Ringling/Sarasota Artist Michael Pukáč (b. 1980) American, Kite-Shaped Oil on Canvas. Signed at bottom point. Dated "05." Depicts a phoenix-like bird in bright streaks of color hanging upside-down on a perch. 

Condition: Small spots throughout. 

Size: 45 1/4 x 38 1/4 x 2 in.  

Michael Pukáč was born in 1980 on the gulf coast of Alabama and grew up in the swamps, the son of Slavic immigrants. He started drawing at a very young age, getting into trouble for selling small sketches of nude women to fellow students at the age of 9. He had his first exhibition at 18 in Washington, D.C., and was accepted to Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, graduating in 2003. After a brief solo attempt to break into the art scene of Los Angeles, he returned to Florida, where he met his muse and art manager Dicapria. Together, they moved to Long Beach, where he began making a living producing live art at events and pop-up studios, and as a musician. In 2011 he was chosen to represent the United States for the Living Paint Tour, traveling through France and Spain, which brought him international recognition. Pukáč has since created hundreds of vivid works, including paintings, murals, and illustrations for children’s books and album covers for California-based bands.

The traditional shape of a canvas has varied throughout human history, but tended towards a square or rectangular shape with 90 degree angles at each corner, mainly due to the process of attaching and stretching the canvas over wood, metal, or plastic to create a flat surface. While other materials such as board, copper, clay and so forth could be shaped, cut, or formed differently, painted canvases largely remained four-sided squared off variants until the modern era, when experimentation and abstract elements started to take hold in the art world. Some credit Peter László Peri, a Hungarian artist and sculptor, as the original innovator of the shaped canvas, creating his first geometric abstract reliefs and wall art in 1921. Although canvas paintings tend to still appear in rectangular fashion, custom-made multi-sided frames have grown in popularity thanks to Postmodernist artists and multimedia sculptors like Frank Stella, Edward Darrell Crisp, and Elizabeth Murray.

Small spots throughout.