Arty Farty Friday ~ The Strange Worlds of Yves Tanguy

Yves Tanguy was born in Paris in 1900, son of a retired sea captain. Yves was said to be a very quiet, yet at the same time, anarchistic man. Allegedly, after having visited a an exhibition of the surrealist art of Giorgio de Chirico he spontaneously decided to become a painter, and gravitated naturally to his own version of the surrealist style, more or less untaught.

It's believed that surrealism - painting from the world of dreams and the subconscious mind - may have its roots in the despair felt by the young generations of Europe during and after the First World War. Young artists seemed to be seeking inspiration from their inner mind rather than from what they saw as a failed outer world .

Tanguy moved from France to the USA at the outbreak of World War II, with help from another artist, Kay Sage, who was to become his wife, after divorce from a previous spouse. (For more about Sage, see my 2010 post about the couple).

Tanguy died suddenly in 1955 - a stroke followed an accident.

I'm giving Yves Tanguy's portion of my old post another airing, with some different images included, mainly due to his unusual natal chart.





Tanguy, born in Paris, France on 5 January 1900 at 5:00 am (Astrotheme). I have to confess that Yves Tanguy's natal chart intrigued me more than his paintings. Some of that cluster of symbols occupying the area of Sagittarius and Capricorn are not planets, but they are significant points or bodies (North node of Moon conjunct Chiron, and Part of Fortune). Sagittarius and Capricorn are quite unlike each other, one being expansive, outgoing, optimistic; the other more structured, serious and limiting. I suspect that he was an interesting character, fun - but hard to understand at times.

Outer planets Neptune and Pluto in Gemini, flanking South node of Moon oppose some of the Sagittarius planets. The oppositions provided some much needed balance to the chart, and to his nature. Planet of the arts, Venus was in Aquarius; Moon was in imaginative dreamy Pisces. Venus in harmonious sextile to Uranus, planet of the avant garde and unexpected, reflects his strong attraction to surrealism.


From http://www.surrealists.co.uk/tanguy.php

Tanguy's work is characterised by dreamlike landscapes and is slightly reminiscent of Dali. It can be divided into three stages, 1926-30 was the aerial universe, 1930-48 he painted beaches littered with minerals and after his naturalisation in the United States in 1948, began painting rock formations and the submarine world. Tanguy's slight madness seeps into his artwork as did Dali's, some examples of the more eccentric side of the artist are chewing his socks and marinating spiders in wine. Indeed, he liked nothing more than such novelty in his art, commenting: "I found that if I planned a picture beforehand, it never surprised me, and surprises are my pleasure in painting"

I've picked out a few examples of his work, arranged them in date order. I like the fact that he gave most of his pieces titles - strange as these may be!

 Extinction of Useless Lights (1927)

 He Did What He Wanted (1927)

 Ribbon of Extremes (1932)

 Tomorrow (1938)

 The Satin Tuning Fork (1940)

 My Life, White and Black.(1944)

 There, Motion Has Not Yet Ceased. (1945)

Sept Microbes vus à travers un tempérament  (1953)

I think the title translates to "Seven microbes seen through a temperament".

Arty Farty Friday ~ 2 artists born 13 April, both with "scandalous" reputations.

Glancing down the list of births on 13 April, through the decades, I noticed two artists whose work had been considered by many as scandalous: James Ensor and Pierre Molinier. The two artists were born 40 years apart, Ensor in Belgium in 1860, Molinier in Agen, France, in 1900.

In his final decades, James Ensor was an international celebrity showered with official honors in his native Belgium. But in the 1880s and 1890s, the young Ensor was a scandalous and defiant figure.

