Category: {art}

Art

The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones

Owen Jones’ landmark study of the world’s decorative history was published in 1856. I have a facsimile edition from the 1980s and it’s a beautiful volume even besides its value as a reference work. Now illuminated-books.com has made high-res scans of the pages available for free. They do the same for a number of other books, including other titles by Owen Jones and his contemporaries William Morris and Walter Crane. Crane’s Decorative Illustration is recommended for anyone interested in the history of book design.

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View: The Modern Magazine

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Portrait of Charles Henri Ford in Poppy Field by Pavel Tchelitchew (1933).

View magazine was an American periodical of art and literature, published quarterly from 1940 to 1947 with heavy emphasis on the Surrealist art of the period. The astonishing list of contributors included Jorge Luis Borges, Alexander Calder, Albert Camus, Marc Chagall, Joseph Cornell, Jean Dubuffet, Lawrence Durrell, Max Ernst, Jean Genet, Paul Klee, Henry Miller, René Magritte, André Masson, Joan Miró, Georgia O’Keefe, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Edouard Roditi, Yves Tanguy, and Pavel Tchelitchew.

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The Ranelagh Rotunda

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Exterior and interior views by Thomas Bowles, 1754.

This was one of the most popular places of entertainment in the 18th century. The Rotunda was vast and features included tiered boxes, a fireplace in the centre and an orchestra pit and the diameter was said to be greater than the Coliseum in Rome. Everyone in society from Princes downwards attended the lavish firework displays, the concerts and the infamous masked balls. Its popularity began to wane and the Gardens closed in 1803.


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Interior view by Canaletto.

The inscription in Italian on the back of the original canvas states that the picture was painted in London in 1754 for the artist’s patron Thomas Hollis, and that the view was unique in the artist’s work. The Rotunda in Ranelagh Gardens, Chelsea, was erected as a public venue for various entertainments in 1741 and closed in 1803. Musical concerts were held and Mozart performed there in 1764.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The etching and engraving archive

Michelangelo revisited

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In order to coincide with the British Museum’s exhibition of Michelangelo drawings, the current edition of Gay Times tries to imitate some of the more famous works in their main photo spread. What’s interesting about these pictures is seeing how much they lack the compelling dynamics of the artist at his best. Maybe this is down to the photography and lighting, perhaps somebody like Dylan Ricci would have done a better job. I prefer to think that this has more to do with the Oscar Wilde principle of nature struggling to imitate art.

The Malcontent has more of the photos here.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive