Month: May 2018

Michael Lantz

Michael Lantz, “Man Controlling Trade”, 1942, Limestone, Federal Trade Commission Building, Washington, D.C.

In 1938, Michael Lantz won the competition to design two sculptures for the Apex Building, home of the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. The widely publicized “Apex Competition” was the largest American sculpture competition ever held, receiving almost five hundred models from more than two hundred artists. Lantz submitted small models of his designs, each showing a heroic figure straining to control a powerful horse. The final, seventeen-foot-long statues were completed in 1942 and installed outside the eastern entrance of the Federal Trade Commission building, where they can be seen today.

A Native to His Homeland

A Native to His Homeland

“In the landscape of my native land, a stranger in my own fields–I had a homeland where the Duero flows between gray cliffs and the ghosts of ancient oaks, there in Castile, mystic and warlike, graceful Castile, humble and boastful, Castile of arrogance and power, in the fields of Andalusia where I was born, I long to sing!  My childhood memories are here, images of palm trees and sun against a golden brilliance, distant bell towers with storks, city streets without women under an indigo sky, deserted squares where blazing orange trees ripen with round vermillon fruit, and in a shady garden, the dusty branches of a lemon tree, pale yellow lemons reflected in the clear water of the fountains. The scent of lilies and carnations, pungent odor of basil and mint. Images of gloomy olive groves under a torrid sun that blinds and dazes, winding blue mountan ranges under the red glow of an immense afternoon; but if the thread that links memory to the heart is missing, the anchor to the shore, these memories are soulless.In their ragged dress, they are remnants of memory, castoffs the mind drags along. One day, annnointed with light from below, our virginal bodies will returen to their ancient shore.― Antonio Machado, Campos de Castilla 

Eduard Wiiralt

Eduard Wiiralt, Title Unknown, Lithograph, 1926-34, Private Collection of Juhani Komulainen

Eduard Wiiralt was a well-known Estonian graphic artist, considered as a master of Estonian graphic arts in the first half of the 20th century. At the age of 17 Wiiralt entered Tallinn School of Applied Art where the Estonian painter and draughtsman Nikolai Triik exerted a srong influence on his work. Wiiralt continued his studies in Tartu at the art school Pallas in the sculpture studio of Anton Starkopf, learning the art of engraving.

Durig the period of 1922-23 his works contained a influence of the current German Expressionism. In 1924 he graduated form the Graphics Art Department of the Pallas school and led its graphic studio during the following year. He moved to Paris in 1925, remaining there without interruption until 1938. It was in Paris that he created his etching entitled “Hell”.

In 1937 the International Graphic Exhibition in Vienna recognized him as the leading engraver in Europe, honoring him with its Gold Medal. Wiiralt lived and worked in Marrrakesh, Morocco for six months starting in July of 1938, when he returned back to his homeland Estonia. At the end, he lived in Sceaux, a commune in Southern Paris until his death at the age of 55 in 1954. His complete work consists of some 450 engravings, etchings, wood engravings and lithographs in collections in Europe and America.

Calendar: May 14

A Year: Day to Day Men: 14th of May

The Soft Shadow of the Sun

On May 14, 1970, Billie Burke, the American actress, died of natural causes at the age of 85.

Billie Burke, born Mary Burke, was an American actress who was famous on Broadway, in early silent films and later in sound films. As a child, she toured the United States and Europe with her father, a singer and a clown for the Barnum and Bailey Circus. At the age of nineteen, Burke began acting on stage, making her debut in London in “The School Girl”. She eventually returned to America to star in Broadway musical comedies.

Burke played leads on Broadway in the plays “Suzanne”, “The Runaway”, and “The Land of Promise” during the years from 1910 to 1913, along with a supporting role in the revival of “The Amazons”. It was during this revival that she caught the eye of producer Florenz Ziegfeld who married her in 1914.

