Monday, 8 May 2017

Vintage safety posters

1. 1925. Killed by an electricity eel. Note the Grim Reaper waiting to catch him.

2. 1925. YIKES. Killed by Exhausto.

3. 1926.

4. 1940. Saw that coming (sorry).

5. 1925. The Scaffold of Death.

6. 1942. Nighty night, dead mechanic.

7. 1959. Ties — not a machinist's friend.

8. 1967. That's an evil motherfucking match.

9. 1927. The Scream — not by Edvard Munch.

10. 1939. Eye'll be back (sorry).


Sunday, 7 May 2017

Paul Jacoulet




Paul Jacoulet









Paul Jacoulet (1902–1960) was a French, Japan-based woodblock print artist known for a style that mixed the traditional ukiyo-e style and techniques developed by the artist himself.


acoulet was born in Paris in 1902 and lived in Japan for most of his life. During World War II, he moved to Karuizawa, where he survived in the countryside by growing vegetables and raising poultry. During the occupation, at the request of General Douglas MacArthur, he was recruited by Commandant Charles McDowell to work at the Tokyo Army College. MacArthur would join Greta Garbo, Pope Pius XII and Queen Elizabeth II, as a prominent collector of Jacoulet's work.

Jacoulet prints are rare and often sell in the $5,000 to $20,000 range. The Parisian Lady, a print from 1934, sold for $25,000 at auction

Paul Jacoulet's (1902–1960) creative period was 1939-1960. Jacoulet is considered one of the few western artists to have mastered the art of woodblock printing sufficiently to be recognized in Japan. His works are almost all of people, either portraits or full body images capturing some background details. He has had a number of exhibits in the years since his death including two at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena (1983 and 1990), the Yokohama Art Museum (1996 and 2003), the Riccar Museum in Tokyo (1982), and the Isla Center for the Arts on Guam (1992 and 2006). He also achieved some recognition in his lifetime including an exhibit sponsored by the US Fifth Air Force (in 1946 according to Time Magazine). Two complete catalogues of his woodblock prints exist (one in English and one in Japanese with some English) as well as exhibition books and posters from all his exhibits. The earliest book about him was written during his lifetime (Wells, 1957) and includes the original desperation prices for which he sold his work at that time. Many prints are very rare because all Jacoulet’s pre-World War II work that had not already been taken out of the country by collectors was destroyed by fire. Jacoulet was a true renaissance man –French but born and raised in Japan, expert in Kabuki, proficient on traditional Japanese musical instruments, a good calligrapher, conversant in several languages, and a recognized butterfly collector. Growing up in Tokyo he was the next door neighbor of Ukiyoe authority Yone Noguchi; he was taught English by Noguchi's American wife, Leonie Gilmour, and befriended their son, the young Isamu Noguchi. Jacoulet’s father was an ambassador so Paul was widely traveled and was doted upon by his mother. She supported his artistic endeavors all her life. She believed that if French Polynesia was good for Paul Gauguin, then Jacoulet must go there too. She sent him away many winters from Japan to various islands in Micronesia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Although his most valued works are from this part of the world, he also has a substantial number of prints with subjects from China, Korea, all areas of Japan, and Mongolia. Just one print depicts an American.

Jacoulet's works are also interesting to anthropologists. First because his subject matter was indigenous people in their traditional dress. In 1939 traditional people were the norm in his travels. Today his work is often used as a basis for reconstructing, for example, what Ainu traditional dress looked like by the Ainu themselves in their quest to reconnect with their cultural roots. Second, some of the subjects who posed for Jacoulet are still alive and they are currently being interviewed by a professor in Guam (Donald Rubinstein) to learn more about his artistic process.

Jacoulet was a shameless self-promoter and he sent prints to famous people to enhance his reputation. Mrs. Douglas MaArthur received an annual Christmas gift and his work hung in the General’s headquarters in Tokyo and later at the Waldorf-Astoria. Jacoulet was a flamboyant gay man at a very early date to be out, and his sexual orientation and gender fluidity are clearly reflected in his work. Near the end of his life Jacoulet was barred from entering the US due to his “undesirability” as a gay person. Undeterred, he dressed up in a white suit with a silver headed cane and walked into the US at Niagara Falls.


Henri Pierre Picou


Saturday, 6 May 2017

Jan Griffier I


Jan Griffier I 1645 - 1718      

4723908_82228996_28 (385x20, 2Kb)


1680-1700_Речной пейзаж (View of a River)_37 х 49_д.,м._Амстердам, Рейксмузеум


Воображаемый речной пейзаж с охотниками (Imaginary river landscape with hunters)_54 x 73.5_д.,м._Частное собрание

Ян Гриффер Старший (Jan Griffier I; ок.1645, Амстердам  - 1718, Лондон) – голландский живописец и гравер.
 