This was a period of great social and political unrest in Belgium, and also of incredible cultural ferment. Bursting with mad creativity sparked by the latest developments in the avant-garde, Ensor freely mined artistic sources both high and low, old and new, familiar and exotic, and oscillated unpredictably between painting, drawing, and printmaking. From an advanced mode of naturalism in step with broader European trends, Ensor's art quickly morphed into something so fantastic, bizarre, grotesque, and satirical that even his avant-garde peers had difficulty accepting it. To this day, Ensor's art continues to baffle in its psychological complexity, internal contradictions, and sheer eccentricity.

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/scandalous_ensor/index.html

An account of French artist Pierre Molinier’s colourful life reads like that of the protagonist in an Oscar Wilde novel. A product of France’s oft-fictionalised fin de siècle degeneration, Molinier defied all societal norms to live a life of hedonistic excess. Both homosexual and a transvestite in an era when both were frowned upon – he asbcribed himself the title of ‘lesbienne’ – Molinier pursued fetishism and the latent eroticism of the subconscious mind to its most extreme degree......................
By 1955 Molinier had begun a fruitful correspondence with André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, who dubbed him 'the magician of erotic art' and decided to include his sensual, and at times violent, works in the International Surrealist Exhibition. This marked the artist’s official induction into the movement, and he soon earned a reputation as an artist who would dare to execute the ideas his reputable contemporaries, who included the likes of Salvador Dalí, only dreamt of.

His investigation into fetishism and depravity, both through painting and photography, steadily gathered momentum, culminating in an extensive series of portraits and self-portraits in which Molinier himself often features as a many-limbed woman, a dominatrix, or a devil. When his dwindling health prompted his death at the age of 76, it was executed with the all the charisma his character would suggest; a great lover of guns, he died from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound.
http://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/8019/the-forbidden-photo-collages-of-pierre-molinier

James Ensor, 13 April 1860, Ostend, Belgium at 4.30AM.

Pierre Molinier, 13 April 1900, Agen, France at 8.00AM.

There aren't many clear similarities. The obvious factor in Ensor's chart, reflecting his rather rebellious and uncompromising style is Venus(planet of the arts) conjunct Uranus (planet of the unexpected and the rebel). In addition Neptune, planet of creativity, dreams and the mysterious was sitting right on his rising degree - if time of birth is correct at Astrodatabank - it has AA rating so is reliable.


In Molinier's case, data from Astrodatabank, also AA rated, look at the chart shape as a start! It's made up of oppositions forming a cross, and involving the important points in a natal chart: the ascendant/descendant, mid-heaven and nadir! Oppositions can signify irreconcilable differences in a personality, or sometimes a kind of balancing act, an effort to reconcile opposites. Molinier had Pluto (eroticism, intensity) sitting close to his Gemini rising degree, with Venus and Neptune in Gemini also - what better "trade mark" for his style? In opposition to the Gemini planets are Uranus and Jupiter, an excess of the unexpected/futuristic, perhaps attempted balancing of the artist's runaway sexual intensity with an excess of the unexpected, using avant garde methods of photography.

Their common Aries Sun position seems secondary!

Arty Farty Friday ~ Leonora Carrington, Feminist & Surrealist

Leonora Carrington OBE (6 April 1917 – 25 May 2011) was an English-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City, and was one of the last surviving participants in the Surrealist movement of the 1930s. Leonora Carrington was a founding member of the Women’s Liberation Movement in Mexico during the 1970s. She was born into a wealthy family, her fathe a successful textile manufacturer, her mother, Maureen (née Moorhead), was Irish.

A good, well-illustrated read on Ms Carrington's life story is at Widewalls website - do go take a look. The piece begins:

Painting is a need, not a choice , said the legendary painter and novelist Leonora Carrington, who managed to completely redefine female symbolism through her own interpretation of surrealism. She was a restless and prolific artist throughout her career – she worked in oil painting, bronze and cast iron sculpture, but also mixed-media pieces that combined wood, glass, and various iron objects. Besides her important role in the history of surrealism, Carrington was also known as a romantic partner of another prominent surrealist, Max Ernst. The two of them shared their dream worlds and symbolic universes through their magnificent artworks. Carrington has also rejected the surrealist ideal of woman as the main source inspiration and she turned to novel realms such as the animal world, the occult, and Celtic mythology.

