First, from the accompanying essay by Geoffrey Bensusan:

“Hella Basu’s calligraphy shows itself apt, varied and assured; its fitness for purpose unquestionable, its deployment as one might say most inventive, the execution impeccable; it has a lineage clearly honorable but not trad and while accessible, as communication should be, it remains exciting.”

Also (speaking well before the computer typography boom):

“It is the prized consistency of machine-made lettering that generates the demand for contrasting forms, inventions not provided for on transfer sheets. For in the hands of the skilled designer-lettering-artist-calligrapher the alphabet is almost as flexible and expressive a medium as illustration itself in evoking a mood, creating a feeling, reinforcing a fact.”

Aside from her birth date and place (Germany) the only other info I found was a single quote purported to be from Hella:

“In making any object, the philosophy behind its creation is ‘art,’ the planning is ‘design,’ and its execution is ‘craft.’”

Hope you enjoyed.

First, just a few words from the chapter 1 of the book.

Quote, “The picture frame has existed for as long as pictures have been moveable. Any moveable painting required a frame to protect it. Even a fixed painting set in panelling needed some sort of framework. The idea of a framing device is older than the picture frame, however, and many early wall paintings and frescoes were given a containing painted or architectural framework.

The frame may have started out as a form of protection but its visual and symbolic purposes soon became equally important. Such purposes are not constant but vary with time and place. The frame separates the work of art from its surroundings and may help focus the viewer’s attention. At the same time it can actually unite a work with its surroundings by forming a transition or a link to other works or to the wider setting. The frame can become part of the setting itself when it is designed to fit into an architectural scheme. More obviously, the frame is usually intended to enhance a picture visually and, occasionally, iconographically. Sometimes the frame is used to draw attention to a work as an object of value or reverence; such a frame may not necessarily enhance it in visual terms, but can contribute to its symbolic significance. The frame marks out a picture as a picture, that is as an illusion rather than reality.” From The Art of the Picture Frame by Jacob Simon.

Since this post is about frames as art objects in their own right I’ve removed the paintings (so you can’t cheat.)

For more on the humble frame and its history see the following:

The Art of the Picture Frame web site at The National Gallery. Be sure, specifically, to check out the links listed under Special features.

A Brief History of The Frame.

Picture Framing Magazine’s article index, specifically the Special Supplements.

Hope you enjoyed.

“Meerschaum has been called Venus of the Sea, White Goddess, sepiolite, sea-foam or froth, the Aristocrat of smoking substances! It has been identified as hydrous magnesium silicate, an opaque white-gray or cream colored mineral of the soapstone family. It has been written as H4Mg;Si30 ,o, 3S .O^MgO^H^O, 2MgO, S,0;-14H20 and even Mg4(H;0)3(OH),SitO,5-3H;0! Whatever its composition, meerschaum is not the bone of the sepia or cuttle fish, the residue or fusion of decomposed sea shells, petrified sea foam or a clay composition. It is a mineral! Mined 30 to 450 feet below the surface of the earth, the magnesium content provides strength while the hydrogen and oxygen contribute to its porosity. It is, in the words of one, “. . . soft and light as a fleeting dream, creamy, delicate and sweet as the complexion of young maidenhood.” -Benjamin Rapaport, A Complete Guide to Collecting Antique Pipes. 1979.

“Meerschaum is a German word meaning ‘sea foam’— it derived its name because it often was seen floating on the Black Sea. The German term probably has been used because German-speaking people controlled the meerschaum-pipe industry until World War II. Also, most of the craftsmen who began making meerschaum pipes in the United States came from either Germany or Austria.

Meerschaum is a very soft, porous, hydrous silicate of magnesia that is found in pockets within clay or serpentine deposits. Its origin is unknown, but it is believed to have been formed from the metamorphic shells and bones of tiny prehistoric sea creatures. Its geological name, assigned in the mid-nineteenth century by a German mineralogist, is sepiolite, from the Greek “Sepio,” or cuttlefish bone, which it resembles.” -Carl Ehwa, Jr. The Book of Pipes & Tobacco. 1974.

