I’m not a big war-monger, but I DO like a good satire so, I was kind of blown away by these illustrations of Presidents kicking (and killing) some major ass, Hollywood-style. We’ve already seen Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Wonder what other POTUS fantasy action thrillers are in the pipeline? Nothing so far on what a killing Bernie Bot from the future or Hillary's Bitch Hunter might look like but one possibly dire prediction that would Trump them all. All art is by Jason Heuser. You find his etsy shop here.
PHOTOGRAPHER PAYS HOMAGE TO RENAISSANCE PAINTERS USING AUTO MECHANIC MODELS
Photographer Freddy Fabris created these updated versions of famous Renaissance paintings after the idea came to him during a visit to a garage. He perfectly represents the distinctive style of great Renaissance master painters like Rembrandt & Leonardo daVinci in these reverent recreations. Talk about Renaissance men...
(Photos, Freddy Fabris; via Brightside)
WAS THE MONA LISA BASED ON DAVINCI'S GAY LOVER?
One art historian thinks so. He thinks he’s cracked the code to the Mona Lisa's elusive smile was inspired by da Vinci’s gay lover.
Art historian Silvano Vinceti, after examining an infra-red analysis of the famous painting, claims that the was based on two people in da Vinci’s life: a rich Tuscan merchant’s wife, Lisa Gherardini, as most historians would agree and the artist’s apprentice (and alleged lover) Gian Giacomo Caprotti, known to da Vinci as Salai or “Little Devil.”
In an interview, Vinceti, who heads the research group National Committee for Cultural Heritage, explained that the infra-red findings prove that “the Mona Lisa is androgynous–half man and half woman.”
“You see it particularly in Mona Lisa’s nose and in her forehead and her smile.”
Vinceti’s claims are based on a close study of other paintings of Salai, who lived and worked with da Vinci for nearly twenty years.
Juicy though Vinceti’s analysis is, many art experts aren’t sold on the idea that the painting was inspired by the artist’s young apprentice. Martin Kemp, professor emeritus of the history of art at Trinity College, Oxford says,
“This is a mish-mash of known things, semi-known things and complete fantasy. The infra-red images do nothing to support the idea that Leonardo somehow painted a blend of Lisa Gherardini and Salai.”
Kemp, is currently at work on a new book, Mona Lisa: The People and the Painting, adds that no one knows for sure what exactly Salai looked like. (Although, many have said the drawing above is Salai.)
“Giorgio Vasari (a contemporary painter and a chronicler of Renaissance artists) described him as a pretty boy with curly hair, but that was a standard type of the era. It featured in Leonardo’s work long before Salai came on the scene.”
It commonly believed that upon Leonardo’s death in 1519, Salaì inherited several paintings including the Mona Lisa, which might back up the theory that Salai was the model for the painting.
FRIENDS, ACQUAINTANCES & FANS REMEMBER PRINCE
It’s sad when people leave suddenly, especially when we admire but don’t really know them. But one way people remain “alive” is through remembering them. I love hearing random encounters and thoughts about Prince, and I thought I’d share a few friends’ stories here, including my own minor one…
“My story is not about a direct encounter with Prince, I never met him, rather it’s a funny story that was told to me by someone in our stage crew on tour in 1989-90, who left for a while to work with Prince, then returned to work with us again. He said that whenever Prince saw him, he would ask,
‘Who’s that little band you were with… they sing that little song, then he would sing in his falsetto voice, love shack, baby Love Shack?‘” –The B-52s’, Keith Strickland
“Chi Chi (Valenti) and I are battling over the best description of Prince. My favorite was by L.A. Reid, ‘He could steal your woman wearing high heels.‘
Chi Chi’s was by Robert Christgau on seeing Prince for the first time: ‘Mick Jagger should fold up his penis and go home.‘” –DJ, Johnny Dynell
“The first time I laid eyes on him was at the Ritz in December 1980 where I was djing and he was playing for the Dirty Mind tour. The Ritz was still a fairly new venue opening in May of that year. That was the show that changed it all. For me, for the Ritz and I think for Prince too. It was insane. He came back again and played in March of 1981. Lucky to have witnessed that and all that came after. Saw him many times after and obviously was a massive influence. All the bands and artists he worked with, the careers he is responsible for is pretty astounding. I really used to love when he put out those non lp b-sides “She’s Always in My Hair”, “Erotic City”, “17 Days”. Just too good. He will be so missed, but damm he seemed to do it all and did it on his own terms. Pop life. The artist.” –Justin Strauss
