Month: July 2015

Jan Asselijn

Jan Asselijn, “The Threatened Swan”, 1650, Oil on Canvas, 57 x 67 Inches, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Asselijn was born at Dieppe from a French Huguenot family as Jean Asselin. He received instruction from Esaias van de Velde (1587–1630), and distinguished himself particularly in landscape and animal painting, though his historical works and battle pieces are also admired. He traveled in France and Italy, and modeled his style after Bamboccio (Pieter van Laer), also a member of the Bentvueghels.

The Threatened Swan, which portrays a swan aggressively defending its nest, became a symbol of Dutch national resistance, although it is unknown if Asselijn intended it to be so. In particular, it was interpreted as a depiction of Johan de Witt. The painting has been dated to the 1640s. It is considered to be Asselijn’s most famous work and was the Rijksmuseum’s first acquisition.

Bartolomeo Ammanati

Bartolomeo Ammanati, Statue of Faunus, Fountain of Neptune, Florence, Italy

Born in the city of Settignano in June of 1511, Bartolomeo Ammanati was an Italian sculptor and architect. Of his many works, the best known is the Fountain of Neptune located in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence. 

Though private commissions took place in Florence during the early 1500s , public works were not often produced. Commissioning sculptures for exterior, public areas was a tactic the Republic used in order to portray Florence as a reincarnation of Rome, which had a grand tradition of sculptural works for prominent public spaces. By establishing Rome as a predecessor of Florence, the city was seen as a prestigious, conquering city-state, equal to Rome’s glory and  capable of expanding its reach.

The marble and bronze Fountain of Neptune was commissioned by Florence in 1565 with the initial design work by sculptor and draftsman Baccio Bandinelli. He chose the large block of marble which was to be the central figure; however, he died in 1560 before the work stated. From 1563 to 1565 Bartolomeo Ammanati and his assistants sculpted the block, using Grand Duke Cosimo I as model for Neptune’s face. This statue was meant to highlight the Grand Duke’s goal of establishing a Florentine Naval force.

The majority of the design and sculpture was executed by Ammanati. He continued work on the fountain for a decade and added around its perimeter a collection of demigod figures which contained bronze, reclining river gods, fauns and satyrs, and marble sea horses emerging from the water. All these figures were modeled and cast under Ammanati’s supervision by a team of assistants. The female nude statue personifying Ops, the Sabine fertility deity, as well as the general design and character of the lesser gods are examples of the mature style he developed over the years.

One of the Fountain of Neptune’s bronze satyrs is Faunus, who, in the ancient Roman pantheon, was the horned god of the forest, plains, and fields. He eventually became equated with the Greek god Pan, and was also known among herdsmen as Inuus, the god who embodied sexual intercourse. One of the oldest Roman gods, Faunus revealed the future in dreams and voices to those who slept, while lying on the fleeces of sacrificial lambs,  in his precincts.

Bryan Leboeuf

Bryan Leboeuf, “Age of Man”, 2003, Oil on Linen, 122 x 127 cm, Private Collection

Raised on the Gulf Coast in rural Louisiana, Bryan LeBoeuf moved to New York City in 1998 to continue his formal training in art school, which had begun in southwestern Colorado. Since his first solo show in the Spring of 2003, several of his paintings have been acquired by public collections, including The Forbes Collection and The Flint Institute of Art. In 2008, the artist had his first solo museum exhibition at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia.

Bryan Leboeuf

Bryan Leboeuf, “Mosh Pit”, 2003. Oil on Linen. 60 x 48 inches. Collection of Peter N. Geisler Jr., West Palm Beach, Florida. On extended loan to MOCA Jacksonville.

Bryan Leboeuf’s painting, “Mosh Pit”, depicts a crowded expanse of bodies and limbs viewed from above, on top of which a man is suspended, held by the people below. While the subject matter of the scene is modern and profane, the striking position of the body of the main figure is reminiscent of Baroque depictions of the religious subject of the Deposition of Christ from the Cross. Leboeuf’s use of chiaroscuro lighting and other Old Master techniques enhances the artistic references to the past embodied in this seemingly contemporary subject.

Michael Akers, “Morgan”

Morgan: Directed by Michael Akers; Produced by Michael Akers, Sandon Berg and Israel Ehrisman; Starring Leo Minaya and Jack Kesy

After an accident leaves him paralyzed from the waist down, Morgan Oliver, a gay bicycle racer, is first seen wallowing in a state of depression, drowning his sorrows in beer as he watches bicycle racing (the sport that at once defined his sense of purpose and drove him to his catalytic accident) on television. He meets Dean Kagan who helps him through the way and a romantic relationship develops between the two. Once Morgan knows about the New York Haven Cycle Race, he decides to take part in the race.

