People at the New York World's Fair: June 1965

It's August and vast swathes of Art Contrarian readership are probably off on holiday. So I think I'll indulge myself in this post ...

The world's fair held in New York City in 1964 and 1965 attracted fewer people than the renowned 1939-1940 New York fair (Wikipedia entry on the 1964 fair here). As was the case with other major fairs, Olympic Games facilities, and other major construction projects tied to a tight completion deadline, the New York fair had its share of problems before its 1964 opening. These, plus the fact that it was not blessed by the Bureau International des Expositions, created some bad publicity.

But the main problem was, the fair wasn't that interesting. The '39 fair's buildings seemed futuristic, but by the early 1960s it was hard for designers and architects to invent shapes that seemed futuristic compared to many buildings already in place.

I'll deal with the pavilions in another post. For now, I present some photos featuring people at the fair that I took when I visited on two different days in June of 1965.

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The entrance to the fair from the elevated line's station.

Advanced planning in progress.

Beer vendors.

Keeping it tidy.

Souvenir stand.

Official World's Fair Balloons vendor.

Japanese visitors, something fairly rare in those days.

AT&T family phone booth.

Replica of the time capsule from the 1939 fair (apparently prepared in 1938).

Taking a rest by the Chrysler Corporation area.

Romà Ribera i Cirera: Painting the Fancy Life

Romà Ribera i Cirera (1848-1935) was a Catalonian painter whose genre was high society, though one source stated that he would have preferred to portray poor people. His Catalan Wikipedia entry is here, and the one in Spanish here. More biographical detail, also in Spanish and Catalan, is here.

In brief, Ribera received formal art training in his native Barcelona, then moved to Rome for a few years where his paintings began to gain recognition. Goupil, the French art dealer, featured his work, and he lived in Paris for a while, eventually returning to Barcelona. He lived to age 86, but his final years were in poverty.

Like a many artists of his generation, Ribera was skilled and well-trained. Better yet, he was able to paint interesting scenes in a pleasing way. His highly representational style was helpful early in his career, but seems to have made his work increasingly passé, even in comparatively artistically conservative Spain.

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Dama con traje de noche - 1893

De soirée - c. 1894

Woman powdering her nose

Going to the Ball

Dona de l'antifaç
Woman with ball mask.

Salida del baile
Exiting the ball.

Epilogo de un baile de máscaras - c. 1891
Following a masked ball.

Sleeping woman
An "after the ball" scene?

Arrival
At the theatre?

Sortida del Liceu - c. 1913
Leaving the Barcelona opera house.

William Nicholson, Churchill's Art Mentor

A while ago I wrote about Winston Churchill's art. Relatedly, this Telegraph article on Churchill's painting mentions regarding Churchill, that: "First, although he didn’t have any formal training, he learnt from the best. Churchill studied with his friend Sir John Lavery, the Irish artist best known for his portraits, and later learnt a new aspect of his craft from W R Sickert, who had a profound impact on modern art in Britain. Most important was Churchill’s close friendship with another major 20th-century British artist, William Nicholson, of whom he remarked: he was 'the person that taught me most about painting'".

Sir William Nicholson (1872-1949), Wikipedia entry here, might be better known today as being the father of modernist painter Ben Nicholson. In his time, Sir William was well known in Britain for his paintings, illustrations, engravings and stage settings.

In the Gallery section below, portraits are featured first, this to demonstrate his ability level in an area requiring acute observation. The second part shows some of his landscapes, the subject matter of his pupil, Winston Churchill.

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People

Lady in Yellow - 1893

La Belle Chauffeuse - 1904

James Matthew Barrie - 1904
Creator of Peter Pan.

Max Beerbohm - 1905
British essayist and caricaturist.

The Girl with a tattered Glove - 1909

Miss Wish Wynne, Actress, in the Character of Janet Cannot for the Play "The Great Adventure" - 1913

Miss Maude Nelke - c.1914
Socialite and patron of the arts.

Field Marshal Jan Smuts - 1923
Prominent South African leader.

Landscapes

La Place du Petit Enfer, Dieppe - 1908

The Cornfield - 1925

The Bathing Pool at Chartwell - 1934-35
Chartwell was Winston Churchill's home in Kent.

