Tag Archives: Arts & Literature

Film Actor Profiles: “An Essay On (64-Year Old) Willem Dafoe’s Face…” (Gentleman’s Journal)

From a Gentleman’s Journal online article:

Willem Dafoe Gentleman's Journal photo Dec 2019Thankfully, Willem Dafoe and Willem Dafoe’s face have used this innate recognisability to their joint advantage. To date, the actor has appeared in well over 100 films, and his prolific career can be charted through the cracks and comments — some nice, some not so nice — that those in the industry have made about his looks.

In fact, in the intervening decades, Hollywood has called many, many times — as have independent filmmakers, foreign studios, animation houses, video game developers and scores of theatres. On the big screen, Dafoe has taken roles in PlatoonMississippi BurningBorn on the Fourth of JulyThe English PatientAmerican Psycho and Shadow of the Vampire. He flew into The Aviator for a cameo, swung into the Spider-Man trilogy as the villainous Green Goblin and dipped his toe in voiceover work with Finding Nemo. He’s taken on John CarterJohn Wick and narrated films from Vox Lux to The Great Wall. He’s been Oscar-nominated several times, for playing characters as wild and disparate as hammy vampires, Floridian motel managers and Vincent van Gogh. The man is a chameleon — and has managed to become one despite having Willem Dafoe’s face.

To read entire article: https://www.thegentlemansjournal.com/article/willem-dafoe-interview-face-hollywood-cover/

Art History: “Bullets And Steel” In Elizabethan Armor (Art Institute Of Chicago Video)

Jeffrey D. Wasson, the armorer who crafted the accurate replica of the Art Institute’s Greenwich armor, and Jonathan Tavares, the Art Institute’s associate curator of arms, armor and European decorative arts before 1700, discuss how utilizing experimental archaeology allowed them to uncover the methods used by Renaissance armorers in crafting the bulletproof protection.

To read more: https://www.artic.edu/events/4684/conversation-bullets-and-steelthe-making-of-elizabethan-armor-2

New Museums: “Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures” By Architect Renzo Piano (Opens 2020)

From the Renzo Piano Building Workshop website:

Academy Museum Renzo Piano Architect“The Academy Museum gives us the opportunity to honor the past while creating a building for the future—in fact, for the possibility of many futures. The historic Saban Building is a wonderful example of Streamline Moderne style, which preserves the way people envisioned the future in 1939. The new structure, the Sphere Building, is a form that seems to lift off the ground into the perpetual, imaginary voyage through space and time that is moviegoing. By connecting these two experiences we create something that is itself like a movie. You go from sequence to sequence, from the exhibition galleries to the film theater and the terrace, with everything blending into one experience.”

Renzo Piano, Architect

When it opens in the heart of Los Angeles, at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will be the world’s premier movie museum.

Academy Museum Renzo Piano Architect

Academy Museum Renzo Piano ArchitectSituated on the famed “Miracle Mile,” the museum will preserve and breathe new life into the former 1939 May Company department store, now re-named the Saban Building. Celebrating its history and imagining new possibilities, the additions to the building that date from 1946 have been removed and replaced with a spherical building that features the 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater and the Dolby Family Terrace with views towards Hollywood. The revitalized campus will feature more than 50,000 square feet of gallery space, two theaters, cutting-edge project spaces, an outdoor piazza, the rooftop terrace, an active education studio, a restaurant, and store.

https://www.academymuseum.org/en/

To read and see more: http://www.rpbw.com/project/academy-museum-of-motion-pictures

 

Art Competitions: “2019 Historic Photographer Of The Year” Winners

Historic Photographer of the Year logoThe Historic Photographer of the Year awards showcase the world’s very best historic places and cultural sites from across the globe, capturing everything from the most famous national treasures to the obscure and forgotten hidden gems.

Historic Photographer of the Year Pictures 2019

The 2019 Awards attracted a swathe of astonishing entries from amateurs and professionals who have climbed, hiked and trekked their way to snap stunning historic places from every corner of the globe.

Historic Photographer of the Year Pictures 2019

The Overall Winner was an outstanding image of the ruins of the Arromanches Mulberry Harbour in Normandy and was shot by Stéphane Hurel.

The Historic England category was won by JP Appleton with his haunting shot of the Victorian era Roker Pier, while HISTORY’s Short Filmmaker of the Year was awarded to Dibs McCallum for a fascinating short documentary exploring the remains of the RAF Barnham nuclear weapons storage facility.

