The F Blog

07 November 2007

06 November 2007

Babe Ruth

Photographer: Nickolas Muray
Year: ca 1927
Courtesy of Nickolas Muray Photo Archives, LLC

05 November 2007

We have told you earlier on about a beautiful project, a collaborative
translation of Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert. This quote is
from an article about "taste" written by Voltaire, Montesquieu,
d'Alembert and Diderot. This piece is by Voltaire.

"It is said that one should not argue about matters of taste. This is true as long as it is only a question of sensual taste, of the revulsion one experiences for a certain food and the preference one feels for another. This is not subject to argument because it is impossible to correct a flaw that is organic. The same is not true in the arts: since the arts have genuine beauty, there exists a good taste that discerns it and a bad taste that is unaware of it, and often the flaw of the mind that produces wrong taste can be corrected. There are also cold souls and men incapable of sound reasoning; these can neither be inspired with feeling nor corrected in their thinking; with them one should not argue about matters of taste since they have none."

I met her at the local rock club

I first met Charlotta at the local rock club.
I was in desperat need of someone that could play at a union meeting at my work and as I was talking about that with a friend Charlotta came as a rescuing angel and told me she could come and play and sing which she did in a really impressing way.

Quite some time passed and we didn' t really had that much contact then in the summer I needed someone to play at the opening on my exhibition.
So I called her up and planned the whole thing. A part of the exhibition was some portraits so we met on a cold and windy day in June and shot some portraits

Pictures and text Örjan Fredriksson

coocoo lunatic of the Surrealists

" ... I had to wait like an idiot till I met Marcel Duchamp (a marvelous painter) who is the only one who has his feet on the earth, among all this bunch of coocoo lunatic - of the Surrealists .... They are so damn "intelectual" [sic] and rotten that I can't stand them any more. It is really too much for my character - I rather sit on the floor in the market of Toluca and sell tortillas, than to have anything to do with those "artistic" --- of Paris."

Frida Kahlo to Nickolas Muray, 1939 Feb. 16. Letter. Nickolas Muray papers, 1911-1978. Archives of American Art.

04 November 2007

Monet in his garden

Photographer: Nickolas Muray
Year: 1926
Courtesy of Nickolas Muray Photo Archives, LLC

all saints business vol. 2

continuation of former topic

03 November 2007

Art for arts sake

Fuck art let´s dance!
Hommage to U. Börjesson
by T.Baberiiba Holmlund

watch(ed)

The Road

T o m H o l m l u n d ( for Jeanne)

Helen Levitt exhibition at Foundation HCB, Paris

New York, circa 1940 ©Helen Levitt

New York, 1972 ©Helen Levitt

New York, 1980 - ©Helen Levitt

Until December 23rd, Fondation HCB is showing a rare collection of black & white and colour images made by photographer Helen Levitt in New York and Mexico between the 1930's and 1980's.
It was great to hear about this exhibition, thanks to Mimi Levitt - Helen is in fact her sister in law. So, dear readers of the F Blog, let us meet in Paris in November or December to enjoy this great photographer´s work. Read more about Helen Levitt on the npr(National Public Radio, USA) site, where you also can listen to an interview made by Melissa Block in 2002.

The Foundation Henri Cartier Bresson opened in March 2002:

”Reconnue d’utilité publique par décret du 11 mars 2002, la Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson a ouvert au public le 2 mai 2003. Ni musée, ni mausolée, cette institution a pour but avant tout de faire rayonner l’esprit d’Henri Cartier-Bresson. La grande particularité de la Fondation HCB est d’être ouverte aux autres artistes, sculpteurs, peintres, dessinateurs ou cinéastes, photographes anciens, modernes et contemporains dont le travail s’inscrit dans l’esprit défendu par Cartier-Bresson.

Installée dans un élégant atelier d’artistes de Montparnasse construit par Molinié en 1912, primé en 1913 et rénové par le cabinet d’architectes Ceria et Coupel, la Fondation HCB présente tour à tour des oeuvres de Cartier-Bresson ou d’autres artistes, au rythme de trois expositions par an.”

/ from a communiqué by the Foundation

all saints business

All Saints it's the moment in the year in Poland, when all of the nation goes to the cementary to light a candle and think about those who passed away. Magic, nostalgic day with millions of candles, their lights and smell.

Well, it used to be like that...

recently, something obviously changed...

Frida Kahlo portrayed by Nickolas Muray

Frida Kahlo on white Bench, 1939 - New York, in Nickolas Muray´s studio (photo
copyright by Nickolas Muray / Nickolas Muray Photo Archives, LLC 2004)
Courtesy of Mimi Levitt

Claude Monet and the man from Szeged

I received a very nice email from Mimi Levitt. She is the daughter of
Nickolas Muray, a photographer that I have told you about in some of
my postings to The F Blog. I am glad that this story continues. Mimi sent
me some pictures, this one shows her father with painter Claude Monet.
Mimi Levitt is manager of the Nickolas Muray Photo Archives, LLC.
More about Muray on the F blog:
The Man from Szeged
Nickolas Muray
Rediscovered photographs of Frida Kahlo

02 November 2007

Darkest blue of all: organ

Joanna´s color photos made me think of a book I read some years ago; Concerning the Spiritual in Art by Wassily Kandinsky originally published in 1911. A translation by M.T.H Sadler from 1914 is available on the net. Try also this gutenberg project page. "The inner need is built up of three mystical elements: (1) Every artist, as a creator, has something in him which calls for expression (this is the element of personality). (2) Every artist, as child of his age, is impelled to express the spirit of his age (this is the element of style)--dictated by the period and particular country to which the artist belongs (it is doubtful how long the latter distinction will continue to exist). (3) Every artist, as a servant of art, has to help the cause of art (this is the element of pure artistry, which is constant in all ages and among all nationalities)." Kandinsky´s color theory is interesting and the book is a joy to read. On this page from the Arnold Schönberg Center you will find the colours listed and their connection to music. For example you will find out about the color blue: deep, inner, supernatural, peaceful “Sinking towards black, it has the overtone of a mourning that is not human.” “typical heavenly color”

light blue: flute
darker blue: cello
darkest blue of all: organ

Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866 and died in France 1944.
The painting above; On White II 1923; Oil on canvas, 105 x 98cm;
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

01 November 2007

urban/suburban - limits&geometry

Warszawa / suburbia / xpro

31 October 2007

invited guest: Shannon Richardson - Halloween

I was planning to invite Shannon for ages - actualy Ulf made it first :). But today is the most proper time to show his pictures - I've never seen more sugestive pictures of Halloween.

Thank you Shannon for allowing me to share your works with the F blog.

Shannon Richardson is a Texas based photographer and as he says about himself - Halloween is his favorite time of year.