Compare the Pair #8 – I’ll hold a torch to that flame

Posted on October 29, 2013 by maryannadair

On October 28, 1886, in New York Harbour, US President Grover Cleveland, dedicated the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France to commemorate the centennial of the “Reclamation of Independence”,  (aka “Liberty Enlightening the World“) . – The statue is located on Liberty Island, near Manhattan and designed by French sculptor, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi.

A one-fourth scaled replica was given to the French in 1889 by the American ex-pat Community in Paris to the city of Paris and stands on a small artificial island on the Seine’s  Il aux Cygnes (isle of the Swans) which faced East until 1937 ,when it was decided it should face west towards its ‘big sister’  – doubly that ensures that “Liberty enlightens the world” – I’ll hold a torch to that flame!

Ergo, if the first photo looks larger, it must be from the original concept, but then again, maybe the ‘alternative’ smaller version is the ‘real-macCoy’ – you be the judge!

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Kickin’ Some Ass (KSA) – 25 years on

Posted on October 28, 2013 by maryannadair

KSAcrewThe KSA Crew has acknowledged its quarter of a century celebration of existence in the street art world with this piece.  (Who said street art was a recent phenomenon?) The KSA or “Kickin’ Some Ass” Crew were formed around 1988, possibly from the Dandenong train line area. According to “King’s Way” (see details below), the members of this crew agreed to be part of the Noble Park 3174 sign-off, which had many sub-branches, of which KSA was one of.

KSA members included Armed, along with Cancer, Cameo, Luck, Ster, Action and Akwer. Although their crew were  renowned for their intimidating presence, they maintained a commitment to the writer’s ethos. The crew unleashed a bombardment of panels including Armed’s famed “crime on the line” window down statement which highlighted the state of the scene at the time.

For further information on KSA and other early street art crews have a look at “King’s Way: The Beginnings of Australian Graffiti: Melbourne 1983-1993″ by Duro Cabrilo, Martin Harvey &  Karl Stamer, Miegunyah Press, 2009.

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A Celebration of Sails

Posted on October 27, 2013 by maryannadair

Sydney-Opera-House-shellAccording to the latest news – tonight is the 40th birthday celebration of the Sydney Opera House, an iconic Australian landmark which has been described as one of the 20th Century’s “Wonders of the World“.  So, I thought I would share with you, an image from the family’s vault of slides (converted) to digital showing some ‘work in progress’ on its construction, taken on a family holiday prior to 1973. The building is of modern expressionist design and sits overlooking Sydney harbour and another iconic Australian structure – the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark and his wife Princess Mary (an Australian) are special guests at the 40th birthday celebration, representing the Danish contribution to the original design concept and winner of an international design competition, in 1957.  The Opera House’s designer was Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who was not present at the initial opening of the Opera House on 20th October 1973.   Apparently, Utzon’s design was rescued from a final cut of 30 “rejects” by the noted Finnish architect Eero Saarinen. 

Utzon received the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s highest honour, in 2003. The Pritzker Prize citation read: “There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world – a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent”. It became one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites on 28th  June, 2007.

According to statistics on Wikipedia:

  • More than 7 million people visit the Opera House every year, with 300,000 people participating annually in a guided tour of the building.

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Now you see it…now you don’t

Posted on October 24, 2013 by maryannadair

I-never-knew-who-you-wereIt’s like the old adage of the magician…”now you see it…now you don’t“.  In this case I’m talking about the transient nature of street art. Major ‘hot spots’ are subject to many slashings and go-overs which means capturing and recording of the ‘here and now’ is important. This piece I have watched for a couple of years. Excited to find it initially and see its almost seamless “run” has been magical. It has survived many a ‘clean-up’ by local Council anti-graffiti mobs who have unsuccessfully tried to remove this whilst removing cheap tags  from the same wall, especially when I thought this was going to be a real ‘stayer’. I will admit that I do not know who the stencil artist is.

However, after passing by the space where this existed, I had to ‘blow into the proverbial paper bag’, when I realised that new owners of the establishment have painted over the brickwork in white paint, as part of their renovations and this piece has GONE!

In one fell swoop – a massacre has occurred.

For examples of Street Art terminology  see my Street Art page.

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Sheila to the Rescue

Posted on October 17, 2013 by maryannadair

Sheila to the rescue - G PicklewrightI went to a clearing auction on the weekend. There were boxes of everything from a household lot. It saddened me on one level to see that for whatever reason, a house lot of goods had to be sold. On the second level, watching the people pick through the goods trying to find a bargain lot also troubled me. The items were in cardboard boxes sprawled out over a grass lot. 

