June 25, 2009
Shit We're Diggin': Picasso's Light Graffiti from 1949
Today and Tomorrow points to a terrific set of photos found in the LIFE archive of Picasso doing light graffiti. They were shot in 1949 by LIFE photographer Gjon Mili when he visited Picasso in Vallauris, France. You can see more of the series here.
Posted by marc at 8:02 AM in History | Recommend this! |
| May 15, 2009
New York Yimes, 1971: "Taki 183 Spans Pen Pals"
We have mixed feelings about the new Taki 183 website (It's a bit too slick and "commercial" for our tastes) But one thing we did love is that you can download a PDF of the original New York Times article on Taki 183 from 1971 in the biography section.
Posted by marc at 10:31 AM in History | Recommend this! (17) |
January 22, 2007
Catching Up With John Fekner and Don Leicht
For Sara and I, one of the great rewards of putting together the Wooster on Spring project was having the opportunity to get to know a few of the true icons that pioneered the urban art movement in the late 1970's and early '80's.
Before you can understand today, or look into the future, you have to look back into the past and respect the people who paved the way. And because of this, we felt it was important to have artists like Daze, Lady Pink, Doze, and Blek Le Rat working alongside younger artists like Rekal and Judith Supine inside 11 Spring.
Two of artists who we both felt extremely honored to have included the show were John Fekner and Don Leicht.
For us, John Fekner's pioneering stencil work is as important to the history of the urban art movement as the work of artists like Haring, Basquiat. It was artists like Fekner, Leicht, Hambleton and others who truly held down the scene back in the early 80's.
So on Saturday, Sara and I had the great pleasure of being invited by Fekner and Leicht out to their studio in the Bronx. Both artists were extremely gracious, not only in showing us new work that Don has been making, but also in pulling out and showing us photographs, slides, videos, books, and artwork that defined the seminal period in the late 70's and early 80's in New York city. It was a fantastic couple of hours. (Although, we're still kicking ourselves that we didn't bring a video camera to record the conversation.)
The archive that Fekner and Leicht have is absolutely incredible. Working with Jeewon Shin, John is now going through all of his old slides and videos and painstakingly digitizing all of it. Looking at photographs from shows like Fashion Moda in 1980 reminded us that there was a time in New York when shows like Wooster on Spring were not so rare.
Seeing some of the early videos that John made back in the '80's was great fun. But what was more important was hearing the passion that both John and Don still have for their art. It was truly inspirational.
One of the videos that John showed us on Saturday was Concrete People, one of the early video art pieces that John made in the 80's with a team of artists and musicians including Dennis Mann, Andrew Ruhren, Fred Baca, Jimmy Recchione, Sasha Sumner, Sandy Mann, Sandra Seymour and others.
Watching the video, we realized that not many people get to see this type of work that was done before people had access to the digital tools that they have today. We encouraged John and Jeewon to start to upload some of the old footage and photographs they have to Youtube and Flickr.
We were extremely pleased that yesterday we received an email from Jeewon that our conversation had compelled her to upload Concrete People to the web. You can now watch it for the first time in many years by clicking on the image below...
Our hope is that in the coming months and years, perhaps with our help and involvement, true legends in the art world like Fekner and Leicht (and Hambleton) will begin to get the recognition and that they truly deserve.
Posted by marc at 7:32 AM in Art , History | Recommend this! (21) |
January 9, 2007
Know Your History: East LA Graffiti and Murals
"A Chicano kid grows up with walls of many kinds around him. When somebody is born into that situation, there are several things he can do. He can ignore the walls and sink into apathy. Or he can become violent and try to blow up the walls. But there is a third way, a way that people have used for centuries. And that is to perform a kind of ritual magic to neutralize the force of the walls by decorating them with signs, symbols, and art. Chicano street writers choose this third way."
- Gusmano Cesaretti, Street Writers (1975)
Untitled Indio and V. Cholo 1975 3281 Olympic Blvd. (walkway) Acrylic on stucco, 32' x 24' Leopard crouching in a tree.
If you're interested in learning more about the graffiti and mural scene of East Los Angeles check out this terrific archive of vintage photographs on BrownPride.com. There's an incredible amount of information on the site attached to each picture.