Michael Akers and Sandon Berg planned on writing a story about a paraplegic while casting for an earlier film Phoenix. A young, handsome wheelchair-using paraplegic actor had submitted his portfolio for a possible role in a film. Although the screenplay for Phoenix had been written and no role was envisioned for a paraplegic acting role, they were intrigued enough by him personally, they decided to write a screenplay around a paraplegic athlete. After many interviews with other wheelchair-using gay men, their collection of stories became the basis for the film Morgan.

Jim Dine

Jim Dine, The “Pinocchio Paintings”

Forty years ago, Jim Dine acquired an effigy of Pinocchio that evoked in him some of the emotion he felt upon seeing the Walt Disney film as a child. The figure of the marionette that becomes a boy did not turn up in Dine’s own work until more than 30 years later, and in those paintings and drawings it was a stand-in for the artist himself, communicating some of Dine’s own youthful terror.

Ralph Eaton

Ralph Eaton, “Fuzzy Kudzu”, Stuffed Animals, 2013-14, Taubman Museum

Born in Roanoke, Ralph Eaton was very influenced by the West Coast art scene of the 1990s. Working in Los Angeles at the same time as acclaimed artists Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy, who used re-purposed mundane materials in their works, Eaton saw thrift store cast-offs as symbols of a consumer culture gone awry. Says Eaton: “Making art out of junk is my therapeutic strategy for coping with the human condition, with the clutter of the world.”

At the time, Eaton started buying trash bags full of used stuffed animals to make his works, beginning with a series of “cured teddy bears (curing them of their cuteness by burning and other surgeries).” In the past few years his pieces have grown more abstract, where wall constructions are dominated by red or blue clumps and animals’ faces either missing or buried.

Commissioned by the Taubman Museum of Art, Eaton’s “Fuzzy Kudzu” transforms the City of Roanoke Atrium into an otherworldly fantasyland, where a thirty-foot cascade of white furry tendrils made from restructured stuffed animals spills over the central balcony, countering the building’s architecture in ways both welcoming and unsettling.

Most of its “pelt” is recycled from discarded teddy bears, bunnies, and kittens, each taken apart by the artist and reassembled into over fifty “vines” ranging from twenty to thirty-four feet. Weighing nearly a ton, “Fuzzy Kudzu” is comprised of faux fur fabric, polyester fiberfill, and more than one thousand stuffed animals.

Steven Campbell

Paintings by Steven Campbell

Steven Campbell studied Drawing & Painting at The Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 1982 with a Fulbright Scholarship which he used to travel to New York. His first solo show was held at the Barbara Toll Gallery in 1983, and he quickly became well-known.

Campbell returned to live in Glasgow in 1986, and emerged as the leading figure of a group of Scottish figurative painters known collectively as ‘The New Glasgow Boys’. The group consisted of Campbell alongside fellow GSA alumni Ken Currie, Peter Howson and Adrian Wiszniewski.

Campbell’s distinctive painting style often has a surreal and mysterious quality, alongside a strong literary element and recurring motifs such as skulls, birds, and the paisley pattern. His work is held in collections such as the Tate and National Galleries of Scotland, and his last major exhibition was ‘The Caravan Club’ in 2002, at the Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh. He died on 15 August 2007.

Zora Neale Hurston: “The Life of Men”

Photographer Unknown, (Holding Onto His Desire)

“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the same horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.”

― Zora Neale Hurston

Placebo, “Every Me Every You”, Live at Sziget

Placebo, “Every Me Every You”, Live at Sziget 2012

Current members
Brian Molko – lead vocals, guitars, bass guitar, keyboards (1994–present)
Stefan Olsdal – bass guitar, guitars, keyboards, backing vocals (1994–present)
Current touring members
Bill Lloyd – bass guitar, keyboards, piano (1996, 1998–present)
Fiona Brice – violin, keyboards, theremin, percussion, backing vocals (2008–present)
Nick Gavrilovic – guitar, lap steel guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (2009–present)
Matt Lunn – drums, percussion (2015–present)

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Carmelo Blazquez

Photography by Carmelo Blazquez, Photo Shoot, Model Unknown

Carmelo Blazquez is a Spainish photographer, living and working in Barcelona, who specializes in male photography. His works are characterized by its almost minimalist simplicity, highlighted with lights and shadows to emphasize the musculature. His photos, inspired by the art of the ancient world and the Renaissance masters, are a homage to the intimacy of the artist’s studio.