The advert in the paper which drew us to this clearance sale claimed it had a mantle clock. We never found it. There were other items mentioned in the advert that we never saw either. Was it false advertising or were they nicked or previously disposed of? who knows.

What I did notice was an old-fashioned suitcase with a bunch of vintage children’s books. I guess they were around the 1940/1950 vintage. A lot of women were interested in this suitcase and its content and I observed a woman shut the case and put a cushion on top to hide the contents from others who might be interested in the suitcase contents.

The weather was foreboding and just as the auction was about to start, the rain began and so did the auctioneer. He picked up a plastic bar stool; held it up high and shouted out “Who’ll give me $10?” Silence was the stern reply. “OK, how about $5?”. No nibbles. “How about $2“. Someone put up his hand to accept the bidding offer*.

Apart from not seeing anything we wanted to buy, the rain well and truly set in and anything that could get rain damaged, such as books, wasn’t going to be worth bidding for, so we headed back home.  

The example (shown above) is of a typical illustration of a 1950s/60s children’s annual. In this case, the illustration is by G.P. Micklewright, an artist and children’s book illustrator who also drew many crime fiction and mystery dust jackets. This illustration entitled ‘Sheila to the Rescue’ is from the annual, “Stories of Adventure for Girls“.

*As for the guy who bid $2 for the plastic stool; we ran into him after the auction and he was not amused; he had to pay $5, because the auctioneer claimed someone else bid “$2” before he did, and therefore he had to ‘knock it down to him for $5’  – C’est la vie!

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R.I.P. Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read

Posted on October 10, 2013 by maryannadair

chopper readIt appears, you either liked him or hated him – however, as the media love to refer to him – “notorious Victorian crime figure” Chopper has lost his battle with cancer and has died at the age of 58, after an 18-month battle with liver cancer. “Chopper” was a nickname he acquired whilst ‘inside’ and during one of his prison sentences, talked a fellow inmate into slicing his ears off. (There is a long story behind this, but I shall not go into this now).

This street art piece (above) is near Section 8 Bar in Melbourne and has been around for some while. It is part of a collage of popular local identities and replicates a well-known photo of “Chopper” with his prison-acquired tatts, which he accumulated way before tatts became popular today.

As a typical, affable “Aussie” character who could spin a great yarn, he turned his life around after he decided ‘enough was enough’ and during his last 15 years of freedom he turned to painting, writing, did some stand-up comedy, starred in a film and had a movie dedicated to his life ‘inside’ the former notorious Pentridge jail and the infamous Jika Jika section, in Coburg, in “Chopper” which starred Aussie actor, Eric Bana. 

“Chopper” spent some of his youth in the Turana Detention Centre for boys who just ‘pushed the system a little too far’. Sometimes these places, in an effort to rehabilitate, often fail, and open up an unknown world of crime to young offenders, putting them on the ‘wrong side of the tracks’ at an early age and many of these youth become recidivist offenders. Read became one of these. No sooner was he out of jail, he was back in, for various events. During his latter time in Pentridge, Chopper, along with his ‘mates’ became known as the “Overcoat Gang” a tribe not to be reckoned with.

Towards the end of his sentencing, he served at Risdon Prison in Tasmania. He was released from there, for the last time, on 11 February, 1998, at 43 years of age. Up until that point he had spent 23 years and 9 months of his life in jail and he was determined that he was never going back.

On reflection I will end with one of Chopper’s poetry examples, which features in his book “Road To Nowhere“.

“If love was a staircase
And friendship was a chain
I’d climb right up to heaven
And bring you back again”.

RIP Chopper!

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Kookie Pookie is well worth a lookie

Posted on October 9, 2013 by maryannadair

pookieIvy Lilian Wallace was a British author and illustrator and best known for writing the “Pookie” series of illustrated children’s stories. She was born in Grimsby, in the UK on 7th October1915.  She showed early talent at drawing and her parents anticipated her future success as an artist. Instead, she became an actress at the  Felixstowe Repertory Theatre, and during the War years made educational films for the British film industry as well as conducting some support work as a switchboard operator for the Grimsby Police. It was during this time, (1946), whilst doodling with her pen, that Ivy’s initial conception of “Pookie”, the winged rabbit began.

