George Weissbort (11 April 1928,

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

– 9 July 2013,

Wye Valley The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; cy, Dyffryn Gwy) is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales. The River Wye ( cy, Afon Gwy) is the fourth-longest river in th ...

) was a Belgian–born British artist. He lived and

painted Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The critic

Brian Sewell Brian Alfred Christopher Bushell Sewell (; 15 July 1931 – 19 September 2015) was an English art critic. He wrote for the ''Evening Standard'' and had an acerbic view of conceptual art and the Turner Prize. ''The Guardian'' described him as " ...

, considering him an important exponent of an earlier style at a time not widely receptive to it, described him as having "painted the right pictures at the wrong time".

Early development

George Weissbort was born in

but moved with his family to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

as a child. Growing up in London, Weissbort's early associations and influences included the "experimental" artist and author Arthur Segal, whose conversion from

abstract impressionism Abstract Impressionism is an art movement that originated in New York City, in the 1940s.Eduoard Malingue Gallery. ''Impressionism to Modern Art.'' Hong Kong: Eduard Malingue Gallery, 2011. 10. It involves the painting of a subject such as real-li ...

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

initiated Weissbort's lifelong interest in optical realism. Weissbort attended the

Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Central Saint Martins is a public tertiary art school in London, England. It is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of shor ...

in London in the 1940s where he was taught by Ruskin Spear and Rodrigo Moynihan. While there, he studied life drawing under

Bernard Meninsky Bernard Meninsky (25 July 1891–12 February 1950) was a painter of figures and landscapes in oils, watercolour and gouache, a draughtsman and a teacher.. Biography Early life and education Meninsky was born in Konotop, Ukraine, where his fathe ...

. His artistic

œuvre Oeuvre(s) or Œuvre(s) may refer to: * A work of art; or, more commonly, the body of work of a creator Books * '' L'Œuvre'', a novel by Émile Zola * ''Œuvres'', a work by Emil Cioran * ''Œuvres'', a work by Auguste Brizeux * ''Oeuvres'', a wo ...

includes life drawings,

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of Terrestrial ecoregion, land, its landforms, and how they integrate with Nature, natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionar ...

still lifes A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, boo ...

, commissioned

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

and

self-portrait A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...

ure. Weissbort's art has been exhibited regularly at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

and the Royal Academy of Portrait Painters.

Style

After initial experiments in the styles of

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

and

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

, Weissbort re-focused his energies towards the study of the "

Old Masters In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

", developing an enduring interest in the work of such artists as

Johannes Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , #Pronunciation of name, see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period Painting, painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle class, middle-class life. ...

, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin,

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of th ...

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875), or simply Camille Corot, is a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching. He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast ...

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, , ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in order ...

and

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

. The great body of Weissbort's work, which spans seven decades to date, constitutes a sustained exploration of figurative representation. Applying many of the techniques and expertise employed by the Old Masters, Weissbort's work is concerned with the visual interpretation and representation of the natural world through a persistent and intense examination of shapes, patterns, compositional relationships, tonal nuances and the qualities of lines and edges. Thus, rejecting the tenets of contemporary

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

, Weissbort's work revives an older concern with observational skills and technical mastery. "To paint in the spirit of Poussin, Chardin, Piero, Vermeer and Holbein in the 21st century", Anthony Rudolf writes, "is, for this painter, a radical project of artistic reclaimation and psychic renewal." There have been two retrospectives of Weissbort's work: *The Chambers Gallery, London, 2006 *Denise Yapp Gallery of Contemporary Art, Monmouth, 2008. A third retrospective is planned for October 2015: *Denise Yapp Gallery of Contemporary Art, Monmouth, 2015

References

External links

George Weissbort's official siteGeorge Weissbort: A Retrospective, London Lantern 01/04/2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weissbort, George Belgian artists 1928 births 2013 deaths