Jezebel: artsy fartsy

Don't Wig Out!

Dodai — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:10:00 EDT

[Rotterdam, September 17. Image via Getty.]

Artworks are displayed at the Art of Fashion in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, in Rotterdam on Spetember 17, 2009 for an exposition to open on September 19, meant to show how fashion approaches visual arts in many ways. International designers Viktor&Rolf, Hussein Chalayan, Naomi Filmer and Anna-Nicole Ziesche contributed to this exposition. AFP PHOTO / ANP / RICK NEDERSTIGHT netherlands out - belgium out (Photo credit should read RICK NEDERSTIGT/AFP/Getty Images)

Stranger Than Fiction

Dodai — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:40:00 EST

Artist Francesco Vezzoli created a short film project in which Michelle Williams and Natalie Portman star in a faux perfume commercial called Greed, directed by… Roman Polanski. [Dazed Digital]

Can A Paparazzi Photo Be Art? A Rogues' Gallery, Inside

Dodai — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Brad Elterman, co-founder of Buzz Foto, thinks paparazzi snaps can be art. "My concept was to use brilliant photographers who had a passion for their craft… I wanted more than to build a new photo agency, I wanted to build a brand… with a semblance of class." In an interview with Rachel Hulin on A Photography Blog, he talks about how he got started as a "paparazzi," at age 19, back in 1975: "I wanted to take photos of David Bowie and I was turned down by the publicist. I thought to myself that it would be fun to try and make a photo of him as he left the studio." Elterman waited all night for Bowie. "Around 6am he emerged with [his producer]. He left in a unwashed Mercedes."

Elterman snapped the two getting into the car, and the pic ended up on a full page in Creem magazine. Elterman, who's photographed stars like Bob Dylan, Joan Jett, and Matt Dillon (see some here) says, "Photographers today just do not know what it is like to make a photograph of a real icon. The stars who the magazines run today are totally boring to me."

Elterman continues:

"I came from a family of art collectors and I have always been active in the arts. It dawned on me one day that if you knew your craft was a photographer, you could make a beautiful iconic photograph that would be published in the magazines and could eventually hang in a gallery or at MoMA in New York. There is nothing different from what were are doing today compared with the work of Walker Evans or Helen Levitt. The concept of Paparazzi As An Art Form has been accepted, and we did our first gallery exhibition early this year at the Seyhoun Gallery on Melrose Ave. The response from the public and the media was overwhelming."

Although we don't use Buzz Foto, we often come across "paparazzi" images that are like artwork, with echoes of Hopper, Lichtenstein (yesterday's Snap of Kate Moss), Seurat, Kubrick, and others, including Ms. Levitt (see Naomi Watts, below). We've compiled some of these arty Snap Judgments into a gallery, here:

Brad Elterman: Elevating Paparazzi To An Artform [Mediabistro]
Brad Elterman: Then and Now [A Photography Blog]
Brad Elterman.com
BuzzFoto.com
Related: "Paparazzi As An Art Form" exhibit information

Earlier: Lindsay & Sam: Got Any Fries To Go With Those Shakes?
A Scene From Sam Ronson's REM Cycle
Saint Angelina, Brad & The Twins Hit Cannes
Mary Kate Olsen Gives Chauffeured Shade
Don't Rain On Serena & Dan's (Art) Parade
Madonna: The Material Girl Is In Her Element
Seth Rogen Makes Naomi Watts Want To Hurl
House Elf Seen Sneaking Into Posh Hotel
Jennifer Garner Updates Famous Seurat Painting For Paparazzi
Chelsea Clinton At Starbucks: We Have Soooooo Been There
Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes: The Visual Metaphors Say It All
Redskins Cheerleader Arrives In Iraq, Promptly Tosses Hair
Kate Moss: Between A Rocker & A Drag Queen

Brad and Angelina photo above via Henry Flores/BuzzFoto.com

Calling All Fridas

Dodai — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EDT

In San Francisco, on August 2, 2008, Rene Yañez held an open audition for Frida Kahlo look-alikes, in pursuit of presenting tableaux vivants of Kahlo’s works. He made a flyer for the casting call: Calling All Fridas. Images of the Frida-wannabes are posted online, and they're beautiful. It's fascinating to see the variety of faces — of lips, noses, eyes, and yes, eyebrows — the women have, while all styled to resemble Frida. More roses, more ribbons and more red lips, after the jump.

Frida Kahlo Look-Alike Model Open Audition Pictures [Feminist Law Professors]
Frida Kahlo Look-Alike Model Open Audition[Stephan Zielinski]

Wooden Legs

Dodai — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:40:00 EDT

Mario Philippona is a sculptor, who, according to InventorSpot, "loves the female form." This is why he creates shelves, tables and bookcases out of wood — but designed to look like ladies' legs or breasts. Philippona calls his pieces "erotica with a wink." Perhaps because the women have high heels, yet no heads? It's called objectification, dude. Which is dehumanization. Which, in this case, is sexist, not sexy. (Click for more pictures.) [InventorSpot]

Imagine walking into a guy's home and seeing this on the wall. Would you feel that he was a gentleman who cared about women, about their hopes and dreams?

What if you knew that there was booze inside?

This is a chair. Classy, huh?

This is a desk. Note that when you store your pencils you are stabbing this bisected woman in the uterus. Perhaps that's the point. Pun intended.

What's for dinner? Lemme guess: This dude likes eating out.

New Exhibit Claims Black Artist Kara Walker's Success Is A Form Of Oppression

Jessica — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:30:00 EDT

Kara Walker is arguably the most prominent black female artist in the country. She won a McArthur genius grant when she was 27 and was featured as one of the Time 100 last year. Walker's work is idiosyncratic and immediately recognizable: she makes Victorian-era black silhouette portraits pasted on white walls, often depicting graphic and exaggerated stereotypes of African Americans (i.e., the silhouette people have enormous lips and distorted breasts). So in essence, Walker is reclaiming these stereotypes and spinning a new narrative. But an art show currently up at the Arlington Arts Center called "She's So Articulate," claims that the art world dominance of Walker's narrative leaves no room for other black, female narratives. Henry Thaggert, the show's curator tells the Washington Post that this exhibition is "an attempt to reclaim the narrative" from Walker. And he's not the first to question Walker's work.

Back in the 90s when Walker won the McArthur grant, conceptual artist Betye Saar called for a boycott of Walker, because her art was a "revolting and negative and a form of betrayal to the slaves, particularly women and children. [I]t [is] basically for the amusement and the investment of the white art establishment."

While promoting the work of black artists is certainly something to encourage, it seems that doing it while tacitly denigrating the success of another artist misses the point. Perhaps, if one is mired in the notoriously myopic art world, it seems that there is only room for one black voice and one black narrative. As a reasonably objective viewer outside that world, I find it hard to believe that anyone would take Kara Walker's art as the only and final word on racism. Isn't race in America an enormous and multifaceted topic that will surely be examined by thousands upon thousands of people through art for hundreds of years to come?

Standing In The Shadow Of The Silhouette Figure [Washington Post]
Kara Walker [The Time 100]
Notes On A Negress [The Root]

Nice Melons

Dodai — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:45:58 EDT

It's hard to describe the allure of Israeli artist Sigalit Landau’s work, in which she lies naked among watermelons floating in the Dead Sea. It's surreal, soothing, dreamy, refreshing and just plain cool. Maybe she was inspired by Esther Williams? [New York Magazine]