“The discovery and initial use of meerschaum as a substance for making pipes is shrouded in much mystery and myth. Even the origin of the word is obscure but the most generally accepted account is that a certain Hungarian nobleman, Count Andrassy, on an official mission to Turkey in 1723, received a lump of meerschaum from the Sultan. Returning to Pesth, on the east bank of the Danube, he gave it to a cobbler who, when not making or mending shoes, made wood pipes; the Count was one of his patrons. Another tale relates that when John Sobieski, King of Poland, rescued the beleaguered city of Vienna from invading Turks, he had seen many Turkish articles, including pipes; the articles were made of luletaschi, a white mineral called pipestone believed to have been meerschaum. And, there is yet a third story which meerschaum pipes were being made by a French artist, Louis Pierre Puget, student of the Italian sculptor Berini, who carved the first meerschaum in 1652.

Meerschaum could have been used even earlier than 1652 but however devious, cryptic or circuitous the route, meerschaum came from the East and was popularized in the West.” -Benjamin Rapaport, A Complete Guide to Collecting Antique Pipes. 1979.

“No matter who actually was responsible for the introduction of the meerschaum pipe, it steadily gained favor among wealthy smokers throughout Europe. After 1750 pipes of the new material were in exceptionally heavy demand. Unlike clay, however, which was available to everyone, meerschaum was restricted to the rich and titled who could afford to commission the handiwork of a carver or an ‘artist.’ The meerschaum rapidly became the pipe of the stylish smoker and the effort and money spent by these smokers to outdo their peers probably accounts for the artistic meerschaums created in those times.

In many cases, the fact that these masterpieces are pipes is almost incidental;

indeed, a great many never were smoked. Some of the very large, magnificent pieces adorned cabinets and shelves as objects of art. One wealthy Englishman had a lovely pipe made for himself even though he didn’t smoke. When the pipe-maker had finished the job, the gentleman instructed him to color the bowl before delivering it. For a period of two or three weeks, the pipe was smoked by every pipe-maker in the shop until the color became very rich and dark. The gentleman was well pleased and promptly placed his seasoned treasure on the mantle.

As artisans and wood-carvers turned to pipe-making, they soon became swamped with more orders than they could fill. By the 1850s, enterprising merchants and pipe makers set up factories that employed hundreds of carvers. Between that time and the years just before World War I, when briar began to dominate the industry, the thousands of meerschaum pipes created in factories finally found their way into the hands of middle-class smokers, who now were able to indulge in what only nobles and the rich had been able to afford in previous years.” -Carl Ehwa, Jr. The Book of Pipes & Tobacco. 1974.

“A new meerschaum pipe is generally either pure white or a very pale, creamy yellow color. As it is smoked, tars and oils seep closer to the waxed surface of the shank and then the bowl. Pinks dissolve into deepening amber reds and the golds become a richer, golden brown. The coloring ultimately approaches black-brown or a muted, dark cherry. These changes take place very gradually, the seasoning progressing so slowly that it almost goes unnoticed. It is as if one were watching a very cautious but exquisite autumn slip stealthily into its colors. In addition to its beauty, the meerschaum smokes quite dryly and, after a time, tobacco smoked in it tastes somewhat more delicate and sweeter than it does in a briar.

Today, with the exception of the fine carved heads produced by Andreas Bauer in Vienna, almost all meerschaum pipes are fashioned into shapes corresponding to those of standard briar pipes. In marked contrast, those carved by artisans years ago featured clusters of exquisite figures in relief or forming the entire body of the pipe. The bowl often was slipped in unobtrusively so as to avoid disrupting a battle scene, or dancing nymphs pouring wine for an amber-faced Bacchus.” -Carl Ehwa, Jr. The Book of Pipes & Tobacco.1974.

