#famous pop art artists 1950s

[thesimline]

DRAG DOLLS AS9 E2.2 - DRAG IMITATES ART

The second category of the All Stars 9 Paint Ball was 'Drag Imitates Art', which had the queens turn the works of famous artists into fabulous outfits. I was honestly shocked no one made reference to Roy Lichtenshein's ICONIC pop art creations, so of course I had to give it a go myself. Naturally these artworks lend themselves to retro 1950s styling and I kept the colour palette to bold primary hues. How cool is that halftone make up by the way?!

OUTFIT RESOURCES

Hair | Skin | Face Shading | Lashes (TSR) | Eyeshadow (TSR) | Face Paint (TSR) | Mascara Tears | Lipstick (TSR) | Nails (TSR)

Earrings (Base Game) | Scarf (TSR) | Dress | Accessory Top (TSR) | Bracelet | Tights (Get To Work) | Shoes | Phone

With thanks to some amazing creators: @daylifesims @emmibouquet @simandy @pralinesims @satterlly @jius-sims @candycottonchu

[bettiepagetheblackangel]

William Hess Ward "Bill Ward" (1919-1998)

[ The Wonderful Pen of William Hess Ward "Bill Ward" (1919-1998) / La maravillosa pluma de William Hess Ward "Bill Ward" (1919-1998) ]

Bill Ward (1919-1998) was an American cartoonist and illustrator best known for his contributions to the comic book industry and his creation of risqué pin-up art. Born William Hess Ward on March 6, 1919, in Brooklyn, New York, Ward grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey. He began his artistic career at the young age of 17, illustrating "beer jackets" for a dollar each. Ward went on to study at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, graduating in 1941. Ward's first credited works appeared in Fawcett's "Spy Smasher" #2 and "Bulletman" #3 in 1941-1942. Beyond comics, Ward became renowned for his pin-up and glamour art. He created illustrations for men's magazines. His work was characterized by voluptuous female figures and risqué themes. Bill Ward's contributions to the world of comics and illustration have left a lasting impact on the industry. His unique style and famous creation, Torchy, have secured his place in the history of American cartoonists and pin-up artists. His illustrations and pin-up art remain popular among collectors, with pieces frequently appearing in auctions.

Bill Ward (1919-1998) fue un dibujante e ilustrador estadounidense, mejor conocido por sus contribuciones a la industria del cómic y su creación de atrevidas obras de arte pin-up. Nacido como William Hess Ward el 6 de marzo de 1919 en Brooklyn, Nueva York, Ward creció en Ridgewood, Nueva Jersey. Comenzó su carrera artística a la temprana edad de 17 años, ilustrando "chaquetas de cerveza" por un dólar cada una. Ward continuó sus estudios en el Pratt Institute de Brooklyn y se graduó en 1941. Los primeros trabajos acreditados de Ward aparecieron en "Spy Smasher" #2 y "Bulletman" #3 de Fawcett en 1941-1942. Más allá de los cómics, Ward se hizo famoso por su arte pin-up y glamoroso. Creó ilustraciones para revistas masculinas. Su obra se caracterizó por figuras femeninas voluptuosas y temas atrevidos. Las contribuciones de Bill Ward al mundo del cómic y la ilustración han dejado un impacto duradero en la industria. Su estilo único y su famosa creación, Torchy, le han asegurado un lugar en la historia de los dibujantes y artistas pin-up estadounidenses. A día de hoy sus ilustraciones y su arte pin-up siguen siendo populares entre los coleccionistas y sus piezas aparecen con frecuencia en subastas.

Although they did not live in the same state nor are there any records of them having met in person, Bill Ward frequently used Bettie Page as inspiration and reference for his pin-up illustrations. In fact, Ward made numerous drawings and caricatures based on Page's iconic photographs. This artistic connection between Ward and Page was very significant in 1950s pop culture and pin-up art, even though they apparently never met in person. Ward's Page-inspired illustrations helped further cement the model's iconic status.

Aunque no vivían en el mismo estado ni hay registros de que se hayan conocido personalmente, Bill Ward utilizó frecuentemente a Bettie Page como inspiración y referencia para sus ilustraciones de pin-ups. De hecho, Ward realizó numerosos dibujos y caricaturas basados en las icónicas fotografías de Page. Esta conexión artística entre Ward y Page fue muy significativa en la cultura pop y el arte pin-up de los años 50, a pesar de que aparentemente nunca llegaron a encontrarse en persona. Las ilustraciones de Ward inspiradas en Page ayudaron a cimentar aún más el estatus de ícono de la modelo.

[ritikarajpal04]

5 most popular art styles you must know about

1)Abstract

Abstract art, born in the early 20th century, focuses on conveying emotions and ideas through shapes, colours and forms. Abstract art does not focus on painting the exact picture but rather one that is detached from realistic depictions. The famous Russian artist, Wassily Kandinsky embraced this style and used vibrant hues and geometric shapes to express inner realities.

Abstract art focuses on telling a story through imagination rather than exact words and figures

2)Modern

Modern art period was from the 1860s to the 1970s and marked a period of artistic styles that were separate and different from past traditions. Artists explored new perspectives and experimented with styles and techniques through which they wanted to redefine art’s purpose. Kind of similar to Abstract style, modern art too parted away from storytelling and believed in ‘less is more’. Influential painters like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin etc were the pioneers of the style.

3) Pop art

The Pop Art movement came in during the 1950s and was a celebration of popular culture and consumerism through vibrant colors and everyday objects. Andy Warhol, an iconic figure in Pop Art, created famous pieces such as ‘Campbell's Soup Cans’ and ‘Marilyn Diptych’ using mass-produced imagery to challenge conventional and traditional art notions.

4) Cubism

Cubism came as a revolutionary art form in the early 20th century. It transformed European art and with time inspired music, literature and architecture. Cubism, instead of showing objects from one viewpoint, breaks them down and reassembles them in abstract forms, offering multiple perspectives to depict subjects within a broader context. Widely regarded as the most influential 20th-century art movement, Cubism was led by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

5) Surrealism

Surrealism as an art form emerged post-World War I, depicting illogical scenes to express the unconscious mind. Led by Andre Breton, it aimed to blend dreams with reality, creating ‘surreality’ as many put it. Artists used surprise and odd combinations in paintings, writing and film. While focusing on bizarre imagery, many Surrealists prioritized expressing philosophical ideas, considering their art as a result of surreal experimentation rather than the central focus of their movement.

By,

Ritika Rajpal

[unknownworlds4]

As we near the end of pride month, I would like to celebrate a number of LGBTQ+ figures that may be unknown to some.

Alan Turing (1912 - 1954)

Alan Turing was British mathematician, cryptologist, and computer scientist who is credited as the founder of modern computer science and artificial intelligence. During World War II, he worked for Britain’s Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, leading the effort to decrypt German naval intelligence. Turing created a number of methods and devices that helped crack the German Enigma Code and allowed the allies to read German intelligence and allow allied ships to avoid U-Boat ‘Wolf-packs’. Turing’s work was pivotal in helping the allied victory in the war. Sadly, Turing was arrested in 1952 for homosexual acts and convicted of ‘gross indecency’. He accepted chemical castration as an alternative to prison. In 1954, was found dead from suicide by cyanide poisoning. It’s believed that Turing’s work helped shortened the war by several years.

Harvey Milk (1930 - 1978)

Harvey Milk was a politician and the first openly gay man to serve in public office in the United States. Milk moved to San Francisco in 1972 and took up residence in the Castro District, a neighborhood that was heavily populated by lesbians and gay men, and opened a camera store called Castro Camera. Milk became involved in politics because of civic issues and policies that drew his ire. Homosexuality was still heavily persecuted in the city at the time. In 1973, he announced his declared his candidacy for city supervisor. However, he faced a negative reception from the established gay political scene and lost the election. He lost his second election two years later. By this point, Milk had become a leading figure in the gay community, known as the “Mayor of Castro Street”, and had allies that included Mayor George Moscone, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, and future Senator Diane Feinstein. Finally, in 1978, Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, inaugurated January 8. During his tenure he was involved in a number of issues including childcare, housing, and police reform. Sadly, he only served eleven months in office before he, along with George Moscone, was assassinated by former supervisor Dan White, who was against many of Milks policies. Today, Harvey Milk is considered an icon of San Francisco and a martyr of the LGBTQ movement.

