Living Grand Masters: Nelson Shanks

I am honored to have met Nelson Shanks, and have learned a lifetime of things in the few brief moments that I was able to watch him paint and receive advice and instruction from him.

A former student of Pietro Annigoni, Nelson is a master of the highest degree, and in portraiture no one even comes close. He is unmatched as a colorist and a painter of flesh, and the ability to pull character out of a pose.

Nelson is the founder of Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia. He lives and works in the area, but also paints in the former studio of Robert Henri in New York and if I'm correct has another studio in London.





If you get a commission to paint the pope's portrait from life at the Vatican, Princess Diana, and several United States Presidents, you just might have made it as a portrait painter.



In my opinion this is the greatest contemporary painting of a nude figure. Seeing it at Forum Gallery in 1998 was my introduction to his work, and I have been in love with it since. It now hangs in the Incamminati office, and I pay a visit to her whenever I'm in Philly.

Living Grand Masters: Lucian Freud

Lucien Freud is the grandson of Sigmund.

Some of my friends will dispute this choice because he diminishes his sitters to grotesque piles of flesh, but the magnitude of his skill and importance can't be denied. He is a master of flesh and of space. There is real power in the paintings whether you like them or not. He is one of the only living painters from the modernist era whose work I personally care for.

This painting sold for $33 million dollars at a Christie's auction. Is it worth $33 million dollars? Not in my opinion. It is the most ever spent on a living artist's work.

Mick Jagger's ex-wife holding a Freud she posed for and bought for over a million British pounds. Worth it? Naaaaa, but it's kind of cool.








Another great video link on Freud here.

Living Grand Masters: Steven Assael

Well, some of the people I deem as "grand masters" I have already listed as teachers. This is where categorization starts to drive me crazy. Steven Assael is undoubtedly one of the great painters of our time, so it won't hurt to do another post for him.

If you've never seen Steve develop a painting it is simply outrageous. At first his technique looks like a very bad idea, and it is very easy to get nervous that he's not going to pull the thing off, but he always does, gloriously. He uses a bright orange, red, or hot pink ground color and uses the surface as a palette. He works unbelievably quickly, slapping and slamming a loaded wet brush as though it were the enemy, but with a totally disinterested expression.

Steve was in his twenties when he painted this. They roped off a section of their apartment to keep everything in the right place.

Still my favorite.




A piece in progress featured in the new American Artist.

Living Grand Masters: Yuqi Wang

I am totally convinced that painting is better than it's been in a century. A few strong painters carried the torch through the twentieth century, but since I began art school in the mid-nineties, great painting has exploded. That said, however, it is hard to think of many contemporary painter that are more powerful than Yuqi Wang, and he is the first in my "grand master" series.

In my opinion there are a rare few grand masters. There are many masters in the sense that many have mastered aspects of drawing, color and form, and composition, but there are others who possess a special kind of genius in pulling all of these components together to create something much larger than the sum of its parts and that is timeless and universal. Their works could easily share a wall with the great masters of the past, and yet are distinctively a product of their own time. In my opinion there are only five or six of these visionaries who lead the march, but I'd love to hear if you have a different list.

This painting is entitled "Black". It's one of my favorite contemporary paintings.