Today marks the 400th birthday of my homie Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. In celebration I offer a couple of paragraphs from a favorite book of mine, What Painting Is by James Elkins, which happens to touch on the physicality of Rembrandt’s canvas surfaces. See below.

What follows are four plates from architect O.M. Ungers’ City Metaphors which were included in a larger exhibit on view in 1976 at the Cooper-Hewitt called MAN transFORMS. It was the kick-off show of the institutions’ rebirth as the Smithsonian Institution’s Nation Museum of Design. I’m lucky enough to have procured the exhibition catalog, which is just chock full of goodies, and the tiny taste which follows are taken from it’s pages.

an organism: bone structure.
a city: street structure.
a mechanism: frame structure.

an organism: digestive system.
a city: sewer system.
a mechanism: exhaust system.

an organism: circulatory system.
a city: subway system.
a mechanism: fluid system.

an organism: nervous system.
a city: power system.
a mechanism: electro system.

More to come…

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The mud was high, the sod-roofs were damp, the watermelon was sweet, and in the lens of newfangled camera’s men never smiled. It was Nebraska in the late 1800’s and at “only one-ninth of principle due annually, beginning two years after purchase” it was destination soon crowded with homesteaders. One of them was Solomon D. Butcher who arrived in Nebraska in 1880 to farm. After five years of struggle he realized that he was not tough enough to meet the demands of the homesteader’s life but having in those five years developed a genuine love of the life, and realizing that the period of settlement would soon be over, he set out instead to create a photographic history of what it was to be a pioneer. Between 1886 and 1912 Butcher generated a collection of more than 3,000 photographs. Like most men “he died believing himself a total failure.” His work, however, for its breadth and specificity, has proven to be one of the most important chronicles of homesteading ever exposed to the light.

The Homestead Act, signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, turned over vast amounts of public land to private citizens. It was a significant event in the history of the westward expansion of the United States of America. Ultimately, 270 million acres (10 percent of the area of the United States) were claimed and settled under this act.

A homesteader had to be the head of a household and at least 21 years old to claim 160 acres of free land. Each homesteader had to live on the land, build a home, make improvements, and farm for five years before becoming eligible to take full and legal ownership. The filing fee of $18 was the only money involved.

The early settlers were often newly arrived immigrants (from Ireland, Germany, Sweden, the Czechoslovakian region of Bohemia, Russia, Denmark, and Polish and French colonies), Eastern farmers without land of their own, single women, and former slaves. They were determined and hardy, carving out a life and a civilization, raising children, breaking land, planting farms, and digging wells in the midst of the tall grass prairies of the Great Plains.

Sylvester Rawding house, 1886

Lookout Point, near the Snake River. (altered).

Detail. the trees and figures are inked.

The John Curry house, 1886.

The end of the Civil War unleashed a migration of thousands of expectant pioneers who crossed the Mississippi River to the plains lured by the government’s promise of 160 acres of free land to any who could homestead it for five years. It was a hard life and a precarious existence that began as soon as the settlers arrived. Those who migrated to the Nebraska plain were forced to build their homes out of slabs of sod carved from the almost treeless landscape. The exposed soil was then plowed for crops. These “soddies” were naturally infected with all kinds of vermin ranging from insects to snakes and inherently dirty. However, it was better than living in the open.

Mr. & Mrs. James McCrea with their son George, 1890.

The Chrisman sisters, 1886.

The Omer Madison Kem family, 1886.

Detail. Omer Kem (left) was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives while living in a sod house.

The sons of Zachariah Perry, 1886.

Detail. Eating watermelon and playing cards.

When photography was invented, young America was beginning to stretch into the new trans-Mississippi West, and within ten years of the revelation of Daguerre’s successful photographic process in 1839, image makers were pressing onto the frontier. Few pictures from this early period have endured, and we can only imagine the vision of the fresh world found by those who first photographed the lands of the Louisiana Purchase.’

The great national tragedy of the Civil War focused America’s attention away from the promise of its western lands, and, for a time, siphoned its photographers off for the grim business of picturing the devastation of war. It was during this war that Americans developed a true sense of the power of the photographic images. “Save the shadow ere the substance fades” was a catch phrase among photographers of the day, and many a family retained the memory of a lost son, husband, or brother in a photograph. Americans knew well the power of the photograph to so perfectly abstract reality. A person could literally see and, in a sense, experience that which another had seen and experienced without the selective interpretation of the painter’s brush. Time had become less fleeting; now slivers of it could be isolated and saved.

The David Hilton homestead, 1887.

Detail. Mrs. Hamilton was so embarrassed by her sod house she refused to be photographed in font of it. She insisted the pump organ be brought outside instead.

East Custer County, Nebraska, 1887.

Shooting ducks on Marsh lake, 1910. (altered).

Swain Finch showing how he fought grasshoppers in 1876. Photo 1900.

Detail. Threshing the (hand-drawn) grasshoppers with a willow bush.

