Visual & Decorative Arts Blog

During these cold winter months, we thought we would spice things up a bit by talking about Mexico's popular festival El Dia de Meurtos, or, Day of the Dead. The Hispanic and Mexican holiday is a celebration of life is notable for the vivid colours and decorations that are created during its observation, perhaps most iconic are the Sugar Skulls that are made. Today we're going to talk a bit about the holiday and the sugar skulls that feature during it.

We're proud to be working with the Ashmolean Museum, located in Oxford. The museum boasts an extensive collection collection of eastern art, ranging from prints, to sculpture, textiles, and more. Right now we have several beautiful designs from the museum available on iPhone 5 cases. The perfect gift for the tech-savvy, art lover in your life.

The star of today's (16/12/14) 'Google Doodle', Wassily Kandinsky was an abstract painter born in 1866. Considered by many to be the 'Father of the Abstract', Kandinsky's art focussed on the portrayal of colours and shape – he compared the compositions of his paintings to the creations of the cosmos, beauty borne from catastrophe. In today's blog we look at the master's early years and how it was that he selected abstract as his form of choice. 

As well as his paintings, Alphonse Mucha was known for his illustrations, adverts, postcards, photography and many recognisable designs that were used in a myriad of ways. His distinct style is now recognised all over the world, and his works hang in the Mucha Museum in Prague.

The ‘once in a lifetime’ Malevich exhibition at Tate Modern is now sadly over… If you missed it, fear not, you can still appreciate the revolutionary art that the master and inventor of suprematism created from 1913 onwards – even if you can't get to Moscow, New York or Amsterdam, where major museums hold impressive collections (the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam owns 24 Malevich paintings) – just take a look online and you can enjoy and learn about his work. Here we take a look at the movement that Malevich created and some of his classic abstract masterpieces. Of course, he didn't start this way – check out this blog to discover his more traditional beginnings.

Kay Nielsen was one of the great masters of illustration from 'The Golden Age of Illustration'. He was one of an entourage of talented artists that included Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. Nielsen's art was influenced not only by these the men, but also by his contemporaries who varied in their choice of form and where they lived in the world. The result is an amalgam of influence that is represented in Nielsen's dreamlike artwork. A unique talent who suffered tragic pains before his death, in this blog we look at the brilliant artist that was Kay Nielsen. 

The Manchester Art Gallery is an invaluable publicly owned museum. It houses the civic art collection, which showcases local masterpieces of art along with international pieces, and it also invites proposals from artists, curators and members of the public. The mixture of pieces on display is not as expansive as the V&A’s, but they do feature a wide range of art, including fine and decorative, contemporary, historic, photography and costume. One of their main displays, however, focuses on the Pre-Raphaelites.

Although Louis Comfort Tiffany worked with many other materials, he is mainly remembered for his amazing stained glass work. He was so passionate about working with glass that he even created new methods of glass manufacturing, which became integral parts of his masterpieces of art, and allowed him to showcase his work all over the world.

Set for a Christmas release, Big Eyes is a film that tells the story of Margaret Keane. An artist particularly noted for her paintings of girls with larger-than-life eyes, Keane initially received no recognition for her work as it was her husband, Walter Keane, who took all the credit.

The first Miffy book was published in 1955: next year will mark the 60th anniversary of the creation of this adorable, lovable bunny. Almost 30 more books have followed this first one, and all together, they have sold over 85 million copies. Miffy has also been featured in two shows on the telly, and a feature film titled Miffy the Movie was released in 2012. This little white rabbit, while not of the masterpieces of art, has become an iconic representation of childhood.