Rose Cleveland (1846 - 1918)

Rose Cleveland was the sister of U.S. President Grover Cleveland and, as such, acted as First Lady of the United States from his inauguration until he married Frances Folsom in 1886. After leaving the White House she became a teacher, writer, and lecturer in Indiana. At age 44 she started a romantic relationship with wealthy widow Evangeline Marrs Simpson. They exchanged numerous letters, some with explicitly erotic imagery. The relationship cooled after six years after Simpson married Episcopal preacher Bishop Henry Whipple, despite Cleveland’s protests. After Whipple died in 1901, their relationship resumed. Cleveland and Evangeline moved to Bagni di Lucca, Italy in 1910, where they cared for Evangeline’s ill brother and settled there after his death. They lived there together until Cleveland died during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. After her death, Evangeline wrote “the light has gone out for me…the loss of this noble and great soul is a blow that I shall not recover from”. Evangeline died in 1930 and is buried in the cemetery in Italy next to Rose. Many of their letters remain an important part of LGBTQ history.

Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987)

Andy Warhol was an American artist, director, and producer who was a leading figure in the pop art movement of the 1950’s to 1970’s. This movement focused on combining fine art with elements of popular culture, hence the name pop art. Warhol’s paintings focused on mass produced consumer goods and celebrity portraits. Warhol’s most famous pieces include Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962), Green Coca-Cola Bottles (1962), Marilyn Diptych (1962), and Mao Tse-Tung (1972). He also directed and produced experimental films including Empire (1964) and Chelsea Girls (1966). His New York City gallery, The Factory, was a popular gathering place for artists, musicians, actors, socialites, and celebrities. In 1966, he became the manager of rock band The Velvet Underground, which became the house band of The Factory. In 1969, he created Interview magazine, which features interviews with celebrities, artists, musicians, and other creatives. Warhol lived openly as a gay man before the gay liberation movement and had a series of male partners. He said his sexuality was a major influence of his work. Warhol died on February 22, 1987 due to complications from a gallbladder surgery. Andy Warhol is regarded as one of America’s most famous visual artists.

Gladys Bentley (1907 - 1960)

Gladys Bentley was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Her career took off after performing at Harry Hansberry’s Clam House, a well known gay speakeasy in New York City. She gained popularity as a black, lesbian, cross dressing performer. She performed in men’s clothes and was backed up by a chorus of drag queens. She sang with a deep, growling voice, and took popular songs and added her own raunchy lyrics while flirting with women in the audience. Despite being openly lesbian in the beginning of her career, she later started wearing dresses and married during the more conservative 1950’s in order to adapt to the mindset of the time period. Bentley died of pneumonia in 1960 and is remembered as an icon of both the LGBTQ and Black communities.

Willem Arondeus (1894 - 1943)

Willem Arondeus was an openly gay Dutch artist and writer who fought for the Dutch resistance against Nazi occupation during World War II. Prior to the war, he wished to work as an artist, but he found very little popularity, so he turned to writing instead. After Germany occupied The Netherlands, Arondeus joined the Resistance Movement, publishing underground periodicals and forging documents. His most famous endeavor, was his involvement in the bombing of the Amsterdam Civil Registry in 1943. The Civil Registry was established following the German invasion and occupation of the Netherlands in 1940 and was used to keep records of all residents of the country and identified those who were Jewish, resistance members, and those who could be called up for forced labor. On March 27, resistance members, including Arondeus, entered the building by disguising themselves as police officers and sedating the guards. They then piled all the documents on the floor and set of explosives. They fire department delayed putting out the fire and then doused the whole building with water. 800,000 ID cards were destroyed in total. Unfortunately, someone betrayed Arondeus and he was subsequently arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. Before his execution, his last words were “tell people that homosexuals are not cowards”.

Gilbert Baker (1951 - 2017)

Gilbert Baker was an American artist and designer who is the original creator of the LGBTQ Rainbow Pride flag. He joined the anti-war movement in the 1970’s where he met, and became friends with, Harvey Milk. Milk commissioned Baker to create a flag that could represent gay pride. Using the American flag as inspiration, Baker hand sew the original flag, which had eight colored stripes (two more than the modern version). Each color represents a different aspect important to the gay community: (from hot pink to violet) sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic, serenity, and spirit. The flag was first flown in San Francisco on June 25, 1978, for gay pride day. Baker died in 2017, and is regarded as a major figure in the pride movement. Today there are many different variations of the Pride flag, with each one representing a different group from the gay community

Larry Kramer (1935 - 2020)

Larry Kramer was an American playwright, author, film producer, and gay rights activist, who worked to bring awareness to the AIDS crisis in the 1980’s. He began his career writing scripts for Columbia pictures, winning an Academy Award for the 1969 film Women in Love. After witnessing the disease later known as AIDS spread among his friends, Kramer became involved in gay activism. In 1982, Kramer co-founded Gay Men’s Health Crisis, now known as GMHC, which provides social services for those infected with AIDS, along with testing, legal assistance, and mental health support. It’s currently the largest AIDS assistance organization in the world After, growing frustrated with the government paralysis and apathy towards gay men, he wanted to engage in further action, so in 1987, he helped found the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). ACT UP is a direct action protest organization that works to change legislation and public policy to end the AIDS crisis. ACT UP soon had chapters in cities all over the United States. The movement then spread internationally, with separate movements being established in other countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, India, and Germany. In 1992, Kramer wrote the play ‘The Destiny of Me’, which follows a character from his 1985 play ‘The Normal Heart’ seeking experimental treatment for AIDS. The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The Normal Heart debuted on Broadway in 2011, and was adapted into an HBO movie in 2014. Kramer died of pneumonia on May 27, 2020.

Bessie Smith (1894 - 1937)

Bessie Smith was an American blues singer, nicknamed the ‘Empress of Blues’. She was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930’s. Smith stated her career busking in the streets to help her family financially. In 1912, she auditioned for a music troupe that included blues legend Ma Rainey. She was originally hired as a dancer. Smith began her solo career at the 81 Theater in Atlanta, Georgia. She signed with Columbia Records in 1923. She made 160 recordings for Columbia, accompanied by some of the most famous musicians of the day including Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, and Sidney Bechet. She became the highest paid black entertainer of the day. Throughout her career, smith was apologetically herself, having affairs with both men and women. Some speculate her bisexuality was hinted at in the lyrics of her songs, including ‘boy in the boat’: “when you see two women walking hand in hand/Just look ‘em over and try to understand/They’ll go to those parties/Having the lights down low/Only those parties where women can go”. Sadly, her career was cut short in 1937, when she died at the age of 43 due to injuries sustained in a car accident enroute to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her funeral was attended by more then 5,000 people. In 1989, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with an entry saying her reign was “definitive, unprecedented, and glorious”.

James Baldwin (1924 - 1987)

James Baldwin was an American writer who gained critical acclaim across multiple forms, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. In 1953, he published his first book ‘Go Tell it on the Mountain’, a semi-autobiographical novel which tells the story of a young African American man who grew up in Harlem, New York City, and his relationship with his family and the Pentecostal Church. In 1998, Modern Library ranked the book 39th on its list of 100 best English language novels of the 20th century. In 2005, Time Magazine included the book in its list of the 100 Best Novels from 1923 (when Time was first published) to 2005. In 1956, Baldwin wrote ‘Giovanni’s Room’ whose main character was a gay American man living in Paris, France, who began an affair with an Italian bartender named Giovanni, whom he met at a Gay bar. Gay and Bisexual men are also frequently featured in his other works. His unfinished manuscript Remember This House was expanded and adapted in the 2016 Oscar nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro, which won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary. His 1974 novel ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ was adapted into a movie in 2018, which won Best Supporting Actress for Regina King at the 91st Academy Awards, where the film was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score. King also received Best Supporting Actress at the 76th Golden Globe Awards and 24th Critics Choice Awards. Both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute included it in their top 10 films of 2018. Today, James Baldwin is considered one of the most famous LGBTQ writers in American history.