These two 4 minute videos show a selection of her paintings, the first, from the Tate Gallery in Liverpool, includes some explanation as well as commentary:







For some large-size images of her artwork, take a look at the website linked below. It really is essential to see her paintings in such sizes, to fully appreciate their intricacy and detail; not that it makes them easier for ordinary mortals like us to understand. We can probably ascribe our own meanings to at least some of them.

https://sites.google.com/site/tombowersites/leonora-carrington



ASTROLOGY

Born on 6 April 1917 in Clayton-le-Woods, Lancashire, UK. Chart is set for 12 noon - time of birth is unknown. Moon and rising sign positions will not be exactly as shown.

Without a time of birth to indicate rising sign and exact Moon position, we're left with just sketchy indications of personality. This lady, however, could truly have been described as what Sun sign fans love to call "an Aries". Due to her natal Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars all in Aries, she would have in her nature many of those textbook Aries attributes: initiator, impulsive, confident, courageous, and so on. We've gleaned enough about her from online biographies to realise that she was certainly all of those things and more!

Natal Moon could have been in late Virgo or early Libra - not easy to guess which. I can see arguments for either, but if pressed I'd speculate on Venus-ruled (planet of the arts) Libra, another Cardinal sign, and opposite her Cardinal Aries Sun - bringing a sense of balance to her more exaggerated head-strong Aries instincts.

Jupiter lies in the other Venus-ruled sign, Taurus, and in semi-sextile to her natal Venus. Jupiter represents, among other things, travel, so lying here in what can be an awkward aspect, semi-sextile to Aries Venus, I see this as a calming and more stable influence on her prominent Aries-ness. Jupitarian highlighting could also link to her move to live and work in Mexico.

Uranus! Any surrealist painter is certain to have Uranus and/or Aquarius highlighted natally. Ms Carrington had Uranus in Aquarius, its sign of rulership in modern astrology. Uranus lay at at 22 degrees, and in helpful sextile aspect to Mercury, at 24 degrees of Aries. This lady was always going to gravitate to surrealism in her painting and fiction writing, and/or, in some other lifetime, perhaps to science fiction.

Considering the mystical mythical subject matter of her many paintings and her novels and short stories, mysterious Neptune had be linked into her chart - somehow. Neptune lay at 2 degrees of Leo when she was born; if natal Moon were in early Libra, as suspected, then Neptune would be in helpful sextile to her Moon - that'd work well!

Arty Farty Friday ~ Vale Rob Gonsalves

When I wrote about Rob Gonsalves, one Arty Farty Friday in December 2010, I could find no information on his date of birth. Mr Gonsalves died in June last year. I was shocked and saddened to recently come across news of his death, more so when I gleaned that he had committed suicide. An obituary stated that

"Rob left this Earth on his own terms when he took his own life, calmly and deliberately on a beautiful day in June." A Facebook note: "Rob Gonsalves battled the dark but succumbed June 14th. Rob's window into the magic of the universe was closed by his death."

Rest in Peace.

Date of birth of Rob Gonsalves is now available at Wikipedia. He was born on 10 July 1959.
I'm re-posting my earlier blog with his natal chart following, noting how close, or otherwise, my speculations about his astrology had been.

FROM 2010

Rob Gonsalves is a Canadian painter, born in Toronto, Ontario in 1959. I can find no more birth data than that. If a passing reader knows his date of birth I'd be very happy to hear from them via comment. [See below]

It's tricky to categorise Rob Gonsalves' art precisely. It's surrealistic, yet it isn't truly surrealism, because it arises, reportedly, through a process of conscious thought rather than from dreams or from the subconscious.

