How to Lose Your Security Deposit

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Surfing the world of Russian Web sites and blogs I uncovered this example of horror vacui, the “fear of blank or empty spaces.” This is an exceptional example of a hyper-obsessive personality, usually borne from mental illness or other personality disorder.

Here is all I have been able to learn, but not confirm, and I am quoting from another site:

“The name of the artist was Mitasov, and he was born in the middle of 20th century and died in a psychiatric hospital in 1999. He had a university degree, was an economist, worked as the head manager of a store. When he got sick, he covered everything with inscriptions in several layers. Right now the apartment is all fixed up. Even today, you can still see some of his inscriptions in various places in the neighborhood. Most of the writing is in Ukranian.”

Here is the link to the photos on a Russian Web site:

http://kolya-s-raena.livejournal.com/13839.html

Mort Künstler: For Men Only

(Above) click image for larger view

MORT KÜNSTLER (American, b. 1931)

Sweet Lips Cove, Male illustration, November c. 1963

Gouache on board

16.5 x 19 in.

Signed lower left

(Above) click image for larger view

MORT KÜNSTLER (American, b. 1931)

General Mark Clark’s Manhunt for Europe’s G. I. Vice Lord, Stag illustration, February 1962

Gouache on board

16.5 x 2 in.

Signed lower right

(Above) click image for larger view

MORT KÜNSTLER (American, b. 1931)

Hit and Run Rocket Raid, cover illustration, c. 1965

Gouache on board showing margins

12 x 17 in.

Signed lower right.

This illustration appeared on the cover of a Magazine Management title, probably For Men Only, c. 1965.

(Above) click image for larger view

MORT KÜNSTLER (American, b. 1931)

Putting on Nylons, Men cover, 1970

Oil on board

10.5 x 12 in.

Initialed lower right

This illustration appeared on the cover of the February 1970 issue of Men.

(Above) click image for larger view

MORT KÜNSTLER (American, b. 1931)

Fight for the Mine Shaft, Male cover, January 1963

Gouache on board

20 x 15 in.

Signed lower left

(Above) click image for larger view

MORT KÜNSTLER (American, b. 1931)

Redhead Swinger, Stag Book Bonus illustration, February 1968

Gouache on board

15 x 18 in.

Signed lower left

(Above) click image for larger view

MORT KÜNSTLER (American, b. 1931)

The Sex and Rest Castle, Male illustration, January 1968

Gouache on board

18 x 25.5 in.

Signed lower left

(Above) click image for larger view

MORT KÜNSTLER (American, b. 1931) (as EMMETT KAYE)

Trapped in Submarine Freezer, For Men Only cover, May 1969

Mixed media on board, with overlay

12 x 17 in.

Signed lower left.

(Above) click image for larger view

MORT KÜNSTLER (American, b. 1931)

The Marine Who Hid the Pacific’s 12 Most Wanted Women, For Men Only cover, April 1961

Gouache on board

18 x 14 in.

Signed lower left.

This Men Only cover scene was based on the feature, “The Marine Who Hit the Pacific’s 12 Most Wanted Women: a True Behind-Enemy-Lines Submarine Rescue.”

(Above) Actual publication of “For Men Only.” click image for larger view!


MORT KÜNSTLER, BY VIRTUE OF HIS EXTRAORDINARY TALENT, had some of the best illustration assignments I have ever seen. That is, if you like campy illustrations like this. You have to admit, war in the eyes of these men’s magazine editors and writers was more about smuggling hot babes onto submarines than fighting the enemy. With titles like “Sweet Lips Cove” and “The Sex and Rest Castle,” it was a hellava day at the easel.

The early work of Mort Künstler and other top illustrators came up for auction at the 2010 May Signature Illustration Art Auction in Beverly Hills, CA (Auction #7015). You can see the art of Mr. Künstler and numerous others here.

Don’t forget to click to see a larger view!

The Modernist Bird

HERE IS A CARVING OF A BIRD IN OUR COLLECTION. IT WAS IDENTIFIED by a reader as a European Great Spotted Woodpecker. I think it may be 75+ years old. This bird, painted with broad shapes and squiggles to define various areas, is more akin to modernist painting than it’s more realistically painted counterparts of the day. When I see this bird, I think of modernist painters like Arthur Dove (no pun intended), Georgia O’Keefee and others.

Thanks to reader Harry, for the ID.

My Kind of Amusement Park

(Above) Vintage postcard from Prehistoric Forest in better days. This card is available at CardCow.

(Above) Back of postcard.

(Above) A Woolly Mammoth at the long abandoned Prehistoric Forest in Irish Hills, Michigan. Image © Debra Jane Seltzer. Image from RoadsideArchitecture.

Image © Debra Jane Seltzer. Image from RoadsideArchitecture.

Image © Debra Jane Seltzer. Image from RoadsideArchitecture.




MY KIND OF AMUSEMENT PARK? CLOSED. ABANDONED. So where does an amusement park go when they go out of business? Well, a few of them have simply been fenced off and left to decay, perhaps hoping for a buyer—someone with dreams of reviving it to make, uh... millions. The now defunct Prehistoric Forest in Irish Hills, Michigan (first opened in 1963) is actually for sale—and you can buy this 8-acre sweetheart for just $584,000. Oh, there are approximately 100 fiberglass dinosaurs on the property, including an arcade, gift shop, a swimming pool in not so good shape and a... community shower (which makes me a bit uncomfortable).

NileGuide, the travel blog, showcases eight different amusement parks, all fenced off with plenty of “No Trespassing” signs around. But come on—that’s no way to see an abandoned theme park! Go ahead, be bold.

