The Delineator June 1928

I had never heard of the magazine The Delineator, an American women's magazine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This cover that I came across recently is beautiful though, in true Art Deco style. Excellent design by Helen Dryden.

Portfotolio

A new helpful website to browse the Flickr streams of your friends (or yourself) in a quick and convenient way. Simply take the linked url, and complete it with /[Flickr identity code] of the one you want to browse. The resulting continuous role-out gives an easy overview, and clicking an image will take you to that Flickr page. As an example I show an excerpt of the portfotolio page for my Flickr friend Adrian's art.

The eye of the storm

One of my personal favourite shots of the year so far. It is once more a detail of a paper art work by Elsa Visser that we saw during the Kampen Art Route, a 2-day tour in April to explore the various artists our new home town has to offer (previous one here). From a composition point of view, the important characteristics here are the plethora of leading lines and the golden ratio (placement of the "eye of the storm" on a golden ratio focal point). And of course the conversion to black and white to further emphasize the line play.

Camera: Canon EOS 400D Digital 10 Megapixels, handheld
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Post-processing: Picasa 3.0

Entrancing chapeaux

A new subject for the blog, and likely the last one I will add to the list. I intend to use Anything goes for all kinds of everything that are too good from an artistic point of view for my Potpourri blog. This may include advertisements, recent posters, book covers, isolated pictures, and whatever else comes my way. Expect emphasis on twenties and thirties though. We kick off with a hat advertisement from the twenties by B.Altman and Co. Exquisite design in tasteful black and white.

Up the drain

Two weeks ago, we met Rick Yagodich, one of my first Flickr friends from way back (known in Flickr as word artist), when he visited us in Kampen. This is the most special of three favourites of mine in his stream that came out of this short visit. In his own words: "Do you sometimes feel the whole world is going down the drain, only to discover that the drain itself is going the wrong way?". For me, everything comes together here, the stunning optical illusion, the scale of grey tones, the fading at the borders. A perfect shot. As usual, all rights retained by the creator.

Gone with the wind

When I met my wife-to-be in Singapore in 1999, the first few weeks we were just artist and customer. This painting of hers dates back to that period, it was commissioned by me for my office. After our move to Kampen earlier this month, my wife used her Feng Shui knowledge for the decoration of the house. I was pleased to see this one being selected for a corner of the living room, courtesy of the subject and colours. And it brought back memories.

Merlin

The legend of Merlin became the subject of two albums by the Dutch group Kayak. The first album from 1981, entitled Merlin, dedicated one side to this subject, the later album from 2003 (Merlin - Bard of the Unseen) took the original five songs, and added seven more. Both albums open with the title song Merlin. This energetic epic is without doubt the most powerful progrock composition in Kayak's repertoire. In true Wagnerian style, this overture already contains many musical themes used in other songs later. I have a slight preference to the original version, although the remake (which is used in the fan video) is frankly just as good. Art Rock score: 10/10 (brilliant masterpiece, one of 200 best songs of all time).

The painting that launched a thousand lawsuits

Egon Schiele has featured before in the blog under paintings, but here we have a great article at the Hyperallergic site about the history of his 1912 painting Portrait of Wally, which pitted the art world against heirs of the painting’s pre-World War II owners and the US government. Fascinating read, highly recommended.

Ristretto

Here we have another brilliant shot by my Flickr friend jenny downing. It is a perfect abstraction with lots of compositional details, as pointed out in an excellent review by my Flickr friend Rick in his blog The image composer. As usual, all rights retained by the creator.

Aldar headquarters Abu Dhabi

Skyscrapers come in all kinds of shapes, but this is the first one I have seen that looks like a coin (image source). It is the Aldar headquarters in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), completed in 2010, and 110 m high. Like many modern architecture, it is controversial, both having won the “Best Futuristic Design” award by The Building Exchange (BEX) Conference held in Spain a few years ago, and being included in many lists of the ugliest buildings in the world. Personally, I like it very much. More on this building can be found in the wikipedia link below.

Kampen snapshots

We have been living in our new home town of Kampen for 3 weeks now - and we love it. To give people an impression of what it looks like I have collected typical snapshots of Kampen scenery that I have been taking in a special Flickr set, that is ever expanding (see link).

Dogs in window in Hungary

I came across this beauty by fellow Flickrite LightShaper (jwillis) a few weeks ago. The setting itself is worth a shot, with the window frame in the weathered wall. The dogs make it into a high-class shot, with their lovely pose and expression. And the fact that they are cocker spaniels clinches it for me. A gem. As always, all rights retained by the creator.

Links [20]

Once more an overview of interesting links on topics related to the blog, that I encountered recently, but that will probably not make the blog as separate entries. The picture above is by myself.

Turner Prize 2012 Nominees in Pictures.
Photographer Sues Street Artist and Google Music.
Vintage Red Cross Posters from WWI.
Stockholm Metro: the World’s Longest Art Gallery.
Robin Gibb: Life in Pictures.

Wiek bei Greifswald

Yesterday I came across an artist I had never heard of, and whose work immediately connected with me. Paul Adolf Seehaus (1891-1919) was a German expressionist of considerable talent, having studied with August Macke. Pneumonia cut his life short at the age of only 27, just after he had survived the war. The painting shown above dates back to 1916 and is a good example of his style. More on Seehaus in the German wikipedia article linked to below (there is no English version).

Ore

Here we have another one of those breathtaking abstract beauties that are so prominent in the photostream of my Flickr friend Lorraine Kerr (caeciliametella). Rust tends to be amazingly photogenic, but this detail of a ferry landing is different from any other I have seen. And the bubbles are simply amazing. As always, all rights retained by the creator.

Urban forms

This is photo art unlike any other I have seen. Artist Xavier Delory creates these paper-thin skyscrapers by photoshopping existing images, using them as a symbol of vanity and fragility, with an implicit critique on modern architecture. All rights retained by the artist, as usual.

Ivory Satin

The model photography by my Flickr friend andy_57 is second to none, and when he uses his Michele as his model, the results are always great. That said, he surpassed his own high standards with the photo shoot of Michele that he collected in the set Ivory Satin. All of them masterpieces, and I had a hard time picking my own favourite from this embarrassment of riches. But here it is, the shot that gave the set its title. Do explore the others as well though! As always, all rights retained by the creator.

Look

Proof that an excellent creative logo does not have to be elaborate. This gem by Abdul Musavir from India is created simply by changing the font size of the two O's to marvellous effect.

Massachusetts (RIP Robin Gibb)

Unfortunately, the Grim Reaper appears to be in a musical mood these last few days. After Donna Summer and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, it is now the turn of Bee Gee Robin Gibb. Cancer takes another victim. For the occasion, one of their best songs, sung by Robin himself, the 1967 hit Massachusetts. Rest in peace. Art Rock score: 8/10 (great song, I'd put it on my MP3 player).

Lecygne

The most beautiful napkin holder I have ever seen: the Lecygne, designed by Kim Katinis from Greece. Its fluent shapes in silver would grace any table, with or without napkins inside.