Month: August 2017

Jimmy Scott, “An Evening in Paradise”

“An Evening In Paradise”, the 1960 hit by the late male singer Jimmy Scott (aka Little Jimmy Scott) is blessed and highly favored by many of the music world.  His uniquely odd but very impressive countertenor vocals brought a swarm of attention which catapulted his music career.

Along with his striking voice, he also captivated many in his unusual stature as a young man, which ignited to shine even more of a spotlight upon him. He had  Kallmann syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that stagnated his height to 4 feet 11 inches. It wasn’t until the age of 37 that he grew another eight inches.

A great and distinctive voice. Most people do not know of him and his talent. Check out two of his other songs: “Day by Day” which was used in the soundtrack for the movie “Fences” and “Time After Time”. Great sounds.

Hannes Binder

Scratchboard Illustrations by Hannes Binder

Hannes Binder is a Swiss artist born in 1947. He studied art at a college of arts and crafts in Zurich, worked as a commerical artist in Milan, and then as an illustrator and commercial artist in Hamburg. He lives in Zurich and works as a freelance illustrator and painter.

Hannes Binder’s graphic novel, “Roman in Bildern”, was published in 2002 in Germany to critical acclaim. The original text of the 500 page novel was retold in a graphic format using his dramatic and impressive engravings. This story is also the subject of a Japanimation television series.

Ray Bradbury: “It’s All Firecrackers and Skeleton Toys”

Photographer Unknown, Day of the Dead Dancer

“Up in Illinois, we’ve forgotten what it’s all about. I mean the dead, up in our town, tonight, heck, they’re forgotten. Nobody goes to sit and talk to them. Boy, that’s lonely. That’s really sad. But here– why, shucks. It’s both happy and sad. It’s all firecrackers and skeleton toys down here in the plaza and up in that graveyard now are all the Mexican dead folks with the families visiting and flowers and candles and singing and candy. I mean it’s almost like Thanksgiving, huh? And everyone set down to dinner, but only half the people able to eat, but that’s no mind, they’re THERE. It’s like holding hands at a séance with your friends, but some of the friends gone.”
― Ray Bradbury

Egon Schiele

Egon Schiele, “Agony”, 1912, Oil on Canvas, 70 x 80 cm, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

At first strongly influenced by Klimt, whom he met in 1907, Schiele soon achieved an independent anticlassical style wherein his jagged lines arose more from psychological and spiritual feeling than from aesthetic considerations. He painted a number of outstanding portraits, such as that of his father-in-law, Johann Harms (1916; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City), and a series of unflinching and disquieting self-portraits. Late works such as The Family (1918; Oesterreichische Galerie, Vienna) reveal a newfound sense of security.

Hitting the Road: Jack

Photographer Unknown, (Hitting the Road: Jack)

“Hit the Road Jack” is a song written by the rhythm and blues artist Percy Mayfield and first recorded in 1960 as an a cappella demo sent to  Art Rupe. It became famous after it was recorded by the singer-songwriter-pianist Ray Charles with The Raelettes vocalist Margie Hendrix.

Charles’s recording hit number one for two weeks on the Billlboard Hot 100, beginning on Monday, October 9, 1961. “Hit the Road Jack” won a Grammy award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording. The song was number one on the R&B Sides chart for five weeks, thereby becoming Charles’s sixth number-one on that chart. The song is ranked number 387 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.

Ross Dickenson

Ross Dickenson, “Valley Farms”, 1934, Oil on Canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum

“Dickinson was a young artist employed by the Public Works of Art Project when he created this magical image of California’s farm country. Water, green grass and swelling earth conjure the promised land that John Steinbeck would describe in The Grapes of Wrath a few years later. But Dickinson introduced disquieting details, as if to suggest that danger exists even in paradise. The tiny fire in the field at lower right, probably set to burn dry brush, echoes a massive column of smoke across the hills in the distance. The hills themselves have the orange-red look of the rainless months, when California’s mountains become tinderboxes, and fires can sweep down into the valleys. Dickinson’s painting captures the fear underlying America’s hopes for better days during the Depression.”

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006

Thomas Hart Benton

Thomas Hart Benton, “Achelous and Hercules”, Detail, Egg Tempera and Oil on Canvas on Board, 1947

Achelous and Hercules is displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  The painting was executed in egg tempera and oil on canvas, and affixed to a plywood panel measuring 62⅞ by 264⅛ inches.

The central figure is the muscular, shirtless “Hercules” grappling with the horns of the bull. A second man, also wearing bluejeans and no shirt, stands by the bull’s haunch and holds the end of a rope that swirls into another man’s hand in the foreground, where the work of woodchopping has been interrupted. The bull’s tail points into the surging, wavelike woods that rise out of the distance; a barn and silo emerge from the woods to the right. The undulating line of the rope and tail visually connect the woodlands and the timber produced from it.

Achelous and Hercules was painted for display at Harzfeld’s department store in Kansas City. The store specialized in ready to wear clothing for women, and Benton later acknowledged that it was strange to see his work “in an atmosphere of silk nighties, pink slips and perfume.” It was his first mural commission since his historical murals for the Missouri State Capital ten years before.

In light of controversies over that project, Benton sought reassurance that Harzfeld’s corporate president, Lester Siegel, would refrain from trying to exercise artistic control. Siegel in turn asked that Benton observe a certain degree of decorum. After the store closed in 1984, its parent company Allied Stores Corporation made a gift of it to the Smithsonian through the institution’s Collections Acquisition Program.