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Couper, Josephine (1867–1957)
Railway Depot, Tryon N, C -
Oil on canvas board
8 x 10 inches
Despite the ravages of the American Civil War, the Sibley family of Augusta, Georgia, retained their fortune, which provided a comfortable childhood for Josephine. Her early passion for art was nurtured by a trip abroad at the age of twelve, and when she returned her father hired an instructor and equipped a studio for her use. While supportive of his daughter’s burgeoning talent, Josiah Sibley hoped these provisions would keep her safely ensconced at home. That paternal control, however, went with him to the grave in 1888; the very next year, Josephine Sibley enrolled at the Art Students League, funded by the sale of some property he had left her.
At the League, William Merritt Chase was her mentor, although she took the standard classes in drawing antique casts from other instructors. The boldness that had impelled the young artist to New York City was often at odds with deeply ingrained Southern mores. When a necessary League course in composition was scheduled for seven o’clock in the evening, Sibley refused to attend on the grounds that “no lady could be on the streets unescorted” at night. In 1890, Sibley made a second grand tour of Europe, where she sketched genre scenes and copied old master paintings. The following year, she returned home and married a widower sixteen years her senior.
For women artists, marriage raised certain issues. Balancing household and childrearing responsibilities with a desire to be creative was a daily challenge. Developing a professional identity in the public arena was complicated, too. In the South, these dilemmas were aggravated by traditional, conservative values. Like her father, Couper’s husband encouraged his wife’s creativity and constructed a studio as an “integral part” of their residence, “not an addition.” During their fourteen-year marriage, Josephine Sibley Couper was a dutiful wife and mother of two children, and primarily painted likenesses of family members and friends. Over her long career, she is frequently listed in exhibition brochures as “Mrs. B. King Couper,” although she regularly—and surreptitiously—signed her work “J. S. Couper,” which did not divulge her gender.
Once her children came of age, Couper broadened her subject matter as well as her style. She studied under Elliott Daingerfield in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, and spent several summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where her instructor was Hugh Breckinridge. From 1929 to 1930, at the age of sixty-two, Couper spent time abroad, living in Paris and taking classes under the French Cubist, André Lhote, probably at the suggestion of her distant cousin and fellow artist, Margaret Law, who had studied with him earlier. Couper attempted some abstracted paintings, but did not embrace the style wholeheartedly. Most of her career she pursued a conventional form of realism, and, by the 1920s, the influence of Impressionism became more evident.
Given her financial security, Couper never felt compelled to sell her work, even though she exhibited widely with such entities as the Southern States Art League, the National Association of Women Artists, and in Paris at the 1930 Salon d’Automne. In 1927, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta hosted a solo exhibition in her honor. When Couper happened to make a sale, she donated the proceeds, after expenses, to her church or to missions in Africa.
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All the Small Things
TJC Gallery, Spartanburg SC
February 19, 2025 – April 4, 2025
thejohnsoncollection.org/all-the-small-things/
Size matters in art. The scale of a work when seen in person can be an essential ingredient in its visual impact. And the received canon of fine art in the West has a clear bias for BIG things—from the monumental statuary of antiquity to the massive canvases in the contemporary art scene. Indeed, for the past four hundred years, artists have been highly incentivized to “go big,” as larger works commanded more prestige. Within the hierarchy of art genres inherited from the seventeenth century and the standardized measurements that evolved in the art industries of the nineteenth century, the largest canvases and commissions have traditionally been reserved for imposing landscapes and full-length portraits. Against this grain, the present exhibition celebrates the wondrous world of small art—in this case, paintings of no more than twenty inches.
Why might an artist work on a small scale? For some the motivation may be economic. Larger paintings mean more material costs, from more paint to bigger frames and heftier shipping prices. Thus, the size of an artwork potentially reveals unequal financial challenges faced by, for instance, women artists, self-taught artists, or artists of color. At the same time, the cheaper costs of smaller works make them well-suited for preliminary studies (as with Aaron Douglas’s The Toiler) or for trial efforts with new styles and techniques (such as Theodoros Stamos’s experiments with abstraction in Flow). Smaller art is more portable, making it ideal for artists working in the plein-air tradition or those working rapidly for tourist markets. Finally, although petite paintings have historically been relegated to subjects considered mundane or insignificant, these small works can instead confer an intimacy and humanity for the artist and viewer alike.
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See also: www.flickr.com/photos/ugardener/albums/72177720322921517/
THE JOHNSON COLLECTION - A Private Collection for Public Good
thejohnsoncollection.org/the-collection/
Sharing the art it stewards with communities across the country is The Johnson Collection’s essential purpose and propels our daily work. Much more than a physical place, TJC seeks to be a presence in American art, prioritizing access over location. Since 2013, the collection’s touring exhibitions have been loaned twenty-five times, placed without fee in partner museums with a combined annual attendance of over 1.2 million visitors. In its showcase of over 1,000 objects, TJC’s website functions as a digital museum, available anywhere and anytime.
What began as an interest in paintings by Carolina artists in 2002 has grown to encompass over 1,400 objects with provenances that span the centuries and chronicle the cultural evolution of the American South.
Today, The Johnson Collection counts iconic masterworks among its holdings, as well as representative pieces by an astonishing depth and breadth of artists, native and visiting, whose lives and legacies form the foundation of Southern art history. From William D. Washington’s The Burial of Latané to Malvin Gray Johnson’s Roll Jordan Roll, the collection embraces the region’s rich history and confronts its complexities, past and present.