She presented her finished manuscript to London publishers Williams Collins Ltd.  who rejected it.  However, William Hope Collins, from the Glaswegian office where the Children’s Book section was based, contacted Ivy some weeks later.

To cut a long story short, he liked the script and the author and although estranged from his wife and children, he and Ivy married four years later and they moved to a small town near the English/Scottish border. They had two children and in 1967 after her husband’s untimely death, she ceased her writing career.

The intro the the first book “Pookie” (1946) starts:

“Pookie was a little white furry rabbit with soft floppity ears, big blue eyes and the most lovable rabbit smile in the world.

He lived with his Mother and father and four brothers and three sisters deep down in the warm brown earth under a great Oak tree and had lettuce and honey sandwiches for tea every Wednesday and two hazelnuts for pocket money every Saturday.

His siblings were Wiggletail, Swifflekins, Twinkletoes, Brighteyes, Tomasina, Bobasina and Weeny-One”.

The “Pookie: book series consist of:

  • “Pookie”;
  • “Pookie and the Gypsies”;
  • “Pookie Puts the World Right”;
  • “Pookie in Search of a Home”;
  • “Pookie Believes in Santa Claus”;
  • “Pookie at the Seaside”; and
  • “Pookie’s Big Day Out”.

In 1994, Ivy and her daughters re-printed the stories for their own publishing company, Pookie Productions Ltd. – Ivy Wallace died in March 13, 2006.

For examples of similar posts see my  Illustrative Art page.

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A thorn in the flesh

Posted on October 5, 2013 by maryannadair

This depiction ‘Belpignet’ (above) is one of Norton’s paintings from a copy of the book “Thorn in the Flesh”, which includes original material relating to some of the albums of press clippings, photos and ephemera along with fragments tales by her autobiographer, all contained in the one volume. The volume comprises poetry (often humorous), reminiscences, and various occult jottings, all by Rosaleen Norton.

Rosaleen Norton aka “Roie” (born 2nd  October 1917  in New Zealand – died 5th  December 1979), grew up in Sydney, and adopted a Bohemian lifestyle and overwhelming interest  in the occult. Her youthful fascination with the occult blossomed into a lifelong passion and this combined with her sexually-charged artwork attracted bitter condemnation from the conservative establishment. Over the years her passion for the occult intensified and this was reflected  in her artwork. Living in the cosmopolitan area of Kings Cross, in Sydney, she led her own coven of witches.

A police raid on an exhibition of her art in Victoria in 1949 saw her charged with exhibiting “obscene articles‘ thus giving her the dubious distinction of being the first woman artist ever to face such an accusation in Victoria. She won the case but in 1952 her book “The Art of Rosaleen Norton” was banned in both Australia and the USA on similar grounds; and in 1960, a judicial sanction saw the destruction of several of her paintings.

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Compare the Pair #7 – a Degas-station of art

Posted on September 30, 2013 by maryannadair
Edgar Degas | L’etoile [The Star]

I declare this post a “Degas-station of art” as it includes a copy and a pastiche of one of Edgar Degas’ favorite ballet pastels,  L’etoile. I base this term “Degas-station” on the similarity between the sound and description of a similar culinary term – ‘degustation‘ which describes ‘sampling small portions of signature dishes in one sitting, often matching something to complement the dish’.   In this case, the “matching” is to the original painting L’etoile with both replica and pastiche versions. So above, is a  copy of L’etoile printed on a hanky or handkerchief and the pastiche version entitled “Mrs. Degas Vacuums the Floor” by Sally Swain, is  from her ‘Great Housewives of Art‘ exhibition of 1987 (as shown above). Sally, who was born in Sydney in 1958 is a freelance illustrator.

The original artist of L’etoile – Edgar Degas, or as he was born on 9th July 1834, Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a Parisian-born French Impressionist and Realist artist who was fond of depicting dancers. His father expected him to study law but he preferred to paint and began his artistic endevours as a copyist artist at the Louvre Museum of Art. His paintings, pastels, drawings, and sculptures are on prominent display in many museums around the world.