Burke was soon signed for movies and made her debut in the 1915 film “Peggy”. Her success was phenomenal, and she was soon earning what was reputedly the highest salary ever granted to a motion picture actress up to that time. By 1917 she was a favorite with silent movie fans, rivaling Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford. Burke starred primarily in provocative society dramas and comedies. The star’s girlish charm rivaled her acting ability; and as she dressed to the hilt in fashionable gowns, furs and jewelry, she became a fashion trendsetter in the 1920s.

In 1937, Burke appeared in the first of the “Topper” films, about a man haunted by two socialite ghosts, played by Cary Grant and Constance Bennett, in which she played Cosmo Topper’s wife, the twittering and daffy Clara Topper. In 1938 at the age of 54, she was chosen to play Glinda the Good Witch of the North, in the musical film “The Wizard of Oz” directed by Victor Fleming and released in 1939. This became her iconic role among future film viewers.

Billie Burke was 75 when she made her final screen appearance as Cordelia Fosgate in John Ford’s 1960 western “Sergeant Rutledge”. After this film she retired from acting and lived in Los Angeles until her death. For her contributions to the film industry, Billie Burke was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 with a star located at 6617 Hollywood Boulevard. Her fame is also in the stars: a crater near the north pole of the planet Mercury is  named after her.

Adam Collier Noel

Adam Collier Noel, “ Hunting the Hart (For Frida)”, Collage, Painting

“The “For Frida” series utilizes paper ephemera consisting of receipts, handwritten letters, playing cards, blue prints, etc. as a way of constructing my own nostalgic portraits. A silhouette is then transferred over the collage leaving revealing a figurative window of my found object composition. The black squares act as the framework for a void or missing part of the individual.            – Adam Collier Noel

Image reblogged with thanks to the artist’s site: http://adamcolliernoel.tumblr.com

The Musician in the Wooded Dell

Photographer Unknown, (The Musician in the Wooded Dell)

“… To remember,

to hear and remember, is to stop

and walk on again

to a livelier, surer measure.

It is dangerous

to remember the past only

for its own sake, dangerous

to deliver a message

you did not get.” 

—-Wendell Berry, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry

Source: darkbeautymag

Illustrations for “Lord of the Flies”

Various Artists’ Illustrations for  “Lord of the Flies”

“Somewhere over the darkened curve of the world the sun and moon were pulling; and the film of water on the earth planet was held, bulging slightly on one side while the solid core turned. The great wave of the tide moved further along the island and the water lifted. Softly, surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon’s dead body moved out towards the open sea.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies

Calendar: May 13

A Year: Day to Day Men: 13th of May

The Perfection of His Repose

May 13, 1856 was the birthdate of British writer and photographer, Peter Henry Emerson who first promoted photography as an independent art.

Peter Emerson was born on the Palma Estate, a sugar plantation in Cuba, belonging to his American father and British mother. He spent his early years in Cuba, but moved to England in 1869, after the death of his father. He was schooled at Cranleigh School in Surrey and later at King’s College London, before switching to Clare College in Cambridge in 1879. There he earned his medical degree in 1885.

Emerson bought his first camera in late 1881 to be used on bird-watching trips with his friend, the ornithologist A.T. Evans. In 1886 he was elected to the  Council of the Photographic Society and abandoned his career as a surgeon to devote his time to writing and photography, initially influenced by naturalistic French painting but gradually turning more to experimentation.

During his life Emerson fought against the British photographic establishment on a number of issues. In 1889 he published a controversial and influential book “Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art”, in which he explained his philosophy of art and straightforward photography. The book was a direct attack on the popular tradition of combining many photographs to produce one image that had been pioneered in the 1850s.

This method allowed the production of images that, especially in early days, could not have been produced indoors in low light, and it also made possible the creation of highly dramatic images, often in imitation of allegorical paintings. Emerson denounced this technique as false and claimed that photography should be seen as a genre of its own, not one that seeks to imitate other art forms. All Emerson’s own pictures were taken in a single shot and without retouching.