Magic Realism is another art label we might attach, but that doesn't quite fit either. His subject matter is mainly everyday scenes and situations turned ...well...surreal. Personally (maybe not accurately) I see Magical Realism as dealing more with mythological figures and situations, as depicted in the art of Michael Parkes (here).

As architecture is seen in many of Rob Gonsalves' paintings I'd expect Saturn to feature prominently in his natal chart, as well as Venus (art) and Uranus (the unexpected and eccentric). I notice how the Moon features often in his work - as it did in Paul Delvaux' paintings, shown in last Friday's post - I'm pretty sure that the Moon or its sign Cancer will be to the fore in his natal chart too.

Anyway, a few more facts about Rob Gonsalves from either Wikipedia or a Facebook page available via Google:

During his childhood, Gonsalves developed an interest in drawing from imagination using various media. By age twelve, his awareness of architecture grew as he leaned perspective techniques and began to do his first paintings and renderings of imagined buildings.

After an introduction to artists Dalí and Tanguy, Gonsalves began his first surrealist paintings. The "Magic Realism" approach of Magritte along with the precise perspective illusions of Escher came to be influences in his future work.

In his post college years, Gonsalves worked full time as an architect, also painting trompe-l'œil murals and theatre sets. After an enthusiastic response in 1990 at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Gonsalves devoted himself to painting full time.

Numerous individuals around the world, corporations, embassies, and a United States Senator collect Gonsalves' original work, and limited edition prints. Rob Gonsalves has exhibited at Art Expo New York and Los Angeles, Decor Atlanta and Las Vegas, Fine Art Forum, as well as one-man shows at Discovery Galleries, Ltd., Hudson River Art Gallery, and Kaleidoscope Gallery.

He won the 2005 Governor General's Award in the Children's Literature - Illustration category for Imagine a Day.
He is also an accomplished guitarist.

A few examples of his painting follow. These especially appealed to me. Note the presence of the Moon - surrealist-types do seem to like their Moons, don't they!?

I wrote, in 2010, without benefit of knowing his date of birth:

As architecture is seen in many of Rob Gonsalves' paintings I'd expect Saturn to feature prominently in his natal chart, as well as Venus (art) and Uranus (the unexpected and eccentric). I notice how the Moon features often in his work - as it did in Paul Delvaux' paintings, shown in last Friday's post - I'm pretty sure that the Moon or its sign Cancer will be to the fore in his natal chart too.

I guessed correctly about the
Moon - he had Sun in Cancer, sign ruled by the Moon.
Saturn was in its home sign of Earthy Capricorn and in harmonious trine to Venus and Pluto in Virgo - another Earthy sign...and Saturn sextiles Neptune (imagination, dreams) too
Uranus was conjunct his natal Mercury in Leo.

I'm giving myself a gentle pat on the back for that.

Dang, though - it is just so, so sad to have lost such an artist so soon!

Arty Farty Friday ~ Dorothea Tanning, artist & writer.

Dorothea Tanning, American surrealist painter, print-maker, sculptor, writer, and poet. She was born on this day in 1910, died in 2012, aged 101.

She certainly had a way with words, as well as paint! This sample of her writing from an article/interview HERE:

Now the doors are all open, the air is mother-of-pearl, and you know the way to tame a tiger. It will not elude you today for you have grabbed a brush, you have dipped it almost at random, so high is your rage, into the amalgam of color, formless on a docile palette.

As you drag lines like ropes across one brink of reality after another, annihilating the world you made yesterday and hated today, a new world heaves into sight. Again, the event progresses without the benefit of hours.

The application of color to a support, something to talk about when it’s all over, now holds you in thrall. The act is your accomplice. So are the tools, beakers, bottles, knives, glues, solubles, insolubles, tubes, plasters, cans; there is no end ... (Dorothea Tanning)

I considered this the best presented YouTube video featuring Ms Tanning's work. Titles of her paintings are included, making it easy for interested viewers to easily search for a larger version of any which particularly attracts them.




