The Visual Arts: Exploring the History of "Fine Art" and Beyond

[stlukesguild]

Well... I've set about to revive the thread on art in consideration of all the discussion of art that has taken place recently. Hopefully any off-topic posts... such as attempts to hijack the thread and use it as a means of psycho-analyzing artists or using art as a means to "prove" the illnesses of society as a whole will be rapidly dealt with so that we can avoid another locked thread. For those interested, here is a link to the locked Art Thread:

http://www.online-literature.com/for...The-Art-Thread

I thought I would begin this second attempt at an art thread by exploring the concept of "fine art" vs "commercial art" or illustration. Back in 1991, the Museum of Modern Art made an attempt to confront the divide between so-called "fine art" vs "commercial" or "applied art" and illustration in an exhibition entitled High & Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture.

Until the invention of photography, nearly all painters could also be called "illustrators". They recorded for posterity the people, places, and things of the world around them... and of the world of their imagination. It would not be stretching things to suggest that this was a masterpiece of both "commercial art" and "illustration":



The artist was commissioned... hired to produce a painting to help sell a given product... in this instance Christianity... specifically Catholicism. This was to be achieved through the illustration of the great Biblical narratives for an audience that was largely illiterate.

Around the same time that Michelangelo was painting the Sistine, Europe saw the birth of the "mass media" through the innovation of print... and especially Johannes Gutenberg's movable type press. The movable type would revolutionize book production and the dissemination of written text and information leading to the spread of ideas, challenges to the Church and the Aristocracy, and eventually the Enlightenment and the spread of democratic and egalitarian government.

Print and the ability to mechanically reproduce images also led to the first notions of creating art for the masses as opposed to the single wealthy patron. In Europe it was the Germans who led the way with printed images as they did with printed text. While the technologies of engraving and wood block printing were known in Italy and France, the Germans made the greatest use of the media. This may be owed to the German penchant for the almost-Gothic use of line which was ideally suited to the graphic arts. Artists such as Martin Schongauer:



Hans Sebald Beham:



Hans Baldung Grien:



and of course Albrecht Dürer:



In spite of the exemplary works of graphic art, print remained in the shadows of painting almost until 19th century. Most of the finest print works were produced by painters such as Lucas van Leyden:



Rembrandt:



Goya:



and Delacroix:



But printed images were also embraced as a means of reproducing paintings, illustrating books... and increasingly as a means of political/social satire and and satire... as can be found in the works of William Hogarth:



Thomas Rowlandson:



and Honore Daumier:



Sometime around the end of the 19th century is considered the starting point of the "Golden Age of Illustration" (which continued through the 1960s). At the same time... with the Impressionists... we find the birth of Modernism. Many of the early Modernists were masters of the graphic arts, creating marvelous book illustrations and posters.

As Modernism evolved... and eventually became institutionalized... a fissure developed between artists and "illustrators" and "commercial artists". In order to defend and champion new ideals and standards of artistic quality and maintain an air of artistic/cultural superiority, the older ideals and standards needed to be swept aside. Modernism had involved an abandonment of the artists' role as illustrator of the people, places, and things of the era and Modernist critics and theorists developed a dismissive attitude toward any art employing "realist"... let alone "illustrative" elements. The terms "illustrative", "literary", and "narrative" became insults. Any artists who continued to work in a realistic or illustrative manner were dismissed as dated, archaic, low brow, and kitsch. Even an artists as good as Edward Hopper...



and Andrew Wyeth...



... were brushed aside as inconsequential and illustrative. The dominant critic of Abstract Expressionism, Clement Greenberg, recognized Hopper's genius... but couldn't accept a painter who challenged his theory of the superiority of abstraction, and went on to suggest that Hopper really couldn't be considered a painter at all... but something else altogether... some sort of "debased" branch of literature.

Driving a greater wedge between the painters who prided themselves as being "fine artists" and the lowly "illustrators" and "commercial artists" was the realization of the increasing gap between the larger audience and contemporary painting... and ultimately the increasing irrelevance of contemporary painting and "fine art". Looking back over the 20th century, one cannot help but recognize that along with photography, it was the illustrators and "archaic" "illustrative" painters such as Hopper, Wyeth, and Grant Wood who produced many of the most iconic images of the century... images which spoke of the people, places, and things of the era:




















































































Over the course of this thread I hope to explore a number of artists... "fine artists" and "illustrators"... initially focusing on artists from the "Golden Age of Illustration" who I feel have long been been underestimated and undervalued... if not outright ignored.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I'm glad to see this thread revived.

