Painters and Painting

Welcome to my gallery of painters and paintings. My ten titles tell colorful stories of painters and the stories of people found in paintings. These works will allow you to frame a discussion about art.  

Dalí and Disney: Destino: The Story, Artwork, and Friendship Behind the Legendary Film by David A. Bossert

Disney is known as a company that makes magic. Yet it can take time for the effects of magic to occur. Dave Bossert’s Dalí and Disney: Destino: The Story, Artwork, and Friendship Behind the Legendary Film explores the halted animated project Destino by Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney. In 1946, Dalí started working on Destino at Disney Studios, but in 1948 the project was halted due to the company’s complicated finances. Destino was eventually released decades later by Walt’s nephew Roy E. Disney.

In 1969, Destino became a mystery when 130 Destino-related drawings by Salvador Dalí were stolen from Disney Studios. Disney fortunately later recovered the stolen drawings. Finally, audiences saw Destino’s magic in 2003. That year, Roy E. Disney released the film featuring Dalí’s rich use of surrealism. The over-50-year-old film remained timeless due to its surrealistic elements such as soft watches and its inclusion of America’s pastime, baseball. In 2003, Destino received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film. Fulfill your reading destiny by checking out this book at your library.

A Piece of the World: A novel by Christina Baker Kline

Is there truly no place like home? Christina Baker Kline explores the theme of home in her historical fiction novel A Piece of the World. Baker Kline weaves fact and fiction in her tale about Christina Olson, the woman with limited mobility who is the subject of Andrew Wyeth’s moving painting Christina’s World. Christina lives with her parents and her siblings in their farmhouse in Cushing, Maine. The farmhouse has been a part of Christina’s family since 1743. Christina helps around the farm, but she desires to see life from a different perspective: she has other career aspirations and wants to settle down. Will Christina’s limited mobility slow her down in a fast-paced society? What will become of the Olson’s farm? Find out these answers by entering Christina’s World, located inside Christina Baker Kline’s novel.

Rescuing Da Vinci by Robert M. Edsel

How are cultures remembered? Rescuing Da Vinci by Robert M. Edsel details how art theft leads to the disappearance of culture. Robert’s art history book details how the failed painter Adolf Hitler used art to enrich Nazism and to disparage cultures that conflicted with its ideology. In 1937, Munich hosted the “Great German Art Exhibition” and the “Degenerate Art” exhibition. The Nazi Party stole the “degenerate art” from German museums, and in 1939 the Nazi Party sent off 126 of these works to be auctioned . One sold was Van Gogh’s Self Portrait. It’s no surprise the Nazi Party hated an individualistic work, as they only saw Hitler in themselves.

During World War II the Nazi Party looted art on a massive scale. Hitler even had a grand ambition to open a museum called The Führer Museum in Austria that would consist of looted art. This museum would propagate Hitler’s belief in his own artistic superiority. A famous painting that the Nazi Party looted during the war was Lady With an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci’s painting was stolen from the Czartoryski Collection in Poland. Fortunately, the Allied forces defeated Hitler’s war on art. Monuments Men, consisting of allied soldiers who were art experts, recovered and returned a substantial amount of looted art. Surprisingly, in a salt mine in Alt Aussee, Austria, Monuments Men discovered more than 6,500 looted paintings.

Art also helped rebuild war-torn Europe. During World War II, the Church of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in Poland was destroyed. A precise painter named Bernardo Bellotto died in 1798 but his art lived on to restore Poland. Warsaw officials referenced Bellotto’s The Church of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to rebuild the church of the same name. Read Rescuing Da Vinci by Robert M. Edsel to fill your mind with Robert Edsel’s important art preservation lesson.

The Monet Cookbook: Recipes from Giverny by Florence Gentner

Claude Monet was a painter with a lively palette and palate. Florence Gentner’s The Monet Cookbook: Recipes from Giverny dishes out recipes from Monet’s kitchen alongside a look into his love of food. For instance, the peaceful painter was known to enjoy undercooked asparagus. Food was also depicted in Monet’s paintings, such as his painting Still Life with Meat. Food was also not a constant in Monet’s life. Monet nearly went destitute during the time his father found out about his mistress, Camille Doncieux. Monet’s friend Renoir even noticed that Monet, Camille, and their son Jean didn’t eat every day. Read The Monet Cookbook: Recipes from Giverny to ponder over The Lilly Pond painter’s love of food.

Loving Vincent is the English dub of the Polish film Twój Vincent. In 2018, Loving Vincent was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. The film takes place after Van Gogh’s suicide. Armand Roulin (depicted in a Van Gogh painting) is sent by his father postman Joseph Roulin (also depicted in a Van Gogh painting) to deliver Van Gogh’s last letter to his brother Theo. This film isn’t just about Armand’s journey to deliver Van Gogh’s letter. Loving Vincent is also a love letter to Van Gogh: all of the film’s frames have been painted by oil painters in the style of Van Gogh. Gogh to your library and grab a copy of Loving Vincent to see this film that skillfully addresses Van Gogh’s legacy.

