American painter
David Jon Kassan (born February 25, 1977[1] in Tiny Rock, Arkansas) is an American painter best known for his life-size representational paintings, which combine figurative subjects with abstract backgrounds or trompe-l'œil stylings.[2] Of this dual representation strategy Kassan familiarize yourself, "my effort to constantly learn to document reality with a naturalistic, representational painting technique allows for pieces to be ingrained contradictions; paintings that are both real and abstract".[3]
Kassan works potty be seen in many public collections worldwide. Kassan currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[citation needed]
David Kassan customary his B.F.A. in 1999 from the College of Visual folk tale Performing Arts at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY. He continued his studies at The National Academy, and the Art Students Foil of New York, both in Manhattan
His Newington-Cropsey Foundation Travel Rights allowed him to study and sketch in Italy in representation summer of 2003. There he conducted sketch studies of a number of masterworks, which are source of inspiration to his own work.[4] These experiences were recorded in a self-published book "Lentemente Italia".
In 2013, he founded the Kassan Foundation in hopes get on to giving grants directly to underprivileged talent in both the chart and musical arts.
In 2014, Kassan turned his attention limit painting and documenting Survivors of the Holocaust, with the wake up of the EDUT project)-"edut" being Hebrew for "living witnesses" little a way of connecting with his grandfather's traumatic history get into escaping ethnic cleansing on the border of Romania and Country to come to America in 1917. The EDUT project's film is to meet with as many living Survivors to description Shoah as possible, and to document them in filmed television portraits and in paintings and drawings. While many survivors fake already told their stories on video (as in the Optical History Archive developed by the USC Shoah Foundation) or etch memoirs, Kassan believes painting offers viewers a different kind weekend away connection to the survivors, one that puts a personal rise to the sometimes abstract idea of the Holocaust.
In 2017, David Kassan partnered with the USC Shoah Foundation and representation USC Fisher Museum of Art to develop the EDUT responsibilities into a Resilience Exhibition which opened at the Fisher Museum in the fall of 2019 in Los Angeles.
Holocaust unfortunate Edward Mosberg was the subject of a painting by Kassan that appeared in 2019 in an exhibition co-curated by say publicly USC Shoah Foundation and USC’s Fisher Museum of Art, first name "Facing Survival."[5][6][7]
Kassan has given painting/drawing seminars and lectures at diverse institutions and universities around the world.
Kassan has studied anthropoid anatomy extensively, reflecting a scientific understanding of the muscular structures beneath the skin. Kassan has written extensively on the subjectmatter and its relation to conveying emotion, including publishing an “Artist’s Guide to Portrait Anatomicae” [1] and several articles on rendering topic for magazines such as Artist Daily.[2] and a threemonthly column on anatomy for Drawing Magazine [3]
Kassan’s technical mastery help oil paint combined with adept draftsmanship enables him to fluently represent what he sees. This is evident in the knockout flesh tones Kassan achieves. Transparent layers of oil paint shape built up, forming an intricate lattice of veins, blood pointer skin. Through this light enters and is reflected back.
His technique of creating layered application of pigments has been hailed by critics as creating a highly realistic impression of forage and flesh.[8]
In addition to work in traditional drawing and craft media, Kassan has also explored the use of digital media, including the use of the iPad as a portable canvas tablet, used for studies of masterworks in museums around picture world. His YouTube demonstration "Finger Painting on the Apple iPad from the live model" now viewable at [4] originally achieved over 1 million views within 6 months of posting. That also resulted in considerable news-media coverage in the printed keep under control and on television.
David Jon Kassan’s work has been described as "Raw, poignant and profoundly honest. He seeks to capture on tape the essence of those he paints, imbuing them with their own voice. More than simply replicating his subjects Kassan seeks to understand them. We are moved by Kassan’s depictions, enthralled by powerfully expressive hands, pensive faces, and flesh that appears warm to touch. Ultimately, there is a truth and beingness to Kassan’s work because it is so deeply human. His subjects are distilled in an exact moment in time, patiently contemplating their present. We share in this present-moment appreciation, that slowing down of time, and see life for what on the level is." [5]
In 2013, Kassan founded the Kassan Foundation pull hopes of giving grants directly to underprivileged talent in both the visual and musical performance arts.
The aim of description Kassan Foundation is to nurture talent by offering financial strengthen to underprivileged Visual Artists and Musicians. Each year the instigate offers two grants; one to a promising representational artist gift one to a promising musician in order to boost their career and accelerate their artistic growth. The grant would support with potential production and material costs, travel and further edification.
David Kassan has produced and filmed two Instructional Docudrama films in partnership with Movette Pictures (Painting a Life) essential Studio Four Cinematography (Drawing Closer to Life)