onthewall Vladimir Tretchikoff Chiniese Girl Art Print

Product Information

At this time in South Africa IrmaStern was quite an established artist – she was well known on the art scene and respected for the understanding of German Expressionism. At first they were very skeptical, not believing that Tretchikoff could draw so many people but he had his statistics from his show in America so they gave it a shot. This is how Tretchikoff launched his American tour. Around 57 000 people saw his show in Los Angeles and 52 000 in San Francisco. Tretchikoff painted his subjects was often inspired by his early life in China,Singapore, Indonesia and later his life in South Africa and its wonderful cultures Tretchikoff didn’t show at galleries, he exhibited his art at shopping malls and massive department storesbecause he believed that that is where the people are. What was Tretchikoff’s style? His Chinese Girl, a 1952 painting featured Eastern model Monika with blue-green skin, is one of the best-selling prints of the 20th century. More than half a million print copies have been sold,singer David Bowie once said that ifhe could own any painting in the world it would be the Green Lady by Tretchikoff. Tretchikoff's Chinese Girl Unveiled at Delaire Graff Estate". Graff Diamonds press release, 29 November 2013. Archived from the original on 18 July 2017 . Retrieved 1 December 2013.

He painted every single day when he wasn’t working for the Japanesegovernment. He always used to tell Lenka that one day he will go and find his wife and child and that he will have a solo exhibition with all these paintings. Tretchikoff set of to Cape Town to look for Natalie and Mimi. What happened to Tretchikoff in Cape Town?Hipster fans of the late artist’s work include TV presenter Jamie Theakston (whose impressive collection of Tretchikoff prints caught my eye a few years ago when his home was featured in LivingEtc magazine) and fashion designer Wayne Hemingway who is now championing ‘popular art’ for a new generation by digitally-printing Tretchikoff’s Lady of the Orient print onto enormous wall murals via Surface View. He has a three metre wide version in his own living room. We will discuss some reasons on why his art created such a hype a little bit later but let’s just consider this is the time of Apartheid in South Africa where people were sorted and divided according to race, do you think the Apartheid government liked Tretchikoff’s art? It might horrify art critics, but Vladimir Tretchikoff's Chinese Girl is one of the world's most reproduced works. Now the original painting will be offered at Bonhams. Designer Wayne Hemingway admires its appeal Tretchikoff, however, didn’t paint with a higher meaning, He painted because it gave him joy and he wanted to share that joy with others. He had no political motivation. He wanted to be the champion of easy to understand art, a painter of the people.

Tretchikoff suffered a stroke in 2002 which left him unable to paint and he died the 26th of August in 2006 in Cape Town which was his home since 1946. He was survived by his wife Natalie, his daughter Mimi, four granddaughters and five great-grandchildren. Natalie died soon after in 2007. Tretchikoff’s life is filled with beautiful places from the plains of Siberia to the bustle of Shanghai to Japanese occupied Java to the sun-drenched Cape Town. His story is indeed filled with crazy adventures, narrow escapes, a heart-wrenching love story and eventually world fame. At a particular hut Tretchikoff saw crayons and paper in the corner and he started drawing what happened to them. With the pictures he could explain their saga and their plight: the ship being bombed; them escaping on a row boat and rowing for more than 800 kilometres.

Okay so Tretchikoff was born one day after Christmas in 1913 in the Russian empire. He was the youngest of eight children in a well-off family.

They often didn’t have money for fancy dresses for Natalie so Tretchikoff made dresses for his wife to attend wealthy functions. They soon became friends with the high and mighty of Singapore. Tretchikoff made dresses for Natalie to wear to all the functions they attended. Tretchikoff painted Sing-Lee for more than a month, twice a week. In the portrait, Monika is dressed in a Chinese tunic. "The true colour of the beautiful top that I wore for the sessions was blue and pink," she said. "He made up the yellow." Tretchikoff refused to show her Tretchikoff’s Lady of the Orient was on the wall above my Nan’s mantelpiece, and above the mantelpiece of tens of thousands of Nans,’ writes Hemingway on the Surface View blog. To him, the iconic image evokes: ‘…an era of innocence and exotica. Blown up, it’s timelessly cool.’ So I hope you are settled in comfortably and ready to listen to the remarkable story of this artist.He was caught by the Japanese and imprisoned. The cell that he was kept in was designed for only eight people but instead they had 35 people crammed in there, nobody could sit or stretch or even stand properly. So Tretchikoff said yes, even if it was quite unconventional at the time. Artists needed to exhibit in galleries to be taken seriously butTretchikoff decided he doesn’t need the galleries. Tretchikoff exhibited in Department Stores. What was the outcome of his Department store exhibitions? His paintings, although not technically precise, are innocently engaging, drawing the eye of the observer into another world where beauty, colour and culture all collide. Tretchikoff worked with oils, watercolour, pencil, ink and charcoal as these were the materials which brought to life the people featured upon the canvas almost to the point that you feel as if they are there in the room with you.