Hitchcock

My dear husband told me about this wonderful website, 1000 Frames of Hitchcock, which reduces each of the 52 available major Hitchcock films down to 1000 still frames.

There are wonderful examples of cinemagraphic portraiture among the stills. Here are my ten favorites:

From Vertigo:

From The Birds:


From Rear Window:


Spellbound:

To Catch A Thief:


Mr. and Mrs. Smith:


Rope:

13 Most Beautiful...

13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests, was an amazing show. Commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust for the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts, 13 Most Beautiful featured 13 of Warhol's silent film portraits known as the Screen Tests - each just four minutes long - set to music by Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips (formerly of the band Luna) in a world premier at the Byham on Friday night. The band played beneath a large screen with the "portraits" projected, all silent films in black and white. The music seemed to become the thoughts of the individuals projected on the large screen.

The 13 were chosen from some 500 such "screen tests" that included famous folks, such as Lou Reed and Bob Dylan, as well as unknown people whom Warhol thought possessed star power. In 1964, Warhol put together a collection of these called 13 Most Beautiful Women, followed shortly thereafter by 13 Most Beautiful Men. Why 13? Reading about the Screen Tests, I learned that the number 13 came from a New York City Police brochure of the 13 Most Wanted, which was also the title of Warhol's mural for the World's Fair.

Some of the famous faces included Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, and Nico. During Lou Reed's film portrait, they played "Not A Young Man Anymore" - a Reed/Cale/ Morrison/Tucker song. During Nico's film portrait, Britta sang Bob Dylan's "I'll Keep It With Mine". (Nico, a German singer Warhol discovered and made famous when he made her a lead singer of The Velvet Underground, has a popular cover version of this song.) The rest were Dean and Britta originals, composed specifically for these Screen Tests.


(still from Lou Reed's screen test)

The intimacy of the extreme close-ups made them mesmerizing. Movements were overall subtle. There was an occasional chew of gum, or the use of an occasional prop - a bottle of coke, a cigarette. The most active of the portraits was number 13, Jane Holzer, who brushed her teeth the whole time. Just as interesting, however, were the almost motionless ones, such as Ann Buchanan (pictured at the top of this entry) who stared out at us without blinking until tears fell down her cheeks like crystals. Her features softened while the music grew more dreamy and whistful.

Andy Warhol let a camera run and walked away. It was true to his "Factory" methods, and yet, like the rest of his work, the results are substantive. Even in portraits of others, he is able to be our mirror.

link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzOtZg_Zrow

Cindy Sherman

I've seen the work of Cindy Sherman, a feminist artist-photographer, at the Hirshhorn and other museums, but had never seen a collection of her photographs or a complete series until I discovered The Complete Untitled Film Stills collected in a book at the Strand. The book was put together by the MoMA, which collected all 69 photographs of the series. Sherman arranged the sequence of the photos for the book. 

The photos are all black and white, created between 1977 and 1980. Sherman photographs herself, being all three artist, model, and actress. The images are not self-portraits however, because they are not depictions of her own identity. The photos resemble movie stills, and viewed one to the next, her heroines of implied but mysterious narratives create an overall depiction of femininity - with the understanding that the femininity we are seeing is fictional. The roles she portrays are stereotypical, and the fact that we know the images are fictional draws awareness to the idea of gender roles being constructed. There are elements of fantasy about them (dress-up and theatre) that make the Stills intriguing. Seeing the photos together impacted me in a way that seeing her individual photographs had not, because so much of what she is doing is in the performance - the contrast of characters from one image to the next, creating a fantasy of women rather than a picture of one.   

discovery

Magdalena Bors photographs fairy tale scenes that she makes from ordinary household things. The trees in this one remind me of the board game, Enchanted Forest.  I love how playful and imaginative her images are!  You can see more on her web site: 

www.magdalenabors.com

Monster Burghers

A few months back, I was sifting through the shelves and boxes of comics that crowd a tiny Pittsburgh treasure trove: Copacetic Comics. Marvel comics aren't found there, but rather, indie comics and even hand-made comics, along with anthologies and beautiful hardback collections of comics and comic art.  There, I discovered a book of 30 postcard images of nightmares and doom by illustrator Jordan Crane called Uptight All Night.  I loved the design of each card, the look and feel of the book with it's offset printing, and the sequence of provocative images.  I also loved the format: postcards.

I decided to make postcards of my own, utilizing the many photographs I've taken of Pittsburgh, collaged with drawings.  Rooftops and fire escapes led me to the idea of action movies-- Ghostbusters' Stay Puff Marchmallow Man stomping through city streets, and King Kong climbing the Empire State building.  I imagined Pittsburgh being occupied by monsters, and came up with the idea for Monster Burghers, a book of 30 of my own original postcards. Burghers are citizens of a town or borough, and Pittsburgh dwellers are Pittsburghers.  So far, I have about 10 done.  Here is one:

This past weekend I was thrilled to discover another book of postcards by a comic artist: Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve.  These 30 postcards are a collection of illustrations from the covers of the Optic Nerve series, as well as a few of his illustrations for the New Yorker, album covers, and movies including Sylvia, In the Mood for Love, and Mullholland Drive. 

Obama posters

There are some powerful images gracing posters for the Obama campaign. The images are becoming very recognizable, particularly this one by Shepard Fairey:


There is a version of this same poster that says Hope, too. It is nice seeing positive imagery like this for a presidential campaign coming from artists. These artists are coming together in The Manifest Hope Gallery to "highlight themes of the progressive grass-roots movement surrounding the Obama Campaign - Hope, change, progress, unity and patriotism."

A show of these images opens on Sunday at The Manifest Hope Gallery, housed within Denver’s Andenken Gallery. The description of the show is as follows:

"Manifest hope will showcase some of the finest modern contemporary artists, acclaimed NY painters and sculptors, activated grass roots and street artists, and present the most widely recognized pieces seen throughout the 2008 presidential primary campaign, as well as newly commissioned works and previous works on loan from some of the United States top artists."

http://www.manifesthope.com/

This is not the first recognizable image by Fairey. I hadn't linked the Obama poster with these other images at first, but looking at his portfolio on-line is like popping in a new CD and realizing you know some of the songs already. Like this one:

and this one:



And some that are political in nature, but with a positive message. This one seems to state his main theme:

Sharon Lockhart's photos

I've been thinking about a series of photos of children that is part of the 2008 Carnegie International.  The series is called "The Pine Flat Series", by well-known California artist Sharon Lockhart.  Below is one of the portrait photos, titled "Sierra".  All the portraits in the series are large scale, with no scenery, just the figures looking mostly unposed, all of children. They are very intriguing photographs, and this one is my favorite.  I have been asking myself a question while I look at photos and paintings of individuals.  When does a portrait become more than just an image of a specific person, but art?  

"Sierra", photograph by Sharon Lockhart from the "Pine Flat Series"