John – Page 706 – { feuilleton }

The art of Ben Kimura

An untitled piece by Ben Kimura (1947–2003), a Japanese artist whose homoerotic works are all very well drawn, if occasionally a little bland. Given a choice, I prefer the aesthetics and imagination of Sadao Hasegawa or Hideki Koh but drawings such as this are certainly sexy enough.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The art of Goh Mishima, 1924–1989
• The art of Hideki Koh
• Secret Lives of the Samurai
• The art of Sadao Hasegawa, 1945–1999
• The art of Takato Yamamoto

Paul Franck’s calligraphy

Some of the most extravagantly flourished capitals you’ll see, from another of those books with an unwieldy title, Kunstrichtige Schreibart : allerhand Versalie[n] oder AnfangsBuchstabe[n] der teütschen, lateinischen und italianischen Schrifften aus unterschiedlichen Meistern der edlen Schreibkunst zusammen getragen (1655). The authors are credited as Paul Franck, Paul Fürst and Christoph Gerhard but it’s Franck’s name I know from a book of type designs, and it was a search for better examples of these letters which led me to the Internet Archive who have scans of the entire book. This is the place where European lettering design approaches the bravura elaborations of Arabic calligraphy.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Gramato-graphices
• John Bickham’s Fables and other short poems
• Letters and Lettering
• Studies in Pen Art
• Flourishes

Happy Bloomsday

A page from Ulysses with amendments by James Joyce.

That time of year again and for your delectation Ubuweb has tapes of the soundtrack from Joseph Strick’s semi-successful 1967 film of Ulysses featuring the voices of Milo O’Shea, Barbara Jefford and others. The film is frequently a series of illustrated voiceovers so this isn’t as purposeless as it might seem. Somewhere I have a vinyl recording of Milo O’Shea and Barbara Jefford reading from the Nausicaa and Penelope chapters and somewhere else a reading of passages from Finnegans Wake. For the latter Ubuweb also has Sylvia Beach’s recording of Joyce himself reading from Anna Livia Plurabelle.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Jerry by Paul Cadmus
• Passages from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake
• Books for Bloomsday

Serpentine pulchritude

One of a great series by photographer Jean-François Carly showing male and female models adorned with snakes and little else. Makes a change from the usual state of affairs where men are more commonly depicted wrestling with serpents rather than wearing them.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Angelo Colarossi and son
• Men with snakes

Hermann Obrist: Art Nouveau Sculptor

Cyclamen (1895).

An exhibition close enough for me to easily visit, Hermann Obrist: Art Nouveau Sculptor is a display of work by the German artist at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds. Obrist (1863–1927) is featured in numerous histories of Art Nouveau for his Cyclamen wall-hanging of 1895, also known as The Whiplash on account of its writhing curves. This and other stylised studies Obrist made of natural forms were very influential. The gallery site only shows us one of the items on display (so much for advertising) but the trusty A Journey Round My Skull has further examples of the artist’s work.

Hermann Obrist: Art Nouveau Sculptor runs to 29th August, 2010.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Atelier Elvira
• Karl Blossfeldt