Lisa Fittipaldi
Cheerful and paintings Lisa Fittipaldi is usually very popular with viewers. But the simple pleasure of looking at the paintings gives way to amazement and even shock when people learn that the author of these paintings is blind. Blind artist? Without seeing Lisa's work, it's hard to believe. But the work of this author once again proves that talent and strength human spirit They can not only do a lot - sometimes they do the impossible.
The woman stopped seeing in 1993, and two years later she picked up her brushes. A chartered accountant and financial analyst, Lisa lost her job, her independence and her sense of life along with her vision. Her prolonged depression lasted more than a year until one day her husband brought her a children's watercolor set.
Having no art education, Lisa Fittipaldi faced many difficulties. She could not study the technique of painting by observing the actions of the teacher, she could not see the painting. But this did not stop the woman, and instead she came up with own system training: listened to audio versions of books about art and attended with my husband famous museums, for which she never found time in her previous life. In order to navigate the composition of the future painting, Lisa stretched nets of ropes onto the canvas, but over time she learned to do without them.
Critics and other artists have repeatedly told Lisa that she can paint abstractions or flowers as much as she likes, but she will never become a real artist, since she is unable to depict people and scenes from street life. It was a challenge, and Fittipaldi answered it with dignity. She painted her first street scene in 1998 and has been doing it continuously ever since. At the same time, it remains a mystery to everyone how Lisa manages to paint without seeing paints or canvas; the artist claims that this is incomprehensible even to herself.
Lisa Fittipaldi's work is regularly exhibited in galleries around the world. She is also the author of the book "A Brush with Darkness", in which the artist describes how she learned to paint while blind.
I have a special relationship with art, I like painting and realist artists, landscape painters, but I don’t understand different trends fine arts in which they try to pass off the “daub” that a five-year-old child is capable of as high art.
By evil irony, fate deprives some of the opportunity to create wonderful artists, making them blind, without reacting in any way to the creativity of others.
1 Francois Bonvin
French painter and graphic artist, one of the best genre painters in France XIX V. He lived his entire life in poverty. He worked in a printing house and served in the police. IN free time visited museums, studied Flemish and Dutch masters in the Louvre. By the end of his life he was completely blind and existed only thanks to the support of friends who organized his retrospective exhibition (1886) and the sale of paintings in his favor (1887).
2
French graphic artist, painter and sculptor, the greatest master of political caricature of the 19th century. Daumier was born in Marseille in 1808 into the family of a glazier. Since childhood, he was fond of drawing and mastered the skill of lithograph. In the 1840s, he became well known for his caricatures of political circumstances and the public and private lives of prominent people in France at that time. He continued to paint until his death, even when he was completely blind.
3
Italian artist and miniaturist Venetian school, one of the main representatives of the Rococo style in the art of Italy and France. The lacemaker's daughter. According to some researchers, she studied with her mother and began as a decorator of ivory snuff boxes. By the 1750s, the artist had lost her sight: two operations to remove cataracts did not help, and the artist remained blind for the rest of her days.
4
Danish realist painter. Peder Severin Krøyer was born in Norway. His father was the Danish zoologist Henrik Krøyer. The mother, Ellen Cecile Gjesdahl, was declared unable to raise the child, and Peder lived with the family of his mother's sister as a child. In 1877-1881, Krøyer traveled around Europe, lived in Paris, where he met the Impressionists (Monet, Sisley, Degas, Renoir, Manet) and came under their influence. During the last ten years of his life, Krøyer's vision gradually deteriorated until he became completely blind.
Dutch artist, engraver. Born into a family of artists. Studied in Liege with his father, formed under the influence Flemish school. He suffered from hereditary syphilis, was disfigured, and by 1690 was blind.
6
Italian artist and art theorist, representative of Milanese mannerism. Born into a family of immigrants from the Lombard city of Lomazzo. Worked in Milan, Lodi and Piacenza. He was influenced by Raphael and Michelangelo. In 1571, he became blind, moved on to the theory of art, and wrote the Treatise on the Art of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, which was fundamental to Mannerism.
7
French engraver. Engraved from paintings Italian masters, especially from the works of Lebrun. In his prints he approaches Bloemaert's style, but his cutter movement is wider and more varied. In 1663 he was elected a member of the Paris Academy of Arts and in 1665 made its adviser. Towards the end of his life he became blind.