Matadero, Segovia - 1935

A Grade Near Midhurst - 1936

In the Beginning: Frederick Frieseke

Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874–1939) was an American expatriate who spent most of the last 40 years of his life in France. A fairly lengthy Wikipedia biography is here. It mentions that he regarded himself as more self-taught than formally trained. This was despite that he had studied at Chicago's Art Institute, New York's Art Students League, and the Académie Julian in Paris as well as the Académie Carmen under Whistler. Even though he summered in Giverny, Monet's haunt, Frieseke did not consider himself influenced by him. Rather, he claimed Renoir was more of an influence.

Considered an Impressionist, Frieseke was of the American variety, stressing drawing and depicting form as well as the play of colors.

Even so, it took Frieseke a while to establish his best-known style, The images below do not include his very earliest works, but show what he was producing during his first five years or so in France.

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The Garden in June - 1911
As usual, I include an establishing image, this showing the kind of painting Frieseke is best known for.

Luxembourg Gardens - 1901
Here he shows interest in the effects of light and shade, but he does this without the use of broken colors.

Landscape, Le Pouldu, Brittany - 1901
This painting seems to have been done with thinned paints that were then wiped.  The famous American illustrator Bernie Fuchs also did something like this at times.

Medora Clark at the Clark Apartment, Paris - 1903
Another fairly thinly painted work, but less sign of wiping.

Nasturiums (Girl with Book) - 1904
The flesh areas are painted conventionally here, but much of the rest is made of heavier or more distinct brushwork.

The Green Sash - 1904
To me, this seems Whistler-like with a strong hint of Japanese-influenced flatness in the setting.

Ballerina - 1904
Another fairly conventional work, but again the setting is flattened.

Lady with Parasol - 1905
The lower half seems Van Gogh- like, the upper part more like Gauguin.

Lady with Parasol - 1908
Even though Frieseke was approaching his signature style, this painting includes thin, wiped areas as well as more solidly depicted parts.  No divisionism or broken colors.  This would have been a really nice painting except for the botched boat (if that's what it is).

Rudolph Belarski's Pulp Art

Rudolph Belarski (1900-1983) was one of many illustrators whose early career was spent painting covers for the many "pulp" (low-quality paper) magazines that were especially popular during the Great Depression of the 1930s thanks to their low prices and ability to distract readers from the hard times. A short biographical sketch is here.

Belarski came from Pennsylvania's coal mining country, but was able to get away to New York City and study engineering and art at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute. Unlike his contemporary, Walter Baumhofer, Belarski never graduated from pulp to "slick" magazines, but he did move on to illustrating covers for paperback books.

Below are examples of his pulp work, 1928-1943.

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War Stories cover - 16 August 1928
Early Belarski cover art. It's not well done. The helmets of the (probably) American soldiers are a lot smaller than in reality, which helps to make the heads unconvincing.

Aces cover art - July 1930
This is better, though the scene is improbable -- the American pilot twisting around to fire the dead gunner's Lewis gun at a pursuing German fighter. Perhaps the magazine featured a short fiction story that included this action.

British or American soldiers attacking
Again, Belarski has trouble drawing Great War British style helmets, though these are better than in the earlier image.  The case was the same for many illustrators and fine artists, including William Orpen.

War Birds cover - June 1936
A Three Musketeers theme, though the flyers are in American planes.

Thrilling Mystery cover - November 1936
Damsel in distress. The red dress helps attract the attention of news stand browsers, a standard pulp cover practice.

Argosy Weekly cover - 8 January 1938
That airplane really interests me because it resembles the De Havilland Vampire jet fighter that first flew in 1943. Belarski's plane seems to be rocket powered.

The Phantom Detective cover - n.d.
Belarski's technique has improved considerably by the time this cover was painted -- I'm guessing it's from the end of 1930s or the early 1940s.

Charging French poilus
Probably painted in 1939 after World War 2 started but before France fell in June, 1940.  The helmets are convincing, as is the Char B1 bis tank in the background.

Flying Stories cover - Fall 1943
The geometry of the relationships of the aircraft and tracer bullet streams is haywire, but I assume the art director asked for lots of Japanese army fighters shooting, burning and otherwise keeping the USAAF B-17 occupied.