Posts Tagged Art

Bath in a ruined wood, Western Front, during World War I. This image of a British soldier curled up in the remains of a cast-iron bath in the middle of a devastated wood is typical of a range of ‘joke’ photographs taken by the war photographers. It is not clear if these were intended as artistic perceptions by the photographer, or if they were simply a record of a lighter side of war. The juxtaposition of banal and jokey images in a scene of war has been continued by war artists in more recent conflicts. A notable example would be John Keane’s Gulf War painting, ‘ Mickey Mouse at the Front’, painted in 1991.

John Keane’s “Mickey Mouse at the Front,” 1991

“A view along the beach at Kuwait City with blocks of hotels and beach defences lining the seafront in the background. In the foreground there is a shopping trolley filled with anti-tank rockets, the Kuwaiti flag, dead and damaged palm trees, and a Mickey Mouse model from a fairground ride. The beach is also covered in excrement.”

(National Library of Scotland; Imperial War Museums)

During his lifetime, Vincent van Gogh created around 900 paintings but, reportedly, only sold one painting, Red Vineyard at Arles.

The Hagia Sophia

Byzantine architecture had its roots in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey) but spread throughout the Byzantine Empire in eastern Mediterranean and Near East area. The era started around 400 AD and lasted until 1453.

A mosaic of Jesus Christ in the Hagia Sophia. Behind his head is an example of a Greek cross.

Constantinople was founded upon the premise that it would be a Christian capital. Because of that, churches were erected with Byzantine influence of domes, rounded arches and intricate interior mosaics. It also utilized the Greek cross, which each arm of the cross is equal. The Architecture: A Spotter’s Guide described Byzantine architecture in the following way:

Typically, the Byzantine structure appears squat and solid from the outside; within, though, the impression is of weightlessness and light. Another Roman technique – that of mosaic – was used to shimmering effect to give an extraordinary sense of spiritual transcendence.

One of the most famous Byzantine structure is the Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom”). Procopius, a Byzantine historian, once stated that the Hagia Sophia “seems not to rest upon solid masonry, but to cover the space with its golden dome suspended from heaven.” The emperor Justinian enlisted architects, Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus, to build a great Constantinople church. It took almost six years (from 531-532 to 537) to build the Hagia Sophia. The design proved to be so daring that the dome collapsed twice, once because of an earthquake. In 1346, construction on the dome was finally completed. The only change from 1346 to the present was the addition of four minarets, which are tall spires common to Islamic mosque architecture. The Hagia Sophia was built as a Greek Orthodox cathedral but during the Ottoman rule it was converted into a mosque.

Information:
Cunliffe, Sarah, Sara Hunt and Jean Loussier. Architecture: A Spotter’s Guide. New York: Metro Books, 2010, 30-31.
The Hagia Sophia website.

Hannah Höch's "Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany," 1919-1920: Photomontage and collage with watercolor.

Before Dada was there, there was Dada.

Hans (Jean) Arp, "Untitled (Collage with Squares Arranged according to the Laws of Chance)," 1916-1917: Collage made from torn-and-pasted paper on colored paper.

The early 20^th Century brought on many changes, the advent of machine-dominated workforces, world wars and the sense of separation permeated popular literature and culture. Art movements documented these changes and new movements arose that symbolized a changing world. One particular movement that formed as a reaction to the political and war-torn environment was a movement called Dada.  

The creation of Dada is largely contributed to Hugo Ball, a poet and theorist. In February 1916, he opened Cabaret Voltaire, a cabaret bar, in Zürich. Cabaret Voltaire promoted artistic expression and Zürich soon became a hot spot for artists fleeing their war-ridden countries for neutral Switzerland. Artist Hans Arp stated that Zürich Dadaists soon equated pre-war art with high-class egoism.

