On June 10, 2010, In art, By Wes
On June 7, 2010, In art, By Wes
After our last post, I thought it might be nice to go through the archives and find some other Warhol cover art. The first few he did are quite strong, but as the 60s/70s turned into the Wall Street 80s, Warhol’s work (and his subjects) got progressively more tasteless (in an aesthetic sense) and, sad to say, nakedly for-profit. Though some will argue forever that that was his whole point. (He once said: “Making money is art, and working is art and good business is the best art.”)
Here they are:
This is John Wallowitch!!! – John Wallowitch
Sticky Fingers – The Rolling Stones
Love You Live – The Rolling Stones
Silk Electric – Diana Ross
Aretha – Aretha Franklin
On June 4, 2010, In art, By Wes
Some folks don’t know that aside from being an artist, filmmaker and general mover and shaker, Andy Warhol also dabbled in music production. The band he ushered into the limelight (thanks, by the way)? The Velvet Underground.
Only the first true punk band; only the first band to harness the power and beauty of the drone; only our first introduction to Lou Reed, John Cale, and chanteuse Nico. The Velvet’s changed everything, and the cover of their first album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, became one of Warhol’s most absorbing, playful, and not-so-subtly transgressive images:
If you look closely at the top, you can see the lettering: “Peel slowly and see.” A pretty blatant come-on, even for the late 60s. Of course if you did peel it, your prurience was rewarded with the mock-innocent image beneath the peel;
Well, what did you think was under there?
We’ll go out with the Velvet’s masterpiece:
On May 26, 2010, In art, By Wes
Beautiful, provocative mixed media images from artist Nikki Farquharson:
On May 3, 2010, In art, By Wes
We’re always happy to shine our benevolent spotlight on worthy local designers, and Gregory Byrd is definitely one of them. His hand-crafted boxes, bookmarks, desk accessories and bins are one of a kind wood-worked wonders (A lot of alliteration from anxious anchors). Go to his website at vesselarts.com for more.
Few people have had made their personal appearance such an integral part of their craft, and few have changed so much in so little time. A review of Bowie album covers from 67 to 79, a turbulent time.
Ground control to Major Tom…
Of course, I would be extremely remiss if I didn’t direct you to the superb song from the Flight of the Conchords, Season 1: Bowie.
A selection of only the finest movie posters. Some of these we have on the walls here at Basis Design. Yet more in our ambitious coverage of the impending Academy Awards in Hollywood, California.
Full disclosure; a few of these are cheats, as they represent the modern day Criterion posters, and not the originals. We’ll let you know.
Let me commit film-lover heresy here by saying I’ve never thought of The Birds as one of Hitchcock’s better films. Even worse, the famed “Tippi Hedren watches in horror as the flames lick backward up the gasoline spill to explode the car” sequence leaves me cold; her reaction shots are poorly timed, static, and unconvincing. Whatever, this poster kicks so much ass.
From Criterion. Drop-dead gorgeous, and chilling if you know what happens in the film. Ang Lee is somewhat under-appreciated, in my view; I thought this was a fantastic film, and I rate his recently released (and NC-17) chinese-language feature Lust, Caution, as one of the best of the last half decade.
Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder, a really cool look at a particular type of design/art-work. You can see this re-hashed on the covers of dozens of dime-store vintage paperbacks from the fifties and sixties.
One of the weirdest, wildest films to emerge in the last half century. Calling back to the equipment, editing strategies, and acting of the bygone silent era, mad-Canadian Guy Maddin produced a lucid dream that engulfs viewers in a visual storm.
For my money, the creepiest, most stomach-turning movie ever. And the poster matches it sense-of-pervasive-dread for sense-of-pervasive-dread.
This poster is perfect for the film within. Not at all for the faint of heart or stomach, this is a documentary on the holocaust by the great French director Alain Resnais (Hiroshima, Mon Amour).
A chilling and iconic snapshot of dystopian science fiction, early century one-sheets, and German Expressionism through the lens of the great Fritz Lang.
Funny, dark, sarcastic, ironic. Describes the poster, describes the movie. One of Basis’ favorites, and hanging proudly on our wall.
Our favorite movie poster of all time. One of our favorite directors of all time, and probably the greatest. There is nothing about this poster that isn’t cool, ahead of it’s time, and gorgeous. Hanging on our wall as well.
Wes Anderson movies, apart from their charm, their ironically barbed New Yorker humor, and their endearing human quality, are a tour de force of set design, presentation, framing, and costume choices. There is no director working in America or across the globe whose sense of style, whose taste for design, so completely and beautifully informs his work.
Recently Anderson’s latest creation, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, was released on DVD, and second and third viewings of his thrilling and original use of animation and stop-motion photography are well worth the cost. The dollhouse-level control and placement of detail, the use of symmetry and the emphasis on balanced compositions within wide-screen formatting, in addition to the ubiquitous dolly shots, long takes and focused, mid-shot slow motion effects used without exception in all of his films, mark him not only as the American cinemas premier auteur, but also as that rare director whose style is so personal, so pervasive, and so beguiling, that it becomes a kind of cinematic prose. Anderson’s films are so good they’re literature, and there is no higher complement that can be paid to a director reared in the French New Wave, and riding the crest of the American.
The proof in the proverbial pudding:
Some of these may seem a little familiar to lovers of the Anderson oeuvre. They are in fact semi-photographic archetypes; they speak to the way he likes to frame families, performances, and offices. More compositional brilliance here:
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Rushmore
Bottle Rocket
The Darjeeling Limited