John Coulthart's Blog, page 321

January 25, 2011

À Rebours illustrated

huysmans1.jpg


Not a comprehensive post by any means but a few items worthy of note for readers of Joris-Karl Huysmans' Decadent classic. The Vera Bock cover is from a 1937 American edition which turned up here last year. Thanks to Jescie for drawing my attention to the presense of my Haunter of the Dark collection on the same site. Vera Bock is an unusual choice of illustrator for this particular novel, there's more of her work and details of her career at A Journey Round My Skull.


huysmans2.jpg


Auguste Leroux's edition (above & below) is from 1920 and can be downloaded at the Internet Archive although the copy there seems to have had many of its full-page plates stolen. The artist produced an illustrated Memoirs of Casanova a few years later and he seems here to have concentrated on the more salacious aspects of Huysmans' story, as with this brothel scene which is missing from the scanned edition. His depiction of Des Esseintes looks too middle-aged for me but the rendering of the unfortunate jewelled tortoise could hardly be bettered.


huysmans3.jpg


huysmans4.jpg


Browsing the archives at Gallica turned up this extraordinary Art Nouveau edition from 1903 illustrated and embellished on every page by Auguste Lèpere. This would be an excessively lavish treatment for most books but for a story of aesthetic obsession it seems quite appropriate. Gallica also allows the downloading of many of their documents although that function kept failing my attempts. But this volume really does need to be seen in its entirety.


Elsewhere on { feuilleton }

The illustrators archive


Previously on { feuilleton }

Arthur Zaidenberg's À Rebours

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on January 25, 2011 18:31

January 24, 2011

Shinichi Maruyama's water sculptures

maruyama.jpg


From the Kusho series.


Having attempted a few times to photograph the motion of water in air I'm in awe of Shinichi Maruyama's high-speed captures which make of the process a very refined and beautiful art. Japanese calligraphy and sumi-e painting are obvious precedents but the artist also refers us to Zen gardens in his Gardens series wherein flares of coloured liquid drift through abstract landscapes. See his website for more.

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on January 24, 2011 17:56

January 23, 2011

Mossa's Salomés

mossa5.jpg


Salomé (1901).


Monsieur Wiley prompted this post by drawing my attention to the picture above. I'd already seen another Salomé by Gustav Adolf Mossa on this page a few days ago but resisted the temptation to mention it. A bit more searching revealed yet another Mossa rendering of the theme which perhaps isn't so surprising given the artist's obsession with lethal women. The first exceeds all previous depictions of the Biblical temptress by having her actually licking blood from the executioner's sword. In the third picture she's content merely to use a severed hand as a page-turner while John the Baptist's mutilated body is carted away by servants.


The search for pictures turned up a blog I hadn't seen before, Women in the Bible ("This is no religious blog!"), which has several Salomé postings. And there's also Les voiles de Salomé: Labyrinthique errance, virevoltes et volutes.


mossa6.jpg


Encor Salomé (1905).


mossa7.jpg


Salomé (1908).


Previously on { feuilleton }

The art of Marcus Behmer, 1879–1958

Several Salomés

Julius Klinger's Salomé

John Vassos's Salomé

René Bull's Salomé

Steven Berkoff's Salomé

Manuel Orazi's Salomé

Salome's Last Dance

Salomé posters

Salomé scored

Beardsley's Salomé

Peter Reed and Salomé After Dark

Alla Nazimova's Salomé

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on January 23, 2011 18:53

January 22, 2011

Weekend links

bradley.jpg


Poster by Will Bradley for Victor Bicycles (c. 1895).


• G. Wayne Clough, chief exective of the Smithsonian Institution, finally admits that he made a hasty decision in removing David Wojnarowicz's video from the Hide/Seek exhibition of gay art. Related: "Finland's cultural gifts to the world include Sibelius, the Moomins and an artist that the country has been less eager to celebrate." The belated homecoming of Tom of Finland.


The Fiend with Twenty Faces: Jonathan Clements examines the legacy of Edogawa Rampo (Hirai Taro), the Japanese master of mystery and imagination.


• RIP Susannah York. The Guardian posted a selection of clips including one from Robert Altman's Images (1972).


• More mixtapes: Trish Keenan's Mind Bending Motorway Mix and a selection for Quietus by Chris & Cosey.


• "Ruin photos speak to our desperate desire to have our world re-enchanted."


tomorrow.jpg


Promo poster by Hapshash and the Coloured Coat for My White Bicycle by Tomorrow (1967).


