This is to let you know that I'll be in Europe for a couple of weeks or so, but that posts should continue to appear as usual on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The itinerary is: Amsterdam, Haarlem, The Hague, Delft, Arnhem, Cologne, Bruges, Ghent, Brussels and Paris, topped by an unplanned layover in New York City.
I'll be visiting art museums when and where I can fit them into the kind of tourism I prefer: getting to know cities. If any readers know of any not-so-famous-hidden-gem museums in those places, let me know via Comments or email (which I'll check whenever I have a little spare time and can find a WiFi hotspot for my iPad Mini). I can't promise to visit such places, but will try to do so when circumstances permit.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Friday, September 6, 2013
Ugly Car: Nissan Juke
The Nissan Juke, a vehicle occupying the cloudy space between sport-utility (SUV) and hatchback, was styled at the company's British design center and refined in Japan. Then Nissan styling supremo Shiro Nakamura must have signed off on it, for reasons I find hard to fathom.
Actually, I can imagine a likely justification from some of the younger folks in Nissan's marketing and product planning groups. Expressed in American English, words such as "edgy," "funky," "provocative," "postmodern" and "countercultural" and others might have been bandied about conference tables or infested emails and memoranda. For the Juke seems to have been slotted into a market segment of young buyers with just enough extra money to indulge themselves with a vehicle that makes a statement.
I'm note sure how large this market might be, world-wide, but Nissan hedged its bet by building the car on the Nissan B platform shared by a number of other Renault-controlled brands including the Nissan Leaf electricity powered car (which has a slightly longer wheelbase than the Juke).
Gallery
The Juke does not have much brightwork, yet nevertheless is a "busy" design due to the elaborate sheet metal bulges and creases, especially those on its stubby sides. Such sculpting might be expected these days on standard-size cars, but everything is jammed onto the Juke. This is not to say that the Juke's shaping had to be austere and bland; but a compromise such as having the fenderlines flow a little more might have helped. The really off touches are the taillights and front turn-signal and auxiliary lighting fixtures set atop the fenders. They enhance the stubby appearance and generally clash with the rest of the design, such as it is. I find the use of round headlamps a nice touch, though their placement on the front strike-panel is both odd and risky.
This side view clearly shows the strange roofline. It is nearly flat, which makes me wonder about its aerodynamic usefulness. But its most serious defect is that it slopes to the rear, pinching off potential carrying capacity for objects placed in the trunk area.
A view of the lumpy rear. The most interesting feature here is the wraparound backlight (rear window).
These views from above provide more detail as to how the body was shaped. I would have placed the front auxiliary light ensembles right above the grille opening with the hood cut-lines as their inner edge. But I suppose that wouldn't have been funky enough for the target market.
From the standpoint of the arts, I find the Juke interesting in that it strikes me as being yet another dreary symptom of self-indulgent, cultureless faux-creativity of this "postmodern" era that we must endure.
A slightly different version of this post can be found at Car Style Critic
Actually, I can imagine a likely justification from some of the younger folks in Nissan's marketing and product planning groups. Expressed in American English, words such as "edgy," "funky," "provocative," "postmodern" and "countercultural" and others might have been bandied about conference tables or infested emails and memoranda. For the Juke seems to have been slotted into a market segment of young buyers with just enough extra money to indulge themselves with a vehicle that makes a statement.
I'm note sure how large this market might be, world-wide, but Nissan hedged its bet by building the car on the Nissan B platform shared by a number of other Renault-controlled brands including the Nissan Leaf electricity powered car (which has a slightly longer wheelbase than the Juke).
From the standpoint of the arts, I find the Juke interesting in that it strikes me as being yet another dreary symptom of self-indulgent, cultureless faux-creativity of this "postmodern" era that we must endure.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Anders Zorn: When Not Painting Portraits and Nudes
The reputation of Anders Zorn (1860-1920) continues to climb along with those of his friends John Singer Sargent and Joaquin Sorolla, each of whom made a good living painting portraits while doing other painting on the side, sometimes for cash and otherwise simply for the enjoyment of doing it. There are two major Zorn exhibits in the United States in 2013. In the first part of the year was one held at the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in Boston, and starting in the fall is one at San Francisco's California Palace of the Legion of Honor.
