{French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ miˈʃɛl baskija]; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988}
1. artist. style icon.
2. academic; a little underground; a little street; archaic African; American hip-hop; Classic; Refined; Cultured; Gritty; Nitty; Bad Ass; Post-Punk; Anti-Conservative; Painted. Layered; Tough; Rugged; Tribal; NYC.
3. timeless.
4. cool.
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I don’t listen to what art critics say. I don’t know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.
-Jean Michel Basquiat
I thought I was going to be a bum the rest of my life.
Calling all fans of Hollywood Yesteryear! What have we got here for you, today?!
Talk about bang for your buck! Deep inside every pack of Turf Cigarettes were a pair of these collector trading cards featuring all the studios’ biggest and brightest stars of the day! Many of them are legendary to this day, and have remained icons of style, grace, talent, and ultimate stardom and celebrity. Trading cards like these were a common marketing device since the 1920s paid for by the Studios to stimulate the allure of the “star”.
Makes you wonder why they don’t do things like that today! It’s the least they could do for the millions of people smoking cigarettes around the world (besides CANCER). I mean, a little novelty never hurt anybody!!!
Not sure how many stars these days would accept being thrown into a pack of cigarettes, but things were much different for the star of yesteryear and the star of today. Despite this, what stars do you think would appear in a pack of cards today?
Francis Bacon, Study for Portrait on Folding Bed (1963)
The latest exhibit from the AGO gives us Moore with a side of Bacon, and we want seconds!
“Francis Bacon & Henry Moore: Terror and Beauty” which runs at the AGO from April 5 to July 20 is a compelling retrospective overview of the two artists’ parallel lives and works, and how they were affected by the evolving world around them. Impacted by war, society, and religion, their works went on the become some of the cornerstones of modern art, and the images we see in our mind when we think of it.
+FRANCIS BACON+
Francis Bacon, Second Version of Triptych 1944 (1988)
Francis Bacon, Study for Portrait VI (1953)
We have always been huge fans of Francis Bacon’s work so it was such a treat to get to see some of his most iconic and monumental pieces in plain sight. His use of colour and his treatment of form are to this day as raw and exciting as they were over fifty years ago when they first made their premiere to the world at large. His vivid triptych, with its monolithic expanse, as well as his haunting portrait and studies of the Pope are alive with wonder, and indeed, beauty and terror.
Bill Brandt, Henry Moore in His Studio (1940)
Henry Moore, Spanish Prisoner (1939)
Henry Moore, Falling Warrior (1956 – 57)
No stranger to the work of Henry Moore, the AGO has always housed an impressive collection of his work since first stepping foot in the museum as a child, and has since remained a pleasure to gaze at. His contorted figures which resonate with an almost ancient wisdom and mystic mystery were given new life juxtaposed amongst Bacon’s equally amorphous figures and mysterious backdrops.
Curator Dan Adler has done an excellent job of showcasing equally the similarities and discrepancies between the two artists, and is sure to bring fresh views on both artists’ life and works.
Not only does the show offer a comprehensive and distinct juxtaposition of the artists, it also lends the viewer a greater vision of the world as a whole, and how history and the events therein contribute to the creation of our culture.
Some of the most stunning, but quiet works include Moore’s beautiful depictions of sleeping figures inspired by the surrealistic memories of the thousands of people who made their ways to the underground during the London Blitz.
These sketches, and photographs of London during the blitz provide further insight into our own world today, and the devastating affects they have had on our society, and the musings these travesties have inspired.
The most interesting thing about the show was that although the artists’ aesthetic similarities are plain to see, it is impossible to ignore the individual voice of the artists and seeing the differences between the two. The mind easily deciphers them, and while so much in their lives run parallel, I never felt like there was a true intersection. Henry Moore was very much in his realm, and Bacon very much in his, and it’s these differences that really sing throughout your time walking amongst the spaces filled with their individual iconographies.
We hold them both very close to our hearts now, and no doubt, our soul will be pumping with the inspiration the AGO has brought forward with this exquisite showing of two of the world’s finest architects of the mind.
We also can’t wait for what they have in store for us next!
Rumor has it: MICHELANGELO!!
In the meantime, lets invoke the spirit and seek our style inspiration from the master of modernity himself-
+FRANCIS BACON+
Here he is rocking out a black PVC trench coat in front of one of his wicked fine masterworks. The classic mens trench coat is given an ample boost of modernity and edge crafted from oil slick black vinyl, giving the look a dark cool that is the epitome of Bacon’s style. He wears it with slim cut trouser and a black turtleneck for a sophisticated and timeless togetherness.
Remembered today as a leading mind in the fields of neurology and psychology, Jean-Martin Charcot‘s legacy is as much in his strange medical photography, as his famous pupils (Sigmund Freud and Georges Gilles de la Tourette), and important breakthroughs in the field.
Taken for research purposes, these bizarre medical photographs were used to document the various affects and disorders of the 19th century’s most scandalous disorder – Female Hysteria.
For thousands of years, hysteria has plagued the medical community as a bit of a mystery. Known as “the wandering womb” by Hippocrates since the Ancient Greeks, the known method for treatment was almost always pregnancy until the 19th Century when a vaginal massage and/or stimulation using a vibrator or water hose administered by your family doctor was the modern approach.
Charcot, however, was interested in the minds of these plagued women, and hoped to use one of technology’s latest advancements, photography, to aid his research.
What resulted is a macabre collection of photographs that capture terrifying and strange lost moments between doctor and patient. He took these photographs over the course of many years with hundreds of different women, as well as men (murderers and convicts) to decipher the physical codes of the world’s most confusing ancient tradition – madness.
Although some of his attendants and colleagues who describe these photography sessions as highly staged, with Charcot demanding perfection of the moment that usually occurred back at the hospital, beyond the truthful eyes of the 19th Century camera. He painstakingly ensured the detail captured in each photograph was true to, what he thought, was the true depiction of the disease and its many characteristics.
The photographs are very specific and plain. No out of element lighting techniques or off angles – just the subject, and their explicit diagnoses. What came through is a very disturbing display.
The photographs were used to illustrate the true nature of this neurological disorder to a society fascinated by the elaborate and unusual. While many of the women were unable to be treated for their “problems”, they remain unforgettable figures of our modern life.
Today, they are as awesome and curious as ever, with hardly anything in our contemporary culture to compare these majestic and mysterious medical muses.
Imagine our delight when we spent some time searching one of our Style Idols, Buster Keaton‘s movies, and stumbled upon a great clip from a 1961 edition of Allen Funt’s CBS-TV show “Candid Camera.” with the Silent Film Slap-Stick legend himself!
Looking as good as the ‘forgotten’ screen idol ever has, even in camouflaged casual, the man rocks some grandpa glasses and a cool convertible trench! No matter how grand a joker the guy is, his chic gentlemanly nature always shines through any farce.
We love the shock and horror race across the faces of the teenage victims as Keaton pulls gag after gag at the counter of a dinner. These kids were clueless to the fact that a Hollywood Royal was not only sitting next to them, but was pulling a Betty White proportioned fast-one over their heads.