[scotianostra]

April 22nd 2005 saw the death of the sculptor and artist Eduardo Paolozzi

Paolozzi’s Italian parents ran a small ice cream parlour in Leith, in June 1940, when Italy declared war Eduardo was interned (along with most other Italian men in Britain).During Eduardo’s three-month internment at Saughton prison his father, grandfather and uncle, who had also been detained, were among the 446 Italians who drowned when the ship carrying them to Canada, the Arandora Star, was sunk by a German U-boat.

There is little online about his internment and you wouldn’t have condemned him if he decided to leave Scotland after his release, the words of a Proclaimer’s song always springs to mind when I read about Eduardo Paolozzi, and other Scots=Italians:

Joseph D'Angelo dreams of the days

When Italian kids in the Grassmarket played

We burned out his shop when the boys went to war

But auld Joe's a big man and he forgave all

By the time Eduardo was released it was 1943 and he began attending Edinburgh College of Art before moving to London and feigned madness to secure his release from army duties in order that he could study sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1944 to 1947.

Paolozzi is widely considered to be one of the first Pop artists and created many collages including the famous ‘I was a rich man’s plaything’ in 1947, which was the first artwork to feature the word ‘Pop’ in it.

After a spell in Paris he returned to London and moved into a studio in Chelsea and by the 1950s was establishing himself as a surrealist artist through a series of screen-prints, pioneering the technique in which each print can have a separate colourway, predating Warhol’s famous prints of the same nature by four years.

In 1968 Paolozzi taught sculpture and ceramics at the University of California, Berkeley. He worked in Berlin from 1974, and was Professor at the Fachhochschule in Cologne from 1977 to 1981. He also later taught at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich.

Paolozzi might have spent many years away from his home town of Edinburgh but didn’t forget it, he donated a great deal of work to the Scottish National Gallery, who have since displayed a reconstruction of his studio and a large body of his work in the Dean Gallery.

If you have wandered around Edinburgh and visited St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral you will have come across Eduardo Paolozzi statues, “Manuscript of Monte Cassino” which comprises a giant foot and matching hand and ankle. The work was a gift to the city by entrepreneur Tom Farmer, the work is found outside St Mary’s RC Cathedral, I like how the area there has three pieces of art, on the left at Picardy Place you can enjoy a statue of Sherlock Holmes, and on the right you have two giant Giraffes outside the Omni Centre made of scrap metal.

Eduardo Paolozzi suffered a serious stroke in 2001 and he died in a hospital in London in April 2005.

The pics I have chosn are all held by The National Gallery of Scotland, if you like his work you will find loads of it on their website, over 12 hundred are tagged in his name. https://www.nationalgalleries.org/search?search=eduardo%20paolozzi

[dinana27]

Findings your personality based on your own paintings

Art is the expression of human creative skill based on own imagination, emotions or inspiration of something. typically in a paintings tend to use emotions and feelings to paint something, such as abstract, realism, pop art, and cubism. The types of paintings certainly have different application techniques and different types of paint. So the result can produce different painting characters, this difference has to do with your own personality such as how you express your emotion in a color. Dark colors are identical with deep meaningful paintings, while bright colors are identical with cheerful and happy emotional expressions. But brightly colored paintings are not always supposed to be happy, some famous painters like Vincent van Gogh who has schizophrenia and is diagnosed have influenced his paintings. Your paintings can be analyzed by matching your paintings with existing types of paintings.

Abstract

If you have a style of art that is highly expressive, subjective, and non-representational you might have an abstract art style, people like you are deeply creative and insightful, abstract art is all about the expression of representation of your soul through colors, patterns, and lines. People like you are often brave and not afraid to try new things, always open to new experiences and ideas.

Realism

The second type is realism, according to several studies, people who love Realism art are very outgoing and honest. Since you see the word as it is, you tend to be straightforward when dealing with certain matters. Realists were likely to be methodical, agreeable, and responsible.

Pop art

Pop art is the art style from the United Kingdom and the United States during the mid-to late-1950s. Using bold colors and flat compositions to present art that could almost double as commercial ads. This art style is used in comics, posters, food commercials, and others. Pop art lovers like you are fun, loving, excellent to be around, extroverted, and daring to be different.

Cubism

Cubism is an art style of the 20th century that was created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914. The Cubist style has a two-dimensional surface of the picture plane. The application of multiple perspectives to show different aspects of the same subject. People who have this art style tend to think critically, are not easy to guess, and have a different view from others.

Do you agree with this result? At some point, personality can be seen from the MBTI personality test, but if you are an artistic person or like to paint you can try a personality test based on your art style.

[ashitakaxsan]

Creator Leiji Matsumoto Died

It’s been many years since I watched the anime movie Arcadia of My Youth,by director Tomoharu katsumata.I remember with fondness this movie.So it hit me hard when I read that the Legendary Creator  Leiji Matsumoto died,on February 13 .

   The prolific man was born with the given name Akira in 1938 at Kurume City,Fukuoka Prefecture, and he debuted as a manga artist in 1953 with Michibachi no Bōken (Honeybee's Adventure) while he was still in high school.   After graduating high school, he moved to Tokyo and became popular in the 1950s as a shōjo manga creator under a pen name. He then adopted his most famous pen name, Leiji Matsumoto, in 1965.

 His notable works include Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, and Queen Emeraldas — all of which inspired multiple anime or live-action adaptations — and he contributed designs and created the tie-in manga for Space Battleship Yamato. He also supervised animated music videos for French electronic pop group Daft Punk's Discovery album, and the videos were strung together into the INTERSTELLA 5555 film. His designs and works have influenced multiple generations of artists around the world.

Below Emeralda

In 2001 Matsumoto was awarded the "Medal with Purple Ribbon" honor, and in 2010 he was awarded with the "Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Rosette." In 2012 he received the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) decoration from the French government.

Matsumoto was hospitalized in Turin, Italy in November 2019,  but his condition eventually stabilized the following day. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that it was suspected that he had a stroke at the time of his collapse and that he was in serious condition. He was discharged that December.

My conclusion

The man was an outstanding Creator who made his dream Real.He was making mechanical designs that varieded from sleek warships(inspired by early 20th century dreadnoughts) to fantastical space trains.he created marvelous space opera series,with supporters even today. His characters similarly ranged from cartoonish or caricatured designs to grounded, realistic figures.To me he’s a Great Sensei,who died proud for brilliant manga,anime he crafted:)

[jeremiekroubodagnini]

THE ROCKET-LIKE RISE OF LEE SCRATCH PERRY INTO THE CONTEMPORARY ART WORLD

© Reggae.fr / On The Roots Kevin Buret  - 2016.

Lee Perry: A Pop Artist

Altogether dancer, singer, musician, producer, eccentric, visionary, shaman and genius, Lee “Scratch” Perry is to Jamaican music, some would say, what Sun Ra is to free jazz, George Clinton to funk or Salvador Dali to painting. Born in 1936, in the small town of Kendal in Jamaica, Lee “Scratch” Perry participated in a concrete way in each of the important stages of the history of Jamaican music. A true pillar of reggae and dub, his innovations have left their mark on many other musical genres around the world, including: US rap; UK punk, jungle, ambient and trip-hop; Japanese electronic music; without forgetting European techno and avant-garde music. Today, Lee Perry is no longer of this world, in the flesh at least. He died late August 2021 at the age of 85. Nevertheless, his name unquestionably stays in vogue. It is still on the lips of pop stars like the Rolling Stones, The Orb, The Roots and Major Lazer, and we can also gradually hear it spreading in the contemporary art world.

The Black Ark: Sound and Image

Lee Perry always evolved into a very personal visual universe, starting with his legendary home recording studio, the Black Ark, at the origin of the most innovative sounds of the second half of the 1970s in Jamaica. Originally thought to be a sort of sanctuary for Rastafarians, the Black Ark was a very confusing place, whose walls were covered in cryptic inscriptions and floors served as dumping grounds for installations and other DIY projects, all of them being zanier than the next – a sculpture was even embedded inside one of the walls, says his ex-wife, Pauline Morrison, in People Funny Boy written by David Katz (2000: 324).

© Adrian Boot, circa 1977/ 1979. Part of JKD’s private photo collection.