 

To read more: https://www.historicphotographeroftheyear.com/2019-winners/

Culture: “Anger” In Society Explored By Artists And Writers (MoMA Video)

 

Anger. A word that often does the rounds in the 21st century. On a global scale, citizens are increasingly dissatisfied with their governments — from discord within the current American administration to rising hostility within France, Germany, Greece, Iraq, and Lebanon. Anger due to the persistence of racial violence, threats against the rights of women and workers, discrimination against the LGBTQ community, repression, as well as fear and instability surrounding health care systems, income inequality, the environmental crisis, and the effects of mass migration.

MoMA Research & Development

Join a nuanced conversation in this MoMA R&D Salon hosted by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Architecture & Design and Director of Research & Development at MoMA, with speakers (in alphabetical order):

Shaun Leonardo: a multidisciplinary artist whose work discusses societal expectations of manhood––namely definitions surrounding black and brown masculinities––along with its notions of achievement, collective identity, and experience of failure.

Lydia Lunch: a writer, singer, poet, actress, and speaker whose career was spawned by the New York City “No Wave” scene. Widely considered one of the most influential performers originating from New York City, Lydia has worked with a range of bands and artists.

Andrew Marantz: a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he has worked since 2011. His work has also appeared in Harper’s, New York, and Mother Jones. He recently published his first book, Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation.

Marilyn Minter: a contemporary artist whose works are in the collections of MoMA, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among others.

Pamela Sneed: a poet, writer, visual artist, and performer. She is the author of the books Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom than Slavery (1998) and Kong and Other Works (2009), as well as the chapbooks Lincoln (2014), Gift (2015), and Sweet Dreams (2018).

Top Illustrators: Peter de Sève Creates “Priority Shipping” Christmas Tree Cover For New Yorker

From a The New Yorker online article:

Peter de Sève New Yorker Cover Dec 16 2019Though Peter de Sève is a regular contributor to the magazine, his most recognizable work comes from his career as a character designer. De Sève has helped create some of the most cherished animation characters of the past few decades, including those in “A Bug’s Life,” “Finding Nemo,” “Robots,” “The Little Prince,” and the “Ice Age” films. We recently talked to the artist about his work and about some of his favorite Christmas traditions.

Do you have any favorite depictions of Christmas? Artists who captured it especially well?

It’s funny, but only clichés come to mind: “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” But there is a song that transports me immediately to the season, that I can’t hear without feeling chills: “Charlie Freak,” by Steely Dan. It kills me every time.

To read more: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2019-12-16

Paintings: How Comedian Steve Martin Looks At Abstract Art (MoMA Video)

The Way I See It BBC MoMAIn this episode of “The Way I See It,” actor and comedian Steve Martin looks at paintings by two early pioneers of American abstraction and takes us on a journey of seeing—shape and color transform into mountains, sky, and water. Find “The Way I See It” on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000…

Photography Insider: A Collector’s Guide To Ansel Adams (Christie’s)

From a Christie’s online article:

Christie's LogoAdams’ ‘visualisation’ strategy marked a shift away from Pictorialism, a much more manipulated photographic style, which had influenced his early work. His desire for sharper focus and deeper tone and contrast (he called it ‘an austere and blazing poetry of the real’) led to him becoming a leading figure in pure — or straight — photography. 

 

Arguably no other photographer of his era knew more about photography than Adams. He wrote ten technical manuals on the discipline, and even advised major figures like Strand and Edward Weston, his friend and fellow West Coast photographer.

He also consulted for Polaroid and Hasselblad. Without such technical mastery he would not have been able to react with such immediacy to the quickly changing conditions of landscape.

One of his most famous works, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico1941, needed snap judgements of immense sophistication to capture the momentary effect of sunset light on the foreground, and establish a balanced tone and focus with the distant peaks, evanescent clouds and darkening sky.

Art History Videos: A Look At “How Van Gogh Became Van Gogh” (PBS)

An exhibit at South Carolina’s Columbia Museum of Art shows Vincent van Gogh in a new light. “Van Gogh and His Inspirations” presents the younger, wayward artist who learned from looking hard at the world — and the work of artists around him. A private collection of his inspirations is made public for the first time and presented alongside a dozen original van Gogh works. Jeffrey Brown reports.

New Photography Books: “France Around 1900 – A Portrait In Color” (Taschen)

france_1900_photochroms_xl_int_3d_01161_1910171136_id_1260558Between the Franco-Prussian War and WWI, France in the 1900s was a gilded moment of peace and prosperity. Critically acclaimed authors Sabine Arqué and Marc Walter curate this XXL collection of some 800 vintage photographs, postcards, posters, and photochromes. From the grand Paris World’s Fair to the honey light of the Côte d’Azur, it’s a glimpse into an era of rose-tinted optimism.

To read more and purchase: https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/photography/all/01161/facts.france_around_1900_a_portrait_in_color.htm