  • Although Degas had no formal pupils, he greatly influenced several important painters, including Jean-Louis Forain (see my entry) and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
  • Edgar Degas died 96 years ago on  27 September 1917.
  • One of his popular quotes often seen on those ‘Bunches of Dates’ flip calendar pages is: “Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.”
  • The header for this post is a detail from ‘Portrait of Hortense Valpincion‘ by Edgar Degas (Minneapolis Institute of Arts)

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Time for a cuppa – Billy Boy

Posted on September 26, 2013 by maryannadair

dobellThe Billy Boy (1943), oil on cardboard & hardboard 70.2 x 53.4cm was painted by Australian artist Sir William Dobell (OBE).  Dobell, was born on 24th September 1899,  in a suburb of the New South Wales city of Newcastle.  In 1929, Dobell was awarded the Society of Artists’ – Travelling Scholarship to the UK and the following year he won First Prize for figure painting.  After 10 years travelling and painting throughout Europe, Dobell returned to Australia and commenced part-time art teaching at the East Sydney Technical College.

During the years of WW2, he was drafted into the Civil Construction Corps of the Allied Works Council, as a camouflage painter and also became an unofficial war artist. It was during this time that he painted “The Billy Boy“. which is on display at the Australian War Memorial in the capital city of Canberra. According to their website he wrote the following about his model:

“He was a Glasgow Irishman … his name was Joe Westcott. He was more interested in political argument than boiling the billy – which was his only job. Whenever we were waiting for our tea at morning or afternoon smoko, Joe, a dinkum bush lawyer, was trying to shout someone else down in an earbashing contest, and we often had to boil our own billy. I painted him at Rathmines Air Base, where I worked on camouflage with Joshua Smith and a lot of other artists”.

In same year that Dobell painted “The Billy Boy” he also painted the year’s Archibald Prize winner, the portrait of Joshua Smith, entitled “Portrait of an Artist“.  This painting was contested by two unsuccessful Archibald Prize entrants, who brought a lawsuit against Dobell and the Gallery’s Board of Trustees in the Supreme Court of New South Wales on the grounds that the painting was a caricature. The claim was dismissed and the award was upheld, but the ordeal left Dobell emotionally disturbed and he retreated  to his sister’s home near Lake Macquarie in New South Wales, where he began to paint landscapes, where he lived until he died on 13 May 1970.

For further information on William Dobell you can see or read the following:

  • “Yours Sincerely, Bill Dobell” (1981) Brian Adams and Cathy Shirley, Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC).
  • “Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of William Dobell” by Brian Adams, Hutchinson Publishing Group, 1983 (rev. ed. 1993 Random House Australia pbk ed.)
  • “William Dobell: An Artist’s Life” by Elizabeth Donaldson, (2010) with the support of the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation and Dobell House, in Wangi Wangi, NSW. Published by Exile Publishing

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Posted on September 21, 2013 by maryannadair

federation square buildingFederation Square– colloquially known as “Fed Square” is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary. Incredibly controversial during its construction, it has over the years “mellowed” and been accepted for what it represents. The glass walls of the Atrium space covers a lane way-like space which is approx. five stories high with glazed walls and roof.

The labyrinth uses a passive cooling system sandwiched above the railway lines. Environmentally over the seasons, during hot summer nights; cold air is pumped in the combed space, cooling down the concrete while the heat absorbed during the day is pumped out. The following day, cold air is pumped from the labyrinth out into the atrium through floor vents. This keeps the atrium up to 12 deg C cooler than outside and comparable to conventional air-conditioning but using one-tenth the energy by producing one-tenth of the carbon dioxide. During winter the process is reversed; so warm daytime air stored in the Labyrinth overnight is pumped back into the atrium during the day. In a nutshell, cool eh?

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Have a yen for doll collecting?

Posted on September 20, 2013 by maryannadair

kokeshi dollJapanese Kokeshi Dolls originate from the Sendai region of  northern Japan. They are handmade from wood and display as a simple trunk with an enlarged head with a few thin, painted lines to define the face. The body has a floral or particular design often painted in red, black or sometimes yellow, covered with a layer of wax. The bottom of each doll is marked with the artist’s signature.The wood used varies from cherry wood for it darkness through to  dogwood which is used for its softer qualities. For more information see this Kokeshi Doll site.

For further examples of Oriental Art from my ‘Is It Art‘ site, click here.

Dewamata!

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Keeping it all in the family

Posted on September 16, 2013 by maryannadair
Tom Roberts | The Shearer
Tom Roberts | Portrait of a Young Girl
Tom Roberts | La Favorita
Tom Roberts | Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes
Tom Roberts | Caleb | Bronze sculpture
Tom Roberts | Reconciliation

Sometimes you just have to call on family members to help you out. In this case, prominent Australian artist Tom Roberts called upon family members to sit for some of his greatest works. Incidentally, Tom the artist was also a gifted sculptor.