“Prince in Rio! I had the pleasure of being backstage at Rio’s Maracanã Stadium during 1991’s edition of Rock In Rio festival. There was a massive sense of anticipation for his arrival and security was super tight. I had a quick peek into his dressing room – It was all customized in purple drapes, purple pillows, purple candles, purple everything… Then suddenly more excitement as he entered the stadium and passed in front of me with his private security team lead by this beautiful woman! There was a lock down in the corridors, no one could really move around. Then I went down to see his concert from the grass and will never forget the looooooong and out of this world rendition of Purple Rain he played on his Purple piano!!!! Prince was an amazing music innovator and a true pop star in the old school sense of the term! He blew the stadium away!! Shine on Purple Star!” –producer, Béco Dranoff
“My story isn’t a direct encounter with Prince either but I remember this vividly. I was working for Vanity Fair in the art department and we were doing a story on the Prince phenomenon, and hired Andy Warhol to do the illustration for the story. (I still have a hard proof of the one shown here.) For some reason, I got invited to a screening of Purple Rain which was in a theater in Times Square. It was not the kind of red carpet premiere you have today, and Prince wasn’t there, but this new singer who was starting to get hot at the time was; Madonna. She was with her friend Debi Mazar, who I knew at the time and they sat directly in the row in front of us and said hi coming in. I remember Madonna REALLY rocking out and SUPER into the music all through the film as we all were. Prince & Madonna were just about THE hottest things on the planet in ’84, and there they were (sort of) right in front of me. It was a moment.” –artist, Trey Speegle
“Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, products of very religious upbringings: a Jehovah’s Witness, a Seventh Day Adventist turned Jehovah’s Witness, and a deep Catholic school girl named for the Virgin Mother and at war with ‘the father.’ Very interesting to consider together. All–at the same, high 80s moment, really– acting out the freedom of the body and explosive sexuality, exorcising demons, trying to get free, producing music where sexual and religious images mingled, creating more powerful new selves. So much rebellion, conflict, creativity. Yet classic American strivers. Messy inside but unparalleled, perfectionistic professionals, worker bees, hitting the mark at any cost. But the men both seemed so personally conflicted and tortured inside. Michael for sure. Don’t need to repeat that story. Prince, still sometimes needing to project ‘ladies man’ though as seemingly gender-complex as M.J., perhaps struggling more privately as it seems that he was actually conservative and somewhat uncomfortable with gays, himself. Intensely private and mysterious yet exhibitionistic. How did their race figure? Even their size–diminuitive and fey and kind of the antithesis of the desirable male in black culture, but creating their own kind of power, perhaps out of necessity…
All suffering intense physical pain for the work and one dead from a pain-killer. Excruciating/exquisite control of the body and maniacal control of the work, but not the head or heart. No big thesis, just scattered thoughts. So much going on inside those beautiful ones, intensity and creativity on fire. Driven. I miss the moment when they reigned, those sexy hymns we danced to. Exciting. Maybe just because I was young. Maybe because I am still struggling.” –Author, George Hodgman
“When I was 18 years old and studying in Paris at the time I was a resident dj in this club called Montana. One night the manager of the club called me and said that Prince had requested to have the club privatized for him and a few friends and that he specifically asked that I play the music after hearing me a few nights before. Keep in mind that I was a huge fan of Prince since a very young age and that I would play his records on vinyl as a little toddler in my Dads studio.
“The song ‘Kiss’ is in my top 10 favorite songs of all time. I was very excited when I got the call as you can imagine. To make a long story short… Prince showed up around 3ish after I had been playing an empty dance floor for about 4 hours already. He walked in with this gorgeous woman that, I kid you not was twice his size (even with the 5 inch heels he had on) . I was playing a lot of funk and disco which he seemed to be enjoying and dancing to. Fifteen minutes into the party he requested that I play a few of his songs. I played “let’s dance” by Bowie followed by “Kiss”. He turned around and gave me a thumbs up. Seconds after hearing his record drop, he leaned in to his date of the night and kissed her on the lips at the exact moment he says kiss in the song.