[Pierre Menard]

I'm glad to see this thread revived.

Yes same! Look forward to furthering my knowledge in all things visual art.

[ftil]

I have found a few painters on Alchemy website.

Intriguing indeed.


Siegfried Zademack, Gravity drive Angel Engel # 146 in Galery

http://www.zademack.com/html/00index.htm


More of his paintings

http://www.tuttartpitturasculturapoe...2-germany.html



Heide Proksch, GARTEN DER DREI LICHTER


http://www.fantastic-art.at/tapis/framesetwerkee.htm



Peter Proksch, Das Grab Des Osiris

http://www.fantastic-art.at/fantasti...hmalerei5e.htm



Natalia Gerasimenko

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/gerasimenko.html

[mona amon]

New art thread - Yay!

[stlukesguild]

I thought I start this thread off properly by exploring the work of the artist/illustrator, Alphonse Mucha:

Alphonse Mucha
(24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939)

"Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can't get"

from the Eagles, Desperado

There are always those individuals who fail to recognize their own talents... or are even resentful of them. Within the realm of literature, I immediately think of Arthur Conan Doyle who grew to so despise his brilliant character invention, Sherlock Holmes, that he eventually killed off the character in order to never have to write another Holmes tale. In December 1893, in order to dedicate more of his time to what he considered his more important works (his historical novels), Conan Doyle had Holmes and Professor Moriarty apparently plunge to their deaths together down the Reichenbach Falls in the story "The Final Problem". Public outcry, however, led him to bring the character back in 1901, in The Hound of the Baskervilles, and in 1903, Conan Doyle published his first Holmes short story in ten years, "The Adventure of the Empty House", in which it was explained that only Moriarty had fallen; but since Holmes had other dangerous enemies—especially Colonel Sebastian Moran—he had arranged to also be perceived as dead.

In the realm of classical music, we have the German composer, Engelbert Humperdinck (not to be confused with the schmaltzy lounge-lizard singer of the same name) who composed the brilliant opera, Hänsel und Gretel, composed at the urging of his sister to her libretto, intended a a children's play based upon the Brothers Grimm's classic tale. The composer was not immediately thrilled with the request... after all, as a sworn Wagnerian and a protege of the great master, he took a lofty view of the operatic calling. What would Wagner think!?

Hänsel und Gretel is almost a magical achievement in its seeming simplicity... its child-like joy... its folk-like melodies... and its spontaneity... in spite of the sophistication of the work: the mature, adult sub-texts, the sensuality and complexity of the orchestration... built heavily upon Wagner's Lohengrin and Parsifal with its spiritually uplifting moments of grace and benediction. Even the melodies that resonate with the honest simplicity of true folk music are largely Humperdinck's originals... masterful pastiches.

The work not only impressed Richard Strauss, who called it "a masterpiece of the highest quality... all of it original, new, and so authentically German," it also proved a smash hit. In London crowds flocked to Daily's Theater for the biggest show of the Christmas season, 1884. Gustav Mahler, then head of the Hamburg Opera, also proclaimed Hänsel und Gretel to be a "masterpiece". Hänsel und Gretel holds the distinction of having been the first opera performed in its entirety on the radio in Europe (on the BBC) in 1923, and in the United States in 1931. In spite of the popularity of the work, Humperdinck almost resented that he had composed it, desiring nothing more than to be recognized for his later, more "serious" musical efforts.

Alphonse Mucha is perhaps the artist most intimately associated with the art and culture of fin de siecle Paris and the entire movement eventually known as art nouveau. Unfortunately, the common narrative of Art History has tended to divide the visual arts into the realm of "Fine Art" on one side, and the "Applied Arts", "Decorative Arts", and/or "Commercial Arts" on the other... with a clear inference that one is of far more merit than the other. As a result, most Art Historical surveys of this period center upon the work of the Impressionists (Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas) and Post-Impressionists (Gauguin, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Seurat, Bonnard, and Vuillard) but largely ignore Mucha. Mucha himself struggled with this concept of artistic hierarchy... desiring nothing so much as to abandon his success in fields of decorative/commercial art and illustration... and to be recognized for his efforts as a "serious" "Fine Artist."