8
Italian artist. The artist received his nickname from the carnation on his coat of arms. Since 1491, Garafalo was in Ferrara studying with Domenico Panetti, and in 1498 he went on a journey that brought him to Cremona to the workshop of Boccaccio Boccaccini. In 1531 Tisi became blind in one eye. Fearing that he would go completely blind, he vowed to work for free, including weekends, on frescoes and paintings for the Bernardine Convent of Ferrara. After which he worked for about twenty more years, until he finally lost his sight in 1550. The frescoes have not survived.
9
Russian painter of Ukrainian origin, academician, master of ceremonial and chamber portraits. Born around 1735 in the family of priest G.K. Levitsky, also known as an engraver. He studied fine arts from his father and from the painter A.P. Antropov. He participated with his father in the painting of St. Andrew's Cathedral in Kyiv. Recent years During his life he was almost completely blind and actually did not work.
10 Vladimir Ivanovich Pogonkin
Lithograph artist. Born on July 12, 1793, in St. Petersburg, he lived in St. Petersburg in the Liteinaya part, in the house of the titular adviser Lederman. He took part in eight battles, for which he was awarded the Silver Medal “1812” and received the rank of non-commissioned officer. From intense drawing lessons, artist V.I. Pogonkin. suffered from an incurable eye disease. The blind artist was awarded a pension of 200 rubles for his services and participation in the war.
In fact, in the world, you can be endlessly surprised by many things, even without being an impressionable person. Esfer Armagan- one of many phenomena that caused a reaction of impression among a large audience. And his strong point, no matter how ironic it may sound, is his blindness. Armagan creates a world in his paintings without seeing the real world. Blind Turkish artist, which continues to this day to tell the outside world about its “inner empires.”
It is difficult to answer whether the delight in his paintings could be so strong if they belonged to a sighted person, since, at first glance, these works are similar to children’s drawings - they are very sincere and simple, both in subject matter and technically.
The case is truly unique. Esfer is blind from birth and knows about the world. in which he was born and lives, only from the words of those around him and thanks to the sensations that remained with him. The value of his paintings, first of all, is that they act as a guide between blind and seeing eyes. These are peculiar images of inner vision, insights that emerged from the darkness.
It is not easy for Armagan to paint; usually, this process occurs in stages. The artist first applies the background color to the entire area of the future painting and waits for it to dry. Then a pattern is applied to this soil using a sharpened peg. Afterwards, the artist checks by feeling whether he was able to realize the intended image. If the desired has come true, Esfer begins coloring. His main tools are his own fingers and gouache.
There is no mysticism in such creativity, but a beautiful mystery is always present. Blind photographers, sculptors, directors, designers are like a cook with a lifelong chronic runny nose. They exist and wait for attention, quietly and modestly.
The talent of a painter is not the destiny of all people with acute vision, let alone the blind! Can one expect that a person deprived of vision will be able to put precise lines on the canvas, achieve the correct combination of colors, light and shadow? Despite everything, blind artists draw, and they draw in such a way that it is difficult to believe in their uniqueness.
For an artist, loss of vision can be the end of a career. There are many famous examples: Levitsky, Vrubel, Korovin. All these great painters were forced to say goodbye to their calling due to blindness. But is this always a verdict? Contemporary artists who are faced with a similar problem are not always ready to give up what they love and continue to draw despite the lack of vision. And sometimes blindness, on the contrary, only helps the talent that was dormant for many years, open up to the fullest. As experience shows, the main thing is not to give up, and dreams of new creative achievements will become a reality.
"Proud of Dad"
On entertainment portal A Pikaby user from Chelyabinsk shared the story of her 79-year-old father, who completely lost his sight, posting a post under the touching title “Proud of Dad.” The man’s problems began seven years ago; neither treatment nor surgery helped. Throughout this period he painted. As the author of the post admits, this technique could rather be described as “application”, but the paintings are made so exquisitely that it is almost impossible to believe the fact that their author is blind. The blind artist created more than a hundred paintings, and on March 4 an exhibition of his works opened in Chelyabinsk.
