#1970s art
TOKO SHINODA, Arrived Wind, Lithography, Tokio, Japan, 1970s
TARO OKAMOTO‘s Tower of Sun, symbol of Expo Osaka, Japan, 1970
Recently I discovered someone’s scan of a 1970s translation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (Հոբիթ) translated into Armenian. Back when Armenia was still part of the USSR books, I am told, from the West would get smuggled in and printed on the sly, to be passed around. I find the art in this edition rather cheery:
Bilbo at home. Apparently it wasn’t just the top of his feet that had hair, his shag rug goes right up to his knees.
Thorin being rough handled by goblins. You can tell they are evil since all their moustaches and beards are sad and patchy while the dwarves are macho and full.
Drunk elves and the dwarves making their escape. I never thought about elves having waxed French moustaches (or really facial hair of any sort) but why not?
The Professional Burglar at work.
Bilbo, Gandalf (I’m assuming?) and some random dwarf clearly stoned out of the collective minds on Halfling leaf. There was always an endless stream of giggling that came from Bag End, I’m told.
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Self-Portrait 1972 by Francis Bacon
Published by the Embassy of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Viet Nam in Cuba, no date, (early 1970′s)
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Ana Mendieta
image from:
http://artgrounded.blogspot.fr/2013/02/earth-blood-and-feathers-ancient.html
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Off The Wall: American Art to Wear edited by Dilys E. Blum
This book from the Philadelphia Museum of Art brings together a great deal of American art which is actually not that easy to wear. I have noticed that when we talk about clothing as art, we often mean something that doesn’t fit anyone well–in the case of things sold as clothing–or that doesn’t allow the people wearing them to move easily—in the case of things exhibited as art. But in every case these creations do offer some large amount of surface for all kinds of embellishments. It seems that the work is not so much an effort to elevate the decorative arts, which is where the Dress Doctors placed clothing, as turning clothing into fine art by rendering it useless as a garment. The most successful results look like costumes for theater.
You see here on the cover “Off We Go into the Wild Blue Yonder” from 1977 by Susanna Lewis which uses machine knitting and applique. Then, a crocheted item from wool called “Celibacy” that covers its wearer with both hat and mittens from 1968 by Walter Nottingham. “Trout-Magnolia Kimono” was created by Marika Contompasis with machine knitting in 1977. And last you see “Phoenix Coat” by Ben Compton from 1975.
The book is full of images both color and black and white as well as essays tracing the history of art to wear and its various modes of expression and meaning.
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Photo by Chris Von Wangenheim for Oui magazine, 1974 - via x
