The Art of Sheep
with art by
5 Icelanders, 1 American, 1 Brit, and 1 Israeli;
4 of them men and 4 of them women;
including 3 art works from the
Bruce McMillan Collection
Gul / Yellow
Louisa Matthíasdóttir (1917-2000) Icelandic-American
Oil on canvas, 52" x 44" (w x h), 1990
Source: Wiki edited:
Louisa Matthíasdóttir (1917-2000), born and raised in Iceland, at 25-years-old in 1942 moved to New York city to study under Hans Hofmann, along with other painters including Robert De Niro, Sr., the father of the actor. In 1944 she married painter Leland Bell, and until Bell's death in 1991 they enjoyed a partnership of mutual support. Their daughter Temma was born in 1945.
She remained an Icelandic citizen the rest of her life, though she lived in New York, where she continued to paint he native Iceland. In 1996, Louisa was awarded the American-Scandinavian Foundation's Cultural Award, and in 1998 became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
2
Sheep in Field
Henry Moore (1898-1986), English
Lithograph printed in colors on T. H. Saunders paper,
32/50 (total edition includes 15 artist's proofs), 1974
Sold Sotheby's 2019 auction $3,125 USD
Estimate $1,000 - $1,500 USD
From the Collection of Nelson & Happy Rockefeller
Now in another Private Collection
Source: Wiki edited
Henry Moore (1898-1986) of England is best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures located around the world as public works of art. Moore also produced many drawings, including a series depicting Londoners sheltering from the Blitz during the Second World War, along with other graphic works on paper.
Henry was the seventh of eight children in a family that often struggled with poverty. He turned down a knighthood in 1951 because he felt that the bestowal would lead to a perception of him as an establishment figure and that "such a title might tend to cut me off from fellow artists whose work has aims similar to mine".
His ability in later life to fulfill large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy. Despite this, he lived frugally. Most of the money he earned went towards endowing the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts.
3
Hvor á Sínum Klettí / Each on His Rock
Hekla Björk Guðmundsdóttir (1969- ), Icelandic
Oil on canvas, 5" x 3", 1999
Collection of Bruce McMillan
Hekla Björk Guðmundsdóttir, born in 1969, was raised inland in south central countryside of Iceland, Laugaland Holt in Rangárvallasýsla. She's a successful designer, painter, and sculptor, loons, sheep and horses in her art along with the wild flora of Iceland. She lives in Reykjavik with her husband and their three children. This small 1999 painting is one of three of hers in my collection, the other are two large, major works of art, 1998 and 2004 with sheep and horses.
The artist's website is HERE.
4
Two Lambs
Milton Avery (1885-1965), American
Two Lambs
Oil on canvas, 1961
Sold Sotheby's 2018 auction, $200,000 USD
Private collection
Source: Wiki edited
Milton Avery, born in 1885, began working at a local factory at 16-years-old in 1901 and supported himself for decades with a succession of blue-collar jobs. The death of his brother-in-law in 1915 left Avery, as the sole remaining adult male in his household, responsible for the support of nine female relatives. His interest in art led him to attend classes at the Connecticut League of Art Students in Hartford, and over a period of years, he painted in obscurity while receiving a conservative art education. In 1917, he began working night jobs in order to paint in the daytime.
In 1924, he met Sally Michel, a young art student, and in 1926, they married. Her income as an illustrator enabled him to devote himself more fully to painting. Beginning in the 1930s, the two began developing a "lyrical, collaborative style" that Robert Hobbs described as "the Avery style". They had a daughter, March Avery, in 1932, who also followed the Avery lyrical style.
Avery was often thought of as an American Matisse, especially because of his colorful and innovative landscape paintings. His poetic, bold and creative use of drawing and color set him apart from more conventional painting of his era. Early in his career, his work was considered too radical for being too abstract; when Abstract Expressionism became dominant his work was overlooked, as being too representational. His paintings today sell in the USD millions.
See a lovely article about the artist, and his artist wife and daughter along with their art HERE
5
Ein kind í Vestmannaeyjum /
One Sheep in Vestmannaeyjar
Jónína Björk Hjörleifsdóttir, Icelandic
Glass on Masonite with plaster, 3.5" x 3.25" (w x h), 2020
Collection of Bruce McMillan
Jóný, Jónína Björk Hjörleifsdóttir, an Icelander, has a studio gallery where she lives on Vestmannaeyjar off the south coast of Iceland. She works with glass as collage as well as paints.
