Tag Archives: Norman Rockwell

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Norman Rockwell, The Problem We All Live With

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The Problem We All Live With
All Photos By Gail

After resigning from his forty-seven year tenure with The Saturday Evening Post in 1963, Norman Rockwell (1894 – 1978) embraced the challenge of addressing the nation’s pressing concerns in pared down, reportorial style. The Problem We All Live With (1963), his illustration for Look magazine, is based upon an actual event, when six-year-old Ruby Bridges was escorted by US Marshalls to her first day at an all-white New Orleans school. Rockwell’s depiction of the vulnerable but dignified girl clearly condemns the actions of those who protest her presence and object to desegregation.

White Dress
White Dress Worn By Model Lynda Gunn

Rockwell commissioned this white dress, and two others like it, in different sizes from a local Stockbridge, Massachusetts seamstress. He was not sure yet of the age or size of his model, and he typically posed several people in the same role before deciding who best fit the part. For the child in The Problem We All Live With, he ultimately selected his neighbor, Lynda Gunn.

All Photos Taken at The New York Historical Society in Manhattan.

Arts and Culture

Photos from the Mr. Brainwash Life is Beautiful Exhibit

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Brainwash Bowie Mural
All Photos By Gail. Click on Any Image to Enlarge for Detail.

While not necessarily a household name, Mr. Brainwash is arguably one of the most commercially successful street artists alive, and certainly one whose art panders to the lowest common denominator, Hallmark-Greeting-Card-sensibilities of the general public. What his heavily appropriated artworks lack in originality, Brainwash makes up in Chutzpah and being backed by a team who are geniuses at marketing and selling his brand. Right now — for how long, who the fuck knows — you can explore a warehouse-sized exhibit of Brainwash’s Greatest Hits at a pop-up space on West 14th Street, directly under the High Line Park. Entitled Life is Beautiful, the exhibit is the French-born, LA-based artist’s follow-up to 2010’s all-encompassing exhibit/happening, Icons; which was up for most of that year, it seems. Was it worth the wait? You betcha. Continue reading Photos from the Mr. Brainwash Life is Beautiful Exhibit →

Arts and Culture

Dan Witz Presents NY Hardcore at Jonathan LeVine Gallery

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Mosh Pit Green Hair
All Photos By Gail

Artist and Former Musician Dan Witz, whom I’m just going to go ahead and label the Norman Rockwell of Hardcore, is back at Jonathan LeVine Gallery with an outstanding collection of his hyper-realist style paintings and portraits of Hardcore music fans captured in their natural habitat: The Pit. NY Hardcore is Witz’ second solo exhibit at LeVine, following Mosh Pits, Human and Otherwise in July of 2011. The current show features select paintings previously exhibited in 2011.

Witz Large Mosh Pit

It’s hard to believe that these are paintings and not photographs. They look so real, I can almost smell them.

Mosh Fists

I like this one a lot.

Dan Witz at Reception

Artist Dan Witz at the opening reception chatting with fans. He is very nice.

NY Hardcore includes both crowd scenes – captured from various vantage points – and individual portraits.

We All Know This Guy

Everybody knows this dude, right? I think I used to see him at the Fleetwood (Redondo Beach, CA) back in the early ’80s.

Uncle Fester

I’m pretty sure that this guy is meant to be gallery owner Jonathan LeVine.

Witz 3 Paintings

Dan Witz: NY Hardcore runs through May 3rd, 2014 at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Located at 529 West 20th Street, 9th Floor, in the Chelsea Gallery District. Gallery Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 AM to 6 PM.

Nirvana Short

OK, Who wears a Nirvana shirt at a Hardcore show?