American Masters: Tyrus is a PBS documentary about the artist Tyrus Wong. Tyrus and his father immigrated from China to America when Tyrus was just nine years old. Tyrus and his father arrived in America during a tumultuous time for the Chinese. They arrived during the Chinese Exclusion Act. Tyrus surveyed his new landscape and then started his illustrious art career. He was an inspirational sketch artist for Disney’s 1942 film Bambi. Tyrus’s painted sketches created the film’s atmosphere.

A strike of Disney’s artists made Tyrus a deer-in-headlights. He was fired during his work on Bambi despite not going on strike. Nevertheless, his visionary work on Bambi was not the only hallmark moment of his career. Another memorable moment of his career came with the Christmas cards he painted for Hallmark. Watch American Masters: Tyrus to see the full picture of Tyrus Wong’s illustrious career. 

Portraits of Courage: A Commander In Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors by George W. Bush

In Portraits of Courage: A Commander In Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors, former president George W. Bush takes command of a paintbrush to honor Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans. Portraits of Courage features sixty-six full-color portraits and a mural of wounded warriors. Each portrait is accompanied by a written tribute by President Bush. Portraits of Courage will also broaden your understanding of veterans’ lives. You will learn about vets such as Melissa Stockwell, who returned to college and studied prosthetics, and Andrew Montgomery who became a PGA Professional.

Between the Lines: How Ernie Barnes Went from the Football Field to the Art Gallery by Sandra Neil Wallace

Between the Lines: How Ernie Barnes Went from the Football Field to the Art Gallery by Sandra Neil Wallace is a biographical picture book. Wallace’s book tackles the life of the acclaimed painter Ernie Barnes. Ernie loved painting but reluctantly became a football player on his high school team. In 1959 Ernie was drafted by the Baltimore Colts. Ernie had a brush with the Baltimore Colts, but his art career had just begun. Ernie was later hired as a painter by the owner of the New York Jets. This launched Ernie’s art career. Read Between the Lines: How Ernie Barnes Went from the Football Field to the Art Gallery to get a complete play-by-play on the life of Ernie Barnes, the world-class artist.

Woman Walks Ahead is an A24 biographical film about a portrait painter named Catherine Weldon. In 1890, Catherine travels from New York to the Dakotas to paint a portrait of Chief Sitting Bull, as no paintings of him exist in America’s public galleries. Woman Walks Ahead isn’t just a movie about canvas painting. Sitting Bull inspires Catherine to act in saving the Lakota people’s land. Catherine and Sitting Bull start canvassing to secure enough votes to block a proposed treaty by the United States government. Do you want to watch this important film? Then go to your library and grab a copy of Woman Walks Ahead.

Life Lessons from Bob Ross: Be a Peaceful Cloud by Bob Ross and Rob Pearlman

Bob Ross was more than a painter. The nature-loving Air Force veteran didn’t just bring his painting supplies to his show The Joy of Painting. He also brought invaluable wisdom, according to Rob Pearlman in Life Lessons from Bob Ross: Be a Peaceful Cloud. Ross’s nature paintings were a kind of self-portrait, reflecting his own meditations on life.

In each chapter, Pearlman corresponds an element from Ross’s paintings, such as streams to a life lesson. Pearlman also commonly uses Ross’s personal life to tie into his paintings. For instance, a stream painting also teaches us to have a stream of patience in our lives. Pearlman tops off this lesson by mentioning how Ross was forty-one years old when The Joy of Painting premiered on television. Read Life Lessons from Bob Ross: Be a Peaceful Cloud and you’ll become a natural at the art of peacefulness.

Sarah Kelly Oehler, ed., Ivan Albright Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2019) https://www.artic.edu/digitalalbright

Painting citation: Picture of Dorian Gray: 1943/44 Oil on canvas; 215.9 × 106.7 cm (85 × 42 in.). Gift of Ivan Albright, 1977.21 to The Art Institute of Chicago

Ivan Albright: Paintings at The Art Institute of Chicago, edited by Sarah Kelly Oehler, is a digital catalogue that showcases Ivan Albright’s life and art. Albright, who studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, created paintings that had no filter. His paintings didn’t feature beautiful models; instead, they displayed the body’s decay. The most instantly recognizable example of this is Albright’s Picture of Dorian Gray, which was featured in the 1945 movie The Picture of Dorian Gray. In the film, Dorian Gray looks at a painting of himself that represents his own macabre morals. Ivan’s paintings also detail beauty by showing someone’s appearance after manual labor. Read this digital catalogue to see the full scope of the beauty found in Albright’s ugly paintings.