Nicholas Kalmakoff – { feuilleton }

More chimeras

The Chimera (1867) by Gustave Moreau.

It’s no easy task to catalogue all the chimeras that proliferate between the numerous examples in the work of Gustave Moreau to those produced before the First World War. Consider this a sample, then, and a pointer to further research. Several of these artists—Malczewski, Ernst, Brauner—returned to theme many times.

The Sphinx: “My gaze, which nothing can deflect, passes through the things and remains fixed on an inaccessible horizon.” The Chimera: “I am weightless and joyful.” (1889) by Odilon Redon.

The Chimera’s Despair (1892) by Alexandre Séon.

Continue reading “More chimeras”

Several more Salomés

Cover of Salome by Oscar Wilde (1903) by Modest Alexandrovich Durnov.

Gathering a few more Salomé renderings which have caught my attention recently. The biggest surprise is the one from Picabia since he’s an artist who these days is almost always associated with the Cubists and Dadaists. In the 1920s he returned to figurative painting and produced a number of pieces in this style. The overlaying of images reminds me of some of Hans Bellmer’s drawings.

Michael Zulli is an American comic artist whose work I’ve always liked a great deal. No information about his drawing, unfortunately, so I can’t say whether it’s a one-off or part of a larger project.

Salomé (1917) by John Riley Wilmer.

Salomé (c. 1928) by Francis Picabia.

Salomé Sphinx (1928) by Nicholas Kalmakoff.

Salomé (no date) by Michael Zulli.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The Salomé archive