.The contributions of women artists, ranging from Helen Turner—only the fourth woman elected to full membership in the National Academy of Design in 1921—to Alma Thomas—the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at a major national museum in 1972—are accorded overdue attention, most notably in TJC's most recent publication and companion exhibition, Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection. Landmark works by American artists of African descent such as Benny Andrews, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Aaron Douglas, William H. Johnson, Leo Twiggs, and Hale Woodruff pay homage to their makers' barrier-defying accomplishments. Modern paintings, prints, collages, and sculpture created by internationally renowned artists associated with the experimental arts enclave of Black Mountain College, including Josef Albers, Ruth Asawa, Ilya Bolotowsky, Elaine de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, and Robert Rauschenberg highlight the North Carolina school's geographic proximity to the collection's home.
Hailed by The Magazine Antiques as having staged a "quiet art historical revolution" and expanding "the meaning of regional," The Johnson Collection heralds the pivotal role that art of the South plays in the national narrative. To that end, the collection's ambitious publication and exhibition strategies extend far beyond a single city's limit or a territorial divide.
Since 2012, TJC has produced four significant scholarly books—thoroughly researched and beautifully illustrated investigations of Southern art time periods, artists, and themes: Romantic Spirits: Nineteenth Century Paintings of the South (2012); From New York to Nebo: The Artistic Journey of Eugene Thomason (2014); Scenic Impressions: Southern Interpretations from the Johnson Collection (2015); and Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection (2018). These volumes are accompanied by traveling exhibitions that have been loaned without fee to partner museums with a combined annual attendance of over 1.7 million visitors.
Smaller curated presentations rotate at the collection's hometown exhibition space, TJC Gallery. Individual objects are regularly made available for critical exhibitions such as La Biennale di Venezia, Afro-Atlantic Histories, Outliers and American Vanguard Art, Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College, 1933-1957, Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful, Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, and Bold, Cautious, True: Walt Whitman and American Art of the Civil War Era and featured in important publications and catalogues, including The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Art & Architecture, and The Civil War and American Art.
In 2016, the state of South Carolina honored The Johnson Collection with the Governor’s Award for the Arts, its highest arts distinction. The commendation paid tribute to the Johnson family's enduring contributions: "Equally dedicated to arts advancement and arts accessibility, the Johnsons generously share their vision, energy, passion and resources to benefit the arts in South Carolina."
"Who can say what ignites a passion? Was it those three red roses frozen in blue? An awakened connection to one's geographical roots? Perhaps the familiarity of the road to Nebo? The nucleus of what was to become our collection was formed by such seemingly unrelated catalysts. Looking back, it was always the sense of place that drew George and me to beautiful pictures—pictures that capture not only the glorious landscape of the South, but that also enliven its unique culture and dynamic history." ~Susu Johnson, Chief Executive Officer.'
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"If you’re looking for a vibe, this is where you’ll find it. Spartanburg is one of South Carolina’s most established, respected, progressive, and diverse art communities with everything from the fine arts—ballet, symphonies, and opera—to the cutting edge—street performers, graffiti, and dance mobs.
Experience the Cultural District
Downtown Spartanburg has even been designated as a cultural district by the South Carolina Arts Commission. Within the cultural district, you can walk to and enjoy world-class art galleries, studios, music venues, breweries, culinary arts, local literature publishers, coffee shops, libraries, museums, and more. Regardless of when you visit, you’re likely to encounter live music in the streets, featuring jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, or beach music.
Come experience how we put the art in SpARTanburg."
just playing with borders. see my set "I hate borders. Especially ones from Bighugelabs.com"
I needed something for myspace =)
I absolutely love this community garden near the train tracks. I love the small forest of green plants (I don't know what they're called!)
This was a beautiful shot. I wanted to get a view of what being almost directly beneath a tree would be and I did not expect to see such contrast both by the light spots peeking through the leaves, or by the varying shades of green as the leaves were bathed with more light.
Non è una questione di virtù -è una questione di scegliere se impegnarmi a modificare o a liberarmi dalla mia conformazione standard, naturale, impiantata nei circuiti, che consiste nell’essere profondamente e letteralmente incentrato su di me, nell’osservare ed interpretare ogni cosa attraverso questa lente del sé.
Saw this big flock of birds in the distance and just snapped away randomly a couple of times. Managed to crop this interesting composition out of one of the photos.
Bozza di una composizione che raccolga alcune foto con lo stesso soggetto - il soggetto che preferisco, le mani. Al termine anche di due giorni di frenetico ed entusiasmante apprendimento di Photoshop.
To experience joy with the arrival of spring. Since this emotion increase appetitive motivation it increases other affective-oriented behaviours such as curiosity, socialization, and, in some cases, cooperation. In the article “Pleasure as a sign that you can attend to something else”, Carver (2003) suggests that joy can increases approach behaviours and therefore increase the likelihood that we will “spot” more chances and opportunities. This is particularly important in entrepreneurship activities since, as Welpe et al. (2012) suggest in their article “Emotions and opportunities”, joy can increase the exploitation of opportunities.
compositional exercise for my classes, it was made about Christmas card, but it isn't very close to Christmas,
I took this photo in my hallway with my Canon Rebel T6i. I was imagining how the rule of thirds could be broken so I set the flower towards the center of the photo to take this shot. I liked how this isn't exactly where it would fall in rule of thirds but also doesn't fall in the center of the photo. The colors contrast each other with the deep purple in the foreground and the lighter while in the back, it makes the flower stand out more and captures the viewers attention.