A fine art, film, history and literature site oriented to, but not exclusively for, the gay community. Please be aware that there is mature content on this blog. Information on images and links to sources will be provided if known. Enjoy your visit and please subscribe.
Photographer Unknown, (Buzzed Head)
“I want you to see me naked and performing one or two dozen mad acts, which will take me less than half an hour, because if you have seen them with your own eyes, you can safely swear to any others you might wish to add.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quichotte
Paintings by George Underwood
Richard George Underwood is a British artist and musician. He is best known for designing album covers for numerous bands in the 1970s and his collaborations with long-term friend, singer-songwriter David Bowie.
George Underwood attended Bromley Technical School where he developed an interest in music alongside classmates David Bowie and Peter Frampton. Underwood and Bowie’s band, George and the Dragons, was short-lived due to Underwood punching Bowie in the left eye while wearing a ring on his finger, during a fight over a girl, causing paralysis in Bowie’s left pupil and his distinctive mismatched appearance. But the injury did not affect their friendship in the end, and Underwood went on to record one album with Bowie (in their band The King Bees) and also a solo record under the name Calvin James.
After deciding that the music business was not for him, Underwood returned to art studies and worked in design studios as an illustrator. Initially, he specialized in fantasy, horror and science fiction book covers, but as many of his colleagues were in the music business, they began asking him to do various art works for them. This led to him becoming a freelance artist.
Underwood established himself as a leading art illustrator doing album covers for such artists as Tyrannosaurus Rex (Futuristic Dragon), The Fixx (Phantoms, Reach the Beach and Calm Animals), Procol Harum (Shine On Brightly), Mott the Hoople (All the Young Dudes) and David Bowie (Hunky Dory and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars). Over this period, he produced hundreds of book covers, LP and CD covers, advertisements, portraits and drawings.
Keerych Luminokaya, Title Unknown, (Lizard), Computer Graphics
Keerych Luminokaya is a Russian-born visionary artist.
“Art-project Luminokaya lab. appeared as a result of a huge amount of data coming from the great field of energy and information in forms of light and energy waves, visions, images, dream-state objects, trans personal visions and visions beyond personality, and also symbols, signs and channeling. The vast amount of information offered by The Space didn’t allow to ignore this exciting and rich experience. My input was minimized to pressing the keyboard keys, and the awareness of infinity and abundance of the info-energy continuum can let me speak only about being a channel, or a medium. So, there can’t be any question of authorship.”
– Keerych Luminokaya
Photographer Unknown, (Expectation)
“When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that person’s life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”
―
Just Visiting: Unidentified Flying Object Paintings
“In the morning of April 14, 1561, at daybreak, between 4 and 5 a.m., a dreadful apparition occurred on the sun, and then this was seen in Nuremberg in the city, before the gates and in the country – by many men and women. At first there appeared in the middle of the sun two blood-red semi-circular arcs, just like the moon in its last quarter. And in the sun, above and below and on both sides, the color was blood, there stood a round ball of partly dull, partly black ferrous color. Likewise there stood on both sides and as a torus about the sun such blood-red ones and other balls in large number, about three in a line and four in a square, also some alone. In between these globes there were visible a few blood-red crosses, between which there were blood-red strips, becoming thicker to the rear and in the front malleable like the rods of reed-grass, which were intermingled, among them two big rods, one on the right, the other to the left, and within the small and big rods there were three, also four and more globes.” – Broadsheet news article by Hanns Glaser, letter painter of Nuremberg, published in Nuremberg, Germany, April 1561
Alison Saar, “Snakeman”, 1994, Woodcut and Lithograph Printed in Color on Oriental Paper, Image and sheet: 27 7/8 x 37 1/8 in.
Alison Saar is an American sculptor, painter and installation artist. She was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Laurel Canyon, California. Her parents were Betye Saar, a well-known African-American artist, and Richard Saar, an art conservationist. . She received a BA from Scripps College (Claremont, CA) in 1978, having studied African and Caribbean art with Dr. Samella Lewis. Saar’s thesis was on African-American folk art. She received an MFA from Otis Art Institute, now known as Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California in 1981.
Her sculptures and installations explore themes of African cultural diaspora and spirituality, and her studies of Latin American, Caribbean and African art and religion have informed her work. Saar’s fascination with vernacular folk art and ability to build an oasis of beauty from cast-off objects are evident in her sculptures and paintings.
Photoggrapher Unknown, (Catch of the Day)
Linkin Park, “Powerless”
What can one say? Great song by a great group. Enjoy.
Andrea Rich, “Thistle”, 2001, Woodcut on Hosho Paper, 50.8 x 60.1 cm, Edition: 4/30; Collection of Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin
Since 1980, internationally recognized woodcut printmaker and artist Andrea Rich has traveled the world observing wildlife in their natural habitat. Madagascar, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Africa and Europe are some of the places outside North America that she has visited in search of interesting subjects. She then designs her drawing based upon personal observations in the field, carves and hand-pulls prints in her studio in Santa Cruz California.
A typical print requires ten to twenty blocks. Working in the studio full time, a print could take two or three weeks to design and carve the blocks, and another two weeks to press as many as 20 colors on each print. Editions of her work generally number 30 or less.
Real Transportation
Many thanks to http://robiflintstone.tumblr.com for these great images. A fine photographer and a great blog.
Paul Beel, “Stefano with Wood”, O2000, Oil on Canvas, 90 x 100 cm, Private Collection
Paul Beel received his BFA and MFA from the School of Art at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. He did Post-Baccalaureate work at Studio Art Centers International, Florence, Italy, where he later taught painting and drawing.
Beel has had solo shows in Venice, Milan, Florence, Mantova, as well as in the US, and group shows in Spain, Germany, San Marino, Switzerland, London, and throughout Italy. He now lives and works in Germany.
Pasquale Autorino, “Les floraisons de L’Esprit”, Photo Shoot
Gyula Tornai, “The Holy Cleansing of the Samurai”, Oil on Canvas, Date Unknown, Private Collection
Gyula Tornai was born in 1861 in a small town in Hungary known as Görgö. He began his artistic career seeking a formal education in the academies in Vienna, Munich and Budapest where he studied under prominent artists such as Hans Makart and Gyula Benczúr.
Tornai’s style was heavily influenced by Makart’s aestheticism and tonality known as Makartstil (“Makart’s style” in German). The vibrantly colored and theatrical, large-scale paintings held a lasting effect on Tornai and are evident in the complex nature of many of his works.
Tornai began his career painting numerous genre scenes, however after his travels to more exotic locales, his choice of subjects changed dramatically. His early visit to Tangier, Morocco, in 1890-91, provided him with new motifs to explore.
In 1900 he exhibited many of the works he completed abroad at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Their immense success provided Tornai with the financial ability to continue his explorations and provoked him to travel for an extended period of time through China, Japan and India. Tornai often designed the frames for his paintings to complement the subject matter.
Thanks to http://monsieurlabette.tumblr.com for the image.
Sebastião Salgado, “Papua New Guinea”, Silver Gelatin Print, 2008
Sebastião Salgado is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist. He has traveled in over 120 countries for his photographic projects. Most of these have appeared in numerous press publications and books. Touring exhibitions of this work have been presented throughout the world.
Salgado is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He was awarded the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Grant in 1982, Foreign Honorary Membership of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and the Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in 1993.
Salgado and his work are the focus of the film “The Salt of the Earth” (2014), directed by Wim Wenders and Salgado’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. The film won a special award at Cannes Film Festival.
Thanks to http://providenzia.tumblr.com.