Collaborative artists Cara Thayer and Louie Van Patten
Jenny Saville
Jenny Saville is a Master of flesh and paint worthy of a place amongst predecessors such as Lucien Freud and Egon Schiele.
Moorland Water
I love these beautiful and quiet paintings by Maxwell Doig.
Via: This Isn’t Happiness
Clam Shell
Georgia O’Keeffe (American, 1887-1986), Slightly Open Clam Shell, 1926. Pastel on white ground on paperboard, 18 ½ x 13 in. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT.
Via Tumblr
Roberto Ferri
Ferri is an artist and painter from Taranto, Italy, who is deeply inspired by Baroque painters (Caravaggio in particular) and other old masters of Romanticism, the Academy, and Symbolism.
Ryan McGinley ‘Yearbook’
From the Team Gallery website:
Team (gallery, inc.) is pleased to announce a solo show by New York-based artist Ryan McGinley. Entitled YEARBOOK, the exhibition will take place from 07 September through 12 October 2014.
Team is located at 83 Grand Street, cross streets Wooster and Greene.
Frank Frazetta
Nude by recently deceased but legendary comic artist Frank Frazetta.
Via: Iain Claridge
Paul Laurenzi
Egon Schiele
Weiblicher Torso mit grüner Draperie, 1913.
Via: The Dream Machine
Allen Jones
Pop in Effigy (1970). Allen and Janet Brown’s home shot for Vogue, January 1970.
That’s Pop artist Allen’s wife, Janet, kneeling in the Eames 670!.
Luis Ricardo Falero
Document
Kate Moss on the cover of the third issue of Document magazine, photographed by by Mario Testino with artwork by artist Paul McCarthy.
The second stylishly elegant cover features model Kati Nescher photographed by Nathaniel Goldberg.
Via: The English Group
Auguste Rodin
‘Lying Nude’ an appealing sketch by Auguste Rodin (1840, Paris – 1917, Meudon).
Via: My Tingle Factor
More James Jean
The Grasshopper
Detail of Jules-Joseph Lefebvre, The Grasshopper painted in 1872.
You can see the whole of the painting after the jump.
This undeniably beautiful work references in its title Aesop’s fable of ‘The Grasshopper and the Ant’ (or ‘The Cicada and the Ant’, which is ‘La Cigale et la fourmi’ in French). It was painted following the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian war and was said to be a critical allegory of Napoleon III, who lead France to economic collapse at the time. As Art Werx put it, the painting “seemingly represents ‘The Grasshopper’ at the onset of autumn, realising the consequences of her careless frivolity”. When it showed as part of his exhibition of The Naked and the Nude in 2008, Art Gallery of Ballarat Director Gordon Morrison famously nicknamed the painting ‘Chloe’s sister’, referencing another famous Lefebvre work who is still showing her all to all at Young and Jackson’s Hotel in the US.
Via: Pussy Les Queer
Story of a cover girl
Designer Sam Weber’s Oil on board portrait addressing Nabokov’s classic novel.
Vagina
Naomi Wolf (One of my favourite and highly influential feminist authors, famously known for writing ‘The Beauty Myth’, 1991) has just released her newest book ‘Vagina: A New Biography’. The book offers a cultural-history of the worshipped, censored, sexualised, shamed and powerful female body part of the vagina. Wolf aims to get “to the very core of what it means to be a woman”.
The female body is at one of it’s most highly politicised moments. Pussy Riot, the Russian Punk band have caught the attention of the newspapers and pop stars such as Madonna (below), and are often referred to in Russia as “the uprising of the vagina”. Politicians are constantly debating the definition of rape and US Democratic stet senator Lisa Brown was barred from speaking in the Michigan state courthouse for using the word ‘Vagina’, being told that she had “failed to maintain the decorum of the House of Representatives”.
The perception of the vagina has altered throughout history. The first use of the word ‘Vagina’ in the English language was back in 1682 and before Western religion imposed shame onto this body part, the vagina was celebrated as symbols of fertility.
The depiction in contemporary society see’s the vagina depicted mainly in pornography. Germaine Greer wrote in 1973 “A woman’s pleasure is not dependant on the presence of a penis in the vagina. Neither is a man’s”.
Midwife Inu May Gaskin fears that this contemporary definition contributes to to womens fear of labour and the increase in medialisation of child birth. In the past, sculptures such as the Sheela Na Gig (carved in the 12th Century) portrayed a crouching figure open enough to accommodate a size as big as her own head. As Gaskin says “I’d like to see a large rendition of a Sheela Na Gig as part of the Decor of birth rooms in maternity units”.
With the ever rising demand for labiaplasty with some girls as young as 11 asking for procedures, maybe it is time for another ‘Vaginal Revolution’. I hope that Naomi Wolf can influence us about this subject, just as her book ‘The Beauty Myth’ did.
Images:
Sheela Na Gig carved in the 12th Century at Kilpeck parish church.
Naomi Wolf’s book cover and Naomi Wolf herself.
A portrait by Jean-Baptiste Mondino called ‘Man Looking at the Origin of the World’. The original oil-on-canvas painting ‘L’Origine du monde’ (Origin of the world) was painted by French artist Gustave Courbet in 1866 and currently resides in the Musée d’Orsay.
Georgia O’Keeffe, Black Iris, 1926
Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1974 to 1979, was a huge installation by this hugely influential feminist artist. This piece still influences art education today.
Helen Chadwick Wreath to Pleasure No. 12, 1992-93
Clayton Cubitt, Flesh For Fantasy (Girl #5), color pigment print, 32.5 x 44.5, 2008
I went to see Jamie McCartney at his exhibition of the ‘Great Wall of Vagina’. He also does internal vaginal casts.
Back in the 90’s there was a big fuss when Sharon Stone parted her legs in a police interview in Basic Instinct.
Maybe I will treat the team to some cupcakes next week 😀
Myself and Katherine Jane Wood are reading this book at the moment. So look out for the book review!
Via: The Independent on Sunday, The English Group, Art Fag City