Родился в Амстердаме. Уолпол говорит, что он был учеником плотника, изготовителя кафеля и художника цветочных натюрмортов перед тем как стать учеником пейзажиста и гравера Роланда Рогмана (Roelant Roghman, ок.1620-1686). По словам Уолпола он также брал частные уроки у Адриана ван де Вельде (Adriaen van de Velde, 1636-1672), Якоба ван Рёйсдаля (Jacob van Ruisdael, 1628/9-1682) и, будто бы, Рембрандта.
 
Гриффир переехал в Лондон вскоре после Великого пожара 1666 года, который он запечатлел в ряде картин. В Лондоне он продолжил обучение у Яна Лотена (Jan Looten, 1618-1681).
 

Вид на Мозель (The landscape of the Mosel)_49.7 х 64.3_х.,м._Частное собрание
****
Он был принят «свободным братом» в общество живописцев Лондона в 1677 году, написав пейзаж с руинами в их зале. Как гравер, Гриффир выпустил серию с изображением птиц по Фрэнсису Барлоу (Francis Barlow), а также ряд портретов в меццо-тинто по Питеру Лели (Peter Lely) и Годфри Кнеллеру (Godfrey Kneller).
 
Уолпол говорит, что Гриффир имел свою яхту на берегу Темзы, на которой он писал пейзажи и много путешествовал между основными британскими городами, такими как Лондон, Виндзор, Оксфорд и Глостер, виды которых он увековечил в своих работах.
 
Он вернулся в Голландию около 1695, видимо, на своей яхте, которая потерпела кораблекрушение у побережья Нидерландов. Гриффир оставался в этой стране около десяти лет, после чего вернулся в Лондон, где купил дом в Миллбэнк. Он пользовался покровительством герцога Бофорта.


1710 (ок)_Вид на дворец Хэмптон-Корт (View of Hampton Court Palace)_38.1 x 50.5_медь, масло_Лондон, музей Тейт
***
Уолпол отмечает, что «идиллические виды рек и богатых земель были его любимыми сюжетами» (Уолпол 1888, II, стр. 131); в его перспективном виде дворца Хэмптон-Корт (Галерея Тейт, Лондон) совмещен реальный вид дома с фантастическим пейзажем.
 
В более поздние годы Гриффир расширил свою тематику, изображая воображаемые пейзажи с фантастическими фигурами, таких стран как Турция, а также морские виды.
 
Гриффир умер в своем доме на Миллбэнк (Вестминстер) в возрасте 72 лет. Его сын Роберт Гриффир (Robert Griffier, 1688-ок.1750) и внук Ян Гриффир Младший (Jan Griffier II, раб в 1738-1773 годах) были также пейзажистами. После смерти Гриффира состоялся аукцион его картин в Ковент-Гардене, Лондон.


Идиллический рейнский пейзаж (An ideal Rhine landscape)_33 х 45_х.,м._Частное собрание


Идиллический рейнский пейзаж с замком на горе (An ideal Rhine landscape with an elevated castle)_53 х 74_д.,м._Частное собрание


Итальянский пейзаж с античными руинами (An Italianate landscape with classical ruins)_84.7 х 91.5_х.,м._Частное собрание


Отшельник, молящийся перед могилой на фоне руин (A hermit praying before a tomb, a landscape with ruins)_40 x 36.3_масло, медь_Частное собрание


Пейзаж с руинами и фигурами (Landscape with ruins and figures)_53 х 65_медь, масло_Частное собрание


Рейнский пейзаж (Rhine Landscape)_51 х 69_Вена, музей Лихтенштейнов


Рейнский пейзаж с крутой лесной тропинкой (Rhenish Landscape with a Steep Forest Path on the Left)_47 х 51.1_медь, масло_Частное собрание


Речной пейзаж с крестьянами, возвращающимися с рынка (River winding through a plain)_32 х 42.8_медь, масло_Частное собрание


Рейнский пейзаж с путещественниками,лодками у замка и городом вдали (A Rhenish river landscape with travellers)_37.5 х 49.2_д.,м._Частное собрание


Зимний пейзаж с конькобежцами (Winter Scene with Skaters wikidata)_43 х 55_медь, масло_Стокгольм, Музей Халлвил


Вид на Мизитру (View of Mizithra)_17.5 х 21.3_гравюра


Обезьяна на спине собаки (Monkey on the back of a dog) (по Эдварду Куперу)_13.7 х 17.4_гравюра


Обезьяна, кошка. белка и сорока(Monkey, cat, squirrel and magpie) (по Фрэнсису Барлоу)_15.8 х 22.5_гравюра


Охота на зайца (Hunting on a hare) (по Пирсу Темпесту)_14 х 17.9_гравюра


Различные птицы и индейка (Different poultry and a turkey) (по Фрэнсису Барлоу)_22.2 х 30.4_гравюра