Jan Dobkowski Art

Dobkowski completed the Secondary School of Art in Warsaw, and in 1962, he took up studies at the Department of Painting in Warsaw's Academy of Fine Arts. He was the student of professor Juliusz Studnicki and Jan Cybis. He completed his diploma piece under Cybis in 1968.

Jan Dobkowski has been presented with the award of the Minister of Culture and Art for his popularization of artistic creativity (1970), and was also a recipient of  Kościuszko Foundation scholarship in New York (1972). In 1970, he received a gold medal and an award at the symposium of Gold Recame in Zielona Góra. In 1978, he was presented with th Cyprian Norwid award of art critics,  for the best exhibition of the year. In 1994, Dobkowski he was honoured with life achievement award of Jan Cybis.
   
The works of  Dobkowski can be found in numerous collections, among them those of the Art Museum in Łódź , the National Museum in Warsaw, the National Museum in Wrocław, the National Museum in Poznań, and at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. His paintings are also in private collections  in Poland, Sweden, Denmark, the USA, Switzerland, and France. (Culture.pl)

Rysunek (1999)

Naczynia połączone, 1971

Eternal Mother, 1972

Thangka Paintings

The word thangka comes from the Tibetan thang yig, which mean “annals” or “written record.” The ending yig, which means, “letter” and carries the sense of “written,” is replaced by the ordinary substantive ending ka. Thus the word thangka has the sense of a record.
The main source of the Tibetan art that has flourished since then is the iconographical art of India with strong influences from China and Persia. Thangkas or scroll paintings were, from the first, religious in nature. The first thangka originated in India and depicted the Wheel of Life, a sort of diagram showing the world of samsara and how to get out of it.
Thangkas communicate a message to the practitioner, serving as an aid to teaching and as an aid to meditation through the visualization of the deity.These thangka served as important teaching tools depicting the life of the Buddha, various influential lamas and other deities and Bodhisattvas.The Buddhist Vajrayana practitioner uses a thanga image of their yidam, or meditation deity, as a guide, by visualizing “themselves as being that deity, thereby internalizing the Buddha qualities". On a deeper level thangka paintings are the visual expression of the fully awakened state of enlightenment, this being the ultimate goal of the Buddhist spiritual path. That's why a thangka is sometimes called 'the roadmap to enlightenment'. Thangka is a Nepalese art form exported to Tibet after Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal, daughter of King Lichchavi, married Songtsän Gampo, the ruler of Tibet imported the images of Aryawalokirteshwar and other Nepalese deities to Tibet.History of thangka Paintings in Nepal began in 11th century A.D. when Buddhists and Hindus began to make illustration of the deities and natural scenes. Historically, Tibetan and Chinese influence in Nepalese paintings is quite evident in Paubhas (The Tibetan equivalent is known as Thangka.).
From the fifteenth century onwards, brighter colours gradually began to appear in Nepalese.Thanka / Thangka. Because of the growing importance of the Tantric cult, various aspects of Shiva and Shakti were painted in conventional poses. Mahakala, Manjushri, Lokeshwara and other deities were equally popular and so were also frequently represented in Thanka / Thangka paintings of later dates. As Tantrism embodies the ideas of esoteric power, magic forces, and a great variety of symbols, strong emphasis is laid on the female element and sexuality in the paintings of that period.

Vajrabhairava (Yamantaka)
Year: 1740

Yamāntaka is seen as a wrathful manifestation of Mañjuśrī, the bodhisattva of wisdom, and in other contexts functions as a dharmapala, or 'Dharma-protector'.

Guru Orgyen Dorje Chang
One of the eight manifestations
of  Padmasambhava 

 Orgyen Dorje Chang is in sambhogakaya form, with its specific ornaments; holding vajra and bell and his legs in full vajra posture, he embraces white Vajravarahi.

Palden Lhamo (Shri Devi)

Palden Lhamo (Shri Devi) is a protecting Dharmapala of the teachings of Gautama Buddha in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. She is the wrathful deity considered to be the principal Protectress of Tibet.

Vajrayogini
Eastern Tibet, 19th century, mineral pigment on cotton.

