About six months ago, at a fundraising event for the nonprofit I founded, Project H, a six-year-old girl handed me a pickle jar full of pennies....
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'People walk, run jump, bounce, collide, and float.'
François Rousseau has created a large following, from those who own his books to those celebrities he has photographed to the aficionados of sport and of fashion. This major scale book is devoted not to the game athletes as was his other popular volume but to dance athletes and as such it is one of the more informed and sophisticated books of the many possibilities of muscular function published. MEN IN MOTION: THE ART AND PASSION OF THE MALE DANCER is an appropriate title as Rousseau is as fascinated with capturing the state of art to which these many dancers have achieved as he is to focusing on the uncanny feats displayed by the human body in response to choreography and music.
As Rousseau states in his introduction, 'The mission of a dancer is not to exhibit his body as an object, but rather to use his body to interpret and express art; to use the body he has, in the space he has, to put forth the felling and the meaning within his dance.' What Rousseau offers in this beautifully designed and produced volume by Universe are pages of photographs of individual dancers - some at rest but most in motion - executing powerful leaps and lifts as well as photographs of groups of dancers in concert and at rest. Almost all are in dance costume; nudity is present but is clearly not the focus of this book. Rousseau elects to combine black and white with color and sepia toned images to provide stunning contrasts. One double page spread is of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater with some 26 male dancers in motion under the lead of premier dancer William Credell and is a dramatic, physically challenging study of men in motion.
This elegant book is a must for lovers of dance, whether classical ballet or contemporary interpretation, but it is also a study in anatomy for the students of sculpture, so finely captured is the power and tension of the male body in motion. This is an Art Book of the first order. Highly recommended.
Irving Penn is an established giant in the field of photography having supplied the editors of Vogue Magazine with his elegant fashion photography for over fifty years. While many would question such a famous glamour photographer's interest in the beauty of the common man, in this excellent volume, a catalogue from the current J. Paul Getty Museum exhibition curated by Virginia A. Heckert and Anne Lacoste, evidence is presented and takes a memory trip back to the years 1950 and 1951 when Penn focused his considerable talent on photographing the people who do the daily jobs considered less than glamorous in the cities of New York, London and Paris.
Using the studio setting in much the way his fashion images were created, Penn uses for each of these portraits a textured wall that captures an array of light and shadow in subtle ways and in front of this backdrop he invited bakers, cleaners, maids, and craftsmen of all trades to pose, face forward, alone and in pairs, and gives these simple 'models' the same treatment of dramatic light and shadow eloquence that had made him famous. The results are an embarrassment of riches of capturing the most genteel vision of 'Small Trades' available in one collection. This is a book of beautiful art as well as an appreciation of the people who make our lives work smoothly. A fine reminder of Irving Penn's enormous talent.
Grady Harp
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John Currin's name is one that is frequently mentioned when conversations about figurative art today arise. He made his name with his well crafted paintings of buxom women - near distortions of chesty gals that made many viewers think about Pop Art. Some critics considered these quasi-comic book images as illustration for the voyeur and that idea about Currin's art is difficult to shed. Until books such as this magnificent volume produced by Rizzoli!
In this volume that spans John Currin's career we are introduced to his early works of still lifes and head portraits and then the book proceeds into the realm of his famous semi-nude female tropes and the question arises: are these women a subtle mockery of the female form or are they a celebration of sensual, at times shallow, beauties delivered to the hungry eye of the male viewer? The authors of the essays provide fine insights as to the 'Rake's Progress' and lead the viewer through the very sensitive domestic views of both male couples and male/female couples while continuing to offer the facial portraits of women and men that make the viewer alter perception of just how fine a painter Currin is. John Currin may jolt the eye now and then but he also proves to be one of the more sensitive examiners of our current lifestyle. This book is a well designed, generous compendium of the work of the at times misunderstood painter John Currin. It will set the art history dialogue straight.