This Baroque environment was part of the eccentric personality of the genius producer, embodied in an increasingly extravagant look and outfits over the ages: during his final years, he used to dye his hair and beard yellow, green of even pink, and he was decked out in completely fantastical clothes, personalised with pins and other fanciful objects. And when he was not wearing his famous golden baseball cap, adorned with glittering CDs, badges or religious illustrations, he was wearing a Native American feathered war bonnet or a wizard hat.

© Lee Scratch Perry painting in his studio in Switzerland (Blue Ark), 2018. Photo: Lorenzo Bernet. Courtesy: The Visual Estate of Lee Scratch Perry / suns.works.

© Lee Scratch Perry wearing his wizard hat in his studio in Switzerland (Blue Ark), 2019. Photo: Lorenzo Bernet. Courtesy: The Visual Estate of Lee Scratch Perry / suns.works.

It is more than clear Lee “Scratch” Perry was an artist with a capital A, a complete, total, full-time artist who did not switch to Rainford Hugh Perry (his real name) in private and who did not lock himself into a single box: the one of music. He did not play a role, he lived through his art full-time and was attracted as much to sounds as to visuals. Indeed, the latter played a significant role in his galaxy, in his symbolism, in his perception of the world. According to Perry himself, the image was the preferred channel for conveying messages (often subliminal), it was therefore necessary for him to be wary of them and to be able to reappropriate them. In some way, it can enable us to understand his involvement (conscious or unconscious) in the visual arts, which by the way was not recent. Indeed, reading his brilliant biography written by David Katz, we can easily realize that Perry had always been interested in his physical and cultural environment, the objects that surrounded him as well as the pop culture into which he loved to dig.

Even in the late 1950s, long before he began his musical career, when he worked in construction in Negril and drove bulldozers, Perry focused his attention on the noises associated with construction work and the energies of machines as they came into conflict with nature, one can read in People Funny Boy. He even reported an almost supernatural experience, resulting in his departure from this seaside resort located at the far western part of Jamaica to the capital Kingston in the early 1960s: “I get an overload from throwing stones down there for maybe two weeks. I started making positive connection with stones, by throwing stones to stones I start to hear sounds. When the stones clash I hear the thunder clash, and I hear lightening flash, and I hear words, and I don’t know where the words them coming from. These words send me to King-stone: to Kingston” (2000: 8).

Until the end of his life, stones occupied a pre-eminent place in his resolutely mystical universe. He regularly collected them, piled them up, carried them to various places, and even cooked them in a pot on the fire. In the late 1970s, that is precisely what happened, says Pauline Morrison, in their home in Washington Gardens, Kingston, which also housed his legendary recording studio.

“Pauline has claimed she was preparing a meal one afternoon when she noticed an odd smell coming from the kitchen. When she checked the pot, she found that Scratch had emptied the simmering contents into the mud of the yard, substituting a pan full of rocks in their place on the fire” (2000: 324). “If you see our house, this guy write all kind of shit on the wall, on the fence…” (2000: 323). And the Jamaican singer, Vicky Nelson, added, “my foot would be in paint, I would get rocks and all those nature things” (2000: 345).

As Pauline Morrison and Vicky Nelson suggest, Lee Perry also paid a great importance to writing and painting at the time of Black Ark. We must indeed go back very far in time to understand the links he developed with the visual arts and everything encompassed by this generic term: calligraphy, graffiti, assemblages, collages, installations, and painting among others. In short, everything that would make up his artistic inventory alongside his music. Lee “Scratch” Perry had always been a compulsive sketcher and graffiti artist, feeling a certain need to fill, if not to say overload, empty surfaces. From the end of the 1970s onwards, he even seemed to pay as much attention to the decoration of his studio as to musical production at times.

"Jean-Michel Basquiat himself called him a significant source of inspiration for his paintings"

Moreover, it is not surprising that at that time Lee Perry also commissioned art from Rastafarian artist Jah Wise to decorate the Black Ark. Indeed, he had the walls surrounding the studio decorated with huge, multicoloured murals painted by Robert Van Campbell aka Jah Wise.  A portrait of Haile Selassie was placed just above the door so that all would have to ‘bow’ to Jah upon entering or leaving; to the left of his head was Selassie in his feline form as the Conquering Lion of Judah.  Another wall had a life-size mural of the Super Ape, tree and spliff in hand, while the inside of the studio depicted African ancestors in chains and Rastafarian tri-colour flags.  As time passed, such images would be altered and re-cast as Perry sought to express different concepts; like the music that was coming from inside the studio, its illustrated walls would seldom remain static.  He also erected a sign with a ‘Management Order’ by the front gate, proclaiming that the premises included the site of a private house where women and children lived; all who sought to enter were to wait for official permission and once inside, were to refrain from using indecent language. (In People Funny Boy, French edition, 2012: 476-477).

© Adrian Boot, 1978. Lee Perry and his son, Mark (aka Omar), at the Black Ark. In the background there is a glimpse of the “Super Ape” painting done by Jah Wise. Part of JKD’s private photo collection.  

Lee “Scratch” Perry outside Black Ark Studios, Jamaica, 1977, premium footage from  the Don Letts Archive available on YouTube.

All things considered, Lee Perry’s artistic source of creation originated far away back in time and widely developed during the seething cultural period of the Black Ark. Back in the 1970s, Lee Perry was already considering himself as a multi-disciplinary Artist and was already in contact with avant-garde people not only from Jamaica but also from England (Don Letts, John Lydon from the Sex Pistols, The Clash etc.).

After the Black Ark was destroyed by fire on one morning in the summer of 1983, Lee Perry experienced a very long period of exile, first in England, then in Switzerland where he moved out at the end of the 1980s with his new and last wife, a sultry queen of the Zurich nightlife, born Mireille Ruegg, only daughter of a couple of Swiss restaurateurs, who would become his manager. It was then that he started to show more and more interest in art, in a more professional way shall we say, the collections of four-handed paintings executed with British visual artist, Peter Harris, first between 2007 and 2009, then between 2014 and 2015, constituting a very good illustration of the extent of his pictorial work.

The Meeting with British Visual Artist Peter Harris

“How does a 40-year-old white British artist meet up with a 70-year-old black shaman from Jamaica and make a real connection? I am not a Rastafarian black man from the ghettos of Trench Town, I am a lower middle class Catholic son of an absent submariner father who moved from place to place and, as a consequence, has no ‘roots’ to speak of. This has led to a lifetime of what I suspect will be an unachievable search for home. I have lived through a series of popular culture ‘father figures’ who have been inspirational guides such as Bob Dylan, Francis Bacon, Johnny Rotten and Picasso, and Lee is one I’ve been lucky enough to meet in person. […] Lee’s experience and understanding - or “overstanding” - of Babylon is very different to my version of it.  Lee’s version of Babylon might come from the Rasta’s view of western society as being corrupt, a world of ‘politricks’ and oppressors of Rastafarians. My version of Babylon is also about a society that oppresses our lives, but it is more about the unrelenting trajectory of existence.  It might go something like this: birth, school, dreams, peer pressure, music, drugs for fun, student loans, love, jobs, depression, pressure, holidays, insecurity, mortgage, drugs for escaping, children, stress, peer pressure, cars, responsibilities, doubts, reality, panic attacks, bills, new clothes. In it but not of it, pets, vet bills, gym, mid-life crisis, new haircuts, hair loss, beer bellies, guilt, cigarettes, alcohol, food, cancer, medicine, pensions, fear, death” (interview conducted with Peter Harris by JKD, 2014).

In February 2005, Lee “Scratch” Perry responded positively to a request from Peter Harris who wanted him to be in a film he was working on, called Higher Powers.  “I wanted different sorts of people who represented different kinds of higher powers,” Harris explains, “almost archetypal people.  It might be a powerful gangster outside the law or a police chief, to someone with a spiritual higher power, or someone who totally doesn’t believe in higher powers.  For the creative higher powers, or the visionary people, I thought of Ken Russell and Lee Perry” (2012: 898).

