Dieudonné Cédor - Haitian Modern Art

Dieudonné Cédor (1925 – September 27, 2010) was a Haitian painter.
"Dieudonne Cedor was born in L'Anse a Veau on March 8th, 1925. Arriving at a young age in Port-Au-Prince where he started his primary studies at Tertulien Guilbaud to pursue at Beaubrun Ardouin. In 1944, he became a cabinetmaker, but seemed more interested in art. He joined the Art Center in December 1947.
At the "Centre d' Art", he worked under the supervision of Rigaud Benoit who thought him the elementary principals of pictorial art . Dewit Peters, founder of Centre d'Art, made him chief of the studio. In 1949, Cedor is chosen as a member of the committee of administration of the "Centre".Merged in a conflict that opposed the artists and the management of the "Centre", he was elected president of the Haitian Artist Association. Later on became a member/founder of the "Foyer des Arts Plastiques" (F.D.A.P). From 1952 to 1956, he was the director of the F.D.A .P.Cedor participated with Luckner Lazard and Roland Dorcely, at the foundation of the "Galerie Brochette" in 1956, where he stayed until 1962.. . In 1957, he was named director of the museum of Beaux-Arts of Port-Au-Prince.
Dieudonne Cedor is considered one of the leading contemporary painters. His name can be found in all the major art books namely “ Peintres Haitiens” where the author Gerald Alexis refers to him as “ Cedor can handle any subject expressing joy or sorrow, the splendors and anxieties of life.”(rogallery.com)

Venancio Shinki - Surrealism

Venancio Shinki (April 1, 1932 – November 17, 2016) was considered one of the most outstanding Peruvian painters. He was born in Supe, Lima, Peru.His father (Kitsuke Shinki of Hiroshima Prefecture) was Japanese and had arrived to Peru in 1915. His mother was Peruvian (Filomena Huamán of Huari, Peru).He was born and raised on the Hacienda San Nicolás in Supe, north of Lima. At that time, Supe attracted a large concentration of Japanese immigrants. He has 3 children from his first marriage to Keiko Higa.
He started participating in collective expositions since 1963 in Peru and other Countries. In 1966 he won the Teknoquimica award. In 1967 he received the National Award in Painting "Ignacio Merino"  He has received many accolades and has participated in a variety of individual and group exhibits in Peru, Japan, Italy, United States, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela, Panama, and Mexico, among others.
His work was inspired partly by travels through Ecuador, Mexico and Peru, but in its symbolism it also reflected his admiration for the works of Bosch, El Greco, Klee and Mir; with its subtle range of tones and textures and its undefined forms it also expressed elements of his Japanese heritage. His paintings have a mixture of Eastern, Western, and Andean themes, with a distinctive surrealism that shows an intriguing and unknown universe, set off by a purified technique and a renovated figuration. Wikipedia

Vasil Dokev - Abstract and Symbolic Painting

Vasil Dokev ( 22 May 1938 - 23 June 2017) was a Bulgarian artist. He worked in the field of abstract painting, Bulgarian folklore stage and costume design, theater stage and costume design and graphic design.Vasil Dokev was born in Sofia and graduated the National Academy of Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria in 1971.
At the beginning of his career he worked mainly in the field of poster design, logo design and calligraphy.  In 1973 he was invited to create his first folklore stage design for the Bulgarian performance group Pirin Folk Ensemble. That marked the beginning of his interest in ethno-art and folklore which influenced his work for the rest of his life.
For the last decades of his life Dokev worked mostly in the field of painting. Dokev’s paintings are abstract and symbolic. They are also based on artistic principles present in Bulgarian and contemporary ethno-art.He participated group and solo exhibitions in many countries. His paintings are now part of the collection of Sofia City Art Gallery and in private collections in Bulgaria, Italy, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, the United States, and other countries. Wikipedia

Lygia Pape - Neo-Concrete Movement

Lygia Pape (7 April 1927 – 3 May 2004) was a prominent Brazilian visual artist, sculptor, engraver, and filmmaker, who was a key figure in the Concrete movement and a later co-founder of the Neo-Concrete Movement in Brazil during the 1950s and 1960s.Along with Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark, she was a formative artist in the expansion of contemporary art in Brazil and pushed geometric art to include aspects of interaction and to engage with ethical and political themes.
By the age of 20, Lygia Pape had joined the concrete art movement. The term "concrete art" was coined by the Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg in 1930.Concrete art intended to defend the objectivity of art though paintings that "have no other significance than [themselves]." It forbade the use of natural forms, lyricism, and sentiment.
After her involvement with the Grupo Frente Concrete artists, Lygia Pape transitioned into the short wave of Neo-Concrete art. In 1959 Pape was a signatory of the Neo-Concrete Manifesto, along with Lygia Clark and Helio Oiticica.The Neo-Concretists believed that art represented more than the materials used to create, but that it also transcended these "mechanical relationships".The manifesto claimed that art does not just occupy mechanical space, but it "transcends it to become something new."Neo-Concrete artists aimed to create a new expressive space in which an artwork is a living being to have a relationship with and to experience through the senses. Thus, Neo-Concrete artworks usually required the viewer's active participation. It is through the presence and participation of the viewer that the artwork becomes complete.The Neo-concrete artists did not totally reject Concrete art. Concrete art remained the basis of Neo-concrete art, but it was reformulated. Neo-Concrete artists adapted concrete art's geometric shapes and transformed them into organic three-dimensional objects to be manipulated by participants and to be experienced sensorially. The works intended to counteract the urban alienation created by a modern society and integrate both the intellect and the physical body for meditative experiences.
In explaining her approach, Lygia Pape said:
 "My concern is always invention. I always want to invent a new language that's different for me and for others, too... I want to discover new things. Because, to me, art is a way of knowing the world... to see how the world is... of getting to know the world."
Pape specifically during her Neo-Concrete period was interested in the “proposal to ‘live the body.’”This phrase indicates Pape’s interest in how the physical body acts as our mediator for all sensual experiences. Pape sought to explore this idea of the body’s relation in space by creating multi-sensorial experiences in her artwork.Wikipedia