Impasto
Impasto is the process or technique of applying paint or pigment in a thick manner, causing it to stand out prominently from the surface.
Impasto, originally prominent in the works of Venetian Renaissance artists like Titian and Tintoretto, also found its place in Baroque painting, as exemplified by Rubens. This technique became increasingly noticeable in nineteenth-century landscape, naturalist, and romantic paintings.
In modern art, the use of impasto gained importance as the notion emerged that a painting's surface should possess its own reality rather than merely serving as a smooth window into an illusionary world. It was believed that the texture of the paint and the brushwork's shape could directly convey the artist's emotions and response to the subject, a concept sometimes referred to as ‘gestural’.
A painting with a prominent impasto technique is often described as ‘painterly’, suggesting that the artist revels in manipulating the paint itself and fully exploiting its tactile qualities.
The idea that artists should emphasise the inherent characteristics of their chosen medium is a fundamental concept in modern art, encapsulated in the phrase "truth to materials." In the mid-twentieth century, some artists, such as Leon Kossoff and Frank Auerbach, took impasto to the extreme in their works.
27 results found for "Impasto"
Avant Arte in Accra
A series of studio visits in the Ghanaian capital.
Inner Visions 01
In his first collaboration with Avant Arte, critic and curator Larry Ossei-Mensah introduces three artists, Grace Lynne Haynes, Ferrari Sheppard and Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe
Antony Micallef
Antony Micallef (he/him) was born in 1975 in Swindon, England, and now lives and works in London.
Gina Beavers
Gina Beavers (she/her) was born in 1974 in Athens, Greece. She now lives and works in Newark, New Jersey.
Shaina McCoy
Shaina McCoy (she/her) was born in 1993 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she continues to live and work.
Sola Olulode
Sola Olulode was born in 1996 and raised in South London, where she continues to live and work.
Isshaq Ismail
Isshaq Ismail was born in 1989 in Accra, Ghana. He uses his art as a tool to make polemic statements, working in a style he describes as infantile semi-abstraction.
Daniel Crews-Chubb
Daniel Crews-Chubb (he/him) was born in 1984 in Northampton, United Kingdom. He currently lives and works in London.
Friedrich Kunath
Friedrich Kunath was born in 1974 in Chemnitz, Germany and now lives in Los Angeles, US - a seismic cultural shift explored throughout his practice.
Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe
Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe was born in 1988 in Accra, Ghana, and is now based in Gresham, Oregon.
Immortal II (turquoise)
In Immortal II (turquoise), a totemic figure emerges from an abstract frenzy of line and colour.Inspired by an original painting, the edition of 35 faithfully translates Crews-Chubb’s distinct impasto marks in an archival pigment print. The artist gravitates towards texture in reaction to the modern-day flatness of digital images. His primitive figures draw on disparate references from Willem de Kooning and Cy Twombly to ancient tapestries and Celtic stonework.
The Union of Animals
Antony Micallef offers a darkly seductive vision of a still life in The Union of Animals.Micallef took three years to complete the original painting, building up each layer of heavy impasto slowly. Fields of rich colour are framed by exposed canvas, drawing the eye to the centre of an explosive, dripping union of forms. Each print is hand-finished in glossy black oil paint – evoking the highly textured surface of Micallef’s original paintings.
“I see The Union of Animals as something of a forced mutation, created by us in the image of our ideal – mixing motifs of perceived beauty within art and vanities.”
Mask of a Woman (Green Patina)
In Mask of a Woman, Nicolas Holiber’s dense impasto forms the basis of a gestural bronze face.The artist’s first bronze edition is an exploration of materiality and artistic intuition. Approaching sculpture through painterly processes, the distorted face is conjured entirely from the artist’s imagination. Replacing the push and pull of heavy acrylic with the malleability of clay, forms and features emerge organically from the cast.“I use a growing set of tools to push and pull the mixture around – adding and subtracting. It’s exciting because it’s a very raw moment, and really, anything can happen. Body parts and faces start to appear.”The edition is also available in a black patina finish.
Painting hearts and Ab-Exers on my lips
In Painting hearts and Ab-Exers on my lips, Gina Beavers explores the ways we consume – and are consumed by – the internet.An array of paint-covered pouts are set against a fleshy backdrop as brushes adorn them in black and red details. Beavers’ distinctive style pulls from the infinite scroll of social media, with subjects frequently inspired by memes, selfies and makeup tutorials.Each edition is individually hand-finished with precise oil stick details, reminiscent of the heavy impasto that distinguishes Beaver’s original paintings.“Something pretty mundane from our online lives can also be serious art.”
Talking Faces 6
Ghanaian painter Isshaq Ismail has quickly captured far-reaching art world attention with emotive, semi-abstract portraits in lurid impasto.Our debut collaboration, Talking Faces, comprises a series of 10 original acrylic on canvas works rendered in Ismail's inimitable figurative style - where skewed facial features in luminous tones express familiar, empathy-inducing emotions.“Like the way a sculptor sculpts human figures from clay, I sculpt my figures with the brush.”
