Guy Peellaert

“Guy Peellaert was to Europe what Andy Warhol was to America – except that Guy had more talent!” – Jim Steranko (American comic book artist, art historian, publisher and film production illustrator).

Guy Peellaert was a Brussels-born artist.  He worked as a painter, illustrator, graphic artist and photographer, with shows around the world. Peellaert’s creations are a beautifully unique blend of comic-style illustration, American Pop Art and psychedelia.  He was a bit of a pop culture junkie; the artist survived on a steady diet of music, magazines, books, rock memorabilia, and pulp literature.  Peellaert’s first major success was with a comic strip published in 1966, “Les Aventures de Jodelle,” followed by “Pravda, La Survireuse” in 1968.  His comics were pop art masterpieces filled with sexy heroines kicking all sorts of ass!

Then, In the late Sixties, the artist moved from Brussels to Paris, where he stayed busy doing a bit of this and a bit of that – advertising, set design for casinos and the Crazy Horse nightclub, film and television.  But in his free time Peellaert continued to create art, and he quickly became a popular chronicler of rock and roll gods, painting his idols into fantasy situations come to life.

Peellaert gained such notoriety and success with his pop fantasy creations that he collaborated with British rock writer Nik Cohn to create “Rock Dreams” in 1974.  In a series of 125 paintings, Peellaert painted his heroes in situations echoing their mythical status or playing on their most famous lyrics.  The book was a huge success, and Peellaert became somewhat of a household name.

From there, the sky was pretty much the limit.  Peelaert went on to create some pretty iconic album covers, and movie posters …

Peellaert passed away November 17th, 2008 in Paris aged 74.  In 2003, Peellaert told Beaux Arts Magazine: “I’m not bothered about death. Not having any passion while you’re alive, that’s the terrible thing. That’s why “Rock Dreams” still works today. Emotions keep you alive. Rock will always represent the extravagant, the flashy, the fantasy. These pictures are a memento to that dream.”  Pretty perfect.

Darcel Disappoints at Colette

If you aren’t familiar with him already, Darcel Disappoints is the creation of New York-based artist Craig Redman.  The one-eyed character is constantly evolving from hipster to celebrity to regular dude, and he is always excellent. 

The awesomely disappointing Darcel is going to be having a show at Colette in France.  It opens on May 5th and will feature paintings, prints, scultpure and animation, so it should be a really fun show. Check out the the little video he put together which gives you a little sneak peek.

Jean Paul Goude is the Man

There is too much to say about the genius of Jean Paul Goude, so I will keep it short.  He is the man.  A photographer, graphic designer, filmmaker, impresario, art director, and illustrator.

And when it came time for the French to do a worldwide reperesentation of their culture for the bicentennial, who else to call but Monsieur Goude?!  Please watch the videos below all the way through, you won’t be disappointed!

The iArt of David Hockney

Although he’s well into his seventies, British artist David Hockney has gleefully, at least for the moment, abandoned the traditional tools of his trade – paint brushes, paint, and canvas; he has gone high-tech and become the first internationally celebrated i-artist.

“I draw flowers every day on my iPhone,” Hockney has said, “and send them to my friends, so they get fresh flowers every morning. And my flowers last. Not only can I draw them as if in a little sketchbook, I can also then send them to 15 or 20 people who then get them that morning when they wake up.”  He had a show of those 1000+ flowers, called fleurs fraîches, at Paris’ Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation in 2010.  The images were displayed directly on iPad and iPhone screens or were enlarged as digital projections.

Currently, Hockney has a show up of some of his more recent i-works at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark, Me Draw on iPad.  Although there are many advantages to painting without paint (what a weird thing to say), it’s more about the medium than any kind of practicality; the exhibition features 20 hanging iPads/iPod touches that refresh and display new works at timed intervals. Some drawings display in an animated format, showing every thumb stroke from start to end.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hockney will not be printing the art from his iPad and hanging it, and it can’t really be sold or collected in any traditional way.  Instead, the shows offers viewers a glimpse into the artistic potential of technology, and an unexpected potential art movement.  Want to be a part of it?  Download the Brushes app, Hockney’s drawing tool of choice, and see what sort of masterpieces you can come up with!

Alexander Calder’s Circus

Alexander Calder is an artist best known for his amazing mobiles.  But one of his lesser known, but equally incredible creations is the Cirque Calder - a miniature circus of wire figures and creatures created by the artist in Paris between 1926 and 1931.  Calder’s fascination with the circus began in 1925 when he spent two weeks sketching at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.  A year later he began to make the first characters of Cirque Calder, giving miniature performances for friends all over Paris.  Everyone was so impressed and amused by the circus, and Calder had so much fun making it himself, that he continued to work on the project for five more years.

At its height, the Cirque Calder consisted of dozens of wire-frame acrobats, trapeze artists, exotic dancers, a knife-thrower, sword-swallower and performing animals which were rigged with thread, pulleys, cranks and springs to tumble, gallop, lift, gyrate and even catch each other in mid-air!  Calder spent most of the 1920’s and 1930’s travelling between North America and Europe putting on shows with his “circus in a suitcase.”

Made of wood, bronze, cork, fabric scraps, beads, and bits of jewellery, each figure and animal in the performance has its own personality. Each performer is the perfect mix of toy and sculpture.  Some of the most incredible figures include the weightlifter, who can bend, pick up a set of weights, straighten up and put the weights down; the trapeze artists who can swing and catch each other in mid-air with precision; the ambulence unit who are able to walk when pulled by a thread; and the horses pulling chariots that mimic galloping while their charioteers bend back and forth in the act of whipping them.

Cirque Calder is on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York where it is on extended loan.

Whitney Museum of American Art

945 Madison Ave. at 75th St.
New York, NY 10021
(212) 570-3600

The Teeers

The Teeers are a rock band from France.  I’m not sure how old the members are, but I think it is safe to say they are doing big things for their age.  The Teeers have already recorded in the studio, and played live concerts in galleries and other venues throughout Paris.  Coolest of all, they recently collaborated with artist Nathan Carter (the subject of a post last week) for a concert that happened in December 2010 called “The Thunder and Lightning Rock Music Concert,” billed as “an atmospheric explosion of electricity channeling the spirit of Jimi Hendrix +The Teen Idols et alia through 4 musical groups of dwarf rockers who will bombard the city via Carter’s AIRWAVE AUDIO ABERRATION ABSTRATOR.”  Pretty rad stuff.

Go start a band!

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick, tells the story of Hugo, a 12-year-old boy who lives a clandestine life in the walls of a busy Paris train station.  But one day, when he meets an eccentric girl and the owner of a small toy booth in the train station, Hugo’s life changes forever.

This 526-page book is filled with some of the most beautiful drawings I have ever seen in a storybook.  The Invention of Hugo Cabret is not exactly a novel, and it’s not quite a picture book, and it’s not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things. Best of all, because the story is so picture-heavy, the reader can really create her own story within the book, using his or her own words to narrate the content depicted by the rich imagery.  This is an incredible book for beginning and advanced readers alike, and one that is sure to capture the imagination of any audience.  Read it now, and get ready to see the movie later in 2011!