La Sagesse (1940-1941). Tamara de Lempicka (Polish, 1898-1980). Oil on panel.
La Sagesse, or “Wisdom,” takes its inspiration from the Old Masters, all the while exuding Lempicka’s signature style. The layout and type of figure in this painting bring to mind work by the Flemish painter Quentin Metsys. Lempicka’s ability to seamlessly blend a brashly contemporary look with historical models marked her distinctive style from the outset of her career.
About this time last year, I was on a roadtrip around the U.S. Southwest, which included a drive between Durango and Telluride, Colorado. That stretch was mainly on the beautiful Route 145 through the San Juan Mountains. So I sat up and took notice when I read about this transportation nightmare. On May 24th at the start of the Memorial Day weekend, this 4 million kilogram boulder rolled off a cliff and destroyed part of a highway just north of the village of Dolores, Colorado. Blowing it up to clear the way would cost the state $200,000 so instead Governor Jared Polis turned the huge rock into a tourism plus. The “house-sized” boulder is now named Memorial Rock and is a designated tourist attraction. From UPI:
“We expect that for generations to come, people will have the opportunity to observe this geological masterpiece that we’re calling Memorial Rock,” Polis said at a news conference earlier this week…
The highway will be widened with additional shoulder and a new guardrail will be installed near the rock, Lisa Schwantes, the transportation department’s southwest Colorado spokeswoman, told UPI.
Fixing the two-lane highway will cost about $1.3 million, Polis said, but most of that money will come from emergency funds from the Federal Highway Administration.
h/t Grant Snider watch this space for news on his first children’s book
h/t Michael Pederson
After 25 years as a school teacher, Melanie Moore was ready for a change. She long dreamed of opening her own bookstore , but was put off by the enormous start-up costs involved in launching a bricks and mortar shop. So, she did the next best thing and created the Cincy Book Bus: A Bookstore on Wheels. With help from her husband Tony, she transformed a vintage VW Transported truck into a beautiful rolling bookshop.
In 2018, Moore began making the rounds of regional markets, fairs, festivals, coffeeshops, schools, and local events in and around Cincinnati, Ohio.
Moore has committed to sharing the Book Bus profits with her community by buying books for local school libraries and literacy projects.
I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit Bruges before it became completely Disney-fied by over tourism. Still, I never got to see the Belgian gem as viewed in these amazing Photochrom prints from the 1890s. This series of images is part of a wonderful collection available on the U.S. Library of Congress website.
n 1953, astronomer and physicist Kenneth Heuer wrote Men of Other Planets (Pellegrini & Cudahy, NYC) where he speculated on the forms of humanoid life that was possible on the other planets, moons and asteroids of outer space. In the early years of flying saucer sightings and shocking sci-fi films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still the public’s appetite for both solid space science and fictional musings was insatiable.
The times were ripe for Heuer’s heady mix of hard science and wild speculation about the cosmos.The full-page scratch board illustration by R.T. Crane added an aura to the quirky notions set forth in this book.
Probably the most startling concept in the book is Heuer’s suggestion that we may be their descendants. of space aliens. He floated the possibility that eons ago our ancestors came from outer space as human-like beings in space ships.
New Yorkers and tourists too can now visit a new museum entirely dedicated to the art of posters.The Poster House, located in Manhattan’s Chelsea district and which features an identity designed by Pentagram’s Paula Scher, will be the first museum of its kind anywhere in the United States.
The new museum is set to open to the public next month, it will house a staggering 7,000 posters sourced from around the world, covering everything from art nouveau romanticism , to 60s music advertising, to early Photoshop experimentation by young East Berliners in the early 1990s.
Poster House’s director Julia Knight says: “Design museums feature posters, but they’re used as supplemental materials. Here, posters are a focal point and not an accessory.”
The exhibition officially opens on June 20th, but look for preview events on the website.
Today is Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday . This offers an important opportunity to reassess his tremendous contributions to American life and literature at a time when our country is so polarized. The University of Pennsylvania Libraries and the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage have organized a region-wide series of cultural events to celebrate Whitman and underscore his continued relevance in American culture.
Whitman spent the last two decades of his life in Camden, New Jersey. He frequently traveled by ferry to Philadelphia to visit with friends and enjoy the city’s cultural life. The Whitman at 200 project situates Whitman in Philadelphia and its neighborhoods, connecting him to the life and art of the city and exploring what Philadelphia and Camden were then and are now.
You can get more information about the dozens of special events that are being held throughout the anniversary year at this dedicated website.
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