The Raging Peloton: Iain Sinclair on two wheels good, four wheels bad.


The unknown Jorge Luis Borges: five new anthologies reviewed.


The French house untouched for 100 years (and also here).


Electrotypes on Drugs: old chemists' labels.


South China Sea Pishkun by Dinh Q. Lê.


Bike (1967) by Pink Floyd | My White Bicycle (1967) by Tomorrow | Trip On An Orange Bicycle (1968) by Orange Bicycle.

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on January 22, 2011 17:43

January 21, 2011

The art of Gustav Adolf Mossa, 1883–1971

mossa1.jpg


Self-portrait.


A French artist and another late Symbolist painter whose idiosyncracies point to Surrealism but whose obsession with femmes fatales looks back to the preoccupations of the fin de siècle. If you don't mind the implicit misogyny there's a lot more to be seen here and here.


mossa2.jpg


Elle (1906).


mossa3.jpg


Le baiser d'Hélène (1905).


mossa4.jpg


Bruges-la-morte (1911).


Previously on { feuilleton }

Le Sphinx Mystérieux

La belle sans nom

The Feminine Sphinx

Le Monstre

Carlos Schwabe's Fleurs du Mal

Empusa

Bruges-la-Morte

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on January 21, 2011 17:19

The art of Gustave Adolphe Mossa, 1883–1971

mossa1.jpg


Self-portrait.


A French artist and another late Symbolist painter whose idiosyncracies point to Surrealism but whose obsession with femmes fatales looks back to the preoccupations of the fin de siècle. If you don't mind the implicit misogyny there's a lot more to be seen here and here.


mossa2.jpg


Elle (1906).


mossa3.jpg


Le baiser d'Hélène (1905).


mossa4.jpg


Bruges-la-morte (1911).


Previously on { feuilleton }

Le Sphinx Mystérieux

La belle sans nom

The Feminine Sphinx

Le Monstre

Carlos Schwabe's Fleurs du Mal

Empusa

Bruges-la-Morte

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on January 21, 2011 17:19

January 20, 2011

Historic Design in Printing

historic1.jpg


16th century binding designs.


If anyone was wondering why I keep trawling through the scanned books at the Internet Archive, let this volume stand as one of many reasons why. Historic Design in Printing was published in 1923 by the Graphic Arts Company, Boston (USA), and is edited by one Henry Lewis Johnson. The book's subtitle, "Reproductions of book covers, borders, initials, decorations, printers' marks and devices comprising reference material for the designer, printer, advertiser and publisher" gives an idea of the content. Many of the motifs are familiar to me from books in Dover Publications' Pictorial Archive series while a number of the sets of initials I have as bad reproductions in a book by a French publisher. This would suggest that Historic Design in Printing has served as a resource for later collections, and a very fine resource it is too. Download it in a variety of formats here.


historic2.jpg


Title-page border, 1567.


historic3.jpg


historic4.jpg


Initial designed by Georg Heinrich Paritus, 1710.


Previously on { feuilleton }

Combinaisons Ornementales

Charles J Strong's Book of Designs

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on January 20, 2011 17:30

January 19, 2011

The psychedelic art of Howard Bernstein

bernstein1.jpg


Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny (1967).


I made a post a while back about the work of Bob Pepper, an artist whose illustrations from the 1960s can also be described as psychedelic and who was equally visible in the music and book publishing worlds. Howard Bernstein (not to be confused with musician Howie B) wasn't as prolific as Pepper but this post was prompted by the appearance at Sci-Fi-O-Rama of the swirling abstractions of his Roger Zelazny cover. Like Pepper, Bernstein produced album cover art as well as book covers although it's possible the Zelazny piece may have been a one-off. This was the jacket of the first edition and a rather flagrant attempt by Doubleday to co-opt the trendiness of the psychedelic style for a science fiction readership. They tried something similar with the cover for Harlan Ellison's landmark anthology Dangerous Visions in the same year, the art in that case being the work of Leo & Diane Dillon. The Zelazny cover caught my attention for another reason, the typography is a variation on the 19th century Kismet typeface by John F Cummings which I used for my two Alice in Wonderland calendars and which turns up regularly in psychedelic design. And while we're considering conjunctions of music and science fiction, I ought to note that the Hawkwind song Lord of Light lifts its title from Zelazny's novel.


bernstein4.jpg


The Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra, Vol. I (1965).


