Illya Repin: Russia's Norman Rockwell

It's humbling a great to "discover" an artist who inspires you so much, but had existed for so long without your knowing.  At Tokyo's Bunkamura Museum,   I was lucky stumble up on the works of Illya Repin (1844 -1930) a great Russian painter whose works can mentioned in the same breath as Leo Tolstoy as being one of Russia's great artistic treasures.




Without a doubt a master painter in terms of his ability to capture realism.  (At a time where impressionism was becoming the new flavor of the month)  His ability to capture the spirit of people almost borders on caricature and almost has an "animated" feel to it.

Subtle caricature,  dramatic staging as well as subtle social commentary, there is certainly something Norman Rockwell-ish about Repin.   There is this love of people and ability to capture the most appealing or compelling parts of people in his paintings and portraits.  Truly inspiring.  Today will be the last day Repin will be exhibited at Bunkamura in Tokyo but someday a trip to St. Petersberg's Russian Museum would be more than worth it to see his works up close again.

Frank Frazetta (1928 -2010)

Frank Frazetta, hands down, heavyweight champion of fantasy artists/ illustrators of the 20th century passed away today. His work permeates the fabric of what modern fantasy art and illustration is today. The influence of his work can be seen and felt in the composition of countless other fantasy or sci-fi illustrations and comic magazines. Whether it is said or not, films from "Conan the Barbarian" to "Disney's Tarzan" and even "Avatar" owe credit to Frank Frazetta's work.

His paintings like "The Barbarian" (called by some "the illustration of the 20th Century"), greatly contributed to the image of the "anti-hero" replacing the face of heroism in the past 40 years.

His only screen credit was as the producer (and art designer) of 'Fire and Ice", an animated feature he collaborated with animator Ralph Bakshi in 1983. Film producers such as Dino De Laurentis, John Milus, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and even Disney have all either attempted (and failed) to get him to work with them or admitted they were great admirers of his work.

Without Frank Frazetta, fantasy/ science fiction, in every medium, art, illustration, comics, animation or film would not be what we know it as today.

Mr. Frazetta, thank you so much.