Category: art

John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent, “Sketch for Perseus on Pegasus Slaying Medusa”, 1922-1924, Oil and Graphite on Canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

In one version of the birth of Pegasus, the flying horse, it states the horse was miraculously formed when the blood of Medusa’s severed head poured onto the foaming sea, and out of this foam it came. Another version said the horse came out of the slain body of Medusa and upon the horse was a warrior called Chrysaor, born carrying a golden sword.  The Pegasus story states that Perseus gave the head of Medusa to the goddess Athena in gratitude for her help and in reprisal for what Medusa had done to Athena’s temple.

In Sargent’s depiction, he seems to combine the elements of the entire story: the slaying of Medusa, the birth of Pegasus, and the presenting of Medusa’s head to Athena all in one. He also, very cleverly, has kept faithful to the constellation of Pegasus, the stars in the sky aligned correctly to the position of Pegasus in his sketch.

Ando Hiroshige

Ando Hiroshige, “Suido Bridge and Suruga Hill”, Number 63 from the “One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo” Series, 1857, Color Woodcut, Chazen Museum of Art

Ando Hiroshige was a Japanes ukiyo-e artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. He is best known for his landscapes, such as the series “The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido” and “The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kiso Kaido”, and for his depictions of birds and flowers. The subjects of his work was atypical of the genre, whose typical focus was on beautiful women, popular actors, and scenes of the urban pleasure districts of Japan’s Edo period.

In 1856, Hiroshige retired from the world,  becoming a Buddhist monk; this was the year he began his “One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo” series.  He died aged 62 during the great Edo cholera epidemic of 1858 and was buried in a Zen Buddhist temple in Asakusa.

RAW: Number Six

Cover Art for Raw, Number Six, 1984, Published by Raw Books and Graphics, New York

“Raw” was a comics anthology edited by Art Spiegelman, a cartoonist best know for his graphic novel “Maus”, and Françoise Mouly, a Paris-born designer and editor. The anthology ran from 1980 to 1991. It was a flagship publication of the 1980s alternative comics movement, serving as a more intellectual counterpoint to Robert Crumb’s visceral “Weirdo”, which followed in the underground tradition of “Zap” and “Arcade”. The anthology “Raw” was one of the main venues for European comics to reach the United States at that time.

“Raw” featured a mix of American and European contributors, including some of Spiegelman’s students at the School of Visual Arts, as well as various contributors from other parts of the world. These included the Argentine duo of José Muñoz and Carlos Sampayo , the Congolese painter Chéri Samba, and several Japanese cartoonists known for their work in “Garo”, a monthly manga magazine. Though comics were the main focus, many issues included galleries of non-comics illustration and illustrated prose or non-fiction pieces.

Centaur and Lapith

Centaur and Lapith, Metope South XXVII, Acropolis of Athens, Greece

The metopes of the Parthenon are the surviving set of what were originally 92 square carved plaques of Pentelic marble originally located above the columns of the Parthenon peristyle on the Acropolis of Athens. If they were made by several artists, the master builder was certainly Phidias. They were carved between 447 or 446 BC. or at the latest 438 BC, with 442 BC as the probable date of completion. Most of them are very damaged. Typically, they represent two characters per metope either in action or repose.

The Ghost Trees

Artist Unknown, (The Ghost Trees), Computer Graphics, Gif

“Each leaf that brushed his face deepened his sadness and dread. Each leaf he passed he’d never pass again. They rode over his face like veils, already some yellow, their veins like slender bones where the sun shone through them. He had resolved himself to ride on for he could not turn back and the world that day was as lovely as any day that ever was and he was riding to his death.”
― Cormac McCarthy, Child of God

Ron English

Ron English, “Temper Tot”, 2017, White Limoges Porcelain

Revisiting his “Temper Tot” figure again in May of 2017, Ron English has partnered with K.Olin Tribu once more to issue an edition of the “Temper Tot” form in porcelain, this new version featuring black decoration on the character’s torn pants. Standing roughly 7-inches tall, 4-inches wide, and 2½-inches deep, this new version of English’s terrifically strong and terrifyingly immature “Temper Tot” was limited to an edition of 50 pieces, each completely finished and reworked by hand to ensure the finest quality, The porcelain was kept free of enamel to ensure that all the details of its musculature are defined and prominent.

As for the intent behind the “Temper Tot” character, it embodies the “combustible amalgamation of unbridled id and unbounded brawn”, as the solicitation text for the original vinyl sculpture stated, and “all misdirected anger and prideful immaturity” as well as being “more self-possessed than self-aware, both jealous of and threatened by the image of himself he presents to the world”.

Peter Diamond

The Illustrations of Peter Diamond

Peter Diamond is a Canadian illustrator based in Vienna, Austria. born in Oxford, England, He received his BFA in Fine Arts at NSCAD University located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In addition to his freelance work, Diamond teaches drawing at Illuskills and works with the international illustration community through the European Illustrators Forum. He is represented internationally by The Loud Cloud.

Peter Diamond’s work owes much of its character to the album covers and self-published comics that were his special focus in art school and the early years after graduation, as well as the punk gig posters of his teenage years.