Tag Archives: 1954

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Tablon de Pampatar (Pampatar Board) By Alejandro Otero

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Pampatar Board By Alejandro Otero Photo By Gail Worley
Photos By Gail

Pampatar Board (1954) heralds the arrival of Colorythms, a series of paintings that, to Venezuelan artist Alejandro Otero (1921 – 1991) are “imbued with the constructive meaning given to me by an intimate and passionate contact with architectural rhythm and space.” In the 1950s, Otero worked with architects on several new public projects to modernize Caracas, often contributing his original murals.

Pampatar Board By Alejandro Otero Photo By Gail Worley

This work’s monumental verticality reflects the artist’s interest in modern architecture, while the composition’s rhythmic arrangement of vivid colors, obtained from industrial paints traditionally used on automobiles, conveys the dynamism of modern urban life that inspired Otero.

Photographed in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Maria Freire, Untitled (1954)

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Maria Freire Untitled 1954 By Gail Worley
Photo By Gail

“At the start of the fifties, Uruguayan artist Maria Freire (1917 – 2015) recalled, “I abandoned figuration for the perspective of the imagination, anxious to create a new space.” To develop her own style of abstraction, she initially experimented with sculpture, creating virtual volumes through a single, dynamic line. Complex spatial effects also characterize her abstract paintings, such as this Untitled piece from 1954. Though free of perspective, Freire’s painted interwoven forms seem to recede, even dance, in an ambiguous space in tension with the painting’s flat surface.

Photographed in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) By Salvador Dali

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Crucifixion by Dali
Photo By Gail

Salvador Dalí utilized his theory of “nuclear mysticism,” a fusion of Catholicism, mathematics, and science, to create this unusual interpretation of Christ’s crucifixion. Levitating before a hypercube — a geometric, multidimensional form — Christ’s body is healthy, athletic, and bears no signs of torture; the crown of thorns and nails are missing.

The artist’s wife, Gala, poses as a devotional figure, witnessing Christ’s spiritual triumph over corporeal harm. Several dreamlike elements from Dali’s earlier Surrealist work feature in this painting: a levitating figure, vast barren landscape, and a chessboard.

Painted in 1954, Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) By Salvador Dali is part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.

Music, Pop Culture

Happy Birthday, Phil Rudd!

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Phil Rudd Drums
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AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd was born on this day, May 19th in 1954. Happy Birthday, Phil! Nobody does the four-on-the-floor like you!

Music, Pop Culture

Happy Birthday, Adam Ant!

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Adam Ant
Vintage Adam: I’d Do it.

Everybody’s favorite new Romantic Pirate, Adam Ant (born Stuart Leslie Goddard) was born on this day, November 3rd in 1954! I did a little bit of sleuthing on the interwebs in an attempt to see what Adam is looking like these days, and I’m chagrined to report that he is looking a bit bald and fat at present. Very sad news, as I will confess to still occasionally having sexy dreams of Adam all tarted up in his war paint and glad rags. And as such, I prefer to think of him in that state. Favorite Adam and The Ants Song: “Dog Eat Dog.” Favorite Adam Ant Solo Song: “Wonderful.”