RED: Dylan Rosser's Most Successful Photographic Monograph to Date
For those familiar with Dylan Rosser's art the fact that his beginnings as a graphic artist and his accompanying mastery of creating images by manipulating light, shadow, angles and props is well appreciated. His previous books and his art work, as displayed in galleries and museums, are remarkably fine yet now seem mere black and white and color preparation for this latest sophisticated, extraordinarily beautiful collection of camera sculpted friezes of the nude male introducing the theme of the color red to unite this magnificent gallery on paper. As Jason Salzenstein writes in his excellent Foreword 'In this volume, for the first time, Rosser worked from the impetus of a theme, having been drawn to the color representing energy, love, lust and passion. The most emotionally intense color, only Rosser could harness the conflicted intensity behind this fervid shade and transform it into a visual odyssey as told through the stunning bodies of his men. The result is RED.'
What follows in this elegantly designed, color saturated book is a selection of designed images, each focusing on a male figure and each employing an enormous spectrum of creative uses of the color red. At times the models are draped in red, suspended in red cloth, caressed in red gauze, ribboned in red, or perhaps the red is so subtle that study of the photograph slowly reveals that there is red backlighting, or a spot of red in an isolated tattoo, or the floor or background happens to have a red hue. What makes Rosser's art unique is the dignity with which he poses his models, presenting them more as a part of the message of the image of sensuality rather than the sole focal point. These models become sculptures, without ever losing the fact that they are warmly living, intensely masculine males.
In RED Dylan Rosser enters a new plateau in photography - especially figurative photography - in that his images approach another dimension of fine art: Music. This book is bound to rapidly become a collector's item and will doubtless be included in important museum curated exhibitions. Highly recommended.
Severin L Sorensen leads a security management consulting practice while being President and CEO of his own company Sikyur (pronounced 'secure'!): he is well versed in Security measures and able to advise major security officers in matters of security preparation and assurance. It seem, then, that Sorensen would have an insider's view of the science of crime study and it is this knowledge that leads him to write this rather terrifying evaluation of the side effects of recession. He writes about how every recession or economic crisis we have experienced since 1954 has been followed by an increased crime wave. His observation is that if even the most moral of men are placed in a situation where they have lost everything - income, savings, hope - the possibility of justifying even the smallest means of gaining food for the table and shelter may include criminal acts.
Sorensen's writing style is not unlike a television talk show host: he is able to generate interest, garner the attention of the reader, put on a show of facts and figures, and gather relavent quotations to make his point. At first this writing style may annoy the reader but Sorensen presents such a solid data base for his convictions and then offers a light at the end of the economic crisis tunnel, gaining not only our attention but our respect. He is talking about the current recession and how if we do not take precautions that we could possibly/probably fall into the same pattern of increased crime waves associated with past and even less frightening economic slowdowns. 'Economic misery is that economic misery cocktail of unemployment and underemployment that includes unemployment, under-employment, and those unemployed not actively seeking employment; additionally, the measure includes a broader measure of the loss of purchasing power through inflation, contraction of credit, loss of retirement savings, and deflation creating negative homeowner equity.' So unemployment coupled with loss of purchasing power can lead to illegitimate methods of survival! He quotes Reagan: 'Recession is when you neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.' and with other quotes from famous thinkers he pleads his case for the fact that when economic crises occur, crime waves rise. Unemployment and the potential for crime exist now as they have in the past.
As with any good historian making a case for a theory Sorensen spends a chapter on the Great Depression and the examples of bootlegging etc that followed (he also wisely reflects on the manner in which the New Deal programs of Roosevelt circumvented many of the potential problems that were developing due to massive job loss) before addressing the gradual decline of the economy since 2007 and the status of where we find ourselves today. But instead of leaving the reader with a sense of hopelessness, he instead spends chapters outlining how to recognize and hence thwart the growing potential of a crime wave (now involving all the parameters of the internet and other advanced forms of communication and identity fraud) by offering guidelines for vigilance and prevention and repair. All of this makes for a fascinating read and may frighten some into action, but it is a book meant to accomplish its title: ECONOMIC MISERY & CRIME WAVES: The second great depression and the coming crime wave, and what we can do about it. And as with the popular TV talk hosts he raises questions, allows us to investigate and think, and act. A good read.
