Though Roy Lichtenstein’s style of comic-derived pop art is now well known, it was radical in the early 1960s. Appropriating the visual language of American mass culture, such as Mickey Mouse, Coca-Cola, and the “funny pages,“ Lichtenstein found his artistic voice by making paintings that at first did not appear to be art. This was his cover – part camouflage, and part red herring – that allowed him to insert his own practice into the art historical milieu; he was in dialogue with the grades, reprising themes from antiquity. I… I’m Sorry! (1965 – 66) is a portrait of Eve as a modern-day woman. Lichtenstein renders her apology unclear, revealing layers of interpretation: is she apologizing for eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge? Is she breaking our hearts? Is she sincere with her stammering words? Her simplified features belie the nuanced complexities of her declaration.
Infinity and timelessness characterize the 2012 collaboration between Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton, and the recently departed contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama. Her trademark dots – derived from childhood hallucinations – are neurotic and obsessional. Alongside the coat, Red and White Pumpkin, composed of meticulously aligned, variable dots, mirrors the painstaking repetitive process she employed to achieve what she referred to as “self-obliteration.“ Continue reading Eye On Design: Yayoi Kusama-Inspired Trench Coat By Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton→
Earlier this year, on a Saturday when New York was hit with a surprise heavy snowfall, I was making my way through the Chelsea galleries. Stopping in to 303 Gallery, I discovered A Sky Free From Bombs Is A Beautiful Sky, an exhibition by artist Rob Pruitt. There was something especially appropriate about encountering Pruitt’s work on a day when the sky and the light outside were constantly changing . . .
Just inside the gallery, I noticed a curious bit of information on the wall: the title of the exhibition would change every day during its run. While I didn’t get around to writing about the show before it closed, the work — and the story behind it — were simply too beautiful not to share. In retrospect, here are a selection of my photos and a look at an exhibition fascinated by one thing we can never hold onto: time.
What happens when something designed to disappear into the endless scroll of the Internet is turned into a large, meticulously painted work of art? That’s one of the questions behind Christine Tien Wang’s History Meme (2022 ) an acrylic painting that manages to be funny, unsettling, and surprisingly thoughtful all at once.
Measuring 86 by 72 inches, History Meme is part of Wang’s ongoing practice of translating Internet memes into paintings. The work was first exhibited in her 2022 show fake stupid, queen of cringe at Galerie Nagel Draxler in Berlin, and was later included in the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles exhibition Ordinary People: Photorealism and the Work of Art since 1968, which is where this photo was taken. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Christine Tien Wang’s History Meme→
In France in 1975, screenwriter Dan O’Bannon was collaborating with Director Alejandro Jodorowsky on an adaptation of Frank Herbert‘s 1965 novel, Dune, when he met the artist HR Giger. Jodorowsky had been introduced to Giger’s work by Salvador Dali, and had brought him on to create designs for the film.
While the feature ultimately fell through, O’Bannon couldn’t get Giger’s drawings out of his head. The screenwriter recalled “ending up writing a script about a Giger monster,” which would eventually become the influential franchise Alien. Continue reading Eye On Design: HR Giger’s Necronom 2005 (Alien 3 Model)→