Revolted by the butchery of the 1914 World War, we in Zürich devoted ourselves to the arts. While the guns rumbled in the distance, we sang, painted, made collages and wrote poems with all our might. We were seeking an art based on fundamentals, to cure the madness of the age, and a new order of things that would restore the balance between heaven and hell.

The war perpetuated the idea of the “professionalization” of art and its merits based solely on the result and not the process or idea. Dada artists began to stress the importance of artistic process and of the idea’s originality. By rejecting society and society’s ideas of art, Dadaists found new freedom in displaying their talents.

Marcel Duchamp's "L.H.O.O.Q.," 1919: Readymade: pencil markings on a "Mona Lisa" reproduction print.

Dada popped up in the United States almost simultaneously with the Zurich’s movement. It started in New York City by two artists Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp. Both were known within the French Cubist circles before the war. Duchamp, particularly, believed that ideas should replace the actual skill when looking and dissecting art, it was very much the idea of “art-for-art’s sake.”

By the early 1920s, the war was fading and new movements beginning to emerge, Dadaists and the movement ended. Many of the artists slowly dissolved into the Surrealist movement. The impact of Dada on art was long lasting, especially though the techniques that Dada popularized such as collages, photomontages and readymades. Some of the artists associated with the Dada movement include the following: Max Ernst, George Grosz, Marcel Janco, Hans Arp, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Tristan Tzara and Hannah Höch.

What’s in a name?
Reportedly, there were many reasons for the selection of the name “Dada,” but many like it because the word seems open-ended. It also is similar to a child’s first sound therefore symbolic of a new beginning.
             – In Rumanian, it means “yes yes.”
             – Dada means a “sign of foolish naiveté” in German.
             – In French, it is the word for rocking horse.

Further Reading
Elger, Dietmar. Dadaism. Los Angeles: Taschen, 2004.
Hopkins, David. Dada and Surrealism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. website.
DADA Companion website.

Hannah Höch’s collage found online here.
Hans Arp’s photomontage and collage found online here.
Marcel Duchamp’s readymade found online here.

Outside of Alliance, Nebraska, a structure emerges from the prairie grass. From the distance, it looks like nothing more than a cluster of oddly shaped stones but as you get closer, the details start to emerge. The details of the structure seem to be a bit confusing. Cars are placed upon each other while other cars seem to sinking or surfacing from the ground. One of the obvious questions that may come to mind when looking at this large metal structure is “Why?” Why would someone construct a monument to rusted, old cars? Then, as if a light bulb switches on, it begins to look familiar.

The monument in question is called Carhenge. It replicates the famous Stonehenge structure in England and consists of 38 American vintage cars that are spray painted gray. The diameter of the Carhenge circle is around 96 feet and proportionally similar to Stonehenge.

Artist Jim Reinders assembled and dedicated the car sculpture in the summer of 1987 as a memorial to his father, a local farmer who lived where Carhenge stands.

At one point, a couple of foreign cars were included, but the artist tore them down and buried them. He replaced them with Detroit-made cars instead. A 1962 Caddy takes the place of a traditional gravestone on the foreign cars’ “graves.” On the Caddy it reads, “Here lie three bones of foreign cars. They served our purpose while Detroit slept. Now Detroit is awake and America’s great!”

Stonehenge in England

[Carhenge information - Carhenge website and roadsideamerica.com]

[Carhenge photos - Sunset behind Carhenge and detail of Carhenge; Stonehenge photo]

Rembrandt's "Jacob de Gheyn III

Rembrandt’s 1632 oil painting, Jacob de Gheyn III,had been stolen four times and each time it has pop up anonymously. This “takeaway Rembrandt” has been found under a graveyard bench, in a bicycle basket and in a luggage rack of a train station.

[Information - New York Times, "A Rembrandt is Found in German Train Station," October 8, 1986.]

[Photo and Information - The Independent]

Esther Bubley (1921-1998)

American Photographer/Photojournalist

I am quite humble & happy to be one of those people who work because they love their work & take pride in doing it as best they can.

