Centuries Archive

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Andy Warhol, the pop master, has used big names like Marilyn Monroe, Mao, Superman, Popaye, Dick Tracy, Batman, and even consumer products like Campbell soup and Coca-Cola. He used their readymade photographs to create a new kind of art-piece out of them. He tried to include every famous subject in his art in his time. Such big name was “The King”, Elvis Presley. The represented art-work is a publicity still taken from Elvis’s movie Flaming Star. There are total of eight overlapping images of the same still on the large canvas. It is a silkscreen painting produced in 1963. This is the first painting which brought in $100 million for an Andy Warhol work when it was sold in 2008. The price is recently suppressed […]

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Expensive, Famous, Gunman, Pop Art, Silkscreen

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Orange, Red, Yellow is one of the most expensive post-war painting made by an American born abstract artist Mark Rothko. It was executed in 1961. It is a Color Field painting. In 2012, it was sold for $77.5 million in Christie’s auction house. It is now Mark Rothko’s most expensive painting supressing the previous record of $72.8 million set by White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) by Mark Rothko. The composition of the painting is revered by the critics for the perfective use of colors and composition to bring out a ‘sunset’ like coloring. The huge price paid for the painting also marks the growing popularity of abstract arts in modern times.

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American, Color Field, Expensive, Famous

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In some stories the most vital moments aren’t filled with armies battling or acquiring the throne. In the deep look, vital moments in such stories are those which bear the possibility of eliminating the subsequent havoc happened and after which is crossed, there is no turning back. Greek mythological story of Oedipus has many such moments in his life. The direst one is represented in the current painting by the French painter. Oedipus’ prophecy of killing his father and marrying his own mother Oedipus was the son of King Laius and Queen Jacasta of Thebes. On his birth the king knew about the prophecy which stated that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his own mother. To eliminate such horrible possibilities, the king left […]

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French, Greek, Greek Mythology, King, Neoclassical, Oedipus, Sphinx

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Completed in 1824, The Sea of Ice or sometimes referred as The Wreck of Hope is a piece by the German painter Casper David Friedrich. It represents the accident of a ship which is drowning under the ice while the broken ice sheet by the accident has arisen upwards significantly. The top and bottom of the painting also resembles the popular color use of blue vs. orange, abundantly apparent in modern day art, films, posters and paintings. Subject The subject isn’t a random depiction of ice and ship-accident. The painting was made during the period when the expeditions to the north and south poles were in talks. Though, the attempts to a successful expedition are much older than the 19th century. The original title for […]

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German, Ice, Romanticism, Ship, Shipwreck

(13 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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Indian artists aren’t as much known as the western artist. Though, if we think about India one name comes in our mind, Raja Ravi Varma. One of the few 19th century Indian painter who had the caliber to stand alongside the top level western artists. Here is presented one of the best art works by Raja Ravi Varma. He was known, mostly, for depicting the scenes from either Ramayana or Mahabharata, two grand Indian epic poems, which are often equaled with Iliad and Odyssey by Homer. But, in reality, such comparisons are baseless. Subject of the current painting is taken from the Indian epic poem Ramayana. Literal meaning of Jatayu Vadham from Sanskrit is the killing of Jatayu. Story of Jatayu Vadha (The Killing of […]

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Bird, Epic, Epic Poem, Jatayu, killing, Ravana, Sita

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Suprematist Composition by Kazimir Malevich is a piece of suprematism by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich. The most famous artworks from Russian art are the Bogatyrs by Viktor Vasnetsov and Morning in the Pine­tree Forest by Ivan Shishkin. But, when it comes to the most expensive painting from Russian art, surprisingly, it is the represented painting with $60,000,000 price tag on it. It was sold by Sotheby’s in 2008. The artist of the painting, Kazimir Malevich, was the founder of the Geometric abstraction during early 20th century when the avant-garde movement was on the rise. For his new art style, artist proclaimed, “Only with the disappearance of a habit of mind which sees in pictures little corners of nature, madonnas and shameless Venuses, shall we witness […]

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Avant-garde, Expensive, Famous, Geometric abstraction, Rectangle, Russian, Square, Suprematist, Ukrainian

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Alice Neel’s Roses is a rather morbid depiction of such an auspicious flower. Painted in 1983, the work carries a sense of dereliction in the subject. Although it can be categorized as a still life painting, it is contemporary work nevertheless. As a result, it has to carry something that is a definite part of modern psyche. If you noticed art through the post-Second World War period, there was a sense of renewal in the western world. Government expenditures went down, the economy revived in New York, and Alice Neel was rubbing shoulders with people who lived in avant-garde architecture while she was very young. While we can keep profiling a New York artist endlessly, it is also important to notice the rather overused trend […]

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American, Flower, Glass Vase, Red Rose, Rose, Table

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This painting includes a total of 112 Natherlandish proverbs in a single scene. The proverbs are taken literally. For instance, “To crap on the world” is literally represented as a person crapping on a globe. The depiction is on the left corner of the picture where a man in red clothes is coming out of a window. Artist of the Flemish renaissance from 16th century, Pieter Bruegel the Elder was known for similar works, which included The Seven Deadly Sins, The Months, Big Fish Eats Little Fish and The Blind leading the Blind.   Pieter Bruegel the younger, the artist’s son had depicted more than 20 versions of the paintings. Here is one of them.

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Devil, Dutch, Fish, Flemish, Flemish Renaissance, Fool, Man, People, Pig, Sheep, Snake, Village, Woman

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The first version of  Massacre of the Innocents by Rubens was made in 1612. Here is represented the second version made in 1638, which resembles some similarities to the original while brutalizes some aspects even more than the first one. The subject matter and the scene is elaborately described in the first version’s iconography. The second version is painted after 25 years of the first one and it hasn’t lost its impact. Actually, Rubens has made it more intense and gruesome than the first one. More realistic approach than the first version In here, the emphasis is on the use of weaponry to kill infant. In the first version, soldiers were depicted in a moment in which they were killing either snatching the infants from […]

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Angel, Children, Famous, Flemish, Flemish Baroque, Jewish, Man, Mother, Motherhood, Soldier, Woman

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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The Titan’s Goblet by American artist Thomas Cole is a romantic landscape painting which combines the elements of reality and fiction into one and creates a fictional landscape with very conveying representation. It was made in 1833. The composition The setting of the landscape is regular with mountain ranges, setting sun, a river (or lake) and big bright sky of evening in the background. It is an aerial view of the scene. Until this, it is a regular landscape painting. But, the point of interest in it makes the whole difference moving it from the category of landscape to the sub-categories of romantic and fictional landscape. A big, made out of rock goblet stands slightly on the right side of the painting. It is full […]

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American, English, Goblet, Greek Mythology, Romanticism, Sunset