Ciao Stephanie September 4, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in Art History, Pinocchio, Student Blog posts, Student Post, Studying abroad.Tags: Pinocchio in Florence, Stephanie Tartick, Studying in Italy
add a comment
Stephanie Tartick is studying abroad in Italy this semester. She sent this update from Florence (home of Pinocchio author Carlo Collodi).
Space
Hi Les,
I am in Florence, Italy now! Didn’t start classes yet. We have intensive Italian all week and I start classes next week with Painting, Figure Drawing, Quattrocento (14th century), Italian and Black and White Photography. The past three days I have been exploring the city of Florence as much as I can since my apartment is right in the city. On the street I have been taking to school the past three days there is a toy store with a bunch of Pinocchio toys in it. Carlo Collodi was from Florence! I took two pictures of the store front and thought I’d share them with you and the Illustration department.
My school is very small but reminds me of the illustration department. Only 48 students and all majoring in different things, not just fine art. Most of the students are from the United States, in fact 5 of all my roommates are from San Antonio. Hope the semester started off well.
Best,
Stephanie T
Hi Les,
Studying abroad is a fantastic opportunity. Just traveling to the Toronto International Airport I saw a Richard Serra sculpture. It reminded me of the amazing world of art and the reason why I chose to leave the country for four months. It’s a pretty big decision and an even bigger change. Any place in the rest of the world will be completely different than the young United States. In Florence there is ancient art in any old street corner. Frescoes are on the ceiling of my apartment building and the outside of the building I see out my window. Famous architecture you read in textbooks is located every two blocks in this city. Three thousand students come to study in Florence every semester and five thousand to Rome. If anyone is looking for a small English speaking school in the heart of the city of Florence, contact me about Santa Reparata International School of Art. www.santareparata.org
Pinoke Exhibit September 2, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in 3-D work, Art History, Pinocchio, Political and Social Art, Summer Reading Project.add a comment
Pinocchio
The Illustration Department’s 2009 Summer Reading Project
Each year, a book is selected that all illustration students read over the course of the summer break. When students return in the fall they have a common cultural experience that can be shared and discussed and that assignments are based on in class. This year’s book is Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.
Collodi, whose real name was Carlo Lorenzini, was a politically active writer of novels, pieces in political newspapers and satire as well as children’s literature in 19th century Italy. At 23 he founded Il Lampione (The Lamp), a satirical magazine that published for a year before being shut down by the government (it resumed publishing in 1860), From this social and political environment Pinocchio’s adventures (or misadventures) were born in 1881 as weekly installments in Il Giornale per i Bambini (an Italian children’s newspaper).
Collodi didn’t think much of his offspring. Originally he had ended the story with Pinocchio’s lynching. He eventually was persuaded to write further chapters.
Despite a ambivalent father, Pinocchio went on to great success (unfortunately after Collodi’s death in 1890). Pinocchio’s adventures are; fantastic, absurd, moralistic, entertaining, allegorical, satiric, in short all the things that make up a good story, and inspire great art.
By 1937 Pinocchio’s adventures were being published in 80 different editions including translations into Swahili, Gaelic and Esperanto. Pinocchio was a popular character before the 1940 premiere of Disney’s full length animated feature. Disney’s use of the story coincides with Collodi’s copyright expiring. As frightening as some of the scenes in the Disney movie can seem, catch Lampwick’s transformation into a donkey, the original story by Collodi is grimmer. Feet are burned off, Pinocchio is hung, chained up, there are funeral processions, huge sharks…a lot to scare a child into good behavior.
Disney’s version of Pinocchio certainly seems to dominate the visual landscape, but not everywhere. Travel to Italy or other continents than America and Pinocchio’s look can be quite unfamiliar…until we see the iconic long nose.
One hundred and twenty six years after his debut Pinocchio is very much a cultural icon. He is a metaphor for lying and bad behavior in politicians as well as a symbol of a character’s quest for humanity. Frankenstein, Astro Boy, David from Stanley Kuberick/Stephen Spielberg’s A.I., Edward Scissorhands, are all cousins of Pinocchio.