Vajrayoginī is a ḍākiṇī and a Vajrayāna Buddhist meditation deity. As such she is considered to be a female Buddha.She is a Highest Yoga Tantra Yidam (Skt. Iṣṭha-deva(tā)), and her practice includes methods for preventing ordinary death, intermediate state (bardo) and rebirth (by transforming them into paths to enlightenment), and for transforming all mundane daily experiences into higher spiritual paths.

Vajravarahi (Dorje Pakmo)

Vajravarahi is one of the female Buddha forms, also known as Vajradakini (Diamond Skywalker) or Vajrayogini (Diamond Spiritual Athlete). These female archetype deities symbolically illustrate the Buddhist insight that enlightenment is beyond all sexual identity.Vajravarahi, literally the Adamantine Sow, is the consort of Chakrasamvara, the presiding deity of the Samvaratantra. A sow's head can be seen projecting from the apex of her crown of skull. The three-eyed, red Vajravarahi stands in a dancing pose with one foot on a figure lying on its back, and with her right leg raised and suspended in the air in an awesome posture. Although an animal skin wraps her hips and thighs, she appears naked. Apart from various jewelry she also wears a garland of severed human heads. She wears gold earrings, and fine bone ornaments adorn her body. The swaying strands of her ornaments reinforce the movements of her body and conjure the tinkling sounds of bone and bell that accompany her dramatic dance.

Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi Embracing
1575–1600
Nepal

This powerful depiction of the twelve-armed Chakrasamvara embracing his consort Vajravarahi depicts a highly charged vision by an advanced tantric master. Potent color dynamics add tension to the picture. The blue figure of Chakrasamvara has additional heads in yellow, green, and red (symbolizing the colors of the Jina “Victor” Buddhas). This is one of few Nepalese paintings to evoke so completely the energy of physical union as an expression of knowledge and method coming together to achieve enlightenment. Chakrasamvara is associated with both Heruka and Hevajra, and his iconography closely resembles that of Shiva (both have three eyes and hold a skull cup, trident, and elephant skin). Such concordance of Buddhist and Hindu iconography is not unusual and has its origins in tantrism of medieval eastern India. Here, Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi together trample a blue Bhairava and a red Kalartri, showing their dominance over these Hindu gods.

Chakrasamvara is a highly revered yidam (personal mentor deity) in Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. He has four heads and twelve arms, two of which embrace his consort Vajravarahi. Both figures hold objects that symbolize the transformative powers of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. In one of his six left hands, Chakrasamvara wields a noose to harness all ego and negativity that prevent progress toward enlightenment. In one of his right hands, he holds a long-handled ax to sever the root of ignorance that generates negativity. In her right hand, Vajravarahi grasps a chopper, an implement that represents "wisdom-consciousness" and that symbolically cuts defilement and disillusionment at the root.

Samantabhadra

A very clearly and impressively painted Thangka representation of the Adi Buddha Samantabhadra. He shows himself united in YabYum with his Prajna Samantabhadri and is surrounded by an aureole of flowers and fruits.

Samantabhadra (Sanskrit: समन्तभद्र; literally Universal Worthy), is a bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism associated with Buddhist practice and meditation. Together with Shakyamuni Buddha and fellow bodhisattva Manjusri he forms the Shakyamuni trinity in Buddhism.In the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhist Vajrayana, Samantabhadra is considered a primordial Buddha in indivisible yab-yum union with his consort Samantabhadri.

Grarbhakosa Mandala (Womb Realm)

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Art

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892) was a Japanese artist. He is widely recognized as the last great master of the ukiyo-e genre of woodblock printing and painting. He is also regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators.

holding back the night
with its increasing brilliance
the summer moon
– Yoshitoshi's death poem

“Oshu adachigahara hitotsuya no zu”
(The Lonely House on Adachi Moor) - 1885

From the set Thirty-two Aspects of Women
published by Tsunashima Kamekichi, 1888.

Byokansaku Yōyu (Yang Hsiung)
Stabbing a pregnant woman (1868)

Inada Kyûzô Shinsuke (1866)
From "Twenty-Eight Famous Murders with Verse "

Bodhidharma (1887)

Narihira and Nijo no Tsubone at the Fuji River

Kaidomaru and Yamauba (1873)

Itō Jakuchū Paintings

Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800) was a Japanese painter lived during mid Edo Period. He is best known for the paintings of birds, flowers and other natural elements. Inspired by the paintings in Chinese Zen temples and used traditional Japanese and Chinese styles in his works.

