Sam Francis

Untitled, 1984

106.7 X 73 inch

What is patina?

What is patina?

Patina is the distinctive greenish surface that bronze develops over time due to exposure to air and humidity. Artists can also apply chemicals to bronze to artificially create patina. Alternatively, bronze can be polished to reveal its natural rich gold color. Patina is not exclusive to bronze; it can also occur on other metals like copper and even on wood and stone, enhancing the material's character over time.

New Topographics

New Topographics is a term coined in 1975 by curator William Jenkins to describe a group of photographers whose work focused on formal black-and-white images of urban and industrial landscapes. Jenkins initially described their aesthetic as banal, but the photographers themselves argued that their compositions were as significant as those of natural landscapes, emphasizing the beauty in everyday, man-made environments.

Stuckism

Stuckism is an art movement that promotes figurative painting over conceptual art. It was founded in 1999 by Charles Thomson and Billy Childish with an initial group of 13 artists in Britain. The movement has since expanded to 52 countries with 233 groups worldwide. Several manifestos, issued by Thomson and Childish, advocate for the spirit of modernism and the creation of spiritual art, regardless of medium, subject matter, or style. Stuckism emphasizes the importance of genuine expression and rejects the dominance of conceptual art in the contemporary art scene.

Dusseldorf school of photography

The Düsseldorf School of Photography refers to a group of photographers who studied under Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf during the 1970s. This group was known for its devotion to the black-and-white industrial images characteristic of the German tradition known as New Objectivity. The photographers focused on precise, methodical documentation of industrial structures, often using a detached and objective approach.

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