Photo By Gail
In an effort to create an anonymous Self-Portrait (1923), artist Charles Sheeler (1883 – 1965) portrays himself as a barely perceptible, shadowy presents, reflected in a window left of center. Positioned in front of him is a telephone, a modern technology at the time, rendered with meticulous detail emphasizing its sleek, industrial design, which functions is a substitute or surrogate self.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Charles Sheeler, Self Portrait
Photos By Gail
The Poured Armchair (1964) is a notable piece of furniture designed by Gunnar Aagaard Andersen, a Danish artist and designer known for his innovative approach to materials and forms. The chair is a prime example of the experimental and boundary-pushing design aesthetic prevalent in mid-20th century Scandinavian design.
Continue reading Eye On Design: Poured Armchair By Gunnar Aagaard Andersen
All Photos By GailÂ
In 1987, American artist Mike Kelley (1954 –2012), known for his provocative and often unsettling artworks exploring themes of American popular culture, childhood, and trauma, began to make sculptures from stuffed animals. Kelley described the toys as “the adult’s perfect model of a child”– cute, clean, sexless.” However, Kelley’s plush toys, purchased secondhand from thrift stores and yard sales, were discarded and soiled from use. Seemingly beyond redemption, they are darkly humorous monuments to lost innocence and repressed emotions.
Continue reading Mike Kelley’s Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites
Photo By Gail
Corita Kent (1918 – 1986), also known in the Catholic Church as Sister Mary Corita, incorporated a range of refereces into her silkscreen prints, spanning pop culture imagery and song lyrics, biblical allusions and literary conceits.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Corita Kent I Should Be Able to Love My Country and Still Love Justice
Photos By Gail
Downtown New York has hosted generations of underground cultural communities, providing a vibrant home for drag queens, theater performers, filmmakers, and outcasts. Performance artist and queer liberation activist Agosto Machado has been a long-standing figure in these scenes. Over five decades, he has amassed a large collection of art and ephemera from the city’s counterculture, which he assembles into shrines, such as the one seen above. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Shrine (White) By Agosto Machado