Mucha was born in Moravia in the present Czech Republic. He had been obsessed with drawing since childhood, and he was first employed in painting theatrical scenery for a theater in Moravia. In 1879, he relocated to Vienna to work for a major Viennese theatrical design company, while taking his first formal courses in art education. When fire destroyed the theater, he returned to Moravia, to do freelance decorative and portrait painting. Count Karl Khuen of Mikulov hired Mucha to decorate Hrušovany Emmahof Castle with murals, and was so impressed with Mucha's work that he offered to sponsor Mucha's formal training at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Following his studies in Munich, Count Khuen offered to further support Mucha's artistic training in either Paris or Rome. Mucha chose Paris... feeling intimidated by the grandiose reputation of Rome. He continued his studies at Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi.

When Mucha arrived in Paris in 1887, the French capital was the cultural center of the Western world. With his tuition paid and a monthly stipend from his patron, Count Khuen, the 27-year-old Mucha was able to fully enjoy the brilliance of Paris like few other students. He was able to expose himself to the latest paintings of the Impressionists... and the Post-Impressionists such as Seurat and Gauguin, dine in the cafés and coffee shops where he could listen to the debates among artists and poets, and read the latest novels and poetry by Flaubert, Zola, Verlaine, Mallarmé, etc...

His circumstances took a sudden turn for the worse in 1889 when Mucha received a communiqué from Count Khuen announcing that all financial patronage from the Count was to cease immediately. The Count had not counted on a life-long student with Mucha and called on him to begin to make his way into the realm of professional artists. While the artist would later thank the Count for pushing him into the "real world" of art, Mucha was initially faced with the reality of just how to survive in Paris in the dead of winter without any means of financial support. The artist could no longer afford the luxury of attending the Académie Colarossi, and so he promptly dropped out. He was also forced to immediately cease dining in the Parisian cafés and coffee shops, and move to far more humble living quarters where he had little heat or food. Mucha set about seeking work as an illustrator with any number of the flourishing publication firms in Paris.

Soon he began to earn a little income as an illustrator and he moved into a small studio room above Madame Charlotte's crèmerie. Madame Charlotte's café-restaurant was one of the small but important gathering places for artists in Paris. Madame Charlotte often fed any number of penniless Parisian art students, and the walls of her establishment were covered in paintings and drawings accepted in lieu of payment. Students and teachers and working artists gathered in the café and talked of William Morris and the burgeoning Arts and Crafts Movement, Impressionism and the Post-Impressionists, and especially Japanese art. The interest in Japanese art had exploded in Europe following the trade agreement between Japan and the US of 1854 which opened up Japan to trade with the West. Japanese goods and arts flooded the European market, and the Japanese style, or Japonisme would become all the rage among artists, and especially a major influence upon Art Nouveau.

Mucha's career took a major turn for the better late in the year 1894 as the result of true luck. One evening just before Christmas, the artist was going over proofs with the printer Lemercier. There was a phone-call from the Théâtre de la Renaissance. The internationally-known actress, Sarah Bernhardt was displeased with the poster for her latest play, Gismonda, and demanded a new poster design ready to be hung in a little more than a week. Most of Lemercier's artists and designers had left Paris for the holiday, and no one could be found willing to take on this rush order from a demanding client. Aware of Mucha's abilities as an illustrator and draftsman, Lemercier offered him the job. Mucha realized the potential impact of this particular commission, and produced a poster that was truly a work of art:



Rejecting the usual poster format, Mucha elected a tall, narrow composition allowing him to present a near-life-size image of Sarah Bernhardt. The artist also rejected a focus upon naturalism and the modern world, and instead drew heavily from a unique mix of art historical sources:

The tall, narrow format was clearly inspired by the panels of Japanese screen paintings as well as the works of artists such as Edward Burne-Jones... well-known from William Morris Arts and Crafts Movement:



The emphasis upon flat pattern rooted in natural forms and the overall organic/linear design was again inspired in part by the Arts and Crafts Movement...