The concept was an appealing one for Perry, so permission was granted for Harris to film him at home on February 14th. The British visual artist interviewed him on various themes such as: destiny, faith, redemption, luck, love, doubt, etc. He then returned to London to edit the results. Subsequently, Peter Harris planned further filming sessions with Perry for the same film project. On October 1, 2007, Peter Harris' film, Higher Powers, was screened for the first time at the Lüneburg Art Hall in Germany. Perry appeared in the company of such controversial personalities as former gangster Dave Courtney, gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, Conservative politician Boris Johnson, Reverend Joanna Jepson (who has campaigned against the use of abortion for “eugenic reasons”), paranormal spoon-bender Uri Geller, Tibetan Buddhist monk Akong Tulku Rinpoche, and conspiracy theorist David Icke (2012: 910). Some years earlier, Harris had approached performers such as David Bowie, Siouxsie Sioux and members of the Stranglers, for ideas that he could turn into paintings; with a similar concept in mind, Harris returned to Switzerland in November 2007 to make a series of collaborative drawings with Lee Perry, ultimately inducting Perry into the world of fine arts. 

“I’d done a Self-Portraits by Proxy series before,” Harris explains, “in which every person who had affected my life and influenced me, I asked for an idea, and then made that idea into a painting, but with Lee, it was a bit different.  I called him up and said, ‘I’ve got these themes from the film, and I want you to give me the first image that comes into your head’; I’d say, ‘Luck,’ or whatever, and he would come up with some mad image, and I’d make it a drawing.  Then I took all the drawings to his place in Switzerland, and he said we should cut them up; he was remixing them, like a record, taking something from one drawing and placing it with another, and it was more like a ceremony, or an Obeah ritual, so he spent a lot of time trying on different hats and costumes, as if he was getting into character.  We started work at seven, and worked right through till four in the morning, and he had one CD that was just on repeat the whole time” (2012: 911).

On September 10th, Perry performed a special live dub set at London’s Tabernacle, with Adrian Sherwood at the mixing desk and live video animation behind him, as the climax of the “Higher Powers” art exhibition arranged by Peter Harris, which showcased the drawings the pair had produced in 2007, as well as a number of collaborative paintings they made together in Switzerland on August 15th 2009.  The artwork dealt with typical Perry themes, such as social injustice, religious dogma, the unequal distribution of wealth, sex, and personal vengeance; some of the paintings bore the man’s handprints and footprints as well, while both paintings and drawings were marked by Perry’s declamatory graffiti (2012: 920). Images of the painting sessions carried out jointly by Peter Harris and Lee Perry in 2007 and 2009 as well as footages from the Tabernacle exhibition are viewable in the documentary, Lee Scratch Perry's Vision of Paradise, directed by Volker Schaner in 2015, an excellent film which also retraces the unusual trajectory of Lee Perry and clearly reflects the great part that art played in his daily life.

Lee Scratch Perry’s Vision of Paradise by Volker Schaner.

And as for the hundred works of art that the two artists made together between 2014 and 2015, they draw their inspiration from the Bible, from the Book of Revelation in particular.“With its tales of evil deeds, redemption and the apocalypse. It is rich in imagery, metaphor and parables. A parable is not a literal thing. It would not make sense to our modern minds, informed by readily available facts, to take it so. Language and visual language are vehicles for getting at some ‘truth’ as truth is often inexpressible” (interview conducted with Peter Harris by JKD, 2014).

This meeting with Peter Harris was clearly a step forward for Lee Perry into the world of contemporary art.

“Ja Pay” © Peter Harris and Lee “Scratch” Perry, biro pen and permanent marker pen on paper, 42 x 42 cm, 2007.

“Zis Is Black Ark” © Peter Harris and Lee “Scratch” Perry, collage, biro and pencil on paper, 42 x 42 cm, 2007.

“Judgement Com Yow” © Peter Harris and Lee “Scratch” Perry, marker pen, oil, acrylic paint on canvas, 123 x 109 cm, 2009.

“Super Ape” © Peter Harris and Lee “Scratch” Perry, biro pen, marker pen, felt tip and gold leaf paint on paper, 30 x 42 cm, 2014-2015.

“Super Man in Space” © Peter Harris and Lee “Scratch” Perry, biro pen, marker pen, felt tip and gold leaf paint on paper, 30 x 42 cm, 2014-2015.  

The Rise of Lee Perry into the Contemporary Art World

A contemporary artist status confirmed by his induction into the Pantheon of sculptures made by Xavier Veilhan - using a 3D scanner - and held simultaneously in New York and Paris in the spring of 2015. During this double exhibition organised around music and simply named “Music”, the French visual artist wanted to pay tribute to the great music producers who had been shaping the soundtrack of our time, including Philippe Zdar, Pharrell Williams, Quincy Jones, Daft Punk, Rick Rubin, Brian Eno and Lee “Scratch” Perry. The latter therefore appeared in this impressive list of geniuses (around twenty in total), whose collectors are now snapping up statues made from a range of varied materials (from wood to metal through polyurethane resin).

“Lee Scratch Perry”, © Xavier Veilhan, “Music” exhibition, aluminium-filled polyurethane resin, plywood, acrylic paint, varnish, 122,5 x 62 x 86 cm, 2015.

What followed was a portrait (on paper this time) dedicated to him by the monthly art French magazine, Beaux-Arts, in 2017, on the occasion of the exhibition “Jamaica Jamaica!” held at the Paris Philharmonic (April 4-August 13, 2017), where the above-mentioned statue created by Xavier Veilhan was moreover exhibited.

© article published on 23 May 2017 by Magali Lesauvage in Beaux-Arts.

Lee Perry made the front cover of other art magazines, such as the Italian biannual, Kaleidoscope, in 2020-2021.

© Kaleidoscope, number 37, 2020-2021.

Finally, alongside all this, Lee Perry's visual artworks have been the subjects of numerous personal and group exhibitions around the world, starting with his very first solo exhibition held at the Californian gallery Dem Passwords from November 13 to December 11, 2010 under the name “Secret Education”.

© Dem Passwords, « Secret Education » exhibition, 2010.

Three other solo exhibitions were organised by this same gallery in 2013 (“Repent Americans” from April 20 to June 15), 2014 (“The Death of Baphomet” from August 29 to October 11) and 2016 (“Judgment Repentance God Order” from June 16 to July 30).

"these many art exhibitions around the world have coincided with the new curatorial team responsible for the visual estate of Lee “Scratch” Perry and headed by Lorenzo Bernet (...) this new, fresh and dynamic curatorial team seems to come up with creative and innovative ideas"

In that same year, Lee Perry also did an art show in New York, from June 29 to July 29, 2016 as part of a collective exhibition entitled “A Being in the World” and held at Salon 94 on the lower east side of Manhattan. His pieces of work were thus exhibited alongside those of a very heterogeneous panel of artists, including the African-American self-taught artist and former slave, Bill Traylor (1854-1949), and Maia Ruth Lee (born in 1983 in South Korea).

© Dem Passwords, « Judgement Repentance God Order » exhibition, 2016.

Then, Lee Perry multiplied international shows: at the Swiss Institute in New York in 2019, at the 2021 São Paulo Bienal, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome in 2022, and at the Cabinet Gallery in London as well as at the 2023 Art Cologne international art fair, just to name a few. In total, Lee Perry actively took part in no less than fifteen international exhibitions between 2016 and 2023, and almost half of them in the last couple of years, which is the guarantee of a rocket-like rise on the contemporary art scene. Regarding this latter point, it is crucial to emphasize that these many art exhibitions around the world have coincided with the new curatorial team responsible for the visual estate of Lee “Scratch” Perry and headed by Lorenzo Bernet, a Zurich-based gallerist, curator and art dealer who is also the man behind the suns.works gallery. Therefore, it might be no exaggeration to say that this art world rocket rise relates to this new, fresh and dynamic curatorial team that seems to come up with creative and innovative ideas.

“Flood Sun” © Lee Scratch Perry, collage, markers and acrylic on wooden board, 60 x 100 cm, 2020. Courtesy: The Visual Estate of Lee Scratch Perry / suns.works.

“Genesis” © Lee Scratch Perry, collage and acrylic on paper, 70 x 50 cm, 2020. Courtesy: The Visual Estate of Lee Scratch Perry / suns.works.

