Juan Muñoz | Storyteller sculptor

Juan Muñoz (1953-2001)was a Spanish sculptor, working primarily in paper maché, resin and bronze.

He was also interested in the auditory arts and created compositions for the radio. He was a self-described "storyteller".

In 2000, Muñoz was awarded Spain's major Premio Nacional de Bellas Artes in recognition of his work; he died shortly after, in 2001.

His first exhibition was in 1984 in the Fernando Vijande gallery of Madrid. Since then, his works have been frequently exhibited in Europe and other parts of the world.

Ben Hammond, 1977 | Figurative sculptor

Ben Hammond was raised in the rural town of Pingree, Idaho, where his love for art was nurtured from the time he was a small boy.

He studied art at Ricks College graduating with a degree in Illustration.

While at college, he found himself dedicating more and more of his time to sculpting. He also gained a great appreciation for traditional art and decided to devote his time to sculpting the human figure. His passion for the beauty of the human figure is exemplified in his art.

Gustave Courbet | Quotes / Aforismi

• "Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it".
• "La bellezza, come la verità, è relativa al tempo in cui si vive ed all'individuo che può afferrarla".
• "Fine art is knowledge made visible".
• "L'arte è la conoscenza resa visibile".
• "I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom; I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients".
• "Non sono uno che è nato sotto la custodia della saggezza; Sono uno che ama i tempi antichi e intenso nella ricerca della sacra conoscenza degli antichi".

James McNeill Whistler | Nocturne: Blue and Gold, St Mark's, Venice, 1880

"Nocturne: Blue and Gold, St Mark's, Venice" is an 1880 painting by James Abbot McNeill Whistler (American Tonalist painter, 1834-1903), now in the National Museum of Wale.

Following his bankruptcy in 1879, Whistler spent a year in Venice where he concentrated on etchings and pastels.

Only three oil paintings, produced largely from memory in the evenings, survive from this visit.

Gustave Courbet | Jo, La Belle Irlandaise, 1866

Gustave Courbet | Jo, the Beautiful Irishwoman | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The "beautiful Irishwoman" depicted in this painting is Joanna Hiffernan (born 1842/43), mistress and model of the artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)🎨, and perhaps subsequently Courbet’s lover.

Although dated 1866, the picture was likely undertaken in 1865, when the two men painted together at the French seaside resort of Trouville; Courbet wrote of "the beauty of a superb redhead whose portrait I have begun".

He would paint three repetitions with minor variations. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pierre Auguste Renoir | Woman playing a guitar, 1897

Woman Playing a Guitar / "Femme jouant de la guitare"/"Joueuse de guitare ou La Guitariste" is an 1897 painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, now in the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, which bought it in 1901.

The work was one of the first paintings acquired by Paul Durand-Ruel.

Renoir painted several paintings of guitar-players and borrowing classical motifs - here, he is influenced by Camille Corot, Titian and Rubens.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) | Flowers and lovers

• "You could wonder for hours what flowers mean, but for me, they're life itself, in all its happy brilliance. We couldn't do with out flowers".
• "Potresti chiederti per ore cosa significano i fiori, ma per me sono la vita stessa, in tutto il suo felice splendore. Non potevamo fare a meno dei fiori".
• "Art is the increasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding".
• "L'arte è lo sforzo incessante di competere con la bellezza dei fiori - e non riuscirci mai".