... and ultimately might be traced back to the works of William Blake:



Archaic elements such as the use of the halo and the textures suggestive of mosaics were inspired by Byzantine mosaics and icons.



At a time in which color lithographic printing was undergoing major innovations and print artists were taking full advantage of the availability of the most brilliant colors in their designs, Mucha elected to employ a far more subtle and subdued pastel color palette. This may be owed in part to his admiration of Japanese Uliyo-e print masters such as Utamaro:



The poster design for Gismonda did not at all impress or please Lemercier. The work was clearly unconventional... even outrageously innovative. Sarah Bernhardt, however, was highly enthusiastic... as were the Parisian public when the poster hit the streets. Bernhardt offered Mucha a multi-year contract and over the next decade the artist was to produce a series of equally brilliant posters for the actress which helped to establish the artist... and the Mucha Style... which essentially became recognized as the epitome of the fashionable Art Nouveau style:











Mucha rapidly became the artist/illustrator/designer in demand. His designs were employed to sell products ranging from foods...





to bicycles...



to chocolate...







to cigarettes...



to travel and tourism...



to champagne:





Of course... no matter what product was being marketed... what Mucha was really selling was an image of fin de siecle Paris: a world of beautiful women wearing equally beautiful (and often revealing) clothing; perfume, champagne, flowers, the theater and nightclubs.

The demand for Mucha's work was so high that the artist became one of the first to utilize the relatively new technology of photography in the production of his images. He would stage and photograph his models:



These photographs were then "gridded-off" in the same manner in which Renaissance painters gridded-off original drawings alowing them to transfer the works to a far larger surface (canvas or plaster in the case of fresco). Mucha then transferred the figures to his lithographic stone allowing him to rapidly establish the proper proportions and gesture. He would then adjust the contours to suite his desired elegant flow and build up the decorative elements around the figure.

As the "Mucha Style"... which became known as Art Nouveau... grew in popularity with the public, the artist turned his attention to a broad array of decorative commercial endeavors:

Book Illustration:





Calenders:



Carpet, tapestry, and furniture design:



Jewelry:





... even ceramic and cast metal sculptural Bric-à-brac:



The design for Mucha's poster images was so high (people were stealing them off the streets) that the artist began to produce a series of purely decorative "poster/prints" that could be hung in the home like any "fine art" print or painting. These images were often released in series... on themes such as Flowers:





The Muses:









The Four Seasons:



Precious Stones:









and the Stars:



In order to meet the ever-increasing demand the artist produced a printed and bound folio of designs, known as the Documents Decoratifs that might be used by other artists and craftsmen as well as a means of passing on his knowledge to younger artists:





Mucha's work and its influence spread throughout the major cultural centers of Europe and to the Americas. The extent of his impact could be best seen at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris. At this exposition, which featured such innovations and achievements as the Eiffel Tower, Ferris wheels, Campbell's Soup, Diesel engines, talking films, and the Telegraphone (the precursor to modern day sound recording), Mucha's designs could be found throughout. Mucha participated in a committee of artists, designers, and architects involved in discussions on replacing the Eiffel Tower (which had been constructed in 1888 with the intention of being but a temporary structure) with another symbol for France. He designed the decor for the Bosnia-Herzegovina Pavillion, and perhaps in response to the success of his 1897 solo exhibition in Austria, Ausstellung Alfons Mucha, the artist was asked to contribute a couple of sculptural works and the poster promoting the Austrian contribution to the Exposition Universelle:



It was at this point... at the peak of his career... while his Mucha Style/Art Nouveau was being imitated across Europe and the Americas, that Mucha attempted to disassociate himself from his fame and his commercial/decorative achievements. He always insisted that rather than maintaining any fashionable Parisian stylistic form, his paintings were entirely a product of himself and Czech art and that art existed only to communicate a spiritual message, and nothing more... hence his frustration at the fame he had gained by his commercial art when he most wanted to concentrate on "serious" artistic projects... especially a celebration of Slavic history which he had held in his thoughts for a good many years.

