I guess that Uncanny paintings is something natural to happen after the war. Artists wanted to be Realist or even Hyper-realist, but sometimes that obsession for Realism turned actually pretty strange; familiar but strange; familiar but mysterious; familiar but too perfect to be actually real. I've always liked Uncanny paintings because even though they portray things pretty much as they are without any dream-like atmospheres and such, there's always a sort of Surrealist feeling on them, and I love that!
This time, I think that Meredith Frampton got the trophy of uncanniness. Her paintings are certainly beautiful and breath-taking, but I guess she made life look way too perfect (something not quite realistic).
I just have on word for Body Ugly paintings: wow! These paintings surely are UGLY! If I was to choose what specie to be and I saw those paintings, I would never choose to be a human being. It's true that the human body can turn not that appealing to our own eyes, and well... I guess these painters don't want us to forget that fact. I would never but those paintings, and I don't get why someone will choose to paint that, but we can't ignore these painters had a great talent and well, of course, a real distinctive technique and style... really REALLY GROTESQUE.
Paperback cover illustrations considered as art is something really interesting... I'd never thought of those images as actually art, but they totally are; just because they're not on a canvas in a museum, that doesn't mean is less valuable or more artificial. It's sad, of course, that these artists get most of the time unnoticed, forgotten and underrated. I think that it is really interesting when books feature this type of images on their covers because they can give you an idea of the plot and the atmosphere of the book you're going to read.
Street art is always criticized and somehow underrated, but I think that some of the best works of art come from street artists. Talking about photography, we could say that street photographers were more aesthetically concerned than the pure straight photographers even if they didn't use any effects or edition as well. However, I don't think there's much more difference between any of the photographers I've been discussing in Postwar Realism... Straight photographers also worked on the street and portrayed social and historical conditions and events involving people from all social classes, and even if they were more prepared and famous than the street artist, that doesn't mean their art is more valuable (the prices can differ from this idea, though).
As nature allows photography to be perfectly straight, it also makes it automatically artistic and appealing to the eye. It may seem easier to make nature photos because they mainly consist on landscapes and still-life photographs that do not require movement manipulation, but I guess the difficult part is the time. For example, if you want to take a photograph of the day turning into the night, there's a small interval of time when that happens and you have to work quickly and adjust yourself to other things like the weather conditions (no sun can be tragic for some photographs)
I think that war photographers should be admired not only because of their work (which is great: straight but artistic), but because of their courage... I would never go to a D-day just to take photographs even if I get a million of dollars. It's just crazy! Going to the locations after the battle passed would be depressing, but I'd rather go after the battle than actually being there when the action is happening just to take a bunch of photos! I guess that's something we can admire of these people apart from their work!
These war photographs seem to me more spontaneous and certainly more improvised than the other photojournalist photographers covering floods and the Empire State Building, and I guess that's because these war photographers had to keep moving in the field and there's not actual time to tell a solider to hold in one position to take a more controlled image... The results are great, though. *Hats off*
Even though photojournalists make a lot of documentary material that can also serve for sociological and historical purposes, I don't think they can be classified as pure straight or artistic photography; they don't seem to be using any manipulated compositions or effects, but their photographs are outstandingly beautiful. I have to acknowledge that even though I couldn't find anything wrong with any of the photojournalist artists, I just felt more touched by Eisenstaedt, Andreas Feininger, Werner Bischof and Gordon Parks. They all made, in my opinion, a great compilation of iconic images that can tell everything about the event or the person they're portraying in just one flash.
Manuel Álvarez Bravo had some great remarkable photographs that cannot be missed... He certainly did not stick to either straight or artistic photography; he combined both styles and even got some bits of surrealism which I really really loved!