“It has been said that the cigarette smoking craze in the United States had a significant effect on the meerschaum industry. Further, ‘meerschaum is no longer so fashionable as it once was. Probably the numerous cheap imitations, the extreme readiness to break of the genuine article, and the fantastic designs into which it was fashioned, have led to its decadence in public estimation.’

All good things come to an end at some point in time. The delicate and slight, even the massive, the bulky meerschaums were impractical, never fashioned for a hurried Twentieth Century industrialized world of assembly lines, crowded buses and elevators and middle class income. But the magical and captivative nature of meerschaum has kept its popularity alive and the ranks are now augmented by a new breed of young, curious and enlightened collectors committed to preserve the cult of the White Goddess! -Benjamin Rapaport, A Complete Guide to Collecting Antique Pipes.” 1979.

“A perfect Meerschaum pipe is decidedly            
one of the choicest and rarest gifts of
the gods; but like all choice and rare
gifts, it is a source of considerable
anxiety to the owner. Like women, its,
‘name is frailty.’ As originally taken in
hand, and presented to the lips, nothing
can exceed the loveliness of its looks—its
delicious smoothness, its graceful
rotundity of form, and apparent innocence
from everything that can tarnish a
reputation. But, alas! you take it as
you take a wife, ‘for better and for
worse;’ and again, alas! it does not fare
better with the smoker and his Meerschaum
than with man and wife.”

-The Smoker’s Guide, Philosopher and Friend
A Veteran of Smokedom, 1876

Most of the images above are from the two books quoted, A Complete Guide to Collecting Antique Pipes and The Book of Pipes & Tobacco. A few were found online.

Hope you enjoyed.

Again, If you’d like any more information please feel free to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) me. Note that the image I used to begin the post is no longer available.

These are perhaps not the best examples to illustrate the included text, there are many more photo montages, bizarre scenes, saccharine babies, naughty bits, etc, but, well… (see the first image at very beginning of post again.)

Interesting notes: Though the printing technology existed in the 1860’s it took nearly 30 years for the various post office regulations of Europe and America to synch-up in such a way that sending postcards in the manner which they are still sent today (from far flung vacation spots, etc.) became feasible. It wasn’t until the 1900’s that people were actually allowed to write on the backs of postcards (that space being reserved for postal information only), until which time senders were forced to cram whatever messages they could onto the fronts. After all this shook-out postcards quickly became ubiquitous. As the introduction puts it: “The privileged stronghold of the articulate and the well-to-do on letter-writing was broken, cards and their postage were cheap and at least a greeting, X X X, was easy for anyone who could write a name and an address.”

X X X.

During his 9th year he began hearing voices. They were clipped whispers which in the perfect silence of the walled world echoed like a Sybil’s fiat. At first he was terrified; His bull’s brain bred to fear the hunter. He crouched deeper into his chosen shadow, hyperventilating, his tongue lolling and slick. He hid and he listened and for weeks kept still as a stone.

Slowly, one by one, the voices quieted until the only sound remaining was that of a single pair of sandals, their light steps tapping out a confused staccato once or twice a day. Emboldened by familiarity and hunger he began venturing out in their intervals of inaction.

The first body he encountered was thin and small. It laid face down in a corner, its knees bent, its hindquarters in the air. The smell of blood from its scraped knees and cheeks was faint but enthralling. He emptied his bladder dramatically, snorting and stomping and dropping his horns low, then, satisfied that the body was submissive, he sniffed carefully about its edges. It was dead and it was the first meat he’d seen since the voices invaded. He choked it down looking again and again over his shoulder.

He found 12 more bodies in as many days; All dead. 7 were large and 5 more, like the first, were small and soft. He dragged each to the center of the world and stacked them in a pile. He’d never seen so much meat in one place at one time, and were it not for the staccato sandals which still made their ragged music occasionally, he might have been… happy. He wasn’t bored any longer, nor was he hungry. What was happiness if not that?