Mucha married Maruška Chytilová on 10 June 1906, in Prague. The couple visited and spent extended periods of time living the U.S. from 1906 to 1910, during which time their daughter, Jaroslava, was born in New York City. In the U.S., Mucha hoped to leave his reputation as a commercial artist behind, and expected to earn money to fund his nationalistic projects to demonstrate to Czechs that he had forgotten his homeland through the production of "serious" art. The artist offered his services as a portraitist to wealthy American patrons. Unfortunately, Mucha was not highly experienced in the use of oil paints and not only did he struggle with the media, but he found himself up against serious competition in the like of master-portraitists such as John Singer Sargent:



It also became rapidly obvious that the American audience were well aware of and every bit as enthusiastic about Mucha's commerical works with the images of beautiful women, flowers, and flowing designs.



Mucha was soon churning out more advertisments for bicycles:



baby carriages:



and food products:



Mucha's efforts in America at portraiture and "serious art" were not without some degree of success. The artist made the acquanitence of millionaire Charles R. Crane, who used his fortune to help promote revolutions and, after meeting Thomas Masaryk, Slavic nationalism. Crane agreed to help fund Mucha's proposed cycle of mural-sized paintings in celebration of Czech history eventually entitled Slovanská epopej (The Slav Epic). Mucha worked on this project in Prague from 1910-1928...



...and considered it to be his life's fine art masterpiece. He bestowed it upon the city of Prague in 1928, and since 1963 the series of 20 huge paintings has been on display in the chateau in Moravský Krumlov the South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic. The artist contributed further to his homeland through the production of designs for money, posters...



... designs for various government documents, and paintings in various government offices.

The rising tide of fascism during the late 1930s resulted in Mucha's works, as well as his Slavic nationalism, being denounced in the press as 'reactionary'. When Nazi troops moved into Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939, Mucha was among the first persons to be arrested by the Gestapo. During his interrogation, the aging artist became ill with pneumonia. Though released eventually, he was weakened by this experience, and died in Prague on 14 July 1939. The occupation German forces forbid any public gathering, but reportedly over 100,000 Czechs paid their respects.

*****

In spite of the merits of the paintings of the Slav Epic...



... and it's admiration among the Czech population, the paintings were clearly dated in style... essentially 19th century history painting. Mucha's commercial efforts... the work that he had become famous and wealthy for having produced... were clearly wholly of their time. His elegant Art Nouveau posters... had a profound impact upon other artists, and in spite of the artist's own thoughts and the commercial purpose of the work, they were most certainly every bit "serious" art... worthy of his efforts and the popularity they garnered. Any number of Mucha's contemporaries were inspired by his organic, flowing style:







The big boom of classic psychedelic Rock posters from the 1960s were equally inspired by Mucha's work:







Current commercial artists and poster-designers continue to draw ideas from Mucha:















Even Disney has been inspired by Mucha:



I must admit to having been influenced myself. While I tend to avoid Mucha's organic curve-linear design and pattern leaning toward the geometric hard-edged... the tall, narrow format with the single isolated figure surely owes much to Mucha as well as Klimt (who was clearly influenced by Mucha). I have also been recently intrigued with his elegant stylization and use of the halo.

Mucha received the "ultimate" posthumous recognition when on 24 July 2010, he was honored with a "Google Doodle"
in memory of his 150th birthday.



Mucha's commercial efforts and posters remain beloved because they truly were his "serious art". They continue to speak of a now-long-gone (an perhaps largely imaginary) image of fin de siecle Paris... a glittering world of beautiful women in long flowing gowns, bubbling champagne, flowers, and elegant ballrooms filled with dancers. "Serious Art" need not always be tragic and death-laden. And "serious art" need not be limited to painting and sculpture.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Thanks for putting that together, well composed and informative.

I was not familiar with Mucha which surprised me seeing how prolific he was. Your images reminded me of a book I have titled “The Modern Poster”, (MOMA publication) which begins in the late 19th century coinciding with the Art Nouveau movement as you described. I just now revisited the book and discovered a couple of posters by Mucha including this cigarette add; Job 1897:



Your images also brought to mind the Scottish architect and artist; Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a major player in the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rennie_Mackintosh

The book mentioned above includes this poster by Mackintosh



Other Mackintosh contributions
The Glasgow School of Art









Another Illustrator/ Artist that caught my eye is Carlos Schwabe.
This poster image is in my book:






Following internet search I found a couple more examples by Schwabe I thought were interesting:

Gravedigger Meets Death:



Pain




Coincidentally, the Dallas Museum of Art is currently exhibiting “Posters of Paris: Toulouse-Lautrec and His Contemporaries”

http://www.dallasmuseumofart.org/Vie...ons/dma_442782

I hevan't seen it...yet.