Biographical information on Zorn can be found here and here.
As mentioned, Zorn was a leading portrait painter. He is also known for his etchings and the many paintings of nicely padded young, nude Swedish women in the outdoors. As I recall, one of the essays in the Gardner exhibit catalog mentioned that Zorn didn't seem interested in painting still lifes. And a quick scroll through Zorn images on Google suggests that he didn't paint many pure landscapes either; his outdoor scenes normally included people -- especially those nudes. But he did manage to paint some genre scenes. Here are a few:
Gallery
Impressions of London - c.1885
Could this be of one of those notorious "pea soupers" that used to plague the city?
In the Harbor of Algiers - 1887
Yes, the place still looks something like that as best I remember. But instead of those women, what I mostly noticed were tourists embarking and debarking Spanish ferries.
Valsen - 1891
A highly unusually setting for Zorn.
Omnibus (1st version - 1891-92)
Omnibus (2nd version) - 1892
Passengers crammed into a Paris horse-drawn omnibus must have fascinated Zorn because from this setting he made at least several studies, two paintings and one etching (of the final painting). I think his depiction of the beam of light on the cheek and coat of the women in the foreground is a brilliant concept well-executed.
Night Effect - 1895
This painting was controversial in its time because the subject was (or was thought to have been) a drunken prostitute.
Midsummer Dance - 1897
Perhaps Zorn's most iconic genre work.
Biographical information on Zorn can be found here and here.
As mentioned, Zorn was a leading portrait painter. He is also known for his etchings and the many paintings of nicely padded young, nude Swedish women in the outdoors. As I recall, one of the essays in the Gardner exhibit catalog mentioned that Zorn didn't seem interested in painting still lifes. And a quick scroll through Zorn images on Google suggests that he didn't paint many pure landscapes either; his outdoor scenes normally included people -- especially those nudes. But he did manage to paint some genre scenes. Here are a few:
Could this be of one of those notorious "pea soupers" that used to plague the city?
Yes, the place still looks something like that as best I remember. But instead of those women, what I mostly noticed were tourists embarking and debarking Spanish ferries.
A highly unusually setting for Zorn.
Passengers crammed into a Paris horse-drawn omnibus must have fascinated Zorn because from this setting he made at least several studies, two paintings and one etching (of the final painting). I think his depiction of the beam of light on the cheek and coat of the women in the foreground is a brilliant concept well-executed.
This painting was controversial in its time because the subject was (or was thought to have been) a drunken prostitute.
Perhaps Zorn's most iconic genre work.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Olga Boznańska: Impressionist Portraiture
Olga Boznańska (1865-1940) was born in Kraków (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now in southern Poland) and died impoverished in Paris, where she seems to have spent much of her career. Her Wikipedia entry is here, and a much more detailed biography here.
The second link states that Boznańska was not as honored in Poland as she felt she should be. That problem seems to have been corrected posthumously, because (at least when I visited a while ago) part of a gallery in Warsaw's National Museum was devoted to her work. The National Museum in Kraków also had examples of her work on display.
Boznańska trained in Munich and Paris and soon was influenced by Impressionism and Post-Impressionist painting. Much of her career was based on portraiture, and she incorporated as much of those approaches as she could, given the need to have her depictions recognizable people. My opinion is that Impressionism, in its extreme form at least, is barely compatible with portraiture and not worth the trouble of trying to combine the two.
Below are examples of her work up to 1906. Examples of later work are hard to locate in a Google Images screen dump, possibly because none stood out as being interesting.
Gallery
Portrait of a young woman - 1888
Japonka - 1889
Woman in white - 1890
These paintings are essentially Impressionism-free.
