Robert Heinecken: Recto/Verso

Below are a few selections of a late-80's portfolio of work called Recto/Verso by Robert Heinecken, which explores themes of female sexuality and media messages.

Heinecken (1931-2006) was a multi-media artist best known for his assemblage of found imagery. 
Though his work appears to be done with film, he's not exactly a photo-collage artist; he used techniques that were quite a bit more analog (though I suppose film could be considered pretty analog these days!)

A note from the publisher of the collection about Heinecken's method: "The Recto/Verso photograms were made without the use of camera or film. A single page from a mass-circulation magazine was placed in direct contact with color photographic paper and exposed to light. The resulting image superimposes the visual and verbal information from the front and back of the magazine page. No collage, manipulation, or other handwork was employed."

The Recto/Verso portfolio is available through Vincent Borrelli, in case you happen to see it on my Christmas wish list.

I've been a fan of double-negative imagery ever since I had a faulty camera as a child. I received a pleasant surprise when my shots came back from the developer looking totally psychedelic.

(This post was originally posted on 04-20-11. I republished it because the MoMA is presenting a  Heinecken exhibition right now, through September 07, 2014, titled Object Matter)

Daniel Horowitz

Daniel Horowitz is an mixed media artist whose surrealist illustrations are used in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, GQ, as well as texts published by Random House and Knopf. He also illustrates the covers for The American Reader.

 All "Drawing of the Day" illustrations below come from Horowitz's book 365 Drawing, which chronicles the year with one drawing per day, and printed in an edition of 365.

 

Drawing of the Day 282

Drawing of the Day 361

Drawing of the Day 152

Drawing of the Day 158

Drawing of the Day 275

Umbrella

Drawing of the Day 310

Around Town: Tony Viramontes at Bergdorf Goodman

For Fashion Week, Bergdorf Goodman's 5th avenue windows are featuring the works of one of my all-time favorite illustrators, Tony Viramontes. 

Viramontes' fun, sexy, expressive style of fashion illustration was iconic during the 1980s, and it's a tragedy that he passed away much too soon into his career in 1988. He is the subject of the upcoming book Bold, Beautiful and Damned: The World of 1980s Fashion Illustrator Tony Viramontes by Dean Rhys-Morgan.

See some more of Viramontes' work that I have shared previously here.

source

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

Beinecke Rare Book Library, Yale University

Last fall, Dennis and I felt like getting out of the city for the day, so we took the train up to New Haven. The goal was to have a relaxing day and to eat at the oldest burger joint in the country, Louis Lunch. (In addition, he really wanted to go to the preppy mecca, J. Press)

We did all of that, and then I remembered that the Beinecke Library was on Yale's campus. I wanted to check it out, because I'm familiar with their incredible online archive. Fortunately we got there about 20 minutes before they closed.

I was in for a pleasant surprise (actually, an understatement) when we got there and discovered the cool building that the collection was housed in. I wasn't familiar with this building before we went.

Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill designed the library in 1963 with the sensitive nature of the collection in mind. They created a windowless structure out of thin marble, of which natural light shines through. The marble, plus the dim light gives interior a really dramatic impression.

Above is a photo of the building, and below is a detail of the exterior.

This is the interior of the library. It's really jaw-dropping. Not what you would expect to see coming in from outside.

The 5-story center core of the building houses the books and manuscripts behind glass. Of course, you may not browse the stacks! You have to put in a request for the materials that you want to view. There are a few items on view behind cases around the periphery of the library.

This is one of the coolest buildings I've been to; definitely worth the visit if you ever find yourself on Yale's campus.

Robert Heinecken: Recto/Verso

Below are a few selections of a late-80's portfolio of work called Recto/Verso by Robert Heinecken, which explores themes of female sexuality and media messages.

Heinecken (1931-2006) was a multi-media artist best known for his assemblage of found imagery. 
Though his work appears to be done with film, he's not exactly a photo-collage artist; he used techniques that were quite a bit more analog (though I suppose film could be considered pretty analog these days!)

A note from the publisher of the collection about Heinecken's method: "The Recto/Verso photograms were made without the use of camera or film. A single page from a mass-circulation magazine was placed in direct contact with color photographic paper and exposed to light. The resulting image superimposes the visual and verbal information from the front and back of the magazine page. No collage, manipulation, or other handwork was employed."

The Recto/Verso portfolio is available through Vincent Borrelli, in case you happen to see it on my Christmas wish list.

I've been a fan of double-negative imagery ever since I had a faulty camera as a child. I got a pleasant surprise when my shots came back from the developer all psychedelic.

Miscellaneous

Madonna, shot by Steven Meisel, 1983

Richard Amsel, Formerly the Harlettes poster, 1977.

What are Harlettes? They were Bette Midler's backup singers in the 70's. There were quite a few during the 70's and 80's, but Melissa Manchester, Katey Segal, and Sharon Redd were the girls who became the most famous!

Bruce Springsteen shot by Lily Hou at Max's Kansas City, New York 1978 1973.

First edition cover for a fictionalized memoir of a fashion editor, In the Mink, by Anne Scott-James. E. P. Dutton & Co, Inc, New York, 1952.

Iman, shot by Roxanne Lowit in Paris. Looks to be around the early 90's.

Esprit's Graphic Work: 1984-1986, by Roberto Carra, et al.

Oh how I am in love with this stuff! I have such clear memories of the graphic design of Esprit, even though I was too young to be terribly academic about it. A favorite pair of shoes came in a yellow corrugated plastic one-piece box with an elastic closure. I saved it and kept my markers in it.

Alisa Benfey of Irocoh was kind enough to put scans of Esprit's 1984-86 catalog on her Flickr page. I straightened some of them up and re-posted here.

At my last job, thisbook was in the library...I kind of wish that I accidentally borrowed it forever!

You can click on each of the images to see the details.

George Kovenchuk Illustrations, 1974

These pages are from 1974's Klop (The Bedbug) by Vladimir Mayakovsky, illustrated by George Kovenchuk. The source of the scans come from A Journey Round My Skull, which is an awesome resource for a deeps spectrum of illustrators.

Miscellaneous

 

Stevie Nicks

Vanity. Glamorous!!

 

The Specials

 

One of my favorite books. It's filled with so much very important information. I want to get the UK version because it has more chapters than the US version, but it's out of print now and fairly expensive.  This cover is better than the UK version though.

Miscellaneous

Linder Sterling

Erdem sunglasses, Spring 2010

Jah Wobble

I want to get this book.