Reading at a Table. Pablo Picasso, 1934 When word gets out the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the most significant repositories of art in the world, releases 400,000 images into the digital wild it's hard not to go have a look to see what bookish goodness awaits. Our first trip brings us a hardy selection of work from Durer to Picasso. Stay tuned for more gems from the collection and our hats are off to the powers that be for releasing such a treasure trove of material. Enjoy! [caption id="attachment_4876" align="aligncenter" width="534"] "Alberti Dvreri pictoris et architecti praestantissimi De vrbibvs..."...
A Dave Eggers menagerie to help send kids to college
Before the ascent of his writing career, and his publishing career as the founder of the one and only McSweeney's, Dave Eggers pursued the life of an artist. Eggers returns to the realm of art with an exhibit of drawings to benefit ScholarMatch, an a amazing new program that matches donors with students needing funds for college tuition. The 40 posters, in the vernacular of political propaganda posters, will be on display from Electric Works at ArtMRKT which takes place in San Francisco, May 15-18. Here is a look at all of the posters, including an archive of the sold pieces.
Chris Jordan : “Edge-walking the lines between art and activism”
[caption id="attachment_4195" align="aligncenter" width="555"] E Pluribus Unum, 2010, image via Yes![/caption] It's hard not to appreciate the work of Chris Jordan. His work Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption (2003 - 2005) and his ongoing series, Midway: Message from the Gyre (2009 - Current) give us some of the most haunting visuals of the new century and are a stark reminder of our distance to the precipice. Here's a look at some other of his works that lean our way: E Pluribus Unum (pictured above): a 24 feet square, composed of aluminum panels laser etched with the names of "one million organizations around the world...
The original painting of one of the most iconic book images, “The Bookworm,” might be sold
It came to the Milwaukee Public Library in 1972 from the collection of René Von Schleinitz. It was the only item from his "significant collection of German steins, figurines and genre paintings" to go the library. The rest was donated to the Milwaukee Art Museum, including other images of his featuring readers and scholars. Now the library is seriously considering an offer of $400,000 from an undisclosed party for the painting. It is called Der Bucherworm "The Bookworm" and was painted by Carl Spitzweg around 1853. It is by far Sptizweg's most famous work and has become one of the most well-known biblio-images...
A trio of book sculptures by Rosie Leventon
SOMEWHERE A DOOR SLAMMED.... 2009 Rosie Leventon is one of the new-breed of green artists cropping up around the world. Her work is deeply "grounded in a sensitive concern for the natural environment and how we use it." She "sees her work as interweaving a kind of personal archaeology with the archaeology of contemporary society and the physical archaeology of places." She is all about using local and recycled materials and resources whenever possible. Here's a look at three of her bookish "recycled sculptures." For SOMEWHERE A DOOR SLAMMED Leventon created a tower of paperbacks, mostly of the romance variety. In...