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Marshall Thompson was proud of his toad hole and very comfortable with his favorite toad, Maxwell. Maxwell or “Maxie” as Marshall referred to him, enjoyed his time massaging his human’s brain with his feet and keeping his mind at ease with calm croaking vibrations. It was a tradition; part biological and part magical that skips a generation in the Thompson family line.
Continue reading Thompson’s Toad Hole By Travis Louie
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Diego Rivera (1886 – 1957) created numerous portraits, capturing unnamed subjects alongside close friends and renowned figures in the arts. Mandrake (1939) depicts Maya Guarina, whose lace dress and headpiece contrast with a skull in her hands and a spiderweb in the upper left corner. A small mandrake root emerges in the upper right area of the portrait. Known for its hallucinogenic properties and magical associations, it contributes to an enigmatic portrait with surrealist qualities.
Photographed in the San Diego Museum of Art.
Photo By Gail
In 1961, artist George Siegel began using a recently released Johnson & Johnson product – gauze bandages, pre-treated with dry plaster – to make full-body plaster casts of family and friends. He combined these unpainted, lifelike figures with found object from every day life. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: George Segal Portrait of Sidney Janis With Mondrian Painting
Photos By Gail
Only in 1960s France could a chair double as a political statement, a pop art sculpture, and a place to park your derrière. Enter the Charles de Gaulle Portrait Seat, a surreal and strangely hilarious design object dreamed up in 1967 by the unexpected team of French sculptor César Baldaccini (just “César,” if you’re nasty) and industrial design legend Roger Tallon.
Photo By Gail
Mäda Primavesi (1912–1913) is a portrait painted by Gustav Klimt and it’s one of his most charming and unique works. Here’s the painting’s engaging backstory.
Mäda Primavesi was a young girl from a wealthy Viennese family. Her father, Otto Primavesi, was a banker and industrialist, and her mother, Eugenia, was a patron of the arts, so the family moved in the kind of circles where commissioning a portrait from Gustav Klimt made perfect sense.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Gustav Klimt, Mäda Primavesi