[ftil]

And more of Carlos Schwabe's paintings.



Carlos Schwabe - Occultist Symbolism II

[stlukesguild]

As I mentioned at the start of this thread I plan to explore a number of artists who fall outside the traditional confines of art history. The artist I am offering up for examination today produced one of the most iconic images of the 20th century and his own face, I will dare suggest, has been seen by more people than even Andy Warhol:





What?! You say you have never seen this man before in your life. Ah, but I assure you... you most certainly have. You just don't realize it.

James Montgomery Flagg

James Montgomery Flagg was born in 1877 in New York. He had a passion for drawing from the very earliest that he could remember... and as a result he developed into something of a prodigy. By age 12 he had already had drawings accepted for publication by several magazines. By age 14 he a a regular contributing artist to Life magazine, and by the following year he was on the staff of another magazine, Judge. From 1894-98 he undertook formal art studies at the Art Students League of New York. After completion of these studies he spent two years in further studies in London and Paris.

Returning to the US, Flagg began working again as an illustrator, contributing works to several magazines for publication. His earliest works tended to be pen and ink drawings rooted in the manner of Charles Dana Gibson, famous for the "Gibson Girl"...



... the personification of the feminine ideal of American beauty in the late 19th and early 20th century, the Gibson Girl was essentially the first mass-produced "pin-up".











Most of Flagg's pen and ink drawings focused upon social dramas between men and women... and usually centered upon the well-dressed, idealized upper-classes.

While Flagg's medium of choice in the early years of his career was pen and ink, he developed a fluency with a broad variety of media. Magazine covers were printed in color and Flagg often employed a combination of pen and ink and watercolor for these assignments:







Some commissions... such as this cover for the magazine The Bookman, allowed for the artist to break away from his usual style not only through the use of color ink but also through his adoption of the Art Nouveau style suggestive of the graphic work of Aubrey Beardsley:



Watercolor, gouache, and ink wash increasingly became Flagg's media of choice bringing a greater fluidity and animation to his work:















Flagg also began to employ charcoal, allowing him to create dark, smoldering atmospheres suggestive of the theatrical lighting of movies.



The impact of Hollywood films upon the work of artists and illustrators shouldn't come as a surprise at a time when film was becoming the art and entertainment form of the century. This is especially true of Flagg. Flagg was a born rebel and highly flamboyant. He loved traveling around the world and partying with the "jet set" of his day. He spent a great deal of time in Hollywood where he spent his time socializing with colorful characters such as film writers, directors, and actors. He was a long-time close friend to John Barrymore, and was afforded the opportunity for intimate portrait sittings with many Hollywood actors and actresses:

Gayle Mellott:



Gloria Swanson:



Linda Darnell:



Hedy Lamar:



Marlene Dietrich:



Gretta Garbo:



Flagg with Jayne Russell:



Portrait of Ethel Barrymore:



Flagg's efforts on behalf of Hollywood even included posters for films:



James Montgomery Flagg's greatest... or at least most famous contribution to art and illustration... if not American culture as a whole... can be found among his efforts on behalf of the nation at war. Flagg designed and painted any number of iconic war posters... for both world wars:














The most famous and iconic image painted by Flagg was the classic "Uncle Sam" "I Want You" poster which was created to spur enlistment during the First World War, but was revived for the Second World War:



Rushed... and not wanting to go through the time and trouble to arrange for a model... Flagg used his own face for that of Uncle Sam...