“Pisces and Aries (Yin Yang)” © Lee Scratch Perry, collage and acrylic on canvas, 170 x 140 cm, 2020. Courtesy: The Visual Estate of Lee Scratch Perry / suns.works.

It is also important to underline the presence of some of his drawings, paintings, collages and other installations in the collections of art aficionados like Sir Raymond Douglas Davies aka Ray Davies (former songwriter and lead vocalist for the legendary British rock band the Kinks), English record producer Adrian Sherwood (Coldcut, Depeche Mode, Primal Scream, Sinéad O'Connor, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Dennis Bovell), Mexican producer, remixer and composer Camilo Lara, and the British artist couple formed by Tim Noble and Sue Webster, as well as prestigious institutions such as the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht (NL). Others should soon be included in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Jamaica as well as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington which currently investigates, along with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Afrofuturist expression through art, music, and activism among others: an exhibition (March 23, 2023 – August 18, 2024) in which Lee “Scratch” Perry appears next to avant-garde jazz legend Sun Ra and the leader of African American Funkadelic style George Clinton - the threesome being tied to raw, original and pioneering Black aesthetic forms. And again, one owes this real tour de force to the new curatorial team headed by Lorenzo Bernet!

“Blue Ark (studio view)” © Lee Scratch Perry, 2016-2021. Photo: Camille Spiller. Courtesy: The Visual Estate of Lee Scratch Perry / suns.works.

“Blue Ark with TV Sculpture (studio view)” © Lee Scratch Perry, 2016-2021. Photo: Camille Spiller. Courtesy: The Visual Estate of Lee Scratch Perry / suns.works.

“Blue Ark (studio view)” © Lee Scratch Perry, 2016-2021. Photo: Claude Barrault. Courtesy: The Visual Estate of Lee Scratch Perry / suns.works.

Last but not least, the resale of some of his artworks at auctions needs to be mentioned too, let alone the fact that Jean-Michel Basquiat himself called him a significant source of inspiration for his paintings, according to multi-disciplinary artist Lee Jaffe as well as the Gagosian Quarterly (Winter 2021 Issue).

A whole set of signals which suggests a more than bright future for Lee “Scratch” Perry in the modern and contemporary art world.

“Vanity Struck Me in My Tooth”, © Lee Jaffe in collaboration with Jean-Michel Basquiat, acrylic on Cibachrome print, 203 x 122 cm, 1983.

“Avenge” © Peter Harris and Lee “Scratch” Perry, marker pen, oil, acrylic paint on canvas, 124 x 95 cm, 2009. This work of art has been bought by Adrian Sherwood; it can be seen in the video below shot in 2022 in the deck-out living room of the producer.

Horace Andy : Tiny Desk (Home) Concert.

Books :

People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee “Scratch” Perry, David Katz, 2000, Canongate Books, 538 pages.  

Lee “Scratch” Perry: People Funny Boy, David Katz, 2012, Camion Blanc, 990 pages (French edition).

 People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee “Scratch” Perry, David Katz, 2021, Orion Publishing Group Limited, 688 pages (revised and expanded English edition).

Lee Scratch Perry: Black Ark, Andreas Koller & Lorenzo Bernet (Ed.), publication expected in July 2024, Edition Patrick Fey, 600 pages (500 illustrations).

Films :

Lee Scratch Perry’s Vision of Paradise, Volker Schaner, 2015, 100 min.

This article is the English, revised and expanded version of my paper published on Reggae.fr on 30 November 2023. © Jérémie Kroubo Dagnini (JKD).

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 9.18

Beer Birthdays

Louis X, Duke of Bavaria (1495)

Henry Stuart Rich (1841)

Elmer Hemrich (1890)

Don Barkley

Paddy Giffen (1950)

Jeff Lebusch (1957)

Five Favorite Birthdays

John Berger; art critic, writer, artist (1926)

June Foray; voice actor (1917)

Leon Foucault; French physicist (1819)

Tim McInnerny; English comedian, actor (1956)

Jonny Quest; cartoon character (1964)

Famous Birthdays

Eddie "Rochester" Anderson; actor (1905)

Lance Armstrong; cyclist (1971)

Frankie Avalon; pop singer (1939)

Lord Berners; English composer (1883)

Robert Blake; actor (1933)

Rossano Brazzi; actor (1916)

Jimmy Brogan; comedian (1948)

Joanne Catherall; pop singer (1962)

Kiki Daire; porn actor (1976)

Agnes de Mille; dancer, choreographer (1905)

Debbi Fields; cookie-maker (1956)

Tara Fitzgerald; English actor (1967)

Michael Franks; jazz musician (1944)

James Gandolfini; actor (1961)

Greta Garbo; Swedish actor (1905)

Bud Greenspan; sports journalist, filmmaker (1926)

Keeley Hazell; English model, actor (1986)

Samuel Johnson; English writer (1709)

Joe Kubert; comic book artist (1926)

Kerry Livgren; rock guitarist, keyboardist (1949)

James Marsden; actor (1973)

Elmer Henry Maytag; appliance manufacturer, cheesemaker (1883)

Jada Pinkett; actor (1971)

Dee Dee Ramone; rock bassist (1952)

Jimmie Rodgers; country singer (1933)

Ronaldo; Brazilian soccer player (1976)

Joseph Story; U.S. Supreme Court justice (1779)

Jason Sudeikis; comedian, actor (1975)

Aisha Tyler; actor, comedian (1970)

Jack Warden; actor (1920)

Fred Willard; comedian, actor (1939)

[one-album-wonders]

Welcome to March Madness of American Rock Bands

This March, we will determine the greatest American rock bands of all times through Tumblr polls! Over the course of the month, you will get to choose among 256 bands to decide which one is best!

So how do bands qualify?

AMERICAN

All of the bands in this competition are from the 50 United States and the District of Columbia. I actually tried (and failed) to have a band representing each state, but I believe that the country overall is well-represented.

ROCK

I've allowed the broadest definition of the term "rock" to include bands that have recorded popular music in the US from the 1950s to today. Genres and subgenres represented will include acid rock, alternative rock, art rock, blues rock, country rock, dance music, electronic music, folk rock, funk, glam rock, grunge, heavy metal, industrial, new wave, pop, power pop, punk, reggae, r&b, rock and roll, rockabilly, ska, soft rock, soul, surf music, yacht rock, and more!

BAND

Every contestant must have two or more permanent members and a band name to qualify as a band. Some of the bands may have an individual who is more recognized (such as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band) but are included because the band is recognized by name. While no artists truly works alone, any artist (such as Billy Joel) who recorded only under an individual's name are not included, even if they had a regular band that they toured and recorded with.

SELECTION PROCESS

As noted above, I tried to find the most famous bands from each state. I also included every American band inducted or nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Most bands that had a number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 were also included. I also included some of my personal favorites, but nothing too obscure, I hope.

SCHEDULE

The bands have been grouped together into four regions: CENTRAL, NORTHEAST, SOUTH, and WEST. Because California and New York/New Jersey have so many bands, you'll find a few of them competing outside of their logical region. Just consider them on tour.

March 1-8: REGIONAL QUALIFIERS

The bands will compete in groups of four with the top two vote recipients advancing to the next round. There will be 8 polls per day for a total of 64 in this round.

March 10-13: REGIONAL FINALS

The bands will compete in groups of four with the top two vote recipients advancing to the next round. There will be 8 polls per day for a total of 32 in this round.

The top 64 bands will advance to the National competition which is head to head knockout polls.