Young Breton Woman - 1889
Bretonka - 1890
Portraits of a young Breton woman (or perhaps of different people who look similar) painted a year or so apart. The first painting uses comparatively clean, definite brush strokes, whereas the second one has a more Impressionist feeling.
Self-Portrait - 1893
+-+1906.jpg)
Self-Portrait- pastel - 1906
Comparative self-portraits.
Girl with Chrysanthemums - 1894
+-+1906.jpg)
Portrait of girls - 1906
Here are examples of Boznańska's Impressionism-influenced portraiture style.
City scene - 1885
View from Cracow studio - c.1900
Nasturcje - 1906
Above are various non-portrait works where Impressionism is more at home.
The second link states that Boznańska was not as honored in Poland as she felt she should be. That problem seems to have been corrected posthumously, because (at least when I visited a while ago) part of a gallery in Warsaw's National Museum was devoted to her work. The National Museum in Kraków also had examples of her work on display.
Boznańska trained in Munich and Paris and soon was influenced by Impressionism and Post-Impressionist painting. Much of her career was based on portraiture, and she incorporated as much of those approaches as she could, given the need to have her depictions recognizable people. My opinion is that Impressionism, in its extreme form at least, is barely compatible with portraiture and not worth the trouble of trying to combine the two.
Below are examples of her work up to 1906. Examples of later work are hard to locate in a Google Images screen dump, possibly because none stood out as being interesting.
These paintings are essentially Impressionism-free.
Portraits of a young Breton woman (or perhaps of different people who look similar) painted a year or so apart. The first painting uses comparatively clean, definite brush strokes, whereas the second one has a more Impressionist feeling.
+-+1906.jpg)
Comparative self-portraits.
+-+1906.jpg)
Here are examples of Boznańska's Impressionism-influenced portraiture style.
Above are various non-portrait works where Impressionism is more at home.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Ed Valigursky: Illustrating Real and Imaginary Technology
Illustrator Ed Valigursky (1926-2009) originally focused his efforts on science-fiction and other speculative subjects. Eventually he drifted over to depicting aircraft and other real-life technological objects and became one of the best in that business. Unfortunately, I couldn't find many examples of his aviation art on the Internet, so what's displayed below will have to do for now.
My take on aviation art is that there are several approaches to depicting airplanes. One is the "show all the rivets" hard-edge style. I suppose this appeals to the crowd that loves seeing details. The other extreme is what I'll call the "French watercolor" approach where hardly any details are seen, and the details present are inaccurately drawn. My conjecture is that the audience for this is comprised of people who do not like or understand airplanes. Then there is a middle ground where aircraft are portrayed as they might be seen in real life at a glance, with one area in focus, others de-emphasized. A master in this was R.G. Smith who I mentioned here. Valigursky's aviation art fell in the range between the rivets school and Smith, presenting his subjects clearly and with artistic flair.
Below are examples of his aviation art along with science-fiction and other subjects as context.
Gallery
Stukas
To set the scene, here is one of his aviation paintings.
Amazing Stories cover - December 1956
"Space Viking" cover - 1963
"The Cosmic Computer" cover - 1964
The two lower covers are examples of his better SciFi work. Sometimes he dashed off cover art with sad results, as can be seen in the topmost cover.
Saga magazine cover - September 1953
Nautilus - for Saga, April 1959
Two illustrations featuring submarines.
"Flying in Flanders" cover
"No Parachute" cover
"Full Circle" cover
P-38s and Messerschmitt
More aviation art. The lower two examples are the kind of Valigursky illustrations I like best. But to nit-pick, the P-38s seem to have 1942-43 vintage U.S. markings, yet the serial number on the tail of the near aircraft has a 1944 fiscal year serial number indicating when its construction was budgeted.