And be sure to check out the larger site RoadsideArchitecture. It is chock full of good sites!

An AM repost from 6/30/10.

Envelope Found Art

(Above and below) This is my favorite. A 1926 envelope postmarked by an obsessive, insane postmaster, I am quite sure. Waa-haa-haaa-haa! Click on image for larger view.

(Above) Back of insane envelope.

(Above) Illustrated Centennial envelope, 1936.

(Above) 1898 envelope for Brunswick cigars. Kinda cool how the wavy postmark is almost like smoke wafting from the cigar.

(Above) Beautiful 1893 envelope for Diamond Creamery Butter.

(Above) German envelope to National Bank of Germany.

(Above) 1936 envelope, postmarked from Mason City, Iowa.


ENJOY THE GRAPHIC, VISUAL POWER AND BEAUTY OF THESE ENVELOPES, and have a great week.


An AM repost from 5/3/09.

19th Century Japanese Pregnancy Dolls

(Above) 19th-century obstetric training doll - Wada Museum

(Above) “Dark-skinned” pregnant doll - Edo-Tokyo Museum

(Above) “Light-skinned” pregnant doll - Edo-Tokyo Museum

(Above) Wood carved fetus model set (circa 1877) - Toyota Collection

(Above) Baby doll - Edo-Tokyo Museum


IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY, SIDESHOW CARNIVALS known as misemono were a popular form of entertainment for the sophisticated residents of Edo (present-day Tokyo). The sideshows featured a myriad of educational and entertaining attractions designed to evoke a sense of wonder and satisfy a deep curiosity for the mysteries of life. One popular attraction was the pregnant doll.

Although it is commonly believed that these dolls were created primarily to teach midwives how to deliver babies, evidence suggests they were also used for entertainment purposes.

For example, records from 1864 describe a popular show in Tokyo’s Asakusa entertainment district that educated audiences about the human body. The show featured a pregnant doll whose abdomen could be opened to reveal fetal models depicting the various stages of prenatal development.

Similarly, records of Japan’s first national industrial exhibition in 1877 indicate a Yamagata prefecture hospital doctor named Motoyoshi Hasegawa showed off an elaborate set of fetus models illustrating seven different stages of growth, from embryo to birth.

Although it is unclear whether the fetus model set pictured in the final image above is the same one Hasegawa showed in 1877, records suggest his model was a hit at the exhibition.

[Source: Geijutsu Shincho magazine, July 2001] via PinkTentacle.

An AM repost from 7/8/09.

Bye Bye Blackboard

(Above) Albert Einstein
Physicist
Einstein’s blackboard was used in a lecture in Oxford on May 16, 1931.

At that time Einstein’s theories of relativity were being combined with astronomical data to explain the shifts towards the red in the spectra of distant galaxies, which indicated that the universe was expanding. In his lecture Einstein outlined a fairly simple model to explain this apparent expansion. In the first line on the blackboard, D, the measure of expansion in the universe, is defined in terms of the expansion factor P. The expression for the density of matter in the universe, given by Ú in the third line, is derived from the field equations. The last four lines contain numerical data, giving values for density, radius and age of the universe, where ‘L. J’ stands for ‘Licht Jahr’ (light year) and ‘J’ for ‘Jahr’ (year). According to the last line, the age of the universe is about 10, or perhaps 100 billion years (the bracket indicates an alternative figure, not a product of two figures).

Einstein’s blackboard deals with some of the most fundamental questions in cosmology.

(Above) Cornelia Parker
Artist
Navigating a Cliff Edge in Darkness 2005
‘Written while blindfolded, using cliff chalk from Beachy Head, Sussex’

(Above) The Right Reverend Richard Harries
Bishop of Oxford

‘I had the privilege of chairing the House of Lords Select Committee on Stem Cell Research. Most of us were non-scientists, but with the aid of a very good scientific adviser we did I think grasp some of the fundamental principles involved. Cloning was one issue we had to discuss and both then and subsequently I have found these little drawings helpful both for myself and others to whom I am talking.’

(Above) Joanna MacGregor
Pianist

‘I wrote the music on this blackboard while I was giving a lecture about Bach’s Goldberg Variations at the Holywell Music Room on 22nd March this year, before performing them. I was trying to make a connection between Bach’s super-sensitivity to the contemporary styles around him – very very acute in this piece – and today’s musicians. There’s a lot of information in the Goldberg’s – structure, harmony, a ladder of canons – and coded information we can only guess at – myths, cosmological allegories, and a soulful journey. It all starts with the bass line.’

(Above) Sir Nicholas Grimshaw
President of the Royal Academy
‘Tension & Compression’


BLACKBOARDS ARE WIPED AFTER USE: they are meant for immediate communication, not for permanence. Even when are being used, their messages are continuously revised, erased and renewed. But when Einstein came to Oxford in 1931, he was already an international celebrity. After one of his lectures, a blackboard was preserved and has become a kind of relic. It is the most famous object in the Museum.

The exhibition in 2005 marked the centenary of the Special Theory of Relativity by inviting a number of well-known people in Britain to chalk on blackboards the same size as Einstein’s. All of the guest blackboards were prepared in the early months of 2005. The result was an exhibition about science, art, celebrity and nostalgia. The blackboard is fast disappearing from meetings, classes and lectures, hence the exhibition title: ‘Bye-Bye Blackboard’.

The exhibition was on display in the Special Exhibitions Gallery at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford from April 16 to September 18, 2005.

I gained knowledge of this wonderful exhibition through Eric Baker’s posting of images January 26, 2009 through the Design Observer. The copy above is from that posting, © Museum of the History of Science, Oxford.

An AM repost from January 29, 2009