I continued playing his music until he came back in the DJ booth and asked for some James Brown. He danced a little bit longer and took his friends and date back to his Paris home. He did not sit down the whole night while I was spinning. Before he left he thanked me, shook my hand with his leather gloves he was wearing and told me I was a talented disc jockey. It was a surreal moment for me at the time and I can easily say it is one of the highlights of my ‘DJ career’. I recorded the mix from that night which I will be uploading in the next few weeks after some digging through my laptops. Deeply saddened by this news today. I am currently in london where I will be spinning his music tonight in his honor. #RIP to the master of psychedelic rock and intergalactic funk. A true musical genius, icon and most of all a genuine nice person. My condolences to all his close ones.” –DJ, Lino Meoli, son of Maripol
“The audacity of Prince Rogers Nelson did not flower with fame and purchase –did not even begin with music, since by all accounts he strode with slight stature onto a junior high school basketball court, throwing shade with the same shy-but-Sly buoyancy we would all witness later in performance. He laid down the law like a landing strip in the rain forest, his flickering lights serving as our clearance from the tower, all touching down safely behind him. He was possessed of the ecstasy of Little Richard, the locomotion of James Brown; the fusing spark-shower of Jimi Hendrix. He understood the sublime and abstracted alchemy of Miles [Davis], the impatient genius of Ray [Charles]; the giddy volatility of Sly Stone, the cat-and-mouse come-on of Marvin Gaye. He embodied the Saturday night/Sunday morning disparities of the Reverend Al –and his persona was as cunning and confounding as that of Salvador Dali.
I have ceased distinguishing between the religious and the secular, for everything is holy: our courage and humility, our senses both lost and found; our love and our lust…all that shall swoon and couple, leaving in their wake the real hope that, late as is the hour –with as much as we have been given and squandered; as little as we might deserve it, though we stomp and plead— there may yet be more on offer: God willing, just one more song sung into high rafters before we are finally called to quit and disperse.” –musician and producer, Joe Henry (posted by photographer Maude Schuyler Clay)
“I had greeted him as he came into the party and had just admired his ass in that jumpsuit which Siskel kidded me for so obviously doing. Then later I went up to his bodyguard standing right next to him and knowingly played the game.
‘May I speak to Prince?‘
I asked the bodyguard as Prince listened above the din and dared to smile at my knowingness. This was Vanity Fair’s first Oscar party at Morton’s in 1994 and he was the biggest star in the room. Yet no one else seemed to be going up to him. The bodyguard looked down at The Diminutive One who, in turn, nodded his approval – knowingly.
‘Yeah, you can,‘
the bodyguard said. So, Prince and I had a little Oscar party tete-a-tete.
‘Gigolos get lonely too, huh,’
I said to get his attention – which it did. I then told him about the one time I ever saw him perform. It was the Purple Rain tour in Daly City at the Cow Palace. I was visiting San Francisco for the first time and a friend, Adam Block, who was the music critic for the Advocate, had prime seats right next to the stage. I also told him his jump suit made his ass look hot. He lowered those eyelids of his, deciding if he should take that as a compliment or a threat. I wasn’t sure if he was going to hit me with his walking cane. He tapped me on my own butt instead.
‘You’re right.‘ he said.
And laughed – knowingly – a gigolo giggle, amusement gargled back down in his throat where those guttural notes could be grunted out amidst those airy high ones that could so shockingly take flight as he himself now has.” –Author, Kevin Sessums
“I was working the door at the ex-Sound Factory (after Ingrid Casares gave up trying to turn it into something else and before it became Twilo). Saturday nights were big, and on this particular one during fashion week Donatella Versace was having a private party for her 1998 ad campaign with Courtney Love. Mobbed confusion at the door all night, lots of famous faces. At some point a beefy guy in a suit approached the side and said,
‘I’ve got Prince in the car over there for the Donatella party but he doesn’t like being bumped or hassled by people.”
He motioned to a limo across the street. I told him to get my attention when ready, and I’d make sure there was a path they could sneak through quickly on the side. He got back in the limo and drove off. A half hour later the same limo slowly pulls up right in front of the crowd, not the side, and the guy gets out and looks at me. I motioned him to the side but it was too late.
