A PARADE OF CIRCUS ILLUSTRATIONS

Time is a circus, always packing up and moving away.

 

 

 

"Freaks were in a circus tent, those were the days" from top left clockwise; woman jumping a hoop by Marie Lafrance, circus elephant spinning  plates by Robert Wagt, Patrick Hruby's circus illustration, vintage poster art by Vladimir Lebedev, Naomi Wilkinson's trapeze duo, Fernando Botero's tightrope walker, a vintage soviet circus poster by L.Modina and a wonderful example of Polish poster art.

CURLED UP WITH A BOOK

When I open a book these days, somewhere in between the first chapter and the introduction, there's the quote. What's this thing with quotes? Is it the idea of giving the reader some insight in the deeper meaning of the literary work  he's about to begin? Or is it merely to raise the author to a higher level by quoting someone, preferably from the past, obscure and in another language (Latin works great), who has earned his stripes in the printed world ?

     

                    

To read like the flame reads the wood, from top left corner clockwise; Illustration by Norman Rockwell for the Saturday Evening Post, Italian illustrator Lorenzo Matteoti, dutch graphic artist Kees Kelfkens wonderful book promotion ad, book week illustration by Jan Balet, illustration of woman reading by Japanese artist Uemura Shoen, a painting by polish born painter Balthus , famous fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez illustration for ELLE magazine, Peter Newell's bad potato book illustration and finally Robert Wagt's girl reading on a Suzani couch.

The knitting craze

Now that knitting has become the new yoga and just about everybody from Brooklyn hipsters to soccer moms have taken up the needles, we've almost forgotten about the days of yore when knitting was forever associated with grannies and ill-fitting and/or scratchy pullovers with weird patterns or images that by definition were uncool.

            

              

                               

       

                



Ripping yarns, clockwise from top left; Giles Deacon's knitted orange scarf, a Savignac wool ad, Belgian designer Walter van Beirendonck's knitted men's wear sweater, Happy Valentine illustration by  Robert Wagt, Dior headdress by Paolo Roversi for Italian Vogue, Orly Genger's knitted red wall in NY 's Madison Square park, Irving Penn's photograph of a Balenciaga dress and a Japanese wool ad.

Bad weather

Gene Kelley was singing in the rain, Milli Vanilli blamed it on the rain, Leo Sayer had it raining in his heart, for Elvis it was all he needed, and  the Weather girls had it raining men, Prince's was purple and Peter Gabriel's red, the Seekers asked themselves what they had done to it and for Aaron Neville it felt like rain, whilst Duran Duran had to hold it back and where Rod Stewart lives they had ten days of downpour, which would have been great for Garbage and Eric Clapton , because they are only happy when it rains. So they ain't going to thank Nick Cave because according to him it ain't going to rain no more.

                             

      

                 

                     

Hard rain's a gonna fall, according to, clockwise from top left; Japanese woodblock print artist Hiroshige, Pierre Le-Tan, Robert Wagt 's couple on a solex in the rain, Adrian Johnson likes London in the rain, British photographer Martin Parr's famous "bad weather" pictures, Rene Gruau Blizzand raincoat ad and last but not least Saul Steinberg.

Victorian glass domes

With crabs, starfish, taxidermy animals, natural curiosities of all sorts, the Victorian glass domes (or the Napoleon III era domes as they are called in France) are rare and extremely decorative objects.

 You can find them at Deyrolle, this beautiful Parisian treasure trove, which was substantially destroyed by a fire on february the 1st 2008 and lost most of it's inventory, but has since been rebuilt.

A particular beautiful dome can be found in the collection of Andre Breton, father of surrealism, artist and an avid collector of art, ethnographic material and unusual trinkets.

He was particularly interested in materials from the northwest coast of North America.

During a financial crisis he experienced in 1931, most of his collection, along with his friend Paul Eluard's was auctioned.

He subsequently rebuild the collection in his studio and home at rue Fontaine 32 in Paris.

The collection grew to over 5.300 items; modern paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, books, art catalogs, journals, manuscripts and works of popular and oceanic art.

A wall of the apartment is preserved at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

Random International's Rain Room Is Coming To New York

Random International's headline-generating Rain Room came to London's Barbican last November and once its residency was completed in March this year, it had become the most successsful installation in the Barbican's history. People queued for twelve hours to get a look at it like it was some kind of Disney ride/new iPhone release hybrid.

The piece consists of a 100 square meter area of falling rain which visitors could walk through without getting a drop on them, as sensors detected visitors' movements and stopped the water, creating a path for them to walk through like they were controling the weather. This playful interactivity and the sheer fun of walking through rain without getting wet is what made the piece so popular, capturing people's imaginations.

 Now this interactive artwork is making its way across the Atlantic to New York to feature in MoMA PS1's EXPO 1 exhibition for its US premiere. 

click this link to see the video

The exhibition will run from May 12 to July 28, 2013.

Edward S. Curtis or the Shadow Catcher

Edward sheriff Curtis or the Shadow Catcher (February 16, 1868 – October 19, 1952) 
was an ethnologist and photographer of the american west and of native american peoples.
Curtis' goal was not just to photograph, but to document, as much american indian (native american) traditional  life as possible before that way of life disappeared.
Curtis made over 10,000 wax cylinder recordings of indian language and music. 
He took over 40,000 photographic images from over 80 tribes. 
He recorded tribal lore and history, and he described traditional foods, housing, garments, 
recreation, ceremonies, and funeral customs. He wrote biographical sketches of tribal leaders, 
and his material, in most cases, is the only written recorded  history although there is still 
a rich oral tradition that documents history.
Though curtis was largely forgotten at the time of his death, interest in his work revived in the 1970s.
Curtis has been praised as a gifted photographer but also criticized by professional ethnologists for manipulating his images. Curtis' photographs have been charged with misrepresenting native american people and cultures by portraying them in the popular notions and stereotypes of the times. 
It is doubtful that Curtis did anything disreputable or intentionally misleading considering his lifelong diligence to this art. His obvious intention was to showcase the american indian in "their own element" as accurately as possible which provided the only credible motive to his removing western materials, e.g. "a clock", from his photographs which were out of place anachronistically with "pure" 
indian culture. The same motivation can be applied to costuming and posing of the native 
americans which, contrary to his intention of expose, gave the impression of idealism beyond 
his actual intention of realism, albeit euphemistic.

Cherry blossom at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

We visited the BBG whilst still living in Paris, paradoxically we've been living  for more 

than 4 years in the US now and missed out on the cherry blossom at the BBG each spring, but we have our own weeping cherry blossom in our front yard and a Magnolia in the back.
They always make me think of Van Gogh, no wonder he's so popular in Japan where the blossom season is almost a religion.

The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens is known for their spring Cherry Blossom Festival (Sakura Matsuri Festival). It has more than 200 cherry blossom trees that come from 42 different species. 

The month long festival that takes place around April-May is a spectacular sight to see. 

If you want to track the progress of the cherry blossoms in bloom to plan your trip, 

you can follow the progress on the BBG website. 

You can also watch a  time-lapse video created from over 3,000 digital photos, 

one taken every three minutes from April 18 to April 26, 2008, of BBG's Cherry Walk.

Albrecht Dürer at the National gallery of Art

Nice exhibition of Dürer's work, from the Albertina in Vienna, on display at the NGA in Washington.

Every time we visit an exhibition, we play a game which picture we would like to take home with us.

This time we couldn't decide between these two, what's your choice?