It's the People's Seat

Scott Brown speaks truth to hubris. Deflates flatulent Lord of the manor, David Gergen professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. Brown, "...it's not the Kennedy seat, it's not the Democrat's seat, it's the people's seat...", power to the people, right on!

Change! Here's 50¢, fetch me a coffee.

Swipe Spot #6

I was hesitant to label this a swipe, but re-imagining #1 didn't seem as edgy.

A lesson from Frank Brangwyn on how to work multiple markets. "Nubian Slave Market" might not move many prints to the tea and cucumber sandwich set. Swipe out one set of warez for another and you have a more universal image, while retaining product for the blue market.

Who doesn't like fruit?

Jennifer Jones 1919-2009

Portrait of Jennie, 1948

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,

that is all ye know on earth,

and all ye need to know.

Keats

Robert Brackman was chosen by producer David O. Selznick to paint the portrait which in the film can be seen to grow under the brush of Joseph Cotten. The canvas was painted in Brackman's studio in Noank, Connecticut, near New London, where Jennifer Jones resided during the period required for the fifteen sittings needed to complete the picture. Brackman also made a pastel study of Jennie as a young girl, which appears in the film in the early phase of the romance.
American Artist, December 1948

Joseph Cotton in the film starting the portrait.

Publicity photo, Cotton looks on as Robert Brackman paints Jennifer Jones' portrait.

The Battle Rages On

I recently overheard at the water-cooler that Stanley Meltzoff and 60's illustrators in general "all had a solid understanding of abstract art and the emerging color theories". Apparently intimate knowledge of the "notan" enabled Meltzoff to replicate, albeit in reverse, the composition of the late Salon era French academic Georges Antoine Rochegrosse (1859-1938).



The Meltzoff depicts the battle of Thermopylae during the second Persian invasion of Greece. The Rochegrosse depicts the battle of Marathon during the first Persian invasion of Greece. Coincidence? Did somebody say i-ran?

Emile Friant (1863-1932)

Whilst skipping across the bytes of internet I often see the name Emile Friant mentioned. The regularity of which surely bewilders equally those that do and don't know. 5 works presented here for those that admire his finest and wish to see more, with humble apologies for the lack of color.

each jpeg is tagged with the title and date

Stop standing in the middle, what do you think of Friant? If positive, which "Friant" is your favorite?

Swipe Spot #5

Making the scene at the local grindhouse on Saturday night, I was disgusted to see a bit of plagiarism, usually, worthy only of an Italian. Dancing upon the wall with its sirens call was the one-sheet for The Witch Who Came From the Sea. The image of the scythe wielding witch seems to bear more than coincidental similarity with the cover to Vampirella #11.


Shocked that such could happen here in 1976, I trudged along to see the vixen of the sea in action. My nausea from that outrage in the lobby was not to be abated. Upon viewing the film, it came to me the realization that I had misread the billing. I mistook Rick Jason as "Billy Batt" for special guest star "Billy Barty". Here's to a better '77.




Art in film, Birth of Venus by Botticelli, do you get it? from the sea!

What's in the Water

One can easily discern a Gerome from an Ernst or a Bouguereau from Munier or even a better Lenoir. Kirby from Colan, no problem. A Monet is a Monet, a Renoir a Renoir, easy, but can anyone name the artist or make a distinction between these 5 paintings, done by 5 different painters. Is there a difference between this type of work and product licensing art depicting, say, Mickey Mouse or Winnie the Pooh. Several of the painters even use the same typeface for their signature.

What is the root of the school? Same teacher? Same influences? Large and active market? Narrowness of vision?

Love those head studies!

The style lacks a name, so I'm going to call it Natur-Elle Moderne, let's see if it takes.