KRISTUS by Bob Kessel

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“KRISTUS” by Bob Kessel, is from his art series “DIE BRUCKE”. This picture and many others, can be purchased as signed and numbered limited edition original fine art prints. Contact Bob Kessel for prices and availability.

KRISTUS by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

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Christ is the Latin translation of Greek Χριστός (Christos), which means “the Anointed”. It is in turn a translation of the Hebrew Mašíaḥ (Messiah).

In the Old Testament was anointed king (David – 2 Sam. 16:13), priest (Aaron – 2 Mos. 30:30) and sometimes even the Prophet (Elisa – 1 Kgs. 19:16).

When was the anointing of the Holy Spirit, according to the Bible stories, over the person. The concept of the Messiah is thus a powerful person, endowed by God in a very special way.

Old Testament / Tanach predicted in many places that a Messiah will come. Expectations for this was at what would later become our era beginning in size. Jesus went according to the New Testament into these expectations, affirming that they were acting on him (Luke 24:27), although he also accounted for the respect of its zeitgeist autonomous interpretation of them.

What amazed contemporaries most was the idea that the Messiah must suffer. The Jews still reject the idea of a suffering Messiah, and therefore also reject Jesus as Messiah.

New Testament writers (traditionally Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) accept Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah and sees Jesus as both the king, priest, and prophesied. As a prophet, he taught and did during (Matt. . 5ff). As a priest he had offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins. As king, he is now the Christian ruler of the people, and once he come back and rule over everything.

HIROSHIGE self portrait

Legend has it that Hiroshige determined to become a ukiyo-e artist when he saw the prints of his near-contemporary, Hokusai. (Hokusai published some of his greatest prints, such as Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji, in 1832—the year Hiroshige devoted himself full-time to his art.) From then to Hokusai’s death in 1849, their landscape works competed for the same customers. More likely though, like many other low-ranked samurai, Hiroshige’s salary was insufficient for his needs, and this motivated him to look into artisanal crafts to supplement his income. It was easy to balance his job and his artistic pursuits, as a fireman was only intermittently busy.

Hiroshige largely confined himself in his early work to common ukiyo-e themes such as women (美人画 bijin-ga) and actors (役者絵 yakusha-e). Then, after the death of Toyohiro, Hiroshige made a dramatic turnabout, with the 1831 landscape series Famous Views of the Eastern Capital ( 東都名所 ) which was critically acclaimed for its composition and colors. This set is generally distinguished from Hiroshige’s many print sets depicting Edo by referring to it as Ichiyūsai Gakki, a title derived from the fact that he signed it as Ichiyūsai Hiroshige.

With The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaidoō (1833–1834), his success was assured. These designs were drawn from Hiroshige’s actual travels of the full distance of 490 kilometers (300 miles). They included details of date, location, and anecdotes of his fellow travelers, and were immensely popular. In fact, this series was so popular that he reissued it in three versions, one of which was made jointly with Kunisada.

Hiroshige went on to produce more than 2000 different prints of Edo and post stations of the Tokaidoō, as well as series such as The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō (1834–1842). Of his estimated total of 5000 designs, these landscapes comprised the largest proportion of any genre.

In his declining years, Hiroshige still produced thousands of prints to meet the demand for his works, but few were as good as those of his early and middle periods. He never lived in financial comfort, even in old age. In no small part, his prolific output stemmed from the fact that he was poorly paid per series, although he was still capable of remarkable art when the conditions were right — his great One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (名所江戸百景 Meisho Edo Hyakkei ) was paid for up-front by a wealthy Buddhist priest in love with the daughter of the publisher, Uoya Eikichi (a former fishmonger).

In 1856, Hiroshige “retired from the world,” becoming a Buddhist monk; this was the year he began his One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. He died aged 62 during the great Edo cholera epidemic of 1858 (whether the epidemic killed him is unknown) and was buried in a Zen Buddhist temple in Asakusa. Just before his death, he left a poem:

“I leave my brush in the East
And set forth on my journey.
I shall see the famous places in the Western Land.”
- Hiroshige

(The Western Land in this context refers to the strip of land by the Tokaidoō between Kyoto and Edo, but it does double duty as a reference to the Paradise of the Amida Buddha).

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TREE by Hiroshige

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TREE by Van Gogh after Hiroshige

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TREE by Bob Kessel after Hiroshige

Bob Kessel’s art series “100 VIEWS” features pictures based on the works of Hiroshige. These pictures are available as signed and numbered limited edition original fine art prints. Contact Bob Kessel for pricing and availability.

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BLUE MOUNTAIN by Bob Kessel

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FALLS VIEW by Bob Kessel

ODALISQUE WITH CULOTTES by Bob Kessel
after Henri Matisse

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Due to the recurrent incidence of nude women and intensely sensual interpretation many observers have assumed that as a man Matisse must have been a hedonist. On the contrary, historic examination demonstrates that in reality, he was rather a self-abnegating Northerner who lived only to work, and did so in chronic anguish, recurrent panic, and amid periodic breakdowns. While Picasso recompensed himself, as he went along, with gratifications of intellectual and erotic play Matisse did not. In an age of ideologies, Matisse dodged all ideas except perhaps one: that art is life by other means.

Matisse’s uninhibited celebration of women is often believed to have initiated from Cézanne’s painting Three Bathers (1882) (which he had acquired for himself along with a Van Gogh and a Gauguin). However, Matisse depicts women as nurturing, welcoming, and unlike the forbidding, massive clay-like presence of those of Paul Cezanne.

Matisse continued to evolve in unexpected directions even though never became an abstract painter (though some of his most adventurous works, such as the View of Notre Dame of 1914 or the Yellow Curtain of 1916 come close). His motifs were always recognizable, and the tension between the subject and the formal aspects of the painting was a central concept of his artistic ideal.

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STRIPED ODALISQUE  by Bob kessel
after Henri Matisse

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TOPLESS ODALISQUE  by Bob kessel
after Henri Matisse

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BLUE ODALISQUE by Bob Kessel
after Henri Matisse

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NAPPING ODALISQUE by Bob Kessel
after Henri Matisse

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SEATED ODALISQUE by Bob Kessel
after Henri Matisse

NARCISSUS by Bob Kessel
apres Caravaggio

“NARCISSUS” by Bob Kessel, is from his art series “ART HISTORY”. This picture and many others, can be purchased as signed and numbered limited edition original fine art prints. Contact Bob Kessel for prices and availability.