Thursday, June 3, 2010

June Monthly Challenge

Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in "Chilpéric," 1895–96.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901).
Oil on canvas. 145 x 149 cm (57 1/8 x 59 in.).
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1990.127.1.
© National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

About the Artist
"Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) was and remains a remarkable paradox. Scion of an ancient aristocratic family, he spent his adult life among the common people of Paris and Montmartre, even taking rooms in a brothel, and he made the city's seamy night life, cafés, cabarets, dance halls, and theater the principal subject of his art. "Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in "Chilpéric""chronicles the spirit, style, and spectacle of the nineties, and underscores Lautrec's fascination with the ambiguous boundaries between art and artifice and between 'high' and 'low' art." This work, along with his related paintings, drawings, and lithographs, embodies the artist's ultimately egalitarian vision of life and art.

About the Painting 
Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in "Chilpéric," one of Lautrec's largest paintings, is the most monumental and important of his theatrical subjects. In it he conveys the artificial glamour of the stage and the sultry energy of the performers, especially the singer-dancer Marcelle Lender. This painting is the fullest expression of his interest in the theater, which, along with the informal theatrics of the Montmartre dance halls, occupied Lautrec's life and art during the 1890s.

Watching intently from the audience, he sketched the faces and movements of the performers in notebooks he habitually carried. Those thumbnail sketches became the basis for his lithographs of the stage and performers later that year and for two paintings of 1896, one focusing on Marcelle Lender and the other depicting a grandiose vision of her performance."

The Prizes:
Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on July 1st.
Our sponsors this month are sponsors: Gaea, Humblebeads and Natural Touch Resin Beads  please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!

Featured Designer of the Week:
From all the entries during the month, an editor is going to pick their favorite design to be featured every Monday here on the ABS. We want to give our participants more time in the spotlight! Our Featured Designer will be this Monday, so get those entries in soon.

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:
1. Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork.

***Beads by themselves and beads simply strung on a chain or cord will not be accepted.***

2. Upload your photo to our flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here and click here for a tutorial for sending your picture to the group.


Please add the tag or title 
JUNEABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.
Deadline is April 30th. Photos are approved by our moderators, if a photo hasn't followed the guidelines it will not be approved. You may upload 2 photos a day.

What is an Art Bead?
An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads 
here.

***A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not considered art beads.
Beaded beads, stamped metal pendants or wire-wrapped components are not considered art beads for our challenge.***

p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness.

2 comments:

Alice said...

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec certainly led an interesting life. I like the colors in this painting--neither bright nor pastel, but still bold. Marcelle's skirt has so much movement.

Thanks for brining such great artists and works of art to people like me who were never exposed to it earlier in life.

Kelley Pounds said...

Another painting with great colors! He certainly chose a great color and texture to bring the focus to the underskirt. You can almost hear the music.