Weekend links 5

kamekura.jpg

A poster design by Yusaku Kamekura. More here, via A Journey Round My Skull.

First of all this week, there’s a new interview posted which I gave last year to Crows ’n’ Bones magazine. The replies skate around the usual subjects (Cthulhu et al) and you also find out why I don’t think design and illustration for music is going to vanish as soon as some people think.

• A Journey Round My Skull has announced The Raymond Roussel Illustration Contest which is open to all.

• Cover designs: David Pearson on redesigning Cormac McCarthy’s UK covers, a huge improvement on the previous Picador series. Also, The Robert Lesser Pulp Art Collection.

• Last year I discussed Teleny, Or the Reverse of the Medal, the novel of gay erotica attributed to Oscar Wilde, giving a mention in passing to Jon Macy’s comic strip adaptation of the book. That adaptation has now been published and is available via his website.

bradley_kiss.jpg

The Kiss (1896) by Will Bradley.

• More Art Nouveau (because too much is never enough): Will Bradley’s work at Golden Age Comic Book Stories. Can’t understand how I missed this one.

• A discussion: The Magic Mystery and Melancholy of Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake.

• Sandi Vincent’s Flickr pages overflow with Graphis Annual goodness.

• A new edition of the Arthur Radio Voyage is available to download. And Trunk Records’ Jonny Trunk has a mix of obscure vinyl for you.

• Song of the week: We Want War by These New Puritans. Slow motion shots in the video are a plus.

Le livre blanc by Jean Cocteau

cocteau1.jpg

Two illustrations by Jean Cocteau for his homoerotic novel Le livre blanc. Cocteau never publicly acknowledged his authorship of the book but his illustrations (coloured by MB Armington) decorated the second edition published by Éditions du Signe in 1930. He also provided an introduction. The Koopman Collection has further illustrations and page scans.

Cocteau wrote Le livre blanc in 1927 in Chablis, where he was staying with Jean Desbordes, the successor to Cocteau’s great love. Cocteau’s drawings have been described as obscenely pious. They are established by quick, flowing lines, partially erotic and often sultry, featuring classical elements such as busts and centaurs. Erotic images were popular articles in France, where they were sold under the counter; people were extra careful about homosexual erotica. Cocteau described his first sexual experiences in Le livre blanc: his excitement upon seeing a naked peasant boy on horseback and two naked young gypsies on his father’s estate. (More.)

cocteau2.jpg

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
The gay artists archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
Cocteau’s sword
Cristalophonics: searching for the Cocteau sound
Cocteau at the Louvre des Antiquaires
La Villa Santo Sospir by Jean Cocteau

Entomologia

bittle.jpg

A Royal Family (Goliath Beetle) (2003) by Joianne Bittle.

More insect art. Entomologia is a group exhibition of art incorporating and inspired by insects, on view at Observatory, Brooklyn, NY, from February 26th to April 4th, 2010. There are fourteen artists involved but not all of them have websites showing the work one might expect to see there, unfortunately. The gallery will also host a series of events tied to the exhibition; more details here. Among the contributors is photographer Brian Riley whose chiaroscuro studies of male nudes have featured here previously.

Previously on { feuilleton }
Jewel beetle
How many leaf beetles can dance on the head of a pin?
The art of Jo Whaley
Endangered insects postage stamps
Brian Riley