My take on aviation art is that there are several approaches to depicting airplanes. One is the "show all the rivets" hard-edge style. I suppose this appeals to the crowd that loves seeing details. The other extreme is what I'll call the "French watercolor" approach where hardly any details are seen, and the details present are inaccurately drawn. My conjecture is that the audience for this is comprised of people who do not like or understand airplanes. Then there is a middle ground where aircraft are portrayed as they might be seen in real life at a glance, with one area in focus, others de-emphasized. A master in this was R.G. Smith who I mentioned here. Valigursky's aviation art fell in the range between the rivets school and Smith, presenting his subjects clearly and with artistic flair.
Below are examples of his aviation art along with science-fiction and other subjects as context.
To set the scene, here is one of his aviation paintings.
The two lower covers are examples of his better SciFi work. Sometimes he dashed off cover art with sad results, as can be seen in the topmost cover.
Two illustrations featuring submarines.
More aviation art. The lower two examples are the kind of Valigursky illustrations I like best. But to nit-pick, the P-38s seem to have 1942-43 vintage U.S. markings, yet the serial number on the tail of the near aircraft has a 1944 fiscal year serial number indicating when its construction was budgeted.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Other Savage Illustrators
Fictional heroes can come and go. A few come and stay. One such hero with staying power is Doc Savage, whose stories were written by "Kenneth Robeson," the pen name of several writers, but predominantly Lester Dent. I previously posted about Doc Savage here.
I would imagine that readers familiar with Doc Savage visualize him in terms of James Bama's depictions such as on the book cover shown above. Bama's first Savage cover appeared in 1964 and was followed by 61 others over the next 30 or so years. Subsequent images of Savage by other artists in other media retained Bama's concept of Savage's appearance.
The original Doc Savage illustrator was Walter Baumhofer who did the cover art for the Doc Savage pulp magazine series from 1933 until he began moving from pulp to "slick" magazines around 1936-37. Background information on Baumhofer can be found here, here and here.
The image above is a typical Baumhofer Doc Savage cover, this for May 1934. Since Savage was described as the "man of bronze" in the stories, referring to his coloration, Baumhofer indulged in a degree of artistic license by introducing violet shaded areas in his paintings to contrast with the bronze hues required by his subject.
For what it's worth, I consider Bama and Baumhofer (and not necessarily in that order where Doc Savage is concerned) as the best of the lot over the first half century of the character's existence. Which implies that other brushes were in the game.
The best of these was Robert G. Harris, a talented illustrator who had little choice but to follow Baumhofer's Doc Savage characterization and style, as can be seen in the two covers above. Biographical links for Harris are here and here.
Quality began to noticeably slide to my eyes when Emery Clarke became the main cover artist. His images are a little less distinct, lacking the punch Baumhofer and Harris delivered. One source contends that the figure in glasses in the upper image is a self-portrait of the artist.
Last and least among the Savage illustrators I located (and I must have missed some others) was former (almost bomb-throwing) anarchist Modest Stein, whose colorful career is described here. Whereas Baumhofer's images were classy (especially considering their pulp magazine locale) and Bama's were monumental (and not much like the physial description of Savage in the stories), Stein's strike me as little better than smudges in many cases, a step down from Clarke's work.
I would imagine that readers familiar with Doc Savage visualize him in terms of James Bama's depictions such as on the book cover shown above. Bama's first Savage cover appeared in 1964 and was followed by 61 others over the next 30 or so years. Subsequent images of Savage by other artists in other media retained Bama's concept of Savage's appearance.
The original Doc Savage illustrator was Walter Baumhofer who did the cover art for the Doc Savage pulp magazine series from 1933 until he began moving from pulp to "slick" magazines around 1936-37. Background information on Baumhofer can be found here, here and here.
The image above is a typical Baumhofer Doc Savage cover, this for May 1934. Since Savage was described as the "man of bronze" in the stories, referring to his coloration, Baumhofer indulged in a degree of artistic license by introducing violet shaded areas in his paintings to contrast with the bronze hues required by his subject.