A Pinocchio exhibit is up on the 8th floor to peak your interest in the little wooden icon. Below is a key to what’s in the showcase.
space
Key
- Hanging Pinocchio 1944 –by Italian illustrator Giovanni Manca.
- Fables, 2002 (comic book) covers by illustrator James Jean. Geppetto and Pinocchio figure prominently in the story line of the characters from well known Fables in exile.
- Pinocchio shadow puppet
- Woodpeckers whittle down Pinocchio’s nose, from Italian children’s book illustrator Attilio Cassinelli’s 1981 Pinocchio book re’entititled “Once I was a piece of wood”.
- Fold out cover of the August 1972, (No. 29) National Lampoon. Nixon as Pinocchio with Henry Kissinger as Jiminy Cricket. Illustration by Robert Grossman.
- The Chicago Tribune offered a fold-up version of Illinois state Senator Roland Burris as Pinocchio. Burris was accused of offering a bribe in exchange for Obama’s Senate seat.
- “Pinocchio is caught by the gendarmes” by Attilio Mussino 1911.
- Pinocchio by Winshluss 2009
- Assorted Disney Pinocchio books , a bank . Pinocchio was Disney’s 2nd feature length animated film debuting in 1940.
- Pop-up Adventures of Pinocchio- J. Pavlin – G. Seda, (Czech, English version 1974)
- Cover of an Egyptian edition of Pinocchio.
- Zombie Pinocchio Tattoo (courtesy of BMEzine.com) and Jiminy cricket tattoo by Mark of High Voltage Tattoos.
- Astro Boy – a Japanese manga character by Osamu Tezuka , centering around a robot boy.
- By Italian illustrator and humorist Benito Jacovitti (1977?/ reissue 2001).
- Pinocchio float for the 1930 Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade.
- Pinocchio by Keith Haring
- A background from Disney’s Pinocchio 1940. Painted by Claude Coats
- Pinocchio by Attilio Mussino English 1911 edition. 18a. Character sketches for the 1940 Disney movie
- Pinocchio red wine by Dievole.
- A Polish poster for Disney’s Pinocchio.
- The Adventures of Pinocchio 1988 by Roberto Innocenti
- George Bush Coin
- The Adventures of Pinocchio (Italy) 1935 illustrated by Peiro Bernardini
- The New Adventures of Pinocchio, Dell Comic book 1963
- Pinocchio, the Boy, illustrated by Lane Smith 2002
- Luigi and Maria Augusta Cavalieri 1924.
- Pinocchio info to come
- Cut out nose from PinocchioPolititics.com (Behind 28) “Pinocchio is visited by the doctors” by Luigi and Maria Augusta Cavalieri 1924
- Pinocchio by Gianbattista Galizzi 1957
Gay Art: It’s More Than Just Men Having Sex! May 6, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in Art History, Political and Social Art, Student Post.Tags: Evan Turk, Gay Art, Gay Rights Movement Art, J.C. Leyendecker, Keith Haring, Raphael Perez
add a comment
Post by Evan Turk
In my research for my semester final project of creating posters about the gay rights movement, I searched for inspiration from other artists who had created political and social art related to the gay community. What I found, is that there is not as much to be found as one might expect. Most “gay art” falls into the realm of the erotic and very little else falls outside of that. There is no shortage of famous gay artists (Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Jean Cocteau, Paul Cadmus, David Hockney, Francis Bacon), though most of them were closeted. For the most part, any gay-themed art they created was focused on eroticism.
A prominent gay artist who was extremely influential in gay history in America is Keith Haring. Haring was a prominent artist in the 80’s and 90’s in New York City who created simple and largely symbolic work in the vein of pop art and graffiti art. As a victim of AIDS himself, Haring created many of the images that are still used today for AIDS prevention groups as well as gay organizations. An interview with Keith Haring by David Sheff for Rolling Stone (Aug. 1989) can be found at Haring.com as well as an art database.