Slowly out of the door of the limo emerges, not Prince, but five tall, beefy security guards in matching dark suits, with arms locked in a circle to form a sort of human cage, their open Prada jackets making a curtain. I yelled for people to back-up as this contorted, human tarantula sloooowly crawled out of the limo (two of the bodyguards facing backwards) and inched towards us. It was an acrobatic wonder! People stared. The crowd naturally parted for such a spectacle.
New Yorkers (back then) didn’t yell or take pictures around famous people, they’d just go weirdly quiet. But who were we gawking at? They didn’t know. I wasn’t sure. It could’ve been anybody! Sure enough, as I lifted the velvet rope and they wobbled their way into the door I caught a square-inch of purple from inside the walking flesh cage.
An hour later, Rob Fernandez came out and said,
‘Prince wants to leave.‘
And as the same human contraption inched it’s way out of the club (this time in reverse), I heard a muffled but unmistakable voice from deep inside say,
‘Thank you.‘
It crawled back in the limo and drove off. A security guard turned and asked me,
‘Was that really Prince?‘
I said, ‘It had to be.‘
–Sock Job director, Mark Allen
LIZ, JACKIE & CHER ARE STILL IN THEIR PRIME IN RON GALELLA'S "SEX IN FASHION"
A photographer named Paparazzo in Felinni’s La Dolce Vita is the eponym of the word “paparazzi”. Fellini took the name from an Italian word that describes a the annoying noise of a buzzing mosquito. As Fellini told Time magazine,
“Paparazzo … suggests to me a buzzing insect, hovering, darting, stinging.“
To further than analogy, in the 60s & 70s Ron Gallella was the fictional king bee. The Bronx-born photographer practically invented the paparazzi market in this country. His obsession with getting on-the-go shots of the likes of Jackie Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor made him famous. It also got him sucker-punched by Marlon Brando, who broke his jaw and knocked out five teeth.
At 85, Galella is now retired. The only event he comes into the city for these days is the Met Ball, the annual celebrity bonanza that is the Costume Institute gala.
His new book, Sex in Fashion, is out now, and he told Vanity Fair,
“I’ve always felt that I’m more than a paparazzo. I’m a photojournalist, that’s what I got a degree for in 1958, from the Art Center College of Design in L.A., after a five-year stint in the Air Force. I worked hard at my craft, too. I was discharged in 1955, went to school, and then in 1958, I came back to my father’s house in the Bronx. I didn’t have money for a studio—like [Francesco] Scavullo, whose father had a building on 65th Street—so the streets became my studio. I built a photo lab in my father’s basement, and I started doing something that wasn’t being done, which was capture spontaneity. Other photographers would do posed and well-lit pictures. I captured celebrities in their environments: at parties, in airports, when they were not aware of the photographer or the camera. This was the real them. That’s what photojournalism is about.
Nowadays the media overexposes the celebrities. There’s no mystery. They have fame but no talent. I think TV is the reason that it created a lot of mediocrity. Edward R. Murrow would turn in his grave to know what was going on. The overexposure of no-talent celebrities. Like all those housewives: they’re beautiful—until they open their mouth. There’s so much mediocrity. Before, they had to have talent, like Bette Davis. They were trained. Even Liz Taylor was trained to be a great star.“
They are great pictures. It’s hard to imagine today’s celebs making a coffee table book, but in 50 years, they’ll probably look interesting. Most things do over time.
(via Vanity Fair)
RICKY MARTIN'S HOT, NEW ARTIST BOYFRIEND'S ART IS NOT SO NEW...
Ricky Martin debuted his new boyfriend at the amfAR benefit last weekend in Brazil. Martin walked the red carpet holding hands with artist Jwan Yosef, so it was pretty clear they are more than friends and wanted everyone to know. Martin later posted their photo to Twitter with the caption:
“Yup.”
Cute, huh? If you check out his Instagram you can see why Martin likes him, at least on the surface. Lot’s of hot selfies, plus some art too. I wanted to check out the work, so I did a little research. He’s had two solo shows in London and if you ask me, his work is NOT as hot as he is.
Yosef’s conceptual, minimal canvases, twisted and coming off the stretchers look cool, but if you know your art history, you know that the late Steven Parrino got there first, 25 years ago. No, they aren’t exactly the same, but conceptually close enough to be derivative. Parrino has been copied a lot over the years, so it’s really no surprise.
