Sinister: B+S/pop/Art

[remaniac]

On Fri, 27 Mar 1998, Henry wrote:

> Matisse?).  What I'm wandering really is does anyone see any links 
> thematically or style-isticly (carnt spel nnow) between B+S and any 
> art or architecture?  

a wonderful question! More examples of photography than other media
remind me of B+S, but perhaps I am too influenced by the lovely duotone
album sleeves. All the works of art that this B+S fan loves are not
necessarily works that include "B+S essence," so I'll just mention
some of the latter... 

Tina Modotti's photography captures a humanity, intimacy, struggle, and
strength that has echoes of B+S. I love her epitaph by Pablo Neruda: 
"Perfect your gentle name, perfect your fragile life
bees, shadows, fire, snow, silence and foam combining
with steel and wire and pollen to make up your firm
and delicate being"

The pictorialist photographers and some Edward Steichen

Jean Frederic Bazille's Scene d'ete, of boys bathing, contemplating, and
wrestling. While we're on the subject of bathing, Seurat's Bathing at
Asnieres. Seurat's neoimpressionism and most famous work Sunday Afternoon
on the Island of La Grande Jatte also hold something of B+S (IMHO). 

Georges Minne's sculptures of kneeling youths and "the enervated world of
the adolescent, with its overtones of mysticism and anxious sexuality" (R.
Goldwater). Also, Edvard Munch's Melancholy series of prints, paintings,
and drawings. I don't think the Symbolists are the right match for B+S,
but some of their tendencies and works come close. (or maybe I'm just a
big fan of both!)

Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov (Russian "primitivism" and
futurism). I hate to lump them together, but as student and teacher, they
bring strains of intensity and emotion as well as quieter, modest
restraint to their works. Their use of folk art and Byzantine imagery with
elements of modern slang, and archaic words and sounds create amazing
visual and literary works. In a similar way, B+S for me are immediate and
nostalgic, physical and contemplative. 

Well, this is becoming somewhat lengthy, so I'll leave it for now. My next
idea is to match specific songs with works of art. Has anyone thought of
what architecture might ring of B&S? 




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