See this most resplendent exhibition!
See you Thursday, at the Higher Pictures gallery in NYC.
For money you can have everything it is said. No, that is not true. You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge but not intelligence; glitter, but not comfort; fun, but not pleasure; acquaintances, but not friendship; servants, but not faithfulness; grey hair, but not honor; quiet days, but not peace. The shell of all things you can get for money. But not the kernel. That cannot be had for money. -Arne Garborg, writer (1851-1924)
Marcello Venusti. Portrait of Michelangelo, post-1535. Oil on canvas. 36 x 27 cm. Casa Buonarroti, Florence
Michelangelo: Study for the Head of Leda
Two weeks ago, I finished reading The Sistine Secrets. No, not reading, devouring! This afternoon I finally went to see Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth show at The Louise and Bernard Palitz Gallery- Syracuse University’s Lubin House. This exhibit was worth seeing just for a close inspection of Marcello Venusti’s portrait of Michelangelo–the only surviving painting of the Renaissance Master, in a rich array of late Baroque style lighting captured in rich oils. But far more rewarding was admiring the physicality of the Pièta in person. The Renaissance fascination with perfect human form cast by the Master of his time. Then, see the same pair of hands and eyes trace the contours of an effeminate profile in a sketch for the head of Leda: minimum strokes, maximum pathos. To think that before the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo had not created any large-scale frescoes…what else can demonstrate the power of the ‘beginner’s mind’? In who else do we see the art mastering both the intimate (portraits, poetry) and the grandiose (frescoes, sculpture) with such electic splendor?
Portrait of Annie Leibovitz taken by me in New York City, 2008.
Whether you can observe a thing or not depends on the theory which you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed.
-Albert Einstein
'Who needs blood when you've got lipstick?', Kate Moss's self-portrait in lipstick
This upcoming Saturday, London’s Lyon & Turnbull will auction this work by Kate Moss
Tilda Swinton by Nan Goldin
Tilda Swinton by Hugo Glendinning
Tilda Swinton
Salvador Dali Landscape near Figueras
Salvador Dali
“Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.”
- Thomas Edison
“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
—Aristotle
Joan Jett, Live in Syracuse 2008 © Press&Brand Images
©isiphotos.com
I am so thrilled, absolutely thrilled that the women’s USA soccer team won the Olympic gold! What a great game. To root for the US in soccer is to root for the advancement of the sport everywhere, so I’m very glad the USA won. Ussoccer.com has the play by play.
Left to right:"Tattoo no. 6," left, and "Tattoo no. 3," by Qiu Zhijie, "A Picture of Loquats and Mountain Birds" by Hong Lei, "On Loan My Left Hand- Me" by Sheng Qi. Images: AW Asia Gallery via Bloomberg.
As I learned on Bloomberg News, New York’s Museum of Modern Art has purchased 23 photographs from contemporary Chinese artists. The catch is that the MoMA purchased them in bulk, paying 30 percent to 40 percent less than retail price, and receiving five donated images.
Photograph of Victoria Beckham by Bryan Adams. Equally interesting is the Bryan Adams’ Stern Portfolio
Windows at Henri Bendel's, June 2008
Great concept for an pictorial of exquisitely fashionable earrings.
His name is Mike, but he goes by Balakov on flickr. He recreates well-known photographs with Legos. Remarkably well-researched, and smart attention to lighting bring emotion to the inanimate Lego men and women, who run and leap in our imagination. Brilliant!
A Lego version of Norman Potter’s 1954 photograph of Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile, completing the distance in 3 min 59.4 sec at Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, May 6, 1954
Pax.
Kate Moss
Michel Comte’s 1993 photograph of Carla Bruni: $91,000.
Irving Penn’s 1996 photograph of Kate Moss: $97,000.
Avedon’s 1968 photograph of Lauren Hutton: $127,000.
Avedon’s 1959 photograph photo of Brigitte Bardot: $181,000.
Irving Penn’s 1999 photograph of Gisele Bundchen: $193,000
Having a curiously titillating sought-after collection of nudes in contemporary photography: priceless no more!
Oh, and: David LaChapelle’s 1994 colour photograph of “Naomi Campbell: Have You Seen Me?”: a mere $29,800. However, earlier this week, Sotheby’s auctioned an Edward Weston nude photograph of his spouse, Charis, which sold for $325,000! That’s still more than the highest-selling image form the Elfering collection: Helmut Newton’s Sie Kommen, which sold for $241,000.
Despite all this interesting math, Carla Bruni is on everyone’s lips. Fact: Bruni’s photograph cost half the value of a photo of frozen vegetables, at the same auction and from the same collection. True, they’re not just any frozen vegetables: they’re styled by Irving Penn, and the cover of his book: Still Life : Irving Penn Photographs, 1938-2000
Erin O’Connor and Viktor & Rolf by Tim Walker for a Vogue fashion editorial.
Even Better: Tim Walker Pictures
Kylie Minogue by Vincent Peters for German Vogue. One of the reasons I find this cover spectactular, is how well the typography plays off the photograph. I think anyone could put the barcode on the bottom left, where it “belongs”, but instead, a conscious decision was made to retain a fluidity of the body. I especially like how shades of off-white and white were employed. Design-wise, this is a great cover. I wish there were as few cover lines in US Vogue!
The fabulously expressive Atong by Mark Pillai for Russian Vogue. WOW.
A fig, on a cube of Tofu, on a cut of salmon. Remember that Irving Penn photograph for Vogue magazine? Because I’ve been researching British photography, I came across an image in Elle magazine of a lemon squeezer in the shape of a spider, a Phillipe Stark piece de résistance evocative of Louise Bourgeois. It was an innovatively styled photograph, graphic and strong. It was by Matthew Shave, a portfolio I bookmarked a while ago, but haven’t seen in a long time. I revisited and, much to my delight:
Driven by wit and well-executed with a sophisticated sense of conceptual integration, these images are great examples of evocative textural contrasts. Matthew Shave has a great sense of gestural wit. Refreshing…
Oh, and that previously classic: the fig, the Tofu cube, the salmon, and the photographic sarabande they together create can be found in the book Still Life : Irving Penn Photographs, 1938-2000