Art critic, Jerry Saltz, wrote in 2007 after Parrino’s death,
“Overestimating Parrino would be as much a disservice to him as underestimating him would. He wasn’t a radically original artist. But he was radically dedicated to his narrow idea of what painting could be. He may have talked about death and nihilism, and he wore a black leather jacket everywhere, but Parrino didn’t want to annihilate painting. He came of age, he said, when‘the word on painting was ‘Painting Is Dead.’ I saw this as an interesting place for painting … and this death painting thing led to a sex and death painting thing … that became an existence thing.’
All this sounds bad-boy and romantic, but that ‘“existence thing’ at the end is crucial. He vividly demonstrates that no matter what you do to a canvas—slash, gouge, twist, or mutilate it—you can’t actually kill it. Painting lives, and so, for the moment, does Parrino’s work.”
Yosef went to several art school’s including Central St. Martins in London, a very good school, so he’s well-educated and knows his art history, one assumes. He’s been in many group shows and has had two solo shows recently. He’s got other work too which is a bit derivative as well, of one of the most successful living artists in the world, Gerhard Richter. Yosef’s portraits, mostly in black and white, look a bit too much like Richter’s black and white blurred photo-paintings of the 60s to captivate. And he has made some black and white word art which is everywhere as well, I don’t need to give you examples. So…
Making original art is not so easy. As the late critic and filmmaker Emile de Antonio once said,
“Most artists have no ideas. Good artists have one idea. Great artists have more than one idea…“
So, while he’s developing his own style, Jwan’s got a hot, new, rich, famous boyfriend to keep him distracted. Does this sound mean? Maybe, but if you're an exhibiting artist you've got to have tough skin... and maybe a few new ideas of your own.
LAUREN BACALL'S APARTMENT IN "DARK PASSAGE" IS FOR SALE... SORT OF.
A 30s Streamline Moderne style apartment in the historic Malloch Building on Telegraph Hillis a drop dead chic, with killer views. The building is iconic for many reasons — it was featured as Lauren Bacall‘s apartment in Dark Passage (1947) and Alfred DuPont‘s mural decorates the facade. It’s also one of those rare gems known by its address: 1360 Montgomery Street. The one bedroom, one bath pad can be yours for a cool $1.5 million. If I were going to like in San Francisco, I think THIS would be the way to do it.
(T/Y Kevin; via Curbed)
WARHOL & GRACE JONES ASK,"IT'S 10PM. DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CHILDREN ARE?"
In the 70s & 80s, this used to be a thing in New York. Local news station Channel 5 broadcast this message every night,
“It’s 10 PM, do you know where your children are…?
Great thing to ask parents, but it takes on a slightly more sinister tinge when delivered by Grace Jones & Andy Warhol. You get the feeling like they might want to add
"...tell us and we'll get them and take them to Studio!"
Watch.
#DUMPTRUMP: ARTIST HANKSY CREATES A SIGN OF THE TIMES
NYC-artist Hanksy has taken his shit show on the road with his Dump Across Americacampaign by enlisting a group of fellow artists to push his Dump Trump (bowel?) movement.
“I’ve never put much weight behind my work. It’s all very topical and light-hearted. I painted that silly Trump mural in NYC late last summer a few weeks after the wigged one announced his presidential run. The mural was a joke and so was Trump. Unfortunately the punchline never came and it’s scary as hell.”
By using thousands of buttons, hundreds of yard signs and banners, the group (labeled the Doo Doo Boys by one drunk Trump supporter) hopes his simple graphic of a photo-realistic Trump likeness atop a cartoon pile of poo will get the message out. He has made all Trump artwork available as a free download at dumpacrossamerica.com
You can get your own sign with easy to follow directions:
Step 1: Buy Wood.
Step 2: Duct Tape Wood Stake To Poo.
Step 3: Find The The Donald, Look For The Small Hands…Protest!
Find more #dumpacrossamerica by Hanksy here and follow the Dump Trump Campaign Trail on Instagram & Twitter @hanksynyc.
VARIOUS ANIMALS THAT SAW YOU NAKED...
They are stunned, shocked and left completely speechless. (As if they were chatting a lot otherwise.) These poor animals would really like you to put some clothes on –PLEASE!!
(via Sad and Useless)