Esther Bubley, 1954

Esther Bubley was born to immigrant parents in Superior, Wisconsin. Her love of photography started at a young age and she eventually moved to New York City then to Washington D.C. when she was twenty years old. She took a job at the Office of War Information in the darkrooms before working her way up to staff photographer in 1943. She is most noted for images she captured while on a six week, cross-country assignment in the years leading up to and during World War II. The home front images encapsulate different races, genders, ages and social classes as everyday people surviving in a war-torn age.

Esther Bubley, "Emergency Tracheotomy," 1951

As the war ended, Bubley produced several pictorial series. She became fascinated with women workers who were transitioning back into domestic roles. From this, Bubley produced a series of photo-essays for Ladies Home Journal called “How America Lives,” in which she explored the physical, emotional and psychological impacts of being a housewife. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, hospitals became her focus. Bubley was fascinated with health care and mental health. In 1951, she was hired to document the Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital. On one such day, a woman brought in a foster child who was having difficulty breathing. Bubleythen observed the doctors performing an emergency tracheotomy on the girl without anesthesia. The procedure saved the girl’s life.

Esther Bubley, "Trachoma project," 1953

In 1953, UNICEF hired Bubley to photograph a medical program launched in French Morocco (currently Morocco) by the French government to control trachoma. Trachoma was an infectious eye disease that was spreading throughout the country; if it was not treated, it caused permanent blindness. Bubley documented both the medical care and the Moroccan people. By the mid 1960s, the popularity of magazines decreased and Bubley pursued personal interests. On March 16, 1998, Bubley dead of cancer in New York City.

Interesting Facts

• 

  Esther Bubley, "Albert Einstein," 1953

  Life and Ladies Home Journal were just two of the many magazines that published Bubley’s work. Companies that hired Bubley for photos included Pan American World Airways and Pepsi Cola.

• She made her career as a freelance photographer at a time when the profession was still considered a “boys’ club.”

• She photographed celebrities such as jazz musician Charlie Parker and noted scientist Albert Einstein. Life hired Bubley to photograph Einstein for his 74th birthday celebration, Einstein despised photographers but on that day, he agreed to an hour photo session at his Princeton, New Jersey home. Since Bubley was both quiet and unobtrusive, Einstein allowed her to follow him all day. 

• The Library of Congress honored Bubley, along with seven other women, in an exhibition, “Women Come to the Front.” This exhibition paid homage to the wartime efforts of women who documented the home front during World War II.

Further Reading

The Library of Congress. The Photographs of Esther Bubley. Washington D.C.: The Library of Congress, 2010.

Davel, Leslie T. “Shifting Mores: Esther Bubley’s World War II Boarding House Photos.” Washington HIsotry 10, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 1998/1999): 44-62.

Ellis, Jacqueline. “Revolutionary Spaces: Photographs of Working-class Women by Esther Bubley.” Feminist Review 1, no. 53 (Summer 1996): 74-94. 

Brannan, Beverly. “Private Eye,” Smithsonian Magazine (March 2004).

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Library of Congress

Photos found on estherbubley.com.

Chuck Close "Big Self-Portrait" 1967-1968

American Photorealist

Chuck Close "Self-Portrait" 2000

Interesting Facts

• His first photograph he sold was to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for $1,300. This piece is the black-and-white self-portrait shown below.
• Close suffers from a disorder called Prosopagnosia, commonly known as face blindness, where it is difficult for him to recognize faces. This is a major reason why he is fascinated with painting faces because once the face is laid flat, it becomes easier for him to remember.
• In late 1988, Close endured seizures caused by a rare occluded spinal artery that left him mostly paralyzed below the shoulders. He has since regained some movements in his arms and legs but still relies on a wheelchair. When he paints, he tapes the paintbrush to his hand. It has been stated that this is one of the reasons behind his switch to abstracted grids, since detailed painting (such as his black-and-whites) are too tedious.