For what it's worth, I consider Bama and Baumhofer (and not necessarily in that order where Doc Savage is concerned) as the best of the lot over the first half century of the character's existence. Which implies that other brushes were in the game.
The best of these was Robert G. Harris, a talented illustrator who had little choice but to follow Baumhofer's Doc Savage characterization and style, as can be seen in the two covers above. Biographical links for Harris are here and here.
Quality began to noticeably slide to my eyes when Emery Clarke became the main cover artist. His images are a little less distinct, lacking the punch Baumhofer and Harris delivered. One source contends that the figure in glasses in the upper image is a self-portrait of the artist.
Last and least among the Savage illustrators I located (and I must have missed some others) was former (almost bomb-throwing) anarchist Modest Stein, whose colorful career is described here. Whereas Baumhofer's images were classy (especially considering their pulp magazine locale) and Bama's were monumental (and not much like the physial description of Savage in the stories), Stein's strike me as little better than smudges in many cases, a step down from Clarke's work.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Edgar Maxence: Symbolism via Women
There are plenty of images of the work of Edgar Maxence (1871-1954) on the Internet, but little information about him. His Wikipedia entry is here, and the French Wikipedia entry is about the same size. One possibly noteworthy fact is that he studied under Gustave Moreau, the noted Symbolist painter.
Maxence painted a good many religious scenes and a number of his other subjects were treated in a similar manner. He was a good draftsman and used other media besides oil. As best I can tell, he painted in a higher key (less darks) by the 1920s and some of his landscape paintings are loosely done. Perhaps because of the war or maybe because he had turned 70, his production seems to have fallen off drastically after 1941.
Although he occasionally depicted men, his subjects were almost always attractive young women.
Gallery
L'Âme de la Forêt - 1898
Les fleurs du lac - 1900
Note the two ladies glancing at us. Plus the rare inclusion of male subjects.
La femme à l'orchidée - 1900
Might that be a cigarette in her right hand? Don't notice any smoke, though. Must be unlit.
Edelweiss
Not a religious painting, and not very Symbolic, so far as I can tell (though I'm ignorant of many symbols, religious or otherwise). But, as noted above, the treatment is similar.
Jeune fille nourrissant des cygnes
Portrait de jeune fille - c.1900
study of a young woman's head
It looks like the same model was used for these three paintings. A caption I found on the Internet for the middle one stated that the media were watercolor, gouache and pastel. The lower work clearly incorporates some watercolor.
Serenité - 1912
Le livre de la paix
All three women look like they were derived from the same model.
Reflection
Le carrefoure de Prigny
This is dated, but I can't quite read it. Might be 1944. But it's freely done and modernist-influenced.
Portrait du femme - 1941
One of his later works. Its style shows a modernist influence in its simplicity, but only slightly.
Maxence painted a good many religious scenes and a number of his other subjects were treated in a similar manner. He was a good draftsman and used other media besides oil. As best I can tell, he painted in a higher key (less darks) by the 1920s and some of his landscape paintings are loosely done. Perhaps because of the war or maybe because he had turned 70, his production seems to have fallen off drastically after 1941.
Although he occasionally depicted men, his subjects were almost always attractive young women.
Note the two ladies glancing at us. Plus the rare inclusion of male subjects.
Might that be a cigarette in her right hand? Don't notice any smoke, though. Must be unlit.
Not a religious painting, and not very Symbolic, so far as I can tell (though I'm ignorant of many symbols, religious or otherwise). But, as noted above, the treatment is similar.
It looks like the same model was used for these three paintings. A caption I found on the Internet for the middle one stated that the media were watercolor, gouache and pastel. The lower work clearly incorporates some watercolor.
All three women look like they were derived from the same model.
This is dated, but I can't quite read it. Might be 1944. But it's freely done and modernist-influenced.
One of his later works. Its style shows a modernist influence in its simplicity, but only slightly.
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