March 15-18: NATIONALS ROUND ONE (64 contestants)

March 19-20: NATIONALS ROUND TWO (32 contestants)

March 22-23: SWEET SIXTEEN

March 24-25: ELITE EIGHT

March 27-28: FINAL FOUR

March 30: THIRD PLACE

March 31: CHAMPIONSHIP

[fashionbooksmilano]

Jasper Johns The Screenprints

Fondazione Trussardi

Roberta Bernstein

Allemandi & C., Torino 1998, 52 pagine, 18 ill.a colori e grande tavola ripegata 7 volte fuori testo di cm128, libro di 22,5x33,5cm., ISBN 88-422-0820-5,

euro 50,00

Mostra Milano Marino alla Scala Art Center

Jasper Johns experimented with seriality, materiality, and appropriation and helped bridge Abstract Expressionism with the modernist art movements that followed, including Pop Art, Minimalism and Conceptualism. Johns often pushed the same motif across various media to explore new possibilities for the image. In his famous paintings of the American flag, Johns referenced both concrete iconography and his own previous versions of artworks. Abstract hatchings are another signature motif for Johns. On paper and canvas, these marks highlight the artist’s conscious control of gesture and form: a major divergence from the bravura brushstrokes of Johns’s Ab-Ex predecessors. Johns spent semesters at the University of South Carolina and Parsons School of Design before dropping out and joining the army. In the 1950s, he was part of New York’s avant-garde arts scene alongside longtime friend, lover, and collaborator Robert rauschenberg. He has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Tokyo, Cologne, and San Francisco, among other cities. His work belongs in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art N.Y., the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Tate Gallery and Nationalmuseum  in Stockholm.

17/03/24

[discworldwitches]

what do you mean art became a commodity because of genocide? (genuine q)

tw for discussion of the shoah/holocaust

.

while ofc people bought and sold art, commissioned art, and there were art houses like christie's, art didn't really become an investment commodity until the 1960's, after world war ii and the holocaust/shoah.

during the shoah, nazi's stole a tonne of art from museums + nations but also individuals--mostly from jews many of whom were the subjects of paintings, art collectors, friends w artists, art dealers, etc. some of these works were burned, some went into nazi + collaborators collections such as goring's , some of them were lost, some were kept in caves and were ultimately damaged beyond repair, some of them eventually entered into museums like the belvedere (that's a reference to the story of the bloch-bauers), and a large amount (1.5 k) were marked destroyed and then kept by this war profiteer and art "dealer" hildebrand gurlitt.

after the holocaust, a lot of art was missing, destroyed, or missing provenance (which verifies that that piece is real + authentic and is what gives art its value on the market--without provenance, art loses values in huge amounts). some of the art stolen from jews ended up in the hands of collectors and art houses like sotheby's. then in the 1950's the impressionist and modern art dept. in sotheby's opens (which is the type of art chiefly being stolen from jews). then in 1958 there is the huge record-breaking sale of the goldschmidt collection--a collection auctioned off by the nazis in the 40's and somehow ends up in england at sotheby's...

here's a quote abt this famous 1958 event:

It has often been said that the modern art market was born at 9:30 pm on 15 October 1958, a time and date which corresponds to a sale that ended with a total of almost $20.2 million in today’s money, an impressive record at that time. On that evening, the traditional way of auctioning artworks was transformed into a glamorous and ‘modern’ event. Peter Wilson, Sotheby’s newly appointed chairman, literally stage-managed the sale of seven paintings from the Jakob Goldschmidt collection. It was not only the first evening sale, but also the first “Gala sale”, i.e. by invitation only, with ball gowns for the ladies and dinner jackets for the men. Moreover, the television cameras, also newly invited, focused on socialites and movie stars.

x

so basically this event launched the modern art market. following that in the 60's, art becomes an investment and something that celebrities/people of acclaim definitely want to get their hands on. art shoots up in prices. much of the art on the 50's-60's market that's costing millions of dollars is art stolen by the nazis.

art only continued to grow in value in the 60's and on. christie's and sotheby's competed to break records of how big the sales could be. i found this cover on sotheby's when refreshing my memory on these events:

[id: image of andy warhol on the cover of newsweek next to one of his pop-art portraits of marilyn monroe. the contents advertised next to warhol are typed out in white font: Art for Money's Sake; On the Block: the Warhol Collection; The Booming Art Market. end ID]

x

i learned about this in uni so a lot of this is from my memory and a brief review of notes/articles linked above. sorry this is so long lol.

if you want to learn more i'd look at herman goring, the degenerate art exhibition, hildebrand gurlitt + his son cornelius, and the book the lady in gold by anne-marie o'connor just to get started.

i also wasn't referring specifically to this but generally a lot of art pieces, artifacts, ritual objects, etc. in trade, in collection or at museums, are there bc of colonialism + genocide.

anyway feel free to ask more questions!!

[sarvendara-smg-livebrief]

Supermassive Games Live Brief Inspiration from Artist

Two of the most important artists of the 20th century were Zdzisaw Beksiski and H.R. Giger. Their history, as well as their influence on the world of art, continues to inspire artists today. Their work is noted for its dark, strange, and even unsettling images.

Giger, H.R.

H.R. Giger, often referred to as Hans Ruedi Giger, was a Swiss surrealist artist most remembered for his contributions to the "Alien" movie. Giger, who was born in 1940, has always been attracted to art and design. At the School of Applied Arts in Zurich, he studied industrial design and interior design, but it was his work in airbrushing that made him famous.

Giger is well-known for using biomechanical and sexy imagery in his artwork. Combining organic and mechanical elements gives his work a distinctive look and creates a bizarre and unsettling impression. His best-known work is Alien, for which he received the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

The impact of Giger on popular culture cannot be disputed. Numerous musicians, writers, artists, and filmmakers have been greatly influenced by his work. His legacy continues to influence future generations of painters, and he has been the focus of countless exhibitions and retrospectives.

Zdzisław Beksiński

Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński is most known for his bizarre and apocalyptic works. An independent artist since the 1950s, Beksiński was born in 1929 and studied architecture at the Kraków University of Technology.

Dark, eerie imagery is a hallmark of Beksiński's work. His works frequently include bizarre landscapes, warped people, and end-of-the-world scenarios. His use of color and texture, which elicits a sense of uneasiness and disorientation, is what makes his work distinctive.

The impact of Beksiński on the art world is substantial. His works have been displayed in galleries and museums all around the world, and his legacy is still an inspiration to contemporary artists. Many bands have used his artwork for their album covers, which shows how much of an impact his work has had on the music industry.

Comparing Giger and Beksiński

Both Giger and Beksiski are renowned for their bizarre and unsettling visuals, although their aesthetics are different. While Beksiski's work is recognized for its dystopian landscapes and twisted figures, Giger's work is distinguished by its biomechanical and sexual imagery.

Reference :

Domino, M. (2019) H.R. Giger's nightmarish art, beyond "alien", Artsy. Available at: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-nightmarish-works-hr-giger-artist-alien.

Zdzisław Beksiński: życie I twórczość: Artysta (no date) Culture.pl. Available at: https://culture.pl/pl/tworca/zdzislaw-beksinski.

Mythologist, T.P. (2014) Of sex, death and biomachinery: H.R. Giger's legacy in pop culture, Pop Mythology. Available at: https://www.popmythology.com/of-sex-death-and-biomachinery-h-r-gigers-legacy-in-pop-culture/.

[thevanalians]

TOP 5 MUSIC GENRES

ੈ♡˳ Music is our friend when we are sad, lonely, happy, or even mad. For some people, music is considered life. We also listen to a wide variety of music genres that suits our own taste and preference. Let's get to know five music genres that you may have on your playlist!

★゜・。。・゜゜・。。・゜☆゜・

⸙͎ 1. POPULAR MUSIC 🔮

Popular Music or Pop Music is a genre of music that describes music that is mainstream and originated in the 1950s. Pop music is characterized by its upbeat rhythms, catchy melodies, and easy-to-remember lyrics.

Michael Jackson is often described as the King of Pop with multiple hits like ❛Thriller❜ and ❛Beat It.❜ Madonna is dubbed as the Queen of Pop and has been widely recognized with her songs such as ❛Material Girl❜ and ❛Like A Virgin.❜

★゜・。。・゜゜・。。・゜☆゜・

⸙͎ 2. HIPHOP MUSIC 🎧

Hip hop is a musical genre from the inner cities of the United States. Rappers usually provide the vocals in hip hop songs. These musicians use a rhythmic vocal technique over the music of a song. Instead of instruments, the backing music tracks come from a DJ playing records and performing turntablist techniques.