Extracted from one of the many obituaries available online this from The Telegraph:

Dorothea Tanning was born on August 25 1910 to Swedish immigrants who had made their home at Galesburg, Illinois. At the age of five she developed a gift for weeping while reciting tragic poetry, leading her mother to hope that she might make a career on the stage. Two years later, however, she had made up her mind to become an artist.

In her autobiography she recalled that her devout Lutheran parents had been alarmed by a perverse bohemian streak that first manifested itself when, as a child, she always lusted after the villain in Westerns. Aged 15, despite never having heard of Surrealism, she horrified her family by painting a naked woman with leaves for hair.

She left home at 20 and moved to Chicago where, after dropping out of art school, she worked as an artist’s model, an illustrator, and a marionnettist at the World’s Fair, and claimed to have dated a gangster who was called away and murdered while she waited at the bar.

In 1936 she moved to New York, where she supported herself by working as an illustrator. The same year she visited an exhibition of Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism at the Museum of Modern Art: “I thought, Gosh! I can go ahead and do what I’ve always been doing,” she recalled.

In 1939 she travelled to Paris, armed with letters of introduction to several prominent artists, Ernst among them, but found that most had fled the city, which was on the brink of war. After a short spell with her father’s family in neutral Sweden, she returned to New York on the last boat.

After 31 Women, Dorothea Tanning had her first solo exhibition in 1944, at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. By then she and Ernst were living at Sedona, where they confronted lizards, scorpions and snakes and played host to a bohemian cast of visitors including George Balanchine (for whom she would design ballet sets and costumes), Henri Cartier-Bresson, Marcel Duchamp, Truman Capote and Dylan Thomas.

To escape McCarthy era restrictions, they moved to France in 1957, ultimately settling at Seillans, a hilltop village in Provence, in a house designed by Dorothea. During the 1960s and 1970s her work was exhibited regularly at galleries in America and Europe. It was in France, too, where she “lived a lot in my own language”, that she developed her writing skills as a “way of talking”. She and her husband never discussed art, she claimed — “We just had fun.” Unlike some critics, Ernst always allowed her independence, never referring to her as “my wife” but always as Dorothea Tanning.

After his death she returned, in 1979, to New York. Alongside her writing, and following a stroke in the mid-1990s, she embarked on a series of 12 flower paintings – lush, dark works which were subsequently collected in a book entitled Another Language of Flowers.

Just one example of her painting:

 Palaestra = (in ancient Greece and Rome) a wrestling school or gymnasium.

ASTROLOGY

Born on 25 August 1910 in Galesburg, Illinois. No time of birth known. Chart set for noon.

A scant few points, because lack of birth time leaves rising sign unknown as well as exact Moon position. I suspect her rising sign might light up the whole picture and bring it more into focus.

I do see her writing talent: three planets in Mercury-ruled Virgo, one at the beginning of that sign, one mid-sign and one in the last degrees of the sign: Sun Mars and Mercury respectively. Natal Mercury links to Uranus (planet of the unusual and unexpected) by harmonious trine (120 degrees) which probably explains the drive to surrealism in her painting. She has the generational opposition of Uranus-Neptune, so with personal planet Mercury in trine to Uranus that draws in the Uranus/Neptune eccentricities of dreamlike imagination. Ideally I'd have expected Venus, planet of the arts to have been hooked up to that in some way, but not so. Venus is in Leo - maybe that Venu/Leo flavour harks back to her early indication of possessing some acting talent (mentioned in the clip above).

Natal Moon at noon was at 7 Taurus - ruled by Venus, but I guess (not sure about this) there's an outside chance that Moon could have been in the very last minutes of the last degree of Aries, if her birth time had been extremely early. At noon natal Moon was uncomfortably close to Saturn, which didn't feel right to me, from the impression I've gleaned of this lady.

