Photo By Gail
Roulette: Number Five (1964), an assemblage work, is one in a series titled Roulette by Japanese artist Mokuma Kikuhata (1935–2020). The title refers to a game of chance where players guess where a ball will land within a spinning numbered wheel. To make this artwork, Kikuhata combined and arranged what he called “everyday objects—used and unwanted,” including a metal pail, a baseball, and a can.
Photographed in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.
Photos By Gail
Japanese artist Tomio Miki (1937 — 1978) was part of a generation of artists who addressed social and political shifts in Tokyo, following the end of World War II and the United State’s occupation of Japan. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Untitled (Ears) By Tomio Miki
All Photos By Gail
The Monokini (1964) was Rudi Gernreich’s swimsuit of the future. The topless design was controversial, making it difficult to find a model willing to be photographed wearing it. Ultimately, only one image of the suit (taken from behind) was published, in Look magazine. At the urging of look editor, Suzanne Kirtland, a wider selection of images appeared in Women’s Wear Daily and later, in Life, where many American readers took note. Continue reading Eye On Design: Monokini Topless Swimsuit By Rudi Gernreich
Photos By Gail
Marjorie Strider’s work draws on the vast image cache of popular culture, especially representations of women in men’s magazines and advertisements. She recasts these depictions with the subversive edge and an ironic bite, as exemplified by Girl With Radish (1963), which at first glance, looks like an image one would find in a pin up or on a billboard. Upon sustained viewing, however, the woman’s deadpan stare becomes increasingly confrontational. She looks deliberately out at the viewer, questioning the power dynamics of the conventional male gaze. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Marjorie Strider, Girl With Radish
Photo By Gail
James Rosenquist (1933 – 2017) began his career as a commercial sign painter. Working for the Artkraft Strauss Sign Corporation, he produced vibrant representations of consumer goods until committing to a career as an artist in 1960. Renting a studio in Coenties Slip on the waterfront of the Financial District, he began to make paintings that combined a well-known, slick advertising vocabulary with a wry ambivalence about the rampant consumerism he saw all around him. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: James Rosenquist, Sightseeing