Even though straight and documentary photographers don't manipulate photographic print and don't use artistic effects (soft focus, for example) for historical or sociological purposes rather than aesthetic ones, we can't deny they produce some great works of art! As I've mentioned before in this blog, straight photography -and thus, documentary photography- always involves aesthetic decisions (what angle to use, what are you going to portray, the light you're going to use, the position of the people and objects on the photography, etc.), and the result is not less beautiful or more artificial than a Pictorialist photograph, for example. I prefer to describe this kind of photographs as a work of art with an historical or sociological plus that shows us some of the aspects of society that sometimes we all know, and other times we're missing.
I specially enjoyed Jacob Riis's, Lewis Hine's, Walker Evan's, Dorothea Langue's and Jack Delano's photographs.
Jacob Riis's 'A Black-and-Tan Dive in Africa'
Lewis Hine's 'Slavic Inmigrant'
Lewis Hine's from 'The Empire State Building series'
Walker Evan's 'Parked Car'
Jack Delano's 'Midnight Special'
Dorothea Langue's 'Migrant Woman', a really famous one.
John Cheeve's perhaps most famous story 'The Swimmer' reminds me of James Joyce's 'The Dubliners', a bunch stories that portray everyday lives in Dublin but that don't allow the reader to be always sure about what is happening. 'The Swimmer' is just like that, you're given a discrete description of life in the middle and middle upper classes of American Society with what seems a charming story about a man who just decides to swim home, but as you're reading (and specially near the end of the story), you stop being so sure about the story... 'The Swimmer' is supposed to happen on a single afternoon, but sometimes it seems that the story looses any sense of time. Plus, it is said to be summer, but sometimes the weather behaves as if Neddy was in an autumn-winter afternoon. Moreover, he keeps wondering if his mind has suppress bad memories that make him suffer and he's hiding facts of his life to us! I mean, at first we could think he's a respected upper class man, a social man who's loved by his neighbors and friends, but then it happens that he's a poor broke man that has got little or none respect of his neighbors. Then, when Neddy finally arrives home he encounters an empty and rusty house without his girls and Lucinda in a sort of dream-like or even surrealist atmosphere that I'm sure thrills anyone that reads 'The Swimmer'.
The society portrayed in 'The Swimmer' as I've mentioned a couple of times before is probably a society that just wants a break, a break from the war, a break from their problems, a break from everything that causes them pain... that's why they "drink too much", and they throw up big and unnecessary parties. It's a damaged America what we're seeing (even if they win, I'm pretty sure no one was really satisfied with the postwar period).
I guess I'll never be sure about what happened to Neddy's life or how the story ends up making sense, but I just can say that I loved this story! It is certainly and exemplary plot that leaves the reader thinking about it for a long time! *Hats off to John Cheever*
I think Mumblecore films are the grandsons of Cinema Verite and all those postwar Realistic films. Mumblecore films also involve unprofessional teams and actors and they're shoot in a low-key style without expensive set ups, wardrobes and effects. It's an effective and interesting way for young filmmakers that can't afford Hollywood's budgets for expressing themselves, portraying life and entertain people! Who knows? Some of those amateurs Mumblecore filmmakers may become the next Woody Allen!
Cinema Verite films suggest that director just went with his camera to a family reunion and started to randomly record everyone's conversations from strange angles (I guess that's why there are a lot of mockumentaries about this). However, as in 'Mass Observation' project, the work done in Cinema Verite is much more than it seems; there's actually a control in the shooting of the scenes to make it look natural and fairly realistic. I think it would be a good challenge for an amateur filmmaker to make a Cinema Verite film!
I think that is natural that filmmakers all over the world wanted to portray reality before, during, and specially after the war, but at the same time, I think that is still more natural that people watching those films about life i their countries hated those films. As I've said before, people wanted a break and they expect that going to the cinema will help them doing that for at least an hour and a half; they didn't wanted to watch their miserable poor lives on the big screen. However, I think these films were necessary... someone need to express and show to the world what was happening, in these cases, in Italy, America, Japan and India.
It is really sad for me to see that even when a human being is capable of creating such beautiful and helpful things, at the same time, he can be so inhuman and destructive... that's war, that's postwar... we can't ignore it!