Grady Harp
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(2 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
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Men in Motion: The Art and Passion of the Male Dancer by Francois Rousseau
Grady Harp, November 7, 2009
'People walk, run jump, bounce, collide, and float.'François Rousseau has created a large following, from those who own his books to those celebrities he has photographed to the aficionados of sport and of fashion. This major scale book is devoted not to the game athletes as was his other popular volume but to dance athletes and as such it is one of the more informed and sophisticated books of the many possibilities of muscular function published. MEN IN MOTION: THE ART AND PASSION OF THE MALE DANCER is an appropriate title as Rousseau is as fascinated with capturing the state of art to which these many dancers have achieved as he is to focusing on the uncanny feats displayed by the human body in response to choreography and music.
As Rousseau states in his introduction, 'The mission of a dancer is not to exhibit his body as an object, but rather to use his body to interpret and express art; to use the body he has, in the space he has, to put forth the felling and the meaning within his dance.' What Rousseau offers in this beautifully designed and produced volume by Universe are pages of photographs of individual dancers - some at rest but most in motion - executing powerful leaps and lifts as well as photographs of groups of dancers in concert and at rest. Almost all are in dance costume; nudity is present but is clearly not the focus of this book. Rousseau elects to combine black and white with color and sepia toned images to provide stunning contrasts. One double page spread is of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater with some 26 male dancers in motion under the lead of premier dancer William Credell and is a dramatic, physically challenging study of men in motion.
This elegant book is a must for lovers of dance, whether classical ballet or contemporary interpretation, but it is also a study in anatomy for the students of sculpture, so finely captured is the power and tension of the male body in motion. This is an Art Book of the first order. Highly recommended.
Grady Harp
Irving Penn: Small Trades by Virginia Heckert
Grady Harp, November 1, 2009
In Praise of the Common ManIrving Penn is an established giant in the field of photography having supplied the editors of Vogue Magazine with his elegant fashion photography for over fifty years. While many would question such a famous glamour photographer's interest in the beauty of the common man, in this excellent volume, a catalogue from the current J. Paul Getty Museum exhibition curated by Virginia A. Heckert and Anne Lacoste, evidence is presented and takes a memory trip back to the years 1950 and 1951 when Penn focused his considerable talent on photographing the people who do the daily jobs considered less than glamorous in the cities of New York, London and Paris.
Using the studio setting in much the way his fashion images were created, Penn uses for each of these portraits a textured wall that captures an array of light and shadow in subtle ways and in front of this backdrop he invited bakers, cleaners, maids, and craftsmen of all trades to pose, face forward, alone and in pairs, and gives these simple 'models' the same treatment of dramatic light and shadow eloquence that had made him famous. The results are an embarrassment of riches of capturing the most genteel vision of 'Small Trades' available in one collection. This is a book of beautiful art as well as an appreciation of the people who make our lives work smoothly. A fine reminder of Irving Penn's enormous talent.
Grady Harp
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
John Currin by Kara Vancer Weg
Grady Harp, November 1, 2009
All Aspects of John CurrinJohn Currin's name is one that is frequently mentioned when conversations about figurative art today arise. He made his name with his well crafted paintings of buxom women - near distortions of chesty gals that made many viewers think about Pop Art. Some critics considered these quasi-comic book images as illustration for the voyeur and that idea about Currin's art is difficult to shed. Until books such as this magnificent volume produced by Rizzoli!
In this volume that spans John Currin's career we are introduced to his early works of still lifes and head portraits and then the book proceeds into the realm of his famous semi-nude female tropes and the question arises: are these women a subtle mockery of the female form or are they a celebration of sensual, at times shallow, beauties delivered to the hungry eye of the male viewer? The authors of the essays provide fine insights as to the 'Rake's Progress' and lead the viewer through the very sensitive domestic views of both male couples and male/female couples while continuing to offer the facial portraits of women and men that make the viewer alter perception of just how fine a painter Currin is. John Currin may jolt the eye now and then but he also proves to be one of the more sensitive examiners of our current lifestyle. This book is a well designed, generous compendium of the work of the at times misunderstood painter John Currin. It will set the art history dialogue straight.
