For contemplation . . .

Today is the birthday of François-Auguste-René Rodin (November 12, 1840 – November 17, 1917), better known simply as Auguste Rodin, sculptor.

The Thinker, a bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin is one of his most memorable works. It depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle. It is often used to represent philosophy. There are over twenty casts of the sculpture in museums around the world.

The Thinker
Auguste Rodin
California Palace of the Legion of Honor
San Francisco, California

"The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms. Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him." - Auguste Rodin

"The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation." - Auguste Rodin



"To any artist, worthy of the name, all in nature is beautiful, because his eyes, fearlessly accepting all exterior truth, read there, as in an open book, all the inner truth." - Auguste Rodin

"Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which nature herself is animated." - Auguste Rodin

The Thinker image source (1)

To get a grip on reality . . .

Today is the birthday of Alberto Giacometti (October 10, 1901 – January 11, 1966), sculptor, painter, draftsman, and printmaker. He is best known for his sculptures of thin, elongated human figures.


"That's the terrible thing: the more one works on a picture, the more impossible it becomes to finish it." - Alberto Giacometti

"It is impossible to do a thing the way I see it because the closer I get the more differently I see." - Alberto Giacometti

"I paint and sculpt to get a grip on reality . . . to protect myself." - Alberto Giacometti

To record facts around me . . .

Today is the birthday of Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 - December 26, 1909), painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in depictions of the Old American West.

The Scout: Friends or Foes

Frederic Remington

Oil on canvas (c. 1900-05)

68.6 x 101.6 cm

(27 x 40 in.)

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

Williamstown, Massachusetts

"Art is a she-devil of a mistress, and if at times in earlier days she would not even stoop to my way of thinking, I have persevered and will so continue." - Frederic Remington


"I knew the wild riders and the vacant land were about to vanish forever... and the more I considered the subject, the bigger the forever loomed. Without knowing how to do it, I began to record some facts around me, and the more I looked the more the panorama unfolded." - Frederic Remington

Remington painting image source (1)

To have an adventure . . .

Today is the birthday of Mark Rothko (September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970) born Marcus Rothkowitz, painter and printmaker.


"To us art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take the risks." - Mark Rothko

To create new appearances . . .

Today is the birthday of Jean Hans Arp (September 16, 1886 – June 7, 1966), sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist. He was one of the founding members of the Dada movement or Dadaism in Zürich, Switzerland (1916) and is considered a pioneer of abstract art. Jean Hans Arp was a prominent experimentor of automatic drawing and developed this technique to create his sculptures.

Cloud Shepherd
Jean Hans Arp
Bronze Sculpture (1953)
Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas
*Photo by Alejandro Bárcenas

"The important thing about Dada, it seems to me, is that the Dadaists despised what is commonly regarded as art, but put the whole universe on the lofty throne of art. We declared that everything that comes into being or is made by man is art. Art can be evil, boring, wild, sweet, dangerous, euphonious, ugly, or a feast to the eyes. The whole earth is art. To draw well is art . . . . The nightingale is a great artist. Michelangelo's Moses: Bravo! But at the sight of an inspired snow man, the Dadaist also cried bravo." - Jean Hans Arp

"Art is a fruit that grows in man, like a fruit on a plant, or a child in its mother's womb." - Jean Hans Arp

"I wanted to create new appearances, to extract new forms from man." - Jean Hans Arp

*Sculpture image source (1)

To keep busy . . .

Today is the birthday of Anna Mary Robertson Moses better known as "Grandma Moses" (September 7, 1860 – December 13, 1961), folk artist.

Grandma Moses began painting in her late seventies and by the time of her death in 1961 at the age of 101, she had created over 1500 works of art.

Early Skating

Anna Mary Robertson Moses

Oil and tempera on Masonite (1951)

45.6 x 61 cm

(17 15/16 x 24 in.)

Brooklyn Museum

Brooklyn, New York

"What a strange thing is memory, and hope; one looks backward, the other forward; one is of today, the other of tomorrow. Memory is history recorded in our brain, memory is a painter, it paints pictures of the past and of the day." - Grandma Moses

"Painting's not important. The important thing is keeping busy." - Grandma Moses

To capture a minute part of reality . . .

Today is the birthday of Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004), photographer and artist. He was considered a master of candid photography and the father of modern photojournalism.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a Magnum founder and a full Member since 1947.


"Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again." - Henri Cartier-Bresson

"For the world is movement, and you cannot be stationary in your attitude toward something that is moving." - Henri Cartier-Bresson

"The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality." - Henri Cartier-Bresson