The Best Years of Our Lives is a film I saw by accident last summer (my mom and I just wanted to watch a short film and we pick this one from my father's shelf... it wasn't short at all, of course). I thought that the film was depressing (except for the rather optimistic ending)... but life in those days must have been really depressing for the soldiers trying to fit again in society. A great realistic masterpiece that must be seen by everyone at least once in their lifetime!
Pd. How contrasting is Japan, the arrogant massive killers of the WWII (one of the bunch, actually) produced some of the most humanistic and deep films of all.
I think that it is cool that artists portrayed American society's imperfections (sometimes -more like a lot of times- Americans aren't as civilized as they say): smokers, drinkers, cheaters, and people living lifestyles they can't really afford are all over postwar American Realist fiction. I guess it is like reading or watching a film about the Caesar's families in Rome down in some American suburbs! Gossip everywhere!
I guess this American society's behavior is a response to the wars they fought in.... they wanted a break!
The Mass Observation is certainly a HUGE and not so easy to make project that required the work a great bunch of artist. Recording everyday life isn't s easy as it may seem... it isn't just to go to a church and wait with a camera until people came out; it requires people to choose the right locations, time, moments, people, and situations to listen, write about or film.
I was especially charmed by Humphrey Jennings's film 'A Diary for Timothy'. It is really interesting how the narrator just start explaining serious things like war and life to a small baby that doesn't know anything about the world or himself. Besides, the photography and edition of the film is just perfect, it shows us precisely what we should be imaging with the narrator's words, and it just portrays perfectly the innocence and vulnerabilities of humans when we're as little as newborn baby.
W.H. Auden, Philip Larking and Dylan Thomas make up the scenario of Postwar British Poetry. Even though, their styles are fairly different from one another, they all have this same sense of British tradition that all the world recognizes (they're not that pompous, though), and, of course, they all portray in one or another way the feeling in Britain after the war while using a rather casual and chit chat-like language.
"Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time."
This stanza from a W.H. Auden's poem, for example, gives me the feeling of the emptiness and the dissatisfaction that people must have been feeling in those days, even if they won the war.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
I guess we could think this is a British kid that lived during the WWs talking... his parents fucked him up... and his grandparents fucked him and his parents! War causes damages that were inherited generation from generation... all those worries, resentments, fails, tears and fears that don't seem to disappear even when parents try to.
Dylan Thomas' poems don't make sense at a first glance, but they totally do, and I must say they're extremely passionate and beautiful. *Hats off*
The majesty and burning of the child's death.
I shall not murder
The mankind of her going with a grave truth
Nor blaspheme down the stations of the breath
With any further
Elegy of innocence and youth.
Leni Riefenstahl's talent is undeniable. Her films have proven to be not only fair material for historians, but some sublime black and white works of art. Certainly, she had a terrific visual skill that allowed her make beautiful photographic compositions in her films (one can easily notice that in the angles of the camera used and in the edition work). However, we can't ignore that her films, even Olympia, are basically propaganda for a mass killer... It's depressing that this talented woman that made such beautiful films was one of Hitler's close friends.
The architecture of force is something I would never like to design. It can range from Fascist, Communist or Brutalist architecture, but in any case, those buildings are overwhelming in a negative way; even though some buildings are actually beautiful and impressive (like the Stalinist Architecture examples), I can't really enjoy them as knowing from which period they're from... they can turn a sort of guilty pleasure. We can't ignore these buildings as if they never existed and as if they weren't actually art (well, apparently in North Korea they can do it), but it is still hard to find them as delightful as an innocent Monet painting on a museum's wall.
It is somehow amazing that important universities all over the world keep using the force architectural style of brutalism because it is not exactly lovable or cute or inviting... at all; brutalist buildings are actually way too intimidating to be a college's library.
This Stalinist piece, for example is as beautiful as the photograph composition we're seeing, but who can completely enjoy it while knowing it is a discrete monument for Stalin?
