Sunday, December 23, 2012
Friday, December 21, 2012
Holiday Gift; Elliott Erwitt's Dogs
A heartfelt and original tribute to man's best friend, this collection focuses on Elliott Erwitt's distinctive photographs of dogs. Ranging from daring little imps to lumbering and gentle beasts, the photographer who has also been called the "Woody Allen of photography", delights in focussing his gift of observation on animals as well as humans - and, especially, on all-too-human situations. In Dogs, he captures all the diversity of the canine kingdom.
Elliott Erwitt, the son of Russian immigrants, was born in Paris and grew up in Milan. He lives and works in New York.
© Elliott Erwitt's Dogs - Small Edition, Paris, France, 1989, published by teNeues.
Photo © 2012 Elliott Erwitt / Magnum Photos
© Elliott Erwitt's Dogs - Small Edition, London, England, 1966, published by teNeues
Photo © 2012 Elliott Erwitt / Magnum Photos
© Elliott Erwitt's Dogs - Small Edition, England, 1974, published by teNeues
Photo © 2012 Elliott Erwitt / Magnum Photos
Photo © 2012 Elliott Erwitt / Magnum Photos
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
YUE MINJUN: L' Ombre du fou rire or The Shadow of giggles
Start your day with a good laugh with L'Ombre du fou rire, a series of paintings peopled by enigmatically laughing characters, the first major exhibition in Europe dedicated to the Chinese artist Yue Minjun.
Born in 1962 in the city of Daqing in Heilongjiang Province in China, Yue Minjun is an icon of contemporary Chinese painting. Considered one of the protagonists of "Cynical Realism," an art movement that emerged after the student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989, he began developing his own distinctive iconography in the 1990s, which combines pictorial references with historical references.
Yue Minjun's paintings are immediately recognizable: they are painted in bright colors on large canvases and featured almost exclusively laughing male figures, all which are self-portraits presented either as a single figure or replicated over and over again to form a battalion of grinning frozen-faced clones. These figures appear in grotesque poses or in mock execution scenes, creating an atmosphere of tension that oscillates between the lighthearted and the outrageous, the mundane and the excessive, offering an often implicit satire of contemporary Chinese society.
Yue Minjun's participation in the Venice Biennale in 1999 brought him worldwide fame and opened the doors of the international art market to him. Today, Yue Minjun is considered one of the most influential artists of his generation.
Yue Minjun, L'Ombre du fou rire is currently on exhibit at the Fondation Cartier, from November 14, 2012 to March 17, 2013.
Born in 1962 in the city of Daqing in Heilongjiang Province in China, Yue Minjun is an icon of contemporary Chinese painting. Considered one of the protagonists of "Cynical Realism," an art movement that emerged after the student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989, he began developing his own distinctive iconography in the 1990s, which combines pictorial references with historical references.
Yue Minjun's paintings are immediately recognizable: they are painted in bright colors on large canvases and featured almost exclusively laughing male figures, all which are self-portraits presented either as a single figure or replicated over and over again to form a battalion of grinning frozen-faced clones. These figures appear in grotesque poses or in mock execution scenes, creating an atmosphere of tension that oscillates between the lighthearted and the outrageous, the mundane and the excessive, offering an often implicit satire of contemporary Chinese society.
Yue Minjun's participation in the Venice Biennale in 1999 brought him worldwide fame and opened the doors of the international art market to him. Today, Yue Minjun is considered one of the most influential artists of his generation.
Yue Minjun, L'Ombre du fou rire is currently on exhibit at the Fondation Cartier, from November 14, 2012 to March 17, 2013.
Yue Minjun
L'Ombre du fou rire
Untitled, 1994
© Yue Minjun
Sky, 1997
© Yue Minjun
The Sun, 2000
© Yue Minjun
AD 3009, 2008
© Yue Minjun
Bystander, 2011
© Yue Minjun
I am Dragon-3, 2008
© Yue Minjun
Memory-2, 2000
© Yue Minjun
Untitled, 1998
© Yue Minjun
Water, 1998
© Yue Minjun
Portrait of Yue Minjun in his studio, Beijing, May 2007
© Yue Minjun
Photo courtesy Yue Minjun Studio
© Yue Minjun
© Yue Minjun
© Yue Minjun
© Yue Minjun
© Yue Minjun
© Yue Minjun
Photo courtesy Yue Minjun Studio
Courtesy of the artist and the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain
Yue Minjun, L'Ombre du fou rire
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Intricate and Fascinating: Amy Flurry and Nikki Nye's Paper Wigs for the Victoria & Albert museum
Paper-Cut-Project is a company based in Atlanta, and co-founded in 2010 by Amy Flurry with Nikki Nye. Flurry and Nye make paper styling props for high end fashion productions and their clients include Hermes, Cartier, Kate Spade, Christies, The Bay and the Cartoon Network.
Amy Flurry and Nikki Nye were commissioned a 16-piece collection of paper wigs for the Victoria & Albert museum's "Hollywood Costume" show that is currently on exhibit in London.
" We were approached last summer by the exhibit's curator, Deborah Landis, who wanted the hair to be representative of that particular character, but interpreted in a way that would elevate the overall experience for the viewer.
The draw to the wigs is a subtle one, but when they do catch your eye, you linger longer, you make out that this minimalist detail was painstakingly made in paper! "
~~~Amy Flurry
It took the artist duo Flurry and Nye a little more than two months to create 16 exquisite paper wigs.
Amy Flurry and Nikki Nye were commissioned a 16-piece collection of paper wigs for the Victoria & Albert museum's "Hollywood Costume" show that is currently on exhibit in London.
" We were approached last summer by the exhibit's curator, Deborah Landis, who wanted the hair to be representative of that particular character, but interpreted in a way that would elevate the overall experience for the viewer.
The draw to the wigs is a subtle one, but when they do catch your eye, you linger longer, you make out that this minimalist detail was painstakingly made in paper! "
~~~Amy Flurry
It took the artist duo Flurry and Nye a little more than two months to create 16 exquisite paper wigs.
Paper-Cut-Project
by
Amy Flurry and Nikki Nye
Courtesy of the artists, Amy Flurry and Nikki Nye