The artist produced any number of variations on the Uncle Sam poster:

















Flagg's "jet set" lifestyle included an obsession with beautiful women, and the artist was never short of attractive mistresses. Along with many of his colleagues in New York, Flagg had membership in a number of private men's clubs, including the famous Dutch Treat Club. Burlesque dancers, strippers, and prostitutes were frequent "features" of the parties held in these clubs, and the drawings and posters produced for the clubs were quite often on the risqué side:







Any number of these works number among the first true examples of the modern American pin-up:











Indeed, the 1930 image of a beautiful young woman sensually applying her lipstick became one of the artist's most famous and most reproduced paintings establishing an ideal for glamour and pin-up paintings:



Flagg was a close friend and mentor to a number of other key American illustrators. At his peak, he was reported to have been the highest paid magazine illustrator in America. Over four million copies of his "I Want You"/Uncle Sam poster had been printed during the First World War... and even more during the Second. Following the Second World War, Flagg continued to produce the occasional illustration, but largely withdrew from the limelight. In 1946 he published his autobiography, Roses and Buckshot, which revealed a dark and sometimes ugly underside to a man who had spent his career obsessed with beauty.

"I have never had any slight interest in homely ladies," he said, "no matter how charming and intelligent they are reputed to be. They do not exist for me."

And even if a woman satisfied his standards for beauty, she'd better not nag or be jealous about his many infidelities:

"If I ran the world...I'd have my FBI corral all the ugly people and all nagging and jealous women,...and take them out to Death Valley and drop an atomic bomb on them."

Flagg had a sour and lonely old age. He said at the end of his life,

"I can't stand the look of my present age. All my life I have been a worshipper of that beauty of the human form you see in some men and women....Is it any wonder that I don't like to look at the physical mess and mental dullness that has set in for me? As far back as I can remember, I have been in the limelight; now I'd rather be dead than be passed by, ignored."

Part of Flagg's attitude, no doubt, was owed to his failings in love. Although he had had no shortage of beautiful lovers, only toward the end of his life was he able to recognize that...

"A roll in the bed with honey isn't love. And the tragic part of it is that you never learn this until you're past the age for it to happen to you again."

His one real chance at love occurred late in his career when Flagg fell head over heels in love with the beautiful young model and photographer, Ilse Hoffmann:



Their affair lasted some three years, but eventually Ilse expected Flagg to marry her and the artist had no desire to be "tied down" and find his options limited... and so Ilse moved on... and eventually married another man. Flagg was bitter... and clueless:

"I was saturated with disgust for Ilse...I said to myself: 'I truly loved Ilse. No other woman has meant a thing to me-- from the moment I saw her.' Eventually she married this young man, who was some sort of stock market runner. Yes, she was a married woman. She'd got what she desired. A wedding ring."

Flagg's final self portrait is haunted by the painting of Ilse over his shoulder, and the life that might have been...



Flagg died in New York City in 1960.

*****

Aaaack!! I forgot that that Photobucket... the site I was using to host my images... is patrolled by a pack of vigilant Sunday School Teachers... the sort who petition the pastor to remove all the "dirty bits" from the Bible such as that "nekkid" Adam and Eve and the Song of Solomon. Their abhorrence of the human body would be all well and fine if they could keep it to themselves... but the need to impose their standards upon the rest of the civilized world. Already three of the images from Flagg were censored, so I've had to repost them... the hard way... through Flickr. I'm waiting until the harmless Mucha images are treated to the same censorship.

[Buh4Bee]

I do know many of these prints. He lived as a true artist, true to himself, and died alone. Thanks for the post. Hope you are warm.

[ftil]

After spending some time with occult artists, I have watched Ana's paintings with joy.

Anna Razumovskaya is a graduate of the Russian State University For Arts, where she was awarded the distinction of high-class artist in 1991. Subsequently, she studied art in Germany, Belgium and Holland. She has solo exhibitions in New York, Paris, Toronto, Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Berlin. She traveled around Europe absorbing the influences of artists past and present, and finally settled in Canada which she now feels to be her true home.

A painting of fluid tranquility, expressed in the form of an elegant and graceful woman in repose with her instrument, brings to the viewer both an impression of the lingering notes in the air, and the sensual beckoning of female strength and vulnerability. This is the allure of Anna’s work: she is at the heart, an artist who loves to explore juxtapositions of art and emotion, strength and fragility, sensuality and innocence. “But, I am not so serious as that!” she laughs. “I love to paint things that are beautiful – things that make me happy.”
http://silvanagallery.com/Artists/Pa...ya/AR_bio.html

[cacian]

I find certain postures in painting rather intriguing.
The painted looking the other way is an interesting one.
My avatar painting for example. There is something quite telling about it almost innocent.
Whenever I look at a painting I think about the person who painted it.
I find some arts I can relate to like Cezanne because the evidence of clothing is too apparent.
I find nude painting unappealing but I do prefer looking at a human form in its glory clothes and textures I am drawn to.

