Niagara

Art Brokerage: Niagara American Artist: b. 1954. Niagara paints with acrylic on canvas. With her use of bright colors, caricature portrayal of figures, and comic strip inclusion of words spoken by the figures, Niagara's style can loosely be described as Pop Art. The cartoon and comic panel style was famously utilized by painter Roy Lichtenstein, also a touchstone for her work. Her early 1970's work with collage, Xerox prints, and promotional materials for Destroy All Monsters influenced her later painting style; the bold, figurative images are evidence of that. The "lowbrow" aesthetic epitomized by the painter Robert Williams, which evolved in Southern California in the 1970s, also influenced her. Aside from overt Pop Art stylistic tropes, Niagara also incorporates influences of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, which with some friction honored both Romanticism and Realism and depicted strong if not tragic women such as the famous Ophelia by Millais, or The Blue Bower by Rossetti. She also took cues from the Decadent movement, which was in turn influenced by Gothic fiction. Art Nouveau imprints her work with its swirling, floral-inspired, whiplash lines and the belle époque women of Toulouse-Lautrec. As a child, Niagara was enamored of John R. Neill who illustrated works by L. Frank Baum and others. "The first art style that I identified with was Art Nouveau. Then I discovered Decadent Art (1850's-era England), the Pre-Raphaelite movement: haunted, pale, druggy women. I read constantly. I was deep into Dostoyevsky and Dickens. Colette. The best are the writers that can turn a phrase devastatingly funny. The witticisms and bon mots of Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Dorothy Parker. Andy Warhol was a riot. That's probably why I have captions in my paintings. I want the women in my paintings to speak.". Listings wanted.