The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (481 page)

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1920– ).
American painter. He studied at the
Art Students League
, 1943–4. His teachers there included Reginald
Marsh
, and it was from him and Paul
Cadmus
(with whom he studied privately) that he acquired his preference for painting in egg
tempera
. His technique is scrupulously detailed in the manner of the Old Masters, but his subjects express the spiritual desolation and debilitating uniformity of modern life. The figures in his paintings all look more or less like one another and go through life as if on a conveyer belt, tense and drained of energy. They are physically close to one another, but emotionally distant.
Subway
(Whitney Museum, New York, 1950) is perhaps his most famous work—a terrifying vision of Kafkaesque isolation.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1858–1928).
Dutch painter, graphic artist, and designer. He was born in Java (at this time a Dutch colony) and moved to the Netherlands with his family when he was 14. Toorop's work reflected many of the main stylistic currents of his time and he was a leading figure in the
Symbolist
and
Art Nouveau
movements. His most characteristic paintings are literary subjects depicted with flowing lines, as in his masterpiece,
The Three Brides
(Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, 1893), a ghostly scene with an exotic feeling that recalls his origins in Java. In 1905 he was converted to Catholicism and thereafter concentrated mainly on religious works. Toorop's prolific output included book illustrations, designs for stained glass, and posters. His daughter,
Charley Toorop
(1891–1955), trained as a musician but began to paint in about 1914. Her early work was influenced by her father's Symbolism, but later her style became more solid and naturalistic.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1907–89)
. Polish-born painter and draughtsman who settled in England in 1935 and became a British subject in 1947. A versatile and prolific artist, he is perhaps best known for his large murals, notably
The Coronation of Elizabeth II
(30 m. × 1.5 m.) in Buckingham Palace. He was an
Official War Artist
1940–5, and his other work includes portraits and book illustrations. His style is marked by the use of vigorous swirling line.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1874–1949).
Uruguayan painter and art theorist. In 1891 his family moved to Spain and he spent most of his life there. He lived mainly in Barcelona, where he moved in avant-garde circles that included the young
Picasso
. After a visit to New York (1920–2) he settled in Paris (1924–32), where he developed a symbolic, severely geometrical, two-dimensional
Constructivist
style, and founded the review
Cercle et Carré
in conjunction with the artist and critic Michel
Seuphor
. In 1934 he returned to Uruguay, where he opened an art school. He wrote various works on art theory and by his example and teaching did much to promote Constructivist and
Kinetic art
in South America. There is a Torres-García Museum in his native Montevideo.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1472–1528).
Florentine sculptor. He was trained under
Bertoldo
in the
Medici
‘academy’ and there broke the nose of his fellow student
Michelangelo
and permanently disfigured him. Quitting Florence to escape the wrath of Lorenzo de' Medici, he wandered round Italy, producing no work of importance, and serving as a mercenary for Cesare Borgia . He visited the Netherlands, where he worked for Margaret of Austria in 1509–10, then in about 1511 moved to England, where he executed his most important works, chief among them the tomb of Henry VII and his wife Elizabeth of York (1512–18) in Westminster Abbey. The two sensitive effigies, made with the aid of death masks, have a
Gothic
elegance, but the figures of angels at the corners of the tomb and the exquisite decorative work introduced a pure
Renaissance
style into England. It had little immediate influence, however. In about 1522 Torrigiano left England for Spain, abandoning his projected tomb for Henry VIII. He was arrested by the Inquisition on a charge of heresy and died in prison.