Portrait of Madame X

I once had the pleasure of seeing in person "Portrait of Madame X", a painting by John Singer Sargent. The painting is currently part of the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York City. The art department at my university held a trip to New York City to view the art and culture that the city has to offer. The trip happened several years ago, but this painting has stuck with me ever since.

As I walked around the MET, I remember seeing Madame X for the first time. I was mesmerized by this painting and for some reason, was very drawn to it. The woman seemed so elegant and sophisticated.

I decided to do some research into this painting. The portrait is of a young woman named Virginie Amelie Avegno Gautreau, wife of Pierre Gautreau. She was an American expatriate known for her beauty and infidelities. She often wore lavender powder and prided herself on her appearance.

This piece was done as a request from Sargent, not a commission. The painting is characterized by the contrast of Gautreau's pale skin and the black dress and dark background. When Sargent unveiled this painting at the Paris Salon in 1884, it amounted to the failure of his strategy to become a prolific portrait painter in France. The subject of the painting was supposed to be anonymous, but this attempt failed. Everyone was shocked and outraged when this painting debuted. The sitters mother attempted to have the painting removed, but Sargent refused saying he had painted her "exactly as she was dressed, that nothing could be said of the canvas worse than had been said in print of her appearance"

Sargent sold this painting in 1916 to the MET stating "I suppose it is the best thing I have ever done"

Art-O-Mat

A few years ago while I was an art student in college, a lady in one of my classes told me about Art-O-Mat. For those of you who are not familiar with this, an Art-O-Mat is a retired cigarette machine that has been converted to vend art. There are over 90 of these machines located across the country. Something interesting to me is that there are many found in Winston-Salem, NC, probably due to the fact that it is a city known for it's tobacco industry.

There are currently about 400 artists from around the globe that submit art to Art-O-Mat. The artwork has to be small enough to fit certain dimensions. Several of the artists create either small wooden blocks (2D work) to put their work in small boxes (to contain 3D work). Artists who are interested go through an application process, and if selected, are asked to create 50 pieces. For all of the artists that have been selected and contribute work to Art-O-Mat, there is a page of all of their names on the Art-O-Mat website with links to the artists websites and it has their contact information.

To find out more, check out Art-O-Mat's website at www.artomat.org

Welcome to my new blog!

Hey guys, welcome to my new art blog. This is a blog that I intend to use to write about my topics dealing with art, including artists, styles of art, my own artwork and anything dealing with the artistic world. Please feel free to post comments when you like. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I will enjoy writing about it.