Talking Faces 5
Ghanaian painter Isshaq Ismail has quickly captured far-reaching art world attention with emotive, semi-abstract portraits in lurid impasto.Our debut collaboration, Talking Faces, comprises a series of 10 original acrylic on canvas works rendered in Ismail's inimitable figurative style - where skewed facial features in luminous tones express familiar, empathy-inducing emotions.“Like the way a sculptor sculpts human figures from clay, I sculpt my figures with the brush.”
Talking Faces 4
Ghanaian painter Isshaq Ismail has quickly captured far-reaching art world attention with emotive, semi-abstract portraits in lurid impasto.Our debut collaboration, Talking Faces, comprises a series of 10 original acrylic on canvas works rendered in Ismail's inimitable figurative style - where skewed facial features in luminous tones express familiar, empathy-inducing emotions.“Like the way a sculptor sculpts human figures from clay, I sculpt my figures with the brush.”To register your interest, sign up on this page or send an email to collecting@avantarte.com.
Talking Faces 10
Ghanaian painter Isshaq Ismail has quickly captured far-reaching art world attention with emotive, semi-abstract portraits in lurid impasto.Our debut collaboration, Talking Faces, comprises a series of 10 original acrylic on canvas works rendered in Ismail's inimitable figurative style - where skewed facial features in luminous tones express familiar, empathy-inducing emotions.“Like the way a sculptor sculpts human figures from clay, I sculpt my figures with the brush.”
Talking Faces 3
Ghanaian painter Isshaq Ismail has quickly captured far-reaching art world attention with emotive, semi-abstract portraits in lurid impasto.Our debut collaboration, Talking Faces, comprises a series of 10 original acrylic on canvas works rendered in Ismail's inimitable figurative style - where skewed facial features in luminous tones express familiar, empathy-inducing emotions.“Like the way a sculptor sculpts human figures from clay, I sculpt my figures with the brush."
Talking Faces 2
Ghanain painter Isshaq Ismail has quickly captured far-reaching art world attention with emotive, semi-abstract portraits in lurid impasto.Our debut collaboration, Talking Faces, comprises a series of 10 original acrylic on canvas works rendered in Ismail's inimitable figurative style - where skewed facial features in luminous tones express familiar, empathy-inducing emotions.“Like the way a sculptor sculpts human figures from clay, I sculpt my figures with the brush.”
Talking Faces 8
Ghanaian painter Isshaq Ismail has quickly captured far-reaching art world attention with emotive, semi-abstract portraits in lurid impasto.Our debut collaboration, Talking Faces, comprises a series of 10 original acrylic on canvas works rendered in Ismail's inimitable figurative style - where skewed facial features in luminous tones express familiar, empathy-inducing emotions.“Like the way a sculptor sculpts human figures from clay, I sculpt my figures with the brush.”
Talking Faces 9
Ghanaian painter Isshaq Ismail has quickly captured far-reaching art world attention with emotive, semi-abstract portraits in lurid impasto.Our debut collaboration, Talking Faces, comprises a series of 10 original acrylic on canvas works rendered in Ismail's inimitable figurative style - where skewed facial features in luminous tones express familiar, empathy-inducing emotions.“Like the way a sculptor sculpts human figures from clay, I sculpt my figures with the brush.”
Talking Faces 7
Ghanaian painter Isshaq Ismail has quickly captured far-reaching art world attention with emotive, semi-abstract portraits in lurid impasto.Our debut collaboration, Talking Faces, comprises a series of 10 original acrylic on canvas works rendered in Ismail's inimitable figurative style - where skewed facial features in luminous tones express familiar, empathy-inducing emotions.“Like the way a sculptor sculpts human figures from clay, I sculpt my figures with the brush.”
Talking Faces 1
Ghanaian painter Isshaq Ismail has quickly captured far-reaching art world attention with emotive, semi-abstract portraits in lurid impasto.Our debut collaboration, Talking Faces, comprises a series of 10 original acrylic on canvas works rendered in Ismail's inimitable figurative style - where skewed facial features in luminous tones express familiar, empathy-inducing emotions.“Like the way a sculptor sculpts human figures from clay, I sculpt my figures with the brush.”
Concorde
American artist Michael Kagan paints dynamic tributes to the limits of human potential.Attesting the artist's enduring fascination with aerospace, Concorde is based on an original painting from 2015, realised in his distinctive, sharp-edged impasto brushstrokes.
Between Two Poles
Wang Yan Cheng’s majestic paintings merge ancient Chinese painting techniques with Abstract Expressionist forms. His works are rich, layered and immensely textural, continuing the legacy of Lyrical Abstraction.
Exile and The Kingdom
José Parlá weaves his abstract, calligraphic style into the complex, textured surfaces of his works. Exile and the Kingdom, includes unique, hand-finished details throughout the 50 editions.
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