6
Sheep
Menashe Kadishman (1932-2015) Israeli)
Oil on canvas, 1981
Sold Sotheby's 2012 auction $11,875 USD
Estimate $12,000 - $15,000 USD
Private collection
Source: Wiki edited
Menashe Kadishman, born in Palestine, was 15-years-old when his father died. He left school to help his mother and provide for the family, while studying sculpture in Israel. From 1950 to 1953 Kadishman worked as a shepherd on Kibbutz Ma'ayan Baruch. This experience with nature, sheep and shepherding had a significant impact on his later artistic work and career.
In 1959, Kadishman moved to London to study at Saint Martin's School of Art and the Slade School of Art. He had his first one-man show in 1965 at the Grosvenor Gallery, before returning to Israel in 1972.
The first major appearance of sheep in his work was at the 1978 Venice Biennale, where Kadishman presented a flock of colored live sheep as living art. In 1995, he began painting portraits of sheep by the hundreds, and even thousands, each one different from the next. These instantly-recognizable sheep portraits soon became his artistic trademark.
His awards and honors are too numerous to list here. More about the artist and his honors HERE.
7
Kindur um vetur / Sheep in Winter
Jóhann Briem (1907-1991), Icelandic
Oil, 24" x 28" (w x h)
Private Collection
Source: Icelandic Times edited
Jóhann Briem (1907-1991) studied art under Jón Jónsson, brother of noted painter Ásgrímur Jónsson. Jóhann studied in Dresen Germany at the Akademie Simonson-Castelli and then at the Staatliche. He was in Dresden when Hitler rose to power. He developed poetic expressionism, combining a warm color scheme, simple imagery and vivid brushstrokes in images often showing animals and people in nature. His work is in the major art museums of Iceland.
Read about this noted Icelandic artist and see more of his art HERE
8
Vindasamt sauðfé / Windy Sheep
Gunnella (Guðrún Elín Ólafsdóttir) (1956- ), Icelandic
Oil on canvas, 36" x 24" (w x h), 2006
This appeared on the back cover of the book
How the Ladies Stopped the Wind (Houghton, 2007)
Collection of Bruce McMillan
Gunnella began her art career as a graphic artist making serigraphs. Her style changed dramatically when she turned to oils and began experimenting. Gunnella's childhood memories of summer visits with her grandmother in the north of Iceland, Siglufjörður. Gunnella has a wonderful and playful sense of humor seen in her art, again and again. Icelandic sheep, horses, cats, dogs and especially chickens, all find their way into her art. Her art is a reflection of Iceland. Perhaps the National Gallery in Iceland will someday have the foresight and be fortunate enough to add this iconic painter's art where everyone will always be able to see it. She's painted all of the art for two books, The Problem with Chickens (Houghton 2005), a NY Times 10 Best Illustrated Books of the Year (2005) and How the Ladies Stopped the Wind (Houghton, 2007), as well as the art for the Prince Charles forward to It's Up to Us (WOEB, Kent, UK, 2021).
See a three-minute video where Gunnella talks about how she paints, in the context of a work she did for a British publisher, It's Up to Us, and environmental book, HERE.
Sheep in Field
Henry Moore (1898-1986), English
Lithograph printed in colors on T. H. Saunders paper,
32/50 (total edition includes 15 artist's proofs), 1974
Sold Sotheby's 2019 auction $3,125 USD
Estimate $1,000 - $1,500 USD
From the Collection of Nelson & Happy Rockefeller
Now in another Private Collection
Source: Wiki edited
Henry Moore (1898-1986) of England is best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures located around the world as public works of art. Moore also produced many drawings, including a series depicting Londoners sheltering from the Blitz during the Second World War, along with other graphic works on paper.
Henry was the seventh of eight children in a family that often struggled with poverty. He turned down a knighthood in 1951 because he felt that the bestowal would lead to a perception of him as an establishment figure and that "such a title might tend to cut me off from fellow artists whose work has aims similar to mine".
His ability in later life to fulfill large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy. Despite this, he lived frugally. Most of the money he earned went towards endowing the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts.
Hvor á Sínum Klettí / Each on His Rock
Hekla Björk Guðmundsdóttir (1969- ), Icelandic
Oil on canvas, 5" x 3", 1999
Collection of Bruce McMillan
Hekla Björk Guðmundsdóttir, born in 1969, was raised inland in south central countryside of Iceland, Laugaland Holt in Rangárvallasýsla. She's a successful designer, painter, and sculptor, loons, sheep and horses in her art along with the wild flora of Iceland. She lives in Reykjavik with her husband and their three children. This small 1999 painting is one of three of hers in my collection, the other are two large, major works of art, 1998 and 2004 with sheep and horses.
The artist's website is HERE.
