Bouncing Marbles, Bouncing Apple, Bouncing Olive

Posted by Maverick ~ on October 21, 2018
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Bouncing Marbles, Bouncing Apple, Bouncing Olive
Edward Ruscha
Oil on canvas

"In Bouncing Marbles, Bouncing Apple, Bouncing Olive, Edward Ruscha explores an obscure language of visual relationships. He divorces the objects depicted from their everyday contexts by placing them within an infinite, surreal space. The relationships that exist among the marbles, apples and olive are equally interpretations. The marbles might refer to childhood, the olive to hors d'oeuvres and martinis and the apple to the Fall of Adam and Eve. Such a reading makes this a meditation on the loss of innocence. Alternatively, Ruscha may have constructed a playful dialog among round forms or a treatise on Newton's law."

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Starboat (Tugboat and Riverboat)

Posted by Maverick ~ on October 20, 2018
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Starboat (Tugboat and Riverboat)  1966
Wayne Thiebaud
Oil on canvas

Starboat (Tugboat and Riverboat) is painted with Thiebaud's characteristic sensuous colors and thick impasto.  The boat and its reflection are rendered with delicate brush strokes.  Sea and sky, boldly defined by a yellow and green horizon line, are laid out in broad swaths with a palette knife.  While Thiebaud's work has been associated with Pop art because of its focus on the everyday objects of popular culture, he sees it as part of a long realist tradition.

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The Red Sail

Posted by Maverick ~ on October 19, 2018
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The Red Sail
Paul-Henri Bourguignon
Gouache on paper

"As an art critic, journalist, and skilled photographer, Bourguignon traveled widely through France, Spain, and Italy, North Africa, Corsica, and Yugoslavia. He lived in Peru and later Haiti, where he met his wife, Erika, a renowned anthropologist. The couple settled in Columbus, Ohio in 1950 after Erika joined the faculty of The Ohio State University.

During his long and prolific life, Bourguignon amassed a large and varied group of paintings—early gouaches and later acrylics—and numerous pencil, pastel and ink-wash drawings. Many of the gouache paintings from the 1950s and 1960s depict tranquil landscapes, rich cultural interpretations and evocative portraits, figures, and genre scenes that were derived from his travels. In the 1970s, his landscapes and figural scenes took new directions and became less specifically descriptive. The works were expressionistic, often with whimsical, vulnerable, or tragic figures revealed in delightfully complex interactions of brushstrokes and texture."

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Mirror Stage

Posted by Maverick ~ on October 17, 2018
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Mirror Stage, 2012
Ilit Azoulay
Inkjet print

In Mirror Stage, Ilit Azoulay combines images of a building taken at various angles and vantage points to create a new, digitally fabricated interior.  The panorama is part of her series Imaginary Order (2008-2017).  The project focused on the renovation of a well-known Brutalist-style building in the Israeli town of Zichron Ya'Akov.  The artist photographed the structure over the course of seven years as it was transformed from a convalescent home into an art center and luxury hotel.  The building's shift in function paralleled socio-political changes as Israel moved away from socialism to a capitalist economic model.  Azoulay's re-creation merges elements of past, present, and future, to fabricate a never-to-be realized photographic plan.

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Reduce/Increase

Posted by Maverick ~ on October 16, 2018
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Reduce/Increase, 1979
William Wegman
Gelatin silver print

This photograph, from a series titled Improved Photographs, depicts artist William Wegman dressed as a woman.  Handwritten texts on the print's surface are meant to emulate a magazine editor's comments to "improve" a model's body.  With characteristic wit and humor, Wegman exposes the deceptive nature of editorial and fashion photography, while also poking fun at idealized gender norms for physical appearance.

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Dinner and TV

Posted by Maverick ~ on October 15, 2018
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Dinner and TV
Inkjet print from the series “Normal”, 2018
Sophie Hammond
The Pembroke Hill School

"In my work I disrupt many of the misconceptions surrounding mental illness, specifically the idea that someone's outer appearance is indicative of whether or not they have a mental illness.  I have struggled with mental illness throughout most of my life, and I use my experiences as inspiration for my art.

I chose to document my life so that I could highlight the ways in which I am just like everyone else.  On the surface, my images just look like I took portraits of a normal, healthy teenage girl going through her daily routine, not someone who experiences chronic depression, anxiety, and ADD.  Although, within the images there are hints at what's going on behind the surface, like the medication on my bedside table.  By showing myself living a seemingly normal life, I am proving that mental illness does not look one specific way.  Not everyone who has depression looks like a stereotypical emo kid, in fact a lot of us look just like everyone else on the outside, and my images are reflective of that." 
........................................... -- Sophie Hammond

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Nan and Brian in bed in kimono

Posted by Maverick ~ on October 14, 2018
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Nan and Brian in bed in kimono, NYC, 1983
Nan Goldin
Dye destruction print

This photograph depicts artist Nan Goldin and her boyfriend at the time, seated in bed.  The physical and emotional tension captured here reflects their strained relationship, one that eventually became abusive.

The photograph is part of Goldin's influential work The Ballard of Sexual Dependency.  In it, Goldin chronicled the struggles for intimacy and understanding within her circle of friends and lovers during the 1970s and early 1980s.  Ballad was originally conceived as a slide show of more than 700 color images accompanied by a soundtrack.

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Inner Coffin of Meret-it-es

Posted by Maverick ~ on October 13, 2018
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Inner Coffin of Meret-it-es
Egyptian
Late Period to Ptolemaic Period, 30th Dynasty to early Ptolemaic Dynasty,
ca. 380-250 B.C.E.
Wood, pigment, gesso and gilding

Except for her missing mummy, almost everything buried with the noblewoman Meret-it-es is here: this inner coffin, the outer coffin that contained it (to your left), the gold that lay over the mummy (ahead to the right) and 305 statuettes (behind you). Although little is known about Meret-it-es, her funerary equipment reveals much about Egyptian religion.

Remarkably thick and weighing 400 pounds, this coffin was meant to preserve Meret-it-es's mummy so that her spirit could live eternally in the hereafter. In part, to ensure that she would become a divine spirit, she is portrayed as a god with golden flesh and blue hair; her unarticulated body resembles the mummified ruler of the underworld, Osiris.

In the center of the coffin the sky goddess Nut spreads her wings, protecting Meret-it-es. A bit below this, Meret-it-es appears before the ibis-headed god Thoth, having been accepted into the hereafter. High above, on the red plaque, she approaches Osiris: her journey into the next world is complete.

Cabinet

Posted by Maverick ~ on October 12, 2018
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Cabinet, about 1890
Carlo Bugatti
Italian, 1856-1940
Walnut, ebonized wood, parchment, brass, pewter, and glass

This monumental cabinet reflects the range of international architectural and design elements that inspired Carlo Bugatti.  The brass roundels and minarets above the doors are based on Moorish designs from Muslim Spain.  The central panel is inspired by Japanese ink painting.  The extravagance of detail indicates that this cabinet was destined for an elite client.  Most likely used as a centerpiece in a room, it probably held books and important documents behind lock and key.

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