Inspirational Imagery: 40's

Showing posts with label 40's. Show all posts

Miscellaneous: How Random Can I Get?

Helloooo!!! This art-direction is off the hook! Too bad it's probably not quite on-brand. Vogue, December 1940

What a fun poster! Brooke Shields by Richard Avedon and Keith Haring, 1985

I am into this look that Goldie Hawn sported in "Overboard"

A collection of David Bowie tickets

Chanel ensembles shot by Helmut Newton, 1983. I would absolutely, most definitely wear those dresses.

Debbie Harry looking cute. Shot in Toronto by Bob Gruen in 1977

Jacques Tati by Robert Doisneau, 1949

Early to Mid 20th Century Kimono

Machine-spun pongee silk woven with stencil-printed warp thread (meisen) Japan, Taisho period, 1912-26.

Machine-spun pongee silk woven with stencil-printed warp and weft threads (meisen). Japan, late Taisho-early Showa period, 1920-40.

Gauze weave silk (ro) with stencil-printed patterning (kata-yuzen). Japan, early Taisho period, 1912-20

Machine-spun pongee silk woven with stencil-printed warp and weft threads (meisen). Japan, early Showa period, 1930-40.

Hand-spun pongee silk (tsumugi) woven with stencil-printed weft threads. Japan, Taisho period, 1912-26

Machine-spun pongee silk woven with stencil-printed warp and weft threads (meisen). Japan, early Showa period, 1930-50

All of the Kimono here can be found in the book, Fashioning Kimono: Dress and Modernity in Twentieth-Century Japan. They were shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the Toshiba Gallery of Japanese Art in 2005 and 2006, on loan from the collection of Jeffrey Montgomery, a prominent collector of Japanese folk art.

CoBrA

The CoBrA artists' movement was established in Paris, but its name is an acronym of Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam; the cities from where the founders hailed. The highly collaborative group banded together in 1948 and was active until 1951, though the members still occasionally work together even today.

Considered to be an offshoot of surrealism, CoBrA sought to recapture the whimsy and naive spirit of children's art, creating subconscious renderings of imagined creatures. They welcomed poets to their group to collaborate equally on paintings, mixed media pieces, books, and periodicals.

The key figures in CoBra are Karel Appel, Hugo Claus, Pierre Alechinsky, Constant Anton Niuwenhuys, Christian Dotremont, Asger Jorn, and Jean-Michel Atlan.

There is a museum dedicated to the movement in Amstelveen, Netherlands called Cobra Museum of Modern Art

Series of 15 book covers, 1950.

De Blijde en Onvoorziene Week (The Joyful and Unexpected Week), Karel Appel and Hugo Claus, 1950

L'Oie Belge (The Belgian Goose), Pierre Alechinsky and Hugo Claus, 1980

More about CoBrA
Underground Arts: The COBRA Group

Saul Leiter's Sketchbooks

Saul Leiter is an American photographer, known for his striking color photography of New York in the 1940's and 50's. They are really incredible, and I will be certain to present them one day soon, but today I want to take a look at his equally fantastic sketchbooks, which he shared with This Long Century. A major retrospective of Leiter’s work will be on show at Hamburg’s Deichtorhallen Museum, from February 2 – April 22, 2012.

Miscellaneous B&W Photography

Alfred Eisenstaedt, Headwaiter Renée Breguet of Grand Hotel St. Moritz serving cocktails on ice rink, 1932

Harold Edgerton, Gussie Moran, 1949

Orville Robertson, 1980's

Irina Ionesco (of Eva), 1970's

Unidentified photographer, Fritz Lang on the set of Metropolis, 1926

Cards

Back of a vintage playing card, 1950's.

Above and below: These, of course, are not real. They're part of a series called Rock-n-Punk Baseball Stars, from Glyph Jockey. These were my faves. Hilarious.

Mille Bornes is a French-origin card game having to do with a car rally. I had it as a kid; it wasn't this edition though. This one looks to be from the 60's or 70's, and I think mine was from the early 60's. It probably came from my grandparents' house.

Oooh! Just did a quick search and found the exact set I had! Below:

Above and below are cards from a 1940's British game called Vacuation. I haven't been able to locate much concrete information on it.

Vintage Cosmetics Ads

As someone who works in the business of fragrance and beauty products, I find vintage make-up ads incredible. I love the glamorous shapes and styles of the old packaging. Click the images for higher details.

Coty, 1939

Coty, 1938

Charles of the Ritz, 1946

Coty Self Tanner (!?), 1929

Miscellaneous

Marc Jacobs coat...that's all the info I have.

This is my friend Kelly's dog, Maude.

Thelma Carpenter by Carl Van Vechten.

She was an actress and jazz singer, whose best known performance is Miss One in The Wiz!

The shot is from the Living Portraits series – a really fantastic collection of Van Vechten photographs of notable African Americans, taken between 1939-1964. Most of the shots are styled with brightly colored textiles and lively props.

I like the palette in this Guy Bourdin shot.

Lou Reed for Honda, 1985.

Funny! and kind of shocking, right?

Miscellaneous

Coffee Served on Porch of Ante-Bellum Mansion, Riverview, Mississippi, Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1943.

From Life Magazine: Coffee served on porch of ante-bellum mansion by young ladies wearing hoop skirts at party for cadets from local Army Flying School.

A prolific photojournalist, Eisenstaedt took the iconic photo, VJ Day, The Kiss.