Most of Jakuchū's works were in the form of hanging scrolls and his distinct usage of colors (Roosters, Maple Tree and Small Birds) directs viewer to a mystic atmosphere.

"Flowers, birds, grasses, and insects each have their own innate spirit. Only after one has actually determined the true nature of this spirit through observation should painting begin."

—Itō Jakuchū

Roosters

Maple Tree and Small Birds

Rooster and Hen with Hydrangeas

Red Nuts and Rooster

Settyu enouzu

Gaganendranath Tagore Art

Gaganendranath Tagore was born on on 18th of September, 1867, at Jorasanko in the Tagore family home in Calcutta. He was the nephew of Rabindranath Tagore. Though he didn't receive any formal education in painting later became a prominent figure of Bengal School of Art. He founded the Indian Society of Oriental Art along with his brother Abanindranath Tagore. Gaganendranath was inspired by Japaneese painting techniques, especially  Yokoyama Taikan and other Far Eastern styles, between the years 1906 and 1910. Also he got inspirations from European experimental art like Cubism and used geometric compositions in Indian/Oriental context, build up his own brand of Cubism. Maybe he was the first to use these types of try outs fruitfully.
However he is best known for his political cartoons and social satires on Westernised Bengalis. His work was exhibited in the 22nd exhibition de Societe des peintres orientalistes francais (1914) in Paris, London, Belgium and Holland, and in a travelling exhibition organised by the American Federation of Art and ISOA (1924) in London and Germany, and he exhibited in the Athene Gallery in Geneva in 1928.
Rabindranath Tagore, his uncle commented on his art, thus, in 1938: "What profoundly attracted me was the uniqueness of his creation, a lively curiosity in his constant experiments, and some mysterious depth in their imaginative value. Closely surrounded by the atmosphere of a new art movement ... he sought out his own untrodden path of adventure, attempted marvelous experiments in coloring and made fantastic trials in the magic of light and shade."
Died in 1938.

Magician (1925)
Water Color

Himalayan Bride

Rabindranath Tagore in the Island of Birds

Composition

Andrzej Pagowski Art

Andrzej Pagowski was born in 1953.
He graduated from the Academy of Fine in Poznań, Faculty of Poster Design under professor Waldemar Świerzy. Since 1977 he has designed over 1000 posters printed both in Poland and abroad. He is also an author of numerous book illustrations, drawings for magazines, artwork for CD booklets. He is also a TV and theatre stage designer as well as a screenwriter.

In 1986 he started co-operation with various magazines as their artistic director. For several years he was "Playboy" Polish Edition Art Director.

In 1989 he became involved in advertising business, without giving up his individual development as a graphic designer. He is KreacjaPro Company owner and Creative Director.

Andrzej Pągowski had numerous individual exhibitions in Poland and all over the world. He received several dozens Polish and international awards, among which there are the most esteemed awards in the International Competition The Best TV and Film Poster in Los Angeles and first prizes in the Chicago International Film Poster Competition. Recently he received many awards for his achievements in the field of advertising. There are numerous prizes for advertising achievements in recent years as well.

