Academic Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
ACADEMIC STYLE
During the Renaissance, the first European fine art academies were established in Italy and would guide the style and standards of visual culture in the following centuries. Academic art became dominant across the continent in the 17th century, with artists coming together to offer instruction in this style of painting and sculpture.
The academic art period represented a significant change from the previous era when painters, sculptors and other artists were part of guilds and seen more as artisans than purveyors of culture. While patronage from the elite and the church remained pivotal, young artists were able to support themselves for the first time through academic exhibitions and an independent marketplace. The leading academies included the French Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture founded in Paris in 1648 (which became the Académie des Beaux-Arts after the French Revolution) and the London Royal Academy of Arts formed in 1768 under the inaugural leadership of painter Joshua Reynolds.
Academy students sketched drawings based on prints, sculptures and, finally, live models. Movements including neoclassicism and romanticism were particularly popular in these art schools and institutions where the influence of Raphael and Nicolas Poussin was prominent. Beaux Arts architecture and furniture design drew on these movements, too, and, as they also originated at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, the disciplines share common ground with academic painting and sculpture.
Although academic art was a major shift for artistic status when it began, by the middle of the 19th century it was viewed as stodgy and resistant to new ideas, with the subject matter of artists such as William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Jean-Léon Gérôme generally limited to allegorical or mythological themes. Impressionism, realism and the other movements that engaged with contemporary issues that followed were direct reactions to the academic tradition, although it continued to inform the avant-garde as artists like Gustav Klimt and Pablo Picasso started their practices as academic realists.
Find a collection of academic paintings, sculptures, prints and more art on 1stDibs.
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Style: Academic
French Contemporary Art by Pascal Plazanet - Place des Vosges
Located in Paris, IDF
Rapidography & ink on paper
Pascal Plazanet is a French artist born in 1963 who lives and works in Paris, France. For more 30 years, he constantly uses rapidograph pens in his artworks on paper or onto canvas. The rapidograph is a special pen with a capillary tubular tip in which flows a black pigment, an ancient drawing...
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1990s Academic Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
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French Contemporary Art by Pascal Plazanet - Ansouis en Luberon
Located in Paris, IDF
Rapidography & oil onto canvas
Pascal Plazanet is a French artist born in 1963 who lives and works in Paris, France. For more 30 years, he constantly uses rapidograph pens in his artworks on paper or onto canvas. The rapidograph is a special pen with a capillary tubular tip in which flows a black pigment, an ancient drawing tool...
Category
Early 2000s Academic Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
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French Contemporary Art by Pascal Plazanet - Provençale No. 20
Located in Paris, IDF
Rapidography & watercolor on canvas
Pascal Plazanet is a French artist born in 1963 who lives and works in Paris, France. For more 30 years, he constantly uses rapidograph pens in his artworks on paper or onto canvas. The rapidograph is a special pen with a capillary tubular tip in which flows a black pigment, an ancient drawing...
Category
1990s Academic Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Canvas, Watercolor
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About the artist:
Donise English emphasizes lines, grids, and fields of subtle color to evoke imagined places and invented structures. While precise lines and straight angles are often associated with themes in architecture and urban planning designs, English conveys a geometric motif guided by intuition rather than a ruler. Variations on grids retain flaws and unmistakable traces of the artists’ hand; her style of draftsmanship shies away from intellectualism and instead makes her compositions feel very personal. A central checkerboard formation floats over a ground of pastel color or washes of grey or cream. Each design is intensely intricate, incorporating gouache, acrylic, pen, graphite, ink and colored pencil. The artist recently retired from her decades career teaching at Marist College and is now devoted full time to her art making.
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My work is about the way visual diagrams present information that describes how something is made or the way it is. I am interested in drawing and collaging multiple layers of information that refer abstractly to maps, architectural drawings and blueprints or patterns and structures found in such things as roller coasters, power lines and fences. I use gouache and collaged paper in a series of layers that are a visual and ideological response to the previous layer to define my pictorial space. For each piece I create a set of rules to follow about the use of a limited palette, a grid format, opacity of paper and whether a piece may include curving lines or maintain a rectilinear structure.
Artist CV:
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts in Painting
Bard College 1986
Bachelor of Science in Art History
State University College at New Paltz 1977
Additional Study: New York Studio School (Drawing Marathons)
Columbia University, School of Architecture
Women’s Studio Workshop
TEACHING
Professor of Studio Art, Department of Art and Art History, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Coordinator, Interior Design Program, Florence, Italy campus
1992-present
AWARDS
NYFA Fellowship in Painting 2018
Invitational Award for Outstanding Contemporary Talent,
University of Bridgeport, CT 2000
Purchase Prize, “11th National Juried Exhibition”
College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Baltimore 1999
First Prize, “Women in the Visual Arts ‘95”
Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT 1995
Joseph A. Cain Memorial Purchase Award for Sculpture
Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX 1994
Honorable Mention, “National Juried Exhibition”
University of Bridgeport, CT 1993
Individual Artists Fellowship in Sculpture
Dutchess Arts Fund 1992/93
Tallix, Morris, Singer Internship in Sculpture
Tallix Foundry, Beacon, NY 1990/91
MEMBERSHIP Royal British Society of Sculptors
SELECTED JURIED/INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
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“edu: Art Faculty of the Hudson Valley”, Hudson Valley MOCA, Peekskill, NY
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“Contemporary Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Mixed Media”, SITE Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
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“JuxtaPositions”, The Painting Center, New York, NY
“Peculiar Rarities”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
2017
“Interlock: Color and Contrast in Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Donise English: Encaustics”, Catskill Art Society, Livingston Manor, NY
2016
“Let’s Stay in Touch”, Howard County Center for the Arts, Ellicott City, MD
“Under, Over, After Over”, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
2015
“Off the Grid”, Arts & Culture Program, Albany International Airport, Albany, NY
“Gridspace”, KMOCA, Kingston, NY
“Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Assuming Identity”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY
2013
“Modern Artists”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region”, The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY
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“Strange Glue: Collage at 100”, Cambridge School, Weston, MA
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“Fresher Paint”, Rockland Center for the Arts, Nyack, NY
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“The Feminine Eye”, Bradley University, Peoria, IL “Women Painting Women”, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA “Thought Patterns”, Kent Place Gallery, Summit, NJ “Surface, Matter and Artifice”, Dutchess Community College Art Gallery
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Halpert Bienniel, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
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“Cat Calls”, Red Clay Arts, Brooklyn
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One-Person Exhibition, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY
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Academic abstract drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Academic abstract drawings and watercolors available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 20th Century, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Paper and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Academic abstract drawings and watercolors, so small editions measuring 20 inches across are also available. Prices for abstract drawings and watercolors made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $400 and tops out at $400, while the average work sells for $400.
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