Socialist Realism art is itself a tricky term: Socialist? Sure it is!.. Realist? Not really (It's hard to believe that propaganda is actually realistic).. Art? Well, that's questionable...
Aesthetically, Socialist Realism paintings are not so great, they are poorly remarkable to my eye, and no one can ignore the fact that they are highly propaganda mediums of portraying a perfect, happy and fairy tale-like Socialist life that it's just not true. It is sad how skillful artists had to commit their work to this pseudo style of art that doesn't allow them to actually express themselves nor the REAL reality they and the rest of the world was living in those days.
One can easily get why Bohuslav Martinu's, Sergei Prokofiev's, Dmitri Shostakovich's, and Ralph Vaughan Williams' and Carl Nielsen's pieces are considered 'war symphonies'. These melodies are extremely powerful and energetic, and, actually, terrifying; even if some of them start as calm and innocent pieces of music, they suddenly get violent... suddenly something unexpected and damaging occurs and sounds just start to interrupt each other creating an alarming chaos of music (just as in war). In my opinion, all of these 'war symphonies' express not only the obvious violence and inhumanity of war but the despair, the madness and the intensity of those war times. I've always thought that music is the most abstract form of art, but I can say that these symphonies indeed give a war feeling.
Existentialism defines itself: one emphasizes, of course, in oneself. There's nothing more unique and valuable than our own experience, but still our existence itself is unexplainable, sometimes absurd and tiring. All existentialist movies by Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson and Michelangelo Antonioni seem to be great movies, indeed. I will find a time on vacation to see them (as well as some Film Noir movies I haven't seen yet).
Now, talking about more recent examples, I could somehow identify Antonioni's 'L'Avventura' with Woody Allen's 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona', where nothing in the characters' lives is changed and they end up living the same misery they have at the beginning of the movie (a few could think this is a movie about some American being seduced by a bohemian Spaniard and his crazy ex-wife, but I think it is more deep than that... one can simply get that from the opening scene that introduces to us the girls 'Vicky and Cristina decided to spend the summer in Barcelona...).
Another great example is, of course, 'Groundhog Day' in which this man will have to live the same day (the Groundhog Day) over and over again until he gets it all right...
Finally, and the best of all, these series of pure existentialist videos of Henri, the cat:
(The series continues with more videos, it's great!)
Even though the plot could be now considered a cheap cliché that has been used in a great bunch of movies and soap operas (this could be not so a cliché in those times, though), I just think that this scene is really beautiful; the light composition, the sets, the camera movements... everything seems just perfect for the scene and for the character. *Hats off*
I'd never though of radio as an effective way of telling a story, but I think it just works perfectly with Noir... it is even more mysterious because you're not actually seeing what it's happening; you need to imagine the whole set up, how the characters look like, their faces, their clothes, how they are feeling according to their voice level, etc. Radio Noir usually seems like if you're listening the real people having a natural talk, it does not look like plain and dull radio transmission, but it neither looks like an overacted piece. (I really liked when actors start talking with themselves, it's like hearing oneself talking with one's conscience) Besides, I think there's a really nice sound composition beside the actors' voices (background music, background voices, sounds of cars, horses, police sirens, etc.)
Film Noir is the origin and mother of all mystery, crime and detective movies and series with which we live today. It is hard for me to believe that any mystery and suspense recent movie hasn't at least one element that derives from this productive period for cinema. Film Noir itself is composed by a great set of unforgettable movies, but it is also the reason for other amazing movies to exist.
Film Noir movies are energetic and really entertaining; they somehow portray this sense of tension, mystery and crime of their time, but I think they were rather a way of escaping of your problems by being delighted and intrigued by the problems of the people in the screen (people surely wants to be detective too!). Besides of their plot, these movies feature some noticeable marvelous photography that create really beautiful shots like the one above this text. Moreover, Film Noir constructed a new face to women as 'femmes fatales', seductive girls that greatly influence men to do rather inconvenient things, but I also thing these films constructed a new image of partnership and complicity for men and women.