Bez Konca (No End) Poster- 1985
Director:  Krzysztof Kieślowski

8 and Half Polish Poster- 1988
Director: Federico Fellini

Tabu Poster (1988)
Director: Andrzej Baranski

Psie Serce- M. Bulhakow (Heart of a Dog)
Drama

Ballad of Narayama, Polish Movie Poster (1986)
Director: Shôhei Imamura

John Lennon, Polish Poster 1979

Short Film About Love (photo) 1988
Director: Krzysztof Kieślowski

Zdzislaw Beksiński

Zdzisław Beksiński was a renowned Polish painter, photographer, and sculptor. Born in 1929, he grew up in southern Poland, then traveled to Krakow to study architecture where he subsequently spent several miserable years working as a construction site supervisor. His work from that era is primarily photography and sculpture.In the late 1960s, Beksiński entered what he himself called his "fantastic period", which lasted up to the mid-1980s. This is his best-known period, during which he created very disturbing images, showing a surrealistic, post-apocalyptic environment with very detailed scenes of death, decay, landscapes filled with skeletons, deformed figures and deserts. These paintings were quite detailed, painted with his trademark precision. At the time, Beksiński claimed, "I wish to paint in such a manner as if I were photographing dreams".
Although he depicts a harrowing world, Beksiński claimed that much of his work is misunderstood. Like Kafka (known to laugh hysterically when reading his own stories aloud), the Polish painter was often amused by his own work. He insisted his vision was ultimately optimistic.
In 1998, after years of illness, his wife Zofia died. A year later, his son Tomasz (a popular Polish radio personality and movie translator) committed suicide. Beksiński, who discovered his son’s body, was never quite the same.
On 21 February 2005, Beksiński was found dead in his flat in Warsaw with 17 stab wounds on his body; two of the wounds were determined to have been fatal. Robert Kupiec (the teenage son of his longtime caretaker), who later pleaded guilty, and a friend were arrested shortly after the crime. On 9 November 2006 Robert Kupiec was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and his accomplice, Łukasz Kupiec, to 5 years by the court of Warsaw. Before his death, Beksiński refused a loan to Robert Kupiec a few hundred złotys (approximately $100).

Joaquín Torres García

Joaquín Torres García was a painter, writer and art theorist who born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1874. He is famed as founder of  Constructive Universalism, an art form that incorporates Latin American historic symbols and pre-Hispanic cultures. He completed his studies in Barcelona and then traveled across New York, Italy and finally settled in Paris in 1928. He linked with Modernismo art movement in Barcelona and did so many murals for Antoni Gaudí. In Paris he established friendships with Man Ray, Joan Miro, Joseph Stella etc.

In 1934 he returned to Uruguay with all the European art in his mind and molded a new style ie; Constructive Universalism. He wants something that is not stained by European art and founded this on the belief that simple objects and shapes could be understand prevalently irrespective of cultural/art academic knowledge.

In 1942, Torres García Workshop was created, a place of collective work and teaching, where his students learned to go through the course of art. He died in Montevideo, on 8 August 1949.

América invertida (inverted America, 1943)

Construction in White and Black (1938)

Construction in White and Black (1938)
Medium:Oil on paper mounted on wood
Dimensions:31 3/4 x 40 1/8" (80.7 x 102 cm)

This painting belongs to the series of gridded, bichromatic, abstract compositions Torres–García made between 1935 and the early 1940s. In this work, irregular, geometric forms evoke primal architectonic structures, and the dramatic contrast between light and shadow on the many planes creates an effect of depth and volume. The painting reflects the artist's deep engagement with the indigenous art and architecture of the Americas and, in particular, his interest in Incan stonework. The strong shading in each rectangular compartment gives the impression of stacked blocks, visually mimicking Incan masonry.(MoMA)

Constructivo (1928)-Ink on paper

Construcción 1944

The above mural  was done in 1944 by Torres Garcia for a hospital built for tubercular patients in Montevideo. There were 34 murals in total. Even though his age(he was about 70 years old was not suitable for this work, he started painting the walls by May 1944 since this being a unique opportunity to achieve in practice his theory that Constructivism was the ideal style to incorporate into modern architecture.Real problem arose when the whole work was unveiled on a public ceremony.The art critics declared them violent and aggressive and cautioned that the strident colors, would disturb the sick who were in need of physical and spiritual repose. The debate for and against the murals that ensued in the press went on for months, to such an extent that eventually a humorous note was published declaring that the murals had "turned out to be more dangerous and lethal than the Koch bacilli."

By 1970, the seven murals by Torres-García were in danger of being lost, threatened by the deterioration of the building. The Torres-García Foundation funded their restoration; removed from the walls and transferred to canvas, they were donated to Montevideo's Museum of Visual Arts, where they were shown in a Torres-García centenary retrospective in 1974. The following year, together with a large selection of Constructivist works by Torres-García, the murals were exhibited in Paris. In July 1978, as part of the exhibition "Geometría Sensível" in Rio de Janeiro, 73 works by Torres-García including the seven murals were destroyed in the fire that also consumed the entire collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

This painting, Construcción, 1944 is Torres-García's study for El Sol, the largest mural (over twenty feet long) of the project. This work is valuable not only because it is a testimony to the scope of the Constructivist muralist movement, and of its irreparable loss, but also because of its sheer originality.

Dos figuras constructivas primitivas (1945)