The last body he found was also small and soft. It lay in the middle of a hall with a little sack clutched in its arms. At the sound of his water smacking the floor it moved, its sandals scraping two lazy parabolas in the dust. It was not dead but neither did it run. When he jabbed it experimentally with his horn it did not cry out. He dragged it to the center of the world but did not drop it on the meat pile.

For months he shared his meals with it. He shared the water which arrived via Daedalus’ hidden shoots and ladders. He inhaled its smell deeply, he mated with it, and he watched daily as it moved an ivory stylus across one of the tablets from its sack. He’d never known companionship, never known the pleasure of watching another empty their bowels, never known that rattling sobs and wet eyes could be so beautiful.

Learning to read had been a wonder. Once he was made to understand that the symbols in the wax tablets held meaning, were connected each to an idea outside itself, he wanted to lay eyes on little else. Meat was plentiful and mating was easy, but reading! That was different. It revealed to him existence beyond his confused hallways. She explained and explained again, every day for months. His first hard-earned moments of comprehension, when they came, were like a long dawn over a new world. Everything was transformed. The walls no longer seemed so infuriatingly uniform. The shadows seemed half as dark and simultaneously twice as deep.

But, alas, these were merely quiet contentments before a gathering storm of anguish.

One day, after mating, his female lay down in the corner where he threw his marrow-sucked bones, and never got up again. He poked at her bruised flanks with a gentle horn but knew instinctively that he was alone once more. He thought of her weeping face, her pink parts, the days of sounding out words between sobs. Though he snorted nervously and his fur bristled, his spirits were not completely broken. “I have the sack of tablets” he thought wanly as he moved her battered body to the meat pile.

He spent the next months plodding through every tablet in the sack, those which he’d read before as well as those which his mate had kept from him. (She’d always say of these “They are too difficult for you.”) It was here, reading alone in the heart of the labyrinth, that the sun set on his new world. In its dusk he learned the truth of things, of men, of gods, of his parents, and of himself.

He read of Poseidon’s agreement with Minos. He read of Pasiphae’s lust and of Daedalus’ means of assuaging it. He read of his own birth and the construction of his world built for amusement and agony. He read of Athens’ defeat and Aegeus’ bargain to send 7 youths and 7 maidens every nine years into the labyrinth. He learned his own name – Asterius – and turning finally to the tablet his mate had written, was impelled for the first time in his life to sound out the word “minotaur” in his mind.

This last tablet was an account of life in the labyrinth. It was filled with bitterness and horror, made up as it was of words like “monster,” “revulsion,” and “misery” flanking the ever repeating phrase, “I wish to die, please Gods let me die.” Had he but known how Asterius would have wept like the soft one who so despised him.

Epilogue

The Athenian meat eventually ran out and though it might seem masochistic Asterius just sat reading and re-reading the tablets each day. There was nothing else but his hunger pains and the silence. By turns he became sullen and angry. First brooding over his own newly realized miseries, then imagining, in great detail, what he would do to the next batch of children who dared drag their sandals into his darkness. He shat on the bone pile and slept clutching the sack of tablets.

More Athenians did come in time, 7 youths and 7 maidens, whom he watched from the darkness, his snorting anger tempered by longing. At first he approached them submissively with a tablet in hand, but each time they only shrieked and cursed him and fled into the darkness. Finally he lost patience and began hunting them, tearing with his horns and mating with their corpses. Even with a full belly and empty balls, however, his life as one with knowledge was a misery.

Eventually the realization struck him that he might take up the ivory stylus himself and write his own words into the margins of a tablet. It took much trial and error, but after nearly a year he set down that stylus having written a single message to the world above with its cruel men and capricious Gods:

“Had I only been born opposite of what I am, with a bull’s powerful heart and a man’s cunning mind, I might have been a beloved hero among you. Instead I find myself with the weak heart of a man and the dim mind of a bull, a monster, who you’ve trapped in the dark and universally despise. – The Minotaur.”