Grady Harp
Red by Dylan Rosser
Grady Harp, October 30, 2009
RED: Dylan Rosser's Most Successful Photographic Monograph to DateFor those familiar with Dylan Rosser's art the fact that his beginnings as a graphic artist and his accompanying mastery of creating images by manipulating light, shadow, angles and props is well appreciated. His previous books and his art work, as displayed in galleries and museums, are remarkably fine yet now seem mere black and white and color preparation for this latest sophisticated, extraordinarily beautiful collection of camera sculpted friezes of the nude male introducing the theme of the color red to unite this magnificent gallery on paper. As Jason Salzenstein writes in his excellent Foreword 'In this volume, for the first time, Rosser worked from the impetus of a theme, having been drawn to the color representing energy, love, lust and passion. The most emotionally intense color, only Rosser could harness the conflicted intensity behind this fervid shade and transform it into a visual odyssey as told through the stunning bodies of his men. The result is RED.'
What follows in this elegantly designed, color saturated book is a selection of designed images, each focusing on a male figure and each employing an enormous spectrum of creative uses of the color red. At times the models are draped in red, suspended in red cloth, caressed in red gauze, ribboned in red, or perhaps the red is so subtle that study of the photograph slowly reveals that there is red backlighting, or a spot of red in an isolated tattoo, or the floor or background happens to have a red hue. What makes Rosser's art unique is the dignity with which he poses his models, presenting them more as a part of the message of the image of sensuality rather than the sole focal point. These models become sculptures, without ever losing the fact that they are warmly living, intensely masculine males.
In RED Dylan Rosser enters a new plateau in photography - especially figurative photography - in that his images approach another dimension of fine art: Music. This book is bound to rapidly become a collector's item and will doubtless be included in important museum curated exhibitions. Highly recommended.
Grady Harp
Grady Harp, October 30, 2009
ECONOMIC MISERY & CRIME WAVES'What's past is prologue.'
Severin L Sorensen leads a security management consulting practice while being President and CEO of his own company Sikyur (pronounced 'secure'!): he is well versed in Security measures and able to advise major security officers in matters of security preparation and assurance. It seem, then, that Sorensen would have an insider's view of the science of crime study and it is this knowledge that leads him to write this rather terrifying evaluation of the side effects of recession. He writes about how every recession or economic crisis we have experienced since 1954 has been followed by an increased crime wave. His observation is that if even the most moral of men are placed in a situation where they have lost everything - income, savings, hope - the possibility of justifying even the smallest means of gaining food for the table and shelter may include criminal acts.
Sorensen's writing style is not unlike a television talk show host: he is able to generate interest, garner the attention of the reader, put on a show of facts and figures, and gather relavent quotations to make his point. At first this writing style may annoy the reader but Sorensen presents such a solid data base for his convictions and then offers a light at the end of the economic crisis tunnel, gaining not only our attention but our respect. He is talking about the current recession and how if we do not take precautions that we could possibly/probably fall into the same pattern of increased crime waves associated with past and even less frightening economic slowdowns. 'Economic misery is that economic misery cocktail of unemployment and underemployment that includes unemployment, under-employment, and those unemployed not actively seeking employment; additionally, the measure includes a broader measure of the loss of purchasing power through inflation, contraction of credit, loss of retirement savings, and deflation creating negative homeowner equity.' So unemployment coupled with loss of purchasing power can lead to illegitimate methods of survival! He quotes Reagan: 'Recession is when you neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.' and with other quotes from famous thinkers he pleads his case for the fact that when economic crises occur, crime waves rise. Unemployment and the potential for crime exist now as they have in the past.
As with any good historian making a case for a theory Sorensen spends a chapter on the Great Depression and the examples of bootlegging etc that followed (he also wisely reflects on the manner in which the New Deal programs of Roosevelt circumvented many of the potential problems that were developing due to massive job loss) before addressing the gradual decline of the economy since 2007 and the status of where we find ourselves today. But instead of leaving the reader with a sense of hopelessness, he instead spends chapters outlining how to recognize and hence thwart the growing potential of a crime wave (now involving all the parameters of the internet and other advanced forms of communication and identity fraud) by offering guidelines for vigilance and prevention and repair. All of this makes for a fascinating read and may frighten some into action, but it is a book meant to accomplish its title: ECONOMIC MISERY & CRIME WAVES: The second great depression and the coming crime wave, and what we can do about it. And as with the popular TV talk hosts he raises questions, allows us to investigate and think, and act. A good read.
Grady Harp
(2 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
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