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Retroactive I (1964).
My youthful enthusiasm for art acquainted me with the name of Robert Rauschenberg (who died two days ago) earlier than most. Surrealism and Pop Art held an appeal that was immediate, if rather superficially appreciated at the time, and it was seeing works from both those movements which were the most memorable aspect […]

Colette.
Work this week designing a CD of readings from Colette had me searching books for pictures of the author. Of the few I found this is the most interesting, one of several Colette portraits made by photographer Leopold Reutlinger and one of at least two from 1907 which Colette used to promote her Moulin […]

The Triumph of the Genius of Destruction (1878).
A Hungarian artist with a flair for the pandemoniac, as can be seen from this lurid anti-war painting. Zichy is also known today for Love, a series of erotic etchings produced in the 1870s. These may or may not include the masturbating male at the end of this […]

Penguin is really coming up with the goods these days, living up to their reputation as a house with high standards of cover design, unlike Picador and the shabby way they treated Cormac McCarthy recently.
Ian Fleming’s Bond novels are the latest to receive a makeover with some fabulous art from illustrator Michael Gillette. 2008 is […]

Metamorphosis by Bridget Riley (1964).

Mademoiselle ad (1965).
From this Flickr set. Thanks to Aristan for the tip.

Hallucinations: Psychedelic Pop Nuggets From The WEA Vaults (2004).
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Design as virus #3
• Design as virus #2
• Design as virus #1
• New Bridget Riley

Painter, illustrator and novelist Leonor Fini has been mentioned here before in a post about women Surrealist artists but her wonderful paintings deserve renewed attention. There’s an official site and galleries here (follow the links at the bottom of the page) and here but her work is so profuse and varied there could easily stand […]

The Vision of Faust (1878).
A suitably sorcerous bacchanal for Walpurgis Night by the Spanish painter. There’s more of his voluptuous erotica at ArtMagick and The Atheneum.

The Witches Sabbath aka Muse of the Night (1880).
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Weel done, Cutty-sark!

Natural wonders
| The splendour of Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

Plasmatic Spree (2006).

Voyageur IV (1995).
Born in Paris in 1941, he confesses to being largely “…self-taught. I was always at the Louvre, staring like crazy at the pictures there, fascinated by ‘how it’s done’.” … (Leonor) Fini’s works from the 60s influenced, to a degree, the young Henricot. Depicted in a hieratic style with underlying geometrical forms, […]