In my opinion, Film Noir is just magnificent, these guys were practically inventing everything that we use today in modern films. I mean, those years where highly creative, folks were practically constructing cinema as we know it! Amazing! It's hard to believe that someone can be that creative now that everything has been invented. What would have happened if Hitchcock hadn't make Physco? Would Tarantino be portraying violence as he does today? Maybe Physco doesn't scare anyone today, but this film open a whole new panorama for later cinematographers. All great directors nowadays would be anything is these folks of the XX century didn't exist!
Being Latin American and not knowing about Carlos Gardel's tango and Bossa Nova is like being American and not knowing about Jazz... a sin! (Although I'm sure a lot of people don't even know they exist).
Carlos Gardel is a man I've heard thanks to my grandmother and my father! I really like him, he's songs are certainly sensual! However, I must admit that I prefer Bossa Nova! Portuguese is a perfect language! It's so beautiful and melodical! (I have some Bossa Nova CDs myself)
Antonio Carlos Jobim is by far the greatest of all, his songs like 'The Girl from Ipanema' have crossed the world without limits! (Even Sinatra recorded him!)
'Aguas de Março' is one my favourite Bossa Nova songs! I love it when Jobim annd Elis Regina sing it together, but when they sing it alone they also make a great work!
(Who hasn't listen this at least once in their lives?)
Jazz is by far my favorite American musical style! Jazz just speaks to me in both melodies and lyrics. I have already listened to everything that was covered up in the notes of Jazz, and I just don't understand how someone could have not listen to at least one of the basic jazz songs! Unbelievable!
Ragtime
Scott Joplin is certainly the star of ragtime and I think that everybody should have at listened to one Joplin's piece. The Pineapple Rag, for instance, is a must! It is perfect, sublime, a unique experience! So catchy, cheerful even if there's no lyrics on it!
Blues
Blues are certainly not cheerful (duh), but I think Blues are sublime! A complete different experience from Ragtime, but still great and deep; it touches one's heart!
Tin Pan Alley
To understand what a Tin Pan Alley song is, you just have to listen to 'After You've Gone'. There are plenty number of versions of this song, I couldn't just pick one as my favorite.. I think that Leigh Harris's, Dinah Washington's, Eydie Gorme's and Fiona Apple's are all great in their different styles!
Here's an excerpt of the song in 'All That Jazz'
Jazz
Jazz for me is indescribable! It is great in so many ways that I can't make a short paragraph about it. I don't want to let anyone out, but I would only talk about the ones that I think are the more basic and delightful.
Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald: My favorite pair! Armstrong trumpet is sublime, but his voice is just marvelous! Ella Fitzgerald is naturally one of the greatest female singers of all times! Her voice is just angelical, melodic... perfect!
Glenn Miller Orchestra: They created one of the most famous jazzy melodies. Who doesn't want to dance to their music! It's such a shame what happened to them...
Don't Fence Me In: Who doesn't like Cole Porter, Bin Crosby and the Andrews Sisters all in one?! What a sublime piece!
George Gershwin: Indeed one of the greatest American composers along with Cole Porter!
(I think Sinatra sings this one better, but Fred Astaire does a great job too!)
Charlie Chaplin: I love Chaplin's films! He always know how to delight me and make me laugh. I really didn't know he also composed music, I've already listened to 'Smile', of course, but I never imagined Chaplin was involved with it. I just fell in love again with this song!
Ray Charles: How I love his man! His life was certainly problematic, sad, sometimes pathetic, but his music is something I can't resist!
(I love Ray Charles in 'The Blues Brothers')
Harry Warren: I love Harry Warren! 'At Last' is, in my opinion, one of the greatest songs of this time!
