Born in 1964 in Venezuela, Francisco Janvier Bassim studied art and then moved to Italy. He lived in Venice for several years which informed his latest illustrative project entitled ‘Gran Interior’ – portraits of Italian Renaissance characters mixed with urban themes and a cartoon/pop art edge.
Posts Tagged ‘art’
Mixing the Renaissance with cartoons – Francisco Janvier Bassim
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012The artist who put down his brushes to work in advertising.
Friday, August 5th, 2011
It has become a cliché over the years: the talented young artist leaves college with ideas of becoming a great painter, does not find people beating each other to death to buy his paintings and takes a job – just for a short time – just to pay his bills.
Damien Hirst: Spinning Into Control
Monday, November 22nd, 2010
I’d never have guessed that inspiration for a creative/design blog could have come out of a car showroom, but so it did. Whilst I was browsing around an Audi showroom last weekend, a salesman presented me with some sales literature about the launch of the new Audi A1, for which Damien Hirst has designed the bodywork for a one-off custom model.
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Ben Eine – Painting the town red (and blue and yellow and green and orange and…)
Monday, August 2nd, 2010
For someone who now has one of his pictures hanging on a wall in the White House, thanks to a much publicised Cameron/Obama gift exchange, Ben Eine appears remarkably unphased by being catapulted into the limelight – even though the mass media frenzy to get a piece of him has been “mental”. I am, in fact, the first of six interviewers he has booked in for today. Real name Ben Flynn, Ben Eine is a street artist who has now crossed the line from a graffiti “criminal” to “mainstream” enfant not-so-terrible. He’s been chased, arrested and fined more times than he can remember, and was given 200 hours of community service which took him about a year to complete. So what eventually inspired him to change his ways? (more…)
Boob job: is this art?
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
In spite of my preference to wear sensible shoes, I like to think I’m pretty liberal, artistically. I may not like Harrison Birtwistle operas, but I respect the technique that goes into writing them. I don’t especially like heavy metal either, but acknowledge the skill which many performers display. I have slightly less enthusiasm for X Factor winners – not because of any overriding Snob Factor but because, by and large, they are puppets which fit a commercial mold or whim. It’s all a bit gimmicky. And that is my problem with Meredith Ostram – the woman who writhes around naked on a canvas, substituting her breasts for paint brushes to create “art”. Note the quotation marks.
Going underground
Thursday, June 10th, 2010
400 miles of track (only 150 of which are actually underground), 180 million passengers a year and one 300 foot moving walkway – in engineering terms alone, the London Underground system is a staggering achievement.
Graffiti wars
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
There is a grand tradition of animosity and grudge amongst any era’s foremost artists. Just think of the squabbles between Picasso and Matisse or even Michelangelo and Leonardo. But these cultural showdowns rarely take place on the towpath of the canal in Camden Town – until now.