Pete Lit

"These Are Their Stories"

This is fantastic. The artist Brandon Bird has compiled a list of one-sentence plot summaries of Law & Order ("A toy collector is accidentally shot", "A video-game player goes missing", etc.) from DirecTV, and solicited various artists to create works of art around them. Bird has published a handful of them at "These Are Their Stories" and is also curating a one-week exhibition of the works at Gallery Meltdown in Los Angeles. L&O is one of my favorite shows ever, and this is a truly wonderful tribute.

The image shown above is "Lawyer is Secretly a Stripper" by Brigid McCabe, my favorite of the online works.

(Via Wondermark.)

Dostoevsky in the subway

I heard this story on NPR last night about murals that were installed in a Moscow subway station which included scenes from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and The Devils. Seems there's some controversy, in which some are claiming that the violence-themed works are too depressing and might compel people to commit suicide. (Obviously not the artist's intent, or else he would have depicted the climactic scene from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina instead.) At first I scoffed at the idea, figuring that anybody who committed suicide after seeing the murals probably would have done so anyway - it seems unlikely that mere murals could finally push someone over the edge.

And now, after seeing some images of the murals, I'm even more convinced. The murals are quite stylish and somewhat abstract - not the graphic, lurid, blood-and-gore spectacle that I would have expected. Makes me wonder what those critics are getting all worked up about. I wouldn't even mind having one of these on my wall at home.

Michael Tanzer

The art historian Albert Boime wrote "Michael Tanzer: An Artist Searching For His Routes", a lovely appreciation for the art and life of Michael Tanzer (the late father of my great friend Ben) which variously discusses the artist's interests in Jewish folklore, the concept of the outsider, and tattooing as fine art. Sounds like he was quite a man, and clearly a great artist.

The image shown above is Tanzer's Enigma (Kafka Enigma No. 1) which is one of many examples of his passion for Franz Kafka.

Love It Love It Love It!

Here's a fantastic gallery of background artwork from various Warner Brothers/Looney Tunes cartoons from way back in the day. I was heavily into Looney Tunes when I was growing up (weekdays on The Ray Rayner Show and Saturday mornings on CBS) and always loved the artwork. These stills show that even the backgrounds were wonderful.

(Via Drawn!.)

Pat Wright

That lovely painting above ("View From 18th Street Bridge") is the work of Chicago artist Pat Wright. I see this railroad bridge (at roughly 16th and Canal) twice a day from my train, and the building on the left also happens to be a paper recycler that is a client of the bank I work for.

MoMA in 125 Seconds

Wondering what's on exhibit right now at the Museum of Modern Art, but can't swing a trip to Manhattan? No problem. Click on the above, sit back, and for the next 125 seconds MoMA is yours.

(Via Paste.)

Carl Erickson, the local boy unexpectedly done good

I regularly follow the illustration blog Today's Inspiration but was particularly struck by this quote that appeared there this week:

"There is no reason, of course, why the suave delineator of chic femininity, whose drawings for twenty years have given poignance to America's smartest fashion magazine, should not have been born in Joliet, Illinois."

The quote is about Carl Erickson, who was born in Joliet in 1891 and went on to a celebrated career as illustrator, under the oh-so-chic singular name "Eric", in the fashion industry. I had never heard of him before but now am quite impressed by his work. The blog has been running a series on Eric this week, which I encourage you to check out:

Carl (Eric) Erickson (1891-1958)
Eric: "the suave delineator of chic femininity"
The Extent of Eric's Influence
Carl Erickson: The "Deceptively Simple Line" of the "Lifestyle Illustrator"
The Art of Carl Erickson: "Easy or Impossible"

From everything I've read about Joliet in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - rough and tumble, blue collar, pervaded by heavy industry - I'd say it's indeed remarkable that the "suave delineator of chic femininity" hailed from here. Yesterday I found this bio on his father, Per Erickson, who, quite true to the city's rough image, was the "keeper" (warden? jailer?) at the Joliet Penitentiary.