Underlining, again, her writing talent I'll finish with one of her poems Are You? This opens her poetry collection A Table of Content (2004), and is a.... profound statement about identity and self-reliance. This comes from an obituary in The Guardian.

If an expatriate is, as I believe, someone
who never forgets for an instant
being one,
then, no.
But, if knowing that you always
tote your country around
with you, your roots,
a lump
… that being elsewhere packs a vertigo,
a tightrope side you cannot
pass up, another way
to show
how not to break your pretty neck
falling on skylights:
… then, yes.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Hans Bellmer, Psycho-Sexual Surrealist

Hans Bellmer, born on 13 March 1902 in what is now Poland, isn't an artist/sculptor/photographer whose work I admire, but his natal chart could be of interest. His surrealist psycho-sexual style strikes me as generally unpleasant.

From a book cover at Amazon: Hans Bellmer - The Anatomy of Anxiety

The German-born Surrealist Hans Bellmer (1902-1975), best known for his life-size pubescent dolls, devoted an artistic lifetime to creating sexualized images of the female body - distorted, dismembered, or menaced in sinister scenarios. In this book Sue Taylor draws on psychoanalytic theory to suggest why Bellmer was so driven by erotomania as well as a desire for revenge, suffering, and the safety of the womb. Although he styled himself as the quintessential Oedipal son, an avant-garde artist in perpetual rebellion against a despised father, Taylor contends that his filial attitude was more complex than he could consciously allow. Tracing a repressed homoerotic attachment to his father, castration anxiety, and an unconscious sense of guilt, Taylor proposes that a feminine identification informs all the disquieting aspects of Bellmer's art.

Most scholarship to date has focused on Bellmer's work of the 1930s, especially the infamous dolls and the photographs he made of them. Taylor extends her discussion to the sexually explicit prints, drawings, paintings, and photographs he produced throughout the ensuing three decades.

At this link is a 7 minute video outlining his life story and showing some of his work.

Alternatively, if in a hurry, for a quick look at some of his sculptures here's a 90 second video:






Hans Bellmer born on 13 March 1902 in Kattowitz, now in Poland.
Chart set for 12 noon as no time of birth is known.

Oppositions from Uranus to both Pluto and Neptune are generational aspects, but linked as they are here, to Bellmer's natal Sun and/or Mars, forming what astrologers call a T-square makes the generational aspect more personal. The formation reflects difficulties in areas represented by a sensitive but potentially aggressive or overly energetic (Sun/Mars) personality fighting against, challenging or addicted to erotic imaginings (Pluto Neptune), in some out of the ordinary (Uranus) manner.

Venus, planet of the arts, one of 3 personal planets in Aquarius, is in harmonious trine to Pluto (eroticism) and (a little widely) in trine to Neptune (creativity, imagination, addiction).

Natal Moon could be in Taurus, or possibly very late Aries. Moon is said to represent the mother in astrology, It's not easy to speculate which is more likely, Taurus and Pisces are friendly, Aquarius and Aries are friendly He loved his mother but hated/despised his father - said to be represented by Saturn. Perhaps his ascendant was opposite Saturn - not far away, by chance, from how the noon chart is aligned.

After mention of Theodore Adorno in Monday's post, coming across a further mention of him in the extract below, which also mentions Hans Bellmer, prompted me to cut and paste it here.

Extract taken from HERE. Click on it for larger, clearer version:

Arty Farty Friday ~ Surrealist Photographer Kansuke Yamamoto

With Japan foremost in our minds, prayers, and fervent hopes for some relief for the stricken, I searched for today's subject among their long tradition of artists of all types.

Birth dates for most of those wonderful Japanese painters from previous centuries aren't available, but I found an interesting subject in surrealist photographer Kansuke Yamamoto (30 March 1914-1987). He was a seminal experimental photographer, poet and member of the Japanese avant-garde, born in Nagoya, active in Japan's artistic circles from 1931 until 1987. A true hidden treasure in the world of photography.