Because many of the pictures that Butcher made were more than portraits, a unique interaction resulted between photographer and subject. Images appear to have been set purposefully like a stage. the subjects seem to assume stances that are symbolic and expressive. Some appear with jaw set and shoulders back, others with sweeping, master-of-all-you-survey gestures. In some instances people dragged their most precious possessions out to be photographed with them, or rearranges equipment and livestock to be a significant part of the image. But this hauling out of prized possessions was not done as often as some have assumed. Sod house dwellers were fundamentally a people who lived out of doors. Their house was a shelter while they slept, a haven from storm, and a place to cook in the winter. The standard litany recited about sod houses is that they were warm in the winter and cool in the summer—and that is true owing to their three-foot-thick earthen walls. But they were also dark and usually cramped. So when the weather permitted, almost all living activities took place outside. Many items, such as chairs, sewing machines, and stoves, normally associated with indoor activities are found outside in the Butcher photographs. When the sod house era had passed, so too had this need for outdoor living. In his later photographs, which show frame structures, the clutter of outdoor living disappears.

There is another element, too, affecting the often stiff and sober poses. The popular attitude toward photography in the late nineteenth century was markedly different from that commonly held all these years later. In Butcher’s time the photograph was still something produced by, an artist, and it was almost the turn of the century before the amateur snapshot appeared as a significant photographic genre. So, one might assume, the nineteenth-century Nebraska homesteader held an attitude toward the photograph not unlike the attitude held by his eighteenth-century eastern ancestor toward the limner. A photograph was a thing to be taken seriously.

Settlers taking the law into their own hands.

Detail. This photo was staged to show the tension between farmers and ranchers. It represents an incident in which farmers cut down fifteen miles worth of rancher fences.

Boating on the irrigation canal, 1904.

Detail.

Dr. Kirby’s new car, 1911.

Detail.

The photographs (and a couple of the quotes) were all taken from the book, Solomon D. Butcher. Photographing the American Dream put out by the University of Nebraska Press in 1985.

Notes on the images: Very few of butchers own prints survive so the images here are reprinted from his negatives. in that he often cropped his shots drastically there is no way of knowing what his intended compositions really were.

For a bit more more on Butcher, his photographs, and the homesteader life in general see the following:

Prairie Settlement, the

at the library of Congress.

Nebraska studies.org. Specifically Living in a sod house and the section on the Homestead Act.

A new look at familiar scenes which uses digital tech to shed further light on Butchers photographs.

The Roots Web Butcher galleries.

The Song of the Lark from Masterpiece theater.

And lastly P.B.S.‘s New Perspectives on the West archive.

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A bit of delicious art news: Damien Hirst’s iconic piece The physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living (1991), which consists of a shark suspended in a tank of greenish formaldehyde, is rotten. Well, not exactly, quote: “The animal suspended in formaldehyde has deteriorated dramatically to the naked eye since it was first unveiled at the Saatchi Gallery in 1992 because of the way it was preserved by the artist. The solution which surrounds it is murky, the skin of the animal is showing considerable signs of wear and tear, and the shark itself has changed shape.” So essentially the shark is rotting. Perfect irony considering the title of the piece don’tcha think? The piece sold in late 2004 for £6.5m, one of the highest prices ever paid for a work by “someone living.” Hirst is evidently in talks with the buyer to replace the shark. The dealer Larry Gagosian said: “The shark is a conceptual piece and to substitute a shark of equal size and appearance, in my opinion, does not alter the piece.” I agree with him, though what the truth of such a statement really portends for the value of a piece of art…

Picked up a slim exhibition catalogue at the Strand bookshop yesterday, put out by Taipei Gallery in 1993, for a show they mounted of Chinese photographer Chin-san Long’s work. He was born Zhejiang Province in 1892. In 1927 he became one of China’s first photo-journalists when the Shanghai Eastern Times, where he was employed, brought in the country’s first color printing machine. In 1939 he perfected a compositing method which allowed him to combine multiple images in the dark room. The results were photographs which incorporated the methodology of traditional Chinese ink-painting, creating a synthesis of Chinese aesthetic and western photographic technique. With a career spanning nine decades Long helped to popularize photography in China. As it turns out his work is not at all well represented on the net so I’m happy to be able to offer you the following 16 examples of his beautiful, pre-digital-age, photo compositing work. See below.

Above the Clouds, 1953.

Pavilion on the Mountain of Immortals, 1955.

A Lone Pavilion by the Cliff, 1962.

Spring Messenger, 1957.

Standing in Solitude, 1945.

Foggy River, 1936.

Longevity, 1961,

A Recluse Under a Pine Tree, 1963.

Fishing Under the Snow, 1969.

Clouds Encircling Mountains, 1942.

Spring by the Riverside, 1934.

Sailing Through the Gorge, 1985.

Foggy River, 1937.

Old Pavilion, 1936.

A Pair of Deer, 1951.

Rising Clouds, 1937.

For some more information on early photography in China see here. To see 215 early Chinese photographs see here.

Hope you enjoyed these. Anyone with further knowledge of Chin-san Long is encouraged to contact me.