Born Thomas William Roberts  on 9th March 1856 in Dorchester, England, Tom and his family migrated to Australia in 1869. They settled in an inner Melbourne city – Collingwood. During his early years, Tom worked as a photographer’s assistant through the 1870s while studying art at night school under famous artist Louis Buvelot and became friends with fellow artists, including Frederick McCubbin who became key members of the Heidelberg School of art in Victoria. Tom returned to the UK for three years from 1881-1884 to further his art studies at the Royal Academy School before returning to Australia. On his return in 1885 and through to the 1890s, Tom worked in his studio at the Grosvenor Chambers and at a number of artists’ camps around Australia.

In 1896 he married 35-year-old Elizabeth (Lillie) Williamson and their only child Caleb was born two years later in 1898. The family lived in the hilly area of Kallista outside of Melbourne until Tom’s unfortunate death to cancer on 14th September, 1931.

  • Some of Tom’s greatest works are on show around galleries in Victoria. “Reconciliation”, (ca 1886) the oil on canvas painting [featured above] is part of the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum in Castlemaine, Central Victoria.  The female model for this is believed to be Tom’s sister Harriet.
  • His most famous work “The Shearers” is on display in the Ian Potter Centre of the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne along with this bust of “Caleb”, which sits on display in the main foyer.
  • Caleb, is Tom and Lillie’s son. Born Caleb Grafton Roberts (1898-1965), he grew up to become a civil engineer, public servant and army officer. The bust of Caleb (1907) is cast in bronze and provided to the Gallery by Dr. Joseph Bowen OBE, 1983.

Where would we be without our family!

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None is so Grimm, when you’re Rackham’n in

Posted on September 8, 2013 by maryannadair
Arthur Rackham | How Queen Guenevere Rode a’Mayring from the Romance of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table
Arthur Rackham | Hansel and Gretel | Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Arthur Rackham | How Sir Lancelot fought a fiendly dragon

Arthur Rackham (19 September 1867 – 6 September 1939) was a wonderful  early English 20th Century illustrative artist who illustrated many fairy tales books. This reproduction from Hansel and Gretel comes from  the stories from the Brothers Grimm.   Other well known Rackham illustrations of classic works include: Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, Sleeping Bauty and lesser-known tales such as the Four Clever Brothers, King Thrushbeard, Doctor Know-All and Fundevogel, The Queen Bee, The Lady and the Lion, The Valiant Little Tailor, Cat and Mouse in Partnership, The Fox and the Horse, The Goose Girl, and The Little Farmer.

Rackham invented his own unique technique which resembled photographic reproduction; he would first sketch an outline of his drawing, then lightly block in shapes and details. Afterwards he would add lines in pen and India ink, removing the pencil traces after it had dried. With colour pictures, he would then apply multiple washes of colour until translucent tints were created. He would also go on to expand the use of silhouette cuts in illustration work, particularly in the period after the First World War, as exemplified by his Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Sadly, Arthur Rackham died on the 6th September, 1939 of cancer in his home in Limpsfield, Surrey.

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“…This old man came rolling home!”

Posted on September 7, 2013 by maryannadair

paddy hannanPaddy Hannan from Kalgoorlie from the wilds of Western Australia, was a gold prospector. Born in Co. Clare, Ireland, he and two mates discovered gold near Mount Charlotte near the Coolgardie goldfields not far from Kalgoorlie. In 1904, at the age of 61, having prospected for all his adult life, Hannan was granted an annual pension of £150 by the Government of Western Australia.  Six years later, he ceased his prospecting activities and moved across the nation to the other side of Australia to live with his  two nieces in Brunswick, Victoria, where he lived until he died there in 1925.

Unlike other gold prospectors, the main street and a suburb in Kalgoorlie both bear his name; and in 1929 a statue of him by sculptor John MacLeod, was erected (see above). But, despite his success,  it is the people back in his hometown in Quin, County Clare in the Republic of Ireland who have also remembered him, by dedicating a plaque to his memory opposite the Quin Abbey.

And every time I see or hear the name Paddy, I think of Paddy Hannan, and I cannot help but start to sing: “With a knick-knack, paddy whack, Give a dog a bone; This old man came rolling home”. And in this case with Paddy Hannan, he did!

For further items see my Street Sculpture page

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