I just came across with Damian Elwes and I loved the "Artists' Studios" series where he creates the artist universe by assembling their paintings, some of the objects that is part of the painter iconography in a "studio". The title of this painting is Gauguin's Studio (Tahiti-1892) done in 2006.
By depicting a collection of works of painters Damian Elwes creates his own universe as if he was an art lover and this is the reason why he is an artist too.
In the 1980s, Elwes lived in New York, where he was an early exponent of graffiti art, exhibiting with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring at the Robert Fraser Gallery. After spending more time Paris, Elwes travelled to Venice, Morocco and Colombia, his studies of which first brought him attention in the art world. He is perhaps best known for his series of paintings of artists' studios including those of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Frida Kahlo, Paul Gauguin, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí which have been sought after by private collectors and museums around the world. Using a combination of photographic, literary evidence, artists' sketches and personal belongings, as well as the internet, Elwes creates virtual replicas of the studios, many of which have never before been seen by the public. A documentary entitled "Inside Picasso's Studio" (2006) follows Elwes as he recreates almost the entire ground floor of Picasso's "Villa La Californie" as it was in April, 1956. One critic described Elwes's talent as that of someone who "paints his way into the spirit of his subjects"...
... He attended Harrow School in England and Harvard University where he studied playwriting and literature. At graduation, one of his professors gave him a palette knife that had once belonged to Henri Matisse. That gift inspired him to make a trip to Paris and to take up painting as a career. ... Collectors of his work include Steve Wynn, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir Mick Jagger, Donald Sutherland, Pierce Brosnan, Al Pacino, Jim Carrey, Jodie Foster, and Annette Bening." (emphasis mine)
I believe that this professor gave this gift to Damian cause he noticed that he was gifted.
Sorry! Couldn't help it. It is terrible, I know, I know!