(Top) “Silence = Death” “Ignorance = Fear” (Bottom)“Untitled” (All images copyright the Keith Haring Foundation)
Place Holder
Another artist that gives an interesting illustration of gay life is J. C. Leyendecker. Leyendecker was an American illustrator in the 20th century known for his fashion advertisements and illustrated covers of the Saturday Evening Post, preceding Norman Rockwell’s reign at the magazine. His work, which is all commercial work, has a rather subtle (or other times not so subtle) gay undertone. In a few paintings, at first glance it seems to be a few sailors looking flirtatiously at a young woman, but upon closer inspection, the men actually appear to be looking at each other with her just kind of standing in the way.
(Above) Arrow Collars and Shirts advertisement (1907)
(Above) The House of Kuppenheimer Advertisement (1918)
(Above) “Kuppenheimer Advertisement – Good Team Work”
Place holder
Perez is an artist born in 1965 and raised in Jerusalem. He now lives in Tel-Aviv and creates work that often deals with homosexual themes and relationships. As stated on his website “His paintings put to test the boundaries between eroticism and art, while characterizing gay relationships and love as they are expressed in everyday life.” Although his work contains mostly male nudes, the subject matter is often non-erotic. He depicts family scenes and everyday life for gay couples, instead of just the sexual aspects of a gay relationship.
(Above) Untitled
(Above) Gay Wedding
(Above) Gay Daily Life courtesy of www.gaypaintings.com
As homosexuality becomes more accepted in modern culture, there will be less sexual repression and most likely, less of an emphasis on only erotic art. This leaves the door open for a different step in the gay art movement.
MTA Arts in Transit Guest Visit April 29, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in Art History, Guest Visits, Public art.Tags: Amy Hausmann, Guest speaker, MTA Arts In Transit, Subway station proposal
add a comment
(Above) Barbara Segal’s “Muhheakantuck (The River that Flows Two Ways), Aluminum reliefs on train overpass (2005) on the Hudson Line /Yonkers
On Monday (April 20th), Amy Hausmann (below-left), the Assistant Director of MTA Arts for Transit, paid a visit to our class to speak abo
ut her department’s mission and role in commissioning artists for site specific, public artwork in the New York transit system.
Statistics on the amount of people using the transit system is staggering, approx. 8 million commuters on a given weekday. That’s per day. Asking for a show of hands of how many students (our class was joined by Wendy Popp’s concepts class.) view art work in the subway during their daily commute, it was an overwhelming majority. This was not always the case. My memory of subway stations while growing up in the 60’s and 70’s is one of decaying, vandalized public spaces. The way we presently experience the subway (and the LIRR and Metro-North) is a testament to the work MTA Arts for transit has done over the last 25 years to change the way we look at the shared public space of the transit system.
Amy started her powerpoint presentation pointing out that from the subway’s inception a mandate was built into it’s mission statement to create and design a visually beautiful public space, “…and enhance the experience of travel.” As Amy stressed , very forward thinking for 1904. MTA Arts for Transit’s budget for projects is derived from a portion of the renovation budget of the station/space to be refurbished. So art works are installed or planned only for a station that is being rehabilitated or improved.
(Above) Art en Route, A pocket guide to art in the MTA Network that was passed out during the visit. You can e-mail a request for a copy at the MTA Art for Transit site.
Amy brought with her pocket guides to some of the art in the MTA system. it’s organized by subway line with called out images of art installations. There is also a book, “Along the Way” by Sandra Bloodworth , Director of MTA Arts for Transit, and William Ayres, curator at the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook. Looking through the guide and book gives you a sense of the varied range of art in the transit system, both in concept and in materials. Donald Lipski’s inverted olive tree
with crystals at Grand Central Terminal, Walter Martin’s and Paloma Munoz’s Canal Street station filled with 174 grackles and blackbirds…the subway is one big art museum.
