Robert Venosa (January 21, 1936 - August 9, 2011) was an American painter of
fantastic realist and
visionary
A visionary, defined broadly, is one who can envision the future. For some groups, visioning can involve the supernatural.
Though visionaries may face accusations of hallucinating,
people may succeed in reaching a visionary state via medita ...
paintings.
Venosa's work has been exhibited worldwide. Venosa also contributed film design (pre-sketches and conceptual design) for the movie ''Dune'', ''Fire in the Sky'', and the IMAX movie ''Race for Atlantis''. His work has been featured in numerous publications - most notably ''OMNI'' magazine - and on a number of CD covers, including those of
Santana
Santana may refer to:
Transportation
* Volkswagen Santana, an automobile
* Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles
* Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer
* Sailboat designs by W. D. Schock Corp
** Santana 20
** Santan ...
,
Kitaro and
Cynic
Cynic or Cynicism may refer to:
Modes of thought
* Cynicism (philosophy), a school of ancient Greek philosophy
* Cynicism (contemporary), modern use of the word for distrust of others' motives
Books
* ''The Cynic'', an 1875 book by James Gordon ...
.
Life and works
Venosa first studied under the painter
Mati Klarwein
Abdul Mati Klarwein (9 April 1932 – 7 March 2002) was a German painter best known for his works used on the covers of music albums.
Personal life
Mati Klarwein was born in Hamburg, Weimar Republic. His mother Elsa Kühne was an opera sing ...
in New York. Later, he moved to Europe and studied
with one of the founders of the
Vienna School of Fantastic Realism
The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism () is a group of artists founded in Vienna in 1946. The group's name was coined in the 1950s by Johann Muskik, and the first exhibition was in 1959 at the Vienna Belvedere. This Austrian movement has similari ...
(German: Wiener Schule des Phantastischen Realismus),
Ernst Fuchs in Vienna.
From these masters, he learned variations of a venerated painting technique developed in the mid-1400s, called the Misch Technique (Mischtechnik, after
Max Doerner's 1921 book ''The Materials of the Artist and Their Use in Painting: With Notes on the Techniques of the Old Masters)'' which involves underpainting in water-soluble tempera with transparent oil paint glazes.
While living in Vienna, Venosa met his second wife, the Austrian painter Jutta Venosa (born Cwik), with whom he had three children: Marcus, Celene, and Christan. They moved to the coastal village of
Cadaques, Spain, where he lived for seventeen years and befriended the surrealist painter
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...
. He later introduced
H. R. Giger
Hans Ruedi Giger ( ; ; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as " biomechanical". He was part of the special effects team that won ...
to Dalí.
In 1981 Robert Venosa met his third wife, the German painter, Martina Hoffmann. During their 30-year relationship they traveled the globe and taught their painting technique at such learning centers as Esalen, Omega, Naropa Institutes and the CIIS in the us as well as Skyros Institute in Greece and private workshops on Isla S'Arenella in Cadaques Spain as well as Boulder, Colorado. Et al.. Following the same processes as the classic Misch Technique, Venosa adapted by using oil and/or (
casein
Casein ( , from Latin ''caseus'' "cheese") is a family of related phosphoproteins (CSN1S1, αS1, aS2, CSN2, β, K-casein, κ) that are commonly found in mammalian milk, comprising about 80% of the proteins in cow's milk and between 20% and 60% of ...
versus
egg tempera
Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. ''Tempera'' also refers to the paintings done in ...
)
underpainting
In art, an underpainting is an initial layer of paint applied to a Ground (art), ground, which serves as a base for subsequent layers of paint. Underpaintings are often monochromatic and help to define color values for later painting. Underpainting ...
.
Venosa died on August 9, 2011, after suffering from cancer for eight years.
See also
*
Society for the Art of Imagination
A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soc ...
*
Fantastic Realism
The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism () is a group of artists founded in Vienna in 1946. The group's name was coined in the 1950s by Johann Muskik, and the first exhibition was in 1959 at the Vienna Belvedere. This Austrian movement has similari ...
School of art
Related museums galleries collections
*
Fantastic Art Centre
* Temporary Galerie in H.R. Giger Museum
References
Bibliography
* 1978 - ''Robert Venosa: Manas Manna'' (Big "O" Publishing)
* 1991 - ''Robert Venosa: Noospheres'' (
Pomegranate Communications Inc, US)
* 1999 - ''Robert Venosa: Illuminatus'' (with Terence McKenna, Ernst Fuchs, H. R. Giger, and Mati Klarwein) (Craftsman House)
* 2006 - ''True Visions'' (
Erik Davis
Erik Davis (born June 12, 1967) is an American writer, scholar, journalist and public speaker whose writings have ranged from rock criticism to cultural analysis to creative explorations of esoteric mysticism. He is perhaps best known for his b ...
and Pablo Echaurren) (Betty Books)
* 2007 - ''Metamorphosis'' (beinArt)
External links
*
Talk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Venosa Robert
American contemporary artists
Psychedelic artists
Artists from Colorado
2011 deaths
1936 births
Deaths from cancer in Colorado
Visionary artists