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Alex Mendelssohn (born 30 May 1935) is an Australian artist and opal miner of Hungarian descent. popularly known as Alex or his birth name ''Sándor Mendelssohn'' (variant of the name Alexander in Hungary), he is the great-great-grandson of Felix Mendelssohn, the Romantic German composer who gave the world the famous ''Wedding March'' overture.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.alexmendelssohn.wix.com/artworld )〕 In an interview with (Adelaide Now ) (Sunday Mail September 2000) Alex Mendelssohn is quoted as saying "He (Felix Mendelssohn) composed on piano, and I compose on canvas," reflecting on his 200-year ancestry. In another interview "''His Colorful Life''", he professed to Kristina Meredith of Country Press South Australia that he is a born rebel and an adventurer at heart. Alex migrated from war-worn Hungary in the early 1950s to mine for opal in the stark opal town of (Andamooka ) where the famous ''Andamooka Opal'' or ''Queen's Opal'' was discovered in the 1950s and presented to Queen Elizabeth II. For Alex Mendelssohn, the isolated outback community built upon red earth, nicknamed ‘Mars on Earth' presents the freedom he craves, far away from the shackles of politics, war, and bureaucracy of his early years. In a radio interview ''6.30 with George Negus'' (28 June 2004) Alex Mendelssohn expressed the reason he calls Andamooka his home: "You're not controlled by councils and regulations and laws and rules. You do whatever you bloody like." ==Style and Temperament== His ardour is reflected in his beloved themes of the eastern exotic, feminine form, clowns and music, spirit worlds, outer space, and landscape that occasionally yield to paintings of imaginary flowers in wild abandon. Journalist Alexandra Nowak (2008) described Alex Mendelssohn's art as spontaneous and wildly wonderful. Alex started painting in 1973, sold his first painting for five dollars, and has since never ceased to paint. Painting consistently for over 38 years, Alex Mendelssohn’s prolific portfolio of artworks has exceeded 3000 pieces of oil paintings as of 2012, some of which he donated towards charitable causes, and many are in private collections mainly in the United States, Germany, and Australia.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://andamooka.sa.au/alex-mendelssohn )〕 In an interview with (Jason Munn of The Monitor ) (15 August 2012), Alex Mendelssohn encourages experimentation in oil painting methodology: "I always tell my classes, you can use anything but the kitchen sink - I don't care what you use as long as you get results with it." A self-taught artist who likes to share his oil painting techniques, Alex Mendelssohn believes that all human beings are born with a talent for something. "Some people go through their entire lives never realising the talent they had - but I try to give them a bit of encouragement which is very important."〔 A controversial artist, for his outspokenness against art critics who don’t paint and anti-art, Alex Mendelssohn was a regular guest on AZ TV 7, Phoenix Arizona from 2001 to 2009. "Art critics often enquired whether I am still alive, as I think the value of my life’s work would be worth more when I am dead," Alex is fond of making caustic comments that draw reference to his age and mortality (Alex Mendelssohn celebrated his 77th birthday at the time of this article in 2012). He is repulsed by the exorbitant art auction prices of dead artists, and was especially annoyed when ''Picassos cubist painting of (''La Lecture'' ), that featured Picasso's mistress asleep in an armchair, sold for $40.7million at a London auction house. Quoting verbatim in typical Alex Mendelssohn frankness "It's just torn apart bits of a woman." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alex Mendelssohn」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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