Yamamoto’s highly aesthetic imagery can be seen as a Japanese interpretation of the language of European surrealism with many works in dialogue with artists such as Salvador Dali, Yves Tanguy, Joan Miro, Man Ray, Rene Magritte, and Jean Arp. Yamamoto published over a 40-year span in avant-garde journals with limited circulation in Japan. The strangeness and transgressive nature of his imagery was considered threatening, inviting persecution of the artist by the Tokko (Thought Police).

Information from http://azurebumble.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/kansuke-yamamoto-photography/

Natal chart set for 12 noon. Ascending sign and Moon degree will not be accurate.





To identify Kansuke Yamamoto's pull towards surrelaism the planet to watch is Uranus (eccentricity, the unexpected). In this photographer's natal chart Uranus is in the sign of its rulership, Aquarius, so it's presence is pure and unadulterated, one could say. In addition, here Uranus conjoins Jupiter, planet of excess and exaggeration. What better astrological representation of this art style could there be? Venus, planet of the arts is in Aries and in harmonious sextile to the Jupiter/Uranus conjunction. Yamamoto's pioneering Aries Sun is also significant in his drive to be among the first in his field to create something new.

His photographs are strange, but in them it's easy to detect themes from Magritte's paintings, Salvador Dali's or echoes of styles of other European surrealist painters.


CHRONICLES OF DRIFTING



STAPLES IN FLESH



REMINISCENCE







SCENERY WITH OCEAN

Arty Farty Friday ~ Rob Gonsalves: Magic Realism.

Rob Gonsalves is a Canadian painter, born in Toronto, Ontario in 1959. I can find no more birth data than that. If a passing reader knows his date of birth I'd be very happy to hear from them via comment.

It's tricky to categorise Rob Gonsalves' art precisely. It's surrealistic, yet it isn't truly surrealism, because it arises, reportedly, through a process of conscious thought rather than from dreams or from the subconscious.

Magic Realism is another art label we might attach, but that doesn't quite fit either. His subject matter is mainly everyday scenes and situations turned ....well...surreal. Personally (maybe not accurately) I see Magical Realism as dealing more with mythological figures and situations, as depicted in the art of Michael Parkes (here).

As architecture is seen in many of Rob Gonsalves' paintings I'd expect Saturn to feature prominently in his natal chart, as well as Venus (art) and Uranus (the unexpected and eccentric). I notice how the Moon features often in his work - as it did in Paul Delvaux' paintings, shown in last Friday's post - I'm pretty sure that the Moon or its sign Cancer will be to the fore in his natal chart too.

Anyway, a few more facts about Rob Gonsalves from either Wikipedia or a Facebook page available via Google:

During his childhood, Gonsalves developed an interest in drawing from imagination using various media. By age twelve, his awareness of architecture grew as he leaned perspective techniques and began to do his first paintings and renderings of imagined buildings.

After an introduction to artists Dalí and Tanguy, Gonsalves began his first surrealist paintings. The "Magic Realism" approach of Magritte along with the precise perspective illusions of Escher came to be influences in his future work.

In his post college years, Gonsalves worked full time as an architect, also painting trompe-l'œil murals and theatre sets. After an enthusiastic response in 1990 at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Gonsalves devoted himself to painting full time.

Numerous individuals around the world, corporations, embassies, and a United States Senator collect Gonsalves' original work, and limited edition prints. Rob Gonsalves has exhibited at Art Expo New York and Los Angeles, Decor Atlanta and Las Vegas, Fine Art Forum, as well as one-man shows at Discovery Galleries, Ltd., Hudson River Art Gallery, and Kaleidoscope Gallery.

He won the 2005 Governor General's Award in the Children's Literature - Illustration category for Imagine a Day.
He is also an accomplished guitarist.

A few examples of his painting follow. These especially appealed to me. Note the presence of the Moon - surrealist-types do seem to like their Moons, don't they!?