MARKVALLEN.COM is another online gallery where you can view the latest social realist paintings, prints, and drawings by Mark Vallen.
www.markvallen.com
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PHILIP STEIN - , also known as Estaño, was an assistant to the great Mexican Muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. A great artist in his own right, Estaño has a website where dozens of his paintings are on display. He also presents information about the Mexican Muralist movement in general. Visit Estaño at:
www.mexicanmuralschool.com
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WORLD WIDE ARTS RESOURCE is the largest site of its kind, providing the international community with art news, history, announcements, and information on contemporary artists and galleries. Online since 1995, the huge site presents resources and links for virtually every type of art there is. Visit them at:
wwar.com
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DAVID ALFARO SIQUEIROS is known as one of the 20th Century's greatest artists. Part of the socially conscious Mexican Muralist movement of the 1930's, Siqueiros painted uncompromising works that celebrated the oppressed, and castigated their tormentors. In 1932 Siqueiros visited the city of Los Angeles, where he painted three murals. Two were destroyed by ignorant reactionaries... but the third survived since it was painted for an individual's home. That mural, Portrait of Mexico Today - 1932, has been moved to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art where it's part of the Museum's permanent collection! Santa Barbara Museum of Art 1130 State St., Santa Barbara. For more info, call (805) 963-4364.
www.sbmuseart.org
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LIFE OF THE PEOPLE is a beautiful collection of American artworks maintained by the Library of Congress. The collection of prints and drawings is informed by a sympathy for the condition of working people. The artworks from the 1930's and 40's present a broad spectrum of social and political issues that touched on life in urban centers and in rural areas, American labor and industry, and the experience and achievements of minority groups. Artists represented in the online collection include: Stuart Davis, Robert Minor, William Gropper, George Bellows, Pablo O'Higgins, Diego Rivera, Charles White, José Clemente Orozco, Raphael Soyer and many others.
www.loc.gov/exhibits/goldstein
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IRVING NORMAN painted in a style he called "social surrealism". His oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings focused on the human predicament, and the works often condemned militarism, oppression, avarice, and alienation. Norman, who died in 1989, produced highly detailed paintings reminiscent of gothic stained glass windows, but he imbued his works with a profound social and political consciousness.
www.irvingnorman.com
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THE STUCKISTS are a new school of artists hell bent upon bringing the focus of art back to realistic painting. In the late 1990's a group of young English painters committed to realism had enough of the art world's fixation with all things "post modern." With prestigious art museums exhibiting everything from piles of dirt to animals in jars of formaldehyde... but no contemporary paintings, the Stuckists fought back. Named after an insult hurled at a realist artist, ("You're stuck!"), the Stuckist International declares that "Artists who don't paint are not Artists!" They insist that Stuckists "paint pictures because painting pictures is what matters. Success to the Stuckist is to get out of bed in the morning and paint!" Stuckists embrace modernist and expressionist painters... so long as the artworks focus on figurative realism, no matter how primitive. Stuckist philosophy is defined as a "radical international art movement for contemporary figurative painting with ideas."
www.stuckism.com
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THE PAINTER IN OIL is an amazing book on the classical technique and science of oil painting. Written by Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst, a painter of the early 19th century, the book is a set of instructions on how to paint in the style of the old masters. Since art schools have abandoned all such training and no longer teach traditional methods of painting, Parkhurst's writings are all the more valuable to those who seek to educate themselves in the discipline of oil painting.

THE PAINTER IN OIL discusses technical matters like what canvas to use, what ground to cover the canvas with, what brushes to use and the effects they give, the qualities of mediums and pigments, and other vitally important issues concerning oil painting. The ART RENEWAL CENTER benevolently posted Parkhurst's entire book online. Painters are encouraged to study this 10 part online treatise. Even if you have no interest in classical painting... there is much to be learned from Parkhurst's writings.
www.artrenewal.org/articles/2002/Parkhurst/parkhurst1.asp
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LEON KUHN is a U.K. artist who creates antiwar images. Using the technique of digital photomontage, the artist's style is somewhat reminiscent of the famous John Heartfield. Kuhn's "Mad Dog" is a viciously funny visual attack on a certain President and his English sidekick, and like most of Kuhn's vitriolic lampoons, it's an image you'll never forget. Kuhn's website sells postcards and posters of his startling images:
www.giantone.com/Leon_Kuhn
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NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST CENSORSHIP (NCAC) is an alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations that include literary, artistic, educational, labor, professional, and civil liberties groups. The NCAC exists to "promote and defend First Amendment values of freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression." The ART NOW - Special Projects section of the NCAC site presents a list of artists and artist groups who are currently engaged in creating works of social relevance. Those working in visual art, film & tv, theater & performance, dance, music, spoken word, comics, and internet & electronic arts are listed. Several of the sites listed present calls for art and are actively seeking submissions of art dealing with the issues of terrorism, war, and rememberance. The NCAC is a major resourse for those interested in art and free expression:
www.ncac.org/projects/art_now/approaching.html
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MAYA KULENOVIC was born in Sarajevo-Bosnia-Herzegovia in 1975. Her dark paintings are personal reflections on violence, death, genocide, and war. The artist works in a dark palette that reflects the nightmare world humanity has created for itself, but her artwork is not without hope. Ultimately Maya's painting is about healing and the possibility of a peaceful world.
www.mayakul.com
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