a visual collective outlet of inspiration
painter christopher wool and poet/writer/singer richard hell teamed up together on a serie of drawings and a book called psychopts and presented at john mcwhinnie gallery a couple a years ago.
what is interesting there is that beside the visuals, the collaboration is about coming back to a roots for wool. the paintings that made him famous where based on hell’s words. there is this nice story about wool asking courteously to hell about permission to use his words when hell in a punkish way was assuming the words were not his own. just words together.
this one is for dd’
richard hell: i went over to christopher’s and saw his painting. on the original album cover i’m standing there holding my jacket open, and i don’t have a shirt on underneath. and in magic marker i have across my chest, in all caps: YOU MAKE ME ____. it was just a blank. an underscore. anyway, when i saw the painting, christopher had filled up its entire surface with “YOU” on top of “MAKE” on top of “ME.” and i said, “wait a minute. where’s the ‘blank’?” and he said, “well, how about i just leave a space at the bottom?” which is what he did. there’s an empty line below the last word. so it worked out great. i was impressed by how casually he was willing to make what seemed like a major change. it seemed gallant. and like . . . self-confident, and suave. the guy was a gentleman and an artist. by pp’
art
edward weston first nude
is it possible that a first of a kind outdo the followings? well to me this nude which is supposed to be the first edward weston took is my favorite. not that i don’t like the others but there is something more here. maybe what we call a “supplement d’ame” in french (a little extra soul) by pp
hiroshi sugimoto – visions in my mind
hallelujah! this one is really something i have been wishing about secretly, a movie about the great hiroshi sugimoto. well, maria anna tappeiner finally made it. sugimoto is the kind of artist you can’t get enough of, if you know what i mean? i always feel frustrated about not finding more stuff from him. i guess that’s what makes him so great. hiroshi sugimoto / visions in my mind. trailer. by pp
ogawa kazumasa – flowers
ogawa kazumasa is known as one of the pioneer in japanese photography. he came in the usa in 1882 when doing the trip from japan was not so common, there he learned the then new process of the dry plate as well as the collotype printing. upon his return to japan two years later, he opened the first photographic studio in tokyo and the first collotype business in japan few years later. even if he is widely known for the pictures he took as an assignment of tokyo’s 100 most attractive geishas, the flowers i discovered a week ago are to me, his one masterpiece, if you consider they were shot in the 1890’s then perhaps mapplethorpe, penn, blossfeldt and friends can consider him as their “papa”, love it! by pp
robert longo for brooklyn surfer
“I developed the Brooklyn Surfer logo from a memory I had of being at the beach near Rockaway in Brooklyn. It was late in the day, the sun was bright, hanging low in the sky. As I looked west, down the shoreline into the setting sun, I saw in the distance the sharp silhouettes of surfers holding their boards checking out the surf. This image was burned into my brain. Rockaway is Brooklyn. Brooklyn may sound like an unlikely location for a surf spot, but in reality it is a real location with a decent break and at times some serious swells. It is a unique surfing experience. An extraordinary collision of urban and surf cultures. Not far form the beaches are the basketball black tops of city legends and the subway stations where many of the surfers arrive coming off the trains with their boards heading for the beach and the breaks.” i personally always thought that new york and surfing were kind of an absurd duo but whatever dude. by dd
ruscha x kerouac
in 1951, jack kerouac wrote “on the road” on his typewriter as a continuous 120 foot-long scroll. few years later, in 1966, ed ruscha photographed “every building on sunset strip” and presented it on a 27 foot-long scroll. ruscha since confessed his obsession for his road heir in a book released by the great steidl in association with gagosian gallery.
“over the last couple of years, ruscha has turned his attention to on the road, resulting in his own version of kerouac’s beat bible. kerouac’s entire text appears accompanied by black and white photographic illustrations that ruscha has either taken himself, commissioned from other photographers, or selected from found images to refer closely to the details and impressions that the author describes, from car parts to jazz instruments, from sandwich stacks to tire burns on a desert road.”
the leather-bound book comprises 228 pages, signed and numbered by the artist in an edition of 350 and presented in a slip-case. we won’t write the price because it’s depressing… by pp
ryan mcginley – everybody knows…
on top of being nyc star last week with the most crowded opening ever, ryan mcginley released this beautiful book, published in association with the great dashwood books store on bond street to celebrate “everybody knows this is nowhere”.
haven’t seen it for real (as the exhibition, see photo…) but looks really nice. by pp
everyone knows this is nowhere – ryan mcginley at team gallery
i can’t believe i haven’t made it down to TEAM gallery to see this show in person yet. it may sound cliché to say ryan mcginley has a knack for capturing ‘modern beauty’, but i think it’s true. it’s plain to see this series freezes a taste of the vibe of people today, something we will feel more intensely when some time has passed. as for his images, it’s a beautiful evolution. by kl
just everyday matters 1963-2009: george porcari exhibition
this man is one of my all time heroes, and i must say that i don’t have many heroes really. of course i’m not talking about the one dressed up in the picture, but rather the artist geroge porcari. the openning is on march 27th (exhibit up through april 17th) china art objects 410 cottage home street, chinatown, los angeles. by dd
hilarious: Hitler lashes out at jeffrey deitch, moca, and lady gaga
o.k. this is genius: “hitler in his bunker hopes that he will get the job as director of the MOCA, but is told by his senior staff that the job has gone instead to the new york dealer jeffrey deitch, known for his business dealings and embrace of spectacle. upset, hitler lashes out at MOCA’s board of trustees, deitch, some of deitch’s artists (or those he admires) and the man who saved MOCA philanthropist eli broad.” by cdc
dale frank: black as black as Rembrandt’s black
tour de force: australian artist dale (leonard) frank‘s black painting sucks you in, and absorbs your soul, like an exxon oil spill… on the list of go-sees as this rich deep black simply beckons you to be there in person. beautiful indeed. by dd
hail rothko: the chapel of rothko
rothko’s chapel is a non denominational chapel in huston texas, that serves not only as a chapel, but also as a major work of modern art. perhaps that is not such a new concept, as historically, god has always been in the business of art. from michelangelo to le corbusier… and the investments have paid off… so while jesus saves, moses continues to invest… and as far as mohamad? he was always a big believer in cash. by dd
