On July 21, 2010, In industrial design, 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 May 6, 2010, In Branding, By Wes
An ad campaign featuring the lovely and impressive Charlotte Gainsbourg, impressively and loving photographed for Balenciaga. Gainsbourg is the daughter of French singer/songwriter/provocateur Serge Gainsbourg, most famous in this country for “Je t’aime… moi non plus,” (“I love you… me neither”) a song that included what is rumored to be an on-air female orgasm, and for telling Whitney Houston, in French and then English, just what he’d like to do to her. His daughter has had a successful singing career as well, and is an excellent actress to boot (Antichrist, I’m Not There).
On April 22, 2010, In Branding, By Wes
Louis Vuitton has been in the habit over the last several years of producing beautiful, cinematic print ads with idiosyncratic subjects; it’s rare to see a company trust their readers quite this much. Here are the ads, and two points for guessing the subjects without reading the descriptions:
Did you guess? It’s Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet Premier and legendary birthmark-haver. Very well respected internationally for opening up the restrictive USSR.
I’ll be honest, at first I didn’t recognize this one, even though I’m a huge film buff. First thoughts: “Okay, French, definitely…somewhat older…uh…” It’s Catherine Deneuve! The daring and gorgeous star of provocateur Luis Bunuel’s Belle du Jour, a seminal work (puns!).
Uh, creepy much? Here we have revered filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, author and director of the Godfather trilogy, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, and, uh, the Robin Williams vehicle Jack. At his feet, warmed and enlightened by his very bare-chested presence, is his daughter Sofia. Sofia has a mixed track record as a writer-director (in the opinion of this blog) hitting it out of the park with the little-understood and less-loved Marie Antoinette, but submitting less accomplished efforts with The Virgin Suicides (one of my favorite books ever) and Lost In Translation (Everybody loves Bill, but, I mean, c’mon).