[ftil]

Originally posted by cacian

I find certain postures in painting rather intriguing.
The painted looking the other way is an interesting one.
My avatar painting for example. There is something quite telling about it almost innocent.
Whenever I look at a painting I think about the person who painted it.
I find some arts I can relate to like Cezanne because the evidence of clothing is too apparent.
I find nude painting unappealing but I do prefer looking at a human form in its glory clothes and textures I am drawn to.

I agree. The human body is beautiful, however, when overdosed it becomes boring. Second, in modern art, women are fragmented as it is the emphasis on sexuality or even worse on the part of the female body. Very distorted view of women. Women are much more than that.



Emily Carr (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist and the first painters in Canada to adopt a modernist and post-impressionist painting style, Carr did not receive widespread recognition for her work until later in her life.Her contact with the Group of Seven in 1930 resurrected her interest in art, and throughout the 1930s she specialized in scenes from the lives and rituals of Native Americans
The Canadian Encyclopedia describes her as a "Canadian icon"

[stlukesguild]

I agree. The human body is beautiful, however, when overdosed it becomes boring.

How does one discern what is or is not an "overdose"? Michelangelo painted nothing but the human body. Are his works boring? By the same standard... Turner and Monet painted landscapes almost exclusively. Do they amount to a boring overdose?

Second, in modern art, women are fragmented as it is the emphasis on sexuality or even worse on the part of the female body.

Outside of Cubism and Expressionism I don't see a lot of fragmented images of women... or anything else... among Modernism. As for the emphasis upon "sexuality"... do you imagine that this is a uniquely modern concern? Perhaps you imagine that these are not about sexuality:































How's that for a 19th century fragmentation?

Very distorted view of women. Women are much more than that.

That's just a sophomoric Feminist view that suggests an absolute ignorance of art. All art is an "abstraction"... a "distortion" if you will. No painting can possibly convey all that a human being is. This, for example, is a stunning portrait:



But is certainly does not convey all that Castiglione was. He was much more than is conveyed in this portrait. The artist, Raphael, focused upon that which he found visually interesting.

Art is first and foremost visual. Artists focus upon that which they find visually attractive... intriguing... interesting. As such, it shouldn't be the least bit surprising that beautiful women... the female body... sexually attractive women (or in the case of homosexual artists such as Michelangelo, Donatello, Caravaggio, etc... beautiful men... sexually attractive males bodies) are among the most painted subjects in the whole of art. Sexuality... Eros... the "erotic"... is one of the central themes of all art. If there is a difference in Modern art it is that artists have no longer needed to mask... or "perfume" the erotic/sexual content... to justify it by presenting it in the guise of a Biblical narrative (such as Adam and Eve or Bathsheba) or a Greco-Roman narrative such as Venus and Adonis, Danae, or Diana and Acteon.

[ftil]

How does one discern what is or is not an "overdose"? Michelangelo painted nothing but the human body. Are his works boring? By the same standard... Turner and Monet painted landscapes almost exclusively. Do they amount to a boring overdose?

I was clear when I said modern art. Your comment doesn't apply to modern art.

Outside of Cubism and Expressionism I don't see a lot of fragmented images of women... or anything else... among Modernism. As for the emphasis upon "sexuality"... do you imagine that this is a uniquely modern concern? Perhaps you imagine that these are not about sexuality:

Well, I see that you grab any chance to post nudity. Actually, the paintings you posted are mythology themes. Those paintings are not modern art either. I may reiterate what I said that women are fragmented with the emphasis on sexuality or the body parts. I am not going to waste hours and hours to prove my point by posting modern artists.

BTW, I have spent lots of time with mythology themes and I definitely feel bored when I see paintings I saw hundreds of times. I definitely overdosed. But I enjoy looking at mythology paintings I haven't seen before.