The prominent Hip-hop artists are Snoop Dogg with the hit ❛Young, Wild, and Free❜ and Eminem's ❛Without Me❜ and ❛Rap God.❜

★゜・。。・゜゜・。。・゜☆゜・

⸙͎ 3. ROCK MUSIC 🎸

Rock is a genre of popular music that originated in the United States in the 1950s and spread to the rest of the world. It is characterized by its use of electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, and sometimes keyboards, as well as its emphasis on live performance and the importance of the vocalist. There are many different subgenres within rock music, including classic rock, hard rock, heavy metal, punk rock, alternative rock, and many others.

Among the top famous rock bands are Queen with ❛Don't Stop Me Now❜ as one of their hit songs and Metallica with ❛Master of Puppets.❜

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⸙͎ 4. RHYTHM AND BLUES MUSIC 🎤

R&B music is also known as rhythm and blues or, occasionally, R'n'B. R&B is a conglomerate of several early 20th-century Black American music art forms. R&B first evolved in post-World War II Black communities and contained elements of soul, gospel, jazz, and of course, the blues.

Known R&B songs are ❛I Just Called To Say I Love You❜ by the great Stevie Wonder and Whitney Houston's ❛I Will Always Love You❜ as well as ❛Saving All My Love For You.❜

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⸙͎ 5. COUNTRY MUSIC 🪕

Country music often includes the banjo, steel guitar, fiddles, and harmonicas as the primary instruments. The music uses repetition, simple chord structures, and lyrics that are easy to remember. Many country songs have a catchy chorus, and some singers are known for their twangy singing voices that come from Southern accents.

Dolly Parton and Shania Twain are top country music artists that made a huge impact to the world of music with popular songs ❛Jolene❜ and ❛Many Man of Mine❜ respectively.

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╰► We hope that you now know better about the different genres of music. There are still a lot of music genres out there and you should never stop discovering! Let us know your favorite music genre in the comments below. Thank you for reading! ◠ ◡ ◠

Here are some other blogs that are added to our “To-Read” list that you can check out as well:

✰.https://free92731.wordpress.com/2023/05/02/barbie-history-and-origins/

✰.https://www.tumblr.com/heartjuge/716306144613777408/makeup-brings-beauty-to-poeple?source=share

✰.https://ereehhh.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-rise-of-anime.html

✰.https://sites.google.com/view/japancatina/home

✰.https://geumganggosgr1.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-origin-of-geumganggo.html

✰.https://www.tumblr.com/merylberry/715923775749750784/%E0%AE%93%E0%B9%91-%E0%B9%91%E0%AE%93?source=share

[scotianostra]

April 22nd 2005 saw the death of the sculptor and artist Eduardo Paolozzi

Paolozzi’s Italian parents ran a small ice cream parlour in Leith, in June 1940, when Italy declared war Eduardo was interned (along with most other Italian men in Britain).During Eduardo’s three-month internment at Saughton prison his father, grandfather and uncle, who had also been detained, were among the 446 Italians who drowned when the ship carrying them to Canada, the Arandora Star, was sunk by a German U-boat.

There is little online about his internment and you wouldn’t have condemned him if he decided to leave Scotland after his release, the words of a Proclaimer’s song always springs to mind when I read about Eduardo Paolozzi, and other Scots=Italians: 

Joseph D'Angelo dreams of the days When Italian kids in the Grassmarket played We burned out his shop when the boys went to war But auld Joe’s a big man and he forgave all

By the time Eduardo was released it was 1943 and he began attending Edinburgh College of Art before moving to London and feigned madness to secure his release from army duties in order that he could study sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1944 to 1947.

Paolozzi is widely considered to be one of the first Pop artists and created many collages including the famous ‘I was a rich man’s plaything’ in 1947, which was the first artwork to feature the word ‘Pop’ in it.

After a spell in Paris he returned to London and moved into a studio in Chelsea and by the 1950s was establishing himself as a surrealist artist through a series of screen-prints, pioneering the technique in which each print can have a separate colourway, predating Warhol’s famous prints of the same nature by four years.

In 1968 Paolozzi taught sculpture and ceramics at the University of California, Berkeley. He worked in Berlin from 1974, and was Professor at the Fachhochschule in Cologne from 1977 to 1981. He also later taught at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich.

Paolozzi might have spent many years away from his home town of Edinburgh but didn’t forget it, he donated a great deal of work to the Scottish National Gallery, who have since displayed a reconstruction of his studio and a large body of his work in the Dean Gallery.

If you have wandered around Edinburgh and visited St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral you will have come across Eduardo Paolozzi statues, “Manuscript of Monte Cassino” which comprises a giant foot and matching hand and ankle. The work was a gift to the city by entrepreneur Tom Farmer, the work is found outside St Mary’s RC Cathedral, I like how the area there has three pieces of art, on the left at Picardy Place you can enjoy a statue of Sherlock Holmes, and on the right you have two giant Giraffes outside the Omni Centre made of scrap metal.

Eduardo Paolozzi suffered a serious stroke in 2001 and he died in a hospital in London on this dayin April 2005.

Pics are of the man and his work, the second is with John Cleese at his 70th birthday party.

[fashionunit2byebs]

I then had to create four mini mood boards which linked t my era which I chose the sixties, I ended up doing five mood boards as I couldn't decide on the topic of the mood boards I liked more therefor incorporated them all into my work. The first mood board I created was art from the sixties specifically pop art from artist such as Roy Liechtenstein and Andy Warhol was my main inspiration for this section they had such a huge influence on the art in the sixties creating so many new and fun art pieces which where so unusual from anything else done before. The link below show where I found all the information resources I looked at when I was decided on my art mini mood board, I chose to uses art pieces from Roy Liechtenstein and Andy Warhol as I feel like these two where so influential at the time and the art they both created was so incredible.

Tate (2017). Roy Lichtenstein 1923-1997 | Tate. [online] Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/roy-lichtenstein-1508. [accessed 6th February 2023]

Revolver Gallery. (n.d.). Andy Warhol 1960s. [online] Available at: https://revolverwarholgallery.com/warhol-originals-andy-warhol-collection/andy-warhol-60s/. [accessed 6th February 2023]

The next mood board I created was all about the Vietnam war and the anti war protest which took place all through the 60s, the war was long and the communist government of North Vietnam was pitted against South Vietnam which had the ally of the United States. whilst all of this was going on in Vietnam back in the US anti war protest where happening which was trying to stop the war happening overseas . The protest began with peace activist and college members, it gained attention in 1965 after the USA had began bombing North Vietnam.

https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-protests

History.com Editors (2010). Vietnam War Protests. [online] HISTORY. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-protests.

‌History.com Editors (2009). Vietnam War. [online] History. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history. [accessed 6th February 2023]

Next I did the moon land and the space race which was a huge thing in the 60s. The space race was the competition between the USA and the Soviet Union to be the first to explore space, however the US had beaten them to it and on July 20th 1969 Millions gathered to watch the first two U.S astronauts land on the moon. The Americans effort to send Astronauts to the moon is due to president JFK wanted to be the first two go to space and as president it was his goal to achieve this mission.

https://www.history.com/topics/space-exploration/moon-landing-1969

History.com (2010). The Space Race. [online] HISTORY. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/space-race.

History (2019). The 1969 Moon Landing. [online] HISTORY. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/space-exploration/moon-landing-1969.

The civil rights movement was the theme for my next mood board, the civil rights movement was such a monumental part of history the happened in the 1960s. the civil rights moment took place in the 1950s and 1960s for the black Americans to gain equal rights in the US. before this the civil war had abolished slavery however the black community was still not being treated like everyone else in the country as abolishing slavery did not end the discrimination and racism against the black people. key events that took place in this movement was the march on Washington this was the most famous event to take place in the civil rights movement, it was organised by civil rights leader such as A.Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King JR who presented the world most famous speech I had a dream which was a moving speech on equality and ‌freedom

History.com EDITORS (2009). Civil Rights Movement. [online] History.com. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement.

The final mood board I created was the architecture and furniture from the 60s. The furniture from this era was like no other the shapes and style that was in this era where so unusual and all had a bright and popping colour pallets. The was a lot of curved line I think when looking at all the picture. I really like this as it will give me lots of shapes, texture and silhouettes to use and play around with in the design process.

architecturaldigest.com (n.d.). 1960s Modernism. [online] Architectural Digest. Available at: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/1960s-slideshow-092008.