Artist of the day: April 2022

Saturday, April 30, 2022

Artist of the day, April 30, 2022: Zuzana Chalupová, a Serbian naïve painter of Slovak ethnicity (#1559)

Zuzana Chalupová (1925 – 2001) was a Serbian naïve painter of Slovak ethnicity, who was born and lived her whole life in the town of Kovačica, Serbia. Her colourful naive-style paintings recall children's works and fairy-tale illustrations. She typically painted children, so she was called "Mama Zuzana with a thousand children". Her creative legacy consists of more than 1,000 paintings.

Chalupová finished only five grades of elementary school. In the 1950s she began making scarves, shirts, and tapestries with traditional motifs. After earning some money from selling tapestries, she bought oil paint and started painting on canvas. She painted her first oil on canvas painting named Mlaćenje konoplja (Hemp Beating) in 1964. She enjoyed imminent success. She exhibited her paintings in the Museum of Naive Arts in Svetozarevo and in Kovačica during the "Kovačički oktobar" festival. Her first solo exhibition was in 1968 in Dubrovnik where all of the paintings were bought by foreign collectors.

Though she never had children of her own, the most frequent motif in Chalupová's paintings were children. Even adults (some with moustaches) look like children in her paintings. Her other frequent motifs are winter, Kovačica church, and biblical themes.

Chalupová made many paintings for charity purposes. She painted a monumental painting for the International Committee of the Red Cross depicting children with the members of the Red Cross. In 1978, she made a painting named Zaštitimo spomenike kulture (Let's Protect the Cultural Heritage!) for the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia. The painting depicts Gračanica monastery, statue of Pobednik, Serbian Orthodox priests with children in Slovak traditional costumes and God watching all this from the skies. In 1974, Chalupová made a painting for the UNICEF headquarters named Children of the UN, full of symbols: It depicts the Earth, UNICEF headquarters, and the Statue of Liberty surrounded by children and angels with olive branches. The same year, her painting Zima (Winter) was printed by UNICEF Christmas card program in two million copies.

Many of her paintings are on permanent display in Kovačica's Gallery of Naive Art. For her achievements, Matica slovenská decorated Chalupová with the order of Cyril and Methodius.
© 2022. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Zuzana Chalupová or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Ms. Zuzana Chalupová

Tkanje (Weaving) 1964

Vacation in the park, 1965

Chimney sweep follows a woman from the cellar and steals a sausage, 1967

Russian village scene, 1967

The new citizen of the earth, 1968

Peasant family at Vespers, 1969

Women and children gardening, 1969

Prelo, 1970

The sled, 1973

Peasants reaping wheat, 1977

Pričest (Communion) 1979

Die Getreideernte, 1983

still life scene with flowers in planter with butterfly and drapes, 1983

Town Scene, 1985

Bez naslova (Untitled) 1986

interior scene with family and children, 1987

Narodenie (Birth) 1987

Kovačička pijaca (the market)1988

Radovi na njivi (Field work) 1988

Svadba (Wedding) 1988

Deca u školi (Children at school) 1989

Klackalica, 1989

Ciganski kamp (Gypsy camp) 1990

Village Yard, 1990

Basta (Garden) 1992

Kovačičani u Skadarliji (Blacksmiths in Skadarlija) 1992

Zalubenci (Lovers) 1995

Kovačička crkva za praznik (Blacksmith's Church for the holiday) 1996

Road to the Railway Station, 1998

Friday, April 29, 2022

Artist of the Day, April 29, 2022: Bonnie Severien, a Dutch emerging artist (#1558)

Bonnie Severien (1978) was born in Heerhugowaard and currently living and working in the Netherlands, graduated in 2007 from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague.

She was nominated five times for the Royal Prize for Painting, and her paintings have been exhibited in the Royal Palace Amsterdam and the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, among others.

Urban Nature
The Urban Nature paintings are inspired by 17th century Dutch flower still lifes and the works of Matisse with the beautiful patterns. The plants represent abundance, innocence and the organic world. Insects symbolize both life and transience. The self-designed, geometric patterns represent the man-made linear constructions and are related to De Stijl, Amsterdam School (Art Deco) and the Dutch Funnel Beaker culture.

Urban Nature Treasures
In addition to the success of the large Urban Nature paintings, there is now a new series of twelve canvases, called Urban Nature Treasures. For this series I was inspired by three movements from Dutch (art) history.

Firstly, the Drenthe Funnel Beaker Culture, in which earthenware pots with beautiful primitive patterns were made. Created by the first people to inhabit the Netherlands, some 4,000 years BC. Second, you can see the lush natural shapes of the Amsterdam School (Art Deco) and finally the geometric lines from De Stijl movement by Piet Mondrian.

These works of art are small treasures, contemporary with a link to the past.

"I want to reflect the alienating effect of our artificial environment in my work. Originality is hard to find, we get an illusion of reality. What is real and what is unreal? Distance and time seem outdated concepts because everything is quickly accessible via airplane, internet and satellite.

We hardly know the world from our own experience. In most works I use contrasting elements. I take apart (architectural) situations that I encounter in films and other media and put them together in a new way, as in a collage. By using scenes with constructions of different scales, I create a reality that is simultaneously recognizable and alienating. This is the world as I see it.

There is no such thing as one reality, neither in my works. In the most recent series of paintings ('Fragments'), the images become more abstract. Fragments intertwine to form a kaleidoscopic whole. The spatial context disappears, the idea that you are literally standing somewhere. What remains are fragments of worlds that once passed you by."

© 2022. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Bonnie Severien or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only