Philippe Morillon Wallpaper

Philippe Morillon is a French painter, photographer, and art director who has created some fantastic wallpapers illustrating his favorite art-world buddies. I am 100% in love with them; they're so funny and weird and pretty and perfect.

In the 70's, he created super-glamorous depictions of the Paris party scene (featured earlier on this blog), featuring socialites and celebrities that were part of his crew. Andy Warhol wrote the forward for his 1982 book of art, Ultra Lux.

Loulou & Pierre (Loulou de la Falaise and Pierre Bergé)

Wallpaper Diane de B. (Diane de Beauvau-Craon)

Fred & Co. (Fred Hughes)

Andy's Twist (Andy Warhol)

Wallpaper Inès de la Fressange

Wallpaper, 2013

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Philippe Morillon's wallpapers are being shown May 14 through June 07, 2014 at Galerie du Passage, 20/26, galerie Véro-Dodat 75001, Paris

Jessica Harrison

These charming porcelain figurines are by British artist Jessica Harrison. On first glance they seem perfectly nice, but a closer look makes me laugh.

Grace, 2010. Detail below

Karen, 2010. Detail below.

Marilyn, 2010. Detail

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

Andrea Zucchi, Doppio Gioco - Appropriazioni & Astrazioni

Below are some works that were part of Milanese artist Andrea Zucchi's exhibition Doppio Giocco - 

 Appropriazioni & Astrazioni (Double Play - Appropriation & Abstractions), curated by Sergio Risaliti. It showed at 

the Stelline Foundation in Milan earlier this year.

The paintings are a surreal, psychedelic re-appropriation of 19th century photographs, either well-known on their own, or featuring well-known figures, offering a familiar but other-worldly recognition of the imagery.

See the originals after the jump.

Contessa Lucia Amman

She was the mother of style icon, Marchesa Luisa Casati, an Italian-Austrian heiress who was quite a celebrity during the first half of the 20th century. They had an interesting family history that's worth reading up on.

La Denuncia Segreta (by Vincenzo Giacomelli, 1880), 2011

La Lettura (by Olympe Aguado, 1863), 2012

Giuseppe Garibaldi (da Fratelli Alinari, 1870), 2010
 

Garibaldi was an Italian politician who was appointed General by the provisional government of Milan in 1848 and General of the Roman Republic in 1849 by the Minister of War.
 

Opened in 1956, the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum in Staten Island celebrates Italian-American heritage and culture. It was his residence from 1851-1853, and is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Mary Katrantzou, Spring 2011

For Mary Katrantzou's Spring collection, she was inspired by the interiors in which Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin photos were shot in the 70's. Since I like those guys too, of course I was super-interested in what she came up with.

Using her trademark print style – psychedelic and surreal, yet crisp and sophisticated – she's shown us a highly detailed kaleidoscope of glamour. I want to be there!

View the entire collection at Style.com

Pierre Klossowski, Drawings

Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001) was a French writer, philosopher, translator, and artist. He and his brother, the painter Balthus (whose work is well worth seeing too; I'll put some up at another time), were born and bred into sophisticated culture; their friends and family read like a who's-who of French intellectuals.

He was a bit of a cult figure with sophisticated, intellectual and controversial pieces – I say "pieces" because he was not especially focused on one single discipline. An admirer of both de Sade and patristic writings, he was said to have "one foot in the seminary, and another - in a brothel."

He started drawing as a means to illustrate his writings. The drawings were life-size, emphasizing their surrealist impact. Klossowski also created equally-impressive oversize sculptures in the same style of his drawings.

Roberte et Gulliver, 1971. Private Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, Zurich

Roberte et les Barres Parallèles Nº 8, 1984

La Poursuite dans l’Escalier, 1975. Courtesy Natalie Seroussi

Roberte et les Collégiens V (vision du Professeur Octave), 1974. Collection André Goeminne, Nazareth

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.

Mummenschanz

Eric was so pumped to tell me about Mummenschanz, which is a Swiss avant garde pantomime troupe. They were founded in 1972 by Bernie Schürch, Andres Bossard, and Floriana Frassetto. I had never heard of it before, but he remembered them from when they would perform on Sesame Street.

Above and below are photos of a couple of their acts.

This is the Mummenschanz theatre, in Villars-sur-Glane, Switzerland.

Guy Bourdin

I guess we haven't seen much Guy Bourdin around here much lately... These are all ads for Charles Jourdan in the late 70's.

I fall into a deep depression every time I remember that I can't have these shoes. Recently, maybe 2 years ago, Marc Jacobs had some boots with similar heels to this. I would be happy to have them now!

Such a glamorous shot!

Miscellaneous

Orange Juice, as it says

I took this photo when I was vacationing in Barcelona last year. This shop was on the same block as our hotel. I love the merchandise in the window because I'm a big fan of color and tights, and I super-love everything about the sign; even the name. The shop itself wasn't terribly interesting though!

The Clash, shot by Bob Gruen, probably in 1981 during their residency at Bonds. They look especially hot here. I am not sure that I've ever referred to the Clash as "hot" but I guess it's true about 75% of the time. Sometimes I find myself having a bit of a crush on Mick Jones, partly because I once dreamt he was my boyfriend and that he was very sweet and charming.

Tsunehisa Kimura (1928-2008) was a photo-montage artist (another pre-Photoshop artist). I have not been able to locate a title for this piece.

Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar. I love Carle's illustration style!