Secret Lives of the Samurai

shimizu.jpg

Kiss of Death (2007).

From a series of marvellous homoerotic ink drawings by Kenya Shimizu. The artist seems to have no web presence at all, unfortunately, aside from three pages of work for sale at London’s Adonis Art Gallery. Most of the pictures there are hardcore images so if you don’t want to see any of that, don’t look. His paintings are as good as his drawings but I typically prefer the black and white work, especially since there’s a slight Beardsleyesque feel to some of them—or is it merely the Japanese line which Beardsley borrowed? Nice to see a variety of cum shots as well; the first drawing in the Samurai series, Release, is even a bukkake scene, something you rarely see in gay art.

Kenya Shimizu was born in Fukui Prefecture in Japan, 1976. Kenya Shimizu devoted himself early on to mastering the techniques of his art.  His homo-erotic fantasies (pen and ink) – very much in the Japanese erotic tradition – are brilliant compositions executed with panache and great skill.  His paintings on gold and silver leaf, are masterpieces of watercolour workmanship;  His watercolours of modern Japan – reveal and portray the present-day homo-erotic fantasies of the ‘salarymen’ and students of today’s Japan.

Within recent years, one of the leading Japanese practitioners of homo-erotic painting – Sadao Hasegawa – sadly died.  Now a worthy successor has come onto the scene.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
The gay artists archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
The art of Sadao Hasegawa, 1945–1999
The art of Takato Yamamoto
The art of ejaculation

Lovecraft in Los Angeles

lovecraft.jpg

Frank H Woodward’s excellent documentary about the life and work of HP Lovecraft receives a screening in Los Angeles at Shriekfest 2008 on October 4th. As mentioned earlier, this is easily the best film to date about HPL and features several illustrations of mine.

Wyrd is proud to announce the
L.A. Premiere of the documentary
Lovecraft: Fear Of The Unknown

Presented by Shriekfest 2008

DATE:  Saturday, October 4th, 2008
TIME:  1:45 PM
PLACE:  Raleigh Studios, The Chaplin Theater
5300 Melrose Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90038

Producer William Janczewski will be in attendance!

Admission is $8. To purchase tickets, you can visit the Shriekfest 2008 site.

H.P. Lovecraft was the forefather of modern horror having created the Cthulhu mythos. LOVECRAFT is a chronicle of the life, work and mind behind these weird tales.

• narrated by Robin Atkin Downes
• music by Mars of Dead House Music
• associate producer Andrew Migliore
• produced by William Janczewski, James B. Myers & Frank H. Woodward
• written & directed by Frank H. Woodward

Previously on { feuilleton }
New things for July
The monstrous tome
New things for October

The art of Pierre Clayette, 1930–2005

clayette1.jpg

The Library of Babel (no date).

Another French artist who specialised in fantastic architecture, Pierre Clayette’s work came to my attention via the picture above which illustrates a Borges story. This leads me to wonder once again what it is about French and Belgian artists which attracts them more than others to this type of imagery.

clayette2.jpg

Whatever the reason, there isn’t a great deal of Clayette’s work online and biographical details are few. This page (the source of the untitled picture above) reveals that he worked as an illustrator for Planète magazine, the journal of “fantastic realism” founded by Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels in the early Sixties. Some readers may know that pair as the authors of a { feuilleton } cult volume, The Morning of the Magicians (1960), whose vertiginous blend of speculative and weird fiction, occultism and futurology Planète was intended to continue.

clayette3.jpg

Clayette also worked as a theatre designer and book illustrator. Le Chateau (above) is an illustration from Songes de Pierres, a 1984 portfolio depicting scenes from Pierres by Roger Caillois. That writer has his own significant Borges connection, being responsible for introducing Borges’ work to France via his editorship of the UNESCO journal, Diogenes. (Pauwels and Bergier later published Borges in Planète.)

Finally, there’s a less extravagant Flickr collection of some Clayette covers for Penguin Shakespeare editions. All of which only scratches the surface of what was evidently a prolific career; I’ll look forward to more examples of his work coming to light.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
The fantastic art archive
The illustrators archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
The art of Michiko Hoshino
The art of Erik Desmazières
The art of Gérard Trignac
The Absolute Elsewhere

Kelly McCallum’s insect art

mccallum.jpg

In addition to insects, Kelly McCallum also has birds filled with clockwork mechanisms, stuffed animals being eaten by gilded grubs, jewellery carved from human bones, and more. Plus a quote from the Prince of Quotation, Walter Benjamin: “The grey film of dust covering things has become their best part.”

Via 3quarksdaily.

Previously on { feuilleton }
Walmor Corrêa’s Memento Mori
The art of Jo Whaley
The art of Ron Pippin
Custom creatures
Polly Morgan, fine art taxidermist
Insect Lab
The art of Jessica Joslin