Also, oli binnian found a book in the library the other day that was published in 1975 that has lots of old photos of Chicano graffiti from the early 70's taken by Gusmano Cesaretti. He's upload some of the pics on flickr here.
cheers
Posted by marc at 6:28 AM in Activism , History , Murals | Recommend this! (5) |
January 8, 2007
Graffiti Archaeology's The Evolution of 11 Spring in Pictures
We've been fans of Cassady Curtis' amazing website Graffiti Archaeology, for quite some time. So we were thrilled when Cassidy and a terrific group of photographers took it upon themselves to develop the definitive photographic history of the exterior of 11 Spring. The photos go back four years and feature images from more than 10 photographers including C-Monster, Jake Dobkin, Goggla, guy_on_the_streets, ireallylovecake, Adam Lawrence, Rion Nakaya, Nicholas Noyes, Luna Park, and shoehorn99, and Cassidy.
We can't wait to see how this project continues to evolve as Cassidy suggests that there are still a lot of photos to add in.
Posted by marc at 6:58 AM in History | Recommend this! (21) |
April 4, 2006
Did Teens Create Prehistoric Cave Art?
From Liz comes the following story nicked from Discovery Channel News that suggests that teens created most of the prehistoric cave art.
Cave Art: Prehistoric Teen Graffiti?
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
March 31, 2006— Testosterone-fueled boys created most prehistoric cave art, according to a recently published book by one of the world's leading authorities on cave art.
The theory contradicts the idea that adult, tribal shaman spiritual leaders and healers produced virtually all cave art.
It also explains why many of the images drawn in caves during the Pleistocene, between 10,000 and 35,000 years ago, somewhat mirror today's artwork and graffiti that are produced by adolescent males.
"Today, boys draw the testosterone subjects of a hot automobile, fighter jet, Jedi armor, sports, direct missile hit, etc.— all of the things they associate with the Adrenalin of success," said R. Dale Guthrie, author of "The Nature of Paleolithic Art."
Guthrie, who is a professor emeritus in the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, added, "I think the full larder (of) success of the excitement and danger of killing a giant bison or auroch in the Pleistocene was the equivalent of the testosterone art today."
He explained to Discovery News that many of the cave art images of animals are rather graphic, showing, for example, speared animals with blood pouring out of their mouths and noses.
Hunting and animals were not the only things on the cave artists' minds. Guthrie has also noticed that males were drawn sort of like a Ken Barbie doll, with no defined sexual parts save for a simple line designating the penis. Few men were even represented, but the images of women in caves tell a different story.
"Female images dominate and are nude, almost every one full-figured above and below," said Guthrie. "Unlike the other animals, the sculpted, engraved and painted human females and female parts are sometimes done schematically, distilling and inflating the primary and secondary sex characters."
Guthrie also determined that several cave art images are incomplete, overlapping, brief and rudimentary, as though people who were still learning how to draw created them.
This type of sketching dominates cave walls, which also display a handful of works that appear to have been drawn by well-practiced artists, who probably were adults.
Perhaps the most convincing piece of evidence for the new theory consists of 200 handprints that were left in the caves next to the art. These prints were produced by individuals who chewed ochre, held up a hand, and then spit the colorful orange-yellow spew all over the hand, leaving a wall imprint.
Guthrie analyzed the handprints and then compared the results with earlier research on male and female hands. The hand lengths, palm widths and the finger widths and lengths mostly match hands that would have belonged to boys aged nine to 17.
Some teen female handprints were identified in the caves, but young male prints were found more often.
Other handprints resulting unintentionally from people leaning against muddy cave walls, as well as footprints, also suggest that young boys were creating the cave art, according to Guthrie.
Paul Martin, professor of quaternary biogeography at the University of Arizona, told Discovery News that he is inclined to agree with the new theory and findings.
"(Guthrie) has an extraordinary knowledge of wild animal ecology globally, and especially in the Northern Hemisphere," Martin said. "In addition, he brings detailed knowledge of late Pleistocene fossils to his study of cave art. Finally, like many zoologists, especially those with children of their own, he is an astute observer of human behavior."
Martin added, "If he finds that much cave art reflects teenage or preteen preoccupations, I am prepared to believe him."
Posted by marc at 9:23 AM in History | Recommend this! (2) |