Month: May 2016

George Desvallière

George Desvallière, “Les Tireurs à l’Arc”, Pastel, 1895. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

At the start of the First World War, Desvallières joined up as a volunteer. Very quickly his men acknowledged him to be an unsurpassed leader, and demanded of his superiors that he be kept in his post, which was at first only a temporary appointment. Desvallières led his “chasseurs” across the Alsatian mountains for four years with determination, courage and a kindness recognised by all on the front.

In March 1915, his seventeen-year- old son Daniel was killed in action a few miles away from his father. This loss affected him deeply, but thanks to his convert’s faith, he was able to sublimate this terrible ordeal. All his post-war work is centred on the theme of the soldier’s sacrifice for his country, which he assimilates to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Some of his canvases are directly related to the War and to his son’s death, and his impressive wall-paintings on a similar theme made a profound impact on contemporary public opinion.

Georges Desvallieres

Georges Desvallieres, ”Ball Players”, Pastel, 1894

A native of Paris, Desvallières was a great-grandson of academician Gabriel-Marie Legouvé, and received a religious upbringing. He studied at the Académie Julian with Tony Robert-Fleury and with Jules Valadon at the École des Beaux-Arts. He painted portraits at first, but a relationship with Gustave Moreau turned him towards an interest in mythology and religion.

Desvallières became acquainted with ancient art during a trip to Italy in 1890, and upon his return began working in the style with which he was most associated, combining dark subjects and violent color with a dramatic conception of religion. He took as his subjects numerous symbolist characters, such as Narcissus (1901), Orpheus (1902), and The Marche Towards the Ideal (1903). He also served as one of the founders of the Salon d’Automne.

Alfred Stellmacher

Alfred Stellmacher, “Amphora Dragon Vase”

Born in the small town of Steinheid, Germany, Alfred Stellmacher worked in ceramic factories in the area, mastering his craft. He founded his first porcelain factory in 1876 at Turn, Slovenia, which produced porcelain flowers. Stellmacher developed, during the 1870s, a mew ceramic material known as ivory porcelain due to its yellow shade and matte finish. This allowed the artist to develop more complex modeling and detailing of shapes.

At the Paris World Exhibition in 1889, Alfred Stellmacher received the Gold Medal for his works. He helped form a new company in 1892, known as ‘Amphora I”, a division of the Reissner, Stellmacher & Kessel porcelain factory in Turn. The company’s goal was to create luxury porcelain objects. A collection from the company received the highest award at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago and, later, the Gold Medal at the San Francisco Exhibition. Amphora I received numerous awards for its work from 1893 to 1904, at which time the main designers left to form their own separate firms.

Buckhead1111

Photography by Bulkhead1111

“Photographers should follow their own judgment, and not the fads and dictates of others. Photography is still a very new medium and everything is allowed and everything should be tried and dared… Photography has no rules. It is not a sport. It is the result which counts, no matter how it was achieved.”

— Bill Brandt [Photographer, b. 1904, Hamburg, Germany, d. 1983, London.]

Ruffino Tamayo

Graphic Work by Rufino Tamayo

Rufino Tamayo’s legacy in the history of art lies in his oeuvre of original graphic prints in which he cultivated every technique. Rufino Tamayo’s graphic work, produced between 1925 and 1991, includes woodcuts, lithographs, etchings and “Mixografia” prints. With the help of Mexican painter and engineer Luis Remba, Tamayo expanded the technical and aesthetic possibilities of the graphic arts by developing a new medium which they named Mixografia.

This technique is a unique fine art printing process that allows for the production of prints with three-dimensional texture. It not only registered the texture and volume of Rufino Tamayo’s design but also granted the artist freedom to use any combination of solid materials in its creation. Rufino Tamayo was delighted with the Mixografia process and created some 80 original Mixographs. One of their most famous Mixografia is titled Dos Personajes Atacados por Perros (Two Characters Attacked by Dogs).

Tom Killion

Five Woodcut Engravings by Tom Killion

Californian-born Tom Killion takes inspiration from 19th century Japanese prints to recreate epic engravings of American landscapes. He describes his technique, tongue-in-cheek, as “faux ukiyo-ë” to emphasize his aesthetic debt to the landscape prints of early 19th century Japan, but also to acknowledge his embrace of early 20th century European / American wood-engraving and book illustration techniques and styles as well. Among his influences are both the Japanese ukiyo-ë landscape masters Hokusai and Hiroshige, but also European and American wood-engravers such as Eric Gill and Rockwell Kent.

Killion carves his images into cherry, all-shina plywood, Amsterdam linoleum and other block materials using Japanese handtools. He prints his often elaborate, multi-colored images on handmade Japanese kozo papers using oil-based inks and a German hand-cranked proofing press.

City Hall Subway Station

Abandoned City Hall Subway Station, New York City

If you ride the Number 6 train to the end of the line and get off at the Brooklyn Bridge stop, you’re missing out on something incredible. As the train loops around to go back uptown, it passes through the abandoned and beautifully preserved City Hall Station from 1904.

The station, with a maximum use by only 600 people a day, was closed by the City of New York Because the loop created an unsafe gap at the platform. In 1995 the city vowed to restore the site and turn it into a part of the transit museum, but those plans were scrapped years later.

The station is still not open to the public, but there’s a trick you can use to see it for yourself. Until recently the MTA would force passengers to get off before the train made the loop, but now passengers are allowed to stay on. So the next time you reach the end of the line, stay on the train as it rolls through the City Hall Station.