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Came across an interesting oddity yesterday, The Feather Book. Made in 1618 by Dionisio Minaggio, Chief Gardener of the State of Milan, it is a book depicting 112 birds and 44 human figures, each composed entirely of natural, undyed birds’ feathers. It is separated into 4 sections themed: birds, hunters, tradesmen, musicians and Commedia del’Arte figures. This book contains some of the earliest efforts to depict behavior rather than simply showing birds sitting in profile, and the feathers used are among the oldest preserved samples in existence. Neat. The images themselves strike me as having what we might today call an “outsider art” kind of feeling, whether due to the difficulty inherent in the materials, the meticulous obsessiveness certainly required to complete them, or the apparent lunacy of some of the subjects, I’m not sure. They’re pretty amazing. See below for a sampling.

Feather art was first introduced to Europe by the Spanish explorers who had traveled to Brazil, Mexico and Peru.  The majority of these works are ecclesiastical in subject and use tiny feathers to imitate embroidery work. Minaggio uses feathers of different sizes, cut to the appropriate shape and glued to a paper foundation. He seems to have been the only artist who created primarily secular scenes. 

Regrettably, very little is known about the history of the Feather Book. It must have taken Minaggio, and possibly his assistants, several years to complete.  Most of the birds represented are indigenous to the Milan region but a few (such as the parrots) may have been presented to the Court as gifts, perhaps by a returning explorer. Due to the considerable political chaos of the time the archival records in Milan for that year are poor. We know nothing for certain of the book’s whereabouts between the time of its completion and its probable location in the early 1700s.

From the Lichomezi or Comedians section. This is Leander a celebrated “lover” played by actor Benedetto Ricci of the “Fedeli” company.

From the Tradesmen section. The apron and brush attached around his waist indicate this may be a chimney sweep. He is leaning on a staff and playing a flute while waiting for his dog to finish defecating. There is a small finch perched on the top of the tree.

From the Birds section. The Rooster (Gallus gallus)

From Comedians. Chocholi (Cocolin) better known as Magnifico or Pantolone, was the stock character of the old man who makes a fool of himself by chasing after a young girl or by his excessive suspiciousness or miserliness.

From the Hunters section. A man with a three-pronged pike for boar hunting.

From Birds. A woman carries a basket in her right hand and balances another, on which a Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), perched on her head.

From Birds. A Hobby (Falco subbbuteo). The landscape shows a waterfall flowing through an crenellated building down to a mill and bridge, as well as a church with belfry, and a fortress with a tower.

From Hunters. A hunter returning from a rabbit hunt, carrying his catch on a pole and leading a hunting dog on a leash.

From Tradesmen. Standing on a table between an open coffer and his professional insignia - an enormous tooth hanging from a pole - a dentist holds up the tooth he has just extracted from a suffering patient, who sits holding a blood-stained cloth to his face.

From Birds. There is an Italian Sparrow (Passer italiae) at the top, a Great Tit (Parus major) on the left and the Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus) on the lower right.

From Birds. A Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus) in a tree overlooks a man fishing with a pole.

From Hunters. A hunter shooting an arquebus at a duck swimming in the river.

From Comedians. Chola Napolitane was a clown figure created by Aniello di Maure of whom this is probably a portrait. Coloo is dancing while making clownish facial expressions. This is an example of the clownish character of the Commedia de11 ‘Arte.

From Hunters. A man loading an arquebus for duck hunting. The dog has already retrieved a Mallard. Two ducks are flying overhead.

From Birds. A landscape showing a group of buildings under three entwined trees. This is the only picture in the collection that does not contain any birds or people.

All of the images from the book are digitized and on display in large scale at the McGill Library Page: Il Bestario Barocco. Some further information is available here. Hope you enjoyed.

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David Hensel, 64, from East Grinstead, West Sussex, was told his sculpture of a laughing head (title: One Day Closer To Paradise) would be part of the Royal Academy of Arts summer exhibition. But at a preview he found that just the piece of wood which was intended to support the head was on display. Mr Hensel assumed staff had accidentally left the sculpture in the basement where it was being stored. The Academy said the judging panel assumed the two pieces (the sculpture and its supporting base) were separate and decided the support was better. Link. Fucking hilarious.

An old friend of mine by the name of Brett Farkas, an illustrator and painter, recently showed some new work and, as seems to always be the case, I missed it. He was kind enough to send me some images so I could have my own private viewing. I’ve decided to put them on display here and share them with ye shadowy millions. I’ve always admired the tight, controlled, style of his characters and in this new work he plays them against more organic shapes and textures. Most of the pieces here are pencil on tracing paper, back-painted with acrylic, house paint, or paint marker. There is some rubber stamping and linoleum block-printing in evidence and it’s all topped off with a healthy topcoat of resin and/or polyurethane. Hope you enjoy…

Boots

Flower Monster

Bass Boy

Solitude

Pancake Goblin

Skate Boy

Dentist

Love Monster

Hand Girl

If you’ve got any comments or question for Brett feel free to leave them below, perhaps he’ll come down from his lair, drop by the site, and answer them in person, and if not I’ll do my best. 

 

 

 

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