Emerson also believed that the photograph should be a true representation of that which the eye saw. Following contemporary optical theories, he produced photographs with one area of sharp focus while the remainder was unsharp. He vehemently pursued this argument about the nature of seeing and its representation in photography, to the discomfort of the photographic establishment.

Le Thi Kim Bach

Le Thi Kim Bach, “The Painter Nguyen Gia Tri”, Lacquer on Wood, Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts Museum

Kim Bạch was born in Hoc Mon district (now Ho Chi Minh city), South Vietnam. In 1954, she moved to the northern communist area as a result of the socio-political situation, which caused major turmoil in the lives of a great number of Vietnamese. She studied first in Hanoi, which later became her second home, before pursuing her studies at the Soviet National Fine Arts University in Kiev, Ukraine. In 1967 she returned to Vietnam, and taught for nearly three decades at the Industrial Fine Arts University of Hanoi.

Vietnam has a complex history of modern art involving indigenous forms like lacquer and silk art, as well as influences from French colonialism, American imperialism, Marxist-inspired propaganda art from both China and Russia, and now post-colonial globalism. Incorporating lacquer painting as well as Chinese silk painting and Japanese woodcuts into the fine arts, many artists have drawn inspiration from ancient lacquer works.

The artistic career of Kim Bach can be divided into two periods. During the first period, in the 1960s and 1970s, she produced oil paintings mainly on the theme of revolutionary war; during the second “Post Doi Moi” period, she painted portraits, landscapes, and still lifes on silk and experimented with lacquer. These periods are marked less by a distinctive break in style than by logical changes consistent with developments in her personal emotional life and those in Vietnamese society at large.

Andres Gallardo Albajar

Andres Gallardo Albajar, “Great Wall of China”, 2018

In February of 2018, architectual photographer Andres Gallardo Albajar had expected to create the same tourist-filled images as others who visited the architectural feat of the Great Wall. However when he arrived, he found a thick fog encapsulating the structure. This particular weather added further mystery to the deserted landscape Albajar captured in this photo series.

“I was expecting big amounts of people, even lines to access or things like that, but for my surprise there was very few people, which allowed me to capture the wall with no people, which in my opinion helps to create a more surreal and magic feeling,” – Andes Albajar

Calendar: May 12

A Year: Day to Day Men: 12th of May

Green Lives on Water

Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow-Up” wins the Grand Prix at Cannes on May 12, 1967.

“Blow-Up” is a 1966 British-Italian mystery thriller film directed by Antonioni about a fashion photographer who believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film.  This film was Antonioni’s first production entirely in English. The actor in the film’s photographer role was David Hemmings, chosen by Michaelangelo Antonioni after Sean Connery turned down the role. Hemmings at that time was not a major star but acting in small theater productions in London.

There were several known stars in cast of this film, Including John Castle and Vanessa Redgrave. However there were several noted cameo roles. One of these cameos was the musical group The Yardbirds, who performed “Stroll On” near the end of the film and smashed their instruments. In that scene of the nightclub, Michael Palin, not yet a member of Monty Python, can be seen in the crowd watching the Yardbirds.

The plot was inspired by a short story by Julio Cortazar entitled “The Devil’s Drool”, based in part  on the life of swinging London photographer David Bailey. The film was scored by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock- the first of his many soundtracks. Except for the music for the opening and closing title and credit sequences, the music is diegetic. Herbie Hancock noted: “It is only there when someone turns on the radio or puts on a record”.

“Blow-Up” won the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film in the main competition section of the 1967 Cannes Film Festival- the highest honor of the festival. The film was also nominated in the categories of Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best British Film for the 1967 Academy Awards.

The American release by MGM, a major Hollywood studio, of this counter-culture era film with its explicit sexual content was in direct defiance of the contemporary standards of the Production Code. MGM did not gain approval for this film. The film was also condemned by the Nation Legion of Decency, a United States Catholic organization which rated films. The collapse of the Production Code was foreshadowed when MGM released the film through a subsidiary distributer and “Blow-Up” was shown widely in North American cinemas despite the code. In 1968 the MPAA rating system was established when the Code was abandoned.