W. David Shaw

Throwback that I am [1], I find myself increasingly drawn to mid-century art and design. I particularly love this illustration of San Francisco by W. David Shaw, from the mid 1950s, which beautifully captures the color and bustle of the city. Check out the full-size magazine spread here, as well as a biographic piece on Shaw at Today's Inspiration.

[1] No, I haven't seen Mad Men yet, though I've been meaning to. I strongly suspect that the show might suddenly inspire in me an overwhelming passion for Manhattans, Brylcreem and boat-sized automobiles with tailfins.

Chicago Cultural Center

This month's art exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center look quite interesting, especially these three:

Petronele Gerlikiene: Embroidered Myths and Everyday Stories
through April 6, 2008
Chicago Cultural Center, Michigan Avenue Galleries
78 E. Washington Street
Free

One of the most acclaimed, self-taught Lithuanian-American artists, Petronele Gerlikiene was born in Chicago in 1905 and died in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1979. She spent most of her life working in the countryside but, after retiring in 1972, she moved to the capital to live with her artist son. Fond of needlework and embroidery, she started to create her own compositions on curtains and rugs, with different trees as the central motifs, often surrounded by people and animals, sometimes referring to Lithuanian myths or simple daily life experiences. Organized by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs in cooperation with the Lithuanian Art Gallery Ciurlionis, Inc. and the Lithuanian Consulate in Chicago.

Women of Islam: Photographs by Rania Matar
through March 30, 2008
Chicago Cultural Center, Michigan Avenue Galleries
78 E. Washington St., Chicago
Free

Boston area photographer Rania Matar originally hails from Lebanon, where she has repeatedly returned in pursuit of images of her homeland. This newest body of black and white work provides an insightful, inter-generational study of women and the volatile issue of the head scarf in Muslim culture. Organized by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.

Marcelino Stuhmer: The Recurring Dream
through March 23, 2008
Chicago Cultural Center, Michigan Avenue Galleries
78 E. Washington St., Chicago
Free

Marcelino Stuhmer's new installation of paintings presents a 12-foot diameter panoramic painting depicting the famous dream sequence from the Cold War film classic, The Manchurian Candidate (1962). In this scene, the camera pans 360º around the room, transforming an elderly women’s meeting on hydrangeas into a brutal Communist display of mind-control. As part of the installation, Stuhmer is also exhibiting a series of portraits of the American character actor Henry Silva, who has consistently been typecast in movies as an ethnic bad guy. While Silva's Korean Communist character Chunjin actually appears in the panoramic dream sequence, the portrait series entitled The Silva Screen, consists of manifestations of the actor, drawn from the numerous minority menaces he's played throughout his career. Organized by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.

And I also see there's an upcoming exhibition by one of my favorite artists, Tony Fitzpatrick, starting in May that I'll be sure to attend as well. When I first starting working downtown, over five years ago, I was very diligent about regularly attending art exhibitions in the Loop (including the Cultural Center, the Illinois Gallery at the Thompson Center, and Columbia College) but even though I saw some great shows early on (most notably Gary Stochl and Jay Ryan) I haven't done much of that lately. I'll certainly be rectifying that soon, starting with these shows.

Weekend Multimedia

The Clash in 1981, on Tom Snyder's show, being interviewed and performing "The Magnificent Seven". Damn, we'll likely never see the likes of the Clash again.

Chin Up Chin Up is one of the more interesting bands in Chicago, and anywhere in fact. Here's the video for "This Harness Can't Ride Anything", from their most recent release of the same name. An enjoyable artist's depiction of the band - at first it made me think of the Simpsons, but later it did indeed invoke Yellow Submarine. It's always nice to see bands branch out from the conventional "live video of the band performing" format.

I don't know if still images truly qualify as "multimedia", but you know what? This is my blog, and I don't care about such petty distinctions. Hence, witness these gorgeous illustrations by Pascal Blanchet. And while all of them are very much worth browsing, I'd particularly like to point out this one, which quite perfectly captures my Monday mornings.

(Clash link via Coudal, Blanchet link via Drawn!.)