Theseus would find him brooding over this very passage 9 years later.

Truth: The Minotaur Reading

In that I can not not find any information specific to this piece I will instead offer a pertinent section from a review written by Roddy McDevitt from Queen Street gallery:

“Carters’ work is fresh and authentic. It is both daringly simple and deeply resonant. This is a result, of course, of her subject matter. She poeticizes the figure by creating eerie composite creatures. Whether cast in bronze or drawn in charcoal, the work, it seems to me, breaks down into either the lyrical single figure or the dramatic interaction of two or more figures. Her single figures, naked men with perfectly integrated animal heads: bull, horse, bear, fox, rabbit, all seem lost in contemplation of the mystery of their own existence.

The dramatic configurations are fabulous and thus exotic. We are like Alice through the looking glass, propelled into a dreamworld overflowing with marvelous creatures thoroughly absorbed in their own encounters with each other. This ‘Carter world’ is exciting, magic-fueled, utterly mysterious yet completely realized. The bold and beautiful visions of Beth Carter help us dream the mythology of our own existence.”

For my part all I’ll say is I came across this piece by accident but was, in fact, oddly moved by it, as I hope the extrapolated story above testifies.

For more of Beth’s work see the following:

Queen Street gallery.

Picasso Mio.

Badcocks.

A gallery.

For a pervious “extrapolation” see:

The Old Musician.

For previous alternate mythologies see:

The Myth of Ironus.

Hope you enjoyed.

Though he’s produced a huge amount of work, much of it landscapes from his wide travels, in general David’s previously exhibited pieces have dealt with a kind of aesthetic subversion, playing with the balance between each picture’s pleasant surface and its darker underbelly. Most of the paintings which immediately precede the group I’m showing here are very colorful and layered. On first glance they might be thought of as “pretty” containing as they do birds, elements of landscape, etc. But a closer inspection will readily yield symbols of a political system gone awry and what David refers to as “religious warfare.” If I remember correctly, from our brief conversation, some of the pieces go so far as to subvert their own content over time, with reactive surfaces that eventually have those “pretty” birds falling out of the sky.

As you all know by now I’m most interested in a pictures aesthetic payload, much more so, in the final reckoning, than the underlying concept. So “subversion” and “tension” aside let me say much of the work was in quite nice. The new work though, for me, is something else all together. Less obviously beautiful but more compelling. He’s a young artist, only having graduated Parsons in 2001, but this new group, created as it was both under emotional difficulty as well as material limitations, seems to me a step toward something much better.

As David put’s it:

“These particular paintings differ greatly from the work I have done in the past. I began them when my mother broke her neck at c5 and c6 earlier this year and I moved back to Minnesota from New York to help take care of her. Leaving much of my materials and studio behind me I did not expect to make much work, let alone head-off in an entirely new direction. Art making itself seemed to have fallen a bit flat for me, the particular forms and images I had been previously engaged with seeming to have little or no relevance suddenly.

This work represents a bit of a departure for me especially in terms of materials. Much of my past work is very technique-heavy, utilizing a wide range of materials. These new pieces are much more pared-down using just a few types of ink and some black and white paint. They developed in a very organic way as well, with much less planning than most of the pictures I have made in the past.

For me they are meditative, composed with meticulous gestures leading to unstable and dangerous looking structures. There is a feeling here of something tumultuous happening, or about to happen, though they maintain a kind of almost static distance as well, with the space often flattened completely. From my point of view they are a stark depiction of the frailty and fragility of life both on a personal as well as in a larger sense. There are, of course, many different ways that one could interpret them.”

One last note as to scale: The dimensions of these particular paintings range from forty inches to over six feet.

Hope you enjoyed, and hope to see more from David in the future.