Vintage Japanese Book Covers

1928
1927

1928

A Journey Round My Skull Blog (one of my favorite blogs) has posted some incredible specimens of early 20th century Japanese Book Covers. The worn-out quality only adds to the appeal of these designs. I needed some inspiration today and this is it. The 1920's is my favorite period of design, illustration, music and fine art. Even in Japan, surrealism and art deco were flourishing. "These covers come from Bookcover Design in Japan 1910s-40s (ISBN 4-89444-426-7) edited by Masayo Matsubara. Published in 2005 by PIE Books, this incredible book is already out-of-print and becoming hard to find."

Please follow this link to view more extraordinary book covers from Japan:

A Journey Round My Skull

The Art of Amy Crehore

Big-Eyed Art

Click images to enlarge

Here we have some big-eyed, bug-eyed art. In the first one, the eyes may have been painted on the eyelids before taking the photo? Or maybe it's a doctored photo.

(images from wackystuff's flickr set)

Nick Cave, Visual Artist

Soundsuit by Nick Cave
Soundsuit by Nick Cave

Soundsuit by Nick Cave

My favorite artist right now is Nick Cave. He's the sculptor/fashion designer/performance artist who created dozens of gorgeous outfits called "soundsuits" made with all kinds of materials like sequins and collections of antique objects (children's tops, knick knacks of birds and flowers). James Prinz photographed this little film. There are a couple of other films on YouTube as well- one with an interview of the Chicago artist.

Above, I posted a few stills from his recent show at

Jack Stainman Gallery

in NYC. Follow the link to see more. That exhibit also included sculptures made from lawn jockeys and little mammy figurines. There is another exhibit in S.F. going on right now at

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

called "Meet Me at the Center of the Earth" which runs until July 5, 2009. I might just have to make a trip down there to see this amazing art.

P.S. NIck Cave also trained as a dancer with Alvin Ailey and is the director of the fashion design graduate program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Man, they are lucky to have him. His talent and vision are nothing short of miraculous.

NICK CAVE, Visual Artist

Posada - Yes!

Jose Guadalupe Posada (2 February 1852 - 20 January 1913) was a Mexican engraver and illustrator. Confetta has created a nice page on Posada here: http://www.squidoo.com/Posada

or check out her amazing flickr set on this man's art. I posted a couple of my favorites. This guy was the best.

The Art of Amy Crehore

David Lynch's Interview Project Starts Today

Every three days for a year, the Interview Project will be posting a new episode. First episode: They found Jess sitting by the side of the road in Needles, CA.
Here's the link to the video interview:
DAVID LYNCH INTERVIEW PROJECT

David Lynch also just opened a show of photographs at Michael Kohn Gallery in L.A. over the weekend called Dark Night of the Soul (a visual interpretation of the album by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse).

Dorthea Tanning's Long, Creative Life

Max Ernst and Dorthea Tanning 1948

Bayou

Beyond the Esplanade 1940

Both of these paintings are by Dorthea Tanning. I love them. The first one looks like it may have been a costume design and the second one reminds me of Picasso. I know that Dorthea Tanning married Max Ernst in 1946 and that she drove Peggy Guggenheim crazy. I have her book "Birthday" in my book shelf. Maybe I should re-read it. I found these images on the Frey Norris Gallery website in their annex which houses a nice collection of surrealist art: here is the LINK

Some of her surreal works I don't like quite so much. But, these show a more classical sensibility. I just looked her up on wikipedia and it looks like she is still alive at age 98(!?) and she is still producing books and poetry. She has had museum retrospectives and designed costumes and sets for theater and ballet. She was with Ernst for 36 years.

Dorthea Tanning

The Art of Amy Crehore

Doctor Jesus

"Painting on the wall of a traumatologist's clinic waiting room in Guatemala." From Xeni Jardin's set of photos from her recent trip to Guatemala on flickr. Thanks, Xeni.

LINK

(This is for you, Raleigh.)