A number of illustrators have created art for the transit system; Raul Colon, Owen Smith, Milton Glaser, Dave Calver, George Bates (Parsons Illustration Dept. instructor), Peter Sis, Jose Ortega, Edward Del Rosario (Parsons Illustration Dept. instructor) to name a few. In that spirit, finishes for the class assignment of creating proposals for site specific art in individual subway stations were also up on the wall during Amy’s visit. she graciously agreed to critique them and offer her professional opinion .
You can view the entire assignment sheet I handed out in a previous post. In a nut shell, each student created artwork for a subway station of their choice. In the course of creating a proposal students researched the history of the area/station and took into account the 
make up of the community it serves. Each student attempted to integrate their art with the architecture of the station in some way.
Below are some of the assignments.
P(Left) Amy Hausmann criting a student’s proposal
Place marker
Place marker
Place marker
Place marker
Place marker
Place marker
Place marker
Paula Searing: Wall Street
Rather than work with Bulls and Bears , I was struck with horses because they can be both graceful and rampant like Wall street’s sides of prosperity and cut throat behavior. The original art is done in acrylic paint, sprayed over stencils.
Place marker
Mark Lev: 50th Street
50th Street station ( the 1, 2, 3 line). My subway installation is interactive (a musical component) as well as aesthetic. It consists of several Hang drums (developed in 2000 in Berne Switzerland) of various sizes and tunings, installed into the subway wall. In the above mural they are the blue spheres with darker blue round indentations. The drums can be played without any special tools and create resonant, ghostly tones similar to a steel drum. The effect of several people playing them would be a mass of tones echoing throughout the station creating an eerie but sonorous atmosphere. Colorful, circular tile patterns around each drum seem to ripple across the wall, evoking ideas of sound waves, water droplets, and mimicking the sound qualities of the drums.
Here is a link to a video of the Hang drum being played http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEJc2wKkwjM&feature=PlayList&p=D12F8B5F76C1C4E8&index=32 it’s a very distinctive sound .
William Crosby: Smith-9th Street Subway Station Gowanus
The Smith/9th Street Station · Opened in 1933. The station has the distinction of being the highest elevated station in the system. The station was originally built elevated 91 feet to accommodate tall-mast shipping in the Gowanus Creek under the station.
Evan Turk: Greenpoint Ave. Station Brooklyn
Evan’s mural is a narrative based on the Lenape Indian legend of Rainbow Crow. The Rainbow Crow brings fire from the Great Spirit in the sky to the earth. But due to the smoke he no longer is rainbow-colored , but a black crow. This myth was chosen to reference the Lenape Indians indigenous to the Greenpoint area.
Place Holder
Julian Uribe: ” Cultural Intertwine” Jackson Heights (7, E, F, G, R, V)
Jackson Heights is one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods and the first garden city in the five boroughs of New York City. I realized in every culture found in Jackson Heights the frog is a common symbol of nature, peace, and power. Ethnic patterns unite with the frog symbol in my design for the station, all of which I hope allow the neighborhood to be more in touch with their diverse ethnic community .
Place Holder
Julie Pinzur: ” The Bleecker Farm” Bleecker Street (the 6 train)
Ceramic mosaic on walls near the subway exit. Anthony Bleecker, who the street was named after, along with his family owned the land where the station now stands. The scene shows farmland, which is representative of this area in the 1800s. Anthony Bleecker was also one of the founders of the New York Historical Society, and was a trustee of the New York Society Library.
Place marker
Naomi Koffman: ” Ghost” 72nd Street/Central Park West
Place Holder
Jenel Lawson: Lexington Ave. 63rd St. Station
Near this station four embassys are located; France, Italy, Pakastan and India. Different color strands of thread represent each country and stich part of the globe.
Raiders of the Lost Arcimboldo March 21, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in 3-D work, Art History, Public art, Student Post, Surreal.Tags: Alex Iezzi, Arcimboldo, assemblage, Aurel Schmidt, Dali, Joel-Peter Witkin, Octavio Ocampo, Vik Muniz
add a comment
by Alex Iezzi
The 15th century, Italian painter, Giuseppe Arcimboldo is one of the most instantly recognizable artists in western art. From Milan, Arcimboldo worked as a court painter, as well as court decorator, and fashion designer, painting the Royalty, in Prague. And he painted them as fruit, and other objects.