In the comments, the master’s work was rated very highly, noting that it fully corresponds to the concept of “ modern art", and admired his fortitude. This inspiring example is far from isolated.
For drawing, blind artists use not only traditional paints, brushes, canvas and easel, but also many other auxiliary devices: foil, plasticine, silk, crayons, wax crayons, polystyrene foam, cellophane, thin rubber. All this helps give the painting relief, define reference lines and makes it possible to “read” the drawing with your fingers in order to understand what needs to be done to give it a completed look.
Lisa Fittipaldi
Spectators who enjoy viewing colorful and positive works Lisa Fittipaldi, are usually shocked to learn about the artist's blindness. The woman lost her sight in 1993, and two years later she picked up brushes for the first time in her life. Before that, she, an accountant and financial analyst, had never been involved in art, but it was drawing that helped Fittipaldi get out of a long depression. Many difficulties awaited her along the way, because the woman did not have the opportunity to study various techniques drawing visually, and in order to mark the boundaries, at first she had to use a net of ropes stretched over the canvas. Fittipaldi was told more than once that she would never be able to step beyond flowers and abstractions, but she succeeded. Now the artist constantly draws street scenes and people, and how she does this without seeing colors, Fittipaldi, according to her, does not understand herself.
Dmitry Didorenko
The young artist from Kharkov was not blind from birth and gave high hopes as a painter, but he had an accident. 24 year old Dmitry Didorenko was blown up by an old mine left over from the Second World War during a search expedition and after that he lost his sight, and with it his hopes for further creative self-realization. The artist fell into depression, and one of his friends, in order to get him out of this state, suggested organizing an exhibition of Didorenko’s old works. This episode became a kind of starting point: Didorenko began to draw again to prove that he was still an artist. Initially, his works could only be called paintings with a stretch, but progress was not long in coming. Didorenko's paintings were exhibited in the USA, Japan and other countries.
John Bramblitt
Another iconic name in the galaxy of blind artists is John Bramblitt. He had health problems since childhood, due to which he began to lose his sight at the age of 11. At age 30, Bramblitt became completely blind due to complications from epilepsy and Lyme disease. Like his other comrades in misfortune, the artist fell into depression, but a year later he found a way out of it in art. As the painter himself says, he distinguishes the density of paint by touch and feels the picture without even seeing it. Bramblit's canvases are highly realistic; he paints very similar portraits of people whose faces the artist has never seen, and his works are exhibited in many countries and are widely known even among those who are far from the world of art and do not know that the paintings were painted by a blind artist.
Sergei Popolzin
When Sergei Popolzin was a healthy person with good eyesight, circumstances prevented him from gaining recognition as an artist. At first he made several attempts to enter Irkutsk art school, then succeeded, but was forced to quit his studies after a while, but devoted most of his leisure time to drawing. The broad masses did not recognize the artist’s unique talent, and he decided to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head. The suicide attempt was unsuccessful, but Popolzin completely lost his sight. In despair, he burned all his previous works, but soon began to draw again. As the artist admits, the sketch of each work is born in his head, honed to the smallest detail, and then transferred to canvas. The master orients himself in space by sticking needles into the canvas, and makes the image in relief.
Keith Salmon
The main plot of the works Keith Salmon– mountains, and not by chance: walking in the mountains is the artist’s favorite pastime. Before losing his sight, he attended college, where he studied fine arts, then worked as a sculptor, held exhibitions of his work and enjoyed well-deserved popularity. However, having become blind, Salmon did not give up creativity and continued to draw. He works in two directions: pastel drawings and painting with oil or acrylic strokes. According to Salmon, combining these techniques could convey the world more clearly.
Esref Armagan
Unlike most of his blind creative colleagues, Esref Armagan was born blind and did not lose his sight as a result of illness or accident. He was born into a poor family that could not teach him to read and write, much less the basics of fine art, but this did not stop the artist from becoming the pride of Turkey. Armagan took his first steps in drawing at the age of 25, trying to depict a drawing using oil paints. It is interesting that he painted not with a brush, but with his own fingers. Esref uses a special braille stylus to sketch, then applies color with his finger and waits for the paint to dry completely. This process takes a long time - about three days, but this is necessary so that the paint does not smudge.