concentrate on glorifying the Creator by simply rendering His creation. I love the moments I’m one-on-one with my Creator right before the brush touches the canvas. This is the most precious time for me.
“My painting process is straightforward – I will only start painting if I can see a complete painting in my mind with all the steps from start to finish. Paint it in your mind first – then transfer it to the canvas.”
Vlad Duchev was born in 1965 in the small town of Pokrov (former Ordzhonikidze) in Ukraine. Growing up, he was impressed by the art of Russian-Ukrainian impressionists. At the age of 8, he entered an art school in the small town of Bila-Tserkov and started his journey as an artist to join the Art Academy of Ukraine.
At the age of 14, being under pressure from his musical family, he decided to take a musical path. He studied at the Music College of Zhytomyr, the Music Academy of Kharkiv, and the National Conservatory of Ukraine in Kyiv with the principal in classical performance – double bass. But at the same time, he continued studying painting. In 1994, he moved his family to the United States due to the unstable situation in Ukraine. He resides and works in Baltimore, MD.
About the PleinAir Salon:
In the spirit of the French Salon created by the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, this annual online art competition, with 11 monthly cycles, leading to the annual Salon Grand Prize winners, is designed to stimulate artistic growth through competition. The competition rewards artists with $50,000 in cash prizes and exposure of their work, with the winning painting featured on the cover of PleinAir Magazine.
Winners in each monthly competition may receive recognition and exposure through PleinAir Magazine’s print magazine, e-newsletters, websites, and social media. Winners of each competition will also be entered into the annual competition. The Annual Awards will be presented live at the next Plein Air Convention & Expo.
The next round of the PleinAir Salon has begun so hurry, as this competition ends on the last day of the month. Enter your best art in the PleinAir Salon here.
Published six times per year, Fine Art Connoisseur is now a widely consulted platform for the world’s most knowledgeable experts, who write articles that inform readers and give them the tools necessary to make better purchasing decisions.
ON THE COVER
KATE HAANRAADTS (b. 1979), “I’m a Lover, Not a Fighter,” 2023, colored pencil on Bristol board, 18 x 24 in., available through the artist. For details, see page 67 of this issue.
Artists Making Their Mark: Five to Watch
Allison Malafronte highlights the talents of Viktor Butko, Janell James, Olga Krimon, Nicole Parker, and Fan Yu
Nancy Tankersley: The Joy of Wandering
By Leslie Gilbert Elman
Go Wild
By Max Gillies
From the Bones
By Rose Fredrick
A Meeting of Old & New Masters
By David Masello
Ateliers Now: Some Top Places to Train
By James C. Andrews
Art in the West
There are at least 6 great reasons to celebrate the American West this season.
Great Art Worldwide
We survey 8 top-notch projects occurring this season.
Deciphering the Caravaggio
By Jeremy Caniglia
Across America, Russian Art Endures
By Daniel Grant
Fine Art Connoisseur‘s jargon-free text and large color illustrations are attracting an ever-growing readership passionate about high-quality artworks and the fascinating stories around them. It serves art collectors and enthusiasts with innovative articles about representational paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints — both historical and contemporary, American and European. Fine Art Connoisseur covers the museums, galleries, fairs, auction houses, and private collections where great art is found.
Salman Toor examines Johannes Vermeer’s "Mistress and Maid" (right). His own painting, "Museum Boys" (2021), hangs at left in the rotating show "Living Histories: Queer Views and Old Masters" at The Frick (New York).
From the Fine Art Connoisseur September/October 2023 Editor’s Note:
“The Ancients Stole All Our Great Ideas. And I want them back, thank you very much.”
Mark Twain wrote these words long ago, yet their perversity still has the power to amuse us, and to give us pause. Rather than throwing in the towel, regretting that it’s all been done before, we must draw from Twain’s quip the courage to carry on. We would be fools to think no one has ever before felt exactly as we do, or pondered the same thoughts. Yet each individual is unique in the history of the world, casting their eye backward and forward in a completely distinctive way.
The necessity of such back-and-forthing is borne out by a range of articles in this issue, which have got me thinking about how crucial it is to bring living artists, and contemporary artworks, into proximity with historical ones. This can come through an artist’s lived experience, as it did for the California-based conceptual artist Ed Ruscha (b. 1937), who spent seven months exploring Europe’s great museums when he was 24. (“Europe,” he recalled, “added the weight of history to the whole picture.”)
But magic is also worked when historical artworks are literally presented side by side with contemporary ones. I’m thinking of the revelatory displays we’ve enjoyed recently at New York City’s Frick Collection; please see David Masello’s admiring article about them on page 77 of our September/October issue. Far from making the living participants seem derivative, these juxtapositions have only enhanced the power of their visions. It has been win-win all around, and these projects should happen more often — at similarly high levels of quality.
I have never met a living artist — no matter how “edgy” — who does not stumble into something thrilling while walking through a museum display of Old Master or 19th-century art. There one artist recognizes another, across the centuries; their methods and markets may be different, but that inner drive is fundamentally the same. Artists ask each other not just “how did you do that?” but “why did you do that?’
This impulse comes through loud and clear in Jeremy Caniglia’s comprehensive recap of his four-year-long journey to paint a master copy of Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath (1606–07). Please see page 95 of this issue to learn how deeply this gifted Nebraska-based artist delved into the process, and ultimately the mind, of his Baroque hero.
Finally, please turn to page 82 of this issue to read James C. Andrews’s helpful overview of nine different institutions offering top-notch training in realism today. Scattered around the world, these are just some of the extraordinary venues that have emerged to reconnect students with the techniques and ideas of our realist forerunners. You don’t need to be 18 or 25 to participate, either — most ateliers welcome pupils of all ages and levels of artistic experience.
Now more than ever, we need more people asking more questions of each other, even of those who have already departed this crazy, cruel, wonderful thing called life. Mark Twain could see that, and those of us who love visual art should, too.
What are your thoughts? Share your letter to the Editor below in the comments.
As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
The Hunt, Mary Erickson, oil on linen, 16 x 20 in;19th National American Society of Marine Artists Exhibition, 9/9/23, Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY
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I Think I Shall Never See a Poem Lovely as a Tree, Leslie Lambert, Watermedia on panel, 40 x 60 in; Solo Exhibition at Trails End Gallery, Chewelah, WA, 9/7-10/27
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
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