Two Lambs
Milton Avery (1885-1965), American
Two Lambs
Oil on canvas, 1961
Sold Sotheby's 2018 auction, $200,000 USD
Private collection
Source: Wiki edited
Milton Avery, born in 1885, began working at a local factory at 16-years-old in 1901 and supported himself for decades with a succession of blue-collar jobs. The death of his brother-in-law in 1915 left Avery, as the sole remaining adult male in his household, responsible for the support of nine female relatives. His interest in art led him to attend classes at the Connecticut League of Art Students in Hartford, and over a period of years, he painted in obscurity while receiving a conservative art education. In 1917, he began working night jobs in order to paint in the daytime.
In 1924, he met Sally Michel, a young art student, and in 1926, they married. Her income as an illustrator enabled him to devote himself more fully to painting. Beginning in the 1930s, the two began developing a "lyrical, collaborative style" that Robert Hobbs described as "the Avery style". They had a daughter, March Avery, in 1932, who also followed the Avery lyrical style.
Avery was often thought of as an American Matisse, especially because of his colorful and innovative landscape paintings. His poetic, bold and creative use of drawing and color set him apart from more conventional painting of his era. Early in his career, his work was considered too radical for being too abstract; when Abstract Expressionism became dominant his work was overlooked, as being too representational. His paintings today sell in the USD millions.
See a lovely article about the artist, and his artist wife and daughter along with their art HERE
Ein kind í Vestmannaeyjum /
One Sheep in Vestmannaeyjar
Jónína Björk Hjörleifsdóttir, Icelandic
Glass on Masonite with plaster, 3.5" x 3.25" (w x h), 2020
Collection of Bruce McMillan
Jóný, Jónína Björk Hjörleifsdóttir, an Icelander, has a studio gallery where she lives on Vestmannaeyjar off the south coast of Iceland. She works with glass as collage as well as paints.
Sheep
Menashe Kadishman (1932-2015) Israeli)
Oil on canvas, 1981
Sold Sotheby's 2012 auction $11,875 USD
Estimate $12,000 - $15,000 USD
Private collection
Source: Wiki edited
Menashe Kadishman, born in Palestine, was 15-years-old when his father died. He left school to help his mother and provide for the family, while studying sculpture in Israel. From 1950 to 1953 Kadishman worked as a shepherd on Kibbutz Ma'ayan Baruch. This experience with nature, sheep and shepherding had a significant impact on his later artistic work and career.
In 1959, Kadishman moved to London to study at Saint Martin's School of Art and the Slade School of Art. He had his first one-man show in 1965 at the Grosvenor Gallery, before returning to Israel in 1972.
The first major appearance of sheep in his work was at the 1978 Venice Biennale, where Kadishman presented a flock of colored live sheep as living art. In 1995, he began painting portraits of sheep by the hundreds, and even thousands, each one different from the next. These instantly-recognizable sheep portraits soon became his artistic trademark.
His awards and honors are too numerous to list here. More about the artist and his honors HERE.
Kindur um vetur / Sheep in Winter
Jóhann Briem (1907-1991), Icelandic
Oil, 24" x 28" (w x h)
Private Collection
Source: Icelandic Times edited
Jóhann Briem (1907-1991) studied art under Jón Jónsson, brother of noted painter Ásgrímur Jónsson. Jóhann studied in Dresen Germany at the Akademie Simonson-Castelli and then at the Staatliche. He was in Dresden when Hitler rose to power. He developed poetic expressionism, combining a warm color scheme, simple imagery and vivid brushstrokes in images often showing animals and people in nature. His work is in the major art museums of Iceland.
Read about this noted Icelandic artist and see more of his art HERE
Vindasamt sauðfé / Windy Sheep
Gunnella (Guðrún Elín Ólafsdóttir) (1956- ), Icelandic
Oil on canvas, 36" x 24" (w x h), 2006
This appeared on the back cover of the book
How the Ladies Stopped the Wind (Houghton, 2007)
Collection of Bruce McMillan
Gunnella began her art career as a graphic artist making serigraphs. Her style changed dramatically when she turned to oils and began experimenting. Gunnella's childhood memories of summer visits with her grandmother in the north of Iceland, Siglufjörður. Gunnella has a wonderful and playful sense of humor seen in her art, again and again. Icelandic sheep, horses, cats, dogs and especially chickens, all find their way into her art. Her art is a reflection of Iceland. Perhaps the National Gallery in Iceland will someday have the foresight and be fortunate enough to add this iconic painter's art where everyone will always be able to see it. She's painted all of the art for two books, The Problem with Chickens (Houghton 2005), a NY Times 10 Best Illustrated Books of the Year (2005) and How the Ladies Stopped the Wind (Houghton, 2007), as well as the art for the Prince Charles forward to It's Up to Us (WOEB, Kent, UK, 2021).
See a three-minute video where Gunnella talks about how she paints, in the context of a work she did for a British publisher, It's Up to Us, and environmental book, HERE.
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