As for Bernstein's music work, most of this appears to have been for Bernard Stollman's eccentric ESP Disk label where the roster of artists included many free-jazz greats along with The Fugs, William Burroughs, Timothy Leary and fringe psychedelic groups such as Pearls Before Swine, Cromagnon, The Godz and others. Bernstein's Cromagnon cover (below) exists in both monochrome and coloured versions but the monochrome one seems to be the original. In fact much of his art looks like it was drawn in black-and-white with the colours being created by separations at the print stage. His poster for The Godz is especially striking, so much so I'm surprised to find there isn't more of his work around. Wolfgang's Vault has a blacklight poster and there are some other blacklight works here. If anyone knows of other posters, please leave a comment although I suspect if there was much more then Wolfgang's Vault would have the goods.



bernstein5.jpg


Indian War Whoop by The Holy Modal Rounders (1967).


bernstein7.jpg


Eastern Man Alone by Charles Tyler (1967).


bernstein6.jpg


The Wind in the Willows by The Wind in the Willows (1968).


Not a good cover at all but included here for its curiosity value. This piece of psych whimsy is remembered today for being the first place the world heard of Ms Deborah Harry, credited here with vocals, tambora, tambourine and finger cymbals.


bernstein2.jpg


Untitled by Cromagnon (1969).


bernstein3.jpg


Godz poster (1969?).


Previously on { feuilleton }

The Dukes declare it's 25 O'Clock!

More science fiction covers

Science fiction and fantasy covers

The Strawberry Alarm Clock

Groovy book covers

The art of Bob Pepper

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on January 19, 2011 18:05

January 18, 2011

Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #4

dkd04-01.jpg


Continuing the delve into back numbers of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, the German periodical of art and decoration. There isn't an issue 3 in the Internet Archive collection, hence the jump in the series to issue 4 which covers the period from April–September 1899. This issue features a few more familiar names beginning with artist and illustrator Heinrich Vogeler whose illustrated edition of Oscar Wilde stories was featured here last year. Vogeler's work isn't always to my taste although I liked his Wilde drawings; the Tod und Alte piece above is an exception to his usual work of this period rather than the rule. Elsewhere there's a feature on the graphic designs of Paul Bürck, a profile of Dutch Symbolist Jan Toorop and a report on the Dresden art exhibition of 1899 which includes an array of beautiful Art Nouveau interiors. As with all such idealised exhibition displays, they point the way to a future that was never to be.


More DK&D next week.


dkd04-02.jpg


dkd04-03.jpg



dkd04-04.jpg


dkd04-05.jpg


dkd04-06.jpg


dkd04-07.jpg


dkd04-08.jpg


dkd04-09.jpg


dkd04-10.jpg


Previously on { feuilleton }

Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #2

Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #1

Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration

Jugend Magazine revisited

Heinrich Vogeler's illustrated Wilde

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on January 18, 2011 17:47

January 17, 2011

Passage 14

passage14.jpg


It's that time of year again when my good friend Ed Jansen unveils the latest edition of Passage, his Dutch-language webzine:


The 14th issue of Passage contains articles about language, the dreamachine of Brion Gysin, the collaboration of Gysin with William Burroughs and Ian Sommerville (The Third Mind), a recently discovered photograph of Arthur Rimbaud's presence in Aden, lots of photos of exhibitions and performances of artists in and around The Hague, about the experiences of Louis-Ferdinand Céline in the First World War and the latest novel of Michel Houellebecq. The purpose behind everything we write and make is to give the reader a sense of direction towards the unknown, towards the North-West Passage that leads to a new world.


The cover picture is a photo of the audience at a Dreamachine-inspired presentation by Matthijs Munnik about which we're told:


In my performance I also make use of the flicker effect, but I have more control over it. In my performance, the audience wears white plastic masks, this way they look into a ganzfeld, a totally white field during the performance. In my set up, I use beamers, projecting light on the audience's masks, completely immersing them in the light and colors of the projection.


I play an 8 minute live composition, based on the varying effects of different frequencies of flicker, colour, binaural beats and sound. During the performance every spectator will see something different, varying patterns and colours, created within their own brains.


And speaking of the Dreamachine, Nick Hydra left a comment in an earlier post with the news that visitors to the Wellcome Collection's High Society exhibition in London have the opportunity to trip out with one of Brion Gysin's flicker machines until the end of February.


Previously on { feuilleton }

Brion Gysin let the mice in

Passage 13

Passage 12

Passage 11

Passage 10

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on January 17, 2011 17:44

John Coulthart's Blog

John Coulthart
John Coulthart isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.
Follow John Coulthart's blog with rss.