(above left) Vertumnus (portrait of Emperor Rudolf II)c. 1590 (middle) Winter c. 1563 (right) Win
Arcimboldo had an uncanny ability to look at a human figure and turn it into still life observational-plant-matter-mosaic of sorts. Arcimboldo can be seen as the grandfather of this style; influencing A number of artists historically, and in contemporary art in techniques, and mediums.
His influence on artists of the 20th century can be seen in the work of the Surreal and Dada artists. The artists of these movements were influenced by the bizarre quality of Arcimboldo’s work. Salvador Dali, a surrealist, oftentimes created hidden images within images, although doing it much more abstractly and stranger than Arcimboldo.
.
(above) Dali’s landscape with hidden face.
Since the 1970’s, Mexican painter Octavio Ocampo has been creating images influenced by Arcimboldo. His subject matter usually deals with religious, and traditional Mexican imagery. Ocampo’s portraits are comprised of juxtaposed historical images, painted and composed in such a way as to create very interesting allusions relating to a superimposed likeness. I would not quite call it pop art.
(above) Ocampo’s portrait of Don Quixote.
Moving to our contemporaries, a very large body of work has been created in the style of Guiseppe Arcimboldo, even in mediums other than painting. Joel-Peter Witkin has referenced Arcimboldo, and with his influence created horrifying photographic works. Witkin credits the witnessing of woman’s decapitation during his childhood to be the source of his own aesthetic sensibilities. Like Acrimboldo, he arranges organic and man-made material into portraits. Witkin’s portraits can seem disgusting and be of confusing scenes, whose purpose is to leave a deep, and sick impression in the viewer. Here for more: www.edelmangallery.com/witkin.htm.
(above) Joel-Peter Witkin’s photographs obviously are influenced by the work of the late Arcimboldo.
Vik Muniz is another artist who uses this material-assemblage technique and then photographs the result. Muniz uses junk in a junkyard setting and rearranges it in order to create images, which can only be captured by a camera hung from a crane far overhead. The images are copies of some great master paintings, including Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Correggio, and Goya. Despite the use of a simmilar assemblage style Muniz does recreate a Arcimboldo. The similarities are interesting to note. Here for more: www.vikmuniz.net/
(above) Muniz’s rendition of Goya’s Saturn Devouring One of His Sons.
A younger generation has also picked up on the style of Arcimboldo and worked in a very grand scale, much like Vik Muniz. Blu, an Italian mural artist most famous for his moving graffiti animations www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4 , has exhibited influence in Arcimboldo. This can be seen in his 2007 Berlin work. Here for more www.blublu.org
(above) Blu’s mural.
The last artist we look at is my personal favorite of the group, the young (25), Aurel Schmidt. Her drawings of the grotesque and deranged can also show Arcimboldo’s influence. She has a modern twist however, using her own collections of trash to mold monsters out of them. Her drawings are incredibly detailed, every inch is completely rendered, and should be seen in person to get the true effect. Not only is Schmidt a master of capturing minute detail in her drawings, but she masterfully lays them down into chilling compositions that Arcimboldo would surely be proud of! Here for more: www.tinyvices.com/Aurel_Schmidt.html
(above) Aurel Schmidt’s beautifully intricate drawings.
Frankenstein Illustrated/ Harry Brockway August 28, 2008
Posted by leskanturek in Art History, Frankenstein, Frankenstein Illustrated, Summer Reading Project.Tags: book illustration, Harry Brockway, wood engraving
add a comment
I do not have much info on this illustrator . The wood engravings that I’ve seen online from the Folio Society’s (UK) 2004 edition of Frankenstein are wonderful interpretations of the characters. A number of Wood engravers have tackled Frankenstein such as Lynd Ward and Barry Moser. Here is what I can dig up (no Frankenstein pun intended) on Mr. Brockway.
(Above) The cover and an interior illustration for the Folio Society’s 2004 edition of Frankenstein.
(Above) Title page
(Above) Frankenstein in the arctic (Right) an early sculpture by Harry (photo from Old Stile Press blog .
British illustrator Harry Brockway was born in 1958, and received a BA from Kingston upon Thames, in sculpture, and a Post-graduate Diploma sculpture from Royal Academy Schools. He taught art and is also trained as stone mason.
He has worked for the the Old Stile Press, where some of his stone carving can be seen. the Greynog Press, The Readers Digest Association and the Folio Society.
I find find it is perfectly understandable that Mr. Brockway is trained as both a sculptor and a wood engraver. As anyone can tell you that had created wood blocks.engravings, you fall in love with the material that you are carving.
Frankenstein Illustrated/Theodor Von Holst August 28, 2008
Posted by leskanturek in Art History, Artists, Frankenstein, Frankenstein Illustrated, Summer Reading Project.Tags: 1831 edition of Frankenstein, Hanry Fuseli, Theodor Von Holst
add a comment
The first edition of Frankenstein was published in 1818. The first instance of it being illustrated is the third edition of 1831 with engraved vignette titles and frontispieces by Theodor Von Holst.
(Above) Pages from the the 1831, 3rd edition, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. These pages do appear as a spread in the book. (Left) The text on the frontispiece reads: ‘By the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs … I rushed out of the room’, (right) Frankenstein departs from Elizabeth.
Theodor Von Holst
A 19th century British painter, and the first artist to tackle illustrating Frankenstein. Von Holst was mentored by Henry Fuseli whom he met as a student at the Royal Academy of Arts in London where Fuseli was a Professor of Painting. Von Holst was a student of Fuseli’s for only a year when Fuseli died in 1825. Henry Fuseli had a huge influence on Von Holst despite the short time period. He (Fuseli) is of course the well known painter of supernatural subjects (you probably know his 1781 painting “ Nightmare”).
(Above) The Nightmare, 1781 by Henry Fuseli
Von Holst’s work is very reminiscent of Fuseli’s. He gained a reputation of illustrating the German Romantics (Goethe’s Faust) as well as the supernatural, so his choice as illustrator seems fitting.
(Above) Two painting by Von Holst done around the same timeas the illustrations for Frankenstein. (Left) Bertalda, Assailed by Spirits c.1830, (right) Bertalda Frightened by Apparitions c.1830-1835
A note about Henry Fuseli. Fuseli was Swiss born, and the idea for Frankenstein was conceived in Switzerland near lake Geneva as well as part of the book’s plot takes place in Switzerland. It is also worth mentioning that Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, had an affair with Fuseli.
I want you, yes YOU! July 11, 2008
Posted by leskanturek in Art History, Class Topics, Point of View.Tags: I Want You, James Montgomery flagg
add a comment
Flagg's Uncle Sam
Illustrator James Montgomery Flagg was not the first artist to exploit a specific point of view in an illustration. He modeled his famous 1917 recruiting poster of Uncle Sam appealing directly to the viewer after an English WWI recruiting poster. The British version (created 3 years earlier) depicted Lord Herbert Kitchener, Britain’s then Secretary of State for War, in the same pose . Since then Flagg’s image of Uncle same has become an icon and like all icons it’s invited it’s share of homages, knockoffs, and parodies.
Below are some of the ones I’ve encountered so far:
(Left) Lord Kitchener by Alfred Leete, (middle) Uncle Cthulhu “I Want You” by Patrick McEvoy www.comicnerd.com, (Right) Smoky Bear by Rudolph Wendelin (?)
(Left) the Committee to Help Unsell the War, 1971., (middle) Harry Potter, Warner Brothers, (Right) Santa “I Want You to Spend a Lot” by Pierre Bourgeault
I’d welcome any images you come across that you feel fit the bill. But I’d like the credit for the artist/creator too. If it’s an older image and the artist is unknown that’s okay as long as you research it and give me the url of the site or the book where you found it.