Frank Sinatra: One of my dreams is to see Frank Sinatra singing in front of me in a concert. Of course, that dream can't never be accomplished anymore, but what can I say? I love Frank Sinatra! What a man! I think his voice is the most perfect voice that the USA has ever produced! Hats off to him! I can't decide which is my favorite song by Sinatra, but here's one I really love:
I couldn't forget to mention Dean Martin and Louis Prima on this post! I love them!
I read the poems by Dorothy Parker,Langston Hughes, and Sterling Brown and all I could think about is that there was an old black ma'am reading it for me. The syntax and orthography of those poems is certainly unorthodox but great still!
"White man tells me--hunh--
Damn yo' soul;
White man tells me--hunh--
Damn yo' soul;
Got no need, bebby,
To be tole."
Dance
Josephine Baker was just weird. There's no other word to describe her... she's weird and somehow disturbing. Bill 'Bojangles', on the other hand, was just great! His dance would make any man smile! The Nicholas Brothers are overwhelming, they would make everyone say 'ouch, that should have hurt'... they are acrobatically amazing! The may not be as classy and delicate as Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly, but they surely got an amazing talent!
I think society underestimates photographers that make 'commercial' photographs. Fashion and Hollywood photography is obviously commercial, but it is not less artistic than a photograph of any other Photograph movement. In my opinion, Fashion and Hollywood photographers are great and they certainly accomplished their work of making celebrities and models look like semi-Gods we have to look up to! These black and white photographs are just perfect! It's all about light!
California Modern Architecture and Design is indeed really modern! Those houses and designs are something we could see today and still consider it glamorous and innovative. I think that California Modern houses are really beautiful and and a great work of art if we're talking about aesthetics, but their practical potential is limited. I mean, I love those houses, but I wouldn't live in one of those... Where's the privacy? What about the sun? No one would like those houses in Culiacan!
Yeah! Basic chairs for any school today!
What a nice gas station! Why don't we have a PEMEX station like this one?!
I would define Art Deco as the modern son of Art Nouveau and I've always loved Art Nouveau, so Art Deco works perfectly for me. Art Deco, however, is also really attached to our machine-dependent present and it is easy to notice that it features a tendency towards straight lines and straight geometric figures rather than curves and circles. Nevertheless, even though I usually prefer curves and circles, I think Art Deco is amazing and actually produced a great bunch of interesting and overwhelming buildings! How cool would be to live in a city full of Art Nouveau and Art Deco architecture! Moreover, homes full of Art Deco designs and paintings with people all dressed up in Art Deco fashion clothes... the paradise for sure!
Art Deco painting itself is really contrasting and interesting. For instance, I really REALLY loved Tamara de Lempicka's work; her paintings feature some perfect color, dark and light compositions that just combine perfectly with the stylized figures that star the whole piece! Perfect! However, I didn't find Florine Stettheimer paintings that appealing even if they give a bit of an European atmosphere... (But I would LOVE to have that doll house for me!)
Tamara de Lempicka's self portrait
Lempicka's 'The Musician'
Art Deco sculpture seems to me like some miniature versions of Art Deco buildings! Really interesting!
Fred Astaire is one of my favorite male dancers along with Gene Kelly and Bob Fosse. Fred Astaire's got not only a notorious talent, but a great class that has always delighted me!
Here's his the number I love the most:
I have to admit I didn't really like any of the songs or melodies presented as American Musical Modernism. They seemed to me rather annoying and senseless. I usually love American music, but I'm more a Jazzy person: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Louis Prima, Louis Armstrong Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, or even Cole Porter are my beloved ones, but American Musical Modernism doesn't speak to me... a bunch of sound awfully and repetitively arranged with no so great voices to accompany them are not a good combination for me!
I didn't really like any of the American Modernist painters, except for a couple of them: Georgia O'Keeffe and Gerald Murphy are the only painters I could save from the whole list!
I think that O'Keeffe paintings are really subtle, relaxing and sublime. The color composition she uses is always delightful and assertive, and, at the same time she can prove to master several styles... she's eclectic!
Murphy has some really interesting and precise compositions in his own amazing style!
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