two new old ones

Here are two painters I've recently discovered. The first is Joseph Solman, who only recently died, and was part of the school that came up around Jackson Pollack et all (though he was much less well known), and the second is Elliott Daingerfeild, who worked in the late nineteenth, early twentieth century. The first two pieces are called "Studio Interior," and "Easel and Mirror." The Daingefeild is called "Moon Rising over Fog Clouds."

Viva

here's a portrait by Diane Arbus of Warhol factory star Viva, who was a writer/film star/personality of the seventies, and was actually totally crazy. She lives in Florida now, painting landscapes, I guess, but this picture is still awesome.

leggo my eggleston

Snooping around at my new place of work, came across some stuff by photographer William Eggleston. I really like his work. Also, um, I have found my doppleganger...see the last picture. Freaky, right?

battle of the fishes

Andre Masson was an artist in the early 20th century, whose work was of the surrealist school, and marked by the use of automatic drawing. The top one, my fave, is called battle of the fishes, and evokes an undersea environment through vague doodling, without any actual representational forms. The colors are great, and it reminds me of embroidery. I like it a lot.

Kiss Me Kees

Thought the blog was looking a little drab, so naturally I turned to my friends, the Fauves. I actually don't really like most fauvist art, but Kees van Dongen made some wonderful portraits. Kees was a dutch painter who began exhibiting in Paris in the early 20th century. I put two of my faves above; you can tell he's a sartorialist at heart.

pretty surreal

Here is a short film by a Czech surrealist filmmaker named Jan Švankmajer. He works a lot with claymation and puppetry, though this one (probably my favorite) features niether...I guess you would call this stop-motion demolition animation, or something. The short is called "Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasy in G minor," and was released in 1965...think of it as a sort of updated Fantasia. Watch this through to the end, it's totally worth it.

A Glove!

Here's a couple of images from a series of etchings done by a Belgian symbolist artist named Max Klinger. The series, published in 1881, is called "Ein Handusch" (or: A Glove), and is all about losing and finding a glove. Cool.

Anna Akhmatova part II

Anna was so cool that Modigliani took her as his muse.

Joseph Cornell I Love You Really I Do

he often conceived of his boxes as love letters sending them to stars of the stage and screen

Ralph Goings

hey all you snobs, i love photorealism. also, ketchup.

Charis Weston

Edward Weston's wife, Charis Weston, acted as his muse for many years, and is the subject of many of my favorite photographs by him. Not much is known about her, but she looks amazing. Enjoy.

c'est "Super Cool"

Here are a couple images (A,B,and C) from a series called "The Alphabet" done by this amazing Parisian design firm called M/M. They have created posters, advertisements, and editorials for brands like Hermes and Balenciaga, I.D. magazine, and more. Though much of their work is commercial, they also borrow from their commercial work to create art that is exhibited and sold in galleries. You can see their catalogue here:

Link

dark days

This movie, originally called Une Voyage dans la Lune, was released in 1902, and is one of the first science fiction movies ever. The original movie, narrated in english (with accent AND lisp), can be found here

maps?

Here's an artist, Mark Bradford, who I've come across recently, and whose stuff is kind of cool. He's coming out of LA, and has pieces in the Saatchi and the Whitney. His art is abstract, but has a topographic quality achieved through his use of squares cut from cardboard, billboards, etc. Really collage-y; i bet these look amazing in person.

cover charge

okay so here are some scans of book covers from the 40's, 50's, and 60's. The cover art on the more serious novels tend to be better, but i thought some of these were pretty funny.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jl-incrowd/sets/

Welcome to My World

Discovered this guy's blog, which consists of scans of his drawings done during his subway commutes. Apparently it's pretty well known, and rightfully so--it definitely captures the NYC subways as I know them. I wonder if he was inspired by the subway portraits of Walker Evans?

www.amiunderground.blogspot.com

Oh Jasper

There is a new Jasper Johns exhibit at the Met, so I thought it would be appropriate to dig up this interview published in the December 2007 Vanity Fair. Regardless of what you think of his art, it is a totally great interview...below are some of the highlights.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
I am not strong on perfection
What is your greatest extravagance?
a frugality that seems to confuse people who work with me
What is your current state of mind?
something like very slow panic
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
desire for approval
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
the tendency toward self-description
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
virtue itself
What is your most marked characteristic?
never knowing whether to expand or contract
What do you dislike most about your appearance?
what I imagine to be the general effect
On what occasion do you lie?
when I think it is useful
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
no one, no thing
Which talent would you most like to have?
the ability to remember or forget at will
If you could change one thing about your family,what would it be?
no one thing would do the trick
What is your most treasured possession?
my refrigerator
What is it that you most dislike?
seeing fish with silver skin marinating in cream
If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
unlikely
If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?
must I decide before I die
How would you like to die?
effortlessly
What is your greatest regret?
an absence of clarity
What is your motto?
I have none

lumière sombre

I found this website with a published collection of Autochromes. Autochrome is a early 20th century photographic technique, and the first one to record color. I really like the eerie light and muted colors that the technique produces.
http://users.pandora.be/autochromes/

This is like That

This is a photograph taken by Gjon Mili



This is a movie by the japanese art collective pikapika.

Similar, no? But I like the first one the best, of course.

side effects

The Stendhal Syndrome is a psychosomatic illness causing dizziness, confusion, rapid heartbeat, and even hallucinations provoked by an individual's exposure to art, usually when the piece is especially beautiful or there is a lot of it in one place. I